A CALL TO UNITED PRAYER TO OUR CAPTAIN My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. —Isaiah 56:7 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’ (Mark 11:17). “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers'” (Luke 19:46).             The Temple was to be known as “a house of prayer for all peoples.” God’s people are to be praying people. God’s people are to be dependent…

HIS SENT FORTH WORD WILL ACCOMPLISH HIS DESIRES For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. —Isaiah 55:10-11             This summer was a warm summer without much rain. Lakes and pond levels were down a couple feet and some dug wells were going dry. We were…

BE STILL BEFORE HIM The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. —Isaiah 50:4-5             We who follow Jesus have ample opportunity to be taught by Him and to serve others for Him. The questions are— Do I take advantage of this opportunity? Will I take advantage of this opportunity? Oh, to sit with the King of Glory! He teaches…

PRAY FOR OPEN DOORS At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. —Colossians 4:3-4             Can I pray this for someone today? Who am I praying for that a door would open for them to share the Word of God with someone or a group of people? Not only pray for them that a door of opportunity would open, but when it does that they would speak the message clearly?             When I…

EVER CHANGING Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. —Colossians 3:9-10 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…  But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. —Ephesians 2:1, 4-5 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test…

NONE LIKE HIM! I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.  —Isaiah 43:11 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. —Isaiah 43:15 I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. —Isaiah 43:25 Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. 7 Who is like me?” —Isaiah 44:6 Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses!…

WORKING, STRUGGLING, TOILING BY GOD’S POWER Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it: “I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory…

OUR AWESOME GOD! A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever… Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?  Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD, or…

 OUR HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. —Philippians 3:20-21 Hey citizen of Heaven! We are strangers and pilgrims walking through this land on our way home. Let us walk faithfully for the One we represent in this land. Oh, we eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus to come back from heaven. He has authority over everything. All things are under His control. He is working out His purposes. Be faithful…

NEAR DEATH IN THE WORK OF CHRIST I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. So receive him in the Lord with all joy,…