Transformation Blog

This prayer by Greta Coe helped me know how to pray for the Christians undergoing such tribulation in Iraq.  I hope it ministers to you too. Status Update By Greta Coe Church leaders Iraq have as the church to join them today, Sunday, August 10th, as a day of prayer. If you are not sure what to pray, you may pray the following prayer: Lord, we are gathered here today in the mighty and powerful name of Your Son,Yeshua. Today, we pray for encounter and salvation for these people. We pray for those upon the mountain to find Jesus, the Living Water and the Bread of Life. We pray for those besieged by terror in the towns to come under your glorious shield. God, to the people who are coming under the sword today, Lord, let the peace of Your Spirit that transcends all understanding guard their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. We pray Father, that they would enter into heaven and be welcomed by the glory you reserve specifically for those who have paid the ultimate price. Lord we pray

I thought this was a remarkable blog on intercessory prayer. Part 1 of our summer  eReflection  series  can be found  here . “I look at God, I look at you, and I keep looking at God.” — Julian of Norwich The practice of intercessory prayer has been a hard one for me to incorporate into my life as a leader because the way it was taught early in my Christian experience made it seem so weighty and burdensome. It often involved elaborate lists for praying around the world (in thirty days or less), promises made that were very hard to keep (“I’ll pray for you”), and thinking really hard about what to pray for (since clearly God wouldn’t know what to do for the person I was praying for unless I told him!). As time went on, there was a different problem that emerged. When it came to the difficult experiences that are part and parcel of life in leadership—criticism, complaining, subtle jealousies and other kinds of bad behavior—I noticed that my first response was generally  not  to

Learning to Listen: Saying Goodbye :     Newport Pier July 13, 2014  Yesterday, thousands of people gathered together to pay tribute to a young lifeguard who gave his life ...

Our friends, Ken and Cheryl Gates, lost their son, Reid--a high school senior-- last September in a senseless accident.  Ken tells their journey in this Baccalaureate address to Reid's classmates.  It is very moving and full of wisdom. I wanted to share it with you.  Please pray for this family as they continue to walk with God in the dark. Cindy CHS Baccalaureate Msg, 21 May 2014 June 9, 2014 at 11:41am Cedaredge High School Class of 2014 Baccalaureate, 21 May 2014 Ken Gates             I thank the seniors that invited me here to speak tonight.             I thank the Lord for giving me the gumption to accept the invite.             This baccalaureate message is going to be different than the 37,000 other high school baccalaureate messages given this season - which is appropriate, because the year you seniors had is different from all the others.             Many of you heard me share at Reid’s Memorial last Sept. I shared that I was puzzled that the L

I've been reading a Lenten series through YouVersion these last few weeks, and today this came through from Watchman Nee--a writer from China who I did not understand when I tried to read him 30 years ago.  But now I begin to see what he was saying.  Like John of the Cross.  And Teresa of Avila.  And John Coe. The fact that I am now in my 60's in not lost on me here.  Until God has brought us through "difficult and painful ways", it is hard to see where He is taking us.  Until the Spirit has swept the heart clean of the residue of the Old Person--or at least a great portion of it--and replaced it with Himself, it is impossible to experience the miracle of resurrection in your own soul.  Now I see a glimmer of what is to come and it urges me on to surrender more and more of myself.  Surrender to God is, in the end, the only way to Life. "God must bring us to a point - I cannot tell you how it will be, but He will do it - where, through a deep and dark experi