The Morning Prayer, August 21, 2011

Let us rouse ourselves to take hold of God, Isaiah 64:7(ESV) to seek his face, Psalm 27:8(ESV) and to ascribe to him the glory due his name. Psalm 29:2(ESV)

ADORATION AND CONFESSION

O you whose name is the LORD, who alone is the Most High over all the earth. Psalm 83:18(ESV) O LORD our God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, you cover yourself with light as with a garment; Psalm 104:1-2(ESV) and yet to us you make darkness your canopy, Psalm 18:11(ESV) for we cannot draw up our case because of darkness. Job 37:19(ESV)

To us belongs open shame, because we have sinned against you. Daniel 9:8(ESV) If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. Psalm 130:3-4(ESV) With you there is steadfast love! Yes, with you, our God, there is plentiful redemption, and you will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Psalm 130:7-8(ESV)

Lord, all our longing is before you, and our sighing is not hidden from you, Psalm 38:9(ESV) even the sighs and groanings too deep for words; for, you who searches the heart knows what is the mind of the Spirit. Romans 8:26-27(ESV) Lord, we come to you, as the poor tax collector that stood far off and would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his cheat; and we pray his prayer, “God, be merciful to us sinners.” Luke 18:13(ESV) O God of infinite mercy be merciful to us! And meet with your people in worship. Amen.

PASTORAL PRAYER

Our souls bless you, LORD. Let all that is within us bless your holy name. Psalm 103:1-2(ESV) Your goodness is your glory, Exodus 33:19(ESV) and because of your goodness all your works give thanks to you and all the saints bless you. Psalm 145:10(ESV) Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up. God, you are our salvation. Psalm 68:19(ESV) O how wonderfully did your goodness and loving kindness appear! You saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to your own mercy. Titus 3:4-5(ESV) We had destroyed ourselves, but in you, and you only, was our help. Hosea 13:9(KJV) We thank you that having bore the sin of many, Christ makes intercession for transgressors, Isaiah 53:12(ESV) and prays, not only for those who were given to him when he was on earth, but also for all those who will believe in him through their word; that we may all be one. John 17:20-21(ESV) Grant that we are one…

Lord, build up and protect your church. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem. Psalm 51:18(ESV) Peace be within her walls and security within her towers. For our brothers and companions’ sake, we now ask, “Peace be within her.” Psalm 122:7-8(ESV) Yes…

Lord, we pray for the peace and purity of your church. Let your Spirit be poured out upon your churches from on high, and then the wilderness shall become a fruitful field; Isaiah 32:12(ESV) then justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it. Psalm 94:15(ESV) Let what remains be put into order, Titus 1:5(ESV) and let every plant that is not of our heavenly Father’s planting be rooted up. Matthew 15:13(ESV) Within your church…

Lord, we pray for the officers of your church. Teach all who serve in your name how they should behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, 1 Timothy 3:15(ESV) that they may not preach themselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, 2 Corinthians 4:5(ESV) and may do their best to present themselves approved to you, workmen who have no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15(ESV) Make them good examples to the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity; 1 Timothy 4:12(ESV) and let them purify themselves who bear the vessels of the Lord, Isaiah 52:11(ESV) and let HOLY TO THE LORD be written upon their foreheads. Exodus 28:36(ESV) And we ask for those outside the church or estranged from you…

Lord we pray for enemies of the gospel and all those who disgrace Christianity by their vicious and immoral lives. O teach transgressors your ways, and let sinners return to you. Psalm 51:13(ESV) O give them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 2 Timothy 2:25(ESV) the truth as it is in Jesus, Ephesians 4:21(ESV) the truth which accords with godliness; Titus 1:1(ESV) that they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil. 2 Timothy 2:26(ESV) We especially pray for wayward brothers and sisters. Let those who are straying like sheep return to Jesus Christ, the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. 1 Peter 2:25(ESV) Hear us…

Lord, we pray for our friends and those who love us. We wish for all those whom we love in truth, that all may go well with them and that they may be in good health. We especially pray that it will go well with their souls. 2 John 1:2(ESV) May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with their spirits. Philemon 1:25(ESV) Finally…

Lord, we pray for the good of this nation, the United States of America. Restore this nation to yourself, O Lord GOD of hosts, and let your face shine, that we may be saved! O stir up your might and come to save us! Psalm 80:2-3(ESV) God, be a wall of fire all around this nation and the glory in the midst of this nation. Zechariah 2:5(ESV) Let your gospel be the glory of this nation. Isaiah 4:5(ESV) We beg in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that there may be no divisions among us, but that we be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 1 Corinthians 1:10(ESV)

CONCLUSION

Now, Lord, direct our hearts to your love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. 2 Thessalonians 3:5(ESV) God of Israel, grant us the things we have requested of you. 1 Samuel 1:17(ESV) We entreat your favor, O God, with all our heart; be gracious to us according to your promise, Psalm 119:58(ESV) for in your favor is life; Psalm 30:5(ESV) yes, your steadfast love is better than life itself. Psalm 63:3(ESV) Amen.

A Prayer for a Spiritual Mind

Almighty God, You alone can order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men: Grant me the ability to love what You command and desire what You promise. As the waves of this world crash over me, the ebb and flow of life, anchor my heart to the One in whom true joys may be found, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Scary Cast of Characters

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"Every generation has its share of men who fully live the art of manliness. But there may never have been a generation when the ratio of honorable men to slackers was higher than the one born between 1914 and 1929. These were the men that grew up during the Great Depression. They’re the men who went off to fight in the Big One. And they’re the men who came home from that war and built the nations of the Western world into economic powerhouses. They knew the meaning of sacrifice, both in terms of material possessions and of real blood, sweat, and tears. They were humble men who never bragged about what they had done or been through. They were loyal, patriotic, and level-headed. They were our Greatest Generation."

Read about what we can learn from them here.

ER & Redemption

Ron Paul - A Possibility?

Aaron Russo's "America: From Freedom To Fascism."

"Neither left- nor right-wing, this startling examination exposes the systematic erosion of civil liberties in America."

Food for Thought

Here is some interesting information about World War I and Communism –

"Money equals access, by controlling the money, they effectivle control the access to society and it's forming functions.

"They control the world by controlling the access to recources, it's all about controlling the access to recources. It may looks like we have a "free market" and a privat economy and all those things, but it's just apparence, it's not real.

"In reality more 90% of all wealth on this planet is probably already owned by less than 200 people which I call the Great Puppeters, the rest are just minions. We are talking about people that are so rich and powerful that they don't want other people to know how much they really own. They stay in the shadows and influence from behind the scenes. All these people you believe to be rich and powerful are just minions, mere servants for the truly powerful. Politicians nowadays are nothing more than mere actors for they don't decide anything on their own anylonger.

"In reality ownership of most of the world is already monopolised in a few hands in a system designed to keep the rest down."

The Best Antidote for Extravagantly Broad and Liberal Theology

J.C. Ryle’s writings are always so relevant and plain. They are appropriate for anyone to read at anytime. His writings about modernism in the 19th century are just as relevant today as they were back then. In fact, the too broad and too liberal theology of today is rebuked by Ryle too. Read on and see.

In the next place, a scriptural view of sin is one of the best antidotes to the extravagantly broad and liberal theology which is so much in vogue at the present time. The tendency of modern thought is to reject dogmas, creeds, and every kind of bounds in religion. It is thought grand and wise to condemn no opinion whatsoever, and to pronounce all earnest and clever teachers to be trustworthy, however heterogeneous and mutually destructive their opinions may be. Everything forsooth is true, and nothing is false! Everybody is right, and nobody is wrong! Everybody is likely to be saved, and nobody is to be lost! The atonement and substitution of Christ, the personality of the devil, the miraculous element in Scripture, the reality and eternity of future punishment, all these mighty foundation–stones are coolly tossed overboard, like lumber, in order to lighten the ship of Christianity, and enable it to keep pace with modern science. Stand up for these great verities, and you are called narrow, illiberal, old–fashioned, and a theological fossil! Quote a text, and you are told that all truth is not confined to the pages of an ancient Jewish book, and the free inquiry has found out many things since the Book was completed! Now, I know nothing so likely to counteract this modern plague as constant clear statements about the nature, reality, vileness, power, and guilt of sin. We must charge home into the consciences of these men of broad views, and demand a plain answer to some plain questions. We must ask them to lay their hands on their harts, and tell us whether their favourite opinions comfort them in the day of sickness, in the hour of death, by the bedside of dying parents, by the grave of beloved wife or child. We must ask them whether a vague earnestness, without definite doctrine, gives them peace at seasons like these. We must challenge them to tell us whether they do not sometimes feel a gnawing “something” within, which all the free inquiry and philosophy and science in the world cannot satisfy. And then we must tell them that this gnawing “something” is the sense of sin, guilt, and corruption, which they are leaving out in their calculations. And, above all, we must tell them that nothing will ever make them feel rest, but submission to the old doctrines of man’s ruin and Christ’s redemption, and simple child-like faith in Jesus.

–Holiness, J.C. Ryle, p 13-14