"We Thank You for Your Constant Care..." - 4 January 2026

 

We thank you for your constant care for us personally, in our families, and as a congregation, loving Father. We thank you for how you have been pleased to bring many people into this congregation’s life, and enriched our catechism and Sunday School classes, and more. And we thank you for bringing us to a new year. Look upon your Church throughout the world, and Oklahoma, this congregation, First Christian Church, Shepherd Street, The Well, and Britton Christian Church. Bestow your preserving care on your people. Guide us in the paths of righteousness for your name’s sake. Build up our resolve in tenacious faithfulness to you and the Gospel of Christ no matter the cost.

We are concerned for our nation, Lord God. We are concerned that the citizens of our country are losing their way and becoming trapped in the snares of pleasure, ease, covetousness, envy, personal peace and affluence. We are concerned that the people in this land have gotten too easily caught up in the moral relativism that is social media, where a person can find a talking-head who supports “My truth,” and we’re quickly becoming a society being given over to half-truths, alt-truth, and no-truth. O God our God, please have mercy on us and help us that there would be a return to virtuous living, where we validate and authenticate allegations and assertions, and we promote true truth, justice and equity. O God our God, bring revival and reformation to the Christians of this land for your glory, your church’s good, and our nation’s wellbeing.

In every country throughout our world, please set up good governments that will seek to be fair, where the leaders will care more for the welfare of their people than lining their own pockets or securing their own power. We pray this especially for the country of Venezuela, where the power-vacuum can create worse evil than what was there. Lord, have mercy on Venezuela.

O God Most High, giver of all good gifts, who provides our daily sustenance and wellbeing, we ask you to lift up those who are broken in body or mind, who are grieved or terribly troubled with fear and anxiety. Grant them recovery and restored health. 

Finally, we call to mind family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, enemies, and acquaintances who have not confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and who continue to walk in darkness; as well as those who have turned away from the Christian Faith (…). Save them, O Lord, in your great mercy! And we pray for 2026, that here at Heritage, we would have at least 12 people coming to faith in Jesus Christ, professing their faith in Jesus and getting baptized. All of these requests we have mentioned, and those that have remained silent on our hearts, we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son and our Saving Lord. And now we join voices and hearts together to pray as Jesus taught us, saying, Our Father…

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pastors and Prayer (Contentment, Counseling Situations, and Leadership)

Image
  Years ago, in a situation long ago, in a different space and time continuum, I wrote these prayers. They were for me, as a pastor, in the midst of disappointment and feeling of deep defeat. I have drawn them back up out of the bowels of long unused files to dust them off and re-use them. I'm using them again not in the midst of disappointment and deep defeat, but because I think they are decent prayers, no matter my situation. I share them with you, fellow pastors, so you can use them, and hopefully find your heart lifted and the face of God smiling on you. He loves you, more than anyone else ever could, and he loves your congregation more than you ever can. FOR CONTENTMENT:   O Lord God - help! ·          Help me to flourish and fill out in faith, hope and love, as well as all other Christian virtues  - here . ·          Help me to find satisfaction with where I am, with whom I am with, wit...
Read more

"Counterfeit Kingdom" by Pivec and Geivett. A Review.

Image
  Some fifteen years ago he sat in my church study. He was the minister of a large charismatic church in town and had come to invite me to join a new reforming “movement,” the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). I had never heard of this movement, but he claimed it had apostles and prophets whom God had raised up to reignite the church and restore America to her Christian roots. Since those days I have heard more and more about the NAR, and began to notice how some prominent church leaders, pastors, and a few politicians, who are   aligned with the NAR and are coming into influence in our civil government. I knew I needed to learn more and was glad to find a very readable 272-page softback that addressed this program. “Counterfeit Kingdom: The Dangers of New Revelation, New Prophets, and New Age Practices in the Church” was put together by Holly Pivec, blogger and author of several books on the New Apostolic Reformation, who also served as university editor at Biola University fo...
Read more

"For Your Church and World..." - 7 September 2025

Image
  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. Also, 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, reflecting the 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 21:1-5)! 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; but als...
Read more