if then- Seeking God for Revival: Church Letter July 30, 2020

July 30, 2020
 
Dear Vineyard Family,
 
I’m writing to you to share exciting upcoming news for our church body.
 
The first thing is that we are going to gather this coming Sunday, August 2, at 7 PM, in the parking lot for a night of worship, prayer, and ministry.  We are planning to gather outside weekly in the evenings because the weather is nicer, which makes the experience much more enjoyable.
 
This past Sunday, our church’s leadership got together in the parking lot and we had a wonderful time of worship, prayer, and partaking of the Lord’s Supper together.  It felt so good to gather and enjoy the beautiful evening as the sun set during our time together.
 
Bring your own chair and facemask, and plan on sitting six feet apart from other individuals.  We want to continue following the state guidelines.  We are not gathering to protest against the guidelines, or as a reaction to feeling that our rights have been violated.   We are doing this because we recognize the importance of fellowship and want to do this as safely as possible while being good witnesses to our neighbors who can see into our parking lot.
 
The second thing is that I want to let you know about our next sermon series coming up in two Sundays during our online service starting Sunday, August 9.  We are titling the sermon series, “if then: Seeking God for Revival” (we will go through the series for seven weeks through September 20).
 
A scripture that keeps resonating in my spirit in my times alone with God and in many different places is 2 Chronicles 7:14 which says, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
 
As you can see there is a condition that starts the verse.  It all starts with “if,” and if that happens, “then” God will move in certain ways.
 
We are living in times when many of us are feeling that we don’t have control over many things.  We don’t have control over this pandemic, we don’t have control over the great political divide, we don’t have control over racial tensions, we don’t have control over how governmental officials will lead us in this time… but, we do have a choice in all this.  In the midst of unprecedented and unpredictable times, we can choose to seek the Lord.
 
This is where this series comes in.  Many people talk about wanting to see revival in this country and in this world.  We cannot control that either.  What we can do is to make the choice to seek God personally and as a church body.  Let’s humble ourselves, pray and seek God, and repent.  All these are key to experimenting revival.
 
Towards that end, I want to invite you to do three things:
1.      Join us online on Sundays at 11 AM, online for the daily weekday devotionals at 9 AM, and
then join a Virtual Connect Group to continue growing spiritually and in unity.  Look at all the
groups available here: vvinfo.org/vgroups.

2.      Join us for a corporate fast.  We want to fast for 40 days from Monday, August 10, through
Friday, September 18.  Ask the Spirit of God to show you what to fast from.  Be open as He
might invite you to stop reading the daily news, or to stop watching tv, or to stop checking
social media.  He might have you do the Daniel Fast, or skip one meal a day, or do a once a
week complete fast.  However He leads you, let’s join together in not feeding our flesh so that
we can focus on feasting on the Lord while we fast.  For more information on fasting please
visit: vvinfo.org/seek.

3.     During the 40 days we invite you to join together once or twice a day at 7:14 AM and/or 7:14
PM to recite 2 Chronicles 7:14 and to give space to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal where in
your life you need humility, how to seek His presence more openly, or what you need to
repent from.  We invite you to just take 3-10 minutes during those times to journal what you
are sensing or hearing.  Please share with us what the Lord is revealing at: vvinfo.org/seek.

 
Praying that we would experience individual revival and revival as a church body so that His presence and power would spill over into the valley and throughout the city and we would see the effects of true revival.  Let’s join in one Spirit so that God would hear from heaven, forgive our sins, and heal our land.

Seeking God for revival,
 
Jimmy Reyes