2008 ~ Eliza's Prayer Box

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!!

Audio Prayer Sites

First, what is an audio prayer? For those who don't know, an audio prayer is a prayer that comes via an audio channel. In other words, rather than having to read it, you can listen to it in a sound file format like you listen to a song or to an audio book. Common sound formats are MP3, WMA and others. Here are some sites where you can find audio prayers:

Pray As You Go - a site where you can download audio prayers in both MP3 and WMA format.

Prayer To Go - a site where you can listen to short audio prayers and read the words at the same time.

Audio Prayer Book -listen to or download prayers for morning, evening, families, etc.

And don't forget about YouTube. You can always convert YouTube videos to mp3 files using the software available online. I use the one from DVDVideoSoft.com.

Prayers on YouTube

Prayers for Strength

Prayer for Hope

Evening Prayer

Morning Prayer

Prayers in Songs

Prayer for a Friend

Prayer Of The Children

A Mother's Prayer

Mathematical Prayer

A mathematical prayer is a prayer that uses mathematical terms and formulas. When we think that God is the creator of the universe and of everything in it, it is easy to assume that He also created the principles of the science we call today Mathematics. Ever since the beginning, He added, subtracted, multiplied and divided, and I'm sure He even used advanced Mathematics formulas in His work of creaction. So there is no doubt He can understand a mathematical prayer.

Mathematicians might find it easier to pray using mathematical terms, because it is their familiar ground. Everyone who likes Maths can experiment with it. Maybe there are things that can be said easier in a mathematical prayer than in just simple words. Mathematics is an exact science, it has strict rules. 1 + 1 = 2. There are rules we follow in our Christian life, too.

The question is: can a mathematical prayer express human feelings such as love, gratitude, worry or fear? A mathematician would probably answer: if you are good enough at it, it can. And he might be right. For the rest of us, the non-academic lot, it is probably better to stick with the old words.

***

A Simple Mathematical Prayer

Lord God∞, fill our hearts with Faith + Hope + Love.

Help us forgive 70 * 7 times a day.

Let us live our life – (Sins + Doubts + Fears).

Remind us every day that God = Love & Your Will = Love / All

I + He + She = Your Children

Make our Faith > doubts, our Hope > Dispair, our Love > (Hatred + Resentments).

Never let us forget, God, that You = [(Power + Mercy + Wisdom) / (Me + He + She)]*Love∞

AMEN

Don't Give Up!

As long as we have the light, let's stick to the light. As long as we can be kind, let's offer kindness. As long as we can change anything, let's grasp each opportunity to turn bad into good. As long as we have love, let's treasure it and share it with all our hearts. As long as the sun rises in the dawn, let's not lose our hope in victory. God is with us. God is victorious, and so are we through Him. Let's keep our hearts clean. Let's dare to believe in Him when everything around us crumbles to the ground.

Every step, every gesture, every word is a way of changing the world. Every prayer is an open gate to eternity. Every tear shed with sincerity before God is a river of living water flooding the universe. We are small, but so is the mustard seed. Through faith, we have more power than we know. Let's continue the fight. Let's hold the flag of peace high until the end. Let's not give up...

Prayer For Help In Times Of Trials

Our precious God, help us to grow in a world where the forces of darkness try to keep us small. Fill our souls with a strength that can carry us further when our feet stumble in the mud of life. Let your light shine in us so that no corner of our being is left in darkness.

Help us cope when frustration and worries tear us apart. With you, every walk becomes easy. The struggles of life are put to shame by the greatness of your works. When you are with us, nothing is against us. You can bring out the good in adverse circumstances and turn each trial into a victory.

Help us look up and walk tall in humility and faith. Fill our hearts and minds with the soothing certainty of your presence and the unshaken believe that, no matter what, you are not going to let us fall.

Amen

How To Cope With The Challenges of Life

Every day brings new struggles and every struggle seems to make us smaller. People have to deal with illnesses, poverty and stress and all the consequences they bring. Frustration and regrets are silent killers that destroy bits of our soul, leaving us exposed and vulnerable. How can we find peace in adverse circumstances? How can we cope with the rodents of the spirit? It is a question that people have been asking since the beginning of all times and many haven't found the answer yet.

Think of your life as a room. A room can be dark and cluttered, musty and sad. A room can be a confining space where you feel a prisoner and where everything seems to work against you. In fact, a room can shape your own personality in the way a recipient can constrain water to its own shape. You are how you feel.

First of all, it is good to remember that you, like water, are free. You also have to remember that rooms have windows and doors. If you keep them closed, the air will get musty and hard to breathe and it will end up choking you. You might have the feeling that you are in a tight, closed environment but God had put many windows in your room. All you have to do is slow down, open your eyes wide and look for them. There might be a window right in front of you but you can't see it, because you are too oppressed by the atmosphere of the room itself.

Once you have found the window, you can draw the curtains, open it wide, and let the light and the fresh air in. You will see that the whole atmosphere changes. Our small room is surrounded by windows; that is a truth that should fill you with hope.

Now how can you find the windows? If you are so tensed and oppressed that you are most likely to miss them, you can start by praying. In the middle of all your troubles and worries, stop, take a break, close your eyes and let go. Then pray to the One who knows you and loves you deeply. Talk to Him like you talk to a dear friend and say,

"My God, the troubles in my life are choking me and stopping me from growing. I am confined to a small room with no view and no perspective. But you are great. The universe you have created is great and full of wonders. I know you have put many windows in my little room. Help me discover them. Take my hand and lead me to them. Let me feel the soft breeze on my face and smell the freshness of spring flowers. Let me discover the magic of the stars and the beauty of the rainbow. Help me let the light in and fill my black and white universe with color. Show me a world I've never seen, take me to new dimensions and unexplored frequencies. Give perspective to my life, so I don't waste it in pettiness and darkness. Let me discover the hidden magic of every day, the untold beauty of every moment. For you can do that. Amen."

Indeed, God can do that. This is where the fascinating faith journey begins.

Crossword Puzzles

Look More, See Deeper

A life can change in an instant. One moment we are walking on our cosy, familiar ways, where we take everything for granted, the next we find ourselves in a strange and alien realm without even comprehending how we got there. We can never tell where life is going to take us. Our small universe can grow or become even smaller over night and we can get robbed of everything we hold dear.

What can we take with us over the threshold of pain, losses and fear? What can we cling to when the crazy waves tear us away from the comfortable shore and throw us into a world of chaos and distress? Where can we find our refuge when all our fortresses crumble to the ground?

The answer is not as far as we imagine. It is, in fact, very close to us. We live in a big world, in the middle of a huge universe, full of surprises and unexpected turns. Yet this universe has a Master. The one who created it knows every single corner and every single step. He can go as deep or as high as he wishes, he can see beyond time and space, through darkness or opacity. Nothing is hidden from his eyes and nothing will ever be. The huge waves don't make him hide nor the tough winds make him tremble.

The God in whom we trust and to whom we entrust ourselves is always there, eternal and true, unchanging and unaffraid, forever faithful to the ones who reach out to him. God is not bound by anything but by his own word. The same word that once said: "Let it be light." He created rules and boundaries but he also created the magic world "beyond". He created the "law" but he also gave an alternative to it, an alternative called "grace".

To God nothing is impossible. He put the mountains in their place and ordered them to stay still but he also created the faith that can move mountains. He created the cycle of life but he also created the spirit that can defy the shadows of death. He created everything and he re-created himself, the one who had never been created, in each of ourselves. And in everything he created, he put a little of the love that surrounds him, the love that defines him.

So how can we be oppressed by time when times bows down in front of our friend and our father? How can the circumstances of this life knock us down when we walk hand in hand with the one beyond life and circumstances? How can we be scared of death when the one stronger than death promised he'd be with us forever?

It is all a question of perspective. If we see only here and now, we let ourselves be swallowed by here and now. If we set our mind on earthly things, we cling to them and make them our treasure. And 'Where thy heart is, there shall thy treasure be also.'

So look above and seek beyond, and see God in all. Where there is trust, there is no worry. Where there is faith, there is no fear. Where there is love, there is no falling.

Prayer to Jesus (in verse)

Jesus, gentle Shepherd,
Bless Thy lamb to-day;
Keep me in Thy footsteps,
Never let me stray.
Guard me through the daytime.
Every hour, I pray;
Keep my feet from straying
From the narrow way.

Amen

A Little Prayer

Faithful Shepherd, feed me
In the pastures green;
Faithful Shepherd, lead me
Where Thy steps are seen.

Hold me fast and guide me
In the narrow way;
So, with Thee beside me,
I shall never stray.

Daily bring me nearer
To the heavenly shore;
May my faith grow clearer.
May I love Thee more!

Hallow every pleasure,
Every gift and pain;
Be Thyself my Treasure.
Though none else I gain.

Amen

(From the collection Little Folded Hands. Prayers for Children)

What is Prayer?

What is prayer? An exercise for the soul, an act of communication? A conversation with God? A journey into ourselves? Where does it take us? To the heights of heaven or to the depths of our own soul? I would greatly appreciate your opinions and comments on what prayer means to you.

By the way, I'm back after a few months of no blogging activity. I appologize to all for the long absence.

The Song of the Stone Wall

By Helen Keller

Come walk with me, and I will tell
What I have read in this scroll of stone;
I will spell out this writing on hill and meadow.
It is a chronicle wrought by praying workmen,
The forefathers of our nation--
Leagues upon leagues of sealed history awaiting an interpreter.
This is New England's tapestry of stone
Alive with memories that throb and quiver
At the core of the ages
As the prophecies of old at the heart of God's Word.

The walls have many things to tell me,
And the days are long. I come and listen:
My hand is upon the stones, and the tale I fain would hear
Is of the men who built the walls,
And of the God who made the stones and the workers.

With searching feet I walk beside the wall;
I plunge and stumble over the fallen stones;
I follow the windings of the wall
Over the heaving hill, down by the meadow-brook,
Beyond the scented fields, by the marsh where rushes grow.
On I trudge through pine woods fragrant and cool
And emerge amid clustered pools and by rolling acres of rye.
The wall is builded of field-stones great and small,
Tumbled about by frost and storm,
Shaped and polished by ice and rain and sun;
Some flattened, grooved, and chiseled
By the inscrutable sculpture of the weather;
Some with clefts and rough edges harsh to the touch.
Gracious Time has glorified the wall
And covered the historian stones with a mantle of green.
Sunbeams flit and waver in the rifts,
Vanish and reappear, linger and sleep,
Conquer with radiance the obdurate angles,
Filter between the naked rents and wind-bleached jags.

I understand the triumph and the truth
Wrought into these walls of rugged stone.
They are a miracle of patient hands,
They are a victory of suffering, a paean of pain;
All pangs of death, all cries of birth,
Are in the mute, moss-covered stones;
They are eloquent to my hands.
O beautiful, blind stones, inarticulate and dumb!
In the deep gloom of their hearts there is a gleam
Of the primeval sun which looked upon them
When they were begotten.
So in the heart of man shines forever
A beam from the everlasting sun of God.
Rude and unresponsive are the stones;
Yet in them divine things lie concealed;
I hear their imprisoned chant:--

"We are fragments of the universe,
Chips of the rock whereon God laid the foundation of the world:
Out of immemorial chaos He wrought us.
Out of the sun, out of the tempest, out of the travail of the earth we grew.
We are wonderfully mingled of life and death;
We serve as crypts for innumerable, unnoticed, tiny forms.
We are manifestations of the Might
That rears the granite hills unto the clouds
And sows the tropic seas with coral isles.
We are shot through and through with hidden color;
A thousand hues are blended in our gray substance.
Sapphire, turquoise, ruby, opal,
Emerald, diamond, amethyst, are our sisters from the beginning,
And our brothers are iron, lead, zinc,
Copper and silver and gold.
We are the dust of continents past and to come,
We are a deathless frieze carved with man's destiny;
In us is the record sibylline of far events.
We are as old as the world, our birth was before the hills.
We are the cup that holds the sea
And the framework of the peak that parts the sky.
When Chaos shall again return,
And endless Night shall spread her wings upon a rained world,
We alone shall stand up from the shattered earth,
Indestructible, invincible witnesses of God's eternal purpose."

In reflective mood by the wall I wander;
The hoary stones have set my heart astir;
My thoughts take shape and move beside me in the guise
Of the stern men who built the wall in early olden days.
One by one the melancholy phantoms go stepping from me,
And I follow them in and out among the stones.
I think of the days long gone,
Flown like birds beyond the ramparts of the world.
The patient, sturdy men who piled the stones
Have vanished, like the days, beyond the bounds
Of earth and mortal things.
From their humble, steadfast lives has sprung the greatness of my nation.
I am bone of their bone, breath of their breath,
Their courage is in my soul.
The wall is an Iliad of granite: it chants to me
Of pilgrims of the perilous deep,
Of fearless journeyings and old forgotten things.
The blood of grim ancestors warms the fingers
That trace the letters of their story;
My pulses beat in unison with pulses that are stilled;
The fire of their zeal inspires me
In my struggle with darkness and pain.
These embossed books, unobliterated by the tears and laughter of Time,
Are signed with the vital hands of undaunted men.
I love these monoliths, so crudely imprinted
With their stalwart, cleanly, frugal lives.

From my seat among the stones I stretch my hand and touch
My friend the elm, urnlike, lithesome, tall.
Far above the reach of my exploring fingers
Birds are singing and winging joyously
Through leafy billows of green.
The elm-tree's song is wondrous sweet;
The words are the ancientest language of trees--
They tell of how earth and air and light
Are wrought anew to beauty and to fruitfulness.
I feel the glad stirrings under her rough bark;
Her living sap mounts up to bring forth leaves;
Her great limbs thrill beneath the wand of spring.

This wall was builded in our fathers' days--
Valorous days when life was lusty and the land was new.
Resemble the walls the builders, buffeted, stern, and worn.
To us they left the law,
Order, simplicity, obedience,
And the wall is the bond they gave the nation
At its birth of courage and unflinching faith.
Before the epic here inscribed began,
They wrote their course upon a trackless sea.
O, tiny craft, bearing a nation's seed!
Frail shallop, quick with unborn states!
Autumn was mellow in the fatherland when they set sail,
And winter deepened as they neared the West.
Out of the desert sea they came at last,
And their hearts warmed to see that frozen land.
O, first gray dawn that filtered through the dark!
Bleak, glorious birth-hour of our northern states!
They stood upon the shore like new created men;
On barren solitudes of sand they stood,
The conquered sea behind, the unconquered wilderness before.
Some died that year beneath the cruel cold,
And some for heartsick longing and the pang
Of homes remembered and souls torn asunder.
That spring the new-plowed field for bread of life
Bordered the new-dug acre marked for death;
Beside the springing corn they laid in the sweet, dark earth
The young man, strong and free, the maiden fair and trustful,
The little child, and the uncomplaining mother.

Across the meadow, by the ancient pines,
Where I, the child of life that lived that spring,
Drink in the fragrances of the young year,
The field-wall meets one grimly squared and straight.
Beyond it rise the old tombs, gray and restful,
And the upright slates record the generations.
Stiffly aslant before the northern blasts,
Like the steadfast, angular beliefs
Of those whom they commemorate, the headstones stand,
Cemented deep with moss and invisible roots.
The rude inscriptions charged with faith and love,
Graceless as Death himself, yet sweet as Death,
Are half erased by the impartial storms.
As children lisping words which move to laughter
Are themselves poems of unconscious melody,
So the old gravestones with their crabbed muse
Are beautiful for their halting words of faith,
Their groping love that had no gift of song.
But all the broken tragedy of life
And all the yearning mystery of death
Are celebrated in sweet epitaphs of vines and violets.
Close by the wall a peristyle of pines
Sings requiem to all the dead that sleep.

Beyond the village churchyard, still and calm,
Steeped in the sweetness of eternal morn,
The wall runs down in crumbling cadence
Beside the brook which plays
Through the land like a silver harp.
A wind of ancient romance blows across the field,
A sweet disturbance thrills the air;
The silken skirts of Spring go rustling by,
And the earth is astir with joy.
Up the hill, romping and shaking their golden heads,
Come the little children of the wood.
From ecstasy to ecstasy the year mounts upward.
Up from the south come the odor-laden winds,
Angels and ministers of life,
Dropping seeds of fruitfulness
Into the bosoms of flowers.
Elusive, alluring secrets hide in wood and hedge
Like the first thoughts of love
In the breast of a maiden;
The witchery of love is in rock and tree.
Across the pasture, star-sown with daisies,
I see a young girl--the spirit of spring she seems,
Sister of the winds that run through the rippling daisies.
Sweet and clear her voice calls father and brother,
And one whose name her shy lips will not utter.
But a chorus of leaves and grasses speaks her heart
And tells his name: the birches flutter by the wall;
The wild cherry-tree shakes its plumy head
And whispers his name; the maple
Opens its rosy lips and murmurs his name;
The marsh-marigold sends the rumor
Down the winding stream, and the blue flag
Spread the gossip to the lilies in the lake:
All Nature's eyes and tongues conspire
In the unfolding of the tale
That Adam and Eve beneath the blossoming rose-tree
Told each other in the Garden of Eden.
Once more the wind blows from the walls,
And I behold a fair young mother;
She stands at the lilac-shaded door
With her baby at her breast;
She looks across the twilit fields and smiles
And whispers to her child: "Thy father comes!"

Life triumphed over many-weaponed Death.
Sorrow and toil and the wilderness thwarted their stout invasion;
But with the ship that sailed again went no retreating soul!
Stubborn, unvanquished, clinging to the skirts of Hope,
They kept their narrow foothold on the land,
And the ship sailed home for more.
With yearlong striving they fought their way into the forest;
Their axes echoed where I sit, a score of miles from the sea.
Slowly, slowly the wilderness yielded
To smiling grass-plots and clearings of yellow corn;
And while the logs of their cabins were still moist
With odorous sap, they set upon the hill
The shrine of liberty for man's mind,
And by it the shrine of liberty for man's soul,
The school-house and the church.

The apple-tree by the wall sheds its blossom about me--
A shower of petals of light upon darkness.
From Nature's brimming cup I drink a thousand scents;
At noon the wizard sun stirs the hot soil under the pines.
I take the top stone of the wall in my hands
And the sun in my heart;
I feel the rippling land extend to right and left,
Bearing up a receptive surface to my uncertain feet;
I clamber up the hill and beyond the grassy sweep;
I encounter a chaos of tumbled rocks.
Piles of shadow they seem, huddling close to the land.
Here they are scattered like sheep,
Or like great birds at rest,
There a huge block juts from the giant wave of the hill.
At the foot of the aged pines the maiden's moccasins
Track the sod like the noiseless sandals of Spring.
Out of chinks in the wall delicate grasses wave,
As beauty grew out of the crannies of these hard souls.

Joyously, gratefully, after their long wrestling
With the bitter cold and the harsh white winter,
They heard the step of Spring on the edge of melting snow-drifts;
Gladly, with courage that flashed from their life-beaten souls,
As the fire-sparks fly from the hammered stone,
They hailed the fragrant arbutus;
Its sweetness trailed beside the path that they cut through the forest,
And they gave it the name of their ship Mayflower.
Beauty was at their feet, and their eyes beheld it;
The earth cried out for labor, and they gave it.
But ever as they saw the budding spring,
Ever as they cleared the stubborn field,
Ever as they piled the heavy stones,
In mystic vision they saw, the eternal spring;
They raised their hardened hands above the earth,
And beheld the walls that are not built of stone,
The portals opened by angels whose garments are of light;
And beyond the radiant walls of living stones
They dreamed vast meadows and hills of fadeless green.

In the old house across the road
With weather-beaten front, like the furrowed face of an old man,
The lights are out forever, the windows are broken,
And the oaken posts are warped;
The storms beat into the rooms as the passion of the world
Racked and buffeted those who once dwelt in them.
The psalm and the morning prayer are silent.
But the walls remain visible witnesses of faith
That knew no wavering or shadow of turning.
They have withstood sun and northern blast,
They have outlasted the unceasing strife
Of forces leagued to tear them down.
Under the stars and the clouds, under the summer sun,
Beaten by rain and wind, covered with tender vines,
The walls stand symbols of a granite race,
The measure and translation of olden times.

In the rough epic of their life, their toil, their creeds,
Their psalms, their prayers, what stirring tales
Of days that were their past had they to tell
Their children to keep the new faith burning?
Tales of grandsires in the fatherland
Whose faith was seven times tried in fiery furnaces,--
Of Rowland Taylor who kissed the stake,
And stood with hands folded and eyes steadfastly turned
To the sky, and smiled upon the flames;
Of Latimer, and of Cranmer who for cowardice heroically atoned--
Who thrust his right hand into the fire
Because it had broken plight with his heart
And written against the voice of his conviction.
With such memories they exalted and cherished
The heroism of their tried souls,
And ours are wrung with doubt and self-distrust!

I am kneeling on the odorous earth;
The sweet, shy feet of Spring come tripping o'er the land,
Winter is fled to the hills, leaving snowy wreaths
On apple-tree, meadow, and marsh.
The walls are astir; little waves of blue
Run through my fingers murmuring:
"We follow the winds and the snow!"
Their heart is a cup of gold.
Soft whispers of showers and flowers
Are mingled in the spring song of the walls.
Hark to the songs that go singing like the wind
Through the chinks of the wall and thrill the heart
And quicken it with passionate response!
The walls sing the song of wild bird, the hoof-beat of deer,
The murmur of pine and cedar, the ripple of many streams;
Crows are calling from the Druidical wood;
The morning mist still haunts the meadows
Like the ghosts of the wall builders.

As I listen, methinks I hear the bitter plaint
Of the passing of a haughty race,
The wronged, friendly, childlike, peaceable tribes,
The swarthy archers of the wilderness,
The red men to whom Nature opened all her secrets,
Who knew the haunts of bird and fish,
The hidden virtue of herb and root;
All the travail of man and beast they knew--
Birth and death, heat and cold,
Hunger and thirst, love and hate;
For these are the unchanging things writ in the imperishable book of life
That man suckled at the breast of woman must know.

In the dim sanctuary of the pines
The winds murmur their mysteries through dusky aisles--
Secrets of earth's renewal and the endless cycle of life.
Living things are afoot among the grasses;
The closed fingers of the ferns unfold,
New bees explore new flowers, and the brook
Pours virgin waters from the rushing founts of May.
In the old walls there are sinister voices--
The groans of women charged with witchcraft.
I see a lone, gray, haggard woman standing at bay,
Helpless against her grim, sin-darkened judges.
Terror blanches her lips and makes her confess
Bonds with demons that her heart knows not.
Satan sits by the judgment-seat and laughs.
The gray walls, broken, weatherworn oracles,
Sing that she was once a girl of love and laughter,
Then a fair mother with lullabies on her lips,
Caresses in her eyes, who spent her days
In weaving warmth to keep her brood against the winter cold.
And in her tongue was the law of kindness;
For her God was the Lord Jehovah.
Enemies uprose and swore her accused,
Laid at her door the writhing forms of little children,
And she could but answer: "The Evil One
Torments them in my shape."
She stood amazed before the tribunal of her church
And heard the gate of God's house closed against her.
Oh, shuddering silence of the throng,
And fearful the words spoken from the judgment-seat!
She raised her white head and clasped her wrinkled hands:
"Pity me, Lord, pity my anguish!
Nor, since Thou art a just and terrible God,
Forget to visit thy wrath upon these people;
For they have sworn away the life of Thy servant
Who hath lived long in the land keeping Thy commandments.
I am old, Lord, and betrayed;
By neighbor and kin am I betrayed;
A Judas kiss hath marked me for a witch.
Possessed of a devil? Here be a legion of devils!
Smite them, O God, yea, utterly destroy them that persecute the innocent."
Before this mother in Israel the judges cowered;
But still they suffered her to die.
Through the tragic, guilty walls I hear the sighs
Of desolate women and penitent, remorseful men.

Sing of happier themes, O many-voiced epic,
Sing how the ages, like thrifty husbandmen, winnow the creeds of men,
And leave only faith and love and truth.
Sing of the Puritan's nobler nature,
Fathomless as the forests he felled,
Irresistible as the winds that blow.
His trenchant conviction was but the somber bulwark
Which guarded his pure ideal.
Resolute by the communion board he stood,
And after solemn prayer solemnly cancelled
And abolished the divine right of kings
And declared the holy rights of man.
Prophet and toiler, yearning for other worlds, yet wise in this;
Scornful of earthly empire and brooding on death,
Yet wrestling life out of the wilderness
And laying stone on stone the foundation of a temporal state!
I see him standing at his cabin-door at eventide
With dreaming, fearless eyes gazing at sunset hills;
In his prophetic sight Liberty, like a bride,
Hasteth to meet her lord, the westward-going man!
Even as he saw the citadel of Heaven,
He beheld an earthly state divinely fair and just.
Mystic and statesman, maker of homes,
Strengthened by the primal law of toil,
And schooled by monarch-made injustices,
He carried the covenant of liberty with fire and sword,
And laid a rich state on frugality!
Many republics have sprung into being,
Full-grown, equipped with theories forged in reason;
All, all have fallen in a single night;
But to the wise, fire-hardened Puritan
Democracy was not a blaze of glory
To crackle for an hour and be quenched out
By the first gust that blows across the world.
I see him standing at his cabin-door,
And all his dreams are true as when he dreamed them;
But only shall they be fulfilled if we
Are mindful of the toil that gave him power,
Are brave to dare a wilderness of wrong;
So long shall Nature nourish us and Spring
Throw riches in the lap of man
As we beget no wasteful, weak-handed generations,
But bend us to the fruitful earth in toil.
Beyond the wall a new-plowed field lies steaming in the sun,
And down the road a merry group of children
Run toward the village school.

Hear, O hear! In the historian walls
Rises the beat and the tumult of the struggle for freedom.
Sacred, blood-stained walls, your peaceful front
Sheltered the fateful fires of Lexington;
Builded to fence green fields and keep the herds at pasture,
Ye became the frowning breastworks of stern battle;
Lowly boundaries of the freeman's farm,
Ye grew the rampart of a land at war;
And still ye cross the centuries
Between the ages of monarchs and the age
When farmers in their fields are kings.
From the Revolution the young Republic emerged,
She mounted up as on the wings of the eagle,
She ran and was not weary, and all the children of the world
Joined her and followed her shining path.
But ever as she ran, above her lifted head
Darkened the monster cloud of slavery.
Hark! In the walls, amid voices of prayer and of triumph,
I hear the clank of manacles and the ominous mutterings of bondsmen!
At Gettysburg, our Golgotha, the sons of the fathers
Poured their blood to wash out a nation's shame.
Cleansed by tribulation and atonement,
The broken nation rose from her knees,
And with hope reborn in her heart set forth again
Upon the open road to ideal democracy.

Sing, walls, in lightning words that shall cause the world to vibrate,
Of the democracy to come,
Of the swift, teeming, confident thing!
We are part of it--the wonder and the terror and the glory!
Fearless we rush forward to meet the years,
The years that come flying towards us
With wings outspread, agleam on the horizon of time!

O eloquent, sane walls, instinct with a new faith,
Ye are barbarous, in congruous, but great with the greatness of reality.
Walls wrought in unfaltering effort,
Sing of our prosperity, the joyous harvest
Of the labor of lusty toilers.
Down through the years comes the ring of their victorious axes:
"Ye are titans of the forest, but we are stronger;
Ye are strong with the strength of mighty winds,
But we are strong with the unconquerable strength of souls!"
Still the young race, unassailable, inviolate,
Shakes the solitudes with the strokes of creation;
Doubly strong we renew the valorous days,
And like a measureless sea we overflow
The fresh green, benevolent West,
The buoyant, fruitful West that dares and sings!
Pure, dew-dripping walls that guard
The quiet, lovable, fertile fields,
Sing praises to Him who from the mossy rocks
Can bid the fountains leap in thirsty lands.
I walk beside the stones through the young grain,
Through waves of wheat that billow about my knees.
The walls contest the onward march of the wheat;
But the wheat is charged with the life of the world;
Its force is irresistible; onward it sweeps,
An engulfing tide, over all the land,
Till hill and valley, field and plain
Are flooded with its green felicity!
Out of the moist earth it has sprung;
In the gracious amplitudes of her bosom it was nurtured,
And in it is wrought the miracle of life.

Sing, prophetic, mystic walls, of the dreams of the builders;
Sing in thundering tones that shall thrill us
To try our dull discontent, our barren wisdom
Against their propagating, unquenchable, questionless visions.
Sing in renerving refrain of the resolute men,
Each a Lincoln in his smoldering patience,
Each a Luther in his fearless faith,
Who made a breach in the wall of darkness
And let the hosts of liberty march through.

Calm, eternal walls, tranquil, mature,
Which old voices, old songs, old kisses cover,
As mosses and lichens cover your ancient stones,
Teach me the secret of your serene repose;
Tell of the greater things to be,
When love and wisdom are the only creed,
And law and right are one.
Sing that the Lord cometh, the Lord cometh,
The fountain-head and spring of life!
Sing, steady, exultant walls, in strains hallowed and touched with fire,
Sing that the Lord shall build us all together.
As living stones build us, cemented together.
May He who knoweth every pleasant thing
That our sires forewent to teach the peoples law and truth,
Who counted every stone blessed by their consecrated hands,
Grant that we remain liberty-loving, substantial, elemental,
And that faith, the rock not fashioned of human hands,
Be the stability of our triumphant, toiling days.

See also The Amazing Story of Helen Keller

The Amazing Story of Helen Keller

Helen Keller was born in Alabama, U.S. on June 27, 1880. An illness diagnosed as 'brain fever' at the time left her deaf and blind when she was only nineteen months of age. She spent the first years of her life in isolation, cut off from the world and having little understanding of what was going on around her. However, in March, 1887, when she was less than seven years old, she met the person who was going to change her life. Anne Mansfield Sullivan, a 20-year-old graduate of the Perkins School for the Blind, came to their house and undertook the difficult task of teaching Helen. Soon the little girl grew attached of her teacher and the two became inseparable. The bond between them became stronger and stronger as time went by and it could only be broken by Anne's death in 1936.

The amazing methods Anne used to help the little blind and deaf girl overcome her disability and become aware of the world around her are described by Helen in her autobiography entitled The Story of My Life. Soon the wild uncontrollable child grew into a wise and responsible woman who had a lot to say to the world and still has a lot to say to us today.

By her personal example, Helen Keller revolutionized people's outlook on disability and revealed the amazing potential of the human being. She learned Braille and used it to read not only English but also French, German, Greek and Latin. At the age of 24, she was the first deafblind person in history to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree after graduating college with Magna cum Laude. She became a prolific writer and a world-famous speaker. She campaigned for various progressive causes, such as women's suffrage, workers' right and birth control.

Helen Keller wrote several books and articles. At the age of 23 she published her famous autobiography, The Story of My Life. Other works include The World I Live In (1908), Out of the Dark (1913), Light in My Darkness (1927) and the poem The Song of the Stone Wall.

To download the free e-book The Story of My Life by Helen Keller, click here.

A Prayer for Friends

Lord God, as somebody so beautifully put it, 'friends are the family we choose for ourselves'. In a world where everything seems so unstable and brother turns against brother, there is nothing more comforting than the thought of having faithful friends who are always ready to offer us their help and support.

You taught us, Lord, to love one another as you had loved us and that there is no greater love for a man than to give his life for his friends. Through your life and personal example you gave us a lesson on what true friendship means. Help us follow you and be good friends to our friends. Fill us with your Holy Spirit, so that we can find the right words to pray for them and to thank you for bringing them in our lives.

And as we pray, from the depth of our heart and mind, we say to you: Lord God, watch over my friends. Protect them from all evil and harm and never leave them when they are in need as they have never left me when I was in need. Be their helper and comforter as they have been my helpers and comforters in times of trouble.

Never let any of their prayers return from you unanswered. Never let them feel the sting of loneliness or the bitterness of despair. When hope is gone, bring it back to them. When faith is lost, restore it and make it ten times stronger. When they face challenges, hold them by hand and bear their burdens all along the way. Let them feel the power of your unchanged love renewed with every step they take.

Work in their lives. Be strong in their hearts. Heal their bodies and souls and help them make the best of this life as they prepare for eternity. Reveal to them the beauty of your creation and the miracle of your love. Give them a faith so strong that it can move mountains. And as they acknowledge you in their lives, come and sit at their table and dine with them. Make room for them in your eternal kingdom and keep their candle burning until the end of times. AMEN

Teach Us How To Pray

Lord God, my mind is too small to understand the miracle of prayer. All I know is that it's the best way of communicating with you we've got so far and I thank you for it with all my heart and my soul. Teach us how to pray in an efficient way. Teach us how to pray so that our prayer is heard and answered. Work in our hearts, make our lives worthy of you, so that when we pray, we do it in such a way that is pleasant in your eyes.

So many times we ask for irrelevant things, thinking that we know what's best for us. Help us understand that you know better, because to you nothing is hidden and you know all the things we don't know. Teach us to surrender to your will and pray like Jesus in the Lord's Prayer: 'Thy will be done'. Give us inner peace and comfort as we come to the realization that everything works out for our good and that, as long as we stick with you, nothing wrong can happen to us.

Fill our whole hearts and minds with faith, hope and love and let the spring of everlasting joy flow within us and from within us all around, as we acknowledge you as our father, friend and comforter; our one and only treasure that can never be taken away from us.

How To Be A Prayer Warrior, by Michael Heindel

A prayer warrior is an individual who is willing to prayer for others out of the goodness of their heart and with no expectations of reward or payment. Prayer warriors may not personally know the individuals they are praying for but they pray for them as if they were a beloved family member or friend. The prayer of a prayer warrior is specific to the needs of the individual in need of prayer, filled with love and compassion for the individual in need of prayer and made with complete faith that God will answer the prayer according to His divine plan.

Being a prayer warrior is not always easy but it is something that everyone has the capabilities to achieve. The requirements of a prayer warrior include understanding the importance of prayer, believing that all prayers are answered, desiring to open your heart to all of God's people and most importantly being available to pray for others each and every day. The need for prayer never ceases and prayer warriors should be willing to offer themselves in prayer at all times. The duties of a prayer warrior do not necessarily have to be time consuming but the time spent in prayer for others should be a time of sincerity and earnestness. It should also be time that is devoid of other thoughts and obligations.

Advantages of Being a Prayer Warrior

While prayer warriors are truly selfless individuals who desire to offer their prayer for the good of others, there are distinct advantages to being a prayer warrior. Spiritual growth is the most significant advantage to being a prayer warrior. In daily prayer for others with no expectations of reward, the prayer warrior grows spiritually in several ways. The first aspect of spiritual growth that comes from service as a prayer warrior includes learning how to pray effectively. Like everything in life, prayer takes practice. As prayer warriors become more experienced they learn to open their hearts and connect with God in new ways. Another aspect of spiritual growth that results from service as a prayer warrior is a heightened inner peace. Praying for others can be just as spiritually rewarding as offering prayers of thanksgiving. Finally, helping others is an enlivening feeling that is difficult to achieve in other ways.

About the Author

Michael Heindel is the owner of PrayerRequestBox.com, a website for posting prayer requests and for praying for those in need.

Prayer for Our Loved Ones

My Lord Jesus, you taught us that faith can move mountains. You also taught us that we should only ask and we will be given. While you were here on Earth, you cured ailments and diseases the doctors had given up on and you raised people from the dead. You taught us the power of prayer and belief and that we should pray with confidence, as if we've already received the thing we are asking for.

To you, Master, I turn today, with my heart full of hope and confidence, knowing that no prayer will return from you unanswered and no request unresolved. Also knowing that all things work for our good and that you always choose what is right for us. In your name I pray to the Father of all, Creator of the Universe, and cry in the middle of the night: Father, watch over the ones I love! You know the depth of each one of them and you love them all with a love as fresh as roses and as unchanged as eternity. Never walk away from them. Never leave them struggle alone. Be their friend and comforter and let them feel with every fibre of their being that they are loved and cared for.

Our life is in your hands. I entrust their lives to you. I entrust you all their thoughts, all their worries and concerns. Guide them on the way. Lead their steps and help them always take the right decisions. Be strong in them, so that they may be strong in you. Surround them with your love like with a warm blanket, so that they may never feel cold, deserted or neglected. Help them grow and bring good fruit, enrich them spiritually, so that they can find the power to handle all unexpected or undesired situations.

Bring the right people in their way, so that they can get the help and support they need. Forgive them when they make mistakes and bring them home when they go astray. Let them experiment your love and goodness in every aspect of their lives, in every possible way. For you are the father of those whom I'm praying for today and I know that as long as you remain by their side, nothing bad can happen to them. Work in their lives, so that your name may be glorified in each and every one of them. AMEN

Mother Teresa Quotes

Words that touch the heart and enlighten the mind. Words that speak of a life dedicated to loving and caring beyond any human boundaries. Words of wisdom and of a faith that defies reason.

Rather than reading these quotes as separate statements, read them as a whole, as the creed of a lifetime, the testament of a beautiful soul for the generations to come.

''Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.''
Mother Teresa

''God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.''
Mother Teresa

''We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love.''
Mother Teresa

''Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start. ''
Mother Teresa

''Jesus said love one another. He didn't say love the whole world.''
Mother Teresa

''If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one.''
Mother Teresa

''Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.''
Mother Teresa

''If you judge people, you have no time to love them.''
Mother Teresa

''Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.''
Mother Teresa

''Be the living expression of God's kindness.''
Mother Teresa

''Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.''
Mother Teresa

''Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.''
Mother Teresa

''Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.''
Mother Teresa

''We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.''
Mother Teresa

''The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.''
Mother Teresa

''The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.''
Mother Teresa

''One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.''
Mother Teresa

''Loneliness is the most terrible poverty.''
Mother Teresa

''Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.''
Mother Teresa

''Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.''
Mother Teresa

''I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.''
Mother Teresa

''I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.''
Mother Teresa

''I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.''
Mother Teresa

Prayer Requests

Stephanie: Please pray that my husband comes back to me. He recently filed for divorce and is with another woman. Please pray that this woman leave his life. Pease pray that he doesn't hate me and has forgiven me of any wrong doings I may have done to cause him to leave me. I still love him. I'm praying for a miracle that he comes back to me.

Dawn: Please pray for my son Kyle, who is only 21 and suffers from anxiety and self destructive behaviours of drug and alcohol abuse. Although he wants to do the right things, he lapses and is unstable. Please ask the Lord to heal him and give him strength so that we may have peace and harmony in our home.

Roger Harnden: My wife and I are going through really difficult financial problems in that both our business's are failing to supply our needs (rent, food etc.) I have applied for a job and informed that my application was approved and advised that I have the job but they can not confirm the start date. Each month the hole of debt is getting bigger. I ask you to pray that this job comes through so that I can go out and work to cover the bills and take the financial pressure off the business. I prayed to our Abba Father - even wrote a letter in my bible asking the Lord to help me find a job which would allow me to keep my business while working for the company, praise the lord a few weeks later I received a phone call to come for the interview, they have no problem with me keeping my business while working for them, this is the same company who has confirmed that I have the job but have not confirmed the start date. Please fellow christians pray for us and the company that the company can start their expansion and I can start working for them taking financial pressure off the business and try and start to re-build. Praise the Lord, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoseever believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life, Amen

Jugmeet: God, I want permanent residency in Australia. One and half year passed i left my son in my home country. Every night I am crying. I can't go back because I had taken a big amount when I came. Please, help me, otherwise I want to die.

Marike: I am very unhappy in my current job. It is a place where I do get the chance to use my abilities and gifts as a designer. But I am not where I am suppose to be. I surrender my life, my gifts and talents to You. I want to be in Your perfect will to do exactly what You want me to do. I want people to see You working in my life and not myself. My Lord, please put me in the place where I can do your Good works to Glorify Your name.

Iris: Please pray that God will heal my gums and teeth, they are hurting. Please pray that my boyfriend will step out on faith and ask me to marry him. He has been hurt many times and he is thinking that I may do the same, and God knows that I would never. Please pray that God will continue to get me out of debt. Pray that our Centers her at work will thrive and that there will not be any layoffs, in Jesus name. Thank you so much for praying for us. Merry Christmas.

Myrna: Please pray for me and my daughter Jennifer, that the Lord give us the strenghth to overcome all our trials and to always love God more, but most of all we need peace in our hearts and home... I have a man that I have lived with for 21 yrs, everything is not lovely but i have tried my best, the only beautiful thing that came out of this relationship was my 18yr. old son. This man verbally abuses me, especially when I'm praying. All I ask is for u to please pray that i can find a job, so that I can leave him and find peace, because it's affecting me and my son how he humiliates me. Thank u so much. God Bless U All

Pat: Charlotte is going through extreme emotional stress and depression. That God will counsel Charlotte and give her Inner Peace and remove this burden from her. That God will heal Charlotte and give her Peace and calm to protector her from any and all harm. Also that Charlotte and I will strenthen our relationship. And that God will guide myself and Charlotte to do His will. That Charlotte and I will happily marry with His Blessing to do his work for life.

Kara: Please pray for my cousin Austin. He is lost up on the mountain right now and it is dark and cold. They have radio contact with him but there is a storm coming, they are expecting 2 feet of new snow tonight. Please pray that he stay safe and warm through the night and that they find him soon. Pray that God give him the strength to make it through this night and that God and his Angels be with him protecting him through this ordeal. Thank you, your prayers are appreciated.

Sarah: Please pray with me for the salvation of a man named Bill, and for those in his family who don’t know Jesus, or how much He truly loves them. I am not in a position to witness to this man personally, but 2 Christians (one being someone who Bill knows) have been contacted to this regard. Please ask the Lord to extend His spirit to facilitate and lead a conversational witness through these men, and by way of anyone else whom He may choose. Please ask God to extend His grace toward Bill, doing everything needed to chase him, lift the veil from his eyes, bring conviction to his heart and show him his need for a Savior. Like us all, Bill has made some mistakes, and has unfortunately had some tragic things to happen in his life. He and his family need knowledge about God's love, His grace, His glory, His offer of forgiveness, healing, deliverance, and protection--especially now because at this time Bill is in danger of influence by unbelievers (who also need prayer) whose worldly beliefs stand in opposition to God's word. Please ask the Lord to surround Bill with believers who can minister to him, and that He may use the challenges Bill has endured to further the kingdom and lead him to salvation; then, that others will see and also be pointed to Christ by what God does in Bill's life. I thank you sincerely, for your prayers and time.

Shana: Please pray for me. I have been battling many demons. I have a self infliction problem. I cut myself constantly to release emotional pain. I am 26 yrs old and I have two daughters (2&4). Their father is currently incarcerated and will be for the next year and half to two years. I have been financially stressed and i know my babies feel my pain. I don't want my disorder to affect my kids. I am scared that if I seek professional help, I may be forced to stay at a mental institution and lose my daughters. Please help!
Vic: Please pray for strength and hope and that the Lord will guide me in the path that He has chosen for me. Pray for my relationship, that the girl i love before all else loves me in return as much as i love her.
I too have lost my job through retrenchment and i am on the verge of suicide. Please pray that the Lord will bless me with a position that is better than the one i lost according to His will. I have hurt too many people in this life and at the moment i have no direction and no desire to get up in the morning to face another day of job hunting with all the rejection that goes with it. So therefore i humbly ask that a prayer be said for me to re discover the faith that the Lord wants me to have.

David: Please pray for God to bless me with a wonderful job of His choice. I lost my former job through retrenchment. I have a family which I should provide for. Thanks

Sara: Please pray for me to stay strong and give me faith in you lord, as my faith is doubted at the moment.

My gran died over a year ago, and i recently have moved into her house that she left to me and my children, my two children are also living in her old house.I have been so busy since she died, with dealing with her funeral and having a college course to do administration and having to gutter the house im now living in that loosing my gran has not hit me badly untill today.

Today i realised that i have been focusing in a carear so badly to maintain the house that my gran left as so if she could look down on me she would be proud that i have decorated and worked hard on it so my children would ejoy in it. But i have been woundering as the house is so peacefull and calm that almost no shred of evidence almost that my gran had ever exicsted and i keep wishing her to be home with me and my grandfather as they both brought me up.

But i feel that i will never see them again and that really frightens me and i feel like i wish i was dead, but then i think i cant do anything like that because my children need me and i love them so much. Ihave a horse that i deeply love too and he is lame, he has kept me going by his unconditonal love and i pray that he shall be ok and that his lameness will go away and he will not be in pain anymore.

I have a job interview tomorrow and i really hope i have some luck soon either a job or part time studing in college as if i am not busy i know i will become so upset of the lost of my gran and that this house will just make me feel worst as my mind will be constantly be on my gran and wishing her back. i keep asking but what if i never see my gran and then i really panick inside.

I also have no boyfriend, i would love to find love again in a relationship, i have been feeling very unloved lately. I think of how i use to feel when i was in love before and I just cant see me ever being with somebody ever again.

Please prayer for me to stay strong and to keep my faith and i would like to prayer for my children to keep them from any harms way and for my love to shine through to them and keep them strong especially over the xmas period as my daughter nadia was especially close to my gran and i dont want my daughter ever to feel as low as what im starting to feel, also prayer for my horse lad, to get better and to heal him of his lameness and for me to find my soul mate and to be complete. I just want this emptyness feeling to go and fill it with love instead,

Amen

Thank you for helping me pray,
Sara

Wanda: I have two adult children who know about God since they were brought up in a Christian home. They have chosen to walk away from their faith. I ask for prayer that God will show them His great love and that they will seek the blood of Jesus to wash them of their sins. I feel great urgency right now as a mother. Please pray for them.

N: Praise the Lord!

I'm a born-again believer of Lord Christ. Got married Just 3 months back after 10 long years of prayer but... My husband and I have been having major marital problems and we are now on the verge of breaking up. After marriage I came to know that He has got all bad habits and beats me everyday. I came out from My husband as he is putting lot of false and base-less allegations on my behaviour and character. He has cheated me by having illegal relatioship with other women before marriage with me and in the process of marrying her... Everyone of my well-wishers,church members suggest that I end this relationship. Pls do pray for me as he is creating lot of legal problems in giving Divorce from his end now,though initially he wants to divorce me. Let Lord guide me in this matter.

Kindly pray for me in relation to my marriage as the case is in court now. We also need a financial blessing. I am now weary and fed up and frustrated. I need divine intervention. Thanks for your prayers as I wait in faith.

Yours sister in Christ..

Kevin: I have just gone through a deep and painful place in my life which inlcuded some really painful emotions from a past divorce and a past rejection, that seemed like a box with all kinds of springs in it. I eventually opened the box so to speak and realized it was empty all along but in the process I have deeply hurt two people, I feel as though I have lost all my integrity and only God knows how to put me back together. Please pray that God will give me peace as he rebuilds me and that as it says in Job that When he's tried me, I will come forth like Gold.

Mindy Aki: Please pray for me to find work with God's help as I go through these terrible times. Please also pray for my husband for his job to be blessed, protected and saved during these trying times.

Denise: Please pray for the Wood family who has gone through many difficult times, also Poppy, the family dog, who has been very poorly. Thank you.

Jayakabra: Please pray for me. I'm broken , dreams didn't get fulfilled ... i'm dying slowly and slowly .. I wanted to study further and wanted to do work, as these days i'm doing nothing .. at home only from 3 yrs. I have wasted my valuable time . What 2 do?? Please pray 4 me ... 4 my dreams. Yhank u. God bless all. Amen. And forgive as u said.

John: Please pray for me. I need a job in Aviation/aerospace industry. I am a fresh graduate and lack experience, which makes it difficult for my entry to any company. Please pray that any of the company\'s that I have posted my CV might notice it and respond. It's going to be two months that I am waiting and no interview till date. Also, pray that God might give me good hope and comfort while I am forced to wait. Thank you for offering this service, I will also remember this organization in my prayers. God bless.

Michael: I have an urgent prayer request.

I am a missionary of evangelism, intercession and church planting. I have been able to reach an island of one million in Asia in fifteen years.

My daughter, Micah Bailey says “Souls are her passion”. She is 24 and desires to be a pilot missionary. She is working for the money to get all of her training.

I have been invited to go to different countries and I need to hear from God as to which one. This is very important.

I have a friend named Jim Brouse, whom I have been praying for around ten years. He has a business deal that has closed and the ships have sailed. He needs to receive payment. I would ask that you pray for this business deal and for him to receive this payment. This will be a great advance for the Kingdom of God. This is for billions of dollars.

Thank you very much for your time and your prayers.
P. Michael Bailey
www.globalrevivals.org
www.globalventuresnow.org
michaelandevangelism@gmail.com
205-375-2511

Eliza: Thank you for all your prayers. My surgery went well and I'm recovering quickly.

Johny: Please pray for the success of our office building construction . This is a government work. Please pray so that there is no hindrance and liability issues. Please pray so that the building is safe and long lasting. We work for it sincerely.

Jeffrey: Please Pray that Jesus will protect Mrs. Nishrin and her seven year old son Hyder Ali, and deliver them from all the powers and bondages of the Devil.

Trey: Please pray for my getting accepted to USC.

Jennifer: Please pray for Jennifer, she is going through hard times, she has 2 children. Pleases pray that the city approves her application. Due to a domestic violence that she went through she had to leave her apartment to another and she needs help to paid part of her rent because it's 900.00. She is a caring person always helping others and now there's nobody there for her but God. Thank u so much.

Eliza: Please pray for all the people who live in fear and anxiety.

Eliza: Please pray for me, as I'm having a surgery next Friday (24 July) and I feel very apprehensive about it.

Prayer for Peace and Wisdom

Dear God, our Friend, our Father. Fulfill the work you've started in our lives. Work in our church. Heal old wounds and remove old adversities. Bring us closer together and make us realize that you are one and that we're all one in your name. Help us overcome our earthly nature that longs for power and recognition. Make us never forget that our important work here on earth is to be messengers of your goodness and to reflect your love in everything we say and do.

So many times we act like children, letting our feelings and desires overcome our reason. So many times we let minor issues blind our faith and darken our perspective. Help our spirit grow and make our faith stronger, so that we can fulfill the work you've entrusted us. There are so many people around us who need our love and support; so many lives that have no direction; so many souls that are like sheep without a shepherd. Help us bring the breeze of hope and comfort into each and every one of them. Make us wake up and realize that our life is too short to waste it in pointless arguments and selfish battles; that our mission is too big and important to treat it lightly or ignore it for our vain ambitions.

You put us here to be a light in the darkness, to offer help and guidance to those who need them. Help us use all our resources for the good of our neighbours and the glory of your name. Bring peace in our hearts, so that we can share it to others. Teach us your wisdom, so that we can teach it to others. Change us with your love, so that we can change those around us. Be our friend and comforter, so that we, in our turn, can learn to be true friends and comforters. Strenghten our faith, so that we can help others grow in their faith. Touch us in every possible way, so that we can make a difference. For you are the sense of our lives and the meaning of our existence, help us live in accordance with your will. Amen

Happy Easter

May God bless you all who celebrate Easter today and bring His holy light into your lives and souls.

Quotes by Harry Emerson Fosdick

"For religion is something more than all the creeds that have endeavoured to express its thought. Religion is something more than all the organizations that have tried to incarnate its purposes. Religion is the human spirit, by the grace of God, seeking and finding an interpretation of experience that puts sense and worth, dignity, elevation, joy, and hope into life."

"To exist is one thing; to live is another. Existence is comprised of the bare facts of life alone--the universe in which we live, our heritage and birth, our desires and their satisfactions, growth, age and death. All the facts that science can display before us comprise existence. But life is something more. Life is existence clothed in spiritual meanings; existence seen with a worthy purpose at the heart of it and hope ahead, existence informed by the spirit's insights and understandings, transfigured and glorified by the spirit's faiths and hopes. It follows, therefore, that while existence is given us to start with, life is a spiritual achievement. A man must take the facts of his existence whether he wants to or not, but he makes his life by the activity of his soul."

"He [Jesus] has become to us in this, our inner need, what the luminous phrase of the Book of Job describes, "An interpreter, one among a thousand." And in spite of all our immediate expectancy, born out of our scientific control of life, mankind never needed that service more than now."

"Man's deepest need is spiritual power, and spiritual power comes out of the soul's deep fellowships with the living God."

"For the supreme moral asset in any man's life is not his aggressiveness nor his pugnacity, but his capacity to be inspired--to be inspired by great books, great music, by love and friendship; to be inspired by great faiths, great hopes, great ideals; to be inspired supremely by the Spirit of God. For so we are lifted until the things we tried to see and could not we now can see because of the altitude at which we stand, and the things we tried to do and could not we now can do because of the fellowship in which we live. "

"Spiritual transformation is infinitely various because it is so infinitely vital; but behind all the special forms of experience stands the colossal fact that men can be transformed by the Spirit of God."

"We do not passively submit to God's will; we actively assert it."

"God's righteousness is interpreted, not in terms of justice only, but of compassionate, sacrificial love; his Fatherhood embraces not only all mankind but each individual, lifting him out of obscurity in the mass into infinite worthfulness and hope. And more than this development of idea, the New Testament gives us a new picture of God in the personality of Jesus, and we see the light of the knowledge of God's glory in his face."

"Religion is the most intimate, inward, incommunicable fellowship of the human soul. "

"You never know God at all until you know him for yourself. The only God you ever will know is the God you do know for yourself."

"Christianity in the beginning was an intensely personal experience."

"For Christianity is not a creed, nor an organization, nor a ritual. These are important but they are secondary. They are the leaves, not the roots; they are the wires, not the message. Christianity itself is a life."

"Take the personality of Jesus out of Christian history and what you have left is chaos."

"Creation has never said its last word on any subject or landed its last hammer blow on any task. "

"The centuries are sick with a god made in man's image, and all the time the real God has been saying, 'Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself.'"

"Let a man once begin with God as the universal spiritual Presence and then go on to see the divine quality of that Presence revealed in Christ, and there is no limit to the deepening and heightening of his estimation of God's character, except the limits of his own moral imagination."

"The achievement of a worthy idea of God involves, therefore, the ability to discover God in all life, outside the Church as well as within, and in people who do not believe in him nor recognize him as well as in those who do."

"We are tempted to look for God's activity chiefly, if not altogether, inside the organization that avows him. But that cannot be true. He comes in like the sun through every chink and crevice where he can find a way of entrance. He does not wait to be welcomed. He does not insist on being consciously recognized before he enters a man's life. Rather, through any door or window left unwittingly ajar where he may steal in, even though unobserved, to lift and liberate a life, there the God of the New Testament will come--'the light which lighteth every man coming into the world.'"

" There is a flame in the center of your heart which you cannot put out. If there were no God it would be easier to disbelieve in him than it is. You cannot get rid of him because the best in you is God in you. "

"In a world which out of lowly beginnings has climbed so far and seems intended to go on to heights unimagined, God is our hope and in his name we will set up our banners."

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