Monday, July 11, 2005

10:35 PM The following email touched my heart and greatly encouraged me:

Yesterday during worship a question came into my mind out of nowhere and became so strong that I spent part of the worship time just praying about the thought. The question was this: “What would happen if everyone in this room (I was in the Upper Room) was touched so deeply by the Holy Spirit that it changed the entire direction of our lives?” I kept thinking about it and imagining the kind of global impact that might occur if dozens of people in the UR were suddenly called to Missions. I imagined God doing something right in Oak Park that would awaken all of our neighbors to the light of the Gospel. I thought about how it would save marriages and affect the next generation. It put a burden inside of me to pray that God would remove any blockages that would prevent Him from pouring out His Spirit in such a way at Calvary. I also had a deep sense that this was something the Lord wants to do in the next year or two. I should note that I was not thinking about the Sermon series and had no idea what passage of Scripture you were going to speak from when all of this came to me. I can’t think of many other times when I was moved into intercessory prayer during the worship service, but I am certain that God was speaking something to me that I also feel led to share with others at Calvary. We will be praying that God will do all that He wills in Calvary and in our lives. Your sermon series just ended, but I believe its just the beginning of what the Holy Spirit is going to do.

O Lord, may it be so. 10:32 PM Late Monday shout-out to Nancy Shoptaw, Denise Logan, Don Gerig, Carlos and Artemis Pinto in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Brian and Deanna Reynolds, Brian Andersen, Laura Shannon in New Zealand, Jim and Judy Dickeson, and to Rich and Carol Bonham. 10:31 PM Today’s entry in the Crosswalk weblog is called Anchor for China Project.