What If He Returned Today.....

As I sat at my kitchen table this morning, rather than sitting in my "usual" place facing the kitchen cabinets I found myself sitting in a chair facing the window that looks out upon the playground below. Almost immediately, the view that I had seen many times before in the past 2 months since I moved here overwhelmed my heart and mind.

Above the apartments were small wisps of clouds and the Lord pierced my heart with question after question: "What if Jesus were to come this very moment? Would the sound of the trumpet reverberate throughout this circle of concrete buildings as the thunder of a storm always does? How many of those behind the windows would be alongside me as we rose to meet Him in the air? Would the sounds of the wailing of parents whose children simply vanished before their eyes echo off those same walls?"

I have prayed daily for the people around me, but today, rather than reciting the same words of petition to see people saved, the words, and my heart, were different. The playground outside my window was the first place the Kharkov missionary team, then led by Mick Stockwell, held a backyard Bible club and outreach for the new church start that is today New Hope. Today, I prayed that the seeds planted in the hearts of the people so many years ago, those seeds that have lain dormant in their hearts and minds, would begin to come to life.....to take root.....to bear the fruit of repentance. Today, I prayed not out of habit, but out of a heart burdened for the 98% to 99% of the people around me who have perhaps never had a prayer of faith spoken for them to the One who has loved them before the foundation of the world.

It was no "accident" that I then turned to read in "Heart's Cry" by Jennifer Kennedy Dean and found myself confronted with a chapter titled "Stand in the Gap", followed by the scripture: "'I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land...'" (Ezek. 22:30). May my heart continually be "listening" for the words of my Lord to pray for the people outside my window! May I never grow weary in coming before His throne for those who do not yet "see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, (that they might) turn and be healed" (Isaiah 6:10) and receive the free gift of His grace, mercy, and eternal life!