Why Pray?

In chapel today we asked some questions about prayer.....  Do you struggle with prayer? Do you pray at all? Are your prayers typically for God to do something, fix something, or grant a wish or desire? Is your prayer to impose your will on God or to seek God's will for your life? What if in our prayers to God, we ask, as Jesus did, "not as I will, but thy will be done".

Our prayer should not be to move God towards our plan, but to seek God's plan for our life.

Why pray? Not to move God to us, but to move us closer to God.

Momentary Troubles

The Star Mazda race was littered with broken race cars and broken feelings during the dry and wet conditions.The conversations I had today and the way the race ended up reminded me that this life is full of wrecks, bumps, and bruises. Paul reminds us that these difficulties are temporal when he wrote,"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." - 2 Corinthians 4:17

We are to fix our eyes on Jesus. The seen in this world will pass away while the unseen is eternal.

O Canada!

Edmonton this weekend for Star Mazda....  Chapel is at 7:30am on Sunday morning. The message is "Why Pray" and is part of our sermon series "Faithful to the Finish".
Thanks for your continued support!

Come near to God

In chapel today, we talked about James 4:7-10 - ⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

There are a couple interesting points about this section of scripture...   look at the action words in these verses... Submit, resist, come, wash, purify, grieve, change, humble.... Those are all things that we are to do as believers!

Imagine you are standing at a door. Imagine that on the other side of this door stands Jesus Christ. Let’s look at those actions we just talked about….

1. Submit - take a step towards the closed door. Your heart races as you realize you need to surrender your life.
2. Resist – we take a step back in human fear. We fight the notion from satan that God will not accept us as we are.
3. Come – you approach the door and raise your hand to knock. We think about how He will see us.
4. Wash – we consider that we are about to stand before a Holy God. You ask yourself, “What is the condition of my heart?”
5. Grieve – we drop to a knee and confess our sinfulness and short comings.
6. Humble – when nothing is left of us; no pride, no selfishness, no attitude. We knock…

The door opens slowly and we see Jesus on the other side of the door. We look up and he smiles at us. He holds out his hand and says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." - Luke 11:9.
Humble yourself and God will lift you up. The more you move toward God, the more you can count on God moving toward you. Where do you stand? It's your move...

Whatever you did for one of the least of these...

....you did for me. - Jesus
Many of our Star Mazda drivers visited a local Toronto children's hospital. They signed autographs and showed the kids an Indy car....  But one of our drivers, Gabby Chaves, got autographs from the kids! He had them sign his driving shoes! He also placed 3rd in today's race! Nicely done Gabby!

Be faithful in......

I was excited today to have one of the drivers, who has never prayed before, requested prayer before practice today!! Paul says, "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." - Romans 12:12. I will continue to be joyful in the hope, the hope of glory, patient in any affliction that comes my way, and will always be faithful in prayer. Will you?

It's 4:33am and......

I am sitting in the kitchen doing my daily devotions and prayer. My flight leaves at 6:55am to Toronto for the INDYCAR event this weekend. I just had a great weekend getaway with my wife. I am a little tired and and for some reason, a bit discouraged this morning. In the devotion is a quote from John 14:1, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me."

My phone buzzed with a new message and I think, "Who sends an email at 4:33am?" God does. The email read:

David,

I hope all is well with you, your family and your ministry. I have not seen you lately, but was wondering how your return to school was progressing. I admire your dedication to speading the Word of Jesus and taking the necessary steps to a full-time ministry. My wife and I pray for you often. Take care & God bless.

This was from a brother in Christ from my church! God used him to send encouragement my way when I needed it the most! When it's 4:33am and dark outside, let not your hearts be troubled. God provides. God inspires. God does.

Thanks Mark for letting God work through you!