I’d like to take you on a journey this morning. As we travel we will stop off at various places, meet different people and hear what is being said. As we travel, I’d like to encourage you to think about similar journeys that you have taken, or maybe that you are on at the moment.
As in Doctor Who, the first stage of the journey is the one that will take us the furthest through time and space, but it’s the one that I am going to spend the least time talking about. Will you come with me back about 2,000 years and 1,500 miles south east of here, to city called Philippi? We land in this Roman colony in Greece, in the street. It’s dusty and hot, there are people everywhere, going about their daily business.
We spot a little group of people, obviously walking somewhere together. Paul and Silas are part of the group, going to the place of prayer. The place of prayer wasn’t a Temple or a synagogue; it wasn’t a special building, but a spot on the riverbank, outside the city, where people gathered to talk together and to pray. They had gone there when they first arrived in Philippi, and had met Lydia, who had believed the message that they had bought, and decided to follow Jesus. Now they were staying at her house and had got into the practice of going back to that spot, to pray and to share the good news further.
But, there is opposition to them going to the place of prayer. Every time they head off to the place of prayer, they are harassed by this girl, shouting after them, trying to distract them.
Continued here...
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Monday, 17 May 2010
Thursday, 9 October 2008
The Lord's Prayer
I'm really glad this morning to be talking about this prayer. Over my life I've had a bit of a strange relationship with it. I remember an assembly I sat in when I was ten. The headmaster was defending the fact that we didn't have much in the way of prayers in our school assemblies. He asked those of us who knew the Lord's prayer to put up our hands. I have to say that I didn't know it off by heart then, but there were a few who did. The Head went on to argue that this was the reason we didn't pray it in school assemblies. Looking back, I wonder if he was even aware of the irony that he was arguing that a school shouldn't do something because it would involve children having to learn something.
Continued here...
Continued here...
Sunday, 23 March 2008
Hezekiah
Last week we met Hannah, a woman who was desperate for a child. A woman who, in some senses, was a symbol of the fruitless life that the people of God were living. A woman who came to the place of worship, poured out her distress to God, and received the promise of God with faith.
We left Hannah as she departed the temple, trusting God for a son that she had earnestly prayed for. That son, Samuel, was born, and dedicated to the service of the Lord. That son was a prophet of God. Through him God answered the cry of the people for a King, and after the first King, Saul, came David, the touchstone example for all Kings of the people of God.
David died, and Solomon came to reign, building a temple for God in Jerusalem, a focus of worship for the nation. The nation seemed set on the road to greatness, but....
Continued here...
We left Hannah as she departed the temple, trusting God for a son that she had earnestly prayed for. That son, Samuel, was born, and dedicated to the service of the Lord. That son was a prophet of God. Through him God answered the cry of the people for a King, and after the first King, Saul, came David, the touchstone example for all Kings of the people of God.
David died, and Solomon came to reign, building a temple for God in Jerusalem, a focus of worship for the nation. The nation seemed set on the road to greatness, but....
Continued here...
Tabernacles
I don't know if this ever happens to you, sometimes I get home from an evening meeting and my wife will be sat watching the TV. Now, if it's Casualty, then it's fairly straightforward. I know basically who everybody is, the plot is fairly predictable and so, if I wanted to, I could pick up what's happening and sit and watch it. If, however, it's an adaptation of a Jane Austin novel that I haven't read then it might take me a bit longer, and a few questions, to work out what's going on and who everybody is.
Sitting down to read this passage made me feel a bit like I was walking into the middle of a story, and quite a complex one at that. There's lots of characters, there's a whole cultural, historical, and religious context that I'm not that familiar with, and there's obviously some more immediate stuff that's been going on that I'm not aware of.
So, what I'd like to do tonight is to go through this passage and fill in some of the background, identify the actors and work out what's going on and what themes we can take and use to shed light on our own lives.
The setting is the Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the feast of the Tabernacles. This is a major, 8 day, festival in the Jewish calendar when the people remembered the tabernacles, or tents, that they lived in the desert following the flight from Israel. What is important for us is that this was a feast of pilgrimage. Lots of Jews from all over the known world had come to Jerusalem for the festival.
Continued here...
Sitting down to read this passage made me feel a bit like I was walking into the middle of a story, and quite a complex one at that. There's lots of characters, there's a whole cultural, historical, and religious context that I'm not that familiar with, and there's obviously some more immediate stuff that's been going on that I'm not aware of.
So, what I'd like to do tonight is to go through this passage and fill in some of the background, identify the actors and work out what's going on and what themes we can take and use to shed light on our own lives.
The setting is the Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the feast of the Tabernacles. This is a major, 8 day, festival in the Jewish calendar when the people remembered the tabernacles, or tents, that they lived in the desert following the flight from Israel. What is important for us is that this was a feast of pilgrimage. Lots of Jews from all over the known world had come to Jerusalem for the festival.
Continued here...
Unchanging:Prayer:Mouths:Jesus
Unchanging
Daniel's enemies thought that they knew what couldn't be changed. They thought that they knew what was permanent. They thought that rules and regulations and laws couldn't be changed.
They wanted to destroy Daniel, so they watched him. They couldn't find anything wrong with the way he went about his business or how he did his work. There were no brown envelopes stuffed with cash, no dodgy expenses claims, no shoddy materials used in the buildings he managed, no hidden affairs, he was as clean as a whistle.
But they did see something. They saw him go three times a day and kneel down at a window and pray. They saw this, but they did not understand it. They thought that this must be some kind of law of Daniel's God, some kind of religious rule that Daniel had to keep.
So, they came up with a plan. They would set up a new law, an unchangeable law, a law of the Medes and Persians. They would persuade the King to make a law that would outlaw Daniel.
Continued here...
Daniel's enemies thought that they knew what couldn't be changed. They thought that they knew what was permanent. They thought that rules and regulations and laws couldn't be changed.
They wanted to destroy Daniel, so they watched him. They couldn't find anything wrong with the way he went about his business or how he did his work. There were no brown envelopes stuffed with cash, no dodgy expenses claims, no shoddy materials used in the buildings he managed, no hidden affairs, he was as clean as a whistle.
But they did see something. They saw him go three times a day and kneel down at a window and pray. They saw this, but they did not understand it. They thought that this must be some kind of law of Daniel's God, some kind of religious rule that Daniel had to keep.
So, they came up with a plan. They would set up a new law, an unchangeable law, a law of the Medes and Persians. They would persuade the King to make a law that would outlaw Daniel.
Continued here...
Shield of Faith
What is it that is distinctive about the shield as a piece of armour that might say something important to us about the nature of faith.
Imagine a Roman battle field. In the middle of the fight you see a person, isolated, sheltering behind a shield. It's a fairly big shield, about as tall and wide as a person, the leather face is dripping wet. As you watch you see that they are trying to protect someone who is on the floor, injured. But you're not the only one who has noticed them.
The enemy archers on the opposite hill have also caught sight of them and are preparing their arrows, wrapping the tips in cotton material, dipping them in tar and lighting them. The arrows rain down on the stranded pair. The one with the shield is catching the arrows, fending them off but the shield is slowly being chipped away. There are gashes on it, and the edges are all notched and broken. There are arrows stuck in the face of it and it is becoming heavier and heavier.
Out of the corner of your eye you see a movement. You see what looks at first glance like a huge, square turtle trundling over the field. You look again and see that it is a gang of soldiers who have grouped together, linking their shields in front, down the sides, above the heads of the group. They make their way across to the besieged pair, they surround them and bring them into the middle of protective structure and escort them to safety.
Having done so the turtle returns to the fight, storms the hill where the archers are and drives them from the battle field.
The shield is distinctive as a piece of armour, because it is most effective when used together with other shields. When it is used like this it also becomes a mechanism for attack on the strongholds of the enemy.
I reckon that faith is like that.
Imagine a Roman battle field. In the middle of the fight you see a person, isolated, sheltering behind a shield. It's a fairly big shield, about as tall and wide as a person, the leather face is dripping wet. As you watch you see that they are trying to protect someone who is on the floor, injured. But you're not the only one who has noticed them.
The enemy archers on the opposite hill have also caught sight of them and are preparing their arrows, wrapping the tips in cotton material, dipping them in tar and lighting them. The arrows rain down on the stranded pair. The one with the shield is catching the arrows, fending them off but the shield is slowly being chipped away. There are gashes on it, and the edges are all notched and broken. There are arrows stuck in the face of it and it is becoming heavier and heavier.
Out of the corner of your eye you see a movement. You see what looks at first glance like a huge, square turtle trundling over the field. You look again and see that it is a gang of soldiers who have grouped together, linking their shields in front, down the sides, above the heads of the group. They make their way across to the besieged pair, they surround them and bring them into the middle of protective structure and escort them to safety.
Having done so the turtle returns to the fight, storms the hill where the archers are and drives them from the battle field.
The shield is distinctive as a piece of armour, because it is most effective when used together with other shields. When it is used like this it also becomes a mechanism for attack on the strongholds of the enemy.
I reckon that faith is like that.
Why Pray?
As natural as breathing. That's how people describe something that just happens, something you don't have to think about it, something your body looks after for you. Nobody asks Why breathe? It's obvious. If you don't breathe you're going to die. And we don't ask, "Why breathe?" because, generally, that's not much chance of us deciding not to.
The thing is, that prayer is as vital for our spiritual life as breathing is for our physical life. In the same way that breathing brings in the oxygen that allows our bodies to function, and gets rid of the poisons that our bodies produce, so prayer brings in the power of God to our spirit and allows God to take away the poisons that build up in our spirit.
There is, however, one big problem. Prayer is not as natural as breathing. It does not come easy and we do have to think about it and make an act of will to meet with God and communicate. And, even worse, it's not enough to know in our heads, we have to allow our spiritual gasping for breath to change the way we act and do things.
We need the conviction and inspiration of the Holy Spirit to enable us to do the thing we want to do, to meet with our Father, our friend, our comforter, our lover, day by day and communicate about life and living. Until it does become as natural as breathing. What we're going to do this morning is look at three modifications of the question, "Why pray", the answers to which might help us to move a little more of our head knowledge to our hearts and help us breathe a little easier.
Continued here...
The thing is, that prayer is as vital for our spiritual life as breathing is for our physical life. In the same way that breathing brings in the oxygen that allows our bodies to function, and gets rid of the poisons that our bodies produce, so prayer brings in the power of God to our spirit and allows God to take away the poisons that build up in our spirit.
There is, however, one big problem. Prayer is not as natural as breathing. It does not come easy and we do have to think about it and make an act of will to meet with God and communicate. And, even worse, it's not enough to know in our heads, we have to allow our spiritual gasping for breath to change the way we act and do things.
We need the conviction and inspiration of the Holy Spirit to enable us to do the thing we want to do, to meet with our Father, our friend, our comforter, our lover, day by day and communicate about life and living. Until it does become as natural as breathing. What we're going to do this morning is look at three modifications of the question, "Why pray", the answers to which might help us to move a little more of our head knowledge to our hearts and help us breathe a little easier.
Continued here...
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