Matt Chandler Update

The latest news about Pastor Matt Chandler can be read on the Village Church’s website.

Keep praying.

Praying for the city

seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare Jeremiah 29:7

I spent this evening along the path you can see in the picture above, with members of all the CU small groups from the various halls of residence, praying for the city of Edinburgh.

It was really great. I don’t have much more to say, other than I really enjoyed it.

I was challenged that this is my city now, that I need to pray more in general but particularly for it, the people and my friends who live here. It may not mean as much to me yet as Aberdeen did/does but God’s got me here for a reason.

I hope we’ll be able to go up again some time.

The Next Level of Prayer: Social Media

The Next Level of Prayer: Social Media – ChurchCrunch .

This would be like combining two of my favourite things!

The power of social media in prayer is that it brings your prayer event to the online community, which knows no geographical boundaries. My people here from a relatively small church in the country of Ohio were exhilarated by praying for people in far away places who are doing great things for God.

Twitter and Facebook took our prayer vigil to the next level by connecting us to the global Body of Christ.

Follow the link for the full story.

Praying Together

No matter what objections there may be to prayer together, it simply could not be any other way. Christians may and should pray together to God in their own words when they desire to live together under the Word of God. They have requests, gratitude and intercessions to bring in common to God, and they should do so joyfully and confidently. All our fear of one another, all our inhibitions about praying freely in our own words in the presence of others, can diminish where the common prayer of the community is brought before God by one of its members with dignity and simplicity. Likewise, however, all our observations and criticisms should cease whenever weak words of prayer are offered in the name of Jesus Christ. It is infact the most normal thing in our common Christian life to pray together. As good and useful as our scruples may be about keeping prayer pure and biblical, they must never the less not stifle the free prayer itself that is so necessary, for it has been endowed with great promise by Jesus Christ.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together p.69

Scriptorium

Today I spent a couple of hours in the prayer room in the city centre (http://www.247prayeraberdeen.org/).

It was great. Just to take a some time out and focus entirely on God – something that has been missing in my life recently.

The first station is the Scriptorium, where people are encouraged to copy out a passage of scripture so that by the end of the two weeks there will be copies of Genesis, Isaiah and the Psalms fully handwritten by the people of Aberdeen.

I love this idea! I sat down with Isaiah and started at the middle of chapter 62 where the previous person had left off. This is a brilliant way of making yourself really read what the Scripture says. As you write you can’t just brush over parts or rush through bits, each and every word must run through your mind and you are forced to consider the implications of each sentence.

A couple of verses in particular stood out for me, Isaiah 62:10-12 (The Message):

Walk out of the gates. Get going! 
   Get the road ready for the people.
Build the highway. Get at it! 
   Clear the debris, hoist high a flag, a signal to all peoples!
Yes! God has broadcast to all the world: 
   ”Tell daughter Zion, ‘Look! Your Savior comes,
Ready to do what he said he’d do, 
   prepared to complete what he promised.’”
Zion will be called new names: Holy People, God-Redeemed, 
   Sought-Out, City-Not-Forsaken.

I really felt the need to pause over these verses and felt that God was speaking to me about the Church of Scotland and the events of the past week. 

My initial reaction to the outcome of Saturday’s debate was shock, which became anger and then pain. For more than a moment I considered walking away from the CoS when it came to finding a new church in September. It seemed that God had abandoned us; and we – the CoS – had certainly abandoned him. I couldn’t understand why God would let such things happen and was ready to jump on the Fellowhip of Confessing Churches/ Free Church move band wagon. 

But in these verses God has given me hope.

Jesus told Peter that he would build the Church “upon this rock I will build my church and all the powers of hell will not conquer it” (Matt 16:18). God keeps His promises, always. And, even though it might seem that the complete opposite is happening, God will not let his church be conquered. He will return, He will bring justice, He will redeem the church that now seems so forgotten. It is not forsaken.

And only He can rescue it: not us, never us. Ephesians 16:12 says: “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” We can’t win that battle and we certainly won’t have victory in the war. Our task is to stand firm. As we studied Revelation over the past few months this came up time and again: God’s people didn’t go on the attack but were called to be faithful and maintain integrity:

• Revelation 3:8 You have little strength yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me.
• Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was angry at the woman and declared war against the rest of her children – all who keep God’s commandments and maintain their testimony for Jesus.
• Revelation 13:10 God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently and remain faithful.

We are told to prepare the road and raise the flag – to show the way to Jesus, and make sure His name is declared and God’s Word lifted high within this land.

So, in three verses and twenty minutes, God said all that!

What’s He said to you in the past few days?

Pray for your blog

I was reading John Saddington’s article on his blog Church Crunch and was a little taken aback by his last point: pray for your blog.

I might rant about prayer all the time but I had never ever thought about this. 

It does make sense though: if I want this blog to honour God, I ought to be praying about it.

Do you about your blog and what you post?

The Lord’s Prayer – Our Father

Jesus taught us how to pray. It’s all there in Matthew 5:9-13. And it all starts with 

Our Father

It’s not often two simple, common place words can have such power.

Jesus prays to God, addressing him as father 60 times in the gospels. God is Abba: Dad.

I love that. God, creator and sustainer of all the universe, is my Dad in Heaven. A perfect, flawless, sinless Father.

I’m blessed witha a great dad – who I know loves me and would do anything for me, who supports me though he doesn’t always understand me, who provides for me, forgives me, comforts me, trusts me – but he is still imperfect (sorry, dad). I think the great relationship I have with my dad (though it hasn’t always been so wonderful) is one of the reasons I can relate to this aspect of who God is/ this way of identifying Him.

When Faye asked the children at Kidsplus tonight what the perfect Dad is like they came up with some great words: perfect, loving, kind, caring, provides, comforts, listens, teaches . . . there were more but I forget – they were really good though!! And God is all these things and so much more. Faithful, patient, strong, compassionate, slow to anger, ready to discipline. And so much more again.

He brings us up, teaching us, helping us from tiny little wobbly steps where He has to hold us up to when we’re ready to go it alone just holding His hand for guidance and seurity. Sometimes we need to cry and hurt and He’s there to comfort and hold as we battle with Him. Sometimes we need to wrap our arms around Him and cling on for dear life. When we fall down He picks us up, brushes us off and sets us back on our feet. His love is unconditional. 

God is Dad. It means we can come to Him in prayer because He wants to hear, He wants to be involved in the tiniest details and most giant decisions, He wants to speak to us and He wants to help us.

And He’s not just my Dad, or your Dad, He’s our Dad. We are united, one people under God, a family under their Father.

I seriously suggest listening to Mark Driscoll’s sermon on the Lord’s Prayer – he puts it so much better than any of these posts ever will.

24-7 Prayer Aberdeen

http://www.247prayeraberdeen.org/

it’s exciting!!!

Oh the power of the interweb!!

Pray for Holiday Club

Only a few months till the church’s annual holiday club!! It’s grown a lot since it’s humble beginnings with a few primary school kids: now we’ve got 120 children, a youth programme, a parents cafe and this year there’ll be a couple of other new things to add to the programme too. All this could only, of course, have come about by the grace and power of God who has blessed and equipped us beyond what we could imagine. It’s an honour to be a part of all of it and to be a part of this opportunity to impact our community in this way.

We can’t do it without God though which is why it is so important to give it over to Him in prayer and this year I’m in charge of organising prayer!!

First thing you can do is bookmark the Holiday Club Prayer Twitter page. You don’t have to sign up to be able to view it which is very handy as I aim to update it everyday with something to pray for – from meetings that are being held, decisions being made, the kids, their families and the programme. We’ll also be updating it regularly through the week of holiday club so people not able to be there can know what’s going on and be praying for it all – we’re all in this together!

I’ll also be putting prayer points in the weekly notice sheet and out via the email prayer list.

There’ll be a few evening in the lead up to the week for Painting and Prayer (and possibly Pizza!) I’m in charge of set and hall decoration too so will be combining these for some great nights of fellowship and worship in preparation.

During the week of Holiday Club there’ll be a prayer space – not sure if it’ll be on the bus or in a tent yet – where people are free to drop by and pray for everything that’s going on. Anyone can come by for five minutes, thirty minutes, an hour, maybe more if you have the time (!!). It’ll be great!!

I’ve been listening to Mark Driscoll’s sermon series “Pray like Jesus” and have been struck by what he says the prupose of prayer is. We come before God rightly expecting Him to answers our petitions (though His answer could be yes, no or later) but more often the purpose of prayer isn’t to move God’s heart but to change our own. In spending time with God He is able to change and mould us to come into line with his will. So I issue a challenge to myself and the rest of the team and congregation: let’s pray for Holiday Club Week, expecting to be answered but also expecting to be changed that God might use us even more effectively.

Pray like Jesus

One of the joys of my new iPod is finally being able to listen to podcasts on it.

Some of the first that I’ve downloaded are sermons by Mars Hill teaching Pastor Mark Driscoll from his series last year Pray like Jesus. 

I’ve only listened to the first one so far but would highly recommend it for some challenging and encouraging teaching on prayer.

Search it on iTunes Podcasts or watch them on the Mars Hill website here.

24hr Prayer and fasting – complete

It’s all over. After all that build up it’s been and gone already. 

It was a long night of very little sleep (think I got about 2 hours) but totally worth it. A lot of the time in the prayer room I wasn’t actually saying much to God, just sitting, contemplating, thinking. Sometimes something would come to mind and I’d write it on the walls or I would talk to God about it. Most of the time I was just enjoying the peace and sense of God’s presence. 

I was somewhat taken aback me everybody’s response. They keep tell me that I did a great job but I just put soem stuf in a room: God put it on people’s hearts to pray and brought them to the room. It was His work and He’ll continue to do the work as He answers prayers and works in hearts. 

My prayer and belief is that this is only the beginning; that God has great plans for the prayer life of our church and that from this 24hrs, seeds that were planted will grow and be harvested. I don’t know what God was doing in people’s hearts, only they can tell you that, but He will continue that. We might not see huge changes immediately, God works in His own time, but I was told that this was a significant event in the life of our church and I believe that to be true.

Praise God who hears our prayers, answers our petitions and speaks to us too.

24hr Prayer – 14 hours in

I can’t put into words what’s going on in there. It’s incredible. It’s not loud or brash, but quite subtle and gentle. God is there. Speaking in the quiet, moving hearts and minds. I’ve got a lot to think about, to do, to plan for but it just dissapears – the sense of peace is overwhelming. In that room all sense of time dissapears too – I can’t believe it’s been fourteen hours! 

There have been a lot of people in: those I expected and those I didn’t, those who appreciate all the creative stuff and those who are happier just sitting at the side, but they’ve all come and I’m sure would all say they’ve met with God.

Six of us are sleeping over tonight to cover the full twenty four hours. If you could pray for us as we do so, that we’d have the energy required and that God would speak to us in the still small hours. I’m really looking forward to my slot.

“my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great ‘Amen!’ from countless angels, from hero’s of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.” (Pete Greig, The Vision)

(And, by the way, I’m more than a wee bit hungry!)

24 Hour Prayer

After a week of stressing and worrying, 24 hours prayer and fasting has begun! Totally and utterly in God’s hands now, no more that I can possibly do.

Isaiah 62:6-7

O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls;
      they will pray day and night, continually.
      Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord.
 ⁷ Give the Lord no rest until he completes his work,
      until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth.

Here’s what our prayer room looks like:

I’ll post more later about how it’s going.

Confession Time

Today was not a good day. New peaks of stress and exhaustion were reached – physically, mentally, spiritually. New lows of mentality and mindset were also achieved. Do you ever have one of those days when you spend too much time in your own thoughts and each and every one makes you miserable? Well that was my day today.

So I wasn’t really in the best of places when I went to church tonight. I wanted to go becasuse I wanted to worship and not think for just a little while about the crapness of my day or stress of my life. But that’s totally not how God works, and if there’s something going on He brings it to the forefront of your mind and speaks straight into your situation.

My big stress is the twenty four hours of prayer and fasting which I have been organising for the past number of weeks and which is running from 8am Friday to 8am Saturday. Major stress. But without much obvious reason – everything is pretty much in hand, I’ve got all the stuff for the room – it just needs set up tomorrow, people have offerd to help cook breakfast – I just need to buy the food. It’s not the practicalities I’m freaking out over – I can handle those with my extensive lists – it’s people turning up, or not as the case may be.

I am completely freaking out that no one will come. Or that they will and they’ll be disappointed. And I’m concerned about this because I’m concerned for my own reputation and what people are going to think of me. I don’t want to let anyone down and I certainly don’t want to be considered a failure. I’m worried they’ll see it as a wasted responsibility and as a breaking of trust. I’m petrified. 

So here’s the real confession, I guess, because whilst I’ve been talking the talk (“and walking the walk”) the reality is, I’ve been carrying this completely on my own back. I’ve been doing it all in my own strength and as far as I’ve been concerned it’s been up to me whether or not it worked.

I realised this evening though, that it should be His. That it is His. That I am nothing – not a pawn, a vessel, a project manager. Nothing. It’s Him, all Him. Whether it works or not, it’s all Him.

That’s one of the greatest things about prayer (one of the worst for control freaks like me): only God can do it. Only He can bring people to the point where they want to and only He can respond to the prayers that are offered. I can make that room as quirky as I like; I can come up with as many different ways of praying as I want; I can offer as many perks as I feel necessary but if God does not work in hearts and minds and lives, all of it will be in vain.

Prayer is a dangerous business for someone like me to be involved in. There’s too much letting go involved. But I can’t shrug it off. I can’t let go of it. God’s got me hooked. And is teaching and disciplining me bit by bit.

I’m scared. I’m worried. But now it’s His. Not mine.

Pray for the city

I posted this verse from Jeremiah a wee while ago:

And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare. 
(Jeremiah 29:7)

It has been thoroughly stuck in my head since and I think God’s saying something.

At first I just thought it was a great verse, one I’d remember and use in future when talking about praying for Aberdeen or something, but there’s more to it than that.

I was in Edinburgh last week, that city which, in 6 months/ 25 weeks, I’ll be “exiled” to. The city who’s welfare will determine my welfare. It’s about time I started praying, for Edinburgh itself and for whatever my life there will be.

Too often, prayer becomes a last minute – “oh I suppose I ought to . . .” – thing. We’ll make every other preparation necessary and then think about praying. Well I don’t want that to be the case with this. Now is the time to pray – not the month, week or day before, but now.

And less, “do I really have to go”, more “what do you me to do when I get there”. Less, “I can’t leave them behind”, more “look after them when I do”. 

Time to pray for the city I’ll soon call home.