Updated Prayer Meeting Schedule

If you would like to join in corporate prayer, there are several opportunities currently available:

1.  Join in our church-wide monthly 24-hour prayer meeting.  We do it once a month, starting the second Friday of the month, from 6pm Friday-6pm Saturday.  You can come to the church prayer room at anytime during that 24 hour period.  However, we have specifically designated the Friday 10pm-midnight time slot for the Caleb Group.  The next 24-hour prayer is this Friday, March 13!

2.  My wife and I have dedicated Monday nights 7:30pm-9pm in our home for prayer.  You’re more than welcome to join us.  (Please note this is a change as we had previously announced Tuesday nights for this meeting.)

3.  Start your own prayer meeting!  Grab your spouse or a friend and set a time to pray for the needs of the church and the surrounding community.

Lent Challenge: Building the House of Prayer

**UPDATE**We are switching the Tuesday night prayer meeting in my house to Monday night, 7:30-9pm.

As I’ve been sharing recently, I would really like to challenge our Caleb Group to build the prayer base of our church.  Prayer is not meant to replace any of the other ministries we have or will have, but it is critical to the success of anything we do.

We are currently in the Lent season.  From tomorrow to Easter Sunday, there are 34 days.  This is a season when many believers choose to fast for the purpose of drawing closer to God.  My challenge to our church body is not so much to fast something, but to lock in to the place of prayer for the next 34 days.  (In the process of carving out time for prayer, you’ll probably end up fasting something anyway.)

Again, I would like to distinguish between your personal, devotional prayer life with the Lord and our corporate prayer life as a congregation.  Both are important and needed.  What I am talking about here is our corporate prayer life.

There are several options for you if you would like to pray with others:

1.  Join in our church-wide monthly 24-hour prayer meeting.  We do it once a month, starting the second Friday of the month, from 6pm Friday-6pm Saturday.  You can come to the church prayer room at anytime during that 24 hour period.  However, we have specifically designated the Friday 10pm-midnight time slot for the Caleb Group.

2.  My wife and I have dedicated Monday nights 7:30pm-9pm in our home for prayer.  You’re more than welcome to join us.

3.  Start your own prayer meeting!  Grab your spouse or a friend and set a time to pray for the needs of the church and the surrounding community.

However you choose to join in the prayer effort, my encouragement is to be practical and be specific in your commitment.  Choose a time and place; otherwise it likely will get pushed aside by other things.

Email me at info[at]harvestic.com if you have any questions!

What To Do On The Worst Day of Your Life

One Bibical story that has been encouraging the pastors lately is the story of David in Ziklag.  I recently heard about a new  book called “What To Do On The Worst Day of Your Life” which draws lessons from that story.  I’ve never heard of the author, but I thought it sounded interesting (and timely given the difficult situations many are facing) and so I wanted to pass along the info.  If you end up reading it, please let me know what you think of the book!

There’s also a website to promote the book where you can read a free sample chapter.

This video has the author telling the story of how the book came to be:

Empty Me

Roger sang this in worship the other week and it’s been stuck in my head (in a good way) ever since!  Enjoy!

Grasping Your Need

Most people do not change until they reach a breaking point.  It doesn’t have to be a huge dramatic breakdown or anything.  You just have to get to a point where you simply say “I’m sick and tired of doing things the old way.  I refuse to live the same way anymore.”  When you start talking like that, you’re speaking the language of change.

I believe that if we really are going to pursue a lifestyle of pursuing God and drawing ever nearer to Him, it has to be more that a good idea or something on your “I should” list.  One of my favorite worship leaders Kent Henry says (of drawing near to God) “You have to grasp your need to be there.”   There must be a deep awareness of our need to be with God and the spiritual bankruptcy that results when we do not spend time with Him.

Have you grasped your need to be with Him?

Back To Basics

So far this year we have been discussing some of the basics of our faith.  Not so much basic doctrines, but basic practices/disciplines.  I’m sure I sound like a broken record by now, but I can’t stress how important it is to develop a regular habit of spending time with God, which would include praying and reading the Bible.

If any of you have been around church for any length of time, this is not news to you.  I find that while most Christians would agree that spending time with God is a good, even vital thing to do, the difficulty usually lies in actually making the lifestyle choices and decisions that lead to deeper communion with God.  When I was growing up, G.I. Joe would tell us that “knowing is half the battle.”  I would venture to say that it is even less.  Knowing is certainly part of the equation, but formulating the gameplan and actually executing it is probably 50-80% of the battle in my opinion.  I once read that famous management guru Peter Drucker believed you haven’t even made a decision until you’ve figured out a way to implement it.

Of course it’s always worth repeating that we don’t pursue these practices/disciplines to earn our salvation (only Jesus’ sacrifice purchased that) or to get religious merit badges or anything like that.  We do it simply because He loves us and we love Him.  We do it because being with Him is actually enjoyable, and without Him we can do nothing.

So here’s my question and challenge to you: if you agree that spending time with God is important, what plans have you made to spend time with Him this year on a regular basis?  What is your level of commitment to it?  Where does spending time with God rank on your list of priorities?