A number of years ago, a wonderful song was sung live by a musician who has now fallen out of favor because of his lifestyle choices. Don’t be distracted by that. On my YouTube channel, I have this video pegged in my Favorite Christian Music.
The makers of the video have marvelously showed, in a 7 minute and 45 second music video.
Let this great video encourage your life, as you remember what Jesus went thru today.
FYI. Admittedly, the makers of the video took some creative license. Again, don’t let that distract you.
Our job at Common Thread Ministries is to encourage your prayer life. We get to do that because our saviour not only condescended and came to earth as a babe, but He saw His Father’s will for His life thru to the end.
Tomorrow we will look at “Losing Your Faith” as a result of your expectations NOT coming about, as the Apostles surely must have experienced.
Gretchen’s next short story will be out in mid-April, and it will focus on spiritual warfare, what it is, and what it is not.
Part way thru her husband’s memoir, the Guardian Angel, Hael is giving us the back-story around spiritual warfare and he references Ricky Skagg’s live performance of “Somebody’s Praying.”
Here it is for you to enjoy.
If you are interested in receiving Gretchen’s FREE short stories, CLICK HERE.
I know what you’re thinking: “Mark, seriously? Cartoons and Prayer?”
And let me just ask you to wait. After all, you might be surprised!
The above video will explain, in 121 seconds what I am talking about.
The Mission Statement
For some reason, when I started this ministry I never decided upon a Mission Statement. And two years later I remember being very glad. After 100+ sermons, watching and learning about men and women’s prayer lives, two things became very clear to me:
Men and women don’t begin to seriously pray until they need to
The evil one is interested in keeping you from praying
When these two points above are understood, in the light of God’s sovereignty over all, one thing is on the horizon, the wood-shed.
My friends, there are six things God hates, nay, seven which are an abomination to him, and WE, in the church we are guilty of all of them!
Look at the Answers in Genesis (AIG) cartoon below and let me explain what I saw when I decided on our Mission Statement.
As I teach on prayer, the Lord makes me keep my messages “super-basic.” Not because I want to, but, I think, because, when it comes to prayer, many of us are still slurping up milk rather than chewing on good solid meat (if you’re a vegetarian I apologize).
When I look at the AIG cartoon below, I see men and women’s prayer lives with foundations that are being destroyed, in part by the world, but also at the hands of ourselves.
This is the cartoon that Answers in Genesis uses all of the time, except that they fill the balloons with the current social and educational issues of the day. Please note that I changed the issues in the balloons (based on Proverbs 6:16-19), because I fear that in the pews we no longer take “our-own-sin” seriously.
Below is a podcast to a 30 minute message where I speak to this subject which you may find helpful, its entitled, We Are Taking Sin Too Lightly and was recorded in November 2017. To view/listen to it either click on the icon or just CLICK HERE.
I mention above that the evil one discourages your prayer life, but do you know why?
Because prayer changes YOU! And sataN does not want to see YOU changed.
As I close this post, I will show you two more prayer-cartoons that I love. One is from Answers in Genesis and the other is from the cartoonist, Bill Keane.
If this article has been a bit “fun” to read, you may enjoy Mark’s novel, The Pray-ers where
3 prayer heroes, from
3 historic eras, on
2 continents, deal with
1 nine-foot-tall angel, and
a host of demons
It is on sale the rest of this month for $15.00 and free shipping. Just CLICK HERE or the icon below.
Have a great day,
If someone sent you this post, or you simply found it organically and you are not receiving our E-Letters, please examine them to see if you are interested in receiving them.
We NEVER beg for money. The purpose of these E-Letters is to encourage your prayer life which we trust will result in Rebuilding Your Prayer Life.
The 30 minute audio below came from Pinehurst Baptist Church in November 2017.
It is sobering and so I will merely give you the link, and below it, a few notes. Please note that when it gets a bit difficult to hear, it is because I am on my belly talking to God. This I did in front of the congregation, and would do it again if given the chance.
Psalm 51:17
The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart.
What’s In Your Mind When Sin is in Your Heart?
Sin’s Impact on Your Prayer Life
Deuteronomy 3:26
But the LORD was angry with me on account of you and would not listen to me. The LORD said to me, ‘That’s enough! Do not speak to Me again about this matter.
Isaiah 1:15
When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will refuse to look at you; even if you offer countless prayers, I will not listen. . .
Isaiah 59:2
But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you so that He does not listen.
Lamentations 3:41-44
41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven: 42 We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.
ס Samek 43 You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without compassion. 44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.
Proverbs 28:9
Anyone who turns his ear away from hearing the law– even his prayer is detestable.
Cry Out for Mercy
By Praying Thru Psalm 38, then
Remember Psalm 51:17 . . .
So You Can Get to Psalm 118:19
Blessings my friends,
PS. Forgive me for “staging” the featured imageabove, but I searched and searched the internet and couldn’t find anyone prostrating themselves that looked remotely like they might be Baptist.
Seriously, that is where I prostrate myself before the Lord, the only thing is there is normally a cocktail table in the center of the rug, but again, this is ONLY A VISUAL.
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