Six ways to pray for summer camps

They're going on now… and will throughout the summer. You may well know people you can pray these things for. If you don't, just pick a camp (Ventures is one place to find one) and pray these things for the people on it!

1. Pray for the Bible teaching: that the "gospel [would come] … not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep joy" (1 Thessalonians 1 v 5)
2. Pray that campers who aren't Christians would become Christians: that "they would turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven" (1 Thessalonians 2 v 9-10).
3. Pray that Christian campers would learn how to live out their faith: that they'd know "how to live in order to please God … [and] do this more and more" (1 Thessalonians 4 v 1)
4. Pray that leaders would have Christlike love: loving campers "so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well" (1 Thessalonians 2 v 8)
5. Pray that leaders would have eternal priorities: that they'd think of the campers as "our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ when he comes" (1 Thessalonians 2 v 19)
6. Pray that leaders would make be committed to prayer and practical support for their campers before, during and after camp: "How can we thank God enough for … you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith" (1 Thessalonians 3 v 9-10)

This post was originally posted on 24th July 2012.

My unusual prayer list

Half way down a long stretch of the A3, on my way to work last month, the smoke started pouring out of the car radio. The only time this had happened to me before the car was a blazing wreck within 5 minutes, so my heart raced a little as I looked for somewhere to pull over. But this time, with a gentle "POP" the radio went silent, the smoke stopped, and everything seemed fine.

I'm a bit of a news junkie, so the Today programme is my usual companion on the morning drive to work. It has become part of my morning ritual. Thought for the day; the headlines; the ten past eight interview have all filled my mind with thoughts on the commute. But now there is silence. An enforced "news fast".

And like the other kind of fasting, it has taken me through some stages. First of all irritation (at the cost of replacing the radio). Then hunger: "I wonder what's happening?" Then wondering what to do with my head in the silence. And then working out that this is a great opportunity to use the time proactively. Suddenly, my journey to work has become an opportunity to pray. And I've developed an unusual prayer list.

• Restaurants: Driving down the main street of the suburb I live in, I pray for the progress of the gospel in the home countries of the restaurants I pass. South and North Korea, Japan and Italy all get a look in - and later on, Turkey and India/Pakistan/Bangladesh. I know missionaries in some of those countries, so they get prayed for too.
• Road names: There are a few road names that trigger associations with people I know. So when I turn down Chesterfield Road, I remember to pray for an old friend who comes from there.
• Sports grounds: I pass a golf course and a couple of leisure centres, so Christians in Sport sometimes comes to mind.
• Churches: and of course there are dozens of churches I pass - sparking prayer for their ministry, and the work of evangelism in the local area.

I'm very thankful that the radio broke - and I'm in no hurry to fix it.

Questions we'd really not like to think too much about

Met yesterday with an old friend who came up through the youth group I was involved in and who is now a missionary in South Africa. He thanked me for producing the Questions Christians Ask series, and then, like many others, asked me what is next on the list.

I went through the icons on the front of the books, talking about progress with each of them, and the difficulties with getting the level and approach right and with the commissioning some of the titles.

Ben reminded me of a talk I was once asked to give - that I had completely forgotten about. Apparently, I had been asked back to the youth group to talk about UFOs - a subject of deep concern to some of the teenagers at the time. I have not a clue what I said, what Bible texts I referred to, or what kind of steer I gave on the subject - but the conversation reminded me how short-lived some of our concerns can be. As a teenager, I was often involved in intense conversations about UFOs, fuelled by wild speculation from Erich von Daniken's books like Chariot of the Gods (ask any man over 55 and they will fill you in if this is a mystery to you). But it's just not something people talk about now - not in my experience anyway.

And when you read books on apologetics from 20 or 30 years ago, their lists of top questions seem strangely unfamiliar to modern ears - apart from questions about suffering and a God of love. You will search in vain for references to gender and homosexuality in the handbooks on evangelism from a previous generation - but now they are virtually top of the list. Our culture and it's questions just move on.

And our thinking and engagement must move on with them.

In memory of that talk, Ben sent me through the mock-up to the right. It's not a title we are going to publish any time soon - but perhaps there are other Questions Christians No Longer Ask titles you might like to suggest... Answers on a postcard, or by clicking the comment button below...

Intereveallenging

It was a hot afternoon yesterday - text messages were flying about: partly reflecting on the sermon just heard, partly making plans for some midweek cake - and in the midst, a new word was born: intereveallenging. Yup, you read that correctly: intereveallenging.

In all honesty, I'm not convinced it will catch on... but it encapsulates what many of us appreciate most in a talk.

Interesting

Relevant stories that resonate with our lives. Pertinent questions - the kind of things our friends ask all the time. And an engaging style that makes us want to listen (no matter how tired and grumpy we - well, I - might be feeling at the start of church).

Revealing

A faithful exposition of Scripture. We're not there to be entertained - we want (and need) to hear from the Lord and there's no substitute for getting in to the text. An in-context foray into God's Word brings light to the dark places of our lives, helping us to see just how awesome God is.

Challenging

Talks that merely inform bring burdens - talks that encourage change bring life. There's no greater joy than becoming like Jesus and being spurred on to do that in the middle of a Sunday service is a simply wonderful.

So ... if you give talks, why not aim to be intereveallenging as you prep in the coming days. And if you listen, pray that your pastor will be unswervingly intereveallenging week by week ...

[Intereveallenging ... See, my friends, - I DID manage to use it in a sentence today!]

How Should I Respond When Friends Fall Away?

Anyone who has been a Christian for any length of time will have experienced the pain of seeing people who had professed faith stop believing in Jesus. When I was at university, my Christian Union was very encouraged because a first-year student went forward at an evangelistic event and said she had become a Christian. A few weeks later she said she wasn’t a Christian after all. Last year I was preaching at a church and met the ex-wife of a man who had seemed to be wonderfully converted. Having been a committed Christian and church member for several years, he tragically announced that he was no longer a believer and was leaving his wife.

The first thing we should do when our friends fall away is to pray for them and seek to share the gospel with them again, urging them to come back to Christ. They may be suffering a temporary crisis of faith, but even if they turn away for a long time, we should not give up hope for the possibility of their salvation. They may be as bewildered as everyone else is at their decision to renounce their faith, and value some help in unpicking the reasons why they have changed their thinking. But they still need to trust in Jesus as Lord just as much as anyone else who is not professing faith. We should continue to love them and demonstrate to them the truth of the gospel in our own life (see Jude v 22).... continue reading

Eternity Changes Everything - £2.49 until midday Monday

How much time do you spend worrying about what the future holds? Will I stay healthy? What does my job or career hold in store for me? What will happen if ...? The look of the future often affects how we feel at this point in time. A bright future making us feel happy, content and lively (a total feel good factor you might say) whereas an uncertain future can bring completely the opposite feelings.

If you are worried about your future… or if your future doesn't seem to make any difference to your now… or if you simply want to get more excited about where you will spend eternity, then have a read of Stephen Witmer's Eternity Changes Everything.

In this book, Witmer lifts up our eyes to see beyond the “now” that presses in on us to what is eternal. More than that, he lifts up our eyes to see the eternal God in the magnificence of his redeeming purposes. What encouragement this brings to the spiritually weary and what challenge it brings to those tempted to fall sleep amidst the buzz and plenty of our modern world! This treatment of deep, biblical themes is fresh, pastoral, and stimulating.

Read more and get the book HERE for just £2.50 until midday Monday. Use code hece0714 at the checkout.

How will the world end? Help for the confused....

There is no global shortage of doomsayers. We are being told that we are only decades, years, months, days away from catastrophe by global warming, ecological disaster, viral pandemics, major terrorist atrocities or a meteor strike. The scenario changes, but the end result is the same - the end of the world as we know it. So confident are these pundits that they are correct, it's a surprise that we haven't all stopped paying into our pensions years ago.

But Christians have a far more positive view of the future - one in which justice will be finally done, Jesus revealed for who he is, his persecuted people vindicated, and the re-creation of a glorious new world for those who have been saved by him.

But there remains considerable confusion among Christians about what will happen at the end of the world, and how it will come about. Not to mention the dreaded "when?" question!

We've been embarrassed by Christians claiming to know when Jesus will return. We've been bamboozled by other voices that weave complex scenarios from the Bible about how it will happen. No surprise then, that many Christians think of the end of the world, and those parts of the BIble that talk about it as "no go areas". How do we make sense of all this confusion.

We're delighted to be publishing Questions Christians Ask series. With trademark clarity and care, this little book seeks to help ordinary believers sort out fact from fiction in the end-times scenarios on offer. Author Jeramie Rinne focuses our minds on the big things about the second coming of Christ that all Christians agree on, and helpfully charts a path through the confusing landscape of different views Christians hold about the way the end will arrive.

How will the world end? is part of the Questions Christians Ask series, available to order HERE from your friendly neighbourhood Good Book website.

© Image : Michael Lehenbauer, Flickr, used under the CC license

25 years on

I hope you will excuse this moment of self-indulgence but today is this little blog editor’s special day. It’s exactly 25 years since the grace of God changed my heart and, forgiven, I began to follow Jesus.

Today, I’ve been looking back over the past quarter of a century – with all its highs and its lows – and have been bowled over by God’s faithfulness, forgiveness and love in ways that I tend to miss on a daily basis. It’s wonderful to take stock every now and then.

So, what has changed over the past 25 years?... continue reading