New Book - A God of Compassion

Over 100 prayers on a theme of healing and wholeness - for the individual and also for many situations and natural disasters which affect us and others in this world.

This has been a labour of love, as I believe that we have a God who heals, not only for individuals and their particular ailments, but in nations, situations of war and conflict, and at times of disaster.

This book is offered as a collection of prayers about healing. For many that means healing from the various ailments and diseases that afflict so many of us. But healing has a much broader meaning when we are thinking about our prayer life.

We might pray for the healing of physical and spiritual relationships that have broken down. In the wider context we can pray for reconciliation between peoples and nations and for healing of the earth and its people after natural or man-made disaster.

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Prayer banned for being too Christian!

A Hospital Chaplain (who will remain nameless!) asked if it was OK to use the prayer of mine pasted below as part of a general chaplaincy leaflet, but was then told not to use it by the hospital 'powers-that-be' as it was too Christian!

Don't you just love political correctness!  Make up your own mind.........

I prayed
"Please Lord,
my life is a mess,
let your love flow through me
and bring healing."
And like a river,
cool refreshing water,
you flowed through me.
Not as a gentle stream,
a rivulet of hope,
but a torrent,
sweeping debris away.
All those broken branches,
rust-encrusted items
and accumulated debris
which were holding back the flow,
swept aside in a torrent of love,
flooding through my veins,
pouring into my heart,
filling my life.
This is healing.
Thank you, Lord

Read more at: http://www.faithandworship.com/healing_prayers_3.htm#ixzz1JJhlzzpN

The Worship Leader's Little Helper

There's another new ebook available on FaithandWorship.com, designed to help the Leader of worship with the opening prayers within a service. I've written over 20 complete sets of prayers (including 5 for Advent) alongside some other bits and pieces which might be of help.

The prayers are designed to be printed off on a single sheet of A4 and are set out for ease of use.

The ebook (a PDF download) is £3.99 (or $5.75 if you prefer!) and I hope will prove useful to lots of  people who occasionally get asked to lead prayers, as well as the more experienced Worship Leader.

Find out more, and see sample page - CLICK HERE

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Prayer

When you start thinking too deeply about prayer it can pose some difficult questions. If God has the whole of history - past, present and future - laid out in front of him, then the events and happenings of our lives must be mapped out on the master-plan somewhere.

And if life is all mapped out, then there must be a degree of inflexibility should the need arise to ask God to change something (healing, job, relationship, problem etc) unless that is already 'in the system' and marked for change. Imagine God as CEO and occasionally asking 'Gabriel, bring me Mr Birch's file file!'

I quite like C S Lewis' approach in his book 'Letters to Malcolm - Chiefly on Prayer'in which he says this:

'One of the purposes for which God instituted prayer may have been to bear witness that the course of events is not governed like a state but created like a work of art to which every being makes its contribution and (in prayer) a conscious contribution'

Theologically there may be difficulties in this idea, but I like the idea that rather than God's will being rather inflexible as he holds the whole of history in his hands, that what he has created is a work of art which in a sense is always complete and yet continually being contributed toward.

Prayer can work in such a system, as can creativity. It gives a sense and purpose to our lives and our concerns for the world that we might bring to him in prayer.

Adoration and thanksiving

I've been writing prayers for some time now, and as a worship leader and user of prayers have sometimes struggled with the difference between a prayer of adoration and one of thanksgiving - particularly as I like the ACTS acronym for prayers in worship (adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication.)

Now I find myself writing an ebook which covers the ACT prayers, and have had to think harder about the difference, if one exists.

I have come to conclusion that there is a difference, but also crossover. Adoration focuses on who God is, thanksgiving on what he has done. But of course the crossover is that God couldn't do what he does unless he is what he is!

So there's an element of thanksgiving in both prayers, and one of acknowledging His majesty and greatness in both!

There you go....clear as mud!

A new ebook!

This book has been on the go for some time, and I'm really pleased with the outcome!

Still very much influenced by the prayers of the early Christians in this country, I've given this one a basic theme of journeying with God through the day from waking to sleep

This time, not all the prayers are on the website, so you'll need to get the book to find those!

The book also contains some photographs to enhance the prayers

Check out the details on http://www.faithandworship.com/shop.htm