through (3)

HE WILL SPEAK THROUGH YOU

This week a teenage boy who attends our church and six other young people were in a roll over car accident. Three of the children, including the boy from our church, are in critical condition. The father of that boy gathered the families of those kids and asked our pastor to come speak to them all. He shared this in our Sunday worship. He mentioned Job's friends sitting with Job in silence for seven days, and said there are some situations where no words are sufficient. He asked us to pray for him as he was to speak to them because if God does not speak to the families, he we wouldn't have anything to say.

Thank God that He does speak through us from time to time. I recently listened to Ravi Zacharias tell of multiple times when God spoke through him and he had not thought beforehand about what he said. But God does not just speak through preachers.

Hebrews 1 reminds us that in the past God spoke through prophets at many times and in various ways. But God does not just speak through prophets.

I want to be the best writer I could ever be. I would like to be smart, even wise. And I would not mind being a popular writer. But more than any of these things, I would like God Himself to speak through me, at least from time to time.

I don't wish to stomp my foot here, but I do have some thoughts about this. We need a humility that recognizes that we have our greatest impact when God speaks through us. I believe it is dangerous, especially when we write, to tell people God spoke through me. But I should be able to quietly give thanks when I realize that He has spoken through something I wrote.

God must decide when and if He speaks through us, but I think it is important to realize that He may choose to do that. And that realization should lead me to ask Him to do just that. I am not sure I shouldn't regularly ask Him to speak through me.

What about writing something that isn't about God at all? I have written a number of stories about other things that interest me. I think God can speak quietly about character or truth or any number of other things through stories that are not so in people's faces. Tolkien used to say he was creating an “evangelicum” in his writings. His imaginary histories don't have a trace of the gospel, but he deals with deep issues of life. If God chooses, He can touch the lives of readers through much lighter fare than The Lord of The Rings.

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/

http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/

http://daveswatch.com/

 

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DAYS 1-28 FOUND HERE

DAY TWENTY NINE:
VERSES:
" Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren"....Deuteronomy 4:9
PRAYER
Father%2Breading%2Bto%2Bhis%2Bchildren.jpg
Oh most merciful and loving God in Heaven, we worship You in spirit and in truth and in gratitude for Who You are and What You have done. We have seen Your Hands, the Work of Your Hands, the Wonder of Your Love and the Grace from Your Heart, as the winter of our discontent, the wickedness of our hearts and the wandering lost nature of our souls were rescued from sin, death and hell. You did that, oh Lord. We are living proof, I am living proof, of the unseen Hand of God, Whose Arm is never too short, to reach into the depths of depravity and despair and pull us out by the root to replant us in the Garden of Grace.
 
We know, in every fiber of our very being, what You have done in protecting us from danger, keeping us from falling and from the wolves and sure death out there as the angels You sent, kept us from "dashing our foot up against a stone". Father, I remember those days. I remember the fields of dirt, thirst and hopelessness You took me out of....just like You took the little shepherd boy away from the flocks who slew great giants and became king David of Israel. As Your Faithful servant, meek yet strong, Moses urged all believers for all times, I purpose to "take heed" and wear Your salvation of my soul on my sleeve that others may gain. I take particular, punctilious, painstaking, rigorous, care in, as Your Apostle Paul says "working out" that salvation....not to be "saved again" but to build on what You have given me, in Grace through Faith, to a daily maturing in that Faith....in the spirit of boldness, power, love and a sound mind!
 
It is only by staying, abiding and walking close to You, Abba Father, that I can be, that we can be, of any use to the Kingdom of Your Great Son, King Jesus the Lord of Heaven's Armies and the real Commander in Chief of the world! It is only by constant prayer, intercession, and letting the Word of God, the Bible richly dwelling in us day after day, month after month, year after year,  that Your servants can be effective in leaving a legacy of Lordship not just to our children from their birth to their maturity, but from their teenage years until they themselves become parents and then, if we are blessed with clarity of mind and good old age, we too can share what God, through Christ has done for us.  Lord, give us this day, not just our daily bread, but the daily power, strength, boldness, discernment and wisdom to execute every statute You laid out in this Scripture from this verse above, so that we will be able to do just as You commanded,  to not just leave but LIVE a legacy of love, and the Knowledge of the Goodness and Wonderful Works of our Lord, to those whom we will one day temporarily leave behind. We ask this in the Precious Name above all names - Jesus, our Lord, amen.
Holy Bible, Book Divine
Precious Treasure, Thou art mine!!!
Amen
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Wise Words About Prayer

R.A.Torrey was a pastor and evangelist in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  Early in his service to the Lord, he joined with D.L. Moody and soon was evangelizing around the world.  Some say that God brought over 100,000 souls to faith in Jesus through Torrey's evangelistic ministry.

Torrey longed for more Christian workers to take an active part in bringing the message of salvation through Christ to a lost and dying world.  His straightforward style of evangelism has shown thousands of Christian workers how to become effective soul winners. (R.A. Torrey on the Christian Life, pg. 984)

He shares some wise, and pertinent, advice regarding prayer in our daily lives:


“Oh, men and women, pray through; pray through! Do not just begin to pray and pray a little while and throw up your hands and quit; but pray and pray and pray until God bends the heavens and comes down.”


Before a word of petition (a prayerful request) is offered, we should have the definite and vivid consciousness that we are talking to God, and should believe that He is listening to our petition and is going to grant the things that we ask of Him. We should look to the Holy Spirit to really lead us into the presence of God and should not be hasty in words until He has actually brought us there.


The first quote points us towards Paul's words in 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Pray without ceasing.  It's far more than coming up with things to pray about to fill a set aside amount of time in prayer.  It's persisting in prayer (worship-based prayer, prayers of thanksgiving, requests, and more) until we recognize God's presence.  Then, once we've prayed to that point, continue further in prayer.

Torrey's second quote speaks for itself.

Our lives, our relationships with God and others, and our world, are changed as we pray; if we'll pray.

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