Apostolic Friends Forum - Hosted a "Gathering" Last Night...

It was a night of PS 3, Monopoly, Spades and Spaghetti.

It was a nice gathering of mostly Christians, with one of my old combat buddies from Afghanistan and his family, and one of my roommates being the only exceptions.

One of the guys there is an Iraqi Christian convert and it was interesting to see his disdain for my dog. The Lord has yet to deliver him from that one yet!

I enjoy prayer and praying, and I defnitely enjoy walking into a Pentecostal Prayer Room to hear the older saints praying with power and conviction. However, I've not been one to do a lot of out loud praying in my home. Towards the end of the night, a group of 6 of us circled up and started to pray. A few others continued to play Monopoly, but we turned off the tv and prayed.

One or two of us prayed and then, one of my "non-denominational" sisters spoke up.

"This has got to be the quietest prayer meeting I've ever been a part of." She then encouraged us to pray with a sense of urgency and she led us into a prolonged period of prayer, praise and worship in my living room. That sister may be the future Mrs. Davidson!

So we're there praying and praising and my dog got curious and excited. She didn't know what to do with herself! None of us stopped praying and praising to address the dog though-- our hearts were fixed on the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

So as we were praying and praising the Lord, He gave me a "word" to share with the group.

"Holy and acceptable."

It would not leave my head and I felt compelled to speak and share it with the group. I quoted the scripture verbatim and shared what the Lord was placing on my heart to speak to the group. It went so smoothly, as if I had prepared to speak, but I didn't prepare and I had no idea this was going to happen.

In fact, the gathering started off kind of rough. I told everyone to be there at 8:00pm, but I didn't get home till 8:16pm or so. When I walked in, 2 of my roommates were already entertaining the guests who actually showed up on time. The food wasn't ready until after 9:00pm and I felt like I was a not so good host-- with my plans not really working out like I had hoped.

Still, there wasn't a shortage of conversation and fellowship. The whole prayer/worship session was marked with such a peaceful excitement.

I thank God that He allowed such a meeting to happen where I live. By His Grace, I will be hosting another such meeting at my house again very soon. A couple people suggested a once-a-month frequency and 1 guy suggested every week!

I told him that whenever we do it again, I'll instruct everyone to bring their own food. I cooked a huge vat of spaghetti and four boxes of texas toast. I bought 4 bottles of Simply Lemonade and there is hardly any thing left from last night-- except some of the vegetarian spaghetti, a kitchen full of dirty dishes and a beautiful memory of a God and Savior who stopped by where I live and blessed all who were present.