Praying Roots

Today I had a conversation with Mr. Bill and something came to me: prayer is like roots. Mr. Bill and I talked about forming a prayer group for the church. You know the type of group that gets together once a week and prays for various things in the lives of the people we know.

Mr. Bill mentioned that he dropped something off at another office in Marysville and the people were praying for matters pertaining to their church. Mr. Bill thought this was pretty cool and wanted to get something like this going at our church, Living Truth. That's when it hit me, prayer is like roots...

A tree is only as strong as the roots that support it. If a tree is supported by shallow roots and a strong wind comes - that tree doesn't stand much of a chance. But if a tree is deeply rooted it will be able to withstand pretty strong winds.

The same can be said for the prayer life of Christians and of Christian churches. If a person claims to be a Christian but doesn't have a deep prayer-life. The storms that constantly bombard us will uproot them and cause them to lose sight of God. But if a person is deeply rooted in prayer, even the strongest torrents will not uproot them. The storms will beat us up and possibly even harm us but they will never cause us to lose sight of the real reason that we are here.

Perhaps today you are going through a storm. Perhaps today you are facing some nasty winds...well, maybe the strongest and safest place for you to be in on your knees and in the hands of the only ONE who will love you UNCONDITIONALLY. That means that nothing you will ever do, will make God love you less. God is ready and waiting for you. Join Him today by praying that your roots may grab a hold of Him, and just hang on to Him as He hangs onto you.

Celebrate Christ

The name, hopefully, says it all. What can happen when Christians from around a community unite for one goal: to Celebrate Christ? Well, the answer is pretty easy - ANYTHING can happen. This past Sunday (October 7th) Living Truth was part of a group of churches that served the community of Marysville and surrounding areas for the sake of the Gospel. We took part because this is what Jesus told us to do. Jesus states that there are two great commandments - the first is to love the Lord with all of our being (heart, soul, mind and strength). The second is equal to it - that is to love our neighbors as ourselves.
But what does it mean to love like this? This truly is a foreign concept in our world. I firmly believe that this kind of love means stepping outside of ourselves and giving of who we are for the benefit and well-being of others. On Sunday, teams of people went to different homes around town to clean gutters, wash windows, rake leaves, and do other odds and ends work throughout town. Why? you may be asking...
The answer is simple - because of Jesus! That's right, Jesus is the reason that we live and we love. Jesus is the reason that we serve those around us. Jesus gave us His all, by dying on the cross to forgive us our sins. He held nothing back - and now He calls us to Him by loving and serving others. Doesn't seem like too much to ask.
But we must make sure we get the ordering correct here...we serve because HE FIRST SERVED US!!! NOT the other way around! Now we are given access to the power of the Holy Spirit through prayer and study of the Bible. The reason we serve is because we have been served first by God.
What an amazing day it was! The day started with a time to Celebrate all that Christ is and has done...we then lived lives of service and came back to be filled with some piping hot chili and more encouragement from the Word. God is Great!!! We are privileged to serve HIM!