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My dear friends,

Today, I want to encourage each of you with a portion of Scripture found in Psalm 91:1-6, 9-10, 14-16. This is from the New Living Translation. “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the LORD: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God, and I trust Him. For He will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. He will cover you with His feathers. He will shelter you with His wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day. Do not dread the disease that stalks about in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday. If you make the LORD your refuge, if you make the Most High you shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. The LORD says, ‘I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name. When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them. I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.'”

The challenge is for us to make the LORD our refuge and to live in the shelter of the Most High. That means that we can’t be getting up and running outside His shelter.  For it is when we get out running, distracted by all the things going on in our lives and world, that we lose our safety and security in the LORD. Our shalom fades quickly as we focus on everything around us. However, when we make HIM our refuge and intentionally live in Him with our whole selves, we can retain His shalom. Peace, shalom, is not the absence of something but the Presence of Someone, our great God! Let’s LIVE IN Him!

Loving you all and praying for each of you!

Pastor Ann

OMG has become such a part of our modern language that people don’t give it a second thought.  But what is it?  What does it mean?  Why is it so easy to say? If we back up a little…………

OH MY GOD!  No one ever says this without that exclamation point.  Sometimes its even more, as in OH! MY! GOD!

Seven letters.  So casually used, we don’t even think about their meaning.  These letters, placed in this order represent a prayer.  Not just a small little thing, but a prayer of power and perhaps of desperation.

When we are desperate, we cry out.  Even if we say we don’t believe, we cry out.  When physical pain is overwhelming and seems unending, we cry out.  When we are crushed emotionally, we cry out.  When our spirits have reached the point they can go no farther alone, WE CRY OUT.

We were made by God for fellowship with God.  I know that may sound real old fashioned and not “inclusive” according to our current culture.  The truth is that we cry out precisely because we were made by God for fellowship with Him.

Our crying out, whether it’s OMG, Oh God, Oh Please God, or another variation are all expressions of desperation.  We cry out like this when a full sentence or thought cannot come; when our ordinary, every day words are just not enough.  These utterances are our spirits reaching for the safety of home.  When nothing on earth will help, we turn to prayer. 

Once past the initial cry we are usually able to formulate the thoughts that will lead us into a deep prayer. The release of this cry will open floodgates within us if we allow it.  Desperate prayers stretch our faith and grow us spiritually as we ask and wait for results.  Desperate prayers have historically changed the world.  Elijah cried out and asked God to shut up the heavens and it didn’t rain for 3 years! 

Desperate prayers are what we need today in our country.  Prayers for the healing and protection of our country.  Prayers that will bring us back to the God of our founding fathers. 

Pastor Ann will be livestreaming at 11:15 on Sunday morning.  She will be bringing the message God wants us to understand about the great need of desperate prayer.  We hope that you’ll join us.  Please feel free to comment and share! 

• “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” —Romans 8:26-27

With modern technology, we can ask a device a question and get an answer in mere seconds. Want to know what the weather will be like before you leave for work? Technology has the answer. Want to know what time your favorite team is playing, how to get somewhere, or listen to a joke? That device has the answer for each of your questions and can even give you step-by-step directions when needed! Each question is answered with great ease and precision—as long as you know the questions you need to ask. 

Today, all over the world, Christians face many unforeseen circumstances. What happens when we’re not quite sure what to ask? What happens when life hits us with things that we can’t explain? What happens when we don’t know what to do? What happens when our world is so shaken that we can’t even process our predicament? 

For those of us in Christ, there is great comfort! The Spirit is here to help us. When we don’t know what to pray for, the Spirit takes over for us.

God has given every Christian the privilege of simply existing in His presence. When we are overwhelmed, we need not worry about what to say or do. God allows us to forget about the questions entirely because His Spirit intercedes for us! There are times when the only thing needed to have a vibrant prayer life is to exist in the presence of God. 

I don’t know the strength of your prayer life. You may use wonderful words or the simplest of phrases as you call out to Him. You may wish you had more to say in your alone time with God. Please take heart and let these words in Romans speak to you: “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God” (8:27).

Your prayer life isn’t dependent on your words—it is dependent on spending time with God. He wants to be with you, and He knows what you need even before you know what to say.

Prayer for the week: Father, allow me to exist in this moment in Your presence. Teach me how to rest in communion with Your Spirit. I don’t know what today holds, but I trust my life to you! Amen. (Now, spend some silent time in the Lord’s presence.)

Wendell Brown is district superintendent of the North Central Ohio District Church of the Nazarene. He is also the founder of Tragedy Into Triumph, a nationwide simulcast reaching hundreds of thousands of people over the last 12 years for the gospel of Christ. He is passionate about discipleship and finding new ways to tell the story of God’s love!

Written for Coffee Break. 

If you are old enough to be reading this you have already faced adversity in your life.  Adversity is part of the human condition.  No one lives on this earth in perfect bliss.  So why does everyone make such a fuss when things aren’t right? 

We all, every single one of us, wants our own way and most of us don’t like change.  Will you be honest and agree with that?  What we do when we don’t get our way tells others who we are and who we follow. 

Learning to trust God when things aren’t right is a large part of believing in Him and being a Christ follower.  It’s easy to say I believe in Jesus when life is easy and we are having things our own way.  It involves growing in faith, growing in trust in our relationship with Him, to say this when a new virus is discovered, when the economy takes a downturn, or when it gets a bit more personal.  Our faith is tested when our child becomes seriously ill, when we are forced to consider changing jobs or our living arrangements are altered. 

Pastor Ann will be talking to us about a remarkable man and how we can have faith like his tomorrow morning, Sunday March 15, 2020.  We will be live-streaming her message on Facebook at 11:30 a.m.  Please join us!