Well, maybe not entirely glad. Honored, yes, but somewhat anxious. This was a tremendous responsibility: helping seasoned prayer warriors get set for several hours of serious intercession by presenting brief observations from the Word of God. That would be a big enough challenge if we were all part of the same church, or even part of the same denomination, but we aren’t. That’s the beauty and the strength of this prayer ministry Dai Sup has been called to assemble; participants come from a wide cross section of the Christian community. We are Evangelicals, Charismatics, Lutherans, nondenominational Christians, Messianic Jews, Hebrew Roots followers of Yeshua, and more. The only thing we really have in common is that we’re all disciples of Christ, regardless whether we call Him Jesus or Yeshua. Given that diversity of doctrinal views and other beliefs, the margin for error in presenting a unifying devotional teaching was very small. Particularly since the Lord was moving me down a path of learning about His Torah (Law) and its applicability to all His people through all time. Nevertheless, my friend had asked me to help, and apparently he trusted me enough to do the right thing. It seemed that the Lord confirmed this, so with fear and trepidation I agreed to Dai Sup’s request.
What happened after that was another period of tremendous growth in my walk with Yeshua and with my brothers and sisters. I was able to share what I was learning about the Appointed Times (Feasts) of the Lord, the Sabbath, and much more, putting it all into a context that was understandable to my Christian friends. Somewhere along the way, I learned to do this in a non-threatening way, and in a way that really did unite rather than divide. That was God’s doing. If left to my own devices, it might have been a different story. Thus, as always, to God be the glory. He is the one Who helped us all understand our unity even in the midst of different understanding of the scriptures. It helped that we had already been praying together for years. After all, it’s very hard to be angry at someone if you’re praying with and for them. Oh, and I learned something else along the way: we’re not really that far apart in what we understand from scripture. We’re expecting and praying for much the same thing (Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done . . . ), although we use different words and have different expectations of how we get there.
I think that’s why my friends at Prayer Surge have asked repeatedly where they could find these Saturday devotions to share them with others. Well, it’s finally happened. I’m honored and humbled once again to say yes to my friends’ request. And there is still fear and trepidation – but if God has come through up to now, why should I doubt that He will come through again, to the glory of His great Name?
That brings the story up to 2020, but then came another transformation through another friend with a vision: Jeff Apthorp, founder of I Will Gather You Radio. He asked several people for suggestions about content, and I offered the Prayer Surge Devotions. At his suggestion, I added intro music created by my friend Solomon Lopez, and changed the name to Rebuild. The podcast focus also changed: now it’s built around the weekly Torah portion readings. Of course, it’s not possible to cover an entire Torah portion in ten minutes, but that’s not the intent; Rebuild exists to introduce perspectives and questions from the whole Bible that will help people think about their relationship with our Creator and with each other.
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