E-Haus Men and Prayer

About three weeks ago, I realized God faithfully answered one of my biggest prayers from this summer. He has blessed me with an incredible group of younger guys to lead in studying Scripture each week. I'm blessed to lead with two other upperclassmen and we are overwhelmed each week at how much God displays His grace in our Bible study. There about eight to ten guys from the communities of Ehringhaus and Koury who come on a regular basis. My first Bible study in college only had five people and two of those five were leaders. So I think the sheer number of young men willing to come to Bible study on a weekly basis is a HUGE testament to the grace of God! Yet, it's not always about quantity, but also it's about quality. The guys I lead are solid because Christ reigns in their lives! God's already brought the majority of them to an understanding of His great love. This is clearly evident in their moral fiber, missional focus, and knowledge of Scripture.

Praise God for answering my prayers for these guys! When Miles first asked me to lead a Bible study, I started praying right away for my Bible study. I consistently prayed over the summer for group unity, chemistry, understanding, accountability, and transparency. Before I met the guys, I prayed God would draw them close to Him and open their eyes to the beauty of the cross. I asked God for wisdom and divine guidance for myself and the other leaders. Continually, I prayed for these things in Christ's name over the summer and at the beginning of this semester. Though my prayer life has dwindled in the past couple of months, I can see the ripple effects of my God-given faithfulness to prayer manifesting itself in my Bible study.

Therefore, God has shown me the importance and effectiveness of prayer. Oh, how often we forget and deny the power of prayer! Our hearts hate the idea of prayer. Prayer is dependence. It's giving up. It's saying, "God, help me! I can't do it." We rarely say anything along these lines. Our striving and efforts to do anything whether "good" or bad are generally always self-centered because we don't believe God is necessary to accomplish anything. In America, it's easy to get into such a self-reliant mentality when we live in a culture that says, "Yes, we can!" But, we must break free from this sinful self-reliance! I pray we as Christians will repent of our self-reliance and ask God to forgive us. In His forgiveness, I hope we will cling to the cross and begin to pray desperately for His presence to fully overtake us. May we lean on Him! If we come to this point of dependance, I think we will be amazed at what God will do in and through us!

I think the story of the boy with an evil spirit in Mark 9:14-32 gives a great picture of a God-centered, dependent heart. The boy's father cries out in desperation to Jesus, "I believe, help my unbelief!" This shows how we will disbelieve God on some level in everything we do during this life, but we can ask Him to help us in our unbelief. And He will!

I pray God would help me in my unbelief! I ask Him to rekindle my prayer life and to show me how much I need Him. I pray these things in Christ's name and for His sake.

In Him,

Mark

Passion 2010

I realize I haven't posted anything in a couple of weeks. Cornerstone, Summit, and school have consumed my time recently. Though some noteworthy things have occurred in my life, I haven't taken time out to write any of my latest experiences or thoughts down. So I hope to update the blog in the next few days.

To preface the upcoming updates, I want to quickly mention my excitement about Passion 2010. I'm pumped to see thousands upon thousands of college students who've experienced the great grace of God join together for worship and praise. For the conference, my prayer is that God will clearly reveal the magnitude of His holiness to all who attend. May He speak through the worship leaders and speakers to display His glory! I pray this revelation would serve as a Christ-exalting catalyst in the lives of the attendees. May it spur on the believers to repentance and laying down their lives at the cross!

Here is a challenging, convicting, God-centered clip of Piper speaking at a previous Passion conference:



I think this preview speaks volumes of how God can use a conference like Passion 2010 to impact the world for Christ. Please begin praying for God to draw more hearts closer to Him through this conference!

In Him,

Mark