Brampton Blog - Entries written by Ted Duncan

Here's a excerpt from my favourite book on prayer "A Call to Spiritual Reformation" by D.A. Carson. I have personally benefited from each of the ideas he presents below and commend them to you.

"Anyone who has been on the Christian way for a while knows there are times when our private prayers run something like this: “Dear Lord, I thank you for the opportunity of coming into your presence by the merits of Jesus. It is a wonderful blessing to call you Father ... I wonder where I left my car keys? [No, no! Back to business.] Heavenly Father, I began by asking that you will watch over my family—not just in the physical sphere, but in the moral and spiritual dimensions of our lives ... Boy, last Sunday’s sermon was sure bad. I wonder if I’ll get that report written on time? [No, no!] Father, give real fruitfulness to that missionary couple we support, Whatever their name is ... Oh, my! I had almost forgotten I promised to fix my son’s bike today ...” Or am I the only Christian who has ever had problems with mental drift? But you can do many things to stamp out daydreaming, to stifle reveries.

One of the most useful things is to vocalize your prayers. This does not mean they have to be so loud that they become a distraction to others, or worse, a kind of pious showing off. It simply means you articulate your prayers, moving your lips perhaps; the energy devoted to expressing your thoughts in words and sentences will order and discipline your mind, and help deter meandering.

Another thing you can do is pray over the Scriptures. Christians just setting out on the path of prayer sometimes pray for everything they can think of, glance at their watches, and discover they have been at it for all of three or four minutes. This experience sometimes generates feelings of defeat, discouragement, even despair. A great way to begin to overcome this problem is to pray through various biblical passages.

A slight variation of this plan is to adopt as models several biblical prayers. Read them carefully, think through what they arevsaying, and pray analogous prayers for yourself, your family, your church, and for many others beyond your immediate circle.

Similarly, praying through the worship sections of the better hymnals can prove immensely edifying and will certainly help you to focus your mind and heart in one direction for a while.

Some pastors pace as they pray. One senior saint I know has long made it his practice to pray through the Lord’s Prayer, thinking through the implications of each petition as he goes, and organizing his prayers around those implications. Many others make prayer lists of various sorts…

This may be part of the discipline of what has come to be called ‘journalling’. At many periods in the history of the church, spiritually mature and disciplined Christians have kept what might be called spiritual journals. The real value of journalling, I think, is severalfold: (a) It enforces a change of pace, a slowing down. It ensures time for prayer. If you are writing your prayers, you are not daydreaming. (b) It fosters self-examination. It is an old truism that only the examined life is worth living. If you do not take time to examine your own heart, mind and conscience from time to time, in the light of God’s Word, and deal with what you find, you will become encrusted with the barnacles of destructive self-righteousness. (c) It ensures quiet articulation both of your spiritual direction and of your prayers, and this in turn fosters self-examination and therefore growth. Thus, journalling impedes mental drift. But this is only one of many spiritual disciplines. The danger in this one, as in all of them, is that the person who is formally conforming to such a regime may delude himself or herself into thinking that the discipline is an end in itself, or ensures one of an exalted place in the heavenlies."

D.A. Carson, “Lessons from the School of Prayer” A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006. Pg.20-22

Sleep is a perpetual reminder of our finiteness. Every 14-18 hours or so (depending on the person and depending on caffeine intake), our bodies have to shut down and be refreshed in order to survive. It doesn't matter how strong or resilient a person is, no one can survive without sleep.

Sleep is one of the things that sets God apart from human beings. God's word says that God never sleeps (Psalm 121:4). Think about it, the God who cares for you has never been drowsy, has never had bed head or morning breath, because He has NEVER EVER slept. Whether under the light of the sun or moon (Psalm 121:6), God is always caring for us.

Amazing! So sleep then should be an act of worship in which we regularly cease from our own efforts and rest in the care of He who "does not faith or grow weary" (Isaiah 40:28).

Much of modern man's problem with the gospel is anthropological. It arises from a faulty view of himself. Fallen man generally views human beings as neutral if not good. Therefore the fact that God sent Jesus and Jesus came to save sinners seems only interesting at best. If man is good and not in need of salvation, we can applaud God's love as admirable. If man is neutral, we can take salvation or leave it. If we leave it, God appears unfair for condemning us. However man is not good or neutral but bad. He already stands condemned and destined to experience God's wrath. Therefore faith in Jesus becomes a necessary way of escape from that dreadful destiny.

http://www.soniclight.com/constable/notes/pdf/john.pdf (page 60)

"On the basis of who he was and what he accomplished, Jesus made his demands. The demands cannot be separated from his person and work. The obedience he demands is the fruit of his redeeming work and the display of his personal glory. That is why he came— to create a people who glorify his gracious reign by bearing the fruit of his kingdom (Matt. 21:43). When he said, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10), he was speaking about Zacchaeus who had just been so transformed that he gave half his possessions to the poor (Luke 19:8). In other words, the Son of Man came to save people from their suicidal love affair with possessions (and every other idol) and to lead them into a kind of impossible obedience that displays the infinite worth of Jesus. Therefore, my effort in this book has been to hold together the meaning and motivation of Jesus’ commands, the greatness of his work, and the glory of his person." (page 23)

You can pick up a copy at our resource table this Sunday or click here to download this book in PDF format for free.

Sharing the good news of Jesus Christ is not optional. We have all been commissioned by Jesus to get out there and tell people about Him. This is not the Great Suggestion, it’s the Great Commission, and just incase you didn’t catch it the first time, in the book of Matthew, God inspired other versions of this solemn charge from His son in four other places.

Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Mark 16:15 And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

Luke 24:46-48   and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,  and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.

John 20:21  Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you."

Acts 1:8   But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

In many ways God has brought “all nations” reaching “to the ends of the earth” here to the city of Brampton. Today, you have been sent as a missionary by simply showing up at work or by walking your child to school or going to the mall. I’m praying for you today that God would give you an opportunity to share your faith with courageous clarity today.

It was great to meet together on Tuesday night to seek the Lord together in prayer. Let's continue this week to develop the discipline of prayer in our lives.

Here are 5 passages from scripture that God uses regulary to encourage me to seek Him in prayer. I hope they encourage you. 

Psalm 17:6 I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words.

Jeremiah 33:3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

Philippians 4:6  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Hebrews 4:15-16  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.  Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

James 5:16-17  Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.  Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

Even amidst the laughter and the joy surrounding the birth of Isaac (Genesis 21:1-7), tension still remained as a consequence of the sinful decision to surrogate God’s promise through Hagar over a decade earlier.

Once again, laughter enters into the story (see Genesis 17:17; Genesis 18:9-15; Genesis 21:1-7) as Ishmaels’ behaviour (most likely a mocking laughter) during a family dinner rains on Sarah’s parade and proves to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Abraham is obviously still significantly attached to Ishmael as it records that “the thing was very displeasing” to him (Genesis 21:11).  God speaks into the pain and hurt of this family and affirms Sarah’s suggestion to send Hagar and Ishmael on their way.

Just like in chapter 16 Hagar finds herself pushed out and threatened in the wilderness.  This time she is accompanied by her teenage son who quickly succumbs to the elements. Once again, God shows Himself to be faithful. Hagar went “a good way off” from her dehydrated and suffering son saying “Let me not look on the death of the child”. Even though she could not bear to look at her son as he suffered and fought for his life, God saw. God reminded Hagar that He is El Roi, the “God who sees” (Genesis 16:13). He provides her with a promise for Ishmael’s future (I will make him into a great nation – Genesis 21:18) and provision for their immediate needs (Genesis 21:19). Even when we can’t bear to watch, God loving and compassionate gaze is always on our circumstances.

Paul uses this historical event as a means of illustrating the difference between Judaism and Christianity in Galatians 4:21-31. Seeking eternal life and blessing from God through human effort and obeying the law is identified with Abram and Sarai’s scheme to fulfill God’s promise on their own terms through Hagar. God’s miraculous work accomplished on the cross through His Son Jesus Christ, a descendent of Abraham (Matthew 1:1), is symbolized by the miraculous birth of Isaac, the child of promise (Galatians 4:23).

As you look at your life and your relationship to God ask yourself today, “Am I living like a slave: thinking that I have to earn favour with God?” or “Am I living like a child of promise (Galatians 4:28) and walking by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-26) full of joy and gratitude because of what Christ has done for me?”

Faith is active trust. Faith begins when belief marries behaviour. A man or a woman of faith is a person who believes God’s promises and trusts His character so deeply that he or she acts with radical courage, wisdom and strength. A person of faith is a person who moves forward, trusting in God’s word, and leaving the details to Him.

Abraham is the franchise player on the team called faith. In the catalogue given in Hebrews 11 known as the “hall of faith”, one third of the text is taken up by Abraham. His story of faith is twice as long as any other character described in Hebrews 11 (for those of you keeping score: 12 verses are devoted to Abraham, the next closest is Moses with 6 verses). I love how the author of Hebrews describes Abraham’s radical trust in God. “By faith Abraham obeyed… he went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8).

I think a study of the life of Abraham is so fitting for our church at this point in time. Our church is so new and we don’t know what God is going to do, but we are expecting Him to do “far more abundantly” (Ephesians 3:20-21). We’ve already seen Him do great things and God is calling us to have the faith to expect even more! What we need as a church is more faith.

We need to keep moving forward as a church, trusting that God will provide and that God will remain faithful to His promises.  When you commit to moving FORWARD BY FAITH, the most important consideration is not the destination, the directions or the details. What matters most is who you are following.

We aren’t going got be studying the life of Abraham so that we can learn how walk like he did, rather, we are seeking to know the God who he followed.  As we study the life of Abraham, we will find that we can move FORWARD BY FAITH only because we are following a faithful God.

You can get a head start this week by reading and praying through Genesis 11:27-12:9. I’ll meet you there on Sunday.

Making Harvest My Home from Harvest Bible Chapel on Vimeo.

Many of us have been there. Overcommitted, undertrained, stressed out, unthanked, unfulfilled and lacking joy.

Some of you might be saying "Hey Ted! You haven't even had your first service yet. Don't think it's a little premature to be talking about burnout?"

I don't think it's ever too early to talk about burnout. At Harvest Brampton we want to be a people who are sold out for Jesus Christ and have a burning passion to love and serve Him. I know that many of us want this as well, but in the back our minds, the question lingers,  “How can we serve sacrificially in this new church without burning ourselves out in 3 months?” Maybe past experiences in serving as a part of a church have made you a little gun-shy when it comes to getting on board with Working for Christ at Harvest Brampton.

Well, before we even get started, let me take a pre-emptive strike and outline our plan to make sure that we are Building a Burning Passion for Jesus Christ and Beating Burnout.

If you’re still checking Harvest out, you can just file this blog post under FYI, but if you call Harvest Brampton your home church and are committed to being a part of our body, you need to take seriously your own participation in this plan.  We’re looking for each committed member of our core to sacrifice by missing out on our adult service for 2 out of 6 weeks. Like all sacrifices in the kingdom of God though, the blessing far outweighs the cost. Our blessing will include seeing the hearts of people of all ages warm to the gospel through the work of the Holy Sprit in their lives.

We’re looking for our core to commit to:

2 weeks serving on our welcome ministry

2 weeks serving in our children’s ministry

2 weeks of worshipping at Harvest with no formal responsibilities.

I know that some people will be saying "2 weeks in Children's ministry? I'm committed to serve, but do I have to serve there?" The short answer is yes. The long answer is found below.

Some of you might say “But I don’t have the gift of Children’s ministry?”

To that I say, Search the Scriptures! There is no spiritual gift of children’s ministry! In fact, just about every spiritual gift is needed in order to make Children’s ministry happen. We need people with the gift of helps, mercy, faith, evangelism, leadership, administration, discernment, teaching and exhortation.  Getting on board with this program, does not mean you’ll be the one singing the B.I.B.LE. at the front or telling the Bible story using a felt board. Running a great children’s ministry requires all kinds of roles for all kinds of people!

Also consider the numerous commands God gives to His people pass on the truths of God’s word to the next generation.  

Take a look two of them.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Psalm 78:5-7   He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;

Of course, the primary responsibility for the discipleship of children outlined in these texts lies on the parents, but the church at large needs to take this command very seriously and come alongside parents as they seek to raise their children in the fear of God.

Also consider the promises given to those who receive children.
 

Mark 9:37 "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me."

This is an amazing promise. When you help a family at the registration desk, or help a child with his or her coloring sheet, you are actually treating that child as though he or she is Jesus. Those who serve in Children’s ministry don’t “miss out” on worshipping Jesus by working in a class room instead of going to the service. They worship Him, by welcoming and loving children in His name.

Lastly, keep in mind that part of Christian discipleship is learning to become like a child.

Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child” (Mark 10:15) and "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3).

How can we expect to become like children if we’re not spending any time with children? Consider the following quotation from John Piper.  

"One thing to watch for when assessing a person’s spiritual fitness for ministry is how he or she relates to children. Put a child in the room and watch. That is what Jesus did to make His point. Children are the litmus paper to expose the presence of pride.... Receiving a child into your arms in the name of Jesus is a way to receive Jesus. And receiving Jesus is a way to receive God. Therefore how we deal with children is a signal of our fellowship with God."(1)

The answer for all of us in the fight against burn out is to get fired up about serving. The key words in that statement are "all of us".  We all need to share the responsibility God has placed on the family and on the church to disciple children. The more we each embrace that task,  the stronger we will be as a church.  If more and more of us say "I'm all in", then less and less of us will burn out and our whole church will grow as disciples with burning passions for Christ!

No more 20/80, let's go for 100/100!

(1) John Piper “Jesus and the Children: Pondering Children as Pride Detectors” in Taste and See: Savoring the Supremacy of God in All of Life. (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah, 2005), pg. 172.    

Thanks so much for your prayers. The meeting with the school principal today could not have gone any better. God has once again done far more abundantly than I could ask of think (Ephesians 3:20-21). I presented the principal with a proposal of what I thought would be ideal for our church and he responded by giving us something even better. I was walking around the school with the principal this morning with my jaw hitting the floor as he took me to 4 amazing classrooms that were absolutely perfect for our growing church.  

2 of the rooms are confirmed (which is our bare minimum to go forward) and 2 of them need to be confirmed by the teachers who use those rooms. But here’s the amazing thing: he intentionally took me to classrooms that have Christian teachers because he thinks they’d be open to letting us use them. God is so great. Praise the Lord!

“Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise” (Nehemiah 9:5)

God has been carrying us through this process all along. He is so faithful. If you've been praying about this for a long time like I have, take a moment, stop what your doing and give God glory for answering our prayers!

Ted will be meeting with school principal Monday morning at 8:30 to work out the details for our rental. Please pray that God would grant us favour in his sight and that this meeting would be the first step in developing a great relationship between this school and our church.

In Psalm 78:72 David is characterized as having an “upright heart” and a “skillful hand”. This description forms the foundation for what we are trying to accomplish in our Core Group meetings.

As we prepare for the task of church planting, we want to make sure that our hearts are “upright”. Upright, describes a person who is full of integrity and totally devoted to God, being free from selfish ambition or pride. The cry of the upright heart says “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory” (Psalm 115:1). At our Core Group meetings we spend time in worship and prayer and hearing God’s word because we want to make sure that our hearts are in the right place each step of the way.

We also want to take time to make sure that our hands are “skillful” by preparing ourselves to minister to people. We’re going to need “all hands on deck” as we step out by faith to get this church started, but we need those hands to know what they’re doing. We engage in practical ministry training at our Core Group Meetings so that all of us can cross-train for service in a number of ministry areas.

I hope to see you at our next Core Group Meeting July 28^th.

Click here to learn more about joining our Core Group.