Filed under Church …

Oct 16 2011
Bible, Church, Faith, leadership

Chick Yuill – DISCIPLE MAKING


 

Go to his website for more details of Chick – http://www.anvilding.com

 

 

Colossians 3:12f You are God’s chosen people. You are holy and dearly loved. So put on tender mercy and kindness as if they were your clothes. Don’t be proud. Be gentle and patient. Put up with each other. Forgive the things you are holding against one another. Forgive, just as the Lord forgave you. And over all of those good things put on love. Love holds them all together perfectly as if they were one. Let the peace that Christ gives rule in your hearts. As parts of one body, you were appointed to live in peace. And be thankful. 

Let Christ’s word live in you like a rich treasure. Teach and correct each other wisely. Sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing with thanks in your hearts to God. Do everything you say or do in the name of the Lord Jesus. Always give thanks to God the Father through Christ.

Wives, follow the lead of your husbands. That’s what the Lord wants you to do.

Husbands, love your wives. Don’t be mean to them.

Children, obey your parents in everything. That pleases the Lord.

 21 Fathers, don’t make your children bitter. If you do, they will lose hope.

 22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything. Don’t do it just to please them when they are watching you. Obey them with an honest heart. Do it out of respect for the Lord.

 23 Work at everything you do with all your heart. Work as if you were working for the Lord, not for human masters. 24 Work because you know that you will finally receive as a reward what the Lord wants you to have. You are serving the Lord Christ.

2 Principles;  

1. Jesus is Lord over ALL things.

Even to slaves, with the worst possible circumstances – do it as unto the Lord.

What got people into trouble in C1st? Not saying, ‘Jesus is God.’ That was just one belief along the millions.

 

What got them in trouble was them saying, ‘Jesus is LORD.’

More even than god.

You could believe anything was god.

But Caesar was LORD.

And they were (as instructed) – good citizens.

But they knew; Jesus is Lord. So if there was a clash between Jesus and the government, or in any area, it was a no brainer. There was no, ‘no go area.’

It’s the same for us.

We accept that we live in a multi-cultural society, we don’t force our faith but we demand our right to voice and live it.

Cites the example of Ruth Kelly. Said her faith was private. No, it’s personal – but affects all areas.

One day, Jesus’ Lordship will be exerted everywhere.

 

2. We are the missional people of God.

Chris Wright, ‘The whole Bible renders us the story of God’s mission….Mission is not just one thing the Bible talks about – It is what it’s all about.’

GK Chesterton, ‘The Sun rises every morning because God says, ‘get up and do it again.’

But we want to be the centre. That knocks everything out of kilter. Distorts and twists it. God chose a holy people to be a light to the world. That’s the OT. And again and again they fail. The NT? Christ comes, and because of his work the Spirit is poured out on us – the missional people of God. Called to share in his mission of transforming the whole creation. Because the day will come, the consummation of all things.

So we are meant to bring that future kingdom present, now.

That means -

1) We need to affirm the importance of people’s every day lives. We’ve heard it said, ‘the church needs to get out there.’

The good news?

The church IS out there.

The challenging news?

It’s US! Me and you.

There are 168 hrs a week. Take out 48 hrs to sleep. For most people, the most time they can be involved in church type activities = 10 hrs. All the other hours… what happens with them?

Three questions;

Where do you spend the bulk of your time? (Easy to answer)

What might God be doing there? (Harder to answer – but we have to get better at asking it).

What’s God up to, where you usually are? If he’s not up to much, maybe Dawkins is right, or maybe he’s only interested in church stuff, or the devils’ stronger than him…

None of those are the correct answer! God’s definitely up to something! He’s doing all kinds of things all the time, and we are so busy we miss a lot of it. Even lots of good church stuff. Let’s affirm all the great stuff the church is doing, sometimes they are the only caring agency left in some places. But the bulk of mission will not be done by our programs but by our people.

If I touch someone, I leave a trace – DNA.

So what am I going to do?

  1. There’s a vital relationship between the gathered the church and scattered church. If we have ten hrs to form someone in church for all the other hours, that AFFIRMS how important those hours are. But we’re not just about recruiting people for programs, we’re releasing them for ministry.

Yes we need to get people in the band, but we need to affirm and equip in the land.

3) We need to affirm the importance of discipleship making. 

Imagine the government said, ‘This church can only do 3 things now’ what would they be? Most Pastors say,

  1. The church Sunday experience.
  2. Midweek prayer/ Bible study
  3. Youth/ Kids work.

 

OK – Please sum up the purpose of those activities.

Hardly anyone says, ‘To make disciples.’

The word Christian hardly ever appears in the Bible. Twice possibly as an insult!

The word disciple occurs 250 times. It means someone who hears the call to follow Jesus and lays down their lives to follow him.

 

We have all heard of churches that have a great TEACHING ministry.

But never of a church having a great LEARNING ministry.

 

Ordinary people becoming more like Jesus.

A Pastor can’t do that for hundreds. We ALL have to be discipled and discipling. To create encounters intentionally where that happens. What the world needs to see is people who are more like Jesus.

Illustration he used:

One afternoon in the spring of 1928, 26-year old Louis Armstrong was strolling through his South Side Chicago neighborhood with a young admirer, tenor saxophonist Bud Freeman, when they came upon a group of street musicians. They were playing “Struttin’ With Some Barbecue,” a tune written by Armstrong’s wife, Lil, and recently recorded by Armstrong’s Hot Five, and the trumpet player was laboring his way through Armstrong’s own solo, note for note.

When the man finished, Freeman remembered, Armstrong clapped politely, then stepped closer, not wanting to embarrass him, and murmured, “Man, you’re playing that too slow.”

“How would you know?” asked the trumpet player, indignant.

“I’m Louis Armstrong. That’s my chorus you’re playing.”

When he and Freeman passed by the next day, the musicians had put out a hand-lettered sign next to their tin cup: “PUPILS OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG“.

 

Maybe we need to pull down the signs that say, ‘Methodist’ or ‘Evangelical’ and just be known as PUPILS OF JESUS CHRIST.

 

Prophetic word from Chick – too long and too good for me to get it all, but he may put it on his blog?:

 

I dream of a church which declares and demonstrates the love of God. Valued for who we are and graced to know all we can be. A church that makes people say, ‘I’ll have what they’re having.’ Where changes of lifestyle are not mandated by law but modeled by love. Where we all learn that we’re a work in progress but God is gradually and painstakingly restoring us. Where we’re less concerned about what will happen in hell or who’ll be there and more concerned about lose living in the earthly hell of poverty and malnutrition. I dream of a church absolutely committed to Jesus Christ. Where prayer, passion and practice mesh together. 

That will cost us everything – but be the best bargain we ever made. 

Don’t give up – don’t settle for less

hold your nerve and repeat

that Jesus cannot fail

trust his word

Jesus always wins. 


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Oct 13 2011
Bible, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, Faith, Jesus, leadership, wisdom

THE CHURCH BUILDING CYCLE. (ALC Network Day)@StephenMatthew_

 Stephen Matthew has become a friend whose wisdom I appreciate greatly, he has been very generous with his time and encouragement, mentoring me individually through numerous conversations over in Bradford and also coming across to meet with some of our leaders at Ivy recently as we prayed and planned into our future. He is a surveyor by background and combines theological acumen, practical skills and a pastoral heart through 25 years of ministry to be a man with a brain worth picking for anyone who wants to build a prevailing church. Here’s my notes on his talk at the ALC Network day this week: 

There are only two kinds of churches:

  1. The church everybody wants to build (It’s there in Acts 2, and the ideal church, it inspires us).
  2. The church God wants you to build.

If you try and copy the church ‘out there’ you’ll always fail.

God wants to speak to YOU about YOUR people and place. It’s always bespoke.

You work the process and start to build from scratch or reinvent what’s been built so far.

What comes next carries challenges. When people get involved. People present challenges! You hit the barriers, you get frustrated by money etc. How to sustain momentum?

One Pastor he knew, got a very excited small team around him and for two years planned to change everything. Expected eager embracing of the whole thing. It didn’t happen. Why? Well it had taken two years for him to get excited about it. It would take a while for the people to get there too!

Church building is not linear – it’s CYCLICAL.

You don’t do one bit then it’s done, then do the next bit. One thing leads to the next. There is nothing in the church building process that you change which stays the same. You have to keep spinning these plates. Every church has a building CYCLE. 8 things:

1. Communicate Clear Vision – Consistently

Tell them again and again and in various ways what kind of church you’re going to be. Through music, posters, message. Proverbs 29:18.

2. Change – in line with the Vision

This tests their trust in you. Will you DO IT?  If you’ve talked about it, you have to do some things about it. It shows you’re serious about it. Appoint new ministries etc. Start something.

3. Use the Power of a Good Report

Because some will love the change and some will hate it, and if you don’t take hold of it, the negative report will always win out. Use testimony and good report –  of lives being changed. Eventually the good will overwhelm the bad.

4. Model the Culture

People have to see it in me as the leader. I have to be devoted, if we’re going to ‘devote ourselves.’ If we’re going to reach the new culture I have to look like the church we’re going to build. ‘Set and example as a leader

5. Regularly call for the spirit of Agreement 

This usually looks like turning up. I agree – because I’m going to sign up for that and be there to help. What triggered Nehemiah to build? What he felt. He felt what God felt for the ruins of his city. We have to call people to feel it too, then pull together. Invite this agreement.

6. Call for SPECIFIC Involvement.

Because some people will lavish words of agreement on you – but it’s all words. They need eyeballing and saying, ‘We need you – HERE. Have you ever considered being involved here?’ You have to call for involvement. Get proactive in speaking to them, calling forth that involvement. Let them know how to get involved. They should increasingly feel involved, the model is that it’s all hands on deck – ‘So how do I get involved?’ Nehemiah ended up with shopkeepers and goldsmiths and priests building with him. But they all FELT IT and made the decision to build right where they are. Put a ministry fair on, with desks and stalls – and get the healthy competition going to get more people involved in something they will love that will benefit the Kingdom.

7. Celebrate their Contribution

We only survive because of our volunteer army. Honour and celebrate the volunteers. Hybels says this positive volunteer cameraderie  never happens by accident. How do you foster it? FEED them. Get them a drink. Volunteers get a sandwich. Have a volunteer party and thank and celebrate them. Depts put forward their ‘volunteer of the year.’ Usually someone hardly anyone has ever heard of.

8. Keep the Prize before their Eyes

Why are you doing this? Because it affects this... When they were building, Nehemiah had the trumpet blower at his side so if they were getting spread out they could be rallied together. Which gets you back to the top of the circle again.

When you don’t do any of this – things slow down.

What do you need to do more of in your church to keep the wheel turning?

Final observation – this needs to happen in every department of the church. For it to happen anywhere in the church it has to happen everywhere in the church. Every leader, every department. It’s not just about what comes from the platform on a Sunday.

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Oct 11 2011
Bible, Church, Faith, Family, Jesus, leadership, Prayer, Uncategorized

TALE OF TWO BROTHERS: Charlotte Gambill: @CharlGambill – ALC Network Day

GREAT TALK from a fantastic Network Day! All our team who attended were blown away.
Well worth looking over and praying through in your teams etc.

Psalm 133:
1 How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! 2 It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, 
running down on Aaron’s beard, 
down on the collar of his robe. 
3 It is as if the dew of Hermon 
were falling on Mount Zion. 
For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.

Have we accessed this blessing to its full extent?1

We can INSTIGATE this, bring it in ourselves. If… we can figure out how to be united.

And that’s not about standing up and all hold hands. That can be purely external. We need this REAL unity. In our teams, churches, cities. In our marriage and with our kids is where it starts.

Where has this gone wrong?
Go and look for brothers in the Bible that got along – there weren’t many!

Cain and Abel
Jacob and his brothers
David and his
Joseph and his

The enemy’s having a laugh at our expense! We are praying for a blessing and it starts here. Or not.
There are two brothers (this goes beyond male/female). Two big categories. The enemy finds it easy to separate these two and bring tensions.

Brother Reliable.
Brother Restless.

Reliable – you never have to remind them twice, they’ll take notes, and pass them on. Think it through, plan it through. We celebrate him (behind the scenes).

Restless – fidgeting, twittering, never quite there with you. A million ideas all at the same time.

We have both of these people and we have to understand how it works.
The parable of the prodigal son was not about the failure of ONE brother, but of two. And the Restless one comes back – which doesn’t often happen in the house of God cos we push them out.
And Reliable brother doesn’t like it.
If you let Reliable run the show, on his own he’ll become Resentful (why are we throwing a party for you, not me?).
If you let Restless go for it completely he’ll become Reckless.

i.e.., They will go to their EXTREMES.
The father’s saying ‘I’m Dad of BOTH! If you’d keep these two skill sets together, a blessing would fall.

Who do you preach to? Do you make one feel good at the expense of the other feeling bad?
He’s the father of both. He’s not excluding either.

Joseph and his brothers came from two very different vantage points.

Gen 37: 1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. 2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

REPORTS can replace RELATIONSHIP

The first indication of the difference. Reliable (Joseph) – sees something that the others don’t see. They’re having a laugh, not taking the work seriously, a way they could improve etc. Something that could be given a better system.
When Reliable people enter in and see that, but there’s no RELATIONSHIP, then he’s just filing a report. What we’ll have in teams is SNITCHES.

And notice that what Reliable sees is RIGHT, it’s something we DO need to change/tweak. But without relationship it’s putting brother against brother. And division creeps in – and it will go to whatever team/ network they’re in. And then we pray, ‘God bless us’ but he can’t. The way you say it matters.

Not everyone is like you – and God designed it that way.

We can build a staff top heavy with one type of people or another, and try keeping the same people all together. Like separating kids off into their bedrooms. False peace. We need to mix them up.

ROBES can divide RELATIONSHIP.

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

We mistake God’s favour for his favourites. God gives us his favour to commission you for what you’re going to do next. Titles, bonuses etc can become a dividing issue. If we put a robe on someone, do we think about it beforehand? How it will effect them and the team?

That robe or this one may fall on one, and all the others should celebrate that. For Joseph, it may have felt very awkward to wear that robe. The others may have felt overlooked – but God says, ‘figure it out’ – celebrate this, because it’s a robe of responsibility = more work.

Be careful how you speak over other’s lives. Put words in that defuse the other brother spirit in those around.

5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
 8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
 9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

RELIABLE bluntly says it as they see it. Reliably. ‘Deal with it.’
A Restless person would bring it very differently. Talk all about how they feel etc. Creative, passionate, persuasive.

Reliable people need help with discernment.
Restless is sensing something else.

You need BOTH to give you a report. Listen to both reports:
Reliable, ‘It was great, started on time, finished on time…’
Restless – It was boring, nobody engaged.

The dream that caused division – was a dream of future restoration, in a moment when robes would not be an issue.

How is this FIXED?
In our teams.
(Especially in worship teams where the divas are!).

Don’t kick one out – say, ‘You’re brothers – figure it out. Seek to work together for the long term – the blessing comes there.’

How to bring reconciliation?

The Reliable ones have to be willing to drop their guard – even lose control.

Gen 45: 1 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it. 3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.

Be willing to show your vulnerability. That you’re not perfect. That we need to talk about this. To say, ‘Hey – we’re brothers! let’s see the big picture.’ He’s showing his human side.

Close the Gap
vs. 4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.”

Explain the dream – a different way.

When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
 8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God..

If there was ever a day when robes could divide – it was that day, but he now had a come close attitude.

Talk about it together

Not shout. Not compete. Talk. About how we can be more united.
14 Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.

We want Psalm 133 in our team!

How about you?

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Oct 05 2011
Church, Discipleship, Faith, Family, Religion

BE AVAILABLE – Jon Acuff at Catalyst 2011

Quitter – Jon Acuff at Catalyst 2011

A diamond is just a rock we’ve assigned value to. Do we assign value to the wrong rocks?

How do we BE PRESENT to the things God is doing?

  1. Be available.

To what God has in motion. One sign of how available you are is how much you feed to social media. When you give life to the mobile phone rather than the people you’re actually with. Hang up before you arrive. We are the first generation that has to have a Twitter/ Facebook conversation about what they put online etc. Let the family be your family, not your content. Don’t document for strangers what your family are relating to. It makes them feel like silver medal.

Another sign? You don’t have real friendships. Who are your heart friends – those you’d really miss? Hang out with some people. Spend time with a few. Build it.

Another sign? You get drunk on what’s next and new, and miss NOW. Just sit there, and grow. Culture feeds us to think next. We want what’s new. We create a list of books just to finish them. Movies just to have watched them.

Why do I want to start a ‘new one’ – why not get behind an existing one?

In the prodigal son story, there’s an elder son – who’s not available. Too busy for the party. When the whole farm began to celebrate, he was in the field. Doing what? ‘Slaving for you!’

A beautiful picture of availabilty? Christ. He had time for tax collectors in trees and women at wells. Dinner with sinners.

How to get available.

  • Push away from the table. Self help? Don’t always try to be better at being who you are.
  • Unplug. Don’t kid yourself that how you relax is to read leadership books. every city needs its parks, green space – or it’ll suffocate! How do you cultivate space. Why do you have great ideas in the shower? Because its the only place you get quiet. Make shower moments in your week, to receive. Musician’s first albums are often great, the second is squeezed out.
  • Ask WHY. Why do I need to worry about that? Why do I need to write a book? Have you lived it yet? Ask why and a lot of problems disappear.
  • Get counselling. Why do we think it’s great to get pre-marriage counselling, but not for marrieds!? His counsellor asked him, ‘What do your voices tell you?’ Write them down. His voices say, ‘Are you happy? why don’t you do something perfectly then you’ll be happy.’ That voice sounds like a friend but it’s a foe.

Everyone hears this voice: ‘Who are YOU, to do THAT?’

We think that’s God, but it’s not. He knows who you are. He knows what you are there    for.

- Another voice, ‘You’re not as good as theirs.’ Thanks to the internet, it’s so easy to find others to compare to and we never give ourselves chance. Comparison? Never compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.

  • Another voice, ‘By now it should be… bigger/more..’ Why can’t I just learn from others? Why can’t I be humble enough – rather than have that sense of entitlement and jealous that makes you want something you don’t really want, and ignore the things you already have.
  • Another voice: ‘The critics are right.’ I brush off positives., but listen too hard to critics. Critics Math = 1000 compliments plus one insult = 1 insult. Why do we worry about one critic so much that it makes so many other thousands of positive people’s voices fade away.
  • Last voice. ‘If I had enough time, I’d do it.’ The devil is afraid of people who DO, not just DREAM. Dreamers who DO change the world. When you don’t give time to the things that matter, those things will suffer atrophy.

Luke 15:

Sheep

Coins

There was a SON….And he doesn’t explain it. In the prodigal son story, the father never says a word to the son. He never talked to him, but to the servants. What if when God’s quiet it’s not because he’s mad with us but because he’s planning a party or hugging us.

Be available to God. Get empty to let him fill you up.

Oct 05 2011
Church, Faith, Jesus, leadership, Prayer, REVIVAL, Uncategorized

Draw A Circle! Catalyst 2011 Mark Batterson.

Amazing session of teaching at #cat11 (labs)

Mark Batterson

National Community Church – Washington.

Your leadership cannot go beyond your prayer life. 

The Book Of Legends (Talmud). In the first century there was a drought that was killing off the nation. Honi the Circlemaker. Drew a circle in teh sand and prayed, Sovereign Lord I will not leave this circle until you have mercy on your people. He carried on praying for more rain until the rain was the size of eggs. Then he prayed again for the rain of God’s blessing.

The prayer saved a generation.

Bold prayer honours God, and God honours bold prayer. When you pray what you can’t do.

Joshua 6

1 Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.2 Then the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.

(God had already done it – but they had to do something).

If your dream is of the Lord, he has already delivered it!

What did they have to do? 

3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

6 So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant of the LORD and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.” 7 And he ordered the army, “Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the LORD.”

A General who goes to his church told them recently about how a perfect plan never survives contact with the enemy. And this is the first battle of the promised land. How about a better plan?

Battering rams? catapults? That makes sense!

What’s this about?

A new way of praying?

Prayer is the difference between you fighting for God, and God fighting for you.

Pray like it depends on God – and he will begin to fight for you! He will make things happen that there’s no way you could have done it.

So they go round in circles…

Why?

Marking their territory? 

cf your dog! Staking claim to something. How do we do that? By prayer. Jericho was a 12 acre city, 50 foot walls, 10 feet thick. Intimidating place! First lap they’d feel foolish. 400 years in slavery. 40 more in exile. Then the second lap is a bit faster. Walk and pray – helps you not be distracted. Holy confidence grows as they step out. By the seventh day, they are ready for a holy roar. ‘This place belongs to the Lord.’

They marked out not their territory, but GOD’S territory.

When you don’t know what you’re doing – you have to pray!

And all the promises of God are for you! They are YES and AMEN. Our problem is not over-claiming.

We are not meant to just read the Bible, but to pray through it. When you come to a Promise – CIRCLE it and pray it! Claim it as a promise.

The enemy has taken so much of our property and the Lord wants it back. Mark our territory. Circle it. Matt 18:18. What you bind and loose on earth is bound and loosed in heaven. Put spiritual contracts in place. Pray and pray through.

The most important thing to do this year? Work out how to pray more. Not laying your agenda before God. Discover God’s agenda for YOU.

Doing Reconnaissance. 

Gathering information and intelligence. Prayer is how we do this. The Reticular Activation System in your brain determines what you pay attention to and notice. cf Set Life Goals. You probably won’t achieve goals you never set. When you pray you start noticing things – everything. Col 4 – pray, be watchful and thankful…

When you pray you’ll se first and further. Do Recon.

Reading is a form or recon. Conferences is recon. But the best way? Prayer. the still small voice – where you perceive the imperceptible. I’d rather than 1 God idea than a 1000 good ideas. Where do you get them? Pressing into God.

Keep Going.

What if they gave up on circle 5? Some of you have been circling so long. The dream hasn’t been fulfilled. How to write a book? Do a 40 day fast of entertainment. Pray and write till the book was written. Have a deadline. that’s a lifeline for your goals. I’m not coming out of this circle till you do it.

He was once asked, ‘If you had to describe yourself in one word what would it be?’ He said at 22, ‘Driven.’ Thought it was a good answer.

But he was taught how to kneel by his father-in-law, who always had to have new patches in his trousers and kept on keeping on.

We want to take just one trip around Jericho and wondered why they never got the miracle.

Mother Dabney – talked about, coined phrase-  ‘Praying through.’ keep praying!

Until recently, he always added (unconsciously) ASAP on his prayers. ‘God would you do this, ASAP.’ I want God to do it yesterday.

Now he has a new acronym for prayer.

ALAIT

As Long As It Takes.

In fact, let it be long enough and hard enough that I’m not at all tempted to take any credit for it for myself.

Are you willing to pay the price?

Acts 2:41 – 3000 people baptised in one place, That’s a goal. One day, as long as it takes.

100 years ago, Gypsy Smith. Never went to school, yet lectured at Harvard. Went to the White House, preached to more than a million people. Powerfully used of God. They asked him, ‘How?’

How does revival come?

He said, ‘Go home, lock yourself in your bedroom, lock yourself in, draw a circle around yourself – fervently and brokenly for God to send a revival to everything in that circle.’

That’s our job.

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Jun 19 2011
Bible, Christianity, Church, Faith, Family, Jesus, prophecy

DEBRA GREEN: Nehemiah 10 – 13. The house of God.

Debra rounded off our series tonight.

She began by talking about competing voices – a time in the week when there were 2 sat navs going in the church, which one do we listen to?

God’s word to is the Bible, and Nehemiah kept having to come back to that, and call people back to what the Lord had said. 10:28 Now the rest of the people—the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the Nethinim, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone who had knowledge and understanding— these joined with their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s Law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes. At what age can a child understand and come into the things of God?

Josh 24:15 – Choose who you will serve! As for me AND MY HOUSE we will serve the Lord. That’s a mission statement – it means you will live different:

to be committed will affect your relationships. The Jewish people were told to keep their culture and lifestyle separate from those who did not have that same mission, or else it would end up deflecting them from his best for them.

It will affect your pocket: It’s making God Lord of our finances, giving back to the Lord from all he has given to us: …if the peoples of the land brought wares or any grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we would not buy it from them on the Sabbath, or on a holy day; and we would forego the seventh year’s produce and the exacting of every debt. Also we made ordinances for ourselves, to exact from ourselves yearly one-third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God: or the showbread, for the regular grain offering, for the regular burnt offering of the Sabbaths, the New Moons, and the set feasts; for the holy things, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and all the work of the house of our God. We cast lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for bringing the wood offering into the house of our God, according to our fathers’ houses, at the appointed times year by year, to burn on the altar of the LORD our God as it is written in the Law. And we made ordinances to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, to the house of the LORD; All this is about offering it all back to God. You can’t make Jesus Lord of all except your money. You may think you can’t afford to tithe? ‘As for me and my house…’ conflicts with that! You can’t afford not to. Making a serious commitment financially is part of your discipleship.

It’s our RESPONSIBILITY – that’s a word that comes again and again here. As people who belong to the house of God, will you also look after God’s house – or do you just want him to look after yours?

They say, ‘We will not neglect the house of our God.’

Chapter 11: Now the leaders of the people dwelt at Jerusalem; the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city, and nine-tenths were to dwell in other cities. And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem.

10% of the people volunteered to go and move back into the city, even though it was still a mess! This is incarnational ministry, like the Eden workers going into the inner city in the name of Christ -to just love and serve in the hardest and most broken places. There’s a blessing that comes when we respond to a call like that.

Let’s pray for Eden, and whether we are called to that or not, we are ALL called to live a radical life for Jesus

verse 22: Also the overseer of the Levites at Jerusalem was Uzzi the son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Micha, of the sons of Asaph, the singers in charge of the service of the house of God. 23 For it was the king’s command concerning them that a certain portion should be for the singers, a quota day by day. God talks about worship here: that we should give him thanks and praise.

It talks about one of Asaphs descendants; he was in charge of the worship teams, and Asaph was worship leader in David’s day; so one generation is passing something on to the next.

If you teach the laws of God unto your children you will pass on the blessings of faithfulness. There is a lot in Nehemiah about families worshipping together.

When something was achieved, many times in the Bible – there was an act of worship, celebration and purification: we see that again in Ch 12: Now at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought out the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings and singing, with cymbals and stringed instruments and harps. And the sons of the singers gathered together from the countryside around Jerusalem, from the villages… I brought the leaders of Judah up on the wall, and appointed two large thanksgiving choirs.

Musicians came and stood on the walls, with 2 large choirs on them. That’s how big and strong the walls were! That’s worth singing about!

The people got the trumpets out – that’s significant; warfare instruments, that called people together. 1 Cor 15:52 – it’s associated with bringing the dead to life! God is blowing a trumpet over your sound, a clear sound that raises you. When the choirs come together, there will be a sound in the city that will be heard far and wide.

The choirs went in opposite directions round the walls, to dedicate the whole city to the Lord. People did this for 40 days around the M60 when it was completed!

vs 43- Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and the children also rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.

There is a sound that can be heard a long way off. It’s getting louder, this isn’t about volume. It’s about holiness, about people saying, ‘as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord…’ everyone could hear that.

We need to take the love of Jesus out into the streets. vs 46: For in the days of David and Asaph of old there were chiefs of the singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God..

There had not been anything like that in 600 years – but when the people of God restored, rebuilt and they remembered the God who had done it and celebrated him, it affected generations after them.

When they celebrated his goodness and thanked him, great power was released! They often got a memorial stone and set it up as a visible reminder of a spiritual milestone. When Jacob did that, remembered that God had been with him, the name of the place – to the house of God.

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Apr 21 2011
9 Comments
Bible, Church, Jesus

Why I believe – part 4. Why tomorrow is GOOD Friday

this time, it’s personal.

It was as the old hymn and the scriptures say – for us…. for our benefit, in our place, Jesus went there to the cross to save us. It means me and you.

We needed saving so badly, there was no other way. Nobody else could save us, and we couldn’t save ourselves.

If you were in a house fire, you’d need saving. When I was in the police you had to qualify as a life guard and they told us ‘You can’t save someone who’s trying to save themselves. If you were over your head in debt, you’d need saving. If you were drowning out at sea, you’d need saving. That’s the kind of picture the Bible uses over and over to describe what was happening when Jesus died on the cross. He came to save us from drowning in the bottomless depths of our distance from God. He rescued us from the burning house of our selfishness and self righteousness, he ransomed us from the enormous debt of our sins which we’ve piled up, one day at a time, for the whole of our lives- by paying the price for them that we could never afford. Not paying a ransom with money (though he was sold for a slave’s price). He stepped in. Paid the ransom price with his life.

You don’t know why the cross happened? Why tomorrow is ‘Good’ Friday? One verse of the Bible sums it up – 1 Peter 3:18 Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

That’s why. All the agony. To bring us to God. What was in the way? Our sins. Our hate, unforgiveness, hypocrisy, lust, anger, greed, idolatry, meanness and pride. Forming this great wall between us and God.

We couldn’t see the other side of that stinking pile of sin. We didn’t even know whether there was another side. We might have put a little religious ladder up to try to peer over it to see God, but the wall’s much too high. Was there anyone really there?

Then God stepped in. He crossed the line. From eternity, into time. And was killed on the rubbish pile to form a bridge over from him to us, and back again.

Jesus – God with skin on. He lives, he loves, he teaches, he does miracles.He bleeds, he suffers, crucified on a rubbish dump, to clear our rubbish away, and make a way back to God. He let the wall and weight of sin fall on him – ‘the just for the unjust,’ that was it.

I am unjust. I want wrong to be punished when it’s done to me, but I want my wrongs to be excused. He hung on the cross carrying all our wrong things – wrong attitudes, thoughts, habits, words. All our guilt. He paid OUR debts. He took OUR punishment. He carried our load. He served our sentence…

He became just like me at my worst. So I could become like him, the Best.

He said, ‘Father forgive them’ – so I don’t have to fear he won’t forgive ME. So we could be completely forgiven by God – without for one moment denying his justice. Because sin was judged and punished. It was all fair, done ONCE on the cross.  He died Once and for all, never to be repeated. To bring you to God. So, will you come?

What’s so special about Jesus?

Well I’ve not given any human analogies to compare with it, because none can. The best of human forgiveness is imperfectly given and received. A love in battle which sacrifices for its friends is wonderful- but this one is God dying not for friends but for his sworn enemies. A traitor race. You’ll not find a love like that in any other religion. It’s unique. Can you look him in the eye as he stretches out a nail-pierced hand and say to the Son of God, “What’s so special about you?”

Or will you come to him and say, “My Lord and my God.”

It takes my breath away. Once you see it – everything changes. Could God love me? Does he?

YES!! Calvaryproves it!

What me?

Yes, you!

What about the lies, the pride, the selfishness in my heart?

‘Father God – forgive him…’

‘Father God – forgive her!’

The apostle Paul never got tired of revelling in this life-changing fact; ‘The Son of God loved me – and gave his life for me!” He said, ‘now, I live by faith in Him.’

He could not stop wondering at the glory of it. I can’t blame him. What a value that puts on me – to be loved that much. And I can know I am loved – I can know I am forgiven forever of my sins past, present and future – because the cross, the cruel but glorious cross – has settled it all. And now he lives, and I live for him.

What’s the next step?

It’s simple – but difficult.

Simple because a child can do it – difficult because it takes the humility of a child to admit you need to do it. Jesus is alive forever and still speaks and he says, ‘Repent, turn from your sins – and believe the good news.’

Do you believe it already?  For some people, it’s ‘not yet.’ That’s honest No problem, let’s keep talking. Why not find a church near you to do the Alpha Course to find out more.’ You owe it to yourself to investigate this!

But some of you – you know you’ve been getting ready for this. Life has brought you to this point. To this blog. To this moment. It’s decision time – time to turn to from sin and turn to God and believe the good news.

Wait a minute – first of all, for the good news to be good you have to see how bad the bad news is – that without Jesus, we are totally and hopelessly lost. You can’t save yourself from sin, or its consequences (death and judgement).

Do you admit that? Do you see that your good deeds don’t compare in the light of God’s holiness – that you need a Saviour. You enter the kingdom through a narrow door, next to a cross. He has taken your place there.

Remember, this is for keeps. It’s serious. You have to admit your need to receive the pardon.

Will you admit you needed that cross? Nobody has ever entered the kingdom any other way. No exceptions. You can start really well if you start praying on your knees. Wherever you are now.

You come asking forgiveness. You come and say, “I will follow Jesus Christ as my Lord – leader – what he says goes –  and I will believe and trust him as my Saviour, my forgiver. He laid down his life for me. Now I’ll live to serve him.’

oh, and please let me know, it’d be a great encouragement, and everyone needs encouragement.

Apr 15 2011
8 Comments
Bible, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, Faith, Heaven, Jesus, Religion

Why I believe – Part 3: The Crux of the matter

CS Lewis said there are only three options with regard to who Jesus is based on his claims and actions and the witness of scripture and history:

Liar?

Lunatic?

Lord?

Your decision! And not to decide is a decision. If he’s Lord – the appropriate position to connect with him, starts on our knees. He’s not a hypothesis to consider but the God we were made to worship.

There was a famous occasion where some friends of a paralysed man lowered him through the roof in a crowded home to get him to Jesus. I would have thought his most pressing need was obvious (sometimes what we think we know gets in the way of what we need to know) – he couldn’t move to walk. Paraplegic or quadriplegic. Jesus knew what he needed more, first and foremost:

 ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’

The religious people there to check him out were amazed, not that Jesus was focusing on forgiveness – but that he was OFFERING it!

They said, ‘Who can forgive sins, except God alone?’

And you know what? They were RIGHT!

The only person who can truly forgive you is the one who you have sinned against and wronged. In forgiving sin like this, Jesus wasn’t pronouncing absolution in some general religious sense, but claiming to give what belonged to God, the ability to judge or forgive sins. How could he? Because Jesus is God.

Jesus said, ‘Trust in God – trust also in me!”

That’s the kicker. The ultimate test. Not just the perfect life, the blameless character, the unsurpassed teaching, the most powerful healing, and resurrections. Not just the offer he made to give people forgiveness of sins, and lavishly pour upon them his love forever (oh – and eternal life too!). Not just the claims to be God, to return in glory and one day be the judge of all people, when all who have ever lived will be raised from the dead. ‘Blasphemy!’ Cried his accusers.

How do you know it’s real? Jesus’ offer of love of another kind, love that surpasses knowledge – how do you know it’s for you?

That’s the CRUX of the matter, isn’t it?

As Good Friday approaches.

That word Crux of course = Latin for cross. The most important symbol of Christianity. The cross gives us the answer. The most profound thinkers have never fully grasped it. The best religious brains at the time couldn’t see what was going on. Why the cross? Why?!


Why would this wonderful God-man end up, nailed up – impaled outside the city walls on a blood stained pole, amid the flies and the heat on a cross? A death no Roman could have ever been sentenced to it was so beneath contempt. Jesus was mocked, despised, reviled, spat on, flogged. Then, it got worse. A terrible lingering half-death, until all the lights went out as his Father covered the Sun to hide the shame of it all and yet this cross is said to demonstrate God’s love to us? How come?

I watched the new movie ‘Source Code’ the other day and a recurrent theme of that is, ‘If you knew you only had a very short time to live before you died, what would you do?’ – Good film by the way!

We are in a series at Ivy Manchester looking at what have become known as ‘The seven sayings from the cross.’ We’re calling it ‘Cross words.’ It’s seven short sentences Jesus mouthed as he hung in agonised dying agony. They’re available as podcasts and this series (not yet finished) is from one of those talks.

And if you knew you only had a short time to live, and if every word meant you had to push up on a nail that held your feet to exhale it. If every sentence brought your death sentence closer and shortened your life – wouldn’t you want to make those words count?

Many people were crucified by the Romans. Thousands in a single day at times. They once ran out of wood and just nailed people to the walls around Jerusalem. Many hundreds of thousands of crosses then, but we only remember this one. Those who were dying usually shouted and swore and cursed those who put them there.

Here’s what Jesus said: in Luke 23 – ‘Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.”

But

…they did know what they were doing, didn’t they? They were whipping him, driving long cruel nails into him, putting a crown of thorns on him, and killing him – very slowly. Laughing at him the whole time.

They did know.

And the problem is, when  I sin, I do know what I do, too. All too often it’s not something that just happens, I choose to be selfish or greedy. I do know what I do.

Sometimes I justify it.

I say I can’t help it

Or nobody’s perfect

Or everyone else is just as bad

Or I’m not as bad as Adolf/Saddam/(insert name)…

But really, I do know what I do, when I do wrong.

So I don’t think that’s what he was saying, when Jesus prayed that one sentence prayer to God.

He called him FATHER.

Then… he said FORGIVE – because they knew exactly what they were doing...

But they didn’t know who they were doing it to.

Blinded by Satan and religion and jealousy and pride, they gave a criminal’s death to the Christ – the holiest, most perfect and good man who is God.

They spat on him and laughed as he died and said they were doing it for blasphemy, ‘Because you being a man, called yourself a King, the Son of God.’ There’s a dark irony in that.

They knew not what he was. They knew not what they were doing, and who to – that they were killing God. Spitting in his face.

And I don’t see what my sin is, or what it does to a holy God, either. That’s why I need what I don’t deserve. Grace. Forgiveness.

A nanny wanted to explain the reason for the cross to the children in her care and she wrote the hymn, ‘There Is A Green Hill Far Away,’ to help them get it. You might already know the words? Do you get it?

We may not know, we cannot tell,

What pains He had to bear;

But we believe it was for us

He hung and suffered there.

He died that we might be forgiven,

He died to make us good,

That we might go at last to heaven,

Saved by His precious blood.

There was no other good enough

To pay the price of sin;

He only could unlock the gate

Of heaven and let us in.

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Apr 04 2011
Bible, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, Faith, history, Jesus, Manchester, Religion, Theology

Why I believe – Part 1.

What brought me to become a Christ follower was a truth encounter.

I didn’t find Jesus’ face in my toast one morning or anything like that -

My lovely Christian friends Mr and Mrs Kitcatt may like this picture

I was a police officer – used to examining evidence and coming to conclusions as a result of that investigation. I knew how to look at evidence. And I also knew how to face facts. If the implication of the evidence was that Jesus is who he claimed to be – the one and only Son of God, then that changes EVERYTHING.

If that really were true, then I would have to make a choice – to follow him; or try to forget him.

I’d been on the trail of happiness, meaning and purpose – searching in various areas and come up empty. I’d tried my best to live a good life (by my standards anyway), but had a trail of broken promises and resolutions to show for it. In my life I’d swung at times from believing in Jesus like I had done Santa as child, to ditching him along with church. Eventually after a wander through some new age and comparative religions I heard the Marxist phrase about religion being ‘the opiate of the people,’ which made me sound clever in the pub and came to regard Jesus  as a mythical figure, or if he did ever exist he was either a irrelevant prophet or a religious nutcase out to stop people from having fun.

Then, in pursuit of a particular girl, I ended up at a church event that was fun, with a speaker who was interesting and passionate, met a group of people who had a peace I couldn’t understand and a joy – despite living in the same world I did – I knew I hadn’t found elsewhere; and they said it was all wrapped up in knowing this Jesus.

I figured I’d been wrong about church, wrong about (some) Christian ministers, wrong about Christian music and drama – maybe I’d been wrong about Christ? That was enough to get me looking. .

Over a period of time, most importantly, I started to look at what the witnesses had to say. That’s the policeman’s first job.

I interrogated 4 guys, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They wrote four accounts that have survived pretty much as written all these centuries. These guys claimed to have known this Jesus. I checked out their credentials and saw that what we call the gospels rank as some of the best attested historical documents in existence. Written within thirty of forty years of Jesus’ death and the resurrection which they all reported. Like all good witness statements they’re told from different perspectives of the eye witnesses, but the events and central figure they describe are clearly the same. They haven’t been embroidered or materially changed since they were first written down.  I went to the John Rylands library in Manchester city centre to actually see one of the most ancient part manuscripts, from the gospel of John, dated around 125AD!

I found that it wasn’t just the gospel writers who focused on Jesus. Aristocratic Romans wrote about this peasant in backwater Jerusalem. Pliny wrote letters to the Emperor Trajan saying how much trouble he was having getting these people to worship the Emperor. He had tried various means to force them and he asked about their religion. ‘They meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath…not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust…I judged it all the more necessary to find out what the truth was by torturing two female slaves who were called deaconesses. But I discovered nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition.’ He went on to say that those who renounced faith in Christ would be set free, but those who did, he felt, were not really Christians anyway.

The Governor of Turkey at the time, Tacitus, wrote about this new religion: “the name Christian comes to them from Christus, who was executed in the reign of Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate…”

He was against this new cult, remember!

How fast did this religion grow and spread across the Empire? Jesus was crucified in AD 33, the city of Pompeii near Naples was destroyed by volcano 46 years later, Christian wall paintings, mosaics and inscriptions are there….together with a chapel!

Jewish writers didn’t want to give much mention of Jesus because they saw it of course as a threat to their religion. But the Mishna do mention Yesuah of Nazareth as a trouble causer, an illegitimate man whose birth was in doubt, who did magic to lead people astray, before he was hanged on the eve of the Passover.

Flavius Josephus, the greatest Jewish historian, who was certainly not interested in promoting Christianity, writing in AD90, said in one of his twenty books of Jewish history;  Now there arose at this time (Pilate’s governorship) a source of further trouble in one Jesus, a wise man who performed surprising works, a teacher of men who gladly welcome strange things. He led away many Jews, and also many of the Gentiles. He was the so-called Christ. When Pilate, acting on information supplied by the chief men around us, condemned him to the cross, those who had attached themselves to him at first did not cease to cause trouble, and the tribe of Christians, which has taken this name from him is not extinct even today.” (FF Bruce’s version).

So Jesus existed. Search for Jesus on Amazon and you’ll find 270,000 books and counting! Google him and you get 300 million references. But what’s so special about him? Wasn’t he just a travelling teacher or a religious rabble-rouser like those people in history and those who put him on a cross believed? Or wasn’t he just a nice, good man who went around in a nightie carrying lambs and was misunderstood? Wouldn’t he be turning in his grave at the thought that people were still following him – as God!? Maybe he didn’t think of himself as God at all?

My next post will continue the story…

Mar 06 2011
Bible, Christianity, Church, Father God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, wisdom

Ecclesiastes 5: Motor Mouth.

Kris Tucker at Ivy Mcr.
This forms our grow group notes for this week:

‘I will let my words be few…’

Read Ecclesiastes 5:1-7

Some of us love silence. Others can’t wait to fill it with something.
which are you?!

Kris shared a time when he went to the beach to get really quiet, but there was no way he could get quiet inside. Even when we are in silence- do we wait ‘long enough to hear the silence itself.’

Mother Teresa: ‘God is the friend of silence.’
Are you? How do you get on with silence? Do you see it as a friend?
Have a time of silence… Then discuss!

God said to Kris: ‘Your worship is one style – you come to me with lots of words.’
This passage tells us, there is a time for silence. How do we make time for silence in busy lives?

Kris then showed us a video clip from The Blue Planet- about a Blue Whale. Watch something like that, (link below) then put your hand over your mouth, and silently stand in awe of your God!

http://m.youtube.com:80/?client=mv-vf-uk#/watch?xl=xl_blazer&v=1fzT6ifrhL8

We then sat in silence for a loooong time.

And later – after the some people shared a word of encouragement,

…eventually!

Don’t be rash with your words. Don’t be too hasty to speak.

Prayer point:
We are going on a six week journey to hear God at Gorton monastery. It is an awe inspiring place. Kris talked about when he went & visited & sensed that in that different place, in a different way, God will speak to us about our future. Discuss how you feel about this as a group- how will you get there? Encourage each other.

Please be there, every week you can, give a lift if you can, let’s be there as a community as we get to listen to God. In the meantime, pray hard about it – and let your words be few.

Suggestion for this week: let’s practice the silent treatment for the first few minutes of the day, and listen to God before we even speak to him or anyone else.

He is ‘the one we must fear.’ Revere him, he is awesome, so be inspired, and he is singing a song over your life – but how will we know what He is singing, if we don’t get silent & listen.

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