Filed under Faith …

Oct 07 2011
2 Comments
Catalyst, Faith, leadership, Mark Driscoll, Prayer, Theology

Mark Driscoll: FEAR NOT! (Catalyst 2011) #cat11

So what are you afraid of?
Mice? Snakes, spiders? Clowns?

Everybody is scared of something.
Leaders – criticism, embarassment, conflict?

Fear in the mind causes stress in the body.
Your body will manifest the stress. You’ll need more coffee and energy drinks.
You need 8 – 10 hours sleep.

You’ll stress – ‘What if these people go?’
Or ‘What if these people STAY!’

Do you go to fight or flight?

Luke 12
Which of you by being anxious will add anything to your life.

Fear is not a sin – it’s an opportnity to either sin or trust God.

Who are you afraid of?
Does someone other than God hold that place?
We need them to bless and rule us and be a source of life to us. They become our functional God.
And when you fear someone you can’t love them.
The key of all idolatry is
the fear of man – that brings a trap.
You fear someone; it’s a trap.
Fear includes being afraid of someone but extends to giving them too much influence. Worshipping other people. Needing them. You can’t criticise them or say no.
When we’re in our teens it’s called peer pressure, when older – it’s called

Who’s opinion matters most?
Way too much.

Is your appetite for praise way to high?
You want to know what everyone thinks of you.

Are you overly devastated by criticism?
Rock Warren: ‘The problem with criticism now is that it’s instant, constant, global and permanent.’

Are you commited to things God didn’t call you to?
God never called you to it- so you get very busy, but not very holy.

Fear = VISION without hope. It’s seeing the worst case scenario.
Fear = not rational, but POWERFUL. You have your own fears that others don’t feel.
Fear = not getting what I want, or losing it.
Fear – preaches a false gospel. There is an alternative heaven here on earth, so find someone else and worship them (wife, boss) and they become a false saviour. To save you from the hell you through fear have created in your imagination.

Who has become for you, a functional saviour?

Fear causes us to be False Prophets. We predict a false future, and end up fear ridden over it – and it never happens.

Solution?
Bible’s answer?
FEAR NOT! The most frequently mentioned command in the whole Bible. If God says anything a lot, it must be important.
This should tell us, it’s a real problem.

It’s not just a command, it’s usually an INVITATION. ‘Fear not, I am present with you.’ It’s not just about facing your fear, but ‘I’m with you.’

Adam sins and hides, Gen3. God comes to him, and he says, ‘I was afraid.’ God comes alongside him.
Since sin entered the world, it’s the same.
Abraham Gen 21; ‘Fear not, I am your sheild
Gen 26:24 ‘Isaac – fear not, I’m with you!’
Jacob Gen 28:15 ‘I am with you..’

Why does God say it so much? Because when fear comes, we forget God is with us. And we feel alone, and that’s a lie. The lie is that you’re alone, you only have your own resources.

Moses asks, ‘How can I lead these people? I don’t know where we’re going, and they are following!’ God doesn’t say, ‘Here’s a map’ – but ‘Here I am.’

At the brink of war, with Joshua, ‘Fear not.’

King David, ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will FEAR NOT because you are with me.’

Isaiah 41:14 ‘Fear not, you worm Jacob… ‘ (Can you think of anything more weedy than a worm?)
For I MYSELF will help you!
You feel powerless, the criticisms are real, ‘I can’t do this!’
God says, ‘Fear not! I am with you.’

Jeremiah is a sad man, the weeping prophet. He has a lot to be scared of. Depressed.
God comes to him,

Dan 12 – fear not daniel, I have come.

Haggai, ‘Be strong, be strong, be strong… why? I am with you.

Luke 1 – the angel comes to Mary, ‘Fear not…’
she’s pregnant, at 13. How will that look? No husband.
vs 35 – the Holy Spirit will come. God will be with you. In you.

Matthew 28. After Jesus lives, and dies and conquers death (that’s what we HAD to fear, but no longer. ‘I’m gonna die!’ – and that’s the WORST? we get to be with Jesus. We have to reset the worst case scenario – WCS? – You go to Jesus sooner rather than later – that’s not so bad).

Matthew 28 ‘ I WILL BE WITH YOU’ How long? Always – to the end.

We are all going to fear. So, God keeps reminding us.
‘Fear not, I am WITH YOU.’

Don’t just listen to that word. Do it. Always remember that. When it’s darkest. Everything may not be okay. But if God is with you, you’re going to be okay.

Fear not – your Daddy’s with you.

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Oct 06 2011
Andy Stanley, Bible, Faith, Family, Jesus, leadership

Andy Stanley: DO FOR ONE – Catalyst 2011

Be Present.

The more successful you are, the less accessible you’ll become. This is not good or bad, it’s just true. The more people become part of what you’re doing, the less available to everyone you’ll end up.

But we think, ‘I don’t want that. My door will be wide open…’

But if we refuse this truth, the more you’ll burn out by trying to be accessible to everyone. You’ll do life spreading yourself razor thin, not accessible to those you’re with really anyway. Distracted. The hard thing is, we come into ministry because we’re all about people.

OR we may use our success as an excuse to be more inaccessible than necessary. People will come up in your own church and say, ‘I know you’re busy, but…’ You’ll hide form them.

Unawareness is bliss!

Because the more people’s needs and problems you’re aware of, the more you’ll know there’s no 15 minute solutions. That will wear you out. The more need we’re bombarded with, the less able to handle it we feel. So much cancer, so much debts and prodigals. Your heart breaks for people, but you’re thinking, ‘But what can I do?’ Too much Information!

But at the same time, I want to be PRESENT.

The apostle Paul addresses this in Gal 6:9-10.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

NOTICE - As we have OPPORTUNITY (time), let us do good to all people…

He goes on to say.. Carry each other’s burdens., and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ…

in other words, You can’t shut it all out

- BUT ….

 

you can’t take it all on.

This never goes away. We live with the tension – limited time and opportunity, but open to people, engaged with the.

So how? What do you do?

Do FOR ONE, what you wish you could do for EVERYONE.

The person behind the sweet counter says, ‘If I give you one, I’ll have to give everyone one…’

Actually, NO YOU DON”T! I won’t tell anyone…!

This can creep into our ministry…

If I counsel you, I’ll have to do it for everyone

NO YOU DON”T!

Choose to do for one, what you wish you could do for everyone. That will stop you getting cold to everyone. If you’re helping ONE through grief, or marriage issues.

But that’s not fair!

Well, fairness ended in the garden of Eden.

Don’t be fair. Don’t try to be. Be engaged.

How?

 

  1. Go DEEP rather than WIDE.

Be available to someone.

2. Go LONG term rather than short term.

Don’t give everyone 15 mins and not give someone many hours. Take one or two and be in them with it – until it’s over.

3. Go TIME not just money.

Don’t just give money to missions- go to one. Track the miracle in the lives in that place.

Don’t let anyone guilt you out of doing for one what you wish you could do for all, because if we all did that – we might change the world, but even if you don’t, you’ll change one life – and it might be yours.

PRAYER: Thank you Lord for the one who did for us what they didn’t have the time or resources to do for everyone. It wasn’t fair, but we received your grace through them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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
Faith, Family, Jesus

DON’T LOSE HEART. Michael Hyatt at Catalyst 2011

Michael Hyatt

Don’t Lose Heart. 

The people who don’t stay the course, are those who lose heart. Most Christians – 80%? lose heart and become ineffective by the age of 55.

You can get your heart back

- and lead from the heart.

You will maximise your influence as a leader when you embrace 5 truths about the heart.

Your heart is the essence of your identity.

The Bible uses the word heart over a 1000 times.

Matt 5:8, 6:23, 15:18, 22:37 – love God with your heart.

Your heart is YOU. Who YOU are. The inner sanctuary where you connect with God and others from. The world ‘s focus is external image, but the Lord looks at the heart. Why? Because it matters most.

The big question is not how’s your family/ career – but ‘How’s your heart?’

Your heart is your most important and valuable leadership tool

Prov 4:23 – above ALL else! (It’s not your knowledge, your skills that counts) – your heart is the WELLSPRING of your life. If you stop up springs, the streams stop flowing. Pollute a spring, the stream is toxic.

Your heart directly impacts your influence.

Physically your heart is what keeps you alive. Your body can survive without many different organs. You won’t miss your gall bladder that much. But lose your heart, and you’re dead. Your heart is what keeps your organisation alive. It’s what keeps those around you alive too. Your organisation can’t survive without your heart. It’s the greatest gift you give to your team.

Your heart is either healthy or unhealthy.

You may have spiritual cardiovascular disease. The flow is constricted. You’re scarred over. This is the silent killer. It takes people out and they function a while without knowing. Is your heart open or closed?

Symptoms that your heart is Closed? 

Distant, aloof, can’t get close to people, focus on what others are doing wrong. Life dries up around you. Cynical.

When it’s Open…

You’re fully present and accessible. Other-focused. You connect to people. You’re a resource to them. You may focus on what’s missing, but not on what’s wrong (some people want to find what’s wrong all the time). Being a good leader in an organisation is a lot like being a good parent. Affirming, encouraging. People feel FREE.

 

People around you now know whether your heart is open or closed.

Can you discern the difference? You find all through the Psalms, David is talking to his heart.

Your heart is under constant attack.

Satan wants to take you out, and he aims at the heart.

If you let discouragements, offences etc take root in your heart. There’s no point where you can let your guard down. Older couples get divorced too, you don’t have to be young to do something foolish! GUARD your heart- it’s precious! You don’t have to guard your rubbish, nobody nicks it. If the enemy can take you out, a lot of people will go down with you. People are watching, hoping you stay the course. www.pastorburnout.com shows there are too many that don’t. 70% of pastors don’t have any close friends. Eccles 4:9-10 – two are better than one! 57% would leave the ministry if they could in the same survey. Be on your guard. Pull the drawbridge up on your heart sometimes, so you can let it down when you need to.

Cf. Capture the flag. You can have a long game – but when it’s captured, it’s game over.

Guard your heart!

You can recover your heart by keeping the disciplines of your heart.

Eg?

SABBATH.

Finding time to cultivate the inner you.

It’s hard to do that in a busy world. How do we compete with those who have no margin?

BY FAITH! That’s the purpose of the Sabbath. God blesses it. Find time to take care of yourself. If you always put yourself last, you’ll be of no use to anyone. Make time.

Once a week, ask yourself, ‘How’s my heart?’ 

Get his free ebook on having a life plan.

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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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Aug 14 2011
Bible, Christianity, Failure, Faith, Jesus, Manchester, Prayer, Religion, TV

Jon Hancock – @jonhancock_tv at Ivy MCR – Micaiah 1 Kings 22

Here are my notes on Jon’s talk tonight, Ivy MCR Grow Groups are welcome to use them for your meetings too.

Jon Hancock is a BBC TV producer who has been at Ivy about a year, the family moved up with the Beeb move to Media City etc.

Jon talked about our journey as a church recently and the symbolism of that:
Meeting at Gorton Monastery, reclaiming that place.
Then the Trafford Centre where so many ‘worship’ every day.

NOW we’re off to the Vue Cinema near Media City: We’re moving all over the city worshipping Jesus in these strategic and symbolic places!

Please pray for this next move!! Can you provide lifts etc – contact the office please.

Study: 1 Kings 22

Micaiah

Looking at it from a TV producer point of view – this is a very interesting story…
There’s a ‘OH NO!” – Fist in mouth – ‘I can’t believe he did that’ moment in this story – look out for it.

Characters:
King Jehosophat – at heart, one of the good guys. Wanted to restore the nation back to God, but a bit weak willed

King Ahab (booo!!!). Loved to go to war a bit too much. married to Jezebel, a very bad sort.

Micaiah – this is the only time we hear of him in scripture.

1 For three years there was no war between Aram and Israel. 2 But in the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to see the king of Israel. 3 The king of Israel had said to his officials, “Don’t you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us and yet we are doing nothing to retake it from the king of Aram?”
4 So he asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth Gilead?”

Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” 5 But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “First seek the counsel of the LORD.”

Now Ahab’s desire may or may have been the right thing, but it could have just been a rush of blood. Jehosophat wants to consult God.

Ahab then called in a non – prophet organisation (Rentaprophet) who’d say what he wanted to hear.

6 So the king of Israel brought together the prophets—about four hundred men—and asked them, “Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?”

“Go,” they answered, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.”

7 But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no longer a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?”

What does this remind you of?! A spoilt brat of a monarch, with people sucking up all around, like Queenie on Black Adder. Jon showed a fabulous clip.

8 The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.”

“The king should not say such a thing,” Jehoshaphat replied.

9 So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.”

10 Dressed in their royal robes, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them. 11 Now Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had made iron horns and he declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.’”

12 All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. “Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious,” they said, “for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand.”

13 The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, the other prophets without exception are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.”

14 But Micaiah said, “As surely as the LORD lives, I can tell him only what the LORD tells me.”

15 When he arrived, the king asked him, “Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or not?”

“Attack and be victorious,” he answered, “for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand.” (? Was he being sarcastic?)

16 The king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?”

17 Then Micaiah answered, “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD said, ‘These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.’”

18 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?”

19 Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. 20 And the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’

“One suggested this, and another that. 21 Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, ‘I will entice him.’

22 “‘By what means?’ the LORD asked.

“‘I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said.

“‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’

23 “So now the LORD has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you.”

That by the way, was the ‘fist in mouth – I can’t believe he said that’ moment!

24 Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up and slapped Micaiah in the face. “Which way did the spirit from the LORD go when he went from me to speak to you?” he asked.

25 Micaiah replied, “You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room.”

26 The king of Israel then ordered, “Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon the ruler of the city and to Joash the king’s son 27 and say, ‘This is what the king says: Put this fellow in prison and give him nothing but bread and water until I return safely.’”

In other words, ‘Stuff you – I’m not bothered – I’ll do it anyway.’

Question: Are you aware of shaking off what God has said in the past – how has that worked out?

28 Micaiah declared, “If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me.” Then he added, “Mark my words, all you people!”

29 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead. 30 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will enter the battle in disguise, but you wear your royal robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.

(Gutsy! Great plan! But it didn’t work out how he thought)
31 Now the king of Aram had ordered his thirty-two chariot commanders, “Do not fight with anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel.” 32 When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, “Surely this is the king of Israel.” So they turned to attack him, but when Jehoshaphat cried out, 33 the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel and stopped pursuing him.

34 But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armor. The king told his chariot driver, “Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I’ve been wounded.” 35 All day long the battle raged, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans. The blood from his wound ran onto the floor of the chariot, and that evening he died. 36 As the sun was setting, a cry spread through the army: “Every man to his town. Every man to his land!”

37 So the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried him there. 38 They washed the chariot at a pool in Samaria (where the prostitutes bathed), and the dogs licked up his blood, as the word of the LORD had declared.

What can we take away from this amazing story: questions to ponder and discuss:

  • Do we consult God – at all? Enough?
  • Do we ask the right people?
  • Do we just follow the crowd like the RentaProphets?

If you have something to say – even if you’re right, there’s a way to say it and a way not to – is Micaiah somewhat too sarcastic and cutting?

Do you have to give it/ say it? Had this prophet been so negative in the past he could no longer deliver the word of the Lord because it’s not just the words but the heart – ‘grace AND truth.’

Is it your place?

Do we sit on it long enough to digest it or just spit it out without chewing it over?

Two major themes:

CONSEQUENCES & REPUTATION. 

Re the Riots that have been going on – how many of those involved were only thinking of the ‘now’ moment – and not aware that there are consequences. Every decision has consequences.

There were consequences for Ahab’s choices throughout his life, despite MANY warnings. He closed his mind and heart.

There were consequences for Micaiah. Maybe he spent the rest of his life in prison!

There are consequences for those caught – in terms of reputation.

Ahab had a reputation as a tough king.

Micaiah had a rep as one who’d speak the truth, even when the truth hurt. What do you want a reputation for?

We are writing a story.

You are writing the story of your life.

You are the co-author with God of that story.

What are you writing?

Quote: ‘You can’t turn back the clock, but you can wind it up again.’

You have more chapters to write! You have not reached the end of your story!

‘Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped.’ (African proverb).

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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Jun 05 2011
1 Comment
Bible, Christianity, Faith, Heaven, Jesus, Prayer, prophecy

Lynn Swart: True or False? Sermon at Ivy MCR today on Nehemiah 6:9-14

Lynn Swart: Sermon on Nehemiah 6:9-14

Nehemiah 6:9

For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done.” 
Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands. 
10 Afterward I came to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was a secret informer; and he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you; indeed, at night they will come to kill you.” 
11 And I said, “Should such a man as I flee? And who is there such as I who would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in!” 12 Then I perceived that God had not sent him at all, but that he pronounced this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13 For this reason he was hired, that I should be afraid and act that way and sin, so that they might have cause for an evil report, that they might reproach me. 
14 My God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat, according to these their works, and the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who would have made me afraid.

Whenever God wants to build, there is always opposition: INSIDE and OUT! Fear comes to take hold of our spirit, and freezes us.

FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real!

Don’t succumb to that false evidence. God wants to strengthen us in faith, not yield to untrue statements. Someone’s saying ‘it won’t happen. you’ll give in – you have weak hands.’

When fear comes – I can REACT or RESPOND TO GOD. Nehemiah knew the nature and character of God. Not just as information but a revelation in our lives. So we don’t try to fight like for like.

Nehemiah lifts his GAZE and he lifts his HANDS yielding to a higher strength. lift your hands! Nehemiah went to Shemaiah’s house and it was a house full of fear and intimidation – a trap. There were enemies outside AND inside.

Not every message, however spiritual it sounds, is from God. We need discernment.

‘Let’s go to the temple.’ What could be holier than that? BUT this ‘prophet’ was shut in. Self-preserving, and not joining in the work.

And he says, ‘They are going to kill you. Let’s hide in the temple.’ But only the Levites were allowed in there. It was not Nehemiah’s PLACE. He’d have stepped out and been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Prophecy from God when done RIGHT – gives life. But it can also be LETHAL. If it comes out of a place of fear.

How do we test a prophecy?

1. Test the character of the ‘prophet-’ Do they walk the walk? Or just talk the talk.

2. God will never violate his written Word.

Nehemiah could smell a rat because he knew the fragrance of heaven.

So he STANDS – and refuses to run away. And then he prays… focusing on the Lord. about ALL the false prophets.. because he only wanted the truth.

The work WAS completed – in record time. And if WE can hold our ground, and have our arms strengthened, we will see many miracle moments!

We need to be:

1. Convinced in purpose; knowing what I’m called to

2. Committed in vision: if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it.

3. Constant in prayer: let intercession & intimacy be part of our rhythm.

4. Courageous in your journey. And EN-courage others. Add courage to them!

 

Note: image above from http://www.janeng.com/portfolio2/rotk_01.html

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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.

Tagged , , ,
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…

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