Christian Reflection and Prayer

A reformer's refuge

    "A mighty fortress is our God.
    A bulwark never failing.
    Our helper He amid the flood
    Of mortal ills prevailing.
    For still our ancient foe
    Doth seek to work us woe—
    His craft and pow'r are great,
    And, armed with cruel hate,
    On earth is not His equal."
    A Mighty Fortress is Our God
    Martin Luther (1483-1546)


God is our refuge and strength,
always ready to help in times of
trouble. So we will not fear, even
if earthquakes come and mountains
crumble into the sea. Let the oceans
roar and foam. Let the mountains
tremble as the waters surge!
Psalm 46:1-3 NLT

The great reformer

"After posting his ninety-five theses
on the door of Wittenberg's Castle
Church in October 1517, Martin Luther
faced many years of trials and persecution.
And during the years of the ensuing
Protestant Reformation, Luther came
to know better than most the gracious
power of God's sheltering hand. He
confidently stepped forward to defend
the truth he found in God's Word, despite
excommunication from the Roman church,
continual threats to his life and freedom,
and times of intense spiritual battle.

In the comforting words of Psalm 46,
Luther found the inspiration for this hymn
 that would become the battle cry of the
Protestant Reformation. Many who suffered
for their faith during that time found solid
comfort in Luther's words of faith and praise.
"A might fortress is our God!"

from The One Year® Book of Hymns by
Mark Norton and Robert Brown (Tyndale)
entry for October 31

Poem
 
 I was shocked, confused, bewildered
 As I entered Heaven's door,
 
 Not by the beauty of it all,
 Nor the lights or its decor.
 
 But it was the folks in Heaven
 Who made me sputter and gasp-
 
 The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
 The alcoholics and the trash.
 
There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money twice..
 
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.
 
Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.
 
I nudged Jesus, 'What's the deal?
 
I would love to hear Your take.
 
How'd all these sinners get up here?

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'To get something you never had,
you have to do something you
never did.'  When God takes
something from your grasp,
He's not punishing you, but
merely opening your hands
to receive something better.  

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Scripture:

"But Jesus said, "You feed them."
"But we have only five loaves of bread and
two fish," they answered. "Or are you expecting
us to go and buy enough food for this whole
crowd?" For there were about 5,000 men there.
Luke 9:13-14, NLT"

Reflection:

It was the middle of the day, probably around lunch time.
People had been waiting a long while to see and hear
Jesus.  They were hungry and tired, and on top of that
there was over 5,000 them (not counting women and children).
This was no small crowd. When the disciples expressed
concern about how the crowd of thousands would eat,
Jesus offered this surprising solution.  "You give them
something to eat: The disciples were set
back by this proposal.  Notice their response to Jesus'
solution.  They protested, focusing their attention on
what they didn't have (food and money).

How many times, in our life, have we focused on the things
we didn't have.  Do you honestly think that our God
would ask us to do something that we and He together
couldn't handle?  WE NEED TO FOCUS ON WHAT WE DO
HAVE, JESUS CHRIST!  
Don't let your lack of resources blind you to seeing God's power.

Prayer:

Thank You God that I have you. I pray that I focus
on my relationship with You and on Your power and
strength. Not on what I don't have. Because when I
have You God I have everything.  In Jesus name amen.

Just in case you weren't feeling too old today.

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Scripture:

Luke 6:12 (New King James Version)

The Twelve Apostles
   
12 Now it came to pass in those days
that He went out to the mountain to pray,
and continued all night in prayer to God.
 

Reflection:

When you have a decision to make how do you approach
making that decision.  Do you seek other people's advice, do
you research a lot, do you spend days seeking advice
from experts, maybe you even look at self-help gurus.
Then as an after thought you spend five minutes with
God.
But before Jesus chose His twelve apostles, He spent
the night in conversation with His father.  I mean we are
talking about the Son of God and He didn't think it was a
waste of His time and spent the whole night in prayer.
What about you?  Do you pray when you have a
decision to make.  Do you pray when you are looking
for a job, when you hire or fire someone.  When you
change jobs, careers, or locations, do you seek your
father's counsel.  Do you have other important decisions
that would benefit from godly wisdom?  (are there any
other kind of decisions?)
ARE YOU WILLING TO SPEND THE NIGHT IN
PRAYER!

Prayer:

Oh Lord I want to walk as one of your blessed children.
"Order my steps in thy word" 
What is Your Word concerning my life and the decisions
I must make?  Oh Lord give me a greater hunger to spend
time with You, to hear Your Word of life, Your Wisdom,
Your Counsel,
 

OUR LORD WORKS IN WONDEROUS
WAYS, HIS MIRACLES TO PERFORM!!!

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Scripture:

But you, dear friends, must continue to build your
lives on the foundation of your holy faith. And
continue to pray as you are directed by the Holy
Spirit. Live in such a way that God's love can bless
you as you wait for the eternal life that our Lord
Jesus Christ in his mercy is going to give you.
Show mercy to those whose faith is wavering.
Rescue others by snatching them from the
flames of judgment. There are still others to
whom you need to show mercy, but be careful
that you aren't contaminated by their sins.
Titus 1:20:23 NLT

<…the Lord has already told you what is good,
and this is what he requires: to do what is right,
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8 NLT

Reflection:

During my years in the Christian Ministry,
I of course had contact with a wide variety of
Christians.  I delighted in my discovery of
the many positive things we shared as
followers of Jesus Christ.There were also negative
characteristics that we as Christians seemed
to share.  One of those characteristics was
we as Christians,"often times shoot our own
wounded".  We often times become impatient
and judgmental with our brothers, and sisters,
and reject them. Especially when they struggle
with sin and doubt.   Instead of rejecting them,
Jude says, we should have mercy on them—
just as Christ had mercy on us when he forgave
our many sins. While we must not tolerate or
accept sin, we are to love and accept others
with kindness and mercy.

Would you remember this one very important
thing.  Please remember this:
If you know someone who has fallen away from
God, your kindness may be just what is needed
to lead them back to God.

I am a recovering alcoholic.  I have been
recovering since 1978.  I was one of those
happy drunks, this of course only fortified
my conviction to drink.  If I was happy, if
I made everyone happy, it was ok to drink.
Of course I was never taking into account
that drinking was taking over my life.  I
could do nothing, I could not even function
normally without being drunk.  Everybody
loves a happy drunk, but I didn't love myself.
Only when I turned my life over to Jesus, my
supreme being, did I begin to recover.  I received
no help, no encouragement, no assistance
at all from the church, only the head of the
church Jesus Christ.
We as a nation spend over 500 billion dollars,
that's right 500 billion dollars on addiction.
The emergency rooms of our hospitals, the
morgue's of our cities, are filled with the
bodies of drunk drivers, and overdose
victims.  Close to 25% of all Medicare,
and Medicaid expenses come from
substance abuse.
We are in a war and we are loosing the
battles.  Among all of this, Where is the
church?  If, as a church, we want to see
God at work in our communities, I think we
need to examine and help these lives that are
being lost to self-destruction.  
It is fine for a church to hold pot luck dinners,
present Christmas Pagaents, and have Wednesday
night prayer services. What is not fine, is for a
church, the body of Christ, to be apathetic and
unconcerned about the individual lives of our
community.    
If, we as a church, are to serve God, then we are
to serve His people.  
We need to see and help those lives that are being
disturbed by the epidemic of addiction.  The bottom
line has been reached and our cities and towns are
spinning wildly into self-destruction. It's time to stop
building walls around our individual lives.  We must
respond to the call as a faith community.  We must
respond as a "church" of God.  It's time to launch
"recovery ministries" in our churches.  It's time to
open all aspects of our church life to addicts who are
seeking recovery.  It's time to make a difference, one
day at
 a time, one life at a time, in a whole society
that is caught in the "down fall" of addiction,.
WE NEED TO GET INVOLVED NOW!  If we are
are truly the body of Christ, then we are to be
INVOLVED NOW!  THERE IS SOMEONE IN
NEED.......DO SOMETHING!

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Scripture:
    
All the believers were united in heart
and mind. And they felt that what they
owned was not their own, so they
shared everything they had. The
apostles testified powerfully to the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and
God's great blessing was upon them all.
Acts 4:32, NLT    

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Scripture:

18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
      because he has anointed me
      to preach good news to the poor.
   He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
      and recovery of sight for the blind,
   to release the oppressed,
    19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Luke 4:18-19 (New International Version)

(Please take time and read this,
and when your finished please,
please say a Prayer of Thanksgiving.)

Louise Redden, a poorly dressed lady
with a look of defeat on her face, walked
into a grocery store. She approached
the owner of the store in a most humble
manner and asked if he would let her
charge a few groceries.

She softly explained that her husband
was very ill and unable to work, they
had seven children and they needed food.

John Longhouse, the grocer, scoffed at
her and requested that she leave his
store at once.

Visualizing the family needs, she said:
'Please, sir! I will bring you the money
just as soon as I can.'

John told her he could not give her
credit, since she did not have a charge
account at his store.

Standing beside the counter was a
customer who overheard the conversation
between the two. The customer walked
forward and told the grocer that he would
stand good for whatever she needed for
her family.  The grocer said in a very
reluctant voice, 'Do you have a grocery list?'

Louise replied, 'Yes sir.' 'O.K' he said,
'put your grocery list on the scales and
whatever your grocery list weighs, I will
give you that amount in groceries.'

Louise hesitated a moment with a bowed
head, then she reached into her purse
and took out a piece of paper and scribbled
something on it. She then laid the piece
of paper on the scale carefully with her
head still bowed.

The eyes of the grocer and the customer
showed amazement when the scales went
down and stayed down.

The grocer, staring at the scales, turned
slowly to the customer and said begrudgingly,
'I can't believe it.'

The customer smiled and the grocer
started putting the groceries on the other
side of the scales. The scale did not
balance so he continued to put more and
more groceries on them until the scales
would hold no more.

The grocer stood there in utter disgust.
Finally, he grabbed the piece of paper
from the scales and looked at it with
greater amazement.

It was not a grocery list, it was a prayer,
which said:

'Dear Lord, you know my needs and
I am leaving this in your hands.'

The grocer gave her the groceries that
he had Gathered and stood in stunned
silence.

Louise thanked him and left the store.  
The other customer handed a fifty-dollar
bill to the grocer and said; 'It was worth
every penny of it.  'ONLY GOD KNOWS
HOW MUCH A PRAYER WEIGHS'

THE POWER:  When you read this,
say a prayer. That's all you have to do.

Just stop right now, and say a prayer
of thanks for your own good fortune.  ..

So dear heart, trust God to heal the sick,
provide food for the hungry, clothes and
shelter for those that don't have as we do.

AMEN & AMEN