I Pray This For You Today

"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:23, KJV)

"....unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."  After, "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," all Scriptural promises for those who surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ will "take over," because we are in the Eternal One, for "all" Eternity, no more battle with rebellion, lust, unforgiveness, envy, resentment, pride, in short, everything which in this life plagues the whole human race.  But until then, how we do need the continual moment by moment answer to this prayer.

Some years ago I shared that today's text was the verse which the evangelist, who led my Grandpa Barnette to Jesus, gave to and prayed for that young 14 year old boy in 1901.  All who knew Tom Barnette said it surely was fulfilled in his life. 

If you want to pray something for me, I can think of no greater prayer, not all that brochure stuff you read.  Please pray this for my family also; pray this for yourself.  I even pray this for "enemies."  Why not?  The answer to this great "declaration," this prayer will be the salvation of all for whom we pray it.

Father, in Jesus' Name, I pray for the one or group who may be reading this right now, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."  Amen.

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Read of Islamists' Declaration of War on Christians:

www.jerberwash.blogspot.com

Unreached People Group: www.apfunreachedpeoples.blogpsot.com

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

I Wonder: Can We "Uphold" in The Fight?

"Then he said, 'Do you know why I have come to you?  And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia; and when I have gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come.  But I will tell you what is noted in the Scripture of Truth.  (No one upholds me against these, except Michael your prince.'")  (Daniel 10:20, 21)

I can say of a truth that I sense this great Cosmic battle yesterday.  I prayed on all the floors of the Hart Senate Building and most of the floors in the Dirksen Senate Building.  I even ran into Senator Boxer as she was getting off an elevator.  I prayed from the Senate Gallery for Senator Inhofe as he delivered a rebuttal of the global warming people on the Senate floor, read Scripture in the Supreme Court Building, prayed in the House Gallery, and outside the White House South Lawn.  I was participating in the war, battle, struggle which has been going on since man surrendered to the lie of man's number one Enemy in the Garden, nation after nation, people group after people group involved in the great struggle, the great conflict with assigned Satanic princes throughout the ages.  The truth of all of this is found nowhere but in, "The Scripture of Truth"!

This is the history of men and nations.  Every nation and particularly every world empire had/has an assigned "prince."  The future of those said nations then and now has always depended upon how the people of those nations responded to the battle.  Did they, and do they, yield to Satan or King Jesus, to "the Kingdom of Darkness," or, "the Kingdom of Light"?  Yet we can say with absolute certainty that the final outcome of the cosmic struggle was and is never in doubt.  The Prophets of Old and New Testaments assure us that some day, "the kingdom of the world has become of our Lord and of His Christ" (literal translation).  In other words, King Jesus, the Christ, will take over everything man thought he was laboring, fighting, and scheming for.  His will be the final take on the movie line, "I'm baaack."

Father, in Jesus' Name, I thank You that You have included me in the great "assignment."  Amen.
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Read of Waning Catholic Church Influence in Poland:

www.jerberwash.blogspot.com

Unreached People Group: www.apfunreachedpeoples.blogspot.com

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

"I Understood By the Books"

"In the first year of Darius,..who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans (Babylonians)--..I, Daniel, understood by the books...." 

(From Daniel 9:1, 2)

July 10, 1965 was the birthday of our oldest child, Stephen Paul Barnette.  42 years ago last month his all too brief journey on this planet ended, and the Eternal One took Stephen into the Realm to which all in Jesus Christ are headed.  That summer I too experienced a "death," a death to independence, death to casual reading of the Words of God, death to, "I can pretty well handle life on my own."  Now of course I was, "born again," "saved," baptized in the Holy Spirit, preaching, teaching, bringing people to Jesus, doing, "the work of the ministry."  But I can assure you by experience and observation that one can be and do all of the aforementioned and still, at the root of one's life, be self reliant.  Of course the "spiritual" among us would deny this, but deny it as people may, neglect of, "the Books," reveal what we really are, not what we think we are. What is very scary about this is that Jesus still seems to use such people.

That summer I read portions of the Bible I had never read.  That summer I discovered what our text tells us, that if there is anything we can grasp of life, the mysteries of life, the tragedies, heartaches, the suffering, that which is unanswerable by any other means, one must come to, "the Books."  I have no more intellectual or "spiritual" understanding of the first six months of 1970 than I do of that fateful, portentous summer, now so very long ago.  Yet I can tell you that I have found an "understanding" which goes beyond the human mind. "I... understood by the books," and that, my friend, just as, "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding--------------- will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

Over these past 42 years, the most powerful influence in my life, and that which has been forever written on my heart, is the truth of Deuteronomy 8:3, of which our Lord Jesus Christ reminded Satan in that wilderness, "....Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD" (NASB).  This is the reason I am still living today.

Father, in Jesus' Name, I thank You for Your Life which "proceeds" to me and indwells me.  Without You, I have no life.  Amen.

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Unreached People Group: www.apfunreachedpeoples.blogspot.com

 

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

A Heart Like Daniel

"Oh Lord, great and awesome God, Who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned...." (Daniel 9:4, 5a)

Or, he could have said, "'Who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments,' we have not "love[d] Him, and...kept] His commandments."

One of the outstanding characteristics of Daniel's prayer is that the person of whom nothing evil is said takes on ("owns") the sin of his nation.  The Jews were in captivity because, "we have sinned."  It was not Daniel's sin which took him there; it was the sins of, "the men of Judah,..the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel" (v.7).  But Daniel did not stand aloof in some self righteous attitude, "Well, it wasn't me; but I pray for these poor lost sinners," no.  This is the heart of a true intercessor, one in whom Jesus Christ lives, "we have sinned."

No one wants to admit that the reason humanity suffers is, "we have sinned."  I can hear a, "Oh, that's Old Testament."  Just read the New Testament without trying-to-build-a-big-church glasses and one will see there too that sin has consequences.  This is not an issue of forgiveness or the Love of God or mercy or anything of the "kind."  Just as it is for children, adults pay for disobedience, or, as our text declares, they pay for, "we have sinned."  Any person who responds to adversity with, "I don't deserve this," is a person who thinks his/her righteousness is self obtained.

The United States of America has been descending into an abyss of, "we have sinned," at an alarming rate.  There has always been sin in America, just as there has always been sin in any, nation, tribe, people group on Planet Earth since the Garden.  Yet the rate and expanse of sin in America today is a result of government "sponsored" rebellion against, not King George, but King Jesus.  If there is any of the "spirit" of Daniel in the Church today, in any nation, there will be the same determination in us as there was in Daniel, "Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes....O Lord, hear!  O Lord, forgive!  O Lord listen and act!  Do not delay for Your sake, my God...."

Father, in Jesus'  Name, people talk so much of "David's heart."  Yet what a heart in Daniel.  I thank You that in Jesus Christ I have such a heart, but I pray it would manifest more and more.  Amen.

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Unreached People Group: www.apfunreachedpeoples.blogspot.com  

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2