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document.write("<P><SPAN style=\"COLOR: #800000\"><STRONG><EM>A Big Bunch of Losers?<BR></EM></STRONG></SPAN>I have always thought that the pre-Pentecost church was a bit of a let down. That the Apostles at that point were somehow a bunch of losers who had run away from what happened to Jesus and had&nbsp;been dragged back together by the scruff of the neck sat in the upper room of someone's house and told more or less not to move until the Holy Spirit came or they would continue to be a bunch of losers.</P>");
document.write("<P>But actually when you challenge yourself to sit and read these Scriptures you have to recognise that there is something incredible&nbsp;happening in the 10 days between Jesus ascending into heaven and a group of people being given the authority of God to become his witnesses to the world.</P>");
document.write("<P>Firstly they are not as afraid as I thought because they are not afraid to meet in large numbers (120 is a significant number) so they are not afraid of who's at the door, not yet anyway that comes in Acts 4.</P>");
document.write("<P>But I also note that they are by no means&nbsp;lost either, they seem full of purpose, activity and excitement as they meet together&nbsp;and&nbsp;wholeheartedly seek God!<BR><BR><SPAN style=\"COLOR: #800000\"><STRONG><EM>Smokin...!<BR></EM></STRONG></SPAN></P>");
document.write("<P>In verse 14 the NIV says, ‘They joined together constantly in prayer along with the women…' which is a bit bland really. The Amplified Bible says this: ‘All of these with their minds in full agreement devoted themselves steadfastly to prayer, [waiting together] with the women…‘ Now that is a better sense!</P>");
document.write("<P>The Greek could have a sense of&nbsp;saying this, ‘They came and glued themselves together as one burning flame or smoking consecrated sacrifice.'&nbsp; Prayer being seen as smoke rising from a fire.</P>");
document.write("<P>The imagery is common to many of the cultures of the New Testament world and equally the Jewish culture. Indeed the Jewish tradition teaches that we should long to come into the presence of God, to be hungry for God and they used the burning of sacrifices and incense to help people understand this.</P>");
document.write("<P>For example in Leviticus 1 a family or individual would bring an animal and lay their hand on its head (which was a picture of transferring the identity of the person giving the sacrifice so that the animal becomes their representative). The animal was sacrificed and then burned and the smoke rose from the sacrifice to up into the sky. This is a physical picture which showed the world that this individual or family is accepted in the presence of God.</P>");
document.write("<P>Equally the early church recognised the use of smoke to represent coming into the presence of God. &nbsp;In Revelation 5 the image is of the temple in Jerusalem&nbsp;and the altar of incense which represented the prayers of the people rising into the presence of God.&nbsp; The writer of Revelation uses the image of smoke to help his readers picture the sweetness of their prayers in the presence of God&nbsp;<BR><BR>This shows us that the Acts 1 church was far from my image of a bunch of losers.&nbsp; Instead they are&nbsp;desperate to get into the presence of God together and call down the Holy Spirit.</P>");
document.write("<P><SPAN style=\"COLOR: #800000\"><EM><STRONG>Waiting - tapping or action?<BR></STRONG></EM></SPAN>This also gives us a different understanding of the word 'wait'.&nbsp; When Jesus asks his disciples to wait in Jerusalem it is not the English view of waiting, the English view is tends to mean patiently stand in line and wait our turn, we stand in line and examine our fingers look at the ceiling shuffle forward until we hear 'Cashier number 5 please', but that is not the case in most of the world and not the case in the New Testament. The word 'wait' is full of expectation.&nbsp; Waiting in the Bible is about action about preparation, about alertness about being hungry for something to happen. Their prayers were full of expectation and excitement.</P>");
document.write("<P>How do we see prayer?</P>");
document.write("<P>I'm sure that as we look at prayer in our lives we will see yawning gaps between our prayer life and the type of prayer life of the disciples in Acts 1.<BR><BR><SPAN style=\"COLOR: #800000\"><STRONG><EM>Reveal, Refresh or Shock!<BR></EM></STRONG></SPAN></P>");
document.write("<P>But of course the disciples also had problems in prayer, to start with they did not know how to.</P>");
document.write("<P>From the teaching of Jesus it seems apparent that our prayer life has to start with a desire for God to be revealed in our lives, if you like to see God at work. The first prayer of the disciples - what we now call 'The Lord's Prayer', is a prayer asking God to reveal himself at work. 'Let us see your kingdom at work (here on earth as it is in heaven), Give us bread, Release us from sin, protect us from evil...', it is the starting place of asking God to reveal Himself at work that creates an expectation in our praying and our faith level rises.</P>");
document.write("<P>When we see God at work we pray more!</P>");
document.write("<P>However seeing God at work can easily lead on to&nbsp;a second problem in our prayer lives - Complacency!</P>");
document.write("<P>When we become complacent we pray less. That is why the disciples were asleep in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was arrested, they had become complacent life was reasonably easy, Jesus was here feeding when they were hungry, calming storms and even defeating criticism, that stuff made them comfortable.</P>");
document.write("<P>It isn't as easy as 'just&nbsp;see God at work and you will pray'.&nbsp; We need to have the balance of seeing God at work but not becoming complacent taking God for granted. </P>");
document.write("<P>Here is a question for your hearts… Where are you?</P>");
document.write("<P>If you are thinking here - 'Oh my prayer life is no where near what I want.&nbsp; I'm not seeing God at work' -&nbsp;ask him to reveal his work to you. If you have grown cold in God, and you are not happy about that, ask Him to reveal himself afresh to you today. If you are struggling to get hold of God pray that through with someone, contact us or come and visit us, I can say without question that God wants that for you today, so don't leave and go away without it.</P>");
document.write("<P>Be like Jacob who wrestled with God and would not let him go until he was blessed.</P>");
document.write("<P>If you are not yet a believer in the Lord Jesus and you're not sure what this Christianity lark is all about again the first step towards this reality is to ask for God to reveal Himself to you<BR><BR>Just pray now, <SPAN style=\"COLOR: #800000\"><EM>‘God, I don't understand but I want to know if you are real, reveal yourself to me today please God show yourself to be real - if you are.' <BR></EM></SPAN><BR>Don't worry about challenging God to 'get real' he love the idea that you want to.<BR><BR>Please tell us if you&nbsp;prayed this, just click on my name below and send me a message (confidentially) and we will be praying for you today.</P>");
document.write("<P>If you have become complacent well that is a little more tricky, you need a shock! I cannot put it any other way really, complacency needs a shock. For the disciples it was arrest, threat, death and resurrection. For Moses it was a burning bush, for King David an encounter with&nbsp;the prophet Nathan, for Elijah a threat of murder... It is not uncommon!</P>");
document.write("<P>If your Christian life is full of complacency. I pray that the Lord Jesus will shock you, because complacency needs to be broken, complacency drains us of any urgency, we feel comfortable and we just want to spiritually sleep.</P>");
document.write("<P>Lost your job, your health to a life threatening illness, a marriage that becomes rocky and you didn't notice, these are keys sometimes to a breaking of our complacency, greet them as an opportunity to throw yourselves on the altar of God afresh let the smoke of your prayers rise to Him.&nbsp; Ohh yes but don't do it alone, ask trusted Christian friends to help and support your search for the fire, so the smoke can rise again.</P>");
document.write("<P><SPAN style=\"FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #800000\"><EM><STRONG>May the LORD answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </STRONG><SPAN style=\"FONT-SIZE: 8pt\">Psalm 20:1-3</SPAN></EM></SPAN></P>");
document.write("<P align=center></SPAN><SPAN style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #800000; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff\"><SPAN style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff\"><STRONG></STRONG></SPAN>&nbsp;</P>");
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document.write("<P align=right><SPAN lang=EN-GB style=\"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff\"></SPAN><SPAN style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000099; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff\"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style=\"COLOR: #993300; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff\"><STRONG><A title=\"Talk to Rob Direct\" href=\"http://www.lcce.org.uk/feedback.htm\">Rob Watson </A>2009</STRONG></SPAN></SPAN></P>");
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