Pray Big, Pray Bold, Pray Better

So this past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the Church Prayer Leaders Network Regional Prayer Conference here in beautiful Columbus, Indiana. It was held at First Christian Church and was led by Dave Butts and Jon Graf. So I thought I might blog about a few of my thoughts from the conference.

First of all, let me just say that it was an excellent conference. The theme of the conference was Pray Big, Pray Bold, Pray Better. It is always good to be challenged and instructed on prayer. I know that I want to grow in my prayer life, so it was very worthwhile for me to attend.

The conference started on Friday evening with some worship and a keynote address by Jon Graf. Now I have known Jon for many years and have sat in several of his seminars, so it just so happens that this address was one that I have heard at least a potion of in the past. But it was still a great reinforcement of what I have heard him share before. One of the great things that he did was to challenge us to pray the way God made us. In other words, not everyone prays the same way. We shouldn't expect to. There are some powerful principles on prayer in Scripture that we need to learn from, but different people pray in different ways, within those principles. For instance, God has gifted us differently and those gifts come out in the way we pray. So the person with the gift of mercy probably is going to pray much differently than the person with the gift of evangelism. Also, some people pray early in the morning, but that is not the only time to pray. So we should find the time that works best for us. And some people pray sitting quietly in their prayer closet, while others like to prayerwalk.

The first time I heard Jon share this, it was revolutionary for my prayer life. I walk when I preach, I walk when I talk on the phone, and sitting quietly in a chair while talking to God was tough for me. So why not walk? And so I do. Many who know me, know that is the main way that I now pray.

Saturday featured three more keynote addresses as well as two different times for breakout workshops. I missed the first workshop because I am helping to coach Jacob's basketball team and his game was just across the street, so I went for the game and came back around the time that the first workshops were ending. The afternoon workshop I did get to though and it was excellent. It was entitled "The Divine Dialogue" and was led by Dave's wife Kim. She challenged us to posture ourselves in such a way as to allow our heart to connect with God's heart. She wasn't talking about physical posture, but about spiritual posture. She spoke of narrowing the gaps of unawareness of Christ's presence and about how prayer is relational and expectational.

In the keynotes, Dave Butts spoke on how we need to pray bold. We need to get past the small prayers that we tend to pray and seek God's heart. Then later he talked about the heart of prayer and how we need to pray that the Father would help us to love Jesus the way that He loves Him. And Jon, in his other keynote address, challenged us to pray like Paul.

It was a great conference and then Jon came and spoke at our church on Sunday morning and challenged us as a church to be a House of Prayer. He showed us from Scripture how being a "House of Prayer" does not mean that we need to have more prayer events, but that we should be a place that is accepting of everyone and allows them to seek God.

All in all it was a great weekend. A busy one, but a great one.

Inaugural Invocation

Probably many of you watched at least part of Tuesday's inauguration either live or through video clips or news footage. Regardless of whether you were pleased with the results of the last election or not, this was an historic day for our country as our first African American President was sworn in to office. And whether we voted for him or not, he is our president and is therefore someone that we should be praying for.

Rick Warren had the opportunity to kick things off as he prayed for our new president and for our country during the inaugural invocation on this special day. I was not able to watch the event live, but I was able to watch some clips on ABC's website and one of the clips I watched was of Pastor Rick's prayer.

In case you did not have the opportunity to hear it, let me point out what he prayed for President Obama. He prayed that our new president would have "the wisdom to lead us with humility; the courage to lead us with integrity; and the compassion to lead us with generosity."

I thought that was a great way to pray for our new leader. We want him to lead us well and while he may not always lead us where we want to go, we can pray for him to have wisdom, courage and compassion in his leadership.

Pastor Rick later ended his prayer by praying that we would never forget that one day all nations and all people will stand accountable before God. What a powerful reminder. President Obama has his hands full as the president of our America. And we are reminded to pray for him in I Timothy 2:1-4, "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone -- for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."

Here we go again!

So, I guess that I am not too good at this blogging thing. I set up this blog a little over a year ago. I did some entries and then there was a giant pause. Someone from our church family has repeatedly told me that they check back with my blog regularly to see if I have written anything new and everytime they do, there is still that same blog there from last April talking about waiting for our baby to be born. Now Makenna is 8 months old and that is still my last blog. I guess it is fitting that it was a blog on waiting. Anyway, because this person challenged me to get back into the blogging game, I am going to try again. My plan, at this point, is to blog at least once a week. So, if you haven't already given up, then come on back and try again and I will try to make sure you are not looking at the same blog for 8 months.

But if this is going to work, then I am going to have to hear back from some of you. I want to blog about the kinds of things you want to read about. So please let me know your thoughts. Are you looking for more devotional thoughts, or funny stories, or current events editorials, or calendar information or something totally different? Please give me your feedback.

For today's blog, I thought I would talk about my trip back to Colorado. My family and I recently returned from Colorado, where we spent the Christmas break. Many people go to Colorado in the winter to ski. I go there to visit my family. My dad and mom, along with my brother, and my sister and her family all live in Colorado Springs. So we try to get back there every year and a half. My wife and I used to live out there, and it is a beautiful place to live. It is sunny most days and the view of Pikes Peak takes your breath away. If you have never visited Colorado Springs, it is a wonderful place to go. And if you do go, then one place you need to check out is Garden of the Gods. It is a beautiful park at the base of Pikes Peak with amazing rock formations. You can drive through and take in the beauty or stop and get out of the car and stretch your legs over the many miles of hiking trails they have.

It has become a tradition for my son Jacob and me to go for a hike for a few hours at Garden of the Gods, whenever we are back in Colorado. Our favorite place to hike to is called the Siamese Twins. It is a rock formation that you don't see from the road. You have to hike back into it. It is up on the top of one of the bluffs. (By the way, if you don't know what a bluff is, it is a high steep hill that would pass for a mountain out here in Indiana, but doesn't come close in Colorado) At the top of the bluff is this beautiful red rock formation with two towers that rise up, that are almost identical and are attached at the bottom and then again about halfway up. So in between the parts where they are attached, there is a window where you can look through the rock formation and see Pikes Peak in the distance. Jacob and I always like to take each other's picture there sitting in the window ledge.

I took another picture of Jacob on that trip and it was of him just sitting on a rock, with his head in his hands gazing out over the beautiful scenery. It is a great picture, with Jacob looking lost in thought. I guess that is one of the main reasons I like Garden of the Gods. I like the picturesque beauty that reminds me of the power and imagination of our Father in Heaven who created this world. It is funny that the park was named Garden of the Gods. I know, and hopefully you know too, that there is only one God. He is awesome and powerful and mighty and able to do immeasurably more than all we could ever ask or think. And one look at some of the amazing scenery He has created, reminds us just how awesome He is.

I don't know if you will ever get out to Colorado Springs to see the Siamese Twins for yourself. But if you do, I want to encourage you to take some time and recognize that all of that beauty was created by our Father in Heaven.