stockbridge boiler room

Open Your Hand: 247 prayer at the sbr

The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. The LORD is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made. The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. (Psalm 145: 15-19)

We look to Him. 
Join us in asking Him to open His hand for Grand Rapids. 
Join us in opening our hands before Him.
Let us draw near to the LORD and He will draw near to us. 

Signup for prayer slots at www.stockbridgeboilerroom.org. Bring your house church, your family, your accountability group, and your desire for time with our Father. 

Opening Prayer Sunday November 15 8p.
Closing Prayer Friday November 20 8p.
Drop in for Community Prayer each night at 8p.

this is (in) our prior:

 

today at, morning prayer, jenn read john 15.5-17.

verses that seem to be burning in my ears often.

especially verse 7

 

“If you remain in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish,

and it will be given you.” 

 

this stirred some thoughts in me I thought I would share.

.

It’s scary how good we are at the

“ask whatever you wish” part…….

and it doesn’t appear that we are all that concerned about

the mighty Words of God abiding in us.

 

…Interesting...

let me ask you a question.

 

can you, like king david, consider the Word of God to be

more valuable than thousands of gold pieces? (ps. 119.72)

 

can you, like Jeremiah the prophet, say that

when you found Gods Word and ate it

that it became, the joy and delight of your heart? (Jer.15.16)

 

can you, like Job, say, in the midst of all your sufferings, that

you treasure the Words of God more then your portion of food? (job 23.12)

 

…and you may ask why they treasure it so much?

because, according to john, the evil one controls

the entire world.

and in this world, the apostle paul says that the Word of God is our sword. (1john 5.19,eph 6.17)

 

because in this world, full darkness and lies, His Word is

a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. (ps.119.105)

 

because john says that you overcome the evil one by having the

Word of God abide in you. (1john 2.14)

 

because paul says,

when the Word of God abides in you

it teaches and admonishes you with all wisdom. (col.3.16)

 

it's not just memorizing the Word.

 

john 5.38, Jesus say’s to the jews,

you do not have the Word of God in you

because you do not believe in the one He has sent.

Jesus continues, and says,

you diligently study the scriptures

because by them you think you posses eternal life.

clearly its more then memorizing scripture.

God teaches us about Himself by His word.

and all the lies that we have been told about God,

by the father of lies, are proved wrong in the light

of His Word being in His people.

hebrews 1 says,

 by the power of His Word he sustains ALL things.

 

man does not live on bread alone

but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.(deut 8.3)

 

Jesus is the word

and whoever eats of Him will never

go hungry again. (john 6.35)

 

do you know this word?

 

does the word abide in you?

::danmike (not my real name)::

so this morning on my way into the garage for prayer, i say hello to paula, who has arrived for prayer and God Story afterward, and i say hello to David, who she is talking to. David is a new friend to us: homeless, seemingly gentle, tremendously fearful. tremendously. 

david goes into the fetal position when the word 'fear' is spoken, he's that afraid. and i don't know his story at all, i don't even know what he's afraid of, but today, this is what i saw from my kitchen window:

that long after prayer ended and all through God Story, paula sat herself down on the back stoop, in the freezing rain, next to david and talked quiet words to him, telling him he didn't need to be afraid. i don't know what all they talked about, but after about an hour, someone brought them both blankets, so there the two of them sat, looking rather homeless, all huddled in blankets and probably quite cold. for three hours she sat with him. she became like him. she would not leave him in his fear, but stayed by this man she barely knows. 

and then i spotted danmike (not his real name, but you know that already), standing before them reading God's very words to david. he read and he read and he read; i washed the dishes and fed v. and drank a cup of coffee and checked email and read a book to ezra, and every time i glanced up, there was our dear prior, and paula, and david, bringing the kingdom of God to a back stoop of a house on the west side on this very grey morning. 

and i thought it was so beautiful that you needed to know about it. 

::jenn::

fruit

pears from our garden. crayons from the box.

for tonight's love feast, the abbott, now fully recovered, cooked cincinnati chili for everyone, with a little help from his friends. it's one of my favorite things he makes.

and there was this holy chaos of noise at tonight's meal: babies crying and children yelling, neighbors chatting, and dave, roaring away at everybody and nobody. 

and i looked at all of it, and saw, in the middle of all that chaos, something growing and emerging that i think is fruit, which, some might recall, i'm quite fond of. and it might be small and not even ready to harvest, but i can see it. God is growing it. and it really is one of my favorite things he makes.

::jenn::

eight

8

As of October 26, morning and evening prayer

are shifted to 8a and 8p in the garage.  

Join us!  Click for full schedule. 

weak

. . . He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  (2 Cor 12: 9-10)

Nothing like two weeks of pneumonia to bring you to the end of yourself.  

These past two weeks, ambitions were let go.  The first week of 24-7 went by that I did not participate in.  It was encouraging to hear how Danmike and the interns prepared for the week.  It was exciting to hear about how many new friends from Crossroads and others places partnered with us during the week.  It was hopeful to hear stories like "this afternoon" where God moved through people and in people.  But the selfish part of me wanted to be in the midst of this God move.  God moves on, even when I'm alternating between chills and fever spikes.  

That's a comforting thought, when I can get past my pride.  

Too many times during the past two weeks did I have to do lists written down in my waking moments.   Too many times did I have to resist calling, texting emailing to offer guidance.  Too many times did I feel was I radically restless because I couldn't do something.  Have mercy on me Lord.  Have mercy on my drive to achieve.  I want to lay that down at your feet.  

Weakness leads to dependency, so I've learned.   So many times Jenn carried our family on her shoulders, with five of us sick.  And I felt bad for myself, feeling that I wasn't contributing, feeling that I would be in debt, feeling that I was supposed to be taking care of her.  But I came to accept the help.  And her kindness led the way, when I had twisted up her love meant for good, all because of a self-sufficiency, deep and hard.   

Over these fourteen days, I felt God peeling away ambition, chipping off pride, melting my self.  Only recently did I remember that I asked God to make me weak.  "Be careful what you ask for," Jenn reminds me.  

He is good.  He who did not spare His own son, will he not give us all good things?

Weakness.  I really didn't know what I was asking for.  But now I have a way of proceeding, provided by His grace. Reliant, relinquishing, resting.  

I will give thanks in all circumstances.  That much I have learned in weakness.  

::tony:: 

 

i had this whole long post about justice and following Jesus, and i even had a couple of quotes snuck in there, until i came to the end of my words and pressed delete because what i really want to write today is simple and brief:

it's raining, hard, and it's chilly also. 

i have been inside all this blustery day, out of the rain, and i bet you have too.

some of our friends have not. they have no home. 

this is not okay. this is not acceptable. 

and.

i'm not sure what to do about it. 

i'm not sure what justice looks like today.

::jenn::

this afternoon

i dug up shoots of raspberries that we'll plant tomorrow next to the fence at the sbr, so next september our neighbors will have berries to pick and eat.

jordan raked leaves from the sbr yard into a big pile.

which of course needed to be jumped on, hidden in, thrown in the air, redistributed.

charla lay on the leaves and read robert frost to the neighborhood kids.

michael played guitar and took pictures. 

then: mary came out of her house and

jumped

in

(slowly).

mary, who is nearly ninety years old, who has lived in this neighborhood for longer than i've been alive and who lived next to a crack house for so long, silently and angrily enduring neighbors who trashed places and themselves while she toiled in her meticulous garden and picked leaves off her lawn. mary, who cried when i told her we had bought the house and were turning it into a house of prayer, and watched us for quite some time from a distance, 

that woman gives us bouquets of flowers, chats constantly over the fence, has brad and michelle living next to her, cajoles the boys into doing all manner of odd jobs for her, and now, apparently, jumps into leaf piles.

there's joy in this neighborhood that was not there a few years ago.

"things are different here, now that the boiler room's arrived," dave says.

here's what i think he means: the darkness is less dark than it used to be. 

here's what i know: that kind of thing always happens when Jesus is in the neighborhood.

people come out of their houses. they start sharing. things get planted and bear fruit. the hungry find food. 

and.

 some even become like little children and jump right in.

 i love it here.

::jenn::

to those who have been reading this blog since we began the boiler room: i am happy to be writing in this space once again. last year i home-schooled two of our children and grew one more. that was enough. and with me a bit removed from the daily life of the boiler room, the abbot was in a better position to write about it. this fall, everyone went to public schools, so i'm jumping back in.

to those who are fairly new readers: hello, i'm jenn. i'm married to the abbot.

24-7 Prayer at Stockbridge Boiler Room

Join us in calling on God to move in this city.  Opening prayer begins Sunday October 18 from 7p-9p.

Closing Prayer will be Friday October 23 from 7p-9p.  You can drop in each night at 7p for community prayer.  You can find directions for signing up yourself, your small group, your family or your house church at our website as well as more information on what this whole 24-7 hullabaloo is all about.  

instruments of praise

The Israelites who were present in Jerusalem celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great rejoicing, while the Levites and priests sang to the LORD every day, accompanied by the LORD's instruments of praise. (2 Chronicles 30:21)

When Art came in to the Love Feast he said, "This is my first time here."

We exchanged pleasantries and I found out he lived over by Bridge and Lane.  He and his friend Theresa helped set the tables for dinner.  Once they were set, he sat back down and I noticed him pull something out.  I was welcoming more guests but I heard a tinny sweetness rising up around Art.  As I drifted back over to him, I confirmed that he indeed did have a harmonica.  

I asked him about his harmonica and he said, "I like to bring them along with me when I travel.  Especially on the buses.  Some of the drivers like me to play on the buses to keep them company."

Danmike has been thinking about the Love Feast as church on Wednesday night.  And lately he's been thinking about how people can make an offering.  He's invited people to offer what they can as part of our family that gathers on Wednesdays.  For some people, their offering is setting up or cleaning up.  Erica, our Sixth Street neighbor likes to bring her special dessert.  The kids that Charla disciples like to serve.  For others—like our pub church friends—they offer to cook and serve each month.  Charla's been excited by people from Hudsonville, the Red Cross, local businessmen and Frito Lay planning to make offerings by providing and preparing the Love Feast for our family.  God is providing through the offerings of His people.  

With this in mind, I invited Art to make an offering of his musical gift.  His eyebrows raised and he nodded yes.  I made sure he ate his sloppy joes first.  And then I guided him up to the microphone and introduced him to our family.  As we ate, he regaled us with an array of western tunes including "Home, Home on the Range."

And in the wash of applause after he finished his fifteen minute set, it was clear—at least to me—that we were all home, once again.  

Let us praise Him with all we have.

::tony::