Prayer is the Work

       The more I reflect,the more I am convinced that without a hidden prayer life,we could all slip into a lifestyle of independence,a mere play acting at following Christ. At worst, this could lead into a lifestyle of pride and arrogance, and a misplaced belief in ourselves not too dissimilar to that which motivated the construction of the Tower of Babel. The Babel story has many applications, not least of which is how much man can build without any help from the Lord.
In my experience there are two extreme positions to avoid. The first is monastic retreat, where I simply use prayer as a comfort blanket to avoid getting my hands dirty in a messy broken world. The other is where I am too cavalier in rushing in where angels dare to tread, and see prayer as no more than a prologue or appendix to my own agenda. As in all things, Jesus teaches and demonstrates a rhythm of life that is anchored in the fruit of answered prayer. I have put a number of those principles down which I have found helpful in my own prayer pilgrimage.

1. Jesus deliberately made time to pray. '
    
'Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed'.      Mark 1 v 35.
 
  Prayer wasn't the prologue or the appendix to Jesus' day. Prayer provided the fuel and focus for His mission. Rather than staying static in the place that he had just performed numerous healings, His response to His disciples' request was 'Let us go somewhere else' ( v 38).
   His prayer life gave Jesus clarity of focus, and kept Him dancing to the Father's calling on His life, rather than the agendas of men. The message of the gospel accounts is clear. Jesus deliberately diaried in significant and regular times of prayer. We need to do the same. I am all for 'praying on the move', in the mix of life. However that is not the same as intentionally making room for prayer with no other agenda.

2. Jesus prayed in relaxed locations.

Jesus prayed at times in the wilderness,
on a mountain, or in a garden.There would be times when he was alone  (Luke 6 v 12, 9 v 18,11 v 1), and times when he would be praying with those close to Him ( Luke 9 v 28-31, 22 v 39-46). We need to find what times and locations are best for us.
      I personally find walking in the countryside, preferably in the early mornings very helpful. For others, it might be late at night over a coffee in their lounge. We need to find what works for us. We also need to get the balance right of how often we are on our own in prayer, and when we need to be praying with others for support. Jesus had a select number who He would share His heart with, as well as a clear personal prayer life with the Father.
  I've often found it helpful to offload major burdens on to the Lord first, in private, and to then pray through those same issues with close friends. Praying with others is important, but it is not a substitute for our own personal prayer life.

3. Praying out of Sabbath Rest.

'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest' Matthew 11 v 28.

  We find sabbath rest in Jesus because He is the Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus delighted Himself in His Father's love, and the security of that unconditional love is the foundation for our own lives. At His baptism, Jesus heard the Father's words of affirmation and love before He had done any ministry ( Matthew 3 v 13-17).
  When we are secure in that same love, we can then pray for all that is on our heart with poise and passion . We won't be praying to score reward points in heaven, or to use prayer as a place to tell God how great we are, and how not so great others are. Sabbath rest is the place where we are better able to hear God's voice, and begin to get our prayers from heaven, rather than from ourselves.

4. Prayer is the place of submission.

    In the Gethsemene account of Jesus' last moments before His arrest, we see Him praying the ultimate prayer of submission. In the words of a Graham Kendrick hymn, 'Hands that flung stars into space, to cruel nails surrendered'. His submission to the Father, in the place of prayer, brought Jesus into line with the Father's will. This cup of suffering could not be removed by prayer, but Jesus would need prayer in order to help Him drink it down to the dregs.
  Prayer cultivates a soft and teachable spirit, to the Lord and to one another. When any group of Christians regularly pray together, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ becomes a lot easier than if you were not praying together. All of us at some point will have to drink a cup we would rather avoid. Through learning to pray in submission with others,with a humble spirit and contrite heart, we can access the grace to help us at that moment of need.

5. The Scriptures come to life.

     In the wilderness, Jesus is meditating on the scriptures, and uses them to resist the devil's temptations ( Matthew 4 v 1-11). The marriage of prayer and the scriptures were the foundation of Jesus' understanding of spiritual warfare. It isn't enough to simply have the scriptures in our hands, we need to learn how to pray the scriptures into reality.
  At a personal level, I have a number of foundational scriptures that the Lord has given and clearly confirmed over the years. Quite often I will go back to them, at times with a little fasting, to pray over them again and again. It is thrilling when you see them become more and more a reality in either your own life, or in the lives of others. When the devil attempts to undermine, there is no substitute for concrete, prayed through scriptural realities to draw strength from.
   Jesus' desire was to only say and do what the Father gave Him to say and do ( John 5 v 19-30, 12 v 49-50). He knew what was in a person's heart, and knew the right word to bring at the right moment. It was Jesus' rhythm in the place of prayer that fuelled His words and works. We need to follow in His footsteps. It can be so tempting to'wing' things in our own strength. God is gracious, and will often bless our efforts, but it is often inspite of us rather than because of us.

6. Jesus commended perseverance in prayer.

   Luke records two stories to emphasize the importance of perseverance, in Luke 11 v 5-13, and 18 v 1-8. Both stories challenge me. I often wonder how many unfinished prayer projects there are in heaven, resembling an incompleted building site. Jesus taught and modelled persistent and persevering prayer. If we are to see sustainable spiritual change in our churches and cities, then surely a foundational life of persevering prayer amongst the leaders of those churches and cities has to be axiomatic?

7. Jesus inspired others to pray.

In Luke 11 v 1 we read that the disciples came to Jesus and wanted Him to teach them how to pray. They had clearly seen something in Jesus' prayer life that caught their attention. Two questions. When was the last time you asked anyone to teach you how to pray? Secondly, has anyone ever asked you to help teach them how to pray, on the basis of seeing you pray, rather than merely hearing you talk about prayer?
  Prayer is as much caught as taught. We need teaching, but there is no better place than to actively engage in prayer, either on our own, or with others. Some of my most treasured moments have been in places where people have modelled prayer to me, praying that has been on a different planet.

8. Jesus is looking for a House of Prayer

''My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations" Mark 11 v 17.

  Jesus taught and modelled prayer that had both the personal and global context in view. So for example, he cared passionately for individuals like Lazarus and Zaccheus, but commissioned the disciples to go and preach to the nations. He had both a vision for individuals, but also saw the bigger picture of discipling whole nations. He was also concerned for the immediate needs of people, as well as the eternal realities to come.
    So, for example, He would feed a large crowd with a few loaves of bread and fish, but at the same time remind that same crowd that there was something far more important to life than simply having their stomachs filled ( John 6 v 25-59). Our prayers need to reflect both of these opposite perspectives. We need to pray and act with individuals in mind, but also pray and act with the bigger picture of discipling nations in mind. We need to pray and act with people's immediate needs in mind, but also recognise the eternal backdrop and consequences of how people respond to Jesus.
  A few thoughts then on how Jesus positioned Himself in prayer. If there is some truth in that old cliche, that 'a man is only as big as his prayer life', then my prayer is 'Lord teach me how to pray'. The last thing I want to do is make prayer the prologue or appendix of my life.

Contending for the Faith.

' The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honoured among men.'

                                               Psalm 12 v 8.

    One of the principles that we often quote in our Bible interpretation is that of objectivity. What does the plain, objective meaning of this text mean? How would this have been understood by the original recipients?
   They are good questions. The problem is that as interpreters we are less objective than we think. We have all been shaped by parental background, education, social class, church history, and many other factors. If you gave this verse to ten different people, they would all have a different view on what was vile and honoured by men.
   A mother who had lost a child in a Bangladeshi work house accident, might suggest that aggressive Western Capitalism was responsible for her child's death. The poor working conditions, low wage, and exploitation of child labour in order to produce cheap clothing for the European markets could legitimately be seen as a vileness honoured in the West.
    A father from England who had lost a son fighting a war in some distant land might have a different view altogether. A single mother living as an asylum seeker in an inner city suburb, would have a different view to that of a middle class solicitor.
    From a personal perspective, my own interpretation has been shaped by a recent rereading of the Book of Jude. It is his exortation 'to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints' that is currently shaping my thinking. So if you were to ask me how I currently see Psalm 12 v 8, my answer would be that anything corrupting, polluting, hindering, dishonouring,or diluting the Gospel of Christ is a vileness that needs to be 'earnestly contested.'
    With that in mind I offer a few thoughts from the Book of Jude. On the surface the book can appear heavy going, but it's message is a very important one, and should be taken seriously.
     His primary concern in the first nineteen verses is to spell out the dangers of allowing false teachers to have a prominent place within the community of believers. He uses a series of triads to expose what lies behind their motives for ministry, and the effect their ministry has within the Body of Christ if left unchecked.
     The first trio of illustrations are the references to Israel's wilderness wanderings, the fallen angels, and the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. In verse eleven, there is another triad, referring to Cain, Balaam, and Korah. Arrogance and rebellion would be two adjectives that describe the common thread in all six of these examples. Jude goes on to describe these false teachers as being like 'late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots.' It is very strong language.
    An illustration that I found helpful to understand why Jude uses such strong language is taken from a medical paradigm. If there was a global pandemic killing millions on a weekly basis, and the antidote for that pandemic became known and available to all, we would be delighted and determined to get that antidote out into the world. However, if we became aware that the manufacturers of that antidote were diluting it down to make personal gain, and that the diluted antidote was now ineffective, we would be very angry that a small number were making gains at the expense of other peoples lives.
    In the same way, Jude is angered that the false teachers are polluting the gospel and rendering it ineffective in peoples lives. Furthermore, they are doing so for personal gain. So, in verse sixteen, Jude refers to them as 'grumblers,and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.'
     Jude's reference to Cain, Balaam, and Korah is sobering. I'm not sure that they intended to go down their chosen pathways to destruction, but all three were enticed and ultimately trapped in the course of time by their own personal Achilles' heel.
    Cain's sin is a lack of brotherly love, and the Apostle John writes in his letters on the seriousness of this sin. So, in 1 John 2 v 9-10, we read:
' He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.'
     A lack of love would account for the instability and destructive nature of these teachers. Jesus spoke very openly about the need to love one another. One of the characteristics of false teachers is a lack of Christ like love for the Body of Christ. We can't say we love the Head without also loving the Body.
     Balaam's error is to see godliness as a means to financial gain. When there is a preoccupation with money and vested self interest, the warning signs should be noted. It is worth remembering that the foundational sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was not sexual immorality, but one of being 'arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy' ( Ezeikel 16 v 49 ). It was the over indulgent and idolatrous enjoyment of pleasures that then led them into the immorality that we more commonly associate them with.
     Korah and his followers had an attitude problem with Moses' leadership. They wanted to be preeminent. That is nothing new. John, in his third letter, refers to a character called Diotrephes who also wanted preeminence in the church. There is a divisive and unhealthy interest in being prominent that can characterize false teachers.
     Jesus said we would recognise a teacher and a prophet by the fruit in their character, and not on their doctrine alone ( Matt 7 v 15-30).   Towards the end of his letter, Jude gives another triad of characteristics that are associated with true spirituality. He exorts his readers to 'pray in the Holy Spirit, keep themselves in the love of God,and to look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring us into eternal life'.
     The foundation of who we are is the mercy and love of God. The false teachers that Jude is warning of are those who hanker after position, power and status. We have no right or claims to any of these things. We can however legitimately call on the Lord for mercy and love to prevail in our lives. With that foundation of mercy and love in our lives, the Lord will bestow privilege and honour....but it is His initiative to give that, not ours to ask for it. Let us keep on contending for the faith, and in so doing promote the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Signs and Wonders.

Signs and Wonders.

      'Signs reveal Jesus as God at work amongst us, but they also reveal how unready so many of us are to accept and embrace what is revealed and how contentious we can become when the God in heaven that we worship turns out to be involved in the details of our lives on this earth in ways that don't fit our misconceptions'.

                                         Eugene Peterson

        One of the popular paradigms for reading John's Gospel, is to look at the seven signs recorded by John that Jesus did, all of which reveal God at work in His creation. The signs are done in order to promote belief and faith in Jesus, as the 'Way, Truth and the Life'.
         In his book,'Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places', Peterson comments that 'Signs and wonders are.....'an essential part of the biblical story and it's continuation and out working in the Christian life; but out of context, apart from God's revelation of himself in Jesus, severed and then removed from their organic positionings in the intricate and detailed formation of God's people,they are simply things, miracle commodities that are bought and sold on the religious stock exchange'.
       The seven signs in John's Gospel are as follows:

1. Turning water into wine in Cana- John 2 v 1-11.

2. Healing of an official's son in Capernaum- John 4 v 46-54.

3. Healing of the paraplegic in Jerusalem- John 5 v 1-18.

4. Feeding of the 5000 in Galilee- John 6 v 1-15.

5. Stilling of the storm on the Lake of Galilee- John 6 16-21.

6. Healing of the man born blind in Jerusalem- John 9 v 1-41.

7. Raising of Lazarus from the dead at Bethany- John 11 v 1-54.

            There are a number of interesting issues raised, and I will touch on three:

1. Jesus is centre stage in all seven, and the signs are like a divine sword that seperates those who believe and those who reject the purposes of God for their lives. In the sign of the feeding of the 5000, many later choose to no longer follow Jesus. With the man born blind, the man is thrown out the synagogue, and disowned by his parents. After the raising of Lazarus, the plots to kill Jesus intensify. Despite seeing the official's son healed in Capernaum, Matthew would comment in his gospel, ' And you Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you'. Matt 11 v 23-24. Signs and wonders expose where our hearts are in relation to the author of those signs. Jesus is a sign spoken against,Luke 2 v 34-35, and to some he is the aroma of life, but to others the aroma of death. The man born blind not only received his sight, but came into a spiritual understanding of who Jesus is. That could not be said of his parents, who seem to be more concerned with appeasing the synagogue rulers, than they do delighting in their son' s healing and salvation.

2. It is interesting to note who and how Jesus approached in these signs. We are not given the names of the paraplegic, the royal official in Capernaum, or the man born blind. We are given Lazarus' name, and a reference to Andrew, and Peter in the feeding miracle. The Lord is concerned for the named and the unnamed, the known, and the unknown. The royal official would have had influence, the blind man and paraplegic no influence. The royal official may also have been a gentile, we are not told. Each is approached individually. All in their own way were bruised reeds . Lazarus a dead reed.Jesus had time and room for them all, but each of these signs is full of depth and meaning, that goes much further than the immediate manifestation of power. The loaves and fishes' sign is full of Old Testament imagery of Jesus being the ultimate fulfillment of the manna from heaven, the bread that came down as the bread of life. Lazarus' resurrection is a powerful sign pointing back to Ezeikel's vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, and of how God's Spirit can breathe life into dead bones. The paraplegic's thirty eight years as a cripple, carries allusions of the time that Israel spent wondering as a cripple in the wilderness. For those who had ears to hear, and eyes to see, it would have been very clear that Jesus was saying a lot more through each of these signs than simply the sign itself. They were signposts pointing to himself as the 'Way, the Truth, and the Life'. We need a reality of God's manifest power today to have that same effect. The signs point to the deeper and ultimately far greater questions of 'What are you going to do with Jesus? Who is he? Do you know him?'

3. It is interesting to see where these signs took place. A wedding, a home, a lakeside, on a lake, on a roadside, by a place of pilgrimage, and outside a tomb. Jesus brought the Kingdom of God into all areas of life. Not one of these signs were performed within the framework of synagogue meetings. The Lord is the Lord of all creation, and not just of our gathered meetings. One of the allusions in the seven signs of John's Gospel is to the seven days of creation recorded in Genesis. John has already introduced his gospel with clear echoes of Genesis 1 in the introduction. 'In the beginning was the Word....' and so on. These seven signs are creative miracles that remind us that God is still at work through His Son in His creation. Those in blindness can know the touch of Jesus, the light of the world, and can see again. The God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills has unlimited resources to get what He wants done in and through our lives. Death is swallowed up in life, and stale life can be transformed into the new life and wine of God's Kingdom. We could go on and on! We want to see more powerful acts of God in meetings and in life. Come Lord Jesus, and demonstrate through us your people who you really are into this world in which we are called to be your salt and light! Turn water into wine, transform dead crippled religious systems into life giving springs and rivers. Demonstrate you are no man's debtor, and that in you is more provision than we need. Powerfully demonstrate your victory over the sting of death, and breathe life into dead tombs. Hallelujah!

The Suffocation of the Church through Personality Cult.

The famous American artist Andy Warhol predicted back in the 1960's, that, I quote, 'In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes'. Towards the end of his life he was quoted as saying ''I'm bored with that line. I never use it anymore. My new line is 'In fifteen minutes everybody will be famous' "     With the explosion of multimedia and reality television, Warhol's vision of what he saw is closer than perhaps even he envisaged becoming a reality. Big Brother, Britain's Got Talent, and The Voice are three current media mechanisms that give opportunity for people to have their fifteen minutes of fame. Everyone gets the chance to be a famous personality.
    The personalities that run these shows have become cult figures in their own right. Men like Simon Cowell are given almost demi-god status by those appearing on his show. Sadly, so much of what we can see in these multimedia and reality television windows is mirrored in the church. In this multimedia age, the global church can be downloaded into my front room. We all have people that we admire and like to listen to, and there is nothing wrong with that.
      However, I have noticed a disturbing number of Christians who now talk about well known church leaders in terms and language that should only be used of our Lord Jesus Himself. I don't think this is necessarily intentional, and many of those leaders being admired are very good and godly role models. However, there are very real dangers of men and women being placed on a pedestal in believers lives that should be solely the place for Christ alone. I have attempted to list a number of principles we need to be aware of if we are to avoid the pitfall of worshiping the cult of Christian celebrity.

1. We can be blinded by a person's outward charisma. There is nothing wrong with having a larger than life personality, and some men and women have enormous charm and charisma. They are often delightful company, and can be wonderfully anointed people. However, it is the testimony of Jesus that should be left ringing in our ears and burning in our hearts.
  Honour the channel of that blessing and testimony, but never allow that channel to take the primary place of Christ in our heart. You may think that this is obvious, but even the apostle John got it spectacularly wrong on one occasion. In Revelation 19, John receives a wonderful revelation from God, mediated to him by an angel. He gets so caught up and excited that he falls at the feet of the angel to worship him. The angel had to correct him....'At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Revelation 19 v 10. If the apostle John can get it wrong, so can we. If John gets caught in the worship of celebrity angels, then how easy is it for us to get caught up in the worship of celebrity Christian leaders? Left uncorrected, we can drift into the worship of men. What is sobering about this passage, is that the revelation John had was authentic, supernatural, and glorious. However, he began to worship the channel of the blessing, rather than the source. We can experience amazing healings and know authentic touches from the Lord, and yet still be tempted, like John, to attribute more adoration to the channel of our blessing rather than to the source, who is God alone.

2. We need to remind ourselves that what is successful in God's eye is not always in line with how we see success. There is a subtle ABC of how to measure church success in the West. Attendance, Building, Cash. How big are you? How large and elaborate is your building? How much cash do you have? There is nothing necessarily wrong with being a rich, large church with a big building. In the right hands and with the right spirit, this can be of enormous value and blessing in the Kingdom of God. In the wrong hands and with the wrong spirit, it can bring enormous damage and devastation.
  In John 6, Jesus had no problem attracting a crowd, and no problem feeding that crowd with the help of five loaves and two fish. He equally had no problem dispersing the same crowd when turning up the heat on what it cost to follow Him. In John 6 v 53, Jesus says 'I tell you the truth, unless you can eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you'. Later on, in verse 66, we read that 'From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him'. Celebrity cults will often leave out the harder teachings of Jesus. They will win a crowd, and then keep that crowd by quite often teaching what their hearers want to hear-2 Timothy 4 v 3.

3. A local church may seem rather dull when compared to what is on offer in the global village church. However, the local expression is where we can invest meaningful time in our friendships and communities. It is where iron can sharpen iron in a meaningful and relational context. Talking through facebook and emails has its limitations. We may not have any celebrity members, but our friendships within the local family are God's gifts to us in our discipleship journey with him. Those friendships are like crystal glass, precious, expensive, and needing to be handled with care. When you need a shoulder to cry on, or a sounding board to reflect on, those crystal glasses in the local church are going to be your primary point of reference. Enjoy the authentic ministries that God has raised up on an international stage, but they are no substitute for the iron sharpening iron reality of local church friendships.

4. A correct culture of honour becomes one of dishonour when we attribute a place of authority in our lives to men, that should only be given to the Lord. We are the Lord's servant first, and only secondly the servant of men. The church in Berea are a wonderful role model in this. The apostle Paul was one of the big names of his day. His reputation would have gone before him as he came to Berea and preached the gospel. How did the Bereans respond to Paul's message? They 'received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true'..Acts 17 v 11. They put everything Paul said under the discipline of the Scriptures. We are the Lord's servant first. We test everything we receive on the litmus paper of the Bible. It doesn't matter how famous a person may be, or what reputation they have. The Lord is our reference point. Everything is to be tested with him. I find it alarming some of the things being said in the evangelical church today, and even more alarmingly how easily those things are received because they are coming from a celebrity cult leader. When we receive error into our lives, we become spiritually polluted, and that pollution spreads to others. In the end, heresy and error left uncorrected will suffocate those who live under it.

5. A definition of idolatry is the reconstruction of God in our own image, legitimising things we want to practice or admire. When we worship celebrity, we are really worshipping those things we either admire in ourselves, or would love to see become part of ourselves. There are times when an appreciation of a person's ministry can slide into idolatry. We can become wrongly attached to people in public profile, even referring to them in familiar first name terms, and yet we have never even spoken to them, let alone know them personally. We no longer pray for that person, or test what they are saying, because we have come to a place where we consider them to be near infallible. Sadly when some of these leaders fall, we may have indirectly contributed to their fall by not being vigilant watchmen over their lives. When we are talking about a person all the time, and that person becomes the only plumbline that we measure others by, we are in the amber warning zone. We need a plurality of ministries inputting into our lives,hopefully complementary ones, and several of them from the real world of our local church and friendship groups. Like the Berean Church, we also test everything on the plumbline of the Scriptures. It is the testimony of Jesus that is the spirit of authentic ministry.