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Here is a sampling of some of the messages that have made a special impact at CCiPH, and that have been transcribed or written in manuscript. Most weeks in our equipping assembly, at least one man has been asked to prepare a message that will build up believers. Often, the message is taken from the liturgical Gospel reading of the day, or it is a life message that God has been working into the fabric of that man. It is included here to build you up. |
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A Prayer for Vision Prayer by Michael Wilson in July, 2006
A prayer.
Almighty God, merciful Lord, I believe you are at
the beginning and the ending of all questions, and you know that right now I
am at a place of very many questions, most of which I'm finding difficult to
put into words even for myself let alone anyone outside of my head. Thank you
for being God in this place. Have mercy.
Please give me and this group of people who are
following after you sincerely in this place on these Sundays the right
questions to ask of you and each other. Give us good questions, hard questions
and give us the grace to listen to your Holy Spirit. Give us "ears to
hear" as your Spirit leads us into all truth as Jesus Promised he would
do. Please God, Lead us into your truth.
I pray this especially now in regards to this
particular gathering...this group of people who meet at Christ's Community in
Price Hill, this very small part of your beloved, the Church, the world over
and throughout all time...this collection of your dearly loved ones who have
so little and so much in common with others gathered across the oceans, or
around the corner...meeting in storefronts, in beautiful cathedrals, and the
ones who are tired of meeting together altogether. Dear God, make us one.
Thank you.
I confess to you that I don't have a clear idea of
why we meet here on Sundays let alone what we should be doing in our meetings,
and I'm not sure why we have this building or what we should be doing with it
and in it...
There has been a picture in my head lately which
speaks strongly to my personal state and I wonder if it might not speak to my
concerns for Christ's Community in Price Hill as well...
The Ed Sullivan show...from time to time there was
the guy whose act consisted of spinning plates on top of tall poles. He would
get a bunch of plates spinning on all of these poles all across the stage and
he would run like a mad man in his tuxedo trying to keep all the plates
spinning while the music played frantically.
...anyway, this is the image that is with me
recently and behind the image there is a strong sense that it is time to quit
running around trying to keep the plates spinning... a sense that it is time
to let the plates fall, time to live with the noise and the mess of crashing
china, time to deal with whatever disappointment and whatever embarrassment
might come...time to rest...time to listen and learn what is God's name for me
and to find out what exactly is his good will for my life...to discover what
is my particular secret bread to eat.
I'm thinking how we pray in the Lord's Prayer:
"Give us this day our daily bread", and I'm recalling how Jesus said
to his disciples after they'd made a trip specifically to get food for himself
and them that upon their return with that food he tells them that he's not
hungry...that he had "bread to eat that they knew not of"...that his
bread was to do the will of his Father. I'm wondering...if I'm still hungry,
if my heart's belly is not satisfied, perhaps I' not eating the right bread.
There is a line in a Rich Mullins song that
expresses something of this, it says:
"There is a rest you get in your work that you can't get in your sleep".
Almighty God, you who are love and light and truth
far beyond any ecstasy we may know and far below our deepest despair or strung
out apathy, please, by your Spirit, lead us out of our striving and
restlessness into your Rest; where we are hungry and unsatisfied fill us with
your joy; and make us one like You and Jesus are One...how ever that might
look.
"Lord, set me from self-inspiration free,
And let me live and think from thee, not me-- Rather, from deepest me then think and feel At center of thought's swift-revolving wheel."
-(G. MacDonald)
"O Lord, I am not proud;
I have no haughty looks. I do not occupy myself with great matters, or with things that are too hard for me. But I still my soul and make it quiet, Like a child upon its mother's breast; My soul is quieted within me. O Israel, wait upon the Lord, From this time forth for evermore." -(Psalm 131)
In Christ's Name, Amen.
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