Ministry

Prayer For My Precious Church

From June 11, 2015

My dear church, I have been lost in the love of God during my prayer times lately. I sense He is calling you just as He is calling me. It is my hope to pull you into His sweet presence with me. Would you take the next ten minutes, play the song above, read my prayer below and ask the Holy Spirit to birth in you a fresh desire for Him? I believe, even now, He can meet you just where you need to be met.

Stacy

___________________

Heavenly Father,

My prayer today is for my precious church.

God…Holy God…Pour out your Spirit with a fresh passion on Your people.

I know You are calling. Calling Your children back to Your heart and back to Your authority. You wake me with tears running down my cheeks, broken for a nation. Our nation.

God, we are lost, we are so very lost.

Holy Spirit, give us repentant hearts. We are sinners. We are unholy. And we fail you. Birth in us a deep humility. A true faith in Christ that is marked by repentance. May we draw the boundaries in our lives, not by the world’s standards, but by Your standards.

I pray a rich spiritual hunger in our hearts. May we have an insatiable need for your Word, be called to your throne in prayer, and be uplifted in power by your Holy Spirit.

I pray for the weak, the depressed, and the down trodden. Your children are not bound by the world’s life-taking gravity, but we are called to a higher purpose. Freedom is found in Your face. May we seek You with all of our hearts and may you release us from those chains.

I pray for our youth and children. May they be mighty. A generation with a boldness and a fight in their souls. They have been lied to…Lied to about sexuality, lied to about worth, and lied to about power. I pray for an unwavering strength in their determination and their direction.

I pray for a great cloud of witnesses in our church who will proclaim the love of Christ without hesitation. You are our salvation, our joy, and our hope. May we return to our first love and declare Your glory.

And Lord, give us hearts to worship with abandon. May we set aside the distractions and spend the time worshipping you daily. May we get up from those moments and carry the power of the Holy Spirit with us in a way that sets us apart.

God, we are desperate to see the God of miracles be set free to work in our midst. The Healer, the Anointer, the Victor. We long for Your power to be displayed in our church, our lives, and our community.

Let the Heavens open.

God, Holy God, let the Heavens open on our nation.

Amen.

Top 5 Blogs from 2015: #5 – Just Keep Running

By stacynewell

January 4, 2016

Ministry

Just Keep Running

From October 15, 2015

Today’s post is in honor of October 15th National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day and dedicated to my friends who have babies in Heaven. You are each heroes to me for getting up in the morning, facing your grief and walking forward with the grace of Jesus shining through you.

Sometimes in this thing called life, we are thrown into the pain and suffering of this broken world with a front row seat. Perhaps the closest we will get to the heart of pain is the loss of a child.

As parents, love is birthed in us at the moment of conception. We begin to dream for, pray over, and protect fiercely this little baby that we cannot even see with our eyes, but whom we love with our very souls. Our perfect picture is a healthy baby that grows into an amazing adult who will surely bury us before we bury them. Anything short of that goal is almost too much for our frail hearts to handle.

Last week our dear friends, Daniel and Lisa, lost their baby unexpectedly late term in their pregnancy. It is in that moment when you feel the earth’s horrifying gravity a little too heavily and yearn for the sweet respite of Heaven. Words are too inadequate and we know that only Jesus can truly provide a soothing balm of peace in the darkness of grief. It is simply breath stealing.

Daniel and Lisa’s oldest daughter and our oldest daughter, Delaney, have become fast friends in the last several months. As a pastor’s kid, Delaney has been on the forefront of grief many times. She has been with us for too many devastating visits and has held the hand of several friend’s facing the harsh reality of loss. Perhaps that is why Delaney latched on to Emily’s grief quickly and carried it with her as her own. She delivered a gift to her friend, stood by her in small group, and cried over the sadness in her heart.

A few days later at Delaney’s cross country meet I watched my girl run in the distance and enjoyed seeing her long stride push past her own pain. She was running with literally everything in her body and I could tell she was focused on doing well. Delaney is not naturally competitive, but this day she was running with a new determination.

When we got in the car I told her that I was proud of her for trying so hard. I was stunned when her answer came from the back seat, “I was running for Emily. I just thought of her the whole time and did my best for her. When I was struggling, I thought, ‘Just keep running.’ And so I did.”

I wasn’t expecting that at all and the beauty of realizing that she was still carrying that grief on behalf of her friend caused hot tears to roll down my cheeks.

God’s own wisdom often comes from the most innocent of moments, doesn’t it?

I sat quietly in the front seat contemplating what Jesus was speaking to my heart. It had been such a long and difficult week and His sweet presence in the car was a welcome lift to my weary soul.

“Stacy, do you hear those words? When you feel pain, JUST KEEP RUNNING. When you want to stop, JUST KEEP RUNNING. When you don’t know what to do, JUST KEEP RUNNING.”

And that’s true for all of us, isn’t it?

Daniel and Lisa…JUST KEEP RUNNING.

Greg and Kristina…JUST KEEP RUNNING.

YOU…JUST KEEP RUNNING.

And the really beautiful piece of being a part of God’s family…You are not out there on the course alone. When you think that the grief might overtake you and the pain is too much, just remember that there are many people who aren’t just running with you…they are running FOR you. And they are fighting for you, praying for you, and pulling for you.

You aren’t alone. Just keep running.

Hebrews 12:1

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

December 20 Coffee Church Highlights

By stacynewell

December 22, 2015

Ministry

The ONE.

By stacynewell

December 14, 2015

Ministry

10 Comments

This has easily been the most difficult year of my life. Every day seemed to bring about new challenges and each challenge seemed more daunting than the last. Weariness, depression and the desire to give up seemed at my heels each day. Perhaps you know the feeling.

I will also say that this year has been one of growth and dependence on Jesus that I wouldn’t trade for anything. I feel like I learned to pray, learned to trust, and learned to worship on a level that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

This was the year that the Lord taught me that sometimes we just need to go home. “Home” is often the place where we have felt the greatest peace, the most profound acceptance, and the least amount of strife in our hearts. For me, home is a camp in Hungry Horse, Montana.

On a warm summer night in August 1986, I met Jesus at an altar at that camp. I remember the preacher telling me about this Jesus and I remember my soul leaping at those words. There was a Savior who wanted my heart. The whole world disappeared as I listened to those words of hope.

I stood to my feet in the crowded room of people when he asked if anyone wanted to accept Jesus as their Savior. I scooted down the aisle, bumping knees with my friends, and I found myself weeping on a dirty carpet at the front of a stage. It was there that I gave Jesus my sins and He gave me eternal life.

I left the service that night all by myself. As I walked out in the dark, my small frame stood among the large evergreen trees that surrounded the building. My weakness stood among their enormous strength. I bent my neck back to peer through a break in the trees at the navy blue sky dotted with a million stars. If you ever want to see a glimpse of God, look into the Montana sky. I felt in that moment so small, but it would also be the first moment that I would feel Him tug at my heart. It was as if God was telling me that despite the largeness of this world or the enormity of the challenges I would face, He was there with me.

This summer I went home in August to visit my parents, but Mark wasn’t able to come due to the fact that we were in the middle of selling one of the church buildings. It ended up being a terrible trip in my difficult year. I had car problems on the way, alone with two children. My brother came one day of my vacation to repair the car and when he finished, my dad told me to take a drive to make sure everything was good. Where does one go?

You go home.

I rolled down the windows and set out for Hungry Horse, Montana. It was the EXACT day of the anniversary of the day I met Jesus 29 years ago.

The hot air poured through my car as I wound through the mountains. The river was rushing mercilessly on my left and with each mile, I could feel the presence of Jesus flood my car. He had an agenda for me that day.

As I pulled into the empty camp, every memory flashed through my soul.

Here He met me.

Here He called me.

Here He sent me.

And here He would meet me once again.

I stepped out of my car onto the dry dirt of the parking lot. There was no one there, so I crept up to the door of the chapel where Jesus first met me. The same enormous trees surrounded me with their strength once again.

I laid my hands on the door in front of me with a posture of surrender and I began to sob uncontrollably.

The faces of those who played parts in my journey to Jesus came to mind one by one. My tears surprised me because the source of them was not the pain that I carried with me due to a difficult year.

They were tears of immense gratitude. Gratitude for the sacrifices of the people who came before me and lead me to this spot where my eternity was changed. Although the journey had been long, I was so thankful that I had the privilege of being on it.

I drove away from that camp not truly understanding why God gave me that moment. And then the year continued to unload on my shoulders with a fierceness that I didn’t know what to do with.

Recently as I cried out to Jesus about our plight, He reminded me of that afternoon in Hungry Horse.

“Those people who gave up so much for you to meet Jesus…they felt like you at times. Would you want them to do it all again if it was just for you?”

Hot tears stained my cheeks.

“Yes. Yes, Lord. Even if it was all just for me.” I was overcome with such a selfish emotion, but my salvation is the most precious thing I have…I NEEDED them to go through all of those challenges, even if it really was just for me…

“Then you keep going for the ONE.”

Resolve poured down my back like a steel rod. That was all He ever needed to say. Greatness in the Bible was often seen as a man standing in a field with a shepherd’s staff, or a woman carrying a baby amidst the scrutiny of scandal, or seen in the eyes of an Egyptian slave. When the outside world looked, they did not see what God knew to be true. In His eyes, there before Him stood great leaders who said yes to the ONE time and time again.

My audience is Jesus and my mission is to do His will….come what may.

Come what may.