Tag Archives: prayer

Thoughts On Vision Prayer

20 Jan

Thanks to everyone who came out to vision prayer last night.  Such an encouraging time of community prayer and worship.

Events like vision prayer are where the church gets to be the Family of Christ.  Sunday gatherings are designed for guest.  It’s like inviting the neighbors over for the party.  Vision Prayer is where we do the household work.  And the work of the household of Christ is Prayer and worship.

We cannot (and should not try to) do the work of the church with out first going to the Lord in prayer.

It was great to have a time of encouragement from team members.  To pray with and for the staff.  To keep Jesus and his mission central in all things that we do at Creekside.

Looking forward to the next one.

What happens to us when we hear?

18 Oct

I am learning Biblical Hebrew, one of the key texts in all of scripture is Deuteronomy 6:4, also known as the Shema.  Here is the text:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one

The word “hear” is shema.  It’s a verse that observant jews would recite throughout their life.  It is a reminder of who their God is, and it goes on to talk about how God’s people are to follow after God with all their heart, mind and strength.

I have been spending a good amount of time learning this verse in Hebrew.  If you would like to hear what it sounds like you can click here.

This morning I was listening to an old episode of the Radiolab podcast.  They were talking about how they work with sound to tell stories (download it here).  Radiolab does interviews with experts and they create really deep auditory experiences.  This is one of my favorite podcasts.  You can hear all of them at Radiolab.org.

This statement really struck me, “Sound is touch at a distance.”

Sound is really made up of waves that travel through the air and they travel through our ear canals and touch the tiny little bones and hairs in our ears and our brains somehow translate all of that into something that we can understand.

If sound is just touch at a distance, what happens to us when we hear, shema, the words of God.  God’s words are more than a word on a page.  When we hear them outloud, we are touched by the words of God.

We make contact with God, through his word when he hear it.

And when we pray, God hears us.  Do our prayers then touch God?

So take the time to hear the words of God

Shema Israel, adonai elohenu, adonai echad.

Hear O Israel, The LORD our God, The LORD is one!

Teach Us To Pray

2 Sep

I was recently cleaning out my book shelves when I came across an old book that looked interesting.  It’s called With Christ by Andrew Murray.  It’s a daily devotional book, 31 short chapter, all about prayer.  Prayer is one of the areas in my walk with Christ where I know that I need to be more intentional.  So I’m starting this book.  It’s old, written before TV and Radio and all the distractions of the world today, so I thought this would be a great resources.

The first chapter did not disappoint.  This quote was worth the time already.

Jesus never taught his disciples how to preach, only how to pray.  He did not speak much of what was needed to preach well, but much of praying well.  TO know how to speak to God is more than knowing how to speak to man.  Not power with men, but power with God is the first thing.

Such a needed reminder for my life.  Prayer is so important to God because he values our relationship with him.  I believe that God’s opinion of me is more important than anyone else’s opinion.  Prayer is one of the ways that I can build my relationship with God.

Jesus teach us how to pray.

Jesus teach me how to pray.

Church Prayer . . . Moms’ Day

10 May

Today I had the privilege to pray during our church service, every time I get to pray is a privilege. Sometimes I know exactly what I am supposed to pray, and other times I don’t know and I start praying and God talks to me while I’m praying. It sounds weird I know, and I can’t explain it. Today I was praying for moms and I said, God is with moms when their babies are crying in the middle of the night, and when moms are crying for their babies in the middle of the night.”

As soon as I said those words I was blown away by how amazing moms are, and how God’s love is evidenced in a mom’s love. I don’t think it’s good form to regularly quote yourself on your own blog, but I wanted to share that thought.

Peace of Mind

4 May

So lately the post that has brought the most traffic to my blog has been the video of Lauryn Hill’s “Gotta Find Peace of Mind.” Is there a better time than this to hear that song? With so much drama in the world around us, it’s hard to truly find peace. There are some many voices telling us so many things that distract or discourage us. And We need to constantly come back to the one person who can provide peace. Jesus.

Jesus, help us to know that you truly are the peace giver. We cannot find peace anywhere else but you. Help us to hear you in all the craziness around us. We want to hear you above the noise. Amen.

Donald Miller’s Prayer at the DNC

26 Aug

Great opportunity for Donald Miller to bring the heart of the Gospel and building the kingdom to the DNC. He handled it very well.  I’m proud to be on the same team as him.  

video courtesy LosWhit

God Answers Prayers!

19 Aug

Kathy and I have been praying a lot about how to get through this childbirth, and we just had a major prayer request answered.  God is so good to us.  Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

Prayer Post-Its

4 Jun

This picture is more than just a bunch of random post-its.  Everyone of these post-it’s represent a person a soul that our students are praying for.  I took this picture with my iPhone and it was only a portion of the whole wall that was covered with Names.

On Sunday evening all of Creekside gathered to pray for our church, to move us forward as a church, and our students prayed in our student room to pray for their friends and our ministry.  So great to come home and see this.  Big prayers

Planning The Year Out

4 Sep

So I just this afternoon got a good handle on our student ministries teaching plan for this year.  It looks pretty good to me.  We are going to talk about some pretty cool stuff.

It feels good to plan ahead like this.  If you are in youth ministry and don’t know where you are going with your talks for at least the next 4 months then you should really get a handle on that quick fast.

We shouldn’t just be guessing what we are talking about a few days ahead of time.  There are two ways that I think help to make sure that we are planning ahead and thinking big picture.

Method 1) Talk through the Bible.  Choose a book and work your way through it.  This is my favorite method because I love to walk through the stories and context of the Bible and give a big picture to what we are talking about.   We are currently goig through the Book of Matthew on Sunday Mornings at Church.

Method 2) Block out Multi-Week Series-es.  This way I can see what we are going to be talking about in the future, and I can break down my big ideas for each night.  This is helpful but a little bit more challenging for me personally.  we are going to be doing quite a bit of series work this year but I really am looking forward to some of the things we are going to be talking about.

Planning ahead like this is really important because it gives you a map to follow.  But it also gives you direction for your prayers and study.  Instead of panicky prayers trying to conjure up inspiration the night before you can pray months out about a certain topic, collect resources as you go, and let the Holy Spirit Guide you.  If you have anything to add I would love too hear about it.  Leave a comment.

Or if you want to see where we are going this year I can send you my road map.

Staff Devotion

13 Feb

As a staff we have been spending some time looking at the fruit of the Spirit.

Today I led the devotion and below are my notes:

The Fruit of the Spirit all find their Origin in the Father.

It’s his kindness that leads us to repentance it’s his faithfulness that keeps us coming back to him.

He never abandons us.  He never forsakes us.

Nothing can separate us from his love.

The picture of the Bridegroom is so strong in the Bible.

As the Bride we are the ones who lose faith.  We are the ones who worry, fear, cheat, but we need to let the Spirit guide us to more complete faithfulness.

How can you grow in your faithfulness to God?

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