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Bluetree - God of this City

Prayer really works

I have been thinking a lot about prayer recently. My time at Moyallon Camp was bathed in prayer. We didn’t do anything without praying about it. There was thanksgiving for things that had happened and prayers of petition for what was coming up. We prayed at every meal time, we prayed before the speaker spoke, we prayed in small groups.

Moyallon Camp is like this every year but this year I was very struck by it. I thought about how much prayer was part of the apostle Paul’s ministry, such as in his letter to the Ephesians…

Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for Christians everywhere, I have never stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people. I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 1:15-20)

I was reminded of my need to pray for others but also my need to ask others to pray for me. We can feel connected to each other through God by prayer. I also resolved to tell people when I am praying for them as a way of encouraging them.

I have also felt God has been reminding me about the prayers he has answered in my life over the last couple of months. I must be thankful to God for these times and celebrate them as God being involved in my life. I am reminded particularly about my job situation. My temporary contract was to run out on 31st July and there was no job for me to take on at the airport. So, I prayed, the more I prayed the more I felt God was calling me to pray specifically for people at the airport who might be able to help. And, all of sudden one of those people offered me a new contract for another 6 months, a position that has pretty much been created for me and has increased pay and responsibility with it. I see it as a miracle of God, I know that it only happened because God wanted it to happen, there is no earthly reason for it to happen.

So, I continue to pray and pray more because I know God is listening and I know he answers and I know how connected to God and others we can feel through prayer.

Praying for camp

It’s nearly time for Moyallon Camp again. I am getting quite excited for camp this year. My anticipation of what God will do there is based on my experience of God moving among people at camp in amazing ways ever since I first went to Moyallon Camp. Quakers aren’t supposed to see some places as holier than others but Moyallon really seems to be a place where God’s presence can be felt more easily and in a very real way. I look forward to seeing the campers make these Divine connections whether it be for the first time or the hundredth time.

One of the things that is so important about camp is to pray for it. I have spent some time in vocal prayer for camp over the last couple of weeks and I believe in what I have been praying for. That people would feel touched by the transforming power of Christ, that lives would be changed because of God’s love for each one of us. I’ve been praying particularly for the leaders at camp because they can play a major part in pointing campers towards Jesus by their example.

I have experienced many answers to prayer over the last month or so, in relation to my job, in relation to our wedding plans, in relation to people I have been praying for. So, prayer really works and I look forward to the prayer meeting each morning at camp that sets you up for a day centred on God.

“Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart” (Col 4:2)

Follow the Lord your God

My daily Bible reading notes have taken me to the book of Joshua, one of my favourite books in the Old Testament. I have got as far as Chapter 3 and I was admiring the intention of the Israelites to follow God directly despite the strong leaders they had from Moses and Aaron and then Joshua. The children of Israel are instructed in verse 3 to follow the ark of the convenant across the River Jordan into the promised land. They were not told to follow Joshua across even though he was God’s appointed leader, they were told to follow the ark which was where God met with Moses to give him instructions for the children of Israel (Exodus 25:22) so symbolised where God dwelt to the Israelites.

This is a reminder to me to not base what I believe and what I do on any person no matter how holy they are or how Godly their message seems, I still need to directly follow God. Of course other people are very important in that walk with God as they can help me along the right path but it is God who is leading me, others are just companions and encouragers on the journey. No one is without sin, apart from Jesus who’s prefect life, death and resurrection I am called to strive toward. Ithas to be Jesus who is my example in life not any other person who cannot achieve that perfection.

Visiting the Vineyard

Yesterday my fiance and I went to the Belfast City Vineyard Church for the first time. Some friends of ours go there and it’s about a ten minute walk from my flat so a visit there was long overdue. It’s all part of a quest to find a good congregation that we can feel comfortable in and that will help us in our relationship with God individually and together. Since I returned from London I haven’t felt fully part of a meeting or church, I’ve been going to Joy’s church in Moira but it’s quite a commute on a Sunday morning. So everytime I go to a different church I ask myself “Is this somewhere I could go every week?”

My first impressions of Belfast City Vineyard were that I could see myself going there every week. The first thing that struck me was the average age was much lower than any church I’ve been involved in, it’s so encouraging to be with lots of people of a similar age to you who are going through the same issues in life as you and trying to follow God’s calling through issues in the same way you are.

The Senior Pastors and Associate Pastor were all young as well, the Senior Pastors being a married couple. The Pastor had a really good way about him, he presented the Truth as he understood it but not in a way that suggested that it was the only way of looking at it or that his thoughts and research on the topic were somehow exhaustive and final. The worship was great too, I believe it differs from week to week but this week it was a simple guitar/singer, bass and bongo drum that really invited the individual to experience God’s presence and praise him rather than being a show or being distracted by the band.

Joy and I were quite surprised to see that the sermon was about marriage! God really had led us to be there yesterday so we could hear some insight into God’s plan for marriage generally and seek to live more in God’s plan for our own relationship. We even got the opportunity to be prayed for which was so valuable. I recommitted myself to praying for Joy and praying for our relationship more.

So, it was great to be there, and I could see myself going there again. there are a couple of other congregations in Belfast I hope to visit over the summer so I’ll try to blog on those as well. I pray that Joy and I will find the congregation that allows us to live that abundant life that Jesus has for us to the fullest.

I'd rather be a name in heaven than a name on earth

I heard a sermon recently on the story of the Rich man and Lazarus that Jesus tells and is recorded in Luke 16:19-31. It is a really powerful message from Jesus about what happens after we die and how what we do now affects that.

In the passage Lazarus is a beggar who lies at the rich man’s gate hoping for a few scraps from his table. The rich man is painted as a high society gentleman who only wears the finest clothes and hosts banquets every night for the great and the good. But both the rich man and Lazarus die, Lazarus is taken up to heaven and the rich man sent to hades to be in torment. This is not a story about how beggars go to heaven and rich people go to hell, it is about how your priorities on earth determine what will happen after you die. The rich man wanted to be loved by the people around him, he wanted them all to be impressed by his huge wealth and he squandered it on fine clothes, food and drink and wouldn’t even give a scrap to a poor beggar at his gate, let alone spend any of his money on the kingdom of God.

One of the things that really struck me about the story was how the rich man had no name, he was described as “a certain rich man”. Whereas Lazarus is named. As the pastor said in his message everyone in that town would have known the rich man’s name and no one would have known Lazarus. But when it came to death God personally sent his angels to take away Lazarus, and the rich man was suddenly lonely and nameless. The rich man wanted for nothing on earth became a beggar in death and the beggar in life experienced the full richness of God after death. I know which person I would rather be in this story.

I'm Engaged!

The good news with me is that I asked my wonderful girlfriend (now fiance) Joy to marry me and she said “yes!” It’s so great, I’m really enjoying being engaged and can’t wait to start planning a brilliant wedding and then getting to spend the rest of my life with Joy! One of the best parts of getting engaged has been phoning round lots of family and friends to tell them, lots of excited reactions. It’s also been fun referring to Joy as my fiance, makes me chuckle every time I say it!

Proverbs 5:15 says “Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you”. Joy has already been a fountain of blessing to me and I know that fountain of blessing will continue to grow as God brings us closer together. I also have to try to be a fountain of blessing in Joy’s life, to love, encourage and strengthen her. What an exciting challenge that is!

Come as you are

I was at a meeting yesterday where I heard two friends, Maurice and Joyce McDonagh speaking on Mark 5:21-43. In this passage a local synagogue leader called Jairus comes to Jesus because his daughter is dying, he asks Jesus to come to his house and place his hands on her so she would live. As Jesus is heading for Jairus’ house, a woman who has been hemorraghing for 12 years sneaks through the crowd and touches Jesus clothes and she is immediately healed. Jesus, feeling healing power go out of him stops to find out who the woman is. The woman fell at Jesus feet and he says to her, “your faith has made you well, go in peace you have been healed.” By the time all this happens Jairus’ daughter is already dead. But Jesus still goes to the house brings her back to life.

Maurice and Joyce said many good things about this story but something they touched on that really spoke to me was how different the two approaches to Jesus were. One, Jairus, was a man of high standing, a leader in the synagogue. He had much to loose by going to Jesus, many of his fellow Jews particularly the Jewish leaders would not have approved of him going to Jesus. Of course he could have lost his daughter had he not gone to Jesus but he had a lot of other things to loose by going. It doesn’t say what happened to him after this, perhaps he lost his job. The other person, the hemorraghing woman had tried everything to stop her bleeding, spending everything she had on doctors bills and, it says, this only made her bleeding worse. She has nothing to loose by going to Jesus. But both had the common element of faith in Jesus. They both believed Jesus could and would heal.

In the modern day one of the people could be a respectable high flying stock broker with a fancy house and fancy car, the other an alcoholic who had lost their job and been disowned by their family. Both need the transforming healing power of Jesus which can be theirs if they just believe.

Jesus wants us to come to him as we are. We are all broken people in a broken world. Jesus wants us to come to him whether we have much to loose or nothing to loose. The most important thing is that we believe in Him and what he has done for us. No matter who you are or who you think you are, there is so much more to gain than to loose by asking Jesus into your heart. I love these two parables in Matthew (ch13:44-46) that point to how precious the salvation of Jesus is.

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field – and to get the treasure, too!

“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a pearl merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!

I am thankful to Maurice and Joyce for this reminder of Jesus love for us and desire for an intimate relationship with each one of us.

Running

I have been inspired by a few people this week who have been running. My girlfriend Joy was in a relay team who ran the Belfast City Marathon between five of them. I’ve been doing some running with her in the build up and it’s been really good fun and a good and cheap way of keeping fit. I was struck by how psychological running is, you have to be mentally prepared to keep running even when your legs feel tired or you’re out of breath. A couple of other friends ran the entire marathon and to do that you really do have to believe you can keep going for 26 miles because you’re body will be telling you from an early stage you shouldn’t be doing it!!

I was quite inspired to have a go at a marathon myself, we’ll see how long my enthusiasm lasts. I think it would be a real achievement and it’s a great way of raising money for worthy causes.

There are lots of biblical references comparing life to running a race, I’ve put a few in at the bottom. How you live life and enjoy life has a lot to do with how you are feeling as well. People will always say you can’t do things but if you choose to ignore them and believe you can do something then you just might succeed, if you believe the people who say you can’t do it and don’t try you will never know if you could have succeeded. There are many examples of missionaries who went to particular areas and were told they would never succeed. However, God told them they would succeed so they stuck at it and many churches grew up because they were running God’s race not man’s.

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31

“Remember that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize. You also must run in such a way that you will win.” I Corinthians 9:24

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.” Hebrews 12:1