Many of these were focused on the topic - What is the Kingdom - but several were more varied (and great!). Since we couldn’t get through them all, we plan to continue the Q&A next Sunday too (maybe with a wider ‘panel’ of people to answer them).

If you want to submit us a question during the week, you can do so by commenting on this post or by emailing me at jeremy[at]kingschurch.co.uk. We’ll print out and cover as many questions as we can on Sunday… The questions can be anything to do with faith, belief, Christianity, the Kingdom etc.

Thanks and get submitting those questions!

Jeremy

James 5:16-18 (The Message)  The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.

Just recently I have been watching a series of programmes called “The River”. In it Gryff Rhys Jones explores several rivers and canals in England. Industries and towns have emerged along their banks, bringing life and prosperity to communities. The river made a difference to the area; it changed the landscape and life of the land. They are like the veins of England. Water is essential for life to exist.

In Acts 16 Paul and his companions travelled to Philippi and went outside the city gate to a river expecting to find a place of prayer they sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One woman called Lydia, who was a dealer in purple cloth, listened and the Lord opened her heart and she responded to the message of Gospel. She and her whole household were baptised in that river there and then. That river was significant to that community from then on.

Prayer is very much like a river. It brings life to lives and situations, as well as the person who is doing the praying. As water is essential for life so is prayer for the believer. Prayer does not have to be long to be effective, it just has to be sincere and with faith. Listen to the prayer of a child, it’s direct and simple. We can pray anywhere, anytime for anything, no matter how small or large the need. God can do immeasurably more than we ask, think or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). Get ready for God to surprise you!

1Samuel 30:3-19 When David and his men came home to Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and children taken captive by the Amalekites. David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep…David inquired of the LORD, who said “Pursue them, you will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue. David and his men pursued the raiders. They found an Egyptian in a field and brought him to David. They gave him water to drink and food to eat. He ate and was revived, for he had not eaten any food or drunk any water for three days and three nights. It was an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite whose master had abandoned him after the raid on Ziklag. He led David to the raiders, David fought them and recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back.

Our last Sunday meeting was all about doing good to people whatever their background or circumstance. This is a story about being mindful of others’ needs even when sorely pressed and on a great mission. Just before David came into his kingship he encountered an enormous setback. His men were so distressed about their captured families that they wanted to stone him. David didn’t panic or do anything rash, he sought God. With the word to go they left at such speed that a third of the men became too exhausted to stay with them.

However, when they met someone whom they could have considered themselves too busy to help (and Egyptians were the enemy!) they showed him kindness. It turned out that he was in God’s plan for recovering everything that had been taken from them.

In all our efforts to achieve things for God let’s remember to be mindful of others’ needs, constantly willing to serve and to be ‘divinely distracted’. Just as the Egyptian saved them days of searching, our kindness can reveal a solution we’d never have found otherwise.

Mark 9:14-29 “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (v.24) 

Jesus wants us to have a living breathing connection with Him; it’s what He made us for, what He died for us for and what He rose again for. Being creatures of comfort and of habit, it is so easy to fall into a trap of routine, method and structure in our relationship with God, that actually ends up being the comfort and idol instead of God Himself.

It is easy for us to think about faith as something that we have to strive to achieve, as we are pressured into a ‘believe, believe, believe’ mentality, which should come at all costs. Jesus, in the story referred to above, was quick to challenge the well worn paths of this type of  lifestyle, showing instead that all He wants is a spark, a flicker, a ‘seed’ of authentic and heart-felt trust, hope or belief.

“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” was the cry from the father in the story, which is all God needs and is looking for in us.

Let me encourage you this week to have a go at changing some of your routines… Go to new places, spend time with different people, listen to different music, watch a different programme….let’s see what happens if we break some of our life cycles – whether good or bad! He has created us to be pioneers, adventurers and producers, so let’s enjoy the benefits that ‘new’ can often bring. See if that flicker is alighted in new experiences and pursuits, and watch what God will do. Go and enjoy!

On Good Friday in 2007 I went for a ride on my new motorcycle. It was a pleasant day and after an hour or so I returned home feeling nicely satisfied. As I turned into the end of my street, suddenly for no apparent reason the front wheel completely lost its grip and I, together with the 600cc bike, clattered down onto the road and slid to a halt in front of quite a few alarmed neighbours. It turned out there was a virtually invisible patch of dried mud on the road which had been dropped by a lorry. Fortunately I was wearing leathers and a full face helmet, but even so I was physically and emotionally shaken and my bike needed some expensive repairs.

Nobody likes being shaken – it is, by definition, a jarring experience. Something happens which goes against the flow, disrupts our normal patterns of life. It prevents us from going on in the same way as before. But shaking is often a tool God uses to refine us. As the verses above show, his aim is to remove what cannot withstand the shaking, leaving only what belongs to his kingdom. For many at present, this is a time of shaking. Some are finding themselves challenged on long held views. Others are finding that the experience of God they had up to now is no longer enough to sustain them in their walk with God. The key thing is, when we feel shaken what is our response? Do we turn away and occupy ourselves with things other than God’s kingdom, or do we allow the shaking and the discomfort drive us closer to the God who has the answers, even if we don’t understand yet?

If you feel shaken, remember that kingdom life will be the outcome. And rather than running away, keep your feet on the unshakeable rock by trusting the One doing the shaking.

Romans 5:5  God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Do you sometimes find it hard to love? Perhaps you were harmed, maybe your history and psychological make-up cause you to react in less than loving ways, even to people who are doing their best for you. It’s not always that we do something unloving. The opposite of love is not so much hate, but rather indifference. Love is a conscious decision to do someone good – not just to avoid doing bad to them.

When we read a Scripture like the one above in 1John, which tells us that someone who does not love does not know God, we may think, “Where does that leave me? I seem to find it so difficult!” Thankfully, help is near. God does not expect us to be able to do this alone. Not only has he wiped away all of our unloving actions and inaction, he has poured himself into the equation. This God of love – the God who IS love – fills the hearts of those who truly surrender to him.

You have the ability to be superhuman in your capacity for love! Christians through the ages have discovered a supernatural ability to love even their enemies – and you can too! In reality, this ability to go beyond what is ‘normal’ for humanity is really just to become truly human, made in the image of the God who is love. You are to be a mini-copy of love Himself – made so by the Holy Spirit in you. So, before you next go into a situation where you know you need to express his love rather than irritability or coldness, ask the Spirit within you to breathe his love into everything you do and say. Trust him to do what you can’t – and you could be surprised at the results!

Daniel 2:21  He changes times and seasons.
 

It is reassuring to know that God is the one who changes times and seasons. There have been periods in my Christian life when I did not like what was happening, when things felt uncomfortable or worrying, when I felt stretched and uncertain. Sometimes these periods seemed set to last a long time. But I came to realise that God works in seasons. He does not leave us in the same situation for ever.

I remember a preacher taking a fragment of Scripture out of context and using it to bring a useful message. He said, “And it came to pass…” We expected him to continue and tell us what came to pass (i.e. what happened), but instead his point was that any circumstance or challenge does not come to stay, it comes to pass (i.e. to pass away, to move past) – it will change as God changes the season once more.

If life is tough right now, remember that God changes times and seasons and that all of these things come to pass. There will be a time when you can look back on these current challenges and they will be in the past, because the season has changed. In the mean time, trust the One who knows you completely, who understands what you can handle, and who plans just the right time to move you out of this present season and on to the next.

“What’s this?” a good evangelical might ask. “Law bringing freedom? Surely the Bible teaches that Law condemns and binds people rather than setting them free?” True enough. But James has something else in view here. Tracing back through his letter we see that this “perfect law that sets you free” is actually “the message God has planted in your hearts” and which is “strong enough to save your souls”. It is the message of the gospel, the good news about God’s great love for humanity, and how he chose to save them from sin and death. It is recorded for us in the Scriptures and made alive to us by the action of the Holy Spirit.

This “law” surely does set us free. After we have accepted this message we are free to put into practice the “Royal Command found in the Scriptures: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” (v.8) We can now love people without an agenda, without requiring anything in return – showing the same kind of love which God shows us through the gospel. We have the ability to do it, through the freeing work of God’s message in our hearts.

Now, whatever we do or say to other people is measured according to whether it shows God’s love for them. As his children we are to reflect the nature of our Father. James tells us that one day we will be judged according to how we acted out the gospel. Thankfully, this is not a judgement which determines whether we are to receive eternal life or not. A person with the Message really planted in their heart has already passed through that judgement with a positive outcome! Rather this judgement is about reward and bringing honour to Jesus by what we have done in his name.

Let’s be free from agendas this week and make it our aim to love people, whatever their attitude to us. Every good thing we do is written down and will come to light on the day we stand before Jesus. Let’s give him lots to be joyful about on that day!

Psalm 117  Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD.

Psalm 145:9  The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.

Romans 10:13  “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

God is the God of ‘ALL’, and ‘EVERYONE’. Praise the Lord ‘ALL’ you nations…. The Lord has compassion on ALL he has made…EVERYONE who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, etc. There is not the thinnest hair on the head of the least person, in the remotest/unknown part of the world, in the most unfamiliar culture that is not known and numbered by the Lord!

Psalm 117 says it beautifully, because in the midst of a time of Israel’s struggle to find a place, and subdue the surrounding hostile nations, God speaks clearly how he loves all his creation, not just them.

But the truth of God’s love, greatness, holiness and requirements has been misrepresented or completely ignored by religiosity, falsehood, and puffed up philosophies. From the very outset of creation, Satan deceived Eve into thinking she couldn’t trust God’s word and good intentions toward her, and it was better to disregard and disobey God. The fallout from this has infected mankind’s thinking with saddening ferocity.

For me Mission is about undoing this process, by proclaiming with words and actions the love of God through Christ, being guided and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. Worship also helps - it undoes the falsehood against God’s character and faithfulness that can get into our minds and is everywhere around us, and so amongst other ways, worship is the fuel of mission.

As we consider the importance of mission, let us remember just how awesome our God is, how much he loves his creation to die for and carry each person’s sin, and his commitment to work through us to reach and save the lost.