Tag: house of prayer
Sunday Rest: the power of prayer!
Dear friends,
Greetings again this first day of a new week! Hopefully, you are spending it gathering with God’s people to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He began a new day, called ‘today’, a day of salvation and good news for all mankind! He is alive and we have the hope of eternal life in Him alone! There is no other name given under heaven among men by which we must be saved! (Acts 4:12)
As I reflect back on this week’s readings, I am quickly brought back to the prophet Daniel. His life of dedication and prayer lived out in the country of Babylon in the midst of pagan culture is amazing! His world was radically changed with the captivity and move to a strange culture. He kept his spiritual bearings by praying three times a day. This habit got him into trouble later in his life. He was nearly 90 years old when this habit caused him to be thrown into the lion’s den during the reign of the Persian king Darius. His faithfulness to pray stopped the mouths of hungry lions. (Daniel 6:19-22) He got to share with this king about His God and brought Him honor! (Daniel 6:26-27)
Another time, Daniel was reading the Book of Jeremiah where he saw that the captivity would last 70 years and realized that it was almost over. He began to seek the Lord by fasting and prayer, confessing again the sins of the nation that took them into captivity. (Daniel 9:4-19) This beautiful prayer of repentance brought a swift answer from God by means of Gabriel, the Archangel! The amazing answer was the word concerning the “Seventy ‘seven’s” which tells the number of years until the Messiah would come. Prayer is an awesome privilege and God loves to share with His servants.
God’s House is to be a “house of prayer” for all nations! (Mark 11:17) We gather to worship and to pray for His kingdom and will to be done. Don’t miss out on gathering today and take time to pray! Read the Word of God and pray for it’s completion in you and your family! God hears and will answer! What a privilege we have! Have a great week in Jesus! In His Love, Pastor John
Glory in the Temple!
Scripture Reading for April 3: 1st Kings 5-8
Solomon had heard God’s decree that he would build the house where God’s Name would reside among His people. He had a vision and at God’s invitation had asked Him for wisdom. He knew of the desire of his father David and willingly offered himself to the Lord to build this “House”. (1st Kings 5:5)
In building the temple, Solomon employed many people. Some came from lands outside Israel. Solomon made covenants with many nations and the nations were drawn to Israel during this time of peace. The temple was made of stone, cedar and pine wood, and precious metals. Craftsmen worked off site on the stones so that the temple could be assembled without saws, chisels or hammers used on the site. (1st Kings 6:7) The temple took seven years to construct with thousands of workers meticulously adding every piece and detail in precise order and design. (1st Kings 6:38)
When the temple was completed, the priests carried the Ark into the Holy of Holies and then withdrew. None could stand as the Presence of God in the cloud of Glory filled the temple. (1st Kings 8:6-11) Solomon declared a blessing and thanked God for His faithfulness! Solomon then knelt down, raised his hands toward heaven, and prayed a magnificent prayer of dedication! In this prayer are eight petitions of God to “hear from heaven” when His people call upon Him for help. The central focus was forgiveness! All of man’s troubles are caused by sin, either against God or man made in God’s image. The consequences of sin bring famine, disease, plague, war, and death. As God’s people cry out, God’s glory is that He will hear and forgive and act to bring healing and restoration!
Solomon also prayed for the foreigner and those drawn to the temple from other lands and peoples. Solomon asked God to hear their prayer as well so all peoples of the earth might know His Great Name and fear the Lord! (1st Kings 8:41-43, 60) This prayer reminds us of Jesus sending his followers into all the world to make disciples of all nations! His house would be a house of prayer for all nations! (Mark 11:17) Examine your heart today as the temple of God. Would your house be a house of prayer for all?
Jesus offended the religious leaders
Scripture reading for August 15th: 2nd Kings 15-16, Matthew 21
Matthew 21:12-16 “And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the money-changers and seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.” And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple and He healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He did and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes, have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise’?”
After His triumphal entry into Jerusalem for His last Passover week, Jesus went to the temple and found corruption and idolatry there. Jesus drove out the money-changers and those selling sacrifices decreeing what Scripture had decreed: God’s House would be a ‘House of Prayer’. Those in charge of the temple were indignant! Their source of income was being disrupted by someone outside their ranks! Jesus then did many miracles of healing in the temple but these religious leaders were offended and sought to eliminate Jesus. Hardened hearts and offense go hand in hand and close the door to Heaven’s message of grace!
Matthew 21:43-44 “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
Prayer: Father God, Thank You for making Your House a House of prayer for all nations. Thank You for cleansing my heart from idolatry, and making me a person of prayer for all people. I desire to see fruit from Your indwelling me and my abiding in You. Use me to fulfill Your plans and purposes in my time and generation to pass the torch of faith to those still to come.
2nd Kings 16:2-5 “Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done, but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and the hills and under every green tree.”
Jesus, the blessing of all nations!
Scripture reading for January 17th: Genesis 28-29; Mark 11
Mark 11:7-11 “And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and He sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” And He entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when He had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.”
Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a colt to the cries of worship from the crowd who had viewed Him as the coming and promised Messiah. Jesus was a descendant of King David through his mother and even through His adoptive father Joseph. There were coats laid out on the road, palm branches, and cries of “Hosanna” (The Lord Saves). Jesus entered Jerusalem on Passover week as the “Lamb of God” who would take away the sins of the world. He went to the temple where the Levites, scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees were in charge and charging returning pilgrims for sacrifices. Jesus quietly observed and then left with the twelve. He would return to drive out the money-changers and declare God’s purpose for His House–a place of prayer for the nations! All nations would be blessed through Jesus’ final sacrifice for the sins of the world.
Mark 11:17 “And He was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
Faith confession: Father God, Thank You that I am now a part of Your ‘House of prayer’ here on earth. May all nations be reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As the Jews welcomed Jesus at the beginning of that Passover week, I look forward to worshiping Jesus every day of the week and one day to welcome Him as King of Kings. Prepare me to be part of the bridal company to greet Jesus with lamps burning when He returns!
Genesis 28:12-14 “And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all families of the earth be blessed.””