October 12, 2012:
I thought I would briefly share a story from our simple church gathering last week:
There is a couple in our simple church that have a tremendous desire to reach out to their neighbors. They are prayerful about seeing a simple church birthed in their neighborhood, and while they patiently wait for that day to arrive, they have been busy loving their neighbors in the name of Jesus (and even some of my neighbors!) One man on their street has cancer and they asked him if he and his family would like to receive prayer for before he goes back in for more tests. They graciously accepted the offer and showed up at our simple church last week with a crew of friends and family. We all joined in prayer for and with this family. We prayed for a miraculous healing to take place. The Lord led some to pray for healing for all of us there. We praised and worshiped God for the healing that is possible through His work on the Cross. We shared the gospel through prayer. Others read scriptures aloud. Incredible faith was on display in the room. After a while we sensed it was time to close up. We concluded with some ice cream sundaes and our simple church family spent time getting to know our new friends. This was God’s people simply being the church.
Certainly none of us have it all figured out and we still are learning a lot about what it can look like when His church gathers, but last Sunday was wonderful and I believe very pleasing to the Lord. I do hope for many more simple church gatherings like this one I have described. Most of all, I continue to pray that this young family would experience a miracle. Will you join us in this prayer?
UPDATE 10:35pm: I just received an email from the family that hosted the prayer time. The email quoted the family prayed for:
“Shouting praises to the Lord!!!! Two of the three areas (lungs and liver) were gone on the scans! The other area in his neck has shrunk so they don’t think it’s cancer!! God is so good!…”
UPDATE: October 30, 2012
This past Sunday, The family mentioned above invited our simple church family over to their home for a party to celebrate what God has done in their life. All week I was looking forward to going over to our new friends home. We arrived and were greeted by many of the same people who joined us for prayer a few weeks ago. We prayed. We laughed. We sang. We heard first hand of how the Doctors struggled in the hospital to find the Cancer that was so clearly there days before. We heard of how this miracle has affected this family, their friends and their faith in God and His ability to do anything–regardless the circumstances!
Isaiah 53:5
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. (NIV)
Awesome! Thanks for sharing… what an incredible God we serve!