|
For I know the thoughts
I think toward you, says the Lord,
thoughts of peace and not of evil,
to give you a future and a hope.
Then you will pray to me
and I will listen to you.
(Psalm 37:4)
How precious are Your thoughts
to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
(Psalm 139:17-18)
I have often started my prayers with "O Lord, I come to You..." It is indeed wonderful to be able to "come boldly to the throne of grace" (Hebrews 4:16)! However, there is a subtle temptation to believe that I initiate prayer and God answers, which is a deception. God comes to us! Oh may we never forget this glorious truth through Jesus Christ!!
God is the initiator of every good thing. This is the heart of grace! It may seem like we initiate prayer, but we're actually responding to God who speaks to us through the Spirit of Christ! He gives us the desire and ability to hear Him, and then to receive His love for us, His affirmation of us, and His hope through us.
The life of every Christian is actually one continuous prayer, responding to the precious life of the indwelling Christ! We can thus understand 1 Thessalonians 5:17, "Pray without ceasing."
PRAYER WRITING
These Rest Stops are not my opinions of what I believe is right. Opinions initiated by man offer no hope and joy.
So why do I write these Rest Stops?
As I write, I believe I experience God the Father nurturing me as I seek words that are the exact representation of the thoughts He is gracious speaking so deeply into my heart. This is akin to God the Son who, as the Word of God, is the exact representation of God the Father (Hebrews 1:2)! Jesus the Word perfectly expresses God!
Then, God the Spirit takes the words I come up with in communion with God and breathes them through me to you through Rest Stops! God has given me His desire to share with you and to lift you up in Christ! This miracle of communication is in you, too.
I spend hours seeking words that best express my heart. The enemy tempts me to believe these are wasted hours, but I know they are hours when I experience a sweet fellowship with God.
[I am so indebted to Jennifer Kennedy Dean's testimony of how God speaks to us and through us in her book Live a Praying Life (Independence, MO: The Masters Touch Publishing Co., 1998).]
PRAYER SPEAKING
I also love to verbally speak my heart. As you might can tell through these Rest Stops, my written words are the same as my spoken words. I write how I speak. I also write out my words whenever I can before any speaking engagement. So I also speak how I write. It is all about being nurtured by God.
I am excited to share with you a 4-minute video trailer of a speaking service by me and 5 of my friends, including Bobby Richardson, New York Yankees 2nd baseman from 1955 to 1966.
This trailer is an excerpt from a 1 hour 20 minute service on October 21, 2011 that helped launch me into full-time ministry with Journey in Christ. I also have a 16-minute DVD with more highlights from the service that the 4-minute trailer introduces.
Click on the following link to watch and listen to the trailer.
CLOSING
Oh how God loves us with an everlasting and unconditional love! And "we love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19).
ps, This is my first experience of using video as a ministry tool.
I hope to learn more how to creatively use this medium to relate to many the great good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Joel with wife Lillian and children in Kenya.
He has been eagerly corresponding with me weekly since January.
He has prayed for me, and has asked prayer for his family. | 
