Category Archives: worship

An Ordinary God?

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I had a good few meetings in London today.

The youth co-ordinating group of CTE met which is, I think, the only forum that brings all Christian youth organisations together from England, Scotland and Wales. It’s great to be a part of this and share what we are doing and hear what others are doing.

Grabbing a coffee with Dave Wiles from FYT afterwards and then catching up with Lorne from Church Resources of YFC was also a great time.

Today I saw God in the ordinary everyday conversations of people I met with. It’s easy in this calling/ministry/vocation to become task orientated and compartmentalise activities into worship, or work or some other sub-section. I’ve always struggled with that. It’s easy to forget that God is part of all my life and activities – but if you remember to look and be aware, God is pretty obvious! God is in the ordinary, and that is incredibly exciting because a God that is present in the ordinary is good news because that sort of God can be found by all.

As an aside, but linked, my annual appraisal will happen soon. The YFC form always has a question that I struggle with: ‘how is your spiritual life?’ I struggle with this every time I am asked as I can’t extract my ‘spiritual life’ from the rest of my life – my life’s aim is to have a life of worship which means that all I do, whether that’s fill in a tax form, meet friend for coffee, have a business meeting I come to see as being part of my worship to God. I think this is what the first few verses of Romans 12 is all about.

The Message:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life-your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life-and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you

The waste of worship

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Tonight I spoke around Mark 14:1-11 and called it the waste of worship.
While looking at this, a number of things struck and challenged me.

The extravagant way Mary selflessly cracks open this perfume, that cost a year’s wages, and poured it over Jesus contrasts sharply with the controlled and self interested way in which Judas betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. As an aside, Judas’ fee equates roughly to the fee for a slave. Mary gave her most treasured and expensive possession while Judas sold Jesus for the price of slave.

Judas is one of those bemoaning the great waste of this act of Mary, asking instead why this was not sold and the money given to the poor. Mary seems, however, to have deep understanding of who Jesus is and so is sold out totally for him. Judas just sees to be sold out.

But I can relate to Judas in part. This does seem a waste. A better use would seem to be to sell this and use the money to further the kingdom. What does Mary gain from this? Are we supposed to gain something from worship? Or is worship more about serving Jesus and showing how much we value our relationship? But our waste of time, or money, of activity in this seemingly ungainful act of worship, does seem to mysteriously change us in some way. I guess how much depends on what we will invest of ourselves.

Judas had his price, and in an elaborate way Mary shows hers, or maybe she doesn’t have a price as such. Her price is ‘whatever I have’.

This has challenged me to ask how much Jesus is worth to me, or rather …
What is my price?

Films for sacred spaces

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I’ve mentioned Work of the People before and St Marks has recently taken a subscription. It’s a new month so there is a new free video. Glad to see they have started a WOTP blog too.

Advent

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Great advent reflection here.

Pen Labyrinth

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This is cool and I could have done with this over the last 2 days.
You can print this and it’s a great way to just pause in the business.
Thanks Mark for the pointer.

Stay like a kid!

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The retreat was a great time away, although I was not too sure about one of the people doing some of the input, but others were impressed so I guess that was a personal thing.

Just being in the place is a pleasure. It’s hard to explain but it is such a calm and Godly place. I think it is impossible to leave in any other way than relaxed and feeling re-connected to God. The sisters were, as always, lovely to us and have such a great serving heart. One even called me ‘a lovely youngster’ after I helped her sort out her mobile phone!

A particular memory I am taking away from the weekend is ‘a word’ I was given while being prayed for. The gist of this was that I have a ‘natural cheeky child sense of humour’ ( I think that means immature!) and that during my training people were going to expect and suggest that I will need to ‘grow up’. My friend felt God was saying it was important that I do not conform in this way and that I kept that child-like humour as God is going to use this in my mission. This really hit home with me as recently I hve been questionning who I am and how I, as I am, naturally fit into all this which resulted in me thinking can it be really right to continue with this and try and be different to who I really am. Now I think all this makes sense.

I was quite excited by that – not sure my family are though!

Empty

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They said …

You can’t say you’re empty ….

But …

I’ve Felt it.
I’ve sensed it.
I’ve tried to get away from it.
I’ve felt guilty about it.

Sometimes…
I sense …
nothing.

Been there?

Can you …
empathise?
relate?
see where I’m coming from?
stand in my shoes?

silence out there
silence in here
silence at every corner
a vacuumous space
threatening to indwell me
attempting to consume me
beginning to squeeze me
into a mould of …

emptiness

is it possible
to have a relationship
with God
and feel empty?
alone?
deserted?

My God, My God
Why have you forsaken me?
said Jesus

so it must be!

The Dance of Guidance

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This was sent to me in an email recently – not sure what the source is, but it intrigued me:

When I meditated on the word Guidance,
I kept seeing “dance” at the end of the word.
I remember reading that doing God’s will is a lot like dancing.
When two people try to lead, nothing feels right.
The movement doesn’t flow with the music,
and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky.
When one person realizes that, and lets the other lead,
both bodies begin to flow with the music.
One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back
or by pressing Lightly in one direction or another.
It’s as if two become one body, moving beautifully.
The dance takes surrender, willingness,
and attentiveness from one person
and gentle guidance and skill from the other.
My eyes drew back to the word Guidance.
When I saw “G: I thought of God, followed by “u” and “i”.
“God, “u” and “i” dance.”
God, you, and I dance.
As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust
that I would get guidance about my life.
Once again, I became willing to let God lead.
My prayer for you today is that God’s blessings
and mercies be upon you on this day and everyday.
May you abide in God as God
abides in you.
Dance together with God, trusting God to lead
and to guide you through each season of your life.

Whispers in the silence

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On Friday morning I took time out to be quiet.

Sounds crushing in
wanting to pull me away
musn’t listen
constraint
petrified of being sucked from this moment
the pull vacuumous
drawn into the wall
impossible to scale
and then realisation
I’m the obstruction.
I ackowledge the sky creeping wall
brick by brick
which tumbles as
sounds identified
and allowed to empty

stillness discovered
calm
quiet
peace
silence exposed

eerie translucence
God in there!
observing
before withdrawing

I ask
why leave?
I need your help!
I need you to walk beside me
I need you to carry me when I fall

That smile
the warmth in the eyes
sincerity
loving pity

the scandalous response:

Grow up!
I believe in you
You can pick yourself up
and try again.

that way
you unearth the beauty
and the ferment of ability
I have sited within you

We remember

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