UNCEASING'S NEW PLAYLIST - COME AND WORSHIP!!!

We've just added a playlist to the blog - if you scroll down you will see it on the left side.  It is a wonderful compilation of songs that will lead you from intimate worship, to personal prayer, to intense intercession, and back again!  If you let it play straight through, it will give you about an hour and a half of inspiration for worship and prayer.  The playlist is a little tricky to navigate - as you probably have noticed, the first song begins to play right away, and then goes down through the list.  However, if you want to scroll down to see or choose another song, you have to click on one of the songs listed, and then use your computer keyboard's down arrow to move lower down on the list.  You may have to do this again in order to see all 15 songs.

These are some of the songs I love and which have ministered to me, as well as some we have used in our prayer and worship times as a group.  Enjoy!  May they draw you close to your Lord.  And comment to tell us which ones you like, or to let us know some of your favorites.

SACRED SPACE partners with OPEN DOOR TO THE WORLD

Join us this Friday for Sacred Space, 6 - 10 pm.  We are partnering with Open Door to the World, and will have an emphasis on praying for the world, our missionairies and other cross-cultural expressions, as well as for the 7 major areas of cultural influence in the world.  We will have a time during the evening of focused prayer, as well as live worship, but as always, you can come and go as you please and if you like, simply enjoy spending personal time with the Lord.

COMING TO KNOW GOD . . . IN SPITE OF UNANSWERED PRAYER

I first met John Boring at our first week of 24/7 prayer, about 2 1/2 years ago.  He seemed so genuinely touched by the experience.  Although he and I have not spent much time together in the "real" world, I have gotten to know his wonderful spirit and heart through a web community we are both part of.  I asked him to share some of his journey with the Lord with us here, and this is the first of more posts from this amazing, godly man.

I had given up on church years ago.  All that I visited over the years preached a God that was vengeful and disappointed.  The messages all seemed to say the same thing; that I was doomed unless I changed my style of life in drastic ways.  And, even then, it was suspect that I would ever enjoy God’s Kingdom.  I was not a bad man, I did not commit crimes and I tried my best to not be a sinner.  But, the message each Sunday was the same thing.  Hell’s fire and damnation. I knew, deep in my heart, that was not the God I wanted to worship, and if I could not find him in church, I would look elsewhere.  I simply quit going to church altogether, even though my wife was devout and regularly attended and supported her church.

My life began to change on a day in 2000, when our son, Dan, was diagnosed with a serious cancer.  He would fight it for five years, losing his right leg below the knee and ending up with a prosthetic shoulder in the process.  By the time he died in 2005, he was riddled with cancers and in constant pain.  During all of his illness I watched my wife, Suzi, as she coped with the idea that we would eventually lose our only son.  While she comforted Dan and kept a brave face, in private she prayed for his recovery and wept at the frustration of seeing our prayers going unanswered.  We did all we could do to make Dan comfortable but in the end, all we could do was watch as he slowly slipped away. When that happened, we were all by his bedside, holding his hand and talking to him, preparing him for his journey. The hardest thing Suzi and I ever had to do.

Suzi’s faith did not diminish after losing Dan, as I thought it might. God had not answered her prayers, after all, and surely she resented that.  Instead, she joined the choir and steadily supported her church. I decided one day that I needed to help her in that area, so I vowed to start attending church with her, even though I did not like her church or her pastor.  So, I went back to church but Jesus was not yet in my heart and I had not yet accepted God.

Knowing how I felt about her church, Suzi looked around for another one for us to attend.  A friend recommended Open Door Fellowship and we decided to check it out.  The day we arrived at ODF was bright and sunny and hot. As we approached the front door of the auditorium the first two people we saw were the two hospice nurses who had been such angels to Dan.  Nancy Nicolls and Beth Parks.  Seeing these two angels here was a very good sign.

We walked inside and sat in the middle section, back towards the wall.   I looked around the walls and saw the words written there.  “All of my sins were washed away.”  And, “Here I am to bow down, here I am to say that you’re my God.”  Those words suddenly meant so much to me.  Emotion started to stir in my heart that was not connected to grief.  I watched people enter the room, greeting each other, hugging one another.  When men and women sat, they leaned into each other and often the man put his arm around her. I could feel the love in the room.  Then, the band began to play and I had never heard music like this at any church before.  I was in awe and becoming an emotional wreck.  I had no idea what was happening to me.

Then, John Lynch began to speak and it seemed to me his words were directed straight at me and to my heart.  I suddenly broke down in body wracking sobs, crying not in grief, but a feeling that I had come home.  I, right then, could feel God’s presence around me and I sensed He was comforting me.  I sobbed and sobbed, and no one around me paid me the slightest heed.  Evidently, people did that quite often in that church.  I all of a sudden felt such peace and contentment and I knew then that God was with me and that Jesus Christ had entered my heart.  They are both with me now and will be forever. On Easter Sunday, 2006, John Lynch and Jason Ellis baptized me at the church.  I was 75 years old at the time.  -- John Boring

A PRAYER MEETING FOR THE NEW BOOK

Something exciting is happening. Some men from our church, including our current teaching pastor, as well as our founding pastor, have written a book. Well, actually, they have written several books, but this one is different, in that it is fiction, and as such, has perhaps the potential to reach a wider and different audience than the others. Those of us from Open Door Fellowship have been eagerly waiting to read it, but even beyond that, we have been eager to share it, because it communicates profound truths that we have been hearing for years, and, in our human imperfection, have been wrestling with, gingerly testing, working out, standing on, and at times even staking our lives on, learning to trust God and others with ourselves.

This blog post today is a challenge to “meet” in prayer here, and call on the Lord together, asking Him to use this book to bless others beyond any of our expectations. To bless many; to bless deeply; to bless permanently, as God woos the hearts of those who read it to connect authentically with Himself and others.

Post your prayer below as a comment:

SACRED SPACE THIS FRIDAY

"Let God's Presence be Your Provision"

SACRED SPACE, Friday, Sept. 11, 6pm-10pm

Has life been rough or messy, tiring, tragic, hard? Come to Sacred Space, a safe place to be in the presence of His grace. Come and go as you please, and enjoy a welcoming atmosphere of soft lighting, simple prayer stations, and live worship, designed to draw our hearts to Him.

Come Friday, September 11th, 6pm-10pm, and let God’s Presence be your provision.

Bringing It Home

The ministries of 24/7 and Sacred Space are vital and beautiful. They usher us into God’s presence and inspire in us prayer, meditation, reflection, and worship. The tranquil environment, the beauty and creativity all help us quiet our hearts and enter into a very real experience of God’s presence. These ministries are a gift and I greatly look forward to them. But wouldn’t it also be great if we could learn to find our own "sacred spaces" in our everyday relationship with God? That’s exactly what He wants. This year’s 24/7 theme was "We are a house of prayer."

I have been thinking over the last couple years about how to bring into my personal everyday relationship with God some of the wonderful aspects of these special prayer environments. They so beautifully facilitate sweet times with God that I want more. I began by asking myself what are my favorite things, what are the things that really work for me? Some of my favorite parts of any ODF Sacred Space or 24/7 are the stations that let me write on the wall. Whatever it is that God has pointed out to me, whether glaringly or softly, through the prayer station’s meditation, I love the simple act of writing it down in a public way. I post it as a form of declaration, worthy of being remembered and permanently claimed as mine. As others write their words, the walls become a beautiful collection of private encounters with God, anonymous roof-top declarations, powerful statements. They are the documentation of pivotal moments taken place in listening and yielded hearts.

A few months ago I was excited to have an idea. I went to Aaron Brothers and bought a canvas and some Sharpie markers. I hung it up and began writing down, Sacred Space style, some of the things God was impressing upon my heart through my personal prayer times, Bible reading and scripture meditation. Let me tell you, I am loving it! I pass by the canvas, which is slowly filling up, and read the reminders of what God has spoken to me. Each time there is something new, I post it on the canvas. It has been such a blessing.

We look forward to continuing our monthly Sacred Space evenings and our yearly 24/7 events; they are wonderful and special times. They are also tools to train us how to bring it home into our everyday relationship with our Father who longs to meet with us everyday. Tune in to this blog for future posts that we hope will help you develop your own special ways of being more in His presence daily, resting and quieting your hearts, listening for Him to speak.

-- Judi

Picture your prayers

It is easy, in the area of prayer, to get hung up on trying to do things the way other people do them, to get tangled up in the "ought to's" and "this ways," instead of allowing God to lead our hearts to Him in the way that best suits the unique creature He has designed us to be! However, there IS profit in hearing "tools" and ideas that have worked for others as we give ourselves permission to simply try and investigate what might work for us.

Here is an idea that Jan Potter sent our way:

"How I changed my picture of prayer" (click on to link with the article)

As you will see, the title of the article is a play on words. I have actually done similar things over the years using photos. You can simply put some snapshots in your Bible, or use the framed photos you have have by your bed or on your wall. What about a prayer collage, where the photos are updated and rotate over time, and as new needs arise? We so often think of prayer as a matter of words, but opening up the other senses, in this case using a visual prompt, can often encourage and enrich our conversations with God.

What types of things have you used as tools or prompts in prayer?