Days Journey

As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent Me. Night is coming when no one can work. (John 9:4)

“Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger men, do not pray for tasks equal to your power, pray for power equal to your tasks!”

–Phillip Brooks

Hi All,

My wife works with a family that has run into extreme medical situations. The mom and daughter work with my wife. The mom and son-in-law both have cancer and the daughter has used up all of her time off to be at the hospital with her mom and husband. My wife’s boss is holding a benefit night to help the family offset medical and living expenses. The benefit is Sunday, Sept. 23rd at 6:30pm at Park Meadows Baptist Church in Waxahachie Tx. There will be Praise and Worship music, a bake sale, and a silent auction to help this family. Thank you for prayerful consideration of this event. Come out and be a part of this ministry opportunity!! For more information please call 972-345-8546.

btw: Church info:

Park Meadows Baptist Church
3350 North Highway 77
Waxahachie TX 75165
972-937-0073

lordsprayerblog.doc

This excerpt is from a sermon by Dr. Wayne Poplin of Carmel Bapist Church.

As we begin to talk about worship, let’s start with a mind-boggling thought. As we consider our galaxy, just ours, a scientist suggested this analogy. Imagine a perfectly smooth glass pavement on which the finest speck can be seen. Then shrink our sun from 865,00 miles in diameter to only two feet and place a ball on the pavement to represent the sun. Step off 164 feet to represent proportionately the first planet, Mercury, and put down a tiny mustard seed. Go another 120 feet and for Venus put down a BB. Go about 156 feet further and put down a green pea representing earth. Step off about 216 feet and for Mars put down a pinhead. Sprinkle around some fine dust for the asteroids, then go about 1576 feet and put down an orange for Jupiter. After 2000 feet put down a golf ball for Saturn. Now—over 4000 feet, a marble for Uranus. Another 4700 feet and you get to Neptune. Put down a cherry. We have gone 2 ½ miles and haven’t even discussed Pluto. Now on a surface 5 miles across we have a seed, a BB, a pea, pinhead, some dust, an orange, golf ball, marble and a cherry. Guess how far we would have to go on this scale before we could put down another 2-foot ball to represent the nearest star? 6,720 miles before we would arrive at that star. Miles. And that is just the first star among millions in one galaxy. All of these bodies are perfectly synchronized and the most accurate timepiece known to man (Swindol, Come Before Winter, p. 294f.).

It is incredible for me to think that the creator of all that is, chose to step into our existence, on the green pea, and surrender Himself as a sacrifice for my sin! How can we not be consumed by His mercy and grace? To think, we have been invited into His presence to worship Him. Think back and remember the last time you truly worshiped the Lord. As we are created to bring glory and honour to God, His worship is the most important thing we can do. It is our worship of Him that prepares and enables us to do everything else in our lives. So as we worship, we are prepared, we display the character of our God, others are drawn to Him, and we worship, we are prepared, we display the character of our God, others are drawn to Him, and we worship…

How often do we truly encounter God in our worship?

In our day to day lives as we go about doing all the things we need to do for survival, it is easy for me to forget that I am really in the middle of a huge conflict. Things are going well, I get side tracked in everyday living, then theres a small bump in the road. I don’t think anything about it and then theres another one. Then another, and they begin to happen more frequently and its like the Lord has to push me to get my attention and I realize whats going on. Why do I have to get so sidetracked before I open my eyes and see?

We have been called to a warefare and as soldiers we need to be ever alert. There are only 4 positions in war:

• offensive
• defensive
• detente
• retreat

Satan is only concerened when we are in the offensive position. I think about all the talk in our society about tolerance and not wanting to force issues because it make others uncomfortable. We have followed Satan into the valley of Ono to seek detente. However, our enemy will never be satisfied with co-existance. We need to move from the reactionary (defensive) position and stop talking detente and launch a new offensive. Pauls battle language states that our “wrestling is”, not was or will be, but is a continuing factor in our lives as Christians. If we truly believe that we hold the truth… what are we doing?

Last night I watched a special on CNN with presidential candidates John Edwards, Barak Obama, and Hillary Clinton.  It was entitled “Faith and Politics.”  The just of the program was to gain insight into the “faith” of each candidate.   What struck me was the complete disconnect between the candidate’s “faith” and truth.  Their “faith”, or personal way of approaching God was pictured as completed unrelated to any sort of ultimate and universal truth.  Each candidate was asked what they pray for, but none were asked who they pray too.   They could be praying to themselves for all we know.

What bothered me was the complete ignorance of the problem - that is, the lack of debate on the issue of ultimate truth.  In other words, none of the candidates, the moderator, or the audiences members seemed interested in what the candiates actually believed.  Further, they were not interested in how their “faith” would influence their decision making.  The whole program could have been an instructional video on post-modernism.

Tonight the Republican candidates are up.  I’m looking for more of the same.

Back in college, one of my professor’s used to precede a quiz, test, or sometimes the last class before the weekend with the phrase, “sufficient class…sufficient!” It took us a month or so to figure out what he was talking about and we kind of thought he rather enjoyed being vague anyway.
All that good old Prof. Cooper was doing was quoting Jesus (Matt. 5-6) from the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, and the Lord’s Prayer (the Lord’s instruction to the Disciples on how to pray). The Lord said,

“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (KJV, see also NET Matt. 6:34 “So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.”)

Over the years, what he said in those classes comes back to me much more than it did when I was back in college. Then, I was only really worried about doing well on a quiz, a test, or knowing that I’d be working on exegesis papers all weekend and had to get them turned in the first of the following week. Today, it’s a completely different story. Life, health, family, work, the challenge of priorities, deadlines, and you name it all challenge me to take my worries to the Lord, but just deal with it one day at a time. If the Lord tells me “sufficient Kevin, sufficient unto the day!” then I need to take heed. Yes, life, health, family , work, priorities, deadlines, etc. are all important, and we do need to plan ahead and number our days, but we need to take our worry to the Lord and find His grace in our time of need.

So class, sufficient! sufficient!

I will praise Your name for Your love and Your faithfulness, for You have exalted Your Name and Your Word above all things!! (Psalm 138:2)

The doctrine of the Trinity. One of the more mystic and confusing doctrines of the Christian faith. How can one God exist as three co-equal persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Yet it is an undeniable teaching of the Bible. Scripture describes each member with such characteristics as eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, and creator.

The best of human attempts to explain the Trinity such as ice, water, and steam, being 3 forms of the same element, always fall short. Although the doctrine of Trinity is complex, we must not ignore or shy away from this teaching. We need to place this as the center of our thought process about God. We must accept by faith the teaching and cultivate a mind-set that looks for the Triune God in all things, knowing that all things point to God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This hymn text was written by Elizabeth Charles, a gifted women of her time. She lived in England and was a poet, author, musician and painter. This is not a complicated presentation of the Godhead, but offers child-like praise to each member for His loving care and concern.

Praise Ye The Triune God!

Praise ye the Father for His loving kindness,
Tenderly cares He for His erring children;
Him, ye angels, praise Him in the heavens,
Praise ye Jehovah!

Praise ye the Savior, great His compassion,
Graciously cares He for His chosen people;
Young men and maidens, ye old men and children,
Praise ye the Savior!

Praise ye the Spirit, Comforter of Israel,
Sent of the Father and the Son to bless us;
Praise ye the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Praise ye the Triune God!

Find a study on Trinity and work through it. Discuss what you learn with others. Begin to build a Trinity based mind-set.

rw

I will place the first prayer request. My oldest son, Ian, currently lives in Cleveland OH. My prayer is that he would find suitable work in the Dallas TX area and be able to move closer to home. He is an audio engineer and graduate of Full Sail in Florida.

rw