Wait on The Lord

Recently at Mittagong Anglican Church we had a Moore College mission come for a week.

On the second Sunday of the mission, immediately before the last service of the day at 6pm, one of the students came up to me and said that he had been praying with a group before the previous service when he felt God give him 'a word' for me.

He said this usually wasn't his thing. I said to him in a sigh of exhaustion, 'Is it bad?' He said 'No!' and then quoted these verses from the Bible:

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:28-31

I found this greatly encouraging just a few seconds before I led the last service of the mission. It had been terribly exhausting over the week and I had felt beforehand as if I had no physical or emotional strength left to keep it all together. God was gracious and kind to remind me of that verse.

About 10 days later I was reading through Satisfy Your Soul by Bruce Demarest when I was stopped in my tracks by this passage from the book:

Have you ever wondered what it means to 'wait on the Lord'? I suggest that it is akin to practising the presence of God. Isaiah declares, 'Those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. they will fly high on wings like eagles. they will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint' (Isaiah 40:31).

So I have been really thinking hard and praying to 'wait on the Lord'. Since the mission finished I have still not recovered. I feel enormously exhausted still even 10 days later, especially emotionally.

New strength from God awaits.

The 12 Stones

Hi, nice to talk to you again. It's been too long.

I've learnt a lot from God since we last were together (always grateful to God for that). Can I share some?

1) In 1 Samuel 3 is the story of when God first spoke to Samuel the prophet (and Israel itself again, after God's previous long absence from speaking during the time of Eli the prophet). Samuel hears God, and then at the end of 1 Samuel 3 the narrative says,

And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground (1 Samuel 3:19).

That last phrase - and let none of his words fall to the ground - God really hit me with that. I've been praying for that for myself, the ministry team here, and the Moore College mission team that's been at Mittagong this week. How awful that the words I speak could fall to the ground. May God keep them all off it.

2) The 12 stones - from Joshua 4:2-20 - placed by Joshua as a way of remembering God - ultimately that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever (Joshua 4:24). Again, hit me between the eyes and made me take the picture above.

3) I've been entranced by the idea of Christian spiritual formation. What a horrible phrase. It's otherwise known as Christian spirituality or Christian formation. Again, these are all horrible names. Basically it's just the idea of daily Christian living. Living in Christ in his fullness and what that looks like.

So, I've been reading Henri Nouwen, Dallas Willard, Bruce Demarest, Eugene Peterson and Marva Dawn. May I strongly recommend any of these writers. Check them on Google books. I think it's what's been missing from my Christian life and education: simply what Christian living looks like and thinks like and acts like.

Jesus as KING as well as SAVIOUR is what I hope to pass on to others in my preaching and speaking. May God continue the transformation.

Blossoming

Nice to be back blogging. I've been pondering life in the Christian community of late. At Mittagong we've been looking at parts of 1 Corinthians, and I've preached on the Lord's Supper and spiritual gifts. Both require a community of believers - the Lord's Supper is shared in community, and spiritual gifts are for the community; they can't really be properly identified without the Christian community.

We truly blossom when we connect to a community of believers!

Preaching and the Positive Mind

My preaching is an evolving animal - it is still developing and forming. They say the first year of full-time ministry is a year of preaching experimentation for the young minister!

I have been inspired recently to preach positively - at least as much as the context of the bible passage I have on the day will allow.

Some reflections on this:

My first minister as a Christian, Richard Quadrio, said to us once to always preach grace, not guilt. Guilt, he said, is always a 'too easy' default.

Guilt doesn't achieve anything. Lots of sermons follow this route:

• This is what God says in this passage
• You should do this
• You are not doing it
• Try harder

Sure, God can work within this pattern of preaching. But this gives so little motivation for real change. Also, it tends to focus attention more on us than God.

People are motivated to do what God says when they hear how loving and how good God is, not just how bad we are. Guilt brings on bad feelings with no hope for change. Preaching grace brings hope and desire to change because God is so good.

I keep reading quotes such as this:

Preach with such life and awakening seriousness...and with such easy method and with such variety of wholesome matter that the people may never be weary of you. Pour out the rehearsal of the love and the benefits of God, open so to them the privileges of faith, the joys of hope, that they may never be hungry. (Swinnock, The Christian Man's Calling, 3:905)

One of my mentors, David Miles (a wonderful preacher and example of grace-filled preaching) recommended the book Preaching and the Positive Mind by P T Forsyth, which deals with this subject. I am about to read it. With the link you can read it with me!

With thanks to I Love a Sunny Day who wrote some of this post.

Mist

"I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you."

Isaiah 44:22

Don't Take This Drug

Was listening to the second lecture of a series called 'Public Faith in a Postmodern World' this morning (Miroslav Volf).

Three reasons for an idle Christian faith:

1. The character of believers - faith demands so much that they pick and choose (like leaving the broccoli uneaten on the dinner plate but eating the potatoes)

2. Old faith - born in particular circumstances - seems mute when facing new issues (such as the environment and nuclear energy)

3. When one is constrained by systems in which one lives and works - one feels one must obey the logic and rules of the systems rather than the Christian faith one embraces

And the drug reference? Volf suggests that God can be seen as a performance-enhancing drug...being used for improving performance when we need it only, rather than influencing our entire lives for him.

East of Eden

At Mittagong we have just finished a series on Genesis 1-11.

Preparing for the last talk on Genesis 11/12, I noticed in passing some little detail I had passed over before:

The people keep moving east throughout Genesis (Adam and Eve are banished forever from Eden to the east; Cain is sent to wander east in the land of Nod; the people eventually keep moving eastwards to the plain of Shinar in Genesis 11; I grew up in the eastern suburbs?- joke here!) - it's a way of saying that the people are slowly moving further away from God's presence.

• There's constant reference to the ground and humanity's relationship to it - an interesting theme to survey in the Bible from Genesis onwards
• Genesis 12:1-3 is a real irony compared to Genesis 11. In Genesis 11 people want to be a great nation, make a name for themselves and be united - they do it without God and fail spectacularly! In Genesis 12:1-3, God chooses Abram and promises (you guessed it) to make Abram into a great nation, make his name great and make him a blessing for all peoples on Earth! And God's promises come to pass.
• It's the great I AM (God) behind the 'I am' (us)!

The Water of Life

It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Revelation 21:6-7

Immediately

I've been reading through the Gospel of Mark of late. In Mark 5 is the story of Legion, the multi-possessed naked man who no-one was stong enough to subdue.

I noticed this time around this verse:

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. Mark 5:6

There's an immediacy to Legion's reaction to the one person - Jesus - with the power to defeat him.

Not only does Legion recognize Jesus' power - from a distance - but Legion also immediately runs up to him in dramatic submission. It's a powerful recognition of Jesus' authority.

So - for those who would challenge Jesus' authority...as the picture above shows...

DUCK!