Prayer that Restores

The LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold. Job 42:10 NASV

I am drawn back to this verse over and over again.  After all Job had been through in his catastophic loses, after all his friends had put him through in wrongly accusing him of some secret, terrible sin that forced God to bring all this "punishment" upon him, yet Job still prayed for his friends.  Grieving, forsaken, broken Job utters a prayer of intercession for friends that had just bashed him.  Amazing.

But something unasked takes place.  Job himself is restored.

He had lost so much - children, possessions, health - but after he prays for his friends he is restored.  It is the turning point in the book of Job.  It was the turning point in his life; a simple but sacrificial prayer.  We never know what prayer can do until we pray.

On this journey we travel together, it is vitally important that we make prayer a part of all we do.  Would you be willing to join me in using our new website and its prayer possibilities as way of seeing what God can do through prayer? 

What we are asking people to do is sign up to be an "intercessory prayer partner."  After signing up, you will receive training on how to go to the website and see the requests that have come in to Northside on the web and on Sunday. Then you will find a time to pray for these needs.  You will see ways to sign up this Sunday and in the Sunday's to come. 

Big things can happen in prayer.  And they may happen in our own lives.

For the journey...

What Really Lasts?

Early in August we were driving my daughter home from DFW Airport through the maze of freeways and constructions zones that is the metroplex when we came into an area I thought I should know.  There was road work going on but I knew I had driven this part of the freeway many times before but something was different.

Around a detoured corner we passed a huge pile of concrete rubble and twisted steel rebar.  "What IS that?" I wondered out loud.  Then it hit me what that WAS.  It was Texas Stadium, recently imploded, now being broken down into dump truck size loads and being thrown away. 

I flashed back to my first of only two times to go there.  When I was in high school my aunt and uncle took me to see the Dallas Cowboys play the St. Louis Cardinals on Thanksgiving Day 1976.  I saw Stauback and Landry and other men I thought to be "immortal" in a place I thought would be "eternal."  I could not have imagined on that day, that it would all be rubble on this day.

As I get older, it amazes me now how many things that I thought would last - that I assumed would always be there - are now gone.  We don't have a good grip on "eternal."  But God brings what is really lasting within any one's grasp.  True eternity is as close as finding a faith in your own heart and allowing words to come out of your own mouth. In an amazing simplicity God brings eternity to us and asks us to make a choice, a decision about what we believe to be eternal and about what we trust to last.  We will look at that this Sunday.  Come ready to make a choice.

Something to Grow On

We just finished a statistical year at Northside.  I know it passed with out much fanfare but there are some things I wanted to share with you about what the numbers say is happening.  For the most part it was an incredible year of growth. 

In typical Baptist fashion, let me start with baptisms, we had 52 this year, up from 33 last year.  We now have over 2,000 resident members, 2,012 to be exact.  We were at 1,990 last year.  Our overall Sunday morning worship average grew from 637 last year to an average of 703 this year.  Other areas had some modest growth, other areas were down some but overall we have seen God really bless us.  We have cause to be thankful.

We also have cause to be busy.  The growth we have seen just touches the potential and the need.  I also read this week where on any given Sunday only 5 out of 100 Texans will be in a Baptist church and only 20 out of 100 will be in any evangelical church.

More people have joined us in the journey at Northside.  Many more need to know that they can join us and that God has a path for all of us through this life with Him.  This Sunday we will pick back up on our series  "The Path."  We will discuss the path to life's greatest gift.  I hope you will join us and bring some one along for the journey.

5 Ways I Wish I Was Like My Beagle

Walking my dogs the past few mornings, I have begun to admire my beagle, "Bailey."  There is much that irritates me about her as a year old, overly excitable puppy/dog but there are things I am learning to appreciate, even wish I could be more like.

I wish...

...I could be as happy as she is to greet people who wake me up from a nap.  Of course sleeping about 12 hours a day like she does would help me be happy to see anyone.

... I could enjoy my sense of smell like she does.  God made her to smell things out and she sniffs up things to the glory of God.  To me, most of it I can't smell or it just smells to high heaven.  To her, everything is an odoriferous adventure.  I don't want to like what she likes, I just wish I could like more of what I encounter.

... I could get as excited about exercise as she does.  The word "walk" will wake her from a dead sleep with perked ears and wide open eyes.  I wish I had a word that would do that for me. It would be my new alarm clock.

... I could see everyone I encounter as a new friend.  She never meets a stranger.  Of course, it I jumped up on people, wagged my tail and licked people's toes like she does, I would not have many friends.

... I could enjoy life as much as she does.  Dogs never seem to worry about their mortgage or seem to be troubled by the economy.  She seems to be happy with how God made her and where she is in life.  Yes, she enjoys chewing up things too much but overall she enjoys being who she is and what she does. 

Do you really enjoy what you do?  Is there purpose in your work life?  How do you make a difference in what you have to do?  We will look at those questions Sunday and see how God helped Moses to be a difference maker at his job.  I hope you will join me.