Tag: Christianity

Week of Prayer – Friday

On By BrianIn Prayer Guides

Pray for Our Churches

Growing passion for evangelism and missions
Personal and church-wide evangelism opportunities

Pray for Our Community

Many people to be saved

Pray for Our Country

Many people to be saved

Pray for Our World

Missionaries and the world-wide Church
Many people to be saved
The persecuted Church around the world including Iran, Maldives, Uzbekistan, Yeman, Iraq, and Pakistan

Week of Prayer – Thursday

On By BrianIn Prayer Guides

Pray for Our Churches

Church Family Needs
Growing Unity and Love

Pray for Our Community

Local businesses/economy
Local needs – jobs, sick, hurting

Pray for Our Country

State/national economy

Pray for Our World

Christian ministries to the poor/hungry
Somalia: End to political instability, Safety for believers meeting
in secret, Freedom to worship

Week of Prayer – Wednesday

On By BrianIn Prayer Guides

Pray for Our Churches

Wisdom/direction for our pastors/leaders
Pastors: strength, encouragement, growth, family

Pray for Our Community

Wisdom/direction for newly elected leaders

Pray for Our Country

Wisdom/direction for newly elected leaders
President, VP, Cabinet, Congress, Supreme Court
Michigan’s Governor, Congress, and Judicial System

Pray for Our World

Biblical training and resources for world pastors/leaders
Saudi Arabia: Safety for Christians converting from Islam

Week of Prayer – Tuesday

On By BrianIn Prayer Guides

Pray for Our Churches

Powerful preaching/teaching of the Word
Growing maturity in Christ

 Pray for Our Community

Local elections today
Eyes opened to the truth

 Pray for Our Country

State and national elections today
Eyes opened to the truth

 Pray for Our World

Solid teaching and growth for Christians
North Korea: Freedom for thousands of Christians in prison, Safety for Christians sharing the gospel

Vote and Pray

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

God has given us an incredible opportunity that few people in the history of our world have ever had.  We have the opportunity to vote for our leaders.  Tomorrow we each get one ballot to choose who we want to be our leaders for the next few years. We must be good stewards of this opportunity God has given us.

To be good stewards, we must vote.  To stay home tomorrow is to follow the example of the wicked servant who refused to use the one talent given to him.  He buried it in the ground instead, and was strongly condemned (Matthew 25:14-30).

To be good stewards, we must vote for a candidate who has a chance of winning.  In the presidential race, that means we must vote for Romney or Obama.  To vote for anyone else is to waste your vote, to bury it in the ground.  It would be like going to a casino and playing a game with absolute 0% chance of winning.  Your chances at a casino are never good, but playing with 0% chance of winning is utter foolishness.  So is voting for someone who has no chance of winning.  You may not like either candidate, but one of them is going to win, so vote for the better of the two.

To be good stewards, we must vote wisely by weighing the issues.  We must weigh the economic issues.  We must weigh the foreign policy issues.  We must weigh the moral issues:

  • What is the candidate’s stand on same-sex marriage? (See a discussion here)
  • What is the candidate’s stand on abortion which has killed 50+ million babies in almost 40 years?
  • What is the candidate’s stand on the current administration’s policy requiring even religious non-profits to pay for insurance that will pay for their employees to buy abortion-inducing contraceptives.  Will the candidate stand for religious freedom and against this religious persecution?

To be good stewards, we must weigh the issues, and then vote accordingly.  We must vote wisely.

For further thoughts on why you need to vote tomorrow, see Joel Beeke’s helpful post.

But we must do more than vote.  We must also pray.  This too is an incredible opportunity that God has given to us.  We must be good stewards of this opportunity and cry out to God on behalf of our nation.  I could elaborate on this point, but instead I suggest you go to Albert Mohler’s post and use it as a guide for your prayers.

Vote and pray.  May we be good stewards of both opportunities tomorrow.

Week of Prayer – Monday

On By BrianIn Prayer Guides

Our church and our three sister churches are having a special week of prayer this week.  I would like to invite you to join us in prayer.  Here is Monday’s Prayer Guide:

Pray for Our Churches

Growing commitment to prayer

Pray for Our Community

Local elections tomorrow
Local schools – students, teachers, staff, leaders

Pray for Our Country

State and national elections tomorrow
Our Armed Forces, Protection for our country

Pray for Our World

Middle East conflicts
Afghanistan: Courage/perseverance for Christians without Christian fellowship, More opportunities to share gospel

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

In Evil Long I Took Delight – John Newton (via Trevin Wax)
In evil long I took delight, Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight, And stopped my wild career.
I saw One hanging on a tree, In agonies and blood,
Who fixed His languid eyes on me, As near His cross I stood…

Why Are You Afraid of Humility? – Chrysostom (via Trevin Wax)
Before he humbled himself, only the angels knew him.
After he humbled himself, all human nature knew him.

Free Me From My Need To Exalt Myself – Prayers For Today (via Trevin Wax)
Lord, free me from my need to exalt myself.
Where I am prone to seek things for myself,
help me to seek the best things for You and others…

John Calvin’s 4 Rules of Prayer – Joel Beeke (via Ligonier)
For John Calvin, prayer cannot be accomplished without discipline. He writes, “Unless we fix certain hours in the day for prayer, it easily slips from our memory.” He goes on to prescribe several rules to guide believers in offering effectual, fervent prayer…

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day humbly worshiping our great Savior!

Why We Rest

On By BrianIn PASSION Reflections1 Comment

A couple of days ago I looked at why we work.  But we need to balance our work with rest.  So today I want to consider why we rest:

  • To follow the creation pattern.  Genesis 1-2 tells us that God worked for six days and rested on the seventh.  He also created day (when we work) and night (when we rest).  Built into the very fabric of creation is this pattern of work and rest.
  • To recharge.  God wasn’t tired when he rested on the seventh day.  But we get tired.  Work is toilsome, and we need time to recharge.  Every day, we spend about eight hours sleeping because we need to recharge.  Physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually we get tired.  So we need to rest to recharge.
  • To rejoice in our work.  After creation, God looked at all he had made and he deemed it very good (Genesis 1:31).  He found pleasure in it.  We should follow his example and stop working long enough to find joy in what we have accomplished.
  • To refocus our trust.  If we are trusting in ourselves or our work, we will find it difficult to rest.  There is always more to be done.  But if we trust in God, we can stop and rest, remembering that he will take care of us.  Psalm 127:2 tells us: “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.”  We need not be anxious about our work.  If we trust God, we can lay down at night and sleep.  We can rest.
  • To grow in relationships.  If we love God and people, we will rest from our work so we can focus on God and people.  We will rest so we can spend time with God in His Word, and prayer, and praise.  We will rest so we can spend time with family and friends talking, and laughing, and sharing, and playing together.  We need to rest to have time to build loving relationships.

There are lots of tired frazzled people in our world.  But Christians should be different.  God calls us to take time to rest.