Prayer is powerful.
Many of you may know I am from South Carolina and still own a house just outside of Columbia. My mom and sister live in that house! I bought it fourteen years ago ... one of the first "adult" things I did out of college and I LOVE my house. When the flooding happened last week in SC, the dam of the lake in the neighborhood just through the woods from my house was breached, sending water flowing toward my house. The pictures my mom sent me were shocking and not knowing if the water would continue to rise, I prayed.
We were extremely fortunate; the house did not flood. But the neighborhood I grew up in (in Columbia) did and a church I served in downtown Columbia took on water in both its buildings, friends from high school and churches I served lost lots. Over the past week, I was consumed and overwhelmed with all that was happening, watching status updates and pictures from people in Columbia I know, reading every news article I could find, and watching live news streaming from Columbia online. I was consumed.
Currently in our Sunday night youth ministry programs, we are tackling a topic in a two week series that our youth leadership team wanted to discuss: Faith and Science. For devotion on Sunday we kept with that theme and talked about the floods (science) and prayer (faith).
Water is mentioned over 700 times in the Bible. At EYC on Sunday night, our youth brainstormed many of those times! We talked about a news report out of Hurricane Katrina where people prayed over and upstream of a very polluted and contaminated Lake Ponchatrain. All of the toxic water in the city was pumped out and into the lake polluting it and killing things in the lake. People were no longer allowed to swim in it and scientists predicated it would take years and years to become decontaminated. Amazingly, the lake was healed much more quickly and scientists could not explain why. Prayer is powerful.
We also remembered some of the times that prayer is mentioned! Ephesians 6:18 says: "Never stop praying, especially for others. Always pray by the power of the Spirit. Stay alert and keep praying for God’s people." So that is exactly what SJE youth did on Sunday night! We prayed for South Carolina ... creatively.
We took water bottles and drew prayers on them! There were prayers of thanksgiving for relief workers, petitions for safety of South Carolinians in the aftermath of the flood, prayers of encouragement for those who lost so much, and more! Youth drew pictures, wrote words, and listened to the words of "How Great Thou Art" while putting together their prayers. The water in the bottles was colored with food coloring! This way when we face south (towards SC) and tossed the water out of the bottles, the youth could really see their prayers being released to God.
There are two lessons we hoped the youth would walk away form this devotion knowing. First, is that there are situations in our lives and the lives of others over which we have no control, bad or good. They can completely consume and overwhelm us if we allow them to do so. If we don't intentionally offer (i.e. seeing the colored water flow out of the bottles) and give petitions about those situations to God they will only continue to eat away and take over our daily lives. Secondly, prayer works and God ALWAYS answers. It might not always be the answer that we want or expect and it might not always happen in the timing we expect, but God does answer. Praying for others is important. Intentionally releasing our petitions is key.
Do you prayer as a family? For yourselves? For your family? For others?
What are you teaching your teens about prayer?
Do you talk about prayers you offered that were answered or not answered?
Are you modeling prayer for your teens?
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Joshua: Part 1
For devotions at EYC the second half of this year, I’ve been focusing on Old Testament characters. Last Sunday night was Joshua. You know … Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy … JOSHUA! A quick read of 24 chapters that includes lots of drama, rule breaking excitement, dreams becoming reality, lots of conquering and plundering and walls falling down, and even a one of a kind moment when God listens to the commands of a human (Joshua) and sets the sun still.
But what can we learn from the character of Joshua? Joshua, you know, the head dude of the Israelites after Moses died! The leader that is finally able to take the Israelites into the promised land and point them in the direction of success if only they will obey God. The story of Joshua truly is a story of human improbability versus God’s ability. Point and case, obstacles one and two in the Israelite quest of the promised land.
First, the Israelites need to cross the Jordan River in order to enter the promised land. But how does one get an entire nation of people (men, women, children, animals, supplies, etc.) across a river like the Jordan? Did I mention there was no bridge or boat?
(Picture from: https://gregorysmagee.wordpress.com/pictures-from-israel/01-13-jordan-river/)
God dries it up, of course! More to come in a future post on this! But once the Israelites had crossed the river, they faced the second obstacle … the city of Jericho.
(Picture from: http://www.womeninthebible.net/buildings_OT.htm)
In ancient warfare, the best position to have was one of holding the high ground. So when people looked for places to build their cities, they would look for a high hill with sharply sloping sides. Then at the top of the hill, they would build a wall around the tops of the hill and their homes inside the wall, further protecting themselves. When an enemy would want to try and overtake a city such as this, it would be tough to do! Here the Israelites find themselves! They are facing a giant, walled city that they know they must conquer but … how? Remember, they’ve just been wandering in the desert for 40 years! This must seem like quite the task!
One thing that worked to their advantage was the fact that Joshua had sent spies to check things out in Jericho! These spies had been hidden and protected by a woman in the village named Rahab. Rahab was a prostitute in the city of Jericho. While everyone else in the town was afraid of the Israelites, she offered them this protection because she believed that God had given the Israelites the land and because she wanted to strike a deal of protection for her family should a battle ensue. The spies were able to escape by using ropes to climb down the large city walls and they were able to return and report to Joshua.
When wanting to pursue a people behind a giant wall, an enemy could try to go over the walls but this would probably mean that many of their people would be killed trying to do so. The people at the top of the wall clearly have an advantage! This was not appealing to the Israelites, I’m sure. Another option would be to dig tunnels under the city. Frequently enemies would do this and then set the tunnels on fire hoping to burn the city down from the bottom up. Again, many lives would be lost in this venture due to tunnel collapse or being burned alive and it would take an enormous amount of time. I imagine the Israelites were anxious to get things going in the promised land so taking time to do this wasn’t really an option! An enemy could surround the city, eventually forcing the city in starvation when their rations and supplies become drained. But this, also, could take a very long time. A final option would be using trickery and then defeating the city once inside. An example of this is the Greeks on Troy when they sent in the wooden horse. The Israelites had been nomads for 40 years and didn’t have these kind of supplies.
But God offers a plan to Joshua. God tells Joshua to have the people walk around the city wall once a day for six days. On the seventh day, God instructs the Israelites to walk around the city seven times and then after the seventh lap give a loud cry. If they do this, God promises the people that the walls will then crumble, giving the Israelites the ability to conquer Jericho. I don’t know about you but I think this must have seemed like a pretty crazy plan! If God gave me some crazy plan like this, I’m not certain my first instinct would be to obey! It truly seemed like a waste of time. But Joshua was faithful and encouraged the people to follow this crazy plan. On the seventh day, after the seventh circle, the people gave a battle cry. The walls crashed down, and the Israelites were able to conquer the people of Jericho.
I think this story from Joshua offers several challenges to us today!
1. Trusting God to do the impossible in our lives and in the world is key. Without it the improbable won’t happen.
2. Sometimes the battle isn’t ours, it is God’s! We have to learn to trust and obey that plan, no matter how silly, ridiculous, or hard it may seem.
3. If God can use Rahab despite her bad habits, morals, and lifestyle, God can certainly use us.
The following is a really awesome video depicting the battle of Jericho. The song features a Christian artist, LeCrae (whom I like very much). As you watch the video, think of how you need to trust God for the improbable, what battles in your life do you need to let God fight, or how can God use you, like Rahab, to bring some thing, situation, or person into the fullness of all that God has in store for them?
But what can we learn from the character of Joshua? Joshua, you know, the head dude of the Israelites after Moses died! The leader that is finally able to take the Israelites into the promised land and point them in the direction of success if only they will obey God. The story of Joshua truly is a story of human improbability versus God’s ability. Point and case, obstacles one and two in the Israelite quest of the promised land.
First, the Israelites need to cross the Jordan River in order to enter the promised land. But how does one get an entire nation of people (men, women, children, animals, supplies, etc.) across a river like the Jordan? Did I mention there was no bridge or boat?
God dries it up, of course! More to come in a future post on this! But once the Israelites had crossed the river, they faced the second obstacle … the city of Jericho.
In ancient warfare, the best position to have was one of holding the high ground. So when people looked for places to build their cities, they would look for a high hill with sharply sloping sides. Then at the top of the hill, they would build a wall around the tops of the hill and their homes inside the wall, further protecting themselves. When an enemy would want to try and overtake a city such as this, it would be tough to do! Here the Israelites find themselves! They are facing a giant, walled city that they know they must conquer but … how? Remember, they’ve just been wandering in the desert for 40 years! This must seem like quite the task!
One thing that worked to their advantage was the fact that Joshua had sent spies to check things out in Jericho! These spies had been hidden and protected by a woman in the village named Rahab. Rahab was a prostitute in the city of Jericho. While everyone else in the town was afraid of the Israelites, she offered them this protection because she believed that God had given the Israelites the land and because she wanted to strike a deal of protection for her family should a battle ensue. The spies were able to escape by using ropes to climb down the large city walls and they were able to return and report to Joshua.
When wanting to pursue a people behind a giant wall, an enemy could try to go over the walls but this would probably mean that many of their people would be killed trying to do so. The people at the top of the wall clearly have an advantage! This was not appealing to the Israelites, I’m sure. Another option would be to dig tunnels under the city. Frequently enemies would do this and then set the tunnels on fire hoping to burn the city down from the bottom up. Again, many lives would be lost in this venture due to tunnel collapse or being burned alive and it would take an enormous amount of time. I imagine the Israelites were anxious to get things going in the promised land so taking time to do this wasn’t really an option! An enemy could surround the city, eventually forcing the city in starvation when their rations and supplies become drained. But this, also, could take a very long time. A final option would be using trickery and then defeating the city once inside. An example of this is the Greeks on Troy when they sent in the wooden horse. The Israelites had been nomads for 40 years and didn’t have these kind of supplies.
But God offers a plan to Joshua. God tells Joshua to have the people walk around the city wall once a day for six days. On the seventh day, God instructs the Israelites to walk around the city seven times and then after the seventh lap give a loud cry. If they do this, God promises the people that the walls will then crumble, giving the Israelites the ability to conquer Jericho. I don’t know about you but I think this must have seemed like a pretty crazy plan! If God gave me some crazy plan like this, I’m not certain my first instinct would be to obey! It truly seemed like a waste of time. But Joshua was faithful and encouraged the people to follow this crazy plan. On the seventh day, after the seventh circle, the people gave a battle cry. The walls crashed down, and the Israelites were able to conquer the people of Jericho.
I think this story from Joshua offers several challenges to us today!
1. Trusting God to do the impossible in our lives and in the world is key. Without it the improbable won’t happen.
2. Sometimes the battle isn’t ours, it is God’s! We have to learn to trust and obey that plan, no matter how silly, ridiculous, or hard it may seem.
3. If God can use Rahab despite her bad habits, morals, and lifestyle, God can certainly use us.
The following is a really awesome video depicting the battle of Jericho. The song features a Christian artist, LeCrae (whom I like very much). As you watch the video, think of how you need to trust God for the improbable, what battles in your life do you need to let God fight, or how can God use you, like Rahab, to bring some thing, situation, or person into the fullness of all that God has in store for them?
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