Tag Archive: Vancouver

Prayer in the neighbourhood

April 12, 2024 0 Comments

I was glad to be included in the 2024 Lent Devotional, Finding Freedom — The World Turned Upside Down, published by the Union Gospel Mission here in Vancouver. Here is the entry for Day 24, Tuesday, March 12.

When I read the Acts 16 text I am drawn to the “places of prayer” almost as if they are another character in the story. Likewise, our places of prayer today are not centers of cultural and societal power. What would happen if we made a few more trips to and from these intangible places? What would happen if we actually looked and expected the activity of God on our way to and from them? And what could happen if we gathered some followers of Jesus to pray regularly in a neighbourhood?

A few years ago, while pastoring with Cityview Church in Vancouver, I moved our weekly prayer meeting out of the building and onto the sidewalks. We sent small groups out for prayer walks in the neighbourhood. Once in my group, the three of us paid attention to what was in the yards and homes we passed. We asked God to bless parents with wisdom, to open hearts to Jesus as Lord, to bless the gardeners with the same diligence for their souls as they had for their gardens, for the poor to have decent living spaces, and for Jesus to be known by the nations living in our neighbourhood.

On our way back to the church, I noticed a man standing in the middle of the sidewalk. As we approached, he did not turn aside or make room for us. Instead, he waited for us. When we were right in front of him, he asked,

“Where are you going?” “We are going to the church building.”

“Where have you been?” “We have been praying for the neighbours.” 

“Would you come in my house? My wife wants to know how to meet God.”

We were stunned. This had never happened to us before. We followed him into his house. We spoke with his wife about Jesus and a few months later she declared her allegiance to Jesus through testimony and baptism.

That day we were going and coming from our place of prayer in our neighbourhood — prayerfully. We rejoiced for days afterward because God had prepared us all for a divine encounter. We rejoiced because the Lord added to His family of believers.

God, we need a few more places of prayer. Help us see that You call us to be mobile prayer units. Help us create places of prayer everywhere.

Prayer, Society

,

Prayer of the People, 24 July 2022

July 25, 2022 0 Comments

Heavenly Father, We praise you the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. You have never abandoned your Creation. You have set your plans and purposes in place from the beginning. You have persisted in the revelation of your glory. You are the origin of all life, all truth, and all love. Thank you for the grace that has brought us into your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Thank you for revealing your life and love in Jesus Christ your Son. 

He is before us and so we praise you.
He is after us and so we aim our lives at Him. We know every knee shall bow and every tongue  confess that He is Lord to your glory forever and ever.

You are also present with us: Our good shepherd, the lover of our souls, the author and perfecter of our faith, the God who sees us and the God who saves us.

You are with us in our tears. We have lost the illusion of invincibility.
You are with us in our fears. We have lost the thin promises of our self-designed security.

O Immanuel — God with us. Our only assurance — you are behind us and before us and above and below us all the days of our lives. You are our hope.

Grant your church courage today to rumble with the offences carried out by those who draped themselves in the banner of Jesus. Grant us wisdom to acknowledge our own weakness, to mourn with those who mourn and to hear the account of misapplied power and position from those who survived. 

Lord we lift up your servants serving in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. We pray that you would grant them joy in their life with you and with your people. Sustain them Lord, in this seemingly never-ending press against the powers and principalities sucking the life out of people. These are our sons and daughters, parents and elders who suffer so but there are also glimpses of your Spirit there and we pray that the beauty and glory of Jesus Christ would shining through.

And so we pray together in Jesus Name as He 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.

Prayer

,

Prayer of the People, 11 Dec 2020

December 14, 2020 0 Comments

Heavenly Father, 

It’s December in Vancouver. As the darkness of longer nights envelops us we keep the lights on longer. Fortunately the light of your love never goes out, but we would have been blind to it, except for the grace of faith in Jesus — the Light of the World. By this grace you have included us in your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thank you!

For each one of us there have been messengers of your grace who provided us with clues to your goodness and who have announced your good news. Thank you for these friends of yours who have treated us according to your own faithful love.

We were soul sick with an incurable disease. But you have provided the balm that heals us. 
We were soul weary weighed down by idols received with false promises. But you have provided our deliverance.
We were sucked of all joy but you have set before us the joyful reality of your Kingdom and your Holy Spirit keeps pouring your love into our lives.

Praise be to you, the lover and shepherd of our souls!

We lift up to you the many who accompany us through life in this city but do not know your Son. Oh Lord that you would be born in them and bring them to faith in You which is  eternal life.

We lift up to you the Shamattawa First Nation in northern Manitoba as they deal with an outbreak of Covid 19. Please bring healing. Please grant them peace over the anxiety that accompanies this menace. Please let them feel loved not forgotten, cared for not abandoned.

We lift up to you our brothers and sisters working in this City and across the globe. May their worship of you be accompanied by complete surrender to you. Grant them wisdom to serve people and steward your gifts through their work. May your goodness saturate their workplaces and amplify your abundant blessings for all.

Oh Lord Come. Come Lord Jesus Come. 

(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 11 Dec 2020.

Prayer

, ,

Is this an apology?

December 3, 2020 2 Comments

My wife and I have taken to walking in the dark. It’s seems to be our only way to keep exercising as winter approaches, the daylight hours shorten, and the pandemic keeps us out of the gym.

I stopped in my tracks and laughed out loud the other night as we entered the intersection of 33rd and Ontario here in Vancouver. We both stopped to take a picture of the new banners at the corner of what used to be the community known as Little Mountain Housing.

If you don’t know about the sale of public land that had been dedicated to provided affordable housing in our city you can read about it, but you won’t learn much about the deal. Instead all that we know for sure is that there has been a long wait to realize any real gains for our city from the deal.

I’m not sure if Holburn is apologizing for the long wait; but I think they are. We should all take notice.

I was reading this very morning from Psalm 12 and the phrase in verse 5 captured me: “Because the poor are plundered and the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will protect them from those who malign them.”

The issue remains, public lands have been sold that were dedicated to providing stability to the poor and vulnerable in our city. This land right in the heart of our municipality was set aside to provide housing stability and therefore opportunities for those who were vulnerable. I know that’s idealistic. I don’t romanticize the situation that existed there and that exists today in our city for those on the verge of homelessness. But I fear that Hoblurn’s promoted ambition to create “elevated lifestyles” is an idealism that does not include the poor.

I welcome correction.

Change, Society

, ,

Our No Name Life

July 1, 2020 0 Comments

I have a friend who found life in Vancouver and particularly life in the UBC campus community disturbing. Her move from a country in Eastern Africa did not prepare her for just how economically segmented life can be here. It is possible to go about life in Metro Vancouver unaware of economic disparity and the impact of poverty. It’s possible to not the know the stories of people and families bearing up under the weight of scarcity. One could live in the campus setting of UBC without getting to know the poor and sharing life with them. 

While one might speculate that my friend’s participation in the apparent uniformity of university life only cloaked the poor, that would belie the reality: it is possible to believe that one has no relationship with the poor or to live as if the poor do not exist or matter in any neighbourhood. But she is right, for many of us in Vancouver we live very segmented lives. Our homes and hospitality are not graced with the poor. We are not doing life “with” each other.

Yet, Jesus believes we have a relationship with the poor. He said as much in the story of Lazarus and the man with no name. Apparently the quality of our relationship with the poor reflects whether or not we have a name in Kingdom of God. Do you have a name? (Read Luke 16:19-31)

19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 

22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

30 “ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”

My friend — she does have a name, but in respect to her I am not calling her here — found it strange that her daily life did not obviously intersect with the poor. She was disconcerted with the fact that daily life was not shared communally across economic lines. Her disturbance has stayed with me all these years. Why aren’t more of us disconcerted too? How can we read the Bible and feast on the teachings of Jesus without being disconcerted by a no name life? How can we know Jesus the Risen Saviour and have no real passionate movement toward the poor?

This week I had two encounters with a poor man called Alex. In my heart as I pray for him, he is Alex the Great; he could be my son. The ravages of drug addiction are apparent and hunger stalks him. In our first encounter after a conversation about how he was doing, where he was staying, and how he felt about the day, I asked his name and told him mine. We chatted a bit more and then I made to leave. I was a few steps away, and praying for him, when he called out to me, “Hey what’s your name?”

Ah, that question stirred up life in me and my soul rejoiced as I answered, “My name is Craig.”

Relationships

, , , ,