Charlotte247’s Weblog

after a great evening of God-Cafe with its subversive agenda to apprentice the ordinary joe in the ways of social justice, i am now in bed tapping out these rhythms of words becoming sentences becoming thoughts. my mind is racing back to the stories of individuals i met tonight who spoke of how God touched & transformed them there in the prayer room. some that very night. while the crowds chatted filling the room with noise, somewhere in a back booths God’s Spirit was on the move in human hearts.  God was also on the move in the chatty conversations too. the kind that, no matter the topic, makes you feel a part & a sense of belonging, as through the chatter the circle opens up to invite you into that elusive thing called community.  also find myself thinking about the great shift at 24-7 & in myself concerning her. seeing her place in God’s destiny for the city. watching how others respond to this shift unfolding. unfolding in this place.  a disconnected string of thoughts, i know. it’s around 2am. headed to sleep.

WE ARE ALL THIS… AND MORE. 

we are sinners…  we are not only sinners
 we are weak… we are not only weak
   we fail… we are not always failures
  we have destroyed… also we have loved

you, God, do not limit us to the stories by which the world knows us. you see much more in us than the labels we give ourselves. give us courage to defy all expectations – especially our own – and in your love become all of who we are.

-The wonderful “disturbance” of the day -  deep into my net research a woman came in to 24-7 & asked, “Are you guys the justice people?” “Yes”, I responded. She began to tell me of how her building was built in 1939 & how she loved the brick & all that the landlord had done to preserve the structure. She then asked if the JP could help with some landscaping – “Some things in this neighborhood can be bad & I just want some “umpf” around the building.” I told her I’d pass her info on to our JP captain who would contact her. She then began to inch her way inside the prayer room with her daughter saying, “I’ve got religious hang-ups, but I want a space to be with God…& this is a healing space, I can feel it.” Her daughter just kept saying, “It’s so pretty, Mommie.” “I’ll definately be back, this is my kinda space,” she closed with. -CG

  When Cortez landed at Vera Cruz in 1519

  to begin his dramatic conquest of Mexico

  with a pint-sized force of 700 men,

  he purposely set fire to his fleet of eleven ships.

  His men on the shore watched their only means of retreat

  sinking to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

  With no means of retreat,

  there was only one direction in which to move…Forward.

  Wanna walk close with Christ on the narrow road?
  Sometimes in order to go further than the shoreline
  & get deep into the interior of this great adventure

  You first must burn all your ships.
                                        …Got a match?

The Call?

                                                    “Follow Me”

                                                         -Jesus

24-7 was abuzz this evening. almost like a good party. conversation, artists, friends, good coffee, & people talking to God. i only stopped in to bring everybody starbucks, but i confess, i wanted to stay longer than i did.  i sat on the couch in the photo & was in great dialogue with someone asking to oversee God-Cafe, the friday night thing we’ve done at 24-7.  God-Cafe is caffeine & mission: we turn 24-7 into a big coffeehouse filled with acoustic worship, justice poetry, friends hanging out together, & at the end of the night, some rapid fire prayer. we send the proceeds to an  african orphanage.

wanna see more photos of the 24-7 prayer room?  Click Here.   they are on our new myspace page. no wide shots, though. so no sense of the size, scale, & number of stations in the space. we’re taking some wide shots this week

Just back from our Justice Project Back To School Event, which came at the end of a 24-2prayer weekend that began Friday at 9am & ended today at 9am. Justice Project, volunteers saw to it that every needy pre- K, elementary, middle, & high school kid in the marginalized inner-city neighborhood of Optimist Park, had all the required school supplies they needed, including some of the coolest looking back packs I’ve ever seen. We fed them, gave them cold drinks, & lots of water balloons & balls to keep em connecting out on Duncan Memorial’s lawn. Parents chatted.  Youth ate. Kids played kickball. A little over a hundred all in all. My favorite part, besides the supply give away?  Getting to pray for all of them. Check out our new 24-7 Justice video.

spent part of the day sitting in the hot sun with a friend of mine who is a homeless guy just outta jail. as we sit outside 24-7, people drive by & give him a dirty or suspicious look. he returns their disdain with a cold stare. i give him some water & comment that the shoes we gave him look good on his feet. he commences to talk to me about his time inside & outside.  we talked like friends do. he gives me a window into life on charlotte streets & explained how he got his black eye. the whole time he’s talking i’m distracted by glimpses into his calling. it’s a thing of beauty even though his lifestyle is presently a thing of ugliness. his hair is matted & he wears his shirt unbuttoned, but he washed before he came to hang out with me. he, an atheist, came to ask for a word from God from me… and i’ve got one. our talk in the heat of the day was one of the highlights of my day. it fits my definition of mission & meaning & quality of life. that he shares his life with me, this, this i find fulfilling. it increases my own life in some way.

                                                                We called it The Justice Project Crime Prevention Weekend.  Peepholes & deadbolts, & smoke alarms, & fire alarms installed, & newscrews, & firemen, & policemen & the Justice Project volunteers that came prepared to serve.  I sit in 24-7 tonight, still exhuasted from a morning of serving justice & talking justice, & leaning in to listen & pray with ex-convicts & with the ex-apathetics now experiencing the awakening that comes from serving them…  Also praying for my primal friend, whose journey though long ago started is in some ways just beginning. May God draw J. to His side that they may now run together.  I’m looking ahead to a week preparing for a 24-2 weekend of nonstop prayer at the site, preparing for the new addition of 150 more volunteers to The Justice Project, & assembling the state of the union 24-7newsletter letting the community know about our upcoming year of instigating & facilitating 24-7prayer among the city’s churches & college campuses.  God is on the move… and we are too

spent time this morning with a guy who tried to kill himself a few days prior. knew when i saw him that he was in trouble. listened to his stories of attempted suicide & about the people he wanted to gun down because they hurt him in some way. he was no murderer, but he was grieivng & broken. i prayed with him, but the real power was in the touch. i held him. and he held me back – tight – as if holding on for dear life. 

Unite Us: A Prayer for Unity

I wonder what barriers we are being called to break through in our own situations right now? Maybe it’s our move … another image, this time to express the tension of unity: two groups, peering at each other – perhaps wanting to be one, perhaps being afraid of joining together, perhaps even being hostile, but finding there are barriers to cross first.

Sometimes we peer across the divides
In mutual incomprehension:
Lord, forgive us, and unite us.

Sometimes we will not cross barriers,
But prefer to guard our territory:
Lord, forgive us, and unite us

Sometimes the comfort of the known place
Overcomes our desire to explore new ground:
Lord, forgive us, and unite us.

Lord, you prayed that your disciples would be one
As you and your Father are one:
Lord, let your Kingdom come.    -Crafty Curate

Tears of a rapist    

I’d not seen him before. No one at Poplar would know him. He didn’t look up. He just kept staring into the bag of groceries I’d just given him. He just kept looking down.

“My life didn’t used to be like this… where did it go wrong…”  he said.
“There’s something else….I’ve done something awful… I’m so ashamed…”    A story of wrong choices, wrong friends, a drinking spree getting out of control, arrest, DNA swabs, cells & a rape charge has me sighing at the brokeness of what I was hearing.

The story told – he looks up into my face looking for rejection. I say nothing…

“My life didn’t used to be like this… where did it go wrong…” I say nothing…

He half composes himself - “I’m in court next week… I’m scared…” I put my hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure you know if you are guilty” His shoulders shake as deep sobs interrupt the moment.

I look into his eye’s “What do you want me to pray?”

Through his sobs he barely whispers “that justice will be done…”

Had A-Pak in 24-7 last night. It started at 7pm with good & heartfelt encouragements & conversation. Then, in prayer before God together, the room filled with raw repentance & the sounds of absolute surrender followed by deliverances & the shouts of people in long deep belly laughs for the joy of their newfound freedoms. Around 10:30 we, with some reluctance, wrapped up & headed out, met by the kind of full moon that sparks the imagination of ten year olds. We just stood there & gazed at it with childlike wonder as we spoke of the smile on the man in the moon. I drove home, still somewhat inebriated, laughing intermittently the whole way.

  While we long for living comfortable, You long for living sacrifices.

I feel so small sometimes … not insignificant or unimportant … just out of my depth. I don’t understand so much of what I see around me, & yet I am called to be a part of it, & seek to live significantly in a world  of general elections, tsunamis, superpowers, global corporations … and so are each of you.  Feeling small has a flipside though … perhaps we can call it worship? A right sense of scale & the awesomeness of God, & the wonder of it that he takes us, restores us, & gives us a place of influence in this vast & bewildering world. 

“Remember, even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” (Lady Galadriel to Frodo in “Fellowship of the Ring”

I’m in the throws of making an important decision to continue living in the upscale Dilworth neighborhood or moving my family to Optimist Park, the inner-city neighborhood the 24-7 Justice Project is serving in.  It would involve moving from a posh safe community to the more risky ‘hood. And for what?  My only answer is Isaiah 58 & the millennial3 monastery / boiler room 24-7 is destined to become  Btw, the house is two doors down from the 24-7 prayer room & has a spectacular city-scape view from the big porch roomy enough for many rocking chairs.  Plenty of room for housing summer interns too. But what of my son growing up in such a crime-ridden place? What to do? What to do?

The prayer room was full from afternoon till night with people praying, learning, connecting deeply with God & making some needed paradigm shifts in order to walk more in sync with God. Grabbing hold of intimacy & justice like anchors.Coming one way – leaving another.  Today  we’ll facilitate the U.K. ministry school interns spending time out on the streets serving those in great need. They’ll hit the streets as they are – But return different. As we work to help their theology gets its street creed back. 

As for me… it is well with my soul watching others come free – but my hearts bends low seeking upward to see His face in the contours & crevices of this day. Demons are subject to Jesus’  name on my lips – but the seducing whisper of His name in my heart as I work to woo God, And His subsequent response to my longing to see & companion Him this day…this, this fills me more deeply than all else.  Perfection pants for me, waits for me, thinks of me in timeless ways. The mere thought of this great God turning to meet my gaze with His… It has the power to make me forget my imperfections & inadequacies. It makes me feel radiant & beautiful.

All this forward motion is our love story with God & His love story through us with the rest of the world. What a great & mysterious calling to know His heart, bear His likeness, & carry His message. What a great & mysterious calling.

Hey L,

How did the prayer time go this morning? Let me put it this way…. I am having a hard time expressing myself over what i experienced there this morning. I was totally blown away by the aesthetics and the entire mood of the whole thing. WOW!! Thank you for following Gods lead and doing this. Ashley is excited about it now too. Thanks again

Only by His Grace, Ryan Grammatico

I’m writing this sitting outside in front of 24-7. The prayer room is full tonight of people praying to God, while next door the art gallery is full of people working to get the space ready for the Gala, a fund raiser The Justice Project is putting on to benefit the inner-city neighborhood we’re serving in. Here comes a shameless plug: To give toward that, click here.  These kind of nights I’m not sure where to be or what to do with myself. No room in 24-7, & I’m in the way next door as a small army of volunteers assemble a big collaborative art installation for the Gala. Have replaced one stolen portable dvd player, two to go. give toward the replacement fund here. I’m signing off now – headed to go get that army some cold drinks. -Chow!

   What if every Apprentice of Christ actually lived this out?

Luke14: 12 Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid by God….”

              What if I did?  I will.

The prayer room was abuzz with people & conversations last night. a mother stopped in with her son to get some soul-refuge & bible reading done. It was discovered that she wanted to learn how to use a computer in order to serve her ministry to the homeless in more efficient ways. I told her about The Justice Project Tutoring team who could help with that. She tilted her head back, raised her hands & said it was an answer to prayer. A missionary who just moved into the neighborhood stooped in with his laptop. Several other Optimist Park residents dropped by. Some followers of Christ. Some not. There was conversation with God & conversation with each other about justice in action. Well after the prayer room closed individuals were praying  & at one table sat a middle eastern, an African American, & a Hispanic, each talking about living out the core-value of justice. Conversation about the goodness revolution was as sacred as conversations people were having with God asking him to save their family & friends. I find it odd that some see prayer as sacred & the working out of justice as secular.  I believe swinging hammers to patch up holes can be as sacred as tossing out words to patch up souls. Some believe that unless we are out proselytizing, our labors to serve others & improve their quality of life are merely  pointless human inventions.  As if talking to Christian-skittish people about giving their life to Jesus is of more spiritual subsequence than walking out the life of jesus before them. As if sending money to keep african babies alive is useless if they are not simultaneoulsly being told about the gospel …even though they are only 6months old & can not understand words yet. In reality I’ve never seen it as an ‘either’ ‘or’ deal, but simply a determination of which is best to lead with considering the people group being served. Sometimes ya lead by sending john the baptist & handing him a bullhorn. Sometimes you lead simply by sending the sun & the rain….& food. Not every good deed need be followed by a sermon on salvation. Sometimes the good deed is sermon enough.   

 24-7 had its 1st First Fridays Worship Gathering +  exceeding even my highest expectations, it was one of the best worship sets i’d ever been involved in personally. …and there were moments wherein i lost myself & became quite undignified. i think not one person there went untouched. i think we, each & every one of us, entered in. 

6th -extraordinarily busy day today – a morning discipleship mtg in which we further broached the subject of unleashing one’s affection on God & courting him with a patient longing,  a late morning coffee date with a new friend whose a true intercessor, {she was my armor bearer today as she simply said “what do you need?  what can i do to help you?  you name it, i’ll do it”… and she did,   the  early afternoon 24-7 cook-out & vision cast -  the late afternoon hosting  of the grace covenant youth group in the prayer room, the early evening moving all the items from back loft to another storage facility to get that space empty for the expanding ministry of 24-7, & tonight’s celebrating my son’s 4th birthday… whew!   in truth, i still have not fully recovered from last night’s worship set. all throughout the day my thoughts kept sneaking back to what happened inside me there. on a side note… the  growing 24-7 community really pitched in to make today possible – especially the arts team who recently became members of 24-7 – but the blue ribbon goes to the captains of 24-7 Worship, john & mel hogan – in the past 48 hours they really shined.

7th -someone stopped me in the coffeehouse in the late evening – said they been at the first friday 24-7 worship gathering – said it was the first time they’d ever been so free in worship, ever. so… it wasn’t just me, i thought to myself. indeed God was up to something corporately that night,  just as i had suspected.

                            On your knees or on your feet? There seem to me to be two camps. The camp that prays but never really invests themselves in a  l-i-f-e-s-t-y-l-e which includes serving the marginalized, practically working for justice, & actively helping the poor.  The other camp serves & labors in these fields zealously, but rarely invests themselves in a l-i-f-e-s-t-y-l-e which includes a vital & intimate prayer life. It is my hope & goal & labor to see the two sides partnered under the Spirit’s leadership. Then Christ’s body will be strong both in the prayer closet a-n-d on the gritty streets.  Strong in God-intimacy & world-impact, bearing, on both fronts, fruit that remains. I sense God calling His servants into the closet more & his Brides onto the streets more. Instead what is presently taking place is that His Brides are going further into the closet & further away from the streets & His servants are going deeper into the streets & further away from the closet.  In the narrative of Martha & Mary, I believe it was never an issue of ‘either’ ‘or’ regarding sitting & listening verses standing & serving. Rather it was a matter of which should come first. Some make the first thing the only thing, & while they are sitting & soaking, & self perfecting, people hungry & hurting are stumbling & falling & dying. Others make the second thing the first thing & it soon becomes the only thing. And while they are standing & serving to the exemption of sitting & soaking, they become more deaf to God’s voice, more numb to His guidance,  & worse… estranged from intimacy with the One gave the word to serve the needy.  The generation who will experience the epic kind of Isaiah 58 promises, will be those who grow strong in a lifestyle that as a rule has both each in it’s right place of priority. {Season’s of God’s Spirit shifting & bending this rule of thumb, notwithstanding}.

                                                             Postcards From The Edge

                   Keep back no part for yourself from Me

                      & all parts of yourself will reverberate with Me

The Death of The Thouroughly Modern Man

In the 24-7 Prayer Room over the past few days people have begun coming from their uptown offices in the afternoon to grab some time with God in these sacred spaces. Yesterday a woman gave her life back to God here. Today she brought her friend who even as I write this is clearly doing the same thing as the music wafts over the sound of her tears & worship. As she rushes past me looking for tissue she simple says…”This place is amazing”.  I know it’s God who she’s really talking about. She’s headed back into her encounter with God as I’m packing up to pick up my son from school. She doesn’t need to leave just because I do. She can take her time. No preacher will come to tell her the service is ending. She can track at her own pace. Walking out the door I say to myself…”Yeah, this is why 24-7 exists. Hosting the encounter between God & men. Yeah, that’s what we do”.

Get out of the chair…
& the wrestling will become a dance

   ____________let justice roll____________

My kid fell today. turned, looked, & saw my kid in full scream sprawled spread eagle on concrete.  i dropped everything… and ran. i don’t run. anyone you meet who knows me will tell you this. but i ran. after the comforting hug, washing of the scrapes, & some neosporin, he was off on his next adventure. i got to thinking about the prodigal son’s dad running out to meet him. yeah, it makes total sense. my world stops at my sons urgent need… and to his urgent needy cry, i am captive to respond.  i could do nothing else. it’s in my d.n.a.  i wonder if God is like that too. 

And if the grief stricken, impaled by tragedy, are too wounded or angry to cry out, can we cry out for them?  is this then the definition of intercession. if a nation, a people, or a person, becomes too broken or bound to even think of heading home, can we cry out for them?  is then this the definition of intercession? 

Dad, Joe is too broken & angry to cry out so i cry out on his behalf. Dad run out to meet him… where he is. Dad the people of Joe are too grief stricken & shell shot to lift up their heads toward heaven & cry out to you in their grief. Dad hear my cry on their behalf. Meet them as you would have met me.  And if they share blame – forgive & have mercy & hurl in solutions – for Your name’s sake

                                        written confession: knifegunpen

Started the morning recklessly abandoning myself to God & presenting my needs & inquiries to this lover of my soul. This took longer than normal as I kept interdispersing throughout each repentance, request, & inquiry, a repetitive theme of worship & a constant reiteration that if I had all the answers & all provision, it would mean little toward my deepest desire, which is to walk with God & to do so in intimate communion. Would that I could know the secrets of His heart & evoke jealousy in Enoch & David with the quality of companionship I covet & hope to attain to with the one who calls himself God – His pleasure is becoming my strongest hope & pursuit. It is fueling my desire for thourough obedience & great fruitfulness as I walk in this mortal coil on this dirt planet which groans for the Son of God to come. As do I.

                        …Ours is hard core freedom, unprecedented & mysterious…

Spent the entire day in the prayer room yesterday. Busy with people in the morning, but quieter in the evening. Good thing too. Otherwise others would have seen me crying. Tears of joy & change. Tears nonetheless. Straddled thoughtfully the edge between faith & flesh. Each side surveying the path, & each offereing its own perspective. Though for me doubting God is not an option, trusting God is not always easy…. It’s not always easy, but it is always possible.  Spent some of last night praying for my friends & flinging off the stray cares attempting to adhire themselves to my heart & work as weights against the faith journey I’m well into now. 

                   It’s easier to talk about Christ than to surrender to Christ.

Books are easier to open up, read, & discuss than our hearts are.
And the one less costly than the other.
It’s always been easier to talk about God than to actually come near God.
And the one less costly than the other.
Excavating the principles of God by opening up His book has always been easier than experiencing the heart of God by coming into His presence.
And the one less costly than the other.
Both are desperately needed, but only one has been desperately lacking.

Right after the 24-7 Deliverance Team meeting on Saturday, I’ll be headed up to Moravian Falls to work on the Fullfillmentfest 24-7 prayer tent. I’m looking forward getting out of town & getting to spending time with my friend Elizabeth.The 21 days of worship & prayer that’s a part of the Fulfllmentfest Conference is going to be great. Throughout the 21 days, I’ve been asked to cast vision for 24-7, but I’m really excited about sitting in on some of the conference. Some of the most powerful prophetic voices & wisest of gifted & seasoned teachers of our times will be speaking.

Thanks to a donation from here, I  was able to put a dvd player in the Isaiah 58 prayer station with a dvd about the world’s statistics on poverty. The thing that caught my attention in 24-7 today was watching a homeless person watch that dvd.  I’d never seen anyone that transfixed by a single video. Instead of coming out of it with a sense of entitlement of what others owe him in help & support, he came out wanting to do more for those far more poor than he himself. Today, that homeless guy encountered the word of the Lord in that I58 booth. But he himself was was the word of the Lord to me.  At 24-7, the homless & businessman & anglican preist, & the artists, they all come with the same need to seek & hear from God. And God delivers.

good day. lot’s of meetings – productive. talk of serving the poor better, leading better, & networking well. God through people threw $4000 worth of sound equipment at 24-7 & another $500 in new printer equipment. but the best meeting by far was a brief chance encounter in a coffeeshop. short & sweet.  went down to the 24-7 prayer room tonight ’round 11ish after spending some home-time with my sweetheart & spawn. someone came in & relieved me at midnight, taking over the next shift of prayer.  the person there before me left clear evidence of having encountered God. the person there after me will likely experience the same. yeah, i love what God is doing  on site. on that note, it’s off to bed for me. got a 6:30am meeting I’m looking forward to with some anticipation.

Just outside that door lies an entire world & a specific someone in need. Just outside that door dark cries out for light – death cries out for life – sickness for healing – bondage for freedom & hopelessness  cries out for hope -  Whether in the big & wide obvious of someone’s outer life on display or in the quiet corner of a troubled heart in hiding, somewhere just outside that door broken cries out for whole. Just outside that door mission calls us out. Go… with the message & with the power. Freely you’ve received, freely give. When you’re done on your knees {…and not a moment before}, take your head out of the pews, & come out, come out, where ever you are… Come just outside that door.  Mission awaits.

May 24th - had a horrendous 6 hours last night getting the urban prayer room ready for the week of 24-7 prayer, as almost everything that could go wrong – did.  was supposed to work on upgrading the station content. worked mostly on problem-solving instead. thankfully, the collection of odd characters that hang out at the art studios which surround our site heard of our technical difficulties & piled into the prayer room to help restring & rehang & restore. picture this… the site was filled with sweaty nonchristians helping get the prayer room ready & problems solved – and in between problems came conversations about God.  we worked up until about 30 minutes before midnight, which is when 24-7 prayer week began. the person slated for the 1st time slot had no idea of the feverish pitch at which i/we worked to have all things ready by midnight – no idea of the struggles that came up or the occasional swear words that came out as a peculiar string of obstacles presented themselves one after the other in the hours leading up to midnight & the kick off of non-stop prayer.  by 10pm the site smelled of sweaty deoderantless men, & i had a headache so bad that any movement seemed to make it worse.  but at 11:15, the stench subsided & one of the artsist who had been helping asked to take my 1-2am prayer slot…  he’s not a follower of Christ. wow! i’m not suggesting that all that late night drama was divinely orchestrated so that that one guy, who refers to himself as a ‘true pagan’  would end up talking to God between 1 & 2am, but i am a bit wowed at  how God used the site trauma drama to get a date with that guy. i eventually made my way home around 11:30 & by 12 i laid in bed wondering how God was meeting the person now in the prayer room.  mercifully, sleep came shortly thereafter.

spent part of the morning at 24-7 praying with friends who gathered to pray for someone most of us had never met. still, we prayed as fervently as if this stranger in trouble was our best friend.  this fact made me incredibly proud to be friends with everyone gathered there. what a great group of people. afterwards, on my way to ‘i hadn’t decided where’, i made the acquaintance of a homeless guy. gave him a ride to where other homeless fellas congregate waiting for the delivery of a morning meal.  of course he asked me for money. much the same way i asked him to tell me part of his story. it was a fair trade. you see right then i really needed some company. i had no agenda to save his soul – just to keep company with his soul. later on i’d post his name on the 24-7 lost & found & pray he’d encounter christ – but just right then, i wasn’t interested in telling him all about christ – just wanted to keep company, hear his story, & send him on his way a few bucks richer.  now i find myself sitting in a fairly nondescript bar in uptown charlotte, drinking a beer, & working on whittling down the mountain of details that undergird the work i do. came here after a brief tiff with a good God about Him picking up more of the 24-7 tab & also sending someone to help with the administrative responsibilities that go with the daily realities of ministry & mission. now the waiting game begins.  i have an appointment to meet with some drug dealers later today. just wanna keep company with em for a while – maybe hear their storyline if i earn the right to. i’ll be my normal goofy self & not attempt to hide how fascinated i am with who they are & why. will get their names & start the journey to pray relentlessly for these guys, just as i will for the homeless guy i met earlier. so here i sit uptown, tapping out this narrative of my day so far – a brief avoidance of the immanent whittle-fest that must occur if i’m ever to get caught up. wish someone would caught me. i want to be caught today. most don’t think i ever really need catching. and i don’t need it usually – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t days like today when although i don’t need it, i want it, just the same. my creed today isn’t, ‘catch me, i’m falling’.  it’s ‘catch me, i’m standing’.

Past few days been a buzz at 24-7 with Optimist Park residents starting to straggle in & stay & hang out awhile too. Also connected with a film team that has offered to film the Justice Project as it extends into serving the O.P. marginalized community. Ran into one woman who stopped by to show her friend where to drop off the Justice Project participation card. Said she had been the night before for her first visit & ended up staying for an hour. Now she was showing the place to her friend. Long have I hoped that 24-7 would be a place of God-encounters for not only postmoderns, but for everyone. What’s more, I had hoped it to be a place of racial diversity. Unlike 98% of our city’s ministries & churches, I wanted Charlotte’s prayer room to be an unsegregated venue. I find that one has to work at being diverse. That it rarely happens without some intentionality. The past few days at the prayer room there have been blacks, whites, the very old & the very young, cops & construction workers,  business owners, gays, a transvestite, an ex-minister, the architect & the homeless side by side & each on equal footing before God.  Ran into many kinks regarding the wall that’s being built to create space for the 365Worship space, ‘The Altar’ space set aside for people ready to recklessly abandon themselves to God, & ‘The Tent’ that will stand between them. I’ve never had so many kinks regarding something so simple as building a wall to make these spaces available as a part of the 24-7 prayer room. Kinks within & without. Big kinks. Little kinks. Decision kinks & financial kinks.  When it is done, I hope God’s presence will settle on those particular spaces in a distinctly unique way

       
                 Even when you can’t do everything, do something.
                         Because not having it all together

                   is not the same as not having it together at all.

Been wide awakened just a little after 4am the past 3 or 4 consecutive nights. Last night followed suit. So I followed the clues from that night’s dream, hopped in my car & headed over to the 24-7 Prayer Site. In that pre-dawn place I paced, knee deep meandering in the minutia of details calling for decisions. The sun eventually rose, & with its orange-white crest over the city hills also came God talking over the den of the detail noise in my head – God talking about 24-7…. And all I could say in response to His few short clarity-giving sentences was, “Oooooohhhh”.

If it is true that I am in some measure still bound – As every man this side of heaven is - 

Then let me serve God within the borders that my bonds will allow,

& not count bondage an excuse to be nothing, to do nothing, to effect nothing.

       “Even when we fall – still His grace surrounds pursuing.”
                                                                      -Casting Crowns

God has many worshipers, but few worshipers of God alone.

                                                                                                             UB1                                                             

                                                                 I knew a man

                                                       “Be thou exalted, Oh God.” 

                                                shouted his life to all who knew him.

                                                              He was a Christian

                                                       in the literal sense of the word.

“Love your enemies.  Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person.   …No more tit for tat stuff.  Live generously. Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior:  Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them!  If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back?  Run-of-the-mill sinners do that.  If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal?  Garden-variety sinners do that.  If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity?  The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.   …Don’t pick, on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults–unless, of course, you want the same treatment.  Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang.  Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier.  Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back–given back with bonus and blessing.  Giving, not getting, is the way.  Generosity begets generosity.” The Message - Luke 6,

Had another great time at the 24-7 Boiler Room on Saturday.  We had Kirk Bennett from 7thunders come teach on meditating in scripture. We had a full house, almost standing room only. Afterward, a bunch of us did noon to midnight prayer. A powerful time in the prayer room for me personally. A busy week ahead meeting with Charlotte pastors to cast the vision of 24-7.  Today, after  having coffee with a few acquaintances & dinner with a dear friend, we walked to an uptown museum to see the Dead Sea Scrolls live & in person. It was really something.

“Do all things without grumbling, faultfinding, complaining, & doubting [among yourselves], That you may be blameless & harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the mist of a crooked & perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.” -Phil 2:14-15.

at 2am…

at 3am…

i awake…

my soul heads to the prayer room

it wants to be there.

my body denies it these desires

but my soul wants to be there

to live there.

perhaps one day i & others will…

as the 24-7 prayer room becomes a millennial monestary for urban monks.

i’m reminded of a dream where i & others did live on site – & in the wee hours get up to help  ourselves & others seek & grow intimate with God. in this dream worship was going on in the room next to the prayer room. it was from an entire choir singing ‘holy’ in the pre-dawn hours of a new day. their worship charged the atmosphere with God’s own presence manifested & magnified, which fueled the miraculous as we prayed for healing of those who came to the prayer room for it.

it’s close to 4am now… i’m getting up & driving over to 24-7. can’t resist the pull to knock out some early morning face time before the lord.

NLT Song of Solomon 8:6 Place me like a seal over your heart, or like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, and its jealousy is as enduring as the grave. Love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame.

24-7 prayer week is over as of 1am this morning… whew!  what a fruitful & spiritually grueling week. in honor of its ending, i’ve decided to… well, take a shower, clean my house, eat.

5th - 24-7 had its 1st First Fridays Worship Gathering +  exceeding even my highest expectations, it was one of the best worship sets i’d ever been involved in personally. …and there were moments wherein i lost myself & became quite undignified. i think not one person there went untouched. i think we, each & every one of us, entered in. 

6th -extraordinarily busy day today – a morning discipleship mtg in which we further broached the subject of unleashing one’s affection on God & courting him with a patient longing,  a late morning coffee date with a new friend whose a true intercessor, {she was my armor bearer today as she simply said “what do you need?  what can i do to help you?  you name it, i’ll do it”… and she did,   the  early afternoon 24-7 cook-out & vision cast -  the late afternoon hosting  of the grace covenant youth group in the prayer room, the early evening moving all the items from back loft to another storage facility to get that space empty for the expanding ministry of 24-7, & tonight’s celebrating my son’s 4th birthday… whew!   in truth, i still have not fully recovered from last night’s worship set. all throughout the day my thoughts kept sneaking back to what happened inside me there. on a side note… the  growing 24-7 community really pitched in to make today possible – especially the arts team who recently became members of 24-7 – but the blue ribbon goes to the captains of 24-7 Worship, john & mel hogan – in the past 48 hours they really shined.

7th -someone stopped me in the coffeehouse in the late evening – said they been at the first friday 24-7 worship gathering – said it was the first time they’d ever been so free in worship, ever. so… it wasn’t just me, i thought to myself. indeed God was up to something corporately that night,  just as i had suspected.

                                                     “Oh it chills me to the bone                                                      To see this place that we call home

                                                     Once peaceful, perfect, now invaded.

                                                                A war zone being raided”

                                                
We come to get the One who came to get us.

In the past He came out to where we live, but greatly desired to take us to where He lives.  Now, we gladly come to where He lives, but greatly desire to take Him to where we live.  Piercing the silence, we give God no rest from our ravenous cries.  God must collide with our world in glory & power.

               
The human community
is caught in a wordless heaviness.                       
Pierce the silence – Pray down the cure.   

             Ezekiel 22:1-30

Some things about Himself which God wants us most to find He hides to be found only by those who count Him worthy of seeking. The line does not go… “Want & you shall find”: It goes… “Seek & you shall find”

Lisa—

  It was my first time at 24-7 last night and I’m not sure words can do it justice.  I walked and felt like the world had stopped.  It was nothing like I expected and for that,  I think I truly got a lot out of it.  It really is a special place, but you already know that.  There’s so much love and commitment within those walls.  My conversations with God were so unique.  

Honestly, I had my apprehensions about going – just not knowing what to expect.  When I walked out the door, I wanted to turn around and go back inside.  For that one hour, I could clear my thoughts of the real world and focus on God and Optimist Park.  It seemed like seconds and when I walked outside into the cold.. the real world was waiting to pick up where I left off. 

Thank you for encouraging me to be there.  It meant so much to me.  Let me know if I can help in the future.

Blair Miller

A brilliant morning sun
          is now rising 
          over the well kept cemetery grounds.
         And its light is highlighting
            the markers of men who had their day,
               who had their chance...    
          Now we have ours.  

                Come, let us redeem this time. 
          Let us come & overcome

         Let us redeem the time we've been given.

More than i want my life, i want Yours.

More than i want provision for my journey, i want the Instigator of it.

 More than I want to know Your solutions, i want to know Your heart.

 More than i want something from You,

i want something w-i-t-h You.

       He Throws FREEDOM                     
   like a grenade,
              N2 our Bondages
and it explodes out from every inward room
until LIFE, that consuming fire, lays waste every rival,
leaving only the ravishes of LOVE in its wake.

The prayer room had been a buzz throughout the week as I & others met & prayed with people stopping by 24-7.  As I was leaving one morning a few days ago a woman asked if I remembered her.  I do. She was the first of the Optimist Park residence to make consistent use of the prayer room.  She recounts a story of a church rift that caused her to kiss church goodbye & how her time in the prayer room connecting with God helped her sort through the worst of it. She was insistent on making sure I knew what this space meant to her. She also told me she returned to church & the rift is now healed. She just wanted to say thanks. Me too. This is why we do what we do.

Talked with the leader of the most prominent marketplace ministry in Charlotte. I invited him to meet me at 24-7.  He was so well spoken & carried himself so professionally & communicated his mission so splendidly. Before too long though the Presence in the prayer room began to impact him & he simply stood gripped & in tears… unable to speak.  Our meeting eventually resumed & ended. But he returned to 24-7 just hours later.  24-7, born to instigate soul tsunamis between God & the objects of His passion. Stop in & get drenched.