Almighty Father, creator of heaven and earth, we praise and thank you for sending us your only begotten Son to save us from the kingdom of darkness into your kingdom of light. Lord Jesus, Son of God, you have the words of eternal life. In you are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Have mercy on us and teach us the ways of your kingdom. Holy Spirit, our comforter and advocate, come. By your gracious power, deliver us from the habits of sin that entangle us and transform us into the likeness of our Master Jesus. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen
-Taken from Apprenticeship to Jesus document written by George Miley

Jesus you are the Way into the Kingdom of God. Jesus I am aware how I have set up camp around the entrance, not wanting or maybe not knowing how to stray to far from the kingdom of darkness. It is a place of familiarity, where I have been formed and to fully walk away is to die to my selfish ways. I am told, Jesus, that you are not only the Way into the Kingdom of God but you are the only One, who can truly teach me how to live this new life and change me from the inside out. Come Lord Jesus and be my Teacher. Amen! –written by Ryan Thurman

Click on the links below if you would like to join with us in daily prayer. There is a daily prayer for each day of the month; click the underlined link

Daily Prayer 1 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2006/07/daily-prayer-1.html

Daily Prayer 2 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2006/07/daily-prayer-2.html

Daily Prayer 3 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2006/07/daily-prayer-3.html

Daily Prayer 4 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2006/08/daily-prayer-4.html

Daily Prayer 5 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2006/08/daily-prayer-5.html

Daily Prayer 6 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2006/08/daily-prayer-6.html

Daily Prayer 7 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2006/08/daily-prayer-7.html

Daily Prayer 8 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2006/08/daily-prayer-8.html

Daily Prayer 9 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2006/09/daily-prayer-9.html

DailyPrayer10 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2006/09/daily-prayer-10.html

DailyPrayer11 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2006/09/daily-prayer-11.html

DailyPrayer12 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2006/09/daily-prayer-12.html

DailyPrayer13 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2006/09/daily-prayer-13.html

DailyPrayer14 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-14.html

DailyPrayer15 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-15.html

DailyPrayer16 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-16.html

DailyPrayer17 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-17.html

DailyPrayer18 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-18.html

DailyPrayer19 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-19.html

DailyPrayer20 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-20.html

DailyPrayer21 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-21.html

DailyPrayer22 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-22.html

DailyPrayer23 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-23.html

DailyPrayer24 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-24.html

DailyPrayer25 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-25.html

DailyPrayer26 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-26.html

DailyPrayer27 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-27.html

DailyPrayer28 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-28.html

DailyPrayer29 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-29.html

DailyPrayer30 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-30.html

DailyPrayer31 http://rhythmofprayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-prayer-31.html

Technorati Tags: Prayer, transformation

1. I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:

2. And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord:

3. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary:

4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell:

5. The third day he rose again from the dead:

6. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty:

7. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead:

8. I believe in the Holy Ghost:

9. I believe in the holy catholic church: the communion of saints:

10. The forgiveness of sins:

11. The resurrection of the body:

12. And the life everlasting. Amen.

Technorati Tags: apostle's creed, Christian Creeds, liturgy

When Paul said to the Galatians, “I am in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you”  he was speaking of Spiritual Formation.  When he told the Romans, “Those whom God forknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son,”  he was speaking of Spiritual Formation.  When he reminded the Corinthians that “All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image” he was speaking of Spiritual Formation (Galatians 4:19, Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18).  So what is Spiritual Formation? 

Spiritual Formation is the continuing process of life and experience through which we are progressively formed, conformed, and transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

- Richard Foster

Technorati Tags: Richard Foster quotation, spiritual formation

Dr. Frank C. Laubach (September 2, 1884—June 11, 1970) was a Christian Evangelical missionary and mystic known as “The Apostle to the Illiterates.” In 1935, while working at a remote location in the Philippines, he developed the “Each One Teach One” literacy program, which has been used to teach about 60 million people to read in their own language. He was deeply concerned about poverty, injustice and illiteracy, and considered them a barrier to peace in the world.

One of his most widely influential devotional works was a pamphlet entitled “The Game with Minutes.” In it, Laubach urged Christians to attempt keeping God in mind for at least one second of every minute of the day. In this way Christians can attempt the attitude of constant prayer spoken of in the book of Colossians. The pamphlet extolled the virtues of a life lived with unceasing focus on God.  Laubach tried to call the attention of Christians to this fact. Any one of us can spend his day in Christ’s presence, he observed. And yet we do not. He urged us to think to Christ instead of thinking to ourselves. And he suggested turning to Christ constantly for advice on what to do next 

 If you are weary of some sleepy form of devotion, probably God is as weary of it as you are. 

All during the day, in the chinks of time between the things we find ourselves obliged to do, there are the moments when our minds ask: ‘What next?’ In these chinks of time, ask Him: ‘Lord, think Thy thoughts in my mind. What is on Thy mind for me to do now?’ When we ask Christ, ‘What next?’ we tune in and give Him a chance to pour His ideas through our enkindled imagination. If we persist, it becomes a habit.

The trouble with nearly everybody who prays is that he says “Amen” and runs away before God has a chance to reply.  Listening to God is far more important than giving Him your ideas.  

Technorati Tags: Frank Laubach, practicing the presence, pray without ceasing, Prayer, quotes

Richard J. Foster is a Christian theologian and author in the Quaker tradition. His writings speak to a broad Christian audience. He has been a professor at Friends University and pastor of Evangelical Friends churches. Foster resides in Denver, Colorado.Foster is best known for his 1978 book Celebration of Discipline (ISBN 0-06-062839-1), which examines the inward disciplines of prayer, fasting, meditation, and study in the Christian life, the outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service, and the corporate disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration. It has sold over one million copies. It was named by Christianity Today as one of the top ten books of the twentieth century.   

We are working with God to determine the future!  Certain things will happen in history if we pray rightly.  We are to change the world by prayers

 In our day heaven and earth are on tiptoe waiting for the emerging of a Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered people.  All of creation watches expectantly for the springing up of a disciplined, freely gathered, martyr people who know in this life the life and power of the kingdom of God.  It has happened before.  It can happen again…

 “So how do we pray in Jesus’ name, that is, in conformity to his nature?  Jesus himself says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7).  This “abide in me” is the all-inclusive condition for effective intercession.  It is the key for prayer in the name of Jesus.  We learn to become like the branch, which receives its life from the vine: “Abide in me as I abide in you.  Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me” (John 15:4).  Nothing is more important to a life of prayer than learning how to become a branch.”      

 Nothing is more crucial to our lives or more central to the heart of God than the transformation of the human personality.  Paul, that great advocate of human transformation, once spoke of being “in travail until Christ be formed in you” (Gal. 4:19).  And in another letter he says, “Those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29)

 “Superficiality is the curse of our age.  The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem.  The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.”                                                            

Technorati Tags: Prayer, Renovare, Richard Foster, spiritual formation

Prayer is doxology, praise, thanksgiving, confession, supplication and intercession to God. “When I prayed I was new,” wrote a great theologian of Christian antiquity, “but when I stopped praying I became old.” Prayer is the way to renewal and spiritual life. Prayer is aliveness to God. Prayer is strength, refreshment, and joy. Through the grace of God and our disciplined efforts prayer lifts us up from our isolation to a conscious, loving communion with God in which everything is experienced in a new light. Prayer becomes a personal dialogue with God, a spiritual breathing of the soul, a foretaste of the bliss of God’s kingdom. As we pray deeply within our hearts we grow in prayer. By the grace of God we suddenly catch a glimpse of the miracle of the presence of the Holy Spirit working within us. At first it is only a spark but later it becomes a flame freeing and energizing our whole being. To experience the fire of God’s holy love, to give it space within us to do its cleansing and healing work as a breath of the Holy Spirit, and to use it as light and power for daily living — such are the goals as well as the fruits of true prayer.

Technorati Tags: devotional, photography, Prayer

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Where_Love_is%2C_There_God_is_Also

Technorati Tags: Leo Tolstoy, stories

Amy Beatrice (a.k.a. Wilson) Carmichael (December 16, 1867–January 18, 1951) was a Protestant Christian missionary in India, who opened an orphanage and founded a mission in Dohnavur. She served in India for fifty-five years without furlough and authored many books about the missionary work there.Amy Carmichael was born in the small village of Millisle in Northern Ireland to David and Catherine Carmichael. Her parents were devout Presbyterians; she was the oldest of seven children. She was adopted and tutored by Robert Wilson, cofounder of the Keswick Convention. Her father died when she was eighteen. In many ways she was an unlikely candidate for missionary work. She suffered neuralgia, a disease of the nerves that made her whole body weak and achy and often put her in bed for weeks on end. It was at the Keswick Convention of 1887 that she heard Hudson Taylor speak about missionary life. Soon afterward, she became convinced of her calling to missionary work.  

Your path, with its unexplained…turmoil, and mine with its pain…they are His paths, on which He will show himself faithful.

 Our Lord Jesus spent much time in healing sick people, and in the natural course of events it happened that the last thing He did with His kind hands was to heal a bad cut.  (I wonder how they could have the heart to bind His hands after that.)  In this, as in everything, He left us an example that we should follow in His steps.  Do the thing that this next minute, this next hour, bring you, faithfully and lovingly and patiently; and then the last thing you do, before power to do is taken from you (if that should be), will be only the continuation of all that went before.”       

Prayer of Abandonment to God:  Father, I abandon myself into Your hands. Do with me what you will.  Whatever You do, I will thank You.  I am ready for all.  I accept all.  Let only Your will be done in me, as in all Your creatures, And I’ll ask nothing else, my Lord.  Into your hands I commend my spirit;  I give it to You with all the love of my heart,  For I love You, Lord, And so need to give myself, to surrender myself into Your hands  With a trust beyond all measure, Because You are my Father. From prayer that asks that I should be Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee.
from fearing when I should aspire, From faltering when I should climb higher, From silk and self, O captain, free Thy soldier who would follow Thee.  From subtle love of softening things, From easy choices, weakenings…Not thus are spirits fortified, Not this way went the Crucified…From all that dims Thy Calvary O lamb of God, deliver me.
Give me a love that leads the way, The faith that nothing can dismay, The hope no disappointments tire, The passion that will burn like fire.  Let me not sink to be a clod.  Make me Thy fuel, O Flame of God.