A Kingdom, A People & A River
A New Paradigm For the Post Modern House Church Movement

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Parousia Weekly Update Letter For The The Ember Days of September 2006
 
 "When a prophet is accepted and deified, his message is lost. The prophet is only useful so long as he is stoned as a public nuisance calling us to repentance, disturbing our comfortable routines, breaking our respectable idols, shattering our sacred conventions" (A. G. Gardiner as quoted by Arthur Wallis, "In The Day of Thy Power").
 
In This Issue:
Embertide, House Church & The Seasons of Our Lives
 
Dear Friends,
 
Welcome to my "season of the heart". I pray it will become your season as well.
 
Blessings,
Maurice
 
Embertide, House Church & The Seasons of Our Lives
 
I would dare say that most of us in the house church movement are not big followers of the Liturgical Calendar. Yep, fairly safe bet. The differentiation between Sacred Time and Ordinary Time is a mystery to most. And I would suspect that fewer still celebrate the quatuor tempora or "Four Times," otherwise known as "Ember Days." And therein lies today's lesson & story.
 
O.K., first some quick history & explanation. Traditionally, the Church has observed two great Liturgical Seasons: "Paschaltide" or Easter, which lasted from Septuagesima Sunday (70 days before Easter) to Pentecost (50 days after Easter), and "Christmastide" or Advent, which lasted from the 1st Sunday of Advent to Epiphany. These two great Liturgical Seasons provide a near continuity of six-to-seven months (referred to as "Sacred Time"), leaving five-to-six months of the year with no liturgical character (referred to as "Ordinary Time"). The original intent and purpose of the Liturgical Calendar and Seasons was to create a "divine rhythm" in the life of the Church which encouraged the Church and the believer to focus their attention on spiritual matters during the mundane routine of everyday life. The result was that the Church becae the center of the spiritual and social life of the individual and the community. It is unfortunate that many contemporary Christians find the rhythm of their lives in a television and entertainment schedule rather than in the rhythm of God’s seasons in their lives.
Now, where does "Embertide" fit into all of this (and why should you care)?  In the tradition of the Catholic and Anglican Churches people were encouraged to observe "Ember Days" or the "Fasts of the Four Seasons." These days were observed four times each year, on the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday following: 1) the first Sunday in Lent, 2) Pentecost, 3) Holy Cross Day (September 14th), and 4) St. Lucy’s Day (December 13th). These were to be special days of prayer and fasting (especially for candidates for ordination into holy orders). The purpose of the Ember Days observance was simple: to encourage the faithful to spend those days fasting and reflecting upon the change of the seasons. The hope was that people would also take the opportunity to reflect upon the spiritual seasons of God’s dealings in their lives.

Autumn "Embertide" is this week (the Ember Days being Wednesday the 20th, Thursday the 21st and Saturday the 23rd). It slipped up on me like a forgotten anniversary (yep, been there, done that!). I wasn't planning on writing this particular newsletter. It came on me like a sudden surge of the tide. I had actually been struggling for several days with beginning a prolonged season of fasting and prayer. It just wasn't happening, and I didn't understand why . . . til today.

"Simon Peter said to them, 'I am going fishing.' They said to him, 'We will also come with you.' They went out, and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing. But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus therefore said to them, 'Children, you do not have any fish, do you?' They answered Him, 'No.' And He said to them, 'Cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you will find a catch.' They cast therefore, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish." (John 21:3-6)

As my wife and I sat down for a quiet moment of devotions together this morning I commented to her that I felt very "un-devoted" - like Peter must have felt in John 21:3-6. When in doubt regarding what God was doing in his life Peter (like so many of us) went fishing. Mind you, Peter had walked away from his fishing business some 3 years earlier. He had met Jesus. His life had been changed. He had left fishing to follow Jesus. Now, 3 years later, he was a confused ex-fisherman who probably felt like those two anonymous disciples on the road to Emmaus, "But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel." Yep, there's nothing like dashed hopes and the death of a vision to make you want to go fishing, or do whatever you can do other than ministry. That's where I was this morning . . . contemplating fishing . . . and then God spoke . . . and the season began to change.

Like the ancient sheepherder from Tekoa, I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet. I try to leave prophetic ministry to those whom God has actually anointed with that gift. But there are times when even I can sense what God is doing, and what I am sensing now is a change of seasons, a far more profound change than autumn weather might suggest. I do not pretend to fully understand all that I am sensing or all that God is up to. But what I do sense is that we are entering a season during which God will entertain and answer the desperate prayers of desperate believers who are willing to genuinely humble themselves before Him in desperation, repentance and faith. In other words, this is a season in which He will answer the desperate prayers of those whose hopes have been crushed, who have experienced the death of their vision, and whose prayers are genuinely desperate. Strange, unpredictable things, these spiritual seasons of desperation. There's a reason for spiritul hunger and thirst conferences which don't satisfy anyone's hunger or quench anyone's thirst. The kind of spiritual desperation that God is looking for in this season is something that can't be manufactured, bottled and delivered at 10:00 AM on the morning of a conference. Rather it burns like a smoldering fire, a glowing ember in the soul, and manifests when you least expect it during a season that only God controls. Like Evan Roberts on the eve of the Welsh Revival, spiritual desperation cries out, "The altar is prepared, the sacrifice is laid; now let the fire fall."

O.K., I know, it's time to connect the dots and make a point. As the Ember Days of this week set the stage for this divine change of seasons, let me encourage you to spend some time (Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday would be good) considering the season of your own life by fasting, praying and expressing your own personal spiritual desperation before God. With a better understanding of what God is up to in this season, I am beginning my own personal season of fasting & prayer, asking God to teach me afresh how to pray the prayers of a desperate heart. Here are just a few of the things I am increasingly desperate for:
  • For God's call upon His church to take the Kingdom to the destitute and needy, to feed the poor, and to minister to "the least of these".
  • For an apostolic house church planter & friend who was forced to cancel a meeting in Asia to train pastors due to lack of financial resources to make the trip.
  • For a genuine financial breakthrough for house church and 5-Fold leaders who minister on a financial shoe-string, wondering if their power will be shut off by the time they return home (true story involving a friend of mine).
  • For my friend, Jamie, who daily lives with more physical pain than you or I will experience this year.
  • For a house church movement that moves in genuine Kingdom power to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons while freely giving all it has received.
  • For a friend who is embracing her apostolic leadership calling to plant house churches by travelling to Pakistan in November to plant house churches among Muslims. 
  • For other house church people I know who are wrestling with their 5-fold leadership calling, asking God to raise them up and anoint their ministries.
  • For the breaking down of those strongholds of religion and control which have stifled God's Kingdom purposes both here and elsewhere.
  • For a genuine outpouring of the River of God that will flow "from house to house" and make us a true Acts 2:41-47 house church movement.
Where are you in this unfoldinig season of spiritual desperation . . . . and answered prayers. Like Peter (and the other 6 disciples who went with him), have you experienced the death of a vision and "gone fishing" because its the one thing you know how to do when all else fails? Be encouraged. The season is changing. Historically speaking, spiritual breakthroughs and outpourings which transform people, cities and nations have always arrived as the Divine answer to prayers of human desperation. And this is the season when God will entertain and answer the desperate prayers of desperate believers who are willing to genuinely humble themselves before Him in desperation, repentance and faith. Personally, I'm desperate. Are you?

 

 A Gathering Of Angels . . . And A Time To Dance

Our weekly gatherings at the Shipleys have resumed. Please consider yourself invited to join us every Friday evening, 7:00PM at the home of the Shipleys in the Spokane Valley. Directions upon request. Call (509) 926-7743.

 
© 2006 THE PAROUSIA NETWORK of House and Cell Churches (www.parousianetwork.org)