Mostly we prayed for...

What do we mostly pray for?

Prayer has been on my mind a lot lately. I'm reading a lot on prayer. I'm learning a lot about prayer. I'm burdened that Hub City become a praying church. 

I want to share something I read last week. It came our of James MacDonald's book, Vertical Church. In talking about persistent prayer he says:

Mostly we prayed for God to come in power and make our weekend service a place of supernatural outpouring. We prayed that God would be heard in the preaching, that worship would be a fervent and heartfelt adoration of Jesus’ worthy name, that people would be saved, prodigals would come home, and families’ hearts would turn back to the Lord and to each other. The question is not will God answer our prayers, but do we have faith to petition Him persistently?

This resonates with me. It has become a prayer of mine over the past seven days. Maybe it can inform and deepen your prayers for the church as well.

What might happened if we prayed like this more for the church? Stay tuned for some ways we're going to incorporate more prayer into the life of Hub City Church.

What inspires me

I learned something about myself today. Reading good writing inspires me to write. When I read good writing I want to be like those authors. They use words like a great chef uses food. I don’t just read their books. I savor them.

The opposite is also true. Poor writing is uninspiring. Actually, it’s worse. It gives me permission to take short cuts and do half-hearted work.

I’ve read a few great books lately. The Giver series by Lois Lowery is so well written I was depressed when I got to the end of the series. I started Donald Miller’s new book, Scary Close, today. Don is a great writer. His Million Miles in a Thousand Years still ranks as one of the best books I’ve had the privilege to read.

Unfortunately, I’ve also read a few poorly written books lately. I’ll let those popular, yet poorly written works, remain unnamed. I quit reading some of them. And it wasn’t because they had a bad story. The writing wasn’t good, and they couldn’t hold my attention.

Like I said, reading good writing inspires me to write. Hearing good public speaking inspires me to speak better. Learning something new inspires me to share that knowledge.

I don’t know if you ever know what you want to be when you grow up. Life is more like a Polaroid that becomes more focused over time. At least that has been my experience. Things that inspire me give me clarity on who God made me to be.

All of this has me wondering something about you.

What inspires you? Or better yet, what inspires you to do what you were created to do and be who you were created to be?

Why not spend your time there? Why waste your time on things that aren’t helpful?

I want your Polaroid to come into focus.

I also want you to read something good.

Marriage Mentoring

Liz and I were talking this past Saturday about marriage and some of our good friends who are currently struggling in the marriage department. It got us thinking about offering up ourselves as mentors.

Let me be very clear about a few things:

• We don't have a perfect marriage, but we have a really great marriage, and believe we have something to offer. 
• We don't have all the answers, but we've learned some things that we think could help other couples.
• Central to our marriage is our relationship with God, so that will permeate all of our mentoring.

If you're interested in a marriage mentorship, particularly those of you who are a part of the Hub City Church family, then let us know.

We want to help you have the best marriage possible. 

Ripe

One thing that amazes me about reading the Bible is that God is always pointing out new things to me, things I've read a hundred times, but never noticed.

That happened today.

In John 4:35 Jesus says this:
You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest.

In Luke 10:2 Jesus says something similar:
The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.

The phrases ripe for harvest and the harvest is great jumped out at me.

Jesus is talking about evangelism, and specifically, the harvest refers to people who are moving from death to life by putting their faith in Jesus.

Jesus says that the fields are ripe and the harvest is great.

That means there are people all around us who are ripe--ready--to put their faith in Jesus. 

I don't know about you, but I'd really love to not only see, but be a part of a great harvest. Let's be on the lookout for those who are ripe.

Eternity is at stake. What they were created for is at stake. 

The fields are already ripe for harvest.

Pain and Suffering

It's been so long since I've posted anything that I feel like I've fallen off the blogging planet. But never fear. A new post is here.

I know a lot of people who are going through tough times right now. They are suffering. 

My own family is experiencing it's own challenges too.

No one is immune. 

I wish I could swoop in and fix everyone's situation.

Unfortunately, not even God does that. Actually, that's one of the main reasons people have a problem with God. It may be why you have a problem with God.

They Bible is filled with the stories of people who experienced pain and suffering. 

Sometimes God rescued them. Many times he didn't.

But one thing stands out over and over again. Even though God didn't alway relieve people of their suffering he was always with people in their suffering. 

In a few weeks we're going to begin a series at Hub City Church where we look at some of these stories. 

I'd love for you to be a part of this series. I'd also like some help in naming the series. My creative juices are dry.