I looked out at the crowd of nearly 200 folks at Xcelerate last night and several things came to mind. Foremost is that for many, we become a temporary family, a community of like minded people in the middle of an anticipated life change that support each other.

Some have been banished from their own family's contact, others cannot count on an unstable home and some are without anything, straight out of jail or the woods. We collectively with their sober living facility become the support they need if they want it.

What I saw in their eyes was the need for someone to really care enough to get down and dirty with them, not just how are you doing but how can we help you get to where you need to go? As a community we may not always see eye to eye but we are accountable enough to tell you what you need not what you want to hear, and that may help them grow the most.

And, as a community love flows in every direction, to the felon, to the hopeless addict, to the worn out alcoholic, and to those that are in their lives as friends, spouses and family that are still connected. Love wins as Jesus taught, the right kind of love that encourages, bears others burdens, forgives and brings out the best in each other.

At ATB that is and always will be our Community, a place to grow, thrive and serve your fellow man and woman. Pretty sure that's the way God would want it to be. In fact once the new church was established after Pentecost and did even more than we are doing now scripture said: 

And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved!

Not rocket science - we show up and do what God asks us to do - people show up in more quantities and find a relationship with Him - then he adds to the numbers not because of us, but because we established a community that evolves around Him.

​Community, with a whole lot of room to grow! 

I taped it up this morning as it once again looked ready to split. That was my Well Worn Bible that I have turned to over the last 20 years for inspiration, guidance and hope. The exterior beauty has worn off, but the wisdom on the pages within has become clearer.

To me its like the owners manual to a car, or in this case an owners manual for life. As I turn each page a note or highlight pops up, or I'll go several pages that were untouched and realize I failed to read that part. I can see what I learned, how God spoke to my heart, and how he brought me through that crisis and that other one too.

I can review the lessons I taught others and see those passages that I did not understand without more study, and I can pick it up, hold it close and realize how much God loves me, how much I have treasured this amazing journey, and see how much I have grown in my faith.

Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth become Bring It Before the Lord Every day! It's a relationship connector between the two of us, it's a spiritual gift to my soul, and the way, the truth and the light unto my path to heaven.

Can't imagine where I'd be without it, no matter how much tape it needs!

All over the world people are praying, and there is a really good chance we are all praying for similar things: peace, joy, vision, good health, provision and most likely a deeper relationship with God.

Wish I could play the song "We Pray" I used at Good Landing on Tuesday by Coldplay and friends but I could not figure out a way to put it in this blog. Check it out on YouTube. Chris Martin the band leader said he wrote this song in the middle of the night and felt he needed to include people of other nations as singers, some in their own languages. It's a big hit and played before millions of people. It is a conversation starter!

Prayer is a conversation with God that can be had at any time or place. Billy Graham spoke of how his daughter prayed on her knees every day for hours to the point of getting arthritis. But he added that was just her way, and that he prayed even while delivering a sermon for people's hearts to open to the message. Most importantly it is a connector between us and God, and if he is everywhere, then prayer can be had anywhere.

Some use the Lord's Prayer as a model, but I used 3 significant examples for their uniqueness. First the Prayer Of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:9-11. He was named as a pain, he was referred to only once in the Bible, but he prayed for five separate things: a blessing, an enlarged territory, guidance, protection from harm and freedom from pain. Imagine that, a man named pain (from his painful childbirth), asking for relief from that pain.

Jabez asked for a lot, but David asked for even more in Psalm 56. And he aired out how he felt to God which is so important for us, we hurt, we are afraid and we cry, sometimes with folks telling us we should have enough faith to not feel that way. Tell that to David as his enemies lurked all around him, ready to destroy him. Or better yet tell Peter who was about to be put on trial and executed.

Acts 12 tells the story of him being locked up for his beliefs, chained between two soldiers, and guarded by 16 men. While he was there, the church was ​earnestly praying for him. So God sent an angel to deliver Peter from the hands of Herod answering the church's prayer, as he answered Jabez prayer by granting his request, and by also delivering David from his enemies.

With such a great track record of success, why wouldn't we pray? Nothing is too much, too unusual, and nothing is too hard for him to handle. Even if he doesn't grant our request it is still an answer. and as that songs says sometimes we have to "thank God for unanswered prayer". We got more than we asked for!

In that song ​We Pray hope springs eternal with these words: I know that heaven is waiting, I know somewhere there is something amazing, I know somewhere we'll feel no pain. Why not pray until we get there? It would be good to connect to the God we will meet face to face with one day.

Ultimately that will be the answer to our prayer!