• Music • Videos • Podcasts • Articles |
February Prayer Newsletter 2005 Dear Pray-ers, Greetings in Jesus Name. Because of our upcoming schedule and prayer requests, please bear with me, as this newsletter is somewhat longer than usual and will require a few more moments of your time. We are coming into an unusually heavy schedule. We thank the Lord for it, as this schedule is the result of many prayers, including yours. The nations are opening us for us to go, and we are ready. Ready, that is, as we lean on Jesus to guide us continually, and ready because of your prayers that go with us. We go to Bangladesh in April. The dates are the 19-25. This is what I am asking: I am going to make out a detailed list of prayer needs for this trip. As you prayerfully consider each of these needs, if the Lord gives you one in particular as an assignment for while we're gone, please write me back as to how you are led to pray. Then we will take this list with us as a reminder of the power of prayer that is taking place at home while we are there. It has been said to us that this is the place where the poorest of the poor live. May we be able to minister to them in the grace and love of Jesus. These are our requests:
A WORD IN SEASON "THE MURMURING HEART" "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Matthew 12:34b How many times have we read the stories in the Old Testament about the Israelites and how they murmured and complained as they made their way through the wilderness? Have you ever wondered how they could be so ungrateful after God had delivered them from the hand of Pharaoh and knowing that they were headed to the Promised Land? Though I've personally read about and heard the story told so many times and in so many different ways, never before has the murmuring and complaining of the Israelites so intensely captured my attention through their journey as it has this time. Let me recap for you the story of the quails. Just one of many occasions where ungratefulness, and great murmuring and complaining took place. (Numbers 11 and 12) The Message "The people fell to grumbling over their hard life. GOD heard. When he heard his anger flared; then fire blazed up and burned the outer boundaries of the camp. The people cried out for help to Moses, Moses prayed to God and the fire died down. They named the place Taberah (Blaze) because fire from God had blazed up against them." To put it mildly, God wasn't pleased with them. "The riff-raff among the people had a craving and soon they had the People of Israel whining. "Why can't we have meat?" We ate fish in Egypt - and got it free! - to say nothing of the cucumbers and melons, the leeks and onions and garlic. But nothing tastes good out here; all we get is manna, manna, manna." Because of "their craving" (a strong, urgent and persistent desire), their whining spread like a disease among all the people. Soon everyone was doing it. Did you know that others can "catch your murmuring spirit? God's anger blazed against them again. Finally, in the 18-20th verses, God says: "Tell the people, consecrate yourselves. Get ready for tomorrow when you're going to eat meat. You've been whining to God, 'We want meat; give us meat. We had a better life in Egypt." What God said was, "I've heard your whining and you want meat - well, I'm going to give you meat. You're going to eat meat, not just for a day, not two days, or five or ten or twenty, but for a whole month. You're going to become so sick of it that you'll throw up at the mere mention of it. And here's why: because you have rejected God who is right here among you, whining to his face, "Oh, why did we ever leave Egypt?" Do you ever think that in your complaining you are rejecting God, and are saying to Him; what you have done for me and given to me is not good enough? "Then Moses and the leaders of Israel went back to the camp. A wind set in motion By GOD swept quails in from the sea. They piled up to a depth of about three feet in the camp and as far out as a day's walk in every direction. All that day and night and into the next day the people were out gathering the quail - huge amounts of quail; even the slowest person among them gathered at least sixty bushels. They spread them out all over the camp for drying." At this point they probably figured their complaining paid off. But they were soon to find out they were terribly wrong. "But while they were still chewing the quail and had hardly swallowed the first bites, GOD's anger blazed out against the people. He hit them with a terrible plague. They ended up calling the place Kibroth Hattavah (Graves-of-the-craving). There they buried the people who craved meat." We are not living in the days before the Cross, and God is not going to kill us on the spot for murmuring and complaining. However, Matthew 18:21 says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it for death or life. And, "Out of the heart the mouth speaks"(Matthew 12:34.) So murmuring comes from the heart first, and then from the tongue. Dissatisfied, unhappy, we begin to crave that which we don't have and that which our flesh longs for. It's a reflection of our heart. We sometimes behave like the Israelites and act like God's provision isn't good enough, and our heart rejects him, so we go to the grave of craving; the place where we choose that which our flesh cries out for; that which slowly brings forth death in our spirit, one murmur at a time. On the flip-side of that, when our hearts are satisfied with Him, when we long for Him and have set our love upon Him, then that which comes out of our mouth will be like a tree of life (Proverbs 15:4). The glad heart will have a continual feast, regardless of circumstances. (Proverbs 15:15). And we will be seekers of His heart. We will pursue Him and His heart, and in so doing He will lead us into the Promised Land. Father, help our speech to please You and our lives to glorify Your Holy Name. Love, Judy Arnold Prayer Director [ Back to Articles ] |
|
|