Black Friday Prayer

(A brief thought for Grace Fellowship Church and other believers concerned with evangelism)

Last Friday I had an incredibly sobering moment while chasing my wife and daughters through Kohls.  They had all scattered to look for some deals, or stand in line waiting to pay.  I decided to do something instead of just standing in the shoe department waiting for them to check out;  I told them I was going  to check out Christmas tree sales at another big box store.

I wove my way through Kohls in the general direction of the exit.  While dodging displays and people, I began to focus on people’s faces – face, after face, after face.  The store was packed, the parking lot was packed, and the roads were packed. I began to ponder the fact that these were people loved by God.  Each one of them was unique.  Each one had a soul. And Christ had made an enormous sacrifice to bring them to himself.

Of course, I already knew this.  The statistical “fact” of there being so many people who needed Christ wasn’t new.  The theological truth that people need Christ is something I (we) talk about often.

But just seeing the mass of people on the biggest shopping day of the year drove home these truths anew.

God has given us a tremendous responsibility and privilege to be “ministers of reconciliation.”  Not just me but we, the Grace Fellowship body.

On my way out the door, as I passed lines and masses of people, I just began to pray, “Lord…”  I caught myself not really knowing how to finish.  I mean there were SO many people, “Lord, bring the knowledge of your Son to these people and help our GF body to aggressively do our part as you lead.”

As you shop, attend holiday parties, and reconnect with family and friends in the next month would you pray?  Pray for people’s souls.  Pray for opportunities to share.  Pray for believers and churches to represent Christ to a lost and dead world.  We have the real “Hope” for this season and ask God to help us share it.

^“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God”. (2Co 5:20 NKJ)

GET OUT…of the office

I’m at Bruegger’s Bagels this morning.  Their coffee is great and I’m becoming a bagel connoisseur; but that’s not why I’m here.  My books, computer, and Bible are in front of me and I’m studying for upcoming messages; but that’s not why I’m here.  I could get coffee and something to eat at home.  I could study in the GREAT office some dear people remodeled for me.

So why am I here and not studying in my office or getting something cheaper to eat at home?

I’m here because I’m a church-planter/pastor/Christian.  I need to meet people, be around people, understand the community, and develop relationships through which to share the Gospel.

I could study in my office (and I do).  In fact, I would probably get more done and be more efficient in my office.  However, sitting here reminds me of what I’m called to do.  It reminds me about the many, many people in our area that God loves and for whom Christ died.  What I need is not a quiet place to study; but a sense of urgency for souls (that sounds so old school).  But souls are in the balance. Jesus told his disciples in John 4:35 to, “…lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”

I can’t see the fields from my office or home.

So, this morning I’m at Brueggers…to study, to pray over our body at Grace Fellowship, to remind myself of God’s purpose, to meet people and to maintain a sense of urgency.

Oh yeah…and to enjoy this great Bruegger’s house blend.

Classic Conversion Stories: A.W. Tozer

“We had a neighbor by the name of Holman.  I do not know his first name or initials.  He was just Mr. Holman.  He lived next door to us. I had heard that he was a Christian, but he never talked to me about Christ.”

“Then one day I was walking up the street with this friendly neighbor.  Suddenly, he put his hand on my shoulder. ‘You know,’ he said, ‘I have been wondering about you.  I have been wondering if you are a Christian, if you are converted.  I just wanted the chance to talk it over with you.’”

“‘No, Mr. Holman,’ I answered, ‘I am not converted, but I thank you for saying this to me.  I am going to give it some serious thought.’”

Late one afternoon in 1915 – three years after arriving in Akron-as he walked home from work, Aiden noticed a small crowd of people gathered on the opposite side of the street.  They were clustered around an older man who seemed to be talking to them.  Not being able to hear what the man was saying, Aiden crossed the street to satisfy his curiosity.

At first, the man’s speech did not make any sense to Aiden.  He spoke with a strong German accent, and Aiden had to listen carefully to catch what the man was saying.  Finally, it dawned on Aiden. The man was preaching!  Preaching, right out on the street corner!  ‘Doesn’t this man have a church to preach in?’ Aiden thought to himself. ‘And it isn’t even Sunday! Why is he so excited?’ But as Aiden listened, the words of the elderly street preacher began to find their mark in his young heart.

The preacher startled Aiden. “If you don’t know how to be saved, just call on God, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner,’ and God will hear you.”

Those words burned in Aiden’s heart. He could not get the voice of the preacher out of his mind.  As he slowly walked home, he thought over what the man had said.  Never before had he heard words like those.  They troubled him.  They awakened within him a gnawing hunger for God.

Saved. If you don’t know how to be saved…just call on God…’God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’

When Aiden arrived home, he went straight to the attic, where he could be alone to think this out for himself and to wrestle with God.  No one knows all that transpired in the Tozer attic that afternoon in 1915. But Aiden Wilson Tozer emerged a new creation in Christ Jesus.  His pursuit of God had begun.

Aiden’s conversion to Christ was a transforming experience in every way.  Inclined to be cynical, he thought nothing of turning to agnostics or even to atheists for counsel.  Suddenly, his entire life as radically and wonderfully redirected.  A whole new world had opened up to this youth with unbounded intellectual curiosity.  It was a world that would take him a lifetime and more to explore fully.

In later years he would say of himself that as a young man he was so ignorant it was a wonder the top of his head did not cave in from sheer emptiness.  From the moment of his conversion, however, Aiden had an insatiable thirst for knowledge and a ravenous hunger for God.

The Tozer household was crowded with eight family members plus boarders. Aiden had to find the time and place to get alone with God, time for prayer and Bible reading and study.  In the basement there was a small unused space behind the furnace. Aiden claimed it, cleaned it and made it comfortable.  It was a refuge where he could get away from everything and everyone and literally spend hours in prayer, study and meditation.

Long years later Essie remembered how at first, when she would go down the cellar stairs for canned goods, she could hear frightful groaning coming from behind the furnace.  Soon she came to recognize the sound as that of her younger brother wrestling with God in prayer.  For Aiden, it became a lifetime habit. Nothing would take the place of knowing God firsthand.

Excerpted from, “In Pursuit of God, The Life of A.W. Tozer”, by James L. Snyder, pp 35-38, Christian Publications: Camp Hill, PA, 1991 (with permission)