Inspiring Women
JAN/FEB 2014
Every Day
January
Learning from the miracles of Jesus Lyn Gitchel
February
I TELL YOU THE TRUTH Gill Beard
Plus ‌ Special Article, Ministry Report and CWR Events Page
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Lyn Gitchel Lyn has taught Bible Studies for many years. Having headed up National Young Life Campaign in her hometown, Lyn has much experience in establishing firmly committed Christians. Born and educated in England, Lyn worked as part of the team for the first Billy Graham Crusade in England in 1954. Ordained to the ministry in 1964, she worked with CWR in England before visiting the United States in 1968. Meeting her husband there, they pastored churches in that country until his death in 1997. Lyn is author of a number of Bible study books.
Gill Beard Gill Beard currently leads two outreach initiatives in Reading – Prayer Cafe and Prayer Stop. She trained as a cellist at the Royal College of Music, and played with the Royal Ballet Company. She was a singer, song writer and worship leader for 25 years, working for ten years with Lord Carey as Director of Music on his teaching missions. In 1991, he chose her to sing one of her songs live on BBC Songs of Praise. Married to Nick for 44 years, she has two sons and three gorgeous and hilarious grandchildren. Her passion is to see Prayer Cafe or Prayer Stop in every town, village or community. She has held Prayer Stops in the high street, at summer events, outside her Post Office and even once in a pub!
Copyright © CWR 2013. Published by CWR, Waverley Abbey House, Waverley Lane, Farnham, Surrey GU9 8EP, UK. Tel: 01252 784700 Email: mail@cwr.org.uk Registered Charity No. 294387. Registered Limited Company No. 1990308. Front cover image: getty/Richard Seymour. Concept development, editing, design and production by CWR. Printed in England by Linney Print. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of CWR. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are from the Holy Bible: New International Version (NIV), Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica (formerly International Bible Society). Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of Biblica (formerly International Bible Society). UK trademark number 1448790. Other versions used Message: Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
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Miracles and methods
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s we start this new year, let’s look together at some of the miracles of Jesus and see what we can learn from each one. So often we try to put God in a box and limit the way He works. We see someone receive an answer to prayer in a certain way and then mould our own thinking around this as if it is the only way – yet we discover later that God hardly ever answers the same way, using the same method, twice. The story is told of a church that read how Jesus healed a man who was blind by making clay with spittle and then anointing his eyes with it. The man was healed. They decided that this was the way to see miracles of healing in their church, so they made clay with spittle and anointed everyone who came in the prayer line for healing! Needless to say, in popularity they were not top of the list! Jesus, in all His miracles, treated each person to whom He ministered individually, as someone who needed specific love, care and attention. Some were healed by the touch of His hands, one was told to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. One man He took out of the village after his family had brought him to Jesus and another even had to be ministered to twice before his healing was complete. Some rested on the faith of friends and some on their own faith. Some had died and were raised to life; some were crippled and some under the influence of demons. Not all Jesus’ miracles are recorded, but from those that have been included in God’s Word, there’s much for us to learn. It’s as if God has written there all we need to know to receive blessing and miracles from Him.
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Wed Jan 1 Acts 10:34–43 ‘… God anointed Jesus of Nazareth … he went around doing good and healing …’ (v38)
For prayer and reflection Father, forgive me for the times I try to get You to do things the way I think they ought to be done! Help me to leave the methods by which You answer prayer to You!
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Thurs Jan 2
Water into wine
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here is something special, perhaps particularly for those of us who are mothers, to see that it took the gentle persuasion of His mother to bring ‘His mother said to the servants, Jesus to His first recorded miracle. Perhaps His reaction “Do whatever he to her words was because He felt that producing wine at tells you”.’ (v5) a wedding feast was not the kind of ministry He was born into this world for, or maybe He just didn’t think it was time. Many of Jesus’ human reactions are comforting when we see that He thought like us and reacted as we do in so many ways though never wrongfully. How many times have you or I received a sense of calling and anointing from God and then, when some opportunity has arisen, thought that this was not part of the calling for which God had equipped us? Finally, almost against our will, someone or something has given us a little push and we have found it to be God’s doorway to our next step with Him. But Mary, as is the case with so many godly women, had something deep inside her which told her that Jesus was able to help in this time of need. How she For prayer and knew we can’t be certain because it seems that she had reflection not yet seen Him perform any miracles. It surely was by the prompting of the Holy Spirit that she understood, for she had carried in her heart the knowledge revealed to Father, help me her by the angel before Jesus’ birth that He was a Man not to hold back indwelled by God. when You are Even when she could have been discouraged by prompting me ‘Dear woman, why do you involve me?’ she was not, to encourage someone to move and simply went ahead and told the servants to carry out any command Jesus gave them. In the same way, into something we need to learn to be encouragers of others when the You have called Holy Spirit prompts us. him or her to do. John 2:1–9
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Unquestioning obedience
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ine came in wineskins, not clay pots. Clay pots were for water. They were large and the task of filling them from the creek or well, would have taken quite some time. So perhaps it seemed pointless and troublesome to the servants, but they did it anyway. The key to the whole miracle is their obedience. Had they not been willing to do the laborious task of filling those water pots, this miracle might never have happened. There in the background, while everyone else was feasting, those servants were faithfully labouring, without seeing any result to encourage them. They were simply doing what Jesus had told them to do. When the water pots were full of water, Jesus gave them the next step in obedience. ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.’ Note, it is water Jesus is talking about! Imagine what the servants would have thought. Remember, Jesus was apparently not yet known as a miracle worker and it seems that He hadn’t waved His hand over the water pots and changed the water into wine at that point. The wine was changed as the servants obeyed His command and took water to the master of the banquet. When they started out with a flask of water, they might have wondered if this would mean losing their jobs! But Jesus stepped in with a miracle and the wine was even better than that served before! What is apparent here is the unquestioning obedience of the servants in labouring to fill the pots with water when certainly they couldn’t see the reason and, doing as Jesus said, taking water, not wine, to the master of the banquet.
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Fri Jan 3 John 2:1–9 ‘“Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.’ (v7)
For prayer and reflection Lord, help me to obey You unquestioningly even when I can’t see the reason why, or how it could bring the desired result. I really need Your help with this!
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Jan 4/5
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Believing
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John 4:46–54 ‘The man took Jesus at his word …’ (v50)
18 Ja
Jan—
23 Ja
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n the miracle at the marriage in Cana, we saw the servants acting in strict obedience to the word of Jesus, but we did not see any great faith evident on their part, though there may have been some. In coming to Jesus for the healing of his son, the man in today’s story showed that he had faith in the fact that Jesus would be able to heal the boy. What had he heard about Jesus? When Jesus answered the man saying that usually people need to actually see something before they can believe, it’s as if He were testing the man’s faith. But this man didn’t need to see something. He appeared to have much faith. When Jesus told him he could go and expect his son to be healed when he got home, he went without question. And what joy when his servants met him halfway home and told him his son had fully recovered!
8 Feb
12 Fe
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21—23
22 Fe
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Optional further reading Compare this with the story in 2 Kings 4:8–37.
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6 Feb
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CWR Ministry Events Please pray for the team
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Date Event
54 50)
Jan—Mar
Developing Pastoral Care (part 2)
Waverley Abbey House Andy Peck and team
18 Jan
Insight into Anger
WAH
Chris Ledger
23 Jan
Refreshing Your Spiritual Life
WAH
Andy Peck
in s
ld
Place
Presenter(s)
27—31 Jan January Bargain Break
Pilgrim Hall
6 Feb
Preachers’ Day
WAH
8 Feb
Counselling Enquirers’ Event
WAH
12 Feb
Insight into Dementia
PH
Rosemary Hurtley
15 Feb
Christians@Work: Working with Myself
WAH
Beverley Shepherd
Andy Peck
21—23 Feb Bible Discovery Weekend: WAH The Cross Through the Eyes of Jesus
Philip Greenslade
22 Feb
Peter Jackson
Insight into Bereavement
WAH
Please also pray for students and tutors on our ongoing BA in Counselling programme at Waverley and Pilgrim Hall and our Certificate and Diploma of Christian Counselling and MA in Integrative Psychotherapy held at London School of Theology.
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For further details and a full list of CWR’s courses, phone +44 (0)1252 784719 or visit the CWR website at www.cwr.org.uk Pilgrim Hall: www.pilgrimhall.com
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Mon Jan 6
Is it the will of God?
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ne of the major problems we face in prayer is knowing what is and what is not the will of God. Daily, thousands of Christians pray, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can like this man, ‘Lord, if it is Your will, heal me’. make me clean.’ While some argue that God uses sickness to (v2) ‘chastise’ His children, I am convinced that while valuable lessons are learned by suffering God does not actually want us to be sick. Jesus compared the heavenly Father to earthly parents (Matt. 7:9–11) and I have yet to meet a parent who, however bad their child, would wish sickness upon him or her as a lesson. Sickness is part of living in a sin-corrupted world. It’s not necessarily our own fault, though sometimes it might be. All around us are evidences of the fact that this world itself needs the redeeming touch of a Saviour, which, one day, it will have. But for now, sickness is here to stay. However, I believe we can expect our heavenly Father to want the best for us, and if the best is to be healed of a sickness or disease, then it is certainly For prayer and His will to heal. Sometimes that healing may be reflection instantaneous but at other times God wants us to walk the longer road and be healed gradually, often with the help of physicians and nurses who are trained to help Lord, help me to us. At those times we need to accept the fact that, while understand that, it is certainly God’s will for us to be healed, it is not while You do always His will for it to happen straight away and that always want the He will have a reason for that. Or it might be time for us best for me, Your to be healed by passing into eternal life and shedding best might not this body altogether. always be what I The important thing is to know He cares and wants think is best. Help the best for you. me to trust You. Matthew 8:1–4
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What about the unbeliever?
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s far as the Jewish religious leaders were concerned there would have been no hope for this man. The only way he could ever have expected to be included in any measure of the grace of God would have been to convert to their religion, submit to circumcision, and turn his back on any pagan activities, which would also have meant giving up his Roman career. But no one who came to Jesus with a need was ever asked by Him to become a follower before He healed them or met their need. That’s something to think about! Healing rests only on God’s mercy. Nothing we can do can ever make us worthy to receive healing, not even becoming a Christian. So the first lesson here is that even though the centurion was a Gentile and normally outside the realm of the promises of God, Jesus granted his request just the same – remember, healing rests solely on mercy and not on merit. And there’s another lesson to be learned from this miracle: the person does not have to be present. The centurion realised that was true and used an illustration. Just as he could issue an order and it would have to be carried out as if he were there, so he looked for the healing of his servant by the issuing of an order from Jesus and for it to be carried out just as if Jesus were there. We need to be encouraged by this. Prayer for someone else does impact their lives, even when it seems they are not responding to the Lord or their situation is not getting better. Somehow, sending up a prayer request sets in motion a touch from God to that person, and we need to keep asking, for sometimes it just takes time.
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Tues Jan 7 Matthew 8:5–13 ‘… a centurion came to him, asking for help.’ (v5)
For prayer and reflection Lord, help me to see how great Your mercy is, that You would reach out also to an unbeliever. And help me not to be discouraged as I keep praying for them.
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