When The Morning Comes

I feel as though we as a church have spent the night with God. We have sat at His feet, washed them in tears, and had them dried with the touch of nail scarred hands. The quiet times have been full of such wonder and power. The silence can be so serene and so pure - so holy - that all you hear is the breath in your lungs and yet the heartbeat of the One inside you.

Now our eyes meet the light of new mercy and providence and the voice of God is the breeze across our face leading us to the source of it's grace. And now we see God; arms open wide,smile on his face and the plans and intentions of unimaginable love glowing in his eyes.

"Arise, shine;For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you"
Isaiah 60:1

May we find the place to worship and pray in this city of our calling. And may we always seek the place we meet together...where ever,when ever in community and trust.May it always feel like home.

FAITH

In the afterglow of Don's message on faith, I can't help but feel a strong sense of tangibility and reality to the process we are undertaking right now. 21 Days of Prayer isn't just a collective of "Dear God" letters delivered in a time frame suitable for life to accomodate. We are entering "boldly into the throne of grace that we may find help in the time of need". We are asking the creator of the universe to move not just on our behalf but we are crying out for God to move us. Our faith can't just be in God's ability to perform but compell us as we strive to persevere. Here is a life-motto I have kept fresh in my mind for many years: The only time defeat and failure become possible is at the moment surrender becomes an option. It is God that both fans the flame and God who sends the fire. Some are afraid of being burned, others live within the fire.

F -earless A - abandonment I - n T - rusting H -im

The danger we face

I was reading recently in Genesis 15 where God is having a conversation with Abram. God is busy telling him what He's going to do in his life but Abram is skeptical. God tells Abram to go outside and look up at the sky. After staring at infinity for a while, he finally starts to understand God's true capacity to do what he says he's going to do.

I mention this, not only because I'm personally feeling the relevance of this story these days but to stress the "flexibility" part of our prayer. As we pray for flexibility, I'm praying not only for creativity but the ability to stretch. We may find that it is not the shape of our vision that's the problem but the scope. I'd like to keep both open to God telling me something otherwise.

Keep listening...

Patience

I admit I'm not a patient person. To be frank, 21 days of prayer for one thing is hard for me - I, like many, would like one day of prayer followed by 20 days of watching God work his wonders. I find that I'm looking past the days of prayer to November 3rd - the day in which this process culminates. But we're called to be patient and faithful. What I try to remember is this - God can do amazing things without us asking. We can hear from God when we're not listening. But imagine how easy it is for Him to answer when we ARE asking and we ARE listening. God, too is excited about November 3rd - but I sense He wants to spend some extra time with us before these 3 weeks are up.

For such a time as this

I sincerely believe we, like Elijah, are at our very own Brook of Kidron. God has brough us to a place of intermediation to seek and listen; to trust and know. Though we may not know the destination from here, we have come here in faith and our journey will continue the same. The ground we stand upon now is just as powerful as the reception of the divinely promised provision. Our buiding and or land is waiting and the steps to get there are coming.