prayer

The Watches Of the Night

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord

who minister by night in the house of the Lord.

2Lift up your hands in the sanctuary

and praise the Lord.

3May the Lord bless you from Zion,

he who is the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 134

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Mom’s health is now at a place where someone is with her in her room or the next room 24/7. As I write, Brenda and I are working remotely with our ministries from the table just outside Mom’s room while she watches Jessica Fletcher from her hospital bed. She has just had her morning meds and is slowly falling back to sleep, which she does a lot these days.

I generally have the night watch. I sleep really well in the recliner at the foot of Mom’s bed (an ability no one else in my family shares).

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Mom is usually up at least one time in the night if not twice. This has radically changed my sleep schedule and that has blessed me greatly. One of the things I have always wanted to implement in my prayer life was the Benedictine rhythm of prayer: Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline.

I have managed to implement the sessions but not in their proper time slots…that is… not until this season of life.

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Mom’s nighttime schedule has made it very easy to get up and pray for Matins and Lauds. I have to say, spreading out the hours of prayer into more evenly spaced sessions has made the prayer-life balance so much richer. Life flows out of prayer, then life flows back into prayer. One of my hopes is that I will be able to establish this rhythm permanently and naturally into my life.

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Steadfast Sons

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Our church is comprised of small groups of people we call Doing Life Together Groups. Each group is encouraged to

STUDY THE BIBLE TOGETHER/ TO PRAY TOGETHER/ TO FELLOWSHIP AND BUILD DEEP RELATIONSHIP WITH EACH OTHER/ AND TO MEET NEEDS IN THE CHURCH AND IN THE COMMUNITY TOGETHER.

One of our “DLT” groups is a group of men called The Steadfast Sons. This year they chose to minister to the greater community of men in our church though and event called “BE A GODLY MAN”.

About 40 men from 8 different DLT groups showed up for breakfast lunch and five breakout sessions

Andy Ross and Stephen Sandoval were our co facilitators in Doing Life Together for the day.

Here are some of my take aways from the day.

BOYS CANNOT CONFER MANHOOD ON THEMSELVES. MEN NEED TO CONFER MANHOOD ON THE NEXT GENERATION OF MEN.

WORRY IS ANTI-PRAYER.

JESUS NEVER OFFERED US A COMFORTABLE LIFE. THERE WILL BE CHALLENGE AND PAIN.

YOUR PROBLEMS ARE NOT OTHER PEOPLE. TROUBLE IS ALWAYS CENTERED IN THE SPIRIT REALM FIRST AND FOREMOST.

MEN MUST CONTINUALLY “GOSPEL” THEMSELVES ACCORDING TO EPHESIANS 6.

THERE ARE NO CHUBBY BREASTPLATES IN THE ARMOR OF GOD. THE ARMOR MAKES US FIT AND ENCOURAGES US TO STAND IN THAT FITNESS.

THE ARMOR SHOULD MAKE US FILL THE WORLD AROUND US WITH PEACE.

THE ARMOR OF GOD IS MOST EFFECTIVE WHEN LINKED WITH A BAND OF BROTHERS.

PRAY THE WORD NOT JUST THE NEED.

Our men had a great day of fellowship together. I was greatly blessed by all the relationship building I saw going on.

In our final sessions I got a few more thoughts to think about.

STRONG MEN ARE SABBATH MEN. ADAM RESTED FOR WORK NOT FROM IT. REST IS FOUND IN JESUS NOT IN “REST”.

GOD LONGS FOR US TO BE IN RHYTHM NOT NECESSARILY IN BALANCE.

GOD HAS CALLED US TO PERSEVERE.

GOD HAS CALLED US TO HUMILITY AND SUBMISSION

GOD HAS CALLED US TO SERVE.

It was a great day of worship, spiritual reminders and challenges, fun, and fellowship.

THANK YOU ANDY AND STEPHEN!

A SONG OVER THE VICARAGE

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We are facing great challenges here at The Vicarage. “We are pressed on every side”, as Paul the Apostle said, but we are not crushed!

Music helps me to hold on to my faith perspective during seasons of hardship. Here is one of the songs I am currently listening to to bolster my faith.

DOES MUSIC HELP YOU TO FOCUS? OF SO WHAT SONGS ARE HELPING YOU THESE DAYS?

PREPARING COMPASSION PT. 2

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“Prepare! Prepare! Prepare! Prepare you Spirit (come out of the decay of your strongholds). Prepare your Souls(Prepare to practice and feel compassion). Prepare your facility (your structures, infrastructures and plans). Prepare for the storm (Pray for action plan, Pray for a spirit of perseverance). Prepare your witness (know your gifts, earn the right to speak, build your relationships with those outside the church, build your example). Prepare your hope and faith (think hope, speak hope, act in hope). Prepare your love (love each other, love the people in your towns, love those who disagree with you, love through the doors that open).“

OVER THE COURSE OF THE NEXT FEW MONTHS I WILL BE REPOSTING THESE DEVOTI0NAL THOUGHTS I WROTE DURING OUR CHURCH’S 21 DAYS OF FASTING AND PRAYER. TODAY WE CONTINUE TO…

PREPARE OUR SOULS TO PRACTICE AND FEEL COMPASSION.

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WHAT CAN I DO TO BUILD THE HEART OF COMPASSION?

In Matthew 9 the Bible says, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

A heart of compassion starts with God moving on that heart to see things the way He sees them. When we see a need that is the beginning of God moving on our hearts to build compassion. The recognition of the need is the first step. 

When we begin to pray for God to send someone to meet the need we further align ourselves with His plan, because I promise you He wants to help.

I love that Jesus told the disciples to start praying for God to send someone to help and then as God He sent them into the very harvest field they were praying about…

Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy,[a] drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. Mat. 10:1, 5-8

When we learn we are the answer to our own prayers for help for others and then become willing enough to actually do something rather than make excuses we will have gained a heart of compassion.

A HARD RIGHT TURN

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Life took something of a hard right turn on Monday.

As regular readers will know, Mom started with hospice about three weeks ago. She started sleeping a lot on Saturday and Sunday and eating almost nothing. We also saw an increase in her pain level. Then on Monday she became very nauseous and her pain level spiked beyond control. She started vomitting dark black liquid. The nurse came out to help us, the doctor called and we made some adjustments to her meds. It was an intense 24 hours in which none of us got much sleep.

It seems we have moved very quickly to a new level of hospice. We now have the hospital bed mom had been resisting in house and the old couch she loved sleeping on removed. We have asked for and I think received an upgrade in PCA care to five days a week and today the doctor is coming out to review Mom’s meds to make sure we have what is needed for her comfort.

Dr. Harrington, the director of the hospice agency, is actually one of the doctors Mom worked with during her career as a nurse. She remembered him.

Today she is looking and feeling much better, but in the last few days Mom has eaten nothing more substantial than two or three scoops of ice cream. She seems to have no appetite for solid food. Good news… She has been drinking her Pedia-lyte and rehydrating. She is very weak. Walking to the bathroom is not at the moment a possibility. Thank God for all that has been provided in the way of adaptive tools, the transfer chair and commode my cousin gave us have been a life saver, and the hospice meds have been so helpful in keeping Mom comfortable.

I can’t say enough about the hospice staff who have been helping us through this season. They have all been so kind. I also am also so blessed by family and my congregation. So many in the church have reached out with offers of help. My friend, worship leader and deacon, Jody came to help me and my son, Joe, move the couch yesterday. My family, also, has really circled the wagons during this season. We all gathered and prayed together last night with many tears and much hope that God would see us through this life stage with grace and love.

Regardless of the hard right turn, I know God will see us through and we will end up right where we are supposed to be.

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Preparing To Come Out Of the Decay Pt. 3

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This year God has given our congregation a Series of thoughts to focus on. We are calling this THE CONGREGATIONAL SENTENCE. It reads: “Prepare! Prepare! Prepare! Prepare you Spirit (come out of the decay of your strongholds). Prepare your Souls(Prepare to practice and feel compassion). Prepare your facility (your structures, infrastructures and plans). Prepare for the storm (Pray for action plan, Pray for a spirit of perseverance). Prepare your witness (know your gifts, earn the right to speak, build your relationships with those outside the church, build your example). Prepare your hope and faith (think hope, speak hope, act in hope). Prepare your love (love each other, love the people in your towns, love those who disagree with you, love through the doors that open).“

Each week I am going to take one day to speak to one of these thoughts. Today I am writing on:

PREPARing YOUR SPIRIT(COME OUT OF THE DECAY OF YOUR STRONGHOLDS).

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HOW DO WE BREAK SPIRITUAL STRONGHOLDS?

Paul the apostle gives us this instruction. “We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. 4 [a]We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. 5 We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. 6 And after you have become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient.” 2 Cor. 10:3-6

Fighting the good fight of faith and tearing down strongholds cannot be accomplished by using worldly methods of fighting and resisting. The Art of War cannot help us when it comes to fighting spiritual battles. Anger, aggression, fighting, confronting, rebuking are nearly useless when it comes to spiritual warfare. It is not for nothing that Paul indicates that the weapons of our warfare in Ephesians chapter 6 are almost all defensive.

The real key to fighting spiritual battles and tearing down spiritual strongholds is not found in what we tear down or get rid of but of what we build in place of the stronghold.

Paul writes in Galatians 5 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. …the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

SO WHICH OF THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT ARE YOU GOING TO PRAY OVER YOUR LIFE AND STRONGHOLDS TODAY?

KEEPING THE FIRE BURNING.

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I remember as a teenager I gave up piano lessons because I hated the practicing.

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My Aunt took me aside, way back then and told me, that I shouldn’t quit.

I laughed and asked, “Aunt Joan, what possible use is piano playing going to have in my future?”

Of course, it turned out she was right. A large part of my portfolio as a pastor has involved leading worship and piano playing through the years….Go figure!

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Anyway, worship was a such a large part of what I did as a pastor that many believed I could never give it up. I actually continued leading worship for about 6 months after I became lead pastor, but I did give it up.

Then back in September I was called to lead worship again with a ministry called, The Worship Room House of Prayer.

This ministry is dedicated to building round the clock worship and prayer in our region to empower the church and release the grace of God over our region. It is patterned after the thought in Leviticus 6 of never letting the fire go out on the altar:  The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offeringson it. 13 The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.

I believe that if the church is to move forward it will do so from the position of prayer. So when I saw a need I offered my abilities such as they were. I do a devotional hour of worship from the piano on Monday nights from 5-6 P.M. The first month I sounded like a rusty old gate when I sang, and I played more wrong notes than right notes. Even six months into this I am still so weak in this gift of worship, but it is not about me. It is about raising up a prayer that will help the church in our little town move into its next stage of growth. I have to admit It is great fun playing and worshipping again even if the gift has aged in me.

I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE

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One of the things I heard in prayer during the 21 days of fasting and prayer, that our church just completed at the end of January, was that I need to prepare in prayer. Part of that prayer preparation is going to be times of family prayer, I think.

I have a confession to make. I am pretty good at private devotion. I am even good at prioritizing corporate prayer with the church body. The area I have always struggled with is in calling my family to consistent times of prayer.

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Praying as a family for emergencies… I can do that….but I feel like this preparation is going to be more than just the joining of hands through a time of trouble. I feel like God is calling us at this season to consecrate our family through regular prayer times.

In the past I have always struggled with saying yes to so many things that the yes to family prayer got pushed into the back ground. I do guess that is a common failing of young men, but I am no longer a young man. I need to stop living a young man’s mistakes.

It sounds like my family is game for this. So we have chosen a time and we begin this week!

THE HOSPICE PROCESS AND GOD WINKS

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This week’s big “project” at The Vicarage has been setting up hospice for my mother. At last week’s Telehealth appointment with Mom’s primary care doctor she felt we needed an evaluation to see if hospice was in order.

So this week we have had: Two telephone consults, two visits with a nurse, a visit with a social worker and a visit with a home health aid.

It seems to be a God wink thing that is going on. What’s God wink you ask?

God wink (plural God winks) An event or personal experience, often identified as coincidence, so astonishing that it is seen as a sign of divine intervention, especially when perceived as the answer to a prayer.

Here are the God winks we have seen this week:The doctor in charge of the program is actually the doctor mom worked with about twenty years ago when she was nursing at a local clinic; The social worker that came to our house I know personally through other hospice situations I have been involved in; And the home health aid I have known for years as her whole family has been a part of our church throughout the years.

It seems like God is working already to comfort us in all our grief! I love these God winks.