Author: newlifenarrabri

Christian monument to feature 250,000 answered prayers

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From christianpost.com

Construction is set to begin this week on what is being described as Britain’s largest Christian monument, after the team behind the project met an initial $50 million fundraising target.

The Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer, to be built near Coleshill between the M6 and M42 motorways outside Birmingham.

It will stand at 167 feet tall — more than twice the height of the Angel of the North — in the shape of a Möbius strip. 

The monument will be made of 1 million bricks, each linked to a story of “answered prayer” that can be accessed via smartphones. Organizers said about 120,000 such stories have already been submitted from 125 countries.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on Wednesday. The monument is expected to open to the public in 2028 when it’s hoped it will feature 250,000 prayer stories.

The project has received support from more than 20,000 donors worldwide, according to its developers.

Richard Gamble, a former Leicester City football club chaplain who founded the initiative, said he first conceived the idea more than two decades ago and spent the past 10 years gathering support.

“I am delighted we are creating a monument that will share a million stories of hope and that people will be able to discover Jesus, who listens to and answers prayer. We have faced many delays and challenges. I believe the timing is perfect,” he said.  

“Everyone at Eternal Wall is deeply grateful to the thousands of people who have backed this project according to their ability — for every dollar donated, every hour volunteered, and every prayer offered to bring us to this point. 

“This is the moment to build a landmark of hope … a lasting testimony to the power of prayer, preserving the Christian heritage in our nation.”

The project has been designed by Snug Architects, selected through a Royal Institute of British Architects competition, with VSL appointed as the main contractor.

Land for the monument was donated by IM Properties, owned by Midlands businessman Lord Edmiston, whose company also contributed to the construction costs.

Organizers expect the site to attract about 250,000 visitors annually once completed. The plans include 10 acres of landscaped grounds, a car park and, in later stages, a visitor center and conference facility.

An additional $7 million is still needed to complete the site’s infrastructure, the group said.

Lord Edmiston said: “Eternal Wall is designed to remind our nation, and people everywhere, of God’s goodness. 

“It is a testament to present and future generations of the Creator of the universe, who has answered numerous prayers over centuries past and still is answering them today.

“If we don’t remember the God who stood by us in our darkest hours as a nation, then we are condemned to have a future absent of His divine guidance and protection. I am therefore proud that my company has had the opportunity of being a significant donor to this project.”

This article was originally published at Christian Today 

Quote for the Day

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The unity of the church across traditional lines of class, culture, ethnicity, gender, whatever: that, and only that, is the God-given sign that the new creation has been launched. Anything else looks like simply shuffling the cards of the old one. Tom Wright

Sowing And Reaping

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The number of trucks going past my house reminds me that we are in the middle of harvest time. Farmers, contractors, silos, truck drivers and mechanics are all working long hours to get the harvest into storage before storms, birds, insects or other disasters can do serious damage.

The Bible is full of references to farming and, in particular, to harvesting.

The phrase “you reap what you sow” is one of those references, and I imagine it would have been a fairly common saying back in the day. We can’t imagine a farmer planting barley and hoping for wheat. That would go against all the laws of nature.

Strangely, though, many people fail to apply this to their own lives. If you sow kindness and generosity, people will respond by being kind back to you. If you live by violence and bullying, then you cannot expect others to treat you with love and respect.

One of the Old Testament prophets coined this phrase, “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.” This referred to the then rulers of the state of Israel who ignored their God and instead chose to encourage the worship of the fake gods of other nations. The result, Hosea said, was that they would be overrun by the Assyrians, one of the nastiest empires of the time, and of course full of idols. The Israelites had played at worshipping idols, now they would be destroyed by expert idol worshippers.

In modern times, we might think of people who play fast and loose with the rules, seemingly untouchable until the Police or the Tax Office catch up with them. They sowed a wind but reaped a whirlwind of trouble.

Many people spend their whole lives without any reference to God. They might be good people but just have no time for religion. They are good enough for God, they reason, and He will take care of them in the after life.

But if you have a life in which you sow arrogance towards God, then you will reap a whirlwind of wrath. On the other hand, a life of humble service to the Lord will reap a very different harvest.

What are you sowing?

Reflection on Colossians 2:11-15

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Scripture

He cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

Observation

When we came to Christ, we underwent a kind of circumcision. This is not a physical process done in the flesh, but a spiritual process by which our sinful nature is cut away.

In baptism, we are buried with Christ and raised to life in Him, because we trusted the same God who raised Christ from the dead.

Before we came to Christ, we were dead in our sins. Then God made us alive in Christ. He cancelled the record of the charges against us and nailed it to the cross. By doing this He disarmed. the spiritual rulers and authorities.

Application

When Christ died on the cross, it was not just a transaction of one life taking the place of many lives. Jesus’s death, and resurrection also represents God’s total victory over all the forces of evil. He disarmed them forever.

More than that, God took the record of our sins and nailed it all to the cross. When Jesus cried, “It is finished,” He was saying that all of our sin was gone and the record was destroyed.

In our legal system, there is a term used for this – expunged. That means that not only is a conviction overturned, the records are deleted and trashed so that it is as if the person never came to the attention of the legal system.

When we come to Christ, and receive his forgiveness, the records are expunged. When we try to remind God of the past, He says, “I have no record of that.”

We have a clean record with Christ because it has all been nailed to the cross.

Prayer.

Thank you, Lord, for such a thorough forgiveness. I am washed clean by the blood of Christ. Amen.