City of Refuge Fellowship

Over the next 40 days City of Refuge Fellowship is joining with thousands of other believers around the world in a prayer focus called Seek God for the City.

Seek God for the City is a prayer guide “designed to help everyday believers pray beyond their daily needs and further than their fears. ” We are joining together to ask God to do supernatural things in the city of Burlington. We invite you to join with us in praying for Burlington and for your community.

Each day we will post the daily prayer theme and a prayer highlight from the day.

Week 1: Seeking His life to revive the Church

Day 2: Seek God for the revelation of God’s love

Heavenly Father, “Only You can change us. Reveal the love of Christ and the power of His salvation with magnificent intensity. We are listening for Your life-changing word. Declare Your peace with such power that we are transfigured to live in the incredible reality of Christ’s peace.” 

Over the next 40 days City of Refuge Fellowship is joining with thousands of other believers around the world in a prayer focus called Seek God for the City.

Seek God for the City is a prayer guide “designed to help everyday believers pray beyond their daily needs and further than their fears. ” We are joining together to ask God to do supernatural things in the city of Burlington. We invite you to join with us in praying for Burlington and for your community.

Each day we will post the daily prayer theme and a prayer highlight from the day.

Week 1: Seeking His life to revive the Church

Day 1: Seek God for His forgiveness and joy to bring revival

Heavenly Father, “We humbly seek your forgiveness again. But we seek more than just another round of forgiveness. Do more than clear our record from sin. Do not merely restore us. Transform us by Your powerful love. Sustain us with increasing love for You, that we may live in joy.”

We have set aside every Tuesday as a day of prayer for our National leaders: President Obama, the Senate and the Congress. Each week we present a specific focus, birthed from Scripture, that we can agree and pray together.

Father, I pray that our National Leaders would return to their first love, Jesus Christ. Revelation 2:4

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules the people groan. Proverbs 29:2

Therefore, I will exhort that first of all supplication, prayers, intercessions, and giving thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may live quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.  I Timothy 2:1-3

In the book of II Timothy Paul confessed the reason that he had no shame concerning his suffering was “I know the one in whom I trust”. I believe that true worship is birthed through relationship. Worship is not merely our songs, our dances, our art or our gifts to God; it is the confidence, the faith and the trust that is birthed from knowing God intimately.

We often get stuck trying to figure out how God will accomplish a thing.  We feel we need to know timing and mode of the fulfillment of promises but the question how is often just an invitation for worry. I believe that Jesus teaches us that knowing who is in control is of much more importance than knowing how a situation will be resolved or a need will be met. When we focus on God, on the who of our situations and trust Him to take care of the how and when, we enter into a place of worship that allows us to keep our hearts and minds set on Him in all situations.

My prayer today is that we will be a people that concentrate on God, on His love, His goodness, His power and His ability. When we truly believe that noting is impossible with God we can have rest and contentment in every moment of life. In that place we can stop worrying about how and put all of our love and attention toward the who. May we let worship overtake worry and live in the peace and confidence of knowing that God is with us.

Some of our biggest issues in life revolve around expectations and disappointments. Just today I got to see this at work in my house. We have been snowed in twice over the last 6 days, getting somewhere between 3 and 4 feet of snow during that span. Last week we were able to take our boys sledding for the first time in a few years. My older son had the time of his life, my younger son, well he didn’t. With this second storm we decided to go sledding again. Last night we agreed that we would let the snow stop, dig out and clear the sidewalks and then go sledding. When we made this agreement everyone was excited and could not wait until morning. This morning I got up, dug out the van and cleared the sidewalks. We got all of the work done but then when it was time to get ready for sledding some unexpected circumstances arose. Our three year old son decided that he really did not like sledding last time and did not want to go. My knee swelled up and started having spasms and then we got calls from the other two families we were supposed to sled with, one could not go and the other family had all gotten sick overnight. The trip that was planned and expected was suddenly canceled. My older son was really disappointed; he had expected to go sledding today. The reality was that circumstances arose that we could not have foreseen and so the trip being canceled was out of our control, and yet that did not seem to alleviate Noah’s disappointment.

In John 11 we are told that one of Jesus’ closest friends, Lazarus, was sick. His sisters, Martha and Mary send word to Jesus but when He gets the news He stands still. Lazarus’ sisters had an expectation, if they got word to Jesus He would come and heal their brother. The expectation was not unrealistic, they had seen Him heal many; He had opened blind eyes and deaf ears, cleansed lepers and cast out demons, healing their brother was not only within His ability, it was what they expected Jesus’ desire to be. This time, however; something different happened, Jesus did not come, not only was Lazarus not healed, he died and his sisters were left to mourn not only his death but their own disappointment.

When Jesus arrived at Martha and Mary’s home they both had the same response, “If You had been here my brother would not have died.” They were not afraid to let Him know what their expectation had been. The way they approach Jesus and the way they speak to Him shows that they are not disappointed in Him, they trust Him and yet they are heart-broken over their loss. Jesus speaks very clearly to Martha that something much greater than she ever expected is present, that there is a purpose to His presence and that He has a plan much different from hers that He is going to fulfill. Jesus goes to Lazarus’ grave, He is moved by the tears and pain of His friends, He is moved by the condition of the mourners that surround Him, so moved that he weeps with them, He joins His heart to theirs and chooses, even as Scripture commands us, to weep with those that weep. In the midst of tears and prayers there are also questions, friends, family and neighbors ask why Jesus had not been there, how it could be that He could heal strangers and not be present to heal His friend, some simply question why, why could He have not been able to come and heal Lazarus. Again, they are disappointed because their expectations were not met.

Jesus stands at the tomb of Lazarus and calls out, “Take away the stone.” Lazarus had been buried in a cave, a large stone covered the mouth of the cave. Jesus’ request is a large one; it is not normal, not convenient and not expected. You can almost hear the surprise in Martha’s voice, almost see her turn on her heals and say, “But Lord, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” There are moments in our lives when the will of God requires us to trust Him in the midst of the most unexpected of requests. To open the tomb would have been an emotional event in the natural. They are still mourning and the tomb should be open? He has been dead for four days, he is already decomposing, there will be odor, it sounds embarrassing almost disrespectful, and He does not even tell them why the tomb should be opened, just to open it. Jesus’ response to Martha goes back to what He had spoken to her earlier. He had made her promises, had spoken to her of resurrection and life, of glory and greater experiences and revelation than she had ever known before. Jesus answers Martha’s fears and concerns by reminding her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

God’s glory is rarely seen in the manner, timing, place or way that we expected it. The glory of God is often revealed after our expectations are dashed and disappointment seeks to rob us of trust. The glory of God is seen and believed and released through testing, through the forging of faith, of trust and of His love for us. Jesus’ request for the tomb to be opened was a test for Martha and Mary. It was a test of their trust for Him, of their belief in His love for them and of their level of confidence in His power and authority. Everything of worth has to be tested and it is not until we enter into that testing that we discover the true measure in which we can trust God, we can believe in His love and we can be sure of His provision, His character and His will. Each of us has been and will be tested. God is going to speak through His Word, through His Spirit and then He is going to lead us to a place in which He will test our confidence in His promises. Many of us have faith as long as our expectations are met and disappointment is held at bay, but God is forging our character in such a way so that we are led by His expectations rather than controlled by ours. Disappointment is when someone or something does not live up to our desires; God is working in our lives in such a way that will lead us to relinquishing our desires and putting our hope in His.

Martha made a decision after Jesus spoke, she decided that she desired to see the glory of God and knew that the only way to reach that place was to trust Jesus completely. She gave the word, she obeyed Jesus and had the stone removed. I wonder what those few moments were like for her and Mary. As the stone was moved away what did they do? Did they hold their breath, hoping not to smell the decaying body? Did they expect to see Jesus walk in the tomb or even to see Lazarus walk out? I have a feeling that at this point they had no more expectations, they were probably pretty spent and not in a position to try to guess what would happen next but instead where there in the moment, watching Jesus, listening to His prayers and trusting in His love. This is the same place that God is leading all of us to.

I believe that some of us are in situations very near to Martha and Mary’s. We are in places that we never expected, even worse, some of us have had expectations that have simply not been met. Those places are filled with warfare, the Holy Spirit is speaking that God is present and that He is fulfilling His purpose in our lives and the Accuser of our souls is speaking disappointment and doubt. It is in this place that our faith is being tested and that the purity of God’s trustworthiness is being shown. In the midst of one of the greatest trials man has ever known Job said, “when He has tested me I will come forth as gold.” Job understood that God never left, He never disappointed and He was not bound by our understanding or expectation. To go back to Lazarus one last time, Jesus could have come and healed him. He could have spoken a word from a distance and had His friend recover; He could have never allowed the sickness to come near Lazarus at all. In any of these scenarios Jesus’ friends would have only had their expectations met, they would not have had any new revelation, no new glory, and no new experience of His love, His power and His mercy. At this moment God is not coming short of your expectations He is exceeding them. If we can fight against disappointment, not allowing it to deceive us, we will see God do more in our lives than we ever expected and truthfully, even more than we ever desired.

Tomorrow’s 10:00 AM service has been cancelled due to the snow.  Please continue to read through the Gospels and enjoy your day with family and friends!

How many times have you been asked to “prove” something? We have all experienced it, been doubted, been questioned, maybe even been mocked or ridiculed, baited into proving that we are able to do what we are already sure we can and have accomplished in the past. I think of the old game show, “Name That Tune”. The contestants banter as to how quickly they can name the next song, “I can name it in 6 notes.” “I can name it in 5 notes.” Then finally at some point one contestant says to the other, usually with disdain and unbelief, “Name that tune.” Our lives are pretty similar, especially our spiritual lives. We give Christ rule of our hearts and our minds, we let Him change us, let Him have His way in us and then, almost immediately we are tempted with the challenge, “Prove it!”

Jesus faced this temptation. When He was baptized by John, He came out of the water and God spoke from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” From that moment the Holy Spirit led Jesus to the wilderness, by Himself to fast for 40 days and prepare Himself for temptation (Luke writes that Jesus was tempted for the 40 days). The first recorded temptation of Jesus was, “If You are the Son of God . . .” Too often we get caught up in the thing that Jesus was asked to do, to turn stones into bread, to leap from the top of the Temple or to worship Satan in exchange for all the riches and glory of the world. There is great importance to all of these things, but the true temptation was not merely the things Jesus was asked to do, it was the request that Jesus prove that He was the Son of God. In His great kindness, God chose to confirm that which was about to be tested.  In Satan’s great wickedness he chose to attack that which mattered most. The same happens in our lives! God speaks His love, His promises, His joy and His salvation. He gives us His Spirit and His presence, washes us with the blood of Christ and begins molding us by His hands. At those moments Satan comes and attacks with the temptation to prove it. “If you are changed why do you have these thoughts? If you have been set free why do you still linger in your past? If you have been empowered why do you still seem so weak?” These questions and countless others are not for our benefit they are an attempt to slander the voice and promises of God. God says that in Christ we are all new creations. God says that He loves us with an everlasting love. God says that He has brought us an abundant life. God says that we are now His righteousness. What God says is true by faith, not by proof!

Many of us have lived our lives not only being tempted by this request to prove ourselves but with a desire for our own proof that comes from our own lack of faith. The heart of God is that we trust Him with all that we are and for all that He has spoken. Grace makes us complete in Christ. We are crucified with Him, our old sinful nature is dead and we are alive in Christ Jesus. God is not waiting for you to prove that you have been saved, He has saved you, we must now stop requesting that He prove His work in us and start living as those that believe. Holiness comes from a deep love in God and a deep faith in His will for our lives. Righteousness is not about deeds and actions it is a state of heart that longs for God and His presence more than anything else. Truth is not what we see or understand it is what God says and proof is not some sort of human response that shows once and for all that what God said is true, it is the reality of peace in the midst of temptation, of joy in the midst of attack and the presence of God in the midst of every moment of this life.

Don’t be tempted to prove yourself, evenmore; don’t be tempted to make God prove what He has already spoken. If you have heard from God today you will be tempted to prove it, that is our enemy’s plan and his mode of operation. Reject the temptation by rejecting the notion that God might be wrong in any way. Ultimately isn’t that what Satan has been tempting man with since the beginning of time? He told Eve, “Surely you won’t die”; he convinced Sarah that she would never have a child; he tempted Saul into believing that Samuel would not arrive in time to make a sacrifice and he provoked Judas into believing that he could profit from his relationship with Jesus. In each event Satan attacked what God had said as true and ultimately tempted the people of God to prove what God had spoken as true or to go their own way. The next step from trying to prove that God has spoken is to try to make God’s will come to pass, that is the ultimate act of proof but it is also the ultimate act of unbelief. Eve ate of the tree, to prove that she would or would not die. Sarah gave Abraham Hagar to prove that he could have a child. Saul performed the sacrifice in place of Samuel to prove that he held the power of Israel as king and Judas betrayed Jesus to prove that he could profit from his position. When men try to prove God’s will, we sin.

Today rest in what God has spoken; rest in His love for you, rest in His salvation, rest in His promise of redemption, of abundance, of purpose and vision, rest in His presence. God never requires proof from us because He knows our hearts. The greatness of His love for us is that He has also allowed us to know His heart, so that we will never need proof from a fleshly action. He is kind enough to give confirmation when we are weak and when we are low, but He does not respond well to our demands for proof. The next time someone questions you and what God had done in your life, let your faith be your proof. The next time the enemy of your soul requires that you prove what God has called true, simply remind yourself, out loud, “It is written, ‘For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him, Amen, to the glory of God through us.’” The proof is in His Word, the proof is in His presence, the proof is in the Holy Spirit that dwells within us. You don’t need to prove yourself because you are the proof, the life Jesus lives through you and me is the proof that He is indeed the Son of God.