“On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.  And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: “‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” (Mark 11:15-17)

If I could only listen to one sermon for the rest of my life it would be a message Jim Cymbala gave at a Christian music gathering in 1994 called “My house shall be called a house of prayer” (you can watch it on YouTube here). Cymbala references the episode where Jesus clears the money changers out of the temple in order to drive home the point that God’s house is meant to be a house of prayer above all other things – not primarily a house of preaching or a house of music, but a house of prayer. Having worshiped at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, where Cymbala pastors, a couple of times, I can definitely say that no church that I have visited embodies that verse and that desire of God’s heart the way his church does.
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Each month in 2010, I am challenging our church to memorize one verse of Scripture together, and to spend time that month meditating on that month’s theme.  In January, we focused on our new life in Christ, memorizing 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  In February, the theme was spiritual warfare, with the key verse James 4:7, “Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”  In March, we will be focusing on the power of prayer, and the verse I am challenging you to memorize is John 15:7 – “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”  This powerful promise is located in a passage where Jesus talks about himself as the vine and us as the branches, and exhorts us that we can do nothing unless we are connected to him.  I highly encourage you that when you memorize this or any verse, that you do your best to understand the context in which it is found so that you do not take it to mean something which it does not.

 As simple as prayer can be – at its heart, it is a conversation with God – it can also be hard to make sense of the different passages about making requests of God.  Read more »

Matthew 6:5-6 – “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

This Thursday is the National Day of Prayer.  This event has a long history that goes all the way back to the founding of our country, although its official recognition happened more recently in a bill signed in 1952 by Harry Truman.  The White House had occasionally hosted prayer gatherings on this day up until our last President, George W. Bush, who hosted a gathering every year on the first Thursday of May.  These gatherings included the National Day of Prayer Task Force, chaired by Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. 

This past week, the National Day of Prayer has made news as many, including the Interfaith Alliance, have been clamoring for President Obama to support a “National Day of Prayer and Reflection” “that restores and respects our nation’s best values by explicitly inviting clergy from diverse faith traditions to participate equally and fully – especially in events held on government property.”  As they see it, the day had become hijacked by the Religious Right, and represented by Dobson and the Task Force, and the day should instead be more inclusive of other faith traditions.
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I just spent some time looking over our church’s Prayer Walls from 2008 in order to get a sense for how we prayed and how God moved over this last year.  Certainly the most regular prayers tended to be for God to heal those who were sick or hurting, to comfort those who were grieving, and to provide for those who needed a job.  Along with those prayers, we prayed every week for a different ministry, for our elders, and for me and my family.  For those of you who engaged in those prayers for my family regularly, THANK YOU.  Most of you have no idea what kind of spiritual warfare goes on in our lives (especially on Sunday mornings), and I know there is no more important ministry to me and my family.  There were also two bigger prayer items that dominated the year – our mission trip to Honduras, and our search for a new meeting space followed by our subsequent move to 131 Griswold St.  And we praise God for how He answered those prayers this past year.

As I reflect on our prayer life as a church and look forward to 2009, I feel God calling us to get both smaller and deeper.  Read more »

I’M getting my picture taken tomorrow by a real photojournalist (it’s actually Sarah Schultz of NewLife). I’M going to have my picture in the paper (the River East and Glastonbury Citizen, most likely). Maybe they’ll even write something nice about ME. You see, I am a BIG SHOT, because I am a PASTOR.

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