December 18, 2020

 2021 A Calendar filled with prayer and Praise!

Next year we will fill this space with prayer and praise. 

Why pray? What are we doing when we pray? Why take the time to do it. Luke writes that the disciples noticed Jesus praying. 

"One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples." 

He said to them, 

"When you pray, say, 

Father (Who Art in Heaven)

(God is our Father; we address him as Father)

• creator
• head
• Leader
• God

Hallowed be your name, 

Open up your prayers by Blessing his name. Honor his name. His name is holy and consecrated. Call his name. He is a loving father, a patience father. We have a 100 ways to bless his name. 

• never use it vainly
• never attached it to disrespect
• or treat it as common
• a name calls a specific person
• once you call him bless him. 

Why Pray?

Your Kingdom Come!

We pray because we want his kingdom to come. What is the kingdom? It is peace, righteousness, joy, in the Holy Spirit. It resides inside of us. 

Basically we are asking God to let your righteousness come to us.

Let your Kingdom come to me!

"Give us this day our daily bread"

• We live by daily bread (his word) (his directions) (His peace)
• I like to see it as God gives us faith for today. He does not deal with tomorrow. 
• He gives daily light.

"Forgive us our sins"

We sin and don't know it. Once we call him and bless him and ask for his guidance (daily bread) then our sin pops up. But Jesus Christ has made atonement so we pray Father forgive our sins and help me  overcome them instead of them overcoming me. 

As you forgive us we will forgive those who trespass against us. 

People who disrespect your name.

People who destroy and hurt others.

and those that mistreat us.

Because it is impossible to be forgiven and then you say, I cannot forgive others. It means that you really don't understand how much your sin cost God. If you could grasp how much he forgave us; we would have no problem forgiving others. When we think self righteously, "I am so great," it is hard to forgive others because we think we are not bad. But when we know we have been forgiven much or until he opens ones eyes to see it.....they may struggle to forgive others. Those who are forgiven much.... love much. They extend it freely because they know they were forgiven much and it is a blessing to forgive.  Those forgiven a little...... love a little. So if you think you are so great and didn't need to be forgiven much this is how you see others.  In our minds other people are so awful and we are so great. What a great big lie.

Praise him

Psalms 150:6

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord, 

1. Praise him in his sanctuary

2. Praise him in his mighty heavens

3. praise him for his acts of power, 

4. Praise him for his surpassing greatness

5. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet

6. Praise him with the timbrel and dancing

7. Praise him with the clash of cymbals

Praise him today!

Jeremiah 47

A Message about Philistia

 This is the Lord’s message to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the Philistines of Gaza, before it was captured by the Egyptian army.  This is what the Lord says:

“A flood is coming from the north

    to overflow the land.

It will destroy the land and everything in it—

    cities and people alike.

People will scream in terror,

    and everyone in the land will wail.

Hear the clatter of stallions’ hooves

    and the rumble of wheels as the chariots rush by.

Terrified fathers run madly,

    without a backward glance at their helpless children.

“The time has come for the Philistines to be destroyed,

    along with their allies from Tyre and Sidon.

Yes, the Lord is destroying the remnant of the Philistines,

    those colonists from the island of Crete.

 Gaza will be humiliated, its head shaved bald;

    Ashkelon will lie silent.

You remnant from the Mediterranean coast,

    how long will you cut yourselves in mourning?

 “Now, O sword of the Lord,

    when will you be at rest again?

Go back into your sheath;

    rest and be still.

 “But how can it be still

    when the Lord has sent it on a mission?

For the city of Ashkelon

    and the people living along the sea

    must be destroyed.”

Have a great day!