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Come Alive In Prayer by Pavel Goia

Joe was an Olympic high diver. He was with his friend, Bob in California who had built this big in-door swimming pool with a very high diving board. Bob was a Christian and he had been praying for his friend, Joe, to accept Jesus as his personal Savior. At about midnight Joe couldn’t sleep. So, he decided he would go out and practice some dives. He went out to the pool and the moon was shining through the windows, so he didn’t turn on any lights. He went way up to the highest board. He stretched his arms out and as he looked down, he saw a cross. He stepped back and he couldn’t figure it out. He stepped forward again, put his arms out and there was a cross again. He then got down and went down to the pool and he looked. And to his surprise, there was no water in the pool, because it was being repaired. The moon had made him look like a cross down below. It dawned on him that he was saved by the reflection of the cross. His heart was touched, and he knelt right then and there and gave his heart to God. If it would not have been for his friend’s prayers and the reflection of the cross that night, he would have lost his life. This week we turn our attention to our prayer lives. We Pray on.

In the African wilderness an animal killed by a predator feeds many other species. The cat may make the kill and eat a large part of the animal, then come smaller predators and then comes the clean up crew of the vultures. Around the time of the vultures and after them come the hyenas. The aggressive pack animals will come in and clean up a kill consuming even the bones. Well good for them. As sad as a lost life might be, once you are down to the bones there isn’t any hope. It’s not like the bite into the flesh when there is still struggle for life or at least hope in our minds. When there is nothing, but bones left, it’s... lifeless and hopeless. So go for it hyenas, clean up those bones. Except. Except that’s not always true. Ezekiel speaks up after getting a command from God to give prophecy to dry bones (emphasis on dry) and there is hope (Ezekiel 37). So, hold the hyenas. There is life. This week we begin a teaching series on the role and importance of prophets.

Joe was an Olympic high diver. He was with his friend, Bob in California who had built this big in-door swimming pool with a very high diving board. Bob was a Christian and he had been praying for his friend, Joe, to accept Jesus as his personal Savior. At about midnight Joe couldn’t sleep. So, he decided he would go out and practice some dives. He went out to the pool and the moon was shining through the windows, so he didn’t turn on any lights. He went way up to the highest board. He stretched his arms out and as he looked down, he saw a cross. He stepped back and he couldn’t figure it out. He stepped forward again, put his arms out and there was a cross again. He then got down and went down to the pool and he looked. And to his surprise, there was no water in the pool, because it was being repaired. The moon had made him look like a cross down below. It dawned on him that he was saved by the reflection of the cross. His heart was touched, and he knelt right then and there and gave his heart to God. If it would not have been for his friend’s prayers and the reflection of the cross that night, he would have lost his life. This week we turn our attention to our prayer lives.

Come Alive in Prayer by Pastor Pavel Goia

The great moral powers of the soul are faith, hope, and love. {3T 187.1} According to Paul in Corinthians, “But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (13:13) We can hope in accordance with the desires of men and end hopeless. Or we can invite Christ within and have the hope of glory. Speaking of hope, John Maxwell pipes up with the line "Where there is no hope in the future, there is no power in the present.” Altogether a life-giving essence the question presents itself - where do we turn? Present hope depends on our beliefs in the Hope of the past and the Hope of the future as found in the person of Jesus. As the calendar turns, we collectively turn to the past and the future to behold the Hope.