Prayer

Dear Weekly Readers!

May the peace of God be with you today! 

Today I bring a very special prayer request before you, asking that you would sincerely pray for a dear pastor who is suffering terribly with an unknown health problem.  Pastor Sylvester in Kenya has a growth on and in the back of his head that is growing and causing many problems.  Pastor Sylvester knows the Bible perhaps better than any person I have ever met.  He is such a wonderful man and is so faithful in the Lord’s vineyard. 

Dear Lord, hear our prayers for this wonderful man!  We want to see him again, not only in heaven, but also in his country of Kenya. 

Please, dear readers, if you can help financially for this dear pastor, let me know by emailing me at foreignmission@comcast.net.

   

There are so many issues and problems in this world.  Also, please remember to pray for one of the Foreign Mission board members and his family.  Two of his young daughters, ages 14 and 16, were in a terrible auto accident last week.   One of the girls is still in very serious condition.   Let us pray for the girls of Shane and Patti Juuti.   For those of you who have been visited by either Carl Niemitalo or Richard Juuti, these are their grandchildren. 

 For this week, let us look into scripture about this topic of prayer.

1 Thessalonians 5:17
Pray without ceasing.

Let us continually pray.  We understand and know that we must do our work, we must eat, sleep and do many other things in this life.  Still, the Bible says pray without ceasing.  Let us be in a continual state of knowing that God is over all, that Jesus is on the right hand of God, praying in our behalf.  Let us always be subject to the will of God, to His power over our lives!  Let us be humble, never demanding, yet present with the Lord, knowing that He is above all and in all!  When we possess the Holy Spirit, the comforter, then we can begin to understand how we could possibly pray without ceasing, because God Himself in the form of the Holy Spirit lives within us doing such things.

 James 5:16
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Have you ever felt your prayers do not work?  The Bible says otherwise in the above verse when it says it availeth much!     Let us believe this by faith.

   

Let us pray one for another.   It is so easy, it seems, to forget this, or to spend our time trying to make gains against one another. When we are praying for one another, it is so very much harder to hold ill will toward each other.  Prayer brings us together in Christ, who is our healer and is the great Physician!

 How did the Apostles feel about prayer? Acts 6:4
But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.

Let us follow their example and carry on as they did.

Jesus taught us how to pray.  He prayed the Lord’s prayer and He instructed in John 15:16
 ….. that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

We see many other examples of Jesus praying in the Bible, such as in Matthew 14:23

And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.

Jesus went away to pray.  Jesus is Almighty and All Powerful!  Yet, He needed to pray.  Let us take this as a lesson to us on the importance of prayer.  Many times Jesus went away alone to pray.  He prayed so earnestly for you and me in the Garden of Gethsemane that in Luke 22:44  it tells us:

And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Thank you, dear Lord, for giving us such a wonderful and beautiful example of prayer, and for showing us how much you have loved us!

 

Let us take this to our very own hearts and love one another as the scripture instructs.  John 13:34-35

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

James 5:16
….and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.

Have a Blessed Week in Prayer! 

To the Unsaved

To the Unsaved

Urho Coponen

I want to greet all the children of God with greetings of grace and peace through our Lord in heaven. I have an urge to write to the unsaved. I tremble when I think that you may not be saved before Judgment Day comes, when the Lord will tell you that you must go into everlasting hell fire.

 

Dear reader, if you are not saved, think for a moment of the everlasting suffering you will have to endure. Repeat this in your heart—everlasting, everlasting. Sometimes when I think of this after I go to bed in the evening, I cannot fall asleep. I remember many of my own relatives who are not saved and of the millions who do not seem to care. The Lord Jesus says there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth forever. Dear unbeliever, hell was not made for you, but for the devil and his angels.

God created us in His own image and wants all of us to enjoy everlasting joy in heaven with Him. He put us on this earth for only a short time. He breathed into our nostrils the breath of life and gave us a plan of life by which we could go back to Him after living our time on this earth. How many of us live according to His plan?

He gave us His Word and commandments, but not one person has been able to keep them. The devil, who is also on this earth and wars against God, is jealous of God's children and tells them God's Word is not true.

 

God said to Adam, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:16-17) Because Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command, we are partakers of original sin. God did not go back on His Word: thou shalt surely die. Not one person could change His verdict. God Himself had to justify sinners and save us from everlasting death. His only Son was born into flesh and walked this way of life, fulfilling the Father's will, suffering the penalty of sin in our stead and dying for us in order that we might have eternal life.

Dear sinner, think of what our sins have done. Jesus took all the punishment for us because of our disobedience. Although He made a way for us, how many take heed of the exhortation to repent of their sins and believe them forgiven in the name and shed, atoning blood of Jesus? The power of the keys was left to His children here, whereby that which is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven and that which is bound on earth is bound in heaven. Jesus said, Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. (John 20:23)

 

The devil tries to darken the minds of men so they would not see their sinfulness. When God awakens a person's conscience, the devil is there to preach that there is nothing to it, that one might as well enjoy this world for there is no hereafter. He tries also to change God's plan of salvation.

Dear reader, if you have not repented of your sins, pray that you can acknowledge your sinfulness and receive forgiveness before it is too late. Jesus is coming soon. If you do not have the assurance that your sins are forgiven, Judgment Day will be a terrible day for you.

Let us who are saved follow our Lord Jesus. When we cannot walk, let us crawl. When Jesus see us growing too weak, He will take us in His arms and carry us, as long as we hope and believe.

The devil shoots his arrows at us from the left and from the right. Sometimes we become wounded in the battle against the world, the devil and our own flesh. When we are wounded, let us go and show our wounds to a brother or sister who will pour the blood of Jesus into those wounds and we shall be healed. Then we can go on again with our sins forgiven. 

Does Jesus Christ Reign Supreme in Your Heart?

Dear Weekly Readers!

Please enjoy this week’s article written by a David Impola from Washington, USA.

    

I desire that you would pray for the Christians in America, as well as their children, that Jesus would always remain the Rock of our Salvation.

May God Bless your Week.  John R.

Does Jesus Christ Reign Supreme in Your Heart?

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.  John 14:6

In the past as we considered our status with God, being convicted of our sins by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, we became beggars of His grace. This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3) For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3) How has it been since then? Have we become so much better that perhaps we aren't in need of God's grace as much? My experience, even as Apostle Paul's was, is that I feel I am a greater sinner in need of more grace. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. (Romans 7:19)

The fact of the matter is that we always were great sinners from day one, but we were not fully aware of it. As life goes on, the Holy Spirit magnifies in a greater measure the depravity of our flesh. Apostle Paul cries out, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord... (Romans 7:24-25)

 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. (John 8:36) For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)

May we continue to pray and praise God that He gives us more grace to believe our many sins forgiven in the name and precious blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. (2 Peter 3:18)

The living church of Christ on this earth has always been looked upon as weak and beggarly. The children of God are looked upon as insignificant by the religious world's standards. The devil, with his agents, may whisper: "Psst! Follow me. I know of an easier way." The ever-abiding Spirit of God within us will soar to life telling the devil to go away! Jesus Christ is my Rock. The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. (Psalm 18:2)

 Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me… (Psalm 28:1) He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.(Psalm 62:6)

Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast… (Hebrews 6:19)

Oh, how blessed it will be when our King, the Lord Jesus Christ who reigns supreme in our hearts and our lives, shall say,…. Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from thefoundation of the world. (Matthew 25:34)

Sad, sad, it will be for those who do not know Jesus Christ as their Savior. Their false confidence and security in their own efforts to appease the wrath of God will not work. Their righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

(Proverbs 16:25) The Lord will say to those who do not have the seal of promise, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matthew 25:41)

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20)

"Awake! The voice still soundeth,

'Tis now the accepted hour;

The grace of God aboundeth

To save from sin's dread power.

Make haste, implore Christ's favor,

Thy sins confess, and bow Before Thy Lord and Savior;

The accepted time is now." (Frans Mikael Franzen)

Christian Fellowship

Dear Weekly Readers!

Please enjoy this week’s article which was written by Pastor Orval Wirkkala.  

May God Bless your week and keep you and yours safe!  John R.

 Christian Fellowship
  
Some time ago, an older woman in our congregation who is young at heart shared with me of how much she is enjoying reading the Bible through in a year in a chronological manner. She is using a reading plan that attempts to place the Bible books in the order that the events occurred in history. She particularly told me that what has really struck a chord with her is being able to read the psalm (s) that is/are attributed to the events of the lives of the Old Testament believers. It has made such people as Shepherd Boy and King David more real to her as she has come to know him through not only his experiences but also through his testimonies. For example, the 57th Psalm that we are considering in this article has been connected to the time in David's life when he was hiding in a cave from King Saul, who was seeking to take his life. What he wrote gives us insight into his heart and mind; in times of fear and in times of confidence.
 
As we read through this psalm, we are able to see that David experienced uncertainty and fear of the future in his life as he fled from the attacks of King Saul, which were brought about as a result of Saul's jealousy of David's popularity with the people. He cried out: "Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee, yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities over past". (pass by) He then goes on to say "I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me. (avenge in favor of, do good, show favor) and "He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth." The experiences of the mountains and the valleys of our lives are seen in this Psalm, but in and through these experiences we are encouraged to call upon our God, to trust Him as we go through even the valleys of life, to praise Him for the deliverance that is coming and to rejoice in His mercy and truth at all times! May we have the assurance today that David likened to being "in the shadow of thy wings."
 
Many of us have favorite hymns or songs, which are meaningful to us because they are linked to times of crisis in our life. We may enjoy many hymns or songs, but the special ones that have ministered to us (and continue to do so) are the ones that the Lord has used to reveal Himself to us when we have been struggling. We are tempted to think that we have gone out of the will of the Lord when trouble comes, but that may not always be the case, for in these times of crisis the Lord is able to reach us because our need is so great that we have nowhere to look but up. Even though we may look down at times, (look away from God's provision of grace and truth in Jesus Christ) nevertheless our face again and again is lifted up so that we may look in faith towards the only One who is able to bring us help in our time of need. When in the midst of fear and uncertainty, we are enabled by faith to behold and believe the promises of our Lord towards us, we then from the heart break forth in praise and worship, saying, Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth!!
 
In your times of crisis, how has the Lord ministered to you? Through the Word, through song, through prayer, through a person or ??? Share your experiences of faith with someone, for in doing so you will bring renewed blessing to yourself and encouragement to them. For in the confession of our weakness and in the acknowledgement of our need for the help of our brother or sister, we are strengthened in ourselves, we are drawn closer to one another in Christ and thereby the fellowship that we are a part of is strengthened.

Be encouraged today through the experience and testimony of David, which He received from his/our God.

In Christ,
Pastor Orval Wirkkala