Tag Archives: Worship of God

Day 37 – November 1, 2012

It’s a Romans 1 kind of world!  I’m praying this week for the pro-life counselors and for the Lord to shine through these courageous people as they meet the lie of the culture head on.  Pro-life counselors are faced with trying to show abortion minded women the truth and combat all of the lies that have been fed to women in our society by the likes of Planned Parenthood and even other people of faith who choose to believe their own truth.  In Romans chapter 1, in The Message it says:

“But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.”

These verses of scripture say a lot.  It says people know full well who God is and they know what is right and what is wrong and therefore they have no excuses.  However, the bottom line is that people decided they know it all and they know better than God.  They decided they could be God.  But hasn’t that been going on since the Garden?  Satan convinced Eve that the reason God did not want her to eat of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden was because it would make her like Him, as if God were threatened by Eve becoming like Him.  What Eve did not realize was that she was already like God.  She was created in His image and likeness and this is what Satan has been trying destroy since that moment!

Please continue to pray for the courageous pro-life counselors who are fighting against the lies perpetuated by the abortion industry.  Please pray for the pro-life counselor who is faced with trying speak the truth to the abortion minded woman who believed the lie and traded the glory of God for a cheap figurine.

Day 28 – October 23, 2012

For Such A Time As This

Spiritual warfare can take on many forms.  Sometimes we march around the city in order to see the walls fall down and sometimes it is a matter of being in the right place at the right time with an ear that is close to the heart of God.  Such was the case with Esther.  She literally found herself in the right place at the right time to make an enormous difference in the lives of her people in a foreign land.  Had it not been for her uncle’s willingness to sit at the gate of the King to make sure that he was fully aware of all that was going on in the kingdom and Esther’s willingness and courage to stand up for those who had no voice, the Jewish people may have been annihilated.

The book of Esther indicates that she could have chosen to do nothing to help her people, but her uncle warns her that just because she is the queen does not mean that she will escape the fate of the Jewish people that is coming.  But, instead, he presents her with the idea that she may have been placed in this position precisely because she was meant to do something about the situation that was coming.  I imagine this was a very difficult decision for Esther, one that took a great deal of courage.  In short, her life was on the line here.  For Esther to act on her uncle’s request meant that she had approach the king without being summoned by him.  If he happened to be in a particularly bad mood the day she decided to go and speak with him, she may very well have been the first Jewish person executed in that kingdom.  But Esther went to prayer – she fasted and prayed for three days before deciding on how to approach the king and God heard her prayer!

The story of Esther is a wonderful picture of how God answers prayer and shows us how the battle belongs to the Lord.  The battle is not won through human strategies but in the place of prayer and fasting and by employing God’s strategies.  In the fight against abortion, we have to be careful to always seek to obtain God’s strategy for each battle.  We each need to ask ourselves what the Lord would have us do in this fight – what is our place in His army?  Like Esther, we may find ourselves in unusual situations with regard to either speaking out on behalf of the unborn or protesting on behalf of the unborn, or even being willing to be arrested on behalf of the unborn.  Whatever the Lord asks us to do, we need to have the faith that He has equipped us to accomplish the task.  Let us always remember the words of the book of Esther that say “yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)

Day 27 – October 22, 2012

” Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.”  And he ordered the army, “Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord.  The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!” (Joshua 6:6-7, 16)

Today is Monday and the start of a new week of prayer and a new focus on a prayer for me at the Germantown clinic.  I have sensed from the Lord that I should continue to use the Rosary as a means of prayer but to add to the intention this week spiritual warfare.  I will look at five events in scripture that speak of spiritual warfare, the first of which is the falling of the city of Jericho.  At the end of Joshua chapter 5, Joshua has an encounter the Commander of the Army of the Lord, where Joshua falls on his face and  is told to remove his sandals because he is on holy ground.  This is all we know about this encounter but obviously the Commander instructed Joshua to take the city of Jericho because in the next chapter Lord says that He has given the city of Jericho into the hands of Joshua along with its king and fighting men.  The Lord proceeds to give him instructions on how to take the city.  It all looks a little strange when you first read the account of the fall of Jericho.  March around the city once a day for six days behind the ark of covenant, blowing trumpets the whole time.  Do not raise a battle cry, don’t say anything until you’re told to.  Then on day seven, march around the city seven times, blowing the trumpets, circling the city, but now on the seventh time, they are commanded to SHOUT!!  The Lord has given them the city!

That story has always excited me because it is completely the opposite of what one might think of doing when it comes to a battle.  No fighting, no bloodshed, just obedience to the Lord.  In fact, it is the bloodshed that we are fighting against in this battle for the unborn.  In obedience to the Lord, the 40 Days for Life campaign is promoting peaceful, prayerful vigil outside of the abortion clinic in order to see an end to the bloodshed of abortion.  In fact, today on day 27 of the campaign, it has been reported that 341 lives have been saved through this unusual form of spiritual warfare.  Yet we are in a battle.  We are fighting for the life of the unborn child and for the life of the mother of the unborn child as well.

God’s ways are not our ways to be sure, but His ways are always the best ways!

Day 22 – October 17, 2012

I know I’ve mentioned this before, today, being Wednesday, is the day that the babies are delivered by dismemberment in Germantown and I was so grieved for the lives of these children today.  I have no idea how many children died in Germantown this week, but just one is too many.  This morning was very different for me, something I’m generally not used to doing.  The Lord had me keep a silent vigil this morning in honor of those who died today.  I didn’t pray anything this morning, I just was there in silence and after about a half an hour I decided to read the scripture.  I felt impressed to read the book of Habakkuk, which is probably not one of those books that is read so frequently or that one would just of think of reading as I did this morning.  But, as is so true with the Lord, it was the right book to read today.  The book only has three chapters, so it’s a quick read.  Habakkuk’s name means to wrestle with or embrace as in a particularly bothersome issue, i.e. ABORTION.  The prophet attempts to explore the issues of why God has allowed evil.

A study by Hampton Keathley at Bible.org does a good job of looking at the book of Habakkuk and explaining the idea of questioning God or wrestling with God over the evil and injustice seen in the world and why this okay to do.  But more than that, this book is about faithfulness.  It is about the faithfulness of God to redeem His people and bring justice where there is evil and it is about the rewards we receive for being a faithful people.   I must remember to remain faithful to that which God has called me and recognize His sovereignty.  I must also realize that the answers I want may not come when I want them or in the way I want.  It is important to remember that God does not condone evil and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!  By the end of the book Habakkuk was able to see this and proclaim praises to God.

Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
And there be no cattle in the stalls,
Yet I will exult in the Lord,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet,
And makes me walk on my high places.

Habakkuk 3:17-19