goodness greatness

Great grace, great goodness, great kindness, great love, great power, great righteousness, great holiness, great watch care, great provision, great protection; the 'great list' goes on into infinity and beyond!

God is GREAT in who He is and what He does!!!

All of His creation (you and I included) cry out: "Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom." (Psalm 145:3)

The greatest thing in all of the world is knowing Him!

We are praying today for ourselves, our loved ones and for our dear Irish friends that, indeed, the greatest thing in all of our/their lives would be: loving Him (Jn 14:24), knowing Him (Phil. 3:10), serving Him (Mark 10:45) and worshiping Him (Psalm 147).

As our old Elmer Fudd would say, 'goodness greatness!'

shepherd-like coverage

In my humble opinion, there are few things in this life, more settling to know, than the fact, that the Shepherd has got me covered.

The New Testament describes us as sheep; it describes Him as 'the Good Shepherd'. When Jesus saw people, he saw sheep wondering aimlessly, harassed, helpless, lain out flat on their backs, with no way of getting up and surviving.

Scripture then lets us in on a wonderful truth. Here it is: he comes with compassion to our aid. He is truly 'the Compassionate One.' (Matthew 9:36) He is the bestest!

Gang, revel in the fact, that we have a soft spot in His shepherd-heart. This spot of compassion, care and love for us moves Him to action- to covering us.

It is the bestest!

We want that for all people- the Irish too!

Mark 6:34- "When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd."

baa baa

All of us like sheep have gone astray,

each of us has gone his own way,

but the Lord laid the iniquity of us all, 

on Him (the Lamb of God). 

Thankfully so- thankfully so!  

May our Great Shepherd be drawing more and more and more into His flock daily.  

May there be a huge throng from Ireland.  

Psalm 23

try till you cry

Growing up there was a phrase that was used by our coaches to push us towards excellence. 'Try until you cry, train until you die.' This motivational bark falls into the same genre as 'no pain, no gain' and 'no guts, no glory'.  It helped charge us up to extend beyond ourselves towards our outer limits.

These phrases are about heart, desire, effort, will, passion, commitment, and engagement.

The Scriptures are full of examples of men and women who showed heart, desire, effort, passion, commitment, and pro-activeness to the Lord and His kingdom.  Theirs was a whole hearted devotion, a ruthless persevering until they crossed the finish line.

Jesus and the early church 'devoted themselves' day and night to intercession (Acts 1:14; 2:42). Without ceasing we are called to the same discipline of prayer (1 Thess. 5:17).  

There is huge benefit and great reward for such a 'hartnaeckige Leidenschaft' ruthless devotion, none the least of which is God being glorified.  

Gaelic PrayerWarriors, we are reminded today, that God has posted us, His watchmen, on the wall to remind Him day and night, giving Him no rest until He establishes and makes Ireland  a praise to His name throughout the whole world.  (Isa. 62:7,8)

Remember: "without ceasing!" :-)

doing the side-step

Celtic Irish Rugby looks like a lot of fun for an 'old american footballer'. I imagine this sport is all about facing your opponent head on and then doing lots of fancy side-stepping to the score.

Sometimes, however, our opponent is bigger, faster, smarter and stronger. That means double trouble. When the two come together there is a flash, a boom, and a bang! Let the chips fall where they may. The victor comes out on top.

In the Book of Acts Luke records for his readers three times an incident that changed the course of one man's life, who in turn, then was used by God to change the course of many men's lives - even the course of history.

This man met his opponent and there was truly a flash, a boom and a bang! It was lights, sound and action! It was about seeing, hearing, and believing! He saw a light and was blinded, he heard a sound and was able to distinguish a voice (Acts 9, 22, 26), he had just run head long into his challenger.

Interestingly enough however, this man's teammates saw the same light but it wasn't intense enough for them to be blinded by it, they also heard the same sound but it wasn't clear enough to be recognized, they had just done a side-step with eternity.

Acts 22:14-16 sums it up! We read: 'The God of our fathers has chosen (him) to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear the words from his mouth...(He) got up, was baptized .. and called on the name of the Lord.'

Gaelic PrayerWarriors, please continue to pray that our dear Irish friends, truly see the Righteous One, that they recognize the Righteous One's voice and respond to Him in faith by calling on his name!

No more side-stepping eternity! May there be a big head-on collision!

breach the gap

The world is a needy place. People are looking for something. A breach exists.

Who will help? Who will breach the gap? How can the void be satisfied? Will anyone step up to the plate and be the person God is looking for?

Moses breached the gap before God to keep his wrath from destroying the people;

Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was checked;

and the ultimate 'Breacher of the Gap', Jesus Christ, bridged the separation between us and God by hanging on a tree.

The Lord still looks and asks, "if there is anyone among mankind who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so that I would not destroy it." (Ezek. 22:30)

Will he find anyone?

He has found 425 gaelic prayer warriors! Stand strong ya'll for Ireland!

a mighty warrior is a foote

Seven days ago, 425 gaelic prayer warriors set out on a quest of quantum magnitude for a fresh, exhilarating, substantial movement of God on the rock - known as Ireland.

A mission, a struggle, a persisting, a ruthless-unabashed-tireless pounding on the gates of God to send a death blow to the strongholds that prevent those precious folk from experiencing the King of glory in His fulness.

On this day, Zephaniah, the prophet of old, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit records the words we use as a prayer guide. We read the following:

"the Lord your God is in your midst,

a victorious warrior,

who will exalt over you,

with shouts of joy".

Zeph. 3:17

When the Mighty Warrior is present and a foote, THEN there will be a movement like none other!

Watch out! He is a coming!

Even so Lord, come quickly!

got power?

Today marks the sixth day of our 'year-long-prayer-journey for Ireland'. This day's prayer comes out of the book of Zechariah the prophet, the fourth chapter and the sixth verse.

Zechariah writes that 'the Lord Almighty says, "its not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit"'.

The context of this word of the Lord to Zerubbabel through God's prophet 'Zach' is namely, to reassure him that no obstacle, however formidable and ominous, will be able to derail or sabotage the plans and purposes of our immortal, all-powerful God from advancing His everlasting kingdom.

Guys, the Lord's purposes happen powerfully, ONLY when the 'Spirit is on the move', a la the Book of Acts.

Need power?

Want power?

Got power? Get the Spirit and then keep up with Him!

Jesus said to his disciples before his acension: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you." Acts 1:7,8

get home asap!

"There is no place like home, there is no place like home"- dorothy, in the wizard of oz. Indeed, most of us would echo these words wholeheartedly. As the saying goes, "home is where your heart is".

Where are our hearts? Are our hearts home yet?

The 'belt-way-boys of the Psalms' (david, the sons of korah, solomon) say that it is better to be at home than to not be there. (Psalm 27:4) 'Being home' is something we need, we long for, and we relish. There is nothing better, finer, richer, more stimulating, satisfying, fulfilling than that of 'being home'. Better is one day 'being at home' than a thousand days being elsewhere. How true it is!

Friends, "Get home!"

"Lord, you have been my dwelling place throughout all generations". Psalm 90:1

all nations- ireland too!

A delightfully powerful verse out of 'The Book of Books' captivated my heart once again today.

This verse is a prayer of David. It is his cry of declaration "that among the gods there is none like you, O Lord, no deeds can compare with yours. All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord, they will bring glory to your name." -Psalm 86:9

Sandlin and I began our journey to the Emerald Isle about a year ago. All along the way we have been energetically enlisting and educating an iTeam of Gaelic PrayerWarriors to be actively engaged in praying for the advancement of God's kingdom in Ireland and passionate about eternally touching those precious people of that great place.

On February 14, 2008 (three days ago), we issued a 'call to arms' to our prayer warriors to join us in agonizing in the struggle for one full year, for one time a day, for one minute a day in concentrated unadulterated beseeching on their behalf.

We say, "let the wild rumpus begin!"