Last week we had another wonderful meeting with 15 or so students on Wednesday night. All of whom took a step of faith the previous week returned, and we were able take another step on the life long path of discipleship.
I have been relishing the simplicity and power of the Gospel. The seeds of eternal life wrapped up in believing. Simple trust in a Creator who laid down His life for His creation. I believe the Lord wants us to keep ‘inward believing’ the focus – not outward reforming. What saves us, is what keeps us.
This week we are, weather permitting, taking the group bowling. Ten of them have never bowled in their life. It’s still relatively new here, and the closest alley is 45 minutes away. It’s also too expensive for most student. Almost all of our Club 180 students come from small villages, and return there on weekends.
Praying about the next Worship Night. It’s been on my heart for a few weeks. We must keep the burning torch of prayer lit. I’m reminded how every spiritual victory is won not through physical means. It’s so tempting to relish the outward reflections of what God might be doing and forget the origin of those testimonies. Prayer works. Do I believe this? Times of spirit led prayer and worship among the church can be such a powerful vehicle to change the world. Lord keep us from allowing it to be anything less!
“The idea that everything would happen exactly as it does regardless of whether we pray or not is a specter that haunts the minds of many who sincerely profess belief in God. It makes prayer psychologically impossible, replacing it with dead ritual at best.”
David Brainerd
“The history of missions is the history of answered prayer.”
Samuel Zwemer
“The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.”
Samuel Chadwick
“Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom. If you may have everything by asking in His Name, and nothing without asking, I beg you to see how absolutely vital prayer is.”
Charles Spurgeon
Interestingly just as I posted this, a brother struggling deeply with the effectiveness of prayer came to my office. He’s stopped asking God for anything, because his life is such a mess and “God knows it all already.” May God heal and draw him, and all of us burdened by such fatalism.