"Preserve Me, O God" - 27 March 2016 AM and PM


Sunday morning:
From Psalm 16

Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” This, Lord, your whole Church – along with this congregation; St. Elijah Orthodox Church; Alethia Temple; Calvary Christian Center; Cathedral of Praise; Christian Faith Fellowship; and Christ’s Legacy Church – declares with gladness and boldness. Continue to be your peoples’ refuge and preserver; strengthen your Church in godliness and graciousness; keep her ever in the faith once for all delivered to the saints; stop the mouths of heretics who attempt to demoralize her; fortify the faithful leaders who work hard to build her up in sound doctrine; and empower her with the new life of Christ risen from the dead!

As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. We cry out to you on behalf of those who go after other gods … and presume on the riches of your kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that your kindness is meant to lead them to repentance; whose hard and impenitent hearts are storing up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath when your righteous judgment will be revealed (Romans 2.4-5). Lord, have mercy on them; Christ have mercy on them; Lord, have on them.

The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. We rejoice with those who rejoice, and we weep with those who weep! Father, there are many here who have reasons to praise you and give you thanks…..and there may be some who are hiding tears and grief in their hearts…..Hear us, Good Lord.

I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. Attend to our country and the nations of this world. Give good and right counsel to the leaders that they may know you, and lean hard into pursuing “righteousness and justice and equity, every good path” (Proverbs 2.9). Grant that all nations may be glad and sing for joy, knowing that you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations on earth (Psalm 67.4).

For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16). Thank you that you did not abandon your Son to Sheol, and you did not allow him to see corruption, but raised him from the dead on the third day! We pray for your people who still feel their mortality, and are experiencing their decay….grant them to lift up their heads knowing that their redemption is drawing near; for so “is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power” (1 Corinthians 15.42-43). Glory to you, O God; for Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

-----------

Sunday evening:

O LORD, you are the high and lofty One, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy. You dwell in the high and holy place with those who have a contrite and humble spirit, for you revive the spirit of the humble, and revive the heart of the contrite ones (Isaiah 57.15). In the name of Jesus Christ your Son we come humbly.

O Abba, Father, we lay before you our concerns for this world - specifically the struggles and troubles of many nations – like Belgium. Please govern and bring restoration in the catastrophes brought on through nature and the tragedies brought on by means of human malice. Give comfort and aid to the distressed, relief to the weak, food, water and shelter to the waterless and weary, and justice to the victimized; and set the nations and their leaders on a course for peace and lawfulness for all their inhabitants. O Lord, hear our prayer.

Dearest Father, we entreat your caring direction for our own country. We desire our leaders (…. As well as all others in office) to be people of upright and godly forthrightness in their actions, legislations, judicial decisions and executive enforcements; defending the legitimate safety and welfare of all in our borders: the born, unborn and foreign born. We also long for all citizens and inhabitants of this nation to become morally and ethically fit and sound; may your kingdom come, and your will be done in the United States of America as it is in heaven. O Lord, hear our prayer.

Preserving Father, have a care for our soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen; grant them to dutifully uphold the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic and give them wise and discreet leaders. O Lord, hear our prayer.

Tender Father, kindly lift up the faces and hearts of those who are hurting, struggling with various ailments, devastations, and misfortunes. We especially ask your providential care for these…. O Lord, hear our prayer.

Loving Father, enrich, aid, steer rightly, and supply what is needed for your Church throughout the world, and specifically in these countries: the Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, and Bolivia.  As your blessed Son before his passion prayed for his disciples that we might be one, as you and he are one; Grant that your Church, being bound together in love, obedience and faith, may be united in one body by the one Spirit, so that the world may believe in him whom you have sent, Jesus Christ our Lord. O Lord, hear our prayer.

Sovereign, Gracious Father, finally we cry out to you to have mercy, to save, convert and reclaim these whom we mention to you now who have not repented of their sins and believed in Christ, as well as those who once claimed to be Christians but have since (either thru neglect or callousness) left the faith…. 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