Prayer

I've got to tell you that last night was great. For those who read in the morning, go back and read the comment left last night by the one and only Biscuit Farmer. God is at work and I can't wait to see where He is leading. Thank you again for your prayers, God did it again.

I want to switch gears a little and share with you something that a customer of mine shared with me. His name is Danny Ivey and he has kinda been a mentor to me. I call on him on Tuesdays and we normally sit in his office and just talk. He is real big in missions and attends Rocky Creek Baptist Church. Anyway I'll let him tell you about his last mission trip. Danny, I hope you don't mind and I appreciate and love you brother.

August 5, 2007

The Bible says in Romans 11:36 "For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.


"Let me first tell you all that we didn't accomplish much during our trip. We did not establish any bible studies, we didn't help in any construction or service to speak of, we cannot even confirm any commitments to the Lord through salvation.

I come before you a child of God that has been changed by His grace. I began this trip in a quandary of whether I should even go. Was God calling me to His side in Quebec? Did I desire to go just for the sake of Rachel, my daughter, who has been in Quebec all summer assisting Gary, his family of six, and church planting efforts throughout the province? Was I going just for the sake of my brother, Dave, to under gird his leadership? No matter. I went. I told the Lord: please show me your way. If He desires for me to go simply to support the others, that's okay. I laid myself before the Lord and as we met each Monday for weeks before our departure, our trip was defined to be a trip of prayer. Just prayer. As I have heard prayer described so many times, even in the halls of this building- just pray.

We were to travel the province of Quebec and pray. Pray for the Quebecois, pray for those few thousand workers that labor in the vastness of some 7 million people that are undone with relativism, humanism, and tolerance. Just pray. Yeah, that's a Godly thing. He desires His children to pray. Yet to just pray… The Lord has revealed to me that He desires His people to desire to pray. Fervently pray, not just pray. Pray without ceasing, not just pray. Pray in the manner that our Lord Jesus taught us, pray, not as if our lives depend on it, but pray because our lives depend on it.

Of Him… we were becoming a team of Him… desiring to be led into the inner sanctuary of God himself, the God of Abraham, and Isaac, our creator and keeper. We began this trip with no connections to anyone living in these five most lost cities of North America, save Gary and Jacque in Montreal. With prayer, it seems each week the Lord presented another leader in another city that we would come alongside and pray. God's grace was more than sufficient to guide His children who were becoming obedient to His beckoning. Even as we began our trip with a layover in Detroit, the Lord saw fit to test us.

Dave met a man going to Montreal as well. He poured himself out to Dave and shared that he was returning to Montreal to be with his wife, whose mother was deathly ill, and the two of them were alone. No other family remained. He would be there soon to comfort them. Dave was able to pause with him in the midst of this crowded airport and pray. As they walked and talked, and even stopped to pray, Noel and I were praying from a short distance away. Not knowing the need, we prayed. As they finished praying, our new friend received a phone call and stepped away to receive it. It was his wife… her mother had passed… he told her of a new friend that desired to pray with him and had just done so, and she asked that Dave pray for her as well. Of course he emphatically told her that he had.

The Lord desires that we pray, this is not only of Him, it must be through Him. Acts 17:26 tells us that He has "…determined (our) preappointed times and the boundaries of (our) dwellings, so that (we) should seek the Lord"… so that we should pray. The Lord did not desire us to stay home and pray, we were to go and pray. We sometimes forget that God wants us to not only put words to our prayer, He wants us to put feet to our prayer. He desires us to come along side Him in obedience… to get close… to be so close that we are yoked with Him, feeling His every move, as He goes along we are paired with Him in a yoke that guides us in His path, hearing His quiet whisper. When you get this close to Him, you find yourself also in the shade of His protection, moving as He moves.

We found this very thing being worked out with each day that came. The Lord ordered our steps. We prayed with the humble, with the strong, with the weak, with the meek, some that were just starting a new work, and others that have labored for decades. We met with Tony who insisted that he was not a church planter, yet he had been meeting for six months in his home, and his neighbors have received the Lord to become the first two members outside of his family. We met with Mike. Leading a church for 19 years, he was stale and worn, hiding behind humor and sarcasm. Yet with prayer, oh the prayer of His children, we prayed… Jacque, who has been close to both of these men, wept as he relayed the significance of that one morning. Barriers were falling. For Tony, the wall he had erected had crumbled. He saw himself as a church planter now encouraged to lead. Such courage found only in knowing the Messiah… Tony could lead through Him. Mike was encouraged to a focus on Christ alone. He recognized where his help was found- through Him all things are possible.

I would love to relay to you story after story. We found ourselves in the modest country home of Yves and Claudine. Farmland surrounds them. They are school teachers, yet have begun a church now numbering six. This small church touched our hearts as we prayer walked with them. From this small town we traveled to the provincial capital of Quebec City. Our steps were ordered to be found in the office of Robert Begin, a federal official who is director of the security and homeland defense for all of the province of Quebec. He shared his insight and the rich history of the Quebecois. We shared with him the richness of relationship with Jesus Christ… and we prayed.

I cannot help but ponder the many places we found ourselves. From meager to mighty, we all need Jesus. We traveled north and visited Camp Patmos. As our guide directed us to turn left, he said we cannot go any further north on this road. There are several hundred miles of forest to the north, and after that is the tundra, and after that is the Artic. I cannot help but to ponder where we found ourselves. We were at the end of the earth.

I will be candid and tell you- this trip was very nearly cancelled. You see we just weren't sure of our purpose in going… just to pray… we can do that here. Oh yeah, Rachel was already there, and she was expecting us. She had been faithful and followed the Lord's beckoning to Canada. Last year I recall vividly after our missions conference- she said "I don't know where y'all are going, but I am going to Canada." And for a year she had inquired "Daddy, when is the Canada trip? When do I get to go to Canada?" Well, we sent her to Canada for the summer, so there, and I said "I will see you during the five city tour trip in July." The faith of a school girl led her to Him. It prompted the faith of a team to join her and give our selves over to Him.

If we do not give ourselves, our prayers, and our new relationships to Him, this trip would have been for nought. To Him are all things. To Him we are to give ourselves over.

I told you as I began that we didn't accomplish much during this trip. That is to say in the manner by which we often keep score. I have been broken of this idea of keeping score. God does not have a tally sheet that is marked simply by the things we do. His ways are not our ways. I am a constructor by trade, and I really like to build things. I really like to provide service and helps. And with these things there is the idea of a tally sheet…keeping score if you will. Here is the tally. Here is all that we did on our trip. We are reporting back now. I can so easily slip into Humanism, which is doing things for the sake of me or others. And then having my ego soothed to report my tally. I have found now, looking back, that I went on this trip so that God could show me the difference in Humanism and living out Romans 11:36:

For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To whom be glory forever. Amen.

A friend once told me that no matter what I do, that if it ends with me, it is sin. I have begun to ask myself if there is eternal value in whatever I do. What a great litmus test. Am I bringing Him glory forever by doing all things "of Him, and through Him, and to Him?" I spoke earlier of the yoke that Jesus desires us to wear. I will tell also that this yoke is available to each of us that yield to His leading. We can step into this yoke anytime we desire. And don't miss this- we can also step out of it as we desire. He loves us that much.

My prayer is that we pray. We pray fervently, without ceasing, because our lives depend on it. Even on the Sunday after this journey and praying with others while standing here in the church building, the Lord drove me to my knees in submission, asking our Father in heaven to prick our hearts that we might come to Him in prayer. To Jesus, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

Have a Blessed Day!!!