This talk was given by Sean Alan Page at Alliance Bible Church on Isaiah 9:2-7. Fantastic talk and another great preacher, apparently he works with incarcerated youth as a prison chaplain. I wanted to share three things that stood out to me:

1. Prepare with Prayer…stresses and pressures come, and in many cases we know when they are due. When the meeting is, when the deadline approaches, when you are sitting down with the person you dislike for a difficult conversation. In the talk Sean encouraged us to prepare for those situations ‘like a Christian’, in prayer, by turning to the ‘Prince of Peace’.

This mirrored something else I read in James this week. James 5:13 – “If anyone is in trouble, let him pray”. My work is pretty stressful at the moment, and it’s due to be that way for a few months. As we cycle through the various annual deadlines, reports, committees and reviews. There is a lot expected of me, and little room for ‘peace’.

A secular point of view would be to ‘get some perspective’, ‘delegate’, ‘practice mindfulness’, ‘make a to-do list’ etc etc, all good things. But as a Christian I have a hidden weapon: Prayer.

2) There is one religion with a ‘Prince of Peace’. Surely, He is the One we need.

3) I was encouraged and challenged by the life work of the Pastor who spoke. He goes into these prison and speaks of hope, peace and future for young guys who have made the biggest blunders and been caught. This week, I also heard of a UK Christian organisation called The Message, that does a similar thing. This is something I want to be looking more into. Especially if God has brought it into my awareness twice, from two different sources, in a week.

Sermon Notes example Peace Prayer Preparation Prison Sermon Notes