Well Steve and I have officially moved into the Big Prayer House. And it's truly caught me by surprise. I am loving the idea of being in the house and the opportunity it is to be working in and for our community.... The shocking part was how scared, unsettled, angry and sad I felt.
Say what!?!? I am moving in a house dedicated to prayer, God, love and generally good vibes and the major emotions I have been feeling are negative? I think it really weirded me out because I just couldn't understand myself. Whenever I experience the unexplainable it always harder to accept.
I've been thinking and thinking and thinking about this. I've been so busy moving that honestly beside little snippets of prayer saying "oh thanx for letting us move here God" I haven't really been chatting with Him at all. (I mean I had boxes to unpack and rooms to organize!!) ***blush****shame***ducks head****
When I was at work someone asked me how it was going. I answered honestly and said "Well we got all the boxes and stuff into the house, but this move caught me off guard... I didn't expect to FEEL different with this move because we just were moving around the corner"....
I didn't expect to FEEL different....
This move caught me off guard...
I kept thinking about how I responded to my co-worker...wondering even more why this was? The other day as I was deep in thought I started asking God what the deal was. Why was I finding this hard? What were these feelings? This move isn't FAR... I've moved much FURTHER in the past, shouldn't this be easy?
I didn't audibly hear a voice, but this soft thought came into my head followed by the sweet comfort that I have come to know as my God being near to me... "Moving nearer to me isn't always easy, but it will be worth it." and then "Learn what this feels like, let it teach you, let it grow you."
Let it teach me what? Let it grow me?
Why is God so weird!!?!?
Why is God so weird!!?!?
I had to let this question really sink into my soul. How could moving just around the corner teach me more about God or people? What was he on about? I chewed on it a bit more.
This morning Steve kissed me good-bye before his went to work... I tried to fall back asleep (because he leaves crazy early in the morning to go to his school job. Hollah!! out there for all the teacher, staff, parents and students that do that on a regular biases!), but for some reason this morning I couldn't doze back off. I started thinking again about this place and how we have moved here to pray and how we believe that prayer changes things.
Then it hit me. God was teaching me how to be understanding and accepting of people who don't yet believe in him, or those who desperately want to pray and learn to chat with him, but think they have to sort out their life first before God will speak to them, or people that have KNOWN God for years, but just want to BE with him, or people that want to be spiritual, but are held back by their logic and feelings and struggle to understand or believe in God because they can't feel Him, or people like ME who get crazy busy with life and we forget to include God in it...
For all those people that hold back, get distracted or are down right lazy (me!) from MOVING nearer to God because they think connecting with God is some BIG moment with out realizing its more about the little moments, the little effort, the little moves that often bring us the nearest to God.
Being connected to God isn't about GREAT MOVES... its simply rising to the challenge to move nearer to God when and where he has us.
But wait a second "moving nearer to God"? That is a bit out there, how can we as regular people move nearer to God?!? We realistically can't shoot ourselves into the heavens can we?
But wait a second "moving nearer to God"? That is a bit out there, how can we as regular people move nearer to God?!? We realistically can't shoot ourselves into the heavens can we?
I wondered how we do this... How do I do this? Then a bible verses popped into my head:
"The Word (that's Jesus, the Son of God) became flesh and blood.... " just stop for a moment and think about that... the very spiritual, unseen, untouchable, unfeelable God the Son decided to be changed into something physical, seen, touchable and feeling-ful... woah! But back to this verse...
"The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one of a kind glory, like Father, like Son, GENEROUS inside and out, TRUE from start to finish." (John 1:14)
Are you getting this? God, who created all of this universe, if you can wrap your mind and heart around believing, went from being a fully spiritual being to being both fully God AND fully man.... and then he...
Took over the world....
Found the biggest and most royal castle and ruled the world he created from there.....
defeated every great ruler of his time and became the Emperor of the World!!!!!!
What!?!? NOOOOOOOOO!!!
This great God of ours, through Jesus, chose to begin his great story simply when he "moved into the neighborhood".
Not a great move, but a small one... not an easy move, but a hard one (after all it cost Jesus his life!). A totally SPIRITUAL act of redemption through a totally PHYSICAL act of living and being human on this earth. God's story of connecting to us is about him moving his spiritual self to connect with our physical reality in an effort to show us that are physical existence is connected to his spiritual reality.
Say what!?!? Basically what I am trying to say is this: if you want to meet God, if you want to connect with Him, if you want to BE with him... sometimes you need to be willing to MOVE.
Sometimes that moving will involve you moving from one form of thinking to another, maybe another moving will be about you intentionally getting up and going to a prayer room and being there to pray, or maybe in your own home you need to move from sitting when you pray to kneeing (or vis-a-versa) or maybe you will be moved to help your neighbor, share your food or be friendly to a stranger, or maybe you need to move to get your bible and actually read it and learn who this God is about instead of just saying all the time you want to know God but never making the effort to meet him, or maybe he is asking you to move house...
I think sometimes people look at people who are "into God" or "more spiritual then they are" and they simply assume that those people where born that way or dipped in some kind of special holy water. Those people who are better than us at being Godly must have some super God gene that was just built into them...right?? right?? RIGHT!?!?
Well let me tell you, as someone that is "into God", I am no different than any other person. I have questions about God existence, I am jealous of those who are more kind, compassionate and loving than myself, sometimes I want to slap people who are able to trust God and be secure in His love when their lives are going down the crapper. I struggle on a daily biases to even care to read my bible, pray or attend church gatherings.... BUT (and there is always a good but in the end of a blog).... I learned a few years back that "MOVING nearer to God isn't always easy, but it is WORTH IT".
So here is the challenge for us all. If you are interested in connecting with God when was the last time you moved for him? Not just spiritually ... but physically too! When did you last move to pick up that bible, kneel down to pray, go for a walk to talk to God, make that meal for the sick person, donate to your local homeless shelter, be kind to that lonely neighbor, recycle to take care of the planet, teach your kids to value quality over quantity, attended that group that talks about Jesus, went to a prayer room to meet God....???
The list of how, when and where to meet God is endless and totally personal... I couldn't begin to tell you how to do it... but I do know it will take YOU MOVING! After all, connecting with God is a two way street, its as much about God moving into our neighbourhood to be with us as it is about us moving into God.
So will you move?
I will because today I am Moved to Pray.
Steve and I are co-leaders of Colchester Boiler Room, a 24-7 Prayer Community. We recently have been asked to job share a community worker role through a project called Abbeyfield Community Project. This project is supported by 7 local churches and has a vision to plant local missional churches on 6 newly build estates around the Abbeyfields in Colchester.
Part of this role comes with use of a large 4 bedroom house that over the last 3 1/2 years has been used by our community to be a home to a family of 3 and prayer community. The combo has worked really well and Steve and I are excited by the idea of continuing this with a bit of a twist.
The twist being that we are hoping to share the house with a few different people.
Steve, Clare Field and I are all current members of the Colchester Boiler Room and are over joyed by the idea of moving into the house to live missionally for Jesus on our estate. But we want to ask for more. Steve and I have been married for the last two years and are in our late 20s early 30s and Clare is in her mid 20s. We all work full time jobs in Colchester and have a heart for prayer, people and Jesus.
Are you coming to live in Colchester.... Would you like to?!? Want to live in a missional house with 3 other people?
We seeking a 4th person join us to live in the house and share our passion for Jesus, Community and Prayer. This is not just about a house share, its an invitation to join intentional living and being missional. The type of person we are looking for is someone who is about prayer, wants to help keep the prayer room open, creative and prayed in. The person would want to help us be hospitable and creative to our neighbours. They would like the idea of eating together, studying the bible together and being nice to people. They MUST love Jesus and want to make him a priority in their life. Ideally we would love this to be a single man, as this would help to give balance in our house. We also would love it if they were only working part-time or less (or studying at uni!?!) and could be around and available in our community and house. (and since we have been blessed with the house the cost of living is going to be minimal). We would love for them to have a heart for local mission, English people, prayer, neighbours, being creative, a heart for 20 to 30 year olds and a desire to meeting new people. We'd also loved them to like the idea of living in Colchester and really blessing this normal town. If you know someone that is looking to get involved in a Christ- centred prayer community but not sure how to make it happen, have them contact us. Or if it is you, then contact us!
We are all planning to move into the house in September 2013. So spread the word. If you or someone you know is moving to Colchester or is already in Colchester and wants to get involved in a local, missional, prayer community then have them contact us. Email either Steve (mctkz@aol.com) or Tina (rockstartina83@gmail.com) or give us call on 07904207238 (steve) or 07769978216 (Tina)
We would love to chat with you about what is all involved and seeing if it is a good fit for us all. Really look forward to chatting with you!
CHECK OUT COLCHESTER BOILER ROOM'S BLOG:
http://colchesterboilerroom.blogspot.co.uk/
Dear All,
This is an open invitation to the people of the world (or readers of my blog) to offer an invitation to interested individuals to join our prayer community here at the Colchester Boiler Room Community (Colchester, Essex).
We recently have had one of our young professionals let us know that she would be interested in moving nearer to our estate to specifically live in a community house with other Christians, be intentional about prayer and supporting the mission and vision of our Colchester Boiler Room Community.
The time scale for this invitation is a short one:
We are looking for a minimum of 2 more people to move into this house (either move from another part of Colchester or move completely to Colchester). If we get a group interested, we would start looking for a house by the 1st of June 2012 for a move in date of no later than the 1st of July 2012.
We would be most interested to have single young professionals age 20 to 30, but are eager for people who simply have a heart for loving Jesus, prayer and community. Members of the house would need to have a means of funding themselves: meaning rent for the house, their lifestyle and bills (we would assume most would need a part-time to full-time job). They would also need to be able to commit to being a part of a community and getting involved at Colchester Boiler Room for a minimum of 1 year.
Colchester Boiler Room Community would classify itself as a missional, prayer, organic and nontraditional form of church.
The vision and mission of Colchester Boiler Room is Jesus. Our commitment is to God and each other and is expressed most simply in our community prayer "Lord, Jesus help me to be true to you, kind to people and take the Gospel to the nations".
Being a part of Colchester Boiler Room Community offers its members a chance to be in a Christ centered community, do focused community work on a 200+ house estate and get involved in creative prayer. Below are some of the activities are community chooses to express and meet Jesus in:
- Maintaining an allotment
- Hosting a Toddler Group
- Organizing Messy Church for Families on our estate
- Facilitating a girls club for 8-12 year olds
- Communal teaching and learning of God Story
- Extended time of Prayers for community, the Nations and children
- Volunteering with a local charity for homeless youth
- Youth Football Club
- Starting Prayer in Clubs
- Organizing two/threes for mentoring and deeper bible learning
- Arranging House Concerts for Young Adults (20-30s)
At the moment we predominately work with young families and children. Building off this momentum we are seeing we are praying for breakthrough among young professionals (20 to 30 year olds). We are hoping that the addition of even just two to three more Christian young professionals would help us pioneer relationships among young adults that we have been praying for.
If you are looking to get involved in a prayer community, can commit a year of your life to praying more and serving more on our estate and see yourself pioneering ministry among young adults, children and families then consider joining us.
This is not a specifically organized discipleship program, but it is a chance to join in with a community and be discipled with us as we all journey and learn together. Our estate isn't fancy and sometimes it gets boring, but if you want a chance to live in a Christ-centered community and prayer like you have never prayed before, then I whole heartily invite you to join us. We need people and are trusting God to stir the hearts of those He is asking to join us.
Contact me at: rockstartina83@gmail.com
Well, with these first few days of March comes the groggy morning stretches and yawning of our little Colchester Boiler Room Community allotment. I went out today just to have a peak at our slightly stirring, slightly snoozing patch. A few greenhouse supplies lay scattered, some winter veggies seem to be nudging their little noses out from the warm brown earth covers and the sweet morning breath of spring eagerly filled my nose. I hope to keep a little dairy of my allotmentting adventure...
Adventure 1: We are hoping to plant brussels sprouts, carrots, spinach beets, broad beans and cauliflower in the next couple of weeks. (I am told these are the hardy veggies that can still stand some of our cold english spring nights).
The carrots, spinach beet, cauliflower and broad beans will go directly in to our raise bed soil (we built and dug them over this winter).
The brussels sprouts will first get planted into a pot to make sure the coldest part of winter is really by us. (I'll report back when we get them into soil).
As I am laying out these 5 packets of seeds I am challenged to think of 5 hopeful prayers I have for my community this summer. Allotmentting is such a great prayer tool! This summer I pray:
1. To see more 20 and 30 year old on our estate fall deeper in love with Jesus and join His community
2. To meet all my neighbors and know them more then just a casual wave
3. To find and come alongside the poor in my neighborhood
4. To have 24 hours of unstopped prayer facilitated by our Colchester Boiler Room
5. To help develop the first steps of a starting a Discipleship House here in Colchester
If you want to experience a bit of magic this spring/summer come join in planting some veggies this season... and sowing your prayers into them as well. I can testify one of the most magical things a human can experience is seeing a plant through its planting, nurturing, growing and harvesting season! And definitely one of the most miraculous experience a human can have is seeing God answer prayers. I'm so very excited to grow and see some magic!
About Me
- Teen Bean
- I'm just some regular girl trying her best to be a good friend, woman, christ-follower, wife, mom and adventurer (in no particular order). I love variety, trying new things and meeting new people and sharing experiences with others. All of which in one form or another can be found in this space. WELCOME!
Heart Heart Time!
Stevie and Beanie
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