How to pray for one hour

At New Life Community Church we are in the midst of 21 days of prayer and fasting. Part of this includes each New Life location hosting 24hrs of non-stop prayer from 7pm on one day to 7pm the next. At New Life Lincoln Park where I am our 24hrs starts tonight. We have over 30 people signed up for 1hr blocks to pray for one another, our church, and our city.

Praying for an entire hour?!? Wouldn't you fall asleep? What all could you possibly pray about for that long?

Praying for an hour may seem intimidating at first but for the person prepared the time in reality flies by. At the end the prepared person would be checking the clock on their phone with astonishment asking, "That's it? That was an hour?"

Here's how you get ready to pray for an hour:

What Christmas is all about...

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
- 1 John 4:9-12

So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness - John 1:14

Aug 2nd: Gospel appreciation day

I am declaring that August 2nd is Gospel appreciation day!

• Let all those who love Jesus and say they are followers of Him live like it!
• Remember that sin is disgusting and you did NOTHING to redeem yourself - Jesus did it ALL.
• Embrace the life that you did not earn but were given based on the sacrifice of Jesus. 
• Find joy in the truth that you could change nothing about yourself that would make God redeem you or love you more - both before you met Him or after. 
• Find peace in the truth that God is continually working on you and is always with you.
• Find passion in the truth that God wants you to join Him in what He is doing in the world (though He doesn't need you to accomplish it).

Appreciate the Gospel today!!!

• Appreciate the Gospel by caring about the type of person you are!
• Appreciate the Gospel by caring about the type of character you have!
• Appreciate the Gospel by caring about the type of words that come out of your mouth!
• Appreciate the Gospel by knowing the names of those who live around you!
• Appreciate the Gospel by learning the stories of those you interact with! 
• Appreciate the Gospel by treating cab drivers and waitresses and fast food workers like actual human beings and not endentured servants. 
• Appreciate the Gospel by speaking truth from a spirit of compassion and not of judgement!
• Appreciate the Gospel by disagreeing with people respectfully and not in harshness! 
• Appreciate the Gospel by communicating your disagreement of politicians without insulting them!
• Appreciate the Gospel by being concerned with how the poor are treated!
• Appreciate the Gospel by being concerned with how immigrants are treated!
• Appreciate the Gospel by being concerned with how the LGBT community is treated!
• Appreciate the Gospel by caring about the manner in which you talk to people!
• Appreciate the Gospel by being a person of truthful character! 
• Appreciate the Gospel by being an honorable person! 
• Appreciate the Gospel by being a person of justice!
• Appreciate the Gospel by being a person of purity!
• Appreciate the Gospel by being a lovely person!
• Appreciate the Gospel by being a person who can be commended!
• Appreciate the Gospel by being a person of excellence!   

Appreciate the Gospel by living it!

Because how you live out the gospel with the people you actually interact with day in and day out is more important than if you bought a spicy chicken yesterday. 

Gospel Appreciation: not just Aug 2nd.  

Everyday!

The father who keeps his promises

Sunday night our family visited Mosaic, Erwin McManus' church in West Hollywood. It was an incredible service and Erwin gave a phenomenal message, as expected. Before we left for church though, our kids had their hearts set on going swimming at the hotel. We knew we wouldn't be able to make visiting Mosaic if we took a dip, so we ensured them there would be swimming when we got back. 

While buckling Baylee in after church the first words out of her mouth were, "We're going swimming when we get back, right dad?" I love swimming and having fun with my kids, so with complete confidence and intention I said, "Baylee, we are going to swim! I promise you! Unless the pool is broken, we will swim. And if for some reason it's closed when we get back then I promise we will go in the morning." The result was one huge smile.

Now take the fact that 8pm Los Angles time is actually 10pm to Baylee and Jaxon's little Chicago bodies and add to it a 35 minute drive back to our hotel, and result is two zonked out little kids. Gone. Comatose. At this point it didn't matter if the pool was open or not.

But it did matter in the morning. At 7:45am Baylee was awake and the first words she said were, "Daddy, do we get to go swimming?" But she didn't stop there. She added the other words. She played the trump card. She called me out.

God Speaks: preaching a message without saying a word

The first message in our new "Hearing God" series this past Sunday lasted 29 minutes. During this time there wasn't a word audibly spoken. It was the quietest I've heard the crowd or the sanctuary. As it was communicated Sunday night, if the message was about God speaking then it seemed best I didn't. So I just stood there, and let Him do the rest.

God speaks. That is the what this message is about. Just click through the slides and you'll hear what everyone heard Sunday:

For those from New Life Lincoln Park who were asking for the notes (or anyone), you can download a PDF of the slides here or the actual PowerPoint here.

Immanuel of Everything

As part of the message Sunday during our Christmas service, our amazing New Life Lincoln Park worship team did this song by Coldplay, "Christmas Lights":

The theme of this song rings true: Christmas is an amazing time of year, but it doesn't always feel amazing.

Along with all of the fun, celebrating, and connecting with others, for some this season was nothing but the opposite.  It was a stressful season: Who all do I buy for? What do I get them? When am I going to have the time? That woman took the last pair, could I take her out before she gets to the register? It was a time that raised old hurts: remembering loss, broken dreams, loneliness, no presents under the tree. And these could create feelings of doubt: What’s the point? Anyone care? Is anyone out there?

Some thoughts about the fact the world is ending today

Harold Camping

Today the rapture might happen, the world as we know spinning into chaos. I type this while sitting in a Starbucks in downtown Orlando. Guess if I can't be in Chicago then the land of Mickey is as good a place as ever. It's unfortunate though because Baylee and Jaxon were anticipating the Magic Kingdom on Sunday. [insert churchee crack about the real Kingdom here].

Harold Camping predicted that this would all happen on May 21, 2011.  It didn't.

Mr. Camping explained his error and then rescheduled things. For today. Oct 21, 2011.

I'm going to bet my kids will be able to take a picture with Mickey this Sunday afternoon.  

A few thoughts on Mr Camping and end of the world predictions:

Scapegoat Friday

One of my favorite books of the Bible is Leviticus. The following two paragraphs are from Leviticus 16 which is is about the Day of Atonement:

⁷ Then he must take the two male goats and present them to the Lord at the entrance of the Tabernacle. ⁸ He is to cast sacred lots to determine which goat will be reserved as an offering to the Lord and which will carry the sins of the people to the wilderness of Azazel. ⁹ Aaron will then present as a sin offering the goat chosen by lot for the Lord. ¹⁰ The other goat, the scapegoat chosen by lot to be sent away, will be kept alive, standing before the Lord. When it is sent away to Azazel in the wilderness, the people will be purified and made right with the Lord.

²⁰ “When Aaron has finished purifying the Most Holy Place and the Tabernacle and the altar, he must present the live goat. ²¹ He will lay both of his hands on the goat’s head and confess over it all the wickedness, rebellion, and sins of the people of Israel. In this way, he will transfer the people’s sins to the head of the goat. Then a man specially chosen for the task will drive the goat into the wilderness. ²² As the goat goes into the wilderness, it will carry all the people’s sins upon itself into a desolate land.

The Day of Atonement was the day when the sins of God's people would be forgiven for the next year. A goat was chosen by chance to be the carrier of all of those sins - taking them away from the people into the land of nothing, the desert.

Today is Good Friday.
Today is a remembrance of the final necessary Day of Atonement.
Today is the day when Jesus became my scapegoat.

It wasn't by the roll of the dice, He wasn't chosen by a lottery in heaven. It wasn't a choice between Jesus and one of the angels. The Father chose to provide His Son. And Jesus willingly became the goat.

My goat.

That's the deep thing for me. It would be one thing if I had already committed all of my sins. You know, I was in the courtroom, the evidence was proven that I had done something, a verdict was given, and Jesus says - "I'll take the fall." But when He died on the cross - I hadn't even done anything yet!

"You know Jesus, there's millions upon millions of people who haven't even been born yet - and you'll be dying for all their mess ups too. You'll be their scapegoat too."

And He did it. He WILLINGLY did it.

Back in the Old Testament times when the Day of Atonement was happening, it was probably a quiet, somber moment as that goat walked into the desert. A mixed moment of regret as they were seeing themselves represented in that goat, but also joy as it walked away into the desert - carrying their evils away with it. It's walking away with their junk made it possible for them to stand before God in peace.

Today is should be just like that as well.

I think of what Jesus did. And all of my mess - the details which define my mess, the things people can point to and things I'm glad people don't know, the things which in essence show me to be an evil, selfish person - all of that He put on himself. He willingly, lovingly put all of that on Himself!

And He carried it all away from me into the desert.

Like a scapegoat.

I sit here in peace before God today because Jesus became a scapegoat for me. I really can't begin to put that reality into words. I just know that it makes be feel stupid when I think of the fact I still mess up. I mean...what do you do with that?

He knew I'd still act like an idiot and He still died for me!

As the people of God looked at that goat walking into the desert, I'm sure pondering the meaning and reality of what it was doing - take time to look into history and see our scapegoat...walking into the desert for us.

Let that sink in.

Scapegoat Friday.

Thank you Jesus.