Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Putting God First And IDOP
Living a life where God is put first in our lives is exactly what is required of us. As written in Matthew 6:31: Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32: (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33: But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34: Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 22:37: Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38: This is the first and great commandment.
When we wake up in the morning the first thing that we should think of is the Lord our God and how He has granted us another day to thank and praise Him for all that He has done and will do. Praising Him for another day to do so. We must put our faith and trust in Him for without Him we are nothing.
The following came from Stacy L. Harp from http://www.persecutionblog.com/. Let us all take part in this International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. There are many that need our prayers not only on this day but every day.
November 12th is right around the corner and as we get ready to participate in the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church I just had to tell you about a ministry that is helping Christians join together in prayer through the use of their teleconferencing ministry. I think this is an AWESOME idea.
An article on Crosswalk.com about the IDOP says this about the ministry of Greater Calling,
Greater Calling is providing free teleconferencing services on November 12, so that people can join together in prayer from all over the world. Last year on the IDOP, several hundred people from over nine different countries joined together to unite in prayer over the telephone. There is a leader each hour and a specific area of the world is covered in prayer each hour. People can join anytime between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Pacific time on November 12th by dialing 1-641-985-1131 and entering 4367# (IDOP#). Visit www.greatercalling.org for more information.
Also, by visiting www.greatercalling.org, people can get their own free conference call dial-in number and code and they can start their own conference call prayer group with their friends or family to join in corporate prayer for the persecuted church. The web site www.persecutedchurch.org has information and prayer points that people can use to guide their prayers.
Also today we all need to get out and vote. It is a privilege that we have here in America and we should all take part in it.“Jesus tells us that when two of us on earth agree about anything, it will be done for us,” Simons said. “Prayer works.”
Romans 9:1-33
1: I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
2: That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
3: For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
4: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
5: Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
6: Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
7: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
8: That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
9: For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.
10: And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
11: (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
12: It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
13: As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
14: What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
15: For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16: So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. 17: For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
18: Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
19: Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
20: Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21: Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
22: What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
24: Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
25: As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
26: And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
27: Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
28: For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
29: And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.
30: What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
31: But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
32: Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;
33: As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.