Did you know that today is “All Saints Day”? That’s where we get the name Halloween from. It’s literally All Hallows Eve or All Saints Eve. The idea was that this was a day to remember all the minor, lesser known saints who didn’t get a saints’ day, a catch all if you like. Protestants… Continue reading For all the Saints
Category: Prayer
Try Praying
Here is a series of talks based on the Lord’s Prayer
How do we pray when we find prayer hard?
Jesus’ disciples ask him to teach them to pray. They are alert to the fact that John the Bsptist had done this with his disciples. It’s fascinating that these young men, stepped in the worship and Scripture of Israel with their access to Psalms, Lamentations and the intercessions of Daniel and Nehemiah needed help. I… Continue reading How do we pray when we find prayer hard?
God’s Goodness and Greatness: Implications for prayer
Another response to God’s character should be a lively prayer life. In fact, this is part of worship. Prayer is an obvious response to God’s goodness. God is love and so prayer is about a relationship with him, knowing God and knowing that he loves to hear us. We can be confident that a good… Continue reading God’s Goodness and Greatness: Implications for prayer
Praying in response to an international crisis
In the last few years there have been two horrendous conflicts that have moved the church to prayer, one has been the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the other has been the horrendous atrocity by Hamas on the 7th October followed by Israel’s response into Gaza. How can we pray well in such situations? First,… Continue reading Praying in response to an international crisis
Have we got waiting on God all wrong?
Sometimes I think that the big dividing lines between Christians are not primarily about doctrine but about temperament and how we mentally process things. Take for example the recent debate about whether pastor’s have jobs, whether their vocation is about leisure or work. It strikes me that some of the arguments against work came from… Continue reading Have we got waiting on God all wrong?
What is Birmingham’s bankruptcy saying to us?
Yesterday I wrote about our city going bankrupt and what that might mean for us. As I explained in the article, there’s actually a lot of uncertainty and the honest answer to “what does this mean?” Is that we really don’t know yet. It is entirely possible that for most of us we’ll see very… Continue reading What is Birmingham’s bankruptcy saying to us?
The jaw dropping prayer
I read this little story at the start of an article the other day: In South Carolina, a pastor entered the worship service one Sunday morning and his jaw dropped. There sat a family that had belonged to every church in town, and had torn each one up. The only church they’d not joined was… Continue reading The jaw dropping prayer
Getting our thinking about answered and unanswered prayer right
Last week, I mentioned my concerns about the “Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer” which is planned for a site at Coleshill, just outside Birmingham. There was another concern that I had with the project and this was to do with how the organisers would decide about what counted and what to include in their wall/database.… Continue reading Getting our thinking about answered and unanswered prayer right
How’s the prayer meeting doing?
I suspect that my opening question will split my readership roughly down the middle. Half of you will have a strong opinion on how your church prayer meeting is doing and that may well be negative. The other half will be asking “what is a prayer meeting?” Your church won’t have such a meeting at… Continue reading How’s the prayer meeting doing?
Faithroots 