God is Big Enough to rule the World. Small enough to reign in our hearts

March 2, 2011

A first at House of Prayer Experience: a wedding!

Actually, a renewal of marriage vows.

Vincent and Pat Cole came along with their adult children for a blessing on their union. The couple had not celebrated their wedding inside a church twenty years ago, and since they attribute their renewed love for each other to the prayers of the People of HoPE, they came on Wednesday night to do this! Dr. Derek Morris who’s visiting from Washington,DC said the prayers of blessing and invited other couples to join hands as did the Cole’s. Dr. Morris also said prayers for those who’s spouse had passed away and for single people who are currently praying for a husband or wife.

The experience was an opportunity to give hope to those praying for their marriages. There was a time when Vincent said he gave Pat a hard time for her faith. Now he says his heart is softened and he is a changed man. The renewing of his vow of love to Pat was also an occasion to celebrate the power of God to transform people’s hearts.

Speaking of hearts, national prayer leader Ruthie Jacobsen spoke to ours: She  also took part in the couple’s blessing and shared  personal stories of God’s power to engineer times and places to answer our deepest and most urgent prayers. She reminded us that “God is big enough to rule the universe and small enough to reign in our hearts”.

 

Helping others to "see" Jesus

February 23, 2011

Chaplain Sheirer shared a powerful visual through a picture drawn by one of the Seniors he ministers to on a daily basis at the Retirement Center. He holds a House of Prayer meeting on Tuesday with them. At first, someone planted seeds of doubt on his desires to have a prayer meeting there and questioned how necessary this would be, and after all, many of the residents didn’t even attend his church.

After praying about it, the chaplain went ahead by faith. His small group quickly grew to 5, 7 and up to 15 faithful attendees. There were people in the Center who were interested and needing prayer! A woman came forward expressing her newfound faith in Christ. She had penciled a picture of Christ.

Chaplain Sheirer showed that drawing on Wednesday night. One never knows who needs our gifts so they may have a clearer picture of Jesus and His love for them.

There may be voices of discouragement all around us and distractions, too. Our prayer today is for Jesus to be our vision. Let’s ask him to help us to live in such a way, that people He sends on our way can see a picture of Jesus shining through us. No matter how old we are, it’s never too late to get to know Him more.

Our Spiritual Body Building focus is on the church and how we have a special mission to show God’s compassion to the world-starting with the persons sitting next to you and me right now.