for we saw His star

“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” (Matthew 2:2)

Over and over the Bible baffles our curiosity about just how certain things happened. How did this “star” get the magi from the east to Jerusalem?

It does not say that it led them or went before them. It only says they saw a star in the east (verse 2), and came to Jerusalem. And how did that star go before them in the little five-mile walk from Jerusalem to Bethlehem as verse 9 says it did? And how did a star stand “over the place where the Child was”?

The answer is: We do not know. There are numerous efforts to explain it in terms of conjunctions of planets or comets or supernovas or miraculous lights. We just don’t know. And I want to exhort you not to become preoccupied with developing theories that are only tentative in the end and have very little spiritual significance.

I risk a generalization to warn you: People who are exercised and preoccupied with such things as how the star worked and how the Red Sea split and how the manna fell and how Jonah survived the fish and how the moon turns to blood are generally people who have what I call a mentality for the marginal. You do not see in them a deep cherishing of the great central things of the gospel—the holiness of God, the ugliness of sin, the helplessness of man, the death of Christ, justification by faith alone, the sanctifying work of the Spirit, the glory of Christ’s return and the final judgment. They always seem to be taking you down a sidetrack with a new article or book. There is little centered rejoicing.

But what is plain concerning this matter of the star is that it is doing something that it cannot do on its own: it is guiding magi to the Son of God to worship him.

There is only one Person in biblical thinking that can be behind that intentionality in the stars—God himself.

So the lesson is plain: God is guiding foreigners to Christ to worship him. And he is doing it by exerting global—probably even universal—influence and power to get it done.

Luke shows God influencing the entire Roman Empire so that the census comes at the exact time to get a virgin to Bethlehem to fulfill prophecy with her delivery. Matthew shows God influencing the stars in the sky to get foreign magi to Bethlehem so that they can worship him.

This is God’s design. He did it then. He is still doing it now. His aim is that the nations—all the nations (Matthew 24:14)—worship his Son.

This is God’s will for everybody in your office at work, and in your neighborhood and in your home. As John 4:23 says, “Such the Father seeks to worship him.”

At the beginning of Matthew we still have a “come-see” pattern. But at the end the pattern is “go-tell.” The magi came and saw. We are to go and tell.

But what is not different is that the purpose of God is the ingathering of the nations to worship his Son. The magnifying of Christ in the white-hot worship of all nations is the reason the world exists.

from “We Have Come to Worship Him” by John Piper
Reading for December 9 from Desiring God's Daily Devotional app, which features the best of over 30 years of John Piper's teaching to your everyday life and satisfaction in Jesus. Download it for free in the app store.

History's oldest hatred

Mar 11, 2009

History's oldest hatred

by Jeff Jacoby

The Boston Globe

http://www.jeffjacoby.com/4743/historys-oldest-hatred

ANTI-SEMITISM is an ancient derangement, the oldest of hatreds, so it is strange that it lacks a more meaningful name. The misnomer "anti-Semitism" -- a term coined in 1879 by the German agitator Wilhelm Marr, who wanted a scientific-sounding euphemism for Judenhass, or Jew-hatred -- is particularly inane, since hostility to Jews has never had anything to do with Semites or being Semitic. (That is why those who protest that Arabs cannot be anti-Semitic since "Arabs are Semites too" speak either from ignorance or disingenuousness.)

Perhaps there is no good name for a virus as mutable and unyielding as anti-Semitism. "The Jews have been objects of hatred in pagan, religious, and secular societies," write Joseph Telushkin and Dennis Prager in Why the Jews?, their classic study of anti-Semitism. "Fascists have accused them of being Communists, and Communists have branded them capitalists. Jews who live in non-Jewish societies have been accused of having dual loyalties, while Jews who live in the Jewish state have been condemned as 'racists.' Poor Jews are bullied, and rich Jews are resented. Jews have been branded as both rootless cosmopolitans and ethnic chauvinists. Jews who assimilate have been called a 'fifth column,' while those who stay together spark hatred for remaining separate."

So hardy is anti-Semitism, it can flourish without Jews. Shakespeare's poisonous depiction of the Jewish moneylender Shylock was written for audiences that had never seen a Jew, all Jews having been expelled from England more than 300 years earlier. Anti-Semitic bigotry infests Saudi Arabia, where Jews have not dwelt in at least five centuries; its malignance is suggested by the government daily Al-Riyadh, which published an essay claiming that Jews have a taste for "pastries mixed with human blood."

There was Jew-hatred before there was Christianity or Islam, before Nazism or Communism, before Zionism or the Middle East conflict. This week Jews celebrate the festival of Purim, gathering in synagogues to read the biblical book of Esther. Set in ancient Persia, it tells of Haman, a powerful royal adviser who is insulted when the Jewish sage Mordechai refuses to bow down to him. Haman resolves to wipe out the empire's Jews and makes the case for genocide in an appeal to the king:

"There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among ... all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different from those of other peoples, and the king's laws they do not keep, so it is of no benefit for the king to tolerate them. If it please the king, let it be written that they be destroyed." After winning royal assent, Haman makes plans "to annihilate, to kill and destroy all the Jews, the young and the elderly, children and women, in one day . . . and to take their property for plunder."

What drives such bloodlust? Haman's indictment accuses the Jews of lacking national loyalty, of insinuating themselves throughout the empire, of flouting the king's law. But the Jews of Persia had done nothing to justify Haman's murderous anti-Semitism -- just as Jews in later ages did nothing that justified their persecution under the Church or Islam, or their expulsion from so many lands in Europe and the Middle East, or their repression at the hands of Russian czars and Soviet commissars, or their slaughter by Nazi Germany. When the president of Iran today calls for the extirpation of the Jewish state, when a leader of Hamas vows to kill Jewish children around the world, when firebombs are hurled at synagogues in London and Paris and Chicago, it is not because Jews deserve to be victimized.

Some Jews are no saints, but the paranoid frenzy that is anti-Semitism is not explained by what Jews do, but by what they are. The Jewish people are the object of anti-Semitism, not its cause. That is why the haters' rationales can be so wildly inconsistent and their agendas so contradictory. What, after all, do those who vilify Jews as greedy bankers have in common with those who revile them as seditious Bolsheviks? Nothing, save an irrational obsession with Jews.

At one point in the book of Esther, Haman lets the mask slip. He boasts to his friends and family of "the glory of his riches, and the great number of his sons, and everything in which the king had promoted him and elevated him." Still, he seethes with rage and frustration: "Yet all this is worthless to me so long as I see Mordechai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." That is the unforgivable offense: "Mordechai the Jew" refuses to blend in, to abandon his values, to be just like everyone else. He goes on sitting there -- undigested, unassimilated, and for that reason unbearable.

Of course Haman had his ostensible reasons for targeting Jews. So did Hitler and Arafat; so does Ahmadinejad. Sometimes the anti-Semite focuses on the Jew's religion, sometimes on his laws and lifestyle, sometimes on his national identity or his professional achievements. Ultimately, however, it is the Jew's Jewishness, and the call to higher standards that it represents, that the anti-Semite cannot abide.

With all their flaws and failings, the Jewish people endure, their role in history not yet finished. So the world's oldest hatred endures too, as obsessive and indestructible -- and deadly -- as ever.

(Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe.)

I have need of you

Jan 4, 2010

I have need of you

Some Christians don’t want to be connected to other members of the body of Christ. They commune with Jesus, but they deliberately isolate themselves from other believers. They want nothing to do with the body, other than the head.

But a body can’t be comprised of just a single member. Can you picture a head with only an arm growing out of it? Christ’s body can’t be made up of a head alone, with no limbs or organs. His body consists of many members. We simply can’t be one with Christ without being with his body also.

Our need is not just for the head, it’s for the whole body. We are knit together not only by our need for Jesus, but by our need for each other. Paul states, “The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again they head to the feet, I have no need of you” (1 Corinthians 12:21).

Note the second half of this verse. Even the head cannot say to another member, “I don’t need you.” What an incredible statement! Paul is telling us, “Christ will never say to any member of his body, ‘I have no need of you.’” Our head willingly connects himself to each of us. Moreover, he says we’re all important, even necessary, to the functioning of his body.

This is especially true of members who may be bruised and hurting. Paul emphasizes, “Much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary” (12:22). The apostle then adds, “And those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; and our uncomely part have more abundant comeliness” (23:23). He’s speaking of those in Christ’s body who are unseen, hidden, unknown. In God’s eyes, these members have great honor. And they’re absolutely necessary to the work of his body.

This passage holds profound meaning for us all. Paul is telling us, “It doesn’t matter how poor your self-image may be. You may think that you’re not measuring up as a Christian. But the Lord himself says, ‘I have need of you. You’re not just an important member of his body. You’re vital and necessary for it to function.’”

As important members of the body of Christ, believers are to rise up and take serious action against Satan’s attacks against fellow believers. Amazingly, this command is ignored by many Christians. When we see a believer in pain, we want to offer comfort, of course, and that is an act of godly love. But that is not enough! Every believer is to bind Satan in Jesus’ name and cast him into outer darkness. That is a sign of being a true member of the body.

--David Wilkerson

Jesus and the Great Wall of China

Dec 21, 2009

Jesus and the Great Wall of China

This morning I was thinking about how people develop their relationships with Jesus, and I got this great word picture and wanted to share it before it slipped away from me. It stemmed from my tenet that the more I know about Him, the less I know.

Many people want to see the Great Wall of China, so they take a plane and get on a tour bus. When they get off the bus and walk over to the Wall, they see miles and miles of the Wall. They realize the bus will never be able to take them over those mountains and through those valleys, so the only way they will ever be able to see and experience the Wall is to walk those miles.

So too it is with Jesus. Many people rely upon the bus (the church) to get them to Jesus, but once they see the miles they will have to walk to experience Jesus, they decide not to risk it and sit safely in the bus waiting for a safe return to the hotel (the world). Only the ones who trust Him to walk with Him, because HE will not cause our feet to stumble and His word is a light to our paths, get to experience Him in ways that those who sat in the bus will never understand.

Hope your CHRISTmas is wonder-filled, just as HE is wonder-filled!!

--V.

Believer's Identity in Christ

 Mar15, 2007

Believers Identity in Christ

MY RELATIONSHIP

I'm a child of God - He is my Father - 1 Jn 3:1

I am Christ's friend - Jn 15:15

I am born of God - 1 Jn 4:7

I have been adopted by God - Rom 8:15

I have direct access to God - Eph 2:18

MY INHERITANCE

I am an heir of God - Rom 8:17

I am a joint heir with Christ - Rom 8:17

I am blessed with every spiritual blessing - Eph 1:3

I am a child of promise - Rom 9:8; Gal 3:14

I've been given great promises - 2 Pet 1:4

I'm one of God's living stones - 1 Pet 2:5

MY TRANSFORMATION

I'm redeemed and forgiven - Eph 1:6-8

I've been justified - made righteous - Rom 5:1

I have eternal life - Jn 5:24

I died w/Christ to the power of sin - Rom 6:1-6

I am free from condemnation - Rom 8:1

I have received the Spirit of God -1 Cor 2:12

I have been given the mind of Christ - 1 Cor 2:16

I have been crucified with Christ - Gal 2:20

I am a new creation - 2 Cor 5:17

I have been made alive with Christ - Eph 2:5

I am God's workmanship - Eph 2:10

I have received fullness in Christ - Col 2:10

I am a minister of reconciliation-2 Cor 5:18,19

MY POSITION

I am connected to the true vine - Jn 15:1,5

I'm a willing slave of righeousness - Rom 6:18,22

I am a temple of God - 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19

I am one spirit with the Lord - 1 Cor 6:17

I am a member of Christ's body - 1 Cor 12:27

I am reconciled to God - 2 Cor 5:18

I am a saint - Eph 1:1; 1 Cor 1:2; Phil 1:1

I am a fellow citizen in God's kingdom - Eph 2:19

I have been brought near to Christ - Eph 2:13

I'm to be righteous and holy like God - Eph 4:24

I have direct access to God - Eph 2:18

I am a citizen of heaven - Phil 3:20

I've been rescued from Satan's domain - Col 1:13

I am hidden with Christ in God - Col 3:3

I am chosen of God - holy, beloved - Col 3:12

I am a child of light, not darkness - 1 Thess 5:5

I am a partaker of Christ - Heb 3:14

I'm one of God's living stones - 1 Pet 2:5

I'm a member of a royal priesthood - 1 Pet 2:9

I'm to be a stranger to this world - 1 Pet 2:11

I'm an enemy of the devil - 1 Pet 5:8

MY CALLING

I am to be salt on the earth - Mt 5:13

I am to be light in the world - Mt 5:14

I'm chosen and appointed to bear fruit - Jn 15:16

I am called to do the works of Christ - Jn 14:12

I am to do what Christ commanded His disciples-Mt 28:20

I have been given spiritual authority - Lk 10:19

Signs should accompany my work - Mk 16:17-20

I am a minister of a new covenant - 2 Cor 3:6

I am a minister of reconciliation-2 Cor 5:18,19

I am to be an expression of life in Christ - Col 3:4

I am a partaker of a heavenly calling -Heb 3:1

 

http://www.sw-mins.org/identity.html

Gratitude

The Bible warns that “in the last days there will come times of stress. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful. . .” (2 Timothy 3:1-2). Notice how ingratitude goes with pride, abuse and insubordination.

In another place Paul says, “Let there be no obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking . . . but rather thanksgiving” (Ephesians 5:4). So it seems that gratitude is the opposite of ugliness and violence.
The reason this is so is that the feeling of gratitude is a humble feeling not a proud one. It is other-exalting, not self-exalting. And it is glad-hearted not angry or bitter.

The key to unlocking a heart of gratitude and overcoming bitterness and ugliness and disrespect and violence is a strong belief in God, the Creator and Sustainer and Provider and Hope-giver. If we do not believe we are deeply indebted to God for all we have or hope to have, then the very spring of gratitude has gone dry.

So I conclude that the rise of violence and sacrilege and ugliness and insubordination in the last times is a God-issue. The basic issue is a failure to feel gratitude at the upper levels of our dependence.

When the high spring of gratitude to God fails at the top of the mountain, soon all the pools of thankfulness begin to dry up further down the mountain. And when gratitude goes, the sovereignty of the self condones more and more corruption for its pleasure.

Pray this Thanksgiving season for a great awakening of humble gratitude in all of us.

“Violence, Ugliness, and Thanksgiving ” by John Piper
.........

Reading for November 20 from Desiring God's Daily Devotional app, which features the best of over 30 years of John Piper's teaching to your everyday life and satisfaction in Jesus. Download it for free in the app store.

David Gink Meets the Snake

October 31, 1983| by John Piper| 

 

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David Gink rose before dawn last Friday. As he turned the light on in the bathroom he heard a soft sucking noise which he thought came from the bathtub drain. “An airlock,” he thought to himself as he closed the door. He was numb with weariness, and moved a half-step toward the sink.

David Gink was thirty-five years old. He had been married to Sheila for thirteen years and had three children. He worked for an insulation firm, in sales. His parents were church-goers. In fact, they were church workers—the sort who go every Sunday but always look like they’d rather be somewhere else. He had been through eighteen years of Sunday School, but when he went to the university the old church friends scattered and he dropped out. Now and then he went to hear special speakers or good music. But when he got married, the summer after graduation, Sheila pressed him to go to church. So he managed one service a week and felt pretty good.

When the kids came, he would read them a Bible story at night. That’s all the Bible he read, but it was lots more than before the kids came. His work was successful, his marriage okay, his kids out of trouble, his attendance at Sunday morning service regular—why get fanatical about Bible reading and prayer? Besides, David Gink could think of nothing more boring than to sit and read the Bible.

David Gink froze. He had heard his name. It sounded a thousand miles away but he knew it came from behind the shower curtain. Before he could decide whether to answer or run, the snake coasted out on the edge of the tub, black and smooth. David Gink was terrified. He had never had a spiritual experience in his life, let alone anything supernatural or charismatic or demonic. His heart was pounding so hard he could feel his pajamas move. He could see himself grabbing at the door, flinging it open and running violently out of the house. But he couldn’t move.

The snake’s eye stared into the eyes of David Gink. Then it spoke with a flash of its tongue. “I’ve come for you, David Gink.” David Gink opened his mouth to scream but instead words came out: “I don’t want to go.” He heard the words as though they were spoken by someone else. “Stop it,” he said to himself. “This isn’t real. You’re dreaming. You’re sick. Stop it. Don’t take him seriously. Get out of here.”

The snake interrupted his thoughts: “Of course you want to come. You’ve already decided. Look at your life. You are mine. Whenever the heavenly rival speaks, you are bored silly. Your heart is already with me. You love what I love, not what he loves. Even your terror shows you are mine—his true saints aren’t so surprised when they meet me. Come now, David Gink, your time has arrived.”

For an awful moment the mind of David Gink was like a man slipping over a cliff. His mental fingers grabbed wildly and clawed for something to save him. “God!” he screamed. But the word was as empty then as it had always been. Finally, he snatched a black root but it turned out to be the snake and they plunged together with a hideous sound of terror.

At his funeral on Tuesday the pastor remarked about David Gink’s faithfulness to the Sunday service. And he read a verse from the old Bible that David Gink had underlined as a boy: “Oh, how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day.”

The InnKeeper--John Piper

The Innkeeper
J O H N P I P E R

 So quickly do we pass over the Christmas words, “Herod . . .slew all the male children . . . two years old and under.” But the poet lingers, weeping, raging, looking at the dark spot, in hope that any prick of light might become a portal for the sun. And what he sees he strains with words to show—pressing us against the perforation in the wall of pain. Why this struggle? Why does the poet bind his heart with such a severe discipline of form? Why strain to give shape to suffering? Because Reality has contours. God is who He is, not what we wish or try to make Him be. His Son, Jesus Christ, is the great granite Fact. His hard sacrifice makes it evident that our spontaneity needs Calvary-like discipline. Perhaps the innkeeper paid dearly for housing the Son of God. Should it not be costly to penetrate and portray this pain? The Innkeeper seeks to reveal the Light that shines behind this brutal moment in history and our own path of suffering.

Come and see!

............... 

Jake’s wife would have been fifty-eight

The day that Jesus passed the gate

Of Bethlehem, and slowly walked

Toward Jacob’s Inn. The people talked

With friends, and children played along

The paths, and Jesus hummed a song,

And smiled at every child he saw.

He paused with one small lass to draw

A camel in the dirt, then said,

“What’s this?” The girl bent down her head

To study what the Lord had made.

She smiled, “A camel, sir!” and laid

Her finger on the bulging back

Where merchants bind their leather pack.

“It’s got a hump.” “Indeed it does,

And who do you believe it was

Who made this camel with his hump?”

Without a thought that this would stump

The rabbi guild and be reviled,

She said, “God did.” And Jesus smiled.

“Good eyes, my child. And would that all

Jerusalem within that wall

Of yonder stone could see the signs

Of peace!” He left the lass with lines

Of simple wonder in her face

And slowly went to find the place

Where he was born.

Folks said the inn

Had never been a place for sin,

For Jacob was a holy man.

And he and Rachel had a plan

To marry, have a child or two,

And serve the folks who traveled through,

Especially the poor who brought

Their meal and turtledoves, and sought

A place to stay near Zion’s gate.

They’d rise up early, stay up late,

To help the pilgrims go and come,

And when the place was full, to some,

Especially the poorest, they would say,

“We’re sorry there’s no room, but stay

Now, if you like, out back. There’s lots

Of hay, and we have extra cots

That you can use. There’ll be no charge.

The stable isn’t very large,

But Noah keeps it safe.” He was

A wedding gift to Jake because

The shepherds knew he loved the dog.

“There’s nothing in the Decalogue,”

He used to joke, “that says a man

Can’t love a dog!”

The children ran

Ahead of Jesus as he strode

Toward Jacob’s inn. The stony road

That led up to the inn was deep

With centuries of wear, and steep

At one point just before the door.

The Lord knocked once, then twice, before

He heard an old man’s voice, “’Round back!”

It called. So Jesus took the track

That led around the inn.

The old

Man leaned back in his chair and told

The dog to never mind. “Ain’t had

No one to tend the door, my lad,

For thirty years. I’m sorry for

The inconvenience to your sore

Feet. The road to Jerusalem

Is hard, ain’t it? Don’t mind old Shem.

He’s harmless like his dad. Won’t bite

A Roman soldier in the night.

Sit down.” And Jacob waved the stump

Of his right arm. “We’re in a slump

Right now. Got lots of time to think

And talk. Come sit and have a drink.

From Jacob’s well!” he laughed. “You own

The inn?” the Lord inquired. “On loan,

You’d better say. God owns the inn.

At that the Lord knew they were kin,

And ventured on: “Do you recall

The tax when Caesar said to all

The world that each must be enrolled?”

Old Jacob winced, “Are north winds cold?

Are deserts dry? Do fishes swim

And ravens fly? I do. A grim

And awful year it was for me

When God ordained that strange decree.

How could I such a time forget?

Why do you ask?” “I have a debt

To pay, and I must see how much.

Why do you say that it was such

A grim and awful year?” He raised

The stump of his right arm. “So dazed,

Young man, I didn’t know I’d lost

My arm. Do you know what it cost

For me to house the Son of God?”

The old man took his cedar rod

And swept it ’round the place: “Empty.

 For thirty years alone, you see?

Old Jacob, poor old Jacob, runs

It with one arm, a dog . . . no sons.

But I had sons . . . once. Joseph was

My firstborn. He was small because

His mother was so sick. When he

Turned three, the Lord was good to me

And Rachel, and our baby Ben

Was born, the very fortnight when

The blessed family arrived.

And Rachel’s gracious heart contrived

A way for them to stay—there in

That very stall. The man was thin

And tired. You look a lot like him.”

But Jesus said, “Why was it grim?”

“We got a reputation here

That night. Nothing at all to fear

In that we thought. It was of God.

But in one year the slaughter squad

From Herod came. And where do you

Suppose they started? Not a clue!

We didn’t have a clue what they

Had come to do. No time to pray,

No time to run, no time to get

Poor Joseph off the street and let

Him say good-bye to Ben or me

Or Rachel. Only time to see

‘Kill every child who’s two or less.

Spare not for aught, nor make excess.

Let this one be the oldest here,

And if you count your own life dear,

Let none escape.’ I had no sword,

No weapons in my house, but Lord,

A lifted spear smash through his spine

And chest. He stumbled to the sign

That welcomed strangers to the place,

And looked with panic at my face,

As if to ask what he had done.

Young man, you ever lost a son?”

The tears streamed down the Savior’s cheek,

He shook his head, but couldn’t speak.

“Before I found the breath to scream

I heard the words, a horrid dream:

I had my hands, and I would save

The son of my right hand. . . .So brave,

O Rachel was so brave! Her hands

Were like a thousand iron bands

Around the boy. She wouldn’t let

Him go, and so her own back met

With every thrust and blow. I lost

My arm, my wife, my sons—the cost

For housing the Messiah here.

Why would he simply disappear

And never come to help?” They sat

In silence. Jacob wondered at

The stranger’s tears.

I am the boy

That Herod wanted to destroy.

You gave my parents room to give

Me life, and then God let me live,

And took your wife. Ask me not why

The one should live, another die.

God’s ways are high, and you will know

In time. But I have come to show

You what the Lord prepared the night

you made a place for heaven’s Light.

In two weeks they will crucify

My flesh. But mark this, Jacob, I

Will rise in three days from the dead,

And place my foot upon the head

Of him who has the power of death,

And I will raise with life and breath

Your wife and Ben and Joseph too,

And give them, Jacob, back to you

With everything the world can store,

And you will reign forever more.”

 

S

S

S

S

S

S

S

S

S

S

S

S

S

S S

S

S

S

S S

S

S

S

S

S

S

S

S

S

S

g g

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31

nd I will raise with life and breath

Your wife and Ben and Joseph too,

And give them, Jacob, back to you

With everything the world can store,

And you will reign forever more.”

g g g

A

The Innkeeper.40273.int.qxd 9/21/07 3:44 PM Page 16

What are you asking for?

Sep 16, 2010

What are you asking for?

Sometimes when we ask God for wisdom, we are really asking Him for knowledge so that we can control the circumstances ourselves.

What are you asking God for today?

2008 election prayer

Oct 8, 2008

Praying For God To Call Out Intercessors For Our Nation

Praying for the Upcoming Election

 Patrick Joshua is the Director of the National Prayer Network and a father figure to the prayer movement in India. Because of a special burden for our nation, he visited the United States twice in recent months. Patrick believes the U.S. is at a very critical time in history, the impact of which will be felt around the world.

 During his visits, Patrick told the story of God's intervention in India in 2004, in response to the fervent, united prayers of His people. At that time, political forces had mobilized with the intention of turning their nation in a direction that would make it almost impossible for Christians to share or practice their faith. Those forces had the momentum and the numbers as the Christian population in India is a minority, by some estimates representing only 6% of the 1.1 billion people in the nation.

 The situation was desperate. Many thought it was impossible. So they turned to the God of the impossible and began to pray. In cities and states across their nation, a movement of united, fervent prayer arose, but with a unique focus. They weren't praying for particular candidates or political parties. Instead they were praying for the person of righteousness, the person of God's choosing, to be elected in every elected office.

 Right up until the day of the election every poll and pundit predicted the election would be a landslide for those who were opposed to the gospel. When the votes were counted, however, the results revealed a different story. In district after district those candidates and political allies who opposed the gospel had been soundly defeated. At a national level they were out of power. The press and the pundits were stunned. No one saw it coming.

 So what happened? It seems God heard the cries of His people and touched the hearts of the voters as they went into the voting booths. Some believe a corporate conviction came upon the people and they voted for the person of righteous, the person of God's choosing. This was seen most dramatically in the states and regions where prayer was the most concentrated and fervent. In one of those states, laws that restricted the advance of the gospel were immediately repealed.

 This is a very hopeful report about what God did in the elections in India. While our situation is different, we are at a critical crossroad. He can do this in our nation too if we will PRAY!

 For the next three weeks we will be praying for righteous men to rule righteously in our nation, starting with this prayer for God to wake up his people to pray. I bless you to let God to wake up the intercessor in you.

Hear God's Word. I have posted watchmen on Your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, Give yourselves no rest, and give Him no rest till He establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth. Isaiah 62:6-7

 Our Father, our Lord, bless intercessors who have stood as watchmen at their posts unseen and unsung in the hidden work of prayer. You appointed and anointed them by Your Spirit of grace and supplication for the authority they have wielded in standing in the gap between Your holy hand and the judgment that the sins of our nation deserve. Strengthen the hands of these intercessors with patient endurance and with Aarons and Hurs to come alongside (Exo. 17:10- 13).

Release and reappoint those who have been discouraged, distracted, or disillusioned by inordinate attacks on their body, soul, or spirit, or on their families or finances. Come, our Helper Holy Spirit, to the praying ones who have been robbed and beaten up. Pour the oil of Your Spirit on these wounded soldiers, take them up, and restore them to wholeness and health and to their gifting and calling in intercession.

 Awake new intercessors in Your church that has been disinterested and lazy. Let us receive new mantles of intercession and hear Your appointment to our posts in prayer. By the Spirit of Christ Jesus, who ever lives to intercede, impregnate the hearts of every believer with the Spirit of prayer as simple obedience to the commands of God's Word to pray without ceasing and to pray for those in authority. Appoint new intercessors and birth in them a holy desperation for prayer until we see You answer and You show us great and mighty things we have never seen.

Raise up intercessors who will ...

Respond to Your call in humility and holiness.
Respond to Your call to pray in the fear of the Lord.
Pray with grateful hearts of thanksgiving with their eyes on You.
Petition the God of the Impossible.
Pray with You, not just to You, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done.
Ask our Father, our King, to have mercy and redeem and show us Your glory in the sight of all nations.

Let this be a trumpet call, as Nehemiah said, "The work is extensive and spread out. Whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome" (Neh: 4:17,20).

Holy Spirit, touch Your church.

Turn our hearts to You.
Stir our hearts to pray as never before.
Show us Your glory.