God answers prayer

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My pastor shared a wonderful message yesterday on the power of prayer. He particularly emphasized corporate prayer and used the example of Peter’s ‘release’ from prison in Acts 12: 1-19 as evidence.

Please take a few moments to read the passage. You may recall that Peter was the top dog in the Christian world at that time. King Herod realised if he took out the top guy then the church may get discouraged and fade away into the background. But the church had other ideas. They “earnestly prayed to God for him.” (v5)

And God answered.

My pastor mentioned the 5 amazing ways God answered their prayers. I thought this was a great way of both summarizing the passage and providing encouragement for all of us to remain fervent in our prayers.

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Enjoying God

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I’ve been in a bit of a funk recently. Illness combined with a series of disappointments has served to create a flatness and lack of motivation.

This funk also stretched into my times with the Lord. I’d been grabbing snippets of time with Him and reading the Word had become a little monotonous.

The Psalms

“Read the Psalms” was a response I heard to a question I asked a few weeks ago. So that’s what I did.

I also found a book on my shelf titled, “Deeper Places: Experiencing God in the Psalms” penned by an Aussie pastor, Matthew Jacoby, who also happens to play in a worship band called “Sons of Korah” who I’d known of for years but hadn’t listened to much of their music. Their music is entirely focused on sharing the message of the Psalms.

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One person makes a difference

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When was the last time you heard a message and thought the speaker was directing it specifically to you? It’s like you’re the only person in the auditorium, an audience of one.

I had that sensation last week at church when a visiting pastor from the UK, Paul Scanlon, spoke. His message didn’t really have a title but it was about encouraging us all to know that we are useful to God.

When God wants to do something He always finds someone who He can use. Whether it was to wipe out all living creatures (he used Noah), to building the temple (Solomon), or to evangelize to the Gentiles (Paul).

David and the Temple

Scanlon anchored his message around David. David was chosen to be king when he was a teenage shepherd boy who wrestled lions and bears if they dared go after his sheep and wrote poetry to God as he tended the flock through the lonely nights.

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The Power of Prayer

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This has been an especially terrible week for Bostonians and Americans with terrorism and a freak massive explosion occurring within days of each other.

My heart has cried out especially for those who have lost loved ones and for the injured.

A number of people have mentioned the similarity in the Boston bombings to some of the action in Angelguard; the senseless destruction of innocent lives.

Evil.

How should we respond?

Pray.

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“66 Love Letters”, Dr Larry Crabb

0849946409.jpgI’ve always considered the Bible to be a love story. This book helps elucidate the essence of God’s love for us in each of the 66 letters of the Bible.

I loved it.

I took on a challenge to read the entire Bible during Lent just passed. Crabb’s book had been sitting on my shelf for a year or so untouched. It kinda jumped out at me as I dived into the Bible reading challenge.

As I moved quickly through the Word, what became very clear to me was God’s absolute love for us. He is madly in love with His creation, and will do anything to have us choose Him. This culminated in Jesus living, dying on the Cross and being resurrected. So working through Crabb’s love letters was a perfect fit for where my mind was at.

Certainly this is not a commentary nor concordance but doesn’t try to be that. There is definitely room for 66 Love Letters to sit alongside commentaries and such like to provide a different insight into the Word.

Not everyone is going to get it and may find it a poor cousin to more literal interpretations.

I don’t profess to know the Bible well. What this marvellous book has left me with is an insatiable thirst to know the heart of God and to better understand His love story. As Crabb says in his introduction: “We try to reach the heart of God without listening to the Word of God.” God’s revealed His heart to us, in 66 love letters.

I’m not sure how’d this book would go if you weren’t reading through the Bible simultaneously. It took Crabb 3.5 years to write it so he obviously spent a lot of time both studying the Word, other references and seeking God’s wisdom on each book. I particularly enjoyed how Crabb used other influential authors like CS Lewis to add additional insights.

The epilogue at the end will be a useful quick reference guide as it summarises each of the 66 letters into one paragraph.

Highly recommended.

Palm Sunday Reflections – We are God’s Delight

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Today is Palm Sunday Down Under. The day Jesus rode, on a donkey, into Jerusalem. This marks the first day of Easter week.

I finished reading the Old Testament on Friday. And wow, was it a rewarding experience. Certainly challenging, 1300+ pages in 5 weeks. I didn’t have time for deep reflection on individual passages or verses, but I don’t believe that was the purpose. It gave me an overall sense of the first part of God’s great love story.

My key take-out: God loves us so much. Yes, we are His delight. Too often we can dismiss the Old Testament (OT) as being full of great Sunday school stories but has now been “usurped” by Jesus in the New Testament (NT).

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