We live in world that is losing sight of our Savior. Powerful governments like that of Communist China directly oppose the spread of the Gospel. Our own government runs secularized schools and teaches multiculturalism, which says that all faiths are equally valid and true. By implication, that means that no faith is valid and true. Our mass media is mostly godless. Our great corporations think only of profits.
So, what should we do? We can begin with prayer.
Remember those who are in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. – Hebrews 13:3
My friend Mandy, the “Blue Collar Theologian,” posted recently about the Church in the West and our need for awareness and courage. She said, among other things, “It is heavy on my heart how often the persecuted church is missing in our prayers.”
Where I live, in middle class America, suffering for the gospel is not an everyday occurrence for most believers. It’s easy to limit our prayers to the health of our children, “traveling mercies” for loved ones on the road, and for Sunday’s service to go well. Of course, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with praying these things. I happen to believe there’s nothing too big or too small to talk to the Lord about. If it’s important to us, it’s…
View original post 877 more words
Citizen Tom 
Tom,
Your comment “Wherever the Lord calls us, prayer is the first step. Prayer is the first step of every Christian walk.”
Hopefully, it will call us to the next step, to become personally involved to help another walk alongside us to serve “wherever the Lord is calling us” to serve.
Serving requires being a good example and leader in our communities, and dedication of time, energy, money, and empathy, and support for our brothers and sisters who cannot walk, or sadly, have made a foolish choice in choosing the wrong direction.
After reading today’s depressing articles in the news, I did find one article that Arizona passed school vouchers which will help youth to hopefully be taught Christianity to help understand the wisdom and love in the Bible to avoid making foolish choices of paths in their lives.
Now we need to pray that Arizona implementation does not fail because of lack of planning and implementation to prevent (Satan’s) scammers from misdirecting the direction and purpose of school vouchers to profit instead of teach the wisdom and love in the Bible to youth at the most meaningful times in their lives.
Regards and goodwill blogging
Pray for the success of school choice in Arizona? Yep! Great idea.
I guess I would say… prayer is not “all we can do” unless it’s first “All we do” at all times. When we seek God’s mind and heart, will and direction as a “last resort”, we are not understanding what prayer truly is. Im not a huge EM Bounds fan, but one of his sayings sticks in my mind from decades ago. “Prayer moves the hand that moves the world”. There are many things as Christians we can do to try to “move the world” around us, depending on the level of freedom in our society and ability in us and our fellows. But if we don’t Start with the “hand that moves” everything… we are just as limited and futile as faulty and frail humans can be. Start with Prayer. -barabbas
Amen! That should be our FIRST response. That’s why I pray for pastors and missionaries who are in prison and feel as though they’ve “lost their ministry.” It could be that their most powerful ministry has just begun.
Tom, thanks so much for reposting this. I was praying that someone would, and that many “prayer warriors” would be raised up to pray for our brothers and sisters. I felt the Lord challenging us to “raise up an army”(!)
Wherever the Lord calls us, prayer is the first step. Prayer is the first step of every Christian walk.