"And take the helmet of salvation" - Ephesians 6:17
The head and so the brain, and so the mind, is of vital
importance if we are going into battle against Satan and his
fiery darts of destruction. If the enemy can control your mind,
or put it another way, if you are not mentally on the mark,
mentally sound, mentally sharp as we say, then you are
immediately at a great disadvantage in opposing someone as wily
and cunning and deceptive as the Devil. Why it is written that he
and his helpers can come looking like an angel of light (2
Corinthians 11:13-15).
Jesus told us that before He came again to earth, deception
would be so great that IF it was possible even the very elect
would be deceived (Mat.24:24).
John in his day, said that many anti-christs were present
(1 John 2:18). Jude in the first century, had to exhort the
saints to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints
(Jude 3-4). The grace of God was already in his day being turned
into a licence to sin.
The apostle Paul had to tell his readers that the mystery of
iniquity was already at work (2 Thes.2:7).
If deception and iniquity coming in the name of "Christ" was
already at work and even abounding, coming as looking like angels
of light, in the days of the first apostles, then pray tell what
so-called "Christianity" must be like today, two thousand year
later.
Most of us grow up in a ready-made world. We are taught
things from being an infant that the popular Christianity says is
truth or Biblical. Most of us do not question the customs and
teachings of the "churches" we may grow up in. I went to a Church
of England school from grade one to grade twelve. Fortunately
with our school Bible reading, we were not taught "doctrine" as
such. We did read the Bible and we did have to recite some Psalms
and the Ten Commandments as found in Exodus 20, the full version.
I never heard it from one mouth of any Church of England priests
or any Sunday school teacher, from age 5 to 18 (when I left
England and came to Canada) that Sunday was the first day of the
week. I knew what the 4th commandment said in full form. I
presumed that Christianity was observing the 4th commandment as
written. Until I came to Canada and found out differently, I
believed Christianity was observing the 7th day of the week!
WHAT A SHOCK when I found out at age 18 that Christianity
was observing the 1st day of the week. I had taken things for
granted all those years. It was another SHOCK to go to the Public
Library and read a book by a Roman Catholic Bishop called
"Christian Feasts and Customs" in which he openly stated that
customs like observing Christmas and Easter and many other feasts
and days, were not observed by the first century Church of God.
This RC Bishop explained in clear language where all these so-
called "Christian" feasts came from, and it was NOT the Bible!
Well my mind at age 18 was being blown apart as we may say,
but really it was God who was opening up my mind as never before,
because I had grown up in a ready made world, and had accepted
things as they were present in my culture and society.
If the enemy can get to our mind, have influence over it in
whatever way, have control over it, then the battle, is really
lost before we begin, because then we will not have the correct
strong shield of faith, we will not have the correct strong
breastplate of true righteousness, and we shall not be wrapped in
the clothes of truth.
The mind is where the battle is won or lost. With the wrong
mind-set we will not even know we are in a battle with Satan. We
will think we are just fine, we will not even know we are in
DECEPTION and following a lie! And so it is as the New Testament
makes clear (see Romans chapter 9 to 11) - all are in deception,
blinded to the truths of God, until the blindness is removed,
until God calls us as part of the "election of grace" - and the
rest are blinded to spiritual truth.
I cannot over state that the MIND, has to be protected by
the helmet of salvation. If Satan can win your mind, he wins the
battle, and you have lost!
HERE IN THE WORDS OF OTHERS IS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MIND!!
At the Wright Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio,
researchers hope they will develop the means for pilots to fly
airplanes with their minds. The project is called brain-actuated
control.
Writers Ron Kotulak and Jon Van say this is how it could work.
The pilot would wear scalp monitors that pick up electrical
signals from various points on his head. The scalp monitors would
be wired to a computer. Using biofeedback techniques, the pilot
would learn to manipulate the electrical activity created by his
or her thought processes. The computer would translate the
electrical signals into mechanical commands for the airplane.
Imagine being able to bank an airplane's wings, accelerate, and
climb another ten thousand feet, all by controlling what you
think.
Although controlling airplanes with the mind is yet to be
developed, our mind already has tremendous control of one thing:
our behavior. Our thoughts sooner or later lead to our actions.
......
According to an October 29, 1994, story from the Reuters news
agency, a Chinese woman named Zhang Meihua began to suffer
mysterious symptoms when she turned twenty She was losing the
ability to nimbly move her legs and arms. Doctors could not find
the cause, and the symptoms continued.
Two decades passed, and Zhang began to also suffer from chronic
headaches. Again she sought help from the doctors. This time a
CAT scan and an X ray found the source of the woman's mysterious
symptoms. A rusty pin was lodged in her head. The head of the pin
was outside the skull, and the shaft penetrated into her brain.
Doctors performed surgery and successfully extracted the pin.
The Xinhua news agency reported the doctors expressed amazement
that the woman "could live for so long a time with a rusty pin
stuck in her brain." After noting the position of the pin in her
skull, they speculated that the pin had entered her skull
sometime soon after birth and before her skull had hardened.
Zhang, now fully recovered, said she "had no memory of being
pierced by a pin in the head."
Like the rusty pin in that woman's brain, unwholesome thoughts,
bad attitudes, and painful memories can lodge in our minds and
cause chronic problems. God tells us to renew our minds.
......
From "750 Engaging Illustrations" by Craig Larson
......
Someone Once Said ...
* The most important things in life are the thoughts you choose
to think.
Marcus Aurelius
* I think, therefore I am.
Decartes
* It doubtless is true that people become what they think about.
Gary R. Collins
* All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to
be.
C. S. Lewis
* If I knew what you think, I would know what you are. Our
thoughts make us what we are.
Dale Carnegie
* A man is what he thinks about all day long.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
* Our life is what our thoughts make it.
Marcus Aurelius
* For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
Proverbs 23:7
......
THE BATTLE GROUND
* Every temptation comes to us via our thoughts.
Erwin Lutzer
* The mind of man is the battleground on which every moral and
spiritual battle is fought.
J. Oswald Sanders
* Our defeat or victory begins with what we think, and if we
guard our thoughts we shall not have much trouble anywhere else
along the line.
Vance Havner
* Self-control is primarily mind-control.
John Stott
* Every kidnapping was once a thought. Every extramarital affair
was first a fantasy.
Leslie Flynn
MORE QUOTES:
* It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use
it well.
Descartes
* For 2,400 years, ever since Hippocrates located the seat of the
intellect inside the skull, the mind has been forced to admit
that its greatest achievements, its loftiest thoughts, its
deepest emotions all arise from something with the consistency of
Jell-O and the color of day-old slush.
Newsweek
* A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that
people are still thinking.
Jerry Seinfeld
......
DEPRESSION AND THE MIND
In his book Learned Optimism, Professor Martin Seligman makes a
case for considering depression as arising, not from misplaced
chemicals or lingering childhood trauma, but from negative
thinking. Summarizing the research of Joseph Wolpe and Tim Beck,
Seligman explained how cognitive therapy began to be considered a
treatment for mental illness.
"Depression is nothing more than its symptoms," writes Seligman.
"It is caused by conscious negative thoughts. There is no deep
underlying disorder to be rooted out: not unresolved childhood
conflicts, not our unconscious anger, and not even our brain
chemistry. Emotion comes directly from what we think: Think `I am
in danger' and you feel anxiety. Think `I am being trespassed
against' and you feel anger. Think `loss' and you feel
sadness....
"Depression results from lifelong habits of conscious thought. If
we change these habits of thought, we will cure depression."
(Some would no doubt not fully agree with Seligman. He probably
has some truth in what he states, but I think depression can and
is often caused by misplaced chemicals - Keith Hunt)
......
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR'S SEAT
In the "Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.", Dr.King tells
of growing up in Atlanta, Georgia:
I remember another experience I used to have in Atlanta. I went
to high school on the other side of town - to the Booker T
Washington High School. I had to get the bus in what was known as
the Fourth Ward and ride over to the West Side. In those days,
rigid patterns of segregation existed on the buses, so that
Negroes had to sit in the backs of buses. Whites were seated in
the front, and often if whites didn't get on the buses, those
seats were still reserved for whites only, so Negroes had to
stand over empty seats. I would end up having to go to the back
of that bus with my body, but every time I got on that bus I left
my mind up on the front seat. And I said to myself, "One of these
days, I'm going to put my body up there where my mind is." And he
did.
Our bodies always end up where our minds are.
......
SPURGEON'S CONFESSION
Charles Spurgeon once made a remarkably honest confession to his
congregation. In a sermon entitled "The Power of the Holy Ghost,"
he said: I hope that my will is managed by Divine Grace. But I am
afraid my imagination is not at times. Those who have a fair
share of imagination know what a difficult thing it is to
control. You cannot restrain it.... My imagination has taken me
down to the vilest kennels and sewers of earth. It has given me
thoughts so dreadful that, while I could not avoid them, yet I
was thoroughly horrified by them. These thoughts will come; and
when I feel in the holiest frame, the most devoted to God, and
the most earnest in prayer, it often happens that that is the
very time when the plague breaks out the worst.
......
GARBAGE
Leslie Flynn tells of a mother who was peeling vegetables for a
salad when her daughter, home from college, casually mentioned
she was going to a questionable movie that evening. The mother
suddenly picked up a handful of garbage and threw it in the
salad. "Mother!" said the shocked girl. "You're putting garbage
in the salad." "I know," replied the mother, "but I thought that
if you didn't mind garbage in your mind, you certainly wouldn't
mind a little in your stomach."
......
The Power of Suggestion
Franz Anton Mesmer was the talk of Paris in the 1780s. In spite
of his training as a physician, he held the unorthodox view that
a mysterious magnetic power permeates the universe and resides in
human bodies. Treatment of disease, he proposed, could best be
done by using magnetic forces from the environment to restore the
patient's "magnetic equilibrium." Such view put Mesmer into
conflict with the medical profession in his native Vienna, but
laypeople were intrigued with the theory.
When the doctor moved to France, his reputation preceded him and
soon patients were flocking to experience magnetic treatments.
It wasn't easy to treat so many people on a one-to-one basis, so
Mesmer developed a group technique. As many as thirty people
would come at a time and sit around a large wooden tub known as a
"baquet." The baquet was filled with water, ground glass, iron
filings, and long metal rods that extended from the tub and were
grabbed at one end by the patients. According to Mesmer, the
magnetic fluid in the baquet somehow came to the people through
the rods and led to all kinds of physical cures.
Mesmer did what he could to make the healing sessions
impressive and emotionally powerful. Soft music played in the
background. The room was dimly lit and thickly draped.
Mesmer himself demanded silence when he entered the room. Often
he wore a long flowing lilac silk robe, and walked about,
touching the afflicted body parts with a long iron wand and
making magnetic "mesmeric passes" as he waved his free hand
through the air.
A few people had no response to this dramatic treatment, but many
thought they felt forces moving through their bodies, and some
went into prolonged convulsions. These involved jerking of the
body, apparent dreaminess or stupor, and some times piercing
cries. Mesmer's followers called this experience "the crisis" and
claimed that it brought great healing.
But King Louis XVI wasn't so easily convinced and undoubtedly His
Majesty's interest in Mesmer was sparked by secret reports that
some mesmerites had radical political ideas. To investigate, the
king appointed a Royal Commission and declared that it would be
chaired by the American ambassador to France, a man named
Benjamin Franklin.
The commissioners went to work with enthusiasm, conducting
experiments and interviewing Mesmer's patients. After careful
study, it was concluded that body magnetism did not exist, that
the baquet fluid had no power, and that convulsions and
proclaimed cures came as a result of the creative imagination of
Mesmer and his highly suggestible followers. Shortly after the
report was issued, Mesmer left France and the mesmerites went
underground, but a half-century later mesmerism reemerged in a
more sophisticated form and with a new name - hypnosis.
......
AS A MAN THINKS ...
One of history's sharpest minds belonged to Thomas Edison, the
great inventor. Despite only three months of formal schooling,
Edison and his inventions changed the world forever.
His secret? "One percent inspiration and 99 percent
perspiration," as he put it; and he proved his definition by
working days at a time, obsessed with his projects, neglecting
family and friends, and stopping only for short catnaps. Failure
never seemed to discourage him. When about ten thousand
experiments with a storage battery failed to produce results, a
friend tried to console him. "Why, I have not failed," Edison
quipped. "I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
Of all his inventions, perhaps the most famous is the electric
light. He devised the prototype, then spent two years looking for
the right filament, sending associates to the jungles of the
Amazon and to the forests of Japan. He even tried strands of red
hair from a friend's beard. Finally, he utilized carbonized
thread, and it worked! The world gained electric lights.
Our light bulbs today have three parts to them. There is the
glass itself - the bulb surrounding the filament. Inside the bulb
is a mixture of gases, commonly argon and nitrogen. Finally, in
the very center of the bulb, is the filament. Most filaments
today are made of a very tough metal, and when electricity flows
through them, they become very hot - about 4,500 degrees - making
them glow and give off light.
Light bulbs bear a fascinating resemblance to you and me. There
is the outside covering, the glass bulb, the body - the part
people see. Inside, like invisible gases within the bulb, are our
personalities. And at the very center of it all is that part of
us that glows and enlightens - the human mind.
The mind is the sum and substance, the axis and pivot, of our
existence. It is the base of operations, the core of our
humanity. Our minds are the most important things about us, and
our lives are simply the overflow of our thoughts.
Dale Carnegie was once asked on a radio program, "What is the
biggest lesson you have ever learned?" He quickly replied, "By
far the most vital lesson I have ever learned is the importance
of what we think. If I knew what you think, I would know what you
are. Our thoughts make us what we are. Our mental attitude is the
X-factor that determines our fate. Emerson said: "A man is what
he thinks about all day long. How could he possibly be anything
else?"
Why? An old maxim states: "Thoughts produce acts, acts produce
habits, and habits produce character." The Roman philosopher
Marcus Aurelius said, "Our life is what our thoughts make it." Or
as the Bible puts it, "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he."
(Proverbs 23:7)
......
THE CAULIFLOWER JEWEL
Each of us owns a jewel far more valuable than any displayed in
the window of Cartier's or Tiffany's. It's a three-pound blob of
grey pulp resembling a rotting cauliflower.
Unimpressed?
This jewel is the most incredible creation in God's universe, a
fabulous, living supercomputer with unfathomable circuitry and
unimaginable complexity. It is the human mind - a collection of
billions of neurons, each as complex as a small computer. Imagine
having 100 billion computers inside your skull!
Each of these neurons consists of a central nerve-cell core
attached to a long tail and several thousand wispy dendrites.
These dendrites reach out to make contact with other dendrites,
and the number of connection points between these dendrites
is perhaps one quadrillion in every human brain. According to one
writer, the number of connections within one human brain rivals
the number of stars and galaxies in all the universe.
That's not all, for each of these connection points is itself a
marvel of complexity. The dendrites don't actually touch each
other, but they efficiently and rapidly pass messages to each
other through the form of electrical and chemical impulses in a
series of processes that takes less than one-thousandth of a
second.
"All of this is so complex," said one scientist, "that the brain
cannot even begin to comprehend its own complexity."
What a jewel!
I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT YOU
When Harry Truman became president, he worried about losing touch
with common, everyday Americans, so he would often go out and be
among them. Those were in simpler days when the President could
take a walk like everyone else. One evening, Truman decided to
take a walk down to the Memorial Bridge on the Potomac River.
When there, he became curious about the mechanism that raised and
lowered the middle span of the bridge. He made his way across the
cat walks and through the inner workings of the bridge, and
suddenly he came upon the bridge tender, eating his evening
supper out of a tin bucket.
The man showed absolutely no surprise when he looked up and saw
the bestknown and most powerful man in the world. He just
swallowed his food, wiped his mouth, smiled, and said, "You know,
Mr.President, I was just thinking of you."
It was a greeting that Truman adored and never forgot.
Wouldn't it be wonderful, if Jesus Christ were to suddenly appear
before us physically or come suddenly in the cloud, if we could
say, "You know, Lord, I was just thinking of you."
......
THE HARBOR
The Bible describes our minds by using the figure of a ship
looking for a harbor. Though you may be unable to keep
disease-ridden ships from sailing back and forth on the ocean,
you can refuse them docking privileges in the harbor of your
mind.
* Jeremiah 4:14 says, "How long will you harbor your evil
thoughts?" (NLT)
* Deuteronomy 15:9 says, "Be careful not to harbor this wicked
thought." (NIV)
* Job talks about those who harbor resentment in their hearts.
* The Psalmist talks about those who harbor malice in the minds.
* James talks about those who allow bitter envy and selfish
ambition to harbor within them.
* Jesus conveyed the same basic idea when asking, "Why do you
entertain evil thoughts in your minds?" (Matthew 9:4-NIV)
* Paul had the same thought in mind when he said, "Clothe
yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how
to gratify the desires of the sinful nature." (Romans 13:14-NIV)
......
FROM JOHN SPURGEON'S "John Ploughman"
Some will say they cannot help having bad thoughts; that may be,
but the question is, do they hate them or not? Vain thoughts will
knock at the door, but we must not open to them. Though sinful
thoughts rise, they must not reign. He who turns a morsel over
and over in his mouth, does so because he likes the flavor, and
he who meditates upon evil, loves it, and is ripe to commit it.
Snails leave their slime behind them, and so do vain thoughts.
Good thoughts are blessed guests, and should be heartily
welcomed, well fed, and much sought after. Like rose leaves, they
give out a sweet smell if laid up in the jar of memory. They
cannot be too much cultivated; they are a crop which enriches the
soil.
......
PEPSI OR SEVEN-UP?
Suppose you have a sponge and a pitcher of Pepsi Cola. If you dip
your sponge into Pepsi and squeeze it, what's going to come out?
Seven-up? No, when you squeeze a sponge soaked in Pepsi, Pepsi is
going to gush out of it.
If you saturate your mind with questionable movies, videos,
magazines, novels, music, and entertainments, do you think that
holiness and happiness and godliness will flow out?
......
GLASS HIVES
When I was a child my parents took me to the Tennessee Valley
Fair to ride the rides and see the exhibits. One of the most
interesting displays was the honeybees in glass hives. There
appeared to be thousands of bees, all of them hustling and
bustling in frantic activity beneath the pane of glass that
covered their colony. The bee keeper showed us the queen and
explained about the workers, the guards, and the drones, every
one of them oblivious to the fact that their every move was being
observed by a higher intelligence.
In the same way, our heads, are like glass hives and God sees
every hustling, bustling thought buzzing through our brains. None
are hidden from Him.
* 1 Chronicles 28:9 - The Lord searches all hearts and
understands all the intents of the thoughts.
* Psalm 7:9 - The righteous God tests the hearts and minds.
* Psalm 94:11 - The Lord knows the thoughts of man.
* Psalm 139:1 - 0 Lord, You have searched me and known me. You
know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought
afar off.
* Jeremiah 11:20 - 0 Lord of hosts, You who judge righteously,
testing the mind and the heart....
* Jeremiah 12:3 - But You, O Lord, know me; You have seen me, and
You have tested my heart toward you.
* Jeremiah 17:9 - The heart (is) deceitful above all things, and
desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the
heart, I test the mind. . . .
* Jeremiah 20:12 - 0 Lord of hosts, You who test the righteous
and see the mind and heart ...
* Ezekiel 11:5 - Thus says the Lord: ... I know the things that
come into your mind. . . .
* Revelation 2:23 - I am He who searches the minds and hearts.
* Hebrews 4:12-13 - For the word of God is living and powerful,
and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the
division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is
no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and
open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
* Matthew 12:25 - But Jesus knew their thoughts....
......
From "Stories, Illustrations, and Quotes" by Robert Morgan
......
"LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU, WHICH WAS ALSO IN CHRIST JESUS"
(Philippians 2:5)
......
And the above verse is the key to it all. It is allowing
Jesus into your mind through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Actually through the Spirit BOTH the Father and Christ come to
dwell in us (John 14:23).
So if they are in us, then we will think as they think, not
as unconverted humans think, not as our self-guided emotions
think, but as the Father and Christ think!
Let me give you just ONE example. For people living in North
America, the celebration of "Thanksgiving Day" is an automatic
custom so ingrained in most people, that to NOT celebrate that
day on the calendar of the USA or Canada (those countries keep it
at different calendar dates) would be by most, considered
practically as "unrighteousness" or sin! I have given you a study
on this Website that shows the origin of that day, which is no
different than the Christian world observing December 25th as
Christ's birthday party. It may all be dressed in nice platitudes
and fancy clothes but the bottom line is that Satan has used
these adopted customs, invented by man, to HIDE the TRUE
Festivals of God. Why would you want to observe the "thanksgiving
festival" of the Feast of Tabernacles, when you have
"Thanksgiving Day"? Such man made, out of the minds of men, who
were not looking in the Bible to see when a Thanksgiving Festival
should be held to praise and honor God, is just not looking at it
the way God's mind looks at it. The Father has already
established a thanksgiving festival, thousands of years ago, that
His people should be observing.
When you look at the festival customs of a Christian world
that has adopted and "made up" a whole bunch of festivals
(depending how many according to if you are Roman Catholic or
Protestant) out of their own thoughts and minds, then you put
aside the mind of God (who has already given His mind on what
Festivals are His - Leviticus 23) to observe the traditions of
men, that lay aside the commandments of God (see what Jesus said
about that in Mark 7).
Having the MIND of Christ, the MIND of the Father, is
finding out what is THEIR mind, buy reading their mind as written
down in all the books and verses of the entire Bible. You can
then win the battle against Satan, and having the mind of God
naturally leads us into the next piece of armor - the Sword of
the Spirit, which is the WORD of God!
...........................
Keith Hunt (written on the last holy day of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, April 2009)
To be continued
The Armor of God to Battle Satan #6The Sword of the Word!
"...and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God"
(Ephesians 6:17)
The Spirit of the Lord is what guides us into all truth
(John 16:13).
God very seldom literally talks to us. Very few in history
have had God come and talk to them. It has happened though, it is
written the Lord talked to Moses as friend to friend. Certainly
for three and one half years God in the flesh (Christ Jesus)
talked to humans during His ministry. After Jesus ascended to
heaven, very few indeed have had Him talk to them in a literal
way. Of course God can talk to us in "dreams" and He certainlky
can comunicate to our minds through the power of His Holy Spirit.
The overall way God now at present talks to us about His way
of life He wants us to live by, is through His written word - the
Old and New Testament - the Holy Bible.
And that word, is not passive, it can be very cutting, very
up front, pull no punches, say it like it is. God's word can
TEACH us, it can ENCOURAGE us, it can INSPIRE us, it can COMFORT
us, it can ADMONISH us and CORRECT us. Hence it can be like a
SWORD, to cut to attack, to use as an offence weapon. They say
the best way to defend is to attack. But to defend by attacking
with the Sword of the Word of God, you have to KNOW that sword.
It is like having the whole Bible written on a physical sword,
and you as a skilled expert in the use of that sword, can drive
back the darts of the evil one, and get him to not only stop his
attack but to run from you.
To be skilled with the sword (like in the art and sport of
"fencing") takes time, effort, diligence, practice, mental
fitness. You are not going to be a world class athlete in fencing
if you never get into it and do the work to be skilled in that
sport. If you just sit on the side lines, wishing you were a
world class fencer, and never get involved, your dreams will just
remain that, dreams.
As a kid growing up I wanted to come West and work with
Western horses and be a skilled Western rider. I wanted to also
be a skilled "trick rider" doing all those twirls and hang-up-
side-down on a horse that trick-riders do. Well, at the age of 5
my parents moved from the Welsh village (and the out-doors farm
working world all around us) and went to an industrial town in
Northern England where there was much more work opportunities. So
for the next 13 years I lived in the city, and back then in
Britain there was no "Western riding stables." I had to be 18
years old before I could come to Western Canada, to fulfil my
dream. At the age of 16 I thought, well if I'm going to do what I
want to do on the back of a Western horse, I better get on one
even if it was "English riding." For two years I did English
riding, a few overnight trecks, and it got me out of the dug-out
so to speak. You do not become an expert horse rider by never get
on a horse. That is just common logical sense.
I did come to Canada, and yes I did become an expert horse
rider and trick-rider. But it took working at and practice.
So it is with being skilled on attack with the Sword of the
Word of God.
You have to read the word of God, from cover to cover. You
have to meditate upon it. You have to think about it, get to know
it. You have to be willing to search it like those at Berea did
when Paul and Silas came teaching God's word (Acts 17). You have
to be able to check things out when told this or that by this or
that person, as to what the Word teaches. It takes effort to get
to know the word of God, it takes time spent with your eyes and
mind in it.
Only then can you have the skill to do what Jesus did when
Satan tried to use the word of God to deceive Christ. Jesus was
able to answer him by the Word, and when Satan tried to tempt Him
to turn the stones into bread, He was able to answer that it was
written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Mat.4:4).
You must also have a LOVE of the Word of God. You must be
willing to led it teach you and correct you. Now teaching and
correcting does not happen over night. And with some things God
can be very patient with and guides you into more truth over many
years, sometimes decades. Your part is to keep your mind wanting
to be guided and corrected and to grow in grace and knowledge. In
time, in God's time, He will lead you into all truth, you have to
be of a ready mind to admit truth and to admit error.
The offensive Sword of the Word is to battle Satan as he
comes to deceive you, remember he can come as an angel of light,
so it is written. Deceivers are not going to come and say, "Well,
now, let me tell you, I'm here to deceive you." No! They will
most of the time come saying Jesus is the Christ, and they are
coming in Christ's name. And you need to remember that Jesus said
deception would be so strong before He returned that IF it was
possible, even the very elect would be deceived (Mat.24:24).
The Word of God is your sword of not only defence but
attack.
You will put to silence the deceivers if you KNOW the skill
of the Sword of the Lord.
As you handle it keep in mind that it works both ways, it is
sharp and can cut you also, providing you are open to being led
into all truth.
As it is written:
"For the Word of God, is quick, and powerful, and sharper than
any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing of the soul and
spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).
The follwing words by humans are very real when it comes to
the Sword of the Word of God.
Word of God:
To better understand the human body, in 1994, researchers made
available a new computer tool called "The Visible Man." The
Visible Man consists of almost two thousand computer images.
To produce the images, scientists at the University of Colorado
Health Sciences Center took a man's body that had been willed to
science and took CAT scans, X rays, and MRI images of it. Then
they embedded the body in gelatin. They froze it, sliced it
crosswise into 1,800 millimeter-thin sections, and digitally
photographed each cross section.
Medical students can look at "The Visible Man" from any angle,
call up an image of any cross section they desire, rotate the
images, and put them back together again.
What The Visible Man does for the body, the Word of God does for
the soul. God's Word pictures the inner person - our motives,
priorities, thoughts, and sins.
......
Any of us more than forty years old can probably remember where
we were when we first heard of President Kennedy's assassination.
British novelist David Lodge, in the introduction to one of his
books, tells where he was - in a theater watching the performance
of a satirical revue he had helped write. In one sketch, a
character demonstrated his nonchalance in an interview by holding
a transistor radio to his ear. The actor playing the part always
tuned in to a real broadcast.
Suddenly came the announcement that President Kennedy had been
shot. The actor quickly switched it off, but it was too late.
Reality had interrupted stage comedy.
For many believers, worship, prayer, and Scripture are a
nonchalant charade. They don't expect anything significant to
happen, but suddenly God's reality breaks through, and they're
shocked.
......
From "750 Engaging Illustrations" by Craig Larson
"Nave's Topical Bible" has half a dozen or so pages on "The
Word of God." So it is no small topic in the Bible. I shall only
produce about half the verses that the Lord gives us concerning
His Word.
WORD OF GOD
CALLED: Book - Psa.40:7; Rev.22:19; Book of the Lord - Isa.34:16;
Book of the Law - Neh.8:3; Gal.3:10; Good Word of God - Heb.6:5;
Holy Scriptures - Rom.1:2; 2 Tim.3:15' Law of the Lord - Psa.1:2;
Isa.30:9; Oracles of God - Rom.3:2; 1 Peter 4:11; Scriptures - 1
Cor.15:3; Scriptures of Truth - Dan.10:21; Sword of the Spirit -
Eph.6:17; The Word - Jas.1:21-23; 1 Peter 2:2; Word of God - Luke
11:28; Heb.4:12; Word of Christ - Col.3:16; Word of Life -
Phil.2:16; Word of Truth - 2 Tim.2:15; Jas.1:18.
LIKENED TO: Seed - Mat.13:3-8,18-23,37,38; Mark 4:3-20,26-32;
Luke 8:5-15.
TO BE READ PUBLICLY: Deut.31:11-13; Josh.8:13,18; 2 Kin.23:2; 2
chron.17:7-9; Neh.8:1-8,13,18; Jer.36:6; Acts 13:15,27; Col.4:16;
1 Thes.5:27.
TO BE EXPOUNDED: Neh.8:8; by Jesus, Luke 4:16-27; 24:27,45.
SEARCHED: Acts 17:11.
SEARCHINBG OF, ENJOINED: John 5:39; 7:52.
TEXTS SOMTIMES WRITTEN IN PUBLIC PLACES: Deut.6:9; 11:20.
NOT TO BE ADDED TO OR TAKEN FROM: Deut.4:2; 12:32; Rev.22:18,19.
CONVICTION OF SIN FROM READING: 2 Kings 22:9-13; 2 Chron.17:7-10;
34.
FULFILLED BY JESUS: Mat.5:17; Luke 24:27; John 19:24.
TESTIFY OF JESUS: John 5:39; Acts 10:43; 18:32,35; 13:27; 17:2;
18:24; 28:23.
THE STANDARD OF THE JUDGMENT: John 12:48; Rom.2:16.
NOT OT BE HANDLED DECEITFULLY: 2 Cor.4:2.
......
THE WORD OF THE LORD CONCERNING HIS WORD
FROM SECTIONS OF THE WHOLE BIBLE
WORD OF GOD
Ex.24:3. And Moses came and told the people all the words of the
LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one
voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we
do. 4. And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD....
Deut.4: Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you,
neither shall ye diininish ought from it, that ye may keep the
commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. Behold, I
have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God
commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to
possess it. Keep therefore and do these; for this is your wisdom
and your understanding in the sight of the, nations, which shall
hear all these statutes, and say, surely this great nation is a
wise and understanding people. And what nation is there so great,
that hath statutes arid judgments so righteous as all this law
which I set before you this day? Specially the day that thou
stoodest before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said
unto me, gather me the people together, and I will make them hear
my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they
shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their
children. And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you
statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither
ye go over to possess it.....
Deut.6: And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be
in thine heart: And tlwu shalt teach them diligently unto thy
children, and shalt talk of their when thou sittest in thine
house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest
down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a
sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between
thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy
house, and on thy gates.....
Deut.8:3. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and
fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy
fathers know: that he might make thee know that man doth not live
by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of the LORD doth man live. [Matt. 4:4].....
Deut.17: And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his
kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out
of that which is before the priests the Levites. And it shall be
with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life:
that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words
of this law and these statutes, to do them.....
Deut.29:29. The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but
those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our
children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.....
Deut.30: For this commandment which I command thee this day, it
is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. 12. It is not in
heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to
heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? 13.
Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall
go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear
it, and do it? 14. But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy
mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.....
Josh.1:8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth;
but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest
observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then
thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good
success.....
Josh.3:9. And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come
hither, and hear the words of the LORD your God......
And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and
cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the
law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which
Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the
women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were
conversant among them......
1 Chr.16:15. Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word which
he commanded' to a thousand generations.....
Job 22:22. Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay
up his words in I thine heart.....
Job 23:12. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his
lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my
necessary food.....
Psa.1:2. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his
law doth he meditate day and night.....
Psa.12:6. The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried
in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.....
Psa.19:7. The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul:
the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. 8.
The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the
commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. 9. The
fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of
the LORD are true and righteous altogether. 10, More to be
desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter
also than honey and the honeycomb. 11. Moreover by them is thy
servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.....
Psa.33:4. For the word of the LORD is right; 6. By the word of
the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the
breath of his mouth.....
Psa.40:8. I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is
within my heart.....
Psa.56:4. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my
trust.....
Psa.78:1. Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to
the words of my mouth. 7. That they might set their hope in God,
and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: 8.
And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious
generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and
whose spirit was not stedfast with God.....
Psa.94:12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and
teachest him out of thy law.....
Psa.107:19. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he
saveth them out of their distresses. 20. He sent his word, and
healed them, and delivered there from their destructions.....
Psa.111:7. The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all
his commandments are sure. 8. They stand fast for ever and ever,
and are done in truth and uprightness.....
Psa.119:9. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way 8 by
taking heed thereto according to thy word. 11. Thy word have I
hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. 12. Blessed
art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.....
15. I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy
ways. 16. I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not
forget thy word. 18. Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things out of thy law. 19. I am a stranger in the earth:
hide not thy commandments from me. 20. My soul breaketh for the
longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times. [v.40.]
24. Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors. 25.
My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy
word. 28. My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me
according unto thy word. 30. I have chosen the way of truth: thy
judgments have I laid before me. 31. I have stuck unto thy
testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame. 33. Teach me, O Lord,
the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end.
35. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do
I delight. 41. Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even
thy salvation, according to thy word. 45. And I will walk at
liberty: for I seek thy precepts. 46. I will speak of thy
testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed.
47. And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have
loved. 48. My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments,
which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes. 49.
Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou halt caused
me to hope. 50. This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word
hath quickened me. 51. The proud have had me greatly in derision:
yet have I not declined from thy law. 52. I remember thy
judgments of old, O LORD; and have comforted myself.
54. Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my
pilgrimage. 61. The hands of the wicked have robbed me: but I
have not forgotten thy law. 66. Teach me good judgment and
knowledge for I have believe thy commandments. 67. Before I was
afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word.
70. Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in
thy law. 72. The law of thy mouth is better unto me than
thousands of gold and silver. 74. They that fear thee will be
glad when they see me; because I have hoped in thy word.
76. Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort,
according to thy word unto thy servant. 77. Let thy tender
mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight.
78. Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me
without a cause but I will meditate in thy precepts.
81. My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word.
82. Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort
me? 89. For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. 92.
Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished
in mine affliction. 93. I will never forget thy precepts: for
with them thou hast quickened me. 96. I have seen an end of all
perfection - but thy commandment is exceeding broad.
97. O how love I thy law it is my meditation all the day.
98. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine
enemies: for they are ever with me. 99. I have more understanding
than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. 100.
I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.
103. How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than
honey to my mouth! 104. Through thy precepts I get understanding,
therefore I hate every false way. 105. Thy word is a lamp unto my
feet, and a light unto my path. 109. My soul is continually in my
hand: yet do I not forget thy law, 117. Thy testimonies have I
taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my
heart. 113. I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love. 115.
Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of
my God. 119. Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like
dross: therefore I love thv testimonies. 127. Therefore I love
thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.
126. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to
be right; and I hate every false way. 129. Thy testimonies are
wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them. 130. The entrance of
thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.
131. I opened my mouth, and pauted: for I longed for thy
commandments. 133. Order my steps in thy word. 138. Thy
testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very
faithful. 140. Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant
loveth it. 141. I am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy
precepts. 142. Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,
and thy law is the truth. 143. Trouble and anguish have taken
hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights. 144. The
righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me
understanding, and I shall live. 148. Mine eyes prevent the night
watches, that I might meditate in thy word. 151. Thou art near, O
Lord; and all thy commandments are truth. 152. Concerning thy
testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for
ever. 153. Consider mine affliction, and deliver me: for I do not
forget thy law. 157. Many are my persecutors and mine enemies;
yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. 156. I beheld the
transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word.
159. Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O Lord,
according to thy lovnigkindness. 160, Thy word is true from the
beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for
ever. 161. Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my
heart standeth in awe of thy word. 162. I rejoice at thy word, as
one that findeth great spoil. 163. I hate and abhor lying: but
thy law do I love. 165. Great peace have they which love thy law:
and nothing shall offend them, 167. My soul hath kept thy
testimonies, and I love them exceedingly. 172. My tongue shall
speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness.
IS YOUR HEART LIKE THE HEART OF DAVID? DO YOU LOVE THE WORD OF
GOD? DO YOU LOVE THE LAW, THE COMMANDMENTS, THE STATUTES, THE
PRECEPTS, THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD? DO YOU SEARCH OUT THE WORD OF
GOD? DO YOU LOVE FINDING TRUTH IN GOD'S WORD. ARE YOU WILLING TO
BE CORRECTED AND GUIDED BY THE WORD OF THE LORD?
LET'S CONTINUE......
Psa.138:2. I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy
name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou halt
magnified thy word above all thy name.
Psa.147:15. He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word
runneth very swiftly. 19. He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his
statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
Prov.6:20. My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not
the law of thy mother: 21. Bind them continually upon thine
heart, and tie them about thy neck. 22. When thou goest, it shall
lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou
awakest, it shall talk with thee. 23. For the commandment is a
lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the
way of life.
Prov.22:11. That I might make thee know the certainty of the
words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to
them that send unto thee.
Prov.30:5. Every word of God is pure he is a shield unto them
that put their trust in him. 6. Add thou not unto his words, lest
he reprove thee. and thou be found a liar.
Eccl. 5:1. Keep thy foot when thou guest to the house of God, and
be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for
they consider not that they do evil.
Ecc.12:10. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and
that which was written was upright, even words of truth.
Isa.2:3. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go
up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob;
and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths:
for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD
from Jerusalem.
Isa.8:16. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among any
disciples. 20. To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not
according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
Isa.28:13. But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon
precept, precept upon precept: line upon line, line upon line:
here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall
backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
Isa.30:21. And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying,
This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand,
and when ye turn to the left.
Isa.34:16. Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read.
Isa.40:8. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of
our God shall stand for ever.
Isa.51:7. Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people
in whose heart is my law.
Isa.55:10. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven,
arid returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it
bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and
bread to the eater: 11. So shall my word be that goeth forth out
of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall
accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing
whereto I sent it.
Jer.13:15. Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD hath
spoken.
Jer.15:16. Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word
was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called
by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
Jer.22:29. O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
Jer.23:28. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream;
and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What
is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD. 29. Is not to my word
like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh
the rock in pieces? 36. And the burden of the LORD shall ye
mention no more: for every man's word shall be his burden; for ye
have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts
our God.
Ezek.3:3. And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to
eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then
did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.
10. Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I
shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine
ears.
Dan.10:21. But I will show thee that which is noted in the
scripture of truth.
Dan.12:4. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the
book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and
knowledge shall be increased. 9. And he said, Go thy way, Daniel
for the words of mthis prophecy are closed up and sealed till the
time of the end.
Hos.6:5. Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have
slain them by the words of my mouth.
Amos 8:11. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will
send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst
for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. 12. And they
shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the
east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and
shall not find it.
Mic.2:7. O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the spirit
of the Lord straitened? are these his doings? do not my words do
good to him that walketh uprightly?
Zech.7:7. Should ye not hear the words which the LORD hath cried
by the former prophets.
......
ARE YOU HEARING THE WORDS OF THE PROPHETS? ARE YOU READING THE
PROPHETS TO UNDERSTAND WHAT GOD TEACHES, WHAT HE IS DOING, AND
WHAT HE WILL YET DO? I HAVE EXPOUNDED THE PROPHETS FOR TODAY, ON
THIS WEBSITE. IT IS TIME O ISRAEL, IT IS TIME WHOEVER YOU ARE TO
LISTEN TO THE WORDS OF GOD SPOKEN THROUGH HIS PROPHETS.
LET'S CONTINUE:
Mat.4:4 Man shall not live by bread alone, but my every word that
proceeds out of the mouth of God.
Matt.5:17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the
prophets: I have come not to destroy, but to fulfil.
Matt.7:24. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and
doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his
house upon a rock: 25. And the rain descended, and the floods
came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell
not: for it was founded upon a rock.
Matt.11:13. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until
John. 15. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Matt.13:23. He that received seed into the good ground is he that
he eareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth
fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some
thirty.
Matt.15:3. But he answered and and unto them, Why do ye also
transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? 9. But in
vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men.
Matt.22:29. Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power
of God.
Mark 7:9. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the
commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. 13.
Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition,
which ye have delivered.
Mark 12:24. And Jesus answering said unto thorn, Do ye not
therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the
power of God?
Mark 13::31. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall
not pass away.
Luke 1::37. For no word from God shall be void of power.
Luke 4:22. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious
words which proceeded out of his mouth.
Luke 8:11. Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God
12. Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the
devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they
should believe and be saved. 13. They on the rock are they,
which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have
no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation
fall away. 14. And that which fell among thorns are they, which,
when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and
riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to
perfection. 15. But that on the good ground are they, which with
an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and
bring forth fruit with patience.
Luke 11:28. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear
the word of God, and keep it.
Luke 13:17. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than
one tittle of the law to fail. 29. Abraham saith unto him, They
have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 31. And he said
unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will
they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
Luke 24:32. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn
within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he
opened to us the scriptures? 45. Then opened he their
understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.
John 2:22. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his
disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they
believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
John 5:24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my
word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life,
shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto
life. 39. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have
eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
John 6:6:3. It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth
nothing: the words that I speak unto ,you, they are spirit, and
they are life.
Jolts 8:31. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him,
If ye continue in in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
32. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free.
John I5:3. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken
unto you.
John 17:8. For I have given unto them the words which thou
gravest me; and they have received them, and have known surely
that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst
send me. [v. 14.] 17. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word
is truth. 19. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they
also might be sanctified through the truth. 20. Neither pray I
for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word.
Acts 17:11. These were more noble than those in Thesgalonica, in
that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and
searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
......
DO YOU READ THE WORDS OF JESUS? IF YOU HAVE A RED LETTER NEW
TESTAMENT, THE WORDS OF JESUS ARE EASY TO FIND AND READ. HE IS
THE WORD OF TRUTH.
DO YOU SEARCH THE WORD OF GOD DAILY, TO KNOW IT, AND TO FIND WHO
SPEAKS THE WORDS OF TRUTH?
LET'S CONTINUE:
Rom.3:1. What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is
there of circumcision? 2. Much every way: chiefly, because that
unto them were committed the oracles of GOd.
Rom.6:17. But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin,
but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was
delivered you.
Rom.9:4. Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and
the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the
service of God, and the promises; 6. Not as though the word of
God hath taken none effect.
Rom.10:17. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God.
Rom.12:2. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what
is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Rom.15:4. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were
written for our learninging, that we through patience and comfort
of the scriptures might have hope.
Rom.16:26. But now is made manifest and by the scriptures of the
prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God,
made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.
1 Cor.2:13. Which things also we speak, not in the words which
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth;
comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1 Cor.10:11. Now all these things happened onto them for
ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the
ends of the world are come.
2 Cor.2:17. For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of
God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God
speak we in Christ.
Eph.1:12. That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first
trusted in Christ. 13. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
Eph.5:26. That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the word.
Eph.6:17. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God.
Phil.2:16. Holding forth the word of life.
Col.1:5. For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof
ye heard before me the word of the truth of the gospel.
Col.3:16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all
wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the
Lord.
1 Thess 2:13. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing,
because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us,
ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the
word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
1 Tim. 4:5. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
6. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou
shalt be a good minister of Jesus, Christ, nourished up in the
words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto tbou hast
attained.
1 Tim.6:3. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to
wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to
the doctrine which is according to godliness; 4. He is proud,
knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words,
whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings.
2 Tim.1:13. Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast
heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
2 Tim.2:15. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman
that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth.
2 Tim. 3:15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy
scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16. All scripture. is
given by inspiraiton of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all
good works.
Heb.1:1. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in
time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2. Hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom also he made the ivorlds.
Heb.2:1. Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the
things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them
slip. 2. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every
transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of
reward: 3. How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation;
which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was
confirmed unto us by them that heard hint.
Heb.4:2. Unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them:
but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with
faith in them that heard it. 12. The word of God is quick, and
powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to
the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and
marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart.
Heb.6:5. And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of
the world to come.
Heb.11:3. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed
by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made
of things which do appear.
Jas.1:14. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth,
that we should be a kind of fiistfruits of his creatures. 19.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear,
slow to speak, slow to wrath: 21. Wherefore lay apart all
filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with
meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
22. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving your own selves. 23. For if any be a hearer of the
word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural
face in a glass: 24. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way,
and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25. But
whoso looks eth into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth
therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work,
this man shall be blessed in his deed.
1 Pet.1:23. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for
ever. 24. For all flesh is 1s grass, and all the glory of man its
the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof
falleth away: 25. But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And
this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
1 Pet.2:2. As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word,
that ye may grow thereby.
2 Pet.1:4. Whereby are given unto its exceeding great and
precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the
divine nature, having escaped tile corruption that is in the
world through lust. 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that
shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star
rise in your hearts 20. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of
the scripture is of any pri vate interpretation. 21. For the
prophecy came not in old time by the will of men but holy men
spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
2 Pet.3:2. That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken
before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the
apostles of the Lord and Savior: 15. Account that the
longsuffering of the Lord is salvation: even as our beloved
brother Paul; also according to the wisdom given unto him hath
written unto you: 16. As also in all his epistles, speaking in
them of these things; in which are some things hard to be
uderstood, which they who are unlearned and unstable wrest, as
they do also the other scriptures, unto their destruction.
1 John 2:7. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an
old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old
commandment is the word which ye have heard from tile beginning.
14. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong,
and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the
wicked one. 21. I have not written unto you because ye know not
the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the
truth.
1 John 5:11. And this is the record, that God hath given to us
eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 13. These things have
I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God;
that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may
believe on the name of the Son of God.
Jude 3. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of
the common salvation, it was needful for me, to write unto you,
and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith
which was once delivered unto the saints. 17. But, beloved,
remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rev.1:2. Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony
of Jesus Christ, and of all things that lie saw. 3. Blessed is he
that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and
keep those things which care written therein: for the time is at
hand.
Rev.22:18. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of
the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in
this book 19. And if any man shall take away from the words of
tile book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of
the book of life, and omit of the holy city, and from the things
which are written in this hook.
......
NOTE:
THIS HAS BEEN A LONG STUDY. BUT SO IS THE WORD OF GOD. THERE ARE
MORE VERSES THAT I COULD HAVE ADDED, BUT THE ABOVE VERSES ARE
ENOUGH TO SHOW YOU THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING AND SEARCHING THE
HOLY SCRIPTURES, FOR IN THEM IS TRUTH AND LIFE AND GLORY.
Keith Hunt (April 2009)
To be continued
ARMOR of God to Battle Satan #7Praying Always ...
Paul finishes his discourse on the full armor of God to
battle Satan the Devil with:
"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,
and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for
all saints: And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that
I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the
Gospel ... that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak"
(Eph.6:18-20).
Prayer! Yes prayer is a weapon to use against the enemy
Satan and his darts of death.
You pray always by being in the ever attitude of walking
with the Lord, of being mindful you are His, that He is, has
been, and forever will be. No matter where you are, in a crowd,
in the supermarket, driving your car, at work, at play ...
wherever ... you are "with the Lord" in ever contact with God and
His Son Christ Jesus.
Sometimes you may say, "Now, how would Jesus do this; how
would He act; how would Jesus speak" in some situations. Other
times, you may have to say, "Forgive me Lord, renew a right
spirit in me, I'm thinking the wrong things." "Lord, please help
me to get a right attitude in this situation." Or it may be,
"Thank you Father for your kind mercy, the situation could have
been terrible because of my mistake."
Praying always is being in constant contact with our
heavenly Father, being aware nothing is hid from Him, we are an
open book before Him. And because we are still in the flesh, we
are sinners, and truly knowing that, we know we are saved by His
grace, not by any works we have done, are doing, or will yet do.
Praying always is being thankful that our Father deals with us in
patience; He corrects us not as we deserve, but with kindness and
love. Praying always is always being in a repentant attitude,
willing to be corrected, willing to grow in grace and knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.
Praying always is never getting hardened to sin and the evil
around us. It is always sighing and crying for the wickedness in
the world. Praying always is desiring, praying for "Thy Kingdom
come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Praying always is serving and helping others, yes, those
literal things to do for people, that is good and right, is a way
of praying always, for it is the way of ever being mindful you
are a child of God, and so being, His children would do this or
do that in loving their fellow man.
Praying always is loving your neighbor as yourself. It is
not wrong to look after yourself, to obey the laws of health, to
eat right, to exercise, to get the proper amount of sleep. It is
not wrong to keep your mind on good wholesome things. It is not
wrong to have some pleasure time for yourself. All things in
moderation as the Bible teaches. So if looking after yourself
physically, emotionally, and spiritually, is not wrong, and is a
form of praying always, then that shows you how to love your
neighbor as yourself. You will want your neighbor to do well,
have a good and healthy and happy life. Yes, even if your
neighbor is not a Christian, even if they do not think about or
believe in a God in heaven above. You should still want the best
for your neighbor just as you would like it for yourself. When
you understand that everyone is spiritually blinded UNTIL God
removes that blindness, then you will have love and patience for
your spiritually blinded neighbor.
Praying always is even loving your enemy, doing good to them
when they do you evil. It is praying for your enemy. It is as
Jesus did and said: "Forgive them Father, for they know not what
they do."
Praying always is watching out for all the saints of God.
Certainly when you have saints around you, in your town, city,
village, or over in the next valley, you can get a personal
relationship with them. You can get to know them in their daily
lives, what their trials and problems are that they have to face.
You can get to know their children if they have any. Watching out
for the saints can get very personal, and I do not mean, sticking
your nose in when you need to keep it out. watching for the
saints is to know when, where, and how, and why, you need to be
involved with them, in any particular circumstance. All of that
kind of living with your fellow saint takes knowledge and wisdom;
you should be able to find many studies on this Website to help
you develop that knowledge and wisdom.
Praying always and watching for your Christian brother
and/or sister, often ones you do not know, all you know is they
are out there as the salt of the earth. And you know there will
be times of trails, troubles, even literal persecutions for some,
in some countries of this earth. You get to know by reading, by
the news, by documentaries on TV, by the Internet, that some of
your brothers and sisters in Christ NEED your prayer for them.
You can get very specific in your prayers for your brethren,
from the above news that come your way, you can find out some of
their very personal needs, be it physical safety, clean water,
employment, deliverance from persecution, enough food for
themselves and their family.
There are so many ways to be watching for all saints. And in
your situation perhaps you only have prayer to give them. But
NEVER THINK that "just prayer" is nothing of worthless. Far from
it, for through prayer miracles have happened. The stories put in
the form of books that could be written about miracles that came
ONLY through prayer, I'm sure could fill your house.
This last piece of armor gets forgotten many times. The
POWER of prayer can be a mighty strong defensive and attacking
piece of armor. It can work as a defence and it can work as a
great weapon to slay the adversary.
Praying always with SUPPLICATION! That is with "petition" or
with requests, entreat, plea, beseechment, imploring, appeal,
request of, urge. Christians are not only to pray for each other
but to pray with an attitude of urgency in their beseechment with
the Father. Sometimes we known the specific requests to make on
behalf of others, then many times we do not know the specifics,
but we do known that the children of God somewhere, are going
through trials, tests, and troubles, maybe persecutions, maybe
rejections by family members, maybe the loss of a job, maybe
sickness. We can pray with earnest beseeching that the Father
will give the power of His Spirit to His children in whatever
needs they may have at this time in their lives.
And it is the Holy Spirit that will give Christians
everywhere the strength and the will of mind to endure whatever
they must endure, to the end.
We need to pray that true Christians will fight the good
fight, battle the wiles of the Devil, for as Peter said, he goes
about like a roaring lion trying to devour whoever he can. How
many of you have known many over the last 20 years or more that
have thrown in the towel, put up the white flag of surrender,
given up the battle? How many of you have known people that were
once enlightened with the truths of God, but through tests of
faith (i.e. ministers being unfaithful, or "organizations"
becoming corrupt, or leaders and organizations going back into
Roman Catholic and Protestant teachings) have now gone back into
the world, and just gave up on the Father and Christ and the
Bible completely?
Sadly, I have known of dozens of such people over the last
40 years, who have become as Peter said, like a dog returning to
its vomit. I have known men who were ministers, leaders, deacons,
men looked up to in their congregations, who not only turned
their back on truths of God, but who walked right back into the
world from which they came. I have known people who now do not
give one thought about God and Christ, and have stopped reading
the Bible.
All of this Paul must have had running through his mind,
when he penned the words of verse 18. He saw it happen to ones he
knew:
"This charge I commit unto you, son Timothy, according to the
prophecies which went before on you, that you by them mighty war
a good warfare. HOLDING faith, and a good conscience, which SOME
HAVING PUT AWAY concerning faith have made shipwreck: Of whom is
Hymenaeus and Alexander ...." (1 Timothy 1:18-20).
Going to the thought of Peter about the dog returning to its
vomit, I think it needful I quote his context:
"Which [people] have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray
... These are well without water, clouds they are carried with a
tempest ... For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the
world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is
worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for
them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they
have known it, to TURN FROM the Holy commandment delivered unto
them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb,
The god is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was
washed to her wallowing in the mire" (2 Peter 15-22).
Being a child of the Father is not always for a short
duration of our physical life, some are called as children, or
teens, or young adults. Most of us will have to face trials and
tests and troubles that can come along in this life time. Many of
us will have to battle through the times when "minister" fail,
when "organizations" corrupt themselves, when "organizations"
fall away and depart from the truths of God and go back into the
Babylon of religion that is all around us.
It is important we pray always for our brothers and sisters
in Christ, that they will remain true to the calling they have
been given.
Yes I know it is also true that the wheat must be separated
from the chaff, that the blowing winds of the problems of this
life must come, so the chaff and the wheat can be separated. The
sheep and the goats must be separated. This is all true and God
has His ways of doing just that. But that does not mean we must
not pray always with supplication for the saints. We must pray
that the true saints will fight the good fight, remain faithful,
endure to the end.
I like the words of Albert Barnes in his Bible Commentary:
"Praying Always: It would be well for the soldier who goes forth
to battle to pray - to pray for victory; or to pray that he may
be prepared for death, should he fall. But soldiers do not often
feel the necessity of this. To the Christian soldier, however, it
is indispensable. Prayer crowns all lawful efforts with success,
and gives a victory when nothing else would. No matter how
complete the armor; no matter how skilled we may be in the
science of war; no matter how courageous we may be; - we may be
certain that without prayer we shall be defeated. God alone can
give the victory; and when the Christian soldier goes forth armed
completely for the spiritual conflict, if he looks to God by
prayer, he may be sure of a triumph. This prayer is not to be
intermitted; it is to be ALWAYS! In every temptation and
spiritual conflict we are to pray.
WITH ALL PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION: With all kinds of prayer;
prayer in the closet, the family, the social meeting, the great
assembly; prayer at the usual hours; prayer when we are specially
tempted, and when we feel just like praying; prayer in the form
of supplication for ourselves, and in the form of intercession
for others. This is, after all, the great weapon of our spiritual
armor, and by this we may hope to prevail."
LIFE LESSONS IN PRAYER
While standing dazed, evaluating the mess and wondering about the
future, he heard a stirring in the lumber pile that was the
remains of the henhouse. A rooster was climbing up through the
debris, and he didn't stop climbing until he had mounted the
highest board in the pile. That old rooster was dripping wet, and
most of his feathers were blown away. But as the sun came over
the eastern horizon, he flapped his bony wings and proudly
crowed.
That old, wet, bare rooster could still crow when he saw the
morning sun. And like that rooster, our world may be falling
apart, we may have lost everything, but if we trust in God, we'll
be able to see the light of God's goodness, pick ourselves out of
the rubble, and sing the Lord's praise.
......
In "Contemporary Christian Music," John Fischer writes:
I have a bad habit. When my children tell me about something
they've learned for the first time, I often act as if I knew
that. Even worse, sometimes I tell them how the same thing
happened to me years ago.
When my wife hears something "new" from the kids, her mouth drops
open and her eyes widen. It's as if she has never heard this kind
of thing before. The kids' faces brighten, and they feel as if
they have actually enlightened their mother.
I used to think my wife was just acting and sooner or later the
kids would find out and feel lied to. Then I realized it isn't an
act at all. Though she may already have experienced what they are
trying to tell her, she's never experienced it through them.
Their personal "revelations" are entirely new.
It's the same with God. As all-knowing and sovereign as he is,
I'm sure he's still eager to hear our prayers because he has
never heard it quite the way we say it. We are all unique. We
have our
own signature attached to all we do and say. Our lives, our
experiences, and our faith expressed to him are never old.
......
Bill Gates, who is chief executive at Microsoft (he was when this
was written) is hooked up to the international computer network
called Internet. Subscribers to the Internet can send through
their computers electronic mail (called e-mail) to other users of
the Internet. Bill Gates had an Internet address just like
everyone. But then the New Yorker magazine published his Internet
address. Anyone could send the computer genius a letter. In no
time Bill Gates was swamped with five thousand messages. It was
more than any human could handle. So Gates armed his computer
with software that filters through his e-mail, allowing important
messages through and sending other letters to electronic
oblivion.
People are limited. They can handle only so much communication
and offer only so much help.
God, on the other hand, never tires of s-mail (spirit mail). His
ear is always open to our prayers. And he has unlimited capacity
to help.
......
When our children were small, we played a game. I'd take some
coins in my fist. They'd sit on my lap and work to get my fingers
open. According to the international rules of finger opening,
once the finger was open, it couldn't be closed again. They would
work at it, until they got the pennies in my hand. They would
jump down and run away, filled with glee and delight. Just kids.
Just a game.
Sometimes when we come to God, his hand.
"Lord, I need a passing grade. Help me to study." "Lord, I need a
job." "Lord, my mother is ill."
We reach for the pennies. When God grants the request, we push
the hand away.
More important than the pennies in God's hand is the hand of God
himself. That's what prayer is about.
......
They tell us the 911 emergency system is the state of the art.
All you need do is dial those numbers, and you will almost
instantly be connected to a dispatcher. In front of the
dispatcher will be a read-out that lists your telephone number,
your address, and the name by which that telephone number is
listed at that address. Also listening in are the police, the
fire department, and the paramedics.
A caller might not be able to say what the problem is. Or perhaps
a woman's husband has just suffered a heart attack, and she is so
out of control that all she can do is hysterically scream into
the telephone. But the dispatcher doesn't need her to say
anything. He knows where the call is coming from. Help is already
on the way.
There come times in our lives when in our desperation and pain we
dial 911 prayers. Sometimes we're hysterical. Sometimes we don't
know the words to speak. But God hears. He knows our name and our
circumstance. Help is on the way; God has already begun to bring
the remedy.
......
In 1996 the Chicago Bulls basketball team won their fourth world
championship behind their leader Michael Jordan. Jordan's
contract ended after the season, however, and fans in Chicago
were uneasy about whether the Bulls could re-sign Jordan for the
upcoming year. Would owner Jerry Reinsdorf be willing to pay the
huge salary that everyone knew Jordan would request for a new
contract?
On July 12, 1996, the Chicago media discovered the answer. The
Bulls announced they had agreed to pay some $30 million. Bob
Verdi reported later in the Chicago Tribune that months prior to
the negotiations, when snow was on the ground, Reinsdorf had
joked with Jordan and his agent that when the season ended, if
the negotiations took more than five minutes, they would be
wasting their time. At a dinner with Jordan less than two weeks
before negotiations began, Reinsdorf repeated his intention to
wrap things up quickly. And when the time came to talk numbers,
Reinsdorf paid Jordan's asking price without a qualm.
"I could have tried to talk Michael down from what he asked,"
said Reinsdorf. "But why? ... Michael is unique. I can afford
what he's getting, he deserves what he's getting, and if it's not
the best business transaction I ever made, so what? This wasn't a
business deal in the truest sense, anyway. Call them psychic
dollars. When we couldn't give Michael what he deserved because
of the salary cap, I told him there would be a day. Well, the day
has come."
Like Michael Jordan asking for a big salary, we often come to God
with large requests, and we wonder how he will feel about it.
Jesus taught us that God's response to our prayers is guided in
large measure by how he feels about us. God's sons and daughters
are more special to him than Michael Jordan is to the owner of
the Chicago Bulls. For God, prayer isn't some spiritual
negotiation; prayer is love. God is giving "heart dollars."
......
In "Total Eclipse" Annie Dillard writes:
The Ring Nebula, in the constellation Lyra, looks, through
binoculars, like a smoke ring. It is a star in the process of
exploding. Light from its explosion first reached the earth in
1054; it was a supernova then, and so bright it shone in the
daytime. Now it is not so bright, but it is still exploding. It
expands at the rate of seventy million miles a day. It is
interesting to look through binoculars at something expanding
seventy million miles a day. It does not budge. Its apparent size
does not increase. Photographs of the Ring Nebula taken fifteen
years ago seem identical to photographs of it taken yesterday.
Huge happenings are not always visible to the naked
eye-especially in the spiritual realm. How often it is that this
nebula resembles the process of prayer. Sometimes we pray and
pray and seemingly see no change in the situation. But that's
only true from our perspective. If we could see from heavens
standpoint, we would know all that God is doing and intending to
do in our lives. We would see God working in hearts in ways we
cannot know. We would see God orchestrating circumstances that we
know nothing about. We would see a galaxy of details being set in
place for the moment when God brings the answer to fulfilment.
......
In May 1996, Valujet Flight 592 crashed into the Florida
Everglades, killing 110 passengers. To determine the cause of the
crash, the National Transportation Safety Board needed the
plane's black box. That would not be easy to find. The crash had
scattered plane debris across a large area of swamp. Dozens of
searchers descended on the scene to sift through muck and water
as much as eight feet deep in an attempt to find the black box.
Navy experts tried using special technology that detected
submerged metal, without success.
Holding a rope that kept them spaced three feet apart, other
searchers systematically poked through every square foot of the
crash area. After fourteen days, they had found nothing.
For workers the physical conditions were nigh unbearable. The
Florida sun beat upon them, and temperatures hovered in the 90s.
Diesel fuel and caustic hydraulic fluid from the wrecked plane
floated in the water, forcing searchers to wear several layers of
protective rubber and latex despite the heat and humidity.
Fourteen days of that had left many searchers dehydrated, but
they had to find the black box.
Sergeant Felix Jimenez, of the Metro-Dade police, was one of the
searchers. For fourteen days he had prayed for the bereaved
families and for the safety of his fellow workers, but on the
fifteenth day as he took a break, suddenly he realized he had
failed to pray for one important thing: that God would help them
find the black box. So he asked God for direction, resumed the
search, and when he stuck his pole into the water, he hit
something metallic. He pulled the object out of the muck. It was
the black box. Jimenez writes in Guideposts, "At the end of the
day ... I thought of the many days we had spent searching for the
recorder, how we must have tromped over it many times, and I
wondered why its retrieval had taken so long. Amid the low rustle
of saw grass and the call of a great white heron, I seemed to
hear the response: 'Why did it take you so long to ask?'"
......
James David Ford, chaplain of the United States House of
Representatives since 1979, told the following story about prayer
to "Leadership" journal:
In the spring of 19761 sailed the Atlantic Ocean with a couple of
friends. In a thirty-one-foot vessel, we sailed from Plymouth,
England, to New York - 5,992 miles. During the trip, we hit a
real hurricane - some of the waves were thirty-five feet high -
and frankly, I was scared. My father had said, "Don't go. You
have five children. Wait till they're grown."
The hurricane went into its third day, and I thought of my
father's words about the children. I thought, Why am I out here?
Was this thing that I thought was courage and adventure really
just foolhardy?
The skies were black, and clouds were scudding by. I wanted to
pray for God to stop the storm, but I felt guilty 'cause I'd
voluntarily gotten into this. I didn't have to go across the
ocean....
Finally I came up with a marvellous prayer, seven words: "O God,
I have had enough. Amen."
Within half an hour of that simple prayer, the sky in the west
lifted like a screen in a theater, and there was blue sky.
Was my prayer tied to the opening of the sky? I don't worry about
it.
One thing is certain: simple, sincere prayers are sufficient.
......
FROM THE BOOK "750 ENGAGING ILLUSTRATIONS" by Craig Larson and
Leadership Journal
YOU CAN DO MORE THAN PRAY after you have prayed, but you cannot
do more than pray until you have prayed - John Bunyan
......
THANK YOU FOR SAYING NO
Lord, day after day I've thanked you
for saying yes.
For saying no?
Yet I shudder to think
Of the possible smears
The cumulative blots on my life
Had You not been sufficiently wise
To say an unalterable no.
So thank You for saying no
When my want list for things
Far exceeded my longing for You.
When I asked for a stone
Foolishly certain I asked for bread
Thank You for saying no
To my petulant "Just this time, Lord?"
Thank You for saying no
To senseless excuses
Selfish motives
Dangerous diversions.
Thank You for saying no
When the temptation that enticed me
Would have bound me beyond escape.
Thank You for saying no
When I asked You to leave me alone.
Above all
Thank You for saying no
When in anguish I asked
"If I give You all else
May I keep this?"
Lord, my awe increases
When I see the wisdom
Of Your divine no.
Ruth Harms Calkin, "Tell Me Again Lord, I Forget"
......
PRAYER IS SURRENDER - surrender to the will of God and
cooperation with that will. If I throw out a boat hook from a
boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to
me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God
to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God.
E. Stanley Jones, "A Song of Ascents"
......
WILLIAM R. NEWELL says kneeling is a good way to pray because it
is uncomfortable. Daniel prayed on his knees. Jim Elliot said,
"God is still on His throne, we're still His footstool, and
there's only a knee's distance between!" He also said, "That
saint who advances on his knees never retreats."
Elisabeth Elliot, "Shadow of the Almighty"
......
THERE'S SOMETHING EXQUISITELY LUXURIOUS about room service in a
hotel. All you have to do is pick up the phone and somebody is
ready and waiting to bring you breakfast, lunch, dinner, a
chocolate milkshake, whatever your heart desires and your stomach
will tolerate. Or by another languid motion of the wrist, you can
telephone for someone who will get a soiled shirt quickly
transformed into a clean one or a rumpled suit into a pressed
one. That's the concept that some of us have of prayer. We have
created God in the image of a divine bellhop. Prayer, for us, is
the ultimate in room service, wrought by direct dialing.
Furthermore, no tipping, and everything is charged to that great
credit card in the sky. Now prayer is many things, but I'm pretty
sure this is not one of the things it is.
Kenneth Wilson, quoted in Lloyd Cory, "Quote Unquote"
......
HEAVEN IS FILLED with a room that will surprise all of us when we
see it. The room has within it large boxes neatly packaged with a
lovely ribbon on top with your name on it, "Never delivered to
Earth because never requested from Earth."
PRAYER IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE for work, thinking, watching,
suffering, or giving; prayer is a support for all other efforts.
George Buttrick, quoted in Lloyd Cory, "Quote Unquote"
......
I asked God for strength, that I might achieve;
I was made weak, that I may learn humbly to obey.
I asked God for health, that I may do greater things;
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I may be happy;
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life;
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing I asked for but everything I hoped for.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.
A Confederate Soldier
Croft M. Pentz, "Speaker's Treasury of 400 Quotable Poems"
......
DEPTH, not length, is important. . . . When the Gettysburg
battleground became a national cemetery, Edward Everett was to
give the dedication speech and Abraham Lincoln was asked to say
"a few appropriate words" Everett spoke eloquently for one hour
and fifty-seven minutes then took his seat as the crowd roared
its enthusiastic approval. Then Lincoln stood to his feet,
slipped on his steel spectacles, and began what we know today as
the "Gettysburg Address: Poignant words "... The world will
little note nor long remember ..." - suddenly, he was finished.
No more than two minutes after he had begun he stopped. His talk
had been so prayer-like it seemed almost inappropriate to
applaud. As Lincoln sank into his settee, John Young of the
Philadelphia Press whispered, "Is that all?" The President
answered, "Yes, that's all."
Don't underestimate two minutes with God in prayer.
Charles R. Swindoll, "Quest for Character"
......
IF I COULD HEAR Christ praying for me in the next room, I would
not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He
is praying for me.
Robert Murray McCheyne, quoted in Lloyd John Ogilvie, "Drumbeat
of Love"
......
GOD ANSWERS SHARP and sudden on some prayers, / and thrusts the
thing we have prayed for in our face. / A gauntlet with a gift in
't.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "Aurora Leigh"
......
IT IS POSSIBLE to move men through God by prayer alone.
J. Oswald Sanders, "Spiritual Leadership"
......
BROOM HILDA, a cartoon character, is a little three-foot-high
witch who is all hair and face. In one amusing comic strip she
approaches a wishing well and, standing next to it, puts her
hands on the edge of the well and says loudly, "I don't want
anything!" And the next panel is quiet. Then she steps back and
says, "I just thought you'd enjoy knowing there was one satisfied
person around."
THE CARTOON CHARACTER Ziggy is standing, looking up on a
mountain. The sky is dark and there's one cloud up there. Ziggy
says, "Have I been put on hold for the rest of my life?"
Sometimes prayer feels like that, doesn't it? "Will You ever
answer?" As one man put it, "The heavens are brass and nothing
comes back."
Tom Wilson cartoon, Universal Press Syndicate, July 18, 1980
......
(Ah, but it does come back, in God's time, in His time not ours -
Keith Hunt)
DR. LEWIS SPERRY CHAFER told a story on the subject. It seems
that a certain minister was in the habit of profound prayers,
oftentimes resorting to words beyond the ken of his simple flock.
This went on week after week, to the dismay and frustration of
the congregation. At last, a wee Scottish woman in the choir
ventured to take the matter in hand. On a given Sunday, as the
minister was waxing his most eloquently verbose, the little woman
reached across the curtain separating the choir from the pulpit.
Taking a firm grasp on the frock tail of the minister, she gave
it a yank, and was heard to whisper, "Jes' call Him Fether, and
ask 'im for somethin."
Richard Seurne, "Shoes for the Road"
......
TWO IRISHMEN, Pat and Mike, had narrowly escaped death on a
sinking ship. They were floundering around in icy ocean waters on
a couple of planks. Pat was addicted to the grossest profanity
and he thought he ought to repent of it and then the Lord would
come to his rescue. Mike thought his theology was sound. Pat
began to pray, but just before arriving at the main thesis of his
repentant prayer, Mike spotted a ship coming toward them. As
delighted as Columbus when he first spotted the North American
shore, Mike hollered, "Hold it, Pat. Don't commit yourself.
Here's a ship." Pat immediately stopped praying! Isn't that the
way many of us are? The only time we pray is when we are "in a
jam." As soon as things improve we forget God.
John Haggai, "How to Win over Worry"
......
O THOU WHO HAS GIVEN US SO MUCH, mercifully grant us one thing
more -- a grateful heart.
George Herbert
......
A MAN WAS BEING PURSUED by a roaring, hungry lion. Feeling the
beast's hot breath on his neck and knowing his time was short, he
prayed as he ran. He cried out in desperation, "O Lord, please
make this lion a Christian." Within seconds, the frightened man
became aware the lion had stopped the chase. When he looked
behind him, he found the lion kneeling, lips moving in obvious
prayer. Greatly relieved at this turn of events - and desirous of
joining the lion in meditation, he approached the king of the
jungle. When he was near enough, he heard the lion praying, "And
bless, O Lord, this food for which I'm exceedingly grateful!"
......
FROM "SWINDOLL'S ULTIMATE BOOK OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND QUOTES"
PRAYER QUOTES:
I am often, I believe, praying for others when I should be doing
things for them. It's so much easier to pray for a bore than to
go and see him.
C.S. Lewis
Souls without prayer are like people whose bodies or limbs are
paralyzed: They possess feet and hands but they cannot control
them.
Teresa of Avila
In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words
without heart.
John Bunyan
I have often learned more in one prayer than I have been able to
glean from much reading and reflection.
Martin Luther
As we are involved in unceasing thinking, so we are called to
unceasing prayer.
Henri Nouwen
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming
conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My wisdom, and that of
all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.
Abraham Lincoln
In prayer, we are aware that God is in action and that when the
circumstances are ready, when others are in the right place, and
when our hearts are prepared, he will call us into the action.
Waiting in prayer is a disciplined refusal to act before God
acts.
Eugene Peterson
Not to want to pray is the sin behind sin.
P.T.Forsyth
To pray is the greatest thing we can do, and to do it well, there
must be calmness, time, and deliberation.
E. M. Bounds
The penalty of not praying is the loss of one's capacity to pray.
Pray the largest prayers. You cannot think a prayer so large that
God, in answering it, will not wish you had made it larger. Pray
not for crutches but for wings!
Phillips Brooks
We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We
have a great deal of activity but we accomplish little; many
services but few conversions; much machinery but few results.
R.A. Torrey
ILLUSTRATION OF PRAYER
Jean Giono tells the story of Elzeard Bouffier, a shepherd he met
in 1913 in the French Alps.
At that time, because of careless deforestation, the mountains
around Provence, France, were barren. Former villages were
deserted because their springs and brooks had run dry. The wind
blew furiously, unimpeded by foliage.
While mountain climbing, Giono came to a shepherd's hut, where he
was invited to spend the night.
After dinner Giono watched the shepherd meticulously sort through
a pile of acorns, discarding those that were cracked or
undersized. When the shepherd had counted out 100 perfect acorns,
he stopped for the night and went to bed.
Giono learned that the fifty-five-year-old shepherd had been
planting trees on the wild hillsides for over three years. He had
planted 100,000 trees, 20,000 of which had sprouted. Of those, he
expected half to be eaten by rodents or die due to the elements,
and the other half to live.
After World War I, Giono returned to the mountainside and
discovered incredible rehabilitation: There was a veritable
forest, accompanied by a chain reaction in nature. Water flowed
in the once-empty brooks. The ecology, sheltered by a leafy roof
and bonded to the earth by a mat of spreading roots, became
hospitable. Willows, rushes, meadows, gardens, and flowers were
birthed.
Giono returned again after World War II. Twenty miles from the
lines, the shepherd had continued his work, ignoring the war of
1939 just as he had ignored that of 1914. The reformation of the
land continued. Whole regions glowed with health and prosperity.
Giono writes: "On the site of the ruins I had seen in 1913 now
stand neat farms.... The old streams, fed by the rains and snows
that the forest conserves, are flowing again.... Little by
little, the villages have been rebuilt. People from the plains,
where land is costly, have settled here, bringing youth, motion,
the spirit of adventure."
Those who pray are like spiritual reforesters, digging holes on
barren land and planting the seeds of life. Through these seeds,
dry spiritual wastelands are transformed into harvestable fields,
and life-giving water is brought to parched and barren souls.
Hal Seed
......
FROM "1001 QUOTES, ILLUSTRATIONS AND HUMOROUS STORIES" by Edward
K.Rowell
PRAYER BEFORE MEALS
Where Did This Come From?
At supper one night, seven-year-old Brad asked why his dad
thanked God before eating food that had come from the grocery
store. The father picked up a roll and asked, "Where did this
come from?"
"From the store," Brad said.
"Where did they get it?"
"I dunno. From the bakery?"
"Where did they get it?"
"They made it."
"From what?" asked the father.
"From flour."
"Where did that come from?"
"From wheat."
"Where did the wheat come from?"
"The farmers."
"And where did the farmer get it?"
"He grew it," said Brad.
"From what?"
"Seed.,"
"And who made the seed?"
"God, I guess," said Brad.
"And that," said the father, "is why we thank Him."
......
BACK OF THE LOAF:
Back of the loaf is the snowy flour, And back of the flour the
mill, And back of the mill are the wheat and the shower, And the
sun, and the Father's will.
Anonymous
......
In his book "Home: Where Life Makes Up Its Mind," Charles Swindon
says:
Most of us did not learn to pray in church. And we weren't taught
it in school, or even in pajamas beside our bed at night. If the
truth were known, we've done more praying around the kitchen
table than anywhere else on earth. From our earliest years we've
been programmed: if you don't pray, you don't eat. It started
with Pablum in the high chair, and it continues through
porterhouse at the restaurant. Right? Like passing the salt or
doing the dishes, a meal is incomplete without it.
Swindoll goes on to offer several suggestions for saying grace
before meals, including:
* Think before you pray. What's on the table? Call the food and
drink by name. "Thank you, Lord, for the hot chicken-and-rice
casserole in front of us. Thank you for the cold lemonade."
* Involve others in prayer: Try some sentence prayers around the
table.
* Sing your family blessing.
* Keep it brief, please.
* Occasionally pray after the meal.
......
UNGRATEFUL BEGGERS
According to "Our Daily Bread," when King Alfonso XII of Spain
learned that the attendants of his court were neglecting to pray
before eating, he determined to teach them a lesson. A huge
banquet was prepared, and all the king's guests plowed in, none
of them pausing to give thanks to God. But by pre-arrangement, a
filthy beggar wandered into the banquet hall, seated himself at
the head table, and chowed down.
The guests waited for the guards to seize the man, but, to their
amazement, he continued gobbling up the food without hindrance.
Then the beggar wiped his mouth, rose and stalked out without a
word.
Someone near the king said, "What a despicable fellow! He didn't
even say ,thank you."
Rising, King Alfonso said to them all: "Do you realize that
you've been bolder and more ungrateful than that beggar? Every
day you sit down at a table abundantly supplied by your Heavenly
Father, yet you neither ask His blessing nor express your
gratitude!"
It was a lesson none of them ever forgot.
......
FOOD FOR ALL
George Mueller, born into a German tax collector's family, was
often in trouble. He learned early to steal and gamble and drink.
As a teenager, he learned how to in stay in expensive hotels,
then sneak out without paying the bill. But at length he was
caught and jailed. Prison did him little good, for upon release
he continued his crime spree until, on a Saturday night in 1825,
he met Jesus Christ.
Mueller married and settled down in Bristol, England, growing
daily in faith and developing a burden for the homeless children
running wild and ragged through the streets. At a public meeting
in Bristol on December 9, 1835, he presented a plan for an
orphanage. Several contributions came in. Mueller rented Number 6
Wilson Street, and on April 11, 1836, the doors of the orphanage
opened. Twenty-six children were immediately taken in. A second
house soon opened, then a third.
From the beginning, Mueller refused to ask for funds or even to
speak of the ministry's financial needs. He believed in praying
earnestly and trusting the Lord to provide. And the Lord did
provide, though sometimes at the last moment. The best-known
story involves a morning when the plates and bowls and cups were
set on the tables, but there was no food or milk. The children
sat waiting for breakfast while Mueller led in prayer for their
daily bread. A knock sounded at the door. It was the baker. "Mr.
Mueller," he said, "I couldn't sleep last night. Somehow I felt
you didn't have bread for breakfast, so I got up at 2 A.M. and
baked some fresh
bread." A second knock sounded. The milkman had broken down right
in front of the orphanage, and he wanted to give the children his
milk so he could empty his wagon and repair it.
Such stories became the norm for Mueller's work. During the
course of his ninety-three years, Mueller housed more than ten
thousand orphans, "prayed in" millions of dollars, travelled to
scores of countries preaching the Gospel, and recorded fifty
thousand answers to prayer.
Robert Morgan, "On This Day" (Nashville: Thomas Nelson
Publishers, 1997), April 11th.
......
NEVER AGAIN
Charles Colson, former special assistant to President Richard
Nixon, went to prison for his role in the Watergate scandal and
was converted to Christ through reading C. S. Lewis' "Mere
Christianity."
He wrote of his conversion in "Born Again," a book that was
launched with a backbreaking tour that ended up in California.
Arriving late at his hotel, he and his friend Fred Denne went to
the coffee shop for a snack. The room had a Spanish motif; red
tile on the floor, wrought iron tables and chairs. A waitress in
a pink uniform waited on them. The men noticed she looked like a
young starlet, blondish hair and pleasant-faced.
"Two cheese omelets, one milk, and one iced tea," said Fred.
After she left, the two men reviewed the next day's schedule a
few minutes, then decided to ask the Lord's blessings on their
anticipated meal. They bowed their heads, and, as blessings go,
it was fairly long. When they raised their heads, the waitress
was standing nearby, omelets in hand.
"Hey," she said loudly, "were you guys praying?" Everyone in the
small room turned to look at them.
"Yes, we were," said Colson.
"Hey, that's neat," said the waitress. "I've never seen anybody
do that in here before. Are you preachers?"
They said no, but she persisted in asking questions. Then she
said, "I'm a Christian. At least I was once."
"What happened?" the men asked.
"I accepted Jesus as my Savior at a rally when I was a teenager.
Then I went to live in Hawaii. Well, I just lost interest, I
guess. Forgot about it."
"I don't think you lost it," Colson said gently. "You just put it
aside for a while." The waitress seemed thoughtful. "It's funny,
but the moment I saw you guys praying I felt excited all over
again."
They talked to her at some length about returning to the Lord,
about the prodigal son, and about the Lord's love and
forgiveness.
Later during their stay at the hotel they saw her again. "Hey,
you guys," she shouted. She told them she had already called a
Christian friend and was joining a Bible study the next day. "And
I'm going to find a church, too. I've come back."
Colson later wrote, "Until that night, I had felt awkward at
times praying over meals in crowded restaurants. Never again."
Charles W Colson, "Life Sentence" (Minneapolis: World Wide,
1979), 105-106.
HELLO ...
Hello. This is Emily. I'm fine, how are you? Thanks for the sky
and birds and stuff. Actually I'm having a pretty good week.
And thanks for the mashed potatoes, but not for the lima beans. I
thank you really much for the meatloaf.
And thanks for the chairs, and the tables, and the doors, and the
couch and the television and the walls and the roof and the bed
and the bathroom and the towels and the grass and the clouds and
the street and ...
... Take care. Amen, from Emily. - Prayer of a five-year-old,
reported by Robert Fulghum "Uh-Oh" (New York: Villard Books,
1991), 140-141.
......
SOMEONE ONCE SAID ...
It is a good thing to let prayer be the first business of the
morning and the last in the evening. - Martin Luther, in a
forty-page letter to his barber who had asked him about the
Christian life.
* Prayer is the key to the morning and the bolt of the
evening. - Anonymous
* A day hemmed in prayer is less likely to come unravelled. -
Anonymous
* The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from
praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless
work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our
wisdom, but trembles when we pray. - Samuel Chadwick
* Prayer is a mighty instrument, not for getting man's will
done in Heaven, but for getting God's will done on earth. -
Robert Law
* I never prayed sincerely for anything but it came, at some
time ... somehow, in some shape. - Adoniram Judson
* Prayer delights God's ear, it melts His heart, it opens His
hand: God cannot deny a praying soul. - Thomas Watson
* I must talk to Father about this. - Billy Bray
* Prayer bathes the soul in an atmosphere of the divine
presence. - Charles Finney
* When life knocks you to your knees - well, that's the best
position in which to pray, isn't it.? - Ethel Barrymore
* Daniel would rather spend a night with the lions than miss a
day in prayer. - Anonymous
......
WHEN YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE PRAYING
* When thou feelest most indisposed to pray, yield not to it.
But strive and endeavor to pray even when thou thinkest thou
canst not pray. - an old divine
* Pray when you feel like it, for it is a sin to neglect such
an opportunity. Pray when you don't feel like it, for it is
dangerous to remain in such a condition. - quoted by Ruth Bell
Graham
* It is a good thing to let prayer be the first business in
the morning and the last in the evening. Guard yourself against
such false and deceitful thoughts that keep whispering: Wait a
while. In an hour or so I will pray. I must first finish this or
that. Thinking such thoughts we get away from prayer into other
things that will hold us and involve us till the prayer of the
day comes to naught. - Martin Luther, in a forty-page letter to
his barber, Peter Beskendorf, who had asked, "Dr. Luther, how do
you pray?"
......
WHO PRAYS?
Newsweek Magazine devoted its cover-story on January 6, 1992, to
the subject of prayer, saying, "This week, if you believe in all
the opinion surveys, more of us will pray than will go to work,
or exercise, or have sexual relations. According to the recent
studies at NORC, a research center, by Andrew M. Greeley, the
sociologistnovelist-priest, more than three quarters (78 percent)
of all Americans pray at least once a week; more than half (57
percent) report praying at least once a day. Indeed, Greeley
finds that even among the 13 percent of Americans who are
atheists or agnostics, nearly one in five still prays daily....
"Indeed, the current edition of 'Books in Print' lists nearly two
thousand titles on prayer, meditations, and techniques for
spiritual growth - more than three times the number devoted to
sexual intimacy and how to achieve it."
The article goes on to talk about the benefits that are
experienced by couples who pray together in marriage, saying, "As
some young couples have found, praying together is the tie that
really binds.... Greeley's surveys show that spouses who pray
together report greater marital satisfaction than those who
don't, and that frequent sex coupled with frequent prayer make
for the most satisfying marriages."
......
WHAT WE PRAY FOR
According to a Yankelovich Poll reported in USA Today
commissioned for the Lutheran Brotherhood, nine out of ten adults
in America say they pray. What do they pray for most often?
* 98% - Our own families
* 81% - World's Children
* 77% - World Peace
* 69% - Co-workers
PRAYER UNANSWERED
The following was an unpublished poem of hymn-writer Fanny
Crosby, recently discovered by Donald Hustad. The manuscript
carried several notations, including the initials "M.S." and the
name "H. P.Main." There is also a question, "Is this O.K.?"
signed by "I.A.S" - Ira Allan Sankey - and the further notes
"O.K." and "This is fine." At the upper right the paper is
embossed with the name "HAMILTON." The poem is entitled, "For
What His Love Denies."
God does not give me all I ask,
Nor answer as I pray;
But, O, my cup is brimming o'er
With blessings day by day.
How oft the joy I thought withheld
Delights my longing eyes,
And so I thank Him from my heart
For what His love denies.
Sometimes I miss a treasured link
In friendship's hallowed chain,
And yet His smile is my reward
For every throb of pain.
I look beyond, where purer joys
Delight my longing eyes;
And so I thank Him from my heart
For what His love denies.
How tenderly He leadeth me
When earthly hopes are dim;
And when I falter by the way,
He bids me lean on Him.
He lifts my soul above the clouds
Where friendship never dies;
And so I thank Him from my heart
For what His love denies.
Fanny Crosby, Jan. 6, 1899
......
GOD'S FOUR ANSWERS
In talking with people who are concerned because God doesn't seem
to be answering their prayers, Pastor Bill Hybels uses a little
outline he borrowed from a pastor friend of his:
* If the request is wrong, God says: No
* If the timing is wrong, God says: Slow
* If you are wrong, God says: Grow
* But if the request is right, the timing is right, and you
are right, God says: Go!
......
AWAKENED TO PRAYER
His nightmares began each day when he awoke.
James Stegalls was nineteen. He was in Vietnam. Though he carried
a small Gideon New Testament in his shirt pocket, he couldn't
bring himself to read it. His buddies were cut down around him,
terror was building within him, and God seemed far away. His
twentieth birthday passed, then his twenty-first. At last, he
felt he couldn't go on.
On February 26, 1968, he prayed for it all to end, and his heart
told him he would die before dusk. Sure enough, his base came
under attack that day and Jim heard a rocket coming straight
toward him. Three seconds to live, he told himself, then two,
then. . .
A friend shoved him into a grease pit, and he waited for the
rocket to explode, but there was only a surreal silence. The fuse
malfunctioned.
For five hours James knelt in that pit, and finally his quivering
hand reached into his shirt pocket and took out his Testament.
Beginning with Matthew, he continued through the first 18
chapters.
"When I read Matthew 18:19-20," he said, "I somehow knew things
would be all right."
Long after Jim returned home, as he visited his wife's
grandmother, Mrs.Harris, she told him a night years before when
she had awakened in terror. Knowing Jim was in Vietnam, she had
sensed he was in trouble. She began praying for God to spare his
life. Unable to kneel because of arthritis, she lay prone on the
floor, praying and reading her Bible all night.
Just before dawn she read Matthew 18:19-20: If two of you agree
down here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in
heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together
because they are mine, I am there among them.
She immediately called her Sunday school teacher, who got out of
bed and went to Mrs.Harris' house where together they claimed the
Lord's promise as they prayed for Jim until reassured by God's
peace.
Having told Jim the story, Mrs.Harris opened her Bible to show
him where she had marked the passage.
In the margin were the words: Jim, February 26, 1968.
......
URGENT IMPRESSION
Archibald Gracie relished his swim on April 14, 1912. The ship's
pool was a "six-foot tank of salt water, heated to a refreshing
temperature. In no swimming bath had I ever enjoyed such pleasure
before." But his account went on to say, "How near it was to
being my last plunge. Before dawn of another day I would be
swimming for my life in mid-ocean in a temperature of 28
degrees!"
After his swim that Sunday night aboard ship, Colonel Archibald
Gracie retired to his cabin and fell asleep, only to be awakened
by "a sudden shock and noise." Dressing quickly, he ascended to
the deck and learned the ship had collided with an iceberg.
During the same moments in New York, his wife's sleep was also
disturbed. Seized by sudden anxiety, she sank to her knees
holding her prayerbook, "which by chance opened to the prayer
'For Those At Sea.'" She prayed earnestly until about 5 A.M. when
the burden lifted. She rested quietly until eight when her sister
"came
softly to the door, newspaper in hand, to gently break the tragic
news that the Titanic had sunk."
What had happened meantime to her husband? "I was in a whirlpool,
swirling round and round, as I still tried to cling to the
railing as the ship plunged to the depths below. Down, down, I
went. it seemed a great distance ... (Ascending back to the
surface) I could see no Titanic. She had entirely disappeared
beneath the surface of the ocean without a sign of any wave. A
thin light grey smoky vapor hung like a pall a few feet above the
sea. There arose the most horrible sounds ever heard by mortal
man, the agonizing cries of death from over a thousand throats
..."
Col. Archibald Gracie later wrote: "I know of no recorded
instance of Providential deliverance, he wrote, more directly
attributable to ... prayer."
Colonel Archibald Gracie, "Titanic: A Survivor's Story"
(Gloucestershire, the United Kingdom, 1985).
......
COMING TO THE KING
Thou art coming to a King
Large petitions with thee bring;
For His grace and power are such
None can ever ask too much.
John Newton
......
FROM "NELSON'S COMPLETE BOOK OF STORIES, ILLUSTRATIONS, AND
QUOTES"
by Robert J. Morgan
................
I have spent much time and effort in this 7th piece of armor
we need to put on to battle Satan the Devil. It is indeed one of
our greatest defence and attack weapons. We defend and we attack
with PRAYER!
Paul went on to request prayer for himself (likewise for
others also) that he would be able to open his mouth or I suppose
write with his pen, in BOLD manner, the mysteries of the GOSPEL.
He was at the time in chains in prison (verse 20), yet he wanted
prayers on his behalf that he could even in prison open his mouth
BOLDLY and speak the Gospel.
At the present in this year of 2009, there is still relative
FREEDOM to proclaim the mysteries of the Gospel. I have freedom
to continue writing and uploading studies to this Website, to
give forth the truths of the Word of the Lord. The day will come
when there will be a mighty blackout on being able to have
freedom to publish what you can find on this Website. I thank you
for your prayers. I request as Paul did that you will remember me
in your prayers, that as long as this age goes on, before the
last 42 months come, that I will be in health, that I will be
able to BOLDLY publish the truths of God, that I will be guided
to speak therein as I ought, so many others around the world will
come to know the salvation of God, and who will accept Christ
Jesus as their PERSONAL Savior, and who will give their lives in
humble repentance to live by every word of God, as our Savior
taught us to do (Mat.4:4).
With all the complete ARMOR of God brethren, we can stand up
TALL AND STRONG to face the enemy, to go to battle with the
unseen powers of spiritual wickedness, and to not only fight the
good fight, but to WIN the battle, to FINISH THE COURSE, and to
be able to say with Paul, "I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH: HENCEFORTH
THERE IS LAID UP FOR ME A CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, which the Lord,
the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me
only, but unto ALL them that LOVE HIS APPEARING!" (2 Tim.4:6-8).
May our God richly BLESS you all as you SERVE Him with His
WHOLE ARMOR upon you.
........................
Keith Hunt, May 2009
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