Day 3: In Truth

John 4:1-26 E:24

Today we look at the example of the woman at the well. Jesus used simple water to teach this Samaritan woman about the truth of God. He even reveals to her the secret of Christianity:

"God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

God desires sincerity in our worship. We must be sincere to Him, to those we worship with, and to ourselves. Today we pray that God will keep our hearts sincere as we prepare, and we pray for the church we are planting to be sincere as well.

Day 2: Ask

Nehemiah 2:1-9 E:4-5

Today we look at the story of Nehemiah, the man that went back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city wall. Nehemiah is troubled that the place he cares about so much is weakened, and it shows in his everyday life. So, when an opportunity comes to help, he seizes it.

⁴ The king said to me, "What is it you want?" Then I prayed to the God of heaven, ⁵ and I answered the king, "If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it."

Like Nehemiah, we have a place that we want to strengthen and build for the Lord. Today, we pray for God to give us an opportunity to go to Colorado. We also pray that when the opportunity does come, that God will help us to recognize it so that we may seize it.

Day 1: Help My Unbelief

Mark 9:14-29 E24

To begin our 40 days of prayer, we start with Jesus. In this story, Jesus does something that the disciples cannot: he heals a boy possessed by a demon. While there are many things to focus on in this scripture (types of demons and possession, for example), on this day we want to look at the father's statement:

“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

We are praying for a church plant to be successful. There have already been snags, and there will be doubts along the way. It is important to understand, day one, that these doubts are not going to cause our dream to be unsuccessful. Jesus gives things to those that have faith, even faith its self.

Today, pray that God will give us faith as we bring our request before Him: the faith that He will hear our prayers, and the faith to continue praying.

Dominion

I have always been aTCG fan, so this game is perfect for me. You build your own deck by buying new cards with the ones you draw in your deck. How cool is that? Now if only they had a One Piece or Zelda version...

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Finding Bigfoot

I recently searched the internet for a good cryptozoology game to meet my wife's Seattle-bred interests, but there were no board games to be found. So while we wait for our baby to be born, the two of us have been making a game: Finding Bigfoot. We may call it something else, but that name sums up the point of the game. Bethany says that the game is very realistic. Players gather evidence of Sasquatch activity that is often lost or ruined, and after 4 games neither of us have actually had a face-to-face encounter with a Sasquatch. She also says it is realistic in that she is better than me at the game. We may eventually make expansions to add other cryptozoology creatures to the hunt, but for now we are having a blast.

Although my folks may find it odd when they overhear someone shout "Yes! Fresh feces! 8 points!"

Cooperate vs Compete

Which is more fun? For me it depends on who is around. I wonder if as a culture we favor competitive games because we mostly play single player games.

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Group Effort

Bethany and I are playing Hand and Foot today with my parents. It is a fun game where we play with partners. Naturally we play as couples. I just do not see any good coming from she and I being on opposite teams. And we have a lot of fun together. We are at the point where we are just about even with my parents as far as skill level, so we win about as much as they do.

A pity we don't have more people that we can play team games with, or even co-op games. One of the greatest hinderances that the two of us have found with our gaming choices is that many of them just are not as fun with only two people. I would love to see what Small world is like with 4 or 5 people, and Tom Vassel has videos on some very neat-looking multi-player games (Ghost Stories, Castle Panic, Heroscape, etc).

Once again, I must pause and wonder if there is any way to incorporate the social aspect of gaming into the ministry. My wife and I have talked about it a lot, but there just doesn't seem to be a way to do it here in Arkansas.