Friday, February 26, 2016

Warfare, prayer, lentils and the evangelisation of the nation

1. The Archbishop of Canterbury wrote this letter to me this morning. It's signed personally in black ink. Pray we must. Something's is up in the C of E and there seems to be hope, passion, faith and a bit of plan in the air. It's all rather encouraging.

2. I have been rereading 'Waking the Dead' in light of so much failure and sin among leaders.

‘The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full' (John 10:10) Have you wondered why Jesus married those two statements? Did you even know he spoke them at the same time? I mean he says them in one breath. And he has reason. By all means God intends life for you. But right now that life is opposed. It doesn’t just roll in on a tray. There is a thief. He comes to steal and kill and destroy. In other words yes, the offer of life, but you’re going to have to fight for it because there’s an enemy in your life with a different agenda. There is something set against us.

We are at war.


How I’ve missed this for so long is a mystery to me. Maybe I’ve overlooked it; maybe I’ve chosen not to see. We are at war. I don’t like that fact any more than you do, but the sooner we come to terms with it, the better hope we have of making it through to the life we do want’

Waking the Dead, John Eldredge, Pages 12-13

3. I can't put 'If' down.Stirring and encouraging stuff from Chapter 8 of Romans.

4. Is their so little power and holiness in the church because we have put our Bible's down? I was chatting with a bunch of pastors I meet with weekly and someone told the story of an evangelist who visited a church in the States and at the Sunday morning worship service a women turned up with what she said was a prophetic message for the church: She was wearing her wedding dress and brandishing a sword. Crazy maybe, but I have not been able to shake that image from my mind since I heard it. 

5. Batterson's book pointed me to Deut 17:16-20 which leapt out at me. I wrote in my journal and meditated on. Kings were meant to be saturated in the word of God. Vicar are too.

6. This song has been on repeat as I have been writing my sermon:


7. Mrs C and I have two Swedish bible students staying for a week.

8. I have cooked Mary Berry's 'Lentil Shepherd Pie' which is actually very good. And no- I haven't become a vegetarian. 

9. John Stott and I went to the same school and it's been 78 years since his conversion. As an aside, it took me a while longer to get converted ....

Stott recalls:
His text [E V Nash] was Pilate’s question: “What then shall I do with Jesus, who is called the Christ?” That I needed to do anything with Jesus was an entirely novel idea to me, for I had imagined that somehow he had done whatever needed to be done, and that my part was only to acquiesce. This Mr Nash, however, was quietly but powerfully insisting that everybody had to do something about Jesus, and that nobody could remain neutral. Either we copy Pilate and weakly reject him, or we accept him personally and follow him.
10.You don't want to drop this massive book on the authority of scripture on your toe.

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Saturday blog-sweep

 Some interesting books for pastors The State we're in Attack at dawn Joseph Scriven Joy comes with the morning When small is beautiful