What's left to do is to focus in now more specifically on the word.

So I'm going to reverse the order of the outline a little bit.

I think I have prayer before the word.

I'm going to turn it around.

The role of the word more specifically in communion with God

and the role of prayer more specifically.

So it's really more of the same,

only getting down to the brass tacks of particular texts,

and then we'll shift over to fasting toward the latter part.

I was thinking as I thought about this story from these illustrations from Patton.

I know we have missionaries in the room.

We have pastors in the room.

We have aspiring pastors in the room.

And I presume most of you will be God-centered lay people

who care about bringing Christ and God to bear on your vocation and your family and your leisure.

But I really do want to be a seedbed for missions at Bethlehem,

and so I don't mind making lay people uncomfortable in seeming to elevate missions and putting the rest of us in lower

category. If it sounds like that, tough. Because I'm willing to take that risk in order to be

ascending church, a mobilizing church.

Jesus said, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers.

If that makes the people who don't get set out feel second class, so be it.

You know, let's live happily as second class citizens if we're not on the mission field, if that's what it is.

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