Sun PM fellowship

Ice cream...the universal language!

Sun PM

A great day of Sunday services in Gateshead England! Brought in extra chairs this AM.

Sun in Gateshead

Sunday morning with our gracious English hosts: Phil and Aileen

Prayer Guide - Day 22

Pray for the first Renewal Week worship service.

Safe arrival in Gateshead, England!

A smooth 3 hr train ride preceded a warm welcome from our gracious English hosts! (currently 54 degrees!)  Staying in a renovated "farm house" on the west side of town. Interacted this evening with Peruvian missionaries doing great work along the Amazon, in the UK on furlough. Sunday morning begins our renewal week. Thanks for your continued prayers!

Prayer Guide - Day 21

Pray these scriptures over Beacon Lough Baptist Church:

 ⁶ Seek the LORD while he may be found;
   call on him while he is near.
⁷ Let the wicked forsake their ways
   and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them,
   and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
 ⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
   neither are your ways my ways,”
            declares the LORD.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
   so are my ways higher than your ways
   and my thoughts than your thoughts.
¹⁰ As the rain and the snow
   come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
   without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
   so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
   It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
   and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
¹² You will go out in joy
   and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
   will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
   will clap their hands.
¹³ Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
   and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the LORD’s renown,
   for an everlasting sign,
   that will endure forever.” 

Isaiah 55:6-13

Train Angel

We arrived at a crowded King's Cross train station, and while my girls huddled, I went to figure out which train to take. Pointed to a long check-in line, I stood behind dozens of people...UNTIL an African-American guy with station-nametag "Joe" approached me. "Come here my American friend, let me check you in," he said with a warm smile.  He pulled me out of line, stamped my tickets, then escorted us past all the people, to a first-class seat on our train! While walking he said, "My mum told me that an American doctor saved my life when I was a newborn. Ever since then I've tried to pay it back by helping Americans when I see them."   Asked my wife, "How did he know you were an American, and how did he know you needed help...?"   I don't know, Joe disappeared as quickly as I could turn around...

Prayer Guide - Day 20

Pray for safe train travel in transition.

Debt crisis?

How 'bout this Word oh panicked world...

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose...What then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all–how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" Romans 8:28ff

See also Isaiah 41:10...

CROSSwalk

Angled pieces of engraved steel (for some other purpose) in a London park, but when I walked past and glanced back, the light was just right and THIS is what I saw! I don't know who prayed for a visible reminder of God's presence...but it worked! Blessings to you, prayer warrior!

Prayer Guide - Day 19

Pray for the peace and provision of the Holy Spirit.

Favor --
Landed safely in London. Zipped thru customs.
Then among hundreds at baggage claim, our luggage came out FIRST...together!

Checked into our (extremely small) hotel room, and the BELLHOP said "Excuse me sir, this room is way too small for you. I'll be back in a moment." He was and we moved...to a larger room!
Pray on friends, it's working!

London!

Safe arrival and catching a few sites.
Big Ben on a cloudy cool London day...did I mention it's 58 degrees?

Touring Westminster Abby, site of the royal wedding!

Prayer Guide - Day 18

Pray for an easy adjustment to time, place, and weather.

Safe arrival to London! Thank you for your prayers...

Traveling to Gateshead

Today begins the journey to Gateshead, England.


View Larger Map

Prayer Guide - Day 17

Travel day – Pray for flight safety to London, and smooth entry into the Country.

Up and away

England here we come!
Pray us safely over...

Prayer Guide - Day 16

Declare a hedge of divine protection around Dr. Burleson, and a continued anointing over him.

Prayer Guide - Day 15

Lift up Dr. Burleson’s physical body and ask the Lord to give him good health, solid emotions, and spiritual strength.

Prayer Guide - Day 14

Pray this scripture over Dr. Burleson:
So do not fear, for I am with you;
   do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
   I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10

Prayer Guide - Day 13

Pray that God’s vision be ignited and gain momentum.

Prayer Guide - Day 12

Pray for solidifying assurance in message preparation.

Prayer Guide - Day 11

Pray for defining truths of Scripture to be brought to light.

Prayer Guide - Day 10

Pray for clarity of the Holy Spirit in preparation.

Faith!

Only God can move mountains...but faith and prayer move God!

- E.M. Bounds

Prayer Guide - Day 9

Pray for a sharpening sense of discernment.

Clouds!

Clouds! Who'd ever be grateful for them? I am this morning. After umpteen consecutive days of 100+ temps, what a wonderful relief to emerge to an overcast sky. A thick band of clouds to the north, high and gray. 

Were it not true in our spiritual lives?  The shadow of death, the cover of challenge, the overcast of inactivity…why do we struggle so to see these as "relief?"  I know the answer to 'why clouds' on earth. They provide relief, shade, cool, and rain. They are the catalysts for something else, though they themselves have a momentary purpose. And that's just it…clouds, though thick, dark, and ominous sometimes, are momentary.

  

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. " (2 Corinthians 4:16–18, NIV84)

We fix our eyes not on the clouds, but on what is beyond the clouds.

But why clouds in life?

"God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being…' " (Acts 17:27–28, NIV84)

Prayer Guide - Day 8

For Dr. Burleson this week, pray for a greater desire to know and please the Lord.

Prayer Guide - Day 7

Pray these scriptures over Beacon Lough Baptist Church:

³ Strengthen the feeble hands,
   steady the knees that give way;
⁴ say to those with fearful hearts,
   “Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
   he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
   he will come to save you.”
 ⁵ Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
   and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
⁶ Then will the lame leap like a deer,
   and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
   and streams in the desert.
⁷ The burning sand will become a pool,
   the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
   grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
 ⁸ And a highway will be there;
   it will be called the Way of Holiness;
   it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it;
   wicked fools will not go about on it.
⁹ No lion will be there,
   nor any ravenous beast;
   they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
 ¹⁰ and those the LORD has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
   everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
   and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Isaiah 35:3–10

Prayer Guide - Day 6

Pray for lay leadership to rise up in greater ways within the church.

Balance

Psalm 16:8-11

The pleasures of life must balance out the pressures of life, otherwise we are sunk...
Seek the Lord. He's got good scales!

Prayer Guide - Day 5

Pray for awareness of community needs and ways to meet them.

K camp

The G town Kidz Crew!

Cool Kidz Camp

What says cool more than paddleboats?!

Prayer Guide - Day 4

Declare that God’s people will be filled with the fullness of Christ as the church moves to another level.

Kidz Camp in G-town going well! Pray for kids, shade, and sponsors!

Prayer Guide - Day 3

Declare that the spirits of stagnation, enmity, strife, reluctance, and failure have no power in the church.

Baptism in Salado Creek

Frigid dip on a warm evening!

Get ready for our next great Sunday night fellowship!

Prayer Guide - Day 2

In Jesus name, bind up the works of the enemy, and loose the spirit of renewal over the church body.

Prayer Guide - Day 1

Pray for the Holy Spirit to continue His work among church members at Beacon Lough Baptist Church.

One Month Prayer Guide Information

I am excited to share with you about a God-sized opportunity which has come together and would ask you to join me in prayer over the entire engagement. I have been invited to preach a revival/renewal week at Beacon Lough Baptist Church in Gateshead, England. The invitation came from the Regional Director of the Northern Baptist Association, and after praying about it for several weeks, my wife and I agreed that it was God’s calling. I set a list of “requirements” before the Lord and He answered every one. I also presented the opportunity to our Deacon body, who in return covered me with their prayer and blessing.

Now your part…would you join me in the next month, committing to pray before, during, and after this week of renewal? I am asking each church to be praying in part for the other.

Your responsibility during this Month of Prayer has nothing to do with your ability – it has everything to do with your availability. This is not about you. This is about God working from and through you. This is your time call upon the power that is available to you through the blood of Jesus Christ, asking the Holy Spirit to cover every aspect of this encounter.

Thank You for committing yourself to the Lord during this time!

A New Old Beginning

A Old New Beginning

It's always been one of my favorite stories in the Bible, really. 40 years wanderin' in the desert...8 miles walkin' to a river...3 days campin' on the shore...And then God's people are asked to take one more step -- into a flooded river! Talk about needing some perspective?? They did...and so do we. That's really where the name for this blog came from. Crossing the Boundary is about remembering that God wants MORE for us...and wants US for more than we can possible get to on our own. That's good to remember, especially when we come to those "flooded rivers" in our lives. You know, those situations we can't imagine getting past? Those challenges we wonder why we're going through? Those immovable barriers which cause us to lose OUR perspective? I always think of Crossing the Boundary as getting past all that stuff, and getting to where God wants me to be. 'Cause it sounds like He's got big things in store...

"Now then, YOU...get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give."
- Joshua 1:2

I look forward to sharing my perspective with you, as we Cross the Boundaries together.