Power of Prayers

Dear Weekly Readers!

I hope and trust that you all had a Blessed Christmas with your family, loved ones, and congregations.   It is my prayer that the Love of the Lord Jesus is shining brightly in each heart today and would continue to shine throughout the New Year.

This is such a wonderful time of year.  However, it can be so sad and lonely for so many people.  When there are events that take place such as what happened just two days before Christmas in our town.  A house started on fire, and a small child died, along with a 27 year old uncle who went to try to rescue the child.  Also, there are two other people still in comas from being in the fire. 

 

Such tragic events really make us sad, especially when they occur during such a happy time of year.   Even when such things happen at other times of the year, people can feel so sad for a long time after, and the joyous events are especially hard when remembering our loved ones who have passed.

So, if you have some pain and sadness to endure at this time, or if you are just anxious about the year ahead, the best thing I can think of in these situations is prayer.

The following is part of a letter about prayer that I received from one of our head pastors in Kenya, Africa!

Please be blessed by the writing below. 

May God Bless your week!   John R.

POWER OF PRAYERS

Praise God! My brethren in Christ, A man is more powerful when he/she is in prayer than when behind powerful guns ever developed. A nation too is more powerful when it unites in earnest prayer to God than when its resources are channeled into defensive weapons. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our redeemer and Savior, gave more encouragement to prayer. The followers of Christ were both encouraged to pray and were also taught how to pray.  They saw constantly the example he set in praying and noted that: - 

                                       

1. Jesus considered prayer more important than Food …Mark 1:35

2. Jesus considered prayer more important than the assembling of great throngs…. Luke 5:15-16

3. Jesus considered the precious hours of fellowship with His Heavenly Father meant much more than sleep…Luke 6:12

4. Jesus preyed at funerals and the dead were raised and prayed over the five loaves and two fishes, and a multitude was fed.

Brothers and sisters please don’t look down upon yourself or ask excuse questions, we are supposed to communicate with our creator with the only means of telephone called PRAYER.

When I read the bible I get great people successes came out through prayers.

A}. Noah obedience and prayerful earned him an ARK of deliverance.

B}. Moses prayed and God delivered the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.

C}. Gideon prayed and a host of formidable enemy fled in fear

D}. Daniel prayed and the mouths of Lions were closed

E}. Elijah prayed and the fire of God consumed the sacrifice and licked up the water around the alter.

F}. David prayed and he defeated Goliath.

G}. The disciples and apostles prayed and the churches were born in Asia Minor and Europe, etc.

By this I mean all our problems can be answered through contact with our Almighty God. God does answer prayer….. (edited for length)

Please allow me to end in a challenging that: - SATAN TREMBLES WHEN HE SEES THE WEAKEST SAINT UPON HIS KNEES. So pray pray and I say pray Christian, PRAY.

SENIOR PASTOR TIMOTHY MUNDIAH

Unto Us a Child Is Born

Dear Weekly Readers!

God’s Peace!

I want to first thank you for all the prayers for our recent trip to Kenya, Africa.   The trip was most blessed!  I pray that the Lord would allow His Word to continue to work there in Kenya and wherever His Word is proclaimed!

 

This week we have an article by John Newton.   Please enjoy!     May God Bless your week!  John R

Unto Us a Child is Born!

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

Such was the triumphant exultation of the Old Testament Church! Their noblest hopes were founded

upon the promise of MESSIAH; their most sublime songs were derived from the prospect of His Advent. By faith, which is the substance of things hoped for, they considered the gracious declarations of the faithful unchangeable God as already accomplished, though the actual performance respected a period, as yet, future and distant. Believers under that dispensation already felt the influence of the redemption which MESSIAH was to consummate in the fullness of time.

It was the knowledge of His engagement on the behalf of sinners that gave life and significance to all the institutions of the ceremonial law which otherwise, though of divine appointment, would have been a heavy and burdensome yoke (Acts 15:10). Isaiah therefore prepares his joyful song for the true servants of God who lived in his time; and though it was a day of trial and rebuke, they were provided with sufficient compensation for all their sufferings, being warranted to say, Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder…

This ancient song is still new. It has been, and will be, taken up from age to age by the New Testament Church, with superior advantage. I trust many of you understand it well, and rejoice in it daily. Men naturally look for something wherein to rejoice and glory. Little reason have the wise to glory in their supposed wisdom, or the strong in their fading strength, or the rich in their transitory wealth (Jeremiah 9:23); but this is a just and unfailing ground of glory to true Christians, that,

Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given...

John Newton

Heralds of creation, cry!

Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord, the Lord most high!

Heaven and earth! obey the call,

Praise the Lord, the Lord of all.

For He spake, and forth from night

Sprang the universe to light:

He commanded, nature heard,

And stood fast upon His Word.

Praise Him, all ye hosts above,

Spirits perfected in love;

Sun and moon! your voices raise,

Sing, ye stars! your Maker's praise.

Kings! your Sovereign serve with awe;

Judges! own His righteous law;

Princes! worship Him with fear;

Bow the knee, all people! here.

High above all height His throne,

Excellent His name alone;

Him let all His works confess,

Him let every being bless.

James Montgomery

Grieve Not the Holy Spirit

Dear Weekly Readers!

Later this week the group of six missionaries, including myself, are planning on returning from Africa.   We surely ask for your prayers for both safe travels, as well as that the work done on this trip would be blessed by the Holy Spirit of God! 

Please enjoy two short articles by Charles Spurgeon.

May God Bless your week!  John R.

 

"Grieve not the Holy Spirit."
Ephesians 4:30

All that the believer has must come from Christ, but it comes solely through the channel of the Spirit of grace. Moreover, as all blessings thus flow to you through the Holy Spirit, so also no good thing can come out of you in holy thought, devout worship, or gracious act, apart from the sanctifying operation of the same Spirit.

Even if the good seed be sown in you, yet it lies dormant except he worketh in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure. Do you desire to speak for Jesus--how can you unless the Holy Ghost touch your tongue? Do you desire to pray? Alas! what dull work it is unless the Spirit maketh intercession for you! Do you desire to subdue sin? Would you be holy? Would you imitate your Master? Do you desire to rise to superlative heights of spirituality?

Are you wanting to be made like the angels of God, full of zeal and ardour for the Master's cause? You cannot without the Spirit--"Without me ye can do nothing." O branch of the vine, thou canst have no fruit without the sap! O child of God, thou hast no life within thee apart from the life which God gives thee through his Spirit! Then let us not grieve him or provoke him to anger by our sin. Let us not quench him in one of his faintest motions in our soul; let us foster every suggestion, and be ready to obey every prompting.

If the Holy Spirit be indeed so mighty, let us attempt nothing without him; let us begin no project, and carry on no enterprise, and conclude no transaction, without imploring his blessing. Let us do him the due homage of feeling our entire weakness apart from him, and then depending alone upon him, having this for our prayer, "Open thou my heart and my whole being to thine incoming, and uphold me with thy free Spirit when I shall have received that Spirit in my inward parts."

 

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"Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him."
John 12:2

He is to be envied. It was well to be Martha and serve, but better to be Lazarus and commune. There are times for each purpose, and each is comely in its season, but none of the trees of the garden yield such clusters as the vine of fellowship. To sit with Jesus, to hear his words, to mark his acts, and receive his smiles, was such a favour as must have made Lazarus as happy as the angels. When it has been our happy lot to feast with our Beloved in his banqueting-hall, we would not have given half a sigh for all the kingdoms of the world, if so much breath could have bought them.

He is to be imitated. It would have been a strange thing if Lazarus had not been at the table where Jesus was, for he had been dead, and Jesus had raised him. For the risen one to be absent when the Lord who gave him life was at his house, would have been ungrateful indeed.

We too were once dead, yea, and like Lazarus stinking in the grave of sin; Jesus raised us, and by his life we live--can we be content to live at a distance from him? Do we omit to remember him at his table, where he deigns to feast with his brethren?

Oh, this is cruel! It behoves us to repent, and do as he has bidden us, for his least wish should be law to us. To have lived without constant intercourse with one of whom the Jews said, "Behold how he loved him," would have been disgraceful to Lazarus; is it excusable in us whom Jesus has loved with an everlasting love?

To have been cold to him who wept over his lifeless corpse, would have argued great brutishness in Lazarus. What does it argue in us over whom the Saviour has not only wept, but bled? Come, brethren, who read this portion, let us return unto our heavenly Bridegroom, and ask for his Spirit that we may be on terms of closer intimacy with him, and henceforth sit at the table with him.

Charles Sprugeon

The Faithfulness of God

Dear Weekly Readers!

This week I am asking for prayers for safety and that Jesus may be lifted up and preached, to the Glory of God, as I am currently with a mission team on a trip into Africa. 

 

May the Holy Spirit lead us on this trip, and may all of us be obedient to His Word wherever we are!

This week our article is written by Pastor Orval Wirkkala.

May God Bless your week!  John R.

The Faithfulness of God
We read of the faithfulness of God in the past, we witness His faithfulness in the lives of those around us today and therefore, we are convinced that His faithfulness is a future reality. We know that He loves us and as a result of His love toward us, we are now an extension of God's love for the world. Therefore, life's experiences offer us opportunity to demonstrate God's love to the world. It is by believing who God has made us to be that we are enabled to live our lives this present world. This is called living faith.

KJV Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
2 For by it the elders obtained a good report.
3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

In our lives today, we are surrounded by people who trust in the same God that Abraham and Sara trusted and therefore, we seek the same city that that those who lived before us sought. In spite of obstacles that come before us in this present world, we look into the future as being an expected reality. Here is the testimony of a dear sister in the congregation in which I serve.

"Early mornings is a time for me to read God's Word before all the "demands" and "noises" of the day find their way into our minds. One particular quiet morning, I was stopped by a clear voice saying, "Do not be afraid." Puzzled, I sat wondering, then put it in the back of my mind. Sometime later, a week, maybe, I discovered a foreign mass in my body. After all the tests, it was revealed to be cancer. The words resurfaced, "Do not be afraid."......Lord, I am afraid! Fear came in waves over me, but above it was the Voice: "Do not be afraid."
"How often in God's Word are we reminded of this. God always goes before us and holds us in the palm of His hand. Sickness, diseases, and trials are no surprise to Him. They all work to bring us closer to work out His will in our lives."

Jesus says today, "Come to Me, you are are weary and afraid, I will give you strength and courage to face this, too."

"He lifts the gloom and sends rays of hope and peace to our hearts. One day we will exchange these earthly bodies to glorified ones where no aches or diseases will touch us. We will praise Him with new tongues and sing with all the saints in glory: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Praise be to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Ghost".
And she leaves us with this encouragement from the psalms....
Psalm 5:11 "But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defends them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.
12 For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass or crown him as with a shield
."
We thank her for blessing us through the sharing of her life with us, which is the life of Christ in her, that which the Apostle Paul wrote of.. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20

Through testimonies of God's people from the past as well as from today of the faithfulness of God toward them, we are encouraged to press forward to the prize of the high calling for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:14) Let us press on, looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, and to the One who has promised to complete that which He has begun in us, even the salvation of our souls.

Together, let us press onward..................only time is between us and our heavenly reward....

God's Peace!
Pastor Orval Wirkkala