Just finished reading Pastor Jeff Leake's blog entry titled "Questions about Miracles." It recounts the healing of a blind man during his recent trip to Namalu in Uganda. 6,000 people received Jesus as Savior and Lord during the event and 20 blind people regained their sight. Pastor Jeff's entry is a powerful reminder that the Holy Spirit is DEFINITELY still at work today! You'll definitely want to read it for yourself.
We have been praying for God to provide $2 million for SEAPC's ongoing ministry "Touching Hearts" in Tibet. The money is for a heart catheterization lab, which will be used to make it possible for more Tibetan children to be "touched"--have congenital heart problems surgically (or spiritually) healed. The deadline for the first $600,000 to be received by Phillips, the provider of the equipment, is April 30. Today, Pastor Mark from SEAPC has e-mailed that more than $600,000 WILL be in hand by that date! Praise God! This has been a major prayer focus for those of us involved, and while we have had our hopes raised by a number of folks through the process who promised to provide the funds, we can now rejoice that they are being provided. Always remember that God is never early or late. He's always right on time! (For more about SEAPC click the link!)
Yesterday, at the end of my review of Andy Stanley and Lane Jones' book Communicating for a Change, I directed you to their church's website: www.northpoint.org. While I was there myself, I came across Andy's message from January 7, 2007 "Asking Big." Wow! What a message! The point Andy presented that day was when we pray we need to ask BIG! The point got me thinking. What am I asking God for these days? The easy answer is, "I'm asking God to fulfill New LIfe's mission: sharing the new life of Jesus Christ with the world--one person at a time." That's big! After all, the world has more than 6,000,000,000 (six billion) people, so sharing the new life of Jesus with each one of them is BIG. But then I started thinking about what I was asking for SPECIFICALLY that's BIG and the answer was vague.
I've been praying for God to use us to provide a "mission outpost"--a building--at our property at 127 Knoch Road, Saxonburg, PA. But I haven't really been praying big. We have nearly 21 acres, so the mission outpost can be big. Rick Warren says that when it comes to buildings the "shoe" ought not to determine the size of the "foot." As of yesterday, I've been praying for a BIG shoe, so we can minister to thousands of people each year at 127 Knoch Road!
I've also prayed since day one of New LIfe (April 8, 2001), that God would use us to reach western PA with His life-changing power. Again, that's a BIG prayer, but not too specific. So, I'm honing that one a bit. For 2007, I'm praying that God will use us to reach 500 new people in western PA. That means that 500 people who are currently far from God, or just far from regular worship and fellowship with God's people will be closer to Him. How close is up to God. Whether they become part of New Life is up to God. Actually, after we pray BIG, everything is up to God! When we pray small, the stuff we pray for will probably happen anyway, but when we pray BIG it will only happen if God shows up.
The list of BIG prayers in our lives grows as our trust in God grows. In fact, no prayer is too big for the God revealed in Jesus Christ. Why not start a BIG prayer list today? Send it my way--I'd like to see your list and praise God for expanding our vision to match His. Thanks, Andy for the challenge!
(To listen to Andy's message "Ask Big" just go to www.northpoint.org/messages and scroll down to 1/07/07 Asking Big)
