Articles published by Phil Price

Prayer e-mails from Laura

(This in no way a rip off of C S Lewis’ Prayer Letters to Malcolm)

Sometimes the Christian life is amazing. Sometimes you walk around and little birds come to rest on your shoulder. They sweetly tweet Handle’s Messiah into your ear, as you walk around the garden in your white sheet and sandals, deeply engrossed in a very ‘deep’ prayer for all of the homeless sea turtles around the world.

But sometimes it’s not like this. Or at least sometimes for me it isn’t like this. Sometimes whilst the rest of the congregation is in a state of religious ecstasy I’m wondering what’s for lunch. There are occasions when everyone else in church seems to be deeply engrossed in the sermon and I’m thinking about rugby. There have been intense prayer sessions where I fell asleep (this by the way is why monks traditionally wear those big hoods - that way no-one can see their eyes when they’re supposed to be praying).

Praying isn’t always easy, reading the Bible isn’t always easy either. God can sometimes feel a million miles away, and during those times you can feel like you are the most rubbish Christian in the world.

I feel like this quite a lot, but one of the big things that has helped me to cope with this has been the knowledge that I am not alone in this struggle. One friend in particular has helped me to realize this through a series of e-mails which I found incredibly encouraging.

So for all of those frustrated saints out there here is my ‘Prayer E-mail from Laura’: (more…)

The One Stop Faith Shop

A Drama by Phil Price, asking if we were to go out and buy a faith like we would a car, what criteria would we use?

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Heaven on earth

This article is based on a sermon I first preached at Christ Church, Surbiton in July 2006. I’ve adapted it and tidied it up for Focus on Faith (you lucky, lucky people) but for those of you too lazy to read it (I’m with you brother/sister by the way) attached is an audio recording of the sermon.

One of my favourite hymns is ‘How great thou art’. The final verse of this hymn goes like this:

When Christ shall come with shout of acclimation
And take me home – what joy shall fill my heart
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, my God, how great Though art!

I love this song because for me it just captures the majesty and the awesomeness of God and his creation. And this final verse expresses quite how amazing heaven is going to be.

But when you ask people what heaven is going to be like I don’t know how many people would quote hymns to you. Ask the man on the street what they think heaven will be like, and I reckon a popular response would include wings, clouds, harps and Philadelphia crème cheese.

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No Fear

I have got the most beautiful 12 string Guitar. £1200 worth of guitar. My musical friends have seen it and drooled over it. The most amazingly clean and beautiful sound comes out of it when you strum the strings, or rather, the most clean and beautiful sounds come out of it when someone else strums the strings. When I strum a hideous racket comes out.

When someone musical plays it I actually start to feel embarrassed. You see, I am the least musical person in the world. Seeing someone musical play it reminds me of just how wasted it is belonging to such a graceless, clumsy, rhythmless, tone-deaf musical-philistine with two left hands. It’s a travesty that I am allowed to pick up this guitar let alone ‘play’ it.

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From Heaven with Love

A drama script by Phil Price, Tom Collins and Lizzie Sherkle about the role of the Holy Spirit, as explained in John 16, asking the question “what if the Holy Spirit needed a Visa to visit earth?”

Synopsis

The Holy Spirit meets with a Visa Officer to go through the Visa application process, so that the Holy Spirit can come to earth. The process is comically lengthy, and there is much confusion about who and what the Holy Spirit is, and what his job will be once he gets to earth. An interesting (and hopefully not too irreverent) look at the Holy Spirit’s role.

Download From Heaven with Love script.

Step 3: Dare to Do

Way too long ago to think about now, I was nominated for a position on my university’s Christian Union committee. It was a contested seat and so the interview and speech section of the AGM was doubly important. The night before a wise Christian asked me how my speech writing was going, and I informed her that God was sovereign over the events at the AGM so I didn’t have to worry about writing a speech or thinking about my answers to any questions in advance because if God wanted me on the committee he would make sure I was elected.

She then politely suggested to me that maybe it would show a little bit of respect for a job that I felt God might have been calling me to if I had actually thought about it beforehand and had a few things to say. After all, God could ordain his will in my preparation as well.

Of course she was right. I was crazy to think that God would want me to stand up in front of the CU and explain why I felt called to be their Outreach Secretary without even thinking about it beforehand. And I am very grateful that I did because I would have looked like a right muppet if I hadn’t.

It’s a silly example, but the point still stands that there is no point praying for something if you don’t care about it enough to put some hard work in to back it up.

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Step 2: Dare in Prayer

As a student I led a Bible study on James 5:13-20.

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

I am actually quite ashamed of the way I led that Bible study, because the first question I asked was “So why don’t we always get what we ask for in prayer?” This is completely the wrong way to look at this passage.

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Step 1: Dare to Care

Being Welsh requires me to be passionate about rugby. Unless you’re Welsh you are probably bemused by the wave of euphoria that sweeps our small nation whenever we win, and the air or despondency that swamps us when we loose. Nowhere else in the world can the economy, mood and political feeling in a country be so dependant on the fortunes of a sports team.

The Six Nations is the big annual rugby tournament for us. In 2003 we managed to win the wooden spoon. For those non-rugby people reading, that means that we managed to loose every single match. We even managed to loose to Italy, a country who, with all due respect, are not exactly rugby titans. The picture in all the papers following that debacle was of Colin Charvis, our number 6, moments after the final whistle with a massive grin on his face. There was public outcry, Colin having the audacity to smile after Wales had just lost to Italy for the first time in history. Colin had communicated to the world that he (and the team) simply didn’t care.

Two years on and we won the Grand Slam (that’s winning every single match). It was a massive change around in two years within a team that predominantly featured the same players. The style in which we won the grand slam was dubbed ‘the Welsh Way’ - the players had smiles on their faces. Their faces were filled with passion while singing the national anthem prior to the matches. Many put the change down to the new coach, Mike Ruddock, instilling some passion and pride into the ranks.

Pretty much the same team took the field in 2005 as in 2003. They played against the same 5 teams that they played against two years earlier. It was at the same venues. What had changed? The attitude of the players: 2005 saw a Welsh team that cared.

Now I shall go against my cultural heritage and say four words that no Welshman should ever say about rugby: it’s only a game! But the principle is fully applicable when it comes to important things; the first thing we have to do if we are to change the world is to ‘dare to care’.

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How to Change the World in 3 Easy Steps

Does this scene sound familiar:

It’s 11.30ish; you’ve been drinking some nice wine, and have had a thoroughly good time chatting with good friends, putting the world to rights. Or, in my case it’s more like 2 am, the wine isn’t that nice (but by 2am I don’t really care) and I’d never met the people I’m with before 8 or 9 that evening (but after half a bottle of wine I think they’re great!). The conversation could be about a large number of different things, the tax system, European politics, trade laws, house prices. The conversation inevitably ends up containing the words ‘If it were up to me it would be like this…’

Maybe you don’t find yourself in this situation very often, that doesn’t change the fact that we all see things happening in this world that fundamentally irritate us, and we want to see change, whether it’s something political, something in church, or something in our community. We all see things that we would love to be able to change.

The thing is that so often it stops there. So often we get irritated and frustrated about things, so we moan about them rather than do something. But God doesn’t want us to moan. He wants us to do something. In Mathew 5 we are called to be the ‘Salt of the Earth’. That means that we are to be the seasoning, we are to be the preservatives that makes this world taste a little better. In biblical times salt was used as a preserving agent to keep dead bodies ‘fresh’ until the time for burial came.

Our world, if you like, is a dead body awaiting burial. If you don’t believe me, look around it. People are dying of starvation in one half of this world, whilst in the other half people are dying from obesity. There are people dying of diseases in Africa, when the West has had the cure for decades. There are churches all around the Western world with empty seats, closing their doors because they have no congregation. Debt is crippling people. The news is full of terrorism, war, people trafficking, and prostitution. Make no mistake, we are living in a fallen world that is dying.

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Abraham, Isaac and Mum

Abraham and Isaac went up a mountain, after God had told Abraham to sacrifice is own son. After Abraham had proven himself committed, God provided a ram for the sacrifice instead, saving Isaac’s life. This play tells the story of what happened after that: Sarah clearly wasn’t too pleased that her husband had just tried to kill their only son…

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