Author Archive: Craig

Prayer of the People, 9 April 2021

April 12, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for loving us and bringing us into your communion. You have not abandoned us to our unbelief. You have sent your Son to reveal your love to the world and to rescue us from our sins. Thank you for sending your Spirit to us and for stimulating faith in You when we heard the Gospel of your promises fulfilled. Now our hope is truly in you!

May our worship of you fill out our whole lives with the character of Jesus. May His gentleness and His humility create a reliable strength in your people so your faithful love permeates our fellowship and informs our service to each other and to our communities.

Lord, we are weary from the demands of the pandemic and our responsibilities. For some of us the daily press of decisions and the weight of social unease and absence is taking a toll. Help us Lord. Meet us again. Fortify us with your Spirit and help us persevere.

We lift up to you our brothers and sisters at The Point Church at Simon Fraser University. Thank you for their faithful witness to your love. Thank you for their love for each other and their desire to serve the community well. Encourage them Lord and build them up.

We lift up to you our campus community. Please bring healing and help to those who are facing illness and even home-sickness — as they feel the distance from the familiar and from loved ones. Bless those who are studying and preparing for exams: grant them delight in their studies. Ignite a growing curiosity about your Creation, what you are doing in it, and they can be a part of it with you.

We know we need you Lord and so we pray as Jesus teaches us:

(Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

This prayer was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 9 April 2021

Prayer

Iona Beach, 10 April 2021

April 11, 2021 0 Comments

As if drawn to
     a waltz, the hawk
turns over the
     sandy foreshore
seeking its prey.

I watch enchanted.
     No, not enchanted.
Appreciative. Our
     conversation ebbs
onto a quiet plateau,
     like the calm space
lovers lightly posses
     when confident
of their affections.

Yet, I know You
     are the stronger,
the sovereign, the
     seer of all hearts.

The worlds You formed
     call out and 

I cry 

          Holy!

Poetry

Inflection. Sunshine & Sovereign is God.

April 7, 2021 0 Comments

One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,
beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches.
I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God
than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.

All sunshine and sovereign is God,
generous in gifts and glory.
He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions.
It’s smooth sailing all the way with God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
Psalm 84:11-12, The Message

I remember feeling shock when those words went from my eyes to my mind to my mouth for the first time, “All sunshine and sovereign is God, generous in gifts and glory. He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions…” Who writes this way? Is this ok? This is the Bible! I don’t know why I started reading The Message in the Psalms, but that’s where I cracked it open. Dr. Peterson would have approved.

The writers of the Psalms wrote for the dramatic conveyance of their souls and Eugene Peterson did too. I was a slow fan of Eugene Peterson. After reading, A Burning In my Bones, The Authorized Biography of Eugene H. Peterson, by Winn Collier, I am assured that Dr. Peterson would have been happy with that — with the slow warm up.

Dr. Peterson was not a fan of celebrity life. He would have rather been with the Lord, alone in Montana, with his wife and family, with his church, intently present and listening to another person sort their soul with Jesus. Peterson knew that affection for the rave was toxic for the soul. He was not a fan.

Throughout my years of service to Jesus and His church I have felt tension between pastoral care and active entrepreneurial mission leadership. Sometimes I created an internal voice of condemnation and would alternate between these two ways of being in search of some kind of recipe for success.

Over the last week while reading Winn’s account of Eugene’s life I became aware that the Lord has helped me bring what might be considered “opposite” ways of being together. Loving people and joining Jesus in building a congregation in a university setting has let me grow pastoral roots in community while simultaneously entering into the annual renewal and experimental aspects of mission.

I was glad for this realization. So there it is even in Psalm 84: A house and a journey, a life and people of worship. My life with Christ doesn’t need to look like anyone else’s, nor does anyone else’s need to look like mine. The same God-of-the-Angel-Armies is sunshine and sovereign for us all! One of the benefits of reading biography is the inflection made possible by observing another person’s life. The words I had been using to describe my own life are given a new voice and new perspective as I listen into the other person’s journey with God.

I never met Dr. Peterson when he was teaching at Regent in Vancouver. But his influence has been all around me. While I completed a Doctorate of Ministry through Golden Gate Seminary, two of the students in my cohort had Dr. Peterson as their field supervisor. They met regularly with him at his home in Montana. I was so impressed and I was so happy. From a distance our whole cohort benefited from the realism provided by his hospitality. Because a “celebrity” made time for two very normal fellows we were all reminded to keep it real: love Jesus, love people.

Every normal life in Christ is meant to be a new song. I have come to believe that one of the evidences of new life in a local congregation are new songs. While pastoring at Cityview, previous to Origin, my friend Lalpi wrote new songs. Here’s one — I offer it again in honour of Dr. Peterson, “Sing to the Lord a New Song.” The lyrics written and performed by Lalpi Guite include this phrase that took my breath away: sunshine and sovereign.

Change, Work

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Prayer of the People, 2 April 2021

April 6, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

In a year in which so many have felt alone in their losses and griefs we call out to you with the faith formed in the testimony of Easter. Christ is Risen!  

We ask that you would pour your love into us again through your Spirit so we may have hope. Remind us of Jesus’ victory over death and His victory over the alienation of the cross so we may rejoice in your salvation again. 

Praise the Lord. We praise you for this wonderful grace in which we stand.
Praise the Father, Son and Holy Spirit! We praise You — for all blessings flow from You.

Your triumph is our humble plea. 
Your songs are our resistance to despair.
Your communion is our circle of comfort.

Heal us Lord. Heal us of spiritual dullness.
Heal us of spiritual inertia.
Fill us — that we might love our neighbours boldly.
Fill us — that we might speak your Gospel boldly.

Grant to us the holy initiative that rises up in all your servants who say YES to You.

We lift up the dear people of Myanmar. Please bring a true peace to this land. Empower your church to witness through service and through winsome speech to the promises of your Kingdom. Oh Lord preserve lives from the evil one and grant the wisdom of restraint to those who govern and to those who have taken up arms. Comfort many who have lost loved ones in the violence. Comfort them and call them back from the trap created by vengeance. We ask for your intervention and plead that the life of our Resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ would bring healing to many.

We lift up our congregation and pray that you would show us how to keep the fire of love and devotion hot. May our love for you not grow cold. May our service to you and our neighbours be refreshing. We know we need you so we pray as you taught us:

Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

This prayer was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 2 April 2021.

Prayer

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Prayer of the People, 26 March 2021

March 29, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

You have set eternity into the heart of every person. It seems like we are but a blip in time as we live together on the planet but may the reality of You, the everlasting Triune God, draw us ever closer and into your genuine love and joy.

Thank you for the grace of knowing you. Jesus set His face toward the City of Jerusalem knowing full well, the cross that awaited Him. But He set His heart toward You, knowing the joy that awaited His friends. We are His friends if we obey His Word.

You have invited us to come. And Lord, your words are not a burden. But we confess that apart from your Spirit we have no power on our own to create eternal fruit. So we come, Lord Jesus, we come.

When we set our hands and our minds to work may our hearts continue to abide with Your Spirit. When we suspend what we want in the moment in order to serve another may Your songs fill our heart. When we resist the evil one may Your love fill our spirits.

Father we cry out to you on behalf of people hoping, searching for a life with more security, peace, and opportunity. Many are fleeing heartache and oppressive violence and abuse. Yet, they are confounded by borders and those tending them. Oh Lord we know you see. But we do not always want to see desperation. Awaken in us the compassion of Jesus and move us according to your ways to be present with the poor as friends.

We cry Hosanna — help us Lord. Blessed be your name!

Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

This prayer was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 26 March 2021.

Prayer

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