Early in the Morning My Song Shall Rise to Thee

Job 1:5 (New Living Translation)

⁵ " When these celebrations ended—sometimes after several days—Job would purify his children. He would get up early in the morning and offer a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said to himself, “Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice."

Arising early to seek God for others is something that people have done for 1000s of years... Tonight as we are in the hardest part of the 24 hours... the early time of day, people are waiting on the Lord for others just Job did here in this passage.

 This scripture is amazing even without knowing what we know about the book of Job.  Job was so concerned for his kids; the next generation and their relationship before the Lord that he would leave his warm bed, on a regular basis, and go to God on behalf of them.  He did this just in case they "sinned" against God.  This is what it means to interceed (intersession prayer ministry).  Intersession is to going to God on behalf of someone else... and he did this in the early part of the day.  

 As people right now are praying and have been doing so all night and seeking the Lord for others, we are following a long held pattern and spiritual discipline.  It is amazing to think that these are many people who are have been seeking God for you while you were sleeping, just a Job did for his kids while they were recovering from a party.  Job was asking God to forgive and watch over them.  We have been doing the same for you in the region.  You have been on our heart and we have been praying for you in the early hour...

God already has done some powerful things as we are into our 19^th hour of NON stop 24 hours of prayer.  I am expecting to hear MANY more reports in the hours and days to come what all God has done in response to His people praying without cessing for one day! 

Mark 1:35
In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.

 

Stay tuned!!  

  

ONE DAY AWAY

Hello everyone,

It is now one day from when we begin our 24 hours of NON STOP prayer at LPC.  I have great expectation in my heart as we set ourselves towards this call.

COULD we ask you all to please make sure that you sign up to pray for at least 15 min on the schedule (here in the office)?   We want to make sure that the whole 24 hours be covered with at least one person praying.  I am sure that there will be many times that more than one person will be seeking the Lord which is awesome.  Please call the office to find out what times are still open, which are still several at this time.    

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING:

·        The Denniss Chapel will be open for the whole 24 hours so please feel free to come to LPC at ANYTIME night or day . 

·        At Noon on Saturday we will wind up the 24 hours with a time of worship and praise thanking God for the great things He did in response to the time of prayer.  I hope you can make it here to join in on the celebration.

·        Please feel free to send in your prayer requests and they will be added to those that have already been received. 

·        A prayer guide will be sent out today as a help direct our praying together. It will also be posted on the this blog

·        The blog will be updated with prayer requests and praise reports that come in throughout the 24 hours of prayer.  Please feel free to add comments/requests and praise reports in the blog comments section.

As 1 Chronicles 22:19 says "Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God...”.  That is God’s invitation to us all.. will you heed the call and pray?

-LPC

Twenty Four Hours of Prayer

This WEEKEND is the 24 Hour prayer event beginning midday Friday, till midday SATURDAY.   The scripture calls us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17), so for 24 hours we will do that as a church family…  ONE FULL DAY of nonstop prayer and intercession. We are encouraging everyone who calls LPC home, to please sign up (on the board in the office) for at least ONE of the 15 min slots over those 24 hours. 

There will be a prayer guide published on the Blog later this week (and emailed), as well as, we will have ongoing praise updates and prayer requests posted on the blog throughout the 24 hours.   

PLEASE NOTE:  If you have something you would like us all to pray for… PLEASE send it to us, as a list is being made.  The church will be open for the whole night and we will end, Saturday at noon, with a time of worship! 

 EVERYONE is welcome to gather, as we approach the noon hour, to end the time of prayer with explosive praise!   So, please, sign up today so that the prayer chain is NOT broken…

UPCOMING EVENTS for LPC

CHRISTMAS DAY 2010!

NEW Song "Our God"

Emails From Brenda

I appreciate the godly people that call LifePoint Church Home. Sometimes I get emails that I think it would be good for more people to read than just me... here are a few from Brenda, one of our leaders and a great servant of the Lord. She has been teaching a class on ROCK solid doctrines of our faith on Sunday Nights... here are a few emails that have come out of these teaching times. I hope you enjoy reading them.

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Jesse (her son) told me an interesting fact from his sociology class. He said the teacher said that our culture today is much like the Roman culture 2000 years ago because the people then were very much about themselves too. He told them that to say that that was one of the things that led to the Roman's downfall, but when I heard it I thought how interesting it is that Jesus came the first time to a culture like that, and now he's coming the second time to a very similar culture. I guess it's interesting to me because I'm teaching that one of the reasons sin is so bad is that it destroyed the image-bearing nature we had been given (which really should define our purpose) and made our nature so "all about us", kind of like a black hole that pulls everything toward us!

Maybe when Paul said we "fall short of the glory of God" he wasn't referring to our many sins but our sin nature which is consumed with "me". I've been referring to the sermon when you brought a hammer on the platform and talked about the purpose things were designed for...and I think that the reason we have so much trouble finding out what we are supposed to do with our lives is because of this centripetal effect of sin...it's so clear in Genesis that our purpose is to bear God's image. It's a sad reflection on us that that purpose seems less somehow than a purpose like going to Africa, etc., and I think that's because even as Christians we want everything to be about us! Why is it that bearing God's image (bearing Christ's image - who was "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being") seems less to us when it is such a high and holy calling!!!???

I have been blown away by the fact that we stand in grace. I read Romans 5:1-2 for about the 299th time a few weeks ago and I honestly have never understood so clearly that I stand in grace - and without it I can't even stand. Now everywhere I look and read I am reminded that I stand in his grace.....can't even put it into words yet, but I will keep pushing in to it.....He poured out his grace, lavished his grace on me! I am undone!
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I do really believe that we (the church of this culture) have softened our take on sin to our people's detriment. I find it so interesting that the 2 kinds of sin the doctrine of sin categorizes as resulting from the Fall - imputed sin guilt and our sin natures - are NOT both taken care of in our justification/atonement.....our sin natures need to be dealt with through the process of sanctification - in effect becoming like Jesus reverses that effect of the Fall and brings us back to that "made in the image of God" state. We've got to look like Jesus who is "the radiance of God's glory and the EXACT representation of his nature"!!! Wow!!! That's bearing his image! Getting saved is just the beginning.

But both types of sin ARE dealt with through the cross! Atonement through Jesus' death on the cross, and sanctification through my death on the cross. I started to think that when we were going through Romans last year.....and I really had to meditate on Romans 6 about being united with him in his death, and I think I'm finally starting to get it....a little anyway.

One of the teachers I listened to a lot this summer said "put your faith in justification, your hope in heaven (he said glorification) and your blood, sweat and tears into sanctification". Well said.

And I'm re-reading a classic - L.E.Maxwell's "Born Crucified" (used to be called "Embraced by the Cross") and he says "God's way of victory over sin is not through the suppression of sinful desires, nor through the eradication of the old nature, nor yet through the cleansing on inbred sin. God's way of victory over sin is through crucifixion - deliverance is only through death."

There's a couple other things I think we may have gotten wrong as a Church (capital C) and that's why I have been obsessed with this study since before the summer. Sin isn't so bad because it sends us to hell; sin is bad because it marred God's creation and made it impossible for us to do what we were intended to do - which was to display God's image [Note...I made it bold]. And the big one, when we see sin as totally dealt with in our by faith acceptance of atonement, it becomes a done deal, a past event, and we think we no longer need the gospel. But Jesus didn't just die for my sins, he died for my unrighteousness.........and I need the grace of the cross every day. I need to put myself on that cross every day. Sanctification is part of my redemption. Bonhoeffer said that when Jesus calls you he calls you to die!
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Thanks Brenda... really great thoughts... Thanks for giving me the permission to post them for all to read!

-PK

Video to Watch...

Here is a great video by Charles Colson. If you do not know him, he is one guy that is worth getting to know. He loves the Lord passionately as well as he is SMART SMART!!!

He has a weekly video called "2 min warning". This one's subject is about the Chilean miners. he writes "Imagine being trapped in total darkness for 17 days 2800 feet underground, and waiting another 52 days to be rescued. How would you survive? Find out how the Chilean miners did it, and what it means for the Church".


Please FEEL FREE TO comment on what he says... I want to read what your thoughts are.
Blessings!

-PK

NEW SONG Unchanging

Hello everyone...
We are going to sing this new song this Sunday... Have a listen and come prepared to help teach it to the family!
Blessings!

The Next 10 Years!

I enjoyed the post today by Trevin Wax from his website (Kingdom People, Living on Earth as Citizens of Heaven).

Read what HE has to say and tell me what you think...
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Ten years ago today, I (Trevin Wax) boarded a plane with a one-way ticket to Romania.

I was a bright-eyed (naïve) nineteen-year-old heading over to a third-world country. I had very little knowledge of the language. I had no ties with any missionary agency. I had no salary and no way to support myself, except to live off the savings I had accumulated during my year of work between high school and college. I had no close friends in Romania, only a handful of acquaintances. I had no idea when I would be returning to the U.S., only that my place of residence would be a Christian university campus.

Truth be told, I wasn’t scared. The situation didn’t frighten me. Yes, I dreaded the loneliness that would overwhelm me when I said goodbye to my parents. I dreaded the time that would pass before I could speak Romanian fluently. But my decision had been firm. God had led me to this place. No time to look back.

In my journal, I wrote about arriving in Oradea:

“The streets of Oradea were soon before us. The sky was sunny and the weather was lovely. The city was bustling with activity; the leaves just beginning to change colors and surrender from the trees. Looking over the city, I realized that this was now my new home. The excitement, anticipation, and wait of the past few months were for this moment – to be in the place where I belong… to serve.”

The excitement soon turned to sadness. After I said goodbye to my parents, I went to my dorm room and wept. What have I done? I remember thinking. I have left everything I’ve ever known. I have left everyone who loves me. I don’t know the language. I don’t know the culture. I don’t even know any people. And I’m supposed to minister here?

The tears flowed as I seriously questioned my calling. Even now, I choke up when I recall the emotions of that moment. And as I think of the ways God blessed the following five years of my life, I am overwhelmed. He gave me more opportunities to minister than I could have dreamed of. He gave me the ability to speak Romanian fluently within a few months. He gave me my precious wife. He blessed us with our first child.

When I flip through the journal I kept during the first year in Romania, I am embarrassed at my immaturity, my naive expectations and unbridled idealism. My disdain for my former self, however, is kept in check by the thought that ten years from now, I may entertain similar thoughts regarding where I’m at now! If anything, the journal reminds me that life is a journey.

The big story is about God. And this God is the One who calls us, who equips us, who goes before us, and then sends us off into the sunset of his plan, as heralds of his Son and the salvation he has brought to earth.

Thank you, Father, for calling me to Romania ten years ago. Thank you for sustaining me, strengthening me, and using me for your purposes. Please do the same in the next ten years, and grant me faith so that I will continue to follow you wherever you lead.

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"Amen" - PK

THE NEXT CHAPTER

Yesterday, though I did not say at the time, was a very important directional sermon for LPC.

Today, Monday, as I think and pray over the morning, I have a "release" in my heart that I have not had in a long time. I do not know where we (as a church family) are all going to go with this "great experiment" I just know that the way that CHURCH has been done for the last many years is not how the church will be done in the future and EVERYTHING is on the table.

You, as God's missionaries where you are, being led by His Spirit, walking by faith and taking risks for the gospel is what God is calling His church back to!! The Church organization will have a place but a it will be a different one than in the past. I also know that the pastor will also have different roles than they occupy now. I know that there no "maps" today that can lead a church in this direction or show them how to do this. Yet I know the Spirit is leading as He always has and this is His mission and His direction for you and for me.

YET... if the church (His called out people) do not go out by faith "not knowing where we are going", we will continue to see more and more people in our communities live this life without ever knowing the Lord. They will miss out on knowing the Love and forgiveness of Christ in this life and the next. I also believe that we will see less and less of our kids give and live their lives for the Gospel... as they see it as not being something important enough to give themselves to.

Friends...I want to Join God in His mission, as sent..." on mission" people and I want you, follower of Christ, to do so also. So.... if you feel a burning YES in your heart to this faith walking, great experiment as I, your pastor, do not sent a direction on HOW we are going to do this (I really do not know how it is going to look)... please talk to me... let us be in community and in relationship... and let's go!!

I know that this is where God is going and leading LPC... He is calling you to be His missionaries. As his missionary, where is He leading your heart? What is He burdening you for? How can I help you by training and whatever else to see your burdened fulfilled...Please let me know... I want us on Sunday to celebrate what God is doing and how he is leading you... so please contact me ok...

^{Acts 13:
"3}So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off"

Now is it our turn..

-PK