Author: Don Guthrie

It is the logic of Lottie Moon.  Christmas and missions go together.  Born and raised in Virginia,  Lottie’s life work was as a missionary to China.  Every year at this season she would write back to churches in the states asking for prayer and support.  In her memory, Southern Baptists have an annual prayer and giving emphasis for missions.

Day 29 – Will you pray for missionaries?

If the shepherds “made know the statements which had been told them about the Child” (Luke 2:17) shouldn’t we?  And shouldn’t we be prayerful support for our brothers and sisters who have gone out “into all the world” to make known the gospel of Christ?  Make it a family affair.  Remind your children of God’s purpose to unite the world in Christ.  Pray for missionaries by name.  Google “Lottie Moon” and read her story.  Sing “Joy to the WORLD” and mean it with all your heart.  “As the Father has sent me, so send I you,” said Jesus to the disciples.  He CAME into the world so that we would GO into it.   Will you pray today for missionaries?

Re: Verse reading – Luke 12:13-34 (day six)

The Christmas story is good news.  It is also bad news.  As a dark consequence of the birth of Christ, Herod sends soldiers to kill every baby boy less than 2 years old in the Bethlehem vicinity.  Hundreds?  “A voice is heard in Ramah, Rachael weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”  (Matthew2:19)

Day 24 – Will you pray for children and youth in our city who are at risk?  In danger, in need, vulnerable, exposed to drug addictions and violence?

One of the purposes of the FBC Yes Lord Community Ministry is to enlist members of our congregation for effective ministry to these children and teenagers.  Mentor at Lamar elementary!  Teach Bible studies at the juvenile detention center!  Give a backpack or volunteer for career days!  Teach preschool or children or youth in FBC Sunday School!  The Barnabus Initiative (funded by a grant from the Baptist Health Foundation) also helps us give support.  Will you pray for these volunteers?  Will you pray for the young people we meet and touch for God?  The world is very dark.  Always has been.  But the light of the world is Jesus!

Re: Verse reading – Luke 12:13-34 (day one)

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Today at FBC we will gather ’round the Good Samaritan story.  It is about love. . .for God and others.  It is also about religion. . .its dangerous tendency to become a substitute for compassionate action.  Jesus is painfully honest.  The person outside “the church” is more conscious of his responsibility to help others than the religious folks.

Day 23 – Will you pray for the Yes Lord! Leaders of FBC?

One of the things that I admire about FBC is the long tradition of compassionate community service.  The lay-lead ministry that organizes and enlists our fellowship into this effort is called Yes Lord!  Many projects throughout the year.  Poverty and Homelessness.  Children at Risk.  Casseroles for Christ.  Meals for Wounded Warriors.  Internationals.  Disaster Relief.  The Directors and I will meet on Sunday afternoon to begin praying and planning for next year.  Will you pray for us?  Will you pray for Rita Schuetze and Donna Bowman who provide staff leadership?  Will you ask Him to guide your own involvement? May the Lord be pleased with us as we “love our neighbors” in His name.

Re: Verse reading – Luke 10:25-37 (day seven)

Jesus said that mountains move for those who have faith. (Matt 17)  Maybe the Lord had literal mountains in mind.  I believe He was thinking of those impossible, impassable road blocks that stand in the way of progress for each of us.

Day 22 – Will you ask God to move the mountain that prevents your progress in service and joy?

Maybe it is a memory that you cannot escape.  An insecurity.  A limitation of strength or health or hope.  Whatever it is, God instructs us to ask!  Paul’s story is an encouragement.  He asked God to “remove the thorn”.  (2 Corinthians 9)  He asked!  And while he did not get his request, he got something better, a lesson in the grace of God and the help he needed to continue to grow and serve.  Never forget it.  One way or another, mountains move.  The power of Christ makes us “more than conquerors”.  Will you pray?

Re: Verse reading – Luke 10:25-37 (day six)

Looking forward to worship on Sunday.

When Mary “treasured these things, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19) it was because she still did not understand the things she had heard and seen.  She knew certain facts, but she hungered to understand them.

Day 17 – Will you pray for spiritual insight?  For the things that you “know” as spiritual facts to become practical and personal and powerful realities in your life?

Paul knew the challenge.  He knew that only the Holy Spirit can open up the inner eye so that a person can understand truth.  “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the greatness of His power toward us who believe.”  (Ephesians 1:18-19)  Strange.  Paul was praying for believers.   They knew truth at some level, but there we still deep levels of understanding absent from their hearts.  Is it possible that the same is true for you?   Do you have much, but God wants to give you more?  Will you pray for spiritual understanding?

Re: Verse reading – Luke 10:25-37 (day one)

It is a Christian proverb.  “Out of the mouth of babes. . .Thou hast prepared praise for Thyself”  (Matthew 21, Jesus quoting Psalm 8)  It is a principle that guides our celebration of this season and our priorities for the rest of the year. The deep commitment of the Christian faith is to lead children to know God and worship God.

Day 17 – Will you pray for children?  Children in our church and community?  Children in your family?

“Suffer the little children to come unto me”, said Jesus one day to His disciples who considered it a waste of important time to deal with them on spiritual matters.  Nothing is less true.  Every moment a parent or grandparent or friend takes with a child to help him/her understand the truth about God is an investment in eternity.  How lax we have become, letting our children be schooled by the vision of Santa Claus or Rudolph.  Will you pray?  Will you pray for the children who come to “Christmas at First”, or Sunday School or worship?  Will you look for opportunities to speak of God and His great gift to the young ones in your own family?  Will you pray for the FBC search team as they narrow down the search for a Minister to Children and Preschoolers?  God bless you for this act of service to the Savior.

RE Verse reading–Luke 7:1-17 (day seven)

It shocks us to think it, but at the time Jesus was born, His family had no place to stay.  When labor pains started, the best they could do was to seek shelter in a stable.

Day 16 – Will you pray for the homeless?

Later in the Savior’s life, it will be true again. “The Son of Man has no where to lay His head.”  Never, however, an excuse for an undisciplined, godless life.  Just the opposite.  Jesus used the absence of things as an opportunity to press into the Father.  “Do not worry about what you will eat, or what you will wear.”  This is our prayer for every person who faces the challenge of homelessness.  NOT that physical need might be minimized, NOR that our responsibility to help be abated, BUT THAT Spiritual life may been seen as the true need of the human soul.  Rich or poor.  How can people hope for Spiritual life if no one prays?  So, will you pray?  And will you support efforts to provide food and shelter and spiritual encouragement for those without it?  Seems like the right thing for Christians to do at Christmas.

RE Verse reading–Luke 7: 1-17 (Day 6)

Christmas celebrates the coming of Christ.  The invasion of the visible world by the invisible.  “We interrupt this broadcast!”  For a specific purpose, says the Bible.  “I have come that they might have LIFE and have it abundantly.”  (John 10:10)  Think about it.  Apart from this result (people born into supernatural LIFE rather than just natural life, unlimited LIFE rather than life limited by years) the coming of Christ was a colossal failure!  The reason for the season is the healing of the human heart and the gift of eternal life!

So. . .on this 11th day of our prayer journey, will you pray for people to be called to Christ?

Will you pray for them to experience an insatiable hunger for eternal answers?  For every Christmas carol to wake within them an awareness of their own emptiness, a determination to “follow the star” until it leads to the Savior?  Will you pray for the Spirit to use every Christmas concert, every worship service, every testimony?  Take time with this assignment.  It is reason for the season.

Re: Verse reading – Luke 7:1-17 (day one)

It is the strategy of our enemy–to divide the people of God.  And one of the easiest fault- lines is the “generation gap”.  Sometimes it is about worship style.  Always it is about relationship and trust.

Day 10.   Will you pray for  young adults in the FBC family?
(Yesterday we prayed for Senior Adults)

Their participation is vital to the success of our mission.  Peter said it.  “You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders.”  (1 Peter 5:5)  Stay connected and humble!  Don’t break away in frustration or impatience!  Malachi predicted the same work of God.  “Before the great and terrible day of the Lord, He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children AND the hearts of the children to their fathers.  (Malachi 4:6)  Will you pray for the remarkable young leaders of FBC?  Will you pray for the team that will guide the search for the next Minister to Young Married Adults?  Will ask God to bless these young adults (both married and single), their jobs and health and witness?

Re: Verse reading – Luke 5:12-26 (Day seven)

As FBC begins our celebration of the Christmas season (tomorrow is the first Sunday in Advent), I hope you will remember the story of Simeon.  (Luke 2)  An old man.  He has waited for years for “the consolation of Israel”.  Trusting a promise from God that he would not die before He saw the Christ, Simeon came into the temple just as Mary and Joseph did.  Praising God, he spoke a clear prophesy and felt at peace, ready to die.  Great story.

Day 9 –Will you pray for the Senior Adults in the FBC family? 

Will you thank God for their service and example?  Will you choose one and hold him/her before the Father?  Ask for health  and undiminished strength.  Ask God to refute the secular idea that at some point all of us just “fade away”.    “Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated.”  (Deuteronomy 34:7)  Take time with this assignment.  “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man. . .(James 5:16)

RE Verse reading–Luke 5:12-26.  I look forward to seeing you in the morning!