Today (2nd December 2011) is the next instalment of our “First Friday Fast” at Grace Church.
It’s one day a month we encourage all the people of Grace Church to set aside, to devote time to fasting and praying for our church and the advance of the gospel in our community and city.
To encourage us in the privilege of prayer today, I want to share with you a couple of short quotes and one-liners I read from E.M Bounds (1835-1913), a methodist minister from the southern USA, who wrote 9 books on the subject of prayer. May they help us see why prayer is so important to us as a local church.
“The power of the Church truly to bless rests on intercession—asking and receiving heavenly gifts to carry to men.”
“Prayer is of transcendent importance. Prayer is the mightiest agent to advance God’s work. Praying hearts and hands only can do God’s work. Prayer succeeds when all else fails.”
“Prayer is our most formidable weapon, the thing which makes all else we do efficient.”
Here’s a few prayer points to help us guide our praying.
GENERAL PRAYER POINTS:
Here’s some more focused points for this month:
It was great to be together on Sunday morning, to lift up our voices in praise of our great God, who’s grace has saved us!
Colin Elliott led us in singing praises to God, and rejoicing in the truth of the gospel.
We sang the following songs together:
This week we had the privilege of being joined by Stephen Phillips, our good friend and the pastor of Esglesia Evangelicade Vilassar de Mar (Evangelical Church of Vilassar de Mar), a church just north of Barcelona, Spain, which we have had the privilege of building links and friendship with over the last few years. (You can read more about Steve and the church here and here.)
You can listen to or download Steve’s sermon, entitled “Proverbs and Compassion” from here, or via our iTunes podcast feed.
Find out how you can start to apply this sermon through “Help the Homeless” or “East Bristol Foodbank Collection”
It was great to be together on Sunday morning, to lift up our voices in praise of our great God, who’s grace has saved us!
Jadie Stiven led us in singing praises to God, and rejoicing in the truth of the gospel. We also shared Communion together, allowing us time to reflect on the amazing grace of God to us!
We sang the following songs together:
Sunday’s sermon was the fifth part in our “Bookends of the Christian Life” series, inspired by the book of the same title by Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington. It was preached by Nathan Smith and was entitled: “The Holy Spirit, Sanctification & Me.” You can listen to or download the audio file from here, or via our iTunes podcast feed.
Here’s the quotes from the message:
William Plummer:
“Regeneration is an act of God’s Spirit. Sanctification is a work of God’s Spirit, consequent upon that act. In regeneration we become ‘new born babes’; in sanctification we attain the stature of full-grown men in Christ Jesus.”
John Owen:
“Let us consider what regard we ought to have to our own duty and to the grace of God. Some would separate these things as inconsistent. If holiness be our duty, they would say, there is no room for grace; and if it be the result of grace there is no place for duty. But our duty and God’s grace are nowhere opposed in the matter of sanctification; for the one absolutely supposes the other. We cannot perform our duty without the grace of God; nor does God give his grace for any other purpose than that we may perform our duty.”
Jerry Bridges:
“There is no question that we are responsible to pursue holiness with all the intensity that the word pursue implies. Every moral imperative in the Bible addresses itself to our responsibility to discipline ourselves unto godliness. We are not just to turn it all over to the Lord and let Him live His life through us. Rather, we are to love one another; we are to put to death the misdeeds of the body; we are to put off the old man and put on the new man. If we are to make progress in the pursuit of holiness, we must assume our responsibility to discipline or train ourselves. But we are to do all this in total dependence on the Holy Spirit to work in us and strengthen us with the strength that is in Christ.”
Thomas Chalmers, “The Explusive Power of a New Affection”
“The best way to disengage an impure desire is to engage a pure one; the best way to expel the love of what is evil is to embrace the love of what is good instead. To be specific, we must replace the object of our sinful affection with an infinitely more worthy one — G od himself. In this way we do not move from a full heart into a vacuum. Instead, we move from a full heart to a heart bursting with fullness. And the explusive power of a new affection weakens and even destroys the power of sin in our hearts.”
Tomorrow (4th October 2011) is the next instalment of our “First Friday Fast” at Grace Church.
It’s one day a month we encourage all the people of Grace Church to set aside, to devote time to fasting and praying for our church and the advance of the gospel in our community and city.
To encourage us all in the importance, necessity and effectiveness of prayer, I thought I’d paste a recent entry in Charles Spurgeon’s “Morning & Evening” that affected me as I read it this week.
Charles Spurgeon, Morning & Evening, 3rd November, evening reading:
“Prayer is the never-failing resort of the Christian in any case, in every plight. When you cannot use your sword you may take to the weapon of all-prayer. Your powder may be damp, your bow-string may be relaxed, but the weapon of all-prayer need never be out of order. Leviathan laughs at the javelin, but he trembles at prayer. Sword and spear need furbishing, but prayer never rusts, and when we think it most blunt it cuts the best. Prayer is an open door which none can shut. Devils may surround you on all sides, but the way upward is always open, and as long as that road is unobstructed, you will not fall into the enemy’s hand. We can never be taken by blockade, escalade, mine, or storm, so long as heavenly succours can come down to us by Jacob’s ladder to relieve us in the time of our necessities. Prayer is never out of season: in summer and in winter its merchandize is precious. Prayer gains audience with heaven in the dead of night, in the midst of business, in the heat of noonday, in the shades of evening. In every condition, whether of poverty, or sickness, or obscurity, or slander, or doubt, your covenant God will welcome your prayer and answer it from His holy place. Nor is prayer ever futile. True prayer is evermore true power. You may not always get what you ask, but you shall always have your real wants supplied. When God does not answer His children according to the letter, He does so according to the spirit. If thou askest for coarse meal, wilt thou be angered because He gives thee the finest flour? If thou seekest bodily health, shouldst thou complain if instead thereof He makes thy sickness turn to the healing of spiritual maladies? Is it not better to have the cross sanctified than removed? This evening, my soul, forget not to offer thy petition and request, for the Lord is ready to grant thee thy desires.”
Here’s a few prayer points to help us guide our praying.
PRAYER POINTS:
We also want to pray for the upcoming evangelistic outreaches the church is involved with:
This Saturday just gone past (15th October), young adults from across South Wales and the West of England gathered at the Christchurch Centre, in Newport for a day devoted to worshipping Jesus and freshly considering what’s important for their lives.
A huge thanks to some of our worship team (Jadie Stiven, Andy Maybury, Artur Lieder, Tim & Kate Hacker, Tom Haigh) who also came across and did a stellar job leading us in worship during one of the sessions! (You can see them in action in this photo to the right!)
The simple aim for the Priority Conference was to consider the stuff that really matters; the gospel, the church, and the mission and reflect what difference these should make in our lives. Nathan Smith from Grace Church Bristol, Gareth Lloyd from Sovereign Grace Church, Merthyr and Lewis Roderick from Christchurch Newport showed us what these priorities look like for a Christian.
Session 1 – The Priority of The Gospel (Ephesians 4:1) – by Gareth Lloyd
Gareth Lloyd takes us to Ephesians 4 and shows us the only true response to the gospel of Grace is grace saturated living. But so often our instinct is anything, everything but.
Session 2 – The Priority of The Church (Ephesians 2:11-19) – by Lewis Roderick
In a culture the exalts the individual the triune God calls the christian to community, Lewis Roderick takes us to Ephesians 2 and shows us the priority of the church.
Session 3 – The Priority of Mission (Acts 1:1-14) – by Nathan Smith
Nathan Smith gives us an overview of the book of Acts and shows us the heart, extent and power of the mission Christ calls us to.
Sunday’s sermon was the second part in our “Bookends of the Christian Life” series, inspired by the book of the same title by Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington.
It was preached by Peter Bowley and was entitled: “Gospel Enemy#1 – Self-Righteousness“ from Luke 18:9-14. You can listen to or download the audio file from here, or via our iTunes podcast feed.
During the message Peter shared some applications questions, taken from the Bridges/Bevington book, to help us identify self-righteousness in our own lives:
1. Do you tend to live by dos and don’ts?
2. Is it difficult for you to respect those whose standards aren’t as high as yours?
3. Do you assume that practicing the spiritual disciplines should result in God’s blessing?
4. Do you feel better than most people?
5. Has it been a long time since you identified a sin and repented of it?
6. Do you resent it when others point out your ‘spiritual blind spots’?
7. Do you readily recognise the sins of others but not your own?
8. Do you have the sense that God owes you a good life?
9. Do you get angry when difficulties and suffering come into your life?
10. Do you seldom think of the cross?
Registered Charity: Grace Trust (Bristol)
Charity Number: 1094803
All Content © 2011
