December 1, 2014

We say Come Lord Jesus, come.

Thank You for this time to remember Your coming and all the joy that surrounds it.
Thank You for love and goodwill.
Thank You for peace and grace.
As we are dazzled by our little cheap lights, thank You for stars and dancing aurora. Thank You for being our light.
As children wait anxiously for trinkets, thank You for the hope of the world.
As the snow covers and cleans blemishes over thousands of miles, thank You for covering our sins.

Come Lord Jesus, come.

Come into our homes. At this time when we are trying to celebrate Your coming, we can get so distracted. Be the grace among us. Make us slow down. Don't let us miss Your presence.

Come Lord Jesus, come.

Come into our hearts afresh. Help us to be the parents we need to be, first by example. Change us. Make us more like You today. Thank You for our families, for each child. We worry about so many things with our kids--teaching them, clothing them, disciplining them. Help us in these areas Lord. And help us to entrust them to You.

Come Lord Jesus, come.

We pray You will come into their hearts Lord. More than any gift we can give them, we want to show them the way to You. More than any protection we can give them, will You please give them peace? More than any lecture we can give them, will You please mold their lives to Your will? More than any gift, please bless them with contentment. More than any comfort we can fashion around them, please ignite their passion--for You, and for the hurting in this world.

In the nuts and bolts of learning this week, Lord help us to see the big picture with them.
As You close doors in their opportunities, help them to find the windows to which You are leading.
As we expect them to complete tasks these days, don't let us make them into 'human-doings' when You made human beings.
As we see our own sins mirrored back to us in them, help us to give the same grace You give us.
Teach us through them Lord: to find joy in the simple, to not be in a hurry, to trust You to take care of our needs, to delight in these holy days.

Come Lord Jesus, come.

May our families be Your cities on a thousand hills, Lord. We especially pray we will be contagious in our military communities. May we be family to the single soldiers far from their homes. Use us amongst the hurting Lord. To all our posts we pray:

Come Lord Jesus!
Amen!

November 24, 2014

Almighty God

Father in Heaven

Holy of Holies

Our Provider

My Lord and My God

Thank You. It would take our entire life to list all of our blessings, all the gifts You have sent. Which is the idea, eh? May we spend the rest of our lives thanking You.

Amongst so many other things, we thank You for the military.

Thank You for the many who returned safely from numerous deployments.

Thank You for a changed world because of the warriors You used to protect the innocent.

Thank You for changed people, who found You during their time serving.

Thank You for increased freedom to worship You because of our soldiers' sacrifices.

Thank You for the brave men and women who stepped up to volunteer.

Thank You for wisdom for our leaders.

Thank You for amazing technology and strategies.

Thank You for armor, and uniforms, helmets and boots, and yes, for guns and ammo and supply trucks and helicopters and jets.

Thank You for our posts.

For commissaries and libraries and helping offices and MPs and child care.

Thank You for chapels.

And friends and worship songs and Your Word being boldly proclaimed.

Thank You for PWOC and AWANA and youth group.

Thank You for pay checks and health care and medicine and dental and housing.

Thank You for adventures and memories and friends all over the world.

Thank You for special events and discounts. Thank You for moving trucks and crews.

Thank You for ranks and challenges and encouragement. For discipline and order.

Thank You for young wives and children, grounding and building up many soldiers.

Thank You for the strength and tenacity to face this lifestyle.

Thank You for shaping our characters through these difficult times: for courage, for toughening us up, for resiliency.

Thank You for understanding the warrior's heart.

Thank You for forgiveness of sins.

Thank You that this life isn't the best there is.

Thank You for Your presence--no matter what part of the world, no matter what we've done, no matter how we feel.

And as You give us so much grace, help us to extend it to others. We pray for our enemies. You change hearts, Lord. We pray they would find You in all their seeking. Replace their passionate hatred with Your passionate love.

This grace, so amazing, how can it be?

May we live aware of this grace this week--

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt5X91ciE6Y

I am guilty
Ashamed of what I've done, what I've become
These hands are dirty
I dare not lift them up to the Holy one

Chorus
You plead my cause
You right my wrongs
You break my chains
You overcome
You gave Your life
To give me mine
You say that I am free
How can it be
How can it be

I've been hiding
Afraid I've let you down, inside I doubt
That You could love me
But in Your eyes there's only grace now

Bridge
Though I fall, You can make me new
From this death I will rise with You
Oh the grace reaching out for me
How can it be
How can it be

Nov. 17, 2014

"Sitting in the presence of God for one hour each morning--day after day, week after week, and month after month, in total confusion and with a myriad of distractions--radically changes my life."--Henri Nouwen


Help us Lord!
We can't even pray with our 'myriad of distractions'. We are helpless to even ask for help at times. Incapable of letting go of the very things that are hurting us. Calm our minds Lord. Help us to focus on You. Help us to be changed in this prayer time.

And Lord, help us to pray. Prick our sensitivity this week. When we catch our breath from the colors in the sunrise, may we see a glimpse of You. When we hold a child, may we feel Your arms around us both. When we lash out, may we heed Your loving rebuke. When joy swells in our heart, may we breathe thanks. May we seek out the quiet. May we sit with You.

Make us a praying people Lord. In all our chapels, around the world, may we be a house of prayer. More than great worship, powerful preaching, successful and popular, we want to be Your children, in constant communication with You.

We pray for our chaplains and Christian leaders. May they always operate with integrity. Strengthen their walk with You, so they can break the trail. We pray for their teaching and preaching--that it would always be Your words for us.

We pray for our worship. Don't let us get too distracted with mistakes or greatness, but may our hearts turn and swell with You. It's been said we lie most to You when we sing. Don't let us lie with a callous heart Lord.

We pray-pray-pray for our children's ministries. Thank You Lord for the open, young hearts. Help us to rightly handle those. We pray for patience, strength and joy for our workers.

We pray for our fellowship. Help us to see the greeting time as a blessing--a time to rejoice that You have gathered people together. May no one leave feeling alone.

We pray for our outreach. Lord, give each of us a person to invite. May our chapel reflect Your open arms. And beyond our community: thank You for the opportunities to touch the world. Thank You for an abundance of offerings, and help us to use them wisely. Thank You for the Operation Christmas Child boxes going out, and we pray that each box finds the perfect child. May these little gifts spark a world-wide reaping of a harvest for You.

We pray for PWOC. May it continue to break through walls for women.

We pray against the spirit of suicide amongst our soldiers. Lord, please release Your Spirit in a mighty way among these wounded souls. Make us mighty prayer warriors in this spiritual battle.

"I seek the gift, find instead the Giver, and eventually come away with the gift I no longer seek."--Philip Yancey

It's pretty easy to worry without ceasing, Lord. Help us this week to pray without ceasing. And in finding You, change us.

We love You Lord!
Amen!

Nov. 10 amend, 2014

I can't verify the validity of this email, but we know it could be true. And either way, we need to be spurred to prayer.

And Father, we plead with You for our brothers and sisters in Iraq:

Date: Sat, Nov 8, 2014 at 9:05 AM
Subject: URGENT PRAYER NEEDED
To:

ACC Prayer Request

Please pray for this urgent request.
Prayer Request from Dan and Marilyn Wilson.  Missionaries who are in
the areas that are being attacked by ISIS are asking to be showered in
prayer. ISIS has taken over the town they are in today. He said ISIS
is systematically going house to house to all the Christians and
asking the children to denounce Jesus. He said so far not one child
has. And so far all have consequently been killed. But not the
parents. The UN has withdrawn and the missionaries are on their own.
They are determined to stick it out for the sake of the families -
even if it means their own deaths. They are very afraid, have no idea
how to even begin ministering to these families who have had seen
their children martyred. Yet he says he knows God has called them for
some reason to be His voice and hands at this place at this time. Even
so, they are begging for prayers for courage to live out their
vocation in such dire circumstances. And like the children, accept
martyrdom if they are called to do so. These brave parents instilled
such a fervent faith in their children that they chose martyrdom.
Please surround them in their loss with your prayers for hope and
perseverance.
One missionary was able to talk to her brother briefly by phone. She
didn't say it, but I believe she believes it will be their last
conversation. Pray for her too. She said he just kept asking her to
help him know what to do and do it. She told him to tell the families
we ARE praying for them and they are not alone or forgotten -- no
matter what. Please keep them all in your prayers.
This came this morning...
Just a few minutes ago I received the following text message on my
phone from Sean Malone who leads Crisis Relief International (CRI). We
then spoke briefly on the phone and I assured him that we would share
this urgent prayer need with all of our contacts.
"We lost the city of Queragosh (Qaraqosh). It fell to ISIS and they
are beheading children systematically. This is the city we have been
smuggling food to. ISIS has pushed back Peshmerga (Kurdish forces) and
is within 10 minutes of where our CRI team is working. Thousands more
fled into the city of Erbil last night. The UN evacuated its staff in
Erbil. Our team is unmoved and will stay. Prayer cover needed!" Please
pray sincerely for the deliverance of the people of Northern Iraq from
the terrible advancement of ISIS and its extreme Islamic goals for
mass conversion or death for Christians across this region. May I
plead with you not to ignore this email. Do not forward it before you
have prayed through it. Then send it to as many people as possible.
Send it to friends and Christians you may know. Send it to your prayer
group. Send it to your pastor and phone him to pray on Sunday during
the service - making a special time of prayer for this. We need to
stand in the gap for our fellow Christians.
Thank you for all your prayers !!!!
--
Dr. Becky Peters
Professor of Education
Director of Lutheran Teaching Programs,
Colloquy, & Lutheran Placement
Concordia University Irvine

Nov. 10, 2014

Let's pray with Jonah for our soldiers:

Jonah 2:2-
"In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and You listened to my cry. 
You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all Your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, 'I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.'

Thank You Lord, for answering the prayers of our troops. For progress made: for Afghan girls in schools, villages in peace, bad guys on the run. Thank You for IEDs  that didn't work, bullets that missed, RPGs that went astray, evil plans that failed. Thank You for wisdom for our generals, for necessary working equipment, for our courageous infantry.

Thank You that we can call to You. You are strong enough, and loving enough, to hear. Thank You for forgiveness. Otherwise, who could stand?

Father God, help us to look to You when we are at our lowest--even when it's deserved punishment. We look to You, we turn toward Your holy temple. You have brought us all out of the pit. None can stand before You on our own. May our soldiers look to You and to Your temple--may we, Your church, be Your beacon of love and forgiveness, of sanctuary.

The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. 
But You, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered You, Lord, and my prayer rose to You, to Your holy temple.

Many turned to You in the fox holes, Lord, in the depths. May they remember those vows now that they are home. May the worst part of their life be changed to the best thing that ever happened to them--because it turned them to You. May the traumatic experiences bring words of praise. Not fear. Not terror in the night. Not raging anger. But thanksgiving!

Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to You. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, 'Salvation comes from the Lord.'

So often we feel like we are drowning Lord. Probably we are clinging to worthless idols, hoping they will keep us afloat. How many places we look for steadfast love--how hard we strive for it, in being undeniably attractive, unshakably stable in our finances, perfectly competent. Yet in all this, we lose our hope of steadfast love, because we have to turn away from You to grab at them. Forgive us Lord. Help us to hold to You, our Rock.

Help us all to learn the lessons of war, God. So few things really matter, but the ones that do, matter greatly. Help us to daily kill our idols, and sacrifice instead to You.

Salvation is from the Lord. And it is not always in this life. Thank You for saving our souls. Thank You for sparing our soldiers, our country. We ask for Your continued guidance to our leaders. May more soldiers find eternal life in You. You saved them in war, now we ask You save them in peace.

Nov. 3, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiGb14tTaH4

Lord help us! We are so easily overwhelmed--
by kids
by illness
by schedules
by expectations
by relationships
by anxieties of so many stripes
by that cursed money.

Ugg!

Lord help us! Help us to be overwhelmed by You--because You are overwhelming.
We put our worries in the middle of the Red Sea, and You can drown them. We can remember that You care for the sparrow, and be overwhelmed by Your great love--for all the sparrows in the world--and even more for all Your children. Instead of wondering if our kids will ever get through this, we can praise You for all the milestones they've conquered. Then we can watch and wonder in awe of how You-- will-- use-- them. And when we look at the numbers in the bank, help us to turn our eyes up to count the stars and remember nothing is too much for You.

We can trust in You because You remember we are fragile beings. You became one of us. You understand. How easily we tire. How small of a thing can turn our world upside down. How a one-inch piece of metal can kill. But we are unafraid because of Your mercy. Mercy that saves us now. Mercy that will save us eternally. Forgive us for the many times we doubt that mercy, doubt Your love.

So this week, overwhelm us Lord. You are more than enough. You are all good, all love. You are power beyond any weapon, beyond any government, beyond any disease, any enemy, any failure.

And Lord, through us, sweep over our families. May our homes be overflowing with grace, sanctuaries for our warriors. May our presence be sparks in our communities.

Overwhelm our chapels, Lord.
Overwhelm our neighborhoods.
Overwhelm our posts.

When disease and war and terrorism threaten to overtake our world, we look to You. You hold the ultimate victory.
We pray for our deployed. Bring them home safely. Please, Lord, settle their hearts.
We pray for the lost soldiers. Engulf them in Your love.
We pray for each other. May we be fully immersed in You this week.

Thank You for our sisters!
Amen and amen!