Hi friends. I forgot to update my earlier message on here. You’ll have a lot to catch up. 🙂 May it bless and strengthen your faith journey. 🙏
Hello friends. Due to the urgency of the hour that we are living in, we are going to continue our prayer intercession throughout the summer. We are only praying corporately once a week on Wednesdays at 1pm. We will resume back next Wednesday, 6/26.
I think we have a good powerful prayer team. Love indeed is the glue that bond us together. Here is Bible’s definition of love. Please read and understand how love is defined in the Bible and how different it is from the world’s view of love: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+13&version=NLT
Ecclesiastes 4:12 (NLT) – A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.
Since my family just got a new car, it comes with a free Sirius XM radio for three months. They still have the Billy Graham channel on 460. I highly recommend listening to his classic sermons. You don’t hear messages like his much in these days. But we really should. In the 1970s there was a revival happening in California. With a revival, there is also a fascination of Jesus Christ by the secular community. The entertainment industry created musicals like “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Godspell” during that time. Billy Graham clears up the misconceptions about Jesus Christ and tells us who Jesus is according to the Bible. Please listen carefully to his message and prayerfully consider the truth of Jesus Christ from the Bible:
I shared this old message series before but here it is again. Pastor Rick Warren shared these messages only a few years after his son, Matthew committed suicide. I think when a person comes close to dying or someone they loved intensely like their child had passed away, these people think often about the afterlife. According to the book of Ecclesiastes, they are in the company of the wise.
Ecclesiastes 7:2-4 (NIV)
2 It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.
3 Frustration is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
I respect Rick Warren’s ministry and what he has accomplished for God in California and worldwide for the church. He is no longer the head pastor of Saddleback Church and he passed the baton on to another pastor in a very peaceful and orderly way. I respect him even more for that since so many churches don’t pass the baton to new leadership well.
Please listen to this excellent series on Psalm 23. It is all about Jesus Christ as our Good Shepherd.
Pastor John Piper is another theologian that I learn from. I resonate with his deep thoughts as I have been a student of the whole Bible for the last 13 years. In his podcast he answers questions from his listeners. This listener’s question was a good one. Pastor John Piper’s answer was really good too.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-pastor-john/id618132843?i=1000659256328
Here is his podcast link to save it on your phone: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-pastor-john/id618132843
My church is having a Night of Worship this Friday, 6/21. Here is my message encouraging people to attend.
Please come to praise and worship God with the saints and holy angels in the sanctuary. Even if you can only come for an hour, please come. Praising/worshiping God in your suffering and trials, is a great offering to God. Why? Because in heaven you will naturally worship God since you will see Him face-to-face. But if you can worship God on earth in the midst of your trials, then you are truly demonstrating your honor and gratitude to God. This is your spiritual offering to Jesus Christ.
While you are going past your feelings and your circumstances to worship Jesus Christ; God’s holy angels are joining in with you. God’s angels LOVE to worship and sings songs of praise to God. I believe the worship songs strengthen them as well. That’s just my opinion since prolonged worship service always strengthens me. Angels are also God’s workers like we are.
There was a time when I was very intrigued by what the Bible says about heaven and angels. So I read books about these topics by good, reputable Bible teachers and also heard testimonies from missionaries who had experienced angels protecting them in great danger. I’ll share one story with you that I heard. I don’t remember all the details because I heard this story several years ago. This one young lady from America was going to a very remote area as a missionary in a country in Africa. She was supposed to have someone pick her up from a rural area town by the bus stop but despite waiting for a couple of hours, no one was coming. This was before cell phones. This rural town where she was waiting for her car had no electricity or phones. She was getting so nervous because she had lots of luggage and supplies with her. She was getting very anxious because the men in this town were starting to come closer to stare at her and she was getting very concerned about her safety. Their eyes looked dangerous to her. As she was praying to God for help, suddenly a military jeep comes by and there were two military men with automatic rifles across their shoulders. They smiled at her and asked her if she was okay. She explained her situation. They offered to take her to her location since it’s on their way. Normally she would never do anything like that but she sensed that staying at this town would be very dangerous for her. Plus she sensed such peace and calm about these soldiers. She prayed to God that they are safe soldiers and jumped into their jeep with her luggages.
The location where she was going to was about an hour ride. These military men were full of energy and joy. As she was talking to them, she learned that they love worship songs. And so she started to sing worship songs from her church. They sang all through the ride. It was a beautiful and joyful ride. When she arrived at her location, the church pastor and members greeted them with great relief and joy. Apparently their car broke down that morning and they were trying desperately to fix it. As she and the others were trying to have the soldiers stay longer in order to thank them with a good meal; the soldiers said that they have to go. And off they left, waving enthusiastically and with big smiles. As they were driving off, she realized that they were African men who knew the lyrics to all the contemporary worship songs back in the USA! They also sang in perfect English. This was before the Internet and cell phones.
Few days later, the pastor went to the local military base to thank these two soldiers and compliment them to their superiors. The commander said there are no soldiers who spoke perfect English in their base. 😲 They all concluded that these men were angels 😇 sent by God to safely bring the young missionary lady to her location.
One more thing that I like to add from my research about God’s angels is this – they are very conscientious about rank and order, just like the military. So if you are not in proper order and submission in your own life then I don’t think that they are allowed to answer your prayers. I could be wrong but that’s my personal conclusions from my research and studies. The missionaries that I heard stories from about their experiences with angels, all were commissioned by their home church. The young missionary lady was sent out by her home church in the USA and also received the blessings by her parents. Since she was single at the time, her parents had to bless her missionary assignment. Personally I don’t know how her parents allowed this dangerous and remote location in rural Africa but I am sure God gave her parents great peace about it. And I’m sure her parents prayed like never before for their daughter and her assignment there!!
I often pray for extra of God’s angels to be assigned to me, all my family members, our church and the schools that my kids attend. I’m sure it was a guardian angel who saved my nephew’s life from a horrific car accident two years ago. He was air lifted to a hospital after his car crashed in a highway. It was a miracle that he did not die or suffer any brain injury. Not even a broken bone! It was truly a miracle according to the medical team who helped him. Thank you so much for your prayers for him at that time period. He is doing very well today with no issues at all. Every time I think about it, I’m still amazed.
If anybody wants to read a good Christian book about God’s angels and stories, please read Billy Graham’s book on angels. It was excellent and biblically sound. – https://www.amazon.com/Angels-Secret-Agents-Billy-Graham/dp/1400336619/ref=asc_df_1400336619
For those who are reading the book of Daniel with me, here is the next chapter 9. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+9&version=VOICE
Here is Pastor Hamrick’s message on this chapter: https://cornerstonechapel.net/teaching/20120321/
For those who want to go back to his previous Daniel chapter messages, please go to his church website. It’s under Midweek Bible studies. – https://cornerstonechapel.net/teachings/teaching-library/
Here is this month’s report on Christian persecution. Human slavery is happening and growing worldwide. I didn’t realize that in Pakistan, there are many Christians who are indentured servants since birth. Please read this month’s report and please pray for our brothers- and sisters-in-Christ in the countries featured. https://www.persecution.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2024-06-Persecution-Magazine.pdf
In our corporate prayer meetings, we pray frequently about human trafficking for sex and labor.
I just finished reading this good, short article about the Azusa street revival. It started the Pentocostal or Charismatic movement in the USA. For a revival that lasted only about 3 years; it produced a great harvest in my opinion. https://www.christianunion.org/the-magazine/7986-what-was-the-azusa-street-revival
If you want to learn more about this revival, here is a good documentary about this revival: https://youtu.be/lp-rjyDVrGU
Have a wonderful and blessed day! Happy learning!
Journal of Faith 