"Lord God, We Come to Intercede" - 3 September 2017


Lord God, we come to intercede for your Church and world. We ask you to strengthen this congregation that in doing all things without complaining and disputing, we may become (increasingly) blameless, pure in quality, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation (Philippians 2.14-15). Be pleased to make us even more harmonious and to become more clearly a sign of grace to our fractured and fragmented world. Be pleased to add to this church such as are being saved; and add to us in such a way as will mirror the new heavens and new earth, as will reflect that new Jerusalem in which will dwell people from every tribe, tongue, nationality, and economic strata, gathered around your throne exalting you and hearing you say, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Revelation 20.1-5)!

We ask for your ongoing help, strength, protection, deliverance and sustenance of your Church throughout the world, especially in places where she is being abused and persecuted; also for your Church around Oklahoma City, to include Friendship Chapel; Gateway Tabernacle; Grand Boulevard Assembly of God; and High Pointe Church.

Mighty Lord, we ask you to govern and superintend all the nations of this earth (including our own country), and the leaders of nations such as President Beji Caid Essebsi of Tunisia; President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey; and President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow (koor-bahn-goo-LEE   bair-day-moo-kah-MEH-dawf) of Turkmenistan. We pray that wickedness, evil, injustice, slavery, sex trafficking, and abortion may be replaced with good governments, unprejudiced judicial systems, honorable law enforcement, safety and liberty for all.

O God of storms and stillness, bring needful help to all of those along the Gulf Coast of Texas who are suffering financial, emotional and physical hardships; to those grieving death or destitution; and to those displaced and dislocated. And also bolster, brace and buttress all of those lending aid in whatever capacity.

Lord, we make bold to ask you to neutralize the effects and harm of white supremacists, Neo-Nazis and rabble-rousing revolutionaries in our land by moving on their hearts and minds, making them your very own children and bringing them to repent of their evil outlooks and intentions.

Mighty Maker and Creator, who is still at work along with your Son (John 5.17); we are thankful you have made us in your image and have blessed us with vocations and professions in the marketplace and the Homefront. We pray for safer and sounder work places; corporate leaders and managers who find healthy ways to balance productivity with the welfare of their employees; workers who give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay; for those who are unemployed that you would open opportunities for them to find meaningful work; and for the disabled or retired to find that their value and worth is not tied to their production but to their creation in your image.

We also ask you to sustain and hold up those who are drawn into depression, those who are hurting or heartbroken, and those who are haltered by mental or physical illness…

Finally, Lord, we ask that you would draw unbelievers everywhere to your Son Jesus Christ…that with new eyes, enlivened hearts and ears, they would confidently embrace Jesus Christ, and become joined to your Church. Hear our prayers, Lord, for Christ’s sake. Amen

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“The Shift” - 2023 Movie. A Review

Image
  What do you get when you cross a dark dystopian storyline with sci-fi, alternative dimensions, theological and philosophical questions, and the biblical book of Job? You get The Shift , written and directed by Brock Heasley, produced by Ken Carpenter, and distributed by Angel Studios. This roughly one hour and 45 minute tale swirls around Kevin (Kristoffer Polaha) as he moves from one realm of life, with it’s happiness and heartbreak, to another dimension that is a dismal existence clearly governed by The Benefactor (masterfully played by Neal McDonough). A viewer will be asking questions all the way through, and picking up clues and answers that pull the story together bit-by-bit. The story bumps up against an infinite set of alternative possibilities, of time, space, and versions of one’s self that will likely stoke a viewer’s imagination. But the heart of the narrative - besides love, grief, loss, trust/distrust - is around the place of evil, specifically, personal or human evil.
Read more

"On Getting Out of Bed" by Alan Noble. A Review

Image
  When it comes to family members or friends going through a significant mental crisis, or suffering, we often can feel like we’re fumbling about to help them. Sometimes, we can become like Job’s friends, whom he had to call “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2). But very recently Alan Noble, assistant professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee Oklahoma, and cofounder and editor-in-chief of “Christ and Pop Culture” penned a deeply beautiful 120-page hardback that addresses mental affliction. “On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living” is written for those who struggle with mental affliction, but also pastors, teachers, parents, and loved ones, to “help them understand their loved one’s suffering. It is for anyone who ever struggles to get out of bed” (3). I finished this book earlier this week, and kept finding myself saying, “Finally! Someone gets it!” Eight chapters fill up this handy manual. They run through several subjects, like not sounding like Job’s f
Read more

Community?

Image
  (This is from my letter to my congregation I sent out today, 30 August 2023) As one of my elders was leading us through Carl Trueman’s Strange New World in our adult class , I appreciated Trueman’s emphasis on community. And our discussions, especially the last two Sundays, were very fruitful as we thought out loud together about this subject. Therefore, I thought I would share something from David Brooks, an Op-ed columnist that leans into this discussion.   Brooks published a book in 2019 titled, “The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life”. In that work he was taking a gentle punch at destructive trends he has been seeing, and giving some helpful correctives. And so, he notes that “Individualism, taken too far, leads to tribalism” (34). He then shows how the loneliness and spiritual emptiness of individualism taken too far have become more prevalent in our time and the ways that they lead to very dark social consequences. These darker social consequences foster the need t
Read more