Prayer and Meditation entry 9

Today is devoted to prayer for those who facilitate Life Groups at epic.
I am praying that god will guide them each, bless them each specifically, protect them spiritually from the deception and temptation of the Enemy, counsel them, comfort, and restore them. I am mentioning them each by name and devoting an hour of my thoughts as I go through the day to that person. So far I have spent an hour on 6 people.

I have continued with my responsibilities for the day and having conversations as I have needed and when my mind has had free time or has wandered, I have directed those moments to prayer for each of these individuals.

John & Joy Prys
Sal & Josie Lopez
Scott & Ashley Peterson
Darin & Brandi Parson
Pat & Jonell Freitas
Myself and Rhonda

I have said it a thousand times, "at epic it all comes down to Life Groups." God has done the most significant things in our congregation in and through these groups. Thank you all for being involved in a Life Group and thank you facilitators for staying the course and guarding the church as you invest in the lives of those around you.

Prayer and Meditation Entry 8

Surely God has met all my needs.
Thank you God for my family - my wife who loves me SO unconditionally, my children who are healthy, happy, fun, smart and growing in faith.Thank you God for my home, safe, secure, filled with love, warm, and beautiful.
Thank you God for food to eat. My bills are paid and there is always plenty to get through the grocery store with a full basket.
Thank you God for clothes to wear - plenty of them, warm enough for Winter, cool enough for Summer, variety, and quality.
Thank you God for our car that gets us everywhere we need to go safely and we have never had to worry about being stranded.
Thank you God for electricity and flushing toilets and running water and heaters and air conditioning... Just by virtue of my generation I have the basic blessings... I take them for granted and consider them basic necessities, but they are a privilege that I don't even deserve.
Thank you God for all the things I do not need: movies, wii, furniture, restaurants, appliances, cameras and photography, vacations, ipod, books, watches, and more, more, more.

God grant me an attitude of thankfulness, from which worship always begins.
Thank you for protecting me, forgiving me, guiding me, helping me, using me, creating me, correcting me, challenging me, teaching me...

Thank you God for providing all of my needs and SO much more.

Season of Prayer and Meditation Entry 7

Psalm 78

Click the verse link above. As you read the passage above, go back and take a close look at vv. 19-32.

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

The context for this passage: the apostle Paul has just been reporting to this group of Christ-followers about his use of their financial support and his gratitude for it. He seems to be aware that they gave the support out of their own lack... not out of plenty.

My God - the Creator of the universe is personal. He is enormously eternal. He is closely personal. He is mine. Like my ipod, engraved with my name, reserved for my personal connection. And yet not exclusively so. And yet personal and reserved for every person who puts living faith in Him. MY God. MINE. OURS.

...shall.. This is so sure. SHALL has such a sense of command to it. "Will" can have a sense of possibility. I often say that I "will" do something and it doesn't come about because of some interfering factor. But I don't use the word "shall" except to quote God. Unequivocally SHALL. Its the verbiage of the 10 commandments. SHALL.

...supply... As a noun supply can either be a necessary item OR an abundant stock of necessities. A supply. As a verb, it is to provide such things.

ALL I really hate it when God uses these words. It forces me to examine my personal failures. Because God never lies and because God is completely empowered to fulfill absolutes like this, if I don't see my life in alignment with this absolute then the problem is with my life - NOT WITH GOD. That means if I can't make it on what I have, I have gone beyond what I need OR I have taken a worldly view of quality and assumed that more expensive is better, or I have been duped in to the believe that the same product with a popular brand name is worth the premium price. I have all too often spent money on one thing with a brand name, stealing that money for the "supply" for another need. In the words of Charlie Brown, "Urrrrgh!" ALL. My needs are met. I'm sitting in a beautiful, warm, comfortable, dry living room. My pantry is full of ingredients that will sit unused for months waiting for the next time I make that "item." I read a statistic that says the average family could live for more than 2 months on just the calories in the ingredients in their pantry. MY GOD... ALL MY NEEDS.

my needs... Teach me about needs. Relieve me of wants. I need a miraculous transformation if I am really going to experience contentment.

according to His riches in Christ Jesus... my needs are found in Christ Jesus and met in Christ Jesus. I can't buy them at Marshall's or order them from Amazon or barter for them on Craig's List. Perhaps if I saw my needs through spiritual eyes I would recognize that what I need is spiritual instead of physical, eternal instead of temporal, godly instead of earthly. Food for the stomach, life for the soul.

Lord, guide me today to live in richness of your supply. Amen.

Season of Prayer and Meditation Entry 6

A Prayer

My Father in Heaven, How incredible Your name is. Its so incredible that I should never speak it and yet I say it casually. FATHER. GOD. LORD. YAHWEAH. No I say it with reverence today. I say it with respect and trepidation today. I say it with honor today. GOD. I say it in every part of me today. GOD.

May I devote the entirety of my day to the honor of your name. Take my thoughts LORD and be honored by my casual thoughts and my intense thinking. Be honored by my criticisms and my compliments. Be honored by my opinions and my fantasies. Take my thoughts and be honored today.

LORD, in Your name, take my words and be honored today. Be honored in the stories I relate. Be honored in the comedy I share. Be honored in the good and bad news I convey. Be honored in the instructions I deliver. Be honored in the facts I exchange. Be honored in the banter, intellectual, comic, causal, mundane, that I engage in. Let no unwholesome talk come from my mouth. For out of a man's mouth, his heart flows.

FATHER, I devote my activity to You. All that I do. Every chore, task, engagement, meeting, meal, sport, calculation, or other thing I do... Be it unto You an act of worship. May all of me speak all of YOU in honor today.

Amen.

Season of Prayer and Meditaion Entry 5

Today was an intensely distracted day. The to do list too doo long. The values struggling for first place. The prayer and meditation squeezed. My spirit and my mind struggling to feel freshened. My psyche attacked by doubts and discouragement. So I turn to God's word. One of the passages I have been studying for this upcoming Sunday's message begins to speak to me.

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-3)

This passage, central to the book of Colossians is so inter-related to its context, it is nearly impossible to limit the scope of meditation. For the sake of this entry, I have done so.

... you have been raised with Christ... Christ, the messiah. My messiah. My savior. My Jesus. Jesus. Our Jesus. Our savior. Our messiah. Your Jesus. How I need a messiah. A redeemer who will renew me, my life, my existence, my family, my mind. How I need a messiah. Christ: not a one time story or a messiah with only political agendas. God with me - Christ Jesus.

Jesus be with me now. My heart is worn as is my mind and my body. Be with me now and help me be fully with you as I seem to want to wander back into the too doo list instead of this connection. Jesus... thank you for redeeming me and continuing to do so as I continue to give you cause. Thank you for being a messiah who does not give up or wear out or leave or retreat in self-protection or pull back for lack of passion or withdraw for having been failed so repeatedly. Thank you Jesus. My Jesus. Be Christ to all who desperately need you as I do this evening.

RAISED... I just don't feel raised right now. He was dead and raised. What's my problem. I'm just tired and stressed. Why can't I be raised. Am I not willing to be raised. I want that sense of being raised. What must if have felt like to come back to life? To return to a semi glorified humanness after being humanly dead? What it exhilarating? Did it leave Him longing for eternity once more? When I recall my earliest sense of having been raised into FULL LIFE by putting faith in Christ, I remember a sense of relief and freshness. I remember a sense of limitlessness. I remember hope.

Set your hearts/minds on things above. That is not where my mind has been. (too doo... blah, blah, blah)

The throne where God is lifted up in all of His glory. Worship never ceases. I worship without ceasing. Beauty is uninhibited. Light is magnificent. AWE!

Ahhhhhhhhh!

Peace.
Completely out of myself... completely... Wow!
Look what happens when my mind goes there. What if my heart were there too? God, have my heart and take me there.

For you died and your life is now hidden with God... Did I really die? Really? That seems pretty extreme. I'm not so sure I experienced anything that extreme. Am I continuing to die more... or just add more life to the life I already live?

Ohhh my heart. I remember reading somewhere in Proverbs that the heart is hopelessly deceptive and should not be trusted. What do I want? Where does my heart lead me?

Lord take my heart and lead me to things above. Hide me above. Make my life hear hollow. Just a reflection... A reflection of the life in perfection that truly happens above where you have hidden me with You. A reflection... Wow! I like that idea. If I were truly living in Heaven with God, what would my life look like. God make my temporary and meaningful life here reflect that eternal life hidden above.

BECAUSE...
When you appear, I will appear with You in glory.