Prayer Focus for September 5 By Pastor Tony

When God called Abraham to go for Him, God spoke these words:

“Go … to the land I will show you … and I will bless you … and you will be a blessing … and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

I consider this to be perhaps the interpretive key to understanding the rest of the Bible’s grand story.  It also helps us to put “UP, IN and OUT” into perspective.  When God invites us to follow Jesus and receive the blessing of an eternal relationship with the Creator that is NOT an end in itself.  We, too, are told to go.  “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,” Jesus said. (Matthew 28:18)  “And you will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth,” he would add a bit later. (Acts 1:8)

Like Abraham of old, we are a “sent” people … sent OUT to be the very presence of Jesus Christ in the world.  It is a high calling!  It is a big challenge!!  It will not be done well without prayers of God’s people.

UP!  IN!  OUT!  I see a Biblical progression here.  We connect UP to God.  By God’s grace and invitation we enter into relationship with God through our faith in Christ.  It is the beginning of a lifelong journey.  But that is not the end of it.  UP leads us naturally and normally IN to the family of God, the church.  By the way, that is not a choice, but a by-product of our relationship to God in Christ.  To be united to Christ is to be united to ALL who are united to Christ.  We now have sisters and brothers whom WE did not choose.  God does the choosing!

We are connected UP with God and IN with all whom God has chosen that together we may be sent OUT to influence the world for Christ.  That is the natural flow of things.  UP! IN! OUT!  Like Abraham and Sarah we are “blessed to be a blessing to all peoples.”  So we build houses for the poor with Habitat for Humanity.  We care for the homeless in Des Moines with Bethel Mission and men broken by alcohol with Door of Faith.  We provided school supplies and backpacks for needy children and youth in Ankeny.  We donate food and dollars for local food pantries and, with our friends down the street at Hope Ankeny, we serve a weekly meal to the hungry.  In the Christmas season we provide care boxes to children of the poor in faraway lands and come alongside needy Ankeny families so that their children can open presents on Jesus’ birthday.  We donate Hipporollers to ease the burden of women and children carrying water to their homes in Kenya.  We sponsor disadvantaged children in Honduras and Brazil.  We give baby diapers to stressed moms who have chosen the gift of life for their unborn children.

We connect UP to God, IN to one another, that through us the love of Christ may flow OUT to the world.

For the outwardly focused ministries listed above I invite your prayers.