Planted by Water

Sorry I’ve been off-line for a while! Thought I’d better catch up with some reviews of books that I’ve been reading over recent months.

For devotional reading, I have been re-reading Arthur Wallis’ book, Pray in the Spirit, first published nearly forty years ago (sorry about the awful book cover on the picture but it was the only one I could find - don’t judge it by its cover!).  I was asked to speak to the local CU on prayer recently and it has often seemd to me that the only thing that I could say about prayer was ‘I do not know how to pray as I ought.’ But I knew that I was in good company because that’s exactly what the apostle Paul said and this excellent little introduction to prayer, focusing on the central role of the Spirit in helping us to pray, is effectively an expounding of principles explicit and implicit in Paul’s words in Romans 8:26-27.  Many books on prayer focus on the external practical things about praying; others are very inspirational and exhortational, rightly reflecting the wonder and spiritual mystery of prayer. This is one of the few books that manages to be inspirational and instructive; to be spiritual and practical (and the Holy Spirit is very practical; since Pentecost especially he has been very down to earth!). Arthur Wallis enables you to see the central role of the Spirit to prayer and to life generally without becoming overly mystical or vague; he gives practical tips withour reducing prayer to some easy 3-point plan or coming up with such a prescribed ‘method’ that you don’t have to rely on being led by the Spirit.  He deals with issues such struggling with weariness, listening to God and being guided in prayer, and there are some especially good chapters on praying in tongues and with groans that words cannot express. The last chapter, that puts prayer within the context of the eternal purpose of God and the end time, the ‘break of day’ when Jesus shall be gorified in his people, is a terrifc ending to a great little book. It is good to read again a writer who has such a simple, fresh, clear and radical approach to the Scriptures, not stuffed with theology but profound in the simple application of spiritual truths. I recommend it wholeheartedly. Are there any other books on prayer that readers of this blog would recommend?

Take five minutes, sit back and enjoy this. It was recommended by my friend Jon Dumville. It’s great! Make sure your sound is on to get the full effect.  

Over the last week or so, this blog has hosted the start of a debate (of sorts) concerning what happens in the end times and has included references to dispensationalism, pre-millenialism (or pessi-millenialism as some caricatured it!), post-millenialism (or posi-millenialism), preterism, futurism and Covenant Theology etc. I am grateful for those involved for responding to my appeal to ensure that their disagreements were expressed graciously. However, I am aware from people that I meet and who I know regularly visit my blog that not everyone would be in a position to understand some of the terms in this debate and might feel a little excluded. I am also more concerned at the moment to consider practically how we as Christians can make a difference in the world and contribute to its transformation, rather than to get too much into a debate about millenialism. I am therefore respectfully asking those who wish to continue with this debate, that it might be moved to one of your blogs, if you feel that’s what you want to cover. (I note that Gavin Deakin may be already doing this but I don’t want to assume his agenda for him). Many of you clearly do already know the terms, and seem to have pretty fixed positions on it! My concern in writing is often to try to involve the uninitiated, get them thinking and to show its practical relevance, rather than just to debate (though I do recognise there is definitely as place for debate, and that, as I indicated in an earlier post, Christians must learn how to disagree before they can learn to agree). I also recognise that ones position on the end times will definitely have a bearing on what you think about changing the world! For these reasons and becasue I think that a debate is best served when we are clear on the terms that we are using, I will, time allowing, give some brief explanations of some of these terms over the next few days and weeks on my blog and explain the practical effect that I think that they have on how Christians relate to the world. This will be for the purpose of explanation and to get people thinking who perhaps have not thought about these things beefore, rather than to continue in a big debate about them.

Well, today I set off to Cardiff to speak at the Bible College - and I will be continuing to encourgae the students to think about the issues in our world. We will be considering a Kingdom aproach to ethical issues and looking at euthanasia as an example. And we will consider our approach to wider social isues, looking at multiculturalism as an example. I’m looking forward to it. Let me leave you with a quotation that I rediscovered when preparing which asserts some of the things that I believe without getting stuck in a defending a particluar theological position:

“The Kingdom of God is God’s dynamic rule, breaking into human history through Jesus, confronting, combating and overcoming evil, spreading the wholeness of personal and communal wellbeing, taking possession of his people in total blessing and total demand. The church is meant to be the Kingdom community, a model of what human community looks like when it comes under the rule of God, and a challenging alternative to secular society”
      (John Stott)

If possible I will continue to blog while away at Cardiff.

I enjoyed being with Covenant Life church in Leicester this Sunday - this is one of the congregations of the church, the other being in Melton Mowbray, which I will be visiting in a few weeks time. They are a great bunch of people and it was good to see that they are growing, witnessing people being saved and healed recently; and they have great plans for a healing crusade to all the outlying small towns and villages. Covenant Life Church is led by Bryan Shutt who is also an apostle who works alongside Keri Jones and Noralv Askeland as apostolic leaders to a family of ministries and churches which for practical purposes goes under the name ‘Ministries Withour Borders’ but whcih cannot be reduced to just an organisation!

I know that many of my readers will know and appreciate these men but for those who don’t, follow the links to find out more about us. Bryan is a terrific guy with a real heart for the truth of covenant - not just as a theology but worked out practically in real, committed relationship and church life. He is a great friend and brother in Christ, with a real heart and gift for the restoring and rebuilding of churches and individuals. It is an honour to work with such men.

I brought a word to them from 1 Samuel 10 where Saul had gone out one day to find the donkeys that had escaped from his father’s fields, but had ended up having an encounter with a man of God that totally changed everything; he was changed into a different person, released in prophetic gift and anointed to be Israel’s first king. Although his story ends badly, at this point there was an amazing and real work of the Spirit on him. I encouraged the people to stop being so concerned about the donkeys, - the cares of this life, the demands that often seem to be running away from us, the pressures and the problems - and realise that God wants to break in on us and show us that he has a greater destiny for us than being donkey chasers!

Forget about the donkeys; you are called to be kings!

Christians must learn to disagree before they can learn to agree. It is possible to disagree without being disagreeable

Just a quick thought to end the week with. It seemed appropriate after some of the rather heated and the sometimes less than gracious tone of some comments this week. I believe in the need to have strong convictions and to be passionate about them. I share many convictions with those who commented. I believe that Jesus is going to bring his church to a unity of faith and a oneness of mind on many areas of truth. For that to happen, however, we must first learn how to disagree which will mean at least:

1. knowing what we believe
2. Knowing exactly where we differ from one another
3. Refusing to caricature the position of those we disagree with but be clear on what their arguments actually are
4. Being clear and honest about areas of disagreement
5. Knowing that it is alright to disagree and that it is possible to disagree with someone without being disagreeable towards them
6. Whilst being clear, straightforward and even passionate about what we believe, (and certainly not being mealy-mouthed about it) expressing those disagreements with humility and grace

‘Repent you sinners for the Kingdom is at hand. Come all you who are heavy laden and he will give rest for your souls; come all you who are thirsty; forsake your wicked ways; take up your cross and follow the Master; be washed by the blood of Christ and be his disciples; be clothed in his righteousness and justified by his blood, that you may become inheritors of eternal life and live for the Lord’s glory!

How am I doing? Anyone likely to be persuaded yet by my attempt at evangelism. Would anyone without any king of Christian or church background have a clue what I was talking about? A comment by Ruth on my posting about the words Christians used really got me thinking about this issue again. How do we communicate the gospel to people who don’t know our jargon at all? In my response to Ruth I suggested that we at least need to explain and unpack our terms so that they begin to make sense. But I also suggested that we should even be willing to start not with the biblical words, but find modern words and analogies to begin with in order to make those first connections.

I would be interested to hear back from readers as to any ideas that they have about  how you would go about finding contemporary analogies for concepts like repentance, sin, righteusness, Kingdom, disciple etc. etc. Or would anyone argue that we should only use Bible words?