Keeping the Morning Watch

Many years ago someone coined the term “Morning Watch” to refer to the practice of spending the first thirty minutes of the day seeking God. While I dislike the idea of legalistically saying, “every ‘real’ Christian keeps the morning watch,” I recommend the practice because spending time with God is an important part of growing in your relationship with Him and doing it first thing in the morning is a great way to orient your entire day towards God’s purposes for you.

There are three main components to the morning watch.

First, take time to focus your thoughts on the Lord. Thank Him for the new day and the joys and challenges that it will bring. Devote yourself to Him and tell Him that you are going to follow Him. Tell Him why you are going to follow Him. Spend time enjoying his presence.

Second, read a portion of the Bible. Ask the Lord to speak to you as you read. It is usually best to read in a systematic fashion, but the goal is not to “finish the Bible in a year” or to “read a chapter a day.” Instead, read until the Holy Spirit begins to show you something in the Word, then stop and listen. What is God saying to you? Is there a promise to claim? A command to obey? An aspect of His character to worship? A sin to confess? Respond to the Lord appropriately.

Third, hold up your concerns for the day to the Lord. Ask him for wisdom and direction as you go about your day. Ask him to provide for your needs. Ask Him to bless friends and family members. Hold up difficult relationships and ask him to help you navigate your way through them.

Finally, thank him again for the wonderful day that he has in store for you, whatever it might bring!

The Ship is Moving!

One of the goals this year is to work on the organizational structure of the church. To make that happen right now means a bunch of meetings for me, which is okay because it is going to get us where we need to go. The best part about these meetings is that they are with people that I enjoy being around and working with. What a great bunch of people God has put together!

Sunday we had a board meeting and tonight night we had an organizational meeting for the deacons and deaconesses. There was a wonderful spirit of cooperation at these meetings and a leader arose for each of these groups. That has been a real matter of prayer for me. The next step of growth for our church is to see strong leaders assume responsibility for much of the ministry that takes place, which will allow me to focus on the Word of God and prayer. Sounds alot like a New Testament church to me!

One person who had been with me at both meetings said, "The ship is moving, and once it's underway it is much easier to steer!" Amen!

Your Kingdom Come

This afternoon I spent some time in prayer. I usually use the Lord's Prayer to lend a structure to my prayer times. Today as I prayed "your kingdom come" I spent time submitting myself to His Lordship in my life, but then I began to think about what that meant to me. I recognized that I saw that primarily as a "limiting" thing: I would submit to the circumstances he led me into, that I would avoid sin, that I would seek to obey him, etc.

But what if it means something else? What if submitting to His Lordship also means living in anticipation of what He is going to do? What if submitting to His Lordship means that it is possible to walk on the water? What if submitting to His Lordship means stepping out in faith and seeing Him do miracles? What if submitting to His Lordship means living a "march to the sea and it divides" lifestyle?

In that case, submitting to His Lordship isn't limiting, but launching. It isn't kneeling, but jumping. It isn't silence, but singing.

I actually think that it is both limiting and launching because following Him means releasing our dreams for his and embarking on the greatest adventure of life.

A Sermonless Sunday

Almost every week of the year I spend a great deal of my time preparing a sermon. This week Tim Maki will be preaching and sharing his vision of a new church in Hibbing. So what do I do on weeks that I am not preaching? Is it a vacation week?

No.

A week that I am not preaching is a refreshing break from the routine. That's something we all need. I wouldn't call it a vacation though. I use my time to try to catch up on things that have been neglected and to try to get a head start on the coming weeks. Right now that means getting ready for Vision Day and the Annual Meeting. It also seems like the weeks that I don't preach wind up being busy with counseling and family obligations.

One thing I've noticed this week is that I find myself praying for Tim pretty regularly, but praying for myself even more. I am praying that Tim has a keen sense of what he is supposed to share on Sunday and that he is truly led by the Spirit.

One reason I'm blogging about this is that I want to encourage us to pray along the same lines every week. I know that I can tell when people are praying for me during the week as I prepare for Sunday morning. I covet people praying for me!

I have also been praying for myself, that I might really hear what God wants to say to me this Sunday. I have to confess that before I became a pastor there were many Sundays that I didn't really listen. My focus was on other things. I think I probably missed alot. So I'm praying for myself, that I would be open to what God wants to say to me. Perhaps that will be the key thought of the sermon, but it could be found in a song we sing, a prayer that's prayed or comment from a friend. Whatever it is, I believe that God wants to speak to me.

The other reason I'm blogging about a Sermonless Sunday is that I want to encourage us to pray for ourselves and one another that we would have a hunger for what God wants to say to us each week. Let's arrive hungry and leave filled to overflowing with something to share!

An Uncomfortable Day in the Hometown

I was reading Luke 4:14-30 and as I pictured the scene playing out in my imagination, there came to be some real challenges for me personally. I'd like to share them with you.

Jesus was a young man of about thirty when he returned to his hometown of Nazareth. His reputation as a preacher preceded him and the synagogue was filled with family, friends and the influential people of Nazareth that day. A hush fell over the crowd as his finger ran down the ancient, hand-copied scroll, finally resting in Isaiah 61. In a calm, clear and firm voice Jesus read the words of the prophet written many years before:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Here is where I encountered my first uncomfortable moment. As a product of upper-middle class suburbia the poor, the prisoners, the blind and the oppressed were things I read about in the textbooks and drove past if I had to go through the city to get to the suburbs on the other side. They were people to be avoided. People created the suburbs to insulate themselves from the problems of poverty and oppression. Yet here is my Lord saying that these were the very people that He had come for. I thought of the U.S. Representative I saw last night on CSpan as he talked about the community he represented in Chicago. It was a poor community totally unlike the one I grew up in. It was a community that struggled with poverty, but it was a community that he loved and was working to help. I had to admit that Jesus would have been at home there. Would I?

As I thought about this I realized that part of my fear, if you can call it that, is that I will be overwhelmed with the problems of other people. How do you help the single mom that barely graduated from high school that is struggling to raise a family? What about the unemployed worker with a bad back that has been self-medicating with alcohol? As I prayed the Lord showed me that I am not the answer. He is. I can build relationships, point people to Him and work for justice in our region. He will do the rest. Isn't that what the Holy Spirit said through Micah?

Every eye was focused on Jesus. Jesus was silent for a moment, allowing the suspense to build. Then he said simply, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." The crowd was "amazed at his gracious words" and "all spoke well of him." The hometown boy could speak well. They were proud of him. There was another undercurrent, though. There were those that actually listen to the implications of what Jesus was saying. This was a passage that talked of the Messiah, the Anointed One, the one who would lead all of Israel! "Isn't this Joseph's son? Where does he get off claiming that?" they asked themselves.

Jesus changed his tone. He told them that a prophet was only without honor in his hometown. He told them that there would be no show for them. He told them that the prophets of old didn't do tricks for the folks back home.

They were furious! In fact, they tried to kill him by throwing him off the cliff, but he got away and went on to Capernaum.

Note to self: Remember to keep the back door locked in the new building. It is way too close to the cliff for me to survive a "bad sermon".

Seriously, I wondered why the home-folks reacted this way. Why didn't they accept Jesus? Was it familiarity? I mean, could it be that they couldn't handle the fact that Jesus wasn't who they thought he was...he was really the Messiah? If so, is it possible for me to think that I know Jesus so well that I dismiss what he really wants to do? In fact, if Jesus wanted to do something new could I find it upsetting?

I knew the answer to that question was yes. It took me some time to work through the implications again of saying, "Jesus, you are the Messiah. You are God. You are the one who I want to lead my life and this church. Help me to keep remember who you truly are and never think I can do things on my own without you. Be my Guide and my Rock." When I finally worked things through, the sense of freedom was incredible. Jesus is the Messiah who has come and is setting the captives free.

Vision Saturday

This afternoon I walked through the new building again. They have put the exterior metal on the north wall so the wind has been stopped. Even though it was only in the teens it wasn't too cold to spend time walking around the place and praying for what God wants to do there.

And that leads to the next obvious question: What is it that God wants to do there?

That's where our Vision Saturday (January 12) comes in.

We're setting aside the day to come together to pray and seek God for his direction. I believe that during the day the Lord is going to meet with us and begin to show us some things that He wants to do in and through us over the next year. I have some thoughts, but the purpose of this Vision Saturday is not for me to dump what I want to see happen on everyone else. Instead, it is to lead us in seeking God together and allowing Him to speak to us.

I'm excited about it. When we have done this in the past I've always walked away with a greater appreciation for the people in the church and tremendous anticipation for what God wants to do in our midst. It should be a great day. Hope to see you there!

A New Church

One of the advantages of reading this blog on a regular basis is that sometimes you can be one of the first to know about new things that are happening in and around the church. This morning I shared with the elders an exciting development that is taking place in Hibbing that I believe the Lord wants us to play a significant role.

Tim Maki, a frequent speaker here and a friend of many, has announced that he is going to step down from his position in the disctrict as Director of Church Planting. That's bad news for the district. Tim has done a great job and we have seen numerous churches started around the state under his leadership. He will be hard to replace, but God has something else in mind for Tim.

Tim is going to be starting a new Alliance Church in Hibbing! Tentatively called North Star Church, the church will be designed to reach the unchurched and will have as part of its foundational vision the starting of other churches around the Iron Range.

I believe that Nashwauk Alliance is called to be a part of this effort. Prayer, finances and people will all be needed to make this new church a reality. We will be having Tim come to share his vision after the first of the year, but you are now "in the know" and can begin laying the foundation in prayer.

You may be asking, "Why a new church?" Here are some facts to consider:

• According to recent studies 85% of the people in St. Louis county are unchurched. (Itasca county is at 80%).
• 40% of the workforce at the mines will be retiring soon. This will bring new families to the area as these businesses seek to replace retiring workers.
• MSI's impact will be felt throughout the western range bringing 2000+ jobs.
• Church planting is one of the most effective ways to do evangelism.

There is plenty of room for another church targeting the unreached!

I don't want to steal any of Tim's thunder, but I am excited about what God is doing and challenge all of us to be in prayer so that the foundation of this new church will be well-laid.

The Prayer Room

The alarm clock went off at 1:15am Tuesday morning. I was sleeping in the living room so I wouldn't wake my wife up at that early hour. I dressed, put a english muffin in the toaster and ran a comb through my hair. As I headed out the door I thought about how most of the sane people in the world would be sleeping, but I was heading off to church. It was foggy so I had to drive slowly. That's a good thing, because I would have hit a raccoon and two deer if I had been driving my normal speed through the woods. I guess they were surprised that anyone was out at that hour.

I pulled into church and relieved the person in the prayer room. It was a familiar place, yet somehow at 2:00 in the morning it was different. There was something radical about being there. After pouring a cup of coffee, I spent a few minutes reading the prayer requests and the scribbles of the people who had been there before me.

I tried to pray, but I found it hard to focus. My mind kept wandering. Finally I asked God, "Lord, what am I doing here? Why am I here in the middle of the night? I could come here anytime and pray. Why 2 in the morning?"

It wasn't an audible voice, more of a sense in my spirit of what God wanted to say to me. It was only four words, yet it cut through all of my defenses right to the heart of the matter. "Do not be afraid." As I sorted through what I had been experiencing over the last days, it became clear that I was full of anxiety. Things are in flux here at church. We have programs starting up, there are a lot of people I'm trying to connect with, counseling I'm working on, a construction project starting as well as working on the sale of our current building which could upset all of our current ministry plans.

In the midst of that uncertainty the four words "Do not be afraid" pierced me. I sat down and remembered that those words are the most frequent command in the Bible. And why not? After all, we are called to walk by faith, not by sight. I thought about the many times God said "Do not be afraid" to people. There's no reason to fear if we recognize that God is with us.

I had to repent and confess to God that I hadn't been trusting him with the future. As I did, a tremendous peace filled me. Suddenly, I knew how to pray. I began to pray for the people I knew. I prayed that they would not be afraid. I prayed that they would be able to put their anxieties at the feet of Jesus, look into his face, and realize that He is in control. I prayed for people facing sickness, struggling with their marriages, their kids (or their parents), their jobs. I prayed for the missionaries God laid on my heart who are ministering in difficult places. I prayed for my family.

The doorbell rang. My two hours in the prayer room was over and it was time to head home. My fears were gone. I had experienced a touch from God and had spent time in intercession. I sang a praise song as I drove through the woods, "God is good, all the time..."

A Sobering Read

I receive a magazine called Mission Frontiers. I scan the articles when it arrives, but most of them deal with topics of interest to mission strategists rather than a northwoods pastor. The most recent issue brought something to my attention that broke my heart and became a matter of prayer.

Did you know that there are more slaves in the world today than there were at the height of the North Atlantic slave trade? According to many sources, there are close to 30 million people in slavery today. Some of these slaves are involved in forced prostitution, while others are forced to work for others for little or no pay under the threat of violence if they refuse.

The US State Department's 2005 Trafficking in Persons Report, the slave trade generates almost 10 billion dollars in revenue a year. Cases of forced labor have been documented in over 112 countries...including the United States. In some instances families sell their children into slavery in order to survive. Rich business owners make loans to people in poverty and require them to work to pay off the loan. This doesn't sound bad, until you understand that there is no way to possibly work enough to repay the loan and that there is severe physical punishment for failure to work long or hard enough each day. In other instances a foreign "savior" offers to take charge of a person and provide them with a good job in a different country. The impoverished person then finds herself in a strange land, unable to understand the language or their rights. They are forced to work for nothing and intimidated by threats against themselves or their family members back home if they fail to cooperate.

Certainly the church of Jesus Christ needs to put the issue of slavery on its radar screen. We need to make the issue one of prayer and ask God to raise up a new abolition movement around the world that would put an end to this diabolical practice.

Here are some web sources of information (some of these are faith-based and others are secular):

• The Amazing Change Campaign
• International Justice Mission
• American Anti-Slavery Group

The Enemy of Prayer

Have you ever struggled when it comes to focusing in prayer? I've been wrestling with that lately. Well, that's not really honest. The truth is I haven't been wrestling, instead I have simply been unfocused.

I'll sit down to pray in my office and the thought will pop into my head, "I should make coffee." I get up, walk to the kitchen and make a pot of coffee. Of course, it takes a few minutes to brew a pot of coffee, so there is no sense starting to pray until the coffee is done. So I patiently wait and then carry my coffee mug back to my office. I sit down with my Bible, and decide that some background music would be nice. So I get up, find a CD and pop it into the CD player and hit play. I sit down and notice that the music is just a little too loud. I get up and adjust the volume. I sit down, open my Bible and the phone rings. It's a wrong number. I turn to a psalm to start my time of prayer and then think about a call I should make. What should I say? No, it's time to pray! Only now my coffee is cold and I wonder if anyone has watered the plants out front. Then I try to remember what the forecast was for the day and while I am thinking about that the thought pops into my head that I need to stop at the bank before I pay the bills. Should I pour a fresh cup of coffee or stick this one in the microwave? I should really clear off my desk, but I can do that after lunch. Speaking of lunch, is it too early to eat? Yes, it's only 9:30, but a snack would go good with this coffee. I need to warm it up anyway.

Can you relate?

These types of struggles are common, but I've been increasingly frustrated by them lately. This morning while I was "getting ready to pray" a book caught my eye. It's Intercession by Joy Dawson. In a chapter entitled "How Intercession Works" she lays out several steps for an effective time of prayer. I first came across these steps when I was in YWAM and have taught them from time to time. As I looked at them again, I read, "Take authority over the enemy in the name of Jesus and bind him from having any influence over your time of prayer."

It couldn't be that simple could it?

I prayed a simple prayer something like this, "Lord Jesus, thank you for the provision that you made on the cross for me. I acknowledge that your on the cross not only paid for my sin, but also broke the power of the enemy over me. Right now I come against Satan and all of his demons in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and I declare on Christ's authority that you can have no influence during my time of prayer. I choose by an act of my will to submit myself fully to the Lord Jesus Christ and will accept only the influence of His Holy Spirit."

I then began to seek God, using a format similar to the one found in the "teachings" section of the church website. Guess what? I was able to focus, to hear God clearly and to pour out my heart in intercession for the people He was laying on my heart. What a wonderful time of prayer!

Let us remember that there are few things that make our enemy tremble more that a praying saint. Satan will do anything he can to keep us from the place of intercession. He knows that a full scale attack may drive us to our knees, but a few stray thoughts might just do the trick!

It's a lesson I need to remember.