The board meeting is being held at the Abraham’s.
Dottie & I were able to spend time with our son, Chad, and his daughter, Rebecca. Our great-granddaughter needs surgery on her spine which will be done within a few weeks in New Orleans. Her name is Grace and Rebecca asked that we pray for her so p-lease do that for us.
Adam’s outreach group will be ministering Saturday in Chuchuca to a combined 13 churches. Pray for the salvation of many.
Colossians 4:12 “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”
What did Epaphras pray for those back home in Colosse, Heircopolis and Laodecia? I can tell you from 4:12 above that he was focused on the spiritual.
There is too much “natural” praying going on. Lord, heal me. Lord, bless me. Lord, give me. Not Epaphras! He prayed spiritually! He ask that his congregation would grow up, get mature, be able to stand, etc
1 Timothy 2:1 “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.ked God to help his family and congregation to grow up, become mature and be able to stand against the enemy and for what was right.”
Notice “for all men”. There are no prayers to be offered separately for rich or poor, male or female, denomination or other denomination, communist or democracy, etc. Thee is only one person in God and that is all of us. He wants all of us to be saved. Even the meanest of the meanest or the cutest of the cutest. God loves us all and he is never pleased to see even the most vile of persons die and spend eternity in hell.
Notice the four areas Paul tells Timothy should be the focus of our prayers. First are Supplications which are prayers for averting evils of every kind. Next is what he refers to simply as Prayers which are for obtaining the good things, spiritual and temporal, which we ourselves need.
Third are Intercessions. These are prayers in behalf of others. And finally there is the Giving of thanks. It is here that we praise God, as the parent of all good, for all the blessings which we and others have received.
It is so important that the Paul tells Timothy that Christians need to pray for governments, leaders and people in authority. I truly believe that if Christians would obey this command rather than joke or complain about our leaders God could set about saving those people and giving them a heart for God. If prayed for authorities as much as we gossip about them I know the world would be a different place.
Did you notice that of the four types of prayer mentioned here the first two, supplication and prayer, are for ourselves? This is critical for you to grasp. There is not anything that is not important to God. He cares about you and your personal needs. It is only when those prayers are strictly for our getting and not for others that we get into trouble
Stay tuned!