How to pray when you’re worried

‘DON’T WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING; INSTEAD, PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING…THEN HIS PEACE WILL GUARD YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS. ‘ PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7 NLT

Are you worried today? Have you lost your peace of mind? Begin to pray this prayer until it takes root in your heart and becomes your fixed attitude:
‘Father, You told me not to be afraid because You are with me, You will uphold me, and those who come against me will not succeed (Isaiah 41:10-11).
You said no evil would come upon me, nor any plague touch my home for You have ordered Your angels to protect me (Psalm 91:10-11).
You said when I walk through rivers of difficulty (when I’m ‘in over my head’) You won’t let me drown, and when I walk through fires of adversity (when ‘the heat is on’)You won’t allow me to get burned for You are watching over me (Isaiah 43:2-3).
You said no weapon formed against me shall prosper (Isaiah 54:17). I cannot keep the enemy’s weapons from being formed, but I know You will keep them from prospering.
You said if I ask anything according to Your will, You would grant my request (1 John 5:14-15).
You said when I walk in obedience before You I will be blessed when I come in and blessed when I go out, blessed when I lie down and blessed when I get up (Deuteronomy 28:6).
You told me to give all my troubles to You and You would take care of me (1 Peter 5:7).
So here they are!
Today I’m standing on Your Word.
You said it!
I believe it!
That settles it!
Amen.’

Thanks to The Word for Today www.ucb.co.uk. See also my Sermons blog.

Treasure Hunt

THE MIST CLEARS ON THE PEMBOKESHIRE COAST PATH 2006MJ

Thanks to Brian Draper of LICC for this little 'gem'

This week, I had a lucky find. I was walking a muddy path that circumnavigates the village of Pleshey. (I was at a retreat centre, and had only managed lunch and a quick sit down before I needed to get up and 'do' something.) It was so achingly cold out that I put my hands in my pockets; and there, among the keys and loose change, sat a little stone. Puzzled, I pulled it out; then, I remembered.

Some time ago, my five-year-old son found this sparkly purple object and with great delight came running up to share it with me. 'I've found treasure!' he exclaimed. 'And you can have it.'

At the time, my mind must have been on other things - dwelling somewhere in the past, perhaps, as I sifted an old conversation for anything remotely hurtful (something I'm good at), or stretching into the future to worry about how I could survive my next few work projects.

I can't even remember where he found the stone; I just remember his words. I must have put it in my pocket oblivious, unthinking. But as I wandered lonely, with only the blur of a deer and a brace of pheasant for company, the little stone finally had my attention. Treasure. My son had found treasure and had given it to me.

A string of words were carried in on the chill breeze. 'For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.' Jesus.

Somehow I knew, there and then, that I treasured so much nonsense: security, possessions, 'happiness', reputation; I realised, too, how, through fear of losing such 'treasure', we can end up burying it, stashing it along with our hearts in the boot of the car we've bought on HP, or the foundations of the house we've almost killed ourselves to 'buy', in the boardroom where we've built up our personal stock or in the wrong bedroom where we've massaged our wounded egos.

Sometimes - especially in these times - we need a treasure map to find where we have misplaced our hearts. Sometimes, we may find real treasure in the most unexpected of places, like the pocket of an old pair of jeans. But always, surely, we need a little stillness and space, to help us recall and recover those things of great price we didn't realise we'd been given, but which we'd been carrying all along.

Movement, Institution, Museum

WOLLATON HALL


Roger Johnson writes:
I recently visited the Industrial Museum at Wollaton Park, Nottingham, and was fascinated by the items on show there. There were old bicycles (penny farthings), old motorbikes, telephones and a whole host of machinery used in days gone by. It made me reflect in particular on the telephone and how things have moved on since they were first introduced into the public arena.

With the uptake of mobile phones, BT can see little point in maintaining boxes which are little used and often vandalised. They have become museum pieces. Recently we have heard stories of how communities have asked BT to save their red telephone box. Some people have become so attached to them that they put carpets and flowers inside – but they rarely use them for the purpose for which they were intended. A similar story surrounds Post Offices. They are much loved and often provide a sense of community spirit – but some are little used and costly to maintain.

Is this a picture of the Church? Very often we hear stories of churches which face closure. When the community catch wind of these plans they are in uproar protesting, ‘You can’t close OUR church!’ But do they use it? Often the answer is ‘no’, except at Christmas or for weddings and funerals. In other words, they don’t use it for the purpose for which it was intended.

Christianity started out as a movement – founded by Jesus, inherited by his apostles, and spread by the proclamation of the message of salvation through Jesus, often at great personal cost until, one day, it became the official religion of the Roman Empire under Constantine. From here on, it has been argued that Christianity progressed (if that is the correct word) from a movement to an institution, supported and encouraged by the state.

It is good to reflect upon the difference between a movement and an institution. Movements are founded by visionary people and are furthered by the sacrificial actions of those who believe in the cause. They are forward-looking and will seize opportunities presented to them, even if it involves risk. An Institution is supported by a body of people who fund it, manage it and put programmes in place to keep it in the public eye. The danger here is that the visionary zeal and sacrificial actions of its founders can disappear. If, like telephone boxes, they ceased to be used for the purpose for which they were intended, then there is a danger that they could disappear altogether and become Museum Items. Museums, in contrast to movements, are backward-looking and delight primarily in what lies behind them.

Is there a danger that some churches have progressed from movement through to institution and now risk ending up as museum items? It is a sobering thought that some churches can be well managed and have a number of activities in their weekly programme and yet are declining.

At the heart of the Christian Church is the gospel of salvation. If members have lost their zeal for this central message, then no matter how busy they may be, they may no longer be moving forward with God’s Spirit to reach those who need this message most. The Church was founded sacrificially by Jesus in order to be the agent through which a missionary God would establish God’s Kingdom here on earth (Matthew 6:10). This is our primary calling.

Perhaps it is a time for some churches to reflect upon how and why they were first established – what is the ‘birth narrative’ of the church – and ‘are they still faithful to their calling?’ It is sad to see churches drift aimlessly along from movement through to institution and end up as museums, fondly remembered by their community but no longer serving a useful purpose. Someone once said that they had visited a number of churches with ‘a great future behind them’.

Let us remember in this period of Advent that God has not lost his missionary zeal and that the world is just as much in need of the establishment of God’s Kingdom as ever. Come, Lord and renew us in our primary calling.

Roger Johnson is District Evangelism Enabler of
Nottingham & Derby District of the Methodist Church

Paul: What's new?

All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. Acts 17:21

In the crowded Athenian marketplace of ideas there was still room for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do we sometimes feel that there is no room for it in our novelty-seeking, information-packed society?

Many people hold this view, most often on the grounds that the gospel is old, out-dated, out of touch with the spirit and values of the age. Such parodies of the gospel will remain as long as people perceive the church as a gloomy dark building, echoing with emptiness. Or as long as Christians believe, in the words of the Rev. Jerry Falwell, that the debate about global warming is 'a tool of Satan being used to distract churches from their primary focus of preaching the gospel'.

When the apostle Paul arrived in Athens, he found a city very different from any that he had been to before. There was apparently no synagogue, nor even as in Philippi a place where the Jews met for prayer. There was no equivalent to the common Jewish culture, which generally formed the background to Paul's preaching. The Greeks didn't take seriously the stories of their gods: hence the Athenians' fascination with the latest ideas.

The differences between Paul's presentation of the gospel in Athens and the speeches that he made in other cities have been observed by many commentators. Four points seem to be particularly relevant here.
First, Paul was polite about the Athenians' worldview: 'I see that in every way you are very religious' (v.22).
Second, he picked a single tenet of their belief to use as his starting point: 'I found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD' (v.23).
Third, he used as his 'text' something from their own popular culture (even though his strict theology might have dissented from it): 'As some of your own poets have said, "We are his offspring"' (v.28).
And fourth, having thus met them on their own ground, Paul built a bridge to the heart of the gospel.

Our greatest opportunity lies in the fact that the old gospel is ever new: it offers what everyone is looking for - hope, security, identity, freedom from guilt. Our greatest challenge is to make people understand that this is so.

Thanks to Helen Parry(LICC)

Charles Darwin

Most people have an opinion of Charles Darwin. And those that don't will have by this time next year.

As the Natural History Museum opens its doors to a new Darwin exhibition, a year of lectures, events, publications, debates, and exhibitions gets underway. Even the most devoted Darwinist might be a little tired by December 2009.

For some, Darwin is the great liberator, a scientific Moses leading his benighted people out of the intellectual slavery of superstition and ignorance. For others, he is the great Satan, architect of a theory that led to atheism, materialism and genocide.

Neither picture is remotely accurate.

Darwin himself was a rather ordinary man. He did have extraordinary gifts of observation, patience, association and speculation. And he was also remarkably courteous and respectful (qualities not immediately obvious in some of his modern disciples). But beyond that, he lived a somewhat conventional, mid-Victorian life.

He did lose his Christian faith but, in truth, that faith owed rather more to the ordered, rational, natural theology of William Paley than to any personal, Christ-centred conviction. 'I do not think that the religious sentiment was ever strongly developed in me,' he admitted in his Autobiography.

Moreover, he lost it for a good reason - not so much his theory of evolution (although that played a part) but more because he witnessed his favourite child, Annie, aged ten, die a slow, painful and degrading death. Few people, no matter how strong their faith, could endure such a loss without severe doubts. In this, as in so much else, Darwin has much to teach us.

Darwin's Christianity was more philosophical than theological, built on the seemingly secure foundation of universal human reason, rather than on the particularities of the Christian story, let alone the counter-intuitive scandal of the incarnation and crucifixion. Yet, as soon as Christianity moves away from the foot of the cross and loses sight of the crucified God, it became defenceless against accusations of suffering and injustice. No amount of philosophical justification or arguments for the immortality of soul is enough. The pain, the sense of injustice, the sense of loss becomes overwhelming. Christianity stands by the cross or it doesn't stand at all.

In truth, Darwin's own faith never stood anywhere near the foot of the cross. But which of us can say ours does?

Nick Spencer (LICC)

KNOWING FOR CERTAIN

SUNSET ON THE PEMBOKESHIRE COAST PATH MJ2006

IT'S INTERESTING HOW THIS KEEPS COMING BACK AGAIN......SEE PREVIOUS BLOGS AND SERMONS ON 'I KNOW THE PLANS...'(JER 29:11).
WE ARE REMINDED YET AGAIN THAT IF GOD KNOWS THE PLANS, THAT IS ENOUGH FOR NOW, EVEN THOUGH WE CANNOT SEE AT PRESENT.

As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, 'Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own.' Genesis 15:12

Being one person (or one family, one community, one small business) in the middle of a very big picture can be very disturbing. 'My hands are tied', 'I cannot change the outcome', 'I don't know how to protect myself', 'I don't know where to turn', 'I don't know what to do'.

God had given Abram grounds for ambitious expectations about the future, a belief that his dynasty would make the world a better place, a sense that he had a big part in God's plans, but he could see nothing. He had only glimmers of understanding that any of this would happen. There was only darkness. He could not see the big picture. So, God said to him, 'Don't worry - I know what will happen to you. Just know for certain that these are my plans for you and they will work out. in the long run.'

Abram would not see any of these long-term plans work out, nor, incidentally, would he know that the promises would only be fulfilled completely at the end of time. The picture is much bigger than the son who has not yet been born to him, much bigger than his descendants, much bigger than the children of Israel living in the Promised Land, or exiled from it. The picture is the whole of human history.

We cannot see the whole any more than Abram could - and his calling was special and unique. We cannot tell what part in God's plan our little moments play. We, too, sometimes are in places of darkness. But we can know for certain that the God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ is wholly trustworthy, will keep all his promises and will make sure that his best of all plans works out in the end. Meanwhile, as an essential part of that plan, we walk with him circumspectly, ethically, and joyfully, even in the dark, knowing that we are writing our own unique and highly significant story into God's big one.

THANKS TO Margaret Killingray (LICC)
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An astounding story !

It was either the most astounding coincidence, or an act of God; literally. The small Methodist Church needed a new building, so when somebody donated a piece of land they accepted. It was low-lying land so they constructed a wooden church and put it up on brick pilings. Days later a storm lashed the town and the locals witnessed something amazing. The church building, still intact, was afloat! The flood had lifted it off its pilings and sent it down the road. At the town centre, as dozens of people watched helplessly, it made a sharp, inexplicable right turn and continued on. Finally, in the same decisive manner it veered off the road, it headed straight for a vacant lot and stopped dead in the centre! The flood waters eventually receded but the building is still there. In fact, 130 years have passed since the church, now called Providence Methodist Church, floated itself to the most desirable location in town. What’s amazing is this: The lot where it settled had originally been the congregation’s first choice for their building, but landowner Sam Sadler turned them down. The morning after the flood, he presented the pastor with the deeds to the land! ‘”For I am the Lord. I speak, and the word which I speak will come to pass”’ (Ezekiel 12:25). No doubt about it; when God makes up His mind, nothing gets in His way!
Thanks to 'Word for Today'www.ucb.co.uk

Remembering all of you

Barmston, East Yorkshire MJ2004

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy.It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart. Phil.1:4, 7

Astonishingly, Paul, who met so many people on his constant travels, appears to have remembered the individual Philippian believers, holding them all in his heart, and 'longing for them with the affection of Christ Jesus' (v.8). He wrote to the Philippians from prison; yet, far from going on about his own problems, his concern was focused on them.

Innumerable people come into and out of our lives, year after year. But how many of them do we consciously remember? Of all the people that I have known, the one with the most phenomenal memory is John Stott. Over the years, in his teaching ministry, John met thousands of Christians all over the world. When a man from India, say, whom John had met three years before in Chennai, came to London to attend a course at LICC, John would welcome him by name, and then ask by name after his wife and children. An extraordinary memory and meticulously kept records, no doubt. But also an extraordinary love. A love that cherished every individual. A love that prayed.

The story is told of a young man who forgot an appointment with John. When he rang up, mortified, to apologise, John replied, 'I used to forget engagements too, until I started praying through my diary every morning'.

We are often embarrassed when we forget people - particularly if they remember us! But there is a more frequent - indeed, almost daily - forgetfulness, which is less excusable. When I forget a phone call, a neighbour's operation, or a colleague's child's illness.When my personal concerns stop me from listening to someone else's. isn't it often though a lack of prayer and a lack of love?

In a climate in which people don't really listen to each other, and so readily forget others' needs, an outstanding witness to Christian love is simply this: to remember and to ask: 'Is your wife better?' 'How did your son do in his exams?' 'How did that difficult meeting turn out?'

And sometimes one can say, 'Would you like me to pray for you?' And surprisingly often the answer may be 'Yes'.

Helen Parry (LICC)

Why Go To Church?

FONTEVRAULT CHAPEL, TINTAGEL MJ2006
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A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."

This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: "I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this... They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"
When you are DOWN to nothing.... God is UP to something!
Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible!
Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!

St Patrick’s Breastplate

This poem/hymn attributed to Patrick (5th Century)may seem quite strange to us today.
But I challenge you to pray it... it is immensely powerful.

I bind to myself today
The strong virtue of the Invocation of the Trinity:
I believe the Trinity in the Unity
The Creator of the Universe.

I bind to myself today
The virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with His Baptism,
The virtue of His crucifixion with His burial,
The virtue of His Resurrection with His Ascension,
The virtue of His coming on the Judgement Day.

I bind to myself today
The virtue of the love of seraphim,
In the obedience of angels,
In the hope of resurrection unto reward,
In prayers of Patriarchs,
In predictions of Prophets,
In preaching of Apostles,
In faith of Confessors,
In purity of the holy Virgin,
In deeds of righteous men.

I bind to myself today
The power of Heaven,
The light of the sun,
The brightness of the moon,
The splendour of fire,
The flashing of lightning,
The swiftness of wind,
The depth of sea,
The stability of earth,
The compactness of rocks.
I bind to myself today
God's Power to guide me,
God's Might to uphold me,
God's Wisdom to teach me,
God's Eye to watch over me,
God's Ear to hear me,
God's Word to give me speech,
God's Hand to guide me,
God's Way to lie before me,
God's Shield to shelter me,
God's Host to secure me,
Against the snares of demons,
Against the seductions of vices,
Against the lusts of nature,
Against everyone who meditates injury to me,
Whether far or near,
Whether few or with many.

I invoke today all these virtues
Against every hostile merciless power
Which may assail my body and my soul,
Against the incantations of false prophets,
Against the black laws of heathenism,
Against the false laws of heresy,
Against the deceits of idolatry,
Against the spells of women, and smiths, and druids,
Against every knowledge that binds the soul of man.

Christ, protect me today
Against every poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against death-wound,
That I may receive abundant reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in the fort, [i.e., at home]
Christ in the chariot seat, [i.e., travelling by land]
Christ in the poop. [i.e., travelling by water]

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I bind to myself today
The strong virtue of an invocation of the Trinity,
I believe the Trinity in the Unity
The Creator of the Universe.