a 'grace' lavishing

Grace upon grace has been bestowed upon us (John 1:16) from the Lord's fulness, by which we receive one blessing after another.

We are SO favored!

We are SO cared for!

We are SO loved!

Father, we pray that you teach us afresh, as well as our Irish friends and their families that everlasting life and swimming in your pool of deep blue-green grace is only possible through Christ's shed blood. Amen!

The Apostle Paul writes to the Ephesian church the following: "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding." (Eph. 1:7,8)

salvation

In this week of His Passion we worship the Lord for making His salvation known to us through His only begotten Son.

He has revealed his righteousness to the nations in sending His Son to be the sacrificial lamb.

Thank you Lord for remembering your love and your faithfulness to us; all the ends of the earth have seen your salvation (Ps. 98:2,3).

on the way to the cross

Disciples of Christ all over the world this Passion week are walking with Christ to the cross.

Jesus told his disciples (Lk. 18:31, 32),

"that everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.

He will be handed over to the Gentiles.

They will

mock him,

insult him,

spit on him,

flog him,

and

kill him."

They did! But it had to be so fulfilled. Thank you Lord for the Christ, who went to the cross for us and the Irish too!

patrick patrick patrick

Today is St. Patrick's Day across the planet.

If you study his life you can see indeed that he was used of God in an extraordinary kind of way.

I love his practice of prayer- I am challenged in my ministry of prayer when I study his example.

“Tending flocks was my daily work, and I would pray constantly during the daylight hours. The love of God and the fear of him surrounded me more and more—and faith grew and the Spirit was roused, so that in one day I would say as many as a hundred prayers and after dark nearly as many again, even while I remained in the woods or on the mountain. I would wake and pray before daybreak—through snow, frost, rain—nor was there any sluggishness in me (such as I experience nowadays) because then the Spirit within me was ardent.” (Patrick: quoted in Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization [New York: Doubleday, 1995], 102)

Lord, help us each one, to seek your good redemption plan through Jesus Christ our Lord for others as Patrick did for the Irish! Amen

trampling the great lion

Making the Most High our dwelling place guarantees to us not only protection, but also a 'mighty trampling' and a 'thorough treading' upon the lion.  (Psalm 91:9,10)

Now, thats what I'm talking about!

The Lord, who is our refuge, our fortress, assures that no harm will befall us, that no disaster will come near our tents, that the Almighty will protect us and save us from the fowler's snare.  

We know from Scripture that we are in our enemy's cross-hairs!  Ouch!  Yikes!

He schemes to trip us up, he seeks to devour us, he longs to cut us off and polish us off.  (Matthew 4; Genesis 3, 39)

Don't fear little flock!  We have ample protection!  We have divine promises!  We are invited to pray! (Luke 11)  

So we do!  We pray!  

We pray for a hedge of protection today around God's church in Ireland as they go into their day and week. 

righteous Father

"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." (John 17:25,26)

This portion of Jesus' high priestly prayer in John seventeen is our prayer too.

Our hearts beat and our lips move just as Jesus' did when he prayed for all believers for all times, in America, in Ireland as well as in all nations.

dad - pops - vati

Today, in our ministry of prayer for Ireland, we are asking the Lord to help the believers in the churches in Ireland to trust the Lord to be their Father through and through.

God's paramount desire as our Father is to bestow upon His kids every good and perfect gift.

We can't even to begin to understand what He has in store for us!

He is an awesome 'Daddy'! We want the Irish to know and experience this over and over again!

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us" (Eph. 3:20).

the lamb of God

All of us like sheep have gone astray!

Wow, is that ever true!!

Aren't we so prone to wonder and get in trouble?

Aren't we so so independent and stubborn going our own way, and, and, and (and the list goes on and on)?

The good news for us is that while we where yet wondering the Lord laid the iniquity of us all on Him (the Lamb of God).

We revel today in our Lord's redemption that comes to us through His only begotten Son- Jesus Christ our Lord. We pray that our Irish friends recognize Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. (John 1:29)

the cross of Christ

As Easter draws near so does the cross.  The cross of Christ reminds us that God the Father has given us grace and peace.  

Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God the Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. (Galatians 1:4)

Christ rescued us from the curse... he hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing.

The cross of Christ truly sets us free.  

May we all draw near to the cross! 

  

worship Him alone

As wholehearted followers of Christ our hearts are constantly being challenged to a tug-of-war: devoted or not; pure or not; His or not. Back and forth our hearts go- you know the story!

The Lord is looking for worshipers (Jn 4:23). The enemy of our souls is looking for worshipers (Lk 4:8). Mission exists because worshipers don't!

Please pray, Gaelic PrayerWarriors, that many worshipers, true worshipers (in spirit and truth), will be made on the Emerald Isle. The Irish are choosing to worship something- we want it to be the Lord because He is worthy of all glory, power and praise.

Psalm 115:1: "Not to us O Lord, not to us, but to thy Name bring glory."

under armour not enough

I am a sucker for sporting goods stores- not music stores, not clothing stores, not electronic stores but good old fashion sporting goods store. 

Under Armour sports clothing is some amazing stuff. You see it on the manikins at the store and it makes them look like Superman. Ergo, if you put it on you will not only look like Superman- you will be Superman.  Its pretty awesome stuff.   

I have tried out their stuff- it is pretty good, but I'm disappointed to report that it didn't help me to perform on a Superman level.  I guess the advertising worked its magic.

We have taken our prayer impetus out of Ephesians 6:10-18 today.  We are praying that the Irish believers (ourselves too) will be strong and courageously moving out and forward in the protection of the armor of God. 

The armor of God is real good stuff!  It is kevlar-esque and IT IS ENOUGH!

i think i can, i think i can

The Little Red Engine That Could is an all time favorite children's book in the Poth family.

The thesis of that classic little colorful book is this: 

'tackle each and every task before you with all your heart, mind, and soul;  you are to never ever give up but you are to rather persevere in the task at hand, no matter how ominous it may is.'

Our encouragement from the Word of God today for our lives and ministries is this:  run, fight and  take hold!  Run the race with endurance!  Fight the fight of faith with heart and soul!  Take hold of eternal life to which you were called! (1 Cor. 9; 2 Tim 4)

'I think I can, I think I can' isn't a bad saying, but a better one yet is, 'I know I can, I know I can' because He said, 'I could'! (Phil 4)