Posted in February 2010 …

Feb 28 2010
Bible, Christianity, Failure, Faith, Father God, Heaven, Jesus, Manchester, Religion, REVIVAL

Lindz West of Lz7 on the skills of Evangelism

Lindz from Lz7 teaching on being an effective evangelist.

Manchester is his adopted city, he is a missionary to Manchester! Sept 27th his ‘this little light’ song will be released.

The government are right behind it: ‘Shine’ campaign = film young people doing something good. Put it on the website.
Momentum is building!

He has been doing evangelism full time for ten years. Employed by Luis Palau festival to preach to their youth, some massive crowds.

But the tough stuff is When you go onto a classroom etc with his work through the Message – there are walls to be broken down

Mk 1;17

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.

Ever been fishing!? Hard work! Chucking out the net is dirty work, and you need some skills, but ordinary people can do it.

When he did a sports science degree – he learned a definition of SKILL.

Skill is a learned ability to bring about a predetermined result with maximum certainty often with minimal outlay of time, energy or both.

So: do your work:,be prepared in advance! To be relevant to who you’re reaching.

Know your audience, be all things to all people to save some. What’s going to work best for this person?

Know your testimony. Be ready!

Break down a barrier!
Eg., body language. We communicate a massive amount non verbally.
Hand gestures: do you tend to point (aggressive) or use open hands?
If people are closed arms & legs, you need to change them from being closed.
Eye contact – use a visual sweep.

Don’t shuffle about in an uncertain way: the gospel is something you can stand on.
Stand confident in your faith.
In schools you learn at the sharp end. Any questions time!? That’s tough apologetics.
God has said to him, if you fail 7 times, get up 8 times!

When Lindz was in new York, ended up he ‘just happened’ to meet Chris Moyles. It took till 2am till the conversation turned to God. If Chris Moyles comes to Manchester, he will visit Ivy!

And it happened because the conversation turned to the opportunity.

Are you willing to be interrupted? Like Jesus was with Zaccheaus.

Feb 27 2010
bereavement, Bible, Christianity, Community, Compassion, Compassion UK, Death, Faith, Family, Haiti, Prayer, Religion, Theology, Uncategorized

More blessed to give than receive

I just received a letter and picture for the fridge from one of the kids we sponsor through Compassion UK. Tucked away between the prayers for us and news of football games was this – ‘please read Acts 20:35′

Not a verse I know by heart – I looked it up. And then I found I did know it:

…remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

I once heard of a Bishop who preached, “Jesus said – and I think he was right…’

Well, I know he’s right!

The apostle Paul knew that too and recalls in this passage words spoken by Jesus which are not recorded in any of the gospels; words that shaped the early church’s thought and practice – and helped it make such an impact! It was said of the early Christians, “They share their food but not their beds.” They were sexually pure but promiscuous in generosity!  They lived like that because they had their eyes on another destination.

Jesus said, “Store up treasures in heaven . . .” Why? Because it’s wise! Because whatever we have given to help the poor or invested in building God’s kingdom will last. It won’t be consumed by moths and rust and thieves.  But you’ll never see a hearse pulling a trailer. 

A friend of mine is an independent financial adviser. He says, “When it come to your money don’t just think just 3 days ahead, or 3 months or 3 years. Think 30 years.” Jesus Christ says, “Don’t just ask, how will this investment be paying off in thirty years. Ask, how will this investment be paying off in thirty million years?”

C. T. Studd left being England cricket captain to reach out to needy people in the mission field he famously said this…“One short life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”

I have some bad news. I have a terminal disease! I’m going to die!

Even worse news? You have the same disease! You’re going to die too!

The disease is called mortality. One day, sooner than any of us would like to  think, we’ll each stand before our Lord, the Audience of One. He’ll call us to account for how we’ve stewarded our lives and our resources here.

If your treasures are in heaven….good news. Heaven is coming! All Hell can’t going to stop it. Anything you’ve put in God’s hands – for his work-  is safe. Anything you haven’t – isn’t going to last.

Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” He’s saying, “Show me your chequebook and bank statement, I’ll show you where your heart is. Your heart follows your money.”

Want a heart for Pork Bellies? Put your money there! Want a heart for Tesco? Buy shares! Want a heart for God? A heart for what matters most to Him? A heart bigger than your next acquisition? Put your treasures where God is at work! Want a heart for your church? Invest your money in your church’s ministry. Then, put your treasures in mission work – reaching the poor. Want a heart for street kids? Invest… every day there are opportunities to buy up more shares in God’s kingdom!

Five minutes after we die, we’ll know exactly how we should have lived. But then it’ll be too late to go back and change anything! God has given us his Word so we don’t have to wait until we die to know how we should have lived. There’s no second chance for the unbeliever – AND no second chance for the believer!

You and I have one short life on earth to invest in heaven. Let’s not miss the opportunity! Here’s a great prayer: May what will be most important to me five minutes after I die, become most important to me now.

Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, made his fortune by inventing dynamite and other powerful explosives. When Nobel’s younger brother died in an experiment, a newspaper accidentally printed his obituary instead. He was described as a man who became rich from enabling people to kill each other. Shaken by this assessment, Nobel wrote a will which resolved to use his fortune to reward accomplishments that benefited humanity, including what we now know as the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nobel had a rare opportunity – to look at the assessment of his life at its end, while he still had time to change it. While we live on earth – God is so gracious- it’s the land of second chances.

Put yourself in Nobel’s place. Read your own obituary, not as written by uniformed or biased people, but as an onlooking angel might write it from heaven’s point of view. Look at it carefully. Then let’s use the rest of our lives to edit that obituary into what we really want it to be.

To live each day with the knowledge that every moment we get closer to death, we get closer to our treasures – rather than further from them.

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Feb 24 2010
Uncategorized

Resident Evil

I’m getting ready to do a talk on Theodicy soon: that most difficult of questions perhaps – if God is good and all powerful, why is there so much evil and suffering in the world? I’ll put some links to it on the blog as and when – but evil’s not just a philosophical problem, it’s something we all have to deal with.

Just before the September 11 attack on America, a Newsweek cover story focused on the human capacity for evil. Author Sharon Begley wrote:

“In their search for the nature and roots of evil, scholars from fields as    diverse as sociology, psychology, philosophy and theology are reaching a…chilling conclusion. Most people do have the capacity for horrific evil.”

Psychologist Robert I. Simon, director of the program of   Psychiatry and Law at Georgetown University School of Medicine, says,”The capacity for evil is a human universal.”

Dr. Billy Graham once famously declared, “I know my own heart and its deceitful power. I know that outside of the restraining grace of God, there is no evil act I could not commit within thirty minutes of leaving the platform.”

We all condemn the evils of world terrorism, global greed, environmental destruction- rightly so. But what about the evil resident in our own hearts?

The film Nuremberg, is about the infamous trials of former Nazi leaders by the International Military Tribunal. In one powerful scene, Nazi defendant Hans Frank attempts to explain his actions to an Army psychologist.

“I tried to resign as Governor General of Poland. I did not approve of the persecution of the Jews. Anyone reading my diaries, they will know what was in my heart. They will understand that such things I wrote about Jews, the orders I signed, they were not sincere.”

“I believe you, Frank,” says the Doctor, “And yet, you did do those things. How do you explain it? I don’t mean legally; I’m not a lawyer or a judge. I mean how do you explain it to yourself?”

“I don’t know,” replies Frank. “It’s as though I am two people: the Hans Frank you see here, and Hans Frank the Nazi leader. I wonder how the other Frank could do such things. This Frank looks at that Frank and says, ‘You’re a terrible man.’”

“And what does that Frank say back?”

Frank replies, “He says, ‘I just wanted to keep my job.’”

Whenever I hear political leaders pontificating on ‘evil dictators’ who must be ‘rooted out by any and all means…” I recall that Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, “If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

It’s a strong word isn’t it? Evil. Some will read this post and say, “Speak for yourself, I’m a good person.”

Now if I were the standard of goodness – you’re probably entitled to say that, but what if the standard is the holiness of God? A God who is perfectly holy, whose holiness we cannot exaggerate? A God who commands our love and obedience together with self-sacrificial love for our neighbour? A God who has put himself on record as declaring that if you or I break just one commandment once, it’s as though we’ve broken them all!

For a prank, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once wrote to several of his friends the note, “All is discovered! Flee while you can!” All but one left the country.

Despite all this, we can know a God who passionately loves us, completely forgives and sacrificially restores us. Do you know him? A God who went to a cross himself to pay the price for every wrong or shameful thing we’ve ever done, thought or said. Do you know him?

A God who knows us at our worst – yet loves us best! Better than any human being ever loved us. The only God who can give us strength to resist temptation, deception, fear and guilt. Do you know him?

Someone said, “Jesus didn’t come to rub sin in, he came to rub it out!”

He doesn’t wait to condemn you. He wants to love you. Just like so many ordinary people in our community who are discovering these truths, I invite you. Come and know him

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Feb 22 2010
Bible, Christianity, Church, Faith, Father God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, leadership, Manchester, prophecy, REVIVAL, Theology, wisdom

Not a matter of prayer- a matter of faith! Arnold Muwonge

Our dear friend Arnold Muwonge spoke yesterday at Ivy Manchester.

His main text was Ruth 1.21 I went out full, I came back empty. The title was RHYTHMS OF CHANGE.
Here are my notes on what he shared ; great stuff – and see the end for an important prophetic word from Arnold.

A man he knew came from Africa, when he was at home he could smell gas, but he got used to it. It took another guy coming in to be able to alert him. When you are cooking, you may not smell how good it is: needs a stranger to come from outside to smell it.
Arnold brings an outsider’s perspective!

There are three main actors in Ruth. It’s a great story.

BOAZ - A type of Christ. His character was integral. Dependable. He is faithful, rich (psalm 24), able to help, our provider. We must learn to trust him. He gives us everything. He will always turn up. We can be confident in him. He operates according to covenant. Our salvation is based on covenant.

NAOMI - a type of Israel. Goes away from God for what she wants. But God brings her back! She goes away from God because of her insecurities. To get her needs met. Ends up where she is not to be. Goes through the wrong doors. The wrong door can take 5 mins to open, & 10 years to close. Naomi is a type of israel. She left a place where she was actually full. We forget how blessed we are. Vs 21. Thank God for life, for salvation. The grace of God which keeps you.

RUTH is a type of the church. A Moabitess. A nation founded from & conceived from terrible immorality, considered cursed to the 10th generation. A rejected bloodline! Now we find ourselves on a place where we were never meant to be. There is grace. There is nobody God cannot save!

Ruth is a book of encouragement, of survival, through all the pain; they bounce back, by the grace of God. The devil takes hold of us in times of trouble. The devil tells you, ‘you are not loved by God, but if you follow my way, I will help you.’

But pain is not always negative : it can keep people together. We think pain separates; These three women, all they had in common was their pain & struggle, it was their only story-  at the beginning. Loss. Bereavement. Whatever you go through – God still loves you! Through their pain, they stuck together. Not all pain leads to death; it can lead to redemption! We can learn through our need, to seek until we find.

God may not say what we want, instead he says, ‘Be strong! Circumstances have no anointing to change the call on your life.’

One day, Naomi woke up and said, ‘I am going back to Israel – leave me alone.’ She realised there was something shifting, she was going! In Gods timing. We have created an intellectual God. But our God is a miracle worker!

People who are moving Gods way are not necessarily bothered whether everyone else comes with them. Its not about getting a vote. They say, ‘It’s my time now to step into what the Lord is leading me into.’ We may be misunderstood when we do that, even by the ones closest to us. Cf Hannah & the priest. Rom 8:25

Orpah kissed her and decided to go her way. That’s okay. She doesnt get condemned for that. She gets a blessing. We have to be big enough to do that; If someone chooses to go, that’s okay. They are out of your story, their contribution to it has ended – but God is still writing it! He is writing it in colour. We can become bitter that someone walked out, or we can look who’s coming in!

Naomi says; “Your God will be my God.” The commitment is what God uses, to use us. Ruth makes a commitment. There are people you meet, a community, who are different, but your prophetic destiny is mapped with the people next to you in church. You are not just here because its a good church. My breakthrough is in how I connect. Plug in!

Ask God, ‘How am I to play my part in the story?’

What made Naomi want to go? She recognised Gods timing; recognising what God is doing in my life, church, family. Ask God today, ‘What are you doing?’ and join him in that.

Is there a shift, a shaking inside you? God is going to give you a kick in your pants. You have been dormant long enough! God can use you!

Ruth, who was supposed to be rejected, ends up in Jesus lineage/ story. At the end of their life, they look back and see His hand was at work. But we must take a step!

Arnold closed his talk in the second service with a prophetic word for Ivy Manchester which he said he has had for two years for us:

“You have been talking for a long time about getting a large building and praying about getting a larger building – this is no longer a matter of prayer, but a matter of FAITH! Believe God for this!”

Feb 14 2010
Bible, Christianity, Church, Community, Compassion, Death, Faith, Family, Healing, Heaven, Jesus, Religion

Pastors R Us! Debra Green evening talk

Debra Green : Equipped. Pastors r us?

What is the pastor gift? Shepherding? Can mean someone with divine enabling of others, taking responsibility to model & establish trust, lead, protect those within our span of care.

We can’t abdicate caring to pastors who are paid. We all should take responsibility to respond to need.
Pastoral care; 4 things to remember- CARE

C. Compassion. It starts here! Jesus looked at the crowd and had compassion. He saw they were hungry. Went to meet the need. Went to rescue the lost sheep. Moved to reach out. In your gut, you are moved toward a need. Splancnizomai. Not just a sense of duty, it’s more powerful. Break my heart for what breaks yours. We don’t all have the same concern about the same things & that’s OK.  Sometimes we just have to get involved, being spontaneously compassionate. You don’t need permission or a word from God to do that. But bigger issues, like ‘should I go to Haiti?’ we need to check that and run through a bigger filter.
A. Aid (or Action). It’s not just a fluffy feeling – go to work! Cf Good Samaritan. Lk 10. Compassion got him to cross the road. He was a neighbour because he showed mercy. He came to his Aid, a stranger! There were all kinds of reasons why we has the last to be expected to help but he was there, doing what was needed: for a stranger: Mt 25:35-40. We are doing it as unto Jesus! He receives it himself. As a church we are to extend our pastoral care beyond the walls of the church! When someone dies, what can you do? Best thing is just be there with them & be kind. Send notes. Help practically. Offer to pray, sensitively! Give them space too.
R. Relationships. Jn 19:26 Jesus is in agony on the cross, he has nothing more he can give it seems, but then he sees his mother & best friend. Says, ‘Mother- here is your son.’ thinks of them above himself. Putting people together. We have to love & care for people. The bigger the church, it’s easier for people to fall through the net. Ring the person who’s missing, tell them you missed them! Nobody will be attracted to a church where there’s no love. People long for extnded family.
E. Empathy. So much more than sympathy. It’s a rich thing. Hebrews 4:15 , says Jesus knows how we feel, fully. So, he can fully empathise with us when we struggle. You can say, ‘I know someone who is able to know how you feel.’ in fact, when you have been through something – God can use you to help others with the same or similar pain or experience. You may have wondered why God allowed it? It’s valid to ask that. But one day you see it.

How to deal well with conflict in church.
10 steps
1. Come to me privately if you have a problem with me.
2. I’ll come to you privately
3. If someone comes to you with a problem about me, send them to me
4. If someone consistently will not come to me, say, ‘let’s go together.’
5. Be careful how you interpret me, i would rather do that myself! You might not fully understand my intentions.
6. I will be careful how I interpret you
7. If its confidential, don’t tell even one petson unless it will lead to harm to someone or danger.
8. I do not read unsigned notes, don’t bother sending them.
9. I do not manipulate, I will not manipulate, don’t let anyone manipulate you to try to manipulate me.
10. If in doubt, just say it. If I can answer without misrepresenting something or breaking a confidence, I will.

Pastoral care is just caring for everyone who God brings into your world. It’s not just for the church!

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Feb 05 2010
2 Comments
Haiti

An Engineer’s View on the Haiti Earthquake

A fantastic guy at our church, Jan Wright, wrote the following to me as I prepared for last night’s Heart for Haiti event at the Apollo…

1. Earthquakes can be natural (caused by movement of the earth’s tectonic plates in fault regions) or manmade (e.g. due to mining / drilling / constructing dams etc. – and one does wonder about the short and long term effect of underground nuclear explosions!) – the vast majority of earthquakes are natural.

2. Earthquakes involve shaking, and sometimes rupture, of the earth surface – the accelerations of the ground at the foundation of buildings leads to vibration, potential structural damage and consequent loss of life.

3. The size of an earthquake is measured by the ‘moment magnitude scale’ which is a measure of the energy released at the earthquake source (replacing the now redundant Richter scale) – it is a logarithmic scale (help I hear you say!!) which means that small increases in scale make big differences in energy released and therefore potential damage e.g. going from 6 to 7 means a 31.6 fold energy increase (or 10 fold shaking amplitude increase) and from 6 to 8 a 1000 fold energy increase. It is not a direct measure of the earthquake intensity as experienced at any location.

4. The Haiti earthquake was of magnitude 7.0 – in the 21st century there have already been over 60 earthquakes reported that have been greater in magnitude but only the Tsunami in 2004 (229000) was near to the estimated Haiti loss of life – Kashmir in 2005 (75000) and China in 2008 (69000 – thought to be manmade) came next. The damage and loss of life experienced depend not only on the scale but also upon how near the epicentre (centre of earthquake at the surface) is to major areas of population and how far the hypocenter (actual centre of the earthquake) is below the earth’s surface – fortunately most earthquakes are centred some good distance from large population areas and so have zero or only small loss of life but in Haiti’s case the epicenter was only 10 miles away and the hypocenter about 9 miles below the surface – this was one reason why the impact was so great.

5. The damage and loss of life also depend upon the quality of the building construction, the infrastructure (e.g. medical / fire services), the efficiency of the government, poverty etc. – these areas where Haiti scored badly I suspect and aggravated the impact of the earthquake. The efficiency of the outside world’s response also has an impact on the loss of life and there is much room for improvement here! 6. In the developed world, considerable effort is made by engineers to predict the likely structural response to the level of earthquakes expected of proposed new buildings in earthquake prone areas– and the design of many buildings (e.g. in USA and Far East) is now such that they can withstand many earthquakes because of their quality and the adoption of a range of vibration reduction strategies. It is also critical to use the right materials and construction methods. However, it is not possible to predict future earthquakes so the design process aims that a building can withstand the most severe earthquake anticipated (on a statistical basis i.e. estimate) with only partial destruction.

7. Haiti needs a rebuild program that erects buildings of reasonable quality design, materials and construction (no short cuts and substitution of inferior materials). It is unlikely that the situation will ever be reached where another earthquake like that in Haiti will cause no damage / loss of life but it could be a massive amount better – the same goes for wind loading in hurricanes. We should pray not only for the current rescue / aid effort but for the sustained long term investment in the country – with adequate oversight of funds provided aiming to minimise corruption. Do bear in mind that I am basically an aerospace engineer who is an expert on vibration but not a structural engineer!

My involvement in structural engineering has been primarily on research into crowd induced vibration – how to assess what happens when people jumping up and down in stadia at pop concerts!! Cheers Jan

Feb 02 2010
4 Comments
Bible, Christianity, Father God, Grief, Haiti, Healing, Prayer, Religion, Significant Objects

From Trash to Treasure

I happened upon a link today from Fast Company’s twitter feed which is well worth a read, about three ways to make gold out of garbage.

I was particularly grabbed by the third way. It’s all about someone seeing ‘worthless junk’ and reimagining it – better. Follow the link to Matt Brown’s own page and he tells us how he saw these old plastic horses in a junk store bargain bucket, repackaged and rebranded them  as “Night Horses” – like, ‘Nugget the life liver,” and “Sotirius, the silent Duke.”

I love it! It’s just like what God does with us! This designer says he gives the objects a story of significance again. It’s part of a project called Significant Objects.

We might feel worthless, neglected, useless or left out. But the Bible says to Christ followers that we should “think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are...”

It’s not our strengths, our cleverness, our influence or power that qualify us to speak for Him or stand for Him. But God reaches into the rubbish bins and bargain buckets of the world, to people otherwise without hope and without God in the world – who need a new story to be told.

He gives them a new name, he calls us ‘Son.’ ‘Daughter.’

He calls you ‘Glorious beloved, lovely and loved, useful and trustworthy and precious in my sight.’

And we ARE what He calls us.

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