Category Archives: Prayer

Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day

patrick

In honor of the great missionary and pastor, commonly known as “St. Patrick”, I would like to encourage you all to take a moment sometime today and read about his life. Below are a few articles to choose from, but I highly recommend the one by Mark Driscoll called Vintage Saints: Saint Patrick. Here is an excerpt from that article:

Technically, Saint Patrick is not even a saint, as he was never canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. Additionally, Patrick was not even Irish. Rather, he was an Englishman who was a Roman citizen that spoke Latin and a bit of Welsh.

Patrick was born around 390 A.D. When he was roughly 16 years of age he was captured by pirates and taken to Ireland on a ship where he was sold into slavery. He spent the next six years alone in the wilderness as a shepherd for his masters’ cattle and sheep. [Continue Reading…]

Here are the other articles:

Ten Things to Keep in Mind After the Election

Here are some helpful thoughts from Doug Wilson about how Christians should respond to the election of Barack Obama.

1. God is still Father, Christ is still at His right hand, and the Holy Spirit is still abroad in the world, recreating that world according to the image of Christ. When the nations conspire against Him, He laughs at them.

2. The most important thing we can do for our nation, and for the world around us, is to gather for worship every Lord’s Day. The privilege of voting in presidential elections comes to us every four years, while we are graced with the opportunity to take the Lord’s Supper week to week. Right worship reforms the Church, and is therefore God’s central instrument for remaking the world. For this reason, we must insist on worship that is in accordance with Scripture. Judgment begins with the household of God. Our generation is fatherless. In the power of the Spirit, in the name of the Son, we must therefore worship the Father.

3. The first and greatest command is to love God, and the second is to love our neighbor. When the question arises, as it will, as to who is our neighbor, a good policy is to always begin with the smallest, the least, the most defenseless. Never apologize for a crawl-over-broken-glass pro-life stance. Live in such a life-affirming way as to expect apologies from those who would redefine the lives of others (always the lives of others, isn’t it?) into expendible insignificance.

4. Honor women. Honor your mother, your wife, and your daughters. We live in a culture that despises women, and which has engineered a vast machinery of propaganda designed to get them to surrender to it. If you don’t know how to honor, on a day-to-day basis, the women in your life, then learn. Make it a priority.

5. Don’t doubt in the dark what you knew in the light. The late Francis Schaeffer taught evangelical Christians to think like Christians as they engaged with unbelief in the public square. But a goodly number of his proteges, disciples, and name-appropriators have begun to “engage with the culture” in a way that looks more like going native than it looks like missionary work. Melancthons fall apart more rapidly than they used to. Get used to it, but don’t you do it.

6. While pro-life work is at the very center of all mercy ministry, it should not be allowed to distract from the broader kind of mercy ministry that offers gospel help to those who have contributed to their own misery — addicts, convicts, the uneducated and the unemployable. Such mercy ministry must be consistently tenderhearted and hardheaded. Sentimentalists are never able to give themselves away in the ongoing way that bleeding (but thinking) Christians must.

7. Learn something about economics. Please.

Continue reading Ten Things to Keep in Mind After the Election

Free Audiobook of the Month – November

Free Audiobook of the Month:
Calvin: Of Prayer and The Christian Life

Prayer as Calvin describes it is not giddy, and he goes on to give Scriptural definitions of proper thought, engagement, and attitude. What do the roles of patience and self-denial play in the role of the Christian life and what does Christian piety look like? What should our views be of the present life and the future life? These two sections of The Institutes guide us ever so thoughtfully and gracefully into his theology and practice of Christian living.

Just use the coupon code NOV2008 during checkout. Add the download format of Calvin: Of Prayer and The Christian Life to your cart and then enter the coupon code NOV2008 when prompted during checkout.

Honor the President

I would like to point everyone to some very good posts that came out yesterday on election day regarding how we, as Christians, are to respond to the new President. Justin Taylor says:

With Ohio being called for Senator Obama, it appears that he will be our next President.

It’s very easy to forget–especially for those of us who are on the younger side–that it was only a little over 40 years ago that there were Jim Crow laws in the US. Just a generation ago, many African Americans were segregated from whites in public schools, transportation, restrooms, and restaurants.

Tonight, the United States has elected a biracial man to serve as its leader.

It would be an understatement to call this a watershed cultural moment in our country’s history.

No matter who you voted for–or whether you voted at all–it’s important to remember that, as President, Barack Obama will have God-given authority to govern us, and that we should view him as a servant of God (Rom. 13:1, 4) to whom we should be subject (Rom. 13:1, 5; 1 Pet. 2:13-14).

There are many qualifications to add to these exhortations–for example, see this excellent post by John Piper–but it’s still important to remember that these are requirements for all Bible-believing Christians.

John Piper Says:

How does the Bible instruct us to pray for “all who are in high positions”? It says,

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1Timothy 2:1-4).

A few observations:

1. Giving thanks “for kings” is hard when they are evil.

And, as Calvin said on this passage, “All the magistrates of that time were sworn enemies of Christ.” This shows us that anarchy is a horrible alternative to almost any ruler.

We should give thanks for rulers because “non-rule” would unleash on us utterly unbridled evil with no recourse whatever.

Again Calvin: “Unless they restrained the boldness of wicked men, the whole world would be full of robberies and murders.” The better we understand the seething evil of the human heart that is ready to break out where there is no restraint, the more thankful we will be for government.

2. The effect we pray for is “that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly, and dignified in every way.”

Dignified means “serious and reverent,” not stuffy. I suspect what Paul means is not that we can’t live godly and serious lives during times of anarchy. We can. I suspect he means that peaceful and quiet lives, which are the opposite of anarchy, are often wasted in ungodly and frivolous actions.

So he is praying for a government that would give peace and quiet (not anarchy), and that Christians would not fritter away their peaceful lives with the world, but would be radically godly and serious about the lost condition of the world and how to change it.

3. Using our peace for radical godliness and serious action will lead to more effective evangelism and world missions.

This last observation is confirmed by the hoped-for outcome Paul mentions. Paul says that the reason God delights in such peaceful, Godward, serious action is that he “desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

More people will be saved if our government restrains the horrors of anarchy, and if Christians use this peace not to waste their lives on endless entertainment, but seriously give their lives to making God known.

A Sevenfold Prayer

Pray this prayer today. It is a modified form of the sevenfold prayer of the baptismal life found in the Book of Common Prayer.

Deliver me, Lord, from the way of sin and death.
Open my heart to your grace and truth.
Fill me with your holy and life-giving Spirit.
Keep me in the faith and communion of your holy Church.
Teach me to love others in the power of the Spirit.
Send me into the world in witness to your love.
Bring me to the fullness of your peace and glory.

Here is the original with the structured liturgy of the BCP:

Leader Deliver them, O Lord, from the way of sin and death.
People Lord, hear our prayer.

Leader Open their hearts to your grace and truth.
People Lord, hear our prayer.

Leader Fill them with your holy and life-giving Spirit.
People Lord, hear our prayer.

Leader Keep them in the faith and communion of your holy Church.
People Lord, hear our prayer.

Leader Teach them to love others in the power of the Spirit.
People Lord, hear our prayer.

Leader Send them into the world in witness to your love.
People Lord, hear our prayer.

Leader Bring them to the fullness of your peace and glory.
People Lord, hear our prayer.

The Celebrant says

Grant, O Lord, that all who are baptized into the death of Jesus Christ your Son may live in the power of his resurrection and look for him to come again in glory; who lives and reigns now and forever. Amen.

One order of sin please, hell on the side

This is essentially what Canada thinks they are asking for here. But, on the contrary, within a few years the wrath of God will be completely revealed on this nation unless God miraculously shows them mercy. Please pray for the children of Canada and the wicked indoctrination being forced upon them and their parents. May God do His will.

Romans 1:18,26-27,32: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Excerpt:

The Vancouver board of education says it plans to enforce a ministry policy that prevents parents from pulling students out of classes that deal with alternative sexuality.

A recent staff recommendation from the Vancouver board of education says parents can pull their children out of sensitive lessons in health classes because of religious or family beliefs, but can’t opt their children out of gay-friendly lessons in any other classes.

The recommendation, released Friday, sets out detailed guidelines and procedures the district intends to distribute to schools. (more…)

Canadian Government tells pastor to renounce Christ or else

Government to pastor: Renounce your faith!
Now banned from expressing moral opposition to homosexuality

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A Canadian human rights tribunal ordered a Christian pastor to renounce his faith and never again express moral opposition to homosexuality, according to a new report.

In a decision dated May 30 in the penalty phase of the quasi-judicial proceedings run by the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal, evangelical pastor Stephen Boisson was banned from expressing his biblical perspective of homosexuality and ordered to pay $5,000 for “damages for pain and suffering” as well as apologize to the activist who complained of being hurt.

According to a report from Pete Vere at the Catholic Exchange, the penalty could foreshadow the possible fate of the Rev. Alphonse de Valk, who also cited the biblical perspective on homosexuality in the nation’s debate over same-sex “marriage” and now faces HRC charges.

Boisson wrote a letter to the editor of his local Red Deer, Alberta, newspaper in 2002 denouncing the advance of homosexual activism as “wicked” and stating: “Children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights.”

(continue reading…)

ChristianAudio.com Free Audiobook – February

ChristianAudio.com has sent out info on this months free audiobook. Here are the details below:

How to Pray

Free Download of How To Pray

How to Pray is a gripping call to prayer read in an enlivening style. Pastor, educator, evangelist, and author R.A. Torrey delivers a no-nonsense handbook for praying correctly and receiving answers from God. The book is full of examples, stories, and anecdotes that inwardly compel the listener to pray heartily. Topics covered include the importance of prayer, praying in the Spirit, constancy in prayer, and hindrances to prayer.

Just add the Download Format of How To Pray to your cart and then enter the coupon code FEB2008 during checkout.

Our Price: $0.00
List Price: $12.98

Merry Christmas!

May the Lord bless you all as you celebrate the joy and wonder of the birth of His only begotten Son, full of passion, truth, and love! To God be all the glory and, on earth, may peace and happiness be upon all those with whom God is pleased because of His Son, Jesus, the Messiah!

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, almighty!

In Christ and In Defense of the Faith,