We enjoyed a good day of worship on Sunday. The
congregational singing was a blessing. Our Choir blessed us and honored the
Lord as they sang “He’s Alive”. Donna sang the opening verses and she not only
sings beautifully, but she sings with such feeling that it brought us all into
the story the song presents; couple that with our choir singing out “He’s
Alive!” and you could not help but to be blessed!
It was an honor to have James Bennett with us representing
the Gideon ministry. He shared some facts and stories about the Bible
distribution of the Gideon’s. Our church family gave generously to the
ministry. We gave enough to supply the Gideons with 271 pocket New Testament’s
to distribute to young people. I’m proud of you Everett Springs Church family!
Time allowed me to only share the opening of the message: “God
Works Through Prayer” For the Scripture reading I read from Acts 4:23-31. The
message came from 1 Chronicles 4:9-10. The prayer of Jabez clearly models for
us that we can ask for God’s 1) Provision, 2) Presence, and 3) Protection. I
was able to present the rest of the message during our Sunday evening service.
I thank the Lord for how well the message was received and how folks responded
to the desire for us to begin a ministry of praying for prodigals to return to
the Father. I am looking forward to seeing God work as we humble ourselves
before Him in prayer.
I mentioned that I would share some “Bonus Material” on the
blog, so I better get to it. What follows is from the book: From Embers to a
Flame: How God can Revitalize Your Church by Harry L. Reeder III. He is
writing about the prayer of the Disciples in Acts 4. What he says about prayer
and God’s sovereignty is worth the time it will take for you to read it. May
you be encouraged by his words.
“The believers in Jerusalem went on
to say, “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Thy holy
servant Jesus, whom Thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along
with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Thy hand and Thy purpose predestined to occur” (vv.
27-28). It may seem strange to some that predestination is actually mentioned
in a prayer, because to them predestination and prayer appear to be mutually
exclusive concepts. If God has predestined everything, they say, why should we
bother to pray? But this was not a problem for the early church; as one
commentator says, they actually “found comfort in the fact that he knew
beforehand what would happen.”
That is why
the prayer begins with a reference to God as “Lord” (v. 24, Greek despotes). As John Stott writes, “The
Sanhedrin might utter warnings, threat and prohibitions, and try to silence the
church, but their authority was subject to a higher authority still, and the
edicts of men cannot overturn the decrees of God.” And they not only found
comfort in the fact that God is in control, but also found motivation to pray,
strange as that may seem. They knew that the same God who predestines has also
chosen to accomplish His sovereign will through
prayer, not apart from it. Put another way, the purpose of prayer in not for us
to change the plan of God, but for us to participate in that plan. God
graciously enables us to pray so that He can graciously allow us to be a part
of His work in the world.” (From Embers to a Flame, p. 92)
Wow! That is some “meat” to chew on. I am going to post some
more on this subject tomorrow. Come back and read it and I believe you will
find it to be a blessing and encouragement to you.
Have a great day and take time to pray!
For His Glory,
Pastor Mike
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