community

It's Sunday night and I have to start intensive classes in the morning at work, but I am feeling refreshed for some reason. It's a combination of a little vacation and having some good prayer time last night, I think. I got to have dinner with Cecilia Belvin tonight, to talk about the direction of the prayer ministry here, so that was really good too. God has been giving me more pictures of how He wants to build a community here in Cypress Church Korea. I seem to get some kind of picture every time we have corporate prayer. Cecilia said tonight that she would love to see our church build a community that is a refuge from the busy, fast paced world of South Korea...and that is the same thing that God has been teaching me.

I have been reading Nehemiah, and didn't really make the connection of rebuilding the wall with the call to community until my walk home from the subway station tonight. When Nehemiah was called to lead the rebuilding of the wall, worship at the temple in Jerusalem had been reestablished (Ezra tells us this), but the walls, the community, had not been restored. Even though we have worship in the church, and it is pleasing to God, He wants us to rebuild the walls of community, of safety, of belonging. In order to do this, we are going to have to be unified and we are going to have to be rooted in prayer (Nehemiah 4:9) and ready to do a little battle, too (Nehemiah 4:17). Thanks be to God that He calls us to wholeness, to belonging in Him, and He will supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus! (Philippians 4:19)