Congregational Prayer - 15 February 2015 PM


O God, indestructible, indefatigable, indomitable; to you we come and hand over our burdened hearts into your watchful care on behalf of this world and your church.

 We have so many things that have weighed us down with fear, worry, grief, and consternation. There’s sickness, trouble in our homes, difficulties at work, unsettledness in our world. We remember these who are wrestling with specific distresses…grant them and us courage, faith, graciousness, and appropriate restoration.  O Lord, hear our prayer.

 Please uphold our U.S. Military people, esp. these….comfort and encourage their families during their deployments, and restore them to their families unhurt. Similarly, please hold in your safe keeping our peace officers, first responders, and emergency personnel. Preserve them from accidents, aggressors, ambushes and affronts. O Lord, hear our prayer.

 We entreat you to look upon our country and all who are in authority; defend us from malevolent forces and elements that would bring our land into harm’s way. Likewise, look over the nations of our world, and for the good of your Church and wellbeing of all, we ask you to intervene so that peace and order would prevail where there is only conflict and anarchy; and cause justice and hope to reign in every land. O Lord, hear our prayer.

 Father, who causes the sun to shine on the righteous and unrighteous, and brings rain to the just and unjust; please hear our pleas for plentiful rains, replenishing showers and restoring precipitation; and our appeals for a rapid reversal of this drought. O Lord, hear our prayer.

  O Lord, we pray for Your Church in all places, for this congregation during this time of decisions and direction-seeking; but also for Southern Temple Baptist Church; Southside Missionary Baptist; Southwest Baptist; Southwest Freewill Baptist; Spring Creek Baptist and Spring Creek Baptist Church; guide us by your truthful Scriptures and the Spirit of truth, while preserving us from evil, protecting us from error, and strengthening us to fulfill all that you command. O Lord, hear our prayer.

  Finally, we plead for the salvation, transformation and rescue of those who have never believed in your Son and turned from their sins…..and the restoration of those who have strayed away from you...And in this regard may your hand be with us as we prepare for the Mission trip to Carnegie in June, our Outreach VBS in July and our involvement with the Good News Festival in August. O Lord, hear our prayer.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?" (Rev. Ed.) by John Fea. A Review

Image
  John Fea is a professor of history at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA. A university founded in 1909 by the Brethren in Christ Church. He originally published "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction" in 2011, and it was revised in 2016. This 328-page paperback is packed full with Colonial and American history, drawing from original sources to answer that question. It is a book written "for the historically minded and thoughtful reader who is looking for help in sorting" out this question, avoiding polemics (xix). Since we live in a sound-bite culture, Fea recognizes that it is difficult to have a sustained dialogue on this topic, but he makes a valiant effort toward having that sustained dialogue. The book reads fairly straightforward, and doesn't seem to get bogged down in the contentious mudpuddles or bogs. In the end, Fea seems to get his point across. To answer the reigning question if America was founded as a Christian...
Read more

Union with Christ - An Application

Image
  (This was my weekly letter to my congregation on Wednesday, 21 February 2024) This morning in my devotional reading, I was working through 1 Corinthians 8. Though I’ve read these words a huge number of times over the years, today one verse caused me to stop and take stock.  Paul wrote, “ Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ ” (1 Corinthians 8:12). What struck me is a couple of things. First, in God’s saving work, we are – by grace alone – united (hitched, bonded, ingrafted) to Christ so much so, that what happens to us happens to him, and what is his becomes ours (think of Galatians 2:20, for example). As Sinclair Ferguson put it, “through union with Christ all that is his by incarnation becomes ours through faith” (“The Christian Life,” 110). Let that percolate in your heart for a while. Your fear, anxiety, tears, and so forth, he feels. And his “ Peace, be still ” is yours. Second, the way we treat one an...
Read more

"Ah, Lord! We are Animated by Anger and Anxiety, Fear and Fury..."

Image
I hesitate to put this out there because of the combative environment we are in at present. But I think some souls will take courage from this, and some will also join with me as we get to the end of this little composition. I am struck by the words of God in Zechariah 8. As he rehearses the waywardness and faithlessness of his people in the past, he clearly declares that he " set every man against his neighbor " (8:10). That got me thinking long ago. I started putting the pieces together and realized that one of God's acts of judgment is division, setting a man against his neighbor. That's what happened when he divided his people into the northern tribes and southern tribes (see 1 Kings 11:26-40). Because of Solomon's turning aside, allowing his wives to turn his heart away from the God of his father, David, the Lord brings about a rift in God's people. And this pattern of divisive judgment runs throughout Scripture. On the other hand, truthful unity is the g...
Read more