Archive for May, 2010
Monday, May 24th, 2010
I guess I am a fully paid-up member of the charismatic movement and very rarely find myself in church singing old hymns, though I do celebrate the wonder and beauty of recent hymns written by my friends Stuart Townend, Nathan Fellingham or Simon Brading, but sometimes I find myself drawn into my old hymnbooks and feel, to be honest, a sense of loss that we so rarely sing such magnificent hymns.
I guess there is a generation who will probably never know them – to their loss. Maybe we can find a way to occasionally include some of these great songs of worship and let the new generation have the privilege of expressing their love to God through them.
Maybe from time to time I can highlight on my blog some of the great hymns that I love to sing, sometimes alone, sometimes joined by Wendy, my wife. The following one I first heard when I was at London Bible College, never having sung it in my home church, but I grew to love it and still love it now. It was written by Samuel Crossman (1624-83). I know nothing about him but one thing is sure, he certainly knew his Lord.
My song is love unknown,
My Saviour’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I,
That for my sake
My Lord should take
Frail flesh, and die?
He came from His blest throne
Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed-for Christ would know:
But O! my Friend,
My Friend indeed,
Who at my need
His life did spend.
Sometimes they strew His way,
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosanas to their King;
Then ‘Crucify!’
Is all their breath,
And for His death
They thirst and cry.
They rise and needs will have
My dear Lord made away;
A murdered they save,
The Prince of life they slay.
Yet cheerful He
To suff’ring goes,
That He His foes
From thence might free.
In life, no house, no home
My Lord on earth might have;
In death, no friendly tomb,
But what a stranger gave.
What may I say?
Heaven was His home;
But mine the tomb
Wherein He lay.
Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine;
Never was love, dear King!
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend,
In Whose sweet praise
I all my days
Could gladly spend.
It may be that some who read this blog attend churches where such hymns are frequently sung. Please spare a thought (and maybe a prayer!) for us poor charismatics.
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Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
Volcanic ash from Iceland meant that we could not fly home from Armenia. I had already planned to be in Israel the following week but this would have been after three days back in the UK. Suddenly I was told it was possible to fly from Tbilisi in Georgia direct to Tel Aviv. Karen offered to take us on a 5-hour drive over the mountains. It was truly memorable but perhaps more memorable was hearing Karen’s personal testimony of conversion from being a zealous communist within the Soviet Union to becoming a believer. I must tell that story on another occasion. The power of God is phenomenal!
A letter recently received from Karen:
‘I am very grateful to you and Martyn for your unforgettable visit. For us those days were days of heaven on the earth … The messages, the healings and the personal dealings with the people have impacted the life of our church greatly. We can say that there is not any sphere, individual or ministry that was left untouched.
‘Right now we are witnessing in our church a new devotion to the work of the Lord, a new love among our members to the Lord Jesus, a new care for each other, a new passion for being filled with the Holy Spirit and for the prophetic spirit, a new enthusiasm of finding out personal calling and ministry.
‘The Lord is continuing what was started through you and the people in faith have taken their privilege and authority in Jesus and we are witnessing new healings in the church (even people healed of the sicknesses that are considered as incurable), baptisms in the Spirit, prophetic visions and abundance of revelations … The same is going on in Artashat, Masis and Kharabakh churches, God is moving mightily, healings, baptisms and spiritual experiences are happening and the number of people who are coming to church, is increasing …
‘We are thankful to the Lord from all of our heart for being a part of Newfrontiers family and for you being a reason for such important blessings for us … I often remember our conversations, your opinions and considerations about different issues – especially to ride with you to Tbilisi was a gift from the Lord to me …’
Pastor Karen Khachatryan
New Covenant people in Israel
What a joy to preach the grace of God and freedom from law to enthusiastic Jewish believers in Ashdod. They drank in the Word with great enthusiasm and again, to our great delight, many were healed. Their worship was full of life and joy and the presence of God. It was a superb time.
Towards the end of our stay we had two days spare to visit some of the historic sights. While at the ‘Mountain of the Beatitudes’ we bumped into the Principal of a Jerusalem-based Bible College who knew the pastor who was guiding us. He approached us with real warmth and I simply must record his words, ‘News of the healings in Ashdod reached Jerusalem!’ Some of the people who had been healed in the church also visit the Bible College so it was great fun to hear him make such a comment.
We also enjoyed going to the top of Mount Carmel, visiting Galilee, Capernaum, Caesarea, Haifa, Jerusalem and particularly the Garden Tomb where Richard, the overseer of the Garden, made us particularly welcome. These were truly remarkable days and I am so grateful to God for the huge blessing of being there.
Israel, who is the pastor of the church in Ashdod, plans to be with us again at Together on a Mission in Brighton in July, and a number of his young people aim to be at Newday in August. We are delighted with this relationship with these dear believers in Israel. I have often longed for such a development and am so pleased to be able to report it here.
[End]
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Monday, May 17th, 2010
Visiting Armenia with my friend Martyn Dunsford was a huge privilege. I was there once before about ten years ago, speaking to a substantial pastors’ conference on the Grace of God. Sadly I have never seen the theme of grace being so withstood. The question and answer time that followed demonstrated a real hostility to God’s grace and a preference for legalism and pastoral leadership based on guilt. It was a sad conference, not without lighter moments.
The lasting result of that visit was that some of the pastors, notably one Karen Khachatryan, were, unknown to me, wonderfully encountering God’s grace in a personal way. Karen regards it as a life-changing experience which transformed his ministry from that day on. He now leads a church of some 450 in Yerevan. It was my joy therefore to respond to his invitation to return to Armenia, the first nation in the world to call itself ‘Christian’ prior to Constantine, and speak to gathered leaders from the churches that he now serves plus others who wanted to attend. Through the help of an excellent interpreter, both Martyn and I enjoyed preaching with real freedom and the response of the people was extraordinarily encouraging.
From the very first session I felt stirred to offer to pray for the sick and was delighted to find dozens being powerfully healed. After about an hour of praying, we promised the queue of those still waiting that we would pray for them the next day. This duly took place leading to more wonderful healings.
Testimonies are exciting, faith-building and God-glorifying! For instance, one particular woman with crippling arthritis whose pain made it impossible for her simply to sit with legs crossed, told how God had healed her. Her doctor, who happened to be present, testified to the reality of this wonderful deliverance. Another man, who said he could never carry his young child because of the pain in his neck and shoulders, was gloriously healed. A girl testified to being able to stand upright for the first time, and another heard the Lord tell her that she was healed from diabetes and began to eat any food that was offered from that time on. She continued to celebrate her healing throughout the remainder of the conference. God was wonderfully with us.
Local churches
On the following Sunday I had the joy of preaching in Karen’s church, which meets in a packed theatre-style building. Following the worship, once again several stood to testify to their healings which had taken place at the conference. The room in which we met was part of a complex which included a sports pavilion. A karate expert heard our worship, came to the back of the hall and listened. He said that as he entered he felt ‘a powerful presence’. He then listened to the healing testimonies followed by my preaching, came forward at the end and was healed! He is yet to be saved, but is being pursued.
Following another extended time of prayer we rushed to a church some 30km away where about 130 people were packed into a small hall. Their worship had just concluded and I was immediately ushered to the front to preach. The pastor had already been to our pastors’ conference and introduced me with real warmth. I was delighted to preach the Word to a very receptive crowd and, rather tired, closed at the end of my word with prayer whereupon everybody remained standing. The pastor approached me and said that everybody wanted to be prayed for, which led to a further hour and a half of praying for the sick. Many went immediately from me to the microphone where they testified to God’s healing touch upon them. It was a remarkable time!
I was deeply grateful to God for the opportunity to visit the pastor’s home afterwards where we ate, with three generations of his family, food that had been cooked in a hole in the ground! It tasted absolutely magnificent! I counted myself hugely privileged to be welcomed into their home and be plunged into such a different culture.
[To be continued …]
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Thursday, May 13th, 2010
In the world, for the world
Like Jesus, we must be God-focussed, yet manifestly incarnational. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, not distanced from us. His first sign was performed not in the temple precinct (which would have been Satan’s preference) but at a wedding party! But notice that Jesus did not simply blend in at the party! Rather, when a crisis arose, he took over, calling men to faith and obedience, so that a miracle could be performed. Mary’s insightful ‘Whatever he says to you, do it’ opened the way for Jesus to rule and demonstrate God’s power and kindness, replacing their calamity with an outrageous overflow of wine.
Relevant to the situation, he met the need, and his disciples saw his glory. Christ was the answer to the wedding’s predicament. We often read such slogans as ‘Christ is the answer’, but he was able to answer the real question being asked at the time, not questions which the church thinks that the lost should be asking!
Recently, we celebrated the first Brighton marathon. It meant that we could not use our church building on Sunday morning as thousands of runners swamped the city, but I was so delighted at our church’s response. Not only did several take part in the race, but as a church we supplied 300 stewards and embraced and endorsed the occasion, demonstrating that our logo In Brighton for Brighton works in practice. This led to effusive expressions of gratitude from the organisers. Our Good Friday Concert for Haiti drew hundreds of neighbours into our church building and kept us on the front-line in reaching locals with missional purpose.
On a mission
A non-missional church misrepresents the true identity of the church. We are here to shed light into the darkness. Without the Holy Spirit’s presence and power there is no light, but to hide our light in self-sufficiency or charismatic introspection is to miss the point badly. We must retain intentional, focussed commitment to evangelism and relevance while at the same time wholeheartedly celebrating the Saviour in worship, eagerly anticipating a full manifestation of his presence.
Recently in Armenia, an injured karate enthusiast heard the church enthusiastically worshipping and came to investigate. Drawn by the praise, he stood enthralled at the back of the congregation and was in time to hear several testify to healings that they had experienced the previous day. As the meeting concluded he came forward and to his great delight was healed!
The church is great! Let’s go and plant more great churches to the glory of God.
[End]
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Monday, May 10th, 2010
Jesus commanded the Apostles to go and make disciples. They instinctively went and planted churches. Church life is the key to discipleship and creates an alternative culture where heavenly values can be formed on earth. Getting the church right is therefore a vital issue and one which should constantly stir and motivate us.
The purpose of Paul’s letters was not to teach theology but to mould behaviour in and through churches that lived in the light of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and enthronement, and the subsequent outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is possible to be objectively orthodox, but fail to live the life that God wants. So, although we do not undervalue doctrine, we emphasise the kind of church life that good doctrine properly observed and embraced should produce.
You’ll never walk alone
It is virtually impossible to live the Christian life alone. It was always God’s purpose that we should work out our discipleship corporately. The good health of the local church is, therefore, imperative, and we have tried to develop local churches living inter-dependently and focussed on world mission.
It is important for the local church, cared for correctly by its own elders, to embrace its own autonomy. Free from denominational constraints, it must nevertheless be aware of its inter-dependence on other churches and the vital role of trans-local ministries working among the churches in ongoing relationship.
This lack of independence has helped to establish the strong ‘family feel’ associated with Newfrontiers. When recently in South Africa we met people from Pakistan, India, the Philippines, Dubai, the UK, Australia and the USA – just a sample of our Newfrontiers international community. Evan Rogers’ infectious worship-leading resulted in a surge of shared joy, soon followed by intense corporate intercession. Enjoying fun (ie rejoicing!) before the Lord doesn’t inhibit our ability to cry to him in zealous prayer together. Laughter and longing happily combine. Love, joy and zeal easily co-habit.
God-centredness
God-centredness must characterise our churches. So much modern religion is man-centred, celebrating man’s skills, insights and personality. Although church planters can by nature be entrepreneurs, seeing openings where others see only problems, they must beware the danger of self-sufficiency and overcome the tendency to despise team work, finishing up as loners. Even the most faith-filled leaders need close friends and companions. The powerfully anointed David was so encouraged by Jonathan and supported by phenomenally gifted lieutenants.
To be continued …
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