Feb Prayer Update

I write this in the middle of a busy Oxford University Inter-Collegiate Christian Union mission week ('This is Jesus'), so I'll try my best to keep it brief, but it may be hard as there's so much going on!

This week


There's lots to be praying and praising God for this week. As some of you will know, Cathy and I are being CU guests ('CUGs') at Pembroke College. The college has significantly fewer Christians than average - there's only one fresher who's really involved in CU and so we rely heavily on her to get us in to hall for meals etc (pray for her in this - she's great!).

As the CU is small, it can be easy to worry that we'll have nothing to do. So far though, God's been very gracious in giving us opportunities. The  most exciting of these was last night, at the college bar, where we spent a long time chatting to A, who had lots of questions about Christianity and what we believe, and was very gentle in the way that he discussed things. Please pray for him - for more opportunities, and that he might come along to some of the events.

This afternoon, J came to the talk on (essentially) 'why doesn't God make himself clearer?'. He listened well and this evening Cathy and I are going for dinner with him, and another guy (S) who we met in college earlier in the week. Please pray for opportunities to chat over dinner, and that they might come to the evening talk tonight - the first talk this week by our main speaker, Tim Keller.

More widely, please keep praying for the mission. As of this morning, 2 people have become Christians and 10 signed up for follow up - praise God for that, but please pray for more fruit. Pray for boldness for the Christian students and the CUGs, and please pray for Mike Cain and Tim Keller as they speak. Pray for lasting fruit as a result of this mission.

Next week


Next Sunday evening I'm leading and speaking at our evening service. It's the second of Woody Road's 'prayer and praise' sessions, so please pray that I'd set the tone well and that God would guide me in knowing what to speak on and having something useful to say.

Week 3


Then the following week Cathy and I are heading up to Newcastle University to be CUGs for their mission week. Prayers are much the same as above (this time Cathy's supervisor from here in Oxford, MJ Axelson and her father, Roger Simpson will be the speakers), but there's possibility that I'll be giving a couple of talks at dinner parties that some students will be having with their friends. Please pray for me as I prep for those, and as I speak.

The following week will be March, so I'll hopefully write another update then!

Thank you all again for your prayers.

CS Lewis on Friendship

Some great CS Lewis quotes from the chapter on friendship in his book, 'The Four Loves':

Friendship is - in a sense not at all derogatory to it - the least natural of loves; the least instinctive, organic, biological, gregarious and necessary. It has least commerce with our nerves; there is nothing throaty about it... Without Eros none of us would have been begotten and without Affection none of us would have been reared; but we can live and breed without friendship. The species, biologically considered, has no need of it.

Lovers are always talking to one another about their love; Friends hardly ever about their Friendship. Lovers are normall face to face, absorbed in each other; Friends, side by side, absorbed in some common interest.

In each of my friends there is something that only some other friends can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets.  

Friendship arises out of mere Companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest of even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). the typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, "What? You too? I thought I was the only one." 

...In this kind of love [Friendship]... Do you love me? means Do you see the same truth? - Or at least, "Do you care about the same truth?" The man who agrees with us that some question, little regarded by others, is of great importance, can be our Friend.

...In Friendship... we think we have chosen our peers. In reality, a few years' difference in the dates of our birth, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another, posting to different regiments, the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting - any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of the Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can truly say to every group of Christian friends "You have not chosen one another, but I have chosen you for one another."

Keller on Friendship

On Sunday Evenings I get together with some of the students and we occasionally think through a topic. This week, we're looking at friendship, and I've just finished listening to a very good sermon from Tim Keller, that I think is well worth a listen to. Here's the link:

http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/friendship

December Prayer Update

Hello all!

I'm coming to the end of a really busy spell, which provides much to give thanks for and much to pray for too.

This Sunday I'm preaching at our evening service on Daniel 12. I've had a very busy week, and am currently feeling a bit underprepared - please pray for effective and efficient working, for me to get a good grasp of the text and to know how to effectively communicate and apply it to the people here at Woody Road.

On Tuesday I'm meant to be giving an evangelistic talk to my South Central Ministry Training Course workshop group. I've not yet had any time to work on that, and it'll probably be a last minute, Monday evening thing. Please pray that despite that, I would be able to give a decent enough talk to enable useful feedback.

Today I had an interview for a job for next year, and I've been offered a different job already. We should hear back from today's job in the next couple of weeks, and then Cathy and I need to sit down, pray and think about what we want to do over the next few years. So this month is a big month for decision making. Please thank God that some opportunities have opened themselves up, and please pray that we'd have wisdom and clarity on what would be best for us to be doing next. We're very much looking forward to when we've made a decision and don't need to think about it anymore!

Praise God that our homegroup seems to be going really well. People really seem to be opening up to each other, and there's a really great dynamic there, I think. Please pray that as I continue to lead the group, I'd lead in such a way as to foster the development of relationships, and that those relationships would be founded on the gospel, where we seek to build each other up.

Finally, praise God that we're going to get a bit of time off over Christmas. I'll be leading the carol service here at Woody Road - please pray that I'd be warm, jargon-free and would commend Jesus to people well. We're hoping to head up to Hartlepool for a few days, and then head down to Somerset to spend some time with Cathy's family. Please pray that the time would be really relaxing and refreshing for us, and that we'd be encouraging to and encouraged by those we spend time with. Pray for gospel opportunities with those we'll see who don't yet know the Lord.

November prayer update

It's incredible to think that another month has already past. It feels like life is really flying past at the moment. Life is in many ways a real joy at the moment. Cathy and I are loving marriage, ministry is generally a real joy, and we feel we're growing leaps and bounds in knowledge of and love for God. So there's much to praise God for!

There are a few things in particular that you could be praying for at the moment:

• I'm feeling really encouraged about various aspects of ministry at the moment, so praise God for that. I'm loving leading the new homegroup that we set up, really enjoying the one-to-ones that I'm involved in and feel the student group is going really well. As you may have picked up from my post on preaching a couple of weeks ago, I feel that area of ministry is more of a struggle at the moment. I'm realising that perhaps it's not my strongest gift, and that I need to work hard (with God's strength) to get better at preaching. Please pray that I'd know how to develop, and that I would become a more effective communicator. To give you a more precise prayer, I'd love to feel that when I preach, it is me preaching - that it's "truth through personality". I currently feel that however passionate I feel about something, that doesn't come across when I'm preaching it - so please pray for that.
• Cathy and I have a passion to reach out to those who don't know Jesus with the gospel. We've been meeting up with a girl from South Korea who is either a very new Christian, or not yet a Christian, so please pray that we'd be helpful in that relationship (it's a very exciting story - do ask me about it sometime!). We'd love to have more opportunities - particularly through the international cafe, cafe 360, that we attend each week. Please pray for such opportunities, and for boldness when we're presented with them.
• There are a few things happening this month that I'd particularly appreciate prayers for. We're currently thinking through our options for next year, and this month will need to be the month of interviews and decisions. Please pray for wisdom in that and for God to open and close doors for us. This month I'm also preaching up at my old church in Hartlepool - I'd appreciate prayer for that too.

Daniel

Here's the sermon that I preached last Sunday on Daniel 5. Feel free to have a listen, and give me some useful feedback!

Steve Jobs

There are few people who have had as much influence on culture in the last couple of decades as Steve Jobs. Last night he died. Jobs was co-founder and, for a time, chief executive of the widely loved technology company, Apple. The significance of his death is clear to see, with Barack Obama leading the long line of illustrious tributes.


In 2005 Jobs made a commencement address at Stanford University which I'm sure we'll here a lot about in the next few days. In it he made three points, each of which are fascinating to ponder now that he's the 'wrong' side of death. I may post on the first two in the next couple of days, but here's part of what he said in his last point, on death:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

He has a point, doesn't he? The fact of death should colour our approach to life. It's reality should cause us to sit up and make life count. I don't know if Jobs' thoughts had changed by the time he died, but if not I think his approach to life and death may have fallen just short of one that is truly exciting. There's lots to be said in response to his approach on life and death, let me say just two things.


The Bible describes a humanity created in the image of it's creator, part of which means being creative. It kind of means having an 'inner voice' as Jobs said, thinking big, doing new and exciting things. Jobs' creativity is something that I think the God of the Bible applauds and enjoys, and would want to see in his people. His approach to life is far more Christian, I think, than most Christians. 


Be creative, explore and mine the possibilities of the world that God has created. Develop it's resources, seek to impact it for good. Don't be put into a box, crush creativity and stifle the desires and dreams that come, I think, from God. Where it's not sinful, go for it! (For more thoughts on this, read Julian Hardyman's excellent book, 'Maximum Life').


But the Bible offers something even better. It says live life to the max, fill the earth and subdue it, obey the creation mandate. But hope for something better.


Jobs  saw this life as all there was, and so felt the need to do all he could in it. Everything else was secondary. But for the Christian we can love life and dream big dreams, whilst at the back of our mind having a bigger dream. A dream of an even more fulfilling live the other side of death, in the New Creation with Jesus.


Jobs said that 'even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there.' I think he's got a too-small view of heaven. The apostle Paul said 'For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain'. If life, and death, is about Jesus Christ, then to die is gain.


Creativity is good and fun and part of what we're created for. But death need not be the motivation for that. We won't be cleared away.


If Jobs' worldview is correct, then where he is (or isn't) now makes his life fairly meaningless. He's gone. He may have pushed and influenced culture, but for him, that is all swept away, it is all gone. 


For the Christian, we have hope for beyond death, that gives real meaning to life now. It means we can do life well, but that won't end, and it won't all be a waste of time, because there's something beyond life.


I hope Job realised this before he died. If he didn't, then as he looked death in the eye, it would have seemed like a tragedy. But if he did, then in the end he made his life really count; his life wasn't completely pointless - it was in lots of ways great - and it was just the first step before something much greater.

Preaching

For any of you that get chance to preach, I wonder if you share this with me?

Sometimes preaching seems to go really well, whereas at other times it's not great, and it almost seems independent of how you think preparation has gone or how well you've got to grips with the passage.

Last Sunday I preached on Daniel 3. Through my preparation, I felt I'd understood what the writer was saying and the point he was trying to communicate. I felt I could see how to cross the bridge and to plant the passage in the world today, applying it to our lives. I thought I had come up with some relatively engaging illustrations, and that I'd managed to think of an introduction that might spark some thoughts.

And yet when I got up to preach it, and as I was preaching it, it seemed flat. It seemed like I didn't connect with my sermon, and that those who were listening weren't really carried along with it.

I know that whenever I preach, I need the Holy Spirit to work in me and through me. I know that I need to take my responsibility seriously to work hard at the passage. But I kind of felt I'd done that, and that I was trusting in the Spirit. So what was different?

The true answer is... I don't know! But, reflecting on the sermon, I wonder if perhaps it wasn't me preaching. By that, I mean that perhaps I was trying to say the right things and preach a 'sound' sermon, but I wonder if Scott Thomson was lost in the process? I wonder if I was trying to be someone else, and in doing so I lost the confidence to really say what I thought God was saying, and to really mean the words that I had prepared to speak. Perhaps it didn't feel genuine - it felt more like a performance than me lovingly and passionately sharing with people what I felt God wanted us to hear.

In the end I don't really know, to be honest, what was different - but this was my experience. Do you sometimes experience the same thing? Got any advice?

Sept/Oct Prayer Update

It feels like a long time since I last wrote one of these, and lots has happened in the interim! A wedding, honeymoon, Oak Hall trip, family service, Formation conference and evangelistic weekend are just some of the things that I've been up to. I couldn't possibly tell you about them all now, but if you're interested to find out about any of them, feel free to drop me an email or give me a ring!

I know that people receive lots of prayer letters, so I'm going to try to keep this relatively brief! Here goes:

Restarting Activities

The students coming back mark the start of lots of my work. Please pray for the weekly student gathering which I lead. I've spent a bit of time planning the activities for the year, so please pray that they'd be useful for the students and help them to fix their eyes more clearly on Christ.

Please also pray for one-to-ones. From the one-to-ones that I was doing last year, only one will continue into this year, so please pray that I'd know if/who I should do one-to-ones (with) this year. I'm not sure if

I'm allowed to mention prayer requests for Cathy here, but there's noone to stop me so I'll do it anyway! Muahaha. Cathy has recently started Relay and is already learning loads – please thank God for that, and pray that she would really get stuck in to the life of the CU here and that, in his grace, God would use her efforts for his glory. Please also make our financial situation a matter for prayer. So far God has graciously provided a little over £2000 of the £7000 that Cathy needs to raise for this year. Thankfully we've got my income to support us this year too, but things would be much less tight for us if we could raise a little bit more.

Cafe 360

Cathy and I are trying to do as much together as we can this year. Being involved in different ministry (with Cathy doing Relay and me doing the apprenticeship at Woody Road) could lead to us not having loads of time together, so please pray that that doesn't end up being the case.

One thing that we're hoping to do together is Cafe 360 (for me, this will be instead of being involved with the youth group, YL). Cafe 360 is an outreach to international students, ran by the Christian Union at the University (OICCU). We're going to aim to get alongside a small group of students, so that we can have them round for meals and invest in our friendship with them, and hopefully point them to Jesus. We've not been along to this yet (it will start up when term starts), but please pray that we'd quickly find some people to befriend, and that the Lord would use our friendship to win hearts to himself.

Future

It's seems really early to be saying this, as I've only just started the second year of my apprenticeship, but at the moment Cathy and I have the exciting and slightly terrifying task of thinking through what we're going to be doing from next year. Deadlines for jobs etc are fairly soon, and we're exploring a couple of options. Please pray for wisdom in this, that we'll know both where our giftings would be best used, as well as where we'd receive the most helpful training and development for the future.

July/August Prayer Update

Life has stepped to a whole new level of busyness for me at the moment. It's all nice things, but cumulatively has made me a little stressed - that's partly why I didn't write a prayer update last month. I'm aware, however, that with everything going on in the next few months I am more in need than ever (if you can be more in need than totally) of God's gracious provision and work over this time, so I'd really value your prayers.

Wedding

On July 23rd this month Cathy and I are getting married in Hartlepool. We're really grateful to God for everything coming together, but nevertheless there's still lots more to be done. Please pray that all that needs organised would be organised, and that it would all run smoothly on the day.

The service is going to have a simple gospel message. Lots of our non-Christian friends and family are going to be there so please really pray that God would work powerfully! The gospel is the power of God for salvation!

As well as everything to do with the wedding, please pray that we would start marriage well. Please pray that we would, over our lives, be a powerful demonstration of the relationship between Christ and the church, by God's grace. Please pray that we'd put the interests of each other above our own, and please pray that we would have a God-centred marriage in all aspects, but particularly that we would learn from the beginning to be a spiritual support to one-another and that we'd establish vital times spent together in the Word and prayer.

Preaching

I'm preaching on Sunday evening on Ephesians 5:15-21. Please pray that as I work on that over the next couple of days I'd understand what God is saying and be able to preach a faithful, clear and well-applied sermon. I'm not in great health at the moment and haven't got much of a voice (which I had begun to lose when I preached last Sunday), so please pray that I'd get that back before Sunday! I'm also in Belfast for a day and a half this week for Cathy's graduation, so please pray that I get it all done in time!

Switzerland

After the wedding, Cathy and I are going on honeymoon for a couple of weeks. We get back from that on the 7th of August, then on the 10th August we're going off to Switzerland. We're going to Switzerland as part of an Oak Hall trip, and I'm going to be doing the talks each evening. What that means is that before the wedding I need to prepare 7 talks. By this Sunday I'll have done 7 talks in Ephesians, however they were each around 35-40 minutes and they'll need to be around 20-25 minutes. That means that before the wedding I'll have to edit these 7 talks for Switzerland as we won't have time after honeymoon and I find it fairly difficult to remove material... I always end up adding more! I also won't be able to start on them until July 12th.

With all that in mind, this feels like a fair amount of pressure... with a stag do and then other wedding prep in the middle and leaving for Hartlepool on July 20th. I need to work quickly with them but want them to be helpful, encouraging and challenging to those on the holiday - please pray to that end!

End of August

The Sunday after getting back from Switzerland I'm leading and speaking at my first family service at Woody Road, so please pray for that. Cathy will also be starting Relay - going away for two weeks: one week for 'Relay 1' (a training course for her), and one week for Forum (a large conference for students from across the country involved in CU leadership). Please pray for us both in these.