"We Come to Intercede" - 6 September 2020

 


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 21:5)!

We ask for your ongoing help, strength, protection, deliverance and sustenance of your Church throughout the world, especially in places where she is being pummeled and persecuted; also for your Church around Oklahoma City, to include Faith Center Fellowship, Father’s House, First Christian Church, and Freedom 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. 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 hit by Hurricane Laura who are suffering financial, emotional and physical hardships; to those grieving death or destitution; and to those displaced and dislocated. And 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, of Neo-Nazis, Anarchists and rabble-rousing revolutionaries of whatever ethnicity in our land. Move on their hearts and minds, making them your very own children and bringing them to repent of their evil outlooks, actions 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 home-front. 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, so 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

"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