Mid-Week Minutes 5.4.11

Mid-Week Minutes 5.4.11

Taking a few mid-week minutes to think about how to enhance our fellowship with each other. Books linked here: One-to-One Bible Reading, David Helm Reverberation, Jonathan Leeman Sermon Manuscript from Sunday, May 1, 2011 on Church Discipline What makes a church discipline matt 18.15-20 View more documents from Summit Woods Baptist...
Praying for Our City at a Unique Time

Praying for Our City at a Unique Time

This evening, I had the privilege to pray at our city Council meeting.  This was the second occasion I have enjoyed this honor.  I was asked to deliver the invocation just before it was publicly revealed that 4 of our 5 Councilmen have been indicted for political corruption. Tonight was the Council’s first meeting since the indictments were handed down. I saw it as my task to simply bring our collective conscience before God – and plead for His grace to oversee the proceedings with mercy, and for all involved to conduct themselves with honor and integrity.  Below is the text of my prayer: Our God and our Father, How grateful we are that this meeting can begin with an appeal for you to be uniquely present in this meeting of our city council. These particular days and this particular meeting reflects numerous and distinct challenges for our city and its leadership.  These challenges remind us that we are in need of someone greater than ourselves to navigate our way.  Your knowledge is complete, ours is not.  Your wisdom is perfect, ours is far from it.  Your answers are without error, while ours are full of human limitation.  That”™s why we invoke your specific and unique presence in this meeting.  Grant us a consciousness that we stand before our creator first and foremost in what we do and what we say. We ask for your grace to be full in its display among our city leaders this evening.  May their minds be guided by principles that would reflect your righteousness.  May their speech be reflective of the humility of...
Revitalizing Personal Prayer – Part 4

Revitalizing Personal Prayer – Part 4

Intercession I normally need something to keep me focused and directed when it comes to interceding for people and issues. Here’s how I break it down: Daily Intercessions. I tend to pray through a concentric circle of relationships when interceding for others and issues. This would begin with my own heart and the schedule I have for the day. My Wife. I have a list of passages that speak directly to her roles as a Christian, wife and mother and I normally use one of these for the foundation of my time of intercession for her. I have a list of specific requests that I have written down and a place beside each one to record the answer to these requests. My Children. I have another list of passages to use in prepping my mind to pray for my children. I pray for their salvation and for specific issues in their life and for my own involvement in their life as a father and Kelly and my input into their lives as parents. Church Leadership. Again, I use a series of specific verses and a list of desires I have for our leadership team. I use the passages as a beginning point for praying for each of them and their family members. I have ongoing lists of specific requests for our leadership team. List of ongoing miscellaneous requests. I have requests that date back to when I was in Junior High. I have simple pages that break down into a column for requests and one for answers. Anything and everything gets put here. Yes, it bleeds over into other...