⁹“This, then, is how you should pray:
” ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹Give us today our daily bread.
¹²Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.

One thing that I’m still pondering is the fact that the words of this prayer imply community. Nowhere are we taught to pray for, ‘my daily bread’, or to, ‘deliver me from the evil one’. Instead it’s our or us; we should be praying this for others as well as for ourselves.

What do you think?

Godly Living – Titus 2:11-15

Photograph from Ruth Hubbard's blog http://ruthhubbard.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/gloria-a-dios/

Ruth Hubbard is Vice-President of Communications for Wycliffe Bible Translators in the US. Recently she was in Guatemala, where Cameron Townsend – the founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators – first recognised the need for Bible translation.

In a recent blog post Ruth reflected on how things have changed.

• When Cameron Townsend started work he thought that there were about 1,000 languages in the world. It turns out that there are around 7,000.
• In Guatemala it’s possible to see the results of the early days of Bible translation. Not only are there Christians as a result of the Bibles that were produced in the minority languages, but, these Christians are involved in leadership within the church.

Uncle Cam (that’s what some call him) had a vision that was both expansive and limited. He saw a day when people from every language community would have access to God’s Word and therefore could decide for themselves whether to enter into a relationship with Him or reject that invitation. That vision is in the process of being fulfilled. Today there are just over 2,000 language communities with no access to Scripture who need it, and around 2,000 with a translation in progress.

You can read the whole piece on Ruth’s blog Hubbard’s Cupboard

It just got me wondering, what do we take for granted today that within 80 years will have changed completely?

So, it’s with a little shame and humility, that after the weekend’s failure to stop the oil leak in the Gulf that I started to think that I should be praying about this – I say shame and humility, because I’d like to think that praying about issues would be higher up my list of responses, not just reserved for moments of desperation or when I feel that all other options have been exhausted. Regardless of whether it’s for a mountain to move and bury the leak, or for one of the plans to block the pipes to be successful, it’s the kind of thing that really I should remember to pray about because environmental catastrophe in one place eventually has an impact on us all.

Of course, I’d like to think that there are thousands of Christians all there before me, pleading with God to sort out the oil problems and remove our dependence on black gold, but as yet I haven’t found the Facebook group to suggest this is happening. Nor have I found anyone praying for the even bigger leak in the Niger Delta, but then there’s way less attention paid to problems in Africa than other countries with 24 hour rolling news.

By contrast, little information has emerged about the damage inflicted on the Niger delta. Yet the destruction there provides us with a far more accurate picture of the price we have to pay for drilling oil today.

On 1 May this year a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline in the state of Akwa Ibom spilled more than a million gallons into the delta over seven days before the leak was stopped. Local people demonstrated against the company but say they were attacked by security guards. Community leaders are now demanding $1bn in compensation for the illness and loss of livelihood they suffered. Few expect they will succeed. In the meantime, thick balls of tar are being washed up along the coast.

You can read the rest of the Guardian article online, ‘Nigeria’s agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it‘.

After the meeting I spent some time with Gregg, who brought me up-to-date on church news. The recent success with the Alpha course and the way that some of the groups that lead worship in the services have changed and developed. We looked back at some of the things we had tried while leading services, laughed about the stuff that hadn’t gone so well, and generally felt good about how those early steps had led on to things like the Easter event that took place this year. He gave me a CD to listen to and, quite frankly, the whole thing was brilliant.

You know, part of me really didn’t want to get back in the car to drive back here.

But, it can be dangerous to live in the past. If I hadn’t had the experience of being part of Above Bar Church when I did I wouldn’t be where I am now and without the support and encouragement of some of my friends there I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing now.

The job that I had for the last few years gave me the experience and knowledge to do what I’m doing now. Plus, the church community, that encouraged me in my faith and challenged some of my preconceptions about what it means to be a Christian, brought me closer to God.

Who knows what’s still to come? What I do know is that I’m thankful for my past, I’m enjoying today and looking forward with some anticipation to the future.

But increasingly I’m finding that people are troubled by the ‘ought’ of the Christian life. They have an idea of the Christian life in which the second half of Paul’s epistles should be left out. It’s all about what God has done for us in Christ and it’s not what we do in response. That’s overstating it a little. But that’s the sense of it.  The idea that there are obligations placed upon us as we follow Christ is something that people think undermines grace. Grace has become the ‘catch all’ term for God’s acceptance of us whatever we’re like. I want to defend that. God’s grace does mean that we receive what we don’t deserve; namely eternal acceptance through Christ’s imputed righteousness (Romans 8:1). But God’s grace is not only limited to saving us, by his grace he changes us. In Titus 1:1 Paul teaches that the knowledge of the truth will lead to godliness. God’s not done with us at conversion. He wants to sanctify us to become like his son.

Read the rest of Running the Race

It got me thinking again. A couple of weeks ago I was preaching on the Good Samaritan and was particularly struck by the words of Jesus at the end of the parable, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37).

It seems pretty clear to me that as Christians we can just sit back and wait, we have a command to go and do. In the parable it meant getting involved with someone from the other part of town, sacrificing time and money, and showing genuine concern and care.

Yes, I have a lot of growing in this area to go too.

The real purpose of Engage is to provide the opportunity for Christians in the UK to get to see what God is doing in the world. While there are chances to serve (do stuff), the primary focus is on building relationships (being) and learning from the environment you are in and the people you are with. If you want to understand why, you can read my post ‘What on earth are we doing with mission?‘ or go out and buy the Missions Dilemma DVD which outlines some of the issues related to trips built solely around doing.

There are still places available for this year’s trips, so if you’re interested or you know someone who is, you need to get in touch before the closing date on the 19th March.

If you’d like to read some first hand accounts of Engage teams, there’s a whole page devoted to stories from previous years.

God: New evidence is a series of videos examining some of the theory behind the universe, looking at the issues of how we can exist in the way that we do, in what has previously been argued as an environment that came to be by accident.

For your interest, episode four is below. The whole series can be followed on the God: New evidence website, or on YouTube.

The only kind of universe we could possibly live in is one that is fine-tuned for life. Is this enough to explain the remarkable fine tuning of the universe we live in? Should we be surprised that the universe is just right for us? The fourth in a series of six videos exploring how recent scientific discoveries point to the reality of the Creator. Featuring John Polkinghorne, David Wilkinson, Rodney Holder, Peter Williams and Graham Swinerd

Last night we were reading the chapter on What Drives Your Life? I’m fortunate that I really enjoy my job and that I want to be a success – I guess partly in the eyes of others – but also by the goals and challenges that I set for myself. Last night I was reminded, though, that my ambition should be to please God, not just to fulfill my ambitions or that of my boss, friends, family, etc.

I mention this just now because of two things.

One, I’m having an annual review this week and some of the questions I’ve had to think about in advance have been about what I see myself doing in the future. Tany and I have been talking about this recently, and had settled on the decision that I’d be staying with Wycliffe for at least another two years. Meaning that I’d be here for three years instead of two. Partly this is out of my professional pride. I’ve been working to improve the communications of Wycliffe in the UK, it would be a shame to move on before these start having an effect.

The second is that I’m starting to get asked to give some kind of consultancy service to some other organisations. Currently one church and one other Christian charity. It’s something that really interests me, partly because of the variety it will give me and also because I get to help some other people. However, time is an issue and I need to be able to devote most of my energy to my full-time job.

When I started in marketing I was given some advice, ‘say yes to everything and get as much exposure and experience as possible’. Currently I’m still thinking along these lines, but I just need to take care that I don’t overstreatch and stop having time for Tany or to do my main job.

This is a dreadful time for people who think the media is only there to promote what they think.

It’s a tough one to swallow. Nobody likes to be challenged over what they think, and increasingly we live in a society where it is wrong to think differently from what is believed to be popular (I’m yet to be persuaded that the ‘popular’ view is really popular).

As Christians we’ve run away from public debate citing unfair questions and misrepresentation, but the result is no representation. When someone argues that the only standards we have to live by are our own personal beliefs and the only authority to judge our lives is our own personal code of condut, it’s not that Chritians don’t have a position on this, it’s that we haven’t even turned up to the debate to say anything.

The reason why? Well, I think we’ve stopped asking the questions of ourselves. By retreating into a Christian environment we never have to think through the issues that strengthen or refine our faith. Let’s face it, it’s going to be a rare occasion at a church service that anyone is going to disagree with what’s preached from the pulpit. We never have to answer ‘why?’ we believe what we do, or challenge some of the more extreme parts of the Bible.

If you’re a Christian and you engage in media (both popular and social) I’d suggest reading Beckett’s thoughts. They are worth considering.

HT: Bishop Al