ACTS 12:8-12
8 Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Now put on your coat and follow me,” the angel ordered.
9 So Peter left the cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He didn’t realize it was actually happening. 10 They passed the first and second guard posts and came to the iron gate leading to the city, and this opened for them all by itself. So they passed through and started walking down the street, and then the angel suddenly left him.
11 Peter finally came to his senses. “It’s really true!” he said. “The Lord has sent his angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jewish leaders[a] had planned to do to me!”
12 When he realized this, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer.
NEW LIVING TRANSLATION
In our society today, it seems that the big guys are always more popular and more successful than the small guys – and this refers to almost everything.
The large supermarket chains have taken away all the business from the small corner stores, the large restaurant franchises have won the patrons from the smaller unique little eateries and the destination ‘Mega Churches’ are drawing the folk away from the small local community churches.
Surely this is not how it was intended to be.
Yes, we are living in a very visual, highly stimulated society and the Mega Church has the funds to offer the most impressive worship, sound, visuals and preaching.
But is church meant to be about impressing us. Surely it is meant to be so much more than this.
Our God is a relational God. He wants to have an intimate and personal relationship with us. Church should be a space where we are encouraged and equipped to develop this relationship. We should be doing ‘relationship with God’, not just doing ‘church’.
So, what is Christianity really? Is it going to church, or is it living our whole lives for Christ?
If the Lords greatest desire is for us to be in a real relationship with Him, how does this look?
What is a real relationship?
Big questions but with simple answers.
A real relationship is relaxed and easy. It’s not about going to a well-orchestrated church service, followed by mid-week meetings and signing up to every other course that we can.
A real relationship is setting aside time to be quite before the Lord.
Time to talk to him and to listen as He talks back to us, may it be through the word or in the quiet of our hearts. It’s not that church is wrong or midweek meetings are wrong or Christian courses are wrong. Not at all. They all have their place. They certainly can point people to God but they also keep people busy busy busy! Too busy doing stuff rather than just being in relationship.
Busy is not sustainable. It burns people out.
Busy comes at a great cost if it is not having the right impact in their lives.
What we really need is to have a REAL relationship with the Lord.
You cannot hide in real.
Real is open. Real is exposed. Real is heart and soul.
I have been so inspired by the book ‘Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire’, by Jim Cymbala. I wrote a bit about it in my earlier post but there is still so much more that I feel compelled to say.
For about ten years now, the Lord has had me on a journey of setting aside all the man-made expectations and laws and ceremonies of Christianity and He has been taking me back to the very basics, which all comes down to relationship.
God is a relational. He wants me, He wants us, to have an intimate and personal relationship with Him. Church should be a space where we are encouraged and equipped to develop this relationship.
And then we need to take this a step further. Our Christianity should be like a cross. The upright stave indicates the vertical relationship that we have with Christ (this is the well planted, prominent plank) and the horizontal stave indicates our relationship with others.
The two cannot be separated otherwise it would not be a cross.
Most people who do not yet know the Lord, live out their days seeking fulfillment and meaning in the things that surround them … but the deepest need of the human soul is to be connected to the One who made us.
And our greatest mission as a Christian, should be to share this truth with others. With a lost world who has completely lost sight of what they are even seeking.
You just need to talk to someone for two minutes before discovering that their life is not perfect and they need prayer in one area of another.
How can we impact the lives of those around us? How can we truly make a difference in this world?
I recently had an opportunity to pray with someone who was facing the traumatic possibility of having aggressive cancer. He was to have his 5th scan the following day, which would potential reveal his fate. So, I asked if he would be happy for me to pray with him.
I know that God is a miracle God. I know that there is power in the name of Jesus. So, I went to pray for Him believing in my heart that God could heal him if it was His will to do so. I appealed for God to heal him, because God is the only one who can. And what a testimony it would be for him to share.
The prayer session was nothing dramatic or out of the ordinary. In fact, it was quite ordinary – like a normal conversation. But God was there and afterwards we chatted about God and faith and Church. And do you know what the first thing was that they said to me. They said ‘I know we don’t go to Church, but we believe in our hearts.’
And that really struck me. Does Church = Belief? Is that how our faith should be defined?
So I said to them, ‘Please do not beat yourselves up about not going to church. What we are doing here, is doing church. We are praying to the Lord. We are talking about the Lord and we are encouraging one another in the Lord. We were being real with each other and with God!’
Isn’t that what it is all about?
That it how the early Christians did Church. They met in each other’s homes. They ate together and fellowship’ed together and they prayed together.
Isn’t that so much more real than going to church and listening to a message and then leaving again.
Prayer defines our relationship with the Lord.
Through prayer the Lord shows us how to live out our lives.
How to treat others.
How to be a help to others.
How to make the right choices.
How to live for Him.
It all happens through prayer.
So, if that is the case, shouldn’t our church be centered around prayer. Not just well orated prayer, but real, heartfelt, communal prayer.
This is what I have been compelled to do! And I pray that you are compelled to do it to!
‘Place for Prayer’
Let’s join forces and start changing the world through prayer – one small group at a time.
I encourage you to host a weekly prayer meeting in your house.
Invite people in your family, your community, people who are in your life. Don’t focus on inviting other Christians who are already going to a church, unless you know that they are looking for something more.
Don’t make it a big thing. Keep it simple. You can even go so far as to ask everyone to bring their own mug so that you can enjoy a tea or coffee together without having to wash up a load of dishes afterwards.
Take turns to have it at each others houses / apartments / or even in the park.
If you want to name it, name it ‘Place for Prayer’ And each week you go to a different ‘Place for prayer’
Believe me, it’s an incredible blessing to open your home as a ‘Place for Prayer’ – to bring the presence of the Lord right into your very home.
The format could be Worship, Prayer and Share and Fellowship. But there must be no rules. Let God be the leader. No one must bring a message. Just let go and let God!
The heart of it should be ‘Real Relationships in a Real World with a Real God.’
Let’s do church differently.
Let’s do life differently.
Let’s join together in our hunger to have a real living relationship with a real living God and with those who live around us.
ROMANS 12:1-2
Place Your Life Before God
12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
THE MESSAGE