I like marking time, that is celebrating the passing of time especially from a significant event. At North-Mar, we are coming up on such an occasion this weekend. Can you remember what happened in our morning services a year ago this weekend, or maybe more accurately what began to happen. Think about it a minute before you read on.
It was a year ago this weekend that Pastor Myron spoke about baptism and encouraged people to respond and be baptized the next week. What happened next was a remarkable move of God. Over the next seven weeks God chose to Soak The Church as over 180 people were baptized.
It was breath-taking as week after week, for a total of 7 weeks, in each service there were people baptized with many telling glorious LifeChange stories. If you were here during that period of time, you know there are not adequate words to express the joy and excitement of those Sundays. But as with every season, those weeks drew to a close and we moved on, ever wondering what God would do next.
I remember thinking during that time and even asking the question publicly, “Do you think God is finished working here at NMC?” The response was always an emphatic “NO!” since the strong sense that each of us had was that He had really just begun. I still believe that to be true.
Though we have not seen an outpouring in a wave like that, we continue to see ripples. Lives being changed one at a time. There is a sense of excitement in our services. People fill the building for events through the week. Still, I would not be honest if I did not admit that I continue long to see God changing lives in bunches like that season a year ago.
That desire was fueled by a request I invited you to join me in back in February. Here is what I said back then.
When you think about North-Mar, when you are driving here, or away from here, anytime the Lord brings this place to mind I am asking you to join me in this simple prayer: Set Us On Fire. That God would give us an all-consuming passion for the renown of His matchless name here in our community and to the ends of the earth. Will you join me?
I wonder how many of you took my challenge and have been praying. It is easy to shrug off a broad prayer like that and assume that someone else will pray it, and then God will respond to their faithful prayer, so I feel compelled to bring it a little closer to home. Will you begin to pray, Set ME on fire? WARNING! God likes to answer this kind of prayer!
I have begun to ask God why we have not seen Him move like last spring and am searching His heart to discover if there is anything we are missing that is keeping Him from freely flowing in our midst. I believe if we begin to seek Him together to set each of us on fire, we will find ourselves positioned to burn as a community of faith. Holy Spirit come!
Jesus, let revival fire fall. Then on the heals of it, let us see a great awakening in our neighborhoods and cities. Begin that work in me.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy
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