I loved last night at Frontline. Sometimes it’s the simplest things about God’s Word that stir my heart the most. So worth taking a few weeks to settle into the incredible truths God wants to share with us through John 6. Amazing that we got to start with the reminder that when life seems impossible, we really can trust God. I love that…maybe because I need to be reminded of it so often in my own life.

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate that than seeing Frontliners be baptized at the end of the night. Definitely what we’re all about – the celebration of new life in Christ. Don’t tell me God can’t do the impossible! He did just that in the life of each person baptized, in my life and I pray the same is true for your life.

I’m celebrating the unimaginable power of Christ this morning. Not a bad way to combat a dreary, rainy Monday here in DC.

One of the highlights of my weekly is Sundays from 12-2. It’s our staff Bible Study time. We do it for a lot of reasons but for me it is the best possible way to set the tone for a week of ministry. I love the statement it makes in each of our lives – before we do anything else for the week, we stop to study God’s Word and pray together. It just seems like it’s the right spiritual foundation for the week.

We’re currently going through Matthew’s Gospel and today we’re landing on “The Lord’s Prayer.” We’re going to spend all of our time just praying through those verses – not just praying the words but using them as a guide for an extended period of prayer.

If you’ve never done that, I highly recommend it:

‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’

I loved being at auONE last night. It was so significant in the life of AU to see students and staff leaders from several campus ministries coming together to worship and celebrate what Christ dreams of for that campus. I’m so grateful for the students who had the vision for last night and made it happen.

My hope for last night was to connect a gathering like auONE to the 2,000 year story of the church. How amazing to know that you and I as followers of Christ are the embodiment of everything Jesus promised in Matthew 16:

“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is? They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. – Matthew 16:13-18

I’m going to be speaking at an event called auONE later tonight – 9PM in The Butler Boardroom on American’s campus, if you can make it. I love the vision behind auONE – to unite all the ministries on campus in a time of prayer and worship. It’s so good to break out of our own camps every once in a while and just come together to celebrate Christ and His heart to transform a generation.

I want to try something here – asking you to pray for American University when you read this. You don’t have to pray a long prayer; it’s cool just to ask God to stir the winds of revival on that campus. But I’m wondering if you would be willing to use the comments section to post both a short prayer and where you are praying from?

It would be kind of cool to step onto campus this evening and tell students they’ve been prayed over by a bunch of you who read this blog regularly. So, don’t be shy…and if you really get into this, invite some of your friends to post as well.

I can’t wait to start our new series next week. It’s called “Rhythms of Grace” and I believe God has something really significant to say to each one of us through the next four weeks. If you’ve ever felt like life was just a little out of rhythm – that there has to be more to this following Jesus thing – then this series is going to point all of us in the right direction.

By the way, this is the best series of the year to invite your friends who aren’t yet followers of Christ to join us for – take some time to invite them over the weekend.

The next four weeks are going to be really powerful in our lives and I’m trusting the Lord to do great things in our hearts!

There’s this strange perception that doing three services a week in three different venues on three different nights always happens without a hitch. Not true. Just ask our production team at UMD. They’ll be happy to tell you about today.

There was a little incident on the way to campus this afternoon (bottom picture) that resulted in the top pictures. We said goodbye to the van for a bit, it went to the van doctor and – you’ll be happy to know -it’s all better now.

For the record, the production team at UMD did an amazing job and tonight is going to be such a powerful time.

Gotta love life out of a van – it’s always an adventure!

When I wrote yesterday afternoon about God’s answer to our space problem at Mason, I had no idea what an amazing solution He had provided. Last night’s time in the Center for The Arts was incredible — one whole wall made of glass overlooking Mason Pond and a huge balcony right off the room. I’m a terrible photographer but this is the view from the balcony.

The production team at Mason did an incredible job – probably one of our more difficult load-ins ever. But those guys did a fantastic job and made a great night come together.

Very cool to see how God provides answers!

It’s funny – God seems to have this tendency to answer prayers just in the nick of time. I’m pretty sure that’s all about building our faith and I’m also pretty sure that it’s difficult at times. As I’ve been blogging about prayer this week, we’ve been praying like crazy in The Gathering offices.

Up until 4.30PM yesterday, we didn’t have a final location for tonight’s Gathering at Mason – talk about stressful! We had an amazing team of people working on the problem, but space on campus tonight is at an incredible premium and it seemed like there were literally no options. Trust me, the last minute decision wasn’t about bad planning on our team’s part – we were doing everything we could think of. But things didn’t break lose until 4.30 yesterday. But, God came through!! We will be meeting in a gorgeous space in the Center for The Arts. Fantastic location and I can’t wait to fill that hall with worship tonight!

So, here’s my point – trust God. He’s faithful. He’s good. He knows what we need. He provides. He doesn’t just do it for ministries. He does it for people as well. Give Him the space to work in your life and you’ll be stunned.

I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer throughout the day today.

Mainly I’ve been thinking about how crucial it is to everything we’re living to see happen on the campuses in this city. I used to think it was funny that people would tell me they’re praying for me. Now I can’t think of anything better.

And I love the number of Gathering students who are creating a culture of prayer on our campuses. Check this out:

- Three days a week, students at George Mason are meeting to pray for their campus with the goal of upping that number to 7 day a week.
- Last Friday, students gathered at American University to seek God together.
- This Friday, I get to be with the students of AU as all of the different ministries on campus band together to ask God’s favor in making Jesus famous on this campus.
- This morning, students at The University of Maryland met together to pray.
- God is stirring a desire for prayer at Georgetown and GW as well.

I don’t know about you, but I love all of that. I love being a part of a movement of students who believe that God hears and answers prayer.

For the first time in what seems like a really long time, all of our Gathering campuses are back! It seems like spring break started rolling through The Gathering on the last weekend of February and UMD is just coming back from break today.

I’ve missed you guys and can’t wait to see what God has in store for us in the month of April. I think it’s going to be a powerful month for us and I’m so excited to see the Lord unfold His plans.

But for now – Welcome Back!

We can all be so calendar driven that there’s a real tendency to wake up this morning feeling like, “well, now that Easter’s over, time to get back to work.” After all, there really are papers to be written, exams to take, jobs to go to and all kinds of other stuff that genuinely needs to be done. Go do the stuff – but please don’t fall into the trap of thinking Easter is over.

We still worship a Risen King. Jesus is alive and well and changing the world this morning. He’s advancing His Kingdom, His Gospel is bearing fruit and He’s changing people’s lives. He’s as worthy of worship today as He was yesterday morning. Easter isn’t over – it’s just beginning.

Maybe that’s why I’m so excited to be at Frontline Arlington tonight sharing the same talk I did yesterday. We’re still celebrating the unthinkable forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness bought on a cross and guaranteed by an empty tomb. It’s this thing we call The Gospel – the Good News. And I pray it never fails to stir our hearts to worship.

“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)” – John 20:1-9

In those moments, everything was different. Fresh. New. Filled with hope. Confirmed. Guaranteed.

That’s what we celebrate today.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Saturday of that first Easter weekend must have been one of the darkest times in the human story. I can’t imagine a group of people more crushed than the followers of Jesus would have been on that day.

They must have clung to hope all day on Friday. Surely He would pull through. He would rise up. He would get off the cross. He would burst to new life and show everyone who mocked who He really was. He would overthrow Rome. He would topple the religious leaders. He would do anything but die. Yet at the end of the day, they laid the One they had believed to be God in a tomb. Their King was dead.

Imagine for a minute.

Everything they thought He would do was no more. He must not have been who they hoped He was – God doesn’t die. They had fallen for the greatest lie in the world. They had been sucked in by a fraud. And now He was dead. And now they had to figure out where to go and how to pull their lives back together without Him.

Imagine for a minute.

Hold on to that today, let the bleakness set in. Let it settle on your heart. It’s the only way to be ready for what comes tomorrow.

About 2,000 years ago, a man just a little older than me hung on the wood of a cross outside of Jerusalem. He hung there between two thieves, writhing in pain; unimaginable agony gripping His body as He fought for breath. He had already been beaten beyond recognition. He had already worn a humiliating crown on thorns. He had already been abandoned by His friends. His own people had led Him to death. And He was so alone. So frighteningly alone.

He hung under a sign that announced to anyone who could read Hebrew, Latin or Greek who this man was, “Jesus The Nazarene, The King Of The Jews.” Hope is tied to embracing the truth of those words. If we see Jesus as just another discredited rebel, then things will stay pretty bleak. But to believe that He was something so much more is to open the door to hope, to life, to eternity, to everything you were created to be and experience and enjoy.

For 2,000 years, the church has carried a simple message – the man on a tree is the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world. He is fully man. And He is fully God. He is the perfection of everything we can imagine. He is infinite glory. He is eternal majesty. He is without sin. He is holy in every way.

And He died. Of His own will. For you. For me. For the world.