Eaton Ford - Guard your heart

We met at Paul's this evening, the first time for the Thursday evening group. As usual we began by chatting over tea or coffee, and then Jim changed our focus by asking us to read Proverbs 4:20-27.

Jim explained that this passage had been shared at The River Church and he had been much struck by it. Verse 23 urges us to 'guard your heart' because it is the wellspring of life. The things we have (or lack) in our lives are not so important, but it's essential our hearts are true.

Sean pointed out that this theme carries on from last week when we thought about not worrying. We can just trust the Father to provide what we need when we need it. Sean thought that we desperately need more faith, and told us that sometimes he feels angry and frustrated at his own lack of faith. Chris read Acts 3:1-8 where Peter and John healed the crippled beggar. They prayed for him, but then Peter reached out, took his hand, and helped him up - and then he was healed. Peter's faith was demonstrated by helping the cripple up, and only then was the man healed. Faith is active, it does something practical. It's rather like learning to ride a bike, swim, or speak in tongues - you will never do it unless you try.

When we were chatting together later we decided we'd meet at Jim's next week, and we'll invite a new friend from Sandy to join us.

Great Doddington - A deep well

It was good to meet again, I hadn't seen these friends since before the trip to the USA.

We began by chatting over a coffee. One of the subjects that came up was how people are often dissatisfied with church life. Sometimes they stay, sometimes they move to another church. We thought that it's not a matter of the size of the group, but more to do with the way people treat one another. Large groups (more than about 15 or 20) are inevitably less intimate and personal so problems may go unnoticed. At the end of the evening this discussion continued, Glenn wondered how the structures and traditions of big church originated. I must lend him a copy of 'Pagan Christianity' as it covers this in detail.

We realise that we all have a part to play when we meet together. As Paul wrote, everyone can contribute something, we are even called to admonish one another when necessary - though with grace, wisdom, and love (Colossians 3:16).

Jody mentioned the Darwin film, 'Creation', which she had seen. Darwin was portrayed as wrestling with the disconnect between his twenty years of careful observation and the religion he had been taught. She read Hebrews 2:11. We have been made holy and are all of the one family, Jesus himself is our brother.

Chris mentioned how yesterday's meeting at work had been a reminder that we grow and encourage one another and this informs and empowers us in taking Jesus out to everyone we meet in our daily lives.

Jody read Isaiah 9:1-7 and then Rachael shared a picture of a deep well with a rope and bucket. She understood that the well in the picture is not external but represents a well within our hearts. We need to allow what's already in us to come out. This is the living water from Christ, who is the source.

Sue mentioned that it would be truly hard work winding up the heavy bucket and she saw that Jesus comes and pulls it up and splashes the water all over us! I added that we need to make a start and then he takes the strain, doing what we can't. Reaching out a hand and starting to wind is just having faith that he will do the work. We begin the task already knowing that he'll do it - and he does! He also gave Chris the words, 'I will never leave you'. Wherever you go, whatever you do in life, he is always going to be there for us. In him we live and move and exist.

Rachael had a second picture, this time a tree which had blood instead of sap. She could see the blood coursing through all the veins in the leaves.

Glenn explained that there is a link between the well and the tree. Water is for refreshing, it's fun, but it's also cleansing, it prepares us for service, and it irrigates. Water from the well can be poured from the bucket into the furrows in a field, and he saw plants spring up and burst into flower. They were like potatoes, the tops would die back but there was a harvest hidden underground. We have to wait for the hidden fruit to become ready. The tree has Jesus' blood in it, there is a time of increase, of harvest.

Jody challenged us with the idea that our culture has no understanding of blood, but she believes we are coming to a place where we will need to understand it clearly. Some time ago her son had needed surgery and she imagined seeing this being done (though of course in reality she has only seen the scars of the healed incision). She has no real idea of the intricate things the surgeons must have undertaken. And somehow she knows that we need to trust the Lord for what we don't see and don't understand, not just for the things we do see.

Colworth (CU) - Sense of direction

This is the first time I've included notes on the Christian Union (CU) meetings at work. For the changes that made this possible see 'Changing times'.

Steph read Micah 5:7-8 and then an extract from Charles Spurgeon's 'The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith'.

This was such an encouragement to us as we understood that we too, like the dewdrops, can be a refreshing balm to those around us. And as we talked we discovered that the four of us who met all felt that Spurgeon's words expressed what we already knew.

We need, not so much to plan and build something here at work in our own strength, but simply to be the Lord's people, guided by him moment by moment. We can reach out to those around us and be a blessing to them just by being there with Jesus expressing his life through us. Meanwhile when we meet on Mondays we can encourage one another as he expresses his life through us jointly.

This thought about our role in the workplace meshes nicely with a Christians at Work bulletin we received just a few days ago. The article was very much about our workplace presence whether we are received well or badly. Sometimes we feel alone, but we are not alone!

We thought about some of those who couldn't be with us today, and prayed for them. And we wondered if we are at a point of changing our focus in some way. Time will tell. Perhaps Father's best for us is not that we should run an Alpha Course or plan some kind of outreach, but that we should just be there for one another so that CU remains a place of equipping and encouraging.

Our Father is wonderful and he arranges things far better than we could ever hope to do. Sometimes I think he loves to surprise us with the dew descending - and then we realise that we are the dew!

Electric car - Better Place video

The company that just might get electric vehicles on the road in a major way, 'Better Place', has released a video showing the system in action.



With Israel, Denmark, and Australia rolling out the scheme, and with both Nissan and Renault on board to manufacture the cars, it seems this idea may well be starting to get some traction - (pun intended :-)

See also my earlier blog entry about this system and the guy behind it, Shai Agassi.

Eaton Ford (day) - Chat and prayer

This was the first time back at Paul's after my trip to America. Paul and I cleared some junk for a friend and took it to the tip, then went back to his place and chatted over coffee while we waited for Roger to arrive. Paul and Roger had met while I was away, but only once. It had been a busy time.

When Roger joined us we spent a while discussing what has been happening in our lives and listing people and issues we felt we should include in our prayer. This covered illnesses, people moving house and needing to settle in a new area, family difficulties, and the possibility of volunteer prison work.

Afterwards it was good to chat about some of the things that I'd learned at the House2House conference. I ran through Neil Cole's thoughts on the effect of group size on the nature of meetings, what Neil calls the 'gravity' of social groupings.

2 to 3 people - a good number for intimate, real, deep interaction and relationship. Typical of the way closest friends interact. Jesus sent out the disciples in twos, and the list of disciples in Matthew 10:2-4 is given in pairs.

12 to 15 - this size of group interacts more like a family, there is much more diversity than a group of 2 or 3. Typical of simple, organic church.

25-75 - numbers in this range are useful for training, mission, and equipping.

120-150 - 10 to 15 churches meeting together for example. Groups of this size seem to be a relational maximum, people can't remember names and faces for groups exceeding this size. A network of simple churches is typically this size.

300-500 - not an unusual size for a conference or some kind of special gathering, functions that don't require that everyone knows one another.

Unlimited multitudes - Jesus taught large crowds on the hillside, at this scale it's possible to teach content but not to mentor.

We finished up by having lunch together, and as we hadn't prepared anything we walked down to the local chip shop and feasted on fish and chips or sausage and chips. Excellent food and great fellowship!

Eaton Ford - Past and future

This evening's conversation centred around the X-treme Youth Camp 2009 and the possibility of remaining involved in 2010. We agreed that we should press on with some kind of reunion this autumn, probably ten-pin bowling with pizza and chips or something similar.

We were less certain about repeating the camp next year. Although it seems like a good idea we really want to do what the Spirit leads us to do, not to rush in to do what we think seems best. We realised that there's no need to make any decision until the spring so we will aim to pray until we sense we have clear guidance.

I explained some of the things that happened while I was at the House2House conference, outlining one or two of the sessions. I also shared the beauty of New England with the richly forested Appalachians.

Jim read Matthew 6:25-34 and we considered what faith implies and the need to 'seek first the Kingdom'. It occurred to me that Wolfgang Simson's definition of the Kingdon is that it's 'the realm of the Lord's undisputed rule'. And that's what we need, to be ruled by him and not by our own wishes and plans.

Sean shared a picture of little candle flames, all spread out and all glowing and giving light. It was as if each child that came to the camp was one of the little flames. How encouraging! Just before this I had seen sunlight sparkling on the surface of rippled water, but only when Sean shared his picture did it make sense to me. The two pictures are different yet they both illustrate the same truth.

Jim then talked about recycling. The re-use of discarded paving slabs had been mentioned earlier in conversation. Jim imagined some slabs discarded and broken but realised that someone could collect them and put them to a new use, or to the same use but in a different place.

He explained that it's the same with us when we feel broken and of no value, and then Jesus picks us up and tells us that he loves us and values us and want to re-use us. He takes us and sets us to his purpose. What could be better than that?

And finally, Paul mentioned the old song 'This little light of mine' (it had been in his mind for several days). And he told us how sometimes lights need an extra battery to make them even brighter. And this is what the kids reunion will do.