Category: General
Here is the prayer guide for this week March 4 to the 10.
Week two February 12 to 18 prayer guide
This New Year God is challenging us at Rockbridge Baptist to improve our prayer life and make a commitment to love God by improving our prayers. Much of the study has been focused on Don Whitney’s book Praying the Bible. We have as a church been going through a series of messages on prayer and talking to God since December 31. Beginning February 4th begins practicing this means of improving our prayers by praying through the Psalms. Each week for the first few weeks we will post a guide that provides samples and examples of how to use the Psalms in our daily prayers.
Whitney has created a series of short lessons from the book and you can find it the playlist on YouTube.
You can find his book on many sites but here is link to the Kindle version.
The 21 Day Prayer Guide
A blood donor saved my life! For years I have been a blood donor giving as often as I can. The American Red Cross has this slogan to save a life with the gift of blood. I know there are many people who are unable to physically give blood but take hope you can still give the gift of life.
A blood donor saved my life! I was in a wreck, caught and trapped unable to escape. I was turned upside down, darkness was closing in, fear filled every breathe I took, anxiety was paralyzing, and hope, well there was none. No one knew of my helplessness and how death was closing in on me. I could see the fire and smell the smoke.
Then I cried out
I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
Psalm 40:1
Today when you give blood the Red Cross has an app that allows to trace the processing of the blood and where your blood ended up to be given to a someone in need.
A blood donor saved my life that day and I know His name, it was Jesus.
- My wreck was a life filled with sin, sin that would separate me forever from God.
- I was trapped in this life, in bondage, oblivious to the condition of my life, until the truth set me free.
- Everything was upside and contrary to God, it was confusing seeking what my heart wanted in the ways of man.
- Darkness ruled my life and made it impossible to find any purpose or meaning except my sin and my pursuit of sinful desires.
- Fear began to fill every breathe when I came to consider the what if of this life. What if I am not right before God.
- Anxiety over making a mistake paralyzed me, draining all strength and energy.
- Despair and death were constant companions.
- Fire and smoke were the reality of eternal life without God, the never ending pain of separation from God who I thought I was pleasing with my life.
I called upon the Lord
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Romans 10:13
A blood donor saved my life and His was the original red cross. Jesus’ blood redeemed my life from sin. He saved me from the wreck of my life. I now have a new heart, a new life, hope, and joy. I have been redeemed.
Give the gift of life to someone you love. Lead them to Jesus and see the miracle of redemption in their life. Yes I was in a wreck and my Blood Donor Jesus saved me when I was 12 years old.
First I want to thank every generation of people who have served to maintain freedom in this country from the founding fathers that risked everything to sign the Declaration of Independence and for every service person who has fought to keep us free through all generations. This year exercising their freedom, people march in the streets declaring f*** the 4th of July because of recent court decisions to restrict their rights to kill unborn babies and many who call themselves Christians side with them using various arguments based human reasoning with no sense of accountability to God.
What does it mean to be independent? Is it a complete autonomy from all authority? Scripture is clear that God ordains governments for the purpose for restraining evil in the hearts of people and we are to submit to the authorities. Laws are not intended to make people righteous and good but restrain evil. Adam and Eve tried to have complete independence from God with the serpents temptation.
Genesis 3:5
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
You will be like God and have complete independence from Him and all authority. So we live in a cursed world inheriting the sin of Adam, the sin of striving for self autonomy from God. Yet the responsibility falls back to us that we must submit to the authority of God, even our leaders until those leaders lead us away from God as they are today. Two days ago reading Psalm 2, I reflected on how this seems to be the way of our leaders today.
Psalm 2:1–12
1 Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”
As you see in this Psalm the condition of the leaders today they plot in vain, they led people astray with ideas that are not of God, they are all of the flesh, they counsel together, and they seek INDEPENDENCE (bursting the bonds) from God. They do so with ideas of autonomy, privacy, and all human reason to justify murdering babies, irresponsible living, dependence on the government, and all forms of sexual immorality. They strive to make themselves gods. All leaders throughout history as recorded in scripture have come to know God as He asserts his power and authority over them, the Egyptians, the Philistines, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Romans, and today it is our current political leaders in this country that seeks to break their bondage from God. Kings and rulers of the past were not successful usurping God’s authority and neither will our current leaders be in breaking God’s right to rule and reign His creation.
Let’s pray as believers in God, not for a country of Independents but a country of Dependents declaring our dependence on God and in doing so we will be set free from the bondage of the world and sin. Let us in obedience to God love those that reject Him because Christ loved us in our disobedience to lead us to the Cross and salvation. So we should pray for them. Let us pray for the one righteous King who will return one day to establish a holy and perfect government for all of eternity. Our own King Jesus.
Happy Dependence Day, celebrate your freedom in Christ today as you declare your dependence on him.
Nehemiah 8:10b
10 …. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
There are many reasons to be grieved in life. There are personal reasons and there is always the concerns of the world and daily life. All of these deprive us of strength by depleting our joy. It is not the huge major catastrophic events of life that sweep away our strength. It is the continual small leaks that left unattended rob us of the source of our strength. The source of our strength is joy. Not simply happiness but beyond happiness and our joy in Jesus. Jesus said, “11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11).
These small leaks must be attended to before we are depleted of all strength, we must shore up our life to be seeking and living in the joy of the Lord. It is like an oil leak in an engine there are just a few drops, and then a few more, and unattended soon the engine has no oil and will seize losing all power.
Keep an eye on your dipstick, keep your life filled with the joy of the Lord no matter what may grieve you, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). He is the source of lasting joy in this life and the eternal joy when we transition to our new life. May the joy of the Lord be your strength for today.
Stay hungry!
Matthew 5:6
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
We all want a world where everything is good and right, where there is no evil and no sadness. There are few that love the darkness of unrighteousness. However, we spend a lot of time standing at the edge of that darkness looking upon. The world has many trappings that decorate the darkness and make it look like the light and so many will develop an appetite for the darkness, an acceptance of some of the darkness in their life.
When we seek to satisfy our appetite for righteousness in our life and feed our soul on the food from the darkness, we starve our soul. The food of the darkness has no nutritional value for the spirit of mankind. The spirit will wither and become weak.
The only food that will satisfy the soul, which will quench the thirst, and appease the appetite is the food of God. Seeking God’s righteousness, His truth, His promises, and principles for life are the food that satisfies. God will always leave us with a little hunger and thirst to motivate us to seek Him and draw nearer to Him. Let God feed you a lunch bite today and be satisfied as He opens His hand to feed you today.
Matthew 22:36–38
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.
We are what we do. God has given us this commandment to devote our time and our life to because if we practice loving God with our whole being then not only will our life change but the world around us will change. The world needs to see God’s people living out there first love and devotion because we become what we do. We become compassionate, patient, steadfast, and strong in the face of all the opposition of the evil in the world. They will see the perfection of God in our life. They will see us standing amid tragedy filled with hope and a soul that is at peace.
God did not say to love him simply because he can and simply because he is sovereign. God said devote your life to loving me and you will see a change in your life. We become what we do. Are there times when we do not understand all the ways of God? Absolutely! We are not God but that should not hinder our pursuit or practice of loving God. God has given us far more reasons to pursue loving Him than there are for doubting Him. Commit to loving God with your feelings, with your spirit, and with your thinking and you will find a better person emerging. Like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon.
2 Peter 1:19
19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,
Have you ever stood in a sunrise? It really is amazing to wait in the darkness facing east, the skies begin to lighten, if there are a few clouds in the east the sunrise will be announced by an explosion of oranges and reds. This is usually the coldest part of the night as if the night is waging one last battle to rule the day. This cold stirs in our heart the need we have for the morning star our Sun to cast away the darkness, to be victorious over the night, and thaw our frozen heart. Then as the Sun begins to rise first just a sliver and then suddenly as if by magic the glorious light floods the earth, and we are warmed standing in the Sunrise.
There is another Son rise. One that is far more important than the physical sunrise, this one touches the human soul. This Son rise causes the darkness of our soul, our troubles, and our tragedies to flee. This Son rise can change stone cold hearts into warm and loving hearts filled by the Son with love to share with all. The day is dawning, and the Son is ready to rise in your life either for the first time as one turns from the darkness of sin to begin a new day and a new life or as one faithfully following the Son seeking to stand in the true Son rise.
Will the Star of your day be the one true “Morning Star,” Christ Jesus or will sin entangle you today? Will the darkness of your sin win and freeze your heart from the love of God? If it is your first Son rise or your thousandth Son rise, we must turn from the darkness into the glorious light, turning away from our sin, and become the lamp the Son will use to destroy the darkness in other’s lives. Let Jesus be the Star as you start your day.
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