In  yesterday’s blog I mentioned four things that God will always give to us if we ask for it when we pray.  The four blessings from God are  strength, joy, peace, and wisdom. I also suggested that if we had those four things and we were growing in them we wouldn’t be fussing much about difficult circumstances and events because we could fix them, change them, or overcome them.

A fifth prayer request that God will always answer is referred to in the Bible in Luke 10:2 “And Jesus was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” If Jesus commands us to pray a certain request He certainly is going to answer it. The problem they had 2,000 years ago is the same one we have today, there were people everywhere that did not know God, and there were very few people sharing the truth of the gospel with them. They either were intimidated, busy, didn’t care, indifferent, or didn’t know what to say, and it is that same way today. So Jesus said, pray and the Father will send out laborers into the world to be witnesses. 

During our “Five Days of Prayer” event, this prayer request is number one.  We pray for the missionaries, the pastors of the church’s in Africa that we have started, the people in those churches, the people in our own church here in Jefferson, and the people in the churches in  the United States.

When we “beseech” that is pray fervently, God will send us out. He will do that by putting His heart in us, His love for the people that drove Him to the cross. When He sends us we will have a very strong sense of urgency and a very strong sense that what He wants us to share with others is very important for people to hear. God can do that, but he is waiting for people to pray diligently and fervently because they do care.

That is a much more noble thing to pray for than a comfortable life.

One of the questions that I get asked all the time has to do with the problem of unanswered prayers. I am always trying to persuade people to pray and to pray more. Now that we are in the middle of our “Five Day Prayer Event” at JBC I am in high gear in my persuading role, and I get a lot of passive push back because of a belief that prayer doesn’t really do much.

Most people tend to pray and ask God to change circumstances that we don’t like. God has a plan and a will for our lives, and much of it is “locked in”, so we can pray asking God to change a circumstance or event in our life, but if we are praying against His will it isn’t going to happen. Many add on to the end of their prayers, “Your will be done, not ours” which is a very good thing to pray, but most don’t mean it.

I focus on asking God for things that He will answer 100% of the time, and trust Him for the rest. He will answer the prayer for strength, in fact that is the most often prayed prayer in the Bible. He will always answer the prayer for joy. He can put His joy in us in spite of circumstances. Most people believe their joy comes from circumstances, that is why they ask God to change their circumstances. Psalms 16:11 says that God is the source of joy. He always will give peace to those who pray, freedom from worry and anxiety is a great way to live, and comes to those who pray. God promises to give wisdom to those who ask for it.

So think about that for a moment. God’s strength to bear up under any trial, and to conquer any problem. God’s joy in spite of the worst day. God’s peace that results in stress free living. God’s wisdom so that we know what to do and say in any situation and can fix and solve almost every problem or obstacle that comes into our life. What else do you need.

For our “Five Day Prayer” at JBC, which started yesterday and goes until the end of Friday, we pray 10 hours each day, and  I have been praying about 8 of the 10 hours. These first 2 days I have gotten up at 4:30 am and gotten to bed about midnight or later. So tonight I am tired, and I think I will sleep in 1 hour in the morning. Let me suggest 3 reasons why I do this. The first reason is not very spiritual. I just like to periodically do something hard, and to conquer it. I recently rode my bicycle across the United States for the second time. Why? I just like to do something hard, and succeed. Sometimes when we have a 5 day prayer event I will fast for the 5 days and just drink water and some coffee. I like to eat so that added part makes it really hard, but I like to do hard things, and push myself a little farther than the previous challenge. I am not doing this as a game to win, but as a challenge to make myself stronger so I can win in life, handle trials without caving in.

The second reason is that I deeply believe in the power of prayer, and that sacrifice pleases God and increases the power of my praying. Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross going through great agony, and it was that sacrifice that procured my eternal salvation. King David said, “I will not offer to God that which cost me nothing”. During this 5 days of prayer we are asking God to use us to start churches and schools in West Africa. We are asking Him to provide funds to pay missionaries to take the gospel into countries that don’t know Him.

And the third reason is I want to know God intimately, really know Him, not just know about Him, but have a genuine relationship with him. God waits to be wanted. If we seek Him diligently we will find Him.

Four times a year our church, JBC has what we call “Five Days of Prayer”. From Monday through Friday we have prayer from 5 to 10 am, and also from 5 to 10 pm . We do this in a room that holds about 40 folding chairs set up in 3 concentric circles. We begin praying at quarter after the hour and quit at straight up on the hour, which leaves a 15 minute break every hour for people to come and go, get some coffee, eat a cookie, and chat a bit. During the 45 minutes of praying each hour one person prays out loud, loud enough for everyone in the room to easially hear, and everyone else in the room prays along with them silently in their mind. The person who prays out loud keeps their prayer short usually less than a minute, and when they have finished someone else prays out loud. There is no order for who prays next, people jump in when they feel led to pray when there is a break. If a person feels intimidated about praying out loud there is no pressure, they can just pray silently agreeing in their mind with those who are praying out loud. The time goes by super quick, and is very enjoyable because their is a very strong sense of God’s presence in the room. Each of the four prayer events during the year have a theme for the five days. The one we started yesterday is our foreign Missions prayer time.  We have the names of the missionaries in a booklet placed on each of the chairs so everyone knows who we are praying for. These prayer times are incredibly renewing for me. I get so much joy, peace, and energy from these times that I can hardly stand myself. I truly believe with all my heart that what happens all around us in our community and in the whole world is truly amazing as God works in response to our prayers.

I enjoy watching the Super Bowl every year with friends, and lots of food. Most years like this year I don’t have a favorite that I am rooting for. Usually my teams don’t make it into the Super Bowl. My strangest Super Bowl was when I was in England doing a seminar for a group of Churches. When the pastor who arranged it called and asked me to speak, and suggested the dates they wanted me, I initially said that I couldn’t come on those dates because I would miss the Super Bowl. He so much wanted the seminar on those dates that he said that he would find me a place to watch it. What we both forgot about was the time difference between here and England. The game started there at 1 AM in the morning and got over at 4:30 AM. I preached most all day on Friday and Saturday and then preached a sermon in two different churches on Sunday morning, one at 9 and the second at 11 am and then a third church at 6 pm in the evening. The Pastor wanted to keep his word to me so he found a church member who had a large television and liked American football and talked a half dozen of the pastors who had attended the seminar to watch it with me. I talked non -stop the first half of the game explaining the rules to them as they asked me why such and such was happening. By the time half time was over every one of them was sound asleep in their chair and by the time the 3rd quarter was over I was as well. I wouldn’t have been sleeping if it had been this years game. That had to be one of the most exciting games I have ever seen. I can’t imagine how exciting it would have been to a die hard Patriots fan.

This morning at 7 am was our “Monthly Men’s Breakfast”.  We had 150 men there this morning which I am pretty sure is a record number. One of the drawing cards is the statement that if you come you can have all the bacon you want. Some guys will have nothing else, but a huge pile of bacon on their plate. Guys also come for the great fellowship with a bunch of other guys that we always have. It is fun to meet new people and to make some new friends. But probably the main reason that the number has been growing each month is the really good speakers that we have been having. This morning Dr Matt Bain, a family practice Doctor in Albany, the football coach for Santiam Christian High School, and an Elder at JBC spoke on  “Being a strong man and leader” who isn’t afraid of taking a risk, and who does not have “be safe” as one of his life’s rules. It was a very inspiring and motivating talk with video clips from a number of war movies that added to the passion of the presentation. As I sat eating my dozen pieces of bacon chatting with the guys at my table and then listening to Matt share, I was so impressed with the commitment of so many guys who pull this off each month. Adam is in charge of the whole thing, it is his ministry, but a bunch of guys cook all the food, set up the tables and clean up. In a couple of weeks we are having our “JBC Sportsman’s Show” at the Fairgrounds in Albany. It will be a two day event with a hundred vendors and thousands of people coming through. There are a handful of guys who do all of the planning, but over a 100 guys will be involved In pulling it all together and making it a very good show. Again, I am so impressed and thankful for the commitment and faithfulness of these guys that do this event.

My Dad joined the Navy shortly before World War II and stayed in the Navy for 22 years before he retired.  He retired in 1960 when I was 12 years old, and during those 12 years we moved an average of twice a year as my Mom followed my Dad every place he was stationed up and down the West coast. During those years of moving I didn’t have many friends because we seldom were in one place long enough to make any. We seldom had a television, obviously never a computer, cell phone,  IPad, or stereo, though occasionally we would have a radio with limited reception. One of the things I began doing at a really young age to fill up the time was read. I would read for hours every day, and the more I read it seemed the more addicted to reading I became. I remember going to the Library with my Mom and taking several trips to bring all the books in from the car. Now 55 years later I remain an avid reader, averaging about 10 hours of reading each week. Now I do all my reading on my IPad with a Kindle App, and get most of my books from Amazon. I like reading on my IPad because I can make the font big, and  the screen bright and see really good, and I can carry literally thousands of books with me wherever I go. I am convinced that one of the best things parents can do early on for their kids is read to them a lot, teach them to read and encourage reading even paying them to do it. Those who have grown up reading, and continue to read can think rationally and are able to solve problems in life easily, can communicate clearly and are able to make themselves understood and understand others.

There is something in us that always seems to want more. There are some areas of life that to want more is greedy, and we ought to learn to be content. But then there are other areas of life that to want more is what makes us come alive, to be willing to sacrifice time and effort, to lay awake at night dreaming, and to spend hours planning how to make it happen. I want more people to come to JBC for me to pastor, to teach how to live a life pleasing to God. I am not competing with other churches, it would be great if all of the other churches had many more as well, but I am not pastoring them, but I am at JBC and God gave me a mission to reach people so I want more and more and more. God is the one who gives more significant accomplishments, more fruit, and more real success. More from God is all a matter of stewardship. He gives us a little bit to steward, to take care of, and if we do a good job then He gives us more. Sometimes instead of more it is better. I want a better marriage, we have a great marriage but I want better. I call it a holy discontent.

Every morning I pray a prayer of commitment for the day. In it I declare Jesus Christ Lord of my life, and I pledge my devotion and obedience to Him  for the day and ask for His strength to keep my commitment. I make individual or smaller commitments for the day as well such as “Today I will love Patty the way Jesus loves the church”. A new one that I have added lately is, “I will look at every person I cross paths with today as a divine appointment from God, and I will choose to believe that He put them in my life at that moment so that I can influence them or so that they can influence me”. By praying that prayer every morning I have begun to listen attentively to the words spoken and the things done when a person enters my life experience in order to pick up a clue as to what God has in mind for me. As I have been doing this I have grown more and more skilled at hearing and seeing things that I used to be totally oblivious to.  This last three days I have been at Cannon Beach for a prayer retreat with 100 + people in a small room for much of the day so my commitment to regard every person as no accident but a divine appointment by God made me jump into hyper drive in my attentiveness to words, facial expression, tone of voice, and body language. I know that I am just scratching the surface of what I am capable of seeing, hearing, learning, and contributing for and from people, but the growth in this area of life that I have had makes me realize that I have lived most of my life with ear plugs  in my ears and my eyes closed. I am enjoying being a detective as it were and learning what God has for me from others, and how I can bless them with my life and words. 

Here at the annual 3 day Prayer Summit at beautiful Cannon Beach, we have about 120 people gathered together praying for the Willamette valley. There are probably a dozen different denominations represented and 50 different churches from half a dozen towns, and the level of unity between all these people is amazing. I haven’t been in a single conversation about anything political, though everyone has their opinions for sure, there hasn’t been any discussions of various theologies though there are significant differences   represented in those here. There are a large number of older pastors even a number who are retired, and there are a bunch of pastors and workers who are college age, from my perspective, just kids who have treated the old men and woman with great honor and respect. We have eaten together, prayed together, worshipped together, talked ministry and goals together without a hint of division, disagreement, competing for attention, slandering, or comparison. In trying to figure out why, an easy answer is that God is doing it, but it still requires people exercising self-restraint, speaking graciously, pursuing peace and unity diligently, and refusing to say or do anything that would lead to disunity. The reason unity is pursued so diligently by those here is that we value it very highly. Unity is fun, it is refreshing, it is joyful, but most of all we all believe with great conviction that God loves unity, and promises to pour out His blessing on unity, so it is worth working for, sacrificing personal opinions for, and exercising discipline in our speech and thoughts for. Wish it was longer than 3 days.