The Knots Prayer

Dear God,
Please untie the knots
that are in my mind,
my heart and my life.
Remove the have nots,
and can nots and the do nots
that I have in my mind.

Erase the will nots,
may nots,
might nots that may find
a home in my heart.

Release me from the could nots,
would nots and
should nots that obstruct my life.

And most of all,
Dear God,
I ask that you remove from my mind,
my heart and my life all the ‘am nots’
that I have allowed to hold me back,
especially the thought
that I am not good enough.
Amen.

(Author Known to God)

Disturbing

Francis Drake prayed…


"Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves. When our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little. When we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord."

GODMEN PRAYER

Father of the heavens and the night; stretch forth Your almighty arms to strengthen and protect us. Even as You gave Saint Michael, Your Angelic warrior, power to do spiritual battle in the heavens, so give us power to command the darkened skies.

Guide and direct us in the advancement of the Gospel. Give us the courage to face all obstacles that might keep us from finishing our race. Send Your holy Angels to protect the men around this country; those called to fight this spiritual battle. Sustain us in the hour of danger with knowledge of Your mercy.

Watch over our families when we cannot. May Your presence give them comfort, and Your love lend them the courage to face each day, confident in the knowledge that You will never leave them or forsake them. Protect them with Your unfailing mercy and grace.

Grant that wherever we serve, we may be loyal to Christ. Make us to choose the harder right over the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half truth when the whole can be won. May we ever embody the principles upon which the GODMEN are founded and serve proudly with the memory of those who have gone before. Give us the courage to fight, to win and the faith to die rather than quit,

AND ALL THE GODMEN SAID
AMEN!

Prayer of Sir Francis Drake

Let this be our pray too.


Disturb us, Lord, when We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.



Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.



Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

Let us Pray ...

Father, let today be a great day for you as you claim victory in the lives of your people. Let us shine not so people will be pleased by and attracted to us, but that you will be pleases and others attached to you. Let the ice in our hearts melt and our voices praise you. Remind us of your glory and let it be heralded across the nations. Shake us to our core and fill us with your fire. Let us sins be forgive by your mercy and our trespasses erased for ever. Grace us will the fullness of you and break us before you. Be blessed by our worship as we praise you alone. Hear our prayers for those who are physically ill and those who are spiritually sick too. Supply our needs Lord and grow our faith. We ask this because of our living relationship with Jesus the eternal, Amen.

Last Weekend

Last Saturday I graduated from The Baptist Missionary Assocation Theological Seminary with a Master Of Arts in Religion. Whew! Am I glad it is over with, yet i wil miss it. One of my professors told me I will be overwelmed with depression in a few weeks because I will not be around anyone who will beable to discuss theology with me at the level I am used to. I pray not.

I will post a photo or two soon.

So much has happened since and I have been worn out by all the stuff since. Boy, am I tired.

Ten fold ministry

A preacher's work is never done and often misunderstood. Take a look at this Brit's blog about Ten propositions on being a minister by Kim Fabricius. You will cheer, you will cry.

Bible Distributors File Lawsuit After Arrests, Police Bullying

Bible Distributors File Lawsuit After Arrest, Police Bullyings
By Doug Huntington
Christian Post Reporter
Tue, Apr. 24 2007 01:03 PM ET

Gideons International, an evangelical Christian organization dedicated to distributing copies of the Bible, filed a lawsuit on Friday after members of the organization were arrested for their activities in Florida.
Defending the group is the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) – a legal alliance that defends the right to speak the “Truth” – which is arguing against the unlawful arrests. The Gideon members had been taken into custody because they were within 500 feet of a public school.
“Free speech in America exists even within 500 feet of public school property,” explained ADF senior legal counsel David Cortman in a statement. “Under the First Amendment, the Gideons have every right to distribute Bibles on a public sidewalk to those who wish to accept them. There is no legal justification for the continued harassment of peaceful members of the community who wish to hand out Christian literature.”
The incident took place on Jan. 19 while Thomas Gray, who filed the lawsuit, and other members of the Gideons Key Largo Camp were handing out Bibles outside Key Largo School, located on the southern tip of Florida. The group was on a public sidewalk when two of the Gideons, Mirto and Ernest Simpson, were approached and taken into custody by Monroe County sheriff’s officers.
Gray asked one of the police, Office John Perez, why the two were being arrested. He then responded that Gray would know in 48 hours after he received the report.
He also added that the Gideons had “no right” to be within 500 feet of school property as well as telling his two detainees that they “can pray to Jesus all the way to jail,” according to ADF.
“Officers cannot be permitted to bully law-abiding Christians, or use fear of arrest as a means of silencing them,” added Cortman. “Their actions were fully protected under the First Amendment.”
According to the Gideons Key Largo Camp, they did not step on to school grounds, and they had contacted the Monroe Country Sheriff’s Office beforehand. They also notified school officials on the day of distribution.
According to the group, both parties had said the activity was allowed.
Gray has not returned to the area to distribute Bibles since the arrests, because he is anxious about being taken into custody himself.
“The distribution of Bibles on a public sidewalk is not a criminal offense,” said Cortman in a separate statement. “The attempts by Florida officials to continue pressing for the prosecution of Mr. Mirto and Mr. Simpson is not only blatantly unconstitutional, it borders on religious persecution.”

diversity, confomity, unity and division

I recently ducked out of going to the national meeting for the national work that my Church works with. With health, vehicle and school concerns, not to mention I thought the Church could use the money better toward local outreach, I did not go. Boy howdy, did I miss some interesting things.

At some point during the business sessions, a gentleman from southern state (not Texas) asked for a motion to be entertained. The motion he presented was that "for the sake of unity, all speakers use the Authorized Version only!" "for the sake of unity" is the part that drives me crazy. In his mind, if everyone that uses his preferred translation, we can be unified. in his mind, conformity is unity. It seems to me that in his "unifying" motion he actually was causing division as he making a translation preference a test of fellowship.

For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. (Php 3:18-19 NASB)

Later this same gentleman made an additional motion of the same spirit. This time he asked that only "Baptist" be allowed to present. He apparently had an issue that someone that was brought in to do special music was at Church that did not have "Baptist" in the name. The woman that sang was from a "Baptistic" community church and had been at a Baptist Church, and is Baptist at heart. The woman had only come to celebrate the Sovereignty of Christ and His Glory in Song. I wonder if at any point in her preparing to minister in song did she realize that she would be possible banned for not being “Baptist.”

Not only would this limit those who sing to being Baptist, but also the preaching, leadership conference and breakout sessions. In truth, even the great Charles Spurgeon would not be able to preach at our convention/association because he was never ordained by a Baptist Church (by his choice he was never ordained) nor did he ever pastor a Church with Baptist in the name.


The out come of this all was that wise people saw that these motions were tabled. And we will have to wait till next year when they meet in Waco, Tx to see what will happen.
A few more thoughts ...
Who authorized this Bible? The best reason to use the King James Bible is the precedent that it has be widely and predominately used for 400 years. Yet the KJVO crowd that presses that we must used the Bible that was used back at the 1611 time mark fail to realize that they would be dragging the Apocrypha back into the Church. Additionally, if we must use this Authorized Bible, then should not use the same Hymnody and play the same style of music. Why do we not dress the same, maybe we should bring back the wigs and robes!

One last thought …
When the man who proposed these motions began, he made sure to mention that he knew nothing of the Biblical languages, that he was ignorant of such. Why would you ever begin a charge with telling those you want to persuade to your view point with a statement that basically says “I have no clue what I am talking about?”

howard stern wants to have prayer

I came across this article in while reading the Christian Post. It seems that Stern and crew wants this pastor to come on and take on all caller with thier most challenging question and are willing to give him a hour of programming to do it. While I think that the idea is great it would seem the the motive might not be as honorable. ck it out and see what you think