Session 3: Fasting & Action (Isaiah 58:7)

You can listen, or listen again to a recording of the talk from last night's session at the top of this page.

As part of my presentation, I played a recording of an account of a man called Mr. Genor, who used to stand in George Street, Sydney, Australia, handing out Christian literature. His story is amazing.  It's included in the 'Fasting & Action' recording, but is also included on its own - again in the audio player section above.

 
The subject was 'Fasting & Action', with the main emphasis being that we have a God of action, who has broken in to our world in the person of Jesus Christ, so that we might see what God is like and join him in his mission to bring his kingdom of love to bear more fully in a world where there is much suffering.  Here's the final slide from the presentation...

Some of our discussion after the presentation was based around these two questions:

What might a Christian mean when he / she says 'God loves you'?

How might Christians communicate the message of God's love to others?

I have summarised the feedback from the questions below...

God Loves You

God loves you. The kind of true love that God has for you longs for a response, but doesn't ever demand it. God sees you just as you are - the good and the bad bits, the happy & sad bits. None of that has ever, or will ever, change the extent of his love for you.

If you're lost at sea, he is already on his rescue mission. He may even be holding your head up above the water, preventing you from drowning. If you hold on, he'll be able to pull you out of the water, nurse you through your recovery, and help you to start walking again. As you continue to recover, he'll give you the opportunity to join his rescue mission, so that others lost at sea might be saved.

The Followers of Jesus Christ

The Followers of Jesus Christ are brave, generous with their time, keen to work with others, unconditionally kind, clearly and obviously loved by their Lord.

They give away pleasant surprises, befriend the lonely, demonstrate sacrifice, use God's voice to lift up others, telling true life-stories of his love for them.

They are always on the lookout for the next opportunity to speak a message of hope, they care, they share their treasures, opening their homes & lives free of charge.

They go the extra mile, they are joyful in the face of adversity, they listen, they laugh, they cry, they give equal value to every person. They use whatever means possible to communicate their Saviour's love.

As usual, please feel at liberty to comment.

Martin Hall

Session 2: Fasting and Prayer (Isaiah 58:6)

On Wednesday 20/2/08 we looked at Isaiah 58:6 where the writer challenges the reader to consider part of the fruit of fasting namely that the “bonds of injustice would be broken and that the oppressed would be set free”. I said that the Trinitarian God we worship is a God of justice and just as He is passionate about His love for us He is passionate about those held in oppression or held captive. I also discussed the work of Christian Solidarity Worldwide and their work in helping persecuted Christians around the world and cited the example of Helen Berhane imprisoned for her Christian faith, who was so badly tortured in prison she has difficulty in walking.

In our world there are many things which can cause oppression in the lives of all people not just those who are persecuted for their faith. Oppression can come in the form of things in our lives that weigh us down, it could be the things we see missing from or lives that we desperately crave for, or it could be the burden of things in our lives that we desperately want to get rid of.

Jesus came to break oppression as He quotes from the book of Isaiah in Luke 4:18 that He was sent “to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free”. Hence my questions to the group at the lent course evening were based around the idea of what possibly are the bonds of injustice in Chislehurst and what could we as Churches 2gether in Chislehurst do about it!

Below are some of the questions I asked and then some of the answers from the groups.

If Isaiah were here with us today what would you tell him were the bonds of injustice and oppressions holding back people in their faith in Chislehurst today?

• · The rich seem to get richer and the poor seem to get poorer
• · Little if any first time housing
• · Financial pressure to aspire ever higher
• · Expectation to be at Church meetings
• · Work Life balance and 24/7 nature of work
• · Sunday opening
• · Youth are not valued
• · Time spent by people watching TV and surfing the internet
• · Break down of relationships
• · Sporting activities for children on Sundays

What can we do 2gether to help break the yoke of oppression for people in our local and global community?

• · Recognising culture as it is, serving in after schools clubs, café church, lunchtime worship etc
• · Support families in crisis
• · Pray for a safer neighbourhood, for the Police and CSO’s
• · Link with organisations supporting people
• · Get to know your neighbour
• · More youth work, street pastors
• · Support the persecuted and oppressed
• · Write to MPs
• · Courses on parenting and finance
• · Support Missionaries and Missions

What Would Jesus Write?

To the angel of the church in Chislehurst write:

I know your works. You have a lacklustre familiarity with me, worn out with meanness and ingratitude. Would that you cheered my name with the gusto that they muster in the Valley or at the Palace! You have hidden your light in a dark cave which few can see. And yet there is in your village common ground where this light may shine. Just as you put your wares in the window 2gether, so may your good works be visible for all to see. Rejoice in what you can do 2gether, the next generation will thank you for it. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

On February 13, local Christians were asked to imagine what Jesus would say to the Church in Chislehurst were he to write them a letter in the spirit of the messages he sent to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation. What you read above is a playful but challenging interpretation of what they imagined he would say.

The groups' observations could be divided into good, bad and challenging:

Good

• Working together on the Chislehurst Youth for Christ project and in the shops
• The possibility for outreach arising from the 2008 Lent course
• The progress we have made in accepting one another's strengths and traditions

Bad

• Loss of that first love for God
• Lack of commitment expressed in attitudes to the Bible and to giving
• The existence of ingratitude, complacency and greed in the culture having seeped into the Church
• The absence of young people from our worshipping communities

Challenging

• The need for Monday to Saturday discipleship in addition to Sunday worship
• Finding new and creative ways of working together
• Getting outside our four walls in mission
• The spiritual needs of Chislehurst's 'up and outs' (c.f. 'down and outs') - the affluent but spiritually impoverished

Session One: Fasting and Holiness

Hello Everyone,

Thank you to everyone who came along last night to the first of five sessions in our 2008 Lent series - 'Break Free'.  It was very encouraging to have such a good turnout.  I felt really challenged by what Simon had to say, and the questions that he asked us to discuss in our groups.  The third question that Simon asked was 'What do you think Jesus would write to the churches in Chislehurst?'.  Simon is compiling a letter from our collective responses, which will be posted here soon.

So In the meantime, you can listen again to Simon's talk by clicking on the player in the 'Audio' section at the top of the page.  When Simon's post comes up, why not respond with a comment - you can do so by clicking on the 'comments' link at the foot of his (or any) post.

Looking forward to seeing you again next week,

Martin Hall

Fasting and Fulfillment

I will be covering the fourth session on March 5th dealing with how fasting can contribute to a fulfilling life. I think fulfillment sums up what the majority of us want out of life. Another word might be satisfaction. We are all hungry to be happy but it is so hard to get and even harder to sustain. The fleeting pleasures of this world are like Chinese food: it fills you up for about thrity minutes and then you're hungry again. We want to be happy but we want that happiness to stay. We want a kind of "happy" that isn't constantly stolen by our circumstances. We want security. but we want more than that. We don't want to believe that life is merely a party where you show up have a good time and then leave. No, we want believe that our life counts that it matters. That is why we long to share our happiness with others because deep down we know that we matter most when we matter to someone else. We want significance. I believe a happy life that is both secure and significant is the only thing that can really satisfy; and that kind of life can only be found in Christ Jesus. But since we rarely consult him on the matter we tend to settle for substitutes. We settle for the temporary over the eternal and the trivial over the truly significant. Our Father has given us all things to enjoy and the truth is we should enjoy them but it is when we substitute the giver for the gifts that our hearts become lean and souls begin to starve. All of his gifts are wonderful but they were meant to sustain never to satisfy.

That is why we ofter have to take these very good things and set them aside so that we can feed on Christ without distraction. In doing this we are able to lay our hands on the kind of life he has always intended for us. We discover a different kind of happiness that exists beyond circumstance. It is a life of eternal consequence. We find a life that is secure, significant and satisfied.

Brian

faith and conduct

I'm preaching at the first meeting of the Lent course next Wednesday - kicking off the study of Isaiah 58 and the nature of true fasting. It's been quite a challenge preparing what I am going to say!

One thing that worries me is the erosion of an understanding of personal holiness in the Church today. We have allowed the intimate link between what we believe and how we live as Christians to be broken. 'See how these Christians love one another' is the banner under which others should come to see the love of God expressed tangibly. Fairly or unfairly, it's more likely that outsiders today think 'see how these Christians despise one another' as we find ways to tear strips off the way other Christians believe. We also sometimes justify ways of living which are incompatible with our calling simply because in a post-modern age it doesn't really matter how consistent you are in what you think and how you act.

I think what we are doing at this Lent course is all about re-establishing the biblical link between faith and conduct. As Micah said: 'what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?'

Come and debate these things....

See you on the thirteenth!

Simon

Lent 2008: Break Free!

We're very excited to be able to tell you about Break Free, which will be a series of five evening events during Lent 2008. Click on the image above to read the Break Free newsletter.

As Break Free gets moving, we will be posting information, thoughts and ideas here, as well as recordings of the talks - and you can join in too by posting your own responses for others to see. So keep checking for updates, and we'd love to hear your thoughts, ideas and views.