Prayer: The Heartbeat of the Faith

When you look for signs of physical life what do you look for? In physical life you look for the breath of life and a heartbeat. What are the vital signs of spiritual life? They are Praise and Prayer. Praise according to Ron Allen in his book, Praise! A Matter of Life and Breath says that praise was always verbal and public in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). This also holds true in the New Testament. Praise is the most obvious and visible sign of spiritual life. The second sign of spiritual life is prayer. Prayer is more difficult to see because although you can see a person kneeling, lying prostrate, or folding one's hands with closed eyes you can't see what is going on in the heart. We can't hear the words the heart expresses in silence to God. Prayer is a matter of the heart. Prayer demonstrates a heart after God's heart and should affect our outward posture but unless we can read the words the person communicated to God or hear them we don't detect the heartbeat. How is your prayer life? Not just your intercessory prayer life but your biblical prayer life, your devotional life, from Matthew 6:5-15? Do your words in silence with God alone show signs of spiritual life? May our hearts beat with His heart!

Thanks for Traveling With Me

There is nothing more important to me than knowing that others are standing with me in prayer! That makes all the difference in life and ministry. In my last talk I sensed that God wanted me to change it up and give a talk from the book of Revelation. The points were: Be in His Presence, Get His Perspective, and Embrace His Plan. God brings John into His presence in Rev. 1 and 4 then shows him what will happen on earth. We really can't grasp what is happening on earth until we spend time with Him in His presence. When we spend time in God's word we get his perspective. Finally, John sees the fulfillment of God's plan in Rev. 5:9-10 where the Great Commission is finally finished. The only question is, "Will we be part of His plan?" While this project is over life daily brings each of us more opportunities to be part of His plan. Join me in making time in His presence, getting His perspective, and embracing His plan a part of your daily practice. It is then that each of us can say, "His View, My View".

After any conference there is a need to rest and re-focus...so before coming home I took time to do that on the South Sea Island just off the coast of Fiji. It was a great "day" trip.

Final Conference Highlights

Watch these student interviews, see the rain storm on the day of outreach, and our final evening together!

Home Again

I arrived home this morning from Fiji after traveling though two all night flights. The conference had 40 plus students from seven different countries. I will be posting video clips from our time over the next day. Thanks for your prayers!

Vision

It is July 1st here in Suva, Fiji and we are in our last full day of this student conference. Yesterday we went into a village - there are over 500 throughout Fiji and most with a tribal chief - and our students went in groups to 100 homes where extended families all live under the same roof (videos of this will be posted later - the internet here is too slow to get the pictures up now - it poured rain on us all day as we went door to door). Many decisions for Christ were made and a local church will be following up those who responded. Students have two weeks off from classes after this conference and then their next semester starts - it is winter here (but you wouldn't know that with the 80 degree temperatures and the humidity - but today is cool for a change!). Pray for Peter, a student from the Solomon Islands, who will be having surgery next month for a brain tumor. Pray for Dee as she is from Fiji and joining staff with Campus Crusade this year. Pray for the students to catch a vision to reach their peers at the University of the South Pacific. Pray for the coming summer project in Vanuatu. Students will be reaching that area for Christ and praying it leads to students going on a one year short term mission there.

Students Arrived on June 27 - two days ago

It is the 29th of June at 11:45 am! I have already spoken four times since yesterday. I only have one more talk today in about 30 minutes and then one more on our last morning. Pray for the 40 + students here and staff. Several students have talked to me about drinking issues as drunkeness is a problem among some of the guys. There are students here from about 5 of the 22 different nations of the South Pacific Island Region. Students are growing and we will be taking them out in the community to do evangelism tomorrow.

Arrived Safely in Suva

After a long bus ride this morning I arrived in Suva from Nadi. It is the 26th here and that means I have been in the same clothes since the 23rd! I just had a shower and I'm ready to go. I'm sending this from the Campus Crusade office here in Suva as the entire conference will be in a location where I may not have internet access. If so I will still take video and post it later along with the updates of what went on. Hopefully there will still be a way to do it. Pray for us as we talk with students on the theme, "Running the Race."

Challenges Along The Way

The journey has begun! I'm sitting in Los Angeles at the airport at 12:39 am on the 24th. I should be on a flight to Fiji but I missed it. My flight from Ohio hit the first snag coming into Denver when thunderstorms prevented us from landing for over an hour. In fact, we exhausted all the extra fuel and had to land in Pueblo for fuel. Then it was back in the air to Denver. Once there I had missed my connection to Los Angeles. There was another flight at 9:30 pm and I was able to get on that one. However, it too was delayed leaving until 10:30 pm which put me into LAX at the same time my Fiji flight was leaving. So keep praying since spiritual work always involves spiritual conflict.

Spiritual Climate in Fiji

Fijians have been greatly impacted by their legacy of British colonial greed. Although they embraced Christianity a century ago, legalism, nominalism and failure to confront the ongoing worship of ancestral spirit gods continues to be widespread. New churches with a stronger evangelical message are growing but so are Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses. The country's population is 905,949 with 52% Christian, 38% Hindu, and 8% Muslim. It is interesting that a new book coming out this summer on Global Christianity shows that 86% of all Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims do not personally know a Christian! Pray for opportunities to meet and relate to the Hindus and Muslims in Fiji. Pray a door will be opened up for sharing Christ with them too. Pray Eph. 6:19 for me and all those we will be training from June 27 - July 3.

Fiji Project

This summer from June 23 to July 5 I will be traveling to Fiji to help with the Campus Crusade for Christ ministry there. We are expecting between 70-90 college students from the University of the South Pacific along with Crusade staff at this conference. Don Mansfield, the Regional Director for the South Pacific, and I will be speaking several times. Pray for us as we continue to plan, students register, and traveling safety. This will be a new experience for me as I work with students and staff who are challenged by those in cults, witchcraft, animism, and ancestor worship and are from many of the surrounding lslands: Vanuatu, Tonga, New Guinea, Fiji, and others.

To become a Fiji Project Partner read the sidebar further down the right side.