Praying for our Children: leaving a legacy (2)

We’ve been under a lot of strain as a family for the last two years. Leaving London has meant leaving a house, friends, schools and church, and entering a new culture, church plant, friendship groups and home. For the children it’s meant seeing their parents handling all the stresses of our new situation and its demands. 

It’s been a great opportunity for us all to taste God’s fresh and powerful grace, but it’s not been at all easy. On top of all of this, a couple of our kids have had serious illnesses, so we’ve all shared the strain of sickness, sadness, and numerous hospital appointments, and broken nights and days.

We’re not complaining, but at times it feels that we’re only surviving. My burden, in this post, is to think about how I’ve been prioritising the needs of my children in prayer. First off, I’ve not done it very well. Often my prayers have been perfunctory, and shallow. Or I’ve just been plain prayerless. But on my better days and weeks, my prayers have a purpose. I’ve got seven priorities, and take one in turn each day for our children. Here’s a quick tour:

Sunday – Spiritual growth. Two of ours are professing faith and are church members, all show encouraging responsiveness to Christ in different ways. On Sundays my prayers are for their spiritual needs, conversion, and growth in grace.

Monday – Education. Our children are in three different local schools, soon to be four – that’s a lot of fun for the school run! Some of their education is great, some of it is terrible. We’re praying for children who aren’t taught to idolise education and achievement, but who are inquisitive as well as successful Christ-honouring life-long learners.

Tuesday – Friends. We’re praying our kids through the joys and pains of negotiating good and bad peer groups, and making wise friendships, and being generous and loyal friends. Almost all of their new friends are from nonchristian homes, so we’re praying that they would be Gospel lights to them.

Wednesday – Future. I pray that my children would seek to use their gifts and personalities for Christ’s cause. I’m praying that the Lord would guide them into callings where they can thrive as His servants, whether they’re road sweepers or investment bankers.

Thursday – Ministries. We teach them that Gospel service is the only thing that will last, and I pray that they would discover the purpose, joy and freedom of seeking God’s Kingdom first, and give themselves wholeheartedly to it, at home, in church, and in the world.

Friday – Marriage. God may want some of my children to be single as adults. I’m praying that they would be content with the calling of singleness, or would be wise in making choices about a marriage partner. I don’t want mine to be child brides or grooms – but I want them to commit to Gospel-centred marriages, should that time come.

Saturday – Fun. Ministry homes can be very intense. And can produce some pretty odd children. I pray that our home life would have a Gospel seriousness, but would be marked by lots of fun, laughter, and spontaneous messing about. We pray for children who take the Gospel and other people very seriously, but know how to have fun whenever they should.

Could I pray better for my children? Oh yes. Could I pray for better things? Let me know, if I can improve.

Last of all, we Allens are probably still standing because of the magnificent loyalty of friends and church family, in their support, and especially in their prayers. We’ve been astonished by people’s generosity, and willingness to stand with us in prayer in our various trials. To God be the glory. 

Praying for our children: leaving a legacy

The best part of our lives as Christians is invisible. It’s the work of prayer, interceding for others. For me, that includes praying for my five kids. Our five have bought me some of my greatest joys, and a lot of my most piercing griefs. They so often expose my selfishness, lack of faith, lack of courage, discipline, self-control, gentleness, joy in the Lord – and on and on! Can I leave them any legacy, when even my best parenting is so weak and inconsistent?

The great news is that I can pray. Rather than pouring my own imperfections into my children, I can ask my Father to pour His perfect grace into their lives. The scope for what we can pray for for our children is limitless. I pray short-term, medium-term and long–term for my children. More of that tomorrow.

For now, listen to these words from John Flavel. Continuing from yesterday’s snippet, Flavel has more to say on intercession. His father Richard, referred to here, suffered for the Gospel in his ministry. He and his wife were arrested for Richard’s nonconformity, thrown into Newgate Prison, and died from the plague caught there. John was undoubtedly shaped by witnessing his parents’ suffering and death, and he would imitate those sufferings when he left his parish church in 1662, rather than conform to the dictates of an apostate church leadership.

As well as seeing his father suffer, John saw him pray. And he gives an incredible value to those prayers. Read, and take note. Can we leave the best legacy to our children, of a prayed-for grace which will bless them all the days of their lives? Maybe it was his father’s prayers which ensured that John was so strong in the Lord, and his writings are a blessing to many still today. Maybe our prayers might bring blessings which far outlive not just our lives, but our children’s, too.

‘For my own part, I must profess before the world that I have a high value for this mercy, and do, from the bottom of my heart, bless the Lord, Who gave me a religious and tender father, who often poured out his soul for me. He was the one that was inwardly acquainted with God, and being full of compassion for his children, often carried them before God, prayed and pleaded with God for them, wept and made supplication for them. 

This stock of prayers and blessings left by him before the Lord, I cannot but esteem above the fairest inheritance on earth. O, it is no small mercy to have thousands of fervent prayers lying before the Lord, filed up in heaven for us. And O that we would all be faithful to this duty! Surely our love, especially to the souls of our relations, should not grow cold when our breath doth. O that we should remember this duty in our lives, and if God give opportunity and ability, fully discharge it when we die; considering, as Christ did, we shall be no more, but they are in this world, in the midst of a defiled, tempting, troublesome world. It is the last office of love for ever we shall do for them.’

John Flavel, Sermon on John 17.11, Works Vol. I, pp. 257-8

Get Away

I’m really disappointed that I’m not at the EMA this week. For most of my years in London, I jumped on the train or the bike from West London for a feast of good ministry and fellowship at St Helen’s. I had high hope of getting back this year, but we’ve experienced some really hard providences as a family over the last few months, and there’s no chance of me getting away.

I’m so pleased to see EMA’s emphasis on the heart this time around. The recovery of this theme is a vital return to the core of Biblical Christianity (oh yes, and to the spirituality of the Reformed tradition). Get the Bible’s emphasis of the heart, and understand the call of ministry as the call to minster to hearts, and you have the way out of arid, overly-propositional preaching.  I’m praying for great things from the EMA.

So I’m here, and they’re there, and there’s a lot of grace which my soul needs right now. So I took yesterday morning at one of my favourite places in the county, and beyond it, The Westwood Christian Centre. It was a chance to pray and to take stock, in a quiet room in beautiful surroundings. As ever, I took a book on preaching, a good Puritan, my Bible, and notebook. I spent time in Psalm 119, and let my prayers wander on the themes I read. It was a precious, and reenergising time.

I love these retreats. Often what I learn about the Lord, my heart and my ministry is not comfortable. There’s often real joy, and equally, there are often tears, as I see the wretch I am, and the grace that’s there for me in the Gospel. And I need to pray. I’ve been to set aside to pray by the church, for them, and for our work together. I shudder to think how little I pray, and pray believingly. Surely without disciplined, regular, believing, time-consuming prayer, a Pastor is only a preacher, or a leader – but not a Pastor. May God give me and my generation of busy, committed, Gospel-serving men the grace to be real servants of our Gospel and congregations, as we labour for them in prayer.

Here’s what the great John Flavel has to say on the subject of prayer:

‘Look upon our dying Jesus, see how His care and love to His people flamed out, when the time of His departure was at hand. Surely, as we are bound to remember our relations every day, and to lay up a stock of prayers for them in the time of our health, so it becomes us to imitate Christ in our earnestness with God for them, when we die. Though we die, our prayers die not with us: they outlive us, and those we leave behind us in the world, may reap the benefit of them, when we are turned to dust.’

Flavel, sermon on John 17.11, Works I, p.257

Tried, tested, triumphing

‘It is a great honour put upon a poor worm, when God will every moment try him and visit him; it argues the great esteem the goldsmith hath of his gold, when he will sit by the furnace himself, and order the fire with his own hand; when he pries so often into the fining-pot, to see that none of his precious metal, upon which he sets his heart, be lost.' 


John Flavel, Works 5, pp. 589-90                                                                 

Bombarded with Blessings

‘The cheerful heart has a continual feast’ - Proverbs 15.15

This Sunday is the church's first birthday. Daniel Grimwade from Dewsbury will be preaching for us, we'll give out some Olympic tracts as the Torch jamboree rolls into town, and enjoy a picnic together. It's a great opportunity to reflect on the Lord's many kindnesses to us. I trust that this list will stir thankfulness amongst our Hope Church friends. 

Our first full year as a church. Blessings upon blessings! Among our favourites are...

Professions of Faith, and Baptisms: seven people were baptised and became church members

Birth and dedication of Amos Thomson

New members: an almost doubling of our membership from last June, to a current number of 36 members

Church Away Day at Westwood

Church Away Weekend at Blackley and Brian Jackson House

Student Away Weekend at Westwood

Our first Hope Church engagement, with a view to a wedding in August

The Joy and Blessing of Corporate Worship Sunday by Sunday at Brian Jackson House

The Ministry of the Word, on Sunday mornings, at Taste & See, on Wednesdays and in other situations

The joy of Taste & See, with preaching, food, study groups, and much learning and fun along the way

Upholding of the Elders through a very busy year of getting established as a church

The Blessing of shared times of prayer, including new prayer triplets

A full year of having Chris Burrows as an Apprentice. His ministry has included significant student work

Graham Thomson’s nearly one year of being a half-time Apprentice (to become full-time after the summer)

The launch of our Friday youth group, led by Graham

Generous donations from outside givers towards Gospel ministry at Hope.

The Lord meeting our financial needs

The Lord’s guiding of Paul and Gill Thomson in all of their treasury work

The provision of Brian Jackson House

Friendships and fellowship in the church

The support, prayers and help of many of the Lord's people, throughout the UK, as well as beyond

What is Justification? - Learning with the 1689 Confession (13)

Rich, historic truths on the central article of our faith - which you can get really bang into your head!

3. ¹By His obedience and death Christ paid in full the debt of all those who are justified. ²By the sacrifice of Himself in His blood-shedding on Calvary, and His suffering on their behalf of the penalty they had incurred, He fully and absolutely satisfied all the claims which God’s justice had upon them. ³Yet their justification is altogether of free grace, firstly because Christ was the free gift of the Father to act on their behalf; secondly because Christ’s obedience and His satisfying the demands of the Law was freely accepted on His behalf; and thirdly, because nothing in them merited His mercies. ⁴ Hence God’s exact justice and His rich grace are alike rendered glorious in the justification of sinners.

Is. 53.5-6, Rom. 3.26, 8.32, 2 Cor. 5.21, Eph. 1.6, 7, 2.7, Heb. 10.14, 1 Pe. 1.18, 19

1. ¹God freely justifies the persons whom He effectually calls. ²He does this, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins and by accounting them, and accepting them, as righteous. ³This He does for Christ’s sake alone, and not for anything wrought in them or done by them. ⁴This righteousness which is imputed to them, that is, reckoned to their account, is neither their faith nor the act of believing nor any other obedience to the Gospel which they have rendered, but Christ’s obedience alone.  ⁵Christ’s one obedience is twofold – His active obedience rendered to the divine law, and His passive obedience rendered in His death. ⁶Those justified receive and rest by faith upon Christ’s righteousness; and this faith they have, not of themselves, but as the gift of God.

John 1.12, Ro. 3.24, 4.5-8, 5.17-19, 8.30, 1 Cor. 1.30, 31, Eph. 1.7, 2.8-10, Phil. 3.8-9.

2. ¹The faith which receives and rests on Christ and His righteousness is the sole means of justification. ²Yet it is never alone in the person justified, but is invariably accompanied by all other saving graces. ³Nor is it a dead faith, for it works by love.

Ro. 3.28, Gal. 5.6, Jas. 2.17, 22, 26

The Heidelberg Catechism     Question 60

Question:   How are you right with God?  

Answer:      Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. My conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God’s commandments and of never having kept any of them, and I am inclined toward all evil. Nevertheless, without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ. It is as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, and as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. All I need to do is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart. 

Questions

         i.            Our Confession chapter doesn’t define justification, but instead it explores it. Look at the Heidelberg Catechism Q&A above. What strikes you about the answer? What parts of the answer do you most need to dwell on, and why?

       ii.            Conf. 3.1-2. Why is God’s justice such a problem to us, and how does Jesus make us just in God’s sight?

      iii.            What are the three ways in which Conf. 3.3-4 assures us that we are freely justified?

      iv.            What is the link between God’s call and our justification, in Conf.1.1?

       v.            Look at Conf. 1.2-3. What is God’s righteousness? How does God accept us as righteous?

      vi.            Look at Conf. 1.4. What does being made righteous depend on? What does it not depend on? And why is this such good news?!

    vii.            In 2.1-3 what mistake is the Confession guarding us against about being made right with God? Give one clear Bible reference which helps us here.

   viii.            Look at the following quote. Are you a Gospel head-banger? If not, what might you be missing out on…?

Martin Luther and Gospel Head-Banging

“I must listen to the gospel, which teaches me, not what I ought to do, (for that is the proper office of the law), but what Jesus Christ the Son of God has done for me: that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel wills me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consists. It is most necessary, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.”  

Preach it, Weekesy!

Robin Weekes was my best man at our wedding nearly 18 years ago, and remains a fine and precious friend to Sarah and me. His thoughts on preaching are here.

What is God's Call? - Learning with the 1689 Confession (12)

Scripture: Acts 16.11-15

Confession: Chapter 10: Effectual Calling

1  1At a time appointed by and acceptable to God, those whom God has predestinated to life are effectually called by His Word and Spirit out of the state of death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. 2Their minds are given spiritual enlightenment and, as those who are being saved, they begin to understand the things of God. 3 God takes away their heart of stone and gives them a heart of flesh. He renews their will, and by His almighty power He sets them to seek and follow that which his good. 4And to all these changes they come most freely, for they are made willing by divine grace. 


Deut. 30.6, Ps. 110.3, Song 1.4, Ezek. 36.26, 27, Acts 26.18, Rom. 8.30, 11.7, Eph. 1.10, 11, 17, 19, 2.1-6, 2 Thess, 2.13, 14.


2  1God’s effectual call is the outcome of His free and special grace alone. 2Until a man is given life, and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is dead in sins and trespasses, so is entirely passive in this work of salvation, a work that does not proceed from anything good foreseen in him, nor from any power or agency resident in him. 3The power that enables him to answer God’s call and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it, is no less than that which effected the resurrection of Christ from the dead. 


John 5.25, 1 Cor. 2.14, Eph. 1.19-20, 2.5, 8, 2 Tim. 1.9

John Frame: God’s call ‘is the work of God the Father, summoning you into the fellowship of His Son.’ 

(Salvation belongs to the Lord, p.184)

Questions

                                i.            What does God call His predestined people from, and to, according to 1.1?

                              ii.            Why do people say that predestination is unfair? How would you respond biblically to that?

                            iii.            How does God call people, according to 2 Thess. 2.13-14, and  Conf. 1¹? How does this match your experience of putting your faith in Christ?

                             iv.            ‘So we’re robots, are we?’ How does this paragraph help us deal with this question?

                               v.            Compare 1.2-3 with Read Deut. 30.6 and Ezek. 36.26-7. What features do we see of God’s grace in Christ?

                             vi.            According to 2.1-2, where does our salvation not come from? Be specific! Where does it come from, then?

                           vii.            Read 1 Cor. 1.25-30. What should humble us about God’s call in this passage, and what should amaze us?

                         viii.            What is the meaning of Acts 18.9-10? How does it encourage us as we seek to share the Gospel in Huddersfield? 

Are we really Free? Learning with the 1689 Confession (11)

Last Sunday evening we got back into our Firm Foundations series at Taste & See. A sermon on Ephesians 2.1-4, something to eat together, and bang! We're into the nature of humanity and our need of saving grace in out study groups. 

Scripture: Ephesians 2.1-4

Confession: Chapter 9: Free Will

1.      ¹In the natural order God has endued man’s will with liberty and the power to act upon choice, so that it is neither forced from without, nor by any necessity from within itself, compelled to do good or evil.

Deut. 30.19, Matt. 17.12, Jas. 1.14

2.      ¹In his state of innocency man had freedom and power to will and to do what was good and acceptable to God.  ²Yet, being unstable, it was possible for him to fall from his uprightness.

Gen. 3.6, Eccles. 7.29.

3.      ¹As the consequence of his fall into a state of sin, man has lost all ability to will the performance of any of those works, spiritually good, that accompany salvation.  ²As a natural (unspiritual man) he is dead in sin and altogether opposed to that which is good.  ³Hence he is not able, by any strength of his own, to turn himself to God, or even to prepare himself to turn to God.

John 6.44, Rom. 5.6, 8.7, Eph. 2.1,5, Titus 3.3-5

4.      ¹When God converts a sinner, and brings him out of sin into the state of grace, He frees him from his natural bondage to sin and, by grace alone, He enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good.  ²Nevertheless certain corruptions remain in the sinner, so that his will is never completely and perfectly held in captivity to that which is good, but it also entertains evil.

John 8.36, Rom. 7.15,18-19,21,23, Phil. 2.13, Col. 1.13.

5.      ¹It is not until man enters the state of glory that he is made perfectly and immutably free to will that which is good, and that alone.

                 Eph. 4.13

Questions

                                i.            What do Conf. 1 and 2 tell us about Adam and Eve’s free will before the Fall?

                              ii.            What can we learn from Conf. 3 about whether we are free to do good things?

                            iii.            Look at Conf. 3³.  How does that affect our ability to have a relationship with God? Why do people find this teaching so hard to accept?

                             iv.            Look back at Ephesians 2.1-5.  How does this help us understand more fully what Conf. 3 is telling us?

                               v.            Read Conf. 4 and Romans 7.13-25.  How do these two statements help us understand why we still sin as Christians?

                             vi.            In what ways is Conf. 5 an encouragement to us?

                           vii.            What difference will this study make in your life this week?

Peter - your Apostle of Encouragement

We started our series in 1 Peter on Sunday morning, and we noted the words of Archbishop Robert Leighton. Commenting on the Apostle's purpose in writing his letter, Leighton says it was ‘to establish them in believing, to direct them in doing, and to comfort them in suffering.’ Leighton's right, of course. Many of Peter's readers were struggling in the faith. The daily struggle of seeking to be godly, matched with sporadic but intense times of persecution, were dampening the fires of faith, or at least threatening to. Comforts seemed few, and incentives to Christian living must have been often hard to see. 

What changes? It wears you down when you know that people around you think you're either mad, bad or dangerous for having a Christian faith. Some of us would love to take far more opportunities to speak of Christ at work, but now we're we're watching our backs if we happen to speak of Him there. Family life brings as many sorrows and griefs as it does blessings and delights. Church quickly becomes a round of expectations and commitments which we need to meet. And normal life under the sun living is simply tiring and energy-sapping, whatever our beliefs, or lack of them. Now the holiday season is within sight, sometimes we just want to take a holiday from the Gospel. 

That's not the answer, though. Our Gospel faith is one for the long-haul, and if it's authentic there will be many tests and temptations. Of all people, Peter knows how hard faith is, and that's why he writes his letter, 'encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it' (1 Pe. 5.12).

Stand fast in this grace. God's promises do not change, even though our circumstances do. When suffering shrinks our lives, seemingly to mere survival mode, the grace of God is still at work in us. God has chosen us for good. That means, we are eternally safe. It means, too, that we have been saved for the life of transformation in Christlikeness. His Spirit will take up our sufferings for His use in making us more like Jesus. This is the true grace of God. Be encouraged. Stand fast in it.