There is a market term called “third-place” that refers to social places that are outside of the two most common places of interaction, home and work. I frequent a certain “third-place” location on Monday afternoon. It has provided a great place for me to get work done away from the distractions of the office and has in the past afforded me the opportunity to engage in conversation with people in the community.

In my previous ministry in Gurnee, I would have frequent conversations with Harry or Mark. Since I started this same practice here there had been a lot of work getting done, but no contacts with people.

Yesterday that all changed when I met a man who works for a food distributor. We had both found it easier to get work done away from the office. After introducing ourselves and sharing what we do, he mentioned he does some work out of his house. I told him that since we have had Jadon that working at home was not nearly as easy as before. He told me that when his son got to Middle School he took a lower paying job with less demands so that he could be there when his son would need him the most. My first thought was, “Wow! Someone who has a proper perspective of family.” He asked what church I pastor, and I told him Summitview Christian Church and gave him the time of our service and directions.

A simple encounter. An opportunity to share and invite. It doesn’t take much, but when you ask God for boldness, you have to be ready to obey.

We live in a rather self-sufficient society. We pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We work hard and fight for what is ours. If we want something and don’t have it, we will work until we can achieve it and it is ours. We don’t want to be dependent on anyone or anything. This is fine in some regards, the problem gets to be when we approach God with the same self-sufficiency.

We cannot stand self-sufficient before God. Our righteousness is not good enough, we fall well short of the requirement for salvation. We must rely on the work of Jesus for our righteousness. (BTW- He has enough to go around.)

One way we show our dependence is to pray to God. Unfortunately, most of our prayers come out sounding like, “Hey Dad, Can I have the keys to the car?” Just a list of requests and demands. When we look closer at the way Jesus taught us to pray (Matthew 6:9-13) and the way the Early Church prayed (Acts 4:23-31) we see that their prayers involved far more than just requests.

Acknowledge God- In both prayers, they acknowledge who God is as Father and Sovereign. They also recognize His holiness and His position as Creator. Other prayers throughout the Bible also follow this same pattern. When we begin our prayers acknowledging who God is it gives us a proper perspective on where we stand in position to Him.

Seek God’s will- In Acts we find the practice of praying Scripture. In many of our prayers we ask God to bless our predetermined plans instead of seeking God’s will and asking Him to bless that or make His will come to be in our lives. Father may your will be done on earth just as it is in heaven (which is perfectly).

Present Requests- Only after acknowledging God and seek His will, do they ask anything of God. James says we have not because we ask not and when we ask we do so with the wrong motives. When we acknowledge God and seek His will, it makes many of our requests seem moot.

Divine Deliverance- There are some things only God can do. How often do we pray for God to act in such a way on our behalf? How often do we pray for God to do the supernatural in and through us, ultimately for His glory? Father, lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil. Stretch out your hand to heal the lives of others through us. We want to be your messengers of mercy.

None of this can be done on our own. It can only begin when we acknowledge our dependence on a Holy God, doing what only He can do, and making His will reality through willing disciples desiring to please Him. May God come alive in our prayers as we seek His will.

I think too often we think that once we believe that is enough to make God happy. We have chosen to follow Him. What else could He ask? There seems to be this requirement in Scripture that those who call themselves disciples of Jesus are supposed to share their faith with those around them. Jesus told us to “make disciples”. So if we are to be His disciples we must do what He says and make disciples.

It seems as you look through the book of Acts this is how the church has always grown. Disciples make disciples who make disciples. How does this happen? They share what they have with someone who doesn’t have it yet. Then they get it and two are sharing what they have with others and so on. Just like your kids share their cold with you in the winter time, we should be sharing our faith with family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and teammates all the time.

We don’t just go to work to make widgets and collect a paycheck. We go because we are God’s ambassador to that place and we look for opportunities to share our faith with others. We don’t play sports to win more games, score more points or collect more trophies; we play sports because it puts us around others who need to hear about Jesus.

Are you sharing? With whom? How’s it going? I’d like to know.

Praying for boldness for me, for you, so we can bring God’s missing children home.

I know the first thing my Mom will say when she’s sees this title, “That doesn’t sound like you, Michael.” She’s right. Good thing I am not talking about getting plastered, hammered or wasted.

The Holy Spirit comes down on the Apostles and other believers on Pentecost and it gives them the ability to speak in other languages so those who are in town for the Feast can understand their message.

What is the local response to this? These people are drunk. I love Peter’s response. Essentially he says, “We are not drunk. We are fulfilling Scripture.” He quotes the prophet Joel and goes on to preach such a powerful sermon that 3000 people believe the message that day.

All of this from a group of people who others thought were drunk just moments before.

I want to be part of a church that outsiders think are drunk because we are so outrageous in our obedience to God and His call on us. Our call, make disciples.

God’s call is for everyone, everywhere. Whose responsibility is it to make sure that the message goes out? Yours. Mine.

What’s stopping us from “getting drunk” for God and leading us to do what He has called us to do in the first place, make disciples.

You have my permission, now go do it.

On Sunday night a massive tornado destroyed much of the town where Eskai and I went to college. We were glued to weather.com, Facebook and even listened to the Law Enforcement Scanner to hear information. We were numb at the thought that many of those whom we know and love may have lost their homes and could have lost their lives. Thankfully, as I write this all of our friends and loved ones are safe and accounted for, though some face property damage.

Streets that I drove on back in February on a visit are now littered with debris. A Walgreens that we bought meds for our son is now flattened. A High School I once watched a basketball game at is destroyed.

I feel bad that I didn’t have this same feeling concerning the Alabama tornado. The tornado that went through St. Louis brought some of this feeling, except there were almost no fatalities and all my family was safe. Why is it that the hurts of others can pass right by while our hurts can leave us numb?

Today we mourn with those who mourn. One day we will rejoice with those who rejoice as their lives are returned to normalcy and their lives restored.

Our lives can end in an instant. Let us use the time we have to make disciples of the one who will change us to be like Him.

This is a big weekend at Summitview.

• Friday at 6pm we will be having a Good Friday Service. A time of remembering the sacrifice of Jesus for us. I hope you will join us for this intimate time of worship.

• Sunday at 10:30am will be our Easter Service. We will be continuing in our “Joy’s Anatomy” series looking at Philippians 2:5-11. These powerful verses paint a beautiful picture of Jesus and create an opportunity to celebrate what Easter really means for us.

I hope you will take this time to invite friends, family, neighbors and co-workers who may not be connected to a church or have a relationship with Jesus. We are praying for God to move and for people to experience the joy that only God bring to our lives.

Have you ever had a bad smell coming from your kitchen sink? At first you think it is the disposal, so you run it, but the smell remains. You look around and you find out that it is the dish rag that has been allowed to sit wet for a bit too long Maybe this sort of thing only happens at our house, but upon finding said rag, we take it to the washer and replace it with a clean rag.

Too often we are the stinky sponge or dank smelling rag. We come to church or Life Group and soak up all the good stuff but never in turn use what has been given to us. I remember a professor of mine, Dr. Gary Zustiak, saying, “Impression (soaking), without expression (serving), leads to depression (stinking).”

If you have been sitting and soaking for too long, I encourage you to find a means of expression. Maybe it is serving in the church. We have several areas @ SummitView that could use some extra “hands on deck”. Maybe you want to take your serving outside the church. This too is good because it opens up doorways to share the Gospel with those who do not know. Sometimes we “serve” but have no intention of ever sharing our faith. Without sharing there is no expression. Use what God has given to you to help bring others closer to Him.

Over the weekend, Eskai and I put our house back on the market so that we can move down closer to Summitview and be more a part of the community there. On the one hand we are excited about the prospects of moving closer to the church we serve and the relationships we are starting to form. At the same time, it is hard to leave those (even if it is just an hour down the road) to whom you have grown close.

We love our house and wish we could take it with us, it has already been moved once (BTW- can you imagine the permits needed to move a house down the Tri-State Tollway or any other road in Metro Chicago), but alas the search for a new place to live begins. The sell of our house in Charlotte was a Godsend. The man we were going to list it with actually bought it from us and flipped it with some massive upgrades. This time around it has been a little more difficult. The housing bubble has burst, unemployment is high, times are tough, but God is good. Our travels in the last 4 years have proved to me God’s provision. We’ve never been in dire need and have always had our basic needs provided. I trust this time will be no different.

What else is needed?

• People interested in serving with us at ReBuilding Together Day (April 30th).
• Praying for those to invite for Easter (Less than 7 weeks away).
• Opportunities to show God’s love to those around us.