Willy Reimer’s Blog

Acts 2:42-47.  All sharing together.  Share prayer, share property, share possessions, share praise. Leave judgment to God. 

Spiritual, emotional and physical health. To spend regular time in God’s word. 

To let the world see the glory of God through us. Healing. 

For the world to have peace. To not only see the needs, but to open our eyes as to how we can meet those needs.  Encourage those in our communities and our fellow churches so we can bathe in and exude God’s glory. 

My one prayer is to provide strong Christian leadership in our home! That we would ask the Holy Spirit to guide us and speak to us, but even more that we would be silent and listen and obey. 

For every person on earth to know the Father intimately. For my family.  To draw my children back to/closer to Him.  Faith to step out of their box.  That church will take Christ seriously. 

Lord help us to not be judgmental but to love… For everyone to know your JOY! 

Love one another, take time to listen and care for each other and listen to Him on what to say. Help me find the words to encourage my partner and my children to come with me to SunWest. 

Spoudazo to love one another – to accept one another. Dear God, I pray you would show me how to not be afraid of having faith so I can jump right into the things you have planned for me. 

Father, I pray for unity…unity within ourselves every day, unity between you and each of us, unity within our church and unity within our global body of Christ followers.  Lord, help us to do this.  Amen. For unity, love and reconciliation in our marriages. 

My prayer for God’s church is that we as a body would not forget that God’s word never changes.  It is the same yesterday, today and forever.  So in spite of trends, fashions, high tech, our pace of life, whatever – let us not take our focus off Him and what our role as believers is.  What can we do to bring glory and honor to Him? Lord, help us to hear you and do what you say. 

Heavenly Father, Help us to truly know and live out your heart.  If we truly know your heart the rest will fall in place.  Amen. Pray that we come to know God better/more; enhance our walk with Him; and to become the people/person that He wants us to be. 

That we, the church, become more like you, Lord, and positively impact our community. To have acceptance and welcoming of diversity of churches and in congregations. 

That every person on earth truly hears the message of Jesus and takes the gift of grace in appreciation. For the wounded by the church to find healing and return to praise and find peace in Christ. 

Lord I want my family to come to church with me, I want them to experience the glory of God. Love above all other desires and give thanks to Jesus Christ. 

Live in peace and love as Christ. We would finally accept that God wants to be in fellowship with us and each other and accept that it is as natural as breathing. 

Boldness for the men of the Church. Stop the gossip and start the love. 

That my spouse may find faith in Jesus and I would like him to join me on my journey more then anything. Prayer for unity. 

That the church will be a place we can feel accepted and included. Help my friend Emily to get through this time. 

Rid the church of all the legalism and “Pharisees”I pray for World peace. The collective body of SunWest would show authenticity, love and acceptance to all that we encounter and that guests sense a presence of Christ in us. 

Healing for those of us who have been hurt by the church so that we may feel free to participate in your glory and follow the path you have laid out for us. That I would stop believing the lies the enemy keeps telling me about myself so that I can be all that Christ wants me to be. 

For my marriage to be restored and the Lords glory will fall on my marriage.  That the body of believers will truly understand who they are in Christ and their authority. Thereby bringing freedom, forgiveness, love and the fruit of the spirit and love for one another and unity. Bringing the truth of who Jesus is to the world. 

No more poorness. All Christians act like Jesus and support all people and oppose Satan. 

Accept and respect differences. Christians fulfill the role they are called to serve and use the power of one for good. 

That I will listen to God daily. I pray that Jesus will have a personal touch to each one that is here and that he will reveal himself in a real way. 

God, teach us how to love you. My prayer is that we as a body of Christ would be his hands and feet in practical ways and to reflect his love, joy and peace. 

The Holy Spirit would fall on us, and that our love and unity would be so evident that others are drawn to Jesus. That we walk with the Lord totally dependant on him and open obedient to his words and leading. 

My prayer is that we would grow and bloom where we are planted and that we would be faithful with what we have been given, also that we would love God and love others.  Being open to receive desires and passions for the churches and to be in unity, respecting and loving each other. 

For all the leaders of the churches to come together and lay down their agenda and just praise the Lord and allow the Holy Spirit to flow and express him. Change me so that I may love others better and with sincerity. 

Lord your kingdom come your will be done, empty me of me. To have the Christian community, see the world through the eyes of Jesus. To realize the wrongs and the hurts we are causing. For us to rise up and love the world as Jesus loves us, and for us to portray our love. I pray that we learn to love like God loves us. 

Prayer for healing spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Lord please strengthen my relationship with my friends. Please allow the church to less judging and more practical.  

I pray that my husband and friends come to know you through my love for them. That we would really learn how to love one another so we can really be a safe place. 

For God to give us creativity as we seek to reach people in Calgary South with the gospel of Christ. Prayer for health. 

To love others as God loves us, and to see others through his eyes. The love which Jesus showed would be in the hearts of all. 

That people find the best out of situations. That the church would learn a genuine love for God and others. 

Lord may you reach to our young people that they learn that sexual sin is not you desire and set them on firm ground so that they really get to know your way. That Jesus’s love and peace would overwhelm me more than the business and crankiness of my life. 

To try and spend more time with God and the bible.  That I may be open to Christ’s work in me and His church.  That I may come in to His divine order for my life. I pray for all the leaders of the church to come together, lay down their agendas and just praise the Lord and allow the Holy Spirit to flow.

To be able to listen to God better. Let me live out your word by music. 

For my mind to be pure from temptation.  I will not be so tied to schedules and tasks to be done that I have no time to be and become the person I really want to be. 

If I can be more like Christ and each of us become more like Christ , we will all grow towards each other and thus toward God himself. I pray for family harmony. 

To have a closer and a more intimate relationship with Jesus. That Sunwest will include the “broken or annoying or difficult. 

That believer would fully understand the importance and joy in complete OBEDIENCE to Christ.  What goodness can be felt when we constantly choose God’s way over our own. That we can have world peace and health for all. 

Lord, may your Kingdom grow. To refresh my relationship with Jesus and the Father.  Need the Holy Spirit to guide me and hold me and my children. 

As we pray for unity of character, we ask you Father to help us understand our brothers and sister on earth, no matter there background, religion and culture. That Christians wouldn’t forget what God has said the second we walk out of church on Sunday mornings…love each other…take care of each other, do not turn your back on each other. 

To love unconditionally, with no judgment of others. I pray that God would fill me up with Him (His Spirit) so I would know more about the heart God, and that I would know His direction for my life (what he wants me to do). 

Keep all children healthy – no cancer, diabetes, etc.  That the men in our church would learn to encourage each other. My one prayer is to raise Christian children that love God and each other. 

Pray that I can be a better witness for Christ. I pray for unity in all denominations to act as one to defeat Satan where he is strongest.  Victory in the battle to show God’s love.  Strength to be the follower I am called to be.  Transdenominational freedom in Christ. 

That there be unity in my family in Christ. A prayer to life!  Live like you will die tomorrow!  Learn like you will live forever! 

I was in a service years ago, and was told to sit and be quiet during worship.  What I heard was a beautiful harmonious song.  My prayer: that we would all worship together as one. Please pray for my heart to become more caring and Christ-like.  I have many care-giving opportunities and responsibilities.  I am feeling un-cared for and guilty that I am struggling to care.

We received hundreds of prayer cards last Sunday morning!  I will add a few today for you to look at and pray over.

God please pour out your Spirit over our people and me!  I pray that they would want more of You.

God please help us to live in Christian unity on your mission.

God please help me to find myself, and help me on my journey through life.

God please forgive.

God please give us understanding for each other so we can be unified.

God make us a church that reaches out with “a cup of cold water.”

May we all be like Jesus.

God show us our purpose and that we would have the courage to live it–to live from our passion–to live like Jesus.

God help my family form friendships at church and that we would know where you want our church to be.

That You fill each and everyone of our lives and leads us to be messengers of your word, so we iwll be able to minister to our friends, families and co-workers so that they can grow to know and love Jesus.

That each of us walk and live in loving kindness to each other.

That I would be able to love others with the love of Christ.

That i might claims God’s love and be part of His family.

I pray that God would become so central to who i am that nothing can shake or distract me from His will.

For nothing else to matter.

Bring all our friends and family to know Jesus.

Help me, my husband and kids to live the life that points to Jesus.   And that we continue to learnt to grow and become stronger in our relationship with Jesus.

My prayer is that we don’t judge each other.

My prayer is that I would like my life for God; his glory, his purpose.

Tranquility

An ability to be free: total abandonment.

passionate fearless direction.

My prayer is to have all people saved and gave you the glory.

Acceptance.

Ears to hear; wisdom to understand and faith to follow.

For unity among all churches and all people so we might better practice what we preach!

Acceptance without compromise.  Generosity withouit fear.  Lose the pettiness.  Embrace risk for the purpose of love.  Integrity.

Pray that the war be over and send our soldiers home.

To not only be affected but to affect.

That compassion will replace complacency.

Increased intimacy with Jesus Christ for those who already know him and those who don’t.

Transparency: the willingness to be human.

I would serve the Lord in all that I do.

That my dad can come home.

That we would see those who are being left out.

For everyone to be accepted and united by encouraging and supporting one another.

Health.

What a great time we had the One Prayer kick off on Sunday.  I have a huge stack of one prayer cards to go through today.  Make sure you spoudazdo over the next month over this blog site and your prayer life.  How is the fast going today?  Let me know.

This weekend we’re starting our One Prayer series.  As we look at what SunWesters ‘one prayer’ is for the church I invite you to join the conversation on what your prayer for the church is.  I would also invite you to put your “one prayer” prayer requests on this blog and the answer to prayers that you are experiencing.  When we give voice to our prayers we are demonstrating our dependence on God and inviting Him to work in our midst. 

There is also an opportunity for you to participate in “One Prayer” in a several other ways. 

 You can:

1. You can join in the One Prayer weekly fasting.  We’re inviting all sunwesters to fast every Tuesday for the sake of prayer for the church. Take time that you would usually use to eat to prayer for the church. 

2. Make every effort to pray daily for one prayer.

3. Make every effort to comment on this blog.  We’re turning my blog into a one prayer blog and it’s going to turn into the hub of discussion for sunwesters.

4. Set aside the night of September 30th and come to Deepstream for a night of prayer for the church. 

I’m loooking forward to what God is going to do in our lives and in our church as turn to him in prayer.

I spent my Saturday “worshipping” a white bucket–or at least bowing down to it repeatedly.  Yes, I had the stomach flue.  Do you notice how our prayers change when we’re desperate?  “Oh God, I’ll do anything you want if I would just quit vomiting!”  How suburban!  Jesus, please take me back to the easy, peaceful life that I expect you to give to me.  I was disgusted by my prayers, but I kept praying because i really hate vomiting. 

My reality is that my need for Jesus’ presence in my life is no different whether I am ill or well.  Canadian Christ-followers are really not much different than the rest of Canadians.  We don’t follow Jesus unless we really “need to.”  We follow closely when life is not going our way and then we pull away when life is good.  We don’t live a relationship as much as we live a religion.  God you do your part–keep me healthy and comfortable and I’ll do my part–volunteer, give, be nice.  That’s religion, not Christ-followership.  Can you imagine living your marriage that way?  “Honey, I need your support today so could we set up a meeting to be authentic with each other for an hour?”  I know the response that I would get from my wife if I tried that or if she tried that with me.  I believe Canadians are not drawn to the church because we are not showing people the reality of who Jesus is through our lives.  I mean the real, life altering, city transforming, politically dangerous Jesus.  The Jesus we live with in growing intimacy day after day.  Not the “white bucket” Jesus.  Not the Jesus we press into when we have need and then pull back away from as we return to our self-sufficiency and independance (not interdependance) the rest fo the time. 

Confession time: I don’t really want to live by the white bucket 24/7/365 if I don’t have to.  I don’t want to feel weak and helpless. I don’t want to feel inadequate, insufficient and incapacitated even though the harsh reality is that I am all those things without Jesus.  This has nothing to do with thinking too little of myself or having a poor self-image.  I don’t. My problem is not that I think too little of myself it is that I think too little about Jesus! 

In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Paul wrote, But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

I have read it many times but I need to learn to live it.  How about you?

The other day I was weeding the paths on either side of my house.  As I pulled out the different kinds of weeds I was struck how much the sin in my life has in common with weeds.  There are weeds that are easy to pull out and weeds that are hard to pull out.  Some weeds have built in defence mechanisms.  They have thorns or, even worse they break off easily at the base not allowing you to take out the root ensuring that they will rise another day.  Some things are easier to eradicate from my life than others.  Some sins, some self-defence tendencies etc, come out easily, others not so much.  Some of my most developed self-protection habits have deep roots.  They have thorns that seek to fight off any attempt to remove them from my life.  They will try to fool me by making concessions–breaking off easily at their base without taking out the root of the problem.  While weeding i noticed that if I was patient and pulled at the big weeds slowly I could remove them roots and all. now I could just buy some RoundUp and kill everything but that doesn’t work well–to much “collateral damage.” I don’t want to kill everything, I just want to make more room for the good stuff to grow.  I never thought weeding could be so good for my soul.

Jet-lag always gets me.  It takes me a few weeks to get my body clock back on track.  What I struggle with more than jet lag is “soul lag.”  I struggle to adjust back to western life after a trip to Africa.  Life in Africa feels free and alive amidst poverty, starvation, poor infrastructure, medical difficulties and logistical nightmares. 

My soul seems to be going through “culture shock.”  When I wake up I walk into a warm shower.  When I go to the bathroom I can count on flush toilets.  When I want to eat there is always more than enough food. 

So what do I bring home with me from Africa?  How do I live in the reality of the western world with the spiritual passion of the developing world? How do I grow my dependency on God in a world that caters to my self-sufficiency?

Over the next few weeks I’m looking forward to taking the time to reflect on what Jesus poured into my soul over the last 3 weeks.  How to live fully alive in culture that feels dead to life even though it thinks it’s really living.

If you’ve got some ideas write me.

We’ve completed our lighting tourist trip through London and now we’re waiting to board our flight home.  It’s hard to believe that the trip is over.  Pemba already feels like a distant memory or perhaps just  a dream.  I can’t believe how quickly I “climatize” to western ways.  I once again take for granted all the benefits of western life.  I quickly loose sight of the power of prayer and the urgency of God’s Kingdom mission that He has invited us to participate in.  I’ve become a tourist all too quickly.

My heart longs for Pemba.  For the simplicity, the urgency and passion of people who know Jesus and the power of his resurrection on a daily basis. I hope to take home with me a renewed sense of intimacy with Jesus and the practical understanding of his power alive in me, through me and through all Christ-followers who want Him.

Time to board.

Yesterday our team arrived at Honeyguide Tented Safari Camps adjacent to Kruger National Park in South Africa.  We’ve migrated from cold sometimes running water, rice and beans and red dirt to the lap of safari luxury.  The guided safari rides have been great as we’ve seen elephants, giraffes, lions, zebra, buffalo, wildebeest, kudus, baboons and much, much more.  I do find it interesting that I did not want to leave Pemba but now that I’m being a tourist I’m more than ready to go home.  I felt like I had purpose in Pemba.  People needed help and my soul needed development.  This camp, nice as it is feels purposeless.  I struggle to adjust to fine dining under the stars within arms reach of a grazing elephant while hundreds line up for a piece of bread in Pemba.  I know the emotions I feel are part of the processing the disparities that exists in this world. 

As we ride about in comfort that we can afford to pay for thousands struggle to survive.  As we choose between menu items that are all wonderful my Mozambique brothers and sisters starve or subsist on meager portions.  As I pop pills to deal with my stomach issues people die from very treatable diseases. 

This past weekend approximately 1000plus people “camped” in the church at Iris Pemba.  We use the word camping to describe a chosen recreational activity.  They were just looking for a place to sleep.  We buy camping gear; they lie down on a straw mat.  The “tent” I’m sitting in has hot running water, beautiful beds with comforters, a lovely couch, a bathroom with a dual shower and sink.  Staff bring beverages of choice to our room at 6am prior to early morning safari ride.   More hot beverages are served part way through the ride and an amazing breakfast is served upon our return to “camp.”  None of these things are wrong but they lose their luster if I chose to engage with the realities of the world around me.  Unfortunately I can already feel myself being desensitized to the plight of the less fortunate and I’ve only been away from them for 48 hours.  As I distance myself from the issues of poverty, disease, starvation, limited education, I easily become preoccupied with all that consumes the western world. 

“Oh Jesus please break my heart for the bigger issues in this world that you need your people to address.  I know that the “someone” who needs to do something about the problems in this world is me, it is us—the people of God.  Please show me what my part is as I head back to my world with its poverty of spirit.”  Amen.