Prayer Meetings, Songwriters, and...

Last week I was invited to a prayer meeting with a campus ministry. Six of us prayed. I was very impressed by the way in which they, some staff, and others, students did this. We read Psalm 34 together and used this as a launching pad for our individual prayers. In contrast to most prayer meetings that I have attended, the leader did not dominate, and the group did not spend the vast majority of the time discussing prayer requests rather than actually praying. Instead we prayed steadily for a solid hour, taking turns as we were led. At the end I expressed my encouragement for these things and was invited to return. Thank God for serious people in His Kingdom. Also last week participated in the initial week of a midweek study using a book titled "True Worshipers," by Bob Kauflin. Among the questions asked were what type of corporate praise experiences had we had during our walks with Christ. This brought me back to my first eleven or twelve years in the Lord during the Jesus People Movement. God brought me into a group with a number of gifted songwriters. Although they wrote new lyrics for CD's, all of our corporate worship was simply putting the Scripture to music. In those days we used the KJV exclusively, but to this day I remember many verses and passages of the Bible because we sang them so many times. I take this opportunity to thank those brothers and sisters for their labor of love for us and for me. Some examples of the Scripture set to music by these brethren include Psalm 34:1-4, 89:1, 61:1-2, Galatians 2:20, Colossians 3:1-3, and Luke 9:23. Also in this last week God has been reminding me that as He has not given up on me, I should be patient and not give up on others. Finally one of the brothers whom I am working with in discipleship has recommended that I write a book on that subject. My initial thought was that there are many books on Christian discipleship. However, as this brother has written a book, which I helped to edit, he may be hearing from the Lord. I will continue to pray and seek counsel about this.