Passion for God

In the last post I thought about how our love for others should make mission as natural as breathing. Today we think of the other side of the same coin - our love for God. The most passionate people for mission, evangelism and the growth of the Kingdom have always been those who, above all else, are passionate about God. Every Christian movement that has grown throughout history has started with a white hot love for God. Starting with St Paul, through to people like John Wesley, St Francis, Martin Luther, and more recently, John Wimber and Mother Teresa, there has been one common denominator and that is their passionate love of God that propels them forward into mission.

Every Christian starts out as a passionate follower of Jesus whose love is evident, but time and the worries of life drain that love away. The things that make up our walk with Jesus - prayer, worship, giving, service, Bible - become a chore rather than a delight because the love we once had for God has become lukewarm. One of the ways in which our relationship with God is described in Scripture is as a marriage - we are the Bride of Christ. Every marriage goes through ups and downs and in those times when love fades, work needs to be done in order to regain a regain love that was lost. Experience tells us that it is absolutely possible for love that was once lost to be rediscovered. If you feel that you have lost your first love for God what can you do to regain it? Here are some suggestions but I'm sure you can add others.

• Time - are you giving proper time to your relationship with God?
• Communication - every relationship needs good communictaion, especially listening. Are you listening to God?
• Focus on His beauty - everything you read in Scripture will say something about the character and nature of God. Whatever passage you read this week spend time searching for what it says about the character of God.
• Remember his love for you - THE CROSS - take time to gaze upon the cross and to worship Jesus.

The Heart of God

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in hims shall not perish but have eternal life"

Following Jesus involves many things that we as Christians can focus on - prayer, the Bible, worship, fellowship, pastoral care, spiritual warfare, healing, prophecy, giving - the list seems endless at times. Sometimes we just need to remember what is the focus of the heart of God. Early in the last century one of the world's greatest theologians, Jurgen Moltman, said "It is not the church that has a mission of salvation to fulfill in the world; it is the mission of the Son and the Spirit through the Father that includes the church." Mission is not something that God does it is an attribute of his character, it is nature to be always wanting to draw the lost and the least into his Kingdom. The problem for the Church worldwide is that mission has been relegated to an occassional activity that has to be worked at rather than an expression of who we are. We have made Church to be something that is for us so that we might be comfortable while God is drawing us to sacrificially follow him into the world calling people back to Him.Mission is not just a good idea it is the very heart of God.

'For God so loved the world...' are such well known words to us that they lose their power. It is because our God is so loving that mission is such a natural expression of who he is. It is not something he has to work at or plan for or wait for the right opportunity. His is always reaching out longing for the lost and the least to turn to him and be saved. His heart is that everyone should be saved and so his Holy Spirit is constantly at work in the world convicting people of sin, righteousness and judgement. Our assignment is to so capture his heart of love for the world, his longing for all to be saved that Mission because as natural a part of who we are as it is for God himself.

Is it possible for us to regain mission as an expression of who we are and not simply an add on activity? Can we be the kind of people who find mission as natural and as vital as breathing? When we do we might once again truly reflect the character of God.

Back

I think it is time to revitalise the blog seeing as it has been such a long time simce I posted, so over the next few weeks I'll be putting up some stuff I'm doing for St Andrews based on our church values.

What a Week

What an amazing week the New Wine conference at Newark was this year. This was my eighth New Wine (the last two on the Leadership Team) and I think this has been the best so far. It just seemed like God was at work every where. There must have been around 25 people saved (which in a Christian event isn't bad!), literally hundreds of healings, people sensing God's call to go - either into the difficult areas of this country or abroad and others just getting refreshed by the presence of God.
I have always New Wine to be a consistently positive experience, but this year I was just blown away by the grace and mercy of God in the way that he used me in different ways throughout the week.
There are three particular things in the week that have really encouraged and challenged me. On Tuesday night I led a policeman called John to the Lord. He then came to my seminar on Friday. He arrived early and sat at the front writing in a notepad. We had a chat and when I asked him what he was doing he said he was keeping a journal because he didn't want to forget a thing about that week. I just love the passion and desire of new Christians.
The second thing was Thursday night. We had Baroness Cox speaking in the evening on the persecuted Church and, to be honest, I really thought that this was going to be the low point of the week in terms of the evening meetings (there always seems to be a low point, except for this year!). How wrong was I!! Baroness Cox was an absolutely amazing and challenging lady who does incredible things for God. The worship and the ministry that night were just filled with the presence and power of God. To top it all we had an offering that raised £70,000 for the Message Trust to develop Eden projects across the nation.
Finally, I loved working working with the guys from the Message. For the first time we had set up an alternative venue for the morning Bible Studies which would have a more Urban feel. Andrea and I were hosting the event - which basically means we gave the notices! - and then handed it over to the people from the Message. These guys were talented, committed and amazing people of God who have given their lives to reaching people in the estates and city centres. Every day I was impacted by the challenge they brought, they just loved God and loved people.

IT ALL DEPENDS ON GOD!

With all that God is doing in Church at the moment I'm so glad that it doesn't depend on me! This video sums up what God does for us.

A son asked his father, 'Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?'
The father who, despite having a heart condition, says 'Yes'. They went on to complete the marathon together.
Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying 'Yes' to his son's request of going through the race together.
One day, the son asked his father, 'Dad, let's join the Ironman together.' To which, his father said 'Yes' to.
For those who didn't know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island ..
Father and son went on to complete the race together.

AND GOD TURNED UP!

We've been having a great year at St Andrew's this year. There has been a growing sense of expectancy and hunger. We've seen more people healed this year than any other year and we've seen people come to faith. This last Sunday though was something else!
I knew all week that it was going to be a good Sunday. I'd had a sense that God was up to something. The main service started off with a real sense of the presence of God in the place that just grew throughout the service. I always enjoy preaching but that day it just seemed so easy and comfortable. The sermon was part of a series on 'When Heaven Invades Earth' and the theme was exploring what it means to have the presence of God in us and whether that internal reality should effect our external reality (to use a phrase from Bill Johnson).
After the sermon we moved into ministry and I invited anyone who wanted ministry to the front. Probably 2/3 of the congregation came forward. That's when God really seemed to turn up. I had never before seen a response like it in just and ordinary church service. These people were desperate for more of God. The presence of the Holy Spirit was manifesting in more powerful ways than we had seen before in Church. I was awesome to be in the middle of it praying for people.
My colleague, Mike, was leading the service and it was one of those times that just seem hard to bring to an end. Afterwards there were people praying for each other all over the place. It is always hard to 'encourage' people to go home at St Andrew's, after this service it was even harder.
As they were leaving someone asked me 'What do we do now?' Someone close by said 'Yeah, what's next Sunday going to be like?' For me the answer is really what is Monday going to be like because that is what really matters. But then again it does raise expectations for next sunday - what a downer though, I have to preach elsewhere that day.

TIME TO START AGAIN

I originally started this blog as a way of putting up some thoughts and ideas while I was on sabbatical. This was for my own use and for people at my church, St Andrew's, to keep up with what I was doing and thinking.
Having had over 6 months off from blogging I think it is time to take it up again. So I've given the blog a new look and will be trying to update it on a regular basis.