Change and Courage, Prayer and Sanctification

Featured Study Material

A Praying Life by Paul Miller

 

Paul Miller on his book, A Praying Life.

The book opens with a chapter on our frustrations with prayer and another that describes where we’re headed. Part 1, “Learning to Pray Like a Child,” examines the basics of relating to our heavenly Father like a little child. In part 2, “Learning to Trust Again,” we go deeper and look at some adult habits that can dull our hearts to prayer and keep us from being drawn into the life of the Father. Part 3, “Learning to Ask Your Father,” examines barriers to asking that come from the spirit of our age. Part 4, “Living in Your Father’s Story,” is where it all comes together. When we have a praying life, we become aware of and enter into the story God is weaving in our lives. The final part, “Praying in Real Life,” introduces some simple tools and ways of praying that have helped many people learn to pray. As we look at these tools, we’ll continue to learn about our hearts and how God weaves stories in our lives. 

Excerpt from Prologue by David Powlinson, CCEF Professor 

Talking life over with this on-scene God is the sort of conversation worth calling “prayer.” You find several hundred examples in the Bible, and Paul Miller has listened. The Bible’s prayers traffic in both daily life and the real God. They bring real troubles and need to a God who really listens. They never seem like a production. They sound and feel real because they are real.
Paul offers you a vision for how a working fellowship with God thinks, talks, feels, and acts. He takes you inside his family life and his prayer life. By seeing how life and God weave together, you’ll discover the joy of living as God’s child, experiencing the adventure of walking closely with your Father and good Shepherd. 

Consider how you might champion individuals in your group to live with courage and expectancy in light of the promise that He is continuing to mold us into the likeness of His Son.  Romans 8:9-39, 2 Corinthians 3:16-18.  A mystery common to prayer and sanctification is that each invites us into a relational activity with the One who is all powerful, all present and has ordained our days, yet is somehow impacted by our participation.  Moreover we are changed by our participation.  Often the question posed is, "How will we participate?"  Will we partner with the flesh or with the Spirit?

As many people are 'picture thinkers', the words of Sue Monk Kidd can be quite helpful when trying to relay the value of partnering with the Spirit in the process of sanctification.

When the moment to spin the chrysalis arrives, some actually resist and cling to their larval life. They put off entering the cocoon until the following spring, postponing their transformation a year or more. This state of clinging has a name; it's called the "diapause"....I smiled...all God's creatures have trouble letting go..."Clinging" comes from "clingan" meaning "shrink"...clinging creates a shrinking within the soul, a shrinking of possibility and growth. 

The opposite of courage isn't only fear but security...where there's no risk, there's no becoming; and where there's no becoming, there's no real life...the ones who touch the edges of life - are people who risk, who let go. Courage comes from the French word, coeur, meaning "heart". In order to travel from clinging to letting go, we have to "take heart."

Psalm 31: 21-24
Praise be to the LORD, for he showed me the wonders of his love when I was in a city under siege. In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from your sight!”  Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help. Love the LORD, all his faithful people! The LORD preserves those who are true to him, but the proud he pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.

The Gallery

As created beings we are His artwork. It's a fact.
Have you ever thought of Redeemer, really the entire planet as a gallery? Some pieces are pretty marred, some are more abstract, but indeed are pieces of art.

In this vein, I encourage you to take time to appreciate the other pieces around you, not overlooking yourself. This is not a narcissistic exercise, but instead one that requires you to partner with the Spirit. Who does God say He is and who does He say you are? These questions must be tightly woven into the process.

Consider fostering an opportunity in your group in which people can talk about their giftedness; what do they enjoy expressing or would they like to begin exercising? God has uniquely created us, use this opportunity to get the group talking about what mission they may be called to individually and how to partner with others in the group on Kingdom mission.

Quick story: A friend, who is an officer, mentioned one time his heart for shepherding people. His chosen profession had caused us as a church to request his services in another area entirely for many years. There was a void, he moved to fill it and filled it well. Recently, it has been great to see him freed up and encouraged to serve in another area in which he is gifted and called, using this gift speaks to his heart and contributes to our Body glorifying God. He continues to work in the first area on occasion, but his joy is really evident when he is doing the latter. Sometimes serving looks like laying down your life, sometimes it's "you mean I get to do this"!

Multiplication

I'd like to highlight 2 models for group multiplication that are healthy and have happened in Redeemer successfully. Each requires a potential leader to be raised up alongside the current HFG or Prayer group leader. The new leader would be mentored into that role and lead on occasion the current group. At the determined time the group would intentionally multiply.
Example 1) New leader and current leader along with half of the group each begin to meet separately. The multiplication is one of division in order to allow for growth. It is often wise for the group to cap its number of participants for a time to allow time for depth of relationship and study to occur.
Example 2) The new leader is sent out by the established group to begin a new HFG. This multiplication is one of birthing. The "sent out" leader may continue to meet with the original group for a time, until the new group is more established. The sending group also can act as a prayer support and combine with the new group occasionally for larger gatherings.

Consider the number of individuals who are actively involved in your HFG or Prayer Group. I encourage you to foster an environment in which people can be transparent with one another, encourage Gospel thinking and use their gifts to expand the Kingdom. As the group grows in number (to perhaps 12-14), capping the group for a season can be wise to encourage depth of relationship. After a season, multiplication of the group is healthy. It is what we are to be about by mandate ( Gen 1:28, Matt 28:19), but also what is best for us. Capping a group's size and keeping the same individuals in it without a vision for multiplication and mission can encourage ingrown thinking, it's just fallen nature. Multiplication requires faith, it requires the Spirit causing us to repent and be fruitful. It is also unknown and exciting, talk about an opportunity for faith building!

Need help becoming a more authentic group?

New Way Ministries and Larry Crabb spend a great deal of time pondering our relational God and as image bearers how we might also relate to Him and others. Check out their website for books, cds, video series and conferences. I know that the Soul Care Experience has been very valuable to groups and churches.
I have found his lectures on gender specifically helpful as we desire to be more of who we were created to be, not simply neuter, but distinctly as men and women with unique designs and callings. Inside Out and the workbook available, address deep longings and the wrong strategies we often employ. His 66 Love Letters, to be released in March 2010, is a wonderful book which walks you through the 66 books of the Bible. It is in a dialogue form and is rich. It will definitely be a keeper. Shattered Dreams and Safest Place on Earth, now retitled Becoming a True Spiritual Community, are books that I recommend to folks who have survived crushing times and wonder where God is in it all. There are few of us, if any, to whom that does not apply.

HFG study resources

Glad to share another resource for studies. This one comes via Josh Kwasny.
Videos and study material is available for a $1.99 recommended donation. Here's the website, let us know how it goes!
Third Millenium Reformed Seminary Downloads

Welcome

Thanks to each of you who lead Home Fellowship Groups and Bible studies. This blog is for you. I'd love to see it used as a way to share resources and ideas. As you are willing to add your materials to the shelf, please let me know and we'll continue to expand our library.

As you lead a group, be expectant of what the Spirit will do in and through each of those present. As every member is an image bearer, they have the ability to reflect an aspect God's character. For those who are "little Christs", as C.S. Lewis put it, they also bring power which comes from the Holy Spirit, Who resides within them. With this reality, enjoy what He will reveal. He is making you and those you lead more like Him. He is faithful to complete was He has begun until the day of Christ.