Dobra Family Ministry

Essential Prayers for Life

Church parking lots are empty. Gathering and worshipping in Jesus’ name has been deemed non-essential by the civil authorities.

But the killing of unborn children has been deemed essential, and based on how full the parking lot is, they are doing a lot of business.

We need to pray!

Memorial for the lost children, Peoria, 2019 Fall 40 Days for Life

Day 1 – Friday May 8, 2020

Science, models, and public policy become putrid without open discussion, debate, and dissent being allowed.

“We have been told that we people are the chance result of imperfect chaos working its dark magic on the universe… The outcome of such thinking? Humanity is disenchanted.”

But in reality, “God, the beautiful one, made the human race as his capstone work, his corporeal masterpiece (Ps 8:3-6; 27:4)… God actually made humanity; God actually gave humanity infinite dignity and worth… The imago dei marks out humanity as an enchanted race.” (“Reenchanting Humanity” by Owen Strachan)

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭8:3-5‬ ‭ESV‬‬
https://www.bible.com/59/psa.8.3-5.esv

Day 2 – Monday May 11, 2020

Perspective, “In California, a state with 40 million people, there have been approximately 2,700 Covid-related deaths. More than that die each year from traffic deaths in the Golden State.” https://www.cwfpac.com/monday-may-11-2020-exposing-communist-china-shutdown-deadly-left-vs-israel

Human rights begin with the right to life!
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…” – Declaration of Independence

Day 3 – Tuesday May 12, 2020

Day 4 – Wednesday May 13, 2020

Day 5

By What Standard? Worried about “tarnishing your witness?” By what standard are you judging the reputation of your witness? By obedience to God and His standard, or by the opinion of men and their standard?

Day 6

“I witnessed, while visiting a surgical suite as an OB/GYN resident, the abortion of a fetus that weighed approximately two pounds. It was placed in a bucket, crying and struggling to breathe, and the medical personnel pretended not to notice. Soon the crying stopped…
Some people believe that being pro-choice is being on the side of freedom. I’ve never understood how an act of violence, killing a human being, albeit a small one in a special place, is portrayed as a precious right. To speak only of the mother’s cost in carrying a baby to term ignores all thought of any legal rights of the unborn. I believe that the moral consequence of cavalierly accepting abortion diminishes the value of all life…”
The only issue that should be debated is the moral one: whether or not a fetus has any right to life. Scientifically, there’s no debate over whether the fetus is alive and human—if not killed, it matures into an adult human being. It is that simple. So the time line of when we consider a fetus ‘human’ is arbitrary after conception, in my mind.”
Dr. Ron Paul OB/GYN, “Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom”

Day 7

Women’s Care Center of Peoria, Illinois
http://www.womenscarecenter.org/locations/peoria
7319 N. University Street
Peoria, Illinois 61614

Empower Life center
https://www.peoriarescue.org/womens-pregnancy-center/
(309) 688-0202
1825 N. Knoxville Ave., Peoria, IL 61603

Day 8

Cash-Rich Abortion Giant Received $80 Million Meant For Small Businesses Hurt by Pandemic
https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2020/may/cash-rich-abortion-giant-received-80-million-meant-for-small-businesses-hurt-by-pandemic?fbclid=IwAR0_pmxDjKHPeqG-ibmhzBzASw12mWqgVHz8qSGrn3TBzLUhz1pdu_bqiOU

Romanian persecution comes to roost in Chicago https://onenewsnow.com/church/2020/05/21/romanian-persecution-comes-to-roost-in-chicago#.Xsbcnkir-M4.twitter

“At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭12:26-29‬ ‭ESV‬‬
https://www.bible.com/59/heb.12.26-29.esv

Love the captive soul, but rage against the captor. Arise O Church arise!

Day 9

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2:1-8‬ ‭ESV‬‬
https://www.bible.com/59/eph.2.1-8.esv

Day 10

“A nation that will cannibalize its babies for parts will abandon its elders to secret abuse and choking, solitary deaths. Such a nation fears death, because it believes nothing comes after. So it also fears life…”https://stream.org/who-dumped-a-violent-autistic-20-year-old-covid-patient-on-this-nursing-home-and-why/

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
‭‭Micah‬ ‭6:8‬ ‭ESV‬‬
https://www.bible.com/59/mic.6.8.esv

Day 11

Day 12 – Praise God!

Praise God!

Governor Pritzker has “lifted all restrictions on churches in the state. (We have amazing prayer warriors!!) Peoria area attorney Brian Heller put the development more succinctly:

We won, or more accurately, the Gov. retreated from the field of battle facing likely humiliation.

https://illinoisfamily.org/religious/gov-pritzker-backs-down-before-the-u-s-supreme-court/

Patriot’s Day – April 19, 1775

“Stand your ground; don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”
Militia Captain John Parker, April 19th, 1775, the battle of Lexington, “the Shot Heard Round the World”

“The Lord is a God that loveth righteousness and hateth inequity, in whatever shape or character it appears. Injustice, oppression and violence (much less the shedding of innocent blood) shall not pass unnoticed by the just Governor of the world…

The truth of these sentiments hath often been verified in providence, and the proudest princes and the most powerful states have been taught by severe, by fatal experience, that desolation from the Lord awaits the impiety of those who do violence to His people and ‘shed innocent blood in their land.'”
(“The Fate of Blood-Thirsty Oppressors and God’s Tender Care of His Distressed People” by Rev. Jonas Clark, 1776. A sermon and eyewitness narrative of the “Shot heard round the world” at the Battle of Lexington, 1775)

“Today, April 19, is rightly identified as “Patriots’ Day.” In truth, April 19, 1775, should be regarded as important a date to Americans as July 4, 1776. It’s a shame that we don’t celebrate Patriots’ Day as enthusiastically as we do Independence Day. It’s even more shameful that many Americans don’t even remember what happened on this day back in 1775.

This was the day the “shot heard ’round the world” was fired. It was the day America’s War for Independence began.

Being warned of approaching British troops by Dr. Joseph Warren (who dispatched Paul Revere and William Dawes to Lexington and Concord with the news), Pastor Jonas Clark alerted his congregants at the Church of Lexington that the British army was on its way to seize the colonists’ weapons and to arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock. Both of these men had taken refuge in Pastor Clark’s home with about a dozen of the pastor’s armed men guarding the house. Other men from the congregation (around 75-80 in number) stood with their muskets on Lexington Green when over 800 British troops appeared before them at barely the break of day. The militia commander, Jonas Parker, told his fellow colonists, “Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”

According to eyewitnesses, British soldiers opened fire on the militiamen without warning (the British command to disperse and the British soldiers’ opening salvo of gunfire were simultaneous), immediately killing eight of the colonists (including Parker), of whom at least seven were Pastor Clark’s parishioners. In self-defense, the Minutemen took cover and returned fire. These were the first shots of the Revolutionary War.

Again, this took place on Lexington Green, which was located in the shadow of the church house where those men worshipped each Sunday. The men that were guarding Adams and Hancock escorted them out of harm’s way shortly before the troops arrived. Without a doubt, the heroic efforts of Pastor Clark and his brave Minutemen at the Church of Lexington saved the lives of Sam Adams and John Hancock. And eight of those brave men gave their lives protecting two men who became two of America’s greatest Founding Fathers. But, mind you, Jonas Clark and his men are as important to the story of America’s independence as any of our Founding Fathers.

According to Pastor Clark, these are the names of the eight men who died on Lexington Green on that fateful April morning: Robert Munroe, Jonas Parker, Samuel Hadley, Jonathan Harrington, Jr., Isaac Muzzy, Caleb Harrington, and John Brown, all of Lexington, and one Mr. Porter of Woburn.

By the time the British troops arrived at the Concord Bridge, hundreds of colonists had amassed a defense of the bridge. A horrific battle took place, and the British troops were routed and soon retreated back to Boston. America’s War for Independence had begun.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, these two elements of our history are lost to the vast majority of Americans today: 1) it was attempted gun confiscation by the British troops that ignited America’s War for Independence, and 2) it was a pastor and the men of his congregation that mostly comprised the “Minutemen” who fired the shots that started our great Revolution.”
Note by Pastor Baldwin, Liberty Fellowship church in Montana

“The Fate of Blood-Thirsty Oppressors and God’s Tender Care of His Distressed People” by Rev. Jonas Clark, 1776. A sermon and eyewitness narrative of the “Shot heard round the world” at the Battle of Lexington, 1775

**Never Again!**

“Israel will mark **Yom HaShoah**, its annual **Holocaust Remembrance Day** to honor the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Most Israelis are aware that it is held on the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of **April 1943**, which took place during the feast of unleavened bread, and marked yet another difficult Passover in Jewish history.”
https://us.icej.org/news/headlines/when-god-says-never-again

Safety and Security – Duty to Protect

Militia: an army composed of citizens… called up in time of emergency. (Webster’s 2010)

There are four places in the American Constitution that affirm the Militia’s prior existence, and no law can alter it. The militia is all able bodied members of a community.

Article I, Section 8, Clauses 15 & 16:

[The Congress shall have Power To…]

Clause 15: [ ] “To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;”

Clause 16: [ ] “To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;”

Article II, Section 2, Clause 1:

“The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States…”

AMENDMENT II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Safety and Security – Duty to Protect

Good Friday prayer for my brothers

Originally written for my brothers in faith and discipleship Good Friday 2019.

God, I pray you would renew my heart again today. Move me to read scripture and pray with my family. Help me to be their spiritual leader, to teach and equip them for the great commission.

Motivate me to build a Godly household. Prepare us to share our faith. God, help us to be loving and bold in our faith.

God, open our eyes to see. Don’t let us be blinded by the “entertainment” and “pleasures” of this world. Give us a deep desire to know you more and desire your kingdom more than this world.

Forgive me of my daily sins of apathy, grumbling and discontent. Fill me, oh God, with hope and joy.

In Jesus Christ’s name I pray – Amen

Erwin W. Lutzer
“The Church in Babylon: Heeding the Call to Be a Light in the Darkness”

“Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭29:5-7‬ ‭ESV‬‬
https://www.bible.com/59/jer.29.5-7.esv

Family Safety and Security

Our Family’s Safety and Security
excerpted from “The Dobra Family Mission” 2010 Revision

Our King, Jesus, warns us that until His return we live in a cursed world and that we will have to face disaster.

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Matthew 24:6-7

Jesus tells us not to be alarmed, that wars and natural disasters will happen. We think our family needs to be prepared. For God’s glory, we need to be prepared to weather the storm, to rebuild, to care for others, and to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with those in need.

Disasters in General: Natural and Man Made

Be Prepared for the Storm!

As Jesus warned, the world is wicked and cursed. We can learn from the story of Noah the great need for God’s families to be spiritually and physically prepared for disaster.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. . . Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood. . . I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark— you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. . . Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
From Genesis 6 (see also: Acts 11:27-30)

Be Prepared to Rebuild the Church!

We can learn from Ezra that God’s families need to be ready to rebuild God’s Church, to care for, build up, and encourage God’s people for God’s glory!

Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem. . . When they arrived at the house of the LORD in Jerusalem, some of the heads of the families gave freewill offerings toward the rebuilding of the house of God on its site.
Ezra 1:5, 2:68

Be Prepared to Rebuild the Community!

We can learn from Nehemiah that God’s families need to be ready to rebuild and defend their communities for God’s glory!

So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart. . . Also our enemies said, “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work. . .” Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work.
Nehemiah 4:6, 11, 13-15

If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed.
Exodus 22:2

Like a muddied spring or a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way to the wicked.
Proverbs 25:26

Be Prepared to Care for and Share with Others

We should always be prepared to care for those in need and we should always be prepared to share our eternal hope with any one, but especially with those in great need and distress.

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”
From Matthew 25:34-40

And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Hebrews 13:16

Do Not Fear!

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. . . The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
From Mark 4:35-41

Persecution

Jesus also warns His disciples that we will face persecution of one form or another because of His name. We should learn from our brothers and sisters in the underground church in restricted nations where they are violently persecuted today.

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.”
Matthew 24:9-11

“Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.”
Luke 6:22

Proclaim the Gospel

Even in the face of persecution, the Gospel must be proclaimed!

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end willcome.”
Matthew 24:14

Endure to the end

Stand firm in the faith!

“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
Matthew 24:12-13

“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.”
Luke 12:4

We hope to live out our vision and mission to honor and glorify God and to leave a Godly legacy by being prepared, by rebuilding, by caring, and by sharing during good times and bad!

* See Safety topics in Appendix for more information.

** Read “Tortured for Christ” by Richard Wurmbrand for first hand account of persecution at the hands of the Nazis and Communists and the work of the underground church! www.torturedforchrist.com

Disciple Making and Kingdom Building in Africa

Reports of the spectacular growth of Christianity in Africa are well known. What is less known is how it is happening. Glenn has visited Africa and has reported on the growth of the church in the book he co-wrote with Jerry Trousdale, The Kingdom Unleashed. In today’s show the Pugcasters interview one of the leaders of this phenomenal movement. There were many remarkable things that they learned in the course of the interview–an important one being how Islam is growing in Africa through a combination of biological growth, conversion through marriage, business dealings with strings attached, and the building of mosques.
https://crosspolitic.com/podcast/the-theology-pugcast-disciple-making-movements-the-contest-w-islam-in-west-africa/

My show notes

Making disciples in West Africa

Identify a community
Research the community, get to know the culture
Identify a “person of peace” … someone from the community to be a bridge into the community

Establish Access Ministries (5 pillars)

Prayer and Fasting
Service with a purpose, fill a need
Education/vo-tech, clean water, health facilities, seed banks, government corruption/justice, business/jobs
Every believer is a disciple, and every disciple is a disciple maker. “Who is your disciple?”
Multiplication
Church planting, small groups
Partnerships
When government programs fail. Involving people in their own development.

Islam vs Christianity

Kingdom building

Family multiplication
Businesses
Building (physical representation of the Church, claiming ground for Jesus)

Spiritual Warfare

Battle in the spiritual realm first by prayer and fasting
Believe! Has the church in America become blind to spiritual things?
Need a supernatural worldview revival in the churches in America!

Fear of What is Coming Out of America

Like the church of Pergamum. (Revelation 2:12-17)

But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.
Revelation 2:14

Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing
2 Peter 2:15

Just War / Just Cause Theory

Just Cause Theory

“a three-step theology of resistance…

“The [1] first was prophetic denunciation of the civic evil. When the magistrate is defying God, then courageous men in the pulpit should be authoritatively naming what is happening, and denouncing it ( Matt. 14:4). The [2] second stage is for the believers to flee the persecution. Jesus said to do this — when you are persecuted in one city, flee to the next (Matt. 10:23). The [3] third and final stage is to take up arms defensively (1 Sam. 22:2). David’s men were armed, and were not cooperating with Saul’s tyranny at all, and would certainly have defended themselves if cornered, but David would still not lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed. So it is not permissible to undertake a revolution whereby the rebels seek to overthrow the existing authority. But taking up arms defensively is an option. And stating that you will refuse to comply if required by the tyrants to is also an option. This is why George Washington said that weapons were liberty’s teeth. This is why molon labe is an option. As the saying goes, when the government starts saying that you don’t need a gun, then you need a gun.

“In his magisterial Institutes, [4] John Calvin gave us another layer of protection against lawless anarchy. He taught that when the supreme ruler is resisted, it should be undertaken by the lesser magistrate, and that the people should not try to resist tyranny at the top as an inchoate mob. They should resist tyranny from the central government by means of submission to local authorities who are fulfilling their oath of office. Every lesser magistrate has the obligation (not the right, the obligation) to disobey unlawful orders from above. And, when they do this, the people have an obligation to rally behind them.

https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/s7-engaging-the-culture/assemblin-carryin-n-sayin-stuff.html

Just War Theory

“[W]e can evaluate whether… any decision leading to hostile action, is justified according to what is called “Just War Theory.” Over the centuries, Christian thinkers from Augustine to Aquinas to the Reformers—seeking to reconcile Christian teaching on the sanctity of human life with the Christian responsibility to love our neighbors by protecting them from evil—have proposed a set of conditions by which a violent act can be considered justified. These conditions deal with both whether war ought to be waged, as well as how war should be waged.

“[1] First, the cause for going to war and the intention behind it must be just. [2] Second, the war must be waged by a legitimate authority. [3] Third, force must be used as a last resort. [4] Fourth, force used in war must be proportionate to the threat. [5] Fifth, force must not target non-combatants, and finally, [6] there must be a reasonable chance of success.”

https://www.breakpoint.org/soleimani-the-u-s-and-just-war/

Barmen: the Church then and now

Tom introduces listeners to the Barmen Declaration of 1934. He then helps listeners understand what genuine resistance to the Nazis looked like at the time, and how many German churches had been coopted by cultural trends.
In our ideological age, cut off from both nature and nature’s God, totalitarianisms emerge to fill in the empty spaces in our heads and hearts. Classical Christian theism is what we need today, but most evangelicals don’t know what that is.
Podcast: https://crosspolitic.com/podcast/the-theology-pugcast-the-barmen-declaration-saying-no-to-cultural-accommodation/

Here’s the wiki page for the Barmen Declaration–https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barmen_Declaration

Highlights/Outline of this Episode

The Barmen Declaration

1934 Germany, 139 delegates of the churches meet to declare the true aligence of the church and encourage resistance to false allegiances and the political evil of national socialism. (Yes, socialism, the same godless ideology we are facing today in America.)

False allegiances

Turned from the true God
Political symptoms are related to the sickness of theological liberalism
Theological liberalism is embraced in order to make the church more relevant, attractive
Resulted in “domesticated,” “accommodating,” and effeminate church

Resistance to evil

Godly relevance (truth) is not always popular
The movement started from the Barmen declaration had to go underground
Grace and salvation give you the freedom to proclaim unpopular truths no matter the worldly consequences
Stop following the godless culture in order to be relevant
Build a Godly culture in the church and our households

Podcast: https://crosspolitic.com/podcast/the-theology-pugcast-the-barmen-declaration-saying-no-to-cultural-accommodation/

Socialism, Communism, Marxism https://ministry.family.blog/america/socialism-marxism-communism/

Prayer of Hope

A prayer of Hope in times of danger, distress, and terror.

July, 2016

I was feeling great sorrow and distress over the turmoil in our nation and world. It is obvious God has been pulling away as we have been pushing him out. The acts of terror, racial and police violence, and political uncertainty and division.

But, Christ is in me, the hope of glory! (Colossians 1:27)

In my Scripture reading and meditation today:

1. I prayed from the Psalms “I am weary from grief; strengthen me through Your word.” (Psalm 119:28)

2. I was both encouraged and challenged that when God had twice revealed plans for the ultimate destruction of Israel, twice he relented after the intercessory prayer and pleading of the prophet Amos. All is not lost, but we must plead and pray and repent! “‘Lord God, please forgive! How will Jacob survive since he is so small?’ The Lord relented concerning this. ‘It will not happen, He said.” (Amos 7:2-3)

3. I marveled in the hope of glory! “God’s mystery—Christ. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him.” (Colossians 1:2b-3)

So, have hope, do not be deceived and be thankful! (Colossians 1:4,7)

Pray

“O Lord, whose power is infinite and wisdom infallible… let us dwell in Your most secret place under Your shadow, where there is safe protection…

Help us to be entirely dependent on You for support, counsel, and consolation.

Strengthen us by Your Holy Spirit for every purpose of our Christian life.

In Jesus Christ’s name we pray – Amen!”

Prayer adpated from the “Puritan Prayers: Refuge”

Reading plan From the Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings for Year C, Monday (July 18, 2016): Psalm 119:17-32; Amos 7:1-6; Colossians 1:27-2:7.

Prayer for Healing

“Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, You became man and died on the cross for our salvation. You healed people of sickness and affliction through Your love and compassion. Visit me, Lord, and grant me strength to bear this sickness with which I am afflicted, with patience, submission to Your will and trust in Your loving care. I pray that You will bless the means used for my recovery and those who administer them. Grant that my sickness may be to my spiritual benefit and that I may live the rest of my life more faithfully according to Your will. For You are the source of life and healing and to You I give praise and glory, now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.”

“My Orthodox Prayer Book” by Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, Rev. Theodore Stylianopoulos

See Healing https://ministry.family.blog/2020/01/05/healing/

Healing

God can and does heal

Remember all the times Jesus healed and even brought the dead to life
I have seen people healed from health afflictions after earnest prayer in our small group

15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
James 5:15-16 (ESV)

But does not always heal

7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,[a] a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:1-10 (ESV)

To keep Paul from becoming conceited, or trusting in his own ability and righteousness, rather than in God’s grace and power.
So that Paul’s weakness would bear witness to God’s greatness.

We can’t always understand His ways

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Romans 11:33-36 (ESV)

But we can trust that all things are for our good and His glory

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[a] for those who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28 (ESV)

And even death cannot separate us from His love!

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 (ESV)