Prayer

An Inheritance of Prayer

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

To an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 1 Peter 1:4 ESV

Recently Dave from Dave’s Daily Dose wrote on the subject of solemn assembly. For those not aquatinted with solemn assembly, it is a meeting something like a prayer vigil involving an entire church. I remarked that I remembered prayer vigils -vigílias de oraçãoes- at our Brazilian church where we served on staff for about 14 years. When Dave challenged me to write about it, in spite of my fear of diving into the deep end of the subject, I had to accept his double dog dare!

But to explain the unique experience of a vigília will take at least two posts. Today, I will just offer a little glimpse of what the Brazilian church in America is like. Like a fish being unaware of water because he is in, none of us really understands our own cultural inheritance and the Brazilian community is no exception. So f there are any Brazilians out there in my reading audience, I apologize if I am over simplifying, but if I were to start with a single word, it would be saudade – roughly translated homesick. Though saudade may fade after many years here in America, it is never truly absent and it touches every part of life. It effects who you work with, what food you cook, who you tell your secrets to and most of all how you pray. Saudade includes a deep longing for things that are far beyond our control and forces us into a desperate dependence on God.

But when we as Americans think of prayer we think of our devotional time, our prayer closet and time alone with Jesus. But Brazilians almost never do anything alone. If somebody has a baby, not only the entire family, but also half the neighborhood shows up at the maternity room to visit! Communion at church often included all of us crowded around the front to receive it together. Birthday parties for a one year old featured more than half the church showing up of every age and of course lots of food!

This is me with the youth after church

When the church was healthy, that same togetherness happened when we went to prayer. In fact, that unhurried time at the altar with people all around each asking for God’s help, was the single greatest attraction of us when we began attending. That intensity of community prayer was and is a special part of the inheritance that God has given the Brazilian church and the single greatest reason we remained through thick and thin for so long.

Tomorrow, I promise I’ll dive straight into what it is like being a part of my favorite -vigília de oração of the year – New Years Eve, so stay tuned and have a blessed week!

Are You Waiting?

/ pastorpete51 / 4 Comments 
 
 
 
 Will you spend time alone with Jesus
 Is His will what you’re looking for
 Is there a place He can go to meet with you
 To come in and then close the door?
  
 Is your heart like a freshly turned garden
 That is ready and prepared for seed
 A place where His word can take root
 And His plan is your deepest need?
  
 Then listen you’ll hear HIs footsteps
 It’s the Master now coming our way
 And He’s asking to sit here with you
 If you’re waiting for Him today-


  
  
  
 Are You Waiting?  by Peter Caligiuri 
Copyright 2021 All rights reserved

Before the Dawn

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After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them. Mark 6:46-48 NIV

Have you ever wondered why Jesus let’s us get ourselves in a fix to begin with? Why do we find ourselves over and over in the middle of a sea of circumstances which we did not choose and wish we had never encountered? I know from the Bible that it is for my own good, but when I rowing hard in the middle of a pitch black night, I’m not liking a lot what He says is good for me!

But what I am learning is that in the middle of things that are deeper than I can understand and more powerful than I can control, Jesus is watching and Jesus is praying, and even better yet – Jesus is coming to meet us – just before dawn! When Jesus comes and gets in the boat, I am at rest – even if I still do not understand -and suddenly it becomes true in my complicated real life – that He comes just before the dawn!!

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV

Here is a song written by Bella Thompson, one of the residents at a nursing home where I visited last year before the virus hit. I pray that it will bless you as it has blessed me.