Call to Prayer

Jesus is the greatest teacher who ever lived. One of Jesus' techniques was to relate spiritual ideas to common everyday life. Pensamientos (afterthought) is an attempt to follow Jesus' method of teaching. Its title is in Spanish because we recognize the importance of multi-culturalism. We hope to translate some of these messages into Spanish soon.

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Pensamientos para hoy (afterthought for today)

Call to Prayer

Last Thursday (5/1/08) was National Day of Prayer. The Mission Statement for the National Day of Prayer Task Force begins by stating: "to communicate with every individual the need for personal repentance and prayer." And the first point in their Vision Statement is to: "foster unity within the Christian Church."¹

As your pastor I am urging you to intensify your efforts in prayer. The guidelines given by the National Day of Prayer Task Force is a good place to start: repentance, prayer, and unity. In addition to these suggestions by the NDPTF, I'd like to offer a simple prayer guide that helps me in my daily prayer time. The guide follows the acronym "ACTS".

A is for Adoration. We begin our prayer time with praise and adoration of God. This pattern follows the example given by Jesus. Jesus said to first recognize the authority of God: "Our Father who is in heaven. Your name is holy. Your Kingdom come; Your will be done (I accept your sovereign Lordship and authority over my life) (Matthew 6:9-10)."

In Adoration, God is elevated in our thoughts so that we and our problems diminish in proportion to his exaltation. As Jesus said, "With man it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God (Mark 10:27)."²

C is for Confession. When Nehemiah learned about the desolate condition of Jerusalem he said: "I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. . . we have sinned against You; I and my father's house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments (Nehemiah 1:4-7)."

T is for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a time to gratefully reflect upon God's goodness. God is good and he is at work in our lives and in our church. We need to see the good and positive things that God is doing, acknowledge them, and express our gratitude to him. David said: "I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders. I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High (Psalm 9:1-2)."

S is for Supplication. In supplication we present our requests to the Lord and he answers them according to his will. Pray for one another that God might bring us closer together. Pray that God would heal our church and bless our church. Pray that we will experience the power of God like never before.

Praying with you,

Pastor Steve

May 2, 2008

Footnotes

¹ About National Day of Prayer, [web-site] available at: http://www.ndptf.org/about/index.cfm. Internet accessed on May 2, 2008.

²Mark 10:27, NASB (New American Standard Bible). Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.

Find more afterthoughts at Mas Pensamientos
(more afterthoughts)

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