Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: WALL (02/17/22)
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TITLE: Sheepfold of Prayer | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lynn Kowal
02/23/22 -
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“We’ve asked the other churches in town,” she hurries on, “but none of them have responded, and it is getting cold outside.” She holds up her hands, “We would take care of everything, all we need is a bit of space.”
We nod yes because obeying the Second Great Commandment “to love your neighbor as yourself,” does more to beautify that space than anything else.
“We’ll build a temporary wall that would separate the back of your Church where the bathrooms and kitchen are located, from the front of your sanctuary where the altar is located.” She dips her head with a shy smile, “That way your chairs won't get soiled.”
We smile back because we know all about soiled. We make it our business to battle the ravages of sin in people’s hearts that sometimes spill out onto their clothing.
The wall goes up and our knees go down.
We build a sheepfold of prayer around the people every Wednesday night and call out each of their names. Like Nehemiah, we repair the breach within their hearts.
Those prayers, like the ones we have offered up for years, are working.
One woman who inhabited a tent in our sanctuary now lives in an apartment where she is cleaning that building to pay her rent.
Another man who roamed Canada for thirty years knocked on our door looking for our help. We gave it to him and he gave his life to Jesus. To show he was sincere, he married the woman he had been traveling with and began cleaning our building.
His nephew knocked on our same church door a few years later. He was greeted by this once-homeless man who was his uncle, but who now was completely unrecognizable by the presence of the Holy Spirit within him.
Nehemiah built up the broken-down wall around Jerusalem so that it would keep the enemy out.
Our church lets the enemy captives come in so that we may break down the wall around their hearts - erected to keep God’s love out.
We enclose them in our sheepfold of prayer so that we may present them to our Heavenly Father - not as captives - but as His sons and daughters gathered together to be set free.
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