Andrea Mill was recently asked by the Scottish Baptist Lay Preachers’ Association to write an entry for their blog exploring an aspect of the theme of “Worship”. This is her blog that was published on the SBLPA web site on February 12th.
What are your expectations when you come to church? A cosy social gathering? Healing? A powerful encounter with God? Prophecy? A good sing?
Previous generations would not have dreamt of coming to church late. The norm would have been to be present 15 to 20 minutes before the start of the service to sit with heads bowed as preparation for coming onto the Lord’s presence. But things have changed even in my life time. Now it is more the norm for most to arrive in the few minutes before the church service is about to start and there are always some who come in 5, 10, 15 minutes or more late (but perhaps that is just my church?!).
Before I start sounding like one of those “grumpy old women”, let me explain where I am coming from!
I understand that lives are busy and sometimes things happen to cause lateness, but something has happened in the hearts of many Christians to change the priority of coming to meet with God in the overall scheme of things, so that we tend to rush into His presence without taking time to prepare for our meeting with Him.
Anyone in business appreciates the importance of preparation to get the most out of a business meeting so why should a meeting with the King of Kings be different?
Look at the preparation laid down in the Old Testament for people to purify themselves before going to the tent of meeting and even more stringent rules for the priests.
I am not one to advocate getting stuck in the past, but as Christians we must be on our guard about being infected by the culture around us. We must make an effort to live lives that are different. Our lives must speak of where our priorities lie.
What is more important, an extra 20-30 minutes in bed or 20-30 minutes reading the Bible and opening our hearts towards the Lord? If we rush to church in a bad temper with those we live with because we have not allowed enough time to get everyone up and out, it can be half an hour or so before we have come to the place where we are ready to meet with God. By then half the service is gone and we have missed a golden opportunity to go deeper with Him.
Brothers and sisters, I challenge and encourage you to make it a priority in the coming weeks to take time either before you leave for church or by getting to church earlier to pray and prepare your heart to enter the holy of holies. If we rush from the things of the world it takes time to refocus our thoughts on the heavenly realms. So ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit BEFORE going to church. Ask God to give you something to give to someone else. Ask for Him to draw close to you and meet your deepest need.
Ask and you shall receive. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. Enter his courts with thanksgiving and expect a powerful encounter. You won’t regret it!
Previous generations would not have dreamt of coming to church late. The norm would have been to be present 15 to 20 minutes before the start of the service to sit with heads bowed as preparation for coming onto the Lord’s presence. But things have changed even in my life time. Now it is more the norm for most to arrive in the few minutes before the church service is about to start and there are always some who come in 5, 10, 15 minutes or more late (but perhaps that is just my church?!).
Before I start sounding like one of those “grumpy old women”, let me explain where I am coming from!
I understand that lives are busy and sometimes things happen to cause lateness, but something has happened in the hearts of many Christians to change the priority of coming to meet with God in the overall scheme of things, so that we tend to rush into His presence without taking time to prepare for our meeting with Him.
Anyone in business appreciates the importance of preparation to get the most out of a business meeting so why should a meeting with the King of Kings be different?
Look at the preparation laid down in the Old Testament for people to purify themselves before going to the tent of meeting and even more stringent rules for the priests.
I am not one to advocate getting stuck in the past, but as Christians we must be on our guard about being infected by the culture around us. We must make an effort to live lives that are different. Our lives must speak of where our priorities lie.
What is more important, an extra 20-30 minutes in bed or 20-30 minutes reading the Bible and opening our hearts towards the Lord? If we rush to church in a bad temper with those we live with because we have not allowed enough time to get everyone up and out, it can be half an hour or so before we have come to the place where we are ready to meet with God. By then half the service is gone and we have missed a golden opportunity to go deeper with Him.
Brothers and sisters, I challenge and encourage you to make it a priority in the coming weeks to take time either before you leave for church or by getting to church earlier to pray and prepare your heart to enter the holy of holies. If we rush from the things of the world it takes time to refocus our thoughts on the heavenly realms. So ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit BEFORE going to church. Ask God to give you something to give to someone else. Ask for Him to draw close to you and meet your deepest need.
Ask and you shall receive. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. Enter his courts with thanksgiving and expect a powerful encounter. You won’t regret it!
WOMEN WALKING WITH GOD CONFERENCE
Janis White and I met up with Lorraine Polland and about 1200 other women for this conference on the evening of 5th March and all day on Saturday 6th. There was great worship from Lou Fellingham and teaching from Proverbs about wisdom, but the most interesting part was a talk by Debra Greene about Redeeming our Communities. She has organised prayer meetings for thousands of people to come together to pray for a particular topic. For example, prayer for the police force brought hundreds of non-Christian police to the meeting as well as other local authority figures. She is from Manchester, which used to be called ‘Gun-chester’ until they got together to pray for a reduction in gun crime. Her message is that we (you and I) can make a difference to our local communities by asking what the needs are from different organisations involved with the community, social work, police, education, health etc and organising people to pray into action what needs to be done. She will come to Edinburgh if we want her to get involved. But we don’t need to wait. Never underestimate the power of prayer. All the infinite resources of heaven are at our disposal if we take the time to engage in partnership with God to bring about what is on His heart. The conference was inspiring and is on again next year but the real work starts with us, if we care about what God cares about. Let’s keep on praying ……..
Janis White and I met up with Lorraine Polland and about 1200 other women for this conference on the evening of 5th March and all day on Saturday 6th. There was great worship from Lou Fellingham and teaching from Proverbs about wisdom, but the most interesting part was a talk by Debra Greene about Redeeming our Communities. She has organised prayer meetings for thousands of people to come together to pray for a particular topic. For example, prayer for the police force brought hundreds of non-Christian police to the meeting as well as other local authority figures. She is from Manchester, which used to be called ‘Gun-chester’ until they got together to pray for a reduction in gun crime. Her message is that we (you and I) can make a difference to our local communities by asking what the needs are from different organisations involved with the community, social work, police, education, health etc and organising people to pray into action what needs to be done. She will come to Edinburgh if we want her to get involved. But we don’t need to wait. Never underestimate the power of prayer. All the infinite resources of heaven are at our disposal if we take the time to engage in partnership with God to bring about what is on His heart. The conference was inspiring and is on again next year but the real work starts with us, if we care about what God cares about. Let’s keep on praying ……..
SBLPA conference 13 March 2010
This was my first attendance at the Scottish Baptist Lay Preachers’ Association conference and I left feeling energised and encouraged from having spent a day with fellow lay preachers and time with the Lord.
The day consisted of the AGM (a very small part!), two teaching sessions by Edwin Gunn either side of an excellent three-course lunch, finishing with communion. Edwin’s theme for the teaching was the Word and the Spirit; the first session focussing on the Word and the second on the Spirit. He quoted the following to emphasise the need for balance between both:
“The Word without the Spirit is wood and stubble, The Spirit without the Word is froth and bubble.”
The content of his presentations are available on the SLBPA web site so there is no need for me to reproduce the essence of the teaching, but it reminded me of how easy it can be to let things slip, how easy it is for the devil to get in little by little in our churches and in our own lives: a bit less Bible-reading here: a bit less prayer there: forgetting to ask for the Spirit to come: forgetting that we are engaged in spiritual warfare. And before we know it there are all sorts of problems that we are trying to sort out in our own strength. So it is important to maintain a healthy balance between the Word and the Spirit.
It was also good to network with other lay preachers and to hear what the Lord is doing in other parts of the country. When I put my name forward to be a lay preacher I had not bargained for becoming part of the whole organisation of SBLPA with an AGM etc. However, I now appreciate the benefits of coming together to encourage one another and to promote excellence in preaching the word of God. It is an awesome privilege and one that none of us should take lightly.
This was my second Saturday in a row at a conference having attended the Women Walking with God conference the weekend before (see opposite). It was interesting to note what a difference it made to my preaching and power in ministry both Sundays having spent the whole Saturday with the Lord. I’m sure there must be a sermon in that somewhere!!
This was my first attendance at the Scottish Baptist Lay Preachers’ Association conference and I left feeling energised and encouraged from having spent a day with fellow lay preachers and time with the Lord.
The day consisted of the AGM (a very small part!), two teaching sessions by Edwin Gunn either side of an excellent three-course lunch, finishing with communion. Edwin’s theme for the teaching was the Word and the Spirit; the first session focussing on the Word and the second on the Spirit. He quoted the following to emphasise the need for balance between both:
“The Word without the Spirit is wood and stubble, The Spirit without the Word is froth and bubble.”
The content of his presentations are available on the SLBPA web site so there is no need for me to reproduce the essence of the teaching, but it reminded me of how easy it can be to let things slip, how easy it is for the devil to get in little by little in our churches and in our own lives: a bit less Bible-reading here: a bit less prayer there: forgetting to ask for the Spirit to come: forgetting that we are engaged in spiritual warfare. And before we know it there are all sorts of problems that we are trying to sort out in our own strength. So it is important to maintain a healthy balance between the Word and the Spirit.
It was also good to network with other lay preachers and to hear what the Lord is doing in other parts of the country. When I put my name forward to be a lay preacher I had not bargained for becoming part of the whole organisation of SBLPA with an AGM etc. However, I now appreciate the benefits of coming together to encourage one another and to promote excellence in preaching the word of God. It is an awesome privilege and one that none of us should take lightly.
This was my second Saturday in a row at a conference having attended the Women Walking with God conference the weekend before (see opposite). It was interesting to note what a difference it made to my preaching and power in ministry both Sundays having spent the whole Saturday with the Lord. I’m sure there must be a sermon in that somewhere!!
