Seeking God

WHY is it so hard to continually seek God?

What is it about me that prefers the dull anasthetic of television or computer games to the exhilaration of sitting down with my husband and talking to our spiritual Father?

It does feel good to offload stuff at God's feet, then sit on his lap and soak up his love. So WHY is it so hard for me to get around to actually doing it?

As I type this, the book of Genesis comes to mind. I guess God is trying to tell me that this is in no way a new, unique problem. Adam and Eve realised they were naked, and hid from God. Is it shame that keeps me away from my Father - knowing that I've stuffed up, and he knows it? Is it the knowledge that I'm naked before him, and a desire to cover myself up, and stay clear for a while? Sounds like a kitten trying to cover up on lino, doesn't it?

Something I read in another Salvationist blog got me thinking about seeking God in his 'dwelling place'. It must have been an indirect prod down a rambling thought process, because going back I can't work out what I read, let alone who wrote it. Apologies to whoever sent me thinking down that path, I would've loved to acknowledge it!

Anyway, I looked up 'dwelling place' on BibleGateway and came up with this:

from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth-
he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.
Psalm 33:14-15

I was thinking along those lines and pondering the idea that God's dwelling place is in our hearts. So in one sense, when we seek out God, we look inside ourselves. I guess it makes sense, at that point, to talk to God about how he's finding his quarters, and what he thinks of the latest renovations. How about the view out the window? As he sees the world pass by my heart, does he see good scenes or bad? Is he seeing the sick healed, or the poor helped? Is he seeing my husband torn down and left in rubble, or built up and encouraged?

Hmmmm.

My Vision

I've said before that I sometimes have a hard time working out if something is God talking to me, or my own personal desire (pride, etc). Generally I work it out based on these points:

• Is it something I really want to do? (if the answer's no, it's probably God talking)
• Is it biblical?

A couple of years ago, I had a 'vision' which God seems to be reminding me about recently - a lot. It wasn't a bonafide vision, unless you count pondering on an idea until I can see it in my mind's eye, a vision! I felt a prod to tell the prayer group about it last week, and I was encouraged by their responses - it seems to fit in with what God's showing to the others.

So, the 'vision'. It's fairly simple, really... a prayer tent at the markets in the suburb where we hold our prayer meeting. Somewhere that people can come in, sit down, maybe have a cuppa, talk to someone and receive prayer. Now that I write it down, it seems incredibly simple. I've got a couple of reasons for thinking that it's God-inspired:

• I'm not inclined to come up with simple ideas. Mine are generally complex and highly decorated!
• It's hung around in my head and our church for 2 years now. I have a short attention span.
  

I think it could be a great way to meet people in the neighbourhood and get them talking to our Dad. It's not intrusive, but it's very direct at the same time. Hmmmm.

It occurs to me to wonder why I'm putting it up on the web. Well, 'I felt God telling me to' is fairly accurate, BUT I'm always wary of making factual statements about what God wants - unless it's clearly biblical. So, the other answer is, 'I want to see what happens'.

If you pray about this and think God's saying we should go for it, I want to hear about it! If you read this blog entry and think God's telling you to implement it in your own community, I'd love to hear about that, too. And if God's saying to you right now, 'that's her own pride talking!' ... please, please tell me about it.

Prayer Day Update

Our Prayer Day is finished!

Well, in one sense, anyway. I suspect the reverberations will be felt for a long time. I certainly hope so!

What happened? Well, people prayed, and they listened out for whatever God might have to say to them. The messages we got seemed to fall into three basic themes:

• Pray, listen and obey
• Fix your eyes on the spiritual reality
• Care for the 'huddled masses' (and no, it wasn't me who brought that one)
  

It's eerie and exciting to feel God moving in such an obvious - to me - way in our church. It's humbling to realise that God wants to use me and people I know to do mighty things.

So what exactly do I think God is planning to do? Well, here's the clues I've gathered so far. I bet they're no surprise to regular readers of this blog.

First, he's prodding everyone to pray. At least half of our church is praying a lot more than they were when they joined the church. I'm a good example. Even though I hopped on the bandwagon late (this prayer 'movement' has been building for years), I'm noticing a definite intensity happening lately, and not just for me.

Second, he seems to be moving us toward the old, primary mission of the Salvation Army... to reach out to the poor, the brokenhearted, the unmentionables and invisible of this world. To go where 'good christians' never tread. Our prayer group (the inter-corps one that meets in the 'dodgy' inner city area) met in a pub last week, and we were smiling about the feeling of unfamiliarity that came from 'good Salvationists' meeting in a pub. Would William Booth be tearing his hair out at the thought?

PS. Is 'inter-corps' a word?

The Blogspot Yoyo

Is it just me, or is BlogSpot a bit up and down lately? Is this a regular occurrence?

PRAYER DAY!!!

Our corps is holding our Prayer Day this Sunday. It's along the lines of 24/7 Prayer, with a roster for continual prayer across the corps, but with some modifications. Because we're a small corps with no building of our own, it's a 'wherever you happen to be' 6 hours of prayer, rather than the traditional weekend or week (or year, for the extremists!). But so that we're open to the possibility of God working 'prayer room style', my husband and I have opened our lounge (and kitchen, by default) to the Prayer Day... anyone who wants, can come over to our place and pray. I felt as though it was important to have a 'centre' of prayer... maybe I've just been reading Red Moon Rising too much, maybe God was actually prompting me. Sometimes I have trouble telling apart my weird ideas and God's fantastic ones.

I'm really excited about this Prayer Day. As I've shared before (I think), I never was one to get particularly enthused about prayer. But at prayer group tonight (in the dodgy area of town, with some SA people who work in the youth services and the drug rehab centre), it occurred to me that prayer group always provides ME with more focus and perspective on life - and relaxes the tension and depression that threatens to take me over, at times. I am addicted to this prayer group already, after a measly three weeks. Love it. And the Prayer Day is like that too - I have high expectations of what God's going to do. Note, I have very little idea what God is going to do... I just know that if people open their hearts to him, he transforms those hearts... and often in amazing ways!

So... any ideas of things we can do to make the temporary Prayer Room more conducive to prayer? We have coloured sheets of paper and sparkly pens... hmmm it doesn't sound very impressive, does it? I was thinking of printing out some news items so that people could pray over them... maybe some news photos too? And I'm thinking that emailing around church and friends/family for prayer requests, and putting them up on the wall might be good too. ALL ideas will be considered!

I hope people decide to come over here to fill their prayer slot. I would love to see people over here praying in our lounge room. Maybe it can be more than just a temporary Prayer Room.

Abba, may your will be done this weekend. I can't wait to see what you have in store for us!

Strangely enough, considering how blown away I was when I read it, a theological-ish issue seems rather anti-climactic after that discussion! But I have to mention that Stephen Court over at Army Barmy Blog has written a breathtaking summary of a talk by Major Richard Munn at the War College - I would've loved to be there for the whole talk!

Revival Starts with Personal Renewal

I'm frequently tempted to get on my hobbyhorse and expound on the flaws in the Salvation Army. In writing, I usually manage to restrain myself before pressing the Send or Publish buttons. But face-to-face, sometimes I do stuff up. Sigh.

Anyway, God's always slapping me upside the head with one simple truth - big revival starts with deep, internal renewal. If I want the Salvation Army revved up and relevant (hehe - loaded word, that!), then I need to be revved up and relevant. How do I do that? By letting God deeper and deeper into my heart and life. By responding to his prod when I'm about to walk past someone very unattractive. By opening my eyes to his view of the people and events around me. And maybe, by opening my life and home to his people... the ones in the gutter of society.

Yet Another Prayer Request

I have another prayer request. I feel as though I'm taking more than I'm giving with this blog! But maybe that's life, eh? Sometimes you take, sometimes you give.

So, the prayer request has two parts, and each requires some explanation:

Part 1

My major battle in life, and in ministry to others, is depression. I feel as though I'm often rendered useless to God during a 'bad patch' when getting out of the house is a struggle, let alone expending energy for others. But like Paul's 'thorn in the flesh', God can do amazing things with our weakness. Note: I have no idea how God can work through my depression and weakness to display his strength. While it makes a certain amount of sense in the abstract, when I try to apply it to my own life, I come up blank. Nevertheless, I know he has somehow managed to do so... people have come up to me to thank me for sharing re: depression during worship, or to talk to me about their own experience. I still don't see how that is God's strength being seen through me, if it is. Does anyone have any insight? I don't need soothing or platitudes - but some good robust light shone onto the issue might be illuminating! So, my first point in this prayer request is a desire for God to do what he wants with me - to heal me, or to work through my weakness with his strength. However he might do that, as long as he lets me know what to do and where to go, even if I don't understand how he's working. That's OK - I can cope without specific insight, as long as I have guidance from the one I trust.

Part 2

My next prayer point is my job. The one I get paid for. Recently, I've begun to hate my job. It's not that it's a bad job. The boss is OK. My colleagues are grouchy at times, but nice. My work conditions are fair. My problem is that I feel deeply restless and unsatisfied. It's a sort of 'is this all?' feeling. I don't feel as though I'm doing any good for the world by being here. Now there are two main possibilities I can see in this situation. The first - that I'm pride-filled and under the impression that I should be out saving the world. The second - that God does want me out of here and is preparing me by sowing seeds of 'discontent with the status quo' into my heart. Each of these possibilities seem quite plausible to me! So the second part of my prayer request is that God would show me the next step to take, and give me peace.

PS. If anyone wants to offer me a job, I'm more than happy to consider it!

Soldiers Have Two Uniforms!

This is a topic that I've been pondering, on and off, almost as long as I've been a soldier in the Salvation Army. It holds a deep symbolism for me, one that resonates with the original purpose of the SA's 'military style' uniform.

You see, military soldiers tend to have two basic uniforms. They have their dress uniform, which is worn at parades, graduations, other formal events. It's not famed for its comfort or wearability - in fact it can sometimes be anything but. It's designed for show, not for combat, and it's required to be clean, neat and ironed at all times.

Then they have their 'combat' uniform. This is what they wear when they're doing the REAL soldier stuff - under fire, crawling through the mud, trying to win a war. They don't have to worry about keeping it clean and neat and unwrinkled - it's not designed to look pretty. If it keeps them comfortable and warm (or cool), it's doing its job.

Our salvation experience can become like a dress uniform. It's always neat and ironed, and never allowed to come into contact with filth. 'Holiness', in dress-uniform salvation, is an avoidance of all that is defiled and contaminating. This has been understood for millenia, since long before Jesus' day.

Jesus' holiness was more like combat fatigues, though. Reading the gospels, he doesn't come across as the tidiest person, does he? Sometimes he seems positively disorganised. He deliberately dived into the muck and depravity of life outside the religion. And he had many a strong word for the 'dress uniform' holy people, the Pharisees.

Is my christian experience like a dress uniform - sparkly white and clean, crisply ironed, not a bit awry? Or is it more like a combat uniform - worn, faded and dirty from time on my knees in the trenches?

I have to admit, I love the spiritual symbolism of combat fatigues. One of these days I'm going to find a cheap pair of army fatigue pants, sew SA shields on them and a fatigue-green jacket of mine, and wear them out on the streets. May I always be battle-ready!

Question Time!

I've worked out that there are at least a couple of people visiting this blog regularly. So... what I'm wondering is, are you curious about anything I haven't revealed? Are there any questions you'd like to ask me?

If so, either leave a comment, or use the link at the side to email me. I'll devote a post later in the week to answering questions, if I get any.

Update on 'radical' church service

Hubby and I are just back from church. It seemed to go very well, people joined in enthusiastically in reading out Psalms and writing down prayer requests. Not everyone prayed out loud (do you think God still heard?), and I'm not sure how many people will comply with the request to put the prayer request they drew onto the fridge and pray whenever they open said fridge... but I think God got some work done, so that's great!

Thanks to the people who prayed. It helped.

In particular, thanks Chris for the encouraging comment - it really helped this morning when I was wondering what on earth I'd gotten myself into.

Prayer as Worship

Guys and gals, it would be fantastic if you could offer up a prayer or two for me, and for my church.

I'm rostered on as worship leader tomorrow, and I've felt very strongly that we should have a big emphasis on prayer during the service - to the detriment of the musical praise session.

(Note: We're 'replacing' the songs with spoken Psalms)

I'm feeling a bit iffy (but with a certain 'this is what we should do' feeling regardless), and hubby's a bit unsure but supportive as well. I'm not a 'shake things up for the heck of it' type in church, and I never did like the long prayer time in church as a kid. Not to mention, I love the singing. So here's me, and that's my comfort zone way over there! ----->

So... I guess what I want you guys to pray for is that God will work through this and touch some hearts. Mine too, I don't want to get into the 'worship leader is perfect' mindset.

Confession Time

Friends... I have a confession to make.

I'm not a real Salvationist.

I am a Soldier. I am whole-hearted in my enthusiasm for God and for the mission of the Salvation Army.

BUT.

Every now and then, in the midst of fellowship at a church I love, someone will say something that comes from being 4th-generation Salvationist and all of a sudden I plummet from 'a valued church member' to 'rank outsider'. I have great difficulty keeping in step (especially with that syncopated clapping). I don't have that instinctive understanding of 'how the Army works' that everyone else seems to. Every now and then I run up, full tilt, against some fact of Army life that I wasn't aware of - and everyone is surprised at my ignorance.

Let me point out that this picture doesn't really reflect reality. I'm a proud Sally and I'm in no way a rank outsider at church. My church loves its members wholeheartedly. But every now and then... oh my... it's like being in a foreign country and realising you've forgotten how to speak the language.

The Prayer Thing Got Bigger

So I keep promising to continue my story, and then wandering off on tangents...

I left off in the Update on me entry on Monday night, dreaming about people praying/prophesying/testifying. But I forgot to add that I called my mentor (someone I've been neglecting horribly for the last few months) that night and updated her on what was happening.

The rest of the week I felt almost reborn... or as though I'd taken off really dark sunglasses. Life felt incredibly better. I went along to bible study on Wednesday night (usually I didn't have the energy after work) and shared a bit there. Somehow, I found myself talking about prayer most of the week - and reading that addictive book!

I called the local youth shelter and asked if they ran any prayer programs. That place, and the inner-city area it's in, has always been on my heart, so it felt natural to start there. Lo and behold, they did - and one of the people involved goes to my church. So I called her up, asked to come along, and on Thursday night went along and joined in a prayer walk around the area. Weirdly enough (for my experience), my big problem with the prayer time was that it wasn't long enough!

On Saturday morning, I went along to my first church Prayer Breakfast. It was good, but it seemed to be lacking something. Intensity? Length? Maybe both. I'm sure I talked about Red Moon Rising - and prayer in general - at the breakfast, too.

On Sunday I went to church... and our ministry leader told us that we'd be having a Prayer Day (similar concept to 24/7 prayer). I don't know if my jaw dropped physically, but mentally I fell off my chair. God hadn't only been speaking to me about prayer and 24/7 prayer, but church's leadership team (at least) too. Wow. No matter how often I see God weave these things together, I still get surprised and amazed by his artistry and precision.

I want to be part of his weaving, not a loose thread.

Hiding the Wounds?

I got home tonight and saw this in my email inbox (courtesy of Bruderhof Daily Dig):

How strange that we should ordinarily feel compelled to hide our wounds when we are all wounded! Community requires the ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures. It also requires the ability to be affected by the wounds of others... But even more important is the love that arises among us when we share, both ways, our woundedness.
M. Scott Peck

This struck a chord for a couple of reasons:

• I have a hard time being vulnerable with people. I don't like knowing that someone could hurt me very badly with a few accidental words - not to mention what they could do with a deliberate attack. Ironically, most people at my church might tell you the exact opposite about me - that I'm willing to be open regarding my struggles. Well, true... if I'm doing fairly well in the struggle. Sigh.

• I was touched when someone from church opened up to me tonight. She let me see into a bit of the person behind the persona - and I was almost shocked to discover that I have a lot more in common with this Salvo pinup girl than I'd ever imagined.

I think maybe God's encouraging me to open up more!

(Come on... tell me, "well DUH!")

Salvation Army grid::blog

Although I was highly tempted to see if Gordon could be left looking like a 'Billy no mates' (what a strange phrase!) ... I decided to hop on the bandwagon in the interests of Salvationist networking and see what happens.

See Gordon's Salvation Army grid::blog entry for an explanation.

Prayer Request

I could do with some prayer today, folks. I struggle with depression every now and then, and right now I'm feeling a very familiar pull back into the 'quagmire of despair'. After two weeks outta there, I'm not keen to go back. Please pray that God will give me the strength to keep going, no matter what my mood.

Thanks in advance!

PS: Please Feel Free to Comment!

Thanks to the visitors who've wandered in and left comments. If you stumble on this blog and read any of it, I'd love for you to leave a comment too. Partly because I'm new to the whole blogging experience and feedback would be fantastic. Partly because I'm interested in YOU. Oooh, that sounds stalker-ish. Don't worry, I'm not a stalker. I don't have the commitment required.

Edited to add: If you're a Salvationist and have your own blog, I'd like to visit it!

Update on me

I wandered down a bit of a garden path over the last few days and forgot to continue the story I started telling in the What's the Point? entry. Be warned - this is me all over. If you're after structure and carefully-planned writing, this blog probably just isn't for you.

So.. I finished that entry talking about Red Moon Rising, and mentioned rather mysteriously that it 'started the process'. If we were face-to-face, I wouldn't blame you for having slapped me by now.

'The process' was, basically, a growing realisation of the huge importance prayer plays in the life of a christian. I don't understand why. I never have, maybe I never will, but nevertheless it's important. I DO know that prayer can help us open ourselves up and invite God into the yucky bits of our psyche and soul. Maybe those are the bits of us that determine most of our actions, and maybe that's why, when God's there doing his healing work, He seems to be more-than-usually capable of channeling His power through our lives.

Anyway, I'm going to try giving you some sort of timeline for this stuff.

Saturday morning: Bought a couple of books about prayer. Heard Geoff Ryan speak at Unlimited. OW. To summarise, what hit me hardest was the idea that we were in a hall getting all excited about God, when very few of the people that God called us to help were anywhere nearby.

Saturday afternoon: Heard a speaker from Nigeria speaking about church revival. The requirement of personal refreshment and revival (from God) hit me.

Saturday night: Someone prayed for healing for me. I don't know what happened physically, but God released me from a HUGE load of guilt I never realised I was lugging around.

Sunday: Went to Unlimited again. Received what I think was a word from God, for me and for the church. We all prayed for our church leader and for the church, and I shared, as prayer, the words I felt God had given me. I'll try to write them down sometime.

Sunday afternoon: Went to church, volunteered to lead prayer (usually planned during the week by whoever is rostered) on the spur of the moment. Since we were a small group that day (most people off at Unlimited, still), we sat in a circle and held hands to pray.

Sunday night: Dreamt non-stop, all night it seemed, of people praying and prophesying and testifying. I'd wake up every now and then, so it was definitely a LONG series of dreams. Wow.

Monday lunchtime: Read more of Red Moon Rising. Was amazed and inspired, and asked God to show me how to get involved, and how to get our church involved. Less than a minute later, I fell down a stair (yes, just one) and sprained my ankle. First sprain ever. I wound up in Emergency at the nearest public hospital, and spent a few hours waiting, praying and talking to people. I'm certain that sprained ankle was an answer to prayer, I just haven't figured out HOW, yet. Ow, by the way.

Monday night: Dreamt, again, of people praying, prophesying and testifying. I think it was only for half the night this time. I find myself longing for those dreams to come back. They were awe-inspiring, amazing... such an incredible feeling. But maybe God wants me working towards seeing those dreams come true.

This isn't the end of the story, or even the end of the history. But I'll continue another day.

Every Soldier a Missionary

I'm sure this 2-posts-per-day thing is going to settle down when the novelty wears off, but in the meantime I thought I'd slide in a link to an article I've just started reading. For any Salvationists reading - this should be doubly applicable!

Dispatch 1 from Project 614

I've got to admit, sometimes I feel pretty lonely. I'm a 'get up and act' type person... I'm not too big on planning (especially long-term) and while I can accept the need, I get very antsy when I feel a call from God to do something. I want to be doing it RIGHT NOW, RIGHT HERE. I'm married to someone who's naturally keen on planning and security, which I think is a good thing. But sometimes it feels lonesome when I'm on fire, have a vision in my head and want to GO! ... and everyone around me is pondering whether it's possible, and what steps we might need to put in place in order to make it happen, and whether we'd have enough people... ARGH!

Let me point out, I think both types of people are needed and valuable. It just gets frustrating when I want to be forging ahead at a million miles an hour. What do you want to bet, that comment will come back to bite me someday? I'll be asking God to slow down the thrill ride, and he'll remind me I was aching to go faster.

A Suitable Gift?

Here's something I wrote in a 24/7 prayer room a couple of years ago. It's rather rough, I'm not including it because I think it's a masterpiece, but because God spoke to me and a couple of other people through it, and maybe other people could get something from it too.

I looked at Jesus' sacrifice for me on the cross. Not just his physical death, but the bearing of every single one of my sins.

I wanted to give him a gift.

I looked all around me. Everything seemed dull and broken and worn. I searched through my cupboards and scoured my shelves, seeking a treasure worthy of a king. I found nothing. Nothing at all that the king of the world could ever want or need.

I sighed. What could I do?

I decided to do the only thing I could do. I would go, without a gift, and thank him.

I came into the meeting-room of the ultimate king. He greeted me with a kiss, and asked, with a sparkle in his eye, what I had behind my back.

I KNEW he was expecting a gift.

I hung my head, and with tears overflowing, showed him my empty hands.

'I wanted to give you something special, something beautiful! But when I looked around, I didn't have anything. I'm sorry, I wanted -'

'Oh child!' He said, a smile on his face and tears running down his cheeks, 'your gift is beautiful! Don't you see? You've brought me a wonderful gift - your open hands, ready and willing to do my work. These hands are beautiful to me, because I crafted them with special tasks in mind - tasks only you can do!'

He held my hands in his own bleeding ones, and blessed them - to do his work in His world.

Broken-hearted

So what's with the 'the broken-hearted are his' title?

Well, that's a phrase that's been going through my head since Unlimited. I had a suspicion it came from the bible somewhere, but I couldn't think where, or come up with a definite memory of having read it. So tonight I decided to take the obvious step of doing a bible search. I went to biblegateway.com and typed in 'broken'. Here's some of the results I got:

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:18

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Psalm 51:17

May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership... For he never thought of doing a kindness, but hounded to death the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted.
Psalm 109:8,16

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
Psalm 147:3

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations
Isaiah 61:1-4

My heart is broken within me; all my bones tremble. I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD and his holy words.
Jeremiah 23:9

"Therefore groan, son of man! Groan before them with broken heart and bitter grief.
Ezekial 21:6

He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.
Matthew 21:44

Wow... just a few references to the idea that to have a 'broken heart' is seen as a desirable thing by God. Why? I think it gives him the best possible chance to heal us when we acknowledge our brokenness, instead of trying to 'keep it together' by ourselves. I don't think it's a bad thing to be 'broken to pieces'.

What's the point?

So, why have I started blogging, and what have I got to say?

Well, let's start at a conference a couple of weeks back, called Unlimited. I'd been going through a 'swamp' period in my life... you know where everything looks flat and dull, and every step takes so much energy you feel like resting for a couple of hours after each one? Well, I was wanting to get out of that experience, so I decided to make an all-out effort and get along to Unlimited. I knew that if God had something he'd been trying to get through to me, he'd probably manage to hammer it home there.

OUCH. Was I right.

I was beaten, pulped and minced (well, that's how it felt). On the bright side, I came out of the conference feeling a lot lighter - much guilt and many things I'd been hanging onto got left in God's hands where they had belonged all the time.

God (obviously) knows my fascination with bargain books. Every now and then, it seems he deliberately places a book he wants me to read into a bargain bin, knowing I'll be unable to resist buying and reading it. This weekend was no different. As soon as I browsed the book stall, I saw two books about prayer, and felt drawn to them. Since our bible study group is studying Prayer at the moment, I decided they'd make good resources and hence would be good buys. So I bought them both.

Wow.

One of the books was titled Red Moon Rising (Pete Greig and Dave Roberts). It's an incredibly powerful book about the beginning and growth of the 24/7 prayer movement. Full of visions, prophecies and people getting on their knees (metaphorically) and giving it all to God. ALL.

And that's what started the process... that's why I've got something to say. More to come when I get a chance to write again.

So... first post

So, hi... welcome to the first of what will hopefully be a long line of blog entries. I've never done this before, because frankly, I didn't think I had anything of interest to say. But life is changing, God is turning life in a new direction, and I think that now, maybe, I'll have something to say regularly enough to bother blogging.