1-Minute Devotional Thought —
“According to my judgement the most important point to be attended to is this: above all things see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord. Other things may press upon you, the Lord’s work may even have urgent claims upon your attention, but I deliberately repeat, it is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above all things to have your souls truly happy in God Himself! Day by day seek to make this the most important business of your life. This has been my firm and settled condition for the last five and thirty years. For the first four years after my conversion I knew not its vast importance, but now after much experience I specially commend this point to the notice of my younger brethren and sisters in Christ: the secret of all true effectual service is joy in God, having experimental acquaintance and fellowship with God Himself.” — J. Hudson Taylor
Prayers for the week…
- As neighbors and citizens: The summer goes by so quickly! My family (this is Carmen speaking) spent this past “tax free weekend” doing “back to school” shopping, attending meetings for Sunday school fall planning, packing kids for college and planning strategies for carpooling. Our home schooling friends are re-establishing the patterns of the school year as well. For grandparents there’s the “whew” that comes, but for parents and primary care givers the anticipation and preparation of this time of year can prove stressful. Pray for God’s blessing upon moms and dads, students and teachers, bus drivers and after school program providers as the vacation season ends and the learning season is about to begin again. Many families struggle this time of year to put together all the resources now required to send children back to school. If you know of a family struggling under the weight of little economic means, pack a bag of school supplies in a new backpack and take it to them in the name of Jesus. Slip a gift card to the grocery store in as well – it’s a measure of added grace that will bless beyond your imagining.
- Pray for the pro-life movement and pro-life ministries around the world. Pray that people realize the Genesis 1 and 2 grounding of the pro-life movement — that God is the Creator of all life and that each person is an individual child of God, made in His image.
- Pray for the Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) ministry taking place at Purdue University — led by Curtis McDaniel:
Curtis grew up in the South in the states of Alabama and Tennessee. He attended several different schools in college, but finally graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in History. At UF, he became involved in RUF and caught a passion for ministering to students. After college, he went to Covenant Theological Seminary and graduated with his M.Div in 2009. During
his time there, he married Margaret whom he had met through RUF at UF. After graduation, God opened a door to serve as an assistant and eventually associate pastor at a church in Savannah, Ga. (Grace Church of the Islands). While he was called primarily to work with middle and high school students, he had a broad array of experience in pastoral ministry. They were blessed there with the birth of their first child, Anna (02/13). In 2013, the Lord opened a door for them to work with RUF at Purdue University. They are excited about the opportunity to love the students at Purdue and to share with them the hope of the Gospel. In his free time, Curtis likes reading books, biking to work, watching and playing sports (Go Gators!), and watching a good movie/TV show.
- Using the new 2013 “watchlist” produced by
Open Doors, we pray for the persecuted Christians of a different country each week.
Teachers/parents, consider this a great way to introduce geography into the weekly lessons. Show students where the nation is, then pray for Christians in that place.
This week we pray for the Christians of Algeria, which ranks No. 29 on the watchlist.
Algeria is increasingly the scene of terror attacks as a result of growing Islamism in the region. The government is pressurized by al-Qaeda in the Maghreb to implement more Islamic legislation, to the detriment of the country’s Christians, most of who are from a Muslim background. The young Algerian
church faces discrimination from family and the state. Islamist groups, encouraged by the Arab Spring, are becoming more visible and monitor Christian activity. In 2012, threats persecution against churches and Christians increased.
Pray:
The government has not registered any new churches since 2008. Pray for house churches that continue to meet, some openly and some in secret
A religious law introduced in 2006 particularly restricts Christians. Pray that this restrictive law will be abolished
For Christian women. Imprisonment of women and pressure from religious leaders to divorce Christians is common.
- P
rayer for the nation – focusing this week on the state of Nebraska.
- In 2013, we are praying together by name for Christians in 50 nations, Christians in all 50 states and all the presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and the emerging new Reformed body, ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians. You are encouraged to add specific pastors, lay leaders, congregations, missionaries, new church developments and other ministries to the list by posting a comment to the blog. (Please do not publicly post the names of missionaries serving in contexts where exposing their identity would cause them harm or bring harm to those they serve in Christ’s name.) Let us kneel before the Father and ask His will be done.
- Prayers for the PCUSA: Pray for the presbyteries of the Synod of Lincoln Trails: Blackhawk, Chicago, Great Rivers, Midwest Hanmi, Ohio Valley, Southeastern Illinois, Wabash Valley, and Whitewater Valley.
- Prayers for Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC): Florida Presbytery (Bob Garment, stated clerk).
- Prayers for the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA): the churches of the Ascension Presbytery (parts of Pennsylvania).
- Prayers for ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians.
- Prayers for The Fellowship of Presbyterians.