Friends, fellowship and retreats...

A couple of weeks ago we had Willis Howell over for tea. I love meeting internet buddies for the first time and I am pleased to say that Willis did not disappoint. It is always good to meet kindred spirits. For want of a much, much better cliché Willis and I definitely sing from the sane hymn sheet!

On Thursday, last week, Xander came to tea – it is hard to believe that it is now 6 months since he went into College and that it is a year and a half since he moved to the UK!

Both of these men need our prayers, a leader and a fledgling leader yet both standing at the heart of the battlefield, both with the clash of steel in their ears and the smell of warfare in their nostrils.

Yesterday I came to Ashburnham for Divisional Officers' Retreat and it would appear that many of my colleague Officers find themselves similarly at the heart of intense spiritual conflict.

Let us not forget to pray for each other, intercession is a mighty and effective gift.

Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.

Before our Father's throne
We pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,
Our comforts and our cares.

We share our mutual woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathising tear.

When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart
And hope to meet again.

From sorrow, toil and pain,
And sin, we shall be free;
And perfect love and friendship reign
Through all eternity. (John Fawcett)

Grace and peace, A

Obligated to defeat...

Holiness requires the surrender of all that is doubtful in addition to all that is sinful. Anything less that absolute surrender leaves us 'liable to defeat'. If we are holding on to things which God wants us to surrender then not all the prayers, bible study and fellowship in the world can save us – we will be defeated!

Willis Howell sent me a great quote the other day from John Piper:

""The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of the triviality we drink in every night.... And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable."

How many recently launched Christian lives have sailed out of the harbour of conversion and immediately crashed on the rocks of compromise? Usually the rock that sank the boat was something small and insignificant like a cup of coffee or a football game. It is the doubtful things that usually bring us down rather than the sinful things.

There is nothing in the bible that suggests that owning property or being wealthy is a sin, indeed some people have built a whole theology around the opposite belief but if Jesus thought the best way to survive the snares of this world and the attack of the enemy was a simple life of poverty then maybe that's the way wise Christians still choose to walk.

Father, save me from the trappings and distractions of this world, save me from the doubtful things, help me to identify the 'apple pie' in my life and lay it on the altar of consecration.

Today's scripture:

1 Chronicles 22:1-23:32

"Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and the laws that the Lord gave to Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged." (22:13)

Psalm 91:9-16

¹⁴ "Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

¹⁵ He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honour him.

¹⁶ With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation."

1 Corinthians 2:6-2:16

¹²We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

Grace and peace, A