Hearing God - Logos and Rhema

Sometimes when we are waiting for direction or answers to prayers, we can become frustrated by the seeming silence from God. It is challenging to continue to seek him with a right spirit when we feel like we are getting nowhere… waiting and waiting for enlightenment, a green light or for that matter a red light-just any light to illuminate what can sometimes feel like despairing darkness.

In an Insta world we often mistakenly act like we believe our communion with God should result in Insta- communication as we see fit, according to our timelines. When the Almighty God doesn’t bend to our iron wills and unrealistic expectations – we are often weigh laid with worry or indignant: Asking - Where is God? Why isn’t he answering my prayers? Doesn’t he care?

We of little faith!

The God who said and there was, who spoke the very universe into being, is always speaking.  Everything that exists has its origins in the Word of God. 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.”
John 1:1-3 

Since he changes not and is the same God yesterday, today and forever more- we can expect and should expect that he will continue to speak over his creation and especially to his most valued creation: mankind.  Psalm 8 says, 

“3When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place— 4 what is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him? 5You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor”
Psalm 8:3-5

We are his masterpiece, which is why Jesus the Word made flesh, came down to earth, to live and die as a human in order to make atonement for our sins so that we could once more be reconciled to God. 

“1 On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets. 2But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.” Hebrews 1: 1-2 

Restored Communication

Jesus’ life, death and resurrection has resulted in restored fellowship and communion with God. So that once again like Adam, we can walk and talk in the cool of the day with God- our spirits connecting with his Spirit. Amazing, isn’t it? Direct access to God- anytime, anyplace, having the ability to both speak to and hear from him.

While God primarily speaks to us through the written word (the Holy Bible) which is ‘alive and active’ and capable of judging the thoughts and intentions of the heart’. he also now speaks to us through the Holy Spirit!

“… when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come”
John 16:13

Thankfully, in those times when we need clear guidance from God we can turn to his written Word which is useful for, “teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…” and then we can also wait before him listening and paying attention to how the Holy Spirit will reveal to us what the Father is saying in the present, for the specific situation or concern we are seeking him about- a Rhema word: a particular insight into a portion of Scripture relating to our lives and circumstances. 

Becoming Familiar

If we are patient, alert and expectant, we will find that God speaks through nature, through people- like the prophets of old, through dreams and visions, through signs and wonders, through events. Ultimately, we must return to the written Word: Logos, to test these revelations. But as we abide more and more in his Word and presence, his voice will become increasingly familiar. We will soon realise that he is continually speaking if only we will have eyes and ears to hear him.

Timali Ebanks is a follower of Jesus, cherished wife and mother of a beloved motley crew. When she is not enthusiastically expounding on the joys of delving into literature and engaging students in copious amounts of reading and analysis, she enjoys bouts of writing and adventures of all sorts.

Prayers from (Recent) History - Frank Hudson

Recently during our Week of Prayer, we published a number of prayers which were originally prayed by famous believers down through history. But one of the most incredible things about prayer is that it is universal! We believe as Christians that anyone who lifts their voice in prayer has a direct line to their Heavenly Father! That’s why we pray, because we know that God listens to each and every one.

Today we share a prayer from someone who might not have been as famous, but was just as important in the eyes of God, Frank Hudson. Frank is the late father of Mandy Hudson, a member of the Redeemer Family who has written for this blog in the past, below she shares the story behind today’s blog…

My Dad was 80 when he died. He became a Christian when he was 45. Previously, he'd been a spiritualist medium, a gambler and very independent minded. He encountered Christ through the witness of his family (including me, I hope!) and would testify later that he was delivered when he read the words about how God gives good gifts to his children. (Matt 7 v11). He always celebrated his relationship with God, was an evangelist, Gideon and methodist lay preacher.

After my Dad died we found this prayer in his Bible which he used each day to start his devotions. I think it's from a combination of sources but what was good to read and see the challenge of giving every second to God.

I hope you enjoy reading his prayer.

---

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for creation, for today, for my life, for your great love, faithfulness, forgiveness and mercy.

Thank you for Jesus.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, that you sent your only Son - Jesus Christ to live among us. Jesus died on the cross for my sin, for my sake.

Praise you, Lord Jesus, you rose from the dead, you ascended into heaven, you sit at God’s right hand. You pray for your people.

Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus.

Thank you for sending the Holy Spirit, thank you for His work in my life. Thank you for grace and peace and rest in God. Thank you for all the gifts, thank you, Lord for prayer.

Lord, I pray that you will forgive me for my sins of today. I have sinned in thought, word and deed. I am sorry for my sin and I ask for your forgiveness.

I pray Lord for your continued watch over my life, watch over my going out and coming in.

I pray that you will watch over me every second and I pray that I will give you every second.

Amen

Redeemer reads 2 Corinthians - Why do we read the bible?

As Christians, whatever stage we’re at in our journey, one thing that is key to maintaining forward progress is our own personal relationship with God. When it comes down to it, no matter our circumstances, no matter our church environment, or our age, or our relationship with other Christians - if we don’t spend any time just us and God, it is incredibly difficult (I might even say impossible) to continue to grow in our relationship with him and be made more like Jesus.

One way in which we do this is by intentionally carving out time every day to read his word in the Bible. We believe that ‘All scripture is God-breathed’, and that God planned that it would not only equip and serve those for whom it was originally written, but that it would also equip and teach us! You and me! Today! When we spend time reading God’s word every day, and allowing him to speak to us, it is the equivalent of arming ourself with a sword with which we face the battle that is the rest of life (Ephesians 6:17).

But here’s the thing, it’s not always easy to do that! It seems crazy that we can so firmly believe that the best thing for us to be doing is to be spending personal time with our heavenly father (which I would hope most of us do), and yet be so bad at prioritising it! I am not throwing stones here, I am exactly the same, but one thing that has helped me over the past year to better prioritise reading God’s word, is the Community Bible Reading (CBR) Journal.

The CBR Journal has just one aim, and that is to get people reading scripture, and it does just that, by encouraging people to do 3 very simple things.

1. Read 1 chapter of the Bible every day (Either New or Old Testament, if you want you can read both!)

2. Pray. Being led by the scripture you have just read, pray following the ACTS (Adoration - Confession - Thanksgiving - Supplication) model. This means focusing on the passage you’ve just read, and identifying what it told you about God (Adoration), in what ways it convicted you about your own life (Confession), how it encouraged you to give thanks to Jesus (Thanksgiving), and what it stirred you to ask of God (Supplication). You may also want to write these sections down to help you to visualise the 4 sections.

3. Share. The community aspect of the journal involves discussing with a small group of friends the key point that you felt was most obvious to you when reading the passage.

That’s it. Simple right?

Well I’ve got good news for you, starting next Tuesday (the 28th of April) we will be encouraging everyone at Redeemer to do the CBR together! Don’t worry, you won’t need the physical journal, the reading plan is online at thecbrjournal.com. But in reality, you probably won’t need that either, as our plan is fairly simple! We are going to read a chapter of 2 Corinthians together, every week day, starting with Chapter 1 on the 28th of April, and finishing with Chapter 13 on the 14th of May.

Every day we’ll be releasing videos on our social media pages at 9am each weekday morning, with members of the Redeemer family detailing their takeaways from the passage. We’ll also be publishing daily blogs which focus on the day’s reading, and feature other recommended resources to help you study the passage in greater detail if you want to. So keep your eyes peeled!

What do I need to do?

1. Get in touch with a small group of Christian friends, and ask if they want to follow the CBR plan with you over the next few weeks.

2. Figure out the time of day that works best for you to read the bible (the morning is my preferred time), and commit to reading one chapter of 2 Corinthians at that time every day.

3. Make sure you are subscribed to our Youtube channel, following us on instagram, and keeping an eye on this blog, so that you don’t miss any of the videos & other resources we’re releasing to help you over the next few weeks.

4. Be expectant! We believe that as we read the bible and cultivate a deeper and closer personal relationship with God, he will lead us both as individuals and as a church, into new and exciting adventures with him!

I so look forward to reading the bible alongside all of you, and seeing what seeds God wants to plant and water in us, and the fruit he wants to bring out in all of our lives!

Covid-19 - An Opportunity for Generosity

As you will no doubt be aware, the recent covid-19 outbreak has changed everyone’s lives to a greater and a lesser extent. As a church we know that many members of our family will be self-isolating, working from home, or practicing social distancing over the coming weeks. We are hoping that through a series of blogs we can encourage you, and others who might be reading these blogs, to fix your eyes on Jesus, and respond to the crisis in a way which honours his will for our lives.

---

In the last 24 hours many of us will have made decisions to work from home, to cancel social events, and to refrain from travelling to visit friends and family in other parts of the country. These actions are in response to government advice which seeks to ‘flatten the curve’ of the coronavirus outbreak, limiting its effects on the health of the general public. But the physical health of members of our church family is not the only thing we need to be concerned about.

The crisis will also have a significant effect on many people’s finances, and as Christians it is important that we step up and support those who are impacted by the virus in this way too. As any church should, we choose to look to the very first church in the book of Acts, for guidance as what to do in these situations. This is my challenge to you today, does your generosity towards others in your community look like the church in Acts? They had everything in common as a church (Acts 2:42-47), they sold land to give to the poor (Acts 4:32-5:10), they distributed food amongst their community (Acts 6:1-7). Your actions may look different to this, but I think you would agree that in times like this it is crucial that we stand up and follow the example of the early church.

It is so crucial to not only change our social behaviour to keep the vulnerable amongst us safe, but to also change our economic behaviour too. This is an opportunity to be known as a church for our love, which will in turn draw others to us and give us an opportunity to preach the gospel, just as it did for the church in Acts.

So, how can you be generous today?

I’ll leave you with a verse which though written to a church over 1000 years ago, speaks directly to us today.

In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.

2 Corinthians 8:2

This blog was inspired by a similar one on thegospelcoaltion.org which you can read HERE

Ealing Half Marathon - A Review!

Last Sunday we were out in force cheering on the runners in the Ealing Half Marathon, Josh Gagel takes us through exactly what happened on the morning….

---

Drums? Bunting? Shouting? A megaphone?

What on earth was going on yesterday outside Ealing Town Hall?

Well of course it was us lot cheering on the half marathon runners!

 Despite the dreary weather, the Redeemer family came out in force to support those participating. Despite being somewhat rhythmically challenged I was fortunate enough to be part of the amazing drumming band that encourages the runners as they go past.

 Leslie Mailloux, a runner in the half marathon and a part of Redeemer, had this to say

 “As I was running up towards the town hall on the 11th mile I could barely feel my legs, but then I heard the drumming in the distance and it spurred me on to finish the race!”

The Redeemer runners did amazing, and we’d love to give them all a shout-out! Well done to Anna Unwin, Hannah Kinning, Jon Flower, Rich Smith, Mark Siburns, Lauren Siburns, Farayi Hobwana, Nicky Cornford, René, Tara Chandler, Bracken Pluckrose and Jess Bugembe. These guys were amazing and if you see them on Sunday then give them a massive pat on the back! (Not too hard though, they might still be a bit sore!)

Kayla Carter, who had a cameo drumming, had this to say

 “I’m flipping loving it, the atmosphere is great”

 Nico Ofoajoku was drumming but had a bit of trouble with our method of protecting him from the elements.

 “Currently I have seen no running because I’m too tall for the gazebo, but nonetheless I am drumming and encouraging everyone”

 Toby Elliott clearly had some bias towards a specific one of Redeemer’s runners.

 “My favourite part of this is that Mark ran past before Rich”

 All in all, a wonderful time was had, as always we were thoroughly impressed by those running, bring on next year, when rumour has it I will be running myself!

- Josh Gagel