Hometown Worship

Our Hometown Worship section is where you'll find our area churches directory, special features about local churches and church leaders and obituaries. Devotional pieces from Pastors Bill Mantel, Henry Koopman, Tim Homstad (West Side Church), Bob Mankaka (Amazing Grace), Brandt Johnson (Tamarack Church of Christ), Rick Perry (Kimberly Community Church) grace the pages of this section, along with columns by Lisa Koehler (Faith Page Coordinator).

Faith Page Coordinator

My friend made an interesting observation when she said, “Have you ever noticed people will spend 20 minutes talking about the problem and 30 seconds praying about it?”

Why is that? Why do we love to dwell on all the sordid details, the symptoms, the diagnosis, the prognosis . . .?

I’ll confess I’ve done this in the past and thought nothing of it. What’s wrong with knowing the details? Won’t that help me pray better – more specifically?

There are two reasons I don’t necessarily want to hear all the particulars of a matter before I pray: First of all, oftentimes prayer requests become nothing more than gossip sessions. For example, “Oh, we must pray for so-and-so; her child is in trouble.” And then begins the list of “troubles” – the drinking, the drugs, the run-ins with the law, and so on and so on. Do we need to know all this to pray for brokenhearted parents and their troubled child?

The second reason not to talk to death a prayer request has to do with how it affects our faith. When I hear things like “hopeless,” “terminal,” “awful,” and “really bad,” fear creeps in. Fear cancels out my faith. Before I’ve even begun to pray, I’m wondering if there’s any hope. And I know that when I pray, I must have faith; I must believe in order for my prayer to be effective (Hebrews 11:1, Mark 11:24, Hebrews 11:6).

My faith must be stronger than what I comprehend with my five senses, than what the situation presents. And that’s hard! I don’t need any help not believing! If I’m going to agree with God who “calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Romans 4:17), please don’t bombard me with what my carnal mind already perceives. Just let me know there’s a need, and let me go to my Father who “knows the things you have need of before you ask Him (Matt. 6:8).”

He knows the details; that’s good enough for me.

For this story and more, pick up this week's Voyageur Press.

Faith Page Coordinator

Luke 4:18; The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed . . .

Because of Jesus . . .

We were poor, but now we are rich.
We were brokenhearted, now we are healed.
We were prisoners, but we’ve been set free.
We were blind, but now we see.

Too many of us are not living and walking in the freedom Christ intended for us. Why?

You say, “I don’t feel rich; I feel financially, emotionally, spiritually bankrupt.”

You say, “I don’t feel healed; my body still aches with my disease; my heart hurts with the pain of life’s disappointments.”

You say, “I’m supposed to see things clearly? Then why am I so confused?”

You say, “I’ve been set free? Then why am I still struggling under the weight of this guilt, this addiction, all these regrets?”

If you know what Jesus said he did for you, but you’re not experiencing it practically day to day, ask yourself if you’re truly letting Him heal and deliver you. Is it possible you’ve never really laid down your burdens at his feet and said, “Here, Lord, take them”?

Before laying down your burdens, lay down your life. When you come to the end of yourself and you know that you can do no good thing apart from Him; when you say, “Here’s my life, Lord, take it and do whatever you want with it”; when you bow at His feet and lift your hands in humble surrender, you will begin to understand what it means to be set free.

For this story and more, pick up this week's Voyageur Press.