funky doo

Sunday sermon at CGC Maldon - Shine like Stars

This is the copy of my notes from Sunday's sermon: I didn't say everything exactly as written here, but you get the gist. Comments welcome, particularly from those who were there, but also those who weren't! 

The Example of Christ – Shining like Stars.

Philippians 2:1-2:18

Introduction:
I recently read about a man by the name of Marshal Taylor. Marshal Taylor lived in the USA in the late 1800’s and he was born to parents that were slaves. Marshal Taylor experienced freedom and he began to know a taste of freedom that his parents never knew. He had the privilege of being around some people who had never been slaves and were wealthy. One of them gave this boy Taylor access to a bicycle. In his day it was unheard of for a black man whose parents were slaves to have a bicycle. He had this opportunity and he learned to ride this bicycle. Eventually he found himself entered in a bicycle race. 

At the starting line those who were racing against him told him because he was a black man racing with the whites that they would kill him. They said as soon as they rode out of sight they would get to him, beat him, and leave him dead. 

You can imagine what was going through his mind. When the starting gun sounded he was off like lightning, never looking back. He went on to win that race. It was the beginning of one of the most dramatic athletic careers ever know. This man Marshal Major Taylor became the star of the athletic world at the turn of the century. He was known as the fastest man in the world and literally nothing could travel as fast as him. There was no train that could go as faster as Taylor could ride. The automobile had not come along yet. Nothing could travel as fast as Major Taylor on his bike. 

He had been poor and suddenly his name; Major Taylor became a household word in Europe and in America. He dined with dignitaries and he was the equivalent of what today would be a multi-millionaire. Here is a man who went from poorest poor to the highest height of riches and fame. Today the Olympic caliber Bicycle Track in Indianapolis bears his name. 

Link to passage/theme:
Many people enjoy a great story of rags to riches and Major Taylor’s is one of the best. This morning we are going to look at a story that goes in the opposite direction. It is even more amazing. Here is someone in riches. Here is someone in the highest height, who goes down to the deepest depth. One who goes from riches to rags in humility and does so voluntarily. 

We will look at one of the greatest passages on our Lord Jesus Christ and we will look at what he did in paying the penalty for your sin and my sin. This is not a story of rags to riches but one who went from Majesty to Humility. 

In the book of Philippians Paul has been exhorting his readers to a lifestyle of humility and to put aside selfish interests. He had been encouraging them in this way of humility and now in his final argument for this call to humility he draws upon the greatest example ever known, the example of Jesus Christ and what he did to go the dramatic distance of the Majesty of God to a despicable criminals death on the cross.

Read Philippians 2:1-11

Mark Twain once said that few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example. Perhaps the most annoying thing is our inability to sufficiently mimic people who invite our respect in different areas in our lives. For example, admiration for an excellent golfer, an accomplished musician, or a great moral person can inspire us. But unless that person can somehow enter into our own lives and share his or her skills, we can’t arrive at the same heights of achievement as they have. It will take more than their example for the ability to match their own accomplishments on the outside. It takes power on the inside. It’s like trying to live the Christian life by an external, outward imitation of Jesus Christ. Instead, the Christian life is to be lived by “Incarnation.” 

What do I mean by living the Christian life by incarnation? It means that the person of Christ lives within us to give us power to live the life that God expects of us. Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” In death, Christ was exalted to great power and authority at the right hand of God the Father, and he offers us the same power and authority through his death and by relationship with him.

The person of Christ is the centre of the Christian faith, of my faith, of your faith. Without his presence in history, his presence in us through Holy Spirit who he sent to us as a Comforter and friend and without his example of pure godly living to draw on, we are simply working it out for ourselves, indistinguishable from any other moral code or set of values.

Paul begins the next section of his letter by saying “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” He concludes this thought with vs. 13 “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” 

Put another way, Colossians 1:27 says: To them [the saints] God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Our hope of glory, that is our hope to attain heaven, is characterized by Jesus Christ literally living in our hearts and if we take his example seriously – living him out in our lives.
Christ must live within to give us the power to live the Christian life. The concept is not difficult, but the application often is. 

Some people use verse 12 and 13 as a proof text that we must work for our salvation. But who is Paul addressing when he writes this letter? People who are already Christians.

In Philippians 1:1 he calls the Philippians “saints.” This clearly signifies that they have already received Christ as Lord and Saviour. They have already been “set apart” which is the verb form of the word saint: Saints are set apart for something. Saints are not “super Christians”. Saints, in the biblical sense are people like you and me. We are “set apart” to be like Jesus Christ. And in terms of this passage, we are “set apart” to be people marked by humility and obedience.

Buzz Groups:

So, if saints are those who have been set apart, normal people living in humility and obedience...and as Christians we are called to be imitators of Christ as it outlines in verses 1-11 of this passage – discuss in twos and threes around you, people who have been imitators of Christ Jesus to you? Who are people who have inspired you to seek Christ more?

Feedback

Back to verse 12 and 13 then. There are some dangers in interpretation when we look at verse 12. What does Paul mean when he commands us to “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling?” 

The key that unlocks the door to this question can be found in the words “work out.” In the original, the word means, “working something to completion.” To “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” is to complete that which was already begun by the person and work of Christ on the cross. Since salvation is a gift, we must be good stewards of the gift of salvation that Christ already has given us purchased by His own blood. The Bible tells us that our righteousness is credited to us because of our faith, and if we have saving faith we will act upon that faith. James chapter 2 instructs us that faith without works is dead, right? Therefore, if we have received the gift of salvation by faith, as a natural outgrowth of that, we will act upon that faith—faith is not faith unless it is acted upon.

ILL. Imagine for a moment that a friend has given you a Red Letter Day voucher for one parachute jump out of an airplane. Eliya can I’m sure relate to this – anyone else done a parachute jump? You thank your friend for this gift and tell him that you have the courage to make that jump. You even go to the airport, the jumpmaster shows you the proper procedure of making a parachute jump and you strap on the parachute equipment. The jumpmaster tells you he carefully packed the chute himself. You tell him that you have the belief that the chute will open when you pull the ripcord after counting to four as you leap from the plane. But when the time comes, and the green light goes on, you remain in your seat and refuse to jump out for fear the chute won’t open. Your prior statement that you believed that believed that the chute would open is not backed up by jumping out of the plane. 

The same is true of faith. You may say you have faith in Christ, but when it comes to obeying Him, you just can’t seem to do it. That kind of “faith” is no faith at all. Faith is belief put into action. 

Taking this idea of faith a step further, when we set out to perform a certain task, we have its completion in mind. We don’t mow part of the lawn and leave the rest of it to grow into a jungle. We don’t go on holiday to the South of France and but stop at the ferry port in Dover or at Stansted airport and call it a holiday. We must drive on south or board our plane until we reach our destination in Nice or wherever else we might be going.

I’ll be honest when I say that most of my learning of New Testament Greek while at University has got lost somewhere in nappy brain over the last few years. But this passage holds an example of where a knowledge of the original comes in handy. The Greek word for “work out” is in the middle voice. When a word is in the middle voice in biblical Greek, the subject both performs and is affected by an action. Let’s put this in simple terms. It means that God effects an action in us and at the same time we perform the same action. We allow God to work in our lives and simultaneously we must “work out” the Christian life through obedience and humility.

Let’s look again at vs. 12 in a different light: Paul commands us “to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Although Paul addresses the Philippians church and the word “your” is in the plural, by application this verse places responsibility upon us also as individuals. Your momma or daddy or brother or pastor cannot work out your salvation. It is up to you to live out the Christian life. The good news is that as you “work out” your salvation which = living out the Christian life, God is working in you. 

Verse 14 "Do all things without murmuring and disputing that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain." 

Anyone think they know a little about stars and constellations?

QUIZ

This is a passage which speaks of the need to see radical change, change that would make dictators fire their army, vegetarians barbecue hamster, and Eskimos give up fur. Change that would make sinful men become blameless, evil men become harmless. Change that would make us want to shine before men, not that people can see how wonderful we are, but so that God can be glorified. Change that comes with our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and saviour. Both speak of the need to shine in a world that is full of darkness. 

There are far to many Christians who are not shining as stars as the NIV puts it. I think there is a danger in thinking that what and who we were before we come to Christ are not a problem in our new life. The fundamental truth of our conversion is that it doesn’t always come overnight – it takes work, effort, patience, discipline, help, support, time...we are all left in our new Christian lives with baggage, bad habits and attitudes, behaviours which take a bit longer to adapt to the change that Holy Spirit brings.

The hope of verse 15 is that we can become blameless, pure and fulfilled as children of God if we look to Jesus as the example of godly living.

Blameless, pure and children of God. These are three things Paul states must be present if we are to shine as we should. We become these things when we accept Jesus example, when we acknowledge our need for him and we allow him to be incarnated in us to exact change.

But what does it mean to be blameless or pure? Does it mean that we are to live perfect lives? Does it mean that we are to be door mats and never say a peep about wrongs done to us? 

 The Greek word Paul uses here for "blameless" is "am’-emp-tos" which basically means, "free from fault of defect". In other word’s Paul is saying that there should be no obvious fault found in us. It certainly does not mean that we do not sin.

We have to face reality here – and the Bible is good at pointing that out!
1 John 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."

To put this another way is to say that we are not perfect, just forgiven. We all sin. But it is when we let that sin control our lives, when we let it go unconfessed, when we let it become part of who we are, it is then when we are no longer blameless. Paul’s advice would be - Keep short accounts, tell others when you are struggling, be honest and transparent...go back to the example of Jesus.

Titus 2:7-8 says: in everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness ⁸and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

The Septuagint is an Ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, which is probably the version that Paul knew and read on a regular basis. We see here in verse 15 that the word  Paul uses here for "lights" or "stars" as the NIV translates it, means literally "ill-um-in-aries". And it is the same word in found in the Septuagint in Genesis 1:14 & 16. 
I would like to read those two verses to you:

Genesis 1:14 "Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;"
Genesis 1:16 "Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also." 

So this is the type of light which Paul states we ought to be. A light which can be seen by all. A light that pierces the darkness of this world.

In Genesis we see reference to the sun and moon. We all know that it is the moon which reflects the light of the sun.
We also need to reflect the light of the Son, the Son of God. He is the one who gives us this light. We are a reflection of Him when we are obedient and follow His example, when we seek to imitate him and be blameless, pure and obedient as children.
We are to be light to other people that they themselves might enter into the light which is Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself taught on this very subject. Matthew 5:14-16 from the Message is a great translation Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

Light is useless unless it dispels darkness. It isn’t light if it isn’t messing with the darkness. And when we murmur and complain, when we fight with one another, when we do not live blameless and harmless lives, it is at those times when we place our light under a basket. We make our light useless. 

The light isn’t about us, although by shining light we will draw attention to ourselves. We need to shine as lights because we live in what Paul calls a "crooked and perverse generation." When we refuse to share in gossip, when we offer hospitality to those in need, when we give up our time to volunteer outside the church or give our money away or take part in fundraising activity, when we stand up for those who are bullied or persecuted we shine light into dark places and it is the darkness that has to flee, not the light. We live in a world that is very desperate for light, a world which is full of darkness.

The Bible calls all of us to crucify ourselves. To take up our cross daily. We are to die to our own needs and our selfish interest. We are to crucify our own selfish interests that we might live to Christ. The implication of all this is not only that Jesus Christ is exalted, but that when we are obedient to Christ and follow his example through humility and obedience we share in that glory. That glory and imitation of Jesus in our lives will shine like stars to those around us and makes a difference.

Let’s pray...

eee, shut that door!

A few doors have been firmly closed today - not just closed but locked really!

At the risk of continuing to be a bit cryptic, I'm staying where I am and am pleased about it. Relieved too, as I know others are!

As for the nominations to the episcopate, there may be a Smith going in that direction (one step at a time, you understand!) but it ain't me!! Thanks for the encouragement though - I'll start stashing fairy liquid bottles for the white plastic supply. I hear priests are skint so cost saving methods are a sensible pattern to adopt!??

Andy has returned from his 100 mile cycle around Brighton and Eastbourne for Cherish Uganda and he and his team have almost raised their target £1000. If you fancy helping them inch a little closer click here. Me and M had a lovely day at Barleylands with fantastic sunshine and lots to do.

Just finishing off our Harvest Family service outline for tomorrow - using a whole heap of different things including Nooma (Rich), Desert Island Discs and Advent Conspiracy...should be good!!

The Christmas letter...

The Smiths Christmas catch up!

Merry Christmas from the 3 of us to all of you!

As we write, we’re getting ready to celebrate Matilda’s 2^nd birthday on Sunday…amazing how time has flown! We’ll be doing our first kid’s party (as parents!) on Friday 12^th with just a few friends from church and playgroup and then spending her actual birthday on 14^th as a family, going out for lunch and getting our Christmas tree! In contrast to last year, Matilda is more aware of all the preparations for Christmas, and especially enjoys lighting the Advent candle and finding the chocolate coin each day in her Advent Calendar with pockets!

We will be up in Northumberland this Christmas with Andy’s parents, brother, sister in law and our niece Ellie as well as Andy’s grandparents and other Smith relatives. Jacki and Gordon moved from Scarborough

to Bedlington in the summer and so we will be flying up from Stansted, eradicating the five or six hour journey with a fidgety toddler! Before flying up, we’ll have a weekend with Alice’s parents, sister and brother in law in Surrey, doing a combined Christmas and birthday celebration.

Work continues to go well for both of us – Andy has now been in the local secondary school in Maldon for over a year and has developed the Inclusion Unit to be a place where young people in the school are making progress with their issues, including anger management, behaviour concerns and self esteem improvement.

Alice’s job proves continually busy with lots of training, church consultations and Diocesan work in promoting and encouraging good youth work across

Essex. 2009 will be an interesting year as we wait to see who will replace Bishop John Gladwin when he retires in August.

While we work, Matilda has 3 days with Yoriko, our fabulous childminder and quite a few other pre-schoolers! She loves her time there, with great activities including music, craft, dress up, and general craziness and playing with the other kids. She is shattered by the time Thursday comes round and has 2 naps to catch up on her sleep! Her vocabulary develops every day – her favourite words at the moment being “finished”, “juice” and “please” with various other indistinguishables! We’re discovering how much she loves music as she spends much of her time singing her version of ‘Twinkle Twinkle little star’, even in bed in the mornings before we go and get her up!

Alice turned the big 3-0 this year and celebrated with a fantastic weekend in Rye in East Sussex, with her parents, sister and brother in law (plus Andy and Matilda of course!!) We chilled out, ate lots, went to the beach, poked around the lovely antique shops and pubs and enjoyed one another’s company.

Alice also finally got a ring on her finger – an engagement one that is! 6 years late, Andy presented her with a beautiful diamond engagement ring which she had never had before…partly because of cost but also because of indecision. It was a fantastic surprise!

Holidays: Our travels have been wide and far this year – as usual! Over the Easter holidays, we took a road trip with the Collins’ family (Baggy, Natalie and the kids) up North, visiting Sheffield Yorkand Scarborough

in 4 days. It was great to catch up with people we hadn’t seen for a while and the kids had fun with each other in each destination!

We had a great walking holiday in May half term with our friends Jenny and Paul and their son (our godson) Jack in Ambleside. Again, great food, excellent company and beautiful scenery made it a week to remember. This was also a ‘birthday’ celebration as Paul turned 40 6 days before Alice’s 30^th so we continued to mark it in style! Andy and Jenny presented Alice and Paul with an evening at Lucy’s Cookery School, with a demonstration and tasting of some fabulous Lakeland food, picking up some hints, tips and recipes along the way as well and scoffing too!

USA after months of planning, researching and debating, our big trip finally happened this August! We flew to New York first, for a week long visit just the three of us, staying in my aunt’s home in upstate New York. We did the usual tourist haunts, Central Park, Fifth Avenue, EmpireState, Staten Island Ferry, shopping as well as chilling out in the fantastic garden at the house and enjoying the warmth! We then headed down to Tennesseefor 10 days, visiting our great friend Jack and his wife Emily. Jack is a friend from our Gateshead days who came to be a pastor in the Methodist circuit, around the time our house was flooded. He returned to the States after a year and has since moved over to the Anglican Mission and was ordained, as well as turning 30 while we were with them. We hadn’t met Emily before, but that needn’t have mattered as we all got along so well and enjoyed lots of lazy evenings over food and wine and much laughter. The 3 of us also visited the Knoxville Zoo, FallsCreekFallsNational Park, and WorldsFairParkas well as the fabulous SmokyMountains between Tennessee and North Carolina. It was difficult to leave – firm friendships and special memories made us want to stay on forever! Maybe one day…We returned to New York for a long weekend to see Alice’s family there and then returned to England, enriched, blessed and exhausted! Matilda was amazing during the travelling, sleeping on most of the flights and loving the adventures in between! A real credit to us!

We returned to a tough season in our church which continues as we write. Without too much detail, relationships are under strain and it’s a tough place to be right now. Prior to our USA

holiday we had been praying and considering taking on overall leadership of the youth ministry in church and had agreed to this in July. So September saw us launch the new Sunday night group ‘Giraffe’, and work on the depth, quality and quantity of the other ongoing youth work. We had a weekend away in November and took a big group to AltonTowersin October half term which was great fun.

Andy began Street Pastor training in November and was commissioned last Sunday to volunteer in Chelmsford. He will be out on the streets on Fridays or Saturdays, once a month, complementing the work done by police, town security and the pubs and clubs to make Chelmsford safer. Alongside this is a compassionate, service ministry of tending to people who may be vulnerable, making sure they get home safe, don’t get into violence and talking to them about their life and about faith and other stuff, that often comes up when there’s some alcohol flowing! Andy is enjoying the challenge so far and will continue the training in the New Year. www.streetpastors.org.uk

Falcon Camp has been a part of our summer schedule for many years now. This year saw us plant a new camp down in Essex, on board a converted lighthouse ship! We had 20 young people aged 10-13 on board with us, along with a fantastic team of leaders that we had gathered,  complemented by staff from the ship itself who led many of the activities. The camp is aimed at young people who face disadvantage and who may not otherwise get to have a holiday or experience these type of activities – sailing, climbing wall, archery as well as the old fashioned games, crafts, films, music and good food! It was a fantastic week, and we do it all again in July next year. Please pray for us and find out more at http://www.cpas.org.uk/ then click on Ventures and Falcon Camps and follow the links to Falcon Afloat!

Hopes for 2009 The financial situation in the world dominates the news, media and many thoughts at the moment. In our lines of work, this adds further pressure to many young people’s families and brings increased challenges. We look ahead with Hope, but with trepidation and have a sense of awe as we see how far God has brought us and the awesome things He has done. We pray for our church in this difficult time and also want you to know that you are in our prayers too. Perhaps it’s laziness to write this sort of nameless letter but we hope it enables us to share our lives a little, despite distance and the pressure of time.

Our house, as always, is open for visitors, for an hour or a few days and we’d love to see you if you’re around this way.

So ends the tome! Have a wonderful Christmas, with rest, fun and maybe some gifts too! May the New Year be all you hope for and some surprises too! With our love and many prayers…

Andy, Alice and Matilda Smith xxx

alisssmith@yahoo.co.uk

www.alisssmith.typepad.com

psalm 107

http://www.cgcmaldon.com/messagerecordings.htm listen online to my most recent sermon at Christian Growth Centre Maldon, this time on Psalm 107 - At Your Wits End?

Let me know what you think!!

boredom

I'm wondering whether what I write about on here is all that interesting? I've felt a bit bored myself recently...not sure if that's a response to a busy, hectic and exciting summer and the getting back to reality...or something else...

I have had 2 terrible migraines this week which didn't feel too nice...never had one before so two was a bit of a bummer. Took Wednesday off to recuperate on my own at home which I kinda enjoyed - full of boring activities like washing, ironing and tidying piles of paper. Essential but boring and satisfying all at the same time.

Overall it's been a quiet week work wise which has given me the space to relax and try and remove any stress causing the headaches...but the pressure pumps up from now on as various training courses I am delivering start next weekend and Andy P and I are working together on some events across the Diocese. (my) Andy starts his Street Pastors training in November, which does give me some enforced time at home as we've made a decision to try not to add to Matilda's other childcare hours. Matilda and I are having fun together at the minute as he vocabularly increases each day - she also has a very dirty giggle and she laughs a lot which makes me laugh, which makes her laugh...

Tonight we have all the children's and youth work leaders from church over for an Indaba - a swahili word meaning gathering, fellowship, discussion. We want to gather this team together in our role as coordinators and feed them lovely desserts (!) and begin to develop vision and team to take the youth work forward in a fresh way. So I'm looking forward to tonight and have made a lemon and lime cheesecake and baked chocolate cake this afternoon to get the creative juices flowing a bit better!! This is an aspect of church which is feeling good at the minute - our church is going through a tough period at the minute with lots of pressure on relationships as well as growth meaning that aspects of our work and outreach are under pressure. We had a great time on Sunday night with our youth cell - Giraffe - who hosted a surprise birthday party for one of the group...house full of teenagers, food, party popper debris and silly games...real good fun!

So, even if my life seems a bit boring from the outside, or from a blog perspective - I'm quite enjoying it...the lull before the storm!

post equipping

5 session in and I'm finally realising that the week following Equipping sessions are a bit of an uphill struggle! I LOVE doing the course - it's always better than I imagine it will be as I plan and above all hearing the stories and examples of youth ministry going on across the Area and Diocese are so encouraging. Keeps my feet on the ground...however, I am knackered now and with only 1 night in last week and a busy Sunday, I could do with a proper, sleep filled day off!

Unfortunately, not something that will happen til Thursday now...

Not such a busy week this week,but none the less full of things to do. I begin a series of termly youth leader forums across the Deaneries tonight, starting in Basildon (Southend are next Tuesday 30th and Hadleigh on 8th October). These are another great way to get together with those who are doing the stuff with young people, and being able to resource, support and encourage them is one of the best bits of my job.

I'm also covering a bit of work in the Colchester area while it is in vacancy and going to see a parish about employing a youth worker and encouraging youth outreach in their rural context.

I've not commented so far on the recent 'fall' of prominent church leaders across the world. Todd Bentley and the Florida healing outpouring has featured on this blog before and over the summer, things kinda fell apart with the revelation of his 'emotional' relationship with another woman and the separation from his wife. Along with another Australian youth minister, and other less high profile christian leaders there has been a series of confessions, exposures and disclosures which have rocked many people, churches and ministries, not least us here in Maldon. It's disappointing, but not surprising that in a time when there are pressures on people around finances, housing, futures that these things should happen, as they always have done. Our church is coming under pressure in many areas, relationships, finance, morality and what seems to characterise this period is a level of grace and a season of understanding which is allowing these things to come into the light and be exposed and be made clean. We had a powerful word in church a couple of weeks ago about how God is making his bride spotless for himself and I believe that is part of the process. It's rubbish, hard, disheartening, but God is faithful, powerful, loving and desperate to see his church and people restored.

Now I don't know where you readers of mine stand on issues of prophecy and prophetic words of knowledge. I post this example as a discussion starter and to make you think. Sharon Stone is a woman of God, of that there is no doubt and this prophetic word given to her was spoken in August 08, before recent world events unfolded.

This is what she wrote in the email forwarded to me last week:

Just hours ago we received this e-mail from a lady who attended a meeting at which I spoke this summer.  The dramatic events that have unfolded this week in the US and within the past 24 hours here in the UK resonate with the truth God spoke through this word.  I want to share this with you in light of these events as an encouragement that the Lord is faithful to His Word and He has made both provision and a way.

Blessings in Christ,

Dr. Sharon Stone  

12/09/2008 15:03:43 GMT Standard Time

Dear Sharon and Greg,  

I thought you might be interested in seeing this prophesy you gave in Glasgow this summer.  While I was in prayer this morning God reminded me that I scribed this on the Sunday morning you were with us.  I don’t know how much you keep up on world news but there is a freight train fire in the Chunnel right now.  And on the 29^th of August Sarah Palin was introduced as

John McCain’s vice presidential running mate from Alaska .  Also XL Airlines has just halted its flights because it could not find a lender and people on holiday are stranded all over.  Last week the UK government cancelled council taxes for the purchase of homes under 200,000 pounds for a year.  Isn’t God amazing!

Your Sister in Christ,

Lisa Gibbs

Prophecy given by Dr. Sharon Stone, Glasgow , Summer, 2008

“September is a turning point and a sign of the times.  It is all about those who have made Godly alignments in this season being blessed with revelation and information in the midst of world crisis.  

“I see more banks will suffer: a USA world bank’s shares are in trouble - I see government in the USA bailing out mortgage giants and the government in England cutting house purchase taxes for the sagging housing crisis, to no avail.  I see a European airline failing with no notice.  I see the eyes of the world looking to see, ‘who is this coming out of Alaska ?’  And I see smoke coming from the Chunnel.

“As I see these things I hear the encouragement of God to His Isaacs in the earth who sow in the times of famine and reap 100 fold in the year.  I’m not a prosperity preacher, I’m a prophet.  And God is saying that September will convince you that you must connect to His economic system.  There are always the few that are greatly blessed when the majority are shaken, threatened and fearful.  

“God says, ‘Have you positioned yourself for THE NEW?  Your storehouse is not an earthly bank.  Hold on and I will bail you out of your mortgage issues.  Am I not better to you than any government?  I will not leave you stranded on foreign soil, and I will carry you above the circumstances better than any plane or jet.  And your hope is not an Alaskan saviour, but Me. ’ I know that sounds strange, it does to me also.  

“ England , the smoke I saw coming out of the Chunnel is a warning for your intercessors to arise and cut off the enemy’s plan to sabotage and siege  England 's favour in trade.  Let him who has ears hear.  

“God I release an Isaac anointing upon us now!”

 

long awaited return...

yikes, have been off this blog for ages...quite unintentional really! Life as usual has overtaken the best laid plans. Lots of good stuff happening in the world of the Smiths and lots of crappy stuff too which I won't write about here...

Had a full work day today, preaching this morning in Billericay and then at a youth group in Chelmsford this evening - final verdict is that I am rubbish at pool and slightly better than rubbish at table tennis, must be out of practice. My last youth group were major Uni-Hoc fans so the 'traditional' youth groups games as per the above didn't get a look in...looking back, perhaps there was a bit of a violence issue bubbling underneath the surface (only kidding any ex-youthy readers!)

We also went through our finances today - really yuksome with a new mortgage and increased child care costs as of last week. Really has made us realise how little impact our money seems to have and how poor our giving is in relation to our spending. Our church had a Vision Offering Day today, and has had for the last 3 years we have been around. The attendance was apparently really low...and the giving was lower than previous years too. We have lots to reflect on now in terms of our outgoings, expenses and giving/tithing and I am haunted a little by my friend Jenny's mantra "Give your tithe first and everything else will fall into place". I confess that it is usually the biggest and most scary item that is paid first (i.e. mortgage) followed closely by food and anything Matilda related...

So, alongside that, we have been saving for the last year as many will know and have today reserved flights for our holiday to the USA in August! Yay! 10 days in New York and 10 days in Knoxville (Tennessee) followed by weekend back in New York when my family will be around and we can spend some time with them.

What else has been happening? I'm gonna write a list and if you want to know anymore about any item, I will expand on it in a later post - sort of like a reader led blog to help me get back in the habit!! So.....I went to a Jehovah's Witness meeting on Easter Saturday - Jesus Memorial meal. My regular meetings with Fernanda have stopped for the moment and that meeting certainly put me off ever being a JW (not that I was thinking about it!) I have also got a bit reimmersed in my Mormon theology reading and am seriously hoping and trying to get some writing done around that which could translate into training...

I have been planning new training for my church on Child Protection

Andy and I had our first night away (together) without Matilda since she was born (we've both been away from her, but never together). I won't give any more detail on that!

I have been planning my birthday weekend away with my parents, my sister and her husband and Andy and Matilda to celebrate my 30th...we are each pairing up to cook an evening meal through the weekend and I have been paired with my brother in law Ollie...could be an interesting combo! My sister meanwhile is paired with my dad, neither of them think the other can cook so it could be competitive in a good way...or not!

The looming 30th has been an interesting process - both in terms of me as a person and also in terms of my job. I have that nagging question of how long I can go on being convincing, authentic, relevant etc as a youth worker...how old is too old? I know so many people who have such a gift for engaging with young people and being alongside them and teaching and stuff that they can almost never stop doing it...a true calling. I have such a sense of calling to work on behalf of young people and I know that I need to keep it grounded by hanging out with yp's like I did tonight. The question came up last week at the regional meeting of Diocesan Youth Officer's...some are looking to the future and moving on, but overall the conversation had such a sense that there's almost nothing left after being a DYO...not that it's a bad thing to be, but it's kinda a dead end in terms of the Church of England. Maybe that's why so many perhaps go onto ordination. That's not going to be me, despite the lady this morning who commented on my sermon by telling me, "you'd be a lovely Vicar"!

I'd only do it to get rid of the mortgage!

half term

hello people!! It's been a funny week! Until last Thursday I had looked head on this week and seen it as a happy mish mash of work, play and rest...it has been that, but not so happy.

Last Thursday, Andy Poultney, my Barking area colleague and I had to make the difficult decision to cancel the Essential Calling 2 vocations away days due to lack of bookings. A strange phenomenon - last year we did limited publicity, limited preparation in some ways and didn't plug it widely and got 18 young people along. This year, a huge launch at the Celebration in January, very funky publicity cards, big push at Deanery Synods etc and only 3 bookings...lots of possibles, youth workers saying they maybe had 2 or 3, but these never translated into firm bookings. We've lost a lot of money from the Vocations budget for this, as well as feeling frustrated about the why's and wherefores of such a thing not taking off.

My hunch? This was an event that was initiated from a National initiative in the Church of England to increase young people going into ordination. When we were first approached, I (we) were sceptical about such a narrow aim and managed to press for a wider initiative in Chelmsford Diocese to consider CALLING in young people...not just to ordination but to all fields of work, ministry and none! Fundamentally, I think that any event which is catalysed by a need for increase in numbers of young people but doesn't actually look into their needs, wants, beliefs etc is probably always going to fall...I think we were probably just lucky with numbers last year.

I also firmly, and maybe controversially believe that some 'blame' has to be levied at church leaders and youth workers who have the regular and closer contact with young people but perhaps didn't sell such an event as well as they could. Despite the event being heavily subsidised and some Deaneries having funded places, the enthusiasm from youth workers that I spoke to was less than sparky. I don't get it - how can so much of my work with churches, youth workers, young people be about finding their place in the life of the church, realising their potential etc. etc. when opportnities like this, handed to them on a plate aren't taken up? All parents, church leaders or youthworkers had to do was get the young people there - was that too much to ask?? Maybe it was, during a holiday week when many groups and things shut down for a break. On the other hand, maybe they felt they couldn't sell the event cos it wasn't scratching where the young people were itching...would love to hear your thoughts...

There will be a post mortem and we will have to think about the 'what next'. I feel sad for those 3 who were booked in to come and we'll be contacting them and trying to find a way to support them on this journey despite the cancellation.

So, I have had more time at home than I planned for and slightly less pressure to get stuff done which has been nice. With Equipping training happening all last week, I was pretty tired by Sunday and could have done with a slob out in front of the TV! Instead, I spent the afternoon with my pastors Trevor and Susie and our friends Gemma and Lewis, having lunch and putting the world to rights. Since we've been in Essex and at CGC we've been in a Discipleship Group. It started with 4 couples, 1 couple left and another moved sideways to start a new group for new people. T&S call it a fast tracking group now, as they seek to move us 2 couples forward and impart to us all the stuff they want us to take on board for leadership, development and the future, whatever that holds! For Lewis and Gemma, 2008 has started with a bang as they take on the role of Worship Pastors for the church. For us, things are still taking shape and God is doing a lot of work in us individually and in our marriage which is hard and tough but ultimately great and hopeful! It's exciting and daunting stuff and by Sunday night I was shattered!! Went to bed at 8.30pm leaving Andy and Lewis leading the young people's cell group downstairs - apparently they played Cranium very loudly but I didn't hear much!

We had a photo shoot on Monday afternoon with our friend Ellie - at Christmas we discovered that the only picture of the three of us, that is any good, was taken the day after Matilda was born!! I look OK, but its not a picture I want framing! So Ellie came round with her fancy new camera to rectify the situation! Some examples appear below as a preview - we will be keeping the best ones for our wall!

Rest of Monday and Tuesday was chilled and relaxed - I did some baking, we put up Matilda's swing in the garden and generally just spent time together at home - a rare luxury!

Andy took me out to the Blue Strawberry restaurant in Hatfield Peverel on Tuesday night - beat the Valentine's Day rush! Wonderful food (I had the special salad and a steak, yum), great service and lovely surrundings, recommend it highly, though you won't get a table tonight!

Finally, the highlight of our week will be the arrival of our bestest friends Jenny and Paul RB, with their son (our godson) Jack tomorrow for the weekend. We just know we'll really feel chilled by the time they go, great company, special friends and lots of time together to get out and about, do some crazy things and probably eat and drink too much!

So, that's it for half term - the quickest weeks are always the holidays! It's been nice to have Andy at home and although both of us have come down with colds etc., it's been a bonus to be at home and not be travelling as is usually the case!

prayer and LIVING LENT

I have so much to do that I spend several hours in prayer before I am able to do it. (John Wesley)

This struck me as a huge slap in the face this morning. I'm embarking on a busy week and having just returned from the soulnet retreat, should have been praying as my first activity...starting as I mean to go on...It hasn't quite worked out that way. Spent 2 hours this morning on the A127 going to get a projector for the training we're doing at 3 sessions this week...I felt frustrated at the waste of time it was...but I didn't channel that frustration into prayer...well, not til the end of the journey and that was only cos Ken Bruce was playing some rubbish song on Radio 2 and I switched it off!

Someone much wiser than me told me recently that if she was planning to speak at a church or event or to Christians generally, she would spend twice as long praying in preparation as she was planning to speak for...wooohha. When I was at Uni, it was a fairly common thing for me to pray in tongues and I always found that I could pray longer and with more focus when I wasn't relying on my own intellect and vocabulary to talk to God. I know I've got out of practice with it...I've not lost the ability or desire to pray in such a way, but it doesn't come as easily. Since we moved down here and started going to CGC it's placed a greater emphasis on that aspect of worship and prayer and adoration and I suppose I'm finding more and more that I don't know what to pray or where to start so being able to use tongues elevates my confused and strangled thoughts to God in a new way. I want it to be second nature tho, rather than an afterthought when there is no decent music on.

Sitting in my tiny study today and ploughing through lots of paperwork and admin and doing preparation for the training sessions, I wondered to myself when was the last time I put aside a chunk of time to be with God that wasn't compulsory...i.e. not at a retreat or event or dictated in some way by someone else? I don't often make the choice to 'retreat' of my own accord. One of my Lenten disciplines will be to try and do that and disappear for a bit to catch and glimpse some of the elevation I know comes from dedicated time with God. This is where my 'historical' Anglican background and my current church choice don't always combine well as Lent is not really mentioned at CGC. However, it is something that Andy and I have often marked in our own way - tending not so much to give up things but to do things differently, start new habits and make new positive decisions in some way. This has been a good tool which I've used personally and offered to others as a suggested resource for the last couple of years: Love Life Live Lent

We recommend the Soulnet retreat - enjoyed ourselves and the company of our good friends and the weather was sunny if freezing! This is my favourite picture from the time away!

 

nice to be back..

It was good to be back in church again today after three weeks as nomads over Christmas. Since our church (Christian Growth Centre, Maldon) was the main reason we moved from Gateshead to Essex in the first place, it's a foundational place for us and it's good to be 'home' in every sense. As the first service of 2008, it was a reflective event, with Lewis and Gemma leading us in sung worship (for the first time as Worship Pastors, a baton which was handed to them, literally and spiritually, today) and Trevor (our esteemed Pastor (I put that in cos I know he sometimes reads my blog!!)) helping us reflect on where we have come from in 2007 and where we go in 2008.

The new website, also officially launched today,  is a huge improvement - www.cgcmaldon.com and has links to all the stuff going on, the sermons preached and a place for discussion and thinking which is always good. There are probably 1 or 2 of my 'talks' on there too, and another one coming up in February...I'm not yet that inspired about my topic so am hoping for revelation in the next few weeks!

Much as I love church, I always love coming home too and especially on a day where there are no other plans except lunch, play, chill, dinner and sleep! That we did. It was fun and we need to do it more...trouble is Sundays are a busy day in my line of work...

Happy Sunday everyone - church is good, God is better!