Lost in wonder Lost in worship

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Prayer & preaching...

Preaching has to be birthed God's Word which is of great importance. We need to recognise that preaching can have an effect on people - this is why it is so important that preparation and the preaching itself is saturated in prayer.
I have been following a series about preaching in prayer on John Brand's Preaching blog & you can follow it if you click here

Be glad always!

Spotted this gem in Romans 12. I was reading Romans 12 in the new living translation and verses 12 hit me:

"Be Glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble and always prayerful" (Romans 12:12, NLT)

There are all attributes we need to have in all circumstances. I am be glad however events turn out. I am to be patient even with any kind of trouble. I need to always be inj the spirit of prayer.

The Price is Paid!

We stand in the court room wating for the judge to pass verdict. But the verdict that comes through is that price is paid, somebody has already gone through the sentence for you.
This is the message of Romans 8:1 - there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. This means the slate is clean. We can boldly come into the presence becuase of Jesus did for us on the cross.

Re understanding Prayer

Hey I have finnally completed the final pages of the book [re] understanding prayer Prayer written by Kyle Lake. As I have already noted in a previous post - the writer is a learner. and when he say he is re-understand he is not seeking to introduces us to a new technique or anything special like that. But just the real sense that so often we may well get stale and need to discover afresh prayer.
The heart of the book and the ultimatlely the message is summed up in the subtitle is "A Fresh approach to conversation with God". It is so easy to use churchy words in prayer such as "Bless" "lead, guide direct" "Repent". It is suggested here that it not about how many good theological words you may be able to fit into your prayer. Prayer is about a conversation and here is a quote from Lake:

"The essence of the conversation, though is altogether different.
It means you step into a dialogue not entirely knowing how the conversation will end or where the road will take you. It involves thoughts and feelings that are present in the moment. Intrinsic to true conversation are qualtities like silence, listening, truthfulness, and presence. They are no generated responses designed to sound spiritual. If so, we ask ourselves, who or what are we selling to God? Cars?" (p132)

We enter into this continued conversation (prayer) by faith not neccessary knowing what the outcome it will be.
Lake really says that prayer is not just what we utter - it is a lifestyle - it wouldnt be fair just for us to compartmentalize God into our schedules. Lake also says this about a conversation of prayer:

"If we want more from our lives with God, we could forge new
territory. Terrain that's not covered. We could allow prayer to
develop fully into what it's already becoming - fluid, seamless, open ended conversation that threads our day." (P161)

This devotional encouraged me afresh about prayer and need to be living day to day conversing with God.

Prayer in Busy days

I was dipping into a book entitled In Green Pastures a classic devotional written by JR Miller where he gives wee gems for each day of the year. The following is the entry for January 5 entitled "Prayer in Busy Days" on page 13:

"It is prayer that God shows his face to his children, that they have visions of his beauty and glory, that the things of his love come down as gifts into their likeness. If you would be blessed, get many seasons of prayer into your busy harrassed, tempted struggling life. It is in these quite moments that you really grow. Somewhere in every vexed, feverish day get a little 'silent time' for prayer. It will bring heaven down into your heart and make you strong for service." In Green
Pastures

So often we need that quiet moment in a busy day to recharge our batteries!

Law Gives Freedom Part 2

Over the past few days, we have been looking at a passage which for me in one word speaks about obedience! Being obedient in prayer is a good quality to have. This one phrase "The law give freedom" tells us what happens if we choose to obey this perfect law. We will know freedom! There is one or two New Testament passages which speak about obeying the law.

Matthew 7:24
"Therefore everyone who hears these word of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock".

Romans 8:1-2
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Lord set me from the from the law of sin and death."

Law gives freedom part 1

"But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continue to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does." James 1:25


We have spoken about hearing and responding and this is what happening in our daily communication with the Lord. The passage here in James 1 talks about the law which gives freedom and the same phrase is repeated later on in James (James 2:12). When the law is spoken of in the new Testament we often think of the legalism of the pharisees. This is the negative side of the law. But take heart there is also a positive side of the law - the law gives freedom. If we start out in the Old Testament we see this.

Exodus 19:7-8
So Moses went back and summoned the people and set before them all the words the Lord had given him to speak. The people all responded together, "We will do everything the LORD has said" So Moses brought their answer back to the LORD.

Psalm 19:7
"The law of the Lord is perfect reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are turstworthy, making the wise simple."

For me, Psalm 19 helps me to understand this phrase "Law gives freedom".
The law of the Lord is not legalistic but indeed is refreshment for our souls! In obeying God, there is freedom.

What does this phrase mean to you?

The inspection of the mirror

"And remember it is a message to obey and not just to listen to. If you dont obey you are only fooling around. For if you just listen and dont obey, it is like looking at your face in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance. You see yourself, walk away and forget what you look like."
James 1:22-24

James like using little proverbs such as this one looking in the mirror but not doing anything to change your appearance. This couple of verses help us to unpack what the previous verse has said. It is also gives us a bit of a break by using an everyday experence to get the point accross.

Change has to happen and the questions we often ask:

What do I look like?
Having observed, how can I change to this or that?

Prayer: Lord we pray that you change us to reflect you more and more as we await your second coming.

Respond to what you hear

"So get rid of all the filfth and evil in your lives and humbly accept the message God has planted in your hearts. For it is strong enough to save your souls."

The previous verse has spoken about listening - listening to God! But is what is God saying? But we cannot come to his presence knowing that moral fiflth is so preevalent in our lives. This is what James is telling us. This means that a clean up has to take place. We need to get rid of all the filth.
Getting rid of the filth we need to humbly accept God's word. If we have heard and read God's how do we respond, do we respond by humbly accepting God's word?

James & listen...

"My Dear Brothers & sisters, be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to get angry, Your anger can never make things right in God's sight?" James 1:19-20

Listen....

It is often said we were given two ears and one mouth for a reason yet so often we speak more.

Listen...

Listening is skill which we use in every day life

Listen....

Listening is something we need to do in prayer

Listen...

If we listen more, we speak less and get angry less

Listen...

We need so often to speak less and listen afresh to the small voice of God

Listen...

Our anger will not make us right before God

Listen...

Rewind back to James

Hoping to dip back into James again over the course of this month in particular with the theme of prayer in mind. To follow old post on James - please follow the label James at the bottom of this post.

Reunderstanding Prayer

I still have this book by Kyle Lake entitled [re] understanding Prayer waiting to be read. But having a rough glance at the book I note that Kyle acknowleges that he is an amateur in prayer. Having read Philip Yancey's book on prayer, he would say the same thing. Writing about prayer, I would say the same, I dont thing I will ever be able to make the claim "I have mastered prayer". We will always go about with our learner plates.

How do we learn? We take time to sit like a babe growing up learning to communicate for the first time.

Happy New year

Happy new year and all the best for 2007.
I now have another blog which will have a more general theme than this blog. I have found over the past couple of months there is one or two trhings I have wanted to post about but dont quite fit into the blog.
This blog will continue with a prayer theme but you are welcome to follow the new blog entitled Lost in Wonder, Lost in worship a theme that I have been look at here over the advent period.