There is a lot swirling around in my mind.

This month at Inglewood Community Church we are doing a series entitled “coming home”.

I had no intention of going down the line I have with this series, but God had other ideas. For whatever reason, every message has had a spiritual battle flavour to it. This was not planned. But it is being led by the Spirit, in my humble opinion.

This week we are dealing with ‘The Lord’s Prayer’. I encourage you to read it in the context of thinking about how it applies to the family home. “Your kingdom come’. How do we see the Kingdom of God being advanced in the Christian home? In your home? When God’s Kingdom is being advanced, the evil ones kingdom is being threatened. So your home suddenly becomes a spiritual battlefield. You can’t take that lightly, or be ignorant of it.

If you think about evil, it is insidious, and it creeps into our family home, in a contemporary home, in ways it never used to be able to. I am not advocating having your home as a fortress, but it should be a sanctuary. Quite different.

This is because if the kingdom is to be advanced in your home, your home also needs to be a mission field. And a fortress is not a welcoming place, it is designed to keep the world out. In fact our homes should be welcoming, inviting places. Places we have parties, dinners, friends over…no matter what spirituality they have. It can’t be a fortress.

So the important aspect of our faith that perhaps we may have overlooked is prayer. Targeted prayer for your home, house and family.

What is the difference?
I normally make pancakes from scratch, often on a Saturday morning.
Its a beautiful day in Perth so I go scrounging for some eggs, flour and bicarb.
But in the cupboard there is a packet of pre-mix pikelet mix.

So I used that to make some pancakes for the kids.
Not a lot of difference, perhaps a little sweeter, and the mixture did not seem to be as thick or able to make as big a pancake.

But once they were smothered in melted butter, fresh lemon and brown sugar…no one seem to care.

How much faith do we need to exercise?
How big is a mustard seed?

Is faith able to be categorised into ‘desert faith’ and ‘promised land’ faith?

No matter what we think of the present state of the church, ambivalence, anger or love…we all stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before.
Somewhere in our faith journey, someone has shared Christ with us.
Somewhere in our faith and ministry journey, someone has supported us.

Most, if not all, para-church ministries, and alternate Churches…owe their heritage, story and perhaps even finance and resource…to those who have gone before.

Just a thought.

Probably my favourite band of all time, (yes they edge out U2), ‘Delirious’ wrote this song.
Jesus Culture do this version of it, not too bad either….

(Songs like this help me to bring my mind back to the holy…)

Far away in the tropical waters of the Caribbean, two prawns were swimming around in the sea – one called Justin and the other called Christian.

The prawns were constantly being harassed and threatened by sharks that patrolled the area.

Finally one day Justin said to Christian, “I’m bored and frustrated at being a prawn, I wish I was a shark, then I wouldn’t have any worries about being eaten…”

As Justin had his mind firmly on becoming a predator, a mysterious cod fish appears and says, “Your wish is granted”, and lo and behold, Justin turned into a shark. Horrified, Christian immediately swam away, afraid of being eaten by his old buddy.

Time went on (as it invariably does…) and Justin found himself becoming bored and lonely as a shark. All his old buddies simply swam away whenever he came close to them. Justin didn’t realise that his new menacing appearance was the cause of his sad plight.

While out swimming alone one day he sees the mysterious cod again and can’t believe his luck. Justin figured that the fish could change him back into a prawn.

He begs the cod to change him back so, lo and behold, he is turned back into a prawn. With tears of joy in his tiny little eyes, Justin swam back to his friends and bought them all a cocktail. (The punch line does not involve a prawn cocktail – it’s much worse).

Looking around the gathering at the reef, he searched for his old buddy. “Where’s Christian?” he asked.

“He’s at home,distraught that his best friend changed sides to the enemy and became a shark”, came the reply. Eager to put things right again and end the mutual pain and torture, he set off to Christian’s house.

As he opened the coral gate the memories came flooding back. He banged on the door and shouted, “It’s me, Justin, your old friend, come out and see me again.

Christian replied “No way man, you’ll eat me. You’re a shark, the enemy and I’ll not be tricked. ” Justin cried back “No, I’m not. That was the old me. I’ve changed”

“I’ve found Cod, I’m a prawn again Christian”