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Showing posts from May 4, 2014

Very Short Review: "Revive Us Again" by Walter C. Kaiser Jr.

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Revive Us Again: Biblical Insights for Encouraging Spiritual Renewal by Walter C. Kaiser Jr. My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the 2nd time I have read this book. The first time was November 2002. It is a devotional-meditative resource on "Revival and Reformation" that is not about techniques on rousing enthusiasm in a church. Instead, it is a clear call to deep repentance, vivacious prayer, restoring the place of Biblical preaching, and longingly seeking the face of God - the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Whether one is a Calvinist or an Arminian; Pentecostal or Presbyterian; a Prayerbook man or a "Spirit-Filled" person: This is an essential, thought-provoking, prayer-rousing book. I unreservedly recommend it - especially to Pastors, Elders and Church leaders. View all my reviews

A Prayer of Contentedness

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The following is a prayer for contentedness in the circumstance or place where God has placed you: " But godliness with contentment is great gain " (1 Timothy 6.6). 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, with what I am doing - here . Help me to love you - here ; to find my utmost joy in you -  here ; to become unstoppably secure in you -  here ! Help me to be content, but not idle; to be content, but not lazy; to be content, but not resentful - here . Help me to have a deep certainty that you have given me the victory in Christ Jesus our Lord; and so to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in your work, knowing - believing - confident - certain - assured that in Christ Jesus my labor  here  is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15.57-58). O Lord God; hallowed be your name! Your Kingdom come! Your will be

A Prayer of God's Providence

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A Prayer based on the Heidelberg Catechism 27 and 28: Mighty God, whose almighty and everywhere present power - as it were by your own hand - upholds heaven, earth, and all creatures, and so governs them that herb and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty - indeed all things - come not by chance or mechanical procedure, but by your fatherly hand: Grant me to be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and with a view to the future I may have good confidence in you - O faithful God and Father - that no creature or condition will ever separate me from your love, since all creatures are so in your hand that without your will they cannot so much as move. All of this I ask through our great high priest, the Lord Jesus. Amen. Mike

Revival and Reformation Pt 5

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{The Audio Sermon File is here . It may help to listen while your follow the manuscript} ----- Revival and Reformation Pt. 5 1 Chronicles 11.10-12.40 Loyal to King and Kingdom O Christ our King and God, we want to be able to say with Paul (in Philippians 120b-21): “that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” So help us, Lord Jesus, that your word summarized and read this evening and now about to be preached, will unrelentingly flood us with just such courage. Amen. There is a rousing, stirring, blood-pumping scene in Shakespeare’s “Henry V,” where King Henry is spurring his rag-tag army to a victory far grander than was mechanically or numerically possible: “This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remember'd; We few, we happy few, we band of brot

Pastoral Prayer: 4 May 2014 PM

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Adoration and Intercession: Lord God, our refuge, our hiding place in the storm, our mighty Savior triumphant over your and our foes; we give thanks to you, and declare that your steadfast love endures forever! Mighty Ruler and only real Potentate; king of kings and Lord of lords (1Timothy 6.15); who elevates nations and empires, to employ them for your purposes, and topples them when they have soured and sunk into sin: we pray for our country that you would preserve us – but not in our sin. Preserve us as a nation of justice and righteousness – even if it’s only a civil righteousness! Grant us to see our self-destructive ways with honesty and clarity, and to turn from them – just as you did Nineveh at the preaching of Jonah. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just” (Genesis 18.25)? O Lord, hear our prayer. We pray on behalf of your Church world-over; this congregation; Westmoore Community Church; Wheatland Methodist Church; Wildewood Christian Church, Word of God