Do you believe?

Acts 12: 12-15 “When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, "Peter is at the door!" "You're out of your mind," they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, "It must be his angel."

Herod thought he was so smart arresting Peter and stationing many guards around him in an inner prison cell. But God is good and He heard the prays of the people and rescued Peter. It’s funny how they were praying for Peter’s release and then when it happened they didn’t believe it. They even tried to rationalize it and say it must be his angel.

How often do we pray for something but don’t believe that God will answer the prayer? We are no different than the people that night. There are two things that hinder our victory.

1. Unbelief. The people did not believe that God answered there prayer. They even told the girl that she was crazy.
2. Rationalism. Reliance on reason as the best guide for belief and action. If it doesn’t make sense to you, it must not be the answer.

This last week I had been fasting for my son, Isaiah. I love my son and God is good and I had been seeing answers to pray all week. Saturday, I ended my fast and Isaiah came down with a fever and was sick this weekend. Silly enough, I began to wonder if this was because I did not fast longer.

Unbelief that I had and was receiving answers to my prayers and reliance on my knowledge. God does not allow bad things to happen because we are not fasting a certain amount of days. Sickness happens because we live in a sinful world. Isaiah no longer has fever and God is still true to His promise and is watching over my children. Fasting and praying is not about how many days, but about a believing heart towards God.

Lord, thank you for correcting my view and for loving me enough to teach me this lesson. Help me change my unbelief and rationalism to a reliance on You and the truth of Your word. Amen.

Wall of Protection

Nehemiah 12: 31 I had the leaders of Judah go up on top of the wall. I also assigned two large choirs to give thanks. One was to proceed on top of the wall to the right, toward the Dung Gate.

The wall in Jerusalem had been restored and now was being detected to the Lord. It was a joyful day with praise and thanks giving. The choir was called together with the musicians and the whole town came out to celebrate. As I read this I began to ponder on the words of many of the songs we sing in church today. We sing of walls being torn down, not up.

Walls have a dual purpose: keeping things in or keeping things out. The songs that we sing are about removing the walls that hinder us or imprison us. This is not the reason for building the wall in Jerusalem, to imprison the people. No, it was to protect the people. I have often heard people pray for a “hedge” of protection, I have prayed this myself. But when is the last time you heard someone pray for a wall?

I do not want strongholds in my life or family, however, I do want a “wall” of protection over them. It took a deep passion and conviction to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem; it will take the same in my life. I can’t just be satisfied with freedom, but I must guard it as precious. Just because I am saved does not mean I go around unprotected. There are places and things I have no business going around; attitudes, language, and conduct that must be protected if I am to remain safe in the arm of Christ. We need to build walls of protection in our marriages, with our children, and in our families.

So, how do we do this?

· Set boundaries. (Example: we will not watch rated R movies, nothing with sex scenes) Let your family know the boundary and why.
· Be accountable. Discuss the boundaries with an accountability partner. Someone strong in Christ that will encourage you.
· Pray. Pray specifically for an area or a person. (If you have a hard time in this area try using some pray guides. I recommend books by Stormie Omartian.)
· Fast. Separating yourself for direction and answer to pray is hard but most effective.

Lord, thank you for reminding me that there are walls that I need to pray over my family. I give Ant, Isaiah and Leia into your hands today. Cover them and strengthen them I pray amen.

How are you building?

Nehemiah 3: 20 "Next to him, Baruch son of Zabbai zealously repaired another section, from the angle to the entrance of the house of Eliashib the high priest."

In the list of men working to restore Jerusalem, we find Baruch. Baruch was a common man wanting to do something for God. He is the only man listed that has a description of how we worked. It says he “zealously repaired”. This indicates his attitude, mind set, and even gives you a mental picture of how he looked physically while working.

Let me tell you what I mean. When you hear the word lazy, your mind paints a mental picture of a sloppy dressed person, maybe dirty, messy hair, lying around doing nothing of worth, watching TV, eating and spilling at the same time.

But zealous is far different. Zealous means extremely eager or enthusiastic, filled with or motivated by zeal; fervent.

So, here is the picture of Baruch. His forehead is glistening with sweat; he is lifting heavy lumber and stone in a constant and stead pace. He is positioning each material with care and precision. He measures often to make sure that everything has been done correctly. He eyes are focused and his face shows the look of determination. He is serious and yet he is joyful and pleased with the progress he is making. His tempo has begun to get the attention of those around him and his passion for the work of Christ is now becoming infectious. The men on either side of him are now taking greater pride in their repairs and cleaning up mistakes and poor workmanship. There pace has increased and they are now focused on doing their best.

I want what I do for God to be described this way. How and what I put into the work God had given me will reflect my attitude and will either encourage others or make them not want to even try. I have been challenge today to work in all areas of my life with zeal.

How will people describe you?

Lord, thank you for using Baruch to challenge me to live a life of zeal. I pray that I will grab hold of this and walk it out in my life starting today. Amen.

One Month To Live

I read this article from a parenting newletter from HomeWord.com that I receive and thought it would be a good appetizer to the series that Pastor Anthony will be preaching in the up coming months. Enjoy!

"One of the greatest benefits of this “one-month-to-live lifestyle” is deeper, more authentic relationships, especially with your kids.

Kerry tells a compelling story about how living like he only has 30 days to live affected his relationship with his two oldest boys. Here it is in his own words:

When we first started living this one-month-to-live lifestyle, the first thing I did was go to my two oldest teenage boys, and I said, “Guys, I really want to have a deeper relationship with you. We’ve kind of settled for superficiality.”

You know, they’re guys and I’m a guy, and I’d come home from work and I’d say, “How was your day, guys?” And they’d say, “Oh, great. How was your day, Dad?” “Oh, it was great.”

I said that I want more than that, I want to know your struggles and your stresses and the things you’re going through. They said, “Well, you never tell us yours, Dad.” And I said, “Well, I didn’t think you needed me to dump my stresses on you, you’ve got enough of your own in high school.” They said, “We can handle it, Dad.”

So every Thursday at 3 o’clock, I started meeting them at their favorite restaurant. I’d have the chili cheese fries and the Cokes ready, and they’d come in, their eyes would light up, and they’d say, “How was your day, Dad?” And I’d say, “Well, it really stunk, boys.” And they would love that.

I’d tell them the stresses I was going through and they would tell me theirs and it just took us to a whole new level. We’d pray together. We’d talk about deeper things. We just had settled for superficiality. We were never very intentional until we started living this way.

The key concept here is being proactive to live your life intentionally. Living the one-month-to-live lifestyle forces you to be intentional about spending relational time with your kids. It reduces superficial communication and encourages authenticity. It values being together and communicating love and encouragement today, rather than putting these off to another “tomorrow.” And these things, probably as much as anything else you do as a parent, are what your children need and want the most!

Now, frankly, not every moment you spend with your kids will be amazing and life-changing. But long term, when they look back at those chili-cheese-fry moments, they’ll appreciate the time you spent with them.

Parents who choose to live intentionally, receive a priceless gift. They are empowered to make the tough decisions about letting go of commitments with lesser importance. They understand that skimping on family relationships in order to save the world is an empty goal. They are able to carve out time to nurture their relationship with God. And they understand that every moment invested with their family helps to build a lasting legacy that can endure for generations.

Fortunately, most of us aren’t going to die in the next 30 days. We have many years ahead of us. Yet, living the one-month-to-live lifestyle helps us to refocus our priorities, motivating us to make each day matter. If we do so, we’re more likely to live regret-free. And you’ll never have to say, “I wish I had taken the time to….”

Product of Prayer

Psalm 126: 6 He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.

The psalmist knew something about praying through tears. The people of God had been in captivity for a long time and restoration was overwhelming. It was almost like it would never come. But now they had returned home and he encourages his listeners that pouring out our sorrow in prayer to God produces a wonderful crop.
Just this Sunday I encouraged one of our ladies with this verse. I am a product of my Nana prayers. These were no ordinary prayers. I can still hear and see my Nana as she cried out to God. It was a deep roaring cry from the depths of her soul. She had a burden that no one could comfort but the Lord Himself. She planted that seed of salvation and cried over it for her children and grandchildren.
There are things in this life that will bring us to our knees and rip out our hearts.

Through it all, we have a promise that if we bring this deep heart wrenching prayer to God that He will bring about something good. The thing is this; we are not always the ones who see the harvest. My Nana did not see all her children serving the Lord before she died. However, God is faithful and those she prayed so hard for are serving the Lord. We have a few who are struggling, but now there is a new praying mother(Auntie Gwen) who weeps for her children and her harvest will bring a celebration.

Lord, I thank you for my Nana. I miss her very much. I am glad to have had an example of a very human woman that despite her humanness her prayers moved heaven and changed our lives. I pray that I would pray from the depths of my soul as well. Amen.