Tag Archives: Gospel of Matthew

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Prayers for the Week – Praying for Dennis

philippians-4-vs-6-7

6do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 4:6-7 (ESV)

My friends, on this past Wednesday, my co-worker and friend Dennis turned 48 years old.  During that day, he started having heart problems, and towards the end of that day, he had a full blown heart attack.  When that happened, the incredible people that work with me sprang into action.  911 was called and staff members stood by looking for the medical teams to arrive.  Others grabbed our AED at work and put it to use, probably saving Dennis’ life in the process.  Still others assisted in ways that I can’t even imagine, and by the grace of God and all of the help by those incredible people, Dennis made it to the hospital okay.  He still wasn’t out of the woods, though, and throughout the night, myself and others prayed for Dennis, lifting up our petitions to God, and doing our best to have a positive outlook.  We learned that the medical team took incredible efforts to help Dennis, putting him in an induced coma so his body could calm down, and doing other things that I can only begin to imagine.

The next day, those of us that came into work worried about what might have happened overnight learned that things are getting better, even if it is slowly.  One of our staff, Vicki, organized an optional prayer for anyone that wanted to join her — there were at least 30 people that gathered around and we were praying for Dennis.  The business at work had to continue, but suddenly, the mood in the building was different.  For some weeks, I’ve felt like the mood in the building was one of fear — fear for those that are leaving, uncertainty over those that are staying behind, wondering what is next, and so forth.  But suddenly, in the span of a few hours, the mood in the building became one of camaraderie — Dennis was in trouble, and people across the building, in jobs that didn’t even work that closely with him, were pitching in to do things for him and to help him.  We communicated with his girlfriend, we stopped by to make sure she was okay, we delivered things for him that were in his office that she needed, we took care of his car, and the list goes on and on.  Through it all, the work was still progressing — people still had their jobs to do — but instead of an underlying fear of what was happening to us in our jobs, the fear, at least in my mind and heart, anyway, that fear turned to resolve that we were going to see Dennis through this, with God’s help.

At this point, Dennis is still fighting, and he still needs our prayers.  If you can, please pray with me:

Heavenly Father, we know that Your servant Dennis is still fighting for his life.  We know that You are hearing our prayers, and that through You nothing is impossible.  You are the God of second chances, Lord, and we know that You have Dennis close to you while he fights.  Lord, show the world what You can do, and if it is in Your Will, show the world the miracle of Dennis’ heart healing.  We also ask that You let Your Peace, Comfort, and Strength descend to Dennis’ family and friends so that we may wait on Your Miracle to occur for Dennis.  We ask these things in the name of Your Son Jesus with Thanksgiving!  Amen.

Thank you all for praying for Dennis with me.  Now, please pray for these other requests we have this week:

  • Kelli’s husband has some health concerns, please pray for his bulging disc that it would be healed.
  • Also please pray for Kelli’s daughter in her new job, pray for her stamina as she adapts to working on her feet for 8 hours a day.
  • Pam has an unknown prayer request, please pray for her.
  • Josie’s husband is battling cancer, and it is very serious.  Please pray for Josie, her husband, and their two sons.
  • My Brother in Christ Don passed away this week.  Please pray for his family, for their Peace, Comfort, and Strength in the days, weeks, and months ahead as they struggle in his loss.
  • Please pray for Mark, who had his shoulder surgery this week.  Please pray for his healing, and for Peace, Comfort, and Strength for him and his wife Jan.

Now, please pray with me the prayer that Jesus taught His Disciples to pray:

Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done,
On earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever and ever. Amen.

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Prayers for the Week – Love Never Fails

Love

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV)

Hello my friends, and welcome to this week’s Prayers for the Week post.  This past Tuesday my wife Cindy and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary, and I got to thinking a bit about all that has happened to us in the past several months.  In April, Cindy lost her Uncle Ted; in early June, her Uncle Sam left us; then, when we got home from that funeral, we lost our dog Regan; last month, Cindy’s Uncle Walter passed away.  It’s been one struggle after another, and it isn’t done yet, not by a long shot.  However, in the midst of all of that, the overwhelming emotion that we are experiencing in all of our trials and tribulations is Love.  The picture above is of a plaque on my wall in my office, a plaque that my friend Sally gave me several years back.  I think of her often as I look at it, but I realized that I’ve never taken a shot of it before now.  On this plaque, in sixteen simple words, is such promise, such hope.  The author of Corinthians is absolutely correct, Love never fails.  I hope you have the kind of love I have, the love I have for my wife, and the love I have for my Lord.  I am a blessed man, and today, I see that more and more.

Life is short, in the blink of an eye it is gone, and the overwhelming things that last with us are the things that revolve around our loved ones.  Tell them you love them, tell them you’re there for them, each and every day of your life.  Now, please pray with us the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray:

Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done,
On earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever and ever. Amen.

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Prayers for the Week – Well done, thy good and faithful servant.

Hello everyone, and welcome to this weeks Prayers for the week post. Today’s title is in honor of Teddy Lane Matthews, a man of God who passed away last Tuesday. Uncle Ted (pictured, on right, with Uncle Bob, who we lost last year) was a good man, a man of Faith, a man who loved and knew the Lord. When someone passes, the grief we feel is for our friend, our loved one, but we know that they are no longer in any pain, that they are no longer suffering. When one such as Uncle Ted passes, the sorrow, the prayers, the concern is for those left behind, in this case, Aunt Connie, his wife of nearly 50 years. Please pray for her and the rest of the family, and to Aunt Connie, please remember this very important point: I have no doubt that Jesus welcomed Uncle Ted with these words: ‘Well done, my good and faithful Servant.’

In addition to this, please pray for my friend Sheila’s friend Jodi, who is suffering from uterine cancer and multiple sclerosis.

Now, please pray the prayer that Jesus taught His Disciples to pray:

Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done,
On earth as it is in Heaven.


Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.


For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever and ever. Amen. 

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Prayers for the Week – Rejoice

Psalm 118:24

24This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. ~ Psalm 118:24 (ESV)

Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s prayers for the week post.  There’s a lot to rejoice today.  Today is April 19th and not only is it my Grandmother and Grandfather’s wedding anniversary but it’s also the day that our daughter Sophie and all of her classmates profess their faith at Church as they are confirmed. If you’re not sure what it means to be confirmed in the church it’s to step forward and say that you are standing with Jesus. It’s something that they’ve been studying for ten weeks now and what they’re studying is to get the tools they need to be able to withstand the valley’s on their Christian walk. As a parent, Cindy and I are very proud of the steps that Sophie is taking in her life.  She is doing something that neither Cindy nor I ever did, and in many ways, she is showing her Christian Spirit better than I ever did at her age.

As I said, it is also my Grandma and Grandpa’s wedding anniversary.  While they are both gone, I still remember the date — today is their 76th wedding anniversary.  Here are two pictures of them that I think you will enjoy.

Grandma and Sophie Grandpa

Of course, there are things that we are concerned about.  Cindy’s Uncle Ted is getting slowly worse; Cindy’s cousin needs a total knee replacement; my brother-in-law Jerry had to have his knee operated on; and our friend Elisha is facing back surgery.  But, despite all of these things, we still rejoice, because we understand that we know who we can count on to help us through these hard times — Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My friends, this world is not an easy place to live in.  So many temptations, so much anger and hatred and violence and evil.  If there is ever a time to turn to God, it is in this day and age.  That is why I am so excited and happy for Sophie and her classmates — they are making a life decision that will help them for the rest of their lives!  And for that, my friends, I give thanks and rejoice to the Lord.

What do you have going on in your life that you are rejoicing over?  Let us know, and thanks for stopping by!  Now, please pray with us the prayer that Jesus taught His Disciples to pray:

Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done,
On earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever and ever.

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Prayers for the Week – Worship in Spirit and Truth!

Isaiah 25-8

Do you go to church?  Do you worship God in Spirit and in Truth?  Do you understand what this means?  Welcome to this week’s Prayers for the Week post.  This week, I’m sharing selected verses from Isaiah 25.  Let’s see if we can come together and learn or remember exactly what worshiping God in Spirit and in Truth is all about.

1O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. 2For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the foreigners’ palace is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt. 3Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you. 4For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall, 5like heat in a dry place. You subdue the noise of the foreigners; as heat by the shade of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is put down. 6On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. 7And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. 8He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. 9It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” ~ Isaiah 25:1-9 (ESV)

When we worship God, Jesus tells us in John 4:23-24 that “true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.  God is spirit, and those that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

What do you think this means?  From everything I’ve learned, I think that it means that we are not limited to a single place, such as a church, where we have to worship.  We are worshipping in spirit, and this means that we need to put our heart into it, for that is where the Holy Spirit resides in us.  To worship in truth, to me, is to make sure that we are properly armed with the knowledge of God that we have learned.  That means that we need to dive into the greatest Book — the Bible.  That is where the truth lives, and by reading it, we will learn a great deal about Jesus and we will learn why He is the way and the truth and the life.  More importantly, we will learn why no one reaches the Father except through Him.

This can be a confusing thing to learn; in fact, I’m not certain that I have learned it well enough yet.  However, if you have any questions, please talk to your Minister.  Ask him or her what it means to worship in spirit and truth, and then, after they have told you, see if it makes sense to you.  One of the biggest things to make sure of is the church that you attend.  If you attend a church where they are not preaching to true Word of God, then I urge you to think about finding another church.  A church that doesn’t read the Bible and worship God armed with the Word is not a church that worships in spirit and truth, in my opinion.

That’s all I’m going to say on the subject today, if you have any questions, please leave me a comment.  Now, please read and pray with us our Prayer Requests and Praises.

Prayer Requests and Praises…

  • Please pray for my friend Teresa. Here is what she wrote:Tonight a very dear aunt of our passed on. She was a huge part of our lives – full of love, understanding and always there for you no matter what. We will all miss you and love you forever Aunt Gilda. RIP – Give dad a big hug from me when you meet him again there in heaven.
  • My friend Jodi has sad news to pass along for prayers. Here is what she wrote:Oh my heart is completely broken! Adam’s Little League coach from last spring just lost his oldest daughter Hallie & her 5-month old baby Brayson yesterday. Their jeep had become stuck in the mud, and they were in the backseat, keeping warm when they were tragically poisoned by CO2 coming into the vehicle. Please pray for the Lewis family!
  • Please give praise to God for my cousin Barb — she is a new Grandmother!  Baby Blair was born the other day, and is a wonderful baby girl.  Mother and Father are doing well, so please give praise to God for His Miracle of life!
  • Today is our niece Jenna’s 21st birthday!  Happy Birthday Jenna!  Please give praise to God for Jenna, and pray for her life going forward that she continues to walk with the Lord in all she does!

Now, please pray with us the prayer that Jesus taught his Disciples to pray:

Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done,
On earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever and ever.

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