Jesus began His powerful prayer in John 17 with the words, "Father, the hour has come."

Dawson Troutman is one of my spiritual heroes. Daws (pronounced dos) preached a powerful message entitled The Need of The Hour. In the sermon he said he started by thinking the pressing need was to train men. But as he prayed about it, he decided that the need of the hour was for us to believe God would accomplish what He alone can do. Faith-filled Prayer is…

Have a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year from Lillian Penner, National Prayer Coordinator for Christian Grandparenting Network.

A powerful event in the life of Jesus, recorded by Matthew, Mark and Luke, is the paralytic brought to Jesus by several men bearing him on a stretcher.

Matthew 9:2 reads,

And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven."

Notice the wording of this verse. When Jesus saw their faith He told the man…

An Answer for a Blue and Gloomy Christmas        

Does the song, “I’ll be home for Christmas”¹ Frank Sinatra made popular in the 50’s make you blue and gloomy because you are not going to see all of your family during this Christmas season make you sad? Grandparents love to be with their loved ones to celebrate Christmas, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. My…

Have you seen the Trimmings on the Christmas Tree?

The Christmas tree, the greatest symbol of Christmas is an evergreen tree, representing life. The custom of erecting a Christmas tree can be historically traced to 15th century. “The tree was traditionally decorated with edibles such as apples, nuts, or other foods. In the 18th century, it began to be illuminated by candles, which were ultimately replaced by…

Super Glue

When you think of super glue holding things together, what do you picture?  Possibly you first want to know what we are binding together.  Animal, mineral, vegetable…?  A physicist might tend to think of forces like electromagnetic or even atomic.  Scientific observation and study yielded new progressing thoughts in areas like conservation of energy (including measuring all forms of energy before and after a reaction), electromagnetic interaction studies, the…

A prayer alert from the Presidential Prayer Team today reads:

’Credible Terror Threat’ Closes Entire Los Angeles School District

Situations like this one drive us to our knees in prayer to our great God, and they should.  We pray for the children, who are likely scared by circumstances they can't even understand, let alone control.  We pray for…

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, I you of little faith?  

Matthew 6:30

Prayer is the first expression of faith. If you believe in God, you will pray. Praying faith is propositional. We trust what Scripture tells us about God. By faith we risk ourselves in the confidence that God is able to meet our…

Every three years between Christmas and New Year, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship sponsors a 5-day mission event called "Urbana", named after its longtime location at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.  The last several events have been held in St. Louis (due to outgrowing the venue), but the conference retains the Urbana brand.  Urbana challenges college students to see the needs of the world and to respond…

Christmas is a great time to connect spiritually with our grandchildren helping them understand the significance of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Grandchildren look forward to receiving gifts from their grandparents at Christmas and grandparents love giving them gifts. Some grandparents spend lavishly shopping for gifts for their grandchildren. The GRAND magazine stated…

I am not exactly sure how to approach my blog this week. I am bringing to a close my series of blogs on the foundations of prayer. That in itself seems strange, because all my entries relate to the foundations of prayer. In each entry I present what God tells us about prayer in His word. But there are some foundational truths upon which all prayer rests. I began this series with an entry on praying God's grace. That entry related the gospel to prayer. So it is fitting that I…

'Tis the season for "peace on earth, goodwill toward men." A green wreath graces my front door, and the sweet smell of cookies fills my home, even this early in December. My kids have located the station that plays continuous Christmas music, so there are carols streaming from our radio in the background. I love the…

In response to prominent people saying they were praying for the San Bernardino, CA shooting victims’ families and the survivors, the December 3 headline on the New York Daily News read, “God Isn’t Fixing This.”  The article said people offering prayers,…

A few years ago my husband and I attended a reunion in Branson, MO where we saw the awesome performance of The Miracle of Christmas at the Sight & Sound Theatre. I was impressed by how they displayed the emotions of Mary and Joseph when they were faced with the announcements of Gabriel.…

“How enthroned, magnificent, and royal the intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ at His Father’s right hand in heaven! The benefits of His intercession flow to us through our intercessions. Our intercession ought to catch by contagion and by necessity the inspiration and largeness of Christ’s great work at His Father’s right hand. His business and His life are to pray. Our business and our lives ought to be to pray, and to 'pray without ceasing' (1 Thessalonians…

"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

It is not always easy to give thanks, but this is the very thing we must do in order to see God’s will accomplished in our lives. This is how we move into higher realms of faith for ourselves, for our city, and for our nation. When we give thanks in the midst of difficulty, we bring pleasure to God's…

"As a child of God, you ought to expect God to answer your prayers. Do you ask God to do something without adjusting your life to what you are praying? If you are praying for revival, how are you preparing for its coming? If you are praying for forgiveness, are you still living with guilt? If you have asked God to provide for your needs, do you remain worried and anxious? Ask God to increase your faith, and then begin living a life that reflects absolute trust in Him." Henry…