IDOP for the Persecuted Church

This post is a follow up to the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church that took place across the globe yesterday.  The number one request persecuted Christians have is that we would pray for them, and there are ways we can do that on a regular basis (not just once a year or even once a month).  There are also other ways that we can support them in their need and also partner with them in their ministries.  Below you will find several links that will connect you with these opportunities.  Please take a look at these opportunities and consider getting more involved in caring for our persecuted brothers and sisters.

Voice of the Martyrs - Check out the section of the site that says "Get Involved" for a number of ways you can partner with the persecuted church.  Also sign up for their free monthly newsletter or weekly prayer updates email.

Open Doors - Another great ministry that keeps us informed and provides opportunities to get involved.

Prisoner Alert - This is where you can write to people imprisoned for their faith as well as advocate for them to government officials (this has had a huge impact in the past and resulted in people being freed).

Text a Bible - We take having access to bibles for granted, but many believers around the world in restricted nations do not even possess a single bible.  Help bring God's word to those who long for it.

Support Families of Martyrs - Often when a pastor or evangelist is imprisoned or killed for their activities, their families are left with little means of financial support.  This fund is used to help sustain these believers until they an find alternative means of support.

VOM Medical -Often when Christians suffer severe persecution they are in need of urgent health care and quality surgery.  I have read many amazing testimonies about the amazing things this ministry has done. 

Follow the Persecuted Church Blog 

One on One With God

"But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

Matthew 6:6 (NIV)

"You satisfy me more than the richest of foods. I will praise you with songs of joy. I lie awake thinking of You, meditating on you through the night."

Psalm 63:5-6 (NLT)

Jesus Christ didn't humble himself to the point of death for God to just be a Sunday morning acquaintance, or the guy we only talk to as a last resort in a crisis situation. He came so that we could become God's children, having an intimate relationship with Him. Of course gathering to worship with other believers is an important part of belonging to Christ's body, but passages like the ones above paint a picture of the one on one time we also need with God. In this video Jeff Deyo speaks about our "behind the scenes" relationship with God and the critical part it plays in our ability to worship or lead worship authentically.



If you sense the the need for more one on one time with God and you're not sure where to start, these are a few of the things that God has used to help keep He and I interacting on a daily basis.

• Keep a bible at your bedside, read/pray through some psalms when you wake up or when you go to bed. Besides being a general prayer help, doing this teaches us the language of worship and gives examples of authentic worship expression in the high and low points of life.

• If you tend to listen to music on a regular basis, try to let worship music be the first thing in your ears each day. For me this definitely requires discipline, but the more I hold to this standard, the less I'm satisfied by music that does not draw me closer to God.

• Practice praying without ceasing or spontaneous prayer. John Piper had some great examples of this in a sermon on Matthew 6:
• Whisper a thank-you to God after a close call on the highway,

• A

  sk God for help in the middle of an exam,

• C

  onfess to God your sin after saying something hurtful to a friend,

• P

  raise God for a beautiful sunset,

• A

  sk for strength when you are ready to drop and have another task to do

• P

  ray for a missionary when you open his email and realize he needs help

  right now.

• Keep a prayer journal. My entries include written prayers; current life circumstances and how God has or hasn't showed up; notes on a scripture or devotional book that have been meaningful to me. Reading back through these entries months or years later often reveal the faithfulness of God in my life and almost work like modern day psalms of remembrance that can fuel my praise of Him.

On Leading Worship - Serving Through Prayer

Someone recently suggested that I should start posting about my approach to planning and leading worship. I love the concept, but I’m not sure I’ve got a whole lot of wisdom to impart. In Star Wars terms, I’m still a young padawan learner when it comes to worship leading. So all the glory to God for anything good that I share here, and for everything else, just remember, I don't presume to be an expert.

Prayer - the connection between God's power and our service

As worship leaders and teams it is critical that we approach what we do as servants seeking to glorify God and edify our congregation, not to perform or entertain. But even if we approach what we do as an act of service, it doesn't mean that everything we do is automatically glorifying to God or empowered by Him. Peter tells us that "Whoever serves must do so as one who serves by the strength that God supplies-in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 4:11).

Okay, but how exactly do we serve with God's strength instead of our own? John Piper's explanation has been helpful to me. "We will not serve God by trying to put our power at His disposal for His good, but by doing what is necessary so that His power will be at our disposal for our good. And of course, God has appointed that His power be at our disposal through prayer" (John Piper, Desiring God). In an attempt to not do things in my own power, here are some ways that I try to incorporate prayer into leading worship.

Practical Application

Planning

Leaders, before sitting down at our desks and picking songs, deciding where communion goes in the service, finding scriptures to read, etc., we need to pray. I know that sounds obvious, but it is so easy for us to forget to do this; and even if we do pray, we can fall into a quick prayer of "God please bless what I've already decided to do." In 2 Samuel 5:17-25 we see an example of God apparently putting His power behind whatever David had already planned, though only after David prayed. But in the next battle God had specific instructions for how David needed to proceed if He (God) was going to come in power. So as I pray and plan I keep both of these possibilities in mind, initially asking God to guide me, but also trying to remain sensitive throughout the process to anything that God might want me to do differently.

Rehearsal

For the last couple years I've tried to be very intentional about setting aside at least 15-20 minutes for us to quiet our hearts before the Lord and pray as a team before we rehearse music. I believe this is as important, if not more, than the time we spend rehearsing music. It has become a great time to share personal prayer requests and develop somewhat of a small group feel. I'm also trying to encourage more of a focus on praying for the congregation and pastor." This is a document that I created to give some suggestions about how to make use of this time and specific things to consider praying over. Paul Baloche's suggestion here about how the team can pray for the congregation is really good too.

Before the Service

Typically we gather in the pastor's office and pray for a couple minutes right before we begin the service, but something cool and different happened a few weeks ago. It was the first week on summer schedule so we intentionally delayed our start in case a bunch of people were late. Instead of praying in the office I just asked the team and guest preacher to gather in the corner of the sanctuary and pray there before we started singing. The congregation got quiet and it seemed like people were more ready to begin. One of the elders told me after the service that we should try doing that for a while, maybe it will help people be a little more prepared to enter into a time of worship (and maybe they'll think to pray for us too).

Massacres in Nigeria

This video really broke my heart this morning. At Christ's Church we pray for the persecuted church every first Sunday of the month and I have shared about what's been happening in Nigeria. But this video made it so much more real for me, especially seeing the children. I admire these people for gathering to worship after situations like this, talk about a sacrifice of praise. Please consider giving to Voice of the Martyr's medical ministry here and also continue to lift these suffering brothers and sisters up to the Lord in prayer.

Pray for Turkey this Weekend

Prayers of John Baillie

Up until last week I had never heard of John Baillie. But last Sunday I came across examples his writings in two different sources, and have been very blessed by his written prayers. It's easy for our prayers to be limited to a quick saying of grace at dinner or maybe asking Him for our desired outcome in a particular circumstance. I appreciate how this prayer from Baillie's A Diary of Private Prayer calls to mind God's holiness and sovereignty, and reminds us of who he created us to be. The requests in this prayer center on desiring His will to be done in all things in our life. What a great prayer to start your day with and continue meditating on.

Fourth Morning: "Your Waiting Presence"

Almighty and eternal God,

You are hidden from my sight:

You are beyond the understanding of my mind:

Your thoughts are not my thoughts:

Your ways are past finding out.

Yet you have breathed Your Spirit into my life:

Yet You have formed my mind to seek You:

Yet You have inclined me heart to love You:

Yet You have made me restless for the rest that is in You:

Yet You have planted within me a hunger and thirst that make me dissatisfied with all the joys of earth.

O You who alone know what lies before me this day,

grant that in every hour of it I may stay close to You.

Let me be in the world, yet not of it. Let me use this world without abusing it.

If I buy, let me be as though possessed not.

If I have nothing, let me be as though possessing all things.

Let me today embark on no undertaking that is not in line with Your will for my life,

nor shrink from any sacrifice which Your will may demand.

Suggest, direct, control every movement of my mind;

for my Lord Christ's sake. Amen.

Praying Funny Things

Do you ever find yourself talking with God and end up saying something that causes you to chuckle?  I hope I'm not the only one.  Anyways, so I was praying the other morning and something random pops into my head.  I think it went something like this.

"God I'm excited about your redemptive work in creation, help me to be a part of it.  I look forward to the time when the lion will lay down with the lamb, and there will be no more war or tears or pain...  So, I can imagine a new earth where lions are nice and cuddly, but what about the great white shark?  First of all, in the time before man killed animals to eat, did that mean that no other animals killed to eat?  What exactly would a shark eat if it didn't kill other fish, or seals, or even people (though they don't eat us on purpose most of the time)?   Secondly, John said in Revelation 21 that he no longer saw the sea in the new heavens and earth.  So is it safe to say that there won't be any sharks?  What about whales?  I just think they're awesome works of your creation God and at the moment its kind of sad to think they won't exist... "

That was the child-like faith moment in my prayer time I guess :)  Of course God reminded me later that regardless of what creatures are around or not, that we will all be much more fixated on His glory revealed in the new world.  Anybody else have any silly conversations with God lately?

  

Fun at Snow Camp

This past weekend I was up at Monadnock Bible Conference with our church's youth group for a winter retreat.  I think we had a pretty good balance of fun and seeking God.  I love the enthusiasm and energy that young people bring to these events, not just with games but also in singing to the Lord and in letting God break their hearts when we hear about things like children in Haiti that need God's tangible love and healing.  Although, its funny how that enthusiasm dwindles when we get into small groups and try to get everyone to share what they've been learning where their walk with God is concerned :) 

There's all sorts of things I could share about specifically this weekend, but I wanted to share about where God showed up after the retreat ended and we were on our way back home.  We were packing up our bags and heading out to load our vehicles, and I went into my coat pocket to get my keys only to find them missing.  I was quite confident that my jacket was the only place I had put my keys, but I checked all my other bags and the pockets in my clothes.  I thought about the last time I had taken them out, which was in the morning the day before when I went tubing with some kids.  But I knew that I had zipped the pocket then to make sure the keys didn't fall out on the hill.  As I thought a little more, I realized that there was still a good chance that those keys were on the hill... That previous evening the kids asked me to come tubing once more since it would be more slippery than during the day.  We impulsively went out without boots or snow pants, and it was the run of the day actually.  However, as I was recalling all of this, I realized that I probably hadn't zipped the pocket my keys were in that night.  And it had snowed several inches during the night after we tubed, so the keys would be buried!  It would be like finding a needle in a haystack.  

So I went out to the hill along with another leader friend and starting kicking through the snow that had covered the tubing trail.  I prayed, "Lord, I'm pretty sure my keys are buried on this hill, and I know that I should have been more careful with my keys, but if they are here, would you please help us find them?"  After several minutes and still plenty of ground to cover, we were about to give up and just squeeze everyone into the other vehicles.  Just then, my friend Amanda stepped on something that wasn't snow, and sure enough it was my keys.  I was very thankful for God's generosity in helping us find that needle in a haystack.

Our last group discussion before the key incident was about how we can bring God's love to others.  We closed with praying that God would help us to intentionally bless and help others and share his love, and also that we would have safe travels home.  After finding my keys we headed home.  Just before getting back, a car in front of us slid (roads were still slick form the snow storm) and got stuck in a snow bank on the side of the highway.  There was a group of about 18 of us traveling together, so we pulled over, sent a couple of people down the road to get traffic to stop, then a bunch more of us got into the snow bank and pushed the car out. It turned out to be people we had met at the retreat who were in that car. Everybody was okay, and were thankful to not have to wait for a tow truck.  Another car farther back had slid into a snow bank too, and a few people had pulled over to help them, but it wasn't enough.  So our crew of leaders and kids went and helped get that person out too.  By the time a police car showed up there was nothing for them to do, everyone was already pulling back onto the highway safe and sound, and we had gotten an opportunity to work together to help people in a very practical, but unexpected way.

This song goes out to all my youth retreat buddies, may God continue the good work He has begun in you.

Answered Prayer

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve,

I was made weak, that I might learn to humbly obey...

I asked for health, that I might do greater things,

I was given infirmity, that I might do better things...

I asked for riches, that I might be happy

I was given poverty, that I might be wise...

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men,

I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God...

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,

I was given life, that I might enjoy all things...

I got nothing that I asked for- but everything I had hoped for:

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am among all men most richly blessed.

-Unknown Confederate Soldier