Seeking & Calling

What does the following Verse say to you? (please reply with your comments)

Isaiah 55:6
Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.

Small beginnings

This is a picture of the oldest organised baptist Church in Scotland - Keiss Baptist Church in Caithness, the North of Scotland (taken by my wife).
I think it is amazing to think that a land laird started a Baptist Church in this small corner of Scotland over 250 years ago.
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It is good to know that when we come to God in prayer he can do far more than we think. Lets be expectant as we look to see what He will do!

Book on Prayer I will read!

Over the next month or so I am hoping to read the following books and will let you know about them when I get through them!
1)
Philip Yancey Does it make any difference?

2) Peter Greig/Dave Roberts Red Moon Rising (The Story of 24-7 Prayer)

New Verses for the week ~ Isaiah 55:6-7

"Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon"

Praying through the news!

We often wonder how we can pray so often without being informed. But away of beginning to pray is listening to/watching the news. One of the countries that is coming alot at the moment is Lebannon.
Operational World has a focus on them...here

Morning is coming!

Psalm 130:6
My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.

We often wrestle with this thing called waiting. It is a British thing to do! Waiting is something the watchman has to do. The night time can be a long time but one thing that is certain is that the morning will come.
Our soul waits for the Lord and yearns for it more than the watchmen waits for the morning! There is a certainty that the Lord will meet with you!

Out of the depths ~ Psalm 130

Do you ever come to the Lord in prayer feeling just out of the depths. We can feel out of the depths for many reasons: Illness, depression, homesickness, guilt etc. David, the psalm writer often writes out of these depths. Yesterday I posted psalm 130:5-6 as the verses for this week. In this Psalm, again David is writing out of the depths and this time it is from guilt. As he comes to wait upon the Lord, he has assurance there is forgiveness in him and he also had the hope of the Word.

Verses for the week ~ Psalm 130:5-6

"I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning."

Open & Honest Prayer

2 Chronicles 7:14-15, the verses I have chosen for this past week are often used to encourage us to pray. There is a real condition here... If my people will do xyz then I will hear from heaven etc! The writer speaks about about a people who are called out by his name.

But what are these people to do?

1) humble themselves (to neither have high view or a low view but
a modest one!)

2) Pray & seek his face!

3) turn from wicked ways : Psalm 66: 18 says If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened . This really speaks about then importance about confessing our sins in prayer. But not only that to have a real life change.

Prayer is about a conversation. This means for us too we need to listen and allow the Lord to mould and shape our lives and the lives of those around.

So what happen as The Lords people turn to him in prayer. He will forgive them! Not only that but Lord will be attentively listen to their prayer and be prepared to act upon it!

Prayer quote from Billy Graham

“To get nations back on their feet, we must first get down on our knees.”
Billly Graham

New verse for the week: 2 Chronicles 7:14-15

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.

New Move of Prayer for A new Move of God!

Our churches are dying - even for all that we try new ideas etc! We need to wait upon God to seek his will - in fact we need to get on our knees! Then once we have conversed with Him, we need to converse with one another and be prepared to submit to God and one another.

Prayer in the Good and the bad times

Another hymn which speaks about prayer is Father hear the prayer we offer; written by Love Marie Willis. I like the fact that the hymn writer acknowleges that there is up times and down times. Here is one of the verses:

Let our path be bright or dreary,
storm or sunshine be our share;
may our souls , in hope unweary,
make thy work our ceaseless prayer.

Love Marie Willis (1824-1908)

Prayer is the Soul's Sincere Desire

This is a name of a hymn written by a Moravian James Montgomery. James was a poet writer and again like "What a friend in Jesus" was later put to Music. In this classic hymn, there is about 7 or 8 verses in that describes what prayer means. I like the following verse which tells us that prayer is very much a neccessary part of the Christian:

"Prayer is the Christian's vital breath,
The Christians native air,
His watchword at the gates of death;
He enters heaven with prayer."

Prayer is the Soul's Sincere Desire, James Montgomery (1771-1854)

Pray without Ceasing

The Hymn "What a friend in Jesus" was originally written by Joseph Scriven as poem which was entitled "Pray without ceasing". It wasnt until he was on his deathbed that his carer discovered the the poem and was later put to music by Charles Converse (1832-1918) . Joseph knew trials and tradegy as he was nearly married twice but the twice the bride died a day or so before the wedding. This hymns is a real encouragement for us to bring all to such a faithful friend:

What a Friend We have in Jesus
All our Sins and griefs to bear!
What a privelege to carry
Everything to God in prayer
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear
All because we do carry
Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be disocuraged:
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
Can we find a friend so faithful,
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus Knows our every weakness
-Take it to the Lord in Prayer!


Are we weak and heavy laden,
cumbered with a load of care?
Precious saviour still our refuge!
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
Do thy friends despise forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms he' ll take and shield thee
Thou wilt find a solace
there!

Joseph Scriven (1819-86)

Remember Your Encouragements!

Came accross this post from Brian Ingraham, leader of RE:HOPE in Glasgow about need to remember our encouragments when we go through down times. To view it click here

Vision by Prayer: Remember to Pray on The Dot When You See The Spot!

Vision by Prayer: Remember to pray on the dot when you see the spot!

Remember to pray on the dot when you see the spot!

mmm... What is all this about, I hear you say! We have different ways of remembering things like tie a knot in a hankerchief. Yesterday's sermon at church was on prayer & action. We were given a gimmick to remind us to pray! We were all given sticky spots to stick somewhere that we would see and then it would remind us to pray for folks from our prayer list. You can stick it on your watch or your thumb. So hence the title of this post - Remember to pray on the dot when you see the spot!

Take My Life and Let it Be!

This is the title of the Hymn written by a lady by the name of Frances Harvergal. Looked up the background of this hymn the other day. The hymn writer is offering all that she was unto the Lord whom she loved. She had been through trials, tribulation and pain. Even long after she had written the hymn, she still prayed through each line in this hymn seeking to make it a reality in her life. I want to bring your attention to verse 4:

Take my silver & my gold,
not a mite, I would I withold;
take my intellect and use
every power as thou shalt choose.

As Frances wrote & indeed Prayed "Take my silver & my gold" she was I'm sure seeking God to see how she could take action. She did take action. She took her 50 fine pieces of Jewellry and gave them to the Womens Missionary Society.

Lets give all that we are unto God but be prepared to take action.

Listening & Speaking

I came accross this quote from Mother Theresa and for me speaks profoundly about prayer...

"The beginning of Prayer is silence...God speaking to the silence of the heart.
And then we start talking from the fulness of the heart. And God listens.

The beginning of prayer is scripture...we listen to God speaking again
from the fullness of our heart. And God listens.

That is really prayer.
Both sides listening and both sides speaking."

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To view another recent post on God speaking through the silence click here