| While God is God and can do what God wants–and while our Scriptures are replete with examples of God’s showing up, uninvited and perhaps even unwanted (think Moses and the Burning Bush for starters)–far more often we see God, in the Bible, responding to humans who hunger for him. This is a truism best expressed by James 4:8: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” As we set sail into a New Year, I am more hungry than ever for God to move in our church, in my life, and in our nation, and I know many of you/us feel the same way! With that in mind, I want to thank you for your participation in last week’s focus on prayer, fasting, and consecration; thank you for “drawing near to God.” We had a high level of participation over the course of the week, and a room packed with people on Friday night praying and crying out to God for a move of His Spirit among the nations. Along with hundreds of churches across the globe in our Every Nation spiritual family, we focused our prayers on “The Mission,” and traced the theme of God’s redemptive purpose throughout history. I am confident that collectively, we sowed a giant seed into spiritual ground this week that will pay dividends over the year to come, with our teens, on the college campuses, our ministry to the poor, and in marriages, lives and homes. I want to encourage you to continue that momentum we created last week: Mosaic gathers for prayer weekly, online on Zoom every Friday morning from 7-8 am. You can find that link here. We cry out to God for you, for our city, and for needs church members may have. I am present, personally, almost every Friday, and would love to see you there, even if you are in the car, getting ready for work, or taking the kids to school. You can feel free to mute yourself and turn off your camera, as a number of participants often do. Just hearing the faith-filled prayers of God’s people is a massive encouragement! Thank you again for whatever level you participated in the fast. It made a huge difference. I will see you this Sunday as we continue our “Mission” series, looking at “The Spirit’s Power.” Morgan Stephens, DMin Lead Pastor P.S. Don’t forget about signing up for one of our incredible adult education courses: How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth; our Membership Course (lots of doctrine and theology in that one); our Leader Development Course, and the Pre-Marriage Course (for engaged or on-their-way-to-being-engaged couples) are all coming up or have had their first class. |
