I spoke last Sunday about how we run the race from Hedonism to Holiness.  Today I want to reflect just a little more on how we keep running the race with perseverance.

Probably from a dark dank prison cell the Apostle Paul sent this message to Timothy, his younger partner in the gospel.

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”  2 Timothy 4:7-8.

I see the Christian life as a battle and as a race and in both scenarios it is often the case that we feel like giving up.  One of the purposes of church is to help one another to keep on keeping on.  Some months a go I spoke about how John Wesley established what he called “Bands” which in many ways operated like our Core Groups.  They were regular meetings where within the context of loving and trustworthy relationship we can be held accountable.  We can be asked how we are running the race?  How we are maintaining discipline in the spiritual life?  What efforts we are making to co-operate with the Holy Spirit within us?

How much you grow in the spiritual life is up to you. There is no lack of will on God’s side he has already declared he wants you “conformed to the likeness of his son.” (Rom 8:29)

So here are some questions that will help keep you on track. You can use them in your own prayer time or in a Core Group.

1. What is your experience of prayer and of being attentive to God this week?
2. What temptations did you face this past week?  How did you deal with them?
3. How did the Holy Spirit work in your life this week?
4. What opportunities have you had to serve others this week?  Did you?
5. In what ways have you encountered the Living God in your study of the Bible this week?

This week I will speak from the closing chapter of the letter of James.  It is a letter full of the challenge to run the race, fight the good fight and persevere to the end.  It is a letter that never allows you do God without engaging with the reality of a broken church and a hurting world.

This is our last opportunity to all be together on a Sunday until late August.  There will be an update on Christians against Poverty, testimony of a glorious answer to prayer and much more including news on how we are planning to replace Lisa (who is sadly moving on as you know). You may be in for a surprise or two!

In the Fathers love and keep on running!

Mark

It’s summer – hurray!

Sunshine, picnics, cricket, the smell of sun tan lotion…

From 25th July – 22 August, Oak Tree won’t have services in Twyford School Café – but between 4:30pm and 6:00pm will be in Springfield Gardens enjoying hanging out together with a picnic and some summer games.

Come & join us!

We will be back in the café on Sunday 29th August.

If you’re hungry to hang out with God this summer – we also have three ‘Hungry’ evenings where we will worship and pray together.

Would be great to see you there. 7:30pm

Please email Ruth Robinson through the site if you want to know venue information.

Transform the Rest

God likes rest.

God wants you to rest.

He sets apart specific time from the very beginning for work to stop and rest to be taken (Gen 1:31).

It seems to me that Sabbath (time of rest) is about our relationship with God.

We rest because God does, God rests because he wants us to…

So our rest is designed to be with God, alongside Him, in Him, Holy for Him.

And when we spend time with God, even in rest, we get transformed.

Real sabbath rest should be defined through a transformation that happens by just being with God, no agenda, no system, no ‘work’ or ‘do’ but just being.

As we rest everything that has gone before can settle, be made sense of, fade or sharpen.

As we rest everything that may be coming God can prepare us for, strengthen us for, equip us for.

So as we rest from the Market and other Oaktree ministries this summer, let’s rest with God.

Ask God to lead you in the rest that He knows you need.

I believe that in this way, with Godly rest as our preparation, we could see these Acton streets become gracious and God-filled.

____________________________________________________

THIS WEEK and 7th and 14th August…

This week: 2 spaces 10-12, 2 spaces 12-2

Hots: 2 spaces both 10-11 and 11-12

7th August – all shifts and Hots spaces available

14th August – all shifts and one Hots space 10-11 and two 11-12.

____________________________________________________

Rest well.

mb

Rev. Mark Bishop

Out there and Curate

Oaktree, Acton.

England v Germany in the world cup at 3pm on Sunday. Watch the match or go to Oak Tree? Well it’s a no brainer as they say!

Subject to confirmation I am hoping to have use of a TV at Twyford from 4pm to allow second half viewing. If there is a problem we shall let you know sometime on Friday.

If you choose to watch from home then I shall of course fully understand and it would be great to see you as soon as you can get down to the service after the match. After all it would be great to celebrate a victory together!!

As for me I shall be there with Mark B to start promptly at 4:30. We do hope to see you at some point, and I look forward to following up my sermon on Romans 7 with a talk on what is called the “Himalaya passage on the Holy Spirit” in Romans 8. I can’t promise a great sermon but I can promise that God will be present.

Blessings,

Mark

Ps COME ON ENGLAND

Hopefully you wont notice a thing except a faster website!

How do we distinguish between rich and poor?

The haves and have-nots?

Those who choose much and those who don’t have much choice?

Addicted to shopping and entertainment or addicted to drugs and alcohol?

Mentally well or mentally unwell?

Those who smell of roses or those who smell of fags?

Those who know God and those who don’t?

Jesus, was he rich or poor?

As far as I can tell he made himself poor, became homeless, adopted a new family, got a bad reputation from the powerful and a good reputation amongst the powerless.

But then he was rich, not short of heavenly quantities of food, health, knowledge.

Jesus managed to live in the tension between rich and poor, he listened to the poor and freely gave of his wealth.

At the market stall we are still living in that tension between rich and poor, however we define that.

Important information below:

Some practical things:

1. In order to learn more come September and through the Autumn/Winter term we will be having some focused MarketTRAINING sessions, one on Mental Health, one on Alcohol Addiction and one on Homelessness.
2. We already know the best way to work in this tension is AS A TEAM, so, especially as we have a few regulars who have demanding mental health issues, let’s look out for each other and ask for help.
3. We must ask God for help! FROM NOW ON each shift will start 10 minutes earlier for prayer.

_____________________________________________

THIS WEEK:

Stall: 3 spaces 10-12, 3 spaces 12-2

Hots: 2 spaces both 10-11 and 11-12

nb. AM shift will meet to pray at 9.45 at the Kings Head benches. PM shift will meet at 11.50 in small room in St.Mary’s (where we fill flasks).

Also – I would love lots of volunteers for next week (3rd July) as Danny and I are both away on James Perryman’s stag!

AND – SUMMER MARKET:

There will be NO Market Stall on 17th, 24th and 31st JULY.

But we will be back for 7th and 14th AUGUST (and in need of you!)

Then away again 21st, 28th August….ready to start back September 4th 2010.

_____________________________________________

Rich, Poor and following Jesus.

mb

Rev. Mark Bishop

Out there and Curate

Oaktree, Acton.

mb

Rev. Mark Bishop

Out there and Curate

Oaktree, Acton.

Market Football

So the World Cup is fast approaching!

And I was thinking…

The Market stall is just like football really.

It’s a team game, individual confidence and skill is important but it’s how those things come together that counts

There are manager and coaching roles to get the details in place.

There are tactics learnt in training.* *There are different formations.

Sometimes we are more attacking and sometimes more defensive.

God is like owner (Father), manager (Jesus) and coach (HS)!

In theory God’s like the ultimate player-manager, he plays too.

Acton is our pitch and the church is our team!

But in some ways we are very different…

On our team, everyone is selected to play, no just any elite.

On our team the people we serve are not opposition, they are the prize worth fighting for.

On our team God is the fitness coach, calling us to be disciplined but not reliant on human strength.

________________________________________

THIS WEEK

STALL: *3 spaces 10-12, 3 spaces 12-2 *HOTs: *2 spcaes 10-11 and 11-12

could you let me know if you have booked (to check my records) OR would like to book in any shift from this Saturday- July 10th (last Market stall before summer)- thankyou!

Also please volunteer for June 19th – inflatables for families AND the Rabuna Style cafe – get involved!

________________________________________

Go team!

mb

Rev. Mark Bishop

Out there and Curate Oaktree, Acton.

So as we journey through my thoughts on what I truly value for Oak Tree we get to the third value that I mentioned in my AGM talk. Number 3 is mission and community.

Now on the face of it those two may not appear to go together but I want to argue that we must live in both the tension of these two and the creative dynamic that each brings to the other.  An emphasis on community can sound rather inward looking but if true authentic relationships are what people really long for then community in it self can become missional.

Jesus said “By this shall all people know that you are my disciples that you love one another”.

As we build community I am desperately keen that we increasingly mirror the diversity of Acton.  Now if you are white, balding, slightly chubby, in your fifties and male then you might think you are not very representative of Acton. So would such a gem of a person be at home in Oak Tree?  But if that did describe you then rejoice, we each have something to bring to the party!  But at the same time just as there is only room for one person like me, or you, so too we must be accessible to as many different people as possible, no matter what their colour, creed at the moment, gender, socio-economic situation or even their sexuality!  All are welcome to this transforming community.

God loves all of us so much that he is not willing that any of us stay the same as we are now!

As I have already stated such community is missional. But if mission to the so called “last, lost, least and lonely” is not made an absolute priority then it usually falls off the priority list all together.  As we move in to our own building we must re-double our commitment to get “out there”.

To quote the New Wine values “we want to see the church become a missionary movement to love and reach the lost, to care for the poor and to bring justice to our homes, neighbourhoods, workplaces and nations, while also being a grace filled community in which people can find relationship, healing, faith, hope and love”.

Every blessing,

Mark

Tomorrow (Wednesday) evening is Church Central held at Acton Green Church in Cunnington Street, W4.  We continue our sozo training as we develop teams to share the faith through ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit. You will hear of testimonies of team members who went all the way to Ealing and of opportunities to travel continents in Jesus name.  Every single one of you is welcome

What is it that we truly and fundamentally value about being a church? You may recall that in my previous message, and at the AGM, I said that we needed to have a conversation about our values and our vision.  I began with cross and resurrection.  This week I want to suggest presence and transcendence.  Or to put it in plain English, God is both near and far, with us in ways we can experience and yet glorious, majestic and beyond

This is important for several reasons as it will influence the “how we do church” and also what we communicate to those who are not yet part of the Oak Tree family.

The presence of God is a wonderful gift to any believer. It is the knowledge that you have been drawn in to intimacy with our Heavenly Father.  An old worship song described it like this: “when the things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace”.  It is as if worldly concerns are overruled by a peace that cannot be overcome and a strength that empowers life well lived.  Often we experience this presence in terms of both peace and a weight upon us. Indeed the glory of God literally implies a heaviness.  I remember queuing to get in to a church in Canada and being unable to stand such was the reality of Gods closeness.

It was not the experience, exciting though that was that mattered, it was that in the place of knowing God’s presence hearts are transformed; bodies healed; minds renewed, and in the case I have sited, I came to a deep place of repentance.  I knew that to live in such proximity to the Living and Holy God I had to forgive others and ask their forgiveness of me.

Many churches will try and hype or imitate this sense of excitement and presence but be sure when it is real God will not leave you as you are.  He loves you too much to let you experience froth; He wants you to experience deeply His holiness.

Transcendence is about acknowledging and celebrating that we have a BIG GOD.  He is powerful, majestic and sovereign.  Whilst He loves to draw near in intimacy He is not a God we can box in or domesticate like some heavenly pet.  His ways are above our ways and He is not a God to be messed with.  He is ultimate truth, searing fire and light in whom there is no shadow of darkness.  Whilst Father full of love, He is a judge of all as well.

We all need a God we truly revere. We are created to worship.  We need to know we have a God in whom we can expect the “exceedingly more than can we ask or imagine” of Ephesians.  When life is tough and the mountains we must scale dwarf us we must know that God is on His throne and that all is therefore well.

So as we come to worship on Sunday (Pentecost, when we plan to pray for all that are wanting, that the fire of His presence and glory will fall) let us do so with reverence for God is King, and with heartfelt joy for He is near.

And do let me or one of the ACC know what you think should be included in the vision and values of Oak Tree. The ACC meets on Monday and over the next couple of meetings will discuss our vision and values. Why not have your say?

In the Fathers love,

Mark