Author Archives: Phil

Christian Resources Exhibition 2013

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The Christian Resources Exhibition is a strange mix of things. Amongst the hundreds of stands you can find people who will design your new church building, put in stained glass, supply the chairs, build a stage and install lighting, cameras and the sound system. There’s organs, music books, coffee suppliers, church website builders, clothes for the clergy and books, books, books… oh, and more books.

Groundwire stand at CRE 2013

Groundwire stand at CRE 2013

For the last three years Wycliffe Bible Translators have exhibited there, but with the steady decline in visitor numbers and the lack of foucs on global mission, the benefits don’t seem to come close to covering the costs.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some great things there. My two highlights this year were Groundwire and Damaris.

I fell into conversation with Matt on the Groundwire stand (a very cool accident). They give people the opportunity to ask questions about faith in an online chatroom. It can be as anonymous as you want.

Groundwire is an international organisation whose aim is to provide those in need with the opportunity to chat online with a spiritual coach 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We aim to provide spiritual advice based on the teachings of the Bible. We are here to help those in need, those with questions, fears and worries. We are here to assist people who are feeling lost, addicted, sad, confused and in pain. We care and want the best for each person as an individual – we don’t ever want anyone to think they had nobody to talk to, nobody who cared, nobody who would listen.

Damaris at CRE 2013

Damaris at CRE 2013

The other cool session was by Damaris, who provide discussion resources based on current movies.

I was impressed by the fact that the resources were used by so many different organisations and while there is the opportunity to discuss spirituality it doesn’t have to be a Christian group that uses the material. Scouts, Guides and the Women’s Institute are amongst those signed up.

 

Thoughts about prayer

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I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer recently so I thought that I’d share my reflections here. Maybe you have something to contribute to the conversation.

Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go over there to pray.” He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour? Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”

Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.” When he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they couldn’t keep their eyes open.

So he went to pray a third time, saying the same things again. Then he came to the disciples and said, “Go ahead and sleep. Have your rest. But look—the time has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Up, let’s be going. Look, my betrayer is here!”

Matthew 26:36-46

My three thoughts:

1) Prayer is about God, not about us.

What I mean is that when you pray you are coming before a mighty, powerful, holy God. Get some perspective and realise how awesome communication with him should be. Sometimes we approach prayer as an informal, thoughtless act; where as it really should be a supreme encounter.

2) God wants to hear it all.

Part of the wonder of prayer is that this wonderful God wants to hear it all. Not just the big stuff, not just the problems that are out of our control, but all of it. He wants to be with us on every step of life’s journey, including trips to the shop, conversation about last night’s TV, the emails you have to reply to or the next thing you’ll post on Facebook. God wants to be in all of our lives.

3) We need to allow God space in the conversation.

If our prayers are to become a conversation with God we need to allow him the space to speak to us. Sometimes we pray with our lists, our things, all the stuff of life and all the people we want to pray for. And, in his graciousness, God hears it all. But, if prayer really is like a relationship we need to stop for long enough to listen to God.

And in conclusion

What does this have to do with this passage in Matthew?

The back story is this is Jesus praying before he is arrested and taken off to be crucified. He’s not praying alone, he’s taken some of the disciples with him. He pleads with God, who he recognises as the ultimate authority over the developing situation, to be released from the duty of being a sacrifice for all humankind. Jesus wants out. But, still says, “I want your will to be done, not mine.”

Jesus submits to God’s authority in everything.

There are some prayers I pray in which God doesn’t seem to act, at least not in the way I’d like. But, whose will is the priority. Is my will greater than Gods?

One of the few details we have from this prayer is Jesus pointing a finger at the disciples and saying, ‘What, couldn’t you watch over me for just one hour?’. I wonder whether Jesus was praying out loud for that hour, or whether he was quiet and still, listening to what God had to say to him.

Just like any relationship is better, when there’s two sides involved in the conversation, I reckon my prayer life would be better if I left more space for God to talk to me.

Any thoughts?

“Go on, you can do it”

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I have great memories of being a kid. Being encouraged to try new things, the phrase, ‘go on, you can do it’, ringing in my ears. As a result I tried a number of different sports, passed all of my GCSE’s, got some A-levels, did a degree, did another degree, passed a driving test, learnt to type, traveled the country, acted in plays, edited films, did some radio stuff… I’ve got a lot of fond memories.

Amy

Amy – playing not sleeping

Even the things that didn’t turn out to be strengths (shorthand and football) it wasn’t for a lack of encouragement.

So at what point do people decide that instead of encouragement I need a healthy dose of realism? Honestly, at 34 I’ve worked out what life’s really like, I don’t need the it’s only going to get worse kind of comments.

Needless to say this introspective, overtly sympathy grasping post is a result of my beautiful daughter deciding to have another night of not sleeping so much. She does OK for the first bit but from 01:30 she fidgets, wakes up startled, cries and won’t go back to sleep without some cuddling and rocking. Usually by 7:30 she won’t stay in bed any longer, but today it was 6:30 – and I’d had a late one (working not playing).

Sharing that with friends on Facebook the comments I got were mostly along the lines of, ‘well that’s how it’s going to be for years’, or, ‘it’ll get worse, wait for teeth’, (too late, she already has one), ‘Mine didn’t sleep for…’

OK, I get it, but what I really needed was a dose of, ‘Go on, you can do it’.

I know it’s taking a verse out of context a bit, but…

So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.

1 Thessalonians 5:11

…is way more constructive than, ‘Get used to it, they’ll keep you up all night for the first five years’.

I may be wrong, this may be a rant, but cut me some slack. I reckon we accomplish far more and have a better attitude when we are encouraged than when the reality is spelled out, or when we are reminded of the bad stuff.

  • Note to self, do more encouraging
  • Plea to others, take pity on a first time dad trying to adjust sleep patterns

On a plane again

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“I’m on a plane again”. OK, it’s not quite what Willie Nelson sang when he was thinking about travelling, but maybe if he was writing the song in 2013 the lyrics would be slightly different.

The rest of the song kind of works though. Maybe I’m not going to be making “music with my friends”, but I will be working and creating and building with my friends, which kind of fits with the message of the song.

I have to say, out of all my trips, this one is looking easy. I’m only carrying hand baggage. My boarding pass was downloaded to my phone. Plus, flying from Terminal 5 at Heathrow, check-in can only have taken 2 minutes, even the security line was short.

One element of confusion is the fact that I’m flying to Basel in Switzerland, only the airport is in France and my final destination is in Germany.

One final question. This flight is 1hr 20mins. BA serve a snack but not a full meal, yet everyone’s seat seems to have remained upright. None of this tipping back and relaxing. Is that just courtesy on a short flight?

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Four versions of the same story

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In the Bible there are four slightly different accounts of the life of Jesus. They are recorded in the books we refer to as the gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Some people use the differences as a reason to say that the Bible is wrong, but if you were in the police force and heard were given four identical accounts of the same incident you’d very quickly become suspicious. Identical accounts usually mean that a story has been prepared. Slightly different accounts mean that you’ve seen the same story from a different perspective.

That’s the same for the writers of these New Testament books. They are each writing for a different audience and each has a slightly different perspective on the same story.

To illustrate, a small group could try an activity that Phil King used when training a group to study the New Testament. You can read about it, and see the results, here.

Processing thoughts

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I used to wonder why people in churches didn’t really think about their faith more carefully and critically. Why didn’t they ask more questions and explore more intelligently? My more recent experience suggests that maybe its because their mental reserves are already being eaten into by the stuff of everyday life and the ability to think about faith really is constrained by everything else that is going on.

Read the whole post at Backyard Missionary.

I started reading Hamo’s blog back when he used to think. It was brilliant, insightful and helpful to someone who was trying to wrestle with his faith and a belief that there was more to life than endless church ‘meetings’ [His post on Incarnational v Attractional Mission is still one of the most helpful things I have read]. I even interrupted a holiday to go and interview him about mission and drink his coffee – I still have the recording somewhere even though the final piece didn’t make it to air.

Now I find myself in a similar patch of ‘not thinking so much’. Work is good, but it’s sucking at my energy levels. Life at home is wonderful, but being a new dad is physically tough. Church is OK, but with low energy I find the social bit of church life difficult. There’s lots going out and not much going in.

In some ways I want to wind the clock back five years, to when I was re-imagining what faith was for me and discovering God all over again. When I was thinking through questions that seemed to matter and seemed important.

But life has moved on, and so have I.

All that thinking hasn’t been wasted. It now informs the way I live my life, the choices I make  and the conversations I have. I wouldn’t be me now if it wasn’t for the process I went through then.

Sure I could make use of some more clear time to do that kind of thinking, and I hope one day the opportunity will arise again, but for now I just have to apply the thoughts I had to life now. I guess it’s time to test the theory, because all that thinking is wasted if it’s not put into practice.

Amy’s first playlist

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I’m hoping to be able to bring Tany and Amy home from the hospital tomorrow. It’s a bit iffy at the moment as they are checking Amy for jaundice and Tany still needs some time to recover, but here’s hoping.

In planning for their return I wanted some ideas of what to play in the car. As I have been reminded, Amy’s been listening to our music for a little while, so some stuff will be familiar. But, I wanted her first car trip to be proper, restful and for her to start hearing some good music properly. So I asked Facebook friends for input.

Some were more helpful than others. I was after some specific ideas, rather than just suggesting genres of music, but I got some good ideas. So here’s the list.

  • Godspeed (Sweet Dreams) – Dixie Chicks
  • Underneath the Stars – Kate Rusby
  • Down to the River to Pray – Alison Krauss
  • Blackbird – The Beatles
  • I Will Hold On – Vineyard
  • Here is Love – Matt Redman
  • Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) – Chris Tomlin
  • Moonlight Serenade – Glenn Miller
  • A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square – Harry Connick Jr
  • Early Morning Rain – Eva Cassidy
  • 40 – U2
  • One Day Like This – Elbow
  • Georgia On My Mind – Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis
  • Lucy – Divine Comedy
  • Lord, Let Your Glory Fall – Matt Redman
  • A Train Not Running – Chris Knight
  • MLK Song – Patty Griffin
  • Nashville – David Mead
  • A Change is Gonna Come – Sam Cooke

It’s tempting to keep adding to this for when she’s home. What do you think?

I’d like to have put on some of the other suggestions, but I’m trying to be good about not spending too much on iTunes. I’d rather save and buy a whole album rather than one track. So, ELO and Randall Goodgame may have to wait a few weeks. Jazz albums will be on when she gets home.

After Life? Was it a hoax?

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In this video we look at the idea that the story of Jesus rising from the dead was just a hoax. A deception cooked up by his followers.

This series, along with the last two, are available on DVD from Focus. If you’d like a free copy you can get one by writing a review on your blog. For full details and to continue the conversation, take a look at the Facebook page - details on the 27th September.

Video 7

After Life? Did Jesus really die?

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I started this series a couple of weeks ago, but then life and work happened and knocked me off course. So back to the films for a bit, this time on the assertion that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross. Which really is quite central because if he didn’t die he didn’t come back to life, and if he didn’t come back to life then he’s not really God.

This series, along with the last two, are available on DVD from Focus. If you’d like a free copy you can get one by writing a review on your blog. For full details and to continue the conversation, take a look at the Facebook page - details on the 27th September.

Video 6

After Life? Pagan Myths

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This video looks at the claims that Christianity borrowed the story of Jesus rising from the dead from pagan myths.

If you’d like to follow up with any of the videos in this series, you can through the God: new evidence Facebook page.

Video 5