This week I want to start by directing your prayers to the main activity I will be involved in this week. But I also want to link it to part of the passage from Isaiah which was the subject of the Bible Discussion meeting in Yelvertoft last Thursday.
During the 25 years I spent working in Mission for Christ (1963-1988) we had a network of associate evangelists and ministers. Among these were Brian and Clare Kennard. Later Brian trained for ministry in the Methodist Church, So when, a few years ago, Brian was called to be the Minister at Harborough Methodist Circuit, based where Doreen and I live, you will imagine how delighted I was. While his ministry had developed and enlarged, he has not lost his zeal for encouraging others to come to Christ. He wasn't in the town long when he suggested starting "Holiday at Home". It has been my privilege to work alongside him and others on this regular annual five day project.
Our version of H@H starts each day with a team meeting and prayer before the guests start to arrive any time around 9.45. Once their attendance is registered and they have paid the £5 for the morning programme and the lunch, they enjoy coffee and biscuits and a chat with others as we approach the official start time of 10.00. We will be able to spot those who have been before and those who are attending for the first time this year. On any day there is unlikely to be less than 30 and possibly as many as 50, most of whom will be of retirement age and quite a few will be widows or widowers.
The morning is divided into two parts with another coffee break in between. The first session will include the choice of several activities. These have included such things as painting, model making, or other craft based activity, instant drama, creative writing, story telling skills, learning computer skills, relaxation class, cooking, flower arranging ,,,,, and more. Everyone comes together for the second session, when there might be something such as an interesting speaker, some community singing, or a film show. Then before lunch there will be "Lite Bite", which is a short Christian talk before we sit down to an excellent two course lunch followed by tea or coffee. This pattern operates on days 1,2,3 and 5. On day 4 we take everyone out on an outing, still for the price of £5.
I wonder whether anyone is thinking, where is the evangelism in this? Is it better described as pre-evangelism? For me, the whole programme is about evangelism. This might mean coming alongside an older person for whom life might be a struggle, or someone who has recently experienced a loss. It means caring and giving time to listen. It means showing people that they are valued by us because they are valued by God. The short talks might be the only bible base input, but the whole experience is the gospel being lived out. We have a Saviour who cared about his disciples getting some rest, who cared that people were hungry. It wasn't all about preaching and healing.
We know that God has worked in people's lives through Holiday at Home. I am asking for your prayers each day. Please pray that those of us on the team and others who are Christians will genuinely show God's love in our words and actions. Pray that we will be sensitive to the needs that will be there each day. Pray for those who attend who do not have a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Pray that the Holy Spirit will draw people, and that we will be ready to share the good news when appropriate,
We were supposed to have studied and talked about Isaiah chapters 7 to 11 last Thursday but only got chapters 7 and 8 covered. Isaiah starts by telling us that Ahaz is King of Judah at this time. He was the worst of the four kings who reigned successively during Isaiah's ministry. The people were apostate and living under the threat of invasion by neighbouring powers. Instead of looking to God and trusting him in the crisis, they seemed to have turned to occult practises and sought any other help than what God was offering. They were bringing trouble down upon their own heads in the process.
Into this situation God has raised up Isaiah as his prophet, though he has been told that the people will turn a deaf ear to his message. Isaiah is given two sons and these become prophetic signs with prophetic names. Isaiah is told to boldly publish part of his prophecy. It would have been like putting up a large banner or advertising hoarding. Through it all comes the name Immanuel (God with us) for despite all that will befall this spiritually fallen nation God still cared and had a plan of salvation. But it is in the midst of the spiritual darkness that Isaiah declares. "Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion" (Isa 8 :18). Their presence was a visual aid that supported the prophetic word.
Today Christians are called to be exactly that - signs and symbols of the kingdom of God. You may already be aware that the writer to the Hebrews quotes this verse from Isaiah as he (or she?) writes of Jesus who was made lower than the angels to become our Saviour. We are called to exercise a prophetic ministry not just by the proclamation of God's word but by living a life filled with the Holy Spirit and in the Jesus way. How we live is vital to the effect of the message we share. Paul stresses the importance of this in chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians. Just as the life of Jesus revealed the character of God, so we should be standing with him (as the sons of Isaiah stood with him) and like him so that the world would be able to see the kingdom of God lived out before them.
If we care that people should hear and believe God's word, then it is incumbent upon us to do all we can to live in a loving relationship with one another. When we get it wrong we weaken the word we share. This is profoundly challenging. If we are God's children we should demonstrate that relationship in family likeness. Our all too common failure to draw of God's grace and power should make us weep.
Perhaps it is worth taking a moment to search our hearts as to how and why we fail, then to seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit afresh that people might see Jesus in us.
Which brings me back to our meetings each day this week in Market Harborough. Please pray that we might truly be a corporate testimony to God's grace: sign and symbol of the kingdom of God.
Thank you for your prayers.
Barry
During the 25 years I spent working in Mission for Christ (1963-1988) we had a network of associate evangelists and ministers. Among these were Brian and Clare Kennard. Later Brian trained for ministry in the Methodist Church, So when, a few years ago, Brian was called to be the Minister at Harborough Methodist Circuit, based where Doreen and I live, you will imagine how delighted I was. While his ministry had developed and enlarged, he has not lost his zeal for encouraging others to come to Christ. He wasn't in the town long when he suggested starting "Holiday at Home". It has been my privilege to work alongside him and others on this regular annual five day project.
Our version of H@H starts each day with a team meeting and prayer before the guests start to arrive any time around 9.45. Once their attendance is registered and they have paid the £5 for the morning programme and the lunch, they enjoy coffee and biscuits and a chat with others as we approach the official start time of 10.00. We will be able to spot those who have been before and those who are attending for the first time this year. On any day there is unlikely to be less than 30 and possibly as many as 50, most of whom will be of retirement age and quite a few will be widows or widowers.
The morning is divided into two parts with another coffee break in between. The first session will include the choice of several activities. These have included such things as painting, model making, or other craft based activity, instant drama, creative writing, story telling skills, learning computer skills, relaxation class, cooking, flower arranging ,,,,, and more. Everyone comes together for the second session, when there might be something such as an interesting speaker, some community singing, or a film show. Then before lunch there will be "Lite Bite", which is a short Christian talk before we sit down to an excellent two course lunch followed by tea or coffee. This pattern operates on days 1,2,3 and 5. On day 4 we take everyone out on an outing, still for the price of £5.
I wonder whether anyone is thinking, where is the evangelism in this? Is it better described as pre-evangelism? For me, the whole programme is about evangelism. This might mean coming alongside an older person for whom life might be a struggle, or someone who has recently experienced a loss. It means caring and giving time to listen. It means showing people that they are valued by us because they are valued by God. The short talks might be the only bible base input, but the whole experience is the gospel being lived out. We have a Saviour who cared about his disciples getting some rest, who cared that people were hungry. It wasn't all about preaching and healing.
We know that God has worked in people's lives through Holiday at Home. I am asking for your prayers each day. Please pray that those of us on the team and others who are Christians will genuinely show God's love in our words and actions. Pray that we will be sensitive to the needs that will be there each day. Pray for those who attend who do not have a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Pray that the Holy Spirit will draw people, and that we will be ready to share the good news when appropriate,
We were supposed to have studied and talked about Isaiah chapters 7 to 11 last Thursday but only got chapters 7 and 8 covered. Isaiah starts by telling us that Ahaz is King of Judah at this time. He was the worst of the four kings who reigned successively during Isaiah's ministry. The people were apostate and living under the threat of invasion by neighbouring powers. Instead of looking to God and trusting him in the crisis, they seemed to have turned to occult practises and sought any other help than what God was offering. They were bringing trouble down upon their own heads in the process.
Into this situation God has raised up Isaiah as his prophet, though he has been told that the people will turn a deaf ear to his message. Isaiah is given two sons and these become prophetic signs with prophetic names. Isaiah is told to boldly publish part of his prophecy. It would have been like putting up a large banner or advertising hoarding. Through it all comes the name Immanuel (God with us) for despite all that will befall this spiritually fallen nation God still cared and had a plan of salvation. But it is in the midst of the spiritual darkness that Isaiah declares. "Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion" (Isa 8 :18). Their presence was a visual aid that supported the prophetic word.
Today Christians are called to be exactly that - signs and symbols of the kingdom of God. You may already be aware that the writer to the Hebrews quotes this verse from Isaiah as he (or she?) writes of Jesus who was made lower than the angels to become our Saviour. We are called to exercise a prophetic ministry not just by the proclamation of God's word but by living a life filled with the Holy Spirit and in the Jesus way. How we live is vital to the effect of the message we share. Paul stresses the importance of this in chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians. Just as the life of Jesus revealed the character of God, so we should be standing with him (as the sons of Isaiah stood with him) and like him so that the world would be able to see the kingdom of God lived out before them.
If we care that people should hear and believe God's word, then it is incumbent upon us to do all we can to live in a loving relationship with one another. When we get it wrong we weaken the word we share. This is profoundly challenging. If we are God's children we should demonstrate that relationship in family likeness. Our all too common failure to draw of God's grace and power should make us weep.
Perhaps it is worth taking a moment to search our hearts as to how and why we fail, then to seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit afresh that people might see Jesus in us.
Which brings me back to our meetings each day this week in Market Harborough. Please pray that we might truly be a corporate testimony to God's grace: sign and symbol of the kingdom of God.
Thank you for your prayers.
Barry
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