Once again, God has taken one topic and highlighted it a couple of times and in different ways to me.

At lunch on Sunday we were talking about the “connectedness” people have through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, yet with all these “friends” and “followers” who has true face to face friends? Isolation breeds loneliness, through many technological methods we have found a hollow candy coating to disguise the true state of our hearts.

Even if you are surrounded by people you can be utterly and devastatingly alone. A wise woman told me years ago that the loneliest place in the world can be the space between a husband and wife in bed. Just doesn’t matter if it seems like life has given the greatest support system, family or friends. Others can look at your life and have no idea how isolated your life might be.

I’ve known and know loneliness. It pops up at the most unlikely times. And in this post, I’m not knocking my husband, kids or friends, but I’m learning to look at loneliness in a new way. My thoughts here are just the beginning of my processing. So jump in and comment over the next couple of entries.

I’m not interested in the lectures about “getting out there” or getting involved in activities, because I think I’ve found some amazing new teaching on the subject of loneliness. And I won’t write about the guilt producing, finger pointing solutions to loneliness at all. But I think I’m learning that loneliness can be something to be embraced and something that can actually enrich my life.

A few weeks ago, Steve mentioned this book in his sermon. He did mention also that he was keeping the book as “bathroom” reading. This is NOT where I read this book!

The Year of Living Biblically is the story of AJ Jacobs’ quest as he puts it “follow the Bible”. For his project Jacobs’ had an advisory panel made up of Jewish and Christian teachers, rabbis, and preachers. They helped him compile a list of all the rules and regulations he would need to follow. Jacobs worked diligently to follow all the rules. Things like not cutting the corners of his hair, or his beard. Eating kosher. Observing the Sabbath. Giving a tithe. Daily prayer. Etc. Etc.

In the end, he seems to have felt better about himself, found somethings he really embraced, some he totally rejected. He had a few moments where he felt that he almost touched the Divine, but never quite found God.

A few days ago, I was filling out a profile and it asked for my activites. My brain fired off…”my life revolves around church activities.” WAIT!!!! My first response should have been…”my life revolves around Jesus.” Immediately my thoughts turned to this book. I think that the problem Jacobs encountered was that his life revolved around the rules, not the relationship. Any of us can have a life that is according to MacBeth “full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing”. Or as Ezekiel 37 tells us the great noise of bones coming together, but “there was no life in them”. Without the breath of God in us, following rules is just following rules: it doesn’t matter if they came from the Bible or not.

God, grant us the intelligence to see when we are oriented around anything – even if it is very, very good – that takes our focus off of you.

I know, I know, I know.

Seems like I must spend all my time with a book in hand, and I’ll confess to a little reading gluttony of late. But here’s my rationalization.

1) The two month sinus infection really wiped me out. Holding very still was about the only way to cope with the constant headache. TV is just not that big a deal, so I read.

2) In Europe this summer, I had to ration myself on reading. I didn’t pack enough books with me to start with. Then of course there was the whole problem that book stores only carried books in German. Go figure! German books in Germany and Switzerland – kind of like the grocery stores with labels in German.

There was one point as we were driving from Berlin to Martin Luther’s hideaway at Wartburg, that we passed a massive warehouse out in the middle of the country side. It was an Amazon.de warehouse. But it only made me sad, since I figured that once again I would be frustrated by the fallout from the Tower of Bable. Surrounded by water without a drop to drink.

So to my frivolous reading…
If you’re looking for just a fun fiction adventure mystery with no swearing and no explicit PG+ situations, you can’t beat Clive Cussler. You’ll have to read this one closely and a few others, but I’d probably bet on the fact that I think that the author is pretty conservative and pro-life.

Anyway, no profound insights. Just a fun read.

I would have to say of all the books I’ve read in the past year this one may be the book that has made one of the deepest impact on my heart and mind.

Back in September, a wonderful lady at our church had been touched by Steve’s sermons on the cloud of witnesses and gave us a copy of Randy Alcorn’s book. What a gift!!!

Safely Home is a story of the persecuted church in China and the cloud of witnesses in heaven that cheer us on and pray for us.

We have no idea what life is like for those who live in constant danger imprisonment, torture, losing everything for the testimony of Jesus. I have been particularly moved by the lack of Bibles for believers. And super convicted over my lack of time in the word. The main character of the book makes the point that when a person goes into solitary confinement the only things they take with them are the things that they have studied and know.

The other aspect of this story is the cloud of witnesses. The church has lost the reality of heaven and that life may end here on earth, but there is MORE!!! We have a hope that we never spend anytime meditating on.

Page after page is filled with little gems of wisdom and I will quote a few here. Just one caution…have a box of kleenexes close by when you read this book. You’re going to need them.

- The longer the night lasts, the more men dream of the dawn.
- True gold fears no fire.
- No man can serve him perfectly, but they can serve him faithfully.
-”Tell them if they wish to help, send us Bibles. And pray for us. Pray thost those winessing our suffering will that Jesus must be real in order to sustain us. Pray that the rotten food will actually taste good to us. He has performed this miracle for me many times. Pray that the rags we prisoners wear will keep us warm. Pray that the beatings and torture will not weaken us, but strengthen us in our faith. And that the enemy will not overcome us and our families with despair and discouragement. Pray that prisons all across China will become centers of revival, and that Christians in registered churches will be bold, and house churches will be invisible to the police but visible to everyone else. Pray our sons and daughters will not be ashamed of their fathers and mothers in prison.”
-There will come a day when the King of All says, “NO MORE!”

I’ve had several people lately ask me what I’ve been reading and so I thought I’d devote a few blog posts to the things that have been impacting me lately.

Sorry about the abrupt ending to last week’s call to prayer. My two month sinus infection came to a crisis point and I spent a few days in bed. Ahh…but the blessing in that was a book that I devoured in just a few short hours.

Left to Tell is the story of Imaculee Ilibagiza’s life in the horror of the Rawandan genocide. And really it is a book about prayer and the power of forgiveness.

The genocide in Rawanda started on April 7, 1994. Imacculee spent 91 days hidden in a tiny – 4′x3′ – bathroom with 7 other women. Hutu death squads came repeatedly looking for any Tutsis who might have escaped previous notice. The bathroom, in the house of a Hutu minister, was hidden from the eyes by divine intervention. During her time in hiding, Immaculee discovered the how to pray and to hear the voice of God. Most importantly, she learned the power of forgiveness. The horror of the graphic details of the murders of her family members were recounted to her when she had moved out of the bathroom and into the protection of French UN forces. Later when confronted with the jailed murderer of her beloved brother, she simply said to him, “I forgive you.”

This book is a must read for those who are concerned for godly justice in the earth, for those who know that there is more to prayer than they understand, and for those who have been traumatized by life in any way. Only the way of forgiveness leads to life.

The title of the book reflects Imaculee’s understanding of her purpose in life. She was left alive to tell her story. God’s got a purpose in her message. I think we should listen.

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

One of the priorities of our Last Call service is to offer an offbeat time for folks to catch a weekend service. Ahhh…to be able to sleep in on a chilly, fall Sunday morning. Even thinking about that made me smile. Missing a Sunday morning just seems to catch up with most folks every once in awhile. So, here’s to Last Call being the chance to connect with the CATG family and God before the start of a work week.

As much as that has been commented on, my main focus has been that this service is one more chance for the lost and hurting to have an encounter with the Living God. Way back in CATG history when we were still Harvest Church one of our mission statements was: We exist for those who are not yet a part of us. Yeah! Bring that on again!

Here’s some church planter wisdom: Every new service reaches 75 new people the church was not reaching before adding a service.or another way of saying that is: The same church with two services reaches 75 less people than the same church with three services.

So who should we reach? People that already have a church home? My hope is that Last Call will draw people who need the love of Jesus to go on with life. People who need hope in a season of difficulty.

Today, the Last Call mailing will arrive in homes around Sioux Falls. The people who know these things tell us that each piece of direct mail gets 1.5 seconds in a person’s hand before it is tossed in the trash. WOW! That’s really short! Pray that God will highlight this unique piece of paper to hearts that are seeking solutions for their live.

“So the priests and Levites consecrated themselves in order to bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel.”
1 Chronicles 15:14

One of Pastor Steve’s recurring analogies talks about a weekend service like a baseball game. The goal of the game is to get the players around all the bases and safely “home”. For us “home” means that by the end of the service those in the congregation will have had an encounter with the Living God and have received a message that challenges them to a greater depth in the LORD. But if the only means to get to that end is the message preached – the task is extraordinarily difficult.

There are two vehicles that make the job so much easier. First is prayer. And the second is worship. When these two are under the anointing of the Holy Spirit worshipers are coming around second base. They hear the message with the momentum of prayer and worship behind them and the Spirit can quickly impress on their hearts the things they need to hear.

We are so blessed with anointed worship at CATG. Kathy and her crew lead us to the throne room. They are an obvious target for the enemy. Now as an extra worship team is raised up for Sunday nights, we need to agree in prayer for their protection and the movement of the Spirit of God on their hearts as they select music, practice together and then lead worshippers to the throne.

Pray for all of them this week as they prepare and consecrate themselves to the service of the LORD.

Two are better than one, because they have good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Ecclesiastes 4:9

As you pray today for the Last Call service and those the LORD would draw in, also remember those who already attend CATG but have not connected with others in the church. Sometimes the loneliest place to be is in a crowd of people. Pray for eyes to see those who are hidden and the insight to invite them to a place where they can get connected.

Life Groups this term are in full swing, so pray for the leaders of these groups. Pray for wisdom and time for preparation and anticipation of questions and issues that come up. Pray for relational graces to always walk in unity with each other. Bind and take authority over the enemy that would cause these little tribes to implode.

Ephesians 6:18b – Be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.

The need for this week of prayer became obvious to me last week. For a few days there had been a series of events where things just weren’t right. People who normally get along were irritated and misunderstanding one another. Situations came up with opportunities for offense. A few people had stopped by to talk about struggles in life intensifying and job or financial struggles were increasing. As I talked with an faithful CATG intercessor, we finally put the pieces together and we wondered what was up that the enemy would cause such an upswing in the normal day to day life of people in our church family. The final straw was Thursday morning when I came in to find 5 urgent prayer requests that needed to be sent to our prayer team immediately.

What’s different than usual? A new service starting for one. Possilbly coming into conjunction with a new wave of prayer for an open heaven over CATG. When God is about to do a new thing, the enemy can read the signs. We are praying that the new Last Call service would be an open door for many to come into the Kingdom, for many who need to hear the Word of the LORD to have the opportunity to do so on a Sunday evening. What better way to render us ineffective than to scatter the flock and like a roaring lion seek those who are vulnerable to being devoured. (John 10:12, 1 Peter 5:8)

Pray for health and protection, pray for jobs and finances and safety. Pray for each other’s children and against accidents and mishaps. Pray for last week’s urgent requests and for anyone else you may know is vulnerable now.

Pray for each other this week. If someone should suddenly come to mind, pray for them. The LORD frequently uses those thoughts, which may seem a passing whim, to call us to prayer for someone. You may be His line of defense for someone else. Keep short accounts with one another. If offense could pop up, go immediately to one another so that the enemy can’t divide us. Remember that whatever has come up may be a strategy from the accuser, so get mad at him not one another.

I love the way Paul exhorts us in the above Ephesians passage to be alert. Peter echoes that in 1 Peter 5:8-11: Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.”

This week we will have the privilege of praying in the new Sunday night service at Church at the Gate. You can read all about Last Call at Steve’s blog.

Our job this week will be to cover this new start in prayer. We will focus on a new and different area each day, but our primary focus will be that this new worship time will reach out and touch people who desperately need the love of Jesus. For so many people times of desperation include one “last call” out to a God who, to a hurting soul, may or may not exist. One of the jobs of an intercessor is to stand in the gap to cry out for mercy and to petition heaven for lost souls.