Vicar Writes & Info
Our Lord’s Presence
We were blessed by the visit of the team from Holy Trinity Brompton this week. It was led by Revd Nicky Gumbel and apart from renewing our vision for evangelism, there were also some worship events. A special thanks to the few who helped with the Conference and I am sure your service will not go unnoticed by the Lord. As for those who participated, I hope you will find the opportunity to share your blessings and observations with others who could not make it.
It is always a special experience to be able to journey with an unbeliever in his or her search for spiritual life and truth. Many of us have had that opportunity these past years through Alpha. Some have stayed on to be a part of the church (or elsewhere) while others have not responded in the same way. All the same, friendships have been cultivated and we should seek to continue to build on them. Each person is precious in the sight of the Lord and to be treasured.
Do join me in yearning for and praying that the Lord’s presence will be experienced in our midst in increasing measure. The psalmist often speaks of a longing for the Lord which is overwhelming e.g. Psalm 42:1-2, 63:1, 27:4, 119:148). It is a reminder that the Christian faith is more than just head knowledge or heart (character, attitude, moral lifestyle). It is also about an on-going experience of the power and presence of the Spirit. These things are experienced through faith which expresses itself in our desire and praying.
Jonathan Edwards, the 18th century American leader reminded us in his book, The Religious Affections, that “one of the chief method of the devil was to propagate and establish a persuasion that all affections and sensible emotions of the mind, in things of religion, are nothing at all to be regarded, but are rather to be avoided and carefully guarded against…This he knows is the way to bring all religion to a mere lifeless formality, and effectually shut out the power of godliness, and everything which is spiritual and to have all true Christianity turned out of doors….As there is no true religion where there is nothing else but affection, so there is no true religion where there is no religious affection. ”if the great things of religion are rightly understood, they will affect the heart…”
The Scripture is inundated with terms like love, fear, desire, joy, zeal etc to describe our responses to God. We cannot love or obey God without passion and emotions. Dare we ask for a fresh outpouring of His Spirit on our Church?
