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Essays from the Assembly on Areas of
Prayer and the NOW Word
March 2008 |
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02J_3Lovelock
Focus On Prayer
The City of Detroit - by Jim
Lovelock - Prayer Team #2 - Article 3 - #586-751-5652 -
Remember to join
one of the 12 Teams. |
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Prayer Focus Topic #2, The
City of Detroit
by Jim Lovelock
As we continue to pray for
the City of Detroit, I hear the word, “Mercy.” God's Mercy is
one of the grounds for our hope. |
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In
Lamentations 3:22-24, it says: |
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Surely Yahweh's mercies are
not over,
his deeds of faithful
love not exhausted;
every morning they are
renewed;
great is his
faithfulness!
Yahweh is all I have; I say
to myself,
“and so I shall put my
hope in him.” |
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Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:3-6: |
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Blessed be the God and
Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the
merciful Father and
the God who gives every
possible encourage-
ment; he supports us in
every hardship, so
that we are able to come to
the support of
others in every hardship of
theirs, because of |
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the
encouragement that we ourselves receive
from God. For just as the
sufferings of
Christ overflow into our
lives, so does the
encouragement we receive
through Christ.
So if we have hardships to
undergo, this will
contribute to your
encouragement and your
salvation; if we receive
encouragement, this
is to gain for you the
encouragement which
enables you to bear with
perseverance the
same sufferings as we do.
In
closing, brothers and sisters, the Lord is encouraging us to
continue to pray for the City of Detroit. His plan will
succeed.
May the Lord Bless You, Jim Lovelock
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(Jim Lovelock is a core team
member of the newly formed prayer group at St. Vincent Ferrer Parish in
Madison Heights,
and he
also serves on the DCCR Assembly.)
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NOW WORD SERIES
PROMISE: I AM YOUR FOUNDATION
by Jim Brodi
for March, 2008
When I think about what a foundation is, I think of a solid base
that is used to support all of the visible parts of a building or a
structure. It is something that is needed to give firm support
to the structure. How do you measure something that gives you
firm support? Unwavering, constant, honest, and faithful all
come to mind. But TRUSTWORTHY sums it all up in one word!!
Jesus is our rock, our trustworthy foundation. He is
unwavering, constant, honest, and faithful.
Let’s think of the story of the 3 little pigs. One built his house
out of straw, one out of twigs, and the third out of bricks. When
the big, bad wolf came, he blew down the houses of the first two but
couldn’t blow down the third.
You
could easily see Satan trying to do the same thing with the house of
faith that we are building. He will try to huff and puff, fill our
minds with lies, arrogance, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness…and try
to blow our Spiritual house down. Jesus has told us in our NOW
Word, “I AM YOUR FOUNDATION.”
This is why we have to rely on the
Lord to be the ROCK, the FOUNDATION, on which we construct our
Spiritual house.
2 Samuel 22:2-4. “David sang the words of this song to the LORD when
the LORD had rescued him from the grasp of all his enemies and from
the hand of Saul. This is what he sang: “O LORD, my rock, my
fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock of refuge! My
shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, my refuge, my
savior, from violence you keep me safe. ‘Praised be the
LORD,’ I exclaim, ‘and I am safe from my enemies.’”
1 Corinthians 10:1-4. Paul tells us that “I do not want
you to be unaware, brothers, that our ancestors were all
under the cloud and all passed through the sea,
and all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
All ate
the same spiritual food, and all drank the same 
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spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual
rock that followed them, and the rock was the Christ.”
As we build the
spiritual house, we must continue to seek for the
spiritual food to strengthen our souls. We need to be
fed from the living ROCK, our true
foundation.
Isaiah 26:4. “Trust in the LORD forever!
For the LORD is an eternal Rock.”
Since we are fed by the ROCK,
protected by the ROCK, we must put our complete faith
and trust in the ROCK. If the Lord is the foundation
of our being, our existence, then Jesus, the ROCK, is
the origin of our life and we need to recognize that He
is at the very root of our being.
Psalm 62:2-3.
“My soul rests in God
alone, from whom comes my salvation. God alone is my
rock and salvation, my secure height; I shall never
fall.”
Matthew 7:22-24.
“Everyone who
listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be
like a wise man who built his house on rock. The
rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and
buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been
set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens
to these words of mine but does not act on them will be
like a fool who built his house on sand.”
As you can see, the Lord is our ROCK; He is our
foundation, our firm support, our source of strength.
We have an awareness of the solidity and greatness of
the Lord, Who is our FOUNDATION in our lives. Let
us not be like the first two little pigs who did not use
proper discernment in how to build their house.
Let us build our spiritual house on the firm FOUNDATION
of Jesus Christ. Let us eat and drink from His
life-giving Body and Blood. Trust in Him. He
will never waver for He is the same yesterday, today and
always. |
(Jim Brodi
is a leader of the “Little Flock” Prayer Group at St. Lawrence
Church in Utica, Michigan, and serves on the DCCR Assembly.)
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2-15-2008
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