Come to the Fire

October 9-11, 2008
College Church of the Nazarene
Back by popular demand, Beth Coppedge will be speaking

Theme verse for Come to the Fire:
Psalm 102:16 For the Lord will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory.
The next verse is a key verse:
17 When the prayers of the destitute reach His ears, He will respond.

The destitute are those who realize they are without hope. They pray with a broken spirit because they are desperate for Him to act.

But how do we pray desperate prayers? Apathy and mind-wondering mark much of our praying.

I have discovered that regularly praying five minutes a day for a person or a specific need increases my passion. It is as though God rewards my consistent praying by allowing me to sense the passion the Holy Spirit has for that person or situation. So I set my timer for five minutes time after time, day after day as I pray for various individuals and ministries.Often five minutes is not long enough.

I think God is saying, “Give Me five! Give me five minutes of prayer for your husband, five for each of your children, five for .” The Holy Spirit guides us as we look to Him to give us the burdens He wants to place on our hearts. Some days five minutes for each one will not be long enough. We will find we are praying the prayers of the destitute—the prayers He delights to answer.

“I love You! I love You!” my heart exclaimed at church one Sunday morning as we sang songs of worship. The night before my heart had cried an “I love You” refrain when a group of us had met for fellowship, prayer, and Scripture.

The following Monday my husband and I studied the themes of love and life in John, and I again longed for a more adequate way to express my love for the Lord. I found my answer from a line in Westcott’s book on the epistle of John: “….love for Christ finds practical expression in love for the brethren.” How exciting! I could tell Jesus “I love You” by taking opportunities to do good deeds for others.

Christ’s invitation to express our love for Him by doing good to another is seen in His statement, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40). I can understand His words when I recall that when someone does something for my children, I appreciate it as though they did it for me. But Christ says this about all who are hungry, thirsty, in a strange place, without clothes, sick, or in prison. “Express your love for Me by feeding and caring for these.”

Our good deeds done as acts of worship please God. He who is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart will accept our expressions of love.

Paul wrote “I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead” (Phil. 3:13). It’s interesting that he calls forgetting the past and looking forward one thing instead of two. I guess we are doing one or the other. If we are not forgetting the past, it is difficult to look forward to what lies ahead.

Perhaps his secret is in his next phrase: “I strain to reach the end of the race” (Phil. 3:14). Paul was putting all he had into reaching his goal.

Amazingly, the word “’strain” is usually translated “persecute” as in Acts 26:15: “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.’” Paul was a man who put all his efforts into whatever he did.

“Strain” is also translated as “make every effort” as in Rom. 14:19: “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace.”

So today we strain, we make every effort to reach our goal! He doesn’t say a word about success, but the effort he puts into it is what he focuses his energies on.

To the faithful He shows Himself faithful!

“I love You! I love You!” my heart exclaimed at church one Sunday morning as we sang songs of worship. The night before my heart had cried an “I love You” refrain when a group of us had met for fellowship, prayer, and Scripture.

The following Monday my husband and I studied the themes of love and life in John, and I again longed for a more adequate way to express my love for the Lord. I found my answer from a line in Westcott’s book on the epistle of John: “….love for Christ finds practical expression in love for the brethren.” How exciting! I could tell Jesus “I love You” by taking opportunities to do good deeds for others.

Christ’s invitation to express our love for Him by doing good to another is seen in His statement, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40). I can understand His words when I recall that when someone does something for my children, I appreciate it as though they did it for me. But Christ says this about all who are hungry, thirsty, in a strange place, without clothes, sick, or in prison. “Express your love for Me by feeding and caring for these.”

Our good deeds done as acts of worship please God. He who is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart will accept our expressions of love.