Praying in Perilous Times

In a couple of days, Believers from all over the nation will gather in Philadelphia for two days of prayer for America. Even though many will view this as a political event, this has nothing to do with politics. Our nation is in serious trouble. The vileness of sin and the hatred against Christians have reached unprecedented levels in our nation. We have nowhere else to turn.

In his letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul wrote, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”  - 2 Timothy 3: 1-5 (NKJV)

These are the words of Jesus: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”  - Matthew 24:4-14 (NKJV)

I wish I could put into words, the urgency that we feel right now. All I know is that we can sense that something horrible is on the horizon and the Spirit of God is calling us to pray NOW. The urgency is beyond words. 

The so-called church growth experts have spoken. Many of us have tried to implement their proven ideas and strategies, but nothing has changed. Church attendance continues to plummet in our nation, while the entertainment industry continues to grow. People are looking for comfort and security. People are looking for wealth and relief.

Even within the four walls of many churches, the congregants are looking for the same things. The only difference is that they are turning to God to try to get Him to give them what they want. But God is not to be mocked in this hour. It’s time to seek God’s FACE and stop seeking His hand, simply asking Him to do stuff and give us stuff to make our lives comfortable. It’s time to chase Him, abandoning all else for His will alone.

We’re not going to start a teaching series about prayer. We’re going to PRAY. For those who have never been in this kind of situation before, I'm just going to encourage them to follow our lead. We’ll have to show them what to do. We’ll teach them as we’re doing it.

I woke up one morning last week singing the old hymn, “Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.” If there was ever a time to walk in the reality of that song, this is that time. I feel like I did just before 9/11/01. Back then, I didn’t know what to do with it. Over ten years later, I know what to do this time.

Can you see the signs of the time?

Last week we saw a disturbing news posting. It stated that the President of the United States refused to meet with the Prime Minister of Israel. We’re not sure if everyone understands the significance of this and I don’t have the time or space to get into all of that in this blog, but please know that it would signal the final blow for America if America turns its back on Israel. It is profoundly true that an enemy of Israel would become an enemy of God. No amount of singing, "God Bless America" would change the outcome. It would not matter who wins the coming election. Judgment would be swift and decisive.

Can you see the signs of the time? More than ever, there is no peace in our sleep. Every night we're awakened to pray. In just the last few months we have seen a massive drought sweep across America's farmlands. New volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are breaking out across the globe. A river in China turned red. Two tornadoes hit New York City on the same day. Another hurricane hit New Orleans on the exact same date as Hurricane Katrina. Nature itself is announcing judgment on the world.

Meanwhile, our nation continues to push for abortion on demand, gay marriage, and now a new movement has risen to the surface and that is the push for open marriage (multiple partners within a union). Waiting in the wings are those who want the right to express their sexual orientation to legally engage in physical relations with children. There is even a push to legalize incest. Also, there are staggering numbers of young girls who are trapped as slaves in human trafficking, right here in America. At the same time, we continue to see random shootings and bizarre acts of violence. Homes and schools are now included as some of the most dangerous places for children. 

Then the most alarming reality is that over three years ago the Department of Homeland Security released a report to all local law enforcement agencies, stating that conservative groups (people who oppose abortion or gay marriage) are now considered to be domestic terrorist. The hatred against Christian Believers is at an all-time high in America. We could go on and on, but we’re not trying to depress you or scare you. However, we are trying to stir you into action. And that action is to join us in PRAYER.

2 Chronicles 7: 13-15 reads, “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.”

Immediately following the National Prayer Gathering that will take place in Philadelphia on Friday and Saturday, September 28-29, the Lord has put it on our hearts to meet every Sunday afterwards for worship and prayer starting Sunday, September 30th. We’re cancelling all of our plans and schedules. We’re just going to meet for prayer every Sunday until further notice. Just like we did three years ago, we’re going to start leading prayer sessions with our church family and with all who will join with us across the nation.

This prayer is not about politics. We’re not praying for either Obama or Romney to win the White House. We’re not praying against liberals, conservatives, Republicans or Democrats. Our prayer is far more desperate than that. We’re responding to God as a church family. We’re seeking God’s face and turning from our wicked ways.

We just feel that we’re at a place, where personal issues and our national problems are beyond sermons. Individual situations might be beyond personal consultation and counseling sessions with us, as pastors. Many circumstances are beyond motivational speeches and fund raisers. We can see the signs of our times. It’s time to PRAY!

We are bold and honest enough to tell our church family that what ever they are going through, their pastors cannot help them in the way they really need it. However, we can certainly lead them to the throne of Grace. We don’t intend to sound cruel or insensitive, but the prayer sessions are going to be far more effective than a personal conversation with us. Now is the time for each one of us to seek God, like never before. The times are so desperate now, that pastors cannot help their people get through it. But we know the ONE who can!
  
So that’s why we are calling upon all of us to humble ourselves, forgive one another; release people and seek God. Let’s go for it! LET'S COME TOGETHER AND PRAY!

We're On Prayer Watch

As we get closer to the national election, we can sense that something very evil is rising and we are being called to pray. 

At the end of next month, there will be a National Call to Prayer in Philadelphia. You may recall that back in 2009 several pastors in this community started an annual PA Awake prayer call.

Now that prayer call has been picked up by several national church leaders who have also come to recognize the significance of Pennsylvania’s role in the founding of the United States of America.

Back in 2006, my job afforded me the opportunity to actually see, hold and photograph the original text books that were used to write the constitution and build the curriculum for most of the first colleges and universities in this country. These were the books that Franklin, Jefferson and many others poured over as they were trying to write the Constitution. I couldn’t believe the history I was holding.

I shared these photos with Bishop Raphael Green.  I can’t describe how awed and humbled I was to be chosen for an assignment that would place me in this position. Even though all eyes are always on Philadelphia because of The Liberty Bell Center and the National Archives Museum in Washington D.C. where you can see the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence, the books from which these documents were forged are housed right here in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

We are so closely connected to what's really going on that we believe that a daily prayer call is already upon us. God is waking us up every morning to pray. So let's roll with that calling.

We’re going to ask everyone to pray for us as we continue to deliver this message of freedom and deliverance in our worship. We realize our ministry style may not work in most of the United States, but for this community, with all of its deep seeded abuse, God has given us a Word and a strategy.

Most people, outside of Pennsylvania, will never really understand that the incident at Penn State, regarding the child abuse by one of the assistant football coaches, is merely the tip of the iceberg. It’s more like the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg.

Abuse is so commonplace in homes, schools, businesses and churches that all of these institutions are a joke to most people here. The rural communities are rampant with abuse.

Since we’ve been here, God has stripped us of all the strategies and plans that we brought from St. Louis. The way to reach the people of this community is so completely different that it appears (to those on the outside) that we are preaching heresy to reach them.

But we are simply doing what Jesus did. He released a woman caught in adultery. He went to the house of a tax collector who was cheating people. He let a woman perform a sensual act of washing his feet with her hair. He hung out with the rowdy folks. Nearly everything he did was considered close to heresy.

Now here in the 21st century, He leads us to tell the people who attend our weekly gatherings, we’re not going to force them to attend church or give money. We’re going to let God heal them. We’re just going to let God speak to them.

To people outside of this community, this looks like we’re compromising the Word of God. But when you’re dealing with severely abused and damaged people, we must minister to them in exactly the way God gives it to us.

This message and this method was not our plan. Our church family knows that there’s no way we could have known to teach and minister in this way.

Many of them have told us that the methods and messages that God gives us, always happen to be exactly what they needed and in the ONLY WAY they could have received it or heard it at that time in their life. God used THIS method and message to get past their hurt, so that they could see GOD. Every single person that has joined our church has come to us with stories of abuse in their homes, in their schools, on their jobs, and most tragically, in their churches.

We’ve heard horror stories of sexual abuse by pastors and emotional abuse by parents. It seems, by the time a person finds Urban Life, they are just about done with the church.

Yet, in most cases, they are still seeking God. For this, we are thankful.

Thankful to God

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day and even though there are thousands of things that are going terribly wrong in our world, there are still millions of reasons to be thankful.

However, in this era of political correctness, we will see movies and TV commercials of people giving thanks for family, friends and food, but no one will mention to whom they are directing all of this gratitude.

It really doesn't make sense to talk about how thankful you are if you don’t talk about the object of your gratitude. You don’t just throw these kinds of words into the air.

If someone opens a door for you and allows you to walk into a building first, you don’t just say I’m thankful for that. You say, “Thank you!” to the person who performed the kind deed. Yet, we live in a time of so much pressure against a Biblical Christian world-view that we now sit back and receive this ridicules notion of being thankful (to nothing or no one in particular) for our good fortune and blessings.

We can sing ‘God Bless America’ at sporting events, but we can’t simply say, "I thank God for blessing me to have a family, a place to sleep, and breath in my body." Why bother to sing God Bless America if it’s politically incorrect and offensive to thank God when He blesses us? It’s crazy, isn’t it?

So make no mistake about it, the Urban Life Church family gives thanks to God. We will do it, not only tomorrow as we gather with our families and friends, but every day as we live our lives to the praise of His glory.

1 Chronicles 16:8
Oh, give thanks to the LORD! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples!

Psalm 18:49
Therefore I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the Gentiles, And sing praises to Your name.

Psalm 30:4
Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of His, And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.

Psalm 35:18
I will give You thanks in the great assembly; I will praise You among many people.

Psalm 75:1
We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks! For Your wondrous works declare that Your name is near.

Psalm 92:1
It is good to give thanks to the LORD, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;

Psalm 105:1
Oh, give thanks to the LORD! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples!

Psalm 106:1
Praise the LORD! Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

Psalm 140:13
Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your name; The upright shall dwell in Your presence.

1 Thessalonians 5:18
…in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.



May you have a Blessed Thanksgiving Holiday!

Be Still and Know That I Am God

You never know what’s up ahead of you on the road of life; especially when the Lord sends exhortations like what He’s been giving us. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been teaching from the topic Assured and Secured in Your Relationship with God.

We began with a couple of weeks of teaching, followed by a couple weeks of answering questions. We even talked about following the leading of the Holy Spirit in moments of crisis.

This past Saturday night, we received a phone call from our nephew, that grandpa (Carol’s dad) had been hospitalized and wasn’t doing well. We learned he had actually been in the hospital all week. Not realizing just how serious his condition was, we decided that we would go see him the next day, immediately after our Sunday Gathering.

During the night we could feel a great stirring in our hearts. Even as we prepared for our weekly time of worship and teaching, we knew that the meeting was not going to go according to any planned agenda. From the start, the Holy Spirit moved upon us in travailing prayer after we sang the song, I Just Know We Win.
The opening lyrics of that tune declare,

I just know when life goes wrong to give a sacrifice of praise.
I just know when I’m in a storm to give a sacrifice of praise.
I just know when I’m in a mess to give a sacrifice of praise.
I just know in strife and stress to give a sacrifice of praise.

The Spirit of God led us to Psalm 61:1-4 which reads: “Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings.”

The Spirit of God moved upon one sister and she began to sing as the Lord gave her a prophetic word for the church family in the form of a song. Part of the song came from Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God!”

Afterwards, I shared briefly with everyone about Carol’s father and told them of our plans to go to the hospital immediately afterwards. However, I asked all the women to pray. So the wonderful women of our church family gathered around my wife and prayed for her. They uttered profound, faith-filled, powerful prayers that flowed in agreement with what the Holy Spirit was speaking.

The Lord impressed Carol’s mother, to have us to sing a song called You Are Here. Part of those lyrics:

You are here in our midst. How we’ve waited for moments like this.
Have your way in this place; Holy Spirit come do as you wish.
We are changed as you move in our midst.

There was such a gentle and sweeping move of the Lord as we wept in His presence.

In closing, the Lord gave me a word of encouragement taken from the Bible passage where Joseph spoke to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”

As we prepared to leave for the day, Carol received a call from her nephew to let us know that her dad had passed away. From the time that he indicated that he passed on, it was at the same time the women were praying for her.

As I hugged my stunned and disappointed wife, I heard the Words the Lord had just given us during the meeting, “Be still and know that I am God.” Carol's mom expressed that she was thankful that even though they had separated and divorced many years ago, she could honestly say that there was no bitterness in her heart towards her ex-husband and father of her children. Even though saddened by the news, she had indeed been healed by the power of forgiveness.

We cannot explain why it happened this way. We desperately wanted to see my father in law one more time. We wanted to go to the hospital in the glory of that service and pray for Him. But we bow humbly to the sovereign Lord of our lives.

These are the times that we realize why we must be assured and secure in our relationship with God. These are the times you find out if you truly have a solid relationship with Him. These are the times that give legitimacy to the strategy and emphasis of this ministry.

Many of us are in the grieving process in this church. Over the past couple of years we have seen loss at many levels ranging from divorce to death. This year alone we have seen some extremely painful and tragic deaths amongst our family and friends.

And yes, even though we give praise to God in spite of the loss, we still have a healing process to go through. That’s why we don’t preach sermons to condemn people who are going through their healing process. They are fighting through all kinds of mental and emotional trauma. Sometimes they respond in sinful, ungodly ways in their grief. But that’s why we are allowing that unique anointing that was upon Jesus to come through us to minister to one another.

I want to show you something from Isaiah 61. Look at verse one and verse three. I want you to combine those two verses as if though it was one sentence. We’re not doing injustice to the Word of the Lord by doing this because of the grammatical structure of the sentences.

Isaiah 61: 1 and 3 says, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me to console those who mourn (grieve) in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”

Jesus was anointed to console those in Zion who are still in their grieving process. Console means to remove the sense of loss. That’s more than just embracing someone to comfort them. This anointing removes the sense of the loss that causes the pain in our grief. That anointing is on this ministry for you and your family! That anointing is present to give you beauty (a crown of distinction); to give you the oil of joy; and to give you a garment of praise!

So even as my wife, my sons, and our family are going through this loss, just like most of you have experienced this year, we all can now receive the consoling, healing touch of Jesus in this moment. As we always tell you, we’re all on this journey together.

When we get together again this Sunday, let’s not make it a solemn occasion. Let’s make it a praise celebration because what was meant for evil, God is turning it for our good. We choose to be still and know that He is God!

Chris Green