Animal Crackers and Prayer

Sandy was shopping at the Boston Road supermarket two blocks from our house when she witnessed a young mother yelling angrily at her young son.  This went on and on, until Sandy felt led to approach the woman.  “Hi, you seem to be dealing with a lot of stress.  Do you mind if I pray for you?” 

The woman said she would love to be prayed for.  She was about to be evicted from her apartment.   After Sandy prayed, the young woman told her “You pray different than I have ever heard before.”  The little son yelled “Do it again!”  So Sandy said, “Sure, I’ll pray for you again,” and knelt down and  put her arms around the boy and prayed again.   When she finished, the little boy yelled “That felt so good!” 

The young woman told Sandy she remembers meeting her last year while we were house hunting, but Sandy does not remember that meeting.   Anyway, while they were talking another shopper came up and asked the young woman if she knows where the animal crackers are.  Sandy had this quick thought “I should pray for that woman, too,” but the opportunity passed and her new young friend told the hunter of animal crackers where she thought she could find animal crackers. 

Sandy bought her groceries was standing just inside the grocery store door, nearly ready to leave, when the hunter of animal crackers approached her: “Excuse me, do you know where I could find a big box of animal crackers?”  It was almost like this woman was stalking her.  So Sandy said “Well, I don’t know where you could find animal crackers here, but you could check Aldi…  By the way, would you mind if I pray for you?”

The woman said “Yes, I would like that,” so Sandy stood there praying for the woman, tears coming down her face, while the woman was holding her hands up in the air, receiving the prayer.

The Scripture that came to Sandy on the way home was from Isaiah 61, the passage that Jesus read in Luke 4…“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind…”

Your Kingdom come, your will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven.  Matthew 6

Sandy says “Prayer is such a powerful gift! Use it to minister to someone today!”

​Rich 

I prayed over a brick house. 

I try to take a daily morning prayer walk along Corsa Avenue.   It is about 0.5 miles between Burke and Hicks; three long city blocks, so the prayer walk ends up being around one mile.  Back in January or February, every time I would turn around by Hicks Street and head south on Corsa Avenue, I would feel this urge to stop at a brick house on the west sidewalk.  I would stop, look at the house, and pray for the people in it.  I had never met them, but I would talk to God about this house and its occupants, asking for the Spirit of God to draw them to Himself.

About five weeks ago, I was walking towards Hicks Street along Corsa Avenue and saw a well-dressed man standing in front of this brick house.  I quickly crossed the street, introduced myself, and said that we moved in last fall and I have been praying along Corsa Avenue most mornings.  I explained that there must be a special call that God has upon the people in that house, because for a while I could not pass it without praying specifically for the occupants.  The guy, (we’ll call him Sam), told me that he lives there.  Sam is about my age.   Sam grew up in church.  He was baptized as a teenager.  He is the son of a pastor.  He knows that God wants him to come back, but he has walked away from God, from the faith, and from the church.  “My Dad prays for me every day,” Sam said.  

I asked Sam if I could pray for him, and he readily agreed.  Something is happening in Sam’s heart, it seems.

Last Monday, my brother Ike and I were walking along Corsa Avenue.   We spoke with a few people and had the opportunity to pray for three of them.  Divine appointments.   As we neared Hicks Street I said, “Hey Ike, let’s ring that bell over there and see if Sam is home.”  We rang the bell to this brick house, and the first person to answer the door was… you guessed it, Sam.  He said if we had rung the bell five minutes later he would have been on his way to Yonkers.  We spoke with Sam for maybe 30 minutes and at the end we prayed for him, and he prayed in Spanish. 

Sam told us something like this, and I paraphrase…“I know I need to come back to God, but I don’t want to come back and disappoint God by not following him wholeheartedly, so I’m asking him for a sign.” 
We suggested that, perhaps, if God was prompting me to pray for that brick house multiple days in a row that might be a sign.  Just maybe, right? 

God is using others to answer the prayers of a pastor who is praying for his son. I wonder how many different people are involved in this master plan of God’s to point Sam’s heart back to His Heavenly Father.   As I was writing this little update I called Sam, and he invited me to meet up with him this Friday.   May the Spirit of God draw Sam to the Father, through Jesus.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

What happened?!  You were stabbed?!

Most Friday mornings Stan and I go to the train station to preach the gospel.  Actually, one of us preaches on one side of the track to the Manhattan-bound travelers waiting for the train, and the other one tries to smile at each traveler as they near the top of the 49-step ascent to the platform.   A smile, a “Good morning” and an offer of a gospel tract sometimes receives a smile in return, sometimes gets rejected, but is always worth doing in the name of Jesus. 

We have about a five minute window to preach before the northbound or southbound train comes through. Last Friday morning my short five-minute message began with “Good morning to my friends across the track, my name is Rich, and I want to tell you this morning that You are called to have life to the full, to live completely free, and to be filled with joy.”  This was the day after the 4th of July, so I mentioned the “we hold these truths to be self-evident” statement that outlines our “inalienable rights” and then talked about the Kingdom of God that calls us to deeper life, gives us freedom to serve, and provides fullness of joy.

After my second message, the northbound train pulled up to the platform.  I moved back and talked with God a little: “Thank you, Father, for giving me the chance to preach the good news of Jesus Christ.  I was made for this.” 

A man staggered off the train holding his side, moaning a little, his shirt all bloody. 

“What happened?” I asked, walking up to him quickly. “Do you need help?”

“I got stabbed, man.  I need to get to my sister’s house and get to the hospital,” he managed to get out between gasps.

“What!? You got stabbed!? Hey, let me run get my car and I’ll drive you to your sister’s house so we can then get you to the E.R.”  I ran down the steps, ran to get my car, and pulled up to the train station.  He wasn’t there.  “Oh know,” I thought to myself. “He probably fell down those stairs!”  Thankfully I found him leaning up against a post near the other exit, so I drove over and helped him into the car.  He began to explain where he lived and told me where to go, but then he couldn’t remember the name of his street.  “It’s 3300….3300…man, I’m losing it.  I can’t remember the name of my street.” I’m thinking to myself this guy is going to pass out in my car, I don’t know who he is, and I don’t know where he lives.

We made it to his sister’s house, where he changed his shirt.  Four stab wounds in all.  I took him to Montefiore Hospital with his cousin, and dropped them off at the E.R.  

The man (we’ll call him Dan) showed me his stitches and staples the next day when I stopped in to visit, and thanked me for taking him to the hospital.  The next day, Sunday, I invited Dan to come to church, not thinking through it that he’s probably in a lot of pain yet.  He actually walked the 0.4 miles to church and joined us for the service.  The message was on “Walking in the Spirit” from Romans 7, and Dan said later that Stan’s message spoke to him.   Ike took him home early because his wounds were hurting him.

The Word of God was sharper than a two-edged sword.   Or maybe that’s not such a good analogy for someone who has just endured four stab wounds.

God is on the move. 

​Rich

Rejoicing in heaven.

Ike and I have begun to try to schedule a weekly walk along Corsa Avenue on Mondays during the mid-morning, looking for opportunities to share the good news of Jesus Christ.  After “Dan” came to church on Sunday, we decided to stop in to visit him.  He was very happy to see us and sat outside on the patio on a chair while Ike told of what God has done in his life.  I shared some of what God has been doing in my life.  We then both told Dan that we believe God preserved his life on Friday for something bigger. 

Dan told us that he can think back to a time before dawn on Friday when he went to get some beers and, as he was coming back, he had a choice between two paths to the place he was heading. He actually started down the one path, but it was like he was moved to change his course and go down the other path.  That “other path” is where he met the four guys who started trying to beat him up, and the one began using a knife.  The time that he changed his course and went down the “other path” sounds very close to the time that Ike, Stan, and I were praying at the church building for those who would  receive the gospel tracts and hear the gospel message at the train station.  Would God have listened to our prayers and moved a man in downtown Manhattan to change his course so he could get stabbed and so that people would ignore him on the train so that he could come off the train just as I was preaching? We do not know the mind of God, now do we?

Now is the day of salvation, we told Dan.  We asked Dan what keeps him from giving his life to the Lord Jesus.  Dan said that there is no reason for him to wait, and he would like to do that right now.  So I prayed for him, he prayed and asked Jesus to forgive him for his sins, and to be Lord of His life, tears streaming down his face.  And then Ike prayed. 

So we gave Dan a Bible, gave him some reading assignments, and Stan had a follow-up visit with him Wednesday. I’m hoping to meet with Dan again tomorrow. 

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. ” (Matthew 13:45-46).  

Go all in. 

The Kingdom of Heaven is worth dying for.
​Rich