We eagerly anticipate coming together in this new facet of His plan and though we don’t know exactly what this will look like, we are trusting that if we walk in obedience and allow the Holy Spirit to lead us, it will become exactly what He has promised and planned for this city. We are asking, as we take these new steps of obedience, that you join us for this one night out of the month, the 2nd Friday of every month, to experience together God’s presence, and His voice as we sit at His feet and recount His goodness and His grace and remind Him who needs no reminding of all of the promises that He has spoken over Burlington City. Our desire is to stand in agreement with all that God has promised, as individuals, as a church and as a City, and we believe the House of Prayer signals in the Spirit our agreement to be obedient and faithful to all of God’s plans and promises.

We will be meeting at 7:00 PM on Friday February 10th at the Knights of Columbus building at 366 East Broad Street in Burlington. If you have any questions please call our church office at 609-531-0816.

In Exodus 19 God told Moses to tell the people of Israel “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagle’s wings, and brought you to Myself.” God was turning the attention of the people to all that He had done for them and the reality that, while they were still far from their “Promised Land” they had already arrived at their eternal destination of being loved and chosen by God. I believe that one of the main reasons we often struggle with doubts, fears and anxieties when we face difficulty is that we don’t spend nearly enough time reflecting upon God’s loving character and the goodness that He has poured out in our lives. Reflection creates gratitude and faith that prepares us for the next steps that God will lead us on. Obstacles become opportunities when I reflect upon the goodness of God, but they are magnified to the size of giants when all I can see is the difficulty that I’m facing.

Today I encourage you to reflect upon God’s love and view all things in your life in light of God’s mercy. It is our choice to dwell upon present difficulty or to reflect upon God’s everlasting love. His love will guide you, protect you and even deliver you from anything that comes against you, today I pray that we will choose the goodness of God and trust Him to be true to His Word, He has born us on eagles’ wings and brought us to Himself!

II Corinthians 10:5 tells us that we have the power to destroy the lies of the enemy by taking our thoughts captive. Reality is that we can not always control what thoughts enter our minds but I believe we have complete control over whether or not those thoughts take control of our minds. The Apostle Paul tells us that there are arguments and pretenses that are constantly being spoken to and over us that are attempting to attack “the knowledge of God”; they are lies about God, lies about His love, His character, His goodness and His promises and plans. Day in and day out we are given tools to take those thoughts captive and be in control of our thoughts or we can give those thoughts room to grow and they end up taking control of us.

Philippians 4:6-7 says “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” If peace is a guard then anxiety is a thief. We have to take control of our minds and understand that our thoughts of worry, of fear, of doubt, of discouragement and of anxiety are attempts to rob us of the truth of God’s character, God’s love and God’s purposes. Paul is very clear as to how we combat these thoughts, through prayer. Every thought is to be taken to God in prayer, every moment of indecision, of lacking understanding and of feeling overwhelmed are to be objects of prayer. Prayer creates peace and peace guards our hearts and our minds. To protect our minds we must become people of prayer!

This place of prayer will not only create peace but it will also reveal the enormous love of God. Paul prayed in Ephesians 3 that we may have the power to grasp the love of Christ. When I know that God loves me, when His love becomes my first thought, then every thought that objects to God’s love becomes easily recognized as a lie. There is something powerful that happens when we have the power to be confident in God’s love. When I know God loves me I never fear His rejection, I never fear defeat, I never worry about outcomes and I never have to take my life back into my own hands.

If you are struggling today with fear, doubt, anxiety, discouragement or any other negative emotion, take your thoughts captive! Take your mind to God in prayer and allow Him to provide peace that leads to the revelation of His love. “Perfect love casts out all fear.” Peace comes when love is realized. I pray today that our lives of prayer would provide the peace that comes from living in the reality of God’s great and everlasting love.

The distribution will be at Wilbur Watts Intermediate School, 550 High Street, Burlington, NJ from 10:30 until the food is gone, all distribution is done on a first come first served basis.  If you have any questions or would like to register please call our office at 609-531-0816

In Luke 17 we are told a story of Jesus healing 10 lepers and one of them returning to give thanks. The man that returned didn’t simply come back and shake Jesus’ hand and thank Him, he fell at Jesus’ feet, he shouted, cried and in the midst of his gratitude caused a great commotion. God is the giver of life and so everyone ever born owes God a debt of gratitude and yet so few of us truly give thanks. Those of us that have trusted Jesus for our salvation have had our sins covered, the wrath of God turned back, eternal life granted and have been given the Promise of the Father via the infilling of the Holy Spirit and while we give thanks with our voices, I am unsure that our lives are defined by gratitude. The one healed man that returned to Jesus changed his course, he interrupted his life, he stopped everything because he understood that he was whole because of Jesus and so gratitude became the definition of his life, there was nothing he could do with himself until he had found the One that made him whole. I believe that this kind of gratitude is supposed to be the driving force of our lives. There needs to be a changing of course, an interruption of life and a stopping of everything else simply because God has loved us so greatly that constant gratitude must now become the reality of my life.

The man who returned caused quite a stir, quite the commotion. His gratitude overflowed in such a way that, while it was directed toward Jesus, it was obvious to all of those around him. Our gratitude should be the same, always directed toward Jesus, but obvious to all of those around us. In John 3, John the Baptist famously declared of he and Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” That statement in and of itself is powerful and true, but that statement is actually the conclusion of John’s statement. He explains that Jesus is the Bridegroom and the people are the Bride and then John reveals himself as “the friend of the Bridegroom.” John then says “the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice.” And then, John says, “Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.” John’s declaration of decrease was the overflow of gratitude. His joy was fulfilled and so it was time for Jesus to increase and for him to decrease, this was not some wise or pious statement, it was a joyful declaration. Our vows, commitments and steps of faith are not to be to show how committed we are, they are to be outpourings of gratitude for who Jesus is and all that He has done. Commitments of our strength start with a bang but often end quietly. Commitments that are the overflow of gratitude endure, overcome and even cause a bit of a commotion for those around us.

I have heard it said that harvest can be messy, that might be true, but I believe that harvest should also be noisy. It should be filled with shouts of joy, cries of thanksgiving and songs of adoration. Harvest is not about our effort it is focused on God’s incredible love and awesome power. The reality is that there was never more of a commotion on earth than when Jesus walked here as a man, there will never be more commotion than when Jesus returns to establish His kingdom, as we pray and wait I don’t believe that we are to do so quietly. Scripture tells us that the living creatures in heaven are crying out to God eternally, it tells us that creation is crying out for the appearing of the sons of God, I believe that we, the Body of Christ living in this age should join in that song. May we cry out in gratitude, sing in worship and create a commotion of harvest.