Having a Prayer

Recently I stopped by a local church in our area. Being new to this metropolitan area, I felt it good to meet some of the local ministers. We began with the usual greetings and searchings. In the midst of the conversation we found that we were pretty much on the same page in many respects. The churches we serve in are not of great size, but we are both concerned with reaching our perspective areas.

We shared some of the challenges we had faced in our respective ministries and how the Lord had used those times to refine and challenge our ministries for growth or to reveal areas of true need.

As we were closing our time, I heard one comment he made to me that sort of stopped me in my tracks. "I find that our people get turned off when I say we are going to have a 'prayer meeting.' They will not come if we say we are going to have a 'Prayer meeting.'" Christian people bored, scared, or unconcerned about prayer? Could it be possible? I am not sure if he realized the declaration of his statement. I know it seemed to be a moment of honesty and it did seem to bother him.

I took that thought to our people here. I shared that statement in a very similar generic way without names, but shared the concern it welled up within my heart. Here we are saying that we are concerned about reaching people and yet we grow stagnant in our prayers. We come to God with our "grocery list" style of prayer. "Lord I need to move quickly and get through this list today." "I don't have time to stay long, you know, got this list to accomplish and need to just get what I need from you."

I wonder if God just sits back and frowns. I wonder if HE just slumps HIS shoulders at our lack of enthusiasm to speak with HIM? I really imagine HE grows disappointed with our lack of dependence, our lack of urgency, our lack of humility.

I challenged our people, few though we may be, "Let us pray with all dependence!" We need God to do what only God can do. We need to know His heart and the only way we will know that is to be in His Word and communicating with Him in prayer. The only way we will reach this vast, liberal city is to see a working of God's Spirit.

I think it comes from an Ephesians 3:19 relationship, "filled up to all the fullness of God." As we come with that overflowing cup, then we find that HE is ABLE to DO! To do what? ABUNDANTLY BEYOND ALL that we could even begin to ask for or to even imagine HIM willing, nevertheless capable of doing.

Then the glory is HIS, the Person of our Glorious Christ, our wonderful Savior, is evident and seen. We no longer see us, but only HIM.



Get a handle on Prayer. We have a prayer. But do we come ready for the answer He has for us? Are we open to hear HIS plan, HIS Purpose? Throw out the "list mentality," get rid of your expectations and increase your faith to see what only faith can see, to hope in what God has already pre-determined.

Open the doors,CHURCH! Pray!

Fathers of Integrity

This Sunday is Father's Day and as I am one it sure makes me feel very inadequate. The importance of faithfulness and integrity come to mind as I think of Father' Day this year. My father is and has always been a true man. He taught me to be tough and to stand for myself. He showed me integrity of speech and that honesty is a precious commodity not to be squandered. Ken Love is a man of compassion and a big heart. He is not perfect and would readily admit that, but he always wanted me to know that I was loved, and he had no problem showing it and telling me as much.

My dad has served God for over 50 years now and is still very active in a ministry now outside the U.S. My mother and father are examples of faithfulness in marriage and in service to our great God. I pray that I will be able to say that and that my children will be able to express that about me when they are well gone and on their own. Integrity! A word that expresses my determination to do what I said I would. To keep my word and fulfill my promises.

I like how Tommy Nelson put it, "Reputation is who people think you are, but integrity is who you really are." As I preach, as I father our children, as I minister to my wife and those who come into my life, I pray it is accomplished through integrity. I pray that my heart will be able to stand in honesty before God and those around me and say, "I have done it to the best of my ability, done it according to God's Word, and done it to please and honor HIM and not necessarily you."

I want to live a life of integrity so that my life's legacy is God's glory. I hope my sons will grow up to become better fathers than I have ever been. I hope they will walk lives of honesty and deal with life as God would guide them. But where will they learn that if not through me? Who will teach them if I don't? Praise God for a dad who taught me to trust in our great God. Thank God for a father who demonstrated the ability I could have to trust in my Heavenly FATHER.

As a minister of the Gospel, I was challenged by a quote attributed to Clarence McCartney, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is quoted as saying, "The better the man, the better the preacher. When he kneels by the bed of the dying or when he mounts the pulpit stairs, every self denial he has made, every Christian forbearance he has shown, every resistance to sin and temptation will come back to strengthen his arm and give conviction to his voice. Likewise, every evasion of duty, indulgence of self, every compromise with evil, and every unworthy thought, work, or deed will be there at the head of the pulpit stairs to meet the minister on Sunday morning to take the light from his eyes and the power from his blow and the ring from his voice and the joy from his heart."


If sin has you in a stranglehold, you need to confess it and repent from it and then put your heart's attention back onto the mighty arm of God. Be in God's Word, spend time in prayer, and learn of Him. May we be fathers of integrity. May we be men of honesty and faithfulness to our sons and our daughters. May God fill our hearts with a hunger and a thirst that only His Spirit can fill and satisfy. May we then pass that on to the next generations!