Wednesday night’s “War Room” prayer meeting at Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church, Atlanta, continued its recent tradition of offering “Sabbath” style production values in a more intimate midweek venue. The lyrics to the four songs offered were projected for the worshippers, but the familiarity of the songs made this thoughtful provision unnecessary. The playlist was as follows:
- “Lord, I Lift Your Name on High:” the link is to a reggae version. This 1989 song was composed with the aid of a guitar by Californian music minister Rick Founds (looking almost too cool for Sunday School on this link to his website).
- “Praise Him, Jesus Blessed Savior:” the link to a rendition by First Baptist Church of Glenarden features the funkiest organ of the half dozen or so I audited. One site names Donnie Harper as the writer. Another names Winston Godfrey Rodney. You may take your pick.
- “Here I Am to Worship:” the link is to a 2002 performance by the writer himself, Michael W. Smith, one which weighs in at a hefty six-minutes fifty-five seconds. Here is a LINK to him playing another of his compositions, the oft performed “Awesome God.” 29,834 people liked this YouTube video.
- “I Just Want To Praise You:” link is to the composer, Maurette Brown Clark, singing her own composition. It is a very free interpretation, but this is the creator’s right. The song frequently marks the finish of Berean Wednesday night services, as it did on this evening.
As noted last week, the Pastoral Staff has proposed that a month be dedicated to an attempt by every Berean to achieve a spiritual “breakthrough.” God is anxious to reach out to you, if you are willing to reach out to him. A connection is established by prayer. On occasion God will just reach out, and grab you, and shake you up, but these kind of encounters, while dramatic and memorable, are not an everyday thing. Pastor Russell’s exhortation to his listeners was an encouragement to stay in touch with God, morning, noon, and night.
Pastor Austin Humphreys provided an introduction for Pastor Russell’s remarks by recalling his family’s prayer life when he was but a child. He is a preacher’s kid. His father would wake up everyone every morning for family prayer. Pastor Humphreys admitted that, when younger, he was no great fan of this daily practice. Now that he is older and wiser, he has grown to appreciate the virtues of family prayer. “Here I Am to Worship” provided a musical interlude just before Pastor Russell spoke. A few bars of “I Give Myself Away” were grafted on the end of the predominate song.
Pastor Russell began his talk by drawing attention to an unusual feature of the “War Room.” It is a chamber within a chamber that the pastor described as an “inner sanctum.” It could also be described as a kind of “closet.” Here is a LINK to a copy of John Bunyan’s “Praying in the Spirit.” Bunyan thought that pretty much all prayer should be private, and states this belief in the section headed “Second Obstruction to Prayer – When we pray only to be heard by others.” The humble Bunyan writes that, when you neglect prayer, you “go to bed like a dog, and rise like a hog.”
Pastor Russell spoke in regard to some upcoming Sabbaths. Next Sabbath is to address itself to the “Radical Church.” The second Sabbath is to feature “Radical Communion,” The third Sabbath pending will be Easter, which shall be concerned with “Radical Savior.” Pastor Russell mentioned the traditional Easter pilgrimage many Bereans make to Oakwood University. This does not constitute the best use of Easter, he said. Easter is the one time of the year that people who are wont to avoid church may decide to attend. We would do well to hang around town, taking advantage of our neighbor’s transient appetites for worship in order to encourage friends and family to come along to church with us.
The “juicy meat” of Pastor Russell’s brief speech now manifested itself. The Scriptural admonishment to “devote ourselves to prayer” was restated. The pastor told us that his wife, Brenda, was not a sports person. When invited to watch sports on TV with him, she does so not out of interest, but just in order to be companionable. But, he noted, she is athletic, and can often be found frequenting the Silver Comet Trail. Once she was training for a half-marathon. In the course of this training, short initial efforts eventually transitioned into long-distance runs. The pastor became impressed with how devoted she had become. A reference to a statement by Abraham Lincoln was made. The “rail-splitter” cited an occasion when he was driven to his knees in prayer (this quote meshed well with adjacent parts of the pastor’s presentation, but my standard Wednesday night exhaustion caused me to loose the thread of the discourse, at least temporarily). Pastor Russell said that “when you devote yourself to something, it becomes a huge priority in your life.”
He returned to the subject of his wife’s training, stating that “Brenda was getting “all toned up, and looking good.” Some PG rated addenda to this proved amusing to his listeners. I can’t reproduce it in this G rated synopsis. Suffice it to say, the pastor is still very much in love with his wife. He informed us that his wife is again in training.
The remarks concerning the devotion of his wife to a training regimen now transitioned into a description of the devoted act that is known as prayer. The pastor pondered as to what it might mean, for example, on tomorrow morning, if only those within the range of his voice would just determine to “devote themselves to prayer.” He questioned as to whether the congregation would decide to start the day on their own (with one’s mind on their job, or distracted by the radio in the car), or rather determine to, instead of being sidetracked by trivia, to (again) “devote themselves to prayer.”
“What does it look like tonight to devote yourself to prayer? What does it look like tomorrow to devote yourself to prayer? If you have problems,” Pastor Russell said, “the first response is to go to God in prayer.” This last statement represents an observation that the pastor made more than once in a Sabbath sermon based on the Book of Nehemiah. The writer of this history, when faced with any difficulty, preceded any and all action with prayer.
Again the verse, and the theme was repeated, “devote yourselves to prayer.” The pastor called upon everyone to make devotion and prayer a central passion in our lives. An extremely familiar passage from the Bible was provided, from Matthew 11:28-29: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
The night’s remarks approached their conclusion with a challenge by the pastor to every member in attendance. He challenged us to engage in devoted prayer the first thing when we woke up in the morning. In the course of the day, we should frequently “find a closet” and just begin to “devote” ourselves to prayer.” And, a final admonition, we are to get on our knees at bedtime, ‘devoting ourselves to prayer.”
Pastor Fredrick Russell offered a tribute to an individual who served as an inspiration to him in the area of prayer, pastor and Conference Elder David Long, Here is a LINK to a picture of Pastor Long, with a brief description of his current field of operations. These operations just happen to be concerned with the topic of the hour, the topic of prayer. Pastor Russell again urged us to go on our knees tonight. And when morning arrives, the first thing we are to do is pray. The month long theme of spiritual breakthrough was not again cited, but loomed in the background of the entire sermon, for prayer is the royal road that will surely lead to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment