Thursday, April 30, 2009

ATTN: Thursday, May 7, 2009 is coming.

Guess what May 7th is. May 7th is the National Day of Prayer.


I was reminded of this important date as the May issue of the Restoration Herald arrived in my mailbox. Without the reminder on the front cover in bold print, it probably would have slipped past me, although there is usually something in the news (radio or TV) that advertises an ecumenical prayer service for the community to get involved with in our city.


Super Bowl-winning coach, Tony Dungy and NASCAR Legend and current FOX Sports Analyst, Darrell Waltrip, have joined Honorary Chairman, Beth Moore, and Chairman, Shirley Dobson, to challenge America to unite in prayer on the 58th annual National Day of Prayer observance, May 7, 2009.

It’s great that these high powered celebrities are getting involved in promoting prayer. Prayer has, and will always be, part of the fabric of our country. There are many examples in history where prayer seemed to sustain us and grant us various freedoms and victories. I think the goal of this event - “that prayer would move from a one-day event in our lives to a lifetime endeavor” - is the key.


Many people believe that when we started eliminating public prayer from public events it was the beginning of the end in this country. Do you still have a Wednesday night prayer service at your church? How often do you pray in your church service? Is your prayer chain really effective or just another way for gossip to spread? Is prayer the wrap up for the minister’s sermon where he gets in a few more points? Do we stop long enough to listen to God in prayer rather than the same old "I am talking, God, please listen?" Billy Graham once said, "Prayer is spiritual communication between man and God, a two-way relationship in which man should not only talk to God but also listen to Him."


When is the last time you read a book on prayer? How about a sermon series on prayer? The bottom line for me is - I don’t pray enough and with the fervor that God would desire. So why don’t we pray enough (whatever "enough" actually is)? Paul's injunction that we pray without ceasing really convicts a person. It is totally believable that he practised what he preached on that one for sure.

Do you believe that "the quality of our prayer life determines the quality of our relationship with God"? If you had to rate your relationship with God on a scale of 1-10 (10 being terrific) based on that quote where would it be? Are we just dating God or are we actually married to Him?


There seems to be an epidemic of prayerlessness in our country, in our churches and in our lives. When we travel the country to share NPEA with others in churches, we very seldom get people to sign up to pray for this ministry. We have been trying to get mission teams to come once a month and pray over the mission field in Bismarck/Mandan, ND (the site of our next church plant) for the next year and a half, so far two churches have committed to this endeavor.


Have you ever gone on vacation and your prayer life takes a vacation as well? I just hate that when it happens to me. It's like, “Thanks God for this time away to relax and be recharged, I guess I will take a vacation from You as well.”



I have kept a prayer journal for almost 19 years and I have to admit there are days when it is just something I check off my religious list of things to do.


So how do we overcome acedia in our prayer lives? If you need a complete jump start, check out the National Day of Prayer website at ndptf.org/home/index.cfm.


If you want classic inspiration, read anything by E.M. Bounds on prayer. I have also alluded to Bill Hybels classic book on prayer: To Busy Not Too Pray on our website.




I would encourage you to start to journal your prayers. I would set a measureable goal for the number of times you would like to sit down and spend some quiet time with God in conversation. Work on your spontaneous prayer life as well. My wife has helped me gain some perspective on this and do a better job. I built in more listening time for God in my prayer life. I realized I talked way too much and didn’t listen enough at all!


The most important motivator for all of us to speak and listen more to God is simply realizing that “prayer is our love language with our Father”!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Jesus is alive, and so are we!

The stone was rolled away last Sunday. The big Easter week is now behind us. It was a big week.

You arrived at church, Wednesday night, for the Tenebra service, not the prayer service you usually attend.

Then there was the church service you attended with a friend, on Maundy Thursday.

Your family arrived at 7:00 p.m. for service on Good Friday.

You might have participated in a Seder meal during the week.

Then the Easter Sonrise Service (which was actually about three hours after sunrise) followed by the Easter Service.

Were you exhausted from all the extracurricular activities, or are your spiritual batteries recharged after last week?

This week we have drifted back to normalcy on the church scene. Easter is kind of like going to Macy’s, or any other high end shopping store, and shopping for women’s shoes. If you have ever been in the store and browsed the women’s shoe department, you can’t believe all the choices. Now check out the men’s shoes (as I did this past week), looking for a pair to go with my suit for my son’s wedding on April 25th. There is nothing in the men’s shoe department. It is discriminating. You go from thousands of styles in the women’s department to, like, four in the men’s. Similarly, we go from being overwhelmed by Easter week to the old back to normal routine.

How can we overcome the “post-Easter Blues”? During my quiet time this week God had me reading in I Corinthians 15:14ff. - "And if Christ was not raised all our preaching is useless and your trust in God is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, but that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still under condemnation of your sins."

In this new church plant in Corinth some of the believers did not believe in a bodily resurrection. The proof that our earthly bodies will be resurrected is the resurrection of the Lord. Do you want to chase the “post-Easter Blues” away? All you have to do is check out the preceding verses in I Corinthians 15 and realize that there were over 500 eyewitnesses to the resurrected Jesus Christ! Would a court of law believe 500 eyewitnesses? Would an atheist believe 500 eyewitnesses? Would a person living at 1433 Oak St. believe 500 eyewitnesses? Would you?

Easter changes everything! How do we shake off the “post-Easter Blues”? We dance for joy that the resurrection happened in history, at a specific time, and it changes everything on a daily, monthly, yearly basis, until Jesus returns.

We do not wait until Easter (as the world does) to jump for joy at Christ's resurrection. Easter happened over 2,000 years ago when some women ran to an empty tomb to prepare a dead body with burial spices and discovered, as we do, every day, that Jesus is ALIVE and we are too. "Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus," every day! (Romans 6:11)