Nathan Miller

The title says it all…this is a much needed update to my blog.  So much has transpired since my last post. Since the last post, my little girl has continued to grow so fast. It’s unbelievable how fast your children grow! Hannah is now 5 months old. Her personality shows up more and more every day, and she is such a joy to be around. Josh will be turning 2 on December 12th. I simply cannot believe it. It seems like just yesterday I was holding that little infant in my arms. On December 5th, Jenny and I will have been married for 5 1/2 years. I can truly say these have been the best 5 1/2 years of my life. I am so blessed to have a wonderful wife like Jenny. I would not be the man I am today without her!

I’ve also been to Israel and back since the last post. What a wonderful opportunity to see the Holy Land! Maybe I can post something on it later, but all I can say is that it was the trip of a lifetime. I’ll never read my Bible the same again. When you get over there and see where all the stories took place it brings everything to life. One lesson that stands out is how practical Jesus was in his teaching. If you read the Biblical passage standing where He would have delivered the message, you see how He used the world around Him as the illustrations for His teaching. It’s a great lesson for all teachers of the Bible to apply.

We’ve also moved closer to our goal of church planting. As many of you know, we are planning on starting a church in the Raleigh, NC area. Currently I am looking more specifically at a suburb outside of Raleigh called Knightdale. With the completion of a new section of the I-540 bypass around Raleigh, this sleepy little town has been the location of a massive influx of people. In fact, the Raleigh area as a whole has exploded. There are 167,000 people projected to move into the area between 2008-2014. This massive growth, combined with a general lostness makes Raleigh a prime spot for a church plant. Knightdale itself has grown 69.9% since 1990. It has attracted my attention not just because of the growth, but because no other church planters have been going there. In other news, about a month ago Jenny and I had our church planting assessment. This was a huge step to go through. With the completion of the assessment, we have the green light to continue through the planting process. As more developments arise, I’ll keep you posted, but continue to keep us in your prayers as we seek the Lord’s will for future ministry.

Lastly, I want to invite all of you to be a part of our prayer network. I know many of my readers are already on my e-mail list, but we need more. Prayer is the fuel for the journey! Without prayer we could do nothing! I will be sending out prayer updates about every other week unless an urgent need arises. I would like to ask all of you to pray for us at least once a week. If you would like to get our prayer e-mail click here to send me a message. You can also follow me on facebook or twitter. I update both of these daily, and you’ll be able to stay up to date with me there.

This week I began reading E.M. Bounds book on Prayer. I’m only a few pages in and it has already begun to challenge my faith and prayer life. I know that it’s going to become a favorite of mine! This morning I wanted to give you a quote I found of particular interest:

“It’s not the intellectually great that the church needs; nor is it men of wealth that the times demand. It is not people of great social influence that this day requires. Above everybody and everything else it is men of faith, men of mighty prayer, man and women after the fashion of the saints and heroes enumerated in Hebrews, who ‘obtained a good report through faith,’ that the church and the whole wide world humanity needs.” – E.M. Bounds

May I be a man mighty in faith and prayer! Lord help me!

I want to make an appeal this morning for your prayers. After work today, Jenny and I are heading to Virginia to spend the night at my parent’s house. Then tomorrow we will drive to Greensboro, NC to talk to a church planting strategist about church planting opportunities in North Carolina. If you have been following me for some time, then North Carolina might come as a surprise. Jenny and I have been praying about planting a church in the west for  a few years now, but God keeps closing the door. I’ll explain the whole story on another day.

Please pray for us that we will have wisdom from heaven as to where to plant a church. It is my fervent desire to serve the Lord with my life, and I want so desperately to go where He would desire me to. I’ll post an update about our meeting later, but please remember to keep us in your prayers. Our meeting is at 11:45 tomorrow. Thank you!

This morning , as I do every morning, I read My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers. If you are looking for a good devotional to read, I highly recommend this one. I have been reading it for years, and it continues to minister to my life and challenges my walk with the Lord. This morning’s section challenged me in regards to my prayer life and I wanted to share it with you.

This morning Chambers opens with the statement: “The reason many of us stop praying and become hard towards God is that we only have an emotional interest in prayer.” How true is this in my life? I have to admit that far too often. I come before God looking for some magical, emotional experience where I can “feel” closer to God. However, is that Biblical? No where in the Bible do you find that teaching. Maybe some of that thinking comes from our “American mentality.” We are so emotionally driven!

Chambers continues his challenge:

“Worship and intercession must go together, the one is impossible without the other. Intercession means raising ourselves up to getting the mind of Christ about the one for whom we are praying for. Too often instead of worshiping God, we construct statements as to how prayer works. Are we worshiping or are we in dispute with God— ‘I don’t see how You are going to do it.’ This is a sure sign that we are not worshiping. When we lose sight of God we become hard and dogmatic. We hurl our own petitions at God’s throne and dictate to Him as to what we wish Him to do. We do not worship God, nor do we seek to form the mind of Christ. If we are hard towards God, we will become hard towards other people.”

“Are we worshiping God in a way that will raise us up to where we can take hold of Him, having such intimate contact with Him that we know His mind about the ones for whom we pray?”

Prayer is not about us, it’s about God. Prayer is not for us to change God’s mind about a matter, but rather to get our thoughts in line with His plan. Prayer is an act of worship! It is an amazing thought that we can come before the throne of God to speak to Him. May we not abuse the privilege, but rather let it touch our hearts. May we walk away from our prayer time more like Christ than when we entered. May our prayer time change our outlook on the world, and may we see people the way our Lord sees people. I hope that you apply these truths to your prayer life today!

As some of you might know, Church Planting has been a burning desire in our hearts the last few years. I won’t dump the whole story on you, but it all dates back to the Bonfire Conference held here at FBCW in October of 2006. At that conference I heard Vance Pitman speak about their church planting experience at Hope. During his session, he whet my appetite for Church Planting in the West. Yes, there is a need for churches in the East, but in the West there is an unbelievable need. The demographics show a much higher percentage of unchurched people in the West – in many places as high as 95%.

I say all of this to update you on our current endeavor. Since being at Woodstock, we have been looking at San Diego as a possible place to plant a church. I’m asking that you all please pray for us as we will be traveling out there April 3-10. Yes, there is a great need for churches, but we desire to be where the Lord wants us. Pray that if it would be His will for us to be in San Diego that He would make it clear to us. Thank you all for your prayers as they are greatly needed. If you would like some more details about our trip or our desire to do church planting, send me an e-mail ( natekmiller@gmail.com ).