But you were washed!

“And that is what some of you were.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” -1Cor 6:11

 

This is what Paul says after giving a list of sins where all of us would be found guilty.  What is his point?  His point is that we are no longer who we were, but are now cleansed and forgiven of our sins.  So even though Christmas gets chaotic, family gets frustrating, and our patience gets short, remember this truth.  Remember as you interact with you family that you are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified.  Go about your day with this attitude.  Make this holiday an opportunity to display the love of Christ and act as one who is different and cleansed. 

 

Today, pray that you and others in the church would represent Christ well at home this Christmas season.  Pray especially for those who have unbelievers in their homes this Christmas, that they would make Christ look beautiful and glorious!       

youth tomorrow

Tomorrow at noon we kick off the youth program!  Please pray!  Tomorrow could be a total flop, or could be the start to something amazing.  Pray it would be the latter, that these kids would be excited to develop relationships and excited to know Jesus through this group.  The potential is there…we just need the commitment.  Laura, Karen B. , and myself will be at the meeting tomorrow, so pray for each one of us, that we can connect with these kids!     

God is on the Throne!

“There is no room for discouragement until God is off the throne” –Dr. John Hannah

 

What a beautiful quote that brings me back into the shelter and confidence of God!  The work we do in evangelism and in church revitalization is a difficult task. We are going against the grain of tradition, of preference, of culture, yet we are doing the work of God.  May this quote encourage you today.  Pray for yourself and others in the church to remember this great truth.  Let this truth sink deep into your soul.  Oh, what a peace we would all have if we had this thought at the forefront of our minds! 

No fun

“Most churches are in decline because they are no fun…Jesus must have been fun, or children wound not have hung around him.  We need to get over taking ourselves so seriously.  Take the kingdom of God seriously? Yes.  Take ourselves seriously?  No.  A huge difference separates the two.  Committed Christians should be the happiest people in the world, and people should flock to us to enjoy the joy.” –William T. McConnell in Renew Your Congregation    

 

Pray today that we as a church can be light hearted people.  People that love well; and that we are giddy because we are so in love with Jesus.  As we begin new things and as we instate changes, there will be resistance…much because people take things too seriously.  Pray that the atmosphere in our committee would spread to the church.    

Divisions

 

“Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.” -1 Cor 1:10

 

Today, pray for those within our church.  Pray that we would be united in our mission and not divided because of method.  There will be differences of opinion as we seek to grow and change, so pray that these differences of opinion would not be primary, but that the gospel would be primary.  Pray that all of us can put aside our personal preference for the sake of reaching this city in the way we feel called to reach it.    

 

Ryan O'Dowd

FPC Lancaster

Evangelism, Church Renewal, and Community Development

ryanodowd@fpclancaster.org

972.227.4098

 

Dare them

“I am convinced that if we lose kids to the culture of drugs and materialism, of violence and war, it’s because we don’t dare them, not because we don’t entertain them.” – Shane Claiborne

 

Pray that this youth group would be one focused on daring and not entertaining.  Pray that the youth would see the impact they can make, and that we can dare them to be missionaries to the world.  We don’t want another social club for these kids, we want to see lives changed by the gospel.

Sinner and Leader

“God, use me in spite of me” –what I pray before preaching or teaching.

 

I am a sinner.  I have pride, lust, envy, anger, impatience, fear, selfishness, idols, and struggles.  I am a saved sinner, yet still a sinner.  Despite all this, for some reason beyond what I can comprehend, God is choosing to use me to start this youth group.  Despite the fact that I could lead this group out of fear or out of pride, out of selfishness or during struggles.  God still seems to want this to happen.  So pray.  Pray that I would absolutely depend on Him.  Pray that I would not lean on innovative ideas or entertaining programs, but lean solely on God to work in the hearts of these youth.  The opportunity to impact kid’s lives is often overwhelming.  He must be my hope, my strength, my everything…and I need your prayers.           

Move

“Nothing happens until something moves” ~Albert Einstein

 

We can talk a lot about what we want to do, but something needs to move for something to actually happen!  With this, I want us to pray for something that will begin to move very soon: the youth group.  The group will be starting in the next few weeks…so we need you to pray!  Pray that the core group of youth involved will be committed to this group, and excited to grow in Godliness.  Pray for God to gather youth to come to this particular group, and that this group would be Christ-exalting and faithful to Him.  This is an incredible opportunity that must be bathed in prayer.

Spiritual Forces of Evil

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Eph. 6:12

 

Spiritual forces are real, and we need to be aware of this.  So as we share, as we pray, as we hope we must know that there are other forces trying to hinder all of our work.  There are forces trying to put an end to what Christ is doing.  The good news is the Christ has defeated this and will be victorious over these forces…but for now they are still present and active.  This is why we must continually pray, for if God is not involved in what is done, the evil spiritual forces will easily swallow it up.  This IS a divine undertaking, and this fact just makes it clearer.    

 

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Seek and Save

“For the Son of man came to seek and to save what was lost.”  Luke 19:10

 

The last to days we have seen that evangelism is a divine undertaking.  What gives us excitement in this is that Jesus Christ himself has the mission to seek and save the lost.  So when we go out to share the message, we do it knowing He is with us.  Today, pray for Jesus to seek some in our city as He did Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10).  Pray for a divine undertaking to happen through you as you live and are granted opportunities to share. 

 

Invisible Work

“While it has pleased God to appoint to His saints a portion in the work of seeking, the human part in that work is not worthy to be compared with the divine. Yet man, who by nature comprehends and measures only visible things, is ever prone to disregard the invisible working of the Spirit, and to place an undue emphasis on the comparatively small human share in those undertakings.” – Lewis Sperry Chafer in True Evangelism

To continue our thoughts from yesterday about God’s centrality in evangelism, I hope this quote helps drill down this point. Pray today that you would be aware of the Spirits working in your life and the lives of those around you. Pray that you would recognize things as God’s doing, not yours. I recently read (I forget where) that God chose to use us to share His message, but doesn’t need us. If he wanted, he could have used rocks or trees to declare his name. We are dependent on Him and upon the Spirit working.

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A Divine Undertaking

“The work of seeking the lost, like the work of saving them, is in reality a divine undertaking.” – Lewis Sperry Chafer in “True Evangelism”

 

The work we do in evangelism is God’s work, and He has chosen to do it through us!  Today, I want us to pray for God work in the hearts of those we seek to reach.  The focus of today is not the people we hope to reach, but on God, the one who reaches them.  The work we do is dependent on Him.  Dwell upon who He is and how merciful He is to save souls.  How comforting it is to know that this work is not dependent on us, but on Him.  In our hope to seek the lost and our hope to save them, we must depend on God to guide us and empower us.         

Pray, Pray, Pray

We will be using this blog to pray. I will post topics, quotes, scripture, and thoughts to stir us to think and pray about our church. This is a way for us to be in corporate prayer daily, without having to physically gather each day. I ask that you commit to praying each day for what is posted. So for day 1, I ask that you pray for yourself. Pray that you would be faithful to prayer, and ask the Lord for a heart for this prayer ministry.