24-7 Prayer:Time to Listen time to adore

Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. Luke 6:12

 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.  Mark 1:35

 From Wednesday 16th May to Pentecost Sunday, Trinity will be hosting a time of continuous prayer. As a community we will be following Jesus’ example of spending significant time in prayer. Jesus never did anything that was not totally in the will of His Father in the power of the Holy Spirit.

What a privilege to be able to enter the very throne room of God! Jesus has done everything to give us free access by His death and resurrection. We are cleansed and adopted as children of God.

The children of a king can always run up to Him and sit on His knee. Prayer gives us intimate access to the very presence of the triune God.  Although coming into the presence of the living God, (as John experienced on the isle of Patmos), we may fall in awe before the wonder and beauty of the risen and resurrected Christ and stay prostrate until he says “Fear not - get up “.

    If you have ever been in love, you will know that you want to spend as much time as possible with your beloved, to be alone, experiencing the intimate nearness of the beloved. If you love Jesus a little and want to love Him more, then go into your quiet space, shut the door and pray:

 “Heaven is not heaven without Christ. It is better to be in any place with Christ than to be in heaven itself without him.”

Do not be daunted by having to spend one or two hours alone in silence. The time will go very quickly; once we appreciate the presence of Jesus, we will want to spend time just listening and entering into wonder and adoration. The psalms and Song of Solomon are good resources for intimacy in prayer. For example ,“You have captured my heart, my treasure, my bride… your love delights me, my treasure, my bride. Your love is better than wine.”

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is full of wonderful prayers. Through prayer we can understand how wide, long, high and deep the love of Jesus is, even for us! Although it is too wonderful to be fully known.

Once we have spent some time in adoration and praise, we will experience a closeness to Christ where it is easy to come with prayers and intercessions. Jesus gives the perfect template for prayer in the Lord’s prayer, slowly praying through and hanging all our prayers on each paragraph.

Every time we worship and pray, we are being transformed into the image of the Lord Jesus. We are given power to fulfil our mission as Trinity, to see lives transformed by the love of Christ and our mission is to build wholehearted disciples of Jesus. We will be a people who will bring Christ’s Kingdom in on earth here in Lewes as it is in heaven. Do sign up for an hour or more of prayer.

 https://www.24-7prayer.com/signup/64469b

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is full of wonderful prayers. Through prayer we can understand how wide, long, high and deep the love of Jesus is, even for us! Although it is too wonderful to be fully known.

Once we have spent some time in adoration and praise, we will experience a closeness to Christ where it is easy to come with prayers and intercessions. Jesus gives the perfect template for prayer in the Lord’s prayer, slowly praying through and hanging all our prayers on each paragraph.

Every time we worship and pray, we are being transformed into the image of the Lord Jesus. We are given power to fulfil our mission as Trinity, to see lives transformed by the love of Christ and our mission is to build wholehearted disciples of Jesus. We will be a people who will bring Christ’s Kingdom in on earth here in Lewes as it is in heaven. Do sign up for an hour or more of prayer.

 https://www.24-7prayer.com/signup/64469b

Justice works when it is blended with forgiveness, grace and compassion.

Love, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.1 Cor 13

Using the words of the Sandinista freedom fighter, Tomás Borge.

My personal revenge will be your children’s right to schooling and to flowers. My personal revenge will be this song bursting for you with no more fears.

My personal revenge will be to make you see the goodness in my people’s eyes, implacable in combat always generous and firm in victory.

My personal revenge will be to greet you ‘Good morning!’ in streets with no beggars, when instead of locking you inside they say, ‘Don’t look so sad.’ When you, the torturer, daren’t lift your head, My personal revenge will be to give you these hands you once ill-treated with all their tenderness intact.

_Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy_ translated from the Spanish by Dinah Livingstone

We have just returned from our first visit to Nicaragua it has been a most amazing experience. Nicaragua is slowly recovering from a devastating civil war. The words of Tomas Borge, quoted above reflect a Christian response to the most traumatic violence inflicted on an individual, responding with forgiveness and grace. However forgiveness and grace must still allow for restorative justice as reflected in this story from another part of the world which survived and flourished after the most horrendous genocide, Rwanda.

" After the genocide when  nearly one million people were killed the government court system was unable to deal with the number of prisoners needing to be brought to justice, local  Gacaca courts were set up in communities when the whole community was present presided over by the elders of that community and where the victim took part not just by giving evidence, but also by helping the decide on appropriate punishment. The emphasis was on truth telling and restorative justice. Leniency was given to prisoners who admitted their  guilt and expressed contrition. 

One poor orphan boy, who had killed the only son of a widow, was brought to trial. The boy freely admitted he was guilty saying that he was frightened into joining one of the killing gangs as it was the case of either killing or be killed. He pleaded forgiveness from the widow. The widow replied, " as a Christian I freely forgive you, just as Christ has forgiven me, however you have done a great wrong, having taken my son from me and deprived my of all help and comfort in my old age. Therefore I pronounce this sentence, you will come and live in my house and you  will be my son and I will be your mother."

Turning the other cheek and substituting restorative justice for revenge allows these countries to overcome the evils of cycles of blood feuds based on tribal identity and replacing revenge with creative restorative justice  and rebuilding of communities.  

Creation care in Nicaragua

For the Lord will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. Isaiah 51:3 NRSV

In February a small contingent from Trinity went with a group from  Amos Trust to Nicaragua, led by Katie Hagley a former worshiper at the then Southover Church.

We visited a charity called CEPAD - a relief organisation started by protestant ministers after an earthquake that destroyed most of Managua the capital. It now works by committing to a poor community for five years and working to help develop that community. They work with the local churches, which are mainly Mennonite, training the pastors. They help to develop the community with training in leadership skills and forming co-operatives, and teaching craft-making skills.

The most impressive part of the work for us is the way they develop the health and nutrition of the villagers by teaching them organic methods of growing food, and by providing water harvesting and simple water filtration, using a bio filter made with local materials, aggregates from the river and activated charcoal from the fire, which people can make and maintain for themselves.

 The land at the start of a project

Year one into the five year program

Villagers have to commit to working with CEPAD, only using the organic methods they would be trained in. At first many people are reluctant to join as they feel they have to have chemical fertilisers and insecticides, but as soon as they see the miraculous change in the gardens of people using the new methods, they are very keen to join. The soil in Teusteppe where we were working is volcanic, very arid, and the area mountainous.     Our job was to provide simple water harvesting ponds for which we had fundraised. CEPAD provided seeds which are germinated in seed beds and newspaper pots, which are then planted into the soil, using home-made composts and natural plant insecticides.

Fruit trees are grown and planted out; this solves the problem of soil erosion and provides shade for the smaller crops. The fruit provides vitamins and varied nutrition as well as a surplus to sell at market. By the end of the five years each participant should have 19 different varieties of fruit tree and vegetable in their garden, also they should have taught another person how to garden using the CEPAD method.

A finished water harvesting pond

In one community we worked in a garden attached to the school, this was enormous fun as we worked with the school children and the local community who all came out to help. Some of the group helped cook a delicious meal for the whole workforce using the locally grown organic vegetables.

Working in the community garden attached to the school

 The local pastor was always much in view, always in the midst of the hardest work, providing love and encouragement to his little flock. The church in Nicaragua is very focused on helping the poor and being an integral part of poor communities. After we had finished our work for the day, it was very natural for us to all troop into the little shanty church for a session of joyful hymn singing, the pastor and various locals passing round a guitar. Our team is now fundraising to provide  waterfilters

Demonstrating a simple water filter