DAY 38/40 DAYS OF PRAYER FOR AMERICA

A new week brings new challenges....and especially this week, when the United States selects not just the next president from now until 2016, but the person who will make policies which could affect the lives of the unborn and those of us, already alive. November 6, 2012 is that day and all across America this past weekend, priests and pastors who follow God supposedly spoke Biblical truth to the flock to enable wise, biblically based voting.

There are some issues to bring to the fore as we begin this new week in prayer and intercession for America, its people and those around the world who are affected by everything we do. Since the leader of this country, the lone last superpower on earth, is so all-powerful, whatever him and his administration decides the direction (mostly down) of economies; lifestyles and the culture. Let us remember that as we pray today and the rest of this week and the rest of our lives. We are commanded to pray for those in authority and this will not change, no matter who is elected president. Any ungodly policy promoted by them is another matter. We pray that into the Lord's Hands, Who will judge righteously. Still while we pray judgment on those policies which violate biblical teachings, we continue to pray for those in authority in a positive way.

In addition, let us remember those who are struggling in West Virginia; New Jersey and New York in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. New York seems to be the worse off, due to lack of preparation and incompetence by public officials. Pray for the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief folks who are overwhelmed by the demand for their services. FEMA - the Federal Emergency people - have almost no resources to meet the huge demand, and thus, the Southern Baptists have been quietly and with only God as their witness, reaching the hurting and feeding the hungry outside of metropolitan NYC. Pray for them and other relief organizations like Billy Graham's Samaritan's Purse and the Red Cross. Churches are stepping up everywhere to help.

Father, in the Name of Jesus, where people are losing their collective minds, from following man over You, today, this morning, we pray for peace - peace in the inner man....peace in the soul....peace in the home...peace in the workplace and businesses and even the halls of power, where sometimes (and increasingly so) ungodly policies are hatched to control the lives of others. Father, right now, we pray especially for those outside in the cold of November in Queens, Brooklyn, Long Island, Rockaway Beach and all over West Virginia - who were made homeless or without electrical power by Hurricane Sandy. We pray for a shelter for them and that food, water and clean clothing will reach them immediately. They see now that the government and offices of secular man has no power or clout to manage a disaster of this proportion, but that is Your people - the church who have been quietly doing the Lord's work of compassion. I pray for the Reverend Franklin Graham and Samaritan's Purse and all his volunteers along with the Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief as they feed and cloth the cold and hungry.

Father, today, the day before the most important election in recent memory, we pray for the economic engine of the United States, not just for the financial future of all our families and each one of us, but given the fact that whatever is done here affects the world....and that even with the massive debt in this country, we are still the most charitable and giving with a big heart people on earth....and it has always been so. Lord, we pray for small business - the mom and pops and young people starting up small businesses in living rooms and basements due to their wonderful imaginations and creativity You gave us. we pray for their integrity, imaginations, financing and a place to market their products to, which will eventually benefit those they will hire and bless. Lord we know that small business owners work harder than everyone else in their fields and they are always the last to be paid, if at all. We know sometimes their families suffer due to the hours demanded in these endeavors. Bless and unite and keep those families together. Now, oh God, we have the big heavy foot of government stamping out religious freedom by telling these same small businesses they must pay for immoral contraceptives and abortion pills. So encourage these business owners to hang in there until the higher courts in the land rule on these mandates.

We also pray for Corporate America, that a return to unquestionable honesty and righteousness will return and they will honor You in all business and financial decisions made, as to with whom and where shareholders monies are invested. We pray for every aspect of the US Economy - from the coal industry and our miners, whose industry the secular left is trying to destroy to the oil and energy sectors. We pray for our farmers who need a nation and the world and the truckers, trains and other transportation means which ship this food to its destination. We pray for construction workers; plumbers, carpenters; mailmen; cooks; teachers; stay at home moms and our great home-schoolers; pastors; priests and evangelists. Bless them all as they work in this economy - YOUR ECONOMY - which man has corrupted. Take it all back, oh Lord, and make it Your own again, but putting the people in power who will follow Your Perfect Will, in the Mighty Name of Jesus, amen.

PERSECUTION COMES TO AMERICA, Part 2

TEN VIRGINS - FIVE WISE, FIVE FOOLISH

Where do YOU fall in?

There is a quote I heard years ago from the saints in the underground persecuted Chinese church. Apparently, some American believers had gone to China to pay them a visit and encourage them. One of us Yanks asked a persecuted Chinese brother "How can we pray for you?" This is a fair enough....to which the Chinese Christian (who daily has to hide or run for his life so he can worship/evangelize) said to the American Christian "Pray that we DON'T BECOME LIKE YOU!" Ouch!

THAT is a sad commentary on the state of American Christianity today! Days are coming, declares the Lord when the rubber of preparation will meet the road of execution. Days are coming when we will be called upon to say if we are truly a son or daughter of God in Christ - or one of the foolish five virgins!


Jesus tells the Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25 as a warning for today's believer to act! It is prophetic and scary because many will fail to understand what Jesus really says here. “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. 


And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. (Matthew 25:1-13 ESV)


These are not just EVIL times, but END Times! Yesterday, in Part 1, I listed some of the instances of persecution against the very men and women who lay their lives on the line to defend the same Religious Freedom, now denied them. It is worse than those recent examples. In the past month, the New York City mayor and his sidekicks have banned the use of school buildings, for Sunday worship. All across America, high school gyms, which are not used on Sunday mornings, make extra-money and help hundreds of struggling smaller and poor churches, by allowing the use of their gyms or auditoriums for a fee as churches. Why shouldn't they? It is the property taxes of these same church-going citizens which pay for these schools!


The anti-Christian Mayor Bloomberg, himself a secular billionaire, has now taken to arresting New York bible believing pastors who are praying in front of city hall to protest this unconstitutional travesty. The Pastor of Manhattan Bible Church has been arrested twice for praying. This man is not even an activist or a troublemaker!


Last September, Bloomberg had even banned all Clergy at the site of the 9/11 Attacks 10th Anniversary Commemoration, only because he could. This is the same mayor, who wanted to allow the moslems to set up a mosque just blocks away from the Twin Tower ruins! The issue is shutting down Christians and no one else. There are more and more frequent examples of this kind of trials and tribulations for believers in Christ. It is coming down to the wire and down to us versus them. As the day for the Return of Christ draws closer, more and more of this kind of thing will have you full of righteous indignation - as it should. By the way, one word of caution - do not hate as they do. Praying for them is rewarding as the burden is OFF YOU and ON them, because the Wrath of God is NOT with us!


All  well and good...The question is, if or when called upon, are we as a people known as the Body of Christ, ready?! And by ready, I mean, ready to preach the Word boldly, pray righteously or even be beaten or sent to jail by pagans and secular humanists...or will we sell out and compromise with the world systems?  People are already doing that while calling themselves "christians" or "clergy"!  Again, we do NOT want to be like them, because they are using the Name of Christ for unholy, ungodly secular purposes.


Let us look at again at our passage from Matthew 25. At first, we all scratch our heads as to the meaning of this Ten Virgin story. However, the explanation is very simple.

The actual word used by Jesus is not 'virgin' but "PARTHENOS". This literally means "believers who are  pure, chaste and holy or who have kept ourselves apart from the world, until the Return of Jesus Christ"!!!! Jesus is NOT talking about people who have had no sexual relations, but those who have been saved....those who know they are saved....and those who have been set apart from the world and live that way, because ...think of it, friends....do we really want to be like them??!!

So we have established the literal meaning of what Jesus meant. Now here is where it looks a little tricky. All ten "virgins" are in the story and all ten have lamps. This is symbolic of those who say they believe in Christ...because the verse does say they "went to meet the bridegroom - who is Christ!

So again, there were/are five wise 'virgins' and five foolish ones and all have lamps. The lamp is their spirit. Every human being is Body, Soul and Spirit. These ten virgins appear to be like most in the modern American church today. All ten will appear on the surface, to be the same, and will be thought of as Christ followers,  since all ten apparently have a lamp of the Spirit with them!

Now here is the rub - something was missing - OIL! In the Bible, oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit! The actual word for oil in this passage is ELAION! The prefix is EL - the Prefix of the Name of God which means Mighty or Powerful as in El Elyon (Most High God) or El Shaddai (All Sufficient God). The oil that Jesus is talking about is the Oil of the Spirit of God Who empowers and indwells the true Believer!!! This is Biblical Truth and a Rhema Word of Revelation!

Five of these "virgins" had "flasks" of oil or had their own oil of the Spirit of God and the others did not! The reason they could not share their flasks of pure extra-virgin olive oil with the five foolish "believers" in this message from Christ, is that each person who claims Christ as their Savior, has to have their own "oil" in them....their own special seal of Holy Spirit in our lives...and be claimed and marked for redemption on that day when the Trumpet sounds and Jesus comes and says "this one's mine...that one's mine...and THAT one ain't!" These five virgins could not share their oil even if they wanted to! Their "oil" was custom designed for them alone - literally, and by Father God Himself!

Of the ten people in that church example, only a certain number (5) will be saved! This may not seem fair, but God has given us ALL enough time, while it is still today, to get right with him. He has given us every opportunity, time after time after time, to come back to Him and surrender ourselves to Him. But the majority of the American church...nay - the entire Western church from the UK/Europe to North America lives like we have all the time in the world. 

Jesus said He will come unexpectedly. We also know that Life is fleeting and we can go to Him right now and be in a literal eternity of Hurt and separation from Heaven - if our lamps are not full of oil...meaning, if we are NOT really saved, but are walking around with a lamp in some church, kidding ourselves that we're okay because 'man, we're christians...we're Americans'!!! 

All of this political mumbo jumbo and getting excited by who is more conservative, or who is pro-life, or who is the better candidate to defend the Constitution means NOTHING if when Tribulation, Persecution or sudden death comes, you and I have NO OIL or no Seal of Approval from God, that you and I belong to Him! I know I do...are you sure you do??!!! Pray right now, with me....

Father in the Name of Jesus, I ask You now to give me the ability to search my own heart to see if I am really in the Faith or if I have been fooling myself, like those five foolish virgins.

Lord it is all good to have righteous anger at how your people are being persecuted around the world for Christ, but Lord where is the anger at my own sin? Where are the eyes to see, as You see, that I need to view the way I have been living as an abomination in Your Eyes?

Where is the knowledge that I am the one walking around pretending when my own lamp is completely empty of the Holy and Empowering Spirit of God and I need Him to fill me with that oil of Joy, Peace, Hope, Love, Grace and more?

So have access to all of me. I acknowledge right now, in the Name of Jesus that I need to repent and confess all my sins and seek complete and total forgiveness from You, and ask You to be the Lord of my life right now...so that when the "Bridegroom", the Lord Jesus, does come back, I will be with the Wise and have my own lamp glowing with Holy Fire, so He can see me and know that I am His, in Jesus' Name, amen!

(image by google image)

THINK ON THESE THINGS - MONDAY

PEARLS FROM PERIL

GUEST WRITER: LYNN MOSHER

What is a natural pearl? 
Most of us know how pearls are made. When a foreign substance invades an oyster, the intruder slips into the mantle tissue of the mollusk, causing irritation. It is somewhat like the oyster getting a splinter. “The oyster’s natural reaction is to cover up that irritant to protect itself,” as one source states.

As a natural reaction to this, the oyster secretes a substance known as nacre to envelope the foreign invader as a part of its self-protection. The nacre is secreted over and over creating layers around the irritant to make it smoother. 


Over time, the layers create a shiny pearl of various colors (white, pink, black, red, blue and green). Pearls reach their full size over an average span of three years. Thus, the reason for their worth.

What is a cultured pearl?

Cultured pearls develop much in the same way. However, while natural pearls develop without human intervention, cultured pearls are cultivated through human manipulation, depositing the irritant within the mollusk.

What is a peril? 

The dictionary defines peril as something that causes an exposure to injury, loss, or destruction, grave risk, jeopardy, or danger.

Is there an irritant in your life, something that has attempted to destruct your life or invade your spirit? Has some circumstance, trial, or grief surrounded you, threatening injury or loss?

Some of our troubles emanate from our own human manipulation like the cultured pearl. We then try to cover them over by our own efforts. This usually results in the problem remaining as grit stuck in our craw rather than becoming a pearl.

However, some trials develop without our intervention. Like the irritant of the natural pearl, they just slip their way into our lives.

The Lord takes all our perils, all those irritants and trials, hurts and heartaches, losses and griefs, and covers them over with His balm. He pours out the oil of His Spirit, layer upon layer, upon our souls and spirits until we have “beauty for ashes” and “the oil of joy for mourning.” (Isaiah. 61:3)

I don’t think it is any coincidence that the gates into heaven are each made of one gigantic pearl. (Revelation. 21:21) God has taken all the perils, trials, and tribulations from the beginning of time and molded them into the pearly gates.

We shall enter those portals of pearl, passing through and leaving behind all that has grieved us throughout our lives, leaving our tears outside the gate and entering into the fullness of joy.

Just as someone once said, “Nearly all God’s jewels are crystallized tears,” so all our perils are encapsulated pearls.

How long has it taken to make a pearl out of your irritant, your hurt, your peril? Are you still waiting for your pearls from perils? Hang on; it takes time. In God’s timing, all your troubles will be transformed into worthy pearls.

A pearl...a healed wound, born out of affliction. Are there any pearls in your life?

(Image by Google images)