Hello Creekstone friends,

I want to let you know about a change in our Sunday schedule which comes as an application of our gathering this past Sunday evening. If you were there, you know. If you were providentially hindered from attending, please listen to the message on my blog- www.mckaycaston.com. It is also posted on our website (www.creekstonechurch.com) in the audio teaching section under "resources." 

Anyway, we want to continue the prayer movement that began this past Sunday evening. I have never been more enthusiastic and encouraged in ministry. 

Aslan is on the move. I'm convinced. So let's gather at 5:30 on Sunday and pray Heb. 4:16 prayers.

Your grateful partner in the gospel,

McKay

I stand duly convicted by these words of Jim Cymbala in his book, Fresh Power (p. 46).  But my heart echos his. I do not need more of my (in)ability in my sermons, I need more of the Spirit. O Lord, let me pray and preach like the helpless man that I am.

"Isn't it tragic that many pastors often spend hours polishing every nuance of their sermons while hardly investing any time at all in prayer and waiting upon God to be freshly filled with the One who can supernaturally assist them? What we need today is not cleverness or oratory—we need messages from God's Word set on fire by the Holy Spirit!"

In 1857, a quiet, 46 year old businessman named Jeremiah Lamphier sensed God leading him to start a simple, noontime prayer meeting in New York City. People could attend for a few minutes or stay as long as an hour. The first day he prayed by himself for 1/2 hour. Yet, by end of the hour six men from four different denominations had joined him. Over the next few days and weeks the group grew steadily to twenty, then forty and in a couple of weeks, one hundred men were meeting at noon- just to pray. Amazingly, within six months ten thousand men were meeting in New York City to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit! It is estimated that two million people were converted during that prayer revival, and countless more renewed in their walk with Jesus. And it all began with a man who sensed God’s leading to pray. I'm not saying that I am a Jeremiah Lamphier, but reading his story has convicted me about prayer. Actually, I've been convicted about my lack of dependence on God, and my prayerlessness is merely the symptom that reveals my self-reliant heart. It is so easy to work and so hard to pray. Maybe that is because my "flesh" is resistant to being weak and to needing grace. So will you pray that I will be freshly convicted of my weakness and need—a conviction that will lead to the kind of dependent prayer that enables me to live and work in the empowering grace of Jesus.

Hello friends,
Here is the latest Creekstone news (Oct. 9, 2009):

1. The audio of A Taste of Creekstone is now available on our website under the resources/audio tab: www.creekstonechurch.com

2. "Fight Club" (a unique, 8-week gathering/study for men) will begin meeting on Wednesday mornings at 6:30 at The Wagon Wheel Restaurant beginning Oct. 21 (for directions, click here). If you plan to attend, please register at this link: http://pages.oprius.com/5YFA6

3. Weekly Sunday gatherings will begin on Oct. 25. I'll let you know the details when they are available, such as time, location, etc. If you would like to help with organizational details such as set-up and clean up, please sign-up at this link: http://pages.oprius.com/H9OBK

4. FYI: Here is my preaching/teaching schedule for October. In case you are nearby, I'd love to see you!

5. Please pray that I would believe the gospel today. Pray that I would embrace the truth of my adoption as a dearly loved son of the Father. Pray that I would find my identity in the imputed righteousness of Jesus, and not a righteousness that I can acquire in any other way than by sheer grace. Pray that I would not idolize the ministry and neglect my wife and children, but that I would see a significant, primary part of my ministry in loving and serving them well. There is so much more, but I've gone long... So thanks for praying for this grace-needy preacher.

Yours, because of the cross,
McKay
Romans 5:5-8

In the 1970s there was a group that met in the White House for a time of informal prayer and fellowship. A newcomer to the group was asked to lead one week, and at the end of the meeting, he asked Arthur Burns to close them in prayer. The kicker that the newcomer didn't know: Burns was Jewish. What would he say?  How would he pray in the context of a Christian prayer fellowship? In The Call, Os Guinness records Burns' prayer for us:

"Lord, I pray that you would bring Jews to know Jesus Christ. I pray that you would bring Muslims to know Jesus Christ. Finally, Lord, I pray that you would bring Christians to know Jesus Christ. Amen."

Burns was praying for revival, which is when religious people are stripped of their religion and come alive to the wonder of God's grace through the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus. That is what I am praying for in my own life... to be stripped of my religion (being accepted by God based on my doing) so that I, as a professing Christian, can really know Jesus (being accepted by God based on his doing).  So thanks, Arthur, for such a helpful prayer.