"While Men Slept"

"....But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed...."  (Matthew 13:25)

The advertisement reads:

Show Your Pittsburgh Pride!!!

"Pride 2008 will be a week long celebration for and about GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bi (gender) and Transgender) Pittsburgh.  We will be celebrating in our city, starting June 16th and ending with PrideFest on Sunday, June 22.  On Sunday June 22nd from 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM The GLCC (Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Pittsburgh) will have a booth right in the heart of the PrideFest location on Liberty Avenue.  You will be able to stop by and see what we have planned for the future of GLBT Pittsburgh." (!!)

"While men slept" the enemy sowed and "planned!"  An interesting thing has happened over the years in Pittsburgh.  There is no longer a "March for Jesus" day because many of the city's pastors stopped supporting it, asserting, "that season was over."  Meanwhile, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!"  This coming week (notice, not "day"), the homosexuals will be marching with great pride through the city streets.  While the religious community is having in-house revivals, outside its house will be the "outhouse" culture, growing, expanding, taking over.  While the religious culture is dancing and shouting in its church buildings, the demonic culture is dancing and shouting in our streets.

Some times I feel as though I am a "while-men-slept" Believer."  I have been very active in His Church and Kingdom over my 44+ years of "full time" service, and yet at times you feel as though, well, you know the feeling.  Then you read the above headline and ask, "How can I slow down/sleep in the face of this?"  It is simply a rhetorical question.  I cannot.  You cannot.  The Church cannot.  I guess Malone is still asking challenging us, "What are you prepared to do?"

Father, in Jesus' Name, too often I have been asleep while the enemy has been sowing and planning.  Holy Spirit, keep me awake!  Amen.

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"The LORD Was Moved By Entreaty for the Land"

"And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.  Thus the LORD was moved by entreaty for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel."

(2 Samuel 24:25)

 

The American presidential primaries reveal a nation which is moving farther and farther from its roots.  Two candidates who advocate the murder of the unborn, the approval and legalization of same gender marriages, slavery to foreign oil by siding with those who refuse to use our own resources, appointing Supreme Court Justices who advocate consulting foreign legal systems, and big government as the answer to the nation's and even the world's problems, received more votes in an American primary than any other candidates in American history. 

 

The American 2008 presidential election reflects a new spirit in "the land." It is an election year which is driven by gender and race.  The population is on such a history-making agenda that Biblical/Kingdom principles mean nothing.  I recently heard about a large evangelical, charismatic, black congregation in a major American city which is supporting Barack Obama.  Its neighboring interracial congregation has many of its members also on the Obama deception.  And reports have been leaking out that more and more women, church-goers and non church-goers alike, are admitting that their votes for Hillary are based on her gender.  I have been saying this for months and have received comments that I am just wrong, that Americans are more "intelligent" than that, and that I am bigoted.  We'll see.

 

But in spite of the bleak horizon, if you consider our text, you will not be discouraged.  The Living Triune God is "moved by entreaty for the land," any land which has a people who are not loyal to their ethnicity or their gender, but to Their Lord Jesus Christ.  Push anyone hard enough and you will find where their loyalties really lie.  And it is time for you and me to "push" the Church in "the land," whether America or any nation of the world.  Don't allow Satan to appeal to your gender or race.  Don't allow the prevailing culture in your "land" govern the way you live------------ or vote!  May the attitude of Caleb guide our "entreaty for the land" today. 

"As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in.  Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the LORD spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified.  It may be that the LORD will be with me (us) and I shall be able to drive them out as the LORD said."

 

In Jesus' Name, Amen.

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"Now Word-Fresh Word"???

 "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."  (Hebrews 4:12)

 

Over the years I have heard people talk about a "now word" and a "fresh word."  My dear friend in Christ, how much more "now" and "fresh" can anything or anyone be than The Word of God, Jesus Christ, and His "Breathed" Words?  Do the "now word" and "fresh word" people think our text is incomplete?  Or could it be that most do not want the described Work of our text in their lives? 

 

Please study this text very carefully.  "Every Scripture is God-Breathed and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose, and action), so that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work." (Amplified Bible)  The combined texts perfectly sum up the purpose of the "Two-Edged Sword" in our lives. 

 

I implore you to join me today in submitting to this powerful, sharp, piercing, discerning, profitable, instructing, reproving, convicting, correcting, disciplining-in-obedience, training, completing, proficient-making Word, Whose Purpose is to mold us into "well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work" citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, please keep working This purpose in me.  Amen. 

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News, Commentary: www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com

 

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Get trade secrets for amazing burgers. Watch "Cooking with Tyler Florence" on AOL Food.

Pray Prayers Which Get Answers

"....We have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects...."  (Colossians 1:9b-10a)

I prayed a prayer the other day something like this.  "Father, help me to pray prayers which get answers."  Have you ever noticed just how many prayers go unanswered?  Just take stock of your present prayers, and prayers which you have prayed over the years.  Compare those answered and unanswered prayers.  It just could be that the deepest longings and most desperate prayers of your life time could be still in the "unanswered" column.  Now I know that the religious airways and pulpits of the world are filled with people trying to reveal their great "wisdom secrets" as to how you can get anything you want from God.  But why then are so many hearts still broken, so many of their deepest gut wrenching issues still unresolved? 

I'm sorry if I do not have a fully satisfying, "deep" answer to this question.  But I do see something in our text.  I see here the Heart of Jesus, our Savior seeking Father's will and purposes.  Everything Jesus said and did was "to please Him in all respects."  His Life was "caught up" in our Father, not Himself.  "I and Father are One." 

I submit to you today that if your heart is "to please [Father] in all respects," to say, "I and the Blessed Trinity are one in purpose," you just may see a real breakthrough and breakout-----------------------
a breakthrough in the war with doubts, fears, and brokenness of disappointment, and a breakout into the "knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding," a breakout from your prayers into those prayers which get answers.

Father, in Jesus' Name, help me to pray prayers which get answers. Amen. 
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News, commentary:     www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com


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Get trade secrets for amazing burgers. Watch "Cooking with Tyler Florence" on AOL Food.
(http://food.aol.com/tyler-florence?video=4?&NCID=aolfod00030000000002)