"Man is it Cold!"

"And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." (Matt. 16:18)

That is the scripture that kept going through my head this morning as I tried to get myself out the door and begin my day. The thermometer was well below zero, and all I could think about was leaving for vacation in a few days to Florida. Couple that with the fact that I had already seen on TV that USA schools were closed because of the weather, which meant I would have a couple of open hours. And all I kept thinking was "Man it would be nice just to stay home today".

That is when the above scripture kept echoing in my head. "The gates of Hades". Today those gates in my mind were the weather, and I knew that I could not allow the conditions to distract me from what God would have me do today. So I left the house and headed to Sebewaing. As I drove there, at one point the thermometer in my truck registered 11 degrees below zero and was still 8 below when I reached Sebewaing.

As I set out on my prayer walk the Scripture from Matthew was ringing in my head as well as portions of Psalm 25. The version of the Bible I am reading right now records Psalm 25:1 this way: "Lord, I give myself to you; my God I trust you." (NCV) I must confess that as I set out walking with this verse in mind as well as Psalm 25:14: "The Lord tells his secrets to those who respect him; he tells them about his agreement," I sort of expected God to bless this effort. After all I was "suffering" for him. An hour an a half later, which included a 20 minute stop at McDonald's for coffee, I returned to my truck. I was cold and nothing extraordinary had taken place.

As I considered all this, a message came back to me that I heard Dr. Larry Crabb give a number of years ago at the National Youth Workers Convention. One of the lines stood out to me when he made the statement that there are times when God will ask you to be faithful in the "absence of blessings". As I reviewed my morning I realized that this was one of those times.

Now don't get me wrong there is always a blessing spending time in prayer and solitude with the Lord, but I was sort of expecting some kind of divine appointment like I have experienced on many of these prayer walks before. Yet none seemed to materialize.

As I considered this it occurred to me that a true disciple of Jesus always is willing to be faithful in the absence of apparent blessing because a disciple has a kingdom mindset. A kingdom mindset allows us to know that we need to be faithful to God and let him handle the details of the moment. I am so glad that I did not give in to the temptation of allowing the weather to be the "gates of Hades". I was reminded on my walk on this day that as we work to build disciples, who reflect Christ, it will be Jesus who builds the church, in His time and in His way. That is good enough for me!

As I mentioned earlier I leave for a couple of weeks vacation next week. Over that time I really covet your prayers that Deb and I might be refreshed and renewed. I also ask that you would keep the work we are trying to do in Sebewaing in prayer as we consider how to expand some of the groups and opportunities. Talk to you again in three weeks.

Your Servant in Christ,

Brian