Prayer for EDGE class 2011

Prayer Requests for EDGE Class 2011
- We would cast off all weights and sin that hinder us and faithfully serve those which God has given us to shepherd
- Be a joy for our campus directors to lead
- Teachability
- Call those we are leading to something more in Christ and be willing to say difficult things in spite of fear
- Own our identity as a servant
- Abide daily in Christ and His word
- Unity and encouragement from one another, constantly pointing each other to Christ
- Rejoice in our sufferings, fully entrusting ourselves to God
- That we would have a blast performing the task which God has allowed us to perform and provided for

Attempting to be a man of consistency

My desire is to not be a slave of my circumstances, to constantly rejoice in the Lord. To be constantly submitting my life to Him.

I was going through Psalm 84 this morning  It was these two verses which struck me the most.

Psalm 84:6-7
"As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion."


These verses are in reference to those who dwell in the House of the Lord.


What does it mean to dwell in the house of the Lord?
Expository response
- Those who do are not in the tents of wickedness, Therefore an avoidance of sin is key.
- Heart for God, what do you care about?


My personal thoughts
- Prayer
- An obvious belief and recognition that you are insufficient and must rely upon God
- Confession of sin
- You are not in control, you can not create the feeling of being in the presence of the Lord


On a complete side note I heard recently a sweet definition of character.
- Having the ability to follow through on a decision after the emotions for that decision have worn off.

I am finding this most applicable when it comes to spreading the Gospel. The Great Commission is not based upon your emotions and whether you feel like doing it. It is based upon your new nature in Christ, upon the power of the Lord who has given you every tool you need. We are deficient, He is not. A helpful verse in this has been Colossians   1:28,29. Out of His energy. We are all called to reproduce in kind. I want to be a man who is being used by God to lead others to Christ on a regular basis. I have recently started praying on a regular basis to be given opportunities daily to share the Gospel. We shall see what happens. I pray that I can be a man of character, that you too can be a man or woman of character.

Pray For da men

God has opened up some sweet doors on the U of A campus this fall. He has given us one, I believe to be faithful, Freshmen believer as well as blossoming friendships with his hall mates.

Please pray for this Freshman to be an anchor for Christ in the hall and for his hall mates.
Please pray that we would have some sort of regular Bible discussion by November.
Please pray for me to be faithful in this opportunity.

Back in Tucson, looking backward and forward (like a chameleon!)

How do sum up 9 of the most gloriously intense weeks of your life? By leaving stuff out!

The main subjects which I believe God worked into me in a deeper manner this summer:

- Entrusting the development of the men which God has called me to pour into to God.

- I cannot even change my own heart, how could I expect to change the hearts of other men?!

- Desire for constant prayer, prayer in general, praying for big things.

- This was developed through my own weakness (as a leader, friend, co-worker, etc.) which revealed my obvious need to be constantly praying. Also being influenced by a book which talked about how Dawson Trotmen, started navs in the 40’s, would just pray for 2 hrs with other men every morning for God to do work. Through that and other areas of faithfulness that one man had a drastic affect on the world. I desire to be used by God in just as large ways.

- Desire for daily scripture memory and review

- Having your mind constantly focused on the word greatly affects your outlook on life and your heart in a positive manner. It places your eyes on Christ and not other things.

- Evangelism

- More of just being open and real with those who don’t know Christ, instead of boxing off that portion of your life. It is a very simple, easy, non-weird way to share Christ with others. This has to be combined with prayer of course.

The team at the end:

          I believe things ended well with them. Bart ended up leaving 2 days early, because it was quite difficult for him to see his ex daily. This was a bummer, but he stuck around for the last Bible study which I know the team and I appreciated. He continues to struggle but is honestly pursuing the Lord and sharing himself, via email, with the rest of the team.

          I realized at the end that they had grabbed hold of my heart. For some ridiculous reason I did not believe that they would I miss them and I am excited to see what God does in their lives. I would love to see the things that became a regular practice during the program integrated into their lives. It seems like this is happening, but time will tell. My prayer for them and myself is that that what was learned will truly affect the way we see our world from now on.

          In regard to the “conflict” at the end, it was not as big of a deal as I thought it was. God worked out a way for it to be taken care of in a non in your face kind of way, which was sweet. I believe the right decisions were made. (Could I be anymore vague!?)

If you want more info please feel free to contact me. 

The end is always the hardest and yet it is the sweetest

Bueno!

We have entered the last 2 weeks and the proverbial dog poop has hit the proverbial fan. Lets pause a second and rejoice together ........................................................ WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Need I reference all the verses referencing our call to rejoice in our suffering?! Need I reference all the verses speaking to our future glory in Christ which will cause any struggle here to seem insignificant?! Praise God! Have you not seen? Have you not heard He is the Lord God almighty! The Alpha and Omega whom has created all things! I digress.

Moral of the story, conflict is rearing its beautiful face in our team! I would be lying if I thought it was beautiful at first. In my weak spirit, I wanted to run, I wanted for these next two weeks to be over, I wanted to go and die and be with my Lord, lying on my back in desperation looking up at my God, pleading with Him to pour His Spirit out upon me that I might serve, love, guide, and lead well. That I may know when to speak and when to be silent. He has answered my prayer! I am still clueless as to what will happen or exactly how I will respond. All I know is that my spirit is refreshed by the Spirit of God and it is His time to act through me, to act strongly with graceful truth. Praise be to Him for I am nothing, merely a tool for His work. May I be laid low and He be lifted up!
- Please pray that the team would be gracefully truthful with one another, leaving this program with a greater ability to deal with conflict and friendships which they will treasure for the years to come. To not look back with disgust for one another because the conflict was handled poorly.

These past few weeks conversation at work was not what it started out to be. There was little to no depth. I would pray before work consistently asking for the Spirit to lead and make deep conversation happen. I am unsure if I was too weak to listen and act, but I know He has acted now. In the Spirit's strength I was able to have a discussion with my lesbian co-worker on homo-sexuality and what she perceived to be the church's response to it. It was a sweet conversation where I believe I was able to speak truth gracefully. It also led to some deeper issues in her life. I believe we both left the conversation with a greater understanding and love for one another. I know I love her more as a result.
- Please pray for her and for God to be opening her eyes to the truth. That only through faith in the saving blood of Christ can one have life, now and after death.

P.S. A Christian guy just started at my Starbucks. He is here intending to plant a church. It is a sweet blessing to see that what God has used me to start or continue in someones heart will be continued after I leave.

A lesson I continue to learn is that I MUST maintain consistent time with the Lord. I went two days without having a quiet time with my Lord and I felt like I would die. It extremely limited my ability to be useful for the King.
- Please pray that I would be able to say no to fun things when they get in the way of me getting time with God

God is a baller! Recognize.

Team Weekend!!!!

Had a sweet time in bible study last night. I love my team and how they pick up where I leave off. I just show up and watch them and God do work. It ended with a sweet run back to the dorm through the rain where I personally was prancing around like a crazy person singing at the top of my lungs "I am singing in the rain! I am singing in  the rain! What a glorious feeling! I am happy again!" This run was awesome and enjoyable because God has blessed us these past few days with 90 degree weather and 50% humidity. When we got back to the dorm everyone else was outside playing in the rain too! So we proceeded to join them, splash around in puddles, use the slip n' slide, etc. One of the funnest evenings I have experienced so far. God is good and brings much joy!

We head out tonight for NYC! Where we will be staying in the worst congressional district for crime in the U.S. Some nav girls from NYU are putting up with us and feeding us.
Basic Sched:
Get T in the dub in Central Park
Group discussion time
Lunch
Broadway show
BBQ

Sunday
Tim Keller's Church
Lunch
Watch World Cup Final
Head home

Prayer
- For this to be a pivotal moment for everyone on the team and propel them with strength for the remaining 3 weeks.

More than halfway

Work
Continues to go well. I continue having discussions on faith with the jdub girl, she referred to herself as a jdub so I feel okay calling her that. Still waiting to see where we differ greatly in views, though we have only talked for about 15min. I have been meaning to get coffee with her.
- Please pray for our interactions
While getting t in the dub at work I was randomly asked to write a story by one of my co-workers for her. I plan on writing a modified judge story for her. ( A judge story is basically any story where the law must be upheld and a penalty paid where someone who is innocent steps in for the person who is guilty. Usually the creator of the law is the one who sacrifices themselves. )
- Please pray that the Spirit would be leading as a write it.
Asked one of my co-workers  to read the bible, he said maybe if he has time. Previously while I was on a break and reading my bible he asked to look at it and we briefly chatted it up about some of his favorite Psalms. I worked with him two years ago and he is a man I deeply love and enjoy. We shall see what the Lord does here.
- Please pray for him to have a desire to study the bible with me and make the time for it.
Been watching the world cup with one of my other co-workers. It has led to some sweet conversations. He seems pretty comfortable around me and we are able to discuss real life things and not just surface things throughout the games.
- Please pray for God to be working on his heart and for the Spirit to be leading my tongue.
As I look back and read this I am amazed what God is doing in such a short time. Once again none of this is me and I have just shown up on the scene, not been weird, shared my life, prayed, and watched God work.
- Please pray for God to be opening the hearts and minds of all those whom I am working with.

Team
Starting to develop a deeper love for all of them, but I still want more. We are starting to get to the point where deeper issues are coming out. Some core issues which have reared their head.
- Please be praying that the men on my team would be pursuing the Lord whole heartedly the remainder of the summer and that He would be doing great work on them in these areas.
I still desire, we desire, for evangelism to be the focus of our faith. My prayer is that all of these men would be become solid men of faith or reproduce other men who produce other men who follow Christ, and so on.
- Please be praying for this to happen.

Program
We are all amazed we only have 4 weeks left. The summer has zoomed by. More of a family feel continues to develop and I feel we are coming out of a brief slump.
Parents weekend just finished up. It was fun to meet some peoples parents. I also had my aunt and uncle come up whom I had not seen for 2 years, so that was a sweet.
We are going to attempt to have two people in the program give their testimony every evening to encourage the family feel all the more.
- Please pray for a continued program wide focus on God and sharing of each others burdens.

Myself
Currently doing well. Time in the word has been good. I have been taking drastic steps to fully eradicate portions of lust from my heart. In these steps and desires to pursue righteousness and present my body to Christ, sin has seized the opportunity to make my lustful passions more intense than they were before. Satan is fighting hard to maintain his stay in a portion of my heart, but I want life! Eternal life! I am a slave to Righteousness! Not sin!
- Please pray that I would rely upon the Lord in this struggle and not try to defeat it out of my own weakness.