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| "Nothing is far from God." + St. Monica (Mother of St. Augustine) |
This is the Gospel:
God draws near to us
in Jesus — us,
we who are sinful, broken,
wounded, mortal, dying, and
incapable of self-saving,
with many of us completely
uninterested in God or even
enemies of God — to draw us
into His inner life, to heal us
by immersing us within the fold
of His Trinitarian love, and then
to send us out into the world as
agents of His love.
+ John Mark Comer
"These are days when Christians are yearning increasingly for spiritual awakening — for a renewing work of God, a fresh in-breaking of the Spirit’s love and power, and an abundant ingathering of the reborn into the church. We long for the kind of healing and vitality and fervor and unity that are unexplainable in human terms, beyond human excellence, beyond what we can program or plan.
We long for the things
that only God can do ... "
+ David Thomas
The words above were spoken again by David Thomas in Providence, Rhode Island this past Friday, March 8 around 8 p.m. at the 2nd "In Our Time" event. For a glimpse of the 1st event, see "When the Rain Comes, the Desert Blooms."
This time during the season of Lent (which means "springtime"), Thomas shared this message with nearly 500 people from 50+ congregations that had gathered together to hear from him and others who had been on Asbury's campus when for 16 days straight during February 2023, a simple chapel service didn't end and people from around the world came to repent, pray, and encounter the God who drew near to heal with the refining fire and warmth of His holy presence.
There was much more that was shared together between 7 p.m. and midnight this past Friday, including highlights of previous moments in which God drew near (some of which you can read in "Sowing for a Great Awakening") as well as more of what happened on Asbury's campus during those two weeks of presence and profound impact (see also "Lessons from the Asbury Revival of 2023"). This post will not be able to capture all of those treasured moments.
This post will simply provide a few things that I personally resonated with because of themes and verses that God has been bringing me back to the past 4+ years.
| 1 | Making New Wine
Usually when I step into a time of worship-in-song and prayer with seekers and believers of Jesus across cultures, ethnicities, and traditions, I'm praying for God to highlight a specific song that I need to hear, and in some cases, Emmaus City Church might not to hear as well. In the midst of the many songs we sang together this past Friday night, one song had lyrics that mirrored conversations I have had with another minister in Worcester since the summer of 2020 when it became apparent how long the pandemic was going to settle in to reshaping lives and ministries.
In the crushing, in the pressing
You are making new wine.
In the soil I now surrender,
You are breaking new ground.
I yield to You
into Your careful hand.
When I trust You,
I don't need to understand.
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| "New Wine" by Hillsong, 2018 A.D. |
Make me Your vessel,
Make me an offering,
Make me whatever You want me to be.
I came here with nothing
But all You have given me.
Jesus, bring new wine out of me.
+ Hillsong, 2018 A.D.
Even though this song is more than 5 years old, I hadn't heard it until this Friday. But Jesus' words about new wine and wineskins (see Matthew 9:17) have been a regular part of conversations with a friend and pastor in Worcester since the summer of 2020 in relation to Jesus' Church in the city, Emmaus City Church, Surge School, and more. So they were a fresh reminder to trust Jesus again during this next season, which includes celebrating the first decade of Emmaus City, and stepping into the next decade.
| 2 | Psalm 126: Sow in Tears
The main text of Scripture preached on during the evening of Friday, March 8, 2024 was Psalm 126, particularly verse 5. David Thomas preached on the travailing prayer Psalm 126 highlights:
"... The true seedbed of awakening
is the plowed-up hearts
of men and women
willing to receive the gift of travail.
'Those who sow with tears
will reap with songs of joy'
That prayer would be the precursor
to the work of God —
always the preparatory,
anticipating act of awakening
— is not a new idea. ...
This is the praying of the Psalms.
'Streams of tears flow from my eyes,
for Your law is not obeyed'
(Psalm 119:136);
'day and night I cry out to You'
(Psalm 88:1);
'Listen to my cry,
for I am in desperate need'
(Psalm 142:6).
This was the praying of Jesus,
who 'offered up prayers and petitions
with fervent cries and tears
to the one who could save Him'
(Hebrews 5:7);
'As (Jesus) approached Jerusalem
and saw the city,
He wept over it'
(Luke 19:41) ... "
The Bible seems utterly unfamiliar
with casual prayer:
prayer of the mouth and not the heart.
Travail — a kind of burdened,
focused pressing —
seems closer to the throbbing core
of prayer in Scripture. ... "
This is the prayer of "sowing in tears and reaping with songs of joy" that Psalm 126:5 speaks of. And since visiting the Abbey of the Genesee, Psalm 126 has been the psalm I've returned to pray, preach on, and bless others with more than any other the past 4+ years. It's been the means by which I have sought to plant seeds in the rain and the dark and return to the joy that Jesus can bring even in suffering.
And during the evening of Friday, March 8, much of the time I was on my knees in prayer, at some points sobbing, in light of the grace of a broken heart for my church, my city, and particularly the youth who go to Burncoat Middle School and Burncoat High School. I pray these cries sown in tears will reap songs of joy.
Those who are now crying are blessed,
Jesus promised in Luke 6:21,
because you will laugh with joy.
Those who sow with tears
will reap with songs of joy.
That is His promise
to travailing prayer.
And He is too worthy,
awakening is too beautiful,
and the need for it is too great,
to settle for anything less.
+ David Thomas
| 3 | St. Monica + St. John Chrysostom
Two of the saints I have returned to the most in the past year of 2023-2024 have been St. Monica and St. Chrysostom.
St. Monica's timeless quote,
"Nothing is far from God."
has not only been
on my heart and mind,
I've worn it many places
(see pic at top of post)
and I've preached on it
with Emmaus City,
other congregations,
and at the school
where I serve as chaplain
in the past year.
During the message on Friday, St. Monica was highlighted as an example of travailing prayer. Thomas shared:
In his Confessions,
St. Augustine
(son of St. Monica),
(son of St. Monica),
referring to his conversion,
called himself a son
of his mother’s tears.
called himself a son
of his mother’s tears.
St. Monica's travailing prayers were how she sowed in tears and reaped with songs of joy because she believed nothing is far from God, including her son, Augustine.
St. John Chyrsostom had a similar posture with prayer. Thomas said about St. Chrysostom (along with St. Benedict and Celtic missionaries who I have also greatly appreciated as of late, including Sts. Brendan and Brigid, St. Kevin, St. Patrick, and more):
The Celtic missionaries expected
that “Thy measure of prayer
shall be until thy tears come.”
St. Benedict wrote the same
understanding of prayer
into his monastic Rule.13
In Eastern Orthodoxy,
St. John Chrysostom
advocated for travailing prayer,
“for with these tears
souls are planted.”
The mention of St. Chrysostom made me smile because just the day before on Thursday, March 7, I was asked among a group of pastors which dead (or more alive with Jesus in paradise) preacher I would want to have lunch with and I shared St. John Chrysostom (Chrysostom means "golden mouthed" in Greek) because his Paschal sermon from more than 1500 years ago is still preached every year in Eastern Orthodox parishes during Matins of Pascha, and Catholic and Protestant pastors still return to his messages. I now understand that we will benefit from returning to his practice of travailing prayer.
| 4 | Galatians 4:19: Until Christ is Formed
In sharing about the Hebrides Revival (read more in "Longing for Revival"), David Thomas included this story and verse:
" ... The best account of the Hebridean Revival is a book entitled Sounds from Heaven, which includes testimonials of twenty-three eyewitnesses. In conversation with some of these, now in their eighties, they recalled what it was like when God moved among the people ... to a man or woman, eyewitnesses described ... a kind of spiritual posture found among some who were the catalytic core —
a spirit of urgency and audacity,
an attitude of brokenness
and desperation,
a manner of prayer
that could be daring and agonizing.
These friends in the Hebrides
called it travailing prayer,
like the Holy Spirit groaning
through them, they said,
like a woman travailing in labor,
like Paul in Galatians 4:19
travailing as if
'in the pains of childbirth
until Christ is formed in you.' ... "
With Emmaus City Church, we had the privilege to journey through the letter to the Galatians for much of 2023. Just a couple Mondays ago on February 26, 2024, I had the honor to meet with Protestant and Catholic students on Assumption University's campus to share some about what I learned through our journey through Galatians. If I were to pick one verse to sum up the entire letter for me as a window into what this new congregation of Jews and Gentiles were going through to be children of God, one in Christ Jesus through baptism as a new family and a new creation (see Galatians 3:26-29 and 6:15), it would be Galatians 4:19. This was also the verse I came back to the most last year in continuing to remember the calling I get to walk in as one Emmaus City Church's ministers of the Gospel, continuing to learn how to be a midwife to what God is giving birth to in our City Groups and throughout Worcester.
This posture of prayer and leaning into what God may be doing has also been the practice of The Forerunners Fellowship and Revive New England who are seeking together with others how to invite the Lord to come and rain down His grace in the desert spaces.
| 5 | Saturday Breakfast Notes
The final notes for this post are from a breakfast I got to join with 50 or so people on Saturday, March 9 alongside David Thomas and his wife, Karen, and Austin and Maddie Wofford with Arise who helped shepherd students during the 16 days at Asbury. Below are little snippets of main ideas they shared that included stories and examples I won't record here, but feel free to contact me if you'd like to hear more.
Have eyes for the small.
Steward the mustard seed.
(see Jesus, Matthew 13:31-32)
Linger until the Lord is done.
There's subtlety to God's glory.
Prayer is irrigation for living water.
(see Jesus, John 7:38)
Pray contending (disruptive) prayers.
Live in relational integrity.
Be unoffendable.
Exude relational holiness.
If you have a barrier with someone,
you have a barrier with God.
Leave the altar
and go be reconciled.
(see Jesus, Matthew 5:23-24)
Gen Z and Gen Alpha wants Jesus.
"Either it's real or we're out."
Production, programming is out.
Cult of personality is out.
Not looking for clean or exciting.
They see through manipulation.
They're looking to go deep.
They're calling for consecration.
"Go on a journey of death to self."
(see Jesus, John 12:24-26)
Be a non-leader leader.
Take the long view.
Carry God's presence w/out words.
(see North Korea missionaries)
Renounce any platform.
Love obscurity (John 3:30).
Highlight "Death to Life" stories.
(see Jesus, Luke 15:32)
Walk the line of no fear, no excess.
Anticipate pushback.
Pray longer than Satan hassles you.
Love the stumps in the rot.
Favor the shoots in the small.
(see Isaiah 11:1-10)
Pray, "God, come. Jesus, govern us."
Asbury was a story
Jesus wanted to tell.
It was digital lives
having an analog experience.
Pray people encounter Jesus.
Then we'll be able to talk.
Be holy. Be hungry. Be humble.
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| In Our Time: A Movement of Prayer & Worship for Revival in New England |
LORD, I have heard of Your fame;
I stand in awe of Your deeds, LORD.
Repeat them in our day,
in our time
make them known ...
+ Habakkuk 3:2
May God's Kingdom come, His will be done.
Que le Royaume de Dieu vienne,
que sa volonté soit faite.
愿神的国降临，愿神的旨意成就。
Nguyện xin Nước Chúa đến, ý Ngài được nên.
Jesús nuestra Rey, venga Tu reino!
🙏💗🍞🍷👑🌅🌇
que sa volonté soit faite.
愿神的国降临，愿神的旨意成就。
Nguyện xin Nước Chúa đến, ý Ngài được nên.
Jesús nuestra Rey, venga Tu reino!
🙏💗🍞🍷👑🌅🌇
With anticipation and joy,
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