June 18, 2014

Dear Eastridge Family,

I recently read an account on prayer that I found very encouraging.  I wanted to share this account with you.  It comes from Dr. Helen Roseveare who was a missionary to the Congo.  She tells the following story that I wanted to share with you today:

“A mother at our mission station died after giving birth to a premature baby.  We tried to improvise an incubator to keep the infant alive, but the only hot water bottle we had was beyond repair.  So we asked the children to pray for the baby and for her sister.  One of the girls responded. ‘Dear God, please send a hot water bottle today.  Tomorrow will be too late because by then the baby will be dead. And dear Lord, send a doll for the sister so she won’t feel so lonely.’ That afternoon a large package arrived from England. The children watched eagerly as we opened it. Much to their surprise, under some clothing was a hot water bottle!  Immediately the girl who had prayed so earnestly started to dig deeper, exclaiming, ‘If God sent that, I’m sure He also sent a doll!’ And she was right!  The heavenly Father knew in advance of that child’s sincere requests, and 5 months earlier He had led a ladies’ group to include both of those specific articles.”

Here are some quotations about prayer I find enlightening:

C.S. Lewis - “The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.”

John Bunyan - “He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day.”

J. Sidlow Baxter - “…Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons—but they are helpless against our prayers.”

Martin Luther - “Pray as if everything depends on God, then work as if everything depends on you.”

Stuart Briscoe - “When our children were small and we were trying to teach them to pray, we had three kinds of prayer: ‘Please prayers,’ ‘Thank you prayers,’ and ‘Sorry prayers.’”

John Wesley - 'God does nothing but in answer to prayer; and even they who have been converted to God, without praying for it themselves (which is exceeding rare), were not without the prayers of others.  Every new victory which a soul gains is the effect of a new prayer.

E. M. Bounds - “Pray for ‘all men.’ We usually pray more for things than we do for men. Our prayers should be thrown across their pathway as they rush in their downward course to a lost eternity.” 

William Law - “There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as prayer for him.”

If you pray for someone long enough, your heart toward him will change.  You will gain vested interests in his welfare and will want God to work in his life, and bring blessing to him.  If it’s someone who hurt you, you pray for him.  If you find yourself resenting your father, mother, husband, wife, employer, or pastor, faithfully pray for them.  Over time, watch what happens.

Bake Sale and Car Wash

The youth group will try once again this Saturday from 11AM until 2PM to have a Bake Sale and Car Wash at the church.  The last several times they have planned a car wash it was rained out.  The purpose of these fund raisers is to help fund their mission trip to Ft. Worth, Texas.  The purpose of the mission trip is to help our youth experience serving others while growing their relationship with Christ.

Cabinets

The trustees are working on installing the new cabinets this weekend.  When that job is complete they will arrange to install new countertops.  Once we complete this project we will have a church dinner to celebrate.

Father’s Day

This Sunday is Father’s Day, a time to honor our fathers.  We will have a time to recognize our fathers and to pray God’s blessing on them.

World Mission Broadcast (WMB)

World Mission Broadcast (WMB) began as the Nazarene Radio League in 1944 with the creation of the first international English radio ministry, Showers of Blessings, in 1945. Today, WMB produces 140 radio, television, and Internet broadcast ministries that include podcasts, texting, and chats in 37 distinct languages.  These ministries currently reach beyond borders and barriers into 72 countries around the world.  Every year more than 7,000 unique broadcasts are the conduit that lead people to a local church and into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  It costs WMB just $4 to produce and transmit a one-minute message of hope.  We will receive our WMB offering on June 28^th.

No Sunday evening service

This Sunday we will not have our evening service.

Prayer for Muslims during Ramadan

I am asking you to join me and the Voice of the Martyrs to pray for Muslims around the world during Ramadan.  For the next 30 days, Muslims will be fasting and praying from dawn until sunset.  By God’s grace, some will begin a search that leads them away from the practice of Islamic rituals towards a relationship with the one true God.  As Muslims devote themselves to fast and pray, Christians will also be praying…for them.

There have been great reports of large numbers of Muslims converting to Christ in recent years.  Missionary David Garrison who has documented his findings about the Muslim phenomenon, says “There is a revival in the Muslim world.”  He believes between 2 and 7 million former Muslims have converted to Christianity in the past two decades.  His book, A Wind in the House of Islam, contains impressive research to back up his claim.