What an awesome weekend we had at Meadowbrook! God is moving and touching lives. He is obviously at work.

Jeremiah 29:11 starts out, “For I know the plans I have for you…” I was talking to someone recently who said the verse should continue with, “…if you would just get out of the way!” That is our desire…to cooperate but to not get in the way of God’s plans that He is working.

I shared this verse yesterday in service. Make it your prayer and expectation!

Habakkuk 3:2
LORD, I have heard the news about you;
I am amazed at what you have done.
LORD, do great things once again in our time;
make those things happen again in our own days. (NCV)

Grace & peace!

This is the introduction to the Book of Proverbs written by Eugene Peterson in the Message Bible. It such a great reading Bible, written for the purpose of getting you to read the Bible! It is so descriptive and compelling. I hope that it will motivate you to start or to keep on reading the Proverbs. Remember that there are 31 Proverbs and most months have 31 days! An awesome coincidence!

“Many people think that what’s written in the Bible has mostly to do with getting people into heaven—getting right with God, saving their eternal souls. It does have to do with that, of course, but not mostly. It is equally concerned with living on this earth—living well, living in robust sanity. In our Scriptures, heaven is not the primary concern, to which earth is a tagalong afterthought. “On earth as it is in heaven” is Jesus’ prayer.
“Wisdom” is the biblical term for this on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven everyday living. Wisdom is the art of living skillfully in whatever actual conditions we find ourselves. It has virtually nothing to do with information as such, with knowledge as such. A college degree is no certification of wisdom—nor is it primarily concerned with keeping us out of moral mud puddles, although it does have a profound moral effect upon us.
Wisdom has to do with becoming skillful in honoring our parents and raising our children, handling our money and conducting our sexual lives, going to work and exercising leadership, using words well and treating friends kindly, eating and drinking healthily, cultivating emotions within ourselves and attitudes toward others that make for peace. Threaded through all these items is the insistence that the way we think of and respond to God is the most practical thing we do. In matters of everyday practicality, nothing, absolutely nothing, takes precedence over God.
Proverbs concentrates on these concerns more than any other book in the Bible. Attention to the here and now is everywhere present in the stories and legislation, the prayers and the sermons, that are spread over the thousands of pages of the Bible. Proverbs distills it all into riveting images and aphorisms that keep us connected in holy obedience to the ordinary.”

Grace & peace!

Grace & peace!

This has been an incredible week! I can’t wait to see what all God will do in response to our prayers! We know that He is able to do and wants to do even more than we could ever define or articulate.

Ephesians 3:20-21 in the Amplified Bible say it this way:
Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams] —
21 To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen (so be it).

I have a little saying for when God answers our prayers… “Never surprised! Always amazed!”

On Saturday please pray that we at Meadowbrook Church would have our greatest Sunday yet…with fruit that remains!

Ask the Lord to help me and give me His words and His message and then the anointing, favor and boldness to deliver it. Pray that the church is full of people and God’s presence, that true ministry would take place in every room of the church. Pray for increase of understanding and that people will respond to the message that they hear. Pray that every worker works together, anointed, unified, graced and fully aware that they are serving the Lord! Pray that dozens and dozens of people respond to the altar invitation both services making forever decisions. Pray that God so moves that even during the music or the message that bodies are healed, emotions are mended, marriages and families are strengthened and that we all become stronger disciples of the Lord Jesus! Also, pray that God would move on the hearts of the people to be faithful stewards making their financial supply to fund the ministry, so that there is abundance and no lack to fulfill all the He has called us to do. Also pray that the Lord would bring in more and more new families and individuals into the family of Meadowbrook. I am also praying for those who need to come home.

I thank you for supporting the services in prayer!

Here are a few Scriptures to pray and meditate on:

1 Peter 4:11
11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
NKJV

Matt 16:18b
I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.
NLT

Acts 2:47
And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
NKJV

Eph 4:11-16
11 He is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, 13 until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
NLT

Grace & peace!

There is power in prayer, because prayer is us aligning ourselves with God’s will and acknowledging that God is our source…for everything! Thank you once again for participating with us in this week of focused prayer!

On Friday make your requests known unto God! Take those things that are bothering you, worrying you and robbing you of peace and joy and sleep and…

E.M. Bounds said that “Prayer affects three different spheres of existence -the divine, the angelic and the human. It puts God to work, it puts angels to work, and it puts man to work.” Do the work of prayer and release God, angels and people that He would move upon to work on your behalf.

Remember that prayer sets the future. Your “now” may or may not be desirable. You cannot change “now”. As you move out of right “now”, have your future prepared through prayer. Don’t just let whatever happen. Or…if you desire for your “now” to be preserved…Pray!

Here are a few Scriptures to pray and meditate on.

James 4:2b
You do not have because you do not ask.
NKJV

Matt 21:22
22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
NKJV

1 John 5:14-15
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
NKJV

Luke 18:1
Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart
NKJV

Jude 20
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
NKJV

Phil 4:6-7
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
NKJV

Phil 4:6-7
6 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. 7 Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Mark 11:24
24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
NKJV

Ps 138:7-8
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;
You will stretch out Your hand
Against the wrath of my enemies,
And Your right hand will save me.
8 The LORD will perfect that which concerns me;
Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever;
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
NKJV
Grace & peace!