Satisfied in You
The rabbit hole runs so deep in the lives of this family who disappeared. They came back on the grid this week. After their mom reached out to us, Julia, Cardin, and I have been helping them move into a new apartment. It was so precious how they ran to meet us when we picked them up at school. Things are hard though. The new place has no light bulbs, no furniture, and no food, but it may feature bed bugs. To makes things worse, the dangerous man they had moved to get away from lives only a few streets away, and it sounds like he is already trying to work his way back into the situation. Furthermore, these six kids are now a 2.1 mile walk from their school, the place where all of their friends and "ex-step-siblings" are interrogating them on where they've been and where they're going. Their mom has sworn them to strict secrecy.
And for as much time and attention as we have invested in the aforementioned situation, there are a seeming infinity of houses filled with problematic families of lost souls. I think it was Matt who looked at me yesterday and said, "I did not realize until coming to Cleveland how true it is that 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few'" (Luke 10:2). We started going into the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood only this past summer; the Saturday night service nearby at West Bethel started on October 1st. Things are moving so quickly here, but even this and what God doing downtown represent only a microcosm of the city. These are centers for revival reaching out. I have no idea what God has planned from here. I am just grateful to be used, whether its is preaching up front or taking a kid to get his temps. And what's on the horizon needs to be continually covered in prayer, an opportunity to expand into the international ministry with a location at East 17th and Euclid.
Praying keeps coming up as a theme here. This blog is a kind of way for me to organize what both you and I need to be praying about in Cleveland. When a guy asked this week how he could change as a person, I bet him that if he prayed on the hour every hour for God to change him, he would be a different person after one week. Yet still, we neglect God; don't do it. It's obviously through prayer he changes us; through prayer he motivates leadership teams, churches, and whole cities. So let's seek God for revival, not revival for God. And all along the way to wherever the kingdom is going, being constantly reliant on and satisfied in Him. And since He is the God who never changes, how can we lose if we are consumed by who He is?
And for as much time and attention as we have invested in the aforementioned situation, there are a seeming infinity of houses filled with problematic families of lost souls. I think it was Matt who looked at me yesterday and said, "I did not realize until coming to Cleveland how true it is that 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few'" (Luke 10:2). We started going into the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood only this past summer; the Saturday night service nearby at West Bethel started on October 1st. Things are moving so quickly here, but even this and what God doing downtown represent only a microcosm of the city. These are centers for revival reaching out. I have no idea what God has planned from here. I am just grateful to be used, whether its is preaching up front or taking a kid to get his temps. And what's on the horizon needs to be continually covered in prayer, an opportunity to expand into the international ministry with a location at East 17th and Euclid.
Praying keeps coming up as a theme here. This blog is a kind of way for me to organize what both you and I need to be praying about in Cleveland. When a guy asked this week how he could change as a person, I bet him that if he prayed on the hour every hour for God to change him, he would be a different person after one week. Yet still, we neglect God; don't do it. It's obviously through prayer he changes us; through prayer he motivates leadership teams, churches, and whole cities. So let's seek God for revival, not revival for God. And all along the way to wherever the kingdom is going, being constantly reliant on and satisfied in Him. And since He is the God who never changes, how can we lose if we are consumed by who He is?
Habakkuk 3:16-19
"I heard, and I trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound. Rottenness
entered my bones; I trembled where I stood. Now I must quietly wait for the day of distress to come against the people invading us. Though
the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the
vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there
are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will triumph in Yahweh; I will
rejoice in the God of my salvation! Yahweh my Lord is
my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer
and enables me to walk on mountain heights!"
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