Prayer

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Departure

I can’t believe that October 12 is almost here. After months and months of preparation—planning, praying, working, packing—we’re finally going!

Tomorrow afternoon our team assembles at the church parking lot, luggage in tow. After piling into a 15-passenger church van, Pete will drive us to Denver International Airport, a bit over an hour away. Our first flight, to London, is scheduled to leave at 7:45 that evening. Somehow, in spite of our anticipation and excitement, we’re supposed to sleep on the plane. By the time we arrive at Heathrow it will be just after noon the next day (local time).

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How to Pray, part 2

Here are the other two prayer points for my upcoming trip to Swaziland. If you missed the first two, I posted them last time.

Swaziland
While we don’t want to overlook opportunities to share God’s love along the way, the primary purpose of our trip is to serve the orphans and their caretakers at a particular CarePoint in Swaziland. Some of the children who attend live with extended family, many live on their own, with only brothers and sisters to care for them—or for them to care for. They’ve watched their parents and other family members die, mostly from AIDS. They’re scared, alone, hungry, and to a large degree, unloved.

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How to Pray for Short-term Mission Trips

In just eight days I’ll be boarding a British Airways jet for my trip to Swaziland. A number of you have responded to my plea for prayer support, for which I am deeply grateful. I know I can’t do anything worthwhile without God working through me, and your prayers are essential to that process.

There are some specific prayer points I’d like to share, whether for this trip or any short-term mission trip—I doubt I’m the only person you know who’s going overseas for the sake of the Gospel. I’ll try to keep this short and focused, so your prayers can be focused as well. Today I’ll offer points one and two; Friday I’ll post the other two.

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Did You Say Something?

Does God talk to you?

The Bible is full of examples of God talking to people. Sometimes He used an audible voice, such as when Jesus was baptized: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Other times He spoke through the prophets, although we don’t know how they heard His voice. He talked to Moses out of a burning bush. And one time, God even spoke through an ass! (See Numbers 22:28.)

The Urim and Thummim were used to cast lots, another way for the ancient Hebrews to know God’s will (1 Samuel 14:41 is one example). Gideon put out a fleece (Judges 6:36-40) to make sure he was hearing God correctly. Pete and I did too; w hen God asked us to move to Colorado, we asked for confirmation that we understood what He wanted us to do.

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Good God

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away… and sometimes He gives back again. You may remember my mention of our friends, Gene and Nancy, who lost their home in the Black Forest fire. They lived on the same block where the fire started, and had literally minutes to wake their daughter-in-law, grab the dog, the computer hard drive, and a box of photos (stored by the front door!) before jumping in their cars and fleeing for their lives.

Their house burned down, along with the accumulated treasures of fifty years of marriage. They are mourning their loss, and it is substantial. Yet, they have no doubt that God is good and that He is watching over them. For example…

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Greater Than the Boogeyman

pop file error messagePete hasn’t had a break all week. First it was just the distraction of moving back into our house. Then the email router at the ICTA office stopped working. That used up five days and it still isn’t really fixed. On Thursday a construction crew on the street outside the office accidentally hit a gas line, and the entire building had to be evacuated. So much for getting any work done.

That evening our router at home starting having fits and we lost our internet service. Then, while on the phone to the phone company (which also provides our internet service), the home land line died. (You know it’s bad when you can’t call the phone company!) Oh, and did I mention that our poor cell reception is augmented by a “personal cell phone tower” which runs, you guessed it, over the internet. Pete had to leave the house to call the phone company on his cell phone.

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Repent!!

Alligator @MerrittIsNWR 29Dec07 LAH 562Do we need to repent?

The blogosphere is all up in arms over Cindy Jacobs telling Native Americans and Mexicans that they need to repent for the idolatry of their ancestors. You can read various takes on it here, here, and here, for starters. Or you can go straight to the source and watch the video on Vimeo. Yes, I watched the entire ten minutes.

Naturally, this video has caused quite a ruckus. Maybe that’s because of some inflammatory statements, such as:

If you have in your bloodline any animus, any Native American blood, for instance, not all Native Americans worshipped the serpent or crocodile, many did, but you might want to renounce that and repent for the generational iniquity.

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Rest

I finally have a day off.

Believing that God wants us to take a day out every week as our “Sabbath,” I’ve set aside every Thursday as my day of rest and reflection. (Sunday might be traditional, but it doesn’t work for us, since we volunteer in our church’s café at 6 a.m., then attend Sunday school followed by the service, then take my dad out for lunch and shopping afterward. We get home mid- to late afternoon, exhausted.)

Taking Thursday off might be my intention, but it doesn’t always fit reality. For the last few weeks, I’ve spent the day packing for a camping trip, cleaning the house for guests, balancing our checkbook and paying bills… and I couldn’t do those things earlier because I was doing other important and urgent things. Life happens. But this week, I’m taking a day off to rest, relax, drink tea, read, pray, and contemplate the state of my world. It’s heaven.

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Praying for Unbelievers

Have you ever been told something like this?

You pray for those prodigal children! You pray for that unbelieving husband, or spouse, or family member! You know God is going to answer those prayers. It’s his will that everyone be saved, so you pray—and God is going to raise them up!

Yeah, me too. There are plenty of verses about how God answers prayer. Most have some sort of condition, for example (italics mine):

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What Are We Missing?

When telling someone else about your faith, what do you think is most important? A clear, concise presentation of the Gospel? Good theology? Answers to all their questions? An exciting testimony?

No question, all those are important. As the church, we’ve put a lot of effort into making sure we can explain the Good News in a way a non-Christian can understand. We have tracts, websites, and billboards. Churches and neighborhood Bible studies describe themselves as seeker-friendly. We take classes in evangelism, learn the “Roman Road” verses and memorize John 3:16. Fans hold up signs at ball games and players tattoo Scripture on their arms, crediting God with every win.

With all the witnessing going on, you’d think the church would be growing by leaps and bounds—but it isn’t, at least here in the U.S. Why not? Could it be that we’re going about evangelism all wrong?

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