Pray Big, Pray Bold, Pray Better

So this past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the Church Prayer Leaders Network Regional Prayer Conference here in beautiful Columbus, Indiana. It was held at First Christian Church and was led by Dave Butts and Jon Graf. So I thought I might blog about a few of my thoughts from the conference.

First of all, let me just say that it was an excellent conference. The theme of the conference was Pray Big, Pray Bold, Pray Better. It is always good to be challenged and instructed on prayer. I know that I want to grow in my prayer life, so it was very worthwhile for me to attend.

The conference started on Friday evening with some worship and a keynote address by Jon Graf. Now I have known Jon for many years and have sat in several of his seminars, so it just so happens that this address was one that I have heard at least a potion of in the past. But it was still a great reinforcement of what I have heard him share before. One of the great things that he did was to challenge us to pray the way God made us. In other words, not everyone prays the same way. We shouldn't expect to. There are some powerful principles on prayer in Scripture that we need to learn from, but different people pray in different ways, within those principles. For instance, God has gifted us differently and those gifts come out in the way we pray. So the person with the gift of mercy probably is going to pray much differently than the person with the gift of evangelism. Also, some people pray early in the morning, but that is not the only time to pray. So we should find the time that works best for us. And some people pray sitting quietly in their prayer closet, while others like to prayerwalk.

The first time I heard Jon share this, it was revolutionary for my prayer life. I walk when I preach, I walk when I talk on the phone, and sitting quietly in a chair while talking to God was tough for me. So why not walk? And so I do. Many who know me, know that is the main way that I now pray.

Saturday featured three more keynote addresses as well as two different times for breakout workshops. I missed the first workshop because I am helping to coach Jacob's basketball team and his game was just across the street, so I went for the game and came back around the time that the first workshops were ending. The afternoon workshop I did get to though and it was excellent. It was entitled "The Divine Dialogue" and was led by Dave's wife Kim. She challenged us to posture ourselves in such a way as to allow our heart to connect with God's heart. She wasn't talking about physical posture, but about spiritual posture. She spoke of narrowing the gaps of unawareness of Christ's presence and about how prayer is relational and expectational.

In the keynotes, Dave Butts spoke on how we need to pray bold. We need to get past the small prayers that we tend to pray and seek God's heart. Then later he talked about the heart of prayer and how we need to pray that the Father would help us to love Jesus the way that He loves Him. And Jon, in his other keynote address, challenged us to pray like Paul.

It was a great conference and then Jon came and spoke at our church on Sunday morning and challenged us as a church to be a House of Prayer. He showed us from Scripture how being a "House of Prayer" does not mean that we need to have more prayer events, but that we should be a place that is accepting of everyone and allows them to seek God.

All in all it was a great weekend. A busy one, but a great one.

Inaugural Invocation

Probably many of you watched at least part of Tuesday's inauguration either live or through video clips or news footage. Regardless of whether you were pleased with the results of the last election or not, this was an historic day for our country as our first African American President was sworn in to office. And whether we voted for him or not, he is our president and is therefore someone that we should be praying for.

Rick Warren had the opportunity to kick things off as he prayed for our new president and for our country during the inaugural invocation on this special day. I was not able to watch the event live, but I was able to watch some clips on ABC's website and one of the clips I watched was of Pastor Rick's prayer.

In case you did not have the opportunity to hear it, let me point out what he prayed for President Obama. He prayed that our new president would have "the wisdom to lead us with humility; the courage to lead us with integrity; and the compassion to lead us with generosity."

I thought that was a great way to pray for our new leader. We want him to lead us well and while he may not always lead us where we want to go, we can pray for him to have wisdom, courage and compassion in his leadership.

Pastor Rick later ended his prayer by praying that we would never forget that one day all nations and all people will stand accountable before God. What a powerful reminder. President Obama has his hands full as the president of our America. And we are reminded to pray for him in I Timothy 2:1-4, "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone -- for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."

Here we go again!

So, I guess that I am not too good at this blogging thing. I set up this blog a little over a year ago. I did some entries and then there was a giant pause. Someone from our church family has repeatedly told me that they check back with my blog regularly to see if I have written anything new and everytime they do, there is still that same blog there from last April talking about waiting for our baby to be born. Now Makenna is 8 months old and that is still my last blog. I guess it is fitting that it was a blog on waiting. Anyway, because this person challenged me to get back into the blogging game, I am going to try again. My plan, at this point, is to blog at least once a week. So, if you haven't already given up, then come on back and try again and I will try to make sure you are not looking at the same blog for 8 months.

But if this is going to work, then I am going to have to hear back from some of you. I want to blog about the kinds of things you want to read about. So please let me know your thoughts. Are you looking for more devotional thoughts, or funny stories, or current events editorials, or calendar information or something totally different? Please give me your feedback.

For today's blog, I thought I would talk about my trip back to Colorado. My family and I recently returned from Colorado, where we spent the Christmas break. Many people go to Colorado in the winter to ski. I go there to visit my family. My dad and mom, along with my brother, and my sister and her family all live in Colorado Springs. So we try to get back there every year and a half. My wife and I used to live out there, and it is a beautiful place to live. It is sunny most days and the view of Pikes Peak takes your breath away. If you have never visited Colorado Springs, it is a wonderful place to go. And if you do go, then one place you need to check out is Garden of the Gods. It is a beautiful park at the base of Pikes Peak with amazing rock formations. You can drive through and take in the beauty or stop and get out of the car and stretch your legs over the many miles of hiking trails they have.

It has become a tradition for my son Jacob and me to go for a hike for a few hours at Garden of the Gods, whenever we are back in Colorado. Our favorite place to hike to is called the Siamese Twins. It is a rock formation that you don't see from the road. You have to hike back into it. It is up on the top of one of the bluffs. (By the way, if you don't know what a bluff is, it is a high steep hill that would pass for a mountain out here in Indiana, but doesn't come close in Colorado) At the top of the bluff is this beautiful red rock formation with two towers that rise up, that are almost identical and are attached at the bottom and then again about halfway up. So in between the parts where they are attached, there is a window where you can look through the rock formation and see Pikes Peak in the distance. Jacob and I always like to take each other's picture there sitting in the window ledge.

I took another picture of Jacob on that trip and it was of him just sitting on a rock, with his head in his hands gazing out over the beautiful scenery. It is a great picture, with Jacob looking lost in thought. I guess that is one of the main reasons I like Garden of the Gods. I like the picturesque beauty that reminds me of the power and imagination of our Father in Heaven who created this world. It is funny that the park was named Garden of the Gods. I know, and hopefully you know too, that there is only one God. He is awesome and powerful and mighty and able to do immeasurably more than all we could ever ask or think. And one look at some of the amazing scenery He has created, reminds us just how awesome He is.

I don't know if you will ever get out to Colorado Springs to see the Siamese Twins for yourself. But if you do, I want to encourage you to take some time and recognize that all of that beauty was created by our Father in Heaven.

The Waiting Game

Waiting isn't easy, is it? As many of you know, Julie and I are playing the waiting game right now. Julie's due date was yesterday and today we are still waiting for the arrival of this little one. This is our fourth child and yet things are going so differently than with the other three. Jacob was a few days late, Ansley and Kalyn were both early, but with all three when the contractions started, soon thereafter we had a new baby in our arms.

But this child is different. Julie had false labor on Saturday and Sunday night as well as Wednesday morning this past week, but none of that was anything in comparison to yesterday. Julie started having contractions about 4 a.m. and kept it up all day long. We went to the doctor in the morning and the doctor told us that we should be ready for the baby to come that day. Things continued to progress, then slow down, then progress again and we finally went to the hospital at about 7:30 last night. Of course after we got there, things not only slowed down again, but almost came to a stop and so we went back home to wait things out. And here we are today, continuing to play the waiting game.

It isn't easy to wait. We are, by nature, an impatient people. In this age of microwave popcorn, high-speed internet, and instant messaging, we want everything right now. So waiting is not something that we naturally do very well.

But while I was considering all this, I remembered some verses that I had read this past week. Let me share those with you. They are from Lamentations 3:22-24. "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.'"

I am actually going to be preaching on these verses in a few weeks, as we continue our series on hiding God's Word in our hearts, so I won't go into the passage in depth right now. But I just wanted to share this powerful reminder that we are to wait on the Lord. We are so impatient, but we KNOW that His timing is best. I know it is not easy to wait. Believe me, I know! But the Lord is our portion. His timing is right and perfect. Let's wait on Him.

Please continue to pray for Julie and I as we continue to wait on the Lord during this time. And may the Lord also grant you the patience and trust and everything else you need to help you wait on Him in your own lives. Thanks and God bless!

National Day of Prayer

National Day of Prayer

Thursday, May 1

This is an important day and I want to take a moment and blog about what this day and the events surrounding it are all about. The National Day of Prayer was first instituted in 1952 during the term of Harry Truman. Millions of people are expected to be gathered together in over 35,000 different prayer gatherings across the country. Dr. Ravi Zacharias is this year's Honorary Chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. The National Day of Prayer is an attempt to unite the church in this country together in prayer. On this day, we recall that our nation was founded with a dependence upon God and we want to call this country together to pray. You can find out more about the Nationald Day of Prayer at their website: http://www.ndptf.org/home/index.cfm

It is a day that invites the notion that we are One Church in this community and in this country, as Jesus prayed for us in John 17: "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." (John 17:20-21)

It is a day that draws the collective eyes of this country toward Heaven in repentance, humility, dependence, dedication, and petition like we see called for in 2 Chronicles, chapter 7: "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)

It is a day that allows us to exercise our freedom to gather together and seek the Lord. I look at it as first and foremost a day of prayer, with the focus being prayer for our country and for our community. And calling the country and the Church together for prayer is a big deal. This is a big day and I would encourage everyone to be involved. Here in this community we observe the National Day of Prayer in a variety of ways. Check out the information below, and consider how you might like to be involved.

Bible Reading:
Monday noon through Thursday noon
The National Day of Prayer festivities actually begin on Monday, April 28 at noon with the start of the Bible Reading from the steps of City Hall. This is a community wide effort with different churches signing up to take time slots, round the clock, as the Bible is read from cover to cover, from Monday through Thursday. We, as a church, have a slot from 3-6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30. It is a great slot and each year I hear testimonies of how much people enjoyed being able to be part of that Bible Reading. If you have never done this, then I would strongly encourage you to try it. There are still a couple of slots open and you can sign up if you call the church office.

Noon Time Prayer:
Thursday, May 1 at noon
The Bible Reading culminates with the book of Revelation being read leading up to noon on the National Day of Prayer, Thursday, May 1. At noon, as the last words are read, we transition into a prayer service on those same steps. We will have a time of worship and prayer as a community.

Concert of Prayer:
Thursday, May 1 at 700p.m.
Then we finish up the National Day of Prayer with a community-wide concert of prayer. This is a powerful opportunity for the Church in Columbus to come together in unity and focus on praying for God's work in our country and in our community. We will be focusing in on five areas: government, schools, media, families, and churches. The concert of prayer this year will be held at our church at 7:00 p.m on Thursday, May 1. I want to strongly encourage everyone to come out for this prayer time. Obviously it is important because it is a time for us to gather together in prayer. But it also has the extra emphasis of being a time when we gather together with other believers as One Church to pray to our Heavenly Father, in the Name of Jesus.

The National Day of Prayer only comes around once every year. Don't miss this opportunity to be involved. If you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call at 379-9190.

Easter is just around the corner!

It is hard to believe that Easter is almost here. As we talked about this past Sunday, Easter is very early this year and of course that means that we have to get ready extra early. This Sunday is Palm Sunday, which means that Good Friday and Easter Sunday are just about a week away (depending upon when you are reading this blog). I wanted to take a moment and give a few words of exhortation coming in to Easter.

First, I want to encourage everyone to take some time over the next couple of weeks to really focus in on what Easter is all about. This time of year provides many distractions that can keep us from focusing in on Easter. For instance, Spring Break starts this weekend and I know that many of you have plans for this week. Another distraction is the NCAA Tournament that has its opening round the same weekend as Easter. I am not saying that we can't enjoy Spring Break or the NCAA Tournament (I plan to fill out my bracket like normal). But Easter is a very important event each year in our lives and it is good for us to take some time to focus on the cross and remember Christ's sacrifice for us. I want to encourage all of us to not let the other things that are happening around Easter, keep us from experiencing God during that time.

For those of you who are parents, I also want to encourage you to make sure that you are helping your family focus in on what Easter is all about. As a family, we like to do devotions each evening (for the days or weeks leading in to Easter) that are based on Christ's sacrifice. We started two nights ago with a book called "Benjamin's Box." This book (along with others like it) use the "Resurrection Eggs" which are eggs that help you focus in on the Easter message with your children. If you don't want to do a book or use the eggs, you can always just spend time reading about the events in Jesus' life leading in to Easter. If you want other suggestions, please feel free to give me a call.

The last thing that I want to encourage us all about is the community-wide Good Friday Tenebrae service that we are going to have at Community Church of Columbus on Friday, March 21. The Tenebrae Service is a wonderful way to focus in on Christ's sacrifice for us and this year we also have the opportunity to do that along with other believers from the Church as a whole in Columbus. This is a great time to come together as "one Church" in our community and focus in on Christ's sacrifice. This is not a CCC event that we are planning to attend, it is a combined effort with 5 churches in our community and we had a major role in pulling this all together. We will have several people from our church involved in this service and I am hoping that we will also have several more in the congregation. The service is at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, March 21, at Community Church of Columbus. I hope that you can be there.

The times they are a-changing

That's right, it is time to change our clocks. This weekend we "Spring Ahead" to Daylight Savings Time. I know that many of you who have lived in Indiana for your whole life are still getting adjusted to this new idea of changing clocks instead of time zones, and I know some of you don't really like it, but regardless of whether we like it or not, it is still "time to change."

My only question is, why does the time change happen at 2:00 a.m. on Saturday night? Why Saturday? Why not Friday or Monday? And what is special about 2? Why not Midnight or 1? I think most of us probably change our clocks before we go to bed anyway. At least I hope we do, or else we might find ourselves being late for church on Sunday morning. And that gets us to one of the reasons for writing this blog. I wanted to remind us all that this is happening, so that we don't forget and find ourselves showing up for church an hour late. So please remember, before you go to bed on Saturday night, that it is "time to change."

So since we are springing ahead one hour, that means that we will have an extra hour of daylight in the evenings. Hence the name, "Daylight Savings Time." I know that it means that it will be a little bit darker when we get up in the morning, but think of all the wonderful daylight that will be available to us in the evening. And with that in mind, that brings me to my second reason for writing this blog. I have a great suggestion for us to make use of that extra hour of daylight in the evenings. Let's make it a point to get outside and connect with our neighbors. That extra hour of daylight in the evening means that when we get home from work there is still time to take a walk, or play with the kids in the front yard, or do some yardwork, or even just sit outside and read a book. And one of the things that I have found is that if we spend that time outside, many times we will find some of our neighbors doing the same thing. And it is a wonderful opportunity to connect with them.

As we talked about last week, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. And in order to love them like that, we first need to have a relationship with them. So let's make it a point to use that extra hour of daylight to put ourselves in position to connect with our neighbors so that God can use us to love them.