The story can tell us a lot about the company we keep and how that can make or break us, it can warn us about who we should listen to as we head into our future, too.
But as the year closes out and a new one gets ready to start, I’m thinking about various wise people I know and those I have read about and how they finish an old year really well, to start a New Year better – and what they do and say lines up well with what these wise guys did too.
Debra co-wrote City Changing Prayer with her husband Frank. Prayer changes things! Lk 12:12 shows how a person who is plugged into God will react differently because their life will be a prayer that overflows in every situation. In the workplace where it’s tough the Holy Spirit can give you the words at that time. We won’t need to be anxious then. When we live on mission we will get the message we need. Philippians 4:5-7 Be anxious for nothing – pray! And then you will get the peace. People ask ‘How does God’s guidance work?’ Well it’s peace that directs us and leads us. Einstein ‘Only those who see the invisible can attempt the impossible.’ Go somewhere to seek God, wait on him, listen to him, find his will. People who don’t have a relationship with God just ask him for things. We pray to develop the relationship we have with God. Prayer works but we have to work it. How much has our city changed because of prayer?! Matt 7:7-8 talks about persistent prayer. Praying in the face […]
Here’s the video talk we showed at all sites last week at www.ivychurch.org Lots of laughs from the guys doing door to door with various degrees of success, but the point at the back of it is one I want to challenge you with if you are a Jesus follower. A lot of evangelism I have seen (and done) treats Jesus as a proposition to be argued for, rather than a person to be known. The main point Christianity differs from every other religion or philosophy on is OUR GUY IS ALIVE and you can know him and meet him and he still answers prayer. This video and its 3 questions just scratches the surface of what we are going to look at in the weeks ahead in our new series PRAYER, CARE, SHARE but please remember, if you’re a Christ follower already Jesus sent people ahead of him to the places he was going to go, and then sent us where he promises to be with us always. And if you don’t know him yet, where you are right […]
How do you see the world? A baby’s life just revolves around itself. When did you first realise the world was broken? And think ‘somebody has to do something about this.’ When you hear about ‘unreached people groups’ what about that? Or that crowd you are in – somebody must tell them about Jesus. But something gets in the way of it being me. What gets in the way for you? Too busy Afraid Costly Not wanting to impose Luke 10:1-3 The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few There’s no harvest problem It’s a worker problem. Remember Jesus was talking to ordinary young guys. Peter the up & down fisherman not ‘St Peter’ not great orators or even examples, at times not even great fishermen! But he will make them more than they are by using who they are – fishers of men. The worker problem is an identity problem now, they were not fishing for men. The workers were not working It’s an identity issue. ‘As the Father sent me I am sending you.’ What does sent […]
I spent a little time this evening looking through a little piece of the history of our church, as I read extracts from the Minute Book of “Ivy Cottage” Mission Hall. It started as a record of the ‘Womens’ Bible Class,’ then was unused from 1913 to the 50s. There are some fascinating insights into how Ivy saw itself as a MISSION from its inception, church planting, evangelism, and then that movement became a church as it formalized and hired Pastors to lead it (I’m in danger of doing myself out of a job here) and then started looking at various rules and regulations; and when that happened the pioneering and evangelistic work of women was also truncated. The record speaks for itself and there are some funny things to note along the way. Many of you will know Ivy started as a men’s Bible study group meeting in a house in 1893. I’ll have to look at their records some time too! Oct 5th 1908 – Women’s Bible Class held monthly business meetings and had 218 registered members who […]
Notes from talk by @PastorChoco Wilfredo De Jesus Prayer is necessary, but it’s not a crutch not to do anything. You cannot let your budget dictate your faith. You have to trust God that he will meet your needs. We must MOVE to action Ezek 22:30 God’s looking for someone to stand in the gap. Found NOBODY! Who would stand there. A gap = place of danger, vulnerability and danger. These days the gaps are wider. God’s still looking for those who will engage the gap. You must engage your community. See your city as your church. Jesus sat with the lost. People who didn’t look like him. Demon possessed men, Samaritan women. He went to them. He wasn’t afraid. What is sacred is the MESSAGE, not the METHOD. We can use all kinds of methods to reach people. Fear is the absence of faith. Nehemiah is living large, then he asks a question that changes the course of his life: ‘How’s Jerusalem?’ If you are not going to do anything, don’t ask! Nehemiah had to do something. With revelation comes […]
I would have done this here if he’d let me, but it is funny. have a look. He gets his madness from his mother’s side.
Glyn is a great friend doing an amazing work at !Audacious Church in our city and it was an honour to host him at Ivy Church (Kingsway) this morning. Here are my notes on a fabulous talk. Mark 11:15ff ‘My house will be called a house of prayer – but you have made it a den of thieves.’ This is that moment – when Jesus gets mad. When my wife gets mad I get nervous When my mum gets mad I get nervous But here’s where Jesus got mad – because he’s come to the house of God, expecting one thing – gets another. Like when you turn up to a holiday hotel, expecting something fantastic – and get a B & B. When the expectation is high, but it’s terrible when you get it. You buy the car and it breaks down in the first week. May our church, our house, never be a disappointment to Jesus! Church is a house, not a ceremony Royalty expects a ceremony. But Jesus calls this a house – it’s a place you […]
Lots of our teaching is about how to make it through the valley/ the storm/ the fight and there’s an aspect of that which is wonderful because when you’re in crisis you lean in hard and listen up, But how about the place where you relax, and then you become careless. At the place of victory, the mountaintop, not the struggle in the valley. In those moments we make the silly choices, when we let our guard down. We have all preached about David and Goliath. Such a rich, overcoming story of the boy with the pocketful of stones who takes a giant down. But how about what happened immediately after the giant? When something happened more significant than the giant. Your momentum follows after your moments of victory. How you handle success matters. Don’t be so in love with your giant killing moments and his head being cut off that you switch your brain off. The giant took David from zero to hero.Now he has the light shine on him. But don’t get so enamoured by your moment by […]
Steve Gambil – LEAD Conference. ‘LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR’ Remember God wants to help you lead, after all He is the head of the church. Psalm 110:3 Your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power Why can’t a church own a generation, in our time? Because we don’t think we can. And if you don’t think it’s possible you won’t do much. Let’s be daft enough to believe God that we can do great things in our generation. There’s always gap between what we dream of and what we’re seeing. We want to close that gap. How do we get people involved in the mission? Luke 10. Talks about how Jesus APPOINTED some people. That talks about an assignment and an arranged meeting. So you reprioritise, then replan, and then you see new results.Jesus is the great strategist and here he designates, selects and sends out 72 people to go into 36 places simultaneously. That is genius. What if we could send people out to go into there neighbourhoods for Him. Oh – but you say the people […]