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Dear People of the Northstate Vision:
This week is the week in which Shasta County has primary responsibility for the
rolling concert of prayer in California. I recently asked all of you to participate
in forty days of prayer and fasting for California. This prayer time was called out
by Pray California and I enthusiastically signed off on it. While on my way to a
pastor’s prayer gathering in Siskiyou County I was shown the high stakes for which
we pray. As I neared Castle Crags God filled my car with His presence. Through my
tears and gaspings for breath (He must have been driving the car) I saw His heart
beating with His overwhelming love for California and her people. It was outside
of His Body and He showed me that His love is so big that His Body cannot contain it.
It is His prayer (John 17:23) that we would image Him, that we would step out of our
portion of His Body, our stream of His Church, our personal community, our personal
life and calling and just beg Him to assume Lordship over these things and begin
with us. California is in grave danger – but not from the Lord our God. The danger
comes from our disregard and disengagement with Him and with one another. The period
of prayer and fasting is His prescription for healing – and we are nearing the last call.
Diana joins me in asking that we make prayer for re-engagement not our first but our
only priority.
It is a simple call that is issued. We are asked to pray daily – for whatever length
of time God enables. We are asked to call forth His Kingdom in our state as it is
described in Matthew 11:2-6. We are asked to repent as that process is described in
Psalm 85 and Jeremiah 29:11-13 (yes that is repentance) and Luke 3:3-8. We are asked
to forgive as we are forgiven and to seek forgiveness even before we offer it. We are
asked to persist in that process as it is depicted in Luke 18:1-8 and Isaiah 62:6-7.
We are asked to bless the Jews as it says in Genesis 12:3. And we are asked to make our
prayer pragmatic.
In Isaiah 58 and Matthew 25 – not to mention throughout the letter of James – we
are told that prayers that do not issue in pragmatic acts of godliness are mere window
dressing. We have several opportunities to put feet to our prayers in October.
On October 15 Carenet Pregnancy Center of Tri Counties and LifeLight Pregnancy Center
of Redding hold their biggest annual fundraisers. In addition, they model cooperation
in a world that seems to thrive on competition; they have deliberately left their
schedules intact in hopes that they can bless one another. In a state that accounts
for 25% of the abortions performed nationally these ministries offer faith-filled
alternatives to desperate women. The Shasta County Board of Supervisors even
recognizes this effort by proclaiming the week of October 10 Culture of Life Week.
Carenet holds its annual walk-for-life on Saturday Morning – 9 to 2 – at their 810
Lake Blvd office in Redding and their new (this is the Grand Opening Day) Red Bluff
Office on Walnut Avenue in the Salvation Army building. Pray for this ministry and –
as the Lord leads – plan to obtain sponsors and walk for them (call 530-246-7075) or
sponsor Diana and me as we walk (call us at 530-941-3470 or e-mail back). If you
sponsor us do not make checks to PrayNorthstate – this is not about us – but make
them to Carenet Pregnancy Center.
LifeLight holds its annual dinner and auction at Redding Christian Fellowship on
Victor Avenue just below Highway 44 at 5 PM on Saturday Evening. Admission of $5.00
includes dinner and there is opportunity to bid on many auction items with all proceeds
going to LifeLight. Diana and I will be there and hope you will join us; call
530-246-2229 or 222-3425 for information. For those who do not live in Shasta County –
pray anyway and ask God to show you the life affirming ministry counterparts where you
live so that you can put feet to your prayers locally.
California is also home to disproportionately high rates of divorce, suicide, and
issues of gender and sexual confusion – to put it non-judgmentally. Imago Dei
Ministries and Redding First Nazarene Church will co-sponsor Sy Rogers in a day-long
seminar at the Bechelli Lane location of the Church on Saturday, October 22. Rogers
will teach on liberation from five areas of sexual broken-ness. Call the church at
530-223-0454 for information or to register. Again, if you cannot attend because of
distance please pray and seek opportunities to minister or support ministry in your
community. Prayer is the primary thing to which we are called in these days, but
prayer from the heart empowers us to walk in God’s footsteps even as it paves a way
on which He may walk.
Finally, I ask you to pray for me as I present a workshop on our Bible reading
marathon at the National Day of Prayer Coordinators’ Training Event in Colorado Springs
on October 21. I will also be ministering in an Anglican church in that city and
preparing to bless two churches, lead a Listening Team meeting and a men’s retreat,
and preach at a couple of services in San Diego County the following week. The timing
prevents me from personally attending the Sy Rogers seminar but I will be praying for
it and for our region as I know the Imago Dei and Nazarene leaders will be praying for me.
In my fifty-seven years of life on this planet I have never witnessed greater danger
or greater opportunity. We know who wins in the end. The question is whether at the end
of the day we will say, “I wish I had been a part of that,” or “Thank God I got to be a
part of that.” Please pray and please let your prayers lead to even greater participation
in the unfolding love of God – the beating of His heart for California.
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