He was brn in a small middle-eastern country bordering Syria.  Born to wealthy parents…educated in the finest university in the country, some suggest that he was next in line to take over the family housing construction business. Yet at some point in his life there was a significant embracing of his heritage — especially his religious heritage. There is good indication that this was passed down from his parents, but we are not entirely certain.

What we do know is that in time he became a zealous follower of his religious heritage, and he began to view Christians as dire enemies to that heritage.  He gained the support of religious and — at least to some extent — national leaders; he began to gather people whom he could influence; and he began to terrorize those who did not have the proper fear of his god.

Christians especially were terrorized, held in captivity, tortured, killed.  But not just in his land, he extended his reach even to foreign cities.  It was less through his religious convictions and more through his terroristic strikes, that he became a household name.  And now we know that he was directly involved in the killing of many innocent people.

But then one day as he traveled to Damascus, intent on the development of a new plan to instill fear in the hearts of those who didn’t follow his true way, he had an encounter with God…the one true God.  In a letter to friends he described it this way,

At noon, along the road…I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who traveled with me.  Everyone fell to the ground and I heard a voice speaking to me in Hebrew, “…why are you persecuting me?”  ”Who are you?” he asked.  And the Lord replied, “I am Jesus, who you are persecuting. Now stand up!  For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant.  Tell the world about this experience and about other times that I will appear to you. I am going to send you…to open their eyes so they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to the power of God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.

You may have figured it out.  His name was not Osama Bin Laden — the picture was for effect — his name was Saul…later his life was so radically re-created that he took on a new name –Paul.  Former terrorist.  Former killer of Christians.  Then God reached down in amazing grace and changed his heart, brought him on the team.

Lately we have the NYC mosque controversy; we have a church burning Korans; and we have Christians trying to figure out what they should do.  But if the goal is to do what Jesus did…don’t we already know the answer?  Is God unable to do today, what He did back then?  Is anyone still praying for Osama Bin Laden?  Is anyone praying for the Imam who is leading the NYC Mosque plans?

Pastor Terry Jones is leading the charge to burn Korans.  He said, “Radical Islam could take over the United States and the best way to fight back is by sending a radical message.”  Actually…I agree.  I just don’t think burning Korans is radical enough.  I think it will take something more like the radical message of grace, the radical message of the cross, the radical message that in Christ, God is no longer counting our sins against us.

Ancient mystics held to the belief that the Divine inhabited certain geographic regions in a more significant manner than others. This phenomenon has been called holy ground, thin places, or sacred spaces.  I think another biblical name for it is “open heavens” and it isn’t limited by geographical boundaries, it has more to do the hearts of people in the region.

In Malachi 3:10-12, God is speaking to his people and says,

Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.

To live in an area/season of open heavens is to live under a flood of uncontainable blessings.  Imagine what it could be like to live under open heavens.  What would it be like your life was flooded with God’s blessings?

Have you ever felt lonely?  Have you ever messed up and wished you could go back for a do-over, get a fresh start?  Draw those words back into your mouth… go back to that one step that led to a journey of lies, pain, alcohol, drugs, brokeness…  Maybe somebody did something to you and you just can’t seem to recover, or maybe you did something and you can’t get your hands clean.  Do you struggle with anger, internet porn, an eating disorder?  What would it be like…if all of a sudden your life was flooded with God’s blessings?

How would it change your family?  A few less loud nights followed by a lot less silent days?  No child left behind.  No kids wondering why their mom or dad left and why they don’t love them anymore — no more abuse.  Good memories of times spent together.  Teen daughters who aren’t embarresd to walk with their dad in the mall – ok that might take more than open heavens!)

How would it change our church?  When I think of times at Calvary when we have hit the mark…as a church, I can’t help but think of…

• * Families who are adopting children in need of a home…
• * A small group finding creative ways to help single parents…
• * Dozens of people giving their spring break to go to the Dominican Republic or Estonia….
• * A family that takes in a pregnant mom…
• * Our 1% offering that makes a difference in kid’s lives around the world…
• * Somebody walking a drunk student home and the next week sharing Jesus with them…

This is a partial picture of a church overflowing with with such a flood of God’s that they cannot be contained by the walls of a building, or an institution.  Can you imagine what our community would look like if those open heavens began to grow so large that the hole in heaven encompassed the Centre Region?  What would it do to our drug problem?  What would it do the 2am Saturday night crowds?  Think of the women who would never again need to worry who the father is… the teens who would never have to go through the ordeal of deciding for or against abortion…the homes that would never be broken.

What if the Centre Region were to experience such a flood of blessings that sociologists at Penn State would write textbooks, about a sociological phenomenom called the “Open-Heaven Effect”?

We are in the midst of 21 Days of Prayer for Penn State University and we are asking God to open the heavens.

Each of our gatherings has a different day, so someone from Calvary is on campus praying every day for the 21 days…AND if everyone is praying for 3 people — and no one doubles up — then 3000+ people are being prayed for name.  By the way, with some input from others, I decided to pray specifically for 6 people — three who are not yet followers of Jesus, and three who are followers of Jesus.  I’m asking God to help His kids on campus be a great reflection of Jesus.

Lynn and I have been on campus prayer-walking three time so far — once we started at the Creamery, once we finished at the Creamery — and we’ve

1. - Prayed at Haluba Hall for the football players & coaches.
2. - Prayed at Paternoville for students to find community in Christ.
3. - Prayed at the law building that God’s grace would flow from there to the campus.
4. - Prayed for International students and the world that God brings to our doorsteps.
5. - Prayed for Students on the Blue Band.
6. - Prayed among the lab buildings for those involved in the sciences, that they would know the Creator.
7. - Prayed at Eisenhower for September 19th and the arts.
8. - Prayed for students we passed.

As Lynn and I drove home the last time, it occurred to me, in 16 years of being a pastor here — as a whole church — we have on occasion prayer-walked on campus, on occasion prayed for the campus, but never before have we focused our prayers on Penn State University for 21 Days.  I said to Lynn, “That’s just stupid.  Why haven’t we done this before.”  So I want to tell you I’m sorry for not leading us to do this sooner.  I want to say thanks to those who have faithfully prayed for God’s dream to unfold at the heart of our region, even when I didn’t.  And I want to encourage you, if you haven’t been praying, pray.

Also, Sherilyn Jameson and Pastor Stac both have great blog posts about their experiences prayer-walking.  Just click their names to go to their blogs.

Maybe I’ll see you at the Creamery!

In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin incorporated Google while still grad students at Stanford University. According to Fortune Small Business Magazine, Internet users perform over 150 million searches a day on the Google Search Engine. Google can access over two billion pages in 74 different languages. One study recently showed that Google users used the search engine 13 million hours in one month. How did they get so big?  I don’t fully know the answer that question, but here’s what I do know…it started with their vision. The word Google comes from a mathematical term that is the #1 followed by 100 zeroes. Did you pick google as your number?

While most people are likely to pick a number like 3, or 27 or maybe 79. Page decided to pick a 1 with 100 zeroes. Jim Reese, chief operations engineer of Google says this about the company’s founders:

It takes a lot of confidence and courage to go ahead and …[be huge]. It’s rare to find people who think on such a grand scale and are also able to create a great product at the same time.

Last week as Lynn and I were prayer-walking on Penn State’s campus, I felt like God wanted us to expand our vision – help us pray huge.  So as we sat in front of Eisenhower auditorium, I started praying that God would fill it.  As we wandered amongst the science labs, Lynn started praying for a revival among the scientists, that they would come to know and love the Creator.  When we got the Creamery we prayed…that the ice cream would be free… just kidding.

The great American philosopher, Forrest Gump, said one time, ”When somebody says to you, ‘I am here to help you’, hang on to your wallet.” Well, let me tell you to hang on to your wallet, because I want to help us pray huge for Penn State University.  I want to help us expand our vision… actually not so much our vision of what we can do, or even our vision how much might happen, but ultimately our vision of God.

In Malachi 3:10-12, these words are written…

Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.

Now these words are not specifically about prayer, but it contains a picture that describes what we are hoping for as we spend 21 Days of Prayer for Penn State.  It’s the picture of “open heavens.”  We long for God to hear us and respond.  We long for Him to pour out His blessings.  Imagine what it would be like to live under “open heavens.”

In Exodus 1:8…A new King arrives on the scene an unnamed Pharaoh. The Pharaoh was one of the most powerful monarchs on the earth. He had at his disposal one of the best fighting machines of His time. His army had defeated every foe within thousands of miles. His power was great, his authority absolute. No congress. No independent prosecutors. He was a divine ruler, viewed as a god.

In Exodus 1:9…We discover that the King had a fear, so he brought his people together — his advisory council — and he said, “Look the people of the children of Isreal are more and mightier than we, come let us deal shrewdly with them…” So Pharaoh put into place a three pronged plan — Deception, Domination, and Destruction. He deceived them into thinking they were slaves. When they were deceived, he dominated them with heavy taskmasters — (vs11-14) made their lives bitter with hard bondage. He wanted to bring them to the point where they thought the mere goal of victory was survival. And then he began to destroy then (vs 16).

But something happened — backed into a corner, hopeless, helpless and homeless — the children of God discovered the power of prayer. Exodus 2:23-25 reads,

Years passed…the Israelites continued to groan under their burden of slavery. They cried out for help, and their cry rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He looked down on the people of Israel and knew it was time to act.

Think about this, without that prayer, Exodus would be a two-chapter book.  Because of that prayer — simple heart-felt, groaning — 38 chapters had to be added to report on God’s answer.  Is this true of you?  Some of us have becomes so afraid of embarrassing God with prayers that He might not answer, that we’ve stopped praying bold prayers.  We’ve stopped praying for miracles.

The only resource Isreal had was — (you’re expecting me to say “prayer”) – was God.  No army, no economic resources, no social status or political clout. Nothing.  All they had was God.  And when they cried out to God — in total dependence — they found God@work, just like in the early days of the Jesus-movement.

Someone once said that the difference between prayer as we usually conceive it and the early church practiced it is as different as the difference between a swim in the tub and a swim in the ocean.  Read the book of Acts.  When the early church prayed, the earth shook, captives were set free, the lame walked, when they prayed for boldness, God granted signs and wonders.  Prayer in the early church was an adventure.  Wide-open, you never knew when an angel might show up, or the Holy Spirit might give a message.

21 Days of Prayer.  For 21 days starting last Sunday leading up to our Calvary on Campus event, we are following a call to pray.  We are asking everyone at Calvary to pray on campus at least three times (once a week) and to pray for at least three people by name.  Can I encourage you to pray bold prayers?  Who knows what books might need to be written to record God’s response?

14 year old Zach is a pretty good golfer — good enough to win a Junior Wisconsin PGA championship.  After receiving his medal, he was in the club house celebrating and having a soda with his mentor, when his mentor happened to count Zach’s clubs.  Zach had 15 clubs in his bag, the limit is 14 clubs (Rule #4 of 6791).  This is the “I don’t think I could play golf” part — way too many rules — although when I golf I only use three clubs, 3 iron, sand wedge, and putter.  Apparently if you carry more than 14 golf clubs, you get penalties…in addition because Zach didn’t realize he was carrying 15 clubs, he also signed his scorecard with the wrong information, sans penalty strokes.  All of this simply means that by the letter of golf-law, Zach should be disqualified.

Zach had a perfectly good reason for the presence of that 15th club, and the 15th club did not factor into his ability to win, and the only person who knew was his mentor.  But Zach immediately called up the tournament officials, cited his disqualification and took back the medal.

Here’s the deal, some are placing Zach in the sainthood line-up, touting his integrity and honesty.  Some are taking the opportunity to talk about inane golf rules ruining the game.  Some are quoting golfing legend Bobby Jones.  When celebrated for calling a penalty on himself at the 1925 U.S. Open, Jones replied: “You may as well praise a man for not robbing a bank.”  In other words, don’t make such a big deal out of what should be expected.

But here’s the life-truth that grabbed me, integrity for a follower of Jesus is all about answering the question, “Who do I want to please?  Who’s opinion matters to me?”  Zach’s mentor knew that Zach was faced with a moral decision.  Zach wanted to please his mentor.  His mentor’s opinion mattered more than the opinion of the masses who saw the medal.  So he made a choice to please his mentor.

It paints a picture of what Jesus meant in the gospel of John, when he said, “If you love me, you will keep my words…follow my ways, do what I say.”  Many of the decisions we make in life — especially the integrity decisions, the ones that direct our hearts and souls — come down to the question, “Who am I trying to please?”  Whose opinion matters to you today?

This weekend at Calvary as we make our way through Mark’s Gospel, we are asking the question, “Why do people reject Jesus?”  I’m going to explore a handful of reasons, but one sentence in Mark 12 has really grabbed my heart.  In Mark 12:24, Jesus says, “Your mistake is that you do not know the scriptures and you do not know the power of God.”  Interesting thing… He made that comment to religious leaders.  But they didn’t really know God’s words, and they had never really experienced God’s power.

I’m really not all that upset with Louie.  His heart hasn’t been touched by the Gospel of Jesus.  But I’m just wondering how many of us “religious people” don’t really know the scriptures — the voice of God?  How many of us religious people have never really experienced the power of God?  AND… how often is it our actions that cause the Louies of the world to have a bad impression of God?

As we — those of you here at Calvary — go out prayer-walking, go not just with your prayers, but go with the heart of Jesus.  Before you go ask Jesus to let you feel just a touch of his love for the people you walk past.  Ask Jesus to help us know when prayer is not enough, because we need to be the answer to someone’s prayer.  Ask Jesus to pour out his love, his power, and to open up his words to the community around us, so that the Louies of the world want to know the God we love.

¹I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— ²for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ³This is good, and pleases God our Savior,⁴who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. ⁵For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, ⁶who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time. ⁷And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles. ⁸I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.

Let me highlight three points from Paul’s challenge…

1) Pray for everyone — including but not limited to those in authority over us — with every kind of prayer you can pray.  So that we can all live lives filled with peace and godliness.  And the only way for that to happen is…

2) If more and more people know Jesus.  And you know what?  God wants everyone to know Jesus and be transformed by the gospel.  So…

3) Tell people to lift up holy hands (make sure you are right with God, sin confessed etc) without anger (make sure your relationships are reconciled) and pray everywhere.

So to sum it up Paul wants holy, reconciled people to pray everywhere for everyone with every sort of prayer — that’s what prayer-walking is all about.  Will it make a difference?

Sherman Brand was the director for Campus Crusade here at Penn State University in the late 70’s. According to Brand, the late 70’s was a time when some found it difficult to find friends at Penn State who HADN’T recently heard the gospel. And prayer was the key to preparing the way for evangelism of every sort. Once they had Josh McDowell come and speak. Brand says,

We’d been praying fervently for that time. Students gathered for extended prayer, often walking across the campus two by two to blanket it with prayer. Normally Josh McDowells speaks no more than three times on a campus but the third meeting was so crowded that we had to have two talks that night. The campus had a total of 32,000 students and an estimated 12,000 came those 3 nights.

I’m not saying that 21 Days of Prayer for Penn State will result in 12,000 people trying to come to Calvary on Campus to hear about Jesus… but what if God would so choose to respond to our prayers in such a way again?  If you haven’t had an opportunity to go prayer walking at Penn State or — if you don’t live in Centre County — in  your neighborhood wherever you live, could I encourage you to give it a try?  See what God might do.

So what does that have to do with prayer?  Sometimes communication is hard work, and even with hard work we don’t always communicate.  We think what we are saying is perfectly clear and we are quite positive that understanding has been achieved.  We’ve spoken the right words, at the right time, in the right order, with the right intonation.  Surely we have a connection, a melding of the minds, a clarity of mutual understanding.  Only to find down the road…it’s not communication, it’s comedy.

So we begin to think that effective prayer requires proper communication.  We need the right words, spoken at the right time, in the right way, with the right intonation…or else our prayers will not be heard, not be understood.

But here is the good news when it comes to prayer — Jesus words are recorded in Matthew 6:7-8 –

“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

He knows what you need.  He knows what is on your heart.  You cannot miscommunicate with God.  He will not misunderstand.  You do not have an accent with your Father God.  He knows what you need.  He knows what you are saying.  He knows what you would like to say, if you only knew the right words to say it.  He interprets your groans with clarity.  He knows.

So when you pray, relax.  You do not need to search for the right word.  There is no wrong time.  There is no wrong way.  He loves all the intonations you can find.  Just bring Him your heart and talk to Him.  Pray.

Let me take her thesis a step further.  It isn’t just the teens who are embracing “moralistic therapeutic deism.  In fact the teens are just embracing what we are already hugging.

So what does that have to do with prayer?  Everything.  Prayer and faith go hand in hand.  Prayer is two way communication with God, when it comes to this personal communication it matters far less the words we say or when we say them and it matters far more how well we know the way with whom we are speaking.  Faith is no different.  Faith always has an object.  We do not grow in faith by believing “harder.”  We grow in faith by growing in our knowledge of the object of our faith.

For prayer to increase and faith to grow…we need to know God.

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, a key distinctive of that prayer was encouraging the disciples to call God…Father.  Not Therapist.  Not Smoother of Self-Esteem.  Father.

A good father loves.  A good father disciplines.  A good father teachers.  A good father sometimes says no.  A good father always has time and loves to listen, but sometimes knows that the time of listening has ended and it’s time to speak.  A good father loves.  A good father deeply desires his children to grow and will sometimes allow them to go through the hardship that brings growth.  A good father is willing to express his disappointment so that his children know his heart.  A good father loves when we ask.  A good father loves your heart more than your fancy words.  A good father pays attention.

I am not always a good father, but God is always a good father.  That thought should shape our prayers…and even more it should grow the passion of our prayers.

Take some time today and talk to your Father God.