Job type 1 : Church or Christian organization anywhere in te UK (part-time or full-time) including a small church willing to hire me as pastor and using the gifting that God has given me. We are prepared to move.
Job type 2 : One off engagements such as conferences, sunday services or seminars such as DigiSem (a short seminar about christians being involved online). I am prepared to travel
G'day and welcome to Partakers Friday Prayers on the 23rd of September, 2011.
Opening Prayer
Father, as we commence, let our hearts and minds be right before you. We thank for your Son Jesus. It's in His name we offer you these praises, prayers and petitions in the power of the Holy Spirit who lives inside those who are your children. Amen
Praise time!
Let's have a time for you to offer your own praises to God! If for some reason words are failing you, simple say "Lord God, I lift up thanks and praise to you alone."
Father God, accept these praises as sweet smelling perfume! Amen!
Psalm 100
We are told that it's a great thing to praise our God! So let's now have a Psalm of praise! We have Psalm 100, read to us today by Jenny!
Time of Silence
Now there will be a short time of prayer where you can give to God things that are on your own mind and heart.
If for some reason, words are failing you, then pray this short prayer based on Psalm 40 "O God, Help and deliver me from this pit for I am poor and needy!"
Time of silence
Father, we pray that your love will take over our lives! We also pray that we would follow you faithfully, live lives obediently and give praise to you alone in all circumstances we face together.
Lord in your mercy hear these prayers of your children. Amen
Prayers for the World
Father, we now lifts this troubled world to you! From your wellspring of mercy hear these petitions!!
May justice and peace come to places where injustice, strife and conflict currently dominate!
Where there is chaos, bring order.
Where there is hatred, may love be sown.
We pray that in areas of need following natural disasters, that aid will get through and infrastructure rebuilt.
Lord in your mercy, hear these prayers of your children! Amen!
For churches and Christians worldwide
We now pray for church services around the world this weekend.
Our Father God, we lift before you all those who are preaching, leading, serving and participating in church services around the world this weekend, we ask that the Holy Spirit would guide their minds and that the worship will be in Spirit and in truth, that the Word as it is faithfully preached.
For those in countries where to meet other Christians is illegal or not condoned by the government, we ask that you continue to strengthen, guide, grow and uplift them. Let them know through Your Spirit, the Spirit that lives within all believers that we are praying for them.
Amen!
Prayers for others
Father, be the strength for all those who are grieving and mourning the loss of loved ones. Father, we pray that those in despair will be helped and where there is darkness there will be light. O Lord God, give strength to the week.
We lift before you, O merciful Father, all those facing challenging situations: such as loneliness, confinement at home, geographical isolation, lack of employment, health issues, and financial pressures. O Father, please meet their needs in what ever challenging situation is being faced, and we put ourselves in your hands to help meet those needs where we can.
We ask these things, our Father God, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen!
Benediction
And now, as we close: Hebrews 13v20-21
Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.""So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Genesis 1v1 & 27
Our God is a creative God! His creativity is all around us! Further to this, as humans we are created in His image, and as a result, we are creative! Everybody has some form of significant creative potential. If you don't think you do, perhaps it is because you haven't found your creative niche yet! The natural creativity of children is amazing! However, quite frequently significant persons bury creativity under layers of conditioning and negativity. Some of the greatest culprits are teachers, parents and peers, but there is hope because the conditioning process can be reversed. It is a process with a high cost factor, because creativity is essentially a life style. It has to pervade every area of your experience. None more so than in your area of service as a Christian Disciple!
Examples of Biblical creativity
Jesus used creativity in his teaching! He took every day people and objects, creating lessons out of them. Think of some of your favourite parables and see the creativity behind them! As for the Psalms, they are filled with creative language in order to praise God, seeking penance before God and expressing a desire to know God better! Similarly some of the symbolic language of the Bible is very creative. Take for example the genealogy of Matthew 1. To us it may well be tedious and insignificant, but to its initial audience of a small group of Jewish believers, it includes enormous significance and creative symbolism! The way Matthew constructed the genealogy highlights many things, one of which was his highlighting of Abraham, David and of course, Jesus! We know to the Jewish mind, numbers were not just mathematically significant but also held great symbolism! The number seven represents perfection. Each of the 3 stages in the genealogy of Matthew 1 contains 14 stages making a total of 42 times perfection! So what Matthew was saying that Jesus was a great deal more than perfect! Now if you were not a first century Jew, you would not at first see creative symbolism!
Why the importance of creativity?
Creativity perpetuates the learning process. As long as you live you should be learning, and remember that Christian Discipleship is essentially a call to perpetual learning.
Creativity is essential to meet the growing demands of a changing society. Package thinkers are out of business for an impact tomorrow. If we do not prepare those that we lead to change, they will not be a change element in our next generation.
Creativity is important to both affect & infect your communication with a characteristic freshness & vitality. We are commanded to communicate the truth. A communicative individual is always a creative individual.
Creativity develops your leadership style.
Creativity will overhaul your lifestyle. Most Christian Disciples seem to only exist and not live! If a person is living in the past or in the future, they cannot be enjoying the present.
What are the principles of creativity?
Creativity is largely a matter of effort. The mind is like a muscle and grows with use.
Quantity is essential to quality in the creative process. Scientific evidence suggests that it is only a maximum of 6% of ideas that are good. You have to get more ideas to get some winning ideas.
Results of which are good, bad or indifferent are welcome. Don't pass judgment at the outset of the creativity process; you have go to withhold it.
Incubation generates illumination. Put your ideas on the back burner. Put time between thinking of ideas. Then don't be surprised when a moment of inspiration of how to complete it arrives!
Group effort stimulates creativity if you learn how to listen.
How to activate creativity?
Experience provides fuel for ideation, which is the formation of ideas.
Problem solving. Get your drive going in the right direction.
Involvement in hobbies & fine arts. Photographic sites like www.Flickr.com are great places to see creativity in process and get tips on how to improve! There are oodles of websites out there for almost every conceivable hobby!
Reading. Creativity thrives on reading the only problem is passivity. Read it until you can tell somebody else. We tend to read the stuff with which we agree which only serves to reinforce our own prejudices and presuppositions. Read things that you know you won't necessarily agree with, and expand your reading and thinking!
Writing. Keep a journal, a blog or a website! It's easier than you may well think! Write down questions, examples and your meditations.
Spend time with creative people. Think with those you are leading. You think your ideas are so good because you have never tested them against someone diametrically opposed to yours.
Creativity can be used in the church. Just take for example worship services. Is worship just singing songs? Or can other means be used in order to worship, such as responsive prayers and bible readings? What about dancing as part of creative worship? What about creative outreach or evangelism? Try something new! By being creative, the church can be culturally relevant whilst still remaining biblically faithful to God.
For more to think about please do read Genesis 1 and ask yourself the following questions, writing them down if you can, and see how you respond or react to them. Then why not share your answers with your spouse or a close friend, so that you can pray over any issues together.
Q1. Knowing I am in the image of a creative God, how am I developing my own creativity for His service?
Q2. How can creativity be used during Church worship services?
Q3. Remembering some of the parables Jesus taught, what sort of things did He use creatively and how can I in some way emulate His creativity in my ministry?
Jesus spent complete nights in prayer seeking strength and wisdom from His Father in Heaven. We dare not go into battle with the enemy in our strength alone. The hymn writer wrote "Put on the gospel armour, each piece put on with prayer."
How do we put the gospel armour on?
The armour we need is supplied by our Lord. It is described for us by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18: "Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might that you may stand in the evil day" He then goes on to say "Take unto yourself the whole armour of God. "Leave no unguarded place" are the hymn writer's words. Very apt as we can be so easily forgetful and neglectful. We need to be aware of our weak points where we ma be unguarded. "Give the devil no room."
I find as a great help each morning to spend some time putting the gospel armour on. How?
As I get dressed physically taking time to put each piece of my clothing on carefully making myself presentable before the mirror, I also take by faith my spiritual armour piece by piece coming before the mirror or God's Word the Bible, reminding myself of which piece does in order to be strong for the day's battles, whatever they may be.
(a) The helmet of salvation. To protect the mind. Here is a point of entry If I do not protect it. How? By the Scriptures. "Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus." I ask for the mind of Christ.
(b) Breastplate of righteousness. This time I remind myself I am clothed in Christ's righteousness to gain me Heaven. This truth prevents me boasting and it keeps me humble. each moment of every day ever grateful to Jesus for His robe of righteousness. I need also to know there needs to be an outworking of that righteousness in my life through the power of The Holy Spirit. To seek to be like Jesus living to honour Him and be a light shining for Jesus.
(c) The belt of truth. I believe I must be held in by God's truth the Bible in all I think say and do. Not what I think but how God says I should react in any given situation during the course of the day. Not legalistically but trusting The Holy Spirit to bring the truth to memory to protect and instruct me.
(d) Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The Roman footwear had to be strong and able to grip rough terrain. To walk steadily through the day without deviation to left or right not slipping into sinful habits but standing firm as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
(e) Sword of the Spirit and shield of faith in our hands. Having Scripture ready to hand and mind to fight off scurry attacks from satan as he tries to buffet us. Do you remember how Jesus used these weapons in the wilderness when tempted by the devil? "Has God said" He reminded the devil of the word of God. How important for us to memorise God's Word to hide it in our hearts as the psalmist wrote. Read God's Word regularly improving our knowledge day by day. The devil never lets up neither should we.
(f) Putting on all prayer. Living through the day in an atmosphere of prayer with a prayerful spirit. Ready to call upon the lord for any special needs but also ready to praise Him for any blessing that he brings our way. Talk to Him, as you walk with Him. Strengthened and satisfied by Him. We glorify Him by so doing. "Jesus is my Rock and Fortress, in Him I trust for ever.
Prayer with Joy
Dear Heavenly Father,
We know we have failed to put on the Christian armour and some of us have fallen dreadfully. We know it is important to acknowledge this to you. To be honest and admit our faults. We know the devil appears like a roaring lion at times, but sometimes as an angel of light and we fail to see him coming and we fall.
Forgive us Lord and help us to take the advice given and to take time to be holy by spending time with you Lord and to put on the gospel armour and trust you Lord to make us aware of the enemy attacks of satan and to stand up against him in Your strength and power.
David fought against Goliath and won because he knew the battle was the Lord's. He had confidence in your strength and had faith in You.
Paul the apostle said "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Help us to remember to pray that same prayer for our safety and Your glory, Amen.
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G'day! Welcome to Partakers Think Spot at the start of new week on Monday the 19th of September 2011. We have a guest today again! Welcome back Pauline as she shares some insights with you.
When we are going through a difficult time it is sometimes hard to believe that you are the apple of Gods eye. God gave me a picture once. I asked God what I was worth. God tied a tag round my neck with a piece of string, the kind of price tag that they have in old fashioned shops. The tag read £10, then he removed the tag and replaced it with one that read £100, then he removed that one and replaced it with one that had £1000 on it. He replaced the £1000 price tag with one that read £100,000 and then replaced that one with a million pound price tag. The final price tag simply had ONE LIFE written on it. I find it mind blowing that God chose to let His Son die a hideously painful death so that I can enjoy a personal relationship with him that I am so valuable that even if I was the only human being that existed, God would have allowed Jesus to die on a cross for me.
Remind yourself of this fact frequently and you will get a glimpse of your father's heart. He loves you to bits and is proud of you no matter what you have done in the past - if you have said sorry and meant it - it is forgotten. The slate is completely clean. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come."
God's love for you is unconditional. God created us with a thirst to be secure, to have self worth and to have a sense of our own significance. That thirst is intended to be quenched by God himself, by His unconditional love for us and unconditional acceptance of our work. 1 John 3:1 says "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God.! And that is what we are!" Ephesians 2:10 says "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepares for us in advance to do."
Unfortunately many of us try and get our security and sense of self worth from our spouses or parents. Whilst that can be okay if we have a particularly adoring spouse or an encouraging mum and dad, it goes badly wrong if we have a critical spouse or a parent that withholds praise. Our self esteem really suffers in the case of a verbally critical spouse or parent and is affected just as badly by someone who is slow to give praise.
Galatians 4:7 "Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out ‘Abba, Father.' So you are no longer a slave but a son and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir."
Our aim should be to please God and fulfil his purposes for our lives. If it is we will discover a sense of security, value and significance in God and then it will not matter if our boss does not appreciate us or if our spouse criticises us.
We should be aiming to enjoy God, to have a life of worship and to get to know God better each day. God adores us and considers us adorable. He is proud of our achievements but is so much more thrilled with our efforts to get to know Him better.
Thanks for joining us on Partakers ThinkSpot! See you again real soon!
Welcome to Partakers Friday Prayers on Friday, 16th of September, 2011.
Order of Service
General Opening prayer
Prayers of praise
Prayers for the world
Prayers for church services worldwide
Prayers for others
We come now to praying for the needs of these individuals. Please do add others in the time of silence following this prayer.
Pam, Kerry, Denise Joy, Ruth, Bronwen, Bruce, Chris and Maggie
O Great God our provider, we ask for a healing touch and wisdom for the medical staff treating them.
Father, be the strength for all those who are grieving and mourning the loss of loved ones. Father, we pray that those in despair will be helped and where there is darkness there will be light. O Lord God, give strength to the week.
Finally, Father, we lift before you, all those facing challenging situations: such as loneliness, confinement at home, geographical isolation, lack of employment, health issues, and financial pressures. O Father, please meet their needs in what ever challenging situation is being faced, and we put ourselves in your hands to help meet those needs where we can.
We ask these things, our Father God, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen!
Benediction
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope and faith through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen!
“God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfil his own good pleasure. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ — everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.” (Ephesians 1v9-11).
These verses tell us about the counsel of God’s Will (Ephesians 1v11). God’s Will is inextricably linked with the future and Things to Come. The future has us naturally wonder what are God God’s Purposes and Will? What are His decrees and how is Jesus interacting with us now?
1. God's Purposes
What is the reason for creation? (Ephesians 1v3-11; Revelation 4v11). The glory of God - that God will be praised.
God's purposes and plans are in eternity (Psalm 33v11)
God's purposes originate in God's wisdom and holiness.
God is free to do anything in accordance with His character. He cannot do anything contrary to His character.
2. God's Will
Directive Will - Things God determines to come to pass. (Isaiah 14v24)
Permissive Will - Things God allows or permits to occur.
Sin and rebellion (not directive will). God is big enough to grant and cope with the free will He as given humanity.
Sin - God permits sin, but is not the author of sin. God made man with a free will, allowing for the possibility of sin. Although sin and corruption entered the world with great human loss, and the resulting death on the Cross: God thought freedom of will was worth giving to us. It is to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1)
Salvation - Election - God chooses individuals to fulfil His purposes (Romans 9). God chooses those who are/will be saved (John 15v16). These are the chosen ones or the elect. However, it is not His will that any should perish (2 Peter 3v9), it is His will all men should be saved (1 Timothy2v3-4).
We need to accept both these statements as equally and absolutely true. When we use words about God with a time element such as 'chose', 'elect', we need to use these in God's infinite time framework (timelessness), not in our human finite time framework.
3. Preservation - Doctrine of Continuance
God maintains the existence of all He has made. God has created but not left the universe while He watches from a distance (Islam/Muslim). This thinking is erroneous because it stipulates that God rules only by natural laws and simply observes its progress. However, the Bible tells us that God is actively involved in sustaining creation. For without His involvement, the universe would cease to exist. He does this in two ways.
Continuous Creation - God maintains the universe by continual creation.
Concurrence - God co-operates with all subordinate powers. Men retain their natural powers and exercise them but without God's concurrence, no force or person can continue to exist or act. (Colossians 1v17; Acts 17v28; Hebrews 1v2-3)
4. Particular Names Of God reflect His Purposes and Will
Jehovah Jireh - (Genesis 22v14) - The Lord will provide
Jehovah Tsidkenu - (Jeremiah 33v16) - The Lord our righteousness
Jehovah Nissi - (Exodus 17) - The Lord is our banner / leader
Jehovah Shalom - (Judges 6v24) - The Lord is our peace
Jehovah Rapha - (Exodus 15) - The Lord is our healer
Jehovah Rohi (Psalm 23) - The Lord is our Shepherd
5. Sovereignty of God or His decrees.
The sovereignty of God dictates that God is in control at all times and nothing can occur outside of His control and will. God is not impersonal and He is involved with all creation. God loves His creation and cares for it. He has created all humans with the power to make decisions by them self. God wont deny our humanity when He deals with us. He speaks to our minds though the Bible and seeks us to respond to him with love and affection.
Sovereign decree: When God says “Eternal life is available for all. You may choose to accept or reject it. Those that accept it, I will call my children.” Our reaction as Christian Disciples should be to trust and obey.
Conditional decree: When God says “I am willing to give you my opinion and help when you ask.” Our reaction as Christian Disciples should be read the Bible, to pray and talk with God.
Natural decree: When God has created a lemon tree, that lemon tree won’t produce potatoes.” Our reaction as Christian Disciples should be to plan ahead knowing the way the natural laws work..
6. How does Jesus interact with Christian Disciples?
Jesus interacts with us by faith in four ways: caring, praying, coming and helping.
Jesus cares and is concerned for us - We all go through storms and troubles. When we find ourselves in these situations, we have four assurances about Jesus as Christian Disciples.
By faith - He is praying for us - Jesus Christ is making intercessions for Christian Disciples (Romans 8:34). He knew the disciples troubles (Mark 6:48), just as He knows our troubles now. He feels our cares and knows what we are going through (Hebrews 4:14-16).
By faith - He will come to us - Ever felt like God is far away? Well you aren’t alone! King David often felt God was far away and unconcerned. However he also knew God would ultimately rescue him. Paul, the great Apostle, also felt “burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life” 2 Cor 1:8
Jesus always comes to us through difficult times, although He may not come in the time we think He should come, because He knows when we need Him most.
By faith - He will help us to grow - Take the example of when the disciples were in the storm and Jesus came to them walking on the water (Matthew 14:22-33). The purpose of this incident was that Jesus would be leaving them soon, so they had to learn to trust in Him when He wasn’t physically present. Perhaps this is what he was thinking of when he later wrote in his letter “for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers” (1 Peter 3v12). This all helped Peter to grow in the knowledge of the Lord
By faith, He will see us through - Jesus said “Come” and Peter went with Him and walked to the ship. The other disciples must have encouraged by this. Seeing Jesus’ power they worshipped him. Whatever troubles we are undergoing are temporary, and Jesus, for His praise and glory, will see us through.
For more to think about please do ask your self the following questions, writing them down if you can, and see how you respond or react to them. Then why not share your answers with your spouse or a close friend, so that you can pray over any issues together.
Q1. Read Colossians 1v15-20. How can I deepen my relationship with Jesus knowing these things about Him?
Q2. Read Acts 17v24-28. How is God reaching the nations through me?
Q3. How does knowing about God’s Purposes and Will affect my life as a Christian Disciple?
Our bible spot today is by Jim Allis and he is sharing some insights about worry and fear.
Maybe today you are worried about some matter and wake up at night concerned about why God is allowing this or that in your life. Questions come flooding into your mind Why Lord? Why? What are you doing with me? Are you really there? Friend, listen at these reassuring thought based on God's precious holy Word. We are instructed to read it to be wise, believe it to be safe and practice it to be holy.
So then will Jesus keep me safe?
When we look into the gospel narratives of Jesus with his disciples He is always there when they need Him most. On the sea of Galilee they are scared of the fierce waves and what do they see? Jesus Himself actually walking on the very waves that threatened to break up their ship and drown them. Do you remember His words? Only two but so, so important. "Fear Not"
We need constantly to remind ourselves that Jesus is the Co- Creator of those waves. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can happen to those disciples He loves except He allows it for a purpose. They were safe and we too are safe by His presence within "in the storm" Because "we are kept by the mighty power of God through faith..............." 'Kept' is a military term used here in this verse meaning 'garrisoned' Garrisoned around and fully protected. Think of a castle made secure by way of a Moat and Keep.
Remember also that the disciples were quaking in fear behind locked doors following the resurrection of Jesus. Again He is there for them when they need Him most. His words on this occasion are also reassuring "My peace I give to you" We cannot see Jesus but He can certainly see us. Isn't that reassuring?
Of course our faith is small maybe as a mustard seed but big enough to remember other words from Scripture " Wonderful words of instruction and certainty, "Cast your cares upon the Lord because He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:17) He can move mountains.
He will never leave us alone in any situation however dreadful it may be. Remember also He is never further than a prayer away.
So it shouldn't be surprising to learn that the devil will do everything to stop us praying for reinforcements from heaven. His plan is to remove our peace and stop the power of God coming into play.
I believe it is so true what the hymn writer wrote "The devil trembles when he sees, the weakest saint upon his knees"
Finally remember that when we pray we can only be heard and have prayers answered in the name of Jesus. It is because we are joined to Jesus that our prayers are heard and answered. What an incentive to pray!
Jesus knew the power of prayer and spent whole nights in prayer seeking strength and wisdom for the day ahead of Him with all its challenges. He met and won victory after victory through prayer. We are encouraged to do likewise in His name.
