"Your Godly Ones Shall Bless You"

Thankfulness should permeate the heart/mind of the redeemed. As we study God's Word and the Holy Spirit illumines our minds so that we may know God at an ever-increasing depth, such knowledge should manifest itself in the depth of our thankfulness to Him. Yesterday my son gave a devotion following Thanksgiving dinner. He raised a good question ... how is the thankfulness of the believer different from that of the unbeliever? What makes the thankfulness of a regenerated soul different? 

I've been thinking about his question ever since and concluded one difference is the object of our thanks. Believers are not "generally" thankful, but "specifically" thankful to God. They are able to see His hand working in their lives and able to trust Him in all circumstances because of their position "in Christ" and because of God's goodness.

Secondly, the believer has a lifestyle of thanksgiving. He realizes his daily dependence upon God and looks to Him as the author of all good things (James 1:17). A third difference should be the depth of our thankfulness. Those who have a knowledge of how much they have been forgiven are able to respond to God's amazing grace in their lives with deep thankfulness.

A fourth difference is that a thankful heart offered up to God in praise honors Him and reflects His glory in our lives. The psalmists call upon God's people to "give thanks" some 100 times in the Book of Psalms! They certainly understood the connection between thankfulness and praise.

I will give thanks to the LORD according to His righteousness And will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.  (Ps.7:17)

So we Your people and the sheep of Your pasture Will give thanks to You forever; To all generations we will tell of Your praise. (Ps.79:13)

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. (Ps.107:1)

This post looks at a fifth difference - believers receive blessings as a result of having a heart/mind that dwells in thankfulness to our God and Savior.

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Thankfulness forces us to focus on what we have rather than what we want. 

In our materialistic culture, we can succumb to a consumerism of the soul that reduces our prayers to shopping lists. Thankfulness looks outward, not inward. It realigns our lives so that they revolve around God instead of trying to make God revolve around us.

Thankfulness highlights grace.  

To give thanks is to admit that you are dependent, to say, "I couldn't have done this on my own, but you helped me." Thanksgiving removes the temptation to boast and strengthens the only basis on which we can relate to God: that of accepting our own unworthiness and God’s free grace in Jesus Christ.

Thankfulness develops hope for the future.  

Looking backward to the past with thanksgiving actually helps us to look toward the future with anticipation.

Thankfulness regularly ensures that gratitude will spill over into every area of our lives.  

We cannot thank God for difficult colleagues, relatives, or neighbors for long before finding that we express a positive attitude toward them. Grumpiness and irritability do not grow well in a climate of gratitude. Those who regularly give thanks to God find they are ready to give to others. Gratitude and generosity go hand in hand.

"If Weak in Prayer, We Are Weak Everywhere"

Author Mark Tomlinson, in his biography of Leonard Ravenhill (1907-1994)...

"He especially deplored the weakness of the praying of most local churches. He felt the strongest meeting of the church should be the church prayer meeting, but said that it was generally the weakest, if it even existed at all.” In his lifetime Ravenhill saw the daily or weekly prayer meeting disappearing from most local churches. This grieved him because he “directly connected the effectiveness of true ministry with the prayer life of the church."

Ravenhill often quoted his mentor, Samuel Chadwick, who had written...

"The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray. No man is greater than his prayer life."

In all the books, articles and blogs currently being written to urge believers into ministry and service, very few talk about the importance of prayer in ministry, about  the necessity of maintaining a vital connection with the God whom we serve. When we don't spend as much time in prayer as we do in ministry, aren't we serving in our OWN strength and putting ourselves in the place God deserves? When we value "doing" and neglect prayer, it's not a very far leap to expecting God to be thankful for what we've done FOR Him!

And when we do pray, how often we view it solely as a source of benefit to ourselves, as a means of addressing our own personal needs and concerns, as a one-way street. Ravenhill wrote...

The praying of a Christian can become a ritual. The place of prayer is more than a dumping ground for all our anxieties, threats and fears. The place of prayer is not a place to drop the shopping list before the throne of God with endless supplies and limitless power.

I believe the place of prayer is not only a place where I lose my burdens, but also a place where I get a burden. He shares my burden and I share his burden.

This is an area where I suspect most modern believers need to evaluate themselves. Let's encourage one another to model  prayerful dependence upon God! Let's be known as people of prayer!

[This biography of Ravenhill is available for Kindle. Amazon has a free Kindle app for personal computers which I use to read works not available elsewhere. They also have free apps for most mobile devices.]

[via Tim Challies' blog]

[Related posts: "Pray Without Ceasing"  "Who's Running the Show?"]

"... From Self and Pride to Set Thee Free"

Tim Challies' posted an unfamiliar hymn from the pen of John Newton. In it, we are reminded that God does not often answer prayer in the way we had hoped, but instead answers it in the way He, in His omniscient goodness and love, knows is eternally best. Newton's hymn is a good reminder of the need to approach God with a humble and submissive heart ... and to trust Him in His answer.

I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love and every grace,
Might more of His salvation know
And seek more earnestly His face.

Twas He who taught me thus to pray
And He I trust has answered prayer,
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He’d answer my request,
And by His love’s constraining power
Subdue my sins and give me rest.

Instead of this He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart
And let the angry powers of Hell
Assault my soul in every part.  

Yea more with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe,
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Cast out my feelings, laid me low.

Lord why is this, I trembling cried
Wilt Thou pursue thy worm to death?
“Tis in this way,” the Lord replied
“I answer prayer for grace and faith.”

“These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free,
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou mayest seek thy all in Me,
That thou mayest seek thy all in Me.”

The Furnace of Affliction

“In affliction, God makes himself known to his people. In the Word we hear of God, but in affliction we see him. Prosperity is the nurse of atheism….In prosperity we pray and hardly take notice of the answers. But in affliction we can press God for the return of our prayers. God is never worse than his word. Affliction is a furnace to try the faith of God’s people and to see God’s faithfulness in his promises.” – Thomas Case

Praying for Your Husband, An Example

Thabiti Anyabwile, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman, recently shared an example of how his wife prays for him. (See her prayer below.) Several things made an impression upon me as I read through her words to him. First, I noticed how her thoughts were centered upon being a force for good in her husband's life. (Prov.31:10-12)  She wasn't dwelling upon his shortcomings, nor upon how he had failed to meet her needs, nor upon how he happened to measure up to other husbands, both real and imaginary. She set her mind upon praying for God's good in his life.

Then I noticed that her prayer was informed by biblical truth. She didn't pray vague generalities. She didn't pray for her will in his life, but for God's will in his life. She took the time needed to study out a topic in God's Word, then formed her prayers around the truths she had learned. (Ps.19:7-8)

Finally, I was struck by the fact that she took the time to write her prayer out. In written form he can now refer back to it as an encouragement in his future sermon preps. Her dialogue with him is biblical, filled with meaty truths for him to consider. Though his own biblical knowledge is prodigious, I imagine, she didn't assume that even he was able to apply everything he knows to the immediate situation at hand. She didn't write out a list of "don't"s, but a list of "do's". She didn't write out a major thesis, but a few short paragraphs. And she ultimately drew his attention to the larger eternal view of what God is doing through him.

What an excellent example of how we should pray for our husbands ... and one another! This is how we love in a manner that glorifies God! (1Pet.4:11)
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I’m praying for your sermon preparation and hope you have a fruitful time in the Word and prayer.

I was just looking for a verse to encourage you as you prepare to preach, and found it interesting to look at how “preach” is used in the old and new testaments. In the OT, most often preaching is against a city or rebellion of some sort. In the NT, preaching is often mentioned in the context of preaching the good news, preaching throughout the whole world, preaching to the poor, preaching the kingdom of God, preaching repentance, preaching the gospel, preaching in particular places, preaching Christ (and His unsearchable riches), and preaching to particular people.

So…I pray that you would preach in all these ways, against sin and rebellion toward God, and that you would preach the unsearchable riches of Christ in the gospel, which is good news for all who believe in Him, and which has power to save all those throughout the whole world who repent of their sin and trust in Him. I pray that you would do this boldly and fearlessly, as you should and as the Spirit enables.

Loving you!

[Pastor Anyabwile's blog may be found here.]

Our Feeble Prayers in the Hands of a Mighty God

As a follow-up to the previous post about prayer, here is an encouraging story from the Sept./Oct. 2010 issue of "Israel My Glory", a free publication from The Friends of Israel. The article, written by Peter Colon, is entitled, "An Old Man Wept."

"Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1Thess.5:16-18)
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"Due to the prayers of an old German carpenter named Christian Wolfkes, Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, founders of The Voice of the Martyrs, came to faith in 1938. Soon they led Jews and Gentiles to Christ. Then a church was launched, to the joy of the carpenter. Wolfkes died during World War II, and the Wurmbrands were imprisoned for their faith.

When Richard [Wurmbrand] finally was freed, he spoke to a large crowd of Christians, telling them how he came to know the Lord. As he spoke, he noticed an old man weeping.

When he had finished, Pastor Wurmbrand approached the man to find out what was wrong. The man said his name was Pitter and that he was a wheelwright and had led Christian Wolfkes to the Lord long ago. Since then, he thought all he had ever accomplished in life was to lead a plain carpenter to Christ. It moved him to tears to hear how God had multiplied his ministry a hundredfold to bless Israel and see so many come to faith in the Messiah.

Today The Voice of the Martyrs is one of the largest organizations in the world aiding the persecuted church - all because a wheelwright led a carpenter to the Lord who then led Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand to Jesus."

"Pray Without Ceasing"

A prayerless Christian should be an oxymoron. Yet, how often do you come across a sense of passion about prayer among the believers you know?  Periodically you might hear someone talk about prayer, yet they are noticeably absent whenever the church prays corporately, and you never hear mention of specific ways God has encouraged their heart or illumined their understanding of Scriptural truth or given them a deeper understanding of His character as a result of their prayer. The "talk" and the "walk" just don't match up.

When we do manage to pray, how often do our prayers sound more like the list of "wants" a child might pen to Santa Claus at Christmastime? Seldom do we pray from a biblical perspective. We expend more effort wanting God to remove adversity, make us healthy or protect our loved ones than we do beseeching Him to lead us into spiritual maturity or praying for the faithfulness of His saints. Worst of all, we fail to magnify God in our prayers or thank Him for His abundant love and mercies towards us or recognize our part in the advancement of His kingdom program. Sadly most of our prayers center around ourselves and those nearest us, as we focus on surface needs, not deep, spiritual, eternal needs.

Our prayerlessness demonstrates our lack of understanding of the providence of God, His sovereignty and the power of His mighty hand. We don't think "big enough". Our culture provides three huge stumbling blocks to rich, consistent prayer. Modern  life is overly busy and full of distracting, empty amusements demanding our time and attention. Too often we're not discerning enough to prioritize our time in a way that honors God and contributes to our own sanctification, thereby robbing ourselves of the very things we need to lead us into the victorious Christian life. Also, we tend to trust in ourselves more than we trust in God. When we're at the end of our own resources, THEN we'll call on God. Scripture commands us to humble ourselves before God BY MEANS OF casting all our cares on Him. (1Pet.5:6-7) When we're continually casting (Pres. Tense Greek verb) our cares onto God, we humble ourselves before Him. Finally, most of us have lost our facility with language. We don't know how to glorify God with our words. Even if we are aware of God's greatness, lovingkindness and providence in our lives, we don't know how to express it verbally during our prayers. We think vague thoughts, we feel vague emotions.

So what do we do? Here are two simple suggestions. First, become disciplined. Plan your time, rather than letting unimportant things crowd out vital things such as prayer. Second, use tools to direct your thoughts and expand your ability to express yourself ... go to the prayers of those who had great skill at doing so and use them as the "jumping off points" for your own prayers.

Personally, I love using Don Whitney's suggestion to pray through the Psalms. His book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, has a chapter explaining the method. Basically, start reading a Psalm. When the Psalm triggers your thoughts toward adoration, confession, thanksgiving & supplication (the ACTS of prayer), stop reading and pray until your mind starts to stray, at which point you return and read more of the Psalm until your thoughts are triggered once again, at which point you stop to pray again. If the Psalms are short, you might find yourself reading through more than one. If it's a long Psalm, you might take several days to work through it. You will be amazed at how long and rich your prayer time becomes after using this approach for a few weeks! It will change your prayer life ... and it will change you!

A second suggestion is a system based upon the Puritan prayers in The Valley of Vision, an anthology of Puritan prayers. Like the Psalmists, the Puritans had a God-centric view of life and an amazing ability to express themselves, far beyond modern man's skill to do so. While the advantage of using Psalms is that you are also learning Scripture itself as you read through them in your prayer time, the Puritan prayers lead you to become more God-focused in your worldview. That was their great strength. I can see the advantage of using both, and recommend alternating them throughout the year. Joe Thorn offers a free copy of his schedule using the Puritan prayers here.  He sets aside three times during the day to go to the Lord in concentrated prayer.

Become a person of prayer. It will affect your own Christian walk, the lives of those you pray for and the purity, effectiveness & strength of your local assembly. It will also help advance God's program in the world. Don't you think those things worthy of your time?

Report from a Japanese Christian

John Starke at The Gospel Coalition blog shared an email he recently received from a Japanese Christian friend. I know many of you have been wondering how the Christian minority are faring in Japan. It's not something we've heard much about up to this point. The following is excerpted from John Starke's post and includes portions of Keiko Takahashi's email from Japan.



"She writes:

Among those killed [were the] many churches planted by the missionaries sent by the same denomination as John Piper’s denomination, called “Rengo” in Japanese. Their church planting efforts have been predominantly focused on these east coast areas that were just swept all away!!!

According to Keiko, biblical Christianity thrived in these eastern regions that were devastated by the tsunami waves. She writes, “People in this area have been traditionally known for poverty and enduring patience due to the severe weather. [They were] well prepared for the God of all mercies and comforts (2 Cor 1).” They were “precious believers” in a country that is less than 0.2 percent Christian...

How Can American Christians Help?

Keiko is clear that it’s not yet the time for material and human resource help. There is simply too much “traffic confusion and congestion due to the scheduled power outage in downtown Tokyo and because of the shattered roads in the areas hit.” But there are “460,000 survivors who lost everything in a few minutes, including their loved ones, and are impoverished in every possible sense.” So as we wait and pray, let’s pray that when the time comes to help, the means will be ready and effective.

The deep need in Japan from American Christians is prayer. Keiko writes, “Please pray and encourage us to fight a good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith until the Lord takes us home with him.” She is keenly aware that there will be temptations on every side in this fight for faithfulness. She reminds us, “I cannot choose to die to my flesh at all by myself, but only by the Spirit and by the power of his divine grace and his perfect righteousness. That is why prayer counts so much.”...

We sow and water but God is the one who actually brings them to growth, not to death. . . . We shine by showing them our full confidence in Christ, not on our character or our wisdom or even our faith, etc., but in our conviction that there is no sin that he cannot atone for his own pleasure. We must reflect such miraculous generosity of God solely by the living Spirit.

That is why our and your prayer counts so significantly. It makes so much theological sense to pray and express our dependency on him who sanctifies us and saves the lost beyond our imagination.

Pray for the suffering and the mourning. Pray for local church communities to be faithful lights of the gospel. Pray that the hope of God’s grace in Christ will rest upon many hearts in Japan over the coming months."

On Private Prayer: "Animated by the Humiliation of Penitential Love"

I've noticed how easy it is to tell people on facebook or other social media, "I'm praying for you." Yet I wonder how much time is actually spent doing so. How deep are our prayers? How frequent? How often do we approach God with the reverence He deserves and seriously contend in prayer? I find myself hesitating to say or write it too quickly because Scripture teaches me not to treat prayer lightly, nor to make rash vows. If I say I will pray, I want to devote myself to doing so. Our lives have become so filled with other activities, which possess so little eternal value, I fear our prayer life is too often approached rather lightly and haphazardly.

The following is an excerpt from The Valley of Vision, a wonderful little book of Puritan prayers and devotions. Whenever I read writings from this time period I find myself longing to be able to express myself this way. I fear we've not only lost the words, we've also lost the heart behind the words. I find it valuable to refresh my mind with their Christian worldview, which sought to honor God in every part of life.

I have been hasty and short in private prayer,
O quicken my conscience to feel this folly,
to bewail this ingratitude;
My first sin of the day leads into others,
and it is just that thou shouldst withdraw thy presence
from one who waited carelessly on thee.

Keep me at all times from robbing thee,
and from depriving my soul of thy due worship;
Let me never forget
that I have an eternal duty to love, honour and obey thee,
that thou art infinitely worthy of such;
that if I fail to glorify thee
I am guilty of infinite evil that merits infinite punishment,
for sin is the violation of an infinite obligation.

O forgive me if I have dishonoured thee,
Melt my heart, heal my backslidings,
and open an intercourse of love...
Let thy mercies draw me to thyself.
Wean me from all evil, mortify me to the world,
and make me ready for my departure hence
animated by the humiliations of penitential love.

My soul is often a chariot without wheels,
clogged and hindered in sin's miry clay;
Mount it on eagle's wings
and cause it to soar upward to thyself.

Reminder from Young Charles Spurgeon

Having come from a long line of Congregationalists, Spurgeon became convicted of the need for believer baptism soon after coming to the Lord as a young man. Though a member of a local Congregational church, he made arrangements for his baptism with a Baptist church some 8 miles away and wrote seeking permission from his parents. His father replied with reluctant consent. His mother also agreed, but was not enthusiastic about the prospect. She wrote the following to him...

"Ah, Charles, I often prayed the Lord to make you a Christian, but I never asked that you might become a Baptist."

Spurgeon wrote in response...

"Ah, Mother, the Lord has answered your prayer with His usual bounty, and has given you exceeding abundantly above what you asked or thought."

Though this brought a smile to my face, it also reminded me of the importance of praying regularly and fervently for the salvation of our children and grandchildren. Spurgeon recalled his mother reading the Scriptures to her children and pleading with them to be concerned about their souls. "I cannot tell how much I owe of the solemn words of my good mother..." he wrote. "I remember on one occasion her praying thus, 'Now, Lord, if my children go on in their sins, it will not be from ignorance that they perish, and my soul must bear a swift witness against them at the day of judgment if they lay not hold of Christ.'... How can I ever forget when she bowed her knee, and with her arms about my neck, prayed, 'Oh, that my son may live before Thee!'"

[from "Spurgeon: A New Biography" by Arnold Dallimore]

The Content of Prayer

I'm often struck by the difference between our prayers and the prayers we read about in Scripture. I am too often guilty of directing my focus to subjects of "safety" and "benefit" for those I am praying for. Especially when it comes to my own family I fear I "overdo" prayer in the areas of safety and protection. I find myself imagining every possible injury, illness and need that might occur and "praying up", as it were, protection against the possibility of such things ever happening. Such prayers reflect more of a concern for the comfort of my loved ones, than a desire for God to work in whatever way might be necessary to bring them to greater spiritual maturity and an increasing love for God, which so often requires travel on the road of trial and tribulation.

It's not that we should not be praying for those things, but that we need to expand our horizons beyond "the hedges" of protection we ask God to keep around those we care for - whether family, missionaries or fellow believers in the local assembly. While rereading the book Not By Chance: Learning to Trust a Sovereign God for our Ladies' Book Club, I came across the following quote by a missionary named Timothy A McKeown. His words are worthy of our contemplation.

"Most prayers in Scripture focus not on the personal safety and benefit of believers, but on the power, majesty, testimony and victory of God over His - and our - enemies ... The Lord calls us to obedience in spite of the 'costs' - not to personal comfort and safety." He adds that he often asks those who pray for him & his family to "focus not so much on our 'safety' as on our 'faithfulness' in whatever circumstances our Sovereign God might call us to minister."

If you're praying for me, I ask that you pray for my obedience and faithfulness to the Lord. In what ways could the Lord use me if those things were consistently strong in all areas of my life!

Lessons Learned

We've been going through a transition time. Having sold our business, we've been trying to find the next source of income. Transitions can be frightening, especially when you are aging and you don't have a clear picture of where you are headed.

Fortunately, God knows the answers to all my questions and concerns and He has my future all mapped out. I am completely convinced of that truth from an intellectual POV, but I have been having a hard time letting it trickle down to my emotional POV. And that has been bothering me. After prayerful study and meditating on God's Word, I thought I would share some of the conclusions that have helped me apply my "head" to my "heart". While most of these are not "new" truths, they are truths that I have absorbed in a new, more personal way. The crushing burden in my chest has lifted, and if it returns in the middle of the night, then I just remind myself of these "epiphanies", the weight leaves and I go back to sleep.

1. My prayer was wrong. I was praying, "Take it away...take it away. Fix it." Which, quite honestly, was not doing a thing for me. Is God able to take it away? Certainly. Then it really sank in that He has allowed this situation to help conform me to the image of His Son. [Rom.8:28-29] In the long run, THAT is what will bring me true joy. THAT is what is BEST for me. My prayer is now, "Lord, give me the strength to trust You, to rest in You, even when my "eyes" don't see the end."

2. I was not truly thankful for His current provision. He has given me two part time jobs I enjoy [teaching Koine & working at church], as well as the monthly payments for our business to live on in the interim. Yes, we had hoped to invest the payments to support us in our old age, but that was OUR plan. It's one thing to be a good steward and to plan wisely, but completely another to cling to absolute control of everything in our lives. For a believer, that is God's area.

3. I was looking at only MY picture of the future. This is where I want to be in 7 years when the business payments end. Maybe that isn't God's idea at all! All kinds of things might happen in the next 7 years, and my worry and anxiety would end up being completely foolish in hindsight. God knows 7 years from now. He tells me to be concerned with TODAY. [Mt.6:33-34] Today did He provide for me? Yes. I now remind myself that He is just as able to provide for me 7 years from now...and it doesn't have to be in the exact manner I have decided it should be. He knows what is best for me so much better than I do.

4. I need to spend more time immersed in God's Word for my own personal study, not just as a preparation for teaching. I spend a lot of time preparing for SS, Ladies' studies & any 1-on-1 mentoring I might be doing. I certainly learn & apply a lot in the process, but I do tend to be more others-focused. I ALSO need to be spending time repetitively reading a book of the Bible without having an extraneous motive... just humbly reading and letting the HS speak personally to me.

5. I looked for "feeding factors" to avoid and discovered the Evening News was NOT being helpful. I do not need to hear nightly scare stories about the price of gasoline and home heating oil going up, the stock market going down, etc.. It is of absolutely no value to me, except to make me anxious. So I skip the Evening News for now. I keep up with news on-line and in the newspaper, where it is much easier to choose what I want to be exposed to. Daily I remind myself how wealthy Americans are and how skewed our POV is because of it. So I skip the Evening News and instead read the "Voice of the Martyrs" magazine, in order to get my perspective right. The result is LESS needless anxiety and MORE compassion for believers around the world who are suffering for their faith in Christ.

6. I remembered the lessons learned from the 1Peter Ladies' Study. I remind myself constantly that I am a pilgrim, a traveler passing through. This is not my home. I need to keep my focus on my home country, which is eternal. I recalled Paul's life after conversion. He just kept walking, faithfully serving. I don't remember any verses about him becoming overly focused upon his old age. He was focused on glorifying God, moment by moment, day by day. And the result was that he "learned to be content" because of the opportunities God gave him to practice. [Phil.4:11-12]
I GET it.

Prayer Request

This week I started training for my upcoming job as part-time Secretary at the church. One day I happened to be in the office alone [reading equipment manuals :( ] and answered the phone when it rang. The gentleman was seeking a Pastor to help him.

Now I have been laboring along with the Pulpit Committee since January in our search for a new Pastor. We have an interim Pastor, but he is only available for Sunday preaching, and we have a single non-Staff Elder who also has a full time job, a family and a higher education commitment, yet who also has been trying to do all he can to shepherd the flock in this interim between full time Pastors.

But being the new secretary gave me greater insight into the magnitude of our not having a full time Pastor. There are people outside of our congregation who call desperately seeking pastoral help - but we have none. I find myself automatically wanting to respond in my "biblical counseling mode", only to be caught up short when I remember that I am in the position of being a Secretary - they want a Pastor. You have no idea how much it hurts me to have to tell them we don't currently have a Pastor available and then refer them elsewhere.

So now I have an even greater sense of urgency in my prayer for a new Pastor. Please join me in earnestly praying that God would send us the man of His choosing.