"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:  that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of them are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, and to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born."

The gospel is not something that wise men thought about and conceived through eons of time. It is the good news of Jesus. And the witness of the gospel is essential. Hundreds of people saw Him alive, followers, enemies, family, and strangers. To this day people say Jesus has forgiven me. He has embraced me with the gospel of His love and grace. He is alive! I have experienced Him in my life too.

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/

http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/

http://daveswatch.com/

As we were landing recently, the airplane’s Captain came on the intercom and said, "We know you have a choice in airlines, and we want to thank you for flying Delta Connection... excuse me, American Eagle."  My first serious thought following this gaffe was, while it is good to know your destination, it is likewise good to know some details about the journey. I was fortunate to be raised by a pastor-father, and a missions-called-mother, who not only made sure I was ultimately headed to heaven, but also made sure, I understood important things about the journey. Primary to this learning was the importance of continual communication with God through prayer. I was taught that God was the only one who could adequately “direct” my paths (Proverbs 3:6).  When I was tempted to walk “in the council of the ungodly” (Psalm 1:1),” I needed assistance.  I did not need someone to wish me “good thoughts” or “send prayer” my way, but I did need partners interceding for me to God, and God responding by showing me the way, for “indeed, difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:14).  So when your way grows difficult, and your feet falter, you have a choice.  Your best choice is to call on God, who knows both your destination and the way to get you there.

It’s time for grandparent warriors to raise a shout and carry the light of Christ to our grandchildren. It’s time we utilize the greatest weapon in our arsenal; it’s time we exercise the Power of Prayer!

Grandparents are in a spiritual battle for the lives of the next generation; however, the battle isn't ours, it is the Lords. The way to walk through this struggle is to tightly grip the hand of Jesus and stay in close communication with him. Only as we release our concerns for our grandchildren to Him are we free to cling to His hand. We cannot grab his hand when our hands are full of our worries and concerns, only when our hands are empty can we tightly hold His hand. 

The enemy wants to disintegrate and divide our families, rendering them chaotic, restless and unfruitful. Grandparents let’s not let the enemy distract us or dull our desires to pray for our grandchildren and their parents intentionally. Prayer is our best weapon to defeat the enemy. 

I believe it’s our place as grandparents to get on our knees, humble ourselves, seek God’s face, repent of our sin, and intercede for our grandchildren, their parents and our nations. Then having done all, we stand firm in our faith that God has heard and will answer our prayers according to His will. 

"Do not be afraid or discouraged . . . .

For the battle is not yours but Gods."

II Chronicles 20:15

This struggle with the enemy is why Christian Grandparenting Network (CGN) is proclaiming the National Grandparents’ Day on September 10 as a Grandparents’ Day of Prayer. We believe the battle for the hearts and minds of our precious grandchildren and their parents will be victorious with praying grandparents who sense the urgency and the need to unite in prayer. 

Will you help us call grandparents to join in prayer on September 10? This event could be in your church, in your home, in a retirement complex, or any meeting location you choose. CGN will provide step-by-step guidelines, resources, and online tools to help you create a successful event that will engage grandparents in prayer for your event. 

Check out this website for blogs, endorsements, testimonials and promotional materials and free downloads. www.grandparentsdayofprayer.com

For additional information, contact the Prayer Directors

Lillian Penner  lpenner@christiangrandparenting.net

Sherry Schumann,  sherry@christiangrandparenting.net

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance. -Psalm 33:12

May nations in the Arabian Peninsula bow their knees to Christ so that they would receive the precious blessings that He is eager to pour out upon them in gracious abundance!

A prayer from a local sister. Let us join her in prayer...

We pray for the people of Saudi Arabia. We pray that God would guide them and give peace between us and other countries. We also pray that He would help the poor countries that need support, especially those countries with sickness and lack of food.

"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures."

Have you ever had a doctor tell you, you are going to die? I have. And I cannot fully explain the sensation. But whether there are enough evidences of the imminence of your death to alert your doctor or not, you are going to die.

Death is indeed a dark prospect. I suspect most of you have walked away from the graveside of a loved one, and sensed its empty sadness clinging to you.

That is one of the reasons the death and even the burial of Jesus is part of the gospel. He went through that ordeal with us and for us. And against all nature, and as far as we knew, all possibility, He rose from the dead, giving great credence to the promise of our resurrection. We will indeed shout, "Death, where is your sting!" Because of the gospel death will not have final victory over us.

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/

http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/

http://daveswatch.com/

Continue to look with me at this powerful passage from Habakkuk 2. Verse 2 reads,

“Then the LORD replied: Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.”

Let's focus on two applications of this verse;

The Foundation of Writing

                    and

The Purpose of Writing

It stretches metaphor to say the foundation of our writing is from above. But I think you get the point here. When you are in fellowship with God you will see the same things you saw before, but you will see them from the rock of God's perspective. You may write about a dysfunctional home, but you will see it through the weeping eyes of God who loves them. And behind your words will be the knowledge of how it should be. You may write about a good elderly woman but you will not be blind to flaws in even the best person's character.

And notice that God tells us to write to affect the lives of people. We are to make what we write plain. You are writing for people to understand, not to impress them. I have read books that the authors admitted  were written to help them work through a trauma. But those books were only good, or readable for that matter, if truth could be applied to the reader. The purpose of our writing is to make truth known to as many people as possible.

God' truth is the foundation of our writing. And people are the target of our words.

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/

http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/

http://daveswatch.com/

If you have read my blogs and Facebook postings I am sure you have noticed that I am passionate about praying for my grandchildren in my writings. I recognize the critical moral and spiritual environment my grandchildren must navigate in a world hostile to truth.

Recently Franklin Graham wrote, "Our nation is in serious trouble—we are in desperate need of Divine intervention. We need healing. Prayer is what can make a difference in America."

Our grandchildren are growing up in a world that is not friendly to our faith in God. However, I feel God has given grandparents a sacred trust and a responsibility to imprint the next generation with His faithfulness. That is why we at Christian Grandparenting Network are calling grandparents worldwide to unite in prayer by participating in the Million Praying Grandparents campaign. Let us come to God with boldness and confidence praying for the environment our grandchildren and great-grandchildren are growing up today.

 You may ask, "What is the Million Praying Grandparents movement?" Million Praying Grandparents (MPG) is an imitative mobilizing Christian grandparents worldwide to regularly and intentionally unite in prayer for their grandchildren, families, and the influences in their grandchildren's lives.

Some of you may have already signed up to join in prayer with the Million Praying Grandparents movement. However, if you have not already signed up, will you, please sign up to participate for the sake of the hearts, minds, and souls of your grandchildren.

Will you say, "Yes! I will be one of the Million Praying Grandparents uniting in prayer." Click on www.millionprayinggrandparents.com to sign up to participate in the movement.

When you join the Million Praying Grandparents, you will receive a FREE Prayer Guide of "Scriptures to Pray" designed to help you pray for your grandchildren.  Would you help us promote the Million Praying Grandparents initiative by sharing this post with your friends on social media and "like" its fan page? https://www.facebook.com/GrandparentDayOfPrayer

If you have any questions, email me

Lillian Penner lpenner@christiangrandparenting.net.

Or Sherry Schumann sherry@christiangrandparenting.net

Co-Prayer Directors for Christian Grandparenting Network

Also if you subscribe for email updates each week with grandparenting resources on this website, I will send you a Free Printable PDF copy of "Scriptures to Pray for Grandchildren."

WILL YOU DO ME A FAVOR? If you found this post useful, will you share it with a friend, especially another grandparent? Thank you!

The priests in the Old Testament were assigned, as were the Levites, to cities. They were required to live there. Priestly ministry was never confined exclusively to the temple. Priests were not to become other worldly. Ray Bakke, sociologist and missiologist, says that twenty-five types of urban ministry can be found in the historical books of the Old Testament, and they were carried on by the priests. They were agents of health care, there to eradicate plagues and to certify cleanliness for the good of all. They were charged with maintaining corporate conditions in the city that made life safe. They were charged with pastoral care. They looked after families. They were educators. Their ministry was no narrow ministry focused only on soul care.^[1] Through the priests, prayer and care came together. Their walk with God and their daily interaction with people made them social change advocates and agents. They were in the community, walking the streets, not salt in a salt box!

The average church is completely unaware of the city-social environment around it. In fact, we disconnect the church from the city in stark ways. When Rusty Dotson pastored an inner city church in St. Louis, his facility was at the heart of the city-wide gay festival. Thousands passed by his empty and dark facility. The city was at his doorstep and the church was closed. He decided that if any such opportunity came again, the lights of the church would be on and the doors open. When the festival took place the next year, his church offered free food and drinks. They entered a float in the “gay pride parade.” They advertised themselves as the church “that would leave the light on for you.” As the float made its way through the animated crowd, church members waved and smiled. Three television stations were covering the parade and it was being syndicated across the nation as well. When Pastor Dotson’s float was in front of the reviewing stand and live on television the church van pulling the float caught on fire. The parade was halted. Parade officials were frustrated. There was little for the television anchors to do but talk about “the church that kept the lights on!” They had to ponder the question as to why an evangelical church would participate in a gay pride parade. The answer was both awkward and obvious. It was a message of God’s love and grace, a refusal to be excluded.

The harvest around us, passes our empty buildings. In one depressed and drug-infested section of Miami, intercessors discovered fourteen church buildings. Only two had any activity at all Monday through Saturday. One had an office open a few days a week to serve the needs of its members. The church had a base for ministry in a need saturated area, but it was unengaged. Most telling was the discovery that drug dealers preferred the parking lots and alcoves of the abandoned church buildings for drug deals. The absence of light gave place to the darkness.

Cities lead nations! They have a ‘prophetic’ quality about them. We see the city as bricks and mortar, asphalt and concrete pathways. In truth, every city is spiritually alive with a unique personality and purpose. The Biblical idea of ‘nation’ is not primarily a geographically bounded region, but a distinctive ‘people group – an ethnic and kinship network.’ We have not finished our obligation to heaven until we are praying for every tongue and tribe, every kinship group – then in love, making of them disciples.

• This blog is an excerpt for the newly released The Praying Church Handbook – Volume IV – Intercessory Prayer and Mission. Purchase today>
  
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P. Douglas Small is founder and president of Alive Ministries: PROJECT PRAY and he serves in conjunction with a number of other organizations. He is also the creator of the Praying Church Movement and the Prayer Trainer’s Network. However, all views expressed are his own and not the official position of any organization.

^[1]       Ibid, 69.

Pray for 20-year-old Fouzi. His mother came from a Christian Arab background but later converted to Islam.  Nevertheless, this background made Fouzi more open in listening to the gospel from his Christian professor. The friendship continues. Pray that the realization of needing a Savior will sink deeply into Fouzi's heart.

A rising number of people have recently been asking Christian workers about the Christian faith, and deep spiritual conversations with back-and-forth dialogue and listening. Please pray that the conversations lead to fruit.