Monday, August 12, 2013

Invitation to connect on LinkedIn

From Bruce Rzengota

Minister at Norwalk Alliance Church

Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area

maninthewindow,

I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

- Bruce

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Tuesday, August 6, 2013

30 Days to the Next Level in Your Prayer Life.

Dear Bruce,

Practice the Three C's

Connect: Become more aware of how God is at work, showing up and evident in your life. Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. . .

Cry Out: Cast your needs on father. What do you need from him today, what do those around you need? Give me today my daily needs. . .

Confess: Oh God help me, it is here that I have fallen short, change me. Forgive me my debts as I forgive others. . .

Need direction. Here are a couple of ideas.

Take a look PS 139 at lunch today or before you go to bed, read it and pray it back to God. Make it personal.
Take a prayer walk today and simply work through the 3 C's.
Write the three C's on a note pad and place it on your desk at work.

Go ahead. . . take the leap!

Norwalk Alliance Church

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

"I have one passion: it is He, He alone." Count Zinzendorf

Monday, August 5, 2013

So my wife and I often end the day cuddled together on one end of the sofa letting go of all the busyness and demands of life and just enjoying moments of togetherness. Typically we watch an episode of a recorded drama or a favorite reality show. Right now we've been watching the latest episodes of America's Got Talent. We've never voted, we know the results will not change our lives, but we do enjoy watching.

This last week, I have to admit, that I was pleased with the outcome of

America's voting. Angela Hoover, a middle aged housewife and mother, a comedienne and impressionist, had been voted through to the semifinals. She had given up the pursuit of comedy and impressionism when life dictated that she focus on other things: a job move for her husband, raising two children as a stay at home mother. But this year was her chance to re-embrace her dream. That night she was on the bubble, nearly eliminated but she got voted through.

I confess I emitted a girlish whoop of delight. Why? Because Angela exemplified to me and many others the determination to pick dreams back up that have been set aside for a period of time. Sometimes life dictates setting certain things aside in order to find the balance to meet other obligations and challenges. For some people, once the dream is set aside, it's never pursued again.

In my life, this last year has been one of finding new balance. One year ago, in addition to all the other responsibilities and duties, I returned to school, picked back up the pursuit of my Master's. For one year I have been a full time student again. In order to do it, much of my schedule had to be redone. No more easy Sunday afternoons and evenings (homework assignments were due). Although more books were read, fewer of them were off my top ten list. On vacations, I sought out Wi-Fi hotspots rather that tourist spots; I spent less time at trout streams and more time at a computer screen.

I found myself writing weekly and sometimes daily, but less and less for the simple joy of writing, sharing my thoughts and passions. Man in the Window musings fell off from once a week to twice a month, then to once a month.

Now it's a year later, things that were laid down can be picked back up. Grades are in, papers are finished, a thesis still looms, but now is the time to pick back up things that were laid down.

Once again my life verses speak to me, Phil. 3:12-14, those strong words of Paul, I press on.

So have you been meaning to pick something back up? Is it time to reignite a passion, habit, a ministry, a project, a goal, a course of study? It's time to press on. Have you finished a project? Do you know you've plateaued? Press on to something new. Or is it to get back in the game? Then rejoin the race, recommit. Press on.

Life is filled with limited opportunities, limited days to chase the dreams, to glorify the Forgiver. Press on.

Thanks for all who have read in the past. Now let's press on.

The Man in the Window (pressing on)

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

"I have one passion: it is He, He alone." Count Zinzendorf

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Praying in the Desert

The desert, never been a wanderer there.

The spiritual desert: that place, those times, those situations when circumstances obscure his presence, filled with emptiness, frustration, challenge. We all wander there. We all wander in the desert; we experience those dry places void of the nearness of his presence.

In the desert (at least for this wanderer) there are only two ways to pray.

In the desert I can beg for water. Crying out, hoping against lost hope, that his presence is hidden under the scorching circumstances that exhaust my soul. I can beg, that some how, some way he can be rediscovered again.

In the desert can pray believing his presence isn't obscured. I can believe he is already at work in the desert. I can attest, I can affirm, I can declare that God dwells, no he works, he advances his kingdom, and he fulfills his plans, even in desert. He who formed me in glory for his glory works in the desert, in the dry times, in the challenging circumstances. I can trust that in my desert, HE IS, and that he is at work.

In the desert we can pray two ways: begging or believing!

Listen to the God of the desert.

"See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I AM making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:19

I believe in the God of the Desert!

the man in the window

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

"I have one passion: it is He, He alone." Count Zinzendorf

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

My Journey in Prayer

I prayed this morning.

Okay that's not so unusual. It's what I prayed. How I prayed.

I've been reading a book challenging me about praying the Forgiver's prayer as a model. So today prayed.

Our Father,

My Father in Heaven

My father, who knows

My every hurt

My every loss

My every pain

My every hope

My every dream

My every disappointment

My every fault

My every failure

My every weakness

My every burden

My every challenge

My every weight

My every fear

My every sin

My Father . . . hallowed by your name.

The privilege of calling him Father, whose name is so holy, whose nature so powerful, whose character glorious, moved to deep worship, to deep stillness in his overshadowing presence.

Prayer wade into the river of his presence, let it wash over you. Let the river flow.

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

"I have one passion: it is He, He alone." Count Zinzendorf

Friday, September 28, 2012

power praying and the praying ground

David Chotka quotes Tozer's turn of phrase --'The Praying Ground' in his book

'Power Praying.'

What is the Praying Ground? It is the fertile soil in which effective prayer

grows. It is the medium. Seeds of prayer cast there grow into something so

much more. But what is it.

A heart that is willing to hear.

A will determined to obey.

John said, "we receive from him anything we ask, BECAUSE

-- we obey his commands AND do what pleases Him.

1 John 3:22

Why do we get anything we ask? Because if we are living to obey His commands

and seeking to do what pleases Him, if that is our life orientation. Can we ask

for things that would not bring him Glory?

Could it be the church sees so little answered prayer sometimes because we are

no where near the praying ground?

A heart that is willing to hear.

A will determined to obey.

The praying ground.

Bruce D. Rzengota
Norwalk Alliance Church

"I have one passion: it is He, He alone." Count Zinzendorf

Thursday, September 20, 2012

MAN IN THE WINDOW -- Leaders Lead in the River

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The Man in the Window

Musings on Life and Leadership

Bruce Rzengota

Lead Pastor Norwalk Alliance Church

September 20, 2012

Leaders Lead in the River

I recently challenged my leadership team, our elders, and our workers, to try and learn what it means to pray as a leader.

We're discovering some things already.

One leader has noted that people, who in the spring were experiencing great movements of the spirit of God, are under considerable attack today.
Another noted that while he prays often, praying just ten minutes as a leader was a battle.
I'm learning that without a plan to pray, I don't do a lot of praying.

Early this morning as I met in my Prayer Place, I learned something else. I had a vision (yeah, I know I don't make that claim often) of a strong picture of prayer unfolding before me.

First, I saw prayer like I often see it. river

Prayer was like trying to wade into a mighty river of circumstances that rages and flows and trying to get God to change the course of that mighty river to fit my hopes, my requests, my dreams, my wants, my desires (you caught the my thing, didn't you). There you stand struggling against the currents flowing by.

AND. . . I admit, sometimes prayer is like that. Sometimes we do have to wade into such a river and pray for circumstances to change.

BUT. . .

Today I saw prayer different.

Today I saw the river, that same mighty river, as a torrent of God's activities, God's grace, God's movement in the land. It was the river of life surging ahead, directed and ordered by God, turning and twisting according to His activities, His desires, His wants, His dreams. Today I saw prayer as wading into that river and being caught up and flowing with what God was doing in the land.

Wow, did that change my prayer.

Wade into the river.

Rev. 22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

The Man in the Window

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