Isaiah, Fatboy Slim & the Rhythms of Rave (Prayer)

“Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat” is the mantra that you’ll hear if you tune in to Fatboy Slim’s 2013 hit on YouTube, of the same title, which, by the way, has approaching 6 million views. Either that, or you take yourself along to your local gym and do a Les Mill’s BodyPump class, and the current shoulder track, which plays the same banging tune.Continue reading “Isaiah, Fatboy Slim & the Rhythms of Rave (Prayer)”

Incomparable

A friend recently gave me a copy of Andrew Wilson’s fine book Incomparable, by all accounts a modern day equivalent of J I Packer’s Knowing God. Wilson’s book is a concise, snappy, whimsical, high-calibre study of the character of God and even in the opening chapters there are some nuggets that landed in my heart that catalysed a bubbling up of faith. Here are just two to whet the appetite:
Continue reading “Incomparable”

Reclaiming Rest

It’s 1:30am, the middle of the night, and you’re wide awake struggling to sleep. What’s more, you really need to sleep because you have to be up early the next day or you’ve got an important presentation to give at work or you’re speaking at church. It’s tough when you don’t sleep and you have to be up front on public duty, as it were – I’ve been there many times.

I wasn’t sleeping last nightContinue reading “Reclaiming Rest”

Fiesta Leather Seat FIFA Furniture (part 1)

You love playing Fifa with the lads and find very few things more relaxing and enjoyable than chilling out with a beer, a pizza and some FIFA banter? Join the club! Take the next step and make your own personal home FIFA chairs with a set of signature leather seats for friends and family. Enjoy…

Continue reading “Fiesta Leather Seat FIFA Furniture (part 1)”

: Lonely (My God & My All)

In my last three articles, what I’ve been trying to say is that the three words Lengthy, Lingering and Lonely are words that strike me as being absolutely critical to 1) Jesus’ own personal, perfect and powerful relationship with the Father and 2) an emphasised lifestyle of prayer that Jesus models as our Lord and Teacher for us to imitate. Continue reading “: Lonely (My God & My All)”

: Lingering

“When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now” C.S.Lewis

Back in May was a post recently where I mentioned that I was going to be looking at three key words that apply to the example of prayer that Jesus gives us in the New Testament. I’ll do ‘Lonely’ later this week and you can find ‘Lengthy’ here. Now for ‘Lingering’.

‘Lengthy’ is Less Unnatural When We Learn to Linger in HopeContinue reading “: Lingering”

: Lengthy

‘Lengthy’. That sounds like a negative word, right? Unless, perhaps, I’m referring to a holiday in balmy Malaga, by a pool-side, reading Robert Harris, eating paella, sipping San Miguel. But, I did say yesterday that I would look at how it applies to Jesus and prayer.

 
We don’t like to wait. None of us do. Or, if we have to, only for very short times that seem reasonable to us. When it comes to the things we want, we ‘want them now’. Obviously, this is both a Universal human condition, (our inherent desire for instant gratification), but also a peculiar product of the tick-tock, treadmill, consumerist age in which we live. It gets all over us like a materialist mist – we can observe it clearly for what it is when we’re far away out of its reach, but, within it, we’re oblivious to the effect of its density. And it’s getting worse, generation by generation.

 

Continue reading “: Lengthy”

Back in May

It was back in May 2014 that I wrote a blog article called Sirens and Buses

If you’ve read that you’ll know that I’d planned to write more about the primary model of prayer that Jesus gives us in the New Testament – lengthy, lonely, lingering prayer with the Father.

Over the next few days, I’m going to take those three ‘Ls’ and attempt to show why they’re so vitally important for a vibrant life of faith as a lover of Jesus. My hope is that looking more closely at prayer like this will catalyse love for God in a new way.Continue reading “Back in May”