Thursday, November 8, 2007

A Call to Knees

So I think God is trying to tell me something.

In last week's blog, I'd mentioned how I couldn't get that statement out of my head about needing more prayer and less activity on my life. That has continued this week along with situation after situation that is pointing me to prayer.

My daily Bible reading has been from the book of Revelation. Let me give you some snippets of what has jumped off the page at me.

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who live for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." (Rev 4:9-11)

Then I heard every creature in heaven and earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!" The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshipped. (Rev 5:13-14)

All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshipped God (Rev 7:11)

Do you get the idea?

Every time you turn around these people are falling on their face praying and worshipping. And like I shared last night - since I'm white & nerdy, I looked up what that word "worship" meant in the original language. It means "to fall down, prostrate oneself, adore on one's knees."

You add to all of this the fact that several situations happened this week that I had no good answer to other than to just pray, and I'm pretty sure that God is calling me to pray. So I'm going to.

One of the interesting things I've been reading in a book about prayer is how transformational it can be for us to pray in the places where people who need him are. So I'm starting to spend some time praying in my school bus. I'm going to try to come early and pray at church for church. I'm going to spend some times praying for altar call time at the altars.

I don't know what this all means, but I feel that it is time to stop praying to receive stuff and answers and start just sitting at God's feet waiting for Him to guide and direct. I feel that God is trying to affect a change in me, and part of that means the period of constant activity with little or no prayer is over.

Will you pray with me?

Beard or No Beard - That is the Question!

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Thursday, November 1, 2007

Frizzle Fry

So I'm sitting here with smoke almost literally rolling out of my ears.

I just got done looking through my 254 new emails. Many were spam but many were important information: updates on accounts I have, ministry training, lesson ideas, articles about social justice, updates on youth ministry events. I cannot believe the amount of information that comes into my life each day. Why is it necessary for me to have so many emails?

I'm reading like six books right now other than Bible study. I read numerous magazine & journal articles about faith and culture and generational studies. I try to stay current with world news. I meet new people almost everyday and try to remember their names. And sometimes it can all be a little overwhelming.

So in one of those six books I'm reading, I came to this line this week: Then I began to think about my life, my journey. I knew that God had been affecting a change in my life - the era of constant activity with no prayer was over.

Did you hear that?

No I guess you didn't. You probably read it.

Let me say the shocking part again: the era of constant activity with no prayer was over.

That is not a statement we hear very often in our society. Usually everything we see or are taught points us to greater activity rather than less. But that's, of course, if you see prayer as inactivity.

We live in this world of craziness and I'm the number one subscriber. But these words, they are haunting me this week. Maybe I'm not supposed to keep up with all of this activity - all of this information. Maybe I'm supposed to build margin into my life. Maybe I'm supposed to slow down. Maybe I'm supposed to give God some room to work in my life. Maybe I'm supposed to pray, trusting that God is going to take care of things.

But the real question I have is, how do we do that? How do we stop doing so much stuff? What are the things that are going to have to change in my life? What will I have to give up? What sacrifices will I have to make to move to more prayer and less activity?

Let me know how you are building margin and space into your life this week.