Back to the Grind(stone) pt. 2

So I absolutely love blogging. I find during the time of writing, I am able to reflect upon my heart and reexamine the things I wanted to say. Usually I gain another insight. Sometimes I just stop writing altogether because I decide it does not need to be shared. (This happened more in the Xanga days. I am glad those posts did not get published...) And sometimes I find myself going off on a tangent, a good one, that should be followed through upon. This last post was kind of a victim of that, so I separated my thoughts so I could 1) provide ease for the reader in length of post (which must be a joke), and 2) I myself could stop typing because I got tired. Yeah, it happens. You now know my heart.

Part one of this "series" hits more on the title's "Back to the Grind". Things are picking up once again. Life that rested over the holidays is once again in full swing. Soon enough, we will see creation reviving itself as it does annually, launching us into the beautiful, warm, pleasant, temperate, not cold, Chaco-weather, I-can-stop-freezing-to-death season of the year.

I find this introduction rather prophetic for this post, for when I started my last, the title was accurately stated for my heart:

Back to the Grind(stone) pt. 1

Happy New Year! Welcome 2012!

As I was just looking at my old post, I could not believe it had been over three weeks since I last posted! I am sure all of you have been sitting on pins and needles waiting to hear what has been happening with me since my last post. I apologize for this, and I soon hope to disclose this!

My last series of posts were covering the prayer burns we hosted last fall, the one before that my Southeast Trip. There is so much to mention between these two events, not even including the South Mississippi Trip I made after the semester ended!

Yet before moving back into recording and reporting past events,

Burning the Night Away: Part 3

"The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out..." This verse from Chapter 6 of Leviticus was one of the primary motivations that spurred on the Moravians who started one of the most influential movements of 24/7 prayer the world has ever seen. One of the greatest missions movements exploded from this prayer movement, with hundreds of missionaries being released to the world, including some who sold themselves into slavery in order to take the good news to the slaves! The current ratio of missionaries to laypersons in the Protestant church is 1:5000, but within the Moravians, the ratio was closer to 1:60! This began when 24 men and 24 women covenanted together for 24/7 prayer, a prayer meeting that last at least a 100 years, one source even stated it lasted 120...

120. It is a simple number really in comparison to all the other numbers in the world. 10 times 12, or even 5 times 24. 24. 24 hours makes up 1 day. So 5 times 24 is 120, and 24 hours equals 1 day, so 5 times 1 day equals 5 days, which also equals 120 hours. Is this confusing enough yet?

Well, about a week and a half ago, I sat in the prayer room with several others as we concluded our second prayer burn of the fall. It had been a long, hard, but good week for myself, but it seemed like everyone else who had passed through the prayer room doors had really enjoyed it. My friend Chad had been reading something from the book "Until He Comes" by Billy Humphrey, and he asked if he could share it with everyone. I read it myself, noticed it was about the Moravians, and gave the green light. As he read it

Burning the Night Away: Part 2

When I began my last post, MY desire was to share about our first prayer burn in November, but as you can see, I never got to it. No, I find my last post much more important than any recap I could have shared with you at the time. In fact, if you look hard enough, I believe anyone can see where it was that I stopped and prayed, asking God to say and share what He wanted to say and share, and the results were incredible. The vision and principle of the Church joining together for 24/7 prayer is the foundation of our prayer burns, and without being able to grasp that, one cannot grasp the prayer burns and the happenings not just in Starkville at MSU but across the world.

24/7 prayer is sweeping the world right now. Prayer burns, prayer weeks, prayer rooms, prayer furnaces, houses of prayer, and whatever-other-crazy-name-you-can-think-of-then-made-plural are popping up all over the world. The Church is grasping the need for prayer and the desire of the returning of Christ by dropping to our knees for His justice to be shown. The Lord even said He had posted watchmen on the walls to cry out day and night until He made Jerusalem the praise of the earth! This truly is the desire of God! So a big part of our vision with the prayer burns is if we can champion the vision and principle of 24/7 prayer, it does not matter what we do or where we go, we can carry this with us, impacting all of those around us, carrying on our role as the royal priesthood!

So with such a foundation laid, I feel released to share about the 68 Hour Prayer Burn! While carrying the vision for prayer in Starkville, I did not know what it would look like exactly,

Burning the Night Away: Part 1

This fall has proven to be a crazy busy one. It is always hard to explain that to others (at least I think so). How do you tell someone who works full time that things are busy when you do not have a job nor are in school? Sounds hypocritical to me. Yet this fall has been busy (and restful, too. That cannot be denied).

When people ask me what I have been doing, the first two months I replied, "I have been meeting with guys on campus doing discipleship and trying to make it around to visit people." Yet this was always an incomplete answer. There was always a third vision and goal I was pressing in for: fostering a vision for a prayer movement on campus. The Lord gave me a vision for prayer here in Starkville and at MSU before I left to return home, and upon returning, He started providing for it!

One crazy story: