Saturday, March 27 – Day 39

Seeking His Peace Among All Peoples

Seek God…for Christ’s Lordship to be welcomed by the nations

Seek God On Behalf Elderly People

The prayer walking suggestion for today is to pray at a retirement community or an extended care facility.

I may be going out of a limb here a little, but “elderly” is sometimes a perception. When I was 20 I thought 60 was really old. Come to think of it, when I was 43 I had no idea that I would be able to do the things I am now doing. Amazing! Perception! Now, I’m almost 64 and it doesn’t seem old at all….well, most days anyway.

Where am I going with this? The label ‘retirement community’ does not necessarily mean a lack of ability or a sound mind or a lack of willingness to be involved; nor should it.

At our combined annual meeting for the Mission America Coalition and CityReachers we were all challenged by a ‘young man’ in his mid-twenties. The moderator was thanking this ‘young man’ for being with the 250 of us, asking God for more young men and women to join us (kind of carrying on about us being, well, ‘old.’) when the young man was asked to share with all of us his thoughts on the week.

He challenged us to stop thinking as though we were about to become useless! Wasn’t Caleb over 80 when he took the high country?! Wasn’t this person over 70 when he….?! Wasn’t this person…??? He continued with sentences like “we all need each other…” I say like as I really can’t tell you what he said but I can tell you the impression it made on me.

The Holy Spirit brought scriptures to me like “he who endures to the end.” I am often tired of the battle, struggle, fight, and warfare (all scriptural words). I don’t think 64 but most often my daily capacity to work betrays my chronological age and the 37 years of enduring and fighting the good fight. However, we who are over 60 or 70 or 80 have an important part in this fight!

We are closer to the return of Christ that we all know. As we prepare to celebrate Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and RESURRECTION DAY, Easter, I have an idea for us all.

Let’s take the high country!

Brother Charles

Serve The City

Tuesday, February 23 – Day 7

Seeking His Life to Revive the Church
Seek God....for Christ's resurrection power

Seek God on behalf of Marriages

As they moved briskly through the quiet, cool, early morning air the two women dare not speak. The sun glistened across the dew drenched olive branches and combined with the early morning fog, any ordinary morning one would stop and enjoy the serenity. But, this was not an ordinary morning and there was little to stop and enjoy. In Luke’s account of the story of the Resurrection of Jesus, he deliberately used the words, “…very early in the morning….” Whether it was a sleepless night, a hint of hope, or just part of the grieving process, these two women got up early and went deliberately to what they envisioned to be a closed tomb (indicated by the spices they brought).

As I was reading in our prayer guide that our focus of prayer was on Christ’s resurrection power, specifically on behalf of marriages, I was quickly drawn to Luke’s account of Resurrection morning. I had one of those moments where the following words found in Luke 1:6 jumped off the page and slapped me in the face, “Remember how He told you.…” I can almost sense an impatient frustration on behalf of the angels as they cannot fathom why the two women would doubt the promise of resurrection given by the Creator of the universe.

I just got off the phone with a man I am mentoring who is ready to throw in the towel on his marriage. He had already begun his journey to the tomb, called divorce, ready to bury the promise of God behind a stone of pain, bitterness, and regret. In our conversation, I found the Holy Spirit guiding me to pray the resurrection power of Christ over his marriage. What seems lifeless, hopeless, and meaningless is confronted with the words, “Remember how He told you….”

Our prayer today is for the countless marriages represented in this city that desperately need to hear the words, “Remember”. Remember, that Jesus is the Resurrected Savior who has overcome death and the grave. Remember that on the third day, in the darkest hour, there is hope, there is life, and there is a new day!

Pastor Dave DeHaan
Community Life Pastor, First Assembly of God
“Where Faith Comes To Life”