"Our Help Is in the Name of the LORD" - 9 January 2022

 

Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth (Psalm 124:8). Lord, please hear us and for Christ’s sake answer us. 

O God Most High, who uses our trials to test our faith and to bring about steadfast endurance in us (James 1:2-3), we ask you to lift up those who are dispirited in body or mind, those who are grieved or terribly troubled with fear and anxiety, and those who are walking through troubled times in home and health. We especially ask your care for these (…). Grant them recovery and restored health. 

O Lord of the Harvest, have regard to the prayers of your servants in this congregation; send us forth as laborers into your harvest; make us fit and prepared by your grace for our vocation and ministry; increase in us the Spirit of power, love and sobermindedness while removing the spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7); strengthen us to endure hardships as good soldiers of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2:3); and grant that your Holy Spirit may prosper our work, so that by our life and doctrine we may show forth your glory and be an active part in bringing about the salvation of many. 

O Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we ask that your hand would be on our soon-to-be-launched Care Groups for good: that our Care Groups will be enriching and invigorating; hearts will be mended; hopes will be fortified; lives will be positively impacted; unbelievers and those who no longer associate with your church will come, belong, and believe. 

Look upon your Church throughout the world, to include Family Life Assembly of God, Family of Faith Church, and First Assembly of God in OKC and Norman. Give your people your comforting, courage-inspiring aid. Strengthen us in our longing to serve you more faithfully, leading us away from the doctrines of demons to that which is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, and cause us to succeed in genuine godliness. 

O Lord God, the Almighty, the Most High, we plead with you to turn your face to look upon the U.S.A. Do not forsake us nor give us over to what we may deserve, but instead turn us toward you, and spur us on to chastity, sobriety, virtuous living, generosity, and equanimity. Protect us from all enemies, foreign and domestic, and guide our governmental leaders to remember and return to their vocation “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

We implore your kindest care and compassion on the nations of our world, especially where there is so much that upsets and alarms. We especially pray for your guidance, peacefulness, your law and order for Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Ethiopia, North and South Korea, (…). And we pray as we have been taught, saying, Our Father…

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