Prayer--The Simple Ministry

Pray without ceasing 

1 Thessalonians 5:17 

If you're a born again Christian, you are in ministry for God

 

‘We love Him because He first loved us.’ 1 John 4:19. God loves our service. With it, we return blessings to Him. He says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14: 15. How simple a love. Because love motivates the desire to serve, we ask God, “What can I do for You today? How may I bless You since You’ve blessed me.”

Do you feel as if you cannot be in ministry--put it out of your mind! Going into your room to pray, in the privacy of your own home can get you involved in every ministry in your church. prayer is vital to every ministry in God's church. The Gospels record Jesus frequently praying. Paul mentions prayers in all his letters and especially the need for prayer. Matthew 17: 14-21 records Jesus as saying prayer is important to get certain Spiritual work done because we are humanly unable and must seek God in faith.

You should have no excuse for shirking service, for prayer is the easiest form of ministry we can give to God while serving everyone else in the world. For example, Paul when writing from prison, had long prayer lists. In between visits from friends, probably with nothing else to do for hours, Paul took many of his people before Jesus in prayer. His knew it to be a necessary service for them and to God.

Check out your church and see what is going on and try these to start your own prayer ministry.

• Jot down a list of the outreaches your church supplies
• Jot down a list of names of the ill and/or in the hospital
• Jot down a list individuals, especially first time visitors, guests, and the unsaved
• Pray for the children: infants to teens
• Pray for the leadership
• Pray for the janitor and all the behind the scenes workers
• Check out this PDF file Ten Things to Pray for Others 

Prayer is an action service  

 

Do not confuse the prayer as any power you have attained. Remember it’s not the prayer we believe in, but who we pray to that is the basis of our faith. Prayer is a simple act of faith toward God and a way to serve. 

Ministry is not a duty but a willing service to God. Prayer is one way we all can serve God and it’s a ministry we can be involved in, anywhere. anytime.

The Gift of God--by Special Guest Chris Quimby

 This is a special post from friend and fellow Christian, Chris Quimby.

Chris and Heather Quimby

Chris makes a great point that what people do to enhance themselves is weakly insignificant to Holy, Almighty God, Yet the God we ignore hasn't ignored us, but lovingly showers us with grace:

The Gift of God

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Men drawing gazes to their huge biceps. Heads turning to the cleavage of young women.
 
Heavy beats from trunks of cars, keeping time with songs of worship directed to its source.

Athletes victoriously beating their chests, celebrating the accomplishments of putting a bouncy sphere into a circle.

Politicians accepting praise and deflecting blame in efforts towards self exaltation

Angry religious lost, devoid of love, passively or aggressively harming and killing relationships, bodies, and souls.

We think we are much.

We are nothing.

We have been left home alone and have destroyed the house.

We assume our strength and wisdom as that of a god.

Our unjustified trust in our own quality further reveals our lack of honest introspection.

We are not strong. We are not good. The balance of the thoughts and intentions of our hearts are dis-respectable if left to our own devices.

Most of the good we seek is with the aim towards some personal benefit.

We fall short in our aspirations of grandeur, left foolishly shaking, our blazing guns of incompetence sitting awkwardly in our hands.

Comedian Don Knotts as Barney Fife

We are Barney Fife

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love 

with which he loved us, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace we have been saved through faith. And this is not our own doing.

 

It is the gift of God.

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 Comedian and Speaker Chris Quimby is currently actively employed or involved @/w
- Promotions Director at Grace Evangelical College and Seminary
- Subcontracted mobile device repair (iPad, iPhone, iPod, etc)
- Speaking engagements (both comedy and otherwise) through http://www.chrisquimby.com/ 
- Graphic design work through my small company, Nachotree Print & Digital Design http://www.nachotree.com/

- as Counselor at Fair Haven Bible Camps Brooks, Maine

Chris is an avid cyclist, and biked from Maine to Texas in 2013, speaking in churches along the way.

Visit Chris' Facebook page @Chris Quimby

Man Is Not Wise

"The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding 

He established the heavens" ------Proverbs 3: 19. 

"The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, 

before His works of old" ------Proverbs 8: 22 

God, by wisdom, created everything. God alone is wise!

Solomon said quantities in describing wisdom. He used the feminine personification as wisdom's voice to rejoice in God's wisdom. He never had to learn anything. He is omniscient; all knowing. He possesses wisdom always. God alone is wise.

Man is not wise. In comparison to God, our puny little brains are nothing. We have no intelligence apart from God, yet He designed us with an intelligence. No matter our IQ, God is glorified. God made our brains to do what they do: to think, reason, create, imagine, and to absorb knowledge. God is the Creator of all we are. We cannot even think about Him without using the mind He created. We lift voices to Him, we read His word, we learn the melodies of beautiful songs, and we worship Him with the body and intelligence He gave us.

 He/They made mankind in the image of God. (cf Genesis 1: 26, 27)

Our wisdom is God-given; we have no intelligence apart from God. Doctors, scientists, teachers, mechanics, artists, writers, fashion designers, filmmakers, road crews, our military, lawyers, pilots, judges, cab drivers and bus drivers, farmers and house-wives; from the highest genius’ to the simplest person has an intelligence designed by God before the foundation of the world.

I could not be writing this blog without the wisdom of God. My computer exists because God gave someone the mind to put it together. Blogsites exist because God gave someone the mind to create them. The mind you are using to read and understand this is because God created it to do so.

"Rejoicing in His inhabited world, and His delight 

is was with the sons of men" ------Proverbs 8:31

God enjoys our intelligence. The book of James tells us to ask for wisdom to understand more about God and His will. (James 1:5) God loves to give us wisdom. How easy to be wise if we ask the Creator to give us the intelligence that He possessed forever.

What are really, totally, mind-blowing facts are even though God designed our brains and the way we think, and what intelligence we possess, He gave us a free will to do as we please. Mankind can and does attempt to use our tiny minds to get rid of God; deny God’s existence; redesign His creation; explain Him away; and create little gods in our own puny, weak image. The minds God gave us to glorify Him; mankind uses to perform all kinds of evils and sins. Even those who think of ways to mistreat, and even kill Christians are using the minds God gave them to attempt the impossible. They cannot destroy God.

The almighty God has the right to destroy us, yet He doesn’t. That is GRACE! He made us to worship Him out of a pure heart and love. Though many reject Him, hate Him, and deny Him, yet Jesus still came to earth to die for all the sin of man. God loved us so much that He did that for us, just so we could be with Him forever. 

Amazing grace—how can it be that thou my Lord should die for me