The Thames Water Barrier

The Thames Water Barrier is a massive flood defence system erected at enormous cost to prevent the city of London from flooding. Prayer raises a spiritual barrier system that prevents a tide of evil from overflowing, be that personally, in our family, community or even nation.

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Additionally barriers can hinder the overflowing work of the Holy Spirit in us. These barriers need to come down. Then the flood of God's Spirit can break through.

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I believe the Lord has been saying that breakthrough is most certainly coming.

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But "breakthrough" means "prayed-through".

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In praying through with perseverance we will see some barriers come down and others raised. And the breakthrough we are looking for is sure to come.

The Holy Grail?

It's official - the quest for happiness has begun. The BBC has been running a series of programmes called the Happiness Formula.
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In the 19th Century a philosophy was formed called hedonism from the Greek word, hedone. It is the theory that pleasure (in the sense of the satisfaction of desires) is the highest good and proper aim of human life. Of course the BBC is not wanting to promote a hedonistic philosophy; Hedonism ultimately ended in the pursuit of sexual and liberal licence which is probably not the BBC's intention.

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You can catch some of the findings of the programme at the BBC's website at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/happiness_formula/. But the survey results have thrown up one or two interesting findings.
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The science of happiness suggests marriage is so good for your well-being that it adds an average seven years to the life of a man and something like four for a woman. To maximise happiness, it is argued that government should certainly do nothing to discourage marriage, perhaps even that it should promote it.
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The other vital ingredient to emerge as necessary for a strong sense of well being is having religious belief. Those who attend church regularly find greater significance, sense of purpose and community in a shared and personal faith in God. So God, it seems, is good for you after all.

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Thanks BBC.

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But should we be focussing on this not-so-modern day holy grail of personal happiness? Is that the chief end of humanity? We certainly do place high value on it in this consumer-driven culture. The pursuit of happiness is even enshrined as an inalienable right of humanity in the US Constitution. "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."

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In the midst of culture's search for meaning, Tom Wright has written an excellent book on the Christian faith. Wright is one of the most significant evangelical thinkers in the world today.

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The book is called Simply Christian and is published by SPCK. Using simple acccessible language, Wright brilliantly exposes humanity's search for something better and explains the Christian message. If you have a brain you want to engage then get yourself into the Mustard Seed and buy the book. I commend it to you.

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It will make you happy.

The Seven Prayer Habits of Highly Effective People

At a recent cell group meeting I spoke on the seven prayer habits of highly effective people. Several folk have asked for the notes and so I have reproduced them in shortened version below.

The seven prayer habits of highly effective people

The #1 issue facing the church today is the need for consistent and passionate prayer both corporately and personally.

Pray in right relationship to God

• The starting point of prayer is a right relationship with God (Is 1:15)
• It’s also living right before God (Is 1:16ff; Jn 14:6; Ps 6:9; Heb 4:16; Ps 34:15)
• The Disciple’s Prayer (Matt 6:9) helps us to understand this
• Our Father in the heavens
• Ecc 5:1-2
• Hallowed be your name
• Knowing God’s name means being able to pray into and out of who God is
• Jehovah Jireh – The Lord my Provider, my vision, the One I see, Gen 22:14
• Jehovah Rophe – I am who heals thee. Ex 15:26
• Jehovah Nissi – The Lord is my banner. Ex 17:15

Pray in the Spirit

• The Spirit brings us into right relationship to God (Rom 8:15)
• Praying in the Spirit is a conference in perfect agreement with the Father. Nothing can go wrong with these kinds of prayers. Nothing will be prayed that is in disagreement, disharmony, disunity or disconcordant with the will of the Father (Rom 8:26f)
• You will strike all the right chords when you speak the language of heaven. It will dovetail beautifully with the Father’s heart. He will consider your prayer, nod his head in agreement, smile and be delighted to answer your heart cries.
• When all is said and done, I want to pray prayers that God would want to answer!
• Praying in the Spirit is more than just speaking in tongues (Eph 6:18)
• Spirit searches even the deep things of God (1 Cor 2:9)
• Call unto me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you know not (Jer 33:3)
  

Pray in the will of God

• These are guaranteed to be answered (1 John 5:14,15)
• We tune ourselves into the will of God in time spent in prayer (Mk 1:35; Lk 6:12)
• We tune ourselves into the will of God in time spent in the Word (Heb 5:12)

Pray in faith

• Everything that we receive from God, we receive by faith (Heb 11:6; Mk 11:24; Mk 9:23)
  

Pray in secret simplicity

• Beware the babbling prayers of unbelief (Mt 6:7)
• “The fewer the words, the better the prayer.” – Martin Luther
• Pray secretly to receive your reward openly (Mt 6:5)
• It’s relational. “For the Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Mt 6:8)
• Pray for your needs (Jas 5:14)
• Give us this day our daily bread (Mt 6:11)
• What you need for life for today.
  

Pray with fervency

• The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available – dynamic in its working (Jas 5:16)
• Tremendous things happen when we pray fervently
• The whole building was shaken (Ac 4:23)
• Elijah prayed under a spirit of intercession (1 Ki 18:41-46)
• “O God, you are my God, Earnestly I seek you” (Ps 63:1)
  

Pray without ceasing

• Jesus presents this spiritual principle in the story of the Persistent Widow (Lk 18:1ff)
• And the need for prevailing prayer in the Friend at Midnight (Lk 11:5)

Good News! Kember Freed

Together, originally uploaded by nmec.

It is wonderful news to hear that Norman Kember has been rescued by security forces working in Iraq. I remember taking part in an impromptu prayer meeting in the Speaker's State Apartments at Westminster with a group of concerned parliamentarians just after he was taken hostage and there was great concern. The praying was urgent and heartfelt.

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It is wonderful to hear of his rescue. Thanks Father God.

This Sunday and Calling All Journallers

On Sunday morning we have a guest speaker, Stephen Rand. So do join us for that in the morning.

You may recall how some months ago, several journals were given out to potential journallers.

Well Sunday night is the test of the journaller's mettle. We will be gathering together at 6.30pm at SHC to discuss any journal entries that our intrepid journallers would like to share.

EVERYBODY is welcome and we are going to look at what has worked and been helpful to people, what has not worked and why and any insights and edification people have gained from journalling.

So if you journal and would like to share, then please come. If you journal and would NOT like to share, then please come. If you don't journal, please come anyway.

Pray Hemel

Pray Hemel this Saturday is at South Hill Church. Join us for a great time of prayer with a whole bunch of Hemel Christians.

8.00am - 9.30am, starting with bacon butties.

Sermon Series on Philippians

As time is moving on, we decided to wrap up our series on Philippians on Sunday, 26 February 2006 by looking at Phil 3:1-21, under the title, Press on: Destination Heaven!

The flesh counts for nothing. Knowing Christ and all he has done for us is everything. So we press on into him because our destination is heaven.

1. Renew your joy in the Lord

Paul is never finished exhorting us to find our strength in God and never finished warning of that which could undermine our Christian foundation. There is a place of safety in this principle.

2. Watch out for diversions

Beware the dirty dogs, Beware those doers of darkness, Beware those darstardly disablers. We looked at what Paul was concerned about: anything that distorts the clarity of the Gospel of Christ in our lives.

3. Rid yourself of what has no value

Paul plays Top Trumps with his Jewish credentials and then writes them off as worthless when it comes to the far greater issue of laying hold of Christ in his life.

Sometimes we start up a profit and loss account with God. This is stinking thinking as far as Paul is concerned.

4. Value what has the most value

In order to gain Christ, we need to come empty-handed.

Paul just wanted to know Christ in his life and he was only prepared to put his trust in the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith in him. That's all that matters!

That was his value system. We have 86,000 seconds a day in our lives. How are we investing them? As a result of comprehending this amazing operation of grace in his life, that's the reason he wants to share in the fellowship of sharing in his suffering and somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

5. Press on towards perfection

Lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of you: literally, arrested. Our citizenship is in heaven.

Conclusion

That’s how to stand firm in the Lord.

Cheer up in God! We’ve got something to boast about and its not anything you or I could ever have done. That’s nothing. We are those who boast in Christ and what he has won for us. Our right standing through faith. That’s all that matters. Now I press on to take hold of all that this truth means by running hard after knowing Christ and somehow being found worthy of this incredible privilege. So follow my lead. Press into him and press on to heaven!

And with that, we finish in Philippians for now. There is so much more in this part of scripture, but not enough time to look at it all. But I commend the rich truths in this book to you as a foundation for your Christian faith.

Bless you.

Sermon Series on Philippians

On Sunday, 29 January 2006, we looked at Phil 2:1-12 under the title, Follow his lead in true humility.

If God has touched you then be united with one another by humbling yourselves like Jesus.

1. Has God touched you?

Have you felt the encouragement of uniting with Christ, the consolation of his love, fellowship with the Spirit, his tenderness and compassion?

We looked at George Fox's journal where he gives an account of the love of God changing him. You can read his journal at

http://www.strecorsoc.org/gfox/title.html

2. Be united among yourselves

We looked at Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions. Here they are:

1. In all our conversation, concerns and dealings with our neighbours we will be honest, just and upright.
2. If we wrong others in any way we will not rest until we have made restitution.
3. We promise that we will not permit ourselves to indulge in any kind of back-biting.
4. We will be careful not to do anything to others out of a spirit of revenge.
5. When there is a difference of opinion concerning another’s rights, we will not allow private interest to influence us.
6. We will not tolerate the exercise of enmity or ill will or revenge in our hearts.
7. If we find that we have a secret grudge against another we will not gratify it but root it out.
8. We will not allow over-familiarity in our talk with others, or anything that might stir up licentious behaviour.
9. We resolve to examine ourselves on a regular basis, knowing that the heart is very deceitful.
10. We will run with perseverance the race that is set before us, working out our salvation with fear and trembling.

This covenant was made on 16 March 1742

3. Humble yourselves

It's not a “What’s in it for me” spirit or a “Look at me, am I not great” spirit. Humility is about not having the need to blow your own trumpet. Shine the spotlight on others.

4. Let this thinking be in you that was also in Christ Jesus

We looked at this profound Christian hymn, full of deep truth. We considered different photo filters which bring out different elements to it.

It looks like Jesus and Adam are being compared. Jesus does what Adam couldn't.

It looks like Jesus is being described in the language of the suffering servant in Isaiah.

It looks like Paul might have had Jesus' example of washing his followers' feet in mind.

Paul's got his eyes on Christ and is working out what it means to be united with him, identified with him, having his life in us: being like him.

A Poem by Pris

Pris recently wrote a poem, having meditated on Ps 65 at a recent Care Group meeting.

A 'PRESENT' GIFT OF GOD

Thank you Lord for your gift this day
Rain or shine, no matter what men say
We will lift our hearts in praise to You
For we know our days all depend on You.

Thanks for that, Pris.

A Thought from Dave

After a recent sermon by Brian on the Word of God, Dave was reminded of some words of George Muller, a Christian evangelist and coordinator of orphanages in Bristol, England.

The first thing I did, after having asked the Lord's blessing upon his precious Word, was, to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching ...into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of preaching on it, but for the sake of obtaining food for my soul. ...After a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that, though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately ...into prayer".

Thanks for sharing that, Dave.

A Blog on the Horizon

Great news! Please check out Councillor Neil Harden's new blog called S P Q R.

http://c21st.blogspot.com/

It is an intriguing mix of local politics, Neil's thoughts, Christian reflections and political polling.

Well done, Neil and welcome to the blogosphere.

Pressing in for a Double-Portion Anointing

The following is an outline of the sermon preached on 15th January 2006 on 2 Kings 2:1-13.

Using the example of Elisha’s journey with Elijah, we looked at the various stations they journeyed through together before Elisha arrived at the place of a double-portion impartation of anointing.

First they traveled through the place of new birth and spiritual growth at Gilgal (Josh 5:1-12).

• Gilgal was the stopping place in Canaan where the people of God first inherited the promised land. It was here that they were circumcised.
• This speaks of a putting off of the sinful nature and the taking on of God’s Spirit.
• It was at Gilgal where they learned to sow and reap. This is the place of spiritual growth. It is a comfortable place.

Many Christians get here and stop: but not those who want to receive a double-portion anointing for the call of God on their lives.

They travelled on to Bethel. This is the place of prevailing prayer and revelation (Gen 28:10-22).

• It was in Bethel that Jacob found himself under an open heaven.
• It was here that he was commissioned by the Lord and he moved into a place of worship in the area of his giving.
• This is the place of experience of the presence of God.
  

They moved on into Jericho. Jericho is the place of spiritual warfare, intercession and breakthrough (Jos 5:13-6:25).

• For the Christian this is where hard-won victories are made for the kingdom. This is where spiritual strongholds are torn down.
• This is where Joshua received and put into practice the rhema word, the heavenly strategies for breakthrough.

Finally they crossed the Jordan. This is past the place of no return (2 Ki 2:7,8).

• It is here that Elisha received the double-portion anointing. But only when he could prove to Elijah that he could keep his eyes on what matters.
• For the Christian this is the place where we keep our eyes on Jesus, no matter how much drama is happening around us.
• This is the place where we receive the first portion of God’s anointing for the call of God on our lives.
  
  

Pray Hemel

...is this month at St Mary and St Joseph, Boxmoor. Click on the link for directions.

Pray Hemel is a great opportunity to get together with other Christians in the town. Unity is not just a sign to unbelievers it also is a sign in the heavenlies. I commend you to come (oh and you generally get a bacon buttie too!).

It starts at 8am and finishes at 9.30am latest.

Shock Defeat over Religious Hatred Bill

Labour's Chief Whip made key errors in calculation and the proposal was lost by the PM's failure to vote.

Praise God! The government have been defeated over proposals to end the principle of free speech with regard to religion. The media are stunned, with the BBC reporting that in one division, the government lost by just one vote after the Prime Minister failed to walk through the divison lobby on a second ballot.

This is Tony Blair's second only defeat since 1997. The Chief Whip told him it was pointless voting in the second ballot. However several Labour rebels had wandered off to get a drink and the majority of the rebellion had almost been lost. The Tories meanwhile turned up in massive numbers to scupper the bill.

Still, the nature of this strategic loss has embarrassed the Labour hierarchy. An official said: “The PM will make sure he does vote in future on important votes. This was a one-off.” He agreed that the whole episode was a “cock-up”.

It is shocking to think that this government were so intent on pushing such an iniquitous and badly thought out bill through Parliament and that our ancient religious freedoms have been protected by just 1 vote in the Commons and by the earlier intervention of unelected godly and wise elders in the House of Lords.

But the unusual nature of this turnaround is evidence that the Lord has heard the prayers of his people. Let us continue to be prayerful in these times.

Lord Chan Goes to Glory

Thank you very much for all your love and prayers.

Michael Chan went to be with the Lord at 21:25 hours GMT, Saturday 21st January 2006. He passed away peacefully surrounded by his family reading his favourite Bible passages and singing his favourite hymns.

We praise and thank God for loaning him to us for all these years. He has run the race, he has fought the fight, and now he receives his crown of glory.

Praise the Lord.

Irene, Ruth and Stephen would value your continued prayers for the coming weeks.

1 Thessalonians 4:13,14. Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.

Mayor visits Dinner Date

The Worshipful Mayor of the Borough of Dacorum, Jane Hogg Cllr dined with the men & women of Dinner Date on Thursday. She spoke of how God’s grace was evident in miraculously protecting the public in the timing of the Buncefield explosion and the firemen from falling down open manholes hidden by foam. There were no significant injuries suffered by the emergency services throughout the incident, which was remarkable.

She also commended Dinner Date and all those who do so much in the community. She pointed out that each of us have a part to play to do our bit for the town.

It was an honour to have her come and share with us.

Pray Hemel

The first prayer meeting of 2006 took place on Sat 7th January at Maranatha Church. Around 50 representatives from the 35 or so churches in Hemel met to worship together and pray for the town. This remarkable show of unity and fellowship in Hemel was started by Penny Crosswell and has now been running for several years.

Starting with bacon butties and a hot drink, it is a precious hour or so on the first Saturday of the month to seek the Lord together. Physically turning up is something that makes a spiritual statement in the heavenly realms. I commend it to you.

Dates and venues are given below. Click on the name of the church for directions.

Sat 3rd Dec 2005 Holy Trinity, Leverstock Green
Sat 7th Jan 2006 Maranatha Christian Church
Sat 4th Feb 2006 St Mary and St Joseph
Sat 4th March 2006 South Hill Church
Sat 1st April 2006 St Barnabas
Sat 6th May 2006 Jubilee Christian Fellowship
Sat 3rd June 2006 Nash Mills Methodist Church
Sat 1st July 2006 St Alban's CofE Church

Selwyn Hughes goes to Glory

Selwyn Hughes died on 9 January 2006 ending a ministry that spanned more than four decades, in which he uniquely combined the roles of writer, pastor, counsellor and teacher. He also founded CWR (Crusade for World Revival), an international organisation that has spearheaded the training of Christian counsellors, leaders and workers in this country and abroad and that continues to produce Christian resources, including the bestselling dated devotional Every Day with Jesus.

Born on April 27, 1928, during the period of post-war depression, Selwyn Hughes was inspired by the faith of his family. Many of his relatives had been influenced by the great Welsh Revival of 1904 and, at the age of 16, he professed his own Christian faith.

Following ministerial training and ordination as an Assemblies of God minister, he served a number of churches in Cornwall, South Wales, Yorkshire, Essex and Central London.

In 1965 he initiated a series of short daily Bible-reading guides, written on blank postcards, for the benefit of friends and church members. Demand rapidly exceeded supply and soon these guides became a bimonthly publication. Now Every Day with Jesus is read daily by nearly a million people in 130 countries around the world.

Remarkably, he personally wrote every issue of Every Day with Jesus, only occasionally assisted by other writers. He continued to write prolifically for over 40 years, during which time he weathered the vicissitudes of life, including the death in 1986 of his wife, the tragically premature death of their two sons in more recent years, and his own serious illness.

In June 2005 Selwyn received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Brunel University for ‘outstanding service to Christian education’. He was described by Lord Carey, President of the London School of Theology (and former Archbishop of Canterbury), as ‘a giant in the faith’.

In September 2005 the 40th Anniversary of CWR and Every Day with Jesus was celebrated at Waverley Abbey House, drawing together over a thousand supporters and friends to offer thanksgiving to God and pay tribute to Selwyn for his dedicated servanthood over four decades of ministry. In agreement with Selwyn, plans are in place for his ministry through Every Day with Jesus to continue into the future.

Steve Bradley, CWR’s Chair of Trustees, commented: ‘This is a sad day for all who knew and loved Selwyn. He touched hundreds of thousands of lives across the world, and yet his ability to engage with individuals was immediate and life-changing. We rejoice that he has now entered the presence of Jesus, whom he served faithfully and proclaimed powerfully. He was a remarkable and singular man and we trust that God will lead us on in the work Selwyn established.’

Report taken from CWR Press Release

24-7 Prayer Talks

A couple of Mondays ago, I was privileged to lead the Mayoral Church Leader's Prayer Meeting in the Mayor's Parlour. Alongside leading prayers about the recent oil explosion at Buncefield, I was asked to talk about starting a town-wide 24-7 prayer movement among all the churches.

As a result, I have now been asked to make a presentation to the main Churches Together Forum on 7th February. These are significant and strategic times for Hemel Hempstead. If something good is to happen, then it needs to be birthed in prayer. I would invite you to join with me in praying for the Lord's continued favour on these considerations, which potentially could have an explosive effect spiritually in Hemel Hempstead...

The rules of the game

The relationship between grace and law is complicated and complementary.

Grace means that even after we have sinned, the mediation of Christ can bring forgiveness when we confess to our shortcomings. But grace is so valuable yet so freely offered that it can almost seem as if sin is not so big a deal after all. What is invaluable but free can appear to be devalued.

In fact, Paul wrote that some people were suggesting that the more you sinned, the more all-encompassing grace becomes. Paul mentions this crooked thinking in Ro 6:1 ‘What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?’

So how can we properly understand this dynamic? Let's use this picture

When you play football, you must play on the field. You can play pretty much anywhere you like inside the lines. But sin is like crossing the line. You’ve played out of touch. You can’t keep on. You need to get back into the game. So you throw it back in and get playing. That’s repentance and confession. But the line is still there. That’s law. You can’t play outside the lines.

But God’s grace means that when we mess up, he gives us a way back in to the game.