Perhaps prayer is not so much about practice as it is about posture.
That is, what if prayer is actually (and simply) the fact, or act, of honesty to God – rather than the form, duration or style this is outworked in.

So, in this view, to pray is to simply express honesty to God; the length or shape or mode – the container – is not its essence, but a framework to ‘nurture’ the interaction.

In this way then
very short prayers
or written prayers
might just be as potent (and maybe more so) than any other.

“To learn to speak truthfully to one another requires that we learn to speak truthfully to God, that is, we must learn to pray.”
Stanley Hauerwas – Matthew (2006), p72.

Thoughts?

Yesterdays tragic earthquake that hit Christchurch unfolds as what our Prime Minister has called ‘one of NZ’s darkest days’.

For us who are watching the devastation from afar, it seems so surreal, and for those of us who have family and friends living there these past hours have been fraught with anxiety as we wait for news of their safety.

So far all of us at Edge who have relatives and friends in Christchurch have been relieved to hear that they are all well, but they

will be facing the reality of a city once again devastated, life as they know it changed.

These tragedies pull us together as a nation,and demand of us a response in whatever way is possible, from a personal to a collective level.

If you want to contribute financially, we will have a facility available on sunday for you to do so.

And this week Thursday Prayers will be dedicated to the people of Christchurch, so please make time tomorrow night between 5.30 – 7pm to gather at Edge and pray for our Southern family.

Morning all.

Final Thursday Prayers for the year today. Post-work prayer will kick in at 5:30 and we’ll finish sharp on 6:30 tonight.

It’s been a fantastic, consistent rhythm of prayer we have pulled off this year people. I’m really looking forward to 2011!

Thanks heaps,

Jay

Good morning peeps!

Another wonderful Thursday is upon us so come on in for prayer after work, 5:30-6:30. (No soup today). Or if you’re able to, you can come in during the day. There’s many reasons why it’s good to give some intention time to listening to Jesus, but here’s some “2010 gems” from our illustrious leaders:

Greg, in January – Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
Linda, in February – “In 2010, what will you give to waste time with God?”
Mike, in February (or March?) – “Business equals laziness.” (A Eugine Petersen-ism).

Time is of the essence when it comes to listening (aka prayer). It is the seedbed of our attentiveness, cultivating a posture of humility in the heart. Exorcise silliness-season-syndrome, and pop in to Edge for a cup of heart-glow this arvo.

Chur,

Jay

Hi folks.

No 5:30pm prayer and soup tonight at church. Sorry about that. Spread the word. But the chapel and prayer room is available throughout the day.

And school is on too – at 7pm.

laters – jay

It’s a sad, sad day in our land peeps. Let’s pray for the Holy Spirit to minister to the people down there on the coast.

See you at 5:30pm for our community offering of prayer. Soup will be served at 6:45pm.

Jay

Let’s keep up the momentum of prayer. See you all at 5:30 tonight. If you come bring something to eat with soup – we’ll be serving about 6:45. Then stick around for school and rid yourself of cliched, one-dimensional, salvation.

Jay.

I’d trade it all
Even mountains of diamonds
To sing before kings would not sway me at all
My time which is precious
I’d pour out like oil
Foolish perhaps
Then maybe not
Oh to be a friend of God

Kevin Prosch.

Thursday Prayer is on today peeps. Let’s gather at 5:30, pouring our time on the feet of Jesus.

Kia ora – Jay

Hope to see you this Thursday. Edge is open from 7am-7pm for you to come and pray. 5:30pm is a specific corporate prayer time so pop in after work, and for those who want to finish with a bowl of soup together, just let the office know by 3pm Thursday.

The place of prayer is the spiritual and physical substructure of Christian life on which we establish Christ-likeness in our life, and the culture around us. It is the medium by which God shares his thoughts with us, we agree with those ideas in meditation, speech, song and art, then exit the building, living out God’s ideas – our prayers – as little acts of creation bringing God’s kingdom. We become change agents, commissioned from God-ideas sourced in the place of prayer.

Here’s a quote by Greg Boyd, author and pastor, on prayer:

“The primary purpose of prayer, as illustrated throughout scripture, is precisely to change they way things are. Crucial matters, including much of God’s own activity, are contingent upon our prayer. Consider the following small sampling of passages relevant to prayer:

Ask and it will be given you. (Mt 7:7)
If you have faith and do not doubt,… if you say to this mountain, “Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,” it will be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer, with faith, you will receive. (Mt 21:21-22).

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chron 7:14).

The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up… Therefore… pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. (Jas 5:15-16).

It seems that whether we pray, how faith-filled our prayer is, how persistent it is and even how many people agree together in prayer are all factors that have a real effect in getting God to move and thus in changing the world (cf. also Jas 1:6-8; Mt 18:18-19). So it is not surprising to find Jesus attaching a real urgency to prayer (e.g., Lk 11:5-13; 18:1-8), and believers are therefore to strive to be involved in it on a nonstop basis (1 Thes 5:17).”

The striving Boyd refers to comes from nothing less than grace. Grace has been given us, that we may freely access the Father – we can boldly come before him, present our requests, have his requests presented to us, and then in agreement with him and one another, shape our world.

See you on Thursday?

Jay