Aches and Praise Two Hundred & Forty Three

Posted on 2016-05-05 in English |

Dear friends,

Did you know that today is the 65th annual National Day of Prayer in the United States? For more information about this, please visit: http://www.nationaldayofprayer.org/ Dr. Tony Evans, Honorary Chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, wrote the following prayer to be read across America today:

“Dear heavenly Father, we come to You today as a humble people desperate for Your supernatural intervention on behalf of our beloved nation. First, we thank You for all the blessings You have bestowed on our land, blessings that have allowed us to bring so much good and benefit to not only our own citizens but also to the rest of the world. The very ideals upon which this country was founded were based on biblical truths, no matter how some try to rewrite history to deny that very fact today.

This is why our hearts are so broken over how You continue to be marginalized and dismissed by both our people and our institutions. We are also saddened by the fact that Your people have contributed greatly to the spiritual apathy that now engulfs us. Our satisfaction in remaining religious without being fully committed to living out the truths of Your Word has caused us to become co-conspirators with the forces of evil that are destroying us as a society.

It is for this reason that we personally and collectively repent of our carnality and recommit ourselves to becoming visible and verbal disciples of Jesus Christ. Enable us, by Your Spirit, to no longer be secret agent Christians but rather to publicly declare and live out Your truth in a spirit of love so that You feel welcome in our country once again.

Thank You for Your promise to hear our prayers when we call to You with hearts of repentance and obedience, which is how we are appealing to You today, Father. On behalf of Your church, we affirm afresh the priority You are to us that You would fill every dimension of our lives as we seek to bring You glory through the advancement of Your kingdom in our personal lives, our family lives, and in the lives of our churches and our government leaders. We confidently invite heaven’s intervention into all the affairs of our nation and we praise You in advance for Your answer. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”
 
At Urbana ’76 (a missions conference for students), Billy Graham told the following story: “Once I was invited by the Communist Party to address them in Maracaibo. I don’t know how it happened; I think they made a mistake. But anyway I got up and I started talking about Christ. And while I was talking about Christ, truckloads of soldiers unloaded outside. I could see them through the windows. Suddenly, while I was speaking, bullets began to pour into the place. Now I noticed that they were hitting high up. I don’t think they were meant to hit anybody. But I didn’t quite know that. The fellow that introduced me pulled his coat back and there were two pearl-handed pistols, and he pulled them out. He said, ‘Follow me.’ When Newsweek magazine reported it, they said that Billy Graham got under a table and was praying the Lord’s prayer. I was not praying the Lord’s prayer. I was running.”

While waiting for a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday, I saw a magazine that is like a Canadian version of Newsweek, with the cover story questioning whether Jesus existed: www.macleans.ca/society/life/did-jesus-really-exist-2. The writer of the article quoted a professor named Bart Ehrman, who has examined memory studies and questions the trustworthiness of the gospel accounts. There is an expression “you can’t believe everything that you read” which applies to the content of this article.

Last week I shared a prayer request for Al Voth, an administrator of Global Outreach Mission, who was recently diagnosed with brain tumours. There is no further news at this time, so I would ask you to please keep praying for him. Several of the people whose physical needs have been shared in this blog have been restored to good health or had their lives prolonged through medical care. Others have gone to be with the Lord. Although we miss them greatly, we know that they are in the presence of the One who loves us with an everlasting love.

Scripture for the weekend: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” James 5:16 (NASB)

Thought for the weekend: “Prayer is ever and always, first and foremost, a recognition of God’s majestic glory and an act of submission to it. All our petitions, all our passions, all our supplications, all our requests, all our needs, all our trials, all our problems are subject to His name (Matthew 6:9), His kingdom, and His will (v. 10).” – John MacArthur, Jr. (from his book “Jesus’ Pattern of Prayer”)

By His grace,

Steve

^