Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Collateral Blessing Desired

"The Church should be a 'movement of prayer' which creates 'collateral blessing', the Archbishop of Canterbury said..... He was speaking at New Wine, a charismatic Evangelical festival in Somerset.

The US Army gave us the expression 'collateral damage', which means 'killing people you did not mean to target,' he said. 'People seeking Christ create collateral blessing. That means changing the world for the better, in ways you could not have predicted.'

Archbishop Welby continued: 'There has never been a renewal of the Church in Western Europe without a renewal of prayer and the life of religious communities. Never. And if we want to see things changed, it starts with prayer.'  (Church Times)

In Singapore every Thursday, a number of us meet at our Territorial Headquarters chapel for Prayer meeting from 7.30 a,m to 8.30 a.m.  May wife and I are always blest as we pray together with fellow salvationists. We form part of the global prayer chain that encircles the globe.

The poet Tennyson puts it so beautifully,

"More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice rise like a fountain for me night and day...
For the whole round earth is every way bound by gold chains about the feet of God."

For us it means getting up half an hour earlier on Thursday morning, but it has been worth while. We are still able to have our early morning exercise in the compound, have our own private devotions and breakfast before leaving home at 6.45 a.m.

It calls for discipline. And that is good for us.

Prayer does something for us.
Prayer does something in us.
Prayer does something through us.

"Make me a blessing, make me a blessing
Out of my life, may Jesus shine,
Make me a blessing, Saviour I pray.
Make me a blessing to someone today."

"Blessing through me, Lord blessing through me,
Lord send to others some blessing through me;
Living that all men Thy glory shall see,
Lord, send to others, some blessing through me."

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