Daily Prayer 1/13/08

Father-

Thank You for a great day of worship! If only my mind could begin to grasp Your greatness and glory!

This week Lord be with Adam and Mindy and little Thad as we await his arrival. We pray for the condition of his heart and his size. I hope he continues to grow and be a big strong boy who is ready to use his strength to heal in case he needs surgery. We right now anticipate surgery, but always hold out hope that You would heal him suddenly so we will know it was a miracle and not slow growth over time that healed his heart. I always look forward to situations where we are cornered and forced to give all the glory to You because there is no other explanation.

There is another man that I love like a brother Father. You know him. I pray that You would place Your Holy Spirit within him. I pray that You would comfort him and also move him to do the right thing. I pray with all my heart that he would be not just a brother by the law, but an eternal brother. Lord, how easily we can slip and fall! Do whatever You must do Lord to change hearts and cause forgiveness, repentance and restoration. Lord, You know how deeply I love him. Please save him from his trouble and keep him near us! You know how much this has bothered me...please hear my prayer.

For all of us, Lord You know the needs within our hearts. Teach us to take care of our souls. Help us to seek You earnestly. We desire to know You Lord, but we have to know Your Word. I know it's a drum I pound over and over, but You have been very clear with us, that to know You and have the peace and joy we seek, we must know You and the salvation of Christ Jesus that comes by faith through the working of Your Word and the Holy Spirit.

This life will soon be over......in light of eternity we must be feeding our souls from Your Word!

Christ, Shepherd us.....make us sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit! Amen.

Daily Prayer 1/12/08

"A common, mediocre, lukewarm Christian does not honor God!"

Maybe we made new year's resolutions....mine is just to read more and study harder. I have already fallen short of my own expectations, how much more I must have failed God's expectations for my life!

Let me just put my arm around you and say....come on....lets go.....are we getting tired already so early in this years race? Let's work together to keep up a pace that honors God.

Has being a Christian cost you anything? Have You suffered for your faith? Have you died for sins?

We must now let go of whatever is keeping us from becoming His....

Love Jesus more than you love yourself!

I will be the first to step forward and say "I have loved myself more than Jesus." I will now hang my head sorry for my climbing up onto the throne in my heart where He belongs.

I am telling you...He just wants you to love and trust Him!

Father.....we have many needs, but we put them second place tonight behind our prayer to just belong fully to You. Take us and chain us to the Lord so we can not slip away! Keep us on a short leash. We love You and want to be near You.

What every has been keeping us from You we now set aside and give is a lower place than we have been giving You.

In Christ's Name we pray, Amen.

Daily Prayer 1/11/08

Father, You are SO big our minds can not fully comprehend You. How can our finite minds understand our infinite Father. How can the infinite God of the universe fit in the body of a man? So many Christian paradox's Lord! The way up is down....to be greatest, we must submit to Christ and become least. To get to heaven we can do no good, but must trust that we have done nothing....we must trust in the work of Another for us.

Lord, thank You for our Mother. In many ways she reminds me of Christ....she is always there for us.... she always willingly helps us and always loves us. If we need any kind of help she will meet our needs. What can we do to repay her?

She has done so much more for us than we could ever repay......I am left silent, with nothing I can do to show my love and gratitude....so we are only left with love and thanksgiving. Help us to properly show our Mother that love and thanks giving.

Lord Jesus the only gift of any worth I can give is the greatest gift You have given me....the Gospel.....all riches and wisdom and salvation are in the words of the scriptures for us. Feed our souls and give our family members the eternal gift of salvation that is freely given through faith in Your blood that was shed for the forgiveness of our sins.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!!!! WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

Morning Glory

I heard a news story this morning that was about the Middle East, it just briefly mentioned the sea of Galilee where Christ "was said to have walked on water". May seem pretty picky, but it in my mind robbed Christ of His glory. I just thought to myself, no He DID walk on water. To many in the world Christ is just an exaggerated story. It kind of made me sad and Hebrews 1 came to mind.....

Hebrews 1:1-3
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Please note the italics. God who has no beginning or end decided to express Himself. So as He creates and decides to reveal Himself to us, who did He use to speak to us? The eternal third in the Holy Trinity....He has spoken to us in HIS Son....Jesus. Shouldn't we study Jesus more? Who created the world? The One who walked on the water with power over the creation, Jesus. Who is the EXACT representation of the invisible God the Father so that we can know HIM? Jesus.....who is the only One who has made purification of sins? Not us, but Jesus! God who became man to reveal Himself to us so He could be known and we could have our sins forgiven.....we can not pay for our sins and arrive in Heaven, only the One who makes purification of sins.

Father, help me to always lift up Christ and worship Him as Thomas said "My Lord and my God!" May Christ continually be lifted higher by my mouth, my mind and my actions, and may I continually be lowered to a position of humble adoration of this God Man who died for me!

Daily Prayer 1/10/08

Father,

Again life seems to be soo busy. Will you help me, and help all of us as we struggle for time to just take care of all of life's (seemingly) necessary functions and always still have plenty of time to spend seeking You each day.

Lord, it seems I give the day my best and all my energy and then at the end of the day I am just tired and feel too worn out to even pick up my Bible and read. Lord how can I spend so much energy on so much that has no eternal value? Help me to dedicate myself to You. You know Lord You are on my mind through out the day, but will You be there even more?

I know I have studied and learned about You today, but I am not satisfied with my effort. Help me get to know You in Your Word. It is so vital! I feel I have cared for my body and now I will go to bed with a hungry soul.

Lord, thank YOU so much for the growth of Thaddeus! We pray this will strengthen him in case You have heart surgeries ahead of him. I have not yet given up hope, but remember how You have helped improve Thad's heart as he has grown. We still pray it would be healed, but also understand that may not be Your plan.

Be with Adam and Mindy, Jill and Brett, Jena and Matt, Beth and Matt, Victoria and I, and all the married couples close to us. Lord every day we pray for our marriages and pray that Your hand would be upon us. Holy Spirit, bother our conscience if we are behaving in any way that is not only sin, but not showing our spouse proper love that we promised to devote to them. We all need Your help in our marriages, lives, jobs....how can a sinful heart do the right thing apart from Your prompting and protection. Restrain our sin and push us to do what is right and pleasing in Your sight. Give us the grace we need to submit to Christ and let that submission to our LORD then change us as people.

We also pray for the fevers of baby Aubrie and also Casey and Jen's little Matthew. Heal our little ones.

SO Many needs...You know them Lord and while I am being brief tonight, hear our prayers and answer our needs according to Your will for our lives. Remind us of our responsibility to hear and respond and act properly....we will surely give an account for our lives before You. Amen.

Recent Pictures from Ghana, Africa

Daily Prayer 1/9/08

Father, thank You for the grace and mercy You show us each day. We will never ever know in this life how good You have been to us. I pray all things will work to cause us to forsake all this world has to offer and follow You.

Be with Adam and Mindy and Thad in these next few days as we are so close to his arrival now.

Be with friends and family members who need your help now.

Be with Your church Lord, keep it pure and expose trouble, lies and those who are leading people away from the truth of Your Word.

Finally Holy Spirit, be with us! If there is error, if we have deceived ourselves into believing all is well with our soul....please work on our conscience and give us the guts to do something about it. Help us to not look at what others will think of us, but only what You think of us. Help us to evaluate ourselves properly, according to Your Word.

Thank You LORD for our parents!!!!!

Amen!