The Crunch and The Cross

When America sneezes, the infection quickly spreads through the global financial system. As a result of her recent 'credit crunch', lenders and debt junkies alike worldwide are being crushed by the weight of defaults. Greed has suddenly given way to fear, destroying the market value of major banks that have looked at their reserves and found they have none. Slashed interest rates confront us with the truth that money is not as valuable as we thought.
Writing off - or, if you prefer, forgiving - bad debt is painful, and our global interdependence means we all share the pain. It has become personal for me. No longer is it a distant problem of troubled banks; now it's a friend of mine out of a job. Now it's people I know who can't get a mortgage. My own savings are at risk and shrinking in value.
A fund manager said that the Western financial system needed 'a clean-out of Augean-stable proportions' but added that 'we have no Hercules.'

If only the current crisis were all a legend that a suitably legendary hero could put to right. The problem is that the crisis and the pain it brings are real. And so it's a real hero we need.
That's where God comes in. The greed, deception, fear, denial, guilt and collapse of trust that lie at the heart of the current credit crunch are symptomatic of the crisis at the heart of humankind. This is an all too public and corporate demonstration of a normally private and personal reality. It was to deal with this reality - the reality of sin - that Jesus went to Calvary.
In stark contrast to our desperate attempts to escape liability, on the first Good Friday he willingly embraced the cross, experiencing all the terror and pain of the cosmic 'crunch point'. There, the global bad debt of sin was paid, with the only currency that never devalues:
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver and gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:19)

Have a blessed Easter!

PS. Don't miss 'ThePassion' ..http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thepassion/

Thanks to Paul Valler (LICC)

avoiding EASTER Saturday

The teacher and writer Alan Lewis used to talk of workshops that he’d led on the theme of Easter. The trouble was, he said, that groups were happy to talk about Good Friday but then they wanted to jump forward to Easter Day as quickly as possible. That long hiatus of Easter Saturday, when Jesus lies alone in a borrowed tomb, was to be avoided.

Was that, Alan wondered, because we simply don’t like talking about death?

And yet, he said, if we believe that God lived in and through Jesus Christ then it’s important for us to think not only about what was happening to Jesus, dead and buried, but what was happening to God… also dead and buried. It’s a tough idea to get your head round – that God, too, experiences death on the cross and “knows how to die”.

Alan came to understand that the God’s aloneness and despair on Easter Saturday is precisely that part of the Easter story that most closely mirrors so much of our own human experience. Three events of the last century, he suggests, bring into focus the sense of despair we so often feel about our world:

Auschwitz....... Hiroshima........ Chernobyl

Three events that represent the possibility of soulless inhumanity, a nuclear winter and, at Chernobyl, “the terrible possibility of planetary death… the ultimate eco-catastrophe”.

“Who and where is God if God’s power and love can sustain such losses and accede to such defeats?” Alan asks. Is God uninterested, absent or dead?

OR

Does such bleakness as we often experience in the world around us, such inhumanity that screams daily from our newspapers, such injustice that we seem powerless to prevent, offer another possibility?

For Alan, despair and pessimism, “the collapse of confidence” and “the abolition of optimism” creates the possibility of a different way of looking at tomorrow. A way not of fragile, shattered optimism but of strong un-killable hope.

“For hope, finding space to flourish in the very absence of optimism, is the courage not to be swallowed by despair but, in frank acknowledgement of rampant evil and negation, to trust in the possibility for life and creativity amid and beyond that malign [super-power], though assuredly not in its denial or avoidance. The very realities which banish confidence and legitimise despair also invite a hopeful embrace of love’s living power to prevail in history.”

Alan liked to say that the only truly authentic Easter hymn was one that begins “Now the green blade rises from the buried grain”. It speaks of hope (not optimism) present in all our Easter Saturdays of death and despair, ready to push through and grow once more in the shape of God’s love.

The question is: if the aloneness and despair of Easter Saturday is precisely that part of the Easter story which most closely mirrors so much of our own human experience why, then, is it the part of the story that Christians most usually skip over?

More Information
Quotations taken from Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday by Alan E. Lewis (published by Wm B Eerdmans Pub Co.)

thanks to the Methodist Church website for this article

Gethsemane

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What was the agony of Gethsemane?
The Son of God sweating blood.
What was the pain he felt deep within
Which tore at every fibre of his being?
Men and women face death each day,
Afraid of the transitory suffering
of the journey to the unknown.
But he knew his destination and purpose.
The joy set before him,
The sure hope which he would cling to
...through the blackness and torture
and the last enemy’s last stand...
contained in the lonely cry
‘Your will, not mine…’

DEFINING and DOING PRAYER

Thanks to Pete Atkins for this Devotional on prayer...Pete is a founder of what is now the nationwide Mission Shaped Ministry Course...I'm on the course, and enjoyed being on the receiving end of this inspired word last night. Don't just read it once...take time with it and let God speak to you as you reflect:

To pray is to breathe
Relationship with our Father in Heaven is what brings us life

both on earth and for eternity;

prayer is one of the gifts from God for expressing and deepening relationship with Him

– without it we die inside,

we are cut off from our source of life

and our souls start to shrivel.

This gift is permission and means to communicate and commune

with the creator of all things,

the redeemer of our souls,

the lover of all mankind,

the King of Heaven.

In prayer we speak and listen,

ask and receive,

are quiet or shout,

pray in words or in silence,

focus on the needs of others

or our own situation,

use what is written

or respond in our own words,

use our mother tongue

or the "tongues of men and angels".

We can sing or say our prayer,

pray wordlessly

or in groans too deep for words.

We can dance out our prayer,

draw it,

paint it,

write it down,

write it in the sand

or encapsulate it in the flame of a candle.

In prayer

we approach the God who loves us

and who draws us nearer;

we acknowledge our dependence upon Him,

our desire to hear Him,

to give thanks to Him,

to pray our confession when we mess up

and to receive again the joy of forgiveness.

Prayer can be …
…a season of devotion

...or a 3 second request for help,

it can be impregnated with intense feeling

or be a cerebral and passionless event.

Prayer can be on our own

or with others.

Prayer can be inspired by nature or beauty

..or by desperation and suffering.

Prayer can be inspired by our own joys, needs or sorrows

..or the difficulties and heartaches of others.

Prayer, like worship, is a way of life

..not an occasional foray into a spiritual realm.

Seeking to see vision fulfilled without prayer

is like going to war with

no strategy,

no map,

no armour,

no weapons

and no communication with headquarters.

But of more importance

is that seeking to see vision fulfilled without prayer

is to seek effect above relationship.

Closeness to Him is what He desires of us most
…it’s what Jesus came and died to restore.

Seek His face before His hand.

Seek the giver before the gift.

In our love for Him and His for us

lies the source of the power

of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Kingdom is within us

and only to the extent it has come in us

will the Kingdom come through us.

The Kingdom of God in us is measured by

our submission to the King,

our love for the King,

our likeness to our King,

our relationship with the King,

our communication with the King,

our life of prayer.

In prayer we align ourselves

to the will of heaven

and pull away from the gravity

of our own desires,

our self centeredness,

and our perspective.

In prayer God invites us

to sit beside Him in heavenly realms

and gain His perspective,

share His heart

and commit ourselves

to the accomplishment of His will.

In prayer we can ask

or groan,

or plead

or wrestle,

or agree

for His will to be established,

for His Kingdom to come on the earth

– including in our hearts,

our territory,

our realm of responsibility,

our lives,

our families

and our Churches.

We pray on our own and we pray with those who share our life
We pray

as one of the two or three gathered together in His name

and we pray

as one of the thousand

gathered together to worship the King,

to cry to heaven,

to plead for the nation

or for the future of our children.

To pray is to live
…and to breathe,

and to allow Him

to be our all in all.

Then as we obey in prayer,

we see our dreams unfold,

His love made known,

His Kingdom established,

the captives set free,

addictions broken,

light come in the darkness

and the lost found.
…and as we pray, Heaven comes upon the earth

A prayer of hope (from Hope for Hull ’08)

(based on Psalm 69 v.13 Living Bible translation)
Lord God, as we look out across this area we see so much that needs to be done, so many who need to be helped in body, mind and spirit.
Our time and resources are limited and often inadequate; sometimes we just don’t know what to do.
But we will keep on praying to you, O Lord.
For now is the time!
You are bending down to listen.
You are ready with a bountiful supply of love and kindness.
Now answer our prayers for this place and its people, as you have promised.
Strengthen and encourage us to stand together for you as we seek to bring fresh hope to these communities where you have placed us.
We ask this in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ – Saviour, Healer and Restorer of Hope.
Amen
visit http://www.hope08.com/Group/Group.aspx?id=59485

Prayer is the key to revival

I'm off to the national Methodist Lay Workers' Conference, so I'm blogging ahead this week!

Prayer is the key to revival:

In September 1857, a man of prayer, Jeremiah Lanphier, started a businessmen’s prayer meeting in the upper room of the Dutch Reformed Church Consistory Building in Manhattan. In response to his advertisement, only six people out of a population of a million showed up. But the following week there were fourteen, and then twenty-three when it was decided to meet everyday for prayer. By late winter they were filling the Dutch Reformed Church, then the Methodist Church on John Street, then Trinity Episcopal Church on Broadway at Wall Street. In February and March of 1858, every church and public hall in down town New York was filled.Horace Greeley, the famous editor, sent a reporter with horse and buggy racing round the prayer meetings to see how many men were praying. In one hour he could get to only twelve meetings, but he counted 6,100 men attending. Then a landslide of prayer began, which overflowed to the churches in the evenings. People began to be converted, ten thousand a week in New York City alone. The movement spread throughout New England, the church bells bringing people to prayer at eight in the morning, twelve noon, and six in the evening. The revival raced up the Hudson and down the Mohawk, where the Baptists, for example, had so many people to baptize that they went down to the river, cut a big hole in the ice, and baptized them in the cold water. When Baptists do that they are really on fire!*

There are no charismatic preachers or leaders in this story. Just a man called to pray.

Will you pray?

2 Chronicles 7v14 is a tremendous promise:

....if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Let's get serious about prayer!

*thanks to http://www.40-days.com/revivalstories.php

'PRAY WITHOUT CEASING' vigils

Last year I drew up some guidelines for 24/7 prayer. Let me share them with you:

Here I am…
How do I pray?
What do I say?

First….remember God longs to speak to us far more than we long to speak to Him!

Second….you’re here to hold vigil. Jesus and the New Testament writers often use the instructions; ‘Watch and Pray’. When your ‘watch’ ends pass the baton (a wooden cross or something appropriate) to the next person and say to them, ‘Watch and pray’

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Third….light a candle. Jesus is ‘the Light of the World’. In a desperate world we proclaim victory over dark powers and affirm our Christian Hope. And we ourselves are ‘lights’……as having been in His presence we go out to reflect His glory. (2 Cor 4v6)

Fourth….. pray (briefly is fine) with others present. Maybe you want them to pray for you or for a problem you have. Just ask. And vice versa….be ready to pray for them.

Fifth…..as you are quiet before God, pray for each person or situation that comes into your mind. You may admit to God that you don’t know what to pray….just say ‘Lord, here is N……you know their needs. Please touch them.’

Sixth…..If, like most of us, your mind wanders….offer to God those thoughts, especially the things you are most concerned about, leave them with Him, and experience His peace. (Phil 4 v6-7)

Seventh…. Don’t be surprised if God speaks to you. It probably will not be audible, but as you are quiet before God a thought may be implanted in your mind. Test it (because there are ‘voices’ other than God’s). A particular sin may be highlighted to enable you to repent of it before God. (again…test it…. If it’s from God, it will be specific). A particular course of action may be revealed to you in answer to a dilemma you have prayed for.
Share these with others if you feel you can, and don’t be afraid to ask if you’re uncertain.

Eighth*…..


*this isn’t a complete list ! You can add to it !!

Unanswered prayer

Even if you feel your prayers aren't being answered, God is still right by your side. When we ask God for something (whether it’s healing for a loved one, world peace or a parking space), it’s because it’s important to us. So why might God give us something as trivial as a parking space, when a loved one’s cancer isn’t healed?

We don’t always get what we ask for, no matter how ‘good’ we believe our cause to be. This is hard to accept—but beware of the term ‘unanswered prayer’. Just because we don’t get what we want, how or when we want, doesn’t mean God doesn’t hear and isn’t responding in some way.

Accepting that there is a God is a huge leap of faith in itself. Once there, we can accept that God is massive, made of love and purity, all-powerful, and far beyond our human understanding. Therefore, we must also accept that we can’t really understand what God’s up to. Like the butterfly that beats its wings in Brazil and causes a tornado in Texas, we can’t know what part we play in God’s great big universal plan.

As painful as it is, sometimes God doesn’t seem to answer our prayre because the answer we really need is ‘No’, or because God is teaching us something. Wouldn’t life be weird (and chaotic) if everyone got everything they asked for? Watch the movie Bruce Almighty!

Sometimes we can look back and see how God drew us closer through ‘unanswered prayer’—that what we ended up with was more valuable, and was, in fact, the answer to prayer of a different sort.

Unanswered prayers will include things that aren’t God’s will (that your enemies will die, for example!) or things we think we want, but which won’t be good for us (like winning the lottery). Remember that God’s will comes before our own needs and wants; that’s why the Lords Prayer says, ‘Your will be done’.

What about people who persevere in heartfelt prayer for a sick child, only to watch that precious child die? It’s hard to explain that away as a lesson. Why didn’t God step in? What did the child—or the parents—do to deserve it? How could God be so cruel? The answer, of course, is that he isn’t. And this ‘unanswered prayer’ is almost impossible to explain. All we can do is remember that when Jesus asked God to spare him before he was crucified that prayer wasn’t answered (it was answered in a different way: he was resurrected three days later.)

We can’t always understand what God is doing—if we could, would we really want him to be our god? No matter what difficulties or even tragedies you may face, turning your back on God because of ‘unanswered’ prayer isn’t the right response. Usually, we are closest to God when we turn and sob onto his shoulder, and let him comfort us in our pain.

Nothing will be perfect until we’re united with him after this life is over. Until then, let’s not stop talking to God in prayer.

This article is found at http://www.church-on-the-net.com/reference/unansweredprayer.aspx.

Reproduced with thanks. Do visit this excellent new website.

Try praying TRIPRAYING !

Continuing with our series on prayer:

I encouraged a group of Ministry Students to try this last year. It proved of immense value. I hope they are still doing it (do let me know.. if you're reading this, EMMTC students! ).
Tripraying is about joining with two others to pray as a three. It’s also about your group of three connecting with the wider church through the tri praying network as part of the wider church. As members of the body of Christ we need each other. When we share our faith journey together, we grow in our relationship with God and with others.

Jesus says: ‘When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I'll be there’ (Matthew 18:19-20).
So tri praying - or praying in threes is biblical and we can expect God to act in us and through us as we spend time with him and pray for people and situations around us.

Our prayers are more effective as we pray as a team and we can ask for his kingdom to come as we ‘think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works’ (Hebrews 10: 24,).

We all struggle at times and prayer can be hard work. Having the support and encouragement of two others is invaluable. ‘By yourself you're unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn't easily snapped’ (Ecclesiastes 14:12). Committing to pray with two others helps us to be disciplined, accountable and to keep going.

How to get going:
Ask two other people if they would like to commit to praying together as a three.
Agree to meet - on a regular basis for prayer (at least once and preferably twice a month). You could keep in touch more regularly by phone or email as well.

When you meet:
1. Let your friends know how your faith journey is going and pray for each other.
2. Pray for three friends who aren’t yet Christians.
3. Identify a ‘Big issue’ – a situation that really needs God’s touch, his intervention or his solution. Pray for these together

thanks to 40 days http://www.40-days.com/trypraying.php

Get this Prayer Classic

Whatever book you may choose to read on the subject of PRAYER, you will find in it somewhere reference to a book which came out way back in 1931; 'Prayer' by O.Hallesby*. This is a wonderful Christian Classic. I have a 1951 hardback copy given to me in my teens (no I wasn't in my teens in 1951 !) by my old Sunday School teacher. I have included various quotes below. The book appears to be in print again. Do get a copy. Your prayer life will never be the same.

Hallesby quotes:
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. Revelation 3:20
I doubt I know of a passage in the whole Bible which throws greater light upon prayer than this one does. It is, it seems to me, the key which opens the door into the holy and blessed realm of prayer. To pray is to let Jesus into our hearts. This teaches us, in the first place, that it is not our prayer which moves the Lord Jesus. It is Jesus who moves us to pray. He knocks. Thereby He makes known His desire to come in to us. Our prayers are always a result of Jesus' knocking at our hearts' doors.
Prayer is an attitude of our hearts, an attitude of mind....

What is this spiritual condition?

What is that attitude of heart which God recognizes as prayer? I would mention two things.

In the first place, helplessness. As far as I can see, prayer has been ordained only for the helpless. It is the last resort of the helpless. Indeed, the very last way out. We try everything before we finally resort to prayer.
Secondly, faith.
It is written, 'But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.' Hebrews 11:6.

Without faith there can be no prayer, no matter how great our helplessness may be. Helplessness united with faith produces prayer....

You have more faith than you think you have. You have enough faith to pray; you have enough faith to believe that you will be heard. Faith is a strange thing; it often conceals itself in such a way that we can neither see nor find it....
Prayer consists simply in telling God day by day in what ways we are helpless.... Only he who is helpless can truly pray.... Helplessness united with faith produces prayer.
To pray is nothing more involved than to let Jesus into our needs. To pray is to give Jesus permission to employ His powers in the alleviation of our distress. To pray is to let Jesus glorify His name in the midst of our needs.

There come times when I have nothing more to tell God. If I were to continue to pray in words, I would have to repeat what I have already said. At such times it is wonderful to say to God, "May I be in Thy presence, Lord? I have nothing more to say to Thee, but I do love to be in Thy presence.

The secret prayer chamber is a bloody battle ground. Here violent and decisive battles are fought out. Here the fate of souls for time and eternity is determined, in quietude and solitude, without another soul as spectator or listener.

See to it, night and day, that you pray for your children. Then you will leave them a great legacy of answers to prayer, which will follow them all the days of their life. Then you may calmly and with a good conscience depart from them, even though you may not leave them a great deal of material wealth.

*for info on this little known writer: http://www.prayerfoundation.com/books/book_review_prayer_o_hallesby.htm