Expecting Great Things

We are now three weeks into our message series on prayer, and I must say I am beginning to really see God at work.  The evidences may be subtle at this point but they are evident and bear the signature of God written all over them.  I hear it in the prayers our people are offering up.  

God's people are praying with a kingdom focus.  Humility is present in their voices as they submit their will to the will of their Father.  This is the begining of great things.  The verse in 2 Chronicles chapter 7 is ringing loud and clear ; "If my people, which are called by my name, shall 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."  There is so much truth in those few words, and that truth will set us free!

I feel it!  I feel a great turning in the heart of our church - a turning from human will and interest to God's will and interest.  I sense a humility that is amazing - people bowing themselves down before their Creator, laying their lives on the altar as a living sacrifice.  Prayer is working!

We have discussed three key elements of prayer so far: First, prayer changes us.  Second, prayer is about the will of God, and third, there exists a major, spiritual struggle for our prayer life as we "wrestle not against flesh and blood."  Up to this point we have been speaking about our communication to God, starting next week we will begin to learn the elements of God's communication to us.  

Prayer is a two-way street.  That simple concept is perhaps the least taught, and most needed in all the discipleship process.  How can we do God's will if we can't hear God's voice?  How can we reach our full potential in Him if we neglect to foster a relationship with Him?  By developing our relationship with God we will learn to hear His voice.  

We have some exciting things yet to learn in this series.  Please pray for me as I study and seek the words God would have me to share with you throughout the remainder of this prayer emphasis.  I am very encouraged by what is promised to us if we "humble ourselves and pray."  I am kind of old fashioned in that I believe God will do what he said He would do if we do what He tells us to do.  

Expecting great things,

PK 

The Power of Prayer

Yesterday we started our first message in a six part series on prayer.  I think prayer makes all the difference.  All too often, though, we neglect this great privilege and then wonder why we celebrate only a mediocre faith experience.  

Prayer, as we learned yesterday is far to valuable to neglect.  I can honestly say, as your pastor, that I am totally committed to this subject.  I am totally committed to see that we come out of the mediocracy of our existence and enter into the joy of a true relationship with God, but i truly believe this will only happen "if" we "humble ourselves and pray and seek his face and turn from our wicked ways."  

I know, that sounds harsh.  You might be saying to yourself, "I am humble and I do pray and I have no wicked ways.  That verse is not for me, it is for the other people who don't live a good Christian life like I do."   If that's what your thinking then I challenge you to get a dictionary and look up the word "humble."  

The longer I serve in the ministry, the more I realize that God loves to work in the lives of the humble. . . those who are broken. . . those who have "gotten over themselves."  It is through weakness that we find strength.  It is in humility that we find God.  

The first step in a powerful move of God is a sweeping wave of humility that engulfs a community of believers.  People desperately seeking God by abandoning their own self interests.  People recognizing how they, individually, have been functioning as stumbling blocks in the path of God's blessing, and truly repenting of those attitudes and behaviors.  

We must all, "humble ourselves and pray, and seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways."  No one of us is exempt from this exercise.  We must all get alone with God and ask Him the question, "how have I, personally, been blocking the blessings of God in my life, the life of my family, and the life of my church."  Then, in the quietness of the moment listen to His voice.  Unless your name is Jesus, He will convict you of your sinfulness.  

God, I pray your wave of humility will strike our church in full force.  I pray that It will overcome me personally and change my life forever.  I pray that we as a people will seek your face in all that we do and find the unity that can only be found in the spirit of prayerfulness.  

God, we only have one chance at this life, and one chance at building this church.  Help us to do it in you will.  May your desires become our desires so that when we pray we are seeking your desires.  May we live in such a way that we experience the power that you modeled before us in the person of your Son Jesus Christ.  He, himself taught us that the mighty works that were manifest in His life were a result of His communion with You.  That same power that is manifest in His life resides with us in the person of Your Holy Spirit.  

Help us, Father, to have the kind of faith that moves mountains - the kind of faith that causes the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear and the dead to live again!  Cause us to seek the kind of faith that is available to us through prayer, praying in Your will, and in the life of your Son.  

God, grant us power in the Name of Jesus, power to accomplish your will and way.  Help us, Father, to recognize our weakness in the light of your greatness, and surrender our lives to you wholly and completely.  

Cause us to pray.  Help us to recognize the value you placed on our prayers when you made them possible by the blood of your Son.  You paid a great price for our great privilege.  May we ever be mindful, and as a result, ever prayerful.

Amen

Church, I hope you have taken this challenge to pray seriously.  I hope this message series will do more to develop you individually and corporately than any other experience in your Christian life.  Please join me in faithfully praying for a powerful moving of God to sweep across our church  in the form of a huge wave of humility, washing away all desires that are not abiding in Him so He can abide in us.

Your prayer partner,

PK

Starry Night

I have always loved this painting. It speaks to my soul.  Even before I understood the events that led up to its creation, I could sense the deep agony the artist hid beneath the brilliant colors.

Movement and light speak to the presence of a holy God.  The little village sleeps as a powerful and mighty creator quietly coddles it in his loving arms.  Absolutely beautiful.  

In the foreground we see a cyprus tree, dark and foreboding.  It places distance between the artist and the world he is observing.  Just out of his reach lies a quiet, peaceful village.  Beyond that village resides a powerful, mighty and caring God.  For some reason the artist is distanced. He looks at life with admiring eyes and is amazed by the Giver of life, but cowers in the darkness, secretly telling us that he does not feel worthy to participate in so great a masterpiece.  Absolutely agonizing.  

Early in his life, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) felt a strong tugging at his heart to serve God in full time Christian service.  He wanted nothing more than to share the love of Christ with the world, but his desires were not well received by the Dutch Reformed Church.  After being rejected by the seminary, he spent a number of years serving as a missionary to a village of coal minors.  Not willing to elevate himself to a higher standard of living than the people to whom he was ministering, van Gogh led the humble life of a peasant.  

This further alienated him from the church because many felt he was "degrading the priesthood."  Van Gogh did not measure up to the high standards set by the church.  The church was apathetic to this young man whom they felt could not live up to their standards.  Academically and socially challenged, he left the church, dejected.  

He embarked on a life that steadily spiraled downward.  Broken relationships, lead poisoning, alcoholism, and eventually mental illness brought on by debauchery led him to a place that was far from his earlier, God given passions.  Van Gogh was moving away from God and the church was blind and indifferent to his descent. 

The last year of his misery found him in an asylum at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole.  Tormented by unfulfilled ambitions, he walked the gardens observing the village below.  From behind the dreary cyprus tree he looked out at the life he so longed for, but was unable to touch.   

As I look at his "view from the asylum" I can feel his pain.  He witnesses a God that is present, shinning His light in the heavens above and in the hearts below; the sky on fire with light and motion; the homes below illuminated by the same.  A beautiful painting, but painted by an observer rather than a participant. 

I can't help but notice the only two places in van Gogh's world where he sees no light: in his own heart, and in the institution that should have brought that light to him.  This picture hangs in my office as a daily reminder that we as a church should never extinguish the light we are called to shine forth.  

Van Gogh's paintings today are some of the most highly sought after in the world.  They are displayed in museums and galleries worldwide.  They tell the tale of a troubled, passionate soul yearning for acceptance in a world that rejected him.  

I can't help but wonder what tale they would tell had he found the light of God in the church for which he yearned.  

PK