"Who Is Like You, O LORD...?" 8 December 2024

 

Moses sang (Exodus 15:11), “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” and so we draw near to you through Jesus Christ with a true heart in the full assurance of faith.

O faithful Lord, we pray for your Church in all nations, for this congregation and for Trinity Lutheran, Church of the Servant, Unity Baptist, and Victory Church. Lead and guide your people in sound doctrine, establish the preeminence of the Gospel of Jesus, strengthen and fortify your little lambs in utmost loyalty, and supply all our needs richly in Christ Jesus, so that we may learn to devote ourselves to good works to help in cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful (Titus 3:14).

God of steadfast love, please call, convert and conserve those who have never submitted to your Son, and please collect those who have “wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Timothy 6:10).

We implore you, merciful Father, to look compassionately on the sick and sorrowful, beleaguered and besieged, heartbroken and harried (…). We ask you to restore and bless them body and soul in Jesus Christ and grant them to have joy in you.

O LORD, you who are a man of war (Exodus 15:3), we beseech you on behalf of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. Grant them your strengthening presence to guide them, protect them and keep them strong in their duty; and for any who have been in combat and are riddled with horrible memories, fierce dreams, shame-filled regrets and intense anger, bring them the sustaining, health-restoring aid they need and grant them your unshakeable peace.

God, mighty over the nations, we ask for the countries of the world that you would please turn the violence, saber-rattling, and tyranny on its head. Direct the leaders, along with the citizens of each country, toward greater and greater justice, peace and civility that all the peoples of the nations may flourish in health and hope, your Church would be safe from harm, and your Gospel make unhindered progress.

God of our fathers, look upon and guide these United States of America, our leaders, including the judges for our Oklahoma courts, our citizens, and all residents; preserve us from all enemies and from all falsehood; move us to a more considerable moral integrity; restrain us from accepting and indulging ungodly, destructive lifestyles, habits and addictions; and arouse us to become exporters of goodness and virtue rather than vice and villainy.

And now, joining our hearts and voices together we pray as Jesus taught us, saying, Our Father…

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

"Is This the End?" by David Jeremiah. A Review

Image
  I know lots of people like this book, and like this stream of published material. I'm not a Dispensationalist (by conviction) and I am resistant to alarmism - that doom-and-gloomism that says "This is the worst time in all of world history!" or some such. And that is this book from cover-to-cover. I picked the book up to read because a family member had given it to me for a Christmas present and thought I should read it. And I was disappointed. But, in all of my disappointment, I was pleasantly surprised. I was pleasantly surprised because Dr. Jeremiah actually pushes back against a certain mindset that normally walks along with Dispensational alarmism. Jeremiah asks "Will America revive again? Will we reverse our descent and regain respect, strength, and stability? ... those are not the questions we should really be asking. If the survival of America and the stability of the world are the sources of your hope, then your hope is sadly misplaced. The question you mu...
Read more