Meeting Moments

Great moment in a creative meeting today.  We had much discussion about how to approach someone with an issue…different angles, multiple perspectives.  But then our senior pastor did something that should be normal.  It was so profound I got choked up.  He said, “let’s hold up on talking to them…let’s pray right now that God would show them what is right and appropriate.”

Awesome.

May that be the first thing I do.

Always.

This is Good…

The Church must repent of its idolization of “cool,” in which we dishonor our parents, spite our brothers and sisters in the faith, and merely set ourselves up for the sins we perceive in them — appearing “of the times.”

Quote from Jared Wilson’s Blog.

I’m Telling You…They’re Out There

Subway

Today the subway was packed with people. That’s not unusual in the mornings, but today was extra tight. I noticed a woman standing next to me reading the Bible and it got me thinking about how many people I see reading Scripture on the train. Of course, everyone’s usually doing something – reading, writing, listening to music – but there’s often someone reading the Bible.

So often we hear about how the Church is compacting and leaders ask the question, “Where are all the believers?”  While this is not necessarily a bad question to ask, God’s been showing me that He has believers everywhere.  Even in the darkest places His people are there.  They are praying.  They are seeking Him. They are the ones bringing the favor of God upon those places.  They are leading people out of the darkness.

What I’ve started doing when I see these people on the train is just praying for them.  Praying that God would show them something so incredible, so wonderful in that moment.  It’s the only place to start for my new brother or sister I didn’t know existed just minutes before.

Jesus is building His Church in the Earth.  Let’s look for each other.  Let’s encourage each other — even if we don’t always agree.  He’s worthy of that and so much more.

May we be His Body:

And God placed all things under his (Christ’s) feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. – Ephesians 1:22-23

This will be a light week on the blog as I’m preparing to lead worship at Shelter Rock Church this weekend and Olivia and I are answering the question, “To move or not to move…”

God, help us

From President Obama’s speech to the UN earlier today…

(Pursuit of peace) “That effort must begin with an unshakeable determination that the murder of innocent men, women and children will never be tolerated.”

Yet we murder innocent children to the tune of some one million a year in the US alone.  Since 1973, 45 million children have been aborted in our own country (not to mention the numbers around the world).

When will we stand up for their rights?  When will the human rights so many clamor for include the most vulnerable and defenseless?  The blood of the innocent cries out.

God, help us.

Like a Little Kid

There are some 300,000 churches in America, and I could have picked any one to attend on Easter morning, but I liked being in this one. Especially the kids. They didn’t need Reverend Henderson’s prayer techniques, or the high-tech mantras of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Their prayers weren’t Rabbi Gellman’s suburban Jewish prayers of Thanks! offered to whom it may concern. They didn’t pray to de-center their egos or find transcendence or to set off on a lifelong therapeutic spiritual journey. They prayed to a God with whom they were on a first-name basis, and they believed their prayers gave them power, which they used on behalf of their asthmatic sisters and infirm grandparents and a kid they knew with burns on his body. Sitting in church on Easter morning, I realized that I was probably never going to become a praying man. But if, by some miracle, I ever do, I hope my prayers will be like the prayers of the kids I met at the Love church in Berkeley Springs. Straight-up Gimme! on behalf of people who really need the help.ZEV CHAFETS in the New York Times Magazine

This is quite an interesting article about prayer (and long if you know the Times magazine).  This last paragraph was so powerful to me.  The author is an agnostic and goes to all kinds of Churches, Synagogues, therapists, etc. to find out about prayer.

In the end the most powerful expression came just as Jesus said it would: like a child.

I want to come to God like that.  So often when I pray I’m concerned with “squeezing it in” or getting to everyone on my list rather than just coming to Jesus with my heart open to the possibility that He can do anything.  Anything for me.  Anything for those I love and care about.  All I have to do is believe.

So, this week, I’m going to lay my heart open before the Lord and be like a child.  Imperfect and full of anticipation.

Just like a little kid.

Something Big

Recently, one of my Twitter friends stated, “what you ask of God reflects what you believe about Him.” 

If I don’t ask Him to meet seemingly unmeetable needs, do I not believe He can or would meet those needs (Phillipians 4:19)?  If I don’t ask him to heal the sick, do I actually believe He can do it (Isaiah 53:5)?  If I refrain from asking Him to make a way for me in my job/career do I somehow not really believe that He helps those who call on Him (Matthew 7)?

I want to believe God for great things.  Things that can’t be explained away rationally or with some natural answer.

Remember the movie Pay It Forward?  Haley Joel Osment’s character embarks on a project to do good things for others.  But the things have to be what he calls “Big.”  Not just holding the door for someone (that’s good), but something that alters someone’s life in a meaningful, impactful way.

That’s what I want to pray for, to ask God for.  For mountains in people’s lives to be moved, for the mountains in my life to be moved.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:7-11)

Recently at work I saw a name of a foundation that said this to me: The Miami Project to Cure ParalysisThe namers of this organization weren’t aiming to make a few nice discoveries.  They were going for the end-all for those who are affected by paralysis: the cure.

That’s what I want to have the faith to ask for in my life…to get rid of all debt…to see my eyes healed…to have a song cut…and on to my family, on to friends, on to cities, on to nations.

Let’s ask God for big things!!

What are you asking for?