On our first Thanksgiving
we stopped at the store
picked up some Pepsi
nothing much more
then got to the Johnson's
parked down the hill
in front of the turkey
with the big plastic bill
Rick was mashing potatoes
Harry carved the turkey
Larry guarded the space
in front of the TV
Janet laid out the dishes
Jill placed knives, forks and spoons
John laughed as I dodged
all those large orange balloons
With Helen's feast on the table
we each found our chair
passed meat and rich stuffing
to everyone there
then beans, rolls, cucumbers
and baked corn, oh yum!
poured ladles of gravy
then waited quite mum
While Harry stood up
and thanked the Good Lord
for family and blessings
both present and stored
Jackie leaned on my shoulder
I squeezed her cute knee
then ate like a prisoner
just recently freed
There was plenty of lemonade
to wash it all down
firsts turned into seconds
then we turned up the sound
to see if the Lions
would make that big sack
it must be the refs
need a new quarterback
When dinner was done
the table was cleared
dishes were washed
the victors were cheered
guys sat at the table
with coffee and pie
others on stools
where the candy dish lie
Gals moved to the couches
with so much to say
kids ran downstairs
with freedom to play
but Jackie and I
found one spot to share
we had plenty of room
on that cozy little chair
Later that night
someone sliced up some bread
heated the gravy
set out a spread
of all that was leftover
including the pie
if Heaven's Thanksgiving
it's a good way to die
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Saturday, November 21, 2015
53
Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground.
He had no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face.
He was despised,
And we did not esteem Him.
He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground.
He had no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face.
He was despised,
And we did not esteem Him.
Surely our griefs He Himself bore.
And our sorrows He carried.
He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities,
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray.
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth,
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
The Lord was pleased to crush Him,
Putting Him to grief
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering.
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant,
Will justify the many,
And He will bear their iniquities.
Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.
selections from Isaiah 53 - NAS translation
selections from Isaiah 53 - NAS translation
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
It's Nice To Be Alive
It's nice to be alive.
There have been a lot of young people, out of high school types but not yet engaged in a career, who look over at me while we are on a driving test, sitting nice and comfortable and calm with clipboard in hand and an obvious air of contentment on my face, and thinking that this must really be a cool and soft way to make a living ask how one can get a job like mine.
"Looks easy? I say. "Yes" they mutter. "Well, it is." I assure them, "As long as someones not trying to kill you."
I was driving with a client last Thursday who, when arriving at the end of the entry ramp to the freeway, suddenly jerked his van hard to the left, went across two lanes of traffic without looking, lost control of his vehicle and then put his foot on the brake when his translator who was sitting in the back seat of the vehicle yelled at him. I had reached over to grab the steering wheel to try to regain control but can't remember if I was successful.
What I do remember is the BAMM!, then looking at myself sitting there in the passenger seat and realizing that nothing looked or felt injured on my body. I said "Thank you Lord!", looked over at the driver who seemed OK, sitting there next to a deflated air bag, then looking down at all of my papers which were now laying in front of me on the van floor. Traffic was slowly driving past on my right.
The next thing I remember was laying on a gurney being loaded into an ambulance. From then on I think I remember everything. It turns out that the only damage to my body was one broken rib, probably from the seat belt, and a bump on the back of my head which must have caused the concussion which led to my temporary memory lost. I'm told I didn't pass out but my answers to the emergency responders were not making sense. Good thing they didn't know me better.
It seems we were very lucky (although in that sense it should be noted that I do ride with angels). The policeman who visited me in the hospital said that we were rear ended by a semi. The truck driver remarked that it was good that he hit us square from behind because if we were on an angle it might have sent us into another lane or rolled us.
It's nice to be alive.
This was the first time in over 16 years of doing this that I have been injured. I called Jackie with my cell phone from the ambulance and told her where I was going and that I seemed to be fine except for a slight pain in the side of my back. Our boss drove over from Holland to GR and stayed with me for the several hours I was in the hospital. While there they gave me a cat scan (found no cats, just the broken rib), one pain pill with a prescription for more and then something that looked like a plastic toy to suck air out of 10 times an hour to help keep my lungs dry.
My boss drove me home and when I called Jackie to tell her we were on our way I could tell from her voice that she was still pretty shook up. When I arrived home we hugged as much as one can with a broken rib. All my kids phoned to see how I was and later that night my daughter Ceci and her husband Dave, who was going to preaching that next Sunday about the laying on of hands came over to pray and lay hands on me for healing.
Two days later I was back at it with the usual good assortment of mostly adults, many that did not
speak English, needing to get their driver's license. Funny, for the next couple of days only a third made it as far as the Freeway.
Did I tell you? It's nice to be alive.
Although I am doing great and as I write have not needed any pain pills for the last 2 days Jackie is still watching me with an eagle eye. At the end of church Sunday there was a time where people could come forward to be ministered to by the prayer teams. We were also encouraged to pray and lay hands for any around us who requested. Immediately (before I could request it) I was surrounded by my wife and two daughters who wanted not only to pray for me but I think also to soak me with their love.
Um hum. It's nice to be alive.
There have been a lot of young people, out of high school types but not yet engaged in a career, who look over at me while we are on a driving test, sitting nice and comfortable and calm with clipboard in hand and an obvious air of contentment on my face, and thinking that this must really be a cool and soft way to make a living ask how one can get a job like mine.
"Looks easy? I say. "Yes" they mutter. "Well, it is." I assure them, "As long as someones not trying to kill you."
I was driving with a client last Thursday who, when arriving at the end of the entry ramp to the freeway, suddenly jerked his van hard to the left, went across two lanes of traffic without looking, lost control of his vehicle and then put his foot on the brake when his translator who was sitting in the back seat of the vehicle yelled at him. I had reached over to grab the steering wheel to try to regain control but can't remember if I was successful.
What I do remember is the BAMM!, then looking at myself sitting there in the passenger seat and realizing that nothing looked or felt injured on my body. I said "Thank you Lord!", looked over at the driver who seemed OK, sitting there next to a deflated air bag, then looking down at all of my papers which were now laying in front of me on the van floor. Traffic was slowly driving past on my right.
The next thing I remember was laying on a gurney being loaded into an ambulance. From then on I think I remember everything. It turns out that the only damage to my body was one broken rib, probably from the seat belt, and a bump on the back of my head which must have caused the concussion which led to my temporary memory lost. I'm told I didn't pass out but my answers to the emergency responders were not making sense. Good thing they didn't know me better.
It seems we were very lucky (although in that sense it should be noted that I do ride with angels). The policeman who visited me in the hospital said that we were rear ended by a semi. The truck driver remarked that it was good that he hit us square from behind because if we were on an angle it might have sent us into another lane or rolled us.
It's nice to be alive.
This was the first time in over 16 years of doing this that I have been injured. I called Jackie with my cell phone from the ambulance and told her where I was going and that I seemed to be fine except for a slight pain in the side of my back. Our boss drove over from Holland to GR and stayed with me for the several hours I was in the hospital. While there they gave me a cat scan (found no cats, just the broken rib), one pain pill with a prescription for more and then something that looked like a plastic toy to suck air out of 10 times an hour to help keep my lungs dry.
My boss drove me home and when I called Jackie to tell her we were on our way I could tell from her voice that she was still pretty shook up. When I arrived home we hugged as much as one can with a broken rib. All my kids phoned to see how I was and later that night my daughter Ceci and her husband Dave, who was going to preaching that next Sunday about the laying on of hands came over to pray and lay hands on me for healing.
Two days later I was back at it with the usual good assortment of mostly adults, many that did not
speak English, needing to get their driver's license. Funny, for the next couple of days only a third made it as far as the Freeway.
Did I tell you? It's nice to be alive.
Although I am doing great and as I write have not needed any pain pills for the last 2 days Jackie is still watching me with an eagle eye. At the end of church Sunday there was a time where people could come forward to be ministered to by the prayer teams. We were also encouraged to pray and lay hands for any around us who requested. Immediately (before I could request it) I was surrounded by my wife and two daughters who wanted not only to pray for me but I think also to soak me with their love.
Um hum. It's nice to be alive.
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Cruise Control
be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us Ephesians 5: 1-2
This Friday I was waiting for my 2 pm customer whose first name interestingly was Santa and whose last name was a hyphenated Hispanic one. A vehicle with a few Hispanics was waiting a ways away and when I approached them and asked if one of them was Santa they said no. "What time is your test scheduled?" I asked and one of them said it was for 2:30, which would have been the time for Jackie's next test. She was currently out on the road with a client.
About 5 minutes later another vehicle with a Hispanic man parks next to them. When he gets out of his car I call over and ask if he is here for a test and is his name Santa. He tells me no but that he has come to translate for the person in the car next to him.
My person does not show up and after they are over 10 minutes late and I don't really have the time to do theirs anymore if they do show up I remove their score sheet from my clip board, write "NO SHOW" on it and file it with my other completed test sheets.
At 2:15 Jackie gets back from her test. Her client's car parks near the Hispanic group's cars and when she walks back to our car she tells me that my client is waiting over there. I get out and yell over, "Is one of you named Santa?" The translator now says, oh ya, she is sitting right here in the car.
At this point I lose my cool. I know I really should do the test because they have been sitting there, even though it is now way late and they have screwed up my schedule big time by not identifying Santa even though I asked twice. And they compounded it all by telling me the wrong time. So I hop out of my car angry and say very loudly; "YOU ARE NOW TOO LATE TO DO THE TEST BUT HUSTLE YOUR CAR OVER HERE RIGHT AWAY!"
By the time Santa gets there I calmed down a little. It is of course a matter of me not having been clear enough or them not understanding my questions because of the language barrier. I treated Santa as calm and pleasant as I could and the test ended up only going half the route because she was driving 5 plus mph over the speed limit after I warned her for going 5 mph over early in the test. She and the translator understood and everything ended quite pleasant although for the rest of the day I was feeling a little upset with myself for my outburst.
Friday night I happened upon a blog written by a guy whose name is John Romaine. From the few posts I read I would guess that he must be someone around my age. He told a story about recently stepping in as a part time minister for a church which was in the process of searching for a new permanent pastor. The head board member asked him to sign a contract which laid out 3 things they wanted him to agree to do.
The first was to have 20 hours of office time. The second was to visit long time members who were no longer attending and the third was to conduct communion in the same way as had been their tradition. He did as they asked and everyone seemed to be very pleased. The fact that he also used the bible quite a bit when he preached was an unexpected bonus. John said that in addition to this he stepped out in faith and started visiting the local nursing home on Tuesday mornings. After a couple of weeks the people there expected him to come every Tuesday.
John told about his first home visit to an ex member. It was an older couple. They talked, sang hymns together, he gave them communion and after he left he realized that he had received as much as he gave. He also had a meeting with a man who had caused some division in the church (reading between the lines maybe he was one of the reasons the other pastor left) and that seemed to have gone well. And now after having preached for 9 weeks there were some new families that were starting to attend.
I thought this was a very nice post and reading on I came upon another one which happened to really prick my conscience.
At a different town where he used to be a minister there was an undertaker who was a Christian. When someone died and there was a shortage of funds to pay for his services the undertaker would provide his services without charge. Knowing that John was also a like minded Christian he asked him if he would help out when needed.
One day a man who was a known drunk fell in a swamp and drowned. The undertaker gave John a call and told him where to meet at the cemetery that the city used to bury poor people like the drunk. It also happened to be located in a swamp. John said that at a normal burial there would be a team of people from a funeral home who would let people out of their cars, lead family and friends inside a canopy, give John the signal when to step in to do his thing, and then arraign for the people to leave and the crew to fill in the grave.
The undertaker said things would be different here. John would be required to stay and wait for the crew to finish their work before he could leave.
It was raining heavy when John got there. The undertaker and the mother of the drunk got out of the hearse and stood by the graveside under the undertaker's umbrella. Meanwhile John was getting soaked to the bone. John says he read a psalm by David who recounts when he was running for his life and thought there was no hope but then remembered that he could still call upon the Lord who could deliver him even from the pit. John said that the mother pressed her head into the undertakers chest and cried, the undertaker cried and even he cried. After the short service was over the mother and undertaker get back into the hearse and John had to wait there still in the heavy rain waiting for the crew to finish putting the wet soil into the water soaked grave. The crew told him he should go sit in his pickup and they would tell him when he could go.
That was the story. Short and sweet. No great teaching to go with it. And yet it tore me apart. Here was a man who was living as Christ would want him to, loving and serving others even when it surely wasn't easy. And me? Do people see Christ in me? Am I on cruise control, sitting high and dry in my comfort zone?
Today for my tests I had a mixture of Asians, Hispanics and Africans for clients, bringing with them all the odd and unusual behaviors that sometimes makes testing a challenge. One of the Vietnamese translators out of the blue asked me if I was a Christian.
Thank you Father for reminding me whom I should look like and for hearing my cry last night.
This Friday I was waiting for my 2 pm customer whose first name interestingly was Santa and whose last name was a hyphenated Hispanic one. A vehicle with a few Hispanics was waiting a ways away and when I approached them and asked if one of them was Santa they said no. "What time is your test scheduled?" I asked and one of them said it was for 2:30, which would have been the time for Jackie's next test. She was currently out on the road with a client.
About 5 minutes later another vehicle with a Hispanic man parks next to them. When he gets out of his car I call over and ask if he is here for a test and is his name Santa. He tells me no but that he has come to translate for the person in the car next to him.
My person does not show up and after they are over 10 minutes late and I don't really have the time to do theirs anymore if they do show up I remove their score sheet from my clip board, write "NO SHOW" on it and file it with my other completed test sheets.
At 2:15 Jackie gets back from her test. Her client's car parks near the Hispanic group's cars and when she walks back to our car she tells me that my client is waiting over there. I get out and yell over, "Is one of you named Santa?" The translator now says, oh ya, she is sitting right here in the car.
At this point I lose my cool. I know I really should do the test because they have been sitting there, even though it is now way late and they have screwed up my schedule big time by not identifying Santa even though I asked twice. And they compounded it all by telling me the wrong time. So I hop out of my car angry and say very loudly; "YOU ARE NOW TOO LATE TO DO THE TEST BUT HUSTLE YOUR CAR OVER HERE RIGHT AWAY!"
By the time Santa gets there I calmed down a little. It is of course a matter of me not having been clear enough or them not understanding my questions because of the language barrier. I treated Santa as calm and pleasant as I could and the test ended up only going half the route because she was driving 5 plus mph over the speed limit after I warned her for going 5 mph over early in the test. She and the translator understood and everything ended quite pleasant although for the rest of the day I was feeling a little upset with myself for my outburst.
Friday night I happened upon a blog written by a guy whose name is John Romaine. From the few posts I read I would guess that he must be someone around my age. He told a story about recently stepping in as a part time minister for a church which was in the process of searching for a new permanent pastor. The head board member asked him to sign a contract which laid out 3 things they wanted him to agree to do.
The first was to have 20 hours of office time. The second was to visit long time members who were no longer attending and the third was to conduct communion in the same way as had been their tradition. He did as they asked and everyone seemed to be very pleased. The fact that he also used the bible quite a bit when he preached was an unexpected bonus. John said that in addition to this he stepped out in faith and started visiting the local nursing home on Tuesday mornings. After a couple of weeks the people there expected him to come every Tuesday.
John told about his first home visit to an ex member. It was an older couple. They talked, sang hymns together, he gave them communion and after he left he realized that he had received as much as he gave. He also had a meeting with a man who had caused some division in the church (reading between the lines maybe he was one of the reasons the other pastor left) and that seemed to have gone well. And now after having preached for 9 weeks there were some new families that were starting to attend.
I thought this was a very nice post and reading on I came upon another one which happened to really prick my conscience.
At a different town where he used to be a minister there was an undertaker who was a Christian. When someone died and there was a shortage of funds to pay for his services the undertaker would provide his services without charge. Knowing that John was also a like minded Christian he asked him if he would help out when needed.
One day a man who was a known drunk fell in a swamp and drowned. The undertaker gave John a call and told him where to meet at the cemetery that the city used to bury poor people like the drunk. It also happened to be located in a swamp. John said that at a normal burial there would be a team of people from a funeral home who would let people out of their cars, lead family and friends inside a canopy, give John the signal when to step in to do his thing, and then arraign for the people to leave and the crew to fill in the grave.
The undertaker said things would be different here. John would be required to stay and wait for the crew to finish their work before he could leave.
It was raining heavy when John got there. The undertaker and the mother of the drunk got out of the hearse and stood by the graveside under the undertaker's umbrella. Meanwhile John was getting soaked to the bone. John says he read a psalm by David who recounts when he was running for his life and thought there was no hope but then remembered that he could still call upon the Lord who could deliver him even from the pit. John said that the mother pressed her head into the undertakers chest and cried, the undertaker cried and even he cried. After the short service was over the mother and undertaker get back into the hearse and John had to wait there still in the heavy rain waiting for the crew to finish putting the wet soil into the water soaked grave. The crew told him he should go sit in his pickup and they would tell him when he could go.
That was the story. Short and sweet. No great teaching to go with it. And yet it tore me apart. Here was a man who was living as Christ would want him to, loving and serving others even when it surely wasn't easy. And me? Do people see Christ in me? Am I on cruise control, sitting high and dry in my comfort zone?
Today for my tests I had a mixture of Asians, Hispanics and Africans for clients, bringing with them all the odd and unusual behaviors that sometimes makes testing a challenge. One of the Vietnamese translators out of the blue asked me if I was a Christian.
Thank you Father for reminding me whom I should look like and for hearing my cry last night.
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Pray For The Persecuted Church
If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 1 Corinthians 12: 26
Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those that are ill treated, since you yourselves are in the body. Hebrews 13: 3
Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. At church this morning we prayed in small groups with those closest to us specifically for Christians that are currently suffering extreme and unimaginable distress in the countries of North Korea, Somalia, Iraq and Syria.
Those happen to be at the top of the list for countries where everyday Christians lose their property, are arrested, beaten, abducted, raped and in the Islamic countries brought into forced marriages, just because someone confesses faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
There are some good organizations that keep tract of what is happening to the persecuted Christian. My daughter Becky has followed Voice of the Martyrs for many years and Open Doors is another one to follow. Today with what is happening with ISIS the statistics are off the chart but according to Open Doors on a normal month 322 Christians are killed, 722 experience severe abuse and 214 Christian churches and dwellings are destroyed.
These organizations have a list of the top 100 countries where this is happening. Yes, that's right, 100! At the top of the list, apart from North Korea, are most of the Islamic countries of the Mid East, Northern and Eastern Africa, lower Central Asia and then other countries with large Islamic populations such as Indonesia, Pakistan and India.
Right now there is a huge migration of peoples trying to escape from the horrors of ISIS. Most of those are Muslims but there is also quite a number of Christians as well. I have heard that for some reason our State Department does not favor visa and asylum requests from those Christians. There are Christian groups here in the United States that have been working very hard to present their case but so far to no avail. Don't you just love politics?
It is estimated that over 100 million Christians are currently at risk. For you and I this must seem like a bad fairy tale that we can shove to the back of our minds as we enjoy the blessings of religious freedom that relatively few of us have actually shed our blood for. Few of us as well understand the principles that made our freedom possible. The same enemy that is at work in the world is here as well and so we need to be proactive, doing what we can to help those in the body currently under distress and doing what we can to keep it from happening here as well.
The results of this is not all negative for the body of Christ. Pastor Saeed Abedini is an Iranian Christian, 35 years old, who has been imprisoned there quite some time solely because of his faith. Even though his cause is well known our government would not even include his release as part of their nuclear give away deal with Iran. While imprisoned Saeed led those jailed with him to faith in Jesus. The authorities then placed him with the toughest and meanest inmates and he led them to Christ as well. That is his heavenly reward. His earthly reward has been to be tortured for talking about Jesus.
However, just as in the early centuries, the persecuted church is a growing church. The underground Church in Iran is rapidly growing as it is elsewhere throughout the Mid East and other regions as well. Decisions there for Jesus can often mean rejection by family and society and yet The Heavenly Father can still provide everything one needs, on any level.
Almighty Father,
Show us what part we should play in your overall plan for the growth and health of the Church, the body of Christ. We want our hearts to be tender to the moving of your Holy Spirit to let us know when and how to pray for those in the body that are suffering right now. Release Pastor Saeed to his family soon, in good physical and mental health. Raise up mature spiritual leaders in every country, town and village empowering them with the mighty gifts of the Holy Spirit. Let us be aware of the enemies plans in such a way that we can petition You to overcome them. We ask that new political leaders would be raised up in those countries whose hearts are soft to You. And we ask for the same thing here as well.
All these we pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.
Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those that are ill treated, since you yourselves are in the body. Hebrews 13: 3
Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. At church this morning we prayed in small groups with those closest to us specifically for Christians that are currently suffering extreme and unimaginable distress in the countries of North Korea, Somalia, Iraq and Syria.
Those happen to be at the top of the list for countries where everyday Christians lose their property, are arrested, beaten, abducted, raped and in the Islamic countries brought into forced marriages, just because someone confesses faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
There are some good organizations that keep tract of what is happening to the persecuted Christian. My daughter Becky has followed Voice of the Martyrs for many years and Open Doors is another one to follow. Today with what is happening with ISIS the statistics are off the chart but according to Open Doors on a normal month 322 Christians are killed, 722 experience severe abuse and 214 Christian churches and dwellings are destroyed.
These organizations have a list of the top 100 countries where this is happening. Yes, that's right, 100! At the top of the list, apart from North Korea, are most of the Islamic countries of the Mid East, Northern and Eastern Africa, lower Central Asia and then other countries with large Islamic populations such as Indonesia, Pakistan and India.
Right now there is a huge migration of peoples trying to escape from the horrors of ISIS. Most of those are Muslims but there is also quite a number of Christians as well. I have heard that for some reason our State Department does not favor visa and asylum requests from those Christians. There are Christian groups here in the United States that have been working very hard to present their case but so far to no avail. Don't you just love politics?
It is estimated that over 100 million Christians are currently at risk. For you and I this must seem like a bad fairy tale that we can shove to the back of our minds as we enjoy the blessings of religious freedom that relatively few of us have actually shed our blood for. Few of us as well understand the principles that made our freedom possible. The same enemy that is at work in the world is here as well and so we need to be proactive, doing what we can to help those in the body currently under distress and doing what we can to keep it from happening here as well.
The results of this is not all negative for the body of Christ. Pastor Saeed Abedini is an Iranian Christian, 35 years old, who has been imprisoned there quite some time solely because of his faith. Even though his cause is well known our government would not even include his release as part of their nuclear give away deal with Iran. While imprisoned Saeed led those jailed with him to faith in Jesus. The authorities then placed him with the toughest and meanest inmates and he led them to Christ as well. That is his heavenly reward. His earthly reward has been to be tortured for talking about Jesus.
However, just as in the early centuries, the persecuted church is a growing church. The underground Church in Iran is rapidly growing as it is elsewhere throughout the Mid East and other regions as well. Decisions there for Jesus can often mean rejection by family and society and yet The Heavenly Father can still provide everything one needs, on any level.
Almighty Father,
Show us what part we should play in your overall plan for the growth and health of the Church, the body of Christ. We want our hearts to be tender to the moving of your Holy Spirit to let us know when and how to pray for those in the body that are suffering right now. Release Pastor Saeed to his family soon, in good physical and mental health. Raise up mature spiritual leaders in every country, town and village empowering them with the mighty gifts of the Holy Spirit. Let us be aware of the enemies plans in such a way that we can petition You to overcome them. We ask that new political leaders would be raised up in those countries whose hearts are soft to You. And we ask for the same thing here as well.
All these we pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)