We sang this last night at our new church.  David and I were both struck by it and after the service read through it again individually.  That is one of the benefits of hymnbooks - you can spend some time meditating on the words as they don't disappear off a screen!  Neither of us had sung this hymn before, although we've been Christians for many years.  I had read one of the couplets before, and it was good to see it in context.

Exhortation to Prayer 

What various hindrances we meet
In coming to a mercy seat!
Yet who that knows the worth of prayer,
But wishes to be often there?

Prayer makes the darken'd cloud withdraw,
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw,
Gives exercise to faith and love,
Brings every blessing from above.

Restraining prayer, we cease to fight;
Prayer makes the Christian's armour bright;
And Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.

While Moses stood with arms spread wide,
Success was found on Israel's side;
But when through weariness they fail'd,
That moment Amalek prevail'd.

Have you no words? Ah, think again,
Words flow apace when you complain,
And fill your fellow-creature's ear
With the sad tale of all your care.

Were half the breath thus vainly spent
To heaven in supplication sent,
Your cheerful song would oftener be,
"Hear what the Lord has done for me."

These are videos about evangelism and how we can overcome our fears about it.

Part 1

Part 2

Brian Thornton has an excellent post which deals with beliefs about presenting the gospel.  He shares about a book he has had for a long time,  about increasing Sunday School attendance (it looked like it was adult classes in view) which has implications for sharing the gospel in general.  The attitude was " you have to love them into the kingdom."   Brian gives some very good logical conclusions to the beliefs that much of the evangelical world holds. 

One of the things that grabbed me from the quotes from the book was about having the "gift of party."    I guess that goes along with having "the gift of flower arranging."  (I know people have "gifts and talents" but we seem to be elevating some natural or cultivated, God-given talents, to spiritual gifts, which are a different thing altogether.)

You can read his post, Church Growth Gobbly Gook here.

Some of you readers know that I've been going through a bit of a hard time lately.  Last night I was really discouraged, wondering if I was really wrong, and maybe the pragmatic approach was OK after all.  (among other things)

This morning, I sat in bed and started looking through a new Bible that I had got from Rod and Staff, that came on Tuesday (a KJV).  I was going through the pages, trying to exercise the binding a bit by opening out the pages in different sections.   As I did, I read a bit off the pages now and again.

At one point, my eyes fell on Numbers 20:11, "And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice:  and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also." 

If you don't know the story, I encourage you to check out the rest of the chapter.  Moses had previously been instructed to strike a rock which he did, and God  provided water from the rock for the Israelites who were wandering in the desert.   Now they were complaining again about a lack of water and after hearing from God Moses was to gather the people and speak to the rock and God would again provide water.  Moses did not do what he was told (do read the whole story) and struck the rock twice instead.

Now, water did come from the rock, as before.  In fact it came abundantly.  The people drank, and there was water for their animals as well.  God was merciful and provided for His people, even though Moses was disobedient.  Yet in the next verse, verse 12, we see that God was very displeased at Moses and pronounced a severe judgment on him, one that I would imagine would be a grief to Moses all the rest of his days.  After all he had done, all he had learned and seen, Moses would not be allowed to enter the promised land because of his disobedience in the matter of speaking to versus striking the rock.

I noted that many people were helped.  They were given what they needed to live.  According to the pragmatic approach so common in so many Christians, wasn't that a good thing, and did it matter how things were done?  Yet God was not going to let the disobedience of Moses go unnoticed and unpunished. 

I had "happened" upon that passage just by trying to gently break in the binding of my new Bible.  I felt encouraged, that no, pragmatism without obedience is not acceptable to a holy God.

I then turned to my regular Bible, and my daily reading schedule.   The next Psalm I was to read was Psalm 99, which first extols God's greatness and other attributes.  Then come verses 6, 7, and 8: 

6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
   Samuel also was among those who called upon his name.
   They called to the LORD, and he answered them.
7 In the pillar of the cloud he spoke to them;
   they kept his testimonies
   and the statute that he gave them.
8 O LORD our God, you answered them;
   you were a forgiving God to them,
   but an avenger of their wrongdoings.

Verse 8 ties in so much with what I had just been reading earlier - I read that God forgave these men, but still avenged their wrongdoings. 

God demands obedience.  Why do some think that as long as many people are helped somehow, that a lack of obedience is OK?

corrected typo on "severe" 5/10/07

2 Corinthians 4:2 (New International Version)

Feeding Sheep or Amusing Goats  - well worth reading.

"My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the church. If it is a Christian work, why did not Christ speak of it? 'Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature' (Mark 16:15). That is clear enough. So it would have been if He had added, 'and provide amusement for those who do not relish the gospel.' No such words, however, are to be found. It did not seem to occur to him."  CHS

Above is a photo of Yoshi the chameleon, that I took yesterday.  We let Yoshi out of his vivarium sometimes, to get exercise and a chance to see the world.  Or at least part of it. 

Chameleons are arboreal (tree-dwelling) creatures and they have a strong God-given instinct to go UP.  They like to climb high and survey their domain and keep on the lookout for anything that might trouble them.  

We've put a living plant on the bay window sill, and an artificial plant on the window, to give Yoshi something to climb on.  He loves to sit half on the artificial plant, and half on the window-latch, and look out.  Sometimes he scrabbles on the glass, not understanding why he can't get through.   He often seems like he is yearning to go outside.  When he scratches and scrabbles at the glass he seems desparate to get out, to climb the plants outside that will let him go still higher, and to enjoy the great vistas afforded of our road.

I'm sure Yoshi, if you gave him a survey, would list one of his main "felt needs" as getting outside (along with being left alone, and being given all the waxworms he can eat, which are contradictory desires , but maybe chameleons are a bit postmodern).   Being outside would make him happy, and fulfill his longings, he thinks.

But it would not be good for him, and he would not survive very long, if we were to meet that felt need and let him go outdoors.  The British climate is not a good one for a Yemen chameleon.  It is too cold, and there would not be enough food for him at this time of year.  Yoshi would soon die,  even if he escaped from predators.

Felt needs are often not indicators of true needs.

Jeremiah 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things,and desperately sick; who can understand it? (ESV)

My daughter and I received new Bibles today.  I had ordered them in March, from CBD and they arrived today.

My daughters is an NIV "Bible in a Bag" - you can see it here.  It's a nice handy little size and although it's small the print size is legible even for me without my varifocals.  I'd get one for myself if I liked the NIV - in fact I might be tempted to get one anyway as I don't already have an NIV.  It was only $11.99, and in the catalogue I have it says if you order 3 or more the price goes down to $9.99.

My new Bible is another ESV.  You can see a photo of it here.  It is a smaller size than the ESV I already have, yet the print is not too small.  It may not stand up to my regular markers so I will have to find some others, if even just some colored pencils.  My new Bible was only $15.99, which is pretty good I think. 

Since I'm talking about Bibles, I want to share with you this information about a great offer.  If you are in the US, you can buy Outreach Editions of the ESV New Testament at certain Christian bookshops, for only 50 cents!!  Here is a page that you can visit to find out more and locate a shop in your area.  I wish I was back home, because I would sure stock up on some of these!  I did order one from Amazon, although it cost £1.00 and a bit.   I hope I can get some more and hand them out.   Let me know if you order any of these, and how you've used them. 

For those interested, I recommend this post by Dan Phillips on The Astonishing Jesus.  A very short excerpt:

He tells them to pray. What would you tell them to pray?

At Tim Challies' suggestion I, with others, am posting my testimony today.

I was raised in a home where my mother professed Christianity, but my father did not.  My maternal grandmother was a Christian too, and I remember when staying at her house being taken to Vacation Bible School in the summer.

I was baptised in a Methodist church as a baby, and attended a Baptist kindergarten on Guam (though I don't remember attending church then).   I think we attended some Protestant church in Japan at least occasionally but I don't remember clearly.  A few years after we moved to Tulsa we began attending a Unitarian church.  This must have been a compromise between my parents, as my mother would have wanted to attend church, but my father, as a non-Christian, would not have been happy in a Christian church.

I was given a Good News Bible when I was around 7 or 8 and we still lived in Japan.  I remember reading it, and although I already had positive feelings about the Bible, Jesus and God, reading it led to some misunderstandings possibly due to some of the pictures in it (like I began to think it was wrong to count your money!).  I found Jesus quite a tough character.   I wanted to love Him but I was also afraid of Him.  His standards seemed to be so high, and he did not brook foolishness, it seemed to me.

As a preteen I began searching, wanting to know God and be sure I went to heaven.  Being in Tulsa, "the buckle of the Bible belt", there were loads of Christian tracts to be found, and I would read them when I did find them.   I asked my friends who went to church, about their church.  At that time, I verbalized my spiritual need as "trying to find a good church."   Various friends spoke to me about Jesus and how He was the way to God in our last year of elementary school, and into junior high school.   I remember knowing, really knowing,  that I was a sinner, but when I asked many adults about sin, they said it was really bad things like murder, or robbery.  I hadn't done any of those type things, but I knew that I was a sinner, and if Jesus didn't help me out, I was in big trouble.   The Spirit of God was convicting me of my sin.

I'm sure that I believed the Gospel message that those tracts proclaimed, and I did pray the prayer that they usually included in the back - several times.   I did believe I was a sinner, that Jesus Christ had paid the price for my sins, by taking the punishment I deserved, and was the only way to be made right with a Holy God.   I lacked assurance that God had forgiven me, though, so I kept praying that prayer.  

  I went along the first two years of junior high, believing in Jesus, but not having assurance, and trying out different churches as school friends would take me.  I'm really grateful to those parents who picked me up and brought me along to see what their church was like (sometimes they didn't actually go regularly, like the Catholic family who took me).

Towards the end of 8th grade, when I was 14, a Southern Baptist friend, who had witnessed to me for a few years, took me to Eastwood Baptist church.  At the end, there was an invitation, and I felt an odd feeling in my heart,  that I should go forward.  I asked Darlene if she would go with me, and she gently said, "of course".  So I did go forward, and ended up praying the same prayer I had prayed so many times, and afterwards was introduced to the congregation as one who had prayed to receive Christ. 

Assurance didn't come all at once, but I think that the public profession of faith really helped me. Jesus spoke of "confessing Him before men" (telling others you believe in Him).   I could now pinpoint a time when I had actually done something that demonstrated my faith in Jesus Christ.  I felt that I had done something I was supposed to do, confess Him before men, in a way that I had not done before, although I would have agreed to any of the fundamentals of the faith for several years before.   My story certainly does not end there, but it marks a good beginning.   I was different after that day, or that period of time anyway.  Even the world around me looked brighter and more vivid to my eyes - the effect of the awakening of my spirit, I suppose.   I had an awareness of God, of His watching me, of my need of Him, that I had not had before.

I think God, by the Holy Spirit, used His word, a nominally Christian upbringing, tracts left anonymously, testimonies from friends, Gospel message with an invitation, and probably a few other means, to bring me to Himself, and I am grateful.