The F Si Gospels

I am going to admit it I am fed up, not just a bit but completely fed up.

I don’t know about you but sometimes I find life really hard. I know life shouldn’t be easy and you are going to get a setback or crisis every now and then but come on.

Having said all that there are still things that bring a smile to my face. A good friend of mine who I haven’t seen in ages emailed me at the start of the week. One of the things he said was that I am ‘Awesome’

Awesome is such a great word to describe someone. It really cheered me up, and I changed my mind from giving up on everything to persevere and keep going.

Now I don’t want this to be about me and how awesome I am, I am not I am just a person like everyone else. I want to encourage everyone to find someone and describe them as Awesome. How great would the world be if your boss called you into his office to tell you about an ‘Awesome’ piece of work you had done or if you told your bus driver he was ‘Awesome’.

There are so many people struggling in the world who need an encouraging world to help them keep going. Why don’t we give this a try and see what happens.

This idea is very counter cultural so many of us will find it difficult to do. I know I would. My cell group recently spent an evening sharing with each other how we encourage each other and other positive aspects about each others characters. This could be an easy first step.

Lets start by encouraging those around us, starting with friends, then moving on to colleagues and finally any one else we meet.

Imagine if World leaders did this as well, the British prime minster could tell the Chinese leader I love how you handled the problem with x.

http://www.todayisthatday.com/8-tips-on-how-to-get-out-of-bed-even-when-you-dont-want-to/

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/02/10-tricks-to-ge/

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/04/how-to-get-up-right-away-when-your-alarm-goes-off/

I never thought I would say this but I like praying out loud.

On a Tuesday I have plenty of opportunities to pray. I start the day by getting myself to St Mikes Dynamic Prayer meeting which starts at 7am. It is a struggle for me getting out of bed but I always appreciate it when I am there. We typically worship and praise God, often about church stuff, but also sometimes other things. Today we prayed for Alpha, and for YoYo. And it ends with a croissant and time to chat with people.

At lunch time it is time for my prayer group for Clifton Moor, unfortunately there was only two of us this week. But it was a great opportunity to pray for the area, and give thanks for my busy day. I was expecting to not be able to get away or to have trouble when I returned, thankfully that didn’t happen. Could this be down to prayer.

Recently I have been going to Conversations, which is a church for young people, based in a pub in town. I went to one of their cells tonight. It was good and everyone was friendly,  but when it came to the prayer time, I was surprised that everyone prayed in their heads, not out loud. I am so used to my cell praying out loud and for each other, I found it difficult to do. I know everyone spends time with God in different ways, but I am reminded of what people said to me when I started praying that we encourage each other with our prayers, If I pray out loud it encourages someone else to pray.

Idea; how about commissioning men when they first get a job or get a new one. Get them to the front of the church meeting, lay hands on them and “ordain” them to be gods man wherever they will be…then get some work place testimonies… The blokes will feel totally fired up…

To often the only people to get prayed for in this fashion are those doing mission or church work, what about everyone else that works in all other areas of life from the office manager to the lab assistant all doing Gods work in there own way.

Exactly the point. We need to ask the question: why do you get prayed for if you are an accountant in keyna but not if you are in Kettering? Why are the caring professions prayed for in church but not mechanics or salesman…

On the day I start reading the book God At Work I spot this on facebook by CVMen I am really being challenged by this call to pray for my work and the other companies in the Clifton Moor area. Its not just about praying for Work, its also about changing how we view work, work is just as much God’ Work as anything else we do. I have frequently felt that I do God’s work when helping with Alpha and projecting the words to worship, but speaking to Dell or Demon or resetting someone’s password is also his work.

There is no place for God in theories on the creation of the Universe, Professor Stephen Hawking has said.

He had previously argued belief in a creator was not incompatible with science but in a new book, he concludes the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics.

The Grand Design, part serialised in the Times, says there is no need to invoke God to set the Universe going.

“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something,” he concluded.

‘Planetary conditions’

In his new book, an extract of which appears in the Times, Britain’s most famous physicist sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton’s belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have sprung out of chaos.

Citing the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun, he said: “That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions – the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass – far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings.”

He adds: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.

“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.

“It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”

‘Eyes of faith’

The book was co-written by US physicist Leonard Mlodinow and is published on 9 September.

In his 1988 bestseller, A Brief History of Time, Prof Hawking appeared to accept the role of God in the creation of the Universe.

“If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God,” he said.

But the Bishop of Swindon, Dr Lee Rayfield, said science “can never prove the non-existence of God, just as it can never prove the existence of God.”

He added: “Faith is a matter that’s outside that.

“But as I look at the universe, and as many people who are much more understanding of cosmology than I, and mathematics, as they look at it, through the eyes of faith, they see a universe which is still very coherent with what we believe about God and His nature.”

Commentators discuss physicist Stephen Hawking’s argument in his new book that science can explain the Universe’s origin without invoking God, instead arguing that the existence of gravity means the Universe can create itself from nothing.

Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks says in the Times [subscription required]that Stephen Hawking’s idea is both unoriginal and that he doesn’t understand that religion and science answer different questions:

“What would we do for entertainment without scientists telling us, with breathless excitement, that ‘God did not create the Universe’, as if they were the first to discover this astonishing proposition? Stephen Hawking is the latest, but certainly not the first. When Napoleon asked Laplace, two hundred years ago, where was God in his scientific system, the mathematician replied, Je n’ai pas besoin de cette hypothèse. ‘I do not need God to explain the Universe.’ We never did. That is what scientists do not understand.

“There is a difference between science and religion. Science is about explanation. Religion is about interpretation. Science takes things apart to see how they work. Religion puts things together to see what they mean. They are different intellectual enterprises.”

In the New Scientist Roger Highfield dismisses the newness of the theory:

“Media furore over Stephen Hawking’s new book, The Grand Design, has made it the biggest science news story of the day. But it’s not like Hawking has suddenly given up a religious belief – let alone proved that God doesn’t exist…

“As Hawking’s long-suffering assistant dealt with a deluge of enquiries from journalists from around the world, she told me how the furore says more about the silly season than any change of mind. It also says much about how God is used to sell science to the public.”

The Guardian imagines the relationship between Stephen Hawking and God:

“One accepts that if God were to choose one day to explain the universe to Hawking, the professor would be one of the few people on the planet with any serious chance of understanding the conversation. But spontaneous creation is, for most folk, just a contradiction in terms. God may or may not find all this amusing. The thing is – how to put this gently to Professor Hawking? – that God does not necessarily follow the ins and outs of our many arguments about His existence.”

In the Catholic Herald Quentin de la Bedoyere argues that there is still a gap in Stephen Hawking’s explanation of the creation of the Universe:

“Most particularly it would not touch the question of how something existing comes out from nothing. That is a question which science cannot answer, and will never answer, because nothingness is not within its domain. Hawking apparently does not address this question – which is the true and ultimate Theory of Everything.”

In the Daily Mail John Lennox describes himself as a scientist and a Christian who teaches maths as Oxford university. He argues that Stephen Hawking is wrong to think they can’t live alongside each other:

“Much of the rationale behind Hawking’s argument lies in the idea that there is a deep-seated conflict between science and religion. But this is not a discord I recognise. “For me, as a Christian believer, the beauty of the scientific laws only reinforces my faith in an intelligent, divine creative force at work. The more I understand science, the more I believe in God because of my wonder at the breadth, sophistication and integrity of his creation.

“The very reason science flourished so vigorously in the 16th and 17th centuries was precisely because of the belief that the laws of nature which were then being discovered and defined reflected the influence of a divine law-giver.”

In the Telegraph Graham Farmello is sceptical about the reasons behind scientists getting involved in the question of God:

“The science-religion relationship, in so far as there is one, continues to be a crowd-pleaser. It seems to be a fundamental law of PR that the God-science debate is a sure-fire source of publicity. Always welcome when one has a book to sell.”

“You will, I imagine, be familiar with the old gibe ‘more tea, Vicar?’ It conjures up a negative mental picture of a time-wasting minister of the gospel. But wait!  In those three short words lies a telling story. Look at it this way: the pastor has taken time from a busy schedule to visit a family in the parish. The saintly guest is clearly listening and, it appears, not saying all that much. It goes down well with her hosts who clearly try to prolong the visit with offers of more refreshment.

It’s true that pastoral care does not often produce clearly packaged short-term results. But can Christian Groups in the workplace grasp this vision of a further extended role in pastoral care? If we do, then, over time, this could help to bring new levels of wellbeing into our workplaces. It may even cause employers to find us indispensable in a way that evangelism and prayer alone have not. More tea, Vicar?”

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10.23-25 NIV

From my school days I remember hearing the definition of work being anything that uses energy (force x distance) but that is not that helpful in our day to day working lives.

1. Why do we work?

2. Is God concerned about our work?

3. Which of the following are work and which are not? Why?

Cleaning the bathroom
Reading
Counselling
Watching TV
Praying/worship
Sleeping
Washing dishes
Stamp collecting
Gardening
Going to cell/church

4. Are there any jobs more important than others?

5. Are there any jobs more ‘spiritual’ than others?

Genesis 2:2, Psalm 8:3-6, Psalm 90:16,7
Does God work?

Genesis 1: 27-28
What does imaging God involve?

Genesis 2:15
Is work a result of the fall?

Genesis 3:17-19
What effect did the fall have upon work?

Exodus 20:9
Has the fall removed the privilege of work?

Isaiah 28:23-26
What help can we expect from God in our work?

Proverbs 6:6, 2 Thess 3:10
Is it sinful to be unemployed?

Proverbs 31:10-31
Is there any jobs that a man/woman can do that a woman/man cannot

Rev 14:13, Is 65:22-25
Will we work on the new earth? Will there be any jobs we won’t need on the new earth?

1. Are there any jobs a Christian should not do?

2. Should we be fulfilled in our work?If we are not what can we do about it?

3. How can we be more Christian in our work?

4. How can we support each other in our respective work?

Prayer points in: Each others work
Prayer points out: Working culture, people with difficult jobs etc
Prayer points up: Gods work

I feel the least Christian at work so I am attempting to set up a prayer group in the Clifton Moor area.

My friends at St Mikes have been very supportive of this idea and have given me some contacts to start me off, I have also placed an advert on St Mikes News and on facebook.

Companies located at Clifton Moor include:

Eurosafe UK
Branded
Adva
Car Garages (Toyota, BMW, Citreon, Mercedees)
Environment Agency
Diocesan Office
Harrowells
Clifton Moor Business Association
Clifton Church
Alan Brown
Yorkshire Forward
RBS

To start off I will pray for these and attempt to make contact and see what happens.

In Star Trek: First Contact Captain Picard said the following.

The economics of the future is somewhat different. You see, money doesn’t exist in the 24th century. The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity.

Star Trek believes that in the future there will be no money, war, poverty, hunger disease, famine or religion. Most of these are really noble ideals and something to strive towards. As a Christian I have to disagree with part of it.

Christians believe that its people make up the church, and that its people should use their gifts for social action and to build up the church and each other.

Personally I have begun to get involved in church activities, including helping on an Alpha course. While helping I feel that captain Picard’s quote is true, I am working to help others, this both builds me and them up.

I think if we are to live in the Star Trek utopia, then we could do well to listen to the message from Jesus, about loving one another and helping those in need. Doing these simple things can make a tiny difference to the world, but if we all do it, all the tiny differences will add up and we have the start of something very powerful.