Urbana 2009

Greetings from St. Louis, MO!

In literally just a few hours, nearly 18,000 individuals, students and staff, will be making their way out to St. Louis for URBANA 2009! For many of them, this will be one of the most influential experiences of their lives, as some of them gain bigger vision for missions locally or abroad, others gain deeper passion for the fields that God has called each of them into here, some will realize a calling into full-time or occupation missions, and ALL of them will hopefully have a life-changing encounter with the Holy Spirit!

Would you join me in praying for Urbana!? Specifically, you can:

• Pray for protection over the delegates attending Urbana
• Pray for life-transforming encounters with the Holy Spirit
  
• Pray for rest/health/balance (Urbana can be like drinking from a fire-hydrant!)
• Pray for safe travels (train, plane, bus, automobile, here and back again!)
• Pray for openness to receive whatever God longs to speak…
• Pray that the experience here would be multiplied 100 fold when we return to campus! That we would return with renewed vision for the campus!

If you’re interested in following along (speakers, content, etc) with what’s going on at Urbana, you can visit the following link: Urbana 2009. :)

tis the season

repentance comes before revival.

So tonight, I walked into a prayer meeting that I thought began at 6pm.

Walking into the only occupied room in the building, I was shocked to see nearly 200 people sitting in folding chairs, all attentively focused on the person in the front of the room. The energy in the room was electric, even though everyone was sitting down... One man was bluntly, directly, and specifically sharing about his sins, failures, and ways that he had hurt others, from the front of the room. When he finished sharing, the entire room burst into applause. And then the next person stood up to confess... and the next... and the next... and each one began with:

Hello, my name is ____ and I'm an alcoholic.

The actual prayer meeting started at 7pm. It was attended by less than half that number. Confession was private and about 5 minutes long. And the energy picked up at the end, when we began to pray for transformation and revival in the church...

It wasn't a bad prayer meeting by any stretch of imagination... in fact, I've been in many that were far worse... and the people there legitimately love the church, grieve their own sin, and have a heart for those outside of the church... please don't get me wrong...

but I wonder... what would happen if our prayer meetings were a little bit more like AA meetings? what if we were actually confessing our specific personal and corporate sins and struggles, rather than vague and general sins that we all kind of struggle with but no one is willing to own? What if we applauded when sin was confessed, rather than just sat in awkward silence? What if we actually walked alongside one another rather than just talked about it?

• Maybe we would actually understand that the gospel is good news...
• Maybe we would really repent together and really get grace together...
• Maybe the hypocrisy of the church wouldn't run quite so deep...
  
• Maybe we would actually have deep community...
• Maybe our prayer meetings would be more full of life and heart-felt prayers...

and maybe, just maybe we would actually see the revival that we all long for, happen...

Repentance comes before revival.

That isn't just a vague nicety...

Charlie Brown, 1.

I was in CVS the other morning and the lady behind the check-out counter was bitterly and legitimately complaining that Barack Obama's address earlier in the week had disrupted her planned television schedule for the night. She was quite irate and very deeply upset about this fact.

The program that she had missed? A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Her comment about Obama?

"Who does he think he is? The president or something? Someone who has something more important to share than Charlie Brown does?"

I might have laughed a little bit on the inside.

Score 1 for Charlie Brown.

the word became flesh.

the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. we have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. [john 1:14]



the Word.
became flesh.

God. the one who spoke all things into existence. who was before time. exists outside of time. took on human flesh. allowed himself to be bound by time and space. limited by human constraints and boundaries.

ridiculous.

and not just a few minutes to "see what it felt like." this was a 30+ year commitment of love to humanity. entering in. making his dwelling among us. not a social experiment. but moving into the neighborhood. love demonstrated in deepest fashion.

the Word.
became flesh.
and dwelt among us.

Holy Holy Holy.

Emmanuel: God with us

As we begin the advent season, take the time to actually read these lyrics and let this be your prayer today. O come, O come, Emmanuel, today.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, Thou Lord of Might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times didst give the law,
In cloud, and majesty, and awe.
Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave.
Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
And order all things, far and nigh;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And cause us in her ways to go.
Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of peace.
Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

[O Come, O Come Emmanuel]
[author composer unknown, translated by John Neale 1851]