SUNDAY SERVICE PRAYER 4.25.10

Dear God,

Thank you for today.

Thank you for church. Thanks for brothers and sisters in Christ. Thanks for a community that longs to follow Jesus. Thank you for Jesus, the best friend we can ever have.

Oh Lord, this week you reminded me that our time on earth is short. No one knows when his/her time is up. It is a fact of life—and yet often times we do things as if we had forever, or as if this was our permanent home, placing all of our hopes and dreams on what we can have now or later. When we live like this, our labor is so fruitless because as far as I can tell, nothing is guaranteed. Anything can happen tomorrow. The world is a fragile place. It is ephemeral—the things we love never last.

Lord, we ask for your wisdom in our lives. For without it, we may live meaninglessly, fruitlessly—in vain. One day—maybe even today—we’ll sense emptiness inside of us. May that emptiness precisely lead someone to Christ—that is what we pray! But for us seasoned Christians, what time we’ve wasted! Today we pray for ourselves—we pray that you remind us again what it means to follow Christ.

Lord, we need to know you—because even today we could be moved by emotions, feelings, and convictions of mere religion and put on a full campaign in the name of God, exerting our every bit of energy, feeling good about being a devoted and religious person, and find that the road leads to self-righteousness, isolation, and complete misunderstanding.

Lord, may we hear from you today.

Dear Lord, some of us deeply sense these bits and pieces of truth and wisdom (that is why we’ve come to church today) but it hasn’t all come together and crystallized. We pray in particular for them—for their hearts are in the right place—may the message be especially relevant to them for they are seeking you.

Also, there are those among us who need healing. The things that have happened in the past have seared into our spirit. At times we think we are what has happened to us. And though we gravitate towards God’s truth there is a spiritual battle going on. Perversely, we’d rather identify with what had happened to us than God’s plan for us now, making it hard for us to receive anything from the Lord, less truly hear from Him. Lord, we pray for our dear brothers and sisters that your Holy Spirit would be present and do its work of healing and setting people free. Holy Spirit, may people be released from the past and find freedom and peace in Christ. Today they will grow in Christ and live out their lives as a new creation.

Lastly, we pray for the world. Every day people are born and people die. Every day something good happens and something evil happens. How do we pray for the world?

Jesus is life and he is good. He overcame death and he defeated evil. That is how we pray for the world. Believe in Jesus and you too may be equipped to defeat death and evil. He will make all his people useful in delivering a sense of what our permanent home, heaven, will entail. A follower of Christ, a Christian, will be useful because their life brings love, hope, peace, unity, courage, grace and mercy, and healing to the people around them.

Likewise, dear Lord, make us USEFUL Christians!

In Jesus’ name, AMEN!

When this picture was taken...

Easter Sunday
When Steve snapped this shot, the sun fell on our shoulders and there was a delightful spring breeze. I don't remember exactly what we were praying about but my heart was brimming with thanksgiving and praise this past Easter Sunday. The spring atmosphere reflected my spirit: my spirit felt alive and renewed after the darkness and death of winter. The holding of hands reflected the circle of fellowship and the love of Christ that helped me get through the last couple of months. To me, the photo represents my thanksgiving.

Thank God for the following:

• We had an awesome experience at the Community Day event at East Brunswick Mall
• We had a number of people serving at Elijah's Promise
• We held a free financial seminar for the community

Please continue to pray for us:

• We're good at doing, less at listening. During this critical time of phasing into hard launch, may we listen to God's voice.
  

I haven't posted in a while. To be honest, it has been a "searching" month. And when you're searching, you're a little lost. And when you're lost (unless you've purposely gotten lost), there's nothing conclusive to say. Instead, you have a ton of questions: Have I found the way? How did I get here? Will I ever find what I'm looking for? Will I ever get home? Such questions, however, are necessary and healthy in a Christian's life. Otherwise, without such questions, I think we would be susceptible to "playing" church and "practicing" religion--this having nothing to do with knowing and having friendship with God.

There were many moments this past month when I'd pray and I'd find myself alone in the dark without any answer. It is hard to explain, but the answer is always there. God is always with you, but there is a process and a journey everyone takes to understanding, believing, seeing, and changing. Take Jesus' disciples, for example, and the process and journey each one took to understanding the cross. I think of Peter and how incredibly lost he must have felt after disowning Jesus (see Luke 22). He "went outside and wept bitterly" (22:62). The darkness had closed in on him, he felt unworthy to even pray. And even if he prayed, at the height of his emotion, could he hear God's words "I love you"?

All this to say, it's hard to pray sometimes. And that's okay, church. Hopefully dark moments in our prayer lives are an indication of a true relationship with Christ, unlike the automatic chants and prayers of religion. Perhaps, like Peter, you've experienced trauma (or something difficult) in your life and there's no way you think you'll hear from God. Ironically rest assured God will use such moments of your life to "reinstate" you--draw you deeper into his purposes--like he does with Peter.

At the end of the book of John, Jesus asks Peter, "Do you love me?" I wonder how Peter felt, having first betrayed him and second having thought that Jesus had left for good. In spite of that, Peter says yes.

This wasn't a trick question. Jesus wanted Peter to understand him more. Jesus goes on to say, "then feed my sheep" and "follow me"--as if Peter had never served people or followed him to begin with. And you know what, perhaps Peter hadn't. This is what I was talking about earlier, the process and journey of understanding, believing, and seeing God and changing from it. This is the process and change: perhaps Peter had loved Christ by conviction, loved the idea of him, loved hanging out with him--maybe even loved the idea that he'd bring down the Roman empire--but until now Peter hadn't known what it means to be loved by Christ.

Dear brothers and sisters, when you are loved by Christ, there is a renewal in understanding who he is, a renewal in your prayers and your ministry, and a new meaning to following him and feeding his sheep.