Date: 11/17/2009
Author: Devin
Title: Prayer
“Knowing that intercessory prayer is our mightiest weapon and the supreme call for all Christians today, I pleadingly urge our people everywhere to pray. Believing that prayer is the greatest contribution that our people can make in this critical hour, I humbly urge that we take time to pray--to really pray. Let there be prayer at sunup, at noonday, at sundown, at midnight--all through the day. Let us all pray for our children, our youth, our aged, our pastors, our homes. Let us pray for our churches. Let us pray for ourselves, that we may not lose the word 'concern' out of our Christian vocabulary. Let us pray for our ere, for our national leaders. Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice.” nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and redeeming love, for moral forces everywh
Robert E. Lee.
Healthy communication is the common thread in any good relationship ..... be it between mortals or the God who created them. The thought of prayer as communication with God is mentioned in one form or another over 400 times in the Bible. One of the greatest gifts given to mankind is the opportunity to have regular dialogue with the Creator of the universe. It is an awesome realization when our conscience accepts the fact that our heavenly Father hears every word uttered on bended knee regardless of the time of day or the circumstance of life.
It was such a blessing to hear the testimony of Johnathan Horner Sunday evening. This young man showed a great amount of courage as he told of the difficulties in his life. One of the things Johnathan mentioned was the fact that he appreciated his Fairfield family and all the prayers that had been said on his behalf. Johnathan acknowledges in his own life that James was right when he wrote, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective”. (James 5:16) Those powerful, effective prayers have been pushing the life wagon of Johnathan for quite some time and will certainly continue to do that as we pray for he and his family on a daily basis.
In last weeks bulletin, I recanted a story, as I understood it, about my late mother-in-law, Laverne Burton, and her struggle with cancer. After the bulletin was mailed out, I was made aware that my information was not completely accurate regarding her being anointed with oil by the elders of her congregation. In fact, Mrs. Burton was never anointed with oil. I know that I can safely say without concern of being in error that Angie's mom did live several years beyond what her doctors said she would. Furthermore, it is also safe to say that Ms. Laverne's family does believe that it was through a tremendous amount of continual prayer that God enabled her to live as long as she did. Keep in mind, all this happened after Mrs. Burton had petitioned God to allow her to live long enough to get Angie raised, which is exactly what transpired. As I mentioned in my most recent article, whether anointed or not, James says that it is the “prayer offered in faith” (Chp 5:15) that will “make the sick person well.” By the way, I had another boo-boo in the article as well. I referenced James 2:14 when it should have been James 5:14. For both of these errors I apologize. Hard as we try, sometimes things just don't go according to plan or intent ..... which I guess is why Jesus died. Thank you Jesus.
Go the extra mile - Devin