iGod

Why bother to pray?

Recently our Vineyard Church held a 24-7 Week of Prayer. It is the third time we have done it and there is always an incredible buzz about the place. Often, unprompted, a number of us sense the atmosphere change around us. It’s hard to define and not easily put into words but, nevertheless, we believe it is there.

However, my first encounters with prayer were not that great. I remember being in the primary school playground when an earnest boy came up to me and said, “Shall we pray?” I was a bit taken back, but not wanting to disappoint him, I said, “Um, okay!”

He began, “Hands together, eyes closed…” Then shouted, “And don’t forget to blow your nose!” He then ran away laughing his head off, while I was left feeling more than a little silly.

I suspect for some the whole concept of prayer may seem a little silly. After all, it’s not as if you can physically see what you are putting your trust in, unlike a plane (even though we are still baffled how it defies gravity). Yet, millions of people around the world pray.

A survey carried out by the Church of England a little while ago found that six out of seven people pray for something at some time in their lives. That’s a high number! But does prayer work?

A report published by American cardiologists showed that patients who received prayer tended to recover quicker than those who didn’t. We also have people in our church who would say they are miraculously healed from conditions. In the case of one person, a consultant was about to carry out an irreversible operation when the x-ray showed the 26-year-old condition had completely gone. The person had received prayer two days earlier. (Although, I hasten to add, there are also those who haven’t seen change.)

William Temple, a past archbishop of Canterbury said, “When I pray coincidences happen. And when I don’t, they don’t”. This has been my experience too.

We live in an increasingly secularised culture that frowns on the place of divine intervention, not least when important decisions need to be made. I guess it doesn’t feel very ‘sophisticated’ in our Western culture. We feel pressurised into accepting a rational, soul-less life - free from all religious spirituality and philosophy. But I wonder why we don’t seem any more content or happier for this freedom from belief.

For instance, mental illness problems among adults and teenagers have never been higher and, in turn, costs the economy £77 billion a year in England alone. We also seem increasingly fragmented as a nation and yet, somehow, we remain proud of our individualism. It is, perhaps, no wonder that the something in that human spirit still longs for a greater voice of reason to speak into its emotional and physical condition.

Prayer is not primarily for the religious. It’s the language of a special relationship between us and another, between heaven and earth, creator and creation. The desire to pray is what makes us human. It reveals the state of our soul and helps us be aware that we are, actually, more Clark Kent than Superman.

The author CS Lewis wrote: “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God, it changes me.”

I believe in the power of prayer as much as I believe in Jesus. It has changed me for sure. What’s more, we would love the opportunity to pray for you at Stour Valley Vineyard, whatever is going in your life - even if you do not have one single ounce of faith. God’s love is not conditional, regardless if we are church-goers or not.

ASD

 

Prayer for Saturday

 

Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens.

 

READ AND REFLECT: 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due to us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

 

MEDITATE

“For I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe - that unless I believe I shall not understand.” ― Anselm of Canterbury

 

PRAY

• For our outgoing Vineyard National Directors John and Eleanor Mumford and their successors John and Debby Wright
• For the Right Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury
• For all schools, prisons and workplace chaplains in East Anglia

 

PRAYER

Dear Lord, thank you for giving us the confidence to know that you have our lives safely in your hands and have provided for all our needs. Although our bodies and minds will take a battering on earth, it is outweighed by the glorious prize of being eternally with you in your Father’s house. Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit and for always being present with us. In you will I trust for my future. In you will I hope for my today. Amen.

 

 

Prayer for Friday

 

Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.

 

READ AND REFLECT: 1 John 3:1-7

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

 

MEDITATE

“To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek Him the greatest adventure; to find Him, the greatest human achievement.” – St Augustine

 

PRAY

• For the elderly and frail
• For the inspiration to love our community with sacrificial love
• For revival in the UK and Ireland

 

PRAYER

Father, it is a wonder what you have made of me in Jesus. It is the hope that I cling to today, and the comfort that satisfies my heart. I know that I am a loved child in your holy family, rescued at a great cost through the resurrection power of Jesus. As a child I run into your presence, knowing that I am protected and provided for, guarded and guided. How awesome is that? How great is your lavish love. Amen. 

 

 

 

Prayer for Thursday

 

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.

 

READ AND REFLECT: Isaiah 40:27-31

Why do you complain, Jacob?

Why do you say, Israel,

“My way is hidden from the Lord;

my cause is disregarded by my God”?

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

 

MEDITATE

“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love,

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

 

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved, as to love.

 

For it is in giving that we receive,

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

― Francis of Assisi

 

PRAY

• For local families and individuals living in a crisis of poverty
• For our local police, fire fighters and other emergency services
• For greater knowledge and experience of God’s forgiveness today.

 

PRAYER

Forgiving God it seems sometimes you ask the impossible of me. Left to my own devices I’d prefer to keep those who hurt me away from your throne of grace. Your grace humbles. Please challenge my ways and help me see your world as you do. Help me understand what it is to live a life of sacrifice and total abandonment in your precious son, Jesus. Amen.

 

 

Prayer for Tuesday

 

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,

and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now,

and will be forever. Amen

 

READ AND REFLECT: Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

 

MEDITATE

Prayer is an act of love; words are not needed. Even if sickness distracts from thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love. – St. Teresa of Avila

 

PRAY

• For James Cartlidge, our newly elected MP for South Suffolk
• For unity in thought and action among Babergh and Sudbury town councillors
• For our hearts to be softened to enable us to forgive those who have hurt us most

 

PRAYER

Dear Lord Jesus, I want to know your peace and close presence throughout my day. Wherever I find myself, whoever I am talking to, I want to be obedient to the promptings of your Holy Spirit and ready to give a reason for the hope that is within me. May I end my day rejoicing that your will has been done in me, and in your world. Thank you. Amen. 

Prayer for Monday

 

Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy… The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.

 

READ AND REFLECT: John 14:15-21

‘If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me any more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.’

 

MEDITATE

“Each day holds a surprise. But only if we expect it can we see, hear, or feel it when it comes to us. Let's not be afraid to receive each day's surprise, whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy It will open a new place in our hearts, a place where we can welcome new friends and celebrate more fully our shared humanity.” - Henri Nouwen

 

PRAY

• For unity among all Christian denominations
• For those without fathers and mothers
• For spiritual renewal and refreshment of the soul

 

PRAYER

Dear Father, thank you for making me your child, but show me your ways so that I may experience the full blessing of that relationship with you. Send your Spirit to me today. Take this truth and wrap it around me like a father’s arm would embrace a child. May your love grip my heart and change my wrong views about myself. Help me to see what you see in me. For the glory of your son’s name. Amen.

 

 

How are we doing at doing good?

I have often found myself prefixing four simple yet powerful words to a sentence when trying to get our children to behave or to do something. You know the ones: “If you are good I will take you to the toy shop.” “If you are good I’ll let you have a friend round.” “If you are good you can stay up longer.” And so on.

Of course, there are different understandings of what it is to be good. You might have heard, “Sarah’s mum lets her do that.” Or “Grandpa says it’s okay?” Instant conflict!

I suspect being good or doing good matters to most of us. Sometimes it is out of vanity. At other times we are simply moved by compassion to make a situation better and in the process we feel good too. To encourage us more, scientific research shows that we have improved mental health when we do something for others - it takes our mind off our own woes.

One thing is for sure, doing good definitely does not just belong in the domain of churches, faith groups or charities. Many companies, too, are encouraged to have social ambitions alongside their commercial goals. Just look around at your local supermarkets and you’ll see what I mean. However, this is nothing new.

Back in the Eighteenth century Josiah Wedgewood, the celebrated pottery maker, gave affordable housing for his workers. He also trained them in an age of wide-scale illiteracy. Wedgewood, also the grandfather of Charles Darwin, provided adequate food supply for his staff and went on to build one of the first so-called company towns. Extraordinary achievements in themselves, but he went further.

He eventually became part of an international campaign that would help to see black slavery abolished. Wedgewood was part of a Quaker-led initiative that had as its advertising slogan “Am I not a man and a brother?” He engraved these emotive words with an image of a slave in chains kneeling and praying for mercy. It was a sentiment that caught the imagination among both the religious and the secularists campaigners of the day.

Josiah Wedgewood made the message into fashionable jewelry for well-to-do ladies. It contrasted greatly with the religious upper classes who at that time only stood in prayer as it would be demeaning to do otherwise.

Today many commentators talk about having a social footprint. We are faced with the challenge of leaving either a positive or negative mark on society.

None of us are as good as we would like to be. We have all done things that we know we should not have done, and possibly even feel guilt-ridden about. Is there any hope for us?

I find my own encouragement in the words of the famous hymn Amazing Grace, written by ex-slave trader John Newton: “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound / That saved a wretch like me. / I once was lost but now am found / Was blind, but now I see.”

Goodness comes, even from the word alone, from God. In Jesus we see the perfection of all that is good and worthy. This kind of goodness is holy. I know that I shall never be as good as I would like to be, but by God’s grace and mercy, I am working on it. Like Newton, I can also find forgiveness when I screw up. Meanwhile, keeping close to God in prayer is the thing that helps keep it real for me.

How are you doing at doing good?

ASD

10 Commandments for Church Planters and Pastors

A cracking top ten by Rich Nathan, Senior pastor of Vineyard Columbus, Ohio:

Pastors and church planters face enormous demands as we try to juggle family responsibilities, ministry, and often, school and part-time jobs. How can we live sustainable lives? We read of tragic pastoral failures on a weekly basis. Most pastors don’t last in the ministry for five years (perhaps the only way we pastors are like pro football players!). I’ve been a pastor for 25 years. Here are ten practices that have enabled me to pastor for the long-haul.

#1 Build a rock-solid daily personal devotional life with God. This simply means that you spend time every day soaking in God’s presence. You can handle an enormous amount of pressure, if your foundation is solid. Pressure is not the problem. Weak foundations are the problem. If your foundation is shaky, you won’t be able to handle very much at all. Maybe you’ve heard the expression: “You can’t fire a cannon out of a canoe.” If you are really going to accomplish something; if you are going to be able to achieve and do the great things that God has in store for you to achieve and do, you need a strong foundation. The cannon of your life needs to be bolted into granite. And the granite of your life is your rock-solid personal time with God every day.

#2 Choose a prayer partner, who is a peer and with whom you can be utterly transparent. What I have personally done in my own life for the past 20 years and what we require of every pastor on the staff of Vineyard Columbus is to have a prayer partner. At Vineyard Columbus we take one day every month outside of the office talking and praying with our prayer partner. We have a set of accountability questions that we ask each other such as:

a. Are you struggling with sexual purity in any way?
b. Have you seen any pornography, or anything on TV or in a movie that you shouldn’t have watched?
c. Have you done anything sexually you shouldn’t have done?
d. Are there any emotional attachments forming with someone who is not your spouse?
e. Have you handled your money and financial dealings with absolute integrity?
f. Have you experienced any breach in any relationship? Are you at peace with everyone?
g. Have you forgiven everyone for everything?
h. Are you experiencing intimacy with God on a regular basis?

#3 If you are married, schedule a weekly date night with your spouse. It is really important to stay current and to fuel romance and intimacy with your spouse. My wife and I have a regular date every Monday. It doesn’t need to be expensive. It could be coffee and a long walk through a park or a leisurely breakfast. But schedule a weekly date with your spouse outside your home.

#4 Get financial counseling from a professional financial counselor. Strongly consider (if you are married, with your spouse) going to a course like Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. Life is sustainable when your financial house is in order.

#5 Ruthlessly avoid all compromising situations with the opposite sex. There are few things that derail people from the plan of God more than sexual impurity. Jim Downing, who is one of the patriarchs of the Navigator organization, was asked some years ago: Why is it that so few people finish well? His response was profound. He said: “They learn the possibility of being fruitful without being pure. They begin to believe that purity doesn’t matter. Eventually, they become like trees rotting inside that are eventually toppled by a storm.” Live a sexually pure life.

#6 Take care of yourself physically. Join a gym. Get into the habit of walking with a friend. Watch your diet. It is not enough that you’re involved in ministry. It is not even enough that you grow in internal purity and intimacy with God. You are a whole person. Your life is integrated - body, soul and spirit. You cannot neglect your body or your emotional life and continue to do well. So, take care of yourself physically.

#7 Do not confuse knowledge or skills or giftedness for spiritual maturity. You are gifted. You may know a lot. You may help many people. None of those things are the same as spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity is a matter of your internal character, your honesty, your willingness to forgive everyone for everything, your joy during trials, your trust in the sovereignty of God, your endurance in hard times, and your unwillingness to compromise integrity. Don’t confuse knowledge or skills or giftedness for spiritual maturity.

#8 If you are married, take a great marriage inventory with your spouse and have a professional marriage counselor discuss the results with you. Here at Vineyard Columbus we offer a marriage inventory called LIMRI. We have regular marriage retreats. Do a marriage inventory especially at the front-end of pastoring, and every few years after that.

#9 Join a small group (and if married, join with your spouse). Christianity is a team sport. We cannot grow successfully apart from biblical community. Join a men’s group, a women’s group, a coed group, or a recovery group where you can know and be known.

#10 Cultivate the fear of the Lord and a fear of sin. We sinners always dreadfully under-estimate the cost of sin and dreadfully over-estimate our ability to manage the consequences after we choose to sin. Sin costs and once you choose to sin, the consequences are out of your hands. We read in Proverbs 14.26-27, He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children I will be a refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.

Deuteronomy 10.12-13 says, And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

Psalm 34.9 tells us this: Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.

Psalm 128:1 says: Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways.

 

ASD

"Don't panic!"

Recently the family and I decided to go to Bressingham Steam Museum. Well, actually when I say “we” it was my wife and I and the rest of the family had to comply. However the small voices of mutinous dissension were minimised at the back of the car, largely thanks to their iPods and Nintendo DS.

Bressingham is a great place to visit not least for Father’s Day. But beyond the working steam engines there is something you are not expecting – a Dad’s Army museum.

Having grown up on a staple diet of Dad’s Army comedy I can’t begin to tell you the fond memories it brought back. The kids, of course, had little respect for walking around the hallowed replica sets of Jones the Butcher or Captain Mainwaring’s office, but we forgive them.

Throughout the exhibition there was plenty of wartime memorabilia, but one of the posters particularly caught my eye. It read, “Morale: How to play your part.”

Today it is hard to, perhaps, understand the nation’s mood back then in such dark and desperate times. Anything we may feel today as a nation is pathetic in comparison such as, dare I say, Andy Murray losing Wimbledon. No, really.

Even though we are not at threat from the skies or the seas, there are other things that bring us together.

Take the steep rising costs of fuel, energy and food, along with cuts to local government services. They are undoubtedly starting to take their toll on most households. And life isn’t set to get any easier in the short term either. All these things can start to affect the nation’s mood, but as Corporal Jones would say. “Don’t panic!” It’s time to pull together.

When I looked at the wartime poster more closely I was surprised at what I read.

Firstly, it calls us to “Forget about yourself and help your neighbour.” Secondly, “Be a rumour stopper. Face the facts, don’t exaggerate. Faith, confidence and cheerfulness are as contagious as fear, depression and grumbling.”

But then the poster goes onto to say something really quite boldy, “The secret of steadiness and inner strength is to listen to God and do what he says. God speaks to the heart of every man and woman who is prepared to listen and obey. His voice can be heard wherever you are - in the home, in the factory, in the air-raid shelter, in the first-aid post.”

Now, be honest, you weren’t expecting that, were you?

But it is the last paragraph that really got me: “A British general who has fought two world wars said this: Telephone wires might be cut, wireless stations destroyed, but no bombardment can stop messages from God coming through if we are willing to receive them. To listen to God and obey him is the highest form of national service for everybody everywhere.”

Quite something, eh? When our spirits take a bashing God encourages us to turn to Him to be lifted up.  Morale in the dictionary is defined as being positive, confident, disciplined and willing to do tasks. Not to dissimilar to what it is to be a Christian.

St Paul the apostle writes to the first century Church that we are to be full of deep joy and hope. Also, we can receive a peace that ultimately only comes through his son Jesus Christ. It takes someone who is bigger than the situation to help us get perspective.

Whether our ongoing worries are about money, our job or whatever, we have a loving God that can help lift morale, so why don’t you try praying?

Meantime, if you do have any financial worries you might like to know that we have a team of trained Money Coaches available who are able to offer practical advice and support. Speak to our church office today (details on the Churches Services page). We’re happy to be of national service.

ASD

Learning to go slow to go fast (short article)

(Recently written for a local community magazine.)

There was a story of a man who prayed to God for patience. After about two minutes the man looked up at his clock and said, “Well?”

I must admit I am not a patient person by nature. If something can happen now, why wait? The only problem is living life always in fourth gear can be exhausting. We may appease ourselves by saying we have no choice but to go that speed, but more often than not there is a price to pay.

I read recently that a speed camera trap on the M6 has netted £3m. An incredible 5,569 motorists have been caught breaking the 50mph speed limit by the fixed cameras at roadworks at a junction of the M6 near Carlisle. The previous year’s record was held by the M11, so obviously East Anglia must have slowed down a little.

Have you noticed that impatience can lead to anger? We may find ourselves getting irrationally cross when we are ill or when the car breaks down or when something unexpected steals our time. It can affect our nearest and dearest relationships, whether we are conscious of it or not. For instance, we can miss out on enjoying our marriages and families. Time lost forever.

When I wake up early every morning I can’t help but think of all the things I have got to do that day. It is very tempting for someone like me to get on the laptop straight away and start working, but over the years I have learnt to park my thoughts, be it temporarily and learn to be in the presence of God. So what do I mean by being in the presence of God?

Quite simply, it means saying some prayers and turning to a passage in the Bible and meditating on it. In my conversations with God I hand over my concerns, pressures and anxieties. I surrender my issues of time and human capacity and ask God to show me what is important, rather than urgent. It is amazing how easily we allow the lesser things to steal our time to stop the more significant things from being done.

I find myself naturally praying for wisdom and discernment. In my church tradition we call this a ‘quiet time’, but nowadays I tend to call this my ‘worship time’. The daily discipline gives me a constant reminder that I am not God of my life, but he is, if I will let him. This is my act of daily worship to someone who is infinitely greater than me and able to do immeasurably more if I only ask him.

John Wimber the founder of the Vineyard Church, my denomination, said famously to the church, “To learn to go fast you have to go slow”. We have to focus on being before doing. Take time to simply be. Or as I say to my leaders, in terms of spiritual growth, we are not about getting the job done, but the person finished.

Whether you are a church-going Christian or someone who just about believes in God I would encourage you to get a modern translation of the Bible, flick through the front index and find the book of Psalms. Maybe try to read one a day. You can then also look up the book of Luke and read about Jesus and the things he said and did.

I promise you, prayer and the Bible do transform us, but you need to have patience. Maybe, like me, that is your first prayer. I encourage you to give it a go. You can buy a Bible through our church website bookshop or from WH Smith. Prayer is free.

ASD