SCRIPTURES AND PRAYER
Today’s Reading: Romans 15
Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion on the right-hand side).
The Roman Colosseum was commissioned in AD 72 by Emperor Vespasian. It was completed by his son, Titus, in 80. The Colosseum is located just east of the Roman Forum and was built to a practical design, with its 80 arched entrances allowing easy access to 55,000 spectators, who were seated according to rank. The Colosseum is huge, measuring 188m long and 156m wide. Originally, 240 masts were attached to stone corbels on the 4th level to provide shade. Vespasian ordered the Colosseum to be build on the site of Nero's palace, to dissociate himself from the hated tyrant. His aim was to gain popularity by staging deadly combats of gladiators and wild animal fights for public viewing. Massacre was on a huge scale: at inaugural games in AD 80, over 9,000 wild animals were killed. It is believed that many Christians were martyred there.
GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.
Key Verse: Romans 15:30
Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me…
If Paul, the mighty Apostle, needed prayer, how much more do we need to ask those who believe in the God who hears and answers prayer to pray for us. “Strive together” speaks of finding others with whom to pray. Prayer meetings at our churches and home prayer groups are very important. Our Crossroads ministry prayer partners are available 24/7. Call 1-866-273-4444 for prayer! Did you notice that Paul said, “with me”? He saw his personal prayers and those of other believers as one before God’s throne of grace.
In Romans 15:4 the ultimate importance of the “Scriptures” is emphasized. Our readings daily are producing “patience and comfort.” The knowledge of the “Scriptures” brings “hope.” Reading the Scriptures and spending time in prayer guarantees a two-way conversation with God. Let Him talk to us first, and then respond in prayer to what He may have said to us through His inspired Word!
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord God, in today’s reading You have spoken to me about several matters. First of all, the importance of the Scriptures and also the absolute essential practice of prayer. Please keep me faithful. You’ve also spoken to me about truly loving others, Jews and Gentiles alike. Twice Paul mentions Spain. You’ve spoken to me to keep a vision for the future. By the working of Your Spirit in me, I pray an obedient response on my part. In Jesus’ Name. Amen!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
I need your prayers. Thank you to those who’ve let me know that they are praying for me! I believe that God is saying “Yes” to those prayer requests. While I seldom get to answer individually the letters, e-mails, and blog comments, I do read prayerfully every communication sent to me. Thank you! Thank You! Thank You!
Paul mentioned Spain twice in our reading. Crossroads also has a vision for Spain and the whole world. Back in 1992, we sponsored a soul-winning Pavilion at Spain’s World Expo. We saw over 53,000 first-time decisions for Christ recorded. These precious people signed up for a Bible correspondence course and were followed-up around the world by Scripture Union. Here’s another prayer, “Lord Jesus, would you let Paul know about this Crossroads mission if he doesn’t already know? I believe he would be blessed to hear about this effective outreach for You in Spain. Thank You Jesus!” Thanks to all the Crossroads supporters who continue to make our many outreaches possible by giving so faithfully and generously. Let’s rally around our team, Dr. John Hull, Rev. Ron Mainse, and others. YES LORD!!!!
Yours for paying attention to what God is saying to us as we read, and then praying for His will to be done in all things,
David
P.S. Remember the little boy who went to Heaven who was featured daily for a month on 100 Huntley Street? Here’s a video clip of his Dad, Todd Burpo, and Jim Cantelon talking about prayer (click here). The full story is in Todd’s book “Heaven Is For Real,” which is available in our Crossroads eStore here.
Always praying for you, David Mainse–fine sir and faithful servant! And thanking God for your precious soul, fervent ministry and commitment to this blog which delivers daily manna to countless Christians around the world. Ever so grateful! Today marks the 9th anniversary of my father’s passing. I am so blessed to hold onto the strength and fellowship from this blog.
For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty2 Pet 1:16. Your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power 2 Cor 2:5. The God of peace be with all of you, oh precious saints. Amen!
After reading today’s reading, this song came to mind–nothing could be more true!
Your Name, Paul Baloche
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PuQFh–Lk4&list=PLAF5AD2210270F1EC
As morning dawns and evening fades
You inspire songs of praise
That rise from earth to touch Your heart and glorify Your Name
CHORUS
Your Name is a strong and mighty tower
Your Name is a shelter like no other
Your Name, let the nations sing it louder
‘Cause nothing has the power to save
But Your Name
Jesus, in Your Name we pray
Come and fill our hearts today
Lord, give us strength to live for You and glorify Your Name
CHORUS
Your Name is a strong and mighty tower
Your Name is a shelter like no other
Your Name, let the nations sing it louder
‘Cause nothing has the power to save but Your Name
INSTRUMENTAL
CHORUS
Your Name is a strong and mighty tower
Your Name is a shelter like no other
Your Name, let the nations sing it louder
(1st & 2nd endings)
‘Cause nothing has the power to save but
(Repeat Chorus)
(3rd ending)
‘Cause nothing has the power to save but Your Name
(Repeat)
I would ask for prayer also! God took my broken leg and turned it into me learning to swim..I have been at the pool for 20 years coming this April of 2015! I didn’t see it so clearly before but I do now! I pray that my words will bring glory to God, I hear countless stories of broken people, I pray for God to “nudge me” if He wants me to speak and I pray for the right words! I have experience with poverty, mental illness, sleep disorder and I deeply care for all the lifeguards! THEY ARE OUTSTANDING! I pray that my speech will being honor and glory to God! I pray that I can listen with the right ears! A lifeguard came back to work and he goes to the same church as me (when I could go) and we immediately had a bond! We are brothers and sisters in Christ. I would ask that people pray for his sister, she is 16 and diagnosed with diabetes, on insulin already It’s interesting that the guard told me as soon as I entered the pool! I pray that God has healed her already! I was deeply touched that he would tell me straight out. This is what I mean when I ask for prayers for God to guide me in my speech and actions and to help me to listen thank you. blessings to all, it’s just after 4 a.m. and I am just going to bed! Thank you Lord I have a roof over my head and a bed to sleep on! I pray for energy to get things done when I do awake!
In a sense, you too have become as a lifeguard at the pool, Sah! Keep up your marvellous faith and concern for those whom you meet and pray for. Blessings!
God bless you, Sah! Our Lord God is using you as an angel at the pool to pray for those in need, there. Amen!
Yes we pray for one another the gym is my ministry so Use me Lord Jssus everywhere I go and give me the words to speak to the people that are in my path and Dear Heavenly Father we Thank You for giving David healing and strength to continue to do Your work as well ax Ron Moira and John and Ann in Jesus name Amen
please pray for my 15 year old grandaughter to come to Jesus as well as my daughter Miranda to be the mom God wants her to be and my daughter Corrina needs a job that God has planned for her and help Abby to be included I the family and help Seth not to be jealous in all my thanks to you all for your prayers God Bless You ♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♥♡♡♡♡♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♡♥♥♥♥♥♥♡♥
Lord blessl this grandmother and her prayers for her family! AMEN
Enjoyed today’s study.. Thank u Rev.
Praying for the thousands of people slaughtered in Nigeria.
33 The God of peace be with you all. Amen.
This is a lovely old hymn. Enjoy!
Merle Haggard – Guide Me Lord: http://youtu.be/buYCJpbhAMc
Another great song.
Remind Me, Dear Lord [Live]: http://youtu.be/U-eSX1lbaOc
Yes, I took note of the key verse when I read it in the Bible. I remember the old-fashioned prayer meetings when everyone knelt down to pray; also the adult Sunday School which are not very prevalent today. I believe there would be more growth when the Word in honored and taught like in the early church. Took note of this verse as well. “Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.”(15:14). Will keep you in my prayers David, our beloved teacher and your requests Lily May and Sah. Was also praying for the stolen girls and slaughter in Nigeria. Finished reading Rees Howells, Intercessor and how he and the bible school students influenced the events of WW11 with their fasting and prayers. Blessings dear saints.
Yes, I took note of the key verse when I read it in the Bible. I remember the old-fashioned prayer meetings when everyone knelt down to pray; also the adult Sunday School which are not very prevalent today. I believe there would be more growth when the Word in honored and taught like in the early church. Took note of this verse as well. “
Thank you Pastor David for your faithfulness in getting our daily bread to us. I continue to pray for you, Norma-Jean and The Crossroads family. Hearing from The Lord and praying guards and strengthens my heart in these dark days we are experiencing in the world.
Please pray for our 8 year old grandson Benjamin as he has a concussion after being pushed on ice at recess. He has already forgiven the older child and I pray he will heal well. It takes time and a little 8 Yr. Old does not have too much patience when restricted from certain things. Bless all if you.
Benjamin has the “right” Spirit! Bless the parents for teaching the boy about forgiveness…PRAISE THE LORD!
I accept the theology of the Vineyard Church though I am not a member as yet. Here it is:
VINEYARD CHURCH THEOLOGY:
WE BELIEVE that God is the Eternal King. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, equal in power and glory.
WE BELIEVE that God’s kingdom is everlasting. From His throne, through his Son, His eternal Word, God created, upholds and governs all that exists: the heavenly places, the angelic hosts, the universe, the earth, every living thing and mankind. God created all things very good.
WE BELIEVE that Satan, originally a great, good angel, rebelled against God, taking a host of angels with him. He was cast out of God’s presence and, as a usurper of God’s rule established a counter-kingdom of darkness and evil on the earth.
WE BELIEVE that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for the relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God’s judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God’s good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam’s original sin. Human beings are born in sin, subject to God’s judgment of death and captive to Satan’s kingdom of darkness.
WE BELIEVE that God did not abandon His rule over the earth which he continues to uphold by His providence. In order to bring redemption, God established covenants which revealed His grace to sinful people. In the covenant with Abraham, God bound himself to his people Israel, promising to deliver them from bondage to sin and Satan and to bless all the nations through them.
WE BELIEVE that as King, God later redeemed His people by his mighty acts from bondage in Egypt and established His covenant through Moses, revealing His perfect will and our obligation to fulfill it. The law’s purpose is to order our fallen race and to make us conscious of our moral responsibility. By the work of God’s Spirit, it convicts us of our sin and God’s righteous judgment against us and brings us to Christ alone for salvation.
WE BELIEVE that when Israel rejected God’s rule over her King, God established the monarchy in Israel and made an unconditional covenant with David, promising that his heir would restore God’s kingdom reign over His people as Messiah forever.
WE BELIEVE that in the fullness of time, God honored His covenants with Israel and his prophetic promises of salvation by sending His only Son, Jesus, into the world. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, as fully God and fully man in one person, He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God’s Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, inaugurating God’s kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Gathering His disciples, He reconstituted God’s people as His Church to be the instrument of His kingdom. After dying for the sins of the world, Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day, fulfilling the covenant of blessing given to Abraham. In His sinless, perfect life Jesus met the demands of the law and in His atoning death on the cross He took God’s judgment for sin which we deserve as lawbreakers. By His death on the cross He also disarmed the demonic powers. The covenant with David was fulfilled in Jesus’ birth from David’s house, His Messianic ministry, His glorious resurrection from the dead, His ascent into heaven and His present rule at the right hand of the Father. As God’s Son and David’s heir, He is the eternal Messiah-King, advancing God’s reign throughout every generation and throughout the whole earth today.
WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church at Pentecost in power, baptizing believers into the Body of Christ and releasing the gifts of the Spirit to them. The Spirit brings the permanent indwelling presence of God to us for spiritual worship, personal sanctification, building up the Church, gifting us for ministry, and driving back the kingdom of Satan by the evangelization of the world through proclaiming the word of Jesus and doing the works of Jesus.
WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Jesus Christ and that He is our abiding Helper, Teacher, and Guide. We believe in the filling or empowering of the Holy Spirit, often a conscious experience, for ministry today. We believe in the present ministry of the Spirit and in the exercise of all of the biblical gifts of the Spirit. We practice the laying on of hands for the empowering of those whom God has ordained to lead and serve the Church.
WE BELIEVE that the whole world is under the domination of Satan and that all people are sinners by nature and choice. All people therefore are under God’s just judgment. Through the preaching of the Good News of Jesus and the Kingdom of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, God regenerates, justifies, adopts and sanctifies through Jesus by the Spirit all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. By this they are released from Satan’s domain and enter into God’s kingdom reign.
WE BELIEVE in the one, holy, universal Church. All who repent of their sins and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and form the living Body of Christ, of which He is the head and of which we are all members.
WE BELIEVE that Jesus Christ committed two ordinances to the Church: water baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Both are available to all believers.
WE BELIEVE that God’s kingdom has come in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it continues to come in the ministry of the Spirit through the Church, and that it will be consummated in the glorious, visible and triumphant appearing of Christ – His return to the earth as King. After Christ returns to reign, He will bring about the final defeat of Satan and all of his minions and works, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment and the eternal blessing of the righteous and eternal conscious punishment of the wicked. Finally, God will be all in all and His kingdom, His rule and reign, will be fulfilled in the new heavens and the new earth, recreated by His mighty power, in which righteousness dwells and in which He will forever be worshipped.
WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit inspired the human authors of Holy Scripture so that the Bible is without error in the original manuscripts. We receive the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments as our final, absolute authority, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
Amen and Amen!
Blessings brothers and sisters – peace be with you…
if time allows check out the theology of the Lutheran Church!
Thanks for the video with Jim Cantelon and Todd Burpo…I have read the book “heaven is for Real” and shared it with many. Also saw the Movie! What an affirmation of the truth that the Gospel is also Real and alive in Jesus Christ our Lord…who is the Word.
My prayer for you and your family…for continued strength in The Joy of the Lord.
Blessings to all for Peace and Joy in the Lord, this His Day and always.
I too read the book Heaven Is For Real & saw the movie. As wonderful as it all seems, I do not understand how anyone can be in Heaven yet, as the Bible states that when Jesus returns to earth he will raise the dead in Christ.
Betty you brought up a good point! I have read the same thing that the dead will rise when Jesus returns but I’ve known other people who had a “HEAVENLY EXPERIENCE” while having surgery! I’ve just come to the conclusion that GOD gives us glimpses of Heaven! There is no doubt in my mind that Colton is telling the truth. I have friends who have had similar experiences! Their attitudes toward life after the experience changed! It was a real change! So, the world and all of us belong to God and He can certainly do whatever He wishes to bring the knowledge of His Kingdom to all people! And I have had Holy Spirit moments, and I know they came from God! They left a life-changing feeling inside me. Blessings….
Dear Rev. David M.
There is not one morning that I dont start praying without thanking our Heavenly Father for such faithful servant and teacher of Gods Word as you have been with all of us, through the daily blog and your ministry.
Keeping in prayers every request of my sisters and brothers in Christ.
Sharing with you a passage of Scripture that has been giving me so much comfort these past few months with my health issues.
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness .(2 Corinthians 9)
That is why , for Christs sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties,. For when I am weak , I am strong. (2 Corinthians 10) .
Have a blessed day everyone.
XOXOXO Carole.
Thanks Rev.David for guiding us through Romans. May God continue to under gird each one in need of prayers. We all have loved ones that need the Lord. From my perspective, I continue to surrender each one to the Lord and ask God, through His Holy Spirit, to intervene in their lives in whatever way he wishes – to bring those we love to a saving knowledge of himself. Great to continue to share in the 2 yr Bible Reading plan. I am always interested in the comments by the bloggers.
One comment regarding the book, “Heaven is for Real”. It was on the news today in Canada & USA that the little boy – now 16 – has sent a letter to New York Times(I think) and publicly declared that he made up the whole story. It was reported that the Publishers have now removed the book. The couple are no longer are together and the young teen is suffering extensively from a physical illness ….without any help financially from the father. It sounds like a sad situation. I simply pass this along and you might like to check it out for yourself. But it definitely was on CTV News tonight with photos of the mother attending to the 16 year old as he battles a significant illness. Samuel
Whoops!!!! Sorry, it wasn’t “Heaven is for real”. It is the best selling book, “The Boy who came back from Heaven” – 2010 Book by Alex Malarky and his father Kevin Malarky. Tyndale told Washington Post that they were withdrawing the book because the boy said he made up the whole story. You can google the information. Sorry I got the two books mixed up. Samuel
“Heaven is for Real” and the Burpo’s are a ministry family compared to the Malarky family refered to in the book “The Boy who came back from Heaven.” Here is a link that explains:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/01/15/377589757/boy-says-he-didn-t-go-to-heaven-publisher-says-it-will-pull-book