The Pastor’s Piece – July 16, 2023

The Pastor’s Piece

FCFI

July 16, 2023

Not long ago, a couple of friends and myself met for breakfast to discuss some business at hand. We ordered our food and chatted amicably while we waited for our food. When the food arrived, as is our custom, we bowed our heads and asked God’s blessing on the meal. As we started to eat, someone came over – a total stranger – and said he noticed we were praying and wondered if we’d pray for a friend of his. He went on to tell us his friend had just been diagnosed with cancer. One of the men in our group said, “Sit down. We’ll pray right now.” He had to tell him twice. The guy didn’t expect us to stop everything and pray on the spot. The man was moved to tears while we prayed. Since then, this man’s friend has been added to our prayer chain and other prayer chains and there are people all over the world praying for him – asking that God’s will be done. 

My wife and I had a unique experience last winter when we were in Florida. We were invited to a house blessing gathering at a friend’s house. It was an invitation offered in passing. We had only just met this new friend on the sidewalk and she insisted we come over to their house that evening. So we went. It was a very pleasant evening. When we arrived, they had a smorgasbord of finger foods all spread out for their guests. We had never met any of the guests before this evening, except for the host couple, and we barely knew them. We chatted a little, telling them we were from Wisconsin and pastored a church there, and then it was time for the meeting to start. 

It was like a mini-church service. We sang a few songs in Spanish. (It was a Spanish speaking group of people) – or I should say they sang in Spanish, we sang in English. When the pastor got up to speak, a lady in their church got up and translated for us. There were only about a dozen people there and we were the only ones who didn’t speak Spanish. After he spoke a bit about David and Goliath and faith that is bigger than we are, he asked my wife and I to stand and he put his hands on our shoulders and began to pray in Spanish. He prayed for a while and then all of a sudden he broke out in English and began to ask for God’s blessing on us. It was an amazing experience. He said: “Lord, I see their church, I see it. I see people walking into church – mucho – grande’ people – lots and lots of people. And I see a parking lot full of cars. And people walking from their cars into church. (He was actually visualizing this). He continued, “And you are building an addition to your church. And you are not going to the bank. You will not borrow money. God will provide for you.” 

My wife and I were stunned. I don’t normally open my eyes when someone else is praying, but I opened them this time and my wife opened hers and we looked at each other in disbelief. How did he know all this? We had not shared any of that information with any of them, yet it was true and factual. All the things he said, our Congregation had decided upon earlier. It was an amazing confirmation from God to us. We are separated by miles and miles, we come from different cultures (he was from Honduras, we are from America), we speak different languages, yet we are one in the Holy Spirit. It is always amazing to me how we can travel anywhere in the world and find ourselves connected to God’s people. Whether it’s thousands of miles away or right next door, God is there with us. 

It kind of reminds me of an incident in Genesis 28, where the story reads that Jacob was traveling and he stopped for the night to rest. With a stone for a pillow, he fell asleep and had a dream. In his dream he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and He said: “I am the Lord,  the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.” The account goes on to say that when Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 

That story makes me wonder how many times we miss the Lord. The Bible says that God is near to those who love Him and He searches the whole earth to find those whose hearts are completely committed to Him. Yet sometimes we get so caught up in semantics and methods and stress and worry that we miss the Lord completely. Sometimes God has to wake us up and say, “I’m right here!”

My prayer is: “Lord, make us aware of your mighty presence!”

Until next time, God bless you. 

(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin).