Community Prayer

Comment

Comment by Jolene on May 27, 2011 at 4:55am

Psalm 119:129-136 (New International Version)

   פ Pe

¹²⁹ Your statutes are wonderful;
   therefore I obey them.
¹³⁰ The unfolding of your words gives light;
   it gives understanding to the simple.
¹³¹ I open my mouth and pant,
   longing for your commands.
¹³² Turn to me and have mercy on me,
   as you always do to those who love your name.
¹³³ Direct my footsteps according to your word;
   let no sin rule over me.
¹³⁴ Redeem me from human oppression,
   that I may obey your precepts.
¹³⁵ Make your face shine on your servant
   and teach me your decrees.
¹³⁶ Streams of tears flow from my eyes,
   for your law is not obeyed.

Dear Lord there is so much happening in our communities today help us to distinguish where we are needed and help where we can Amen .

Comment by Jolene on May 26, 2011 at 3:41am

2 Corinthians 1:3-11 (The Message)

The Rescue

^3-5All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.

^6-7When we suffer for Jesus, it works out for your healing and salvation. If we are treated well, given a helping hand and encouraging word, that also works to your benefit, spurring you on, face forward, unflinching. Your hard times are also our hard times. When we see that you're just as willing to endure the hard times as to enjoy the good times, we know you're going to make it, no doubt about it.

^8-11We don't want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us in Asia province. It was so bad we didn't think we were going to make it. We felt like we'd been sent to death row, that it was all over for us. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally—not a bad idea since he's the God who raises the dead! And he did it, rescued us from certain doom. And he'll do it again, rescuing us as many times as we need rescuing. You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation—I don't want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God's deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part.

Lord we know you have a plan for us and as clueless as we seem we trust you to carry thru that plan to the end. Help us to be faithful prayer warriors and do what is right and correct in your eyes Amen

Comment by Jolene on May 25, 2011 at 5:01am

Ephesians 5:22-33 (The Message)

^22-24Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.

^25-28Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ's love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They're really doing themselves a favor—since they're already "one" in marriage.

^29-33No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That's how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become "one flesh." This is a huge mystery, and I don't pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.

Dear Lord help us to unerstand your love to deminstrate your love the way you teach us daily. Help us to be humble yet strong. Looking upward so our feet stay firmly on the path you have set. Amen

Comment by Jolene on May 24, 2011 at 4:54am

Matthew 6:25-34 (The Message)

^25-26"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

^27-29"Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

^30-33"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

³⁴"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

Truer words have never been spoken. Our concern should not be human, such as fashion or food. But of making Jesus the center of our life because he will handle it all if we only trust him. Amen

Comment by Jolene on May 23, 2011 at 4:45am

1 John 2:24-3:3 (The Message)

^24-25Stay with what you heard from the beginning, the original message. Let it sink into your life. If what you heard from the beginning lives deeply in you, you will live deeply in both Son and Father. This is exactly what Christ promised: eternal life, real life!

^26-27I've written to warn you about those who are trying to deceive you. But they're no match for what is embedded deeply within you—Christ's anointing, no less! You don't need any of their so-called teaching. Christ's anointing teaches you the truth on everything you need to know about yourself and him, uncontaminated by a single lie. Live deeply in what you were taught.

Live Deeply in Christ

²⁸And now, children, stay with Christ. Live deeply in Christ. Then we'll be ready for him when he appears, ready to receive him with open arms, with no cause for red-faced guilt or lame excuses when he arrives.

²⁹Once you're convinced that he is right and righteous, you'll recognize that all who practice righteousness are God's true children.

1 John 3

¹ What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we're called children of God! That's who we really are. But that's also why the world doesn't recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he's up to.

^2-3But friends, that's exactly who we are: children of God. And that's only the beginning. Who knows how we'll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we'll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus' life as a model for our own.

We need you Lord every minute of every day you sustain us and keep us whole. You make it so easy to call on you just a thought or word of praise your Holy Spirit is always with us. Amen

Comment by Jolene on May 22, 2011 at 4:38am

John 1:14-18 (The Message)

¹⁴The Word became flesh and blood,
      and moved into the neighborhood.
   We saw the glory with our own eyes,
      the one-of-a-kind glory,
      like Father, like Son,
   Generous inside and out,
      true from start to finish.

¹⁵John pointed him out and called, "This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word."

^16-18We all live off his generous bounty,
      gift after gift after gift.
   We got the basics from Moses,
      and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
   This endless knowing and understanding—
      all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.
   No one has ever seen God,
      not so much as a glimpse.
   This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
      who exists at the very heart of the Father,
      has made him plain as day.

Lord it is the resounding echo through all our life love one another. We are put her to love each other have you have loved us. Help us Lord to be your examples not the exceptions. Amen

Comment by Jolene on May 21, 2011 at 5:42am

Psalm 92

A Sabbath Song

^1-3 What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks, to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
   To announce your love each daybreak,
      sing your faithful presence all through the night,
   Accompanied by dulcimer and harp,
      the full-bodied music of strings.

^4-9 You made me so happy, God
      I saw your work and I shouted for joy.
   How magnificent your work, God!
      How profound your thoughts!
   Dullards never notice what you do;
      fools never do get it.
   When the wicked popped up like weeds
      and all the evil men and women took over,
   You mowed them down,
      finished them off once and for all.
   You, God, are High and Eternal.
      Look at your enemies, God!
   Look at your enemies—ruined!
Scattered to the winds, all those hirelings of evil!

^10-14 But you've made me strong as a charging bison,
      you've honored me with a festive parade.
   The sight of my critics going down is still fresh,
      the rout of my malicious detractors.
   My ears are filled with the sounds of promise:
      "Good people will prosper like palm trees,
   Grow tall like Lebanon cedars;
      transplanted to God's courtyard,
   They'll grow tall in the presence of God,
      lithe and green, virile still in old age."

¹⁵ Such witnesses to upright God!
      My Mountain, my huge, holy Mountain!

 

Dear Lord you ask for faithfulness and trust and you pay us inwaves of love and caring. Please hear us Lord we praise your name. We lift our heads to honor your presense. Amen

Comment by Jolene on May 20, 2011 at 4:26am

James 1:13-22 (The Message)

^13-15Don't let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, "God is trying to trip me up." God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one's way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.

^16-18So, my very dear friends, don't get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.

Act on What You Hear

^19-21Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God's righteousness doesn't grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.

^22-24Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.

Dear Lord you have planted seeds in us, now as we take in your light let us bloom for you. You feed us with the living water and restore our tired hearts. Help me and everyone Lord to humble myself to except your love. Amen

Comment by Jolene on May 19, 2011 at 4:05am

Philippians 4:2-7 (The Message)

Pray About Everything
 2I urge Euodia and Syntyche to iron out their differences and make up. God doesn't want his children holding grudges.
 3And, oh, yes, Syzygus, since you're right there to help them work things out, do your best with them. These women worked for the Message hand in hand with Clement and me, and with the other veterans—worked as hard as any of us. Remember, their names are also in the Book of Life.

 4-5Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!

 6-7Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

 

God help us to work as 1 for your good, and not to worry but always be prayerful in our thoughts. Amen

Comment by Jolene on May 18, 2011 at 4:58am

2 Corinthians 4:16-5:8 (The Message)

^16-18So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever.

2 Corinthians 5

^1-5For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not handmade—and we'll never have to relocate our "tents" again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what's coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we're tired of it! We've been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less.

^6-8That's why we live with such good cheer. You won't see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don't get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It's what we trust in but don't yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we'll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.

Hope for the hopeless and love for the unloved. Lord help us keep our focus on you and hold on tight to the sunshine you have given us in our hearts. Amen

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