Wednesday, September 28, 2011

A Second to Pray--All Through the Day

Prayer is the most powerful force on earth.


It Only Takes a Second to Pray Anytime of Day!
(Photo by Bill Hunt, c. 2011.)

How long does it take to pray? In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked the apostles, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?” (Matt 26:40 NKJV). Is not prayer the lifting of the mind and heart to God? And that act takes only a second!

Brother Lawrence in 17th century Paris exemplified practicing the daily presence of God. Indeed, to talk with God through the day, you need to master the art of the one-second prayer. Think of it! In one second, at any time of day, you can be a world intercessor! You can converse with God.

Do you have the time?

You can pray for the World. This is the one-second list.
Sunday – For Russia and Central Asia.
Monday – For China and the Orient.
Tuesday – For Australia and all the islands of the sea.
Wednesday – For the United States and the Americas.
Thursday – For Africa.
Friday – For Europe and Eastern Europe.
Saturday – For Israel and the East.

Of course, you could pray a little longer!
You could.


Pray for the Holy Spirit in the World and for world missionaries.
Pray for statesmen and for government leaders.
Pray for the flowing of the Holy Spirit in the whole church.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Pray for the sick and the suffering, the forgotten, the lonely, the poor.
Pray for your family members, relatives, and friends.
Pray for your local church body, place of work, community, state and nation.
Pray for the events occurring in the daily news!

Pray for the children, the women, the men,

who are enslaved, beaten, and tortured.
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" 
(2 Cor 3:17 NIV).

The Lion of Judah will arise and devour
all who devour others.
They will be cast into the lake of fire
where the worm does not die and
the flames are not quenched.

So I pray for a hundred million miracles for
the suffering and persecuted. Set them free
miraculously.

I pray for a hundred million miraculous conversions
over the Earth. Show them your face that they may
see you are the Messiah, the King of Kings and
Lord of Lords, the Son of God Most High.

When you pray, GOD has blessings and
miracles waiting for you.


“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:11-13 NKJV).

Here’s my personally modified prayer of Jabez (I Chronicles 4:10).

O Lord, bless me indeed this day and enlarge my territory. Hold me in the palm of your hand, so I can have fellowship with you all day long. Keep me from all harm, sin, and evil, that I might not cause you pain. O God! I thank you that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. That I am bought, paid for, ransomed, and redeemed by the Blood of Jesus.

--Bill Hunt

Follow our articles on Facebook (Bill Hunt) or email
us for future notifications.

If you have a true story, a note, a prayer request, or a question
to share, please write a comment below or email us.

For your convenience in cost savings, shop using
our AMAZON Search Box.
We will be grateful. This will credit our ministry to you.


Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Freedom to Be


Can we be Free, really Free?



(Ballet Dancer by Al aka pintofaggs, flickr.com)

 

Why can't we

just let our person go
in expressions of limitless glee?
Or let words dance
upon our ears and
see things pleasing
in our hearts
with no chains upon
our limbs?


Why can't I think of you
in anyway
I see your presence in
my delight?
Why do words have to constrict
my thoughts and I cannot
utter?


In these human shells of
here's and gone's,
you're always there –
interlocked charms –
in the golden locket of
my heart,
and there's no key.


The world can not see,
hear, feel, touch, or know,
everywhere, anywhere,
you'll be--
where the Spirit of the Lord is,
I am Free!


bill hunt c. 2011

If you have a true story, a note, a prayer request,
or a question to share, please write a comment below
or email us.

For your convenience in cost savings,
shop using our AMAZON Search Box.
We will be grateful. This will credit our ministry thru you.



Thursday, September 15, 2011

Book of Job For Men Only

The Book of Job presents standards of integrity for men of God.

Job and His Friends by Ilya Repin, 1869.
 
In the Book of Job, written about 2000 BC, let us imagine that we are sitting with his friends and listening to Job speak. Chapter 31 (NKJV) covers major points for man's integrity before God, that we might each consider.

He starts with a very basic premise.
V1 “I have made a covenant with my eyes;
Why then should I look upon a young woman?

Honesty and integrity is always the policy of honorable men before God.
5 “If I have walked with falsehood,
Or if my foot has hastened to deceit,

6 Let me be weighed on honest scales,
That God may know my integrity.

Sexual sin is most strongly an addiction to men. The body is meant for the Lord and the Lord for the body. Our body belongs to Christ, said Paul (2 Cor 6:15).
9 “If my heart has been enticed by a woman,
Or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door,

10 Then let my wife grind for another,
And let others bow down over her.

11 For that would be wickedness;
Yes, it would be iniquity deserving of judgment.

12 For that would be a fire that consumes to destruction,
And would root out all my increase.


Justice and treatment of others as ourselves in all aspects of life is God's standard. Indeed, it is God's Second Greatest Commandment.
13 “If I have despised the cause of my male or female servant When they complained against me,
14 What then shall I do when God rises up?
When He punishes, how shall I answer Him?

15 Did not He who made me in the womb make them?
Did not the same One fashion us in the womb?

Caring for the Poor, the Elderly, the Widow, and the Orphan is God's service in social justice.
16 “If I have kept the poor from their desire,
Or caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

17 Or eaten my morsel by myself,
So that the fatherless could not eat of it

18 (But from my youth I reared him as a father,
And from my mother’s womb I guided the widow);

19 If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing,
Or any poor man without covering;

20 If his heart has not blessed me,
And if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

21 If I have raised my hand against the fatherless,
When I saw I had help in the gate;

22 Then let my arm fall from my shoulder,
Let my arm be torn from the socket.

Lusting after Materialism, Greed, or Money as more important than God is idolatry.
24 “If I have made gold my hope,
Or said to fine gold, ‘You are my confidence’;

 25 If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great,
And because my hand had gained much;


Indeed, holding anything before the Sovereignty of God makes such an idol.
26 If I have observed the sun when it shines,
Or the moon moving in brightness,

27 So that my heart has been secretly enticed,
And my mouth has kissed my hand;

28 This also would be an iniquity deserving of judgment,
For I would have denied God who is above.

Acting in pride or arrogance, seeking revenge or failing to forgive, counting myself above or better than even my enemy falls short of God's commands.
29 “If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, Or lifted myself up when evil found him
30 (Indeed I have not allowed my mouth to sin
By asking for a curse on his soul);

Failing to share my prosperity and good fortune with those in need or failure to extend even my hospitality is failing to do my duty before God.
31 If the men of my tent have not said, ‘Who is there that has not been satisfied with his meat?’
32 (But no sojourner had to lodge in the street,
For I have opened my doors to the traveler);


Hiding fear or evil in my heart towards others causing me to fail in good deeds before others is cowardly.
33 If I have covered my transgressions as Adam,
By hiding my iniquity in my bosom,

34 Because I feared the great multitude, And dreaded the contempt of families, So that I kept silence And did not go out of the door—
To neglect stewardship toward using proper production, property, produce, fields, business, and employees is failure before God.
38 “If my land cries out against me,
And its furrows weep together;

39 If I have eaten its fruit without money,
Or caused its owners to lose their lives;

40 Then let thistles grow instead of wheat,
And weeds instead of barley.”

The words of Job are ended—but well worth our consideration.
--Bill Hunt

If you have a true story, a note, a prayer request,
or a question to share, please write a comment below
or email us.

For your convenience in cost savings,
shop using our AMAZON Search Box.
We will be grateful. This will credit our ministry to you.


Friday, September 9, 2011

God Warns a Nation!


When some deny God, it is time for men and women to stand, speak out, and pray.

Benjamin Franklin leads prayer at Constitution Convention, 1787.
Our nation is suffering disasters: devastating tornadoes, rampant forest fires, powerful hurricanes, earthquakes, immense flooding, not to mention murderous crimes, military deaths, and such. More than once I've heard a person ask, “Is this an Act of God? Does he cause it?”

There are many who mirthfully laugh at such a suggestion, considering all Acts of God as accidental consequences. But walking closer with God, others recognize the truth as in Ben Franklin's statement to his compatriots during the stalled progress of the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

And have we now forgotten
that powerful friend?

Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth-that God governs in the affairs of men.

No, God himself is not the author of evil! The God of perfect goodness and perfect justice is compelled to withdraw his hand of mighty Blessing and protection in the face of man's horrible wickedness and sin. It is the prince of evil who comes “to steal, kill, and destroy.”

For instance, how dare Mayor Michael Bloomberg block God from the 9-11 NYC Memorial Service in violation of our heritage and our national motto, “In God We Trust?” We grieve for our nation so consecrated to God by our colonial forefathers.


Blessed is the nation whose 
  God is the Lord” (Ps 33:12).

When our president denies our national godly heritage and political leaders work to establish laws against the moral commands of God and to destroy the elements of our founding Constitution, they trespass. The denial of God blocks the blessings to our nation in health, prosperity, and victory. We grieve for our nation.

No king is saved by the size of his army” (Ps 33:16).

Nahum warned Nineveh again, a hundred years after Jonah, of God's wrath against the guilty in the power of whirlwind, storm, drought, earthquake, fire, and overwhelming flooding (Nahum 1:2-8). This time Nineveh did not listen and destruction came about 663 BC.


Ben Franklin further warned.

I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in the political building no better than the builders of Babel; we shall be divided by our little, partial local interests; our projects will be confounded; and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages.

And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war, or conquest.

What is happening? If we wish to heed the warning, we must acknowledge the God in whom we trust.

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14 NKJV).

When some deny God, it is time for men and women to stand, speak out, and pray.

He cares for those who trust in him” (Nahum 1:7 NKJV).

--Bill Hunt

If you have a true story, a note, a prayer request,
or a question to share, please write a comment below
or email us.

For your convenience in cost savings,
shop using our AMAZON Search Box.
We will be grateful. This will credit our ministry to you.

For more information, search: Prayer in America or
In God We Trust.