Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, "The Rest of the Story", and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called "One nation under God".
"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good", but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused our power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. We have become sexually deviant and called it a type of lifestyle. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen."
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Time Well Wasted
Mike has started a sermon series about time. He challenged the congregation to prioritize, and move God to the forefront of their daily lives by giving Him their time. The bible tells us in Matthew 6:33 about priorities. It says,"Seek first God's kingdom and God's righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well."
This begged me to ask the question: Is there such a thing as time well wasted?
Those that are close to us know that Mike has very poor time management skills and he is often distracted when he needs to be focused. In his challenge to the congregation, I saw his great need to challenge himself to do the very same things that he was asking of them. I know that he desires to make better use of the time he has been given, but it just sometimes doesn't work out that way for whatever reason. Back to the previous question: Is there such a thing as time well wasted? I think we have a choice. We can choose to live for today and not worry about what tomorrow might bring. And although living in the moment may sound nice, it's not very practical for most people. To most, it sounds impulsive and flighty in nature. We know that we have to work and earn an income in order to support ourselves, but what else do we really HAVE to do? Some people think that time is relative to productivity, which is not necessarily true. Some think in terms of money or numbers. Some people can't sit, they can't take time because there isn't enough so they have to go, go, go and do, do, do.
Scripture also tells us this:
"Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say,"If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin." James 4:13-17.
What does this mean to you? To me, it means that even though I am vapor in the wind, I am to leave my mark while I am here because I won't be here for long. I think this is God's way of telling us that old familiar saying that life is too short. We are here today and gone tomorrow. Those of us that have lost someone that we care for, know that all too well. Studies have shown that a high number of people spend their time worrying and their lives are ridden with different anxieties. Those same studies show that the average person worries about things that never even happen. What a waste of time.
With that said, how do we make sure we spend our time wisely and effectively? How do we make sure that we are good stewards of the time that we have been given?
The answer: we seek Him first.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Two Alike
Prov 31:26-28
She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness.
She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
NKJV
The Seed
As I was sitting here this morning, I got a phone call that a girl in our church just had her baby. As I praised God for her, I began to reflect on Abigail and her first birthday just passing and how life and creation is just amazing and wonderful to me.
He said, "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children." Prior to their separation from God, it appears that the birth of every human child was going to be an extraordinary celebration of significance and joy. Each new human was to be built within the body of the woman, fashioned by God's design that she carried within. I am in awe that God our Creator, chose for women to retain the power of life. And although it was originally given to her, that power was compromised. Even though Eve sold her birthright so to speak, God has never removed this power of life. We as women, still carry the Seed.
Women want in. They want into the heart of the matter, into the decision making, into the conversation. This is from God. For as a man's helpmate, she was designed to be involved, valued, and cherished. Eve's desire ruled over her will to obey God. But God promised that the situation would not remain this way forever. There is the promise of redemption. Eve was built to help Adam accomplish the will of God. God said that the child built within the body of a woman would destroy the works and power of Satan's dominion. When I read this, I believe that it was the first prophecy of a coming Messiah, the Seed of the woman, who would restore all things. What Jesus did with the samaritan woman, He wants to do with all of God's daughters. He wants to restore their voices. The daughter of a lion is also a lion.
He said, "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children." Prior to their separation from God, it appears that the birth of every human child was going to be an extraordinary celebration of significance and joy. Each new human was to be built within the body of the woman, fashioned by God's design that she carried within. I am in awe that God our Creator, chose for women to retain the power of life. And although it was originally given to her, that power was compromised. Even though Eve sold her birthright so to speak, God has never removed this power of life. We as women, still carry the Seed.
Women want in. They want into the heart of the matter, into the decision making, into the conversation. This is from God. For as a man's helpmate, she was designed to be involved, valued, and cherished. Eve's desire ruled over her will to obey God. But God promised that the situation would not remain this way forever. There is the promise of redemption. Eve was built to help Adam accomplish the will of God. God said that the child built within the body of a woman would destroy the works and power of Satan's dominion. When I read this, I believe that it was the first prophecy of a coming Messiah, the Seed of the woman, who would restore all things. What Jesus did with the samaritan woman, He wants to do with all of God's daughters. He wants to restore their voices. The daughter of a lion is also a lion.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
The Artist
For the last week and a half, we have been on our very first family vacation. We decided to go to Tennessee to visit Uncle Frank and Aunt Peggy. They have never had the opportunity to meet Miss Abigail. As a matter of fact, last time we spent time with them, she was still in my belly. We just had the most wonderful time with them and we are so thankful to God for their generosity and love. I have never met such giving people and we love them so much. On Thursday, we took a drive out to an orchard that belonged to a man that Uncle Frank knew so that we could pick some sour cherries off the trees and make pie. I know that personally, I was awestruck by the LORD's hand that day. HE is truly the artist, a master painter and creator. He is GOD and I am not, and I realized that more than ever as we drove up the drive and saw the orchard, the house, trees, and grapevines that HE had given to this man's care. Everything was so natural and beautiful.
I was excited for Abigail as she had her first experience of eating an apple right off the tree that she hand picked for herself. She ate some cherries too. She sat in the shade under the cherry trees as we picked and ate, and all for free. We could not have prayed and asked for a nicer day, or to spend it any other way with anyone else. It was perfect. I am just in awe of my Jesus.
Monday, June 9, 2008
How To Pray
You ask me what this voice of the heart is. It is love which is the voice of the heart. Love God and you will always be speaking to Him. The seed of love is growth in prayer. If you do not understand that, then you have neither loved or prayed. Ask God to open your heart and kindle in it a spark of His love and then you will begin to understand what praying means.
If it is the heart that prays, it is evident that sometimes, and even continuously, it can pray by itself without any help from words, spoken or conceived. Here is something in which few people understand and which some even entirely deny. They insist that there must be definite and formal acts. They are mistaken, and God has not yet taught them how the heart prays. It is true that the thoughts are formed in the mind before they are clothed in words. The proof of this, is that we often search for the right word and reject one after another until we find the right one which expresses our thoughts accurately. We need words to make ourselves intelligible to other people, but not to the Spirit. It is the same with the feelings of the heart. The heart conceives feelings and adopts them without any need of resorting to words, unless it wishes to communicate to others or to make them clear to itself.
For God reads the secrets of the heart. God reads it's most intimate feelings, even those which we are not aware of. It is not necessary to make use of formal acts to make ourselves heard by God. If we do not make use of them in prayer, it is not so much for God's sake as our own, in that they keep our attention fixed on Him in His presence.
Imagine a soul so closely united to God that it has no need for outward acts to remain attentive to the inward prayer. In these moments of silence and peace, when it pays no heed to what is happening within itself, it prays and prays excellently with a simple and direct prayer that God will understand perfectly by the action of grace. The heart will be full of aspirations towards God without any other clear expression. Though they may elude our own consciousness, it will not escape the consciousness of God.
This prayer, so empty of all images and perceptions...apparently so passive and yet so active, is as far as the limitations of this life allow-pure adoration in spirit and in truth. It is adoration fully and worthy of God in which the soul is united to Him as it's ground, the created intelligence to the uncreated, without anything but very simple attention to the mind and as equally simple application of the will. This is what is called the prayer of silence, or of quiet, or bare faith.
Written by: Jean Nicholas Grou - "How To Pray"
If it is the heart that prays, it is evident that sometimes, and even continuously, it can pray by itself without any help from words, spoken or conceived. Here is something in which few people understand and which some even entirely deny. They insist that there must be definite and formal acts. They are mistaken, and God has not yet taught them how the heart prays. It is true that the thoughts are formed in the mind before they are clothed in words. The proof of this, is that we often search for the right word and reject one after another until we find the right one which expresses our thoughts accurately. We need words to make ourselves intelligible to other people, but not to the Spirit. It is the same with the feelings of the heart. The heart conceives feelings and adopts them without any need of resorting to words, unless it wishes to communicate to others or to make them clear to itself.
For God reads the secrets of the heart. God reads it's most intimate feelings, even those which we are not aware of. It is not necessary to make use of formal acts to make ourselves heard by God. If we do not make use of them in prayer, it is not so much for God's sake as our own, in that they keep our attention fixed on Him in His presence.
Imagine a soul so closely united to God that it has no need for outward acts to remain attentive to the inward prayer. In these moments of silence and peace, when it pays no heed to what is happening within itself, it prays and prays excellently with a simple and direct prayer that God will understand perfectly by the action of grace. The heart will be full of aspirations towards God without any other clear expression. Though they may elude our own consciousness, it will not escape the consciousness of God.
This prayer, so empty of all images and perceptions...apparently so passive and yet so active, is as far as the limitations of this life allow-pure adoration in spirit and in truth. It is adoration fully and worthy of God in which the soul is united to Him as it's ground, the created intelligence to the uncreated, without anything but very simple attention to the mind and as equally simple application of the will. This is what is called the prayer of silence, or of quiet, or bare faith.
Written by: Jean Nicholas Grou - "How To Pray"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
