5Ps' of the Lord's Prayer

What follows is an attempt at 'structuring' the Lord's Prayer. I'm assuming since Jesus taught us to pray thus, it would reflect what God Himself 'looks for' in a prayer (content-wise, at least). I'll also assume the prayer should reflect a sense of priority, completeness and cogency. So here goes:

1. Praise - all due reverence and honour; without privileging any particular 'form' of worship / adoration / practice, it's pertinent that hallowing God's name is a supreme priority

Our Father, who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

2. Praxis - nothing here about believers 'going to heaven', rather it's about us 'bringing heaven down'

Thy Kingdom come,

Thy will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven

3. Provision (both physical as well as spiritual) - it's worth reflecting on the possibility that forgiveness is a form of inter-dependent spiritual nourishment(!)...

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

4. Protection - temptation and evil (all personally- and relationally-destructive forms of anti-life) seem to encompass all we need to be wary of

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

5. Purpose - that which makes sense of and completes all the fore-going i.e. we pray all of this because ultimately it - everything - 'goes back' to He Who is the Source and Lord of it all

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. for ever and ever.

Amen

Marva Dawn on the Sabbath

Rock, Cloud & Water (Sermon, 20/09/09)

View more presentations from Alwyn Lau.

Affirm Challenge #3

Last week we talked about what God instructed Jonah to do, how Jonah reacted and why he behaved like that. Jonah had a very strong personal reason to not want to heed God's call to preach to the city of Ninevah: he hated them and he didn't want them to experience even the possibility of God's compassion.

Are there people or communities in our lives which elicit a reaction parallel to how Jonah felt?

Do we have certain individuals or groups so badly that we 'run away' from God's command and plans for them?

Can we identify these persons and do something to challenge head-on our stubborn refusal to want God's blessing for them?

Losing More Than We Gain (by Tan Soo-Inn)

Does your church have a youth service? A number of churches have youth services targeted at the young. These services are different in feel from the "main" services. The worship style is more contemporary, the music modern and louder, and hymns are usually taboo. The rationale for such services --- to reach the young who may be bored by traditional services. Besides, young people like to hang out with their peers and so setting up a peer service seems a logical way to reach young people with the gospel. So what's the problem?

Recently, a church leader told me that his church was having difficulty helping their young people make the transition from the youth service to the main service. The youths were supposed to "graduate" from the youth service to the main service after they finished high school. Many refused to "move up." When told they had to, some left the church all together.
The church had to return to the drawing board. They were looking at how they could do transitions better. Perhaps we should relook at our rationale for having youth services in the first place.

At a very basic level, I think something critical is lost when we have one worship service using mainly newer worship songs, and another using mainly hymns. The older songs are usually more theological, more objective. They declare truths of the faith that are always true irrespective
of the feelings of the individual worshiper on any given Sunday. Hymns help to reinforce the fact that God, not our subjective experiences of Him, is the foundation of our faith. Besides, when we sing hymns, we are reminded that we stand on the shoulders of giants, that we are but the latest generation of many generations of the faithful, many of whom paid dearly for the privilege of following Jesus.

However, the newer music is often more personal. They are much more helpful in expressing our relationship with our Abba father. And they help us celebrate our faith in music that is more accessible to modern ears and hearts. They remind us that God is not locked in the past. He is alive today and He is still working.

It should be apparent that the church is impoverished if we neglect either the hymns or the newer worship songs. The whole church, including the young, need to be enriched and tutored by all types of good worship music. By having two or more types of worship services with different worship styles, we present to the church and to the world, a truncated picture of the church, and of the God we worship.

Indeed, one of the key realities of the living God is that He is one, yet there is diversity in His oneness. God is one yet he is also Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Unity with diversity is why God's image is represented by a humanity that is both male and female. Unity with diversity is why the body of Christ, the church, consists of many parts which are different, yet who form one body (1 Corinthians 12: 15-20). Furthermore, church members are also different because they have different contributions to make to the communal life of the church. We need each other.

The young are to learn from those who are older (Hebrews 13:7; Proverbs 1:8). We may the first generation where the young know more than the old because of their access to the internet. But we must not confuse knowledge with wisdom. The young need to be mentored by those who are older. Keeping our young from ongoing meaningful relationships with those who are older, minimizes this.

But the old need to learn from the young as well. Jesus tells us to learn from children (Matthew 18:1-5). And Paul tells Timothy he can be an example to the believers (1 Timothy 4:12). Timothy may be about 30 at that time but the point remains: the old can learn from the example of those who are younger. In the church of Jesus Christ, young and old need each other.

Youth services may have been started with the best of intentions, but I wonder if something intrinsic to the DNA of the church has been violated in the process. I fear that our starting point is pragmatism, the desire to achieve certain results, not the bible. In starting youth services, we may have lapsed into some kind of ecclesiastical consumerism. If we have, then the message we send out is that the "consumer" is king. If this is our message, we should not be surprised that people remain loyal primarily to themselves and not to the whole body of Christ.

I am not arguing for the total abandonment of age group ministries. But I believe young and old alike need to know that unity with diversity is norm, because it is the nature of the God we worship. And if this is true then intergenerational congregations ought to be the norm.

An intergenerational approach to church life will not be easy. Indeed, it will be a key test of our spiritual maturity. Peter tells us that the young should submit to their elders but he also says that all should "clothe yourselves with humility toward one another . . . " (1 Peter 5:5a TNIV).

And the apostle Paul tells us:

[Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:1-4 TNIV)]

Somehow, I don't think Paul was thinking of generation specific congregations when he wrote the above. But I can see him writing the above to congregations of people of diverse races, social status, men and women, and yes, people from different age groups.

No, an intergenerational approach to church life will not be easy. It can only be done in the power of the Spirit. But we do it because intergenerational congregations better reflect the nature of the living God. We do it because it is a demonstration of the power of the Cross to bring different people together. And we do it because we need each other.

Affirm Challenge #2

Read Gen 22 about Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac.

Action: Take something you own which means a lot to you and give it away. Experience the hurt and pain of 'losing' this, and reflect on how Abraham must've felt as it walked up the mountain with his beloved son.

Affirm Challenge #1

(The Affirm Challenge is a series of questions posed to the students in the Affirmation class as part of the subject; we invite you to share your thoughts and ideas, too)

Why did God not permit Adam and Eve to eat meat in the beginning (Gen 1:29-30)? Why was meat allowed only after Noah's Flood (Gen 9:2-3)? And even then why wasn't Noah & Co. not allowed to meat that had its lifeblood still in it (Gen 9:4)?

Peace in the Face of a Frightening Future

Something I (Alwyn) penned many years back, which sorta complements the More Than Conquerors message two weeks ago...

Does God give us anything to tackle that element of despair and pessimism in the face of the (even more so nowadays) turbulent and frightening future?

Indeed He does. Even a small handful of verses (out of dozens in Scripture) should more than ease our hearts on this point:

• John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid."

• John 16:20-24, "...You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy...I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy...Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete."

• John 16:33, "I have told you...so that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

• Phil 4:5-7, "...The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything...by prayer and petition...present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

• Gal 5:22-23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is...peace...Against such things there is no law"

• 2Thess 3:16, "May the Lord of Peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with you all".

What might one deduce from the above?

Well, certainly that peace is a definite priority on the agenda of God for our lives - this gives us ever more reason to rejoice! Even though the world WILL bring a lot of pain, God is 'over and above' secular society and He promises us peace always as we abide in Him and ESPECIALLY during times of distress and trouble. Peace is also a 'by-product’ manifesting itself in us as we daily ‘walk in step’ with the Spirit (i.e. communicate with Him, obey Him, share Him with others, make decisions with His principles in mind, etc.)

To sharpen up the question above: Why should we feel joyful despite future judgments and trouble? Answer: Because God WANTS us to be! He insists that the reasons to rejoice far outweigh the opposite! And there are more than enough spiritual resources at our disposal to sooth our troubled hearts (e.g. His promises, the rest of His Body, His gifts, His plans, His Word and His very Spirit and Self!)

Peace of heart and mind should be something INDEPENDENT of external trouble (whether present or future!). The source and continuity of peace is found NOT in the absence of suffering, the resolution of intellectual problems/questions or even the occurrence of blessings(!) but rather it derives from the very personal presence of God and our continued indwelling in Him, and Him in us.

And this is why the peace of God transcends all understanding (Phil 4:7), for contrary to all secular expectations, it simply

· can not be ‘manufactured’ (like mind-control, hypnosis, etc.),

· can not be 'linked' to any particular 'success' event or situation (like good exam results, promotion, this girl or guy admiring us!, etc),

· can not be dependent on certain forms of knowledge (special info, higher IQ, etc.)

It comes gently when we trust God for it…nothing more; nothing less. Remember that I'm talking here about the peace of God(!), and not the natural psychological relief of things having gone our way or life being 'good'. We worry about the former, and we won't have to be overly concerned about the latter... ;>)

Small Groups and Transformational Learning

By Soo-Inn Tan (recommended by Denise Ng)

I have the privilege of teaching a course on Christian Spirituality in a major seminary in town. For three hours every Tuesday, nineteen students and myself grapple with issues that pertain to our relationship with God. The last forty minutes or so of every class, I divide the class into small

groups of three or four. In their small groups, the students share about what was most significant about the lecture they had just heard. One of the group is designated a "reporter." He or she will take notes of the group discussion and report back to the entire class later so that the whole class gets to hear the gist of the discussion of every group. The reports from the various groups become mini case studies and these are discussed on the spot.

I am not sure how the class feels about this weekly exercise. When I was a student in seminary, I remember being more interested in what the professor had to say then in interacting with my peers. I am not sure if my students feel the same. My own reputation is no where near the reputation of the luminaries I studied with so maybe this is a non issue with my present class.

Whatever. I am unrepentant in the use of small groups in my lectures. In fact I incorporate small group activity in most of my public lectures for a reason.

In this day and age, people do not need to come to a class to get content. They can just stay at home and download the best lectures by the best teachers. They can listen to these lectures in the comfort of their own homes or wherever they come online. They do to need to be in the same physical space with other students. When a class assembles, they become a community, with each student (including the teacher) bringing their own unique contributions to the life of the class. It seems such a terrible waste if all the students are passive and the teacher is the only one actively sharing. Learning in a class should seek to liberate all the rich resources present in the class and that means helping every student to see themselves as active participants in the learning process.

I have long practised this approach to teaching. I am also grateful to have discovered the writings of Jane Vella which have helped give voice to what I have been trying to do. In her chapter, "The Learning Task In A Small Group," she describes the four elements in a learning task:

[1. Inductive work

Inductive work connects the leaner to the task by relating the core concepts of the content to the learners' real life, real work . . .

2. Input

New content is presented. "It takes more then experience to create new learning"(Lewin 1951). Substantial and challenging content is presented in a nonstatic way . . .

3. Implementation

Learners are asked to use the new content immediately, right there in the class. They get to touch it and practice it right away . . .

4. Integration

When real learning happens, it can survive outside the classroom incubator. Integration tasks ask learners to move the content into the world and apply it in some way.

(On Teaching and Learning, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2008, 63.)]

I am not trying to downplay the importance of the lecture. As Vella notes, experience alone is not enough. Students need input of fresh and challenging content. But it is in small groups that the learners work at inductive work, implementation, and integration. And shouldn't all Christian education be concerned with helping people connect what they learn with their own journeys, helping them see the implications and applications of what they learn for their lives, and helping people experience change so that they leave the classroom transformed in some way?

I fear that too much of the teaching that goes on in our churches and in our educational institutions is too passive. (Sunday preaching is a major culprit.) Learners are passive recipients of content. The learning experience is one directional, with the preacher/teacher as the expert doling out the truth. The learners' duty is to receive the truth. The experience is also by and large anonymous with minimal personal interaction between the teacher and the learners, and the learners with each other. Where is the space for inductive work, implementation, and integration? Contrast what we often do with Vella's approach to teaching:

[Teaching adults for transformation involves first meeting those adults, learning from them about their present contexts, and shaping content so it is comprehensible and nourishing. It is not to distort the past, or the research, or the textbook. It is to prepare that content in such a way as to connect it to these lives. (On Teaching and Learning, xx.)]

Which was what Jesus did.

Jesus did a lot of public teaching but his primary format for transformational teaching was a small group, the Twelve. He also gave special attention to an even smaller group, Peter, James and John. We see Jesus using questions frequently to draw His disciples into discussion. Rarely did He give abstract timeless truths divorced from life. He saw the Scriptures as authoritative

(Matthew 5:17-20). But He was always helping His learners see how those authoritative truths engage the concrete realities of their lives.

If we are serious about seeing our churches and educational institutions become effective incubators of transformation so that God's people can be agents of transformation in the world, we need to seriously rethink how we do our teaching. We need an approach to teaching that takes seriously, both Scripture and people.

And so I soldier on with my Christian Spirituality class. Afternoons are a very tough time to be lecturing. After lunch, listening to a lecturer in an airconditioned room, well, I am just grateful that there has not been any obvious snoring. I hope that the small group activity helps the students be more engaged. But more than that, I am hoping the small group activity provides a safe context for transformational learning. My hope and my prayer are that at the end of the course, the students will not be saying "what a great class we had" but will be saying "how much I have grown."

More Than Conquerors (Sermon 23/08/09)

View more presentations from Alwyn Lau.

What are you in Christ?

Greg Boyd reminds that in Christ we are...

• God’s beloved child (Jn 1:12: Eph 1:5)
• Christ’s dear friend (Jn 15:5)
• Declared perfectly righteous (“justified”) (Rom 5:1)
• Free from condemnation (Rom 8:1; Col 2:14-16)
• United with Christ, “one spirit” with Christ (I Cor 6:17; Eph 5:31)
• A member of Christ’s body (I Cor 6:15/ 12:27)
• The Temple of God (I Cor 6:19)
• Filled with the “fullness of God” (Eph 3:19)
• A “holy one” [saint] (Eph 1:1)
• Blessed with every spiritual blessing (Eph 1:3)
• Holy and blameless (Eph 1:4)
• Bought with an infinite price and forgiven (I Cor 6: 20; Eph 1:7; Col 1:14)
• Bathed with wisdom and understanding (Eph 1:8)
• The recipient of an eternal, infinitely rich, inheritance (Eph 1:11, 18)
• Possessed with the mind of Christ (I Cor 2:16)
• Inseparable form God’s love (Rom 8:35-39)
• One who will NEVER be abandoned (Mt 28:20)
• The beautiful bride of Christ who “ravishes” the heart of God (Song of Songs, 4:1ff; 6:4ff).
• One over whom the Lord rejoices, sings and claps his hands(Zeph 3:17)
• One for whom the Lord throws a party (Zeph 3:17; Lk 15:7-10)
• A recipient of God’s own peace (Jn 14:27)
• Filled with the peace and joy of God (Rom 14:17)
• One in whom Christ’s joy is fulfilled (Jn 15:11)
• Given direct access to the Father by the Holy Spirit (Eph 2:18)
• Seated with Christ in heavenly realms (Eph 2:6)
• Seated “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” with Christ (Eph 1:21).
• Hid in Christ in heavenly realms (Col 3:1-5)
• Crucified, Buried and Raised with Christ (Rom 6:1-11)
• Made perfect forever (Heb 10:14)
• Made complete in Christ (Col 2:10)
• Indwelled by a fearless Spirit (2 Tim 1:7)
• One of God’s precious works of art (Eph 2:10)
• Indwelt by a spirit of power, love and stability (2 Tim 1:7)
• A citizen of heaven (Phil 3:20)
• Predestined to look like Jesus and see him in his glory (Rom 8:29; I Jn 3:1-5)
• One in whom God is working to bring good out of evil (Rom 8:28)
• Salt of the earth (Mt 5:13)
• A branch chosen to bear fruit (Jn 15:16)
• A co-worker with God (I Cor 3:9)
• An ambassador of Christ and minister of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:17-20)
• A priest of the most high God ( I Pet 2:5-9)
• More than a conqueror in all things (Rom 8:37)
• One who knows Satan is a disarmed laughing stock (Col 2:14-15).
• One who knows the truth and is set free (Jn 8:32).
• One who can do all things in Christ (Phil 4:13)

Boyd encourages us to, "take each truth on this list and not only SAY it throughout the day, but SEE it and HEAR it and LIVE IN it. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Rom. 12:2).

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