child.
I would return to Nicaragua the following year to participate in a crusade. Our mission called for prayer warriors. We prayer walked around the coliseum, anointed each seat with oil, and prayed continuously for our pastor and those in attendance. It was an active prayer vigil that began as soon as our feet hit the floor each morning. I felt like I was experiencing an excerpt from Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. Prayer walking is easily defined in the simplistic of terms, but the meaning is deeper than praying while you walk. “Prayer walking is the practice of praying on location, a type of intercessory prayer that involves walking to or near a particular place while praying. Some people believe that being close to a location
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Why was the blind on my heart with so much fervor? Nonetheless, I prayed hard for the blind, for their sight to be restored, or the direst need to be met in their lives. It was God’s call not mine. Later that evening, the pastor gave an invitation for prayer. The field was flooded with people. It looked like a clip from a Billy Graham event. It was an overwhelming sight. How could we possibly prayer for so many people? As I was making my way through the crowd, my pastor got my attention to ask me to pray for a lady in a wheel chair. As I approached the woman and her son, he told me that she was blind. I had spent all day praying for her. I am glad God gave me the opportunity to meet her so my faith could increase. Prayer is a mighty weapon in the hands of the believer. “We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there 's nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all” (Chambers). Those behind the scene with prayer were engaged in a battle that required foot soldiers to usher the presence of the Lord. We were security bring in The Preacher to the crusade. If only we could catch a spiritual glimpse of …show more content…
Come on God, why am I getting a repeat scene of this depravity? I had allowed the enemy to beat me to a pulp on numerous occasions regarding the molested young boy at the Honduran Steakhouse a few years earlier. The only difference with this day’s episode versus the last occurrence was one thing. I had sworn that I would never walk away again from this type of scenario. I had put a stake in the ground and promised God that if the occasion arose in the future, I would not cower away. I was standing in the hotel lobby when I spotted a young boy sitting in an American made vehicle with two men. That same nauseated feeling arose from the pits of my stomach with the taste of vomit as a result of another molested child. As I approached the truck with my translator, the boy jumped out of the backseat and the truck drove away. The young boy, Carlos, was attempting to mind his own business but responded to our approach. According to Carlos, these two men had given him a dollar so he could buy food for his family and did not harm him. Relieved with the news, I began sharing the gospel with this child, and he accepted Jesus as his Savior. Our team took up a love offering for Carlos and his family to help them with their livelihood. The young boy bowed his head a beggar and lifted his eyes a child of the King. I have deducted that God used
The telling of this story provokes many questions. Why didn’t God, being all-good and benevolent, "immediately restore His fallen creatures to their original union with...
As I continued to chat with my pastor that day, I really sensed the hurt in his eyes – the anger that comes from an unsolvable injustice, the tiredness of a problem. “What’s wrong?” I finally asked, “Having a bad day?” Sensing that I was truly concerned, he let the truth be told. “I talked with a woman today whose baby died suddenly of unknown causes. As we worked through her grief, she talked about how numerous friends and family, even a religious leader had patted her on the back, shook their heads and said, ‘It was God’s will.’ I find few things worse to say to a grieving parent. Saying nothing at all would be of more help.” It was obvious from our conversation that he had an understanding greater than I about God’s will, and his insight created in me a curiosity and desire to learn more.
E.M. Bounds wrote a wonderful book devoted to prayer entitled Power Through Prayer. This book encourages the preacher to become a true prayer warrior. E.M. Bounds has written many books on prayer, encouraging Christians to devote their life to prayer. Since the writer is coming from a preacher background himself, one can clearly see the passion he has for prayer in his life. Fellow preachers will hopefully be encouraged by this and want to devote their life to prayer, so that they will better their preaching. Bounds exemplifies through his work that preaching has no power without prayer. He also sets forth the idea that prayer is the life-giving force behind our work for God. In reading this book, it inspires one to pray more and be able to be more effective in their ministry.
She woke up with a severe pain in her side and began to have difficulty walking. Any kind of ailment was unusual for her as she had always been a healthy person. This particular Friday morning took her and everyone around her by surprise. Her daughter immediately took her to the hospital where they immediately began to run tests. Several hours later the grimed faced doctors said, Mrs. Flores you have cancer all over your body and it would be best to call all your family together. Forty-seven year old Billie, the pillar of her family, was going to die. Within hours Billie and her eldest daughter were on a private medical plane being flown to Houston to receive emergency treatment. Billie had no other words to say other than “God you are in control of my life”. After several hours of flight, mother and daughter landed in Houston where an overwhelming sense of peace embraced on them. Surgery was scheduled for Monday but after the x-rays came back doctors immediately took her into surgery. There they found several tumors, one that caused significant damage. This particular tumor had eaten part of her vertebrae and compressed her spinal cord, leaving her paralyzed. After surgery Billie began to ask God if it was her time to leave. His response to her was, her work was not done. That is all Billie needed to hear, it was time to fight. Billie and her daughter prayed day in and day out. Two
Over the past year I have grown as both a person and a writer. My writing has improved
Jesus is Lord because he reunites all creation to God, but Jesus accomplished this mighty task by coming to be with us in our brokenness.16 I visited a woman in intensive care repeatedly over the entire summer. She had a chronic and likely terminal lung disease, and during every visit she would yell, plead, and bargain with God for healing. On one visit, I ask...
Now, after a about four months of these past conditions, I had woken up, sicker than ever, skinnier than ever, next to Cowboy munching away on grass. “I need to be found”, I yelled intensely. God heard me, when I started hearing a helicopter and heavy men coming toward me. I had been blurring out time to time, and I blacked out when they saw me. I woke up, staring up at my family and the men who rescued me. I knew then that I was saved.
Describe in one paragraph one of the spiritual activities you performed and how it made you feel—both during the activity and after.
When this plea is made, it appears to be quite ironic. The man who participated in the sin is trying to convince his accomplice to do him in. However, this ...
As a second language learner I have never expected myself to be a perfect writer throughout the semester. Even If English was my first language still, I would not be a perfect writer. It is not about first or second language, it is about how well I understand the learning objectives. Then organizing and writing with my own ideas and putting them in my paper. I am going to be honest, I am not good at English subject and English subject is my strongest weakness than the other subjects. In this paper I will discuss and analyze my own writing, reflecting on the ways that my writing has improved throughout the semester.
The question of why bad things happen to good people has perplexed and angered humans throughout history. The most common remedy to ease the confusion is to discover the inflicter of the undeserved suffering and direct the anger at them: the horror felt about the Holocaust can be re-directed in the short term by transforming Adolf Hitler into Lucifer and vilifying him, and, in the long term, can be used as a healing device when it is turned into education to assure that such an atrocity is never repeated. What, however, can be done with the distasteful emotions felt about the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Surely the citizens of those two cities did not themselves directly provoke the government of the United States to deserve the horror of a nuclear attack. Can it be doubted that their sufferings were undeserved and should cause deep sorrow, regret, and anger? Yet for the citizens of the United States to confront these emotions they must also confront the failings of their own government. A similar problem is found in two works of literature, Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound and the book of Job found in the Tanakh. In each of these works a good man is seen to be suffering at the hand of his god; Prometheus is chained to a rock by Zeus who then sends an eagle to daily eat Prometheus' liver while Job is made destitute and brought to endure physical pain through an agreement between God~ and Satan. To examine the travails of these two men is to discover two vastly different concepts of the relationship between god and man.
I had gone through some rough times the previous years and I had lost my passion for life; however, in doing so, I also lost my passion for missions and even the stage did not hold the excitement it once had. I felt like I was slowly suffocating, I could not feel, I could not love – I was lost because I had lost what created my identity. Over the course of that year, God worked on my heart and taught me what it meant to have passion again; He healed my heart and allowed me to feel again. Life once again held the adventure and I could once again feel deeply. This was a vulnerable time for me; I had been laid bare, my plans seemed to wash away, and I had to completely trust God with my life, and yet I still had Christians look doubtfully at me and my plans. God had to remind me repeatedly that His “love never fails, [and] it never runs out on me” (“One thing remains” – Passion). I did not understand how my life would look, but I knew God had a plan for me and I had to set aside my control and trust that God would work it out for His
He continued His work in me and I was consistently brought back to a bible study I had lead while in Haiti. With one day's notice and a migraine I wrote the lesson God had laid upon my heart to share with the girls who would come. The woman who ran the school warned that these girls are often hard to reach and there me be a small turnout. When the bible study was set to begin I was sitting with my translator and three girls. With some patience God revealed His great plan. Within half an hour I was teaching to quite the large group. They were interactive as well as we sand songs both in English and Creole as well as memorized the key verse from the lesson. There was one girl whom I spoke to afterwards whom I discovered was 15 and in the fifth grade. I was also 15 but was a sophomore in high school. In that moment God opened my eyes to the importance of the early years of education and the access to it. At dinner that night, I was given the headcount of 76, the largest number they had ever had. God’s goodness lead me to Haiti,those girls, and to a better understanding of God’s call.
December 23, 2004, I went to the post office to check on the ministry mail and we had received some financial gifts. I was so thankful. I was thanking God for all He had done in such a short period of time. I was overwhelmed with how fast He had begun and built the ministry and brought such faithful people along side of me to carry the gospel. I was in amazement. I pulled out from the post office to go to the grocery store. It was two days before Christmas and I needed to get groceries for the big breakfast we do at our house Christmas morning with our family. I was sitting at a red light in the far right lane. In Tennessee, right on red is okay, so I was looking to see if any cars were coming. My neck was twisted as far to the left as it would go. Suddenly, horrid pain rushed through my neck and shoulders all the way down to my hands. I did not know what had happened. I began to cry and instantly I knew to go to the hospital. At that point, a very nice man approached my window and said, “Are you
Before I went to Mexico, God’s awesome power was known in my head, but not in my heart. I would see problems or events that God could easily take care of in one swoop of his hand, but I would not believe that he would actually show his grace and mercy. With having the experience of a mission trip where I saw his power first hand, I now fully bel...