Jesus' Prayer Request

“Please pray for my husband… children… neighbor.” “Please pray for my job.” What a privilege it is to pray for people and their needs. I can’t describe the blessing it is when I pray for someone’s request and they later come to thank me for praying because God answered that request! To think that I had a part in that answer to prayer!

Prayer requests are found throughout the Bible.

· The children of Israel to Samuel—“Cease not to cry unto the LORD our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines” (1 Sam. 7:8).

· King Jeroboam to the prophet of Judah—“Intreat now the face of the LORD thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again” (1 Kings 13:6).

· The Apostle Paul requested prayer— “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified” (2 Thess. 3:1).

What if Jesus gave you a prayer request? Well, He has. In fact, it is the ONLY prayer request He ever asked us. Although He taught us how to pray, He only made this one request. “Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38)

Pastor Clint Miller, pastor of North County Baptist Church in Escondido, CA. Several years ago he and his two sons Cheyenne and Cody were in the airport at Ontario, CA. His sons came up to him excited and said, “Dad, there is a movie star in this airport!” They saw Nedra Volz, who played the maid Adelaide on the TV show Different Strokes. Clint Miller asked the boys, “Did you give her a tract?” They said they had not. “Well, we’d better go give her one. Let’s go.” As he walked up to her, she said, “Do you want my autograph?” Clint said, “No ma’am, we wanted to give you something,” and he handed her a gospel tract. Nedra then asked, “Are these your sons?” He said, “Yes, ma’am.” She said, “They are fine looking boys.” He said, “Thank-you. May I ask you a question?” She agreed. “If you died today do you know for sure that you’d go to heaven?” When she said she didn’t, Clint Miller led her to Christ right there in the airport. When they were finished, she told him, “I want you to know this means a lot to me.”

Not long after that, Brother Miller received a picture in the mail of Nedra Volz with this inscription: “To my friend Pastor Miller. Thanks for what you did for me.” Two weeks later he received a phone call from her secretary, “I work for Miss Volz and she would like to know if it’s all right for her to visit your church this Sunday?” She came and Brother Miller asked her to give a testimony. She stood up in front of the crowd and said, “All my life I thought I had everything. However, now I have God. Your pastor led me to Christ!”

Everyone else saw a movie star—A chance for an autograph. Clint Miller saw a soul who needed Jesus. Incidentally, Nedra Volz went home to be with the Lord in 2003.

We need to pray for Jesus’ request.

Busy With Revival

I have already received requests for blog updates and I am sorry for being delinquent with it. My only excuse is that we (our whole family) have been busy with the work of getting ready for our Spring Anniversary (45th) Revival. Our church just celebrated its forty-fifth anniversary as we have in the past dozen years with a revival meeting. Only this one turned out to be REVIVAL! I have never seen a meeting “break open” so early in the week and continue on through the week as this one has been for us. Praise God! Not since the days of our tent revival in the front yard of the old building have we been visited by God in such a way. It was such a joy to be in every service. God blessed the music in such a way that some folks did not even wait for the preaching to go to altar. We saw folks that had not been to church for months come. And the revival was still on last Sunday. God is to be glorified and praised for all He gave us last week and last Sunday.

I Am An Orphan

“When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.” (Psalms 27:10 KJV)

Yes, I am an orphan. Some are orphaned because their parents gave them up at their birth. Others are orphaned because they have been deserted by parents later in life. And there are those who orphan themselves by their rebellion, going out from the direction and fellowship of their parents. I am orphaned because my parents are both with the Lord now.

My father passed away one day shy of his sixty-sixth birthday having suffered for a half dozen years with several amputations from his right leg. He finally succumb to three heart attacks and three strokes. Dad was raise a farm boy in central Ohio and was a veteran of World War II, having served as a SeaBee in the South Pacific. He came to know Christ as his Saviour after the war, met and married my mother and together they had two living sons. There was another son who was miscarried. I look forward to seeing him someday in Glory.

Mother left us to be with Jesus just five weeks before her eightieth birthday. She was a Kentucky born and bred belle. She loved the Lord and did her best to instill that love in my brother and I as we were growing up.

They both have been gone for years now, but I still miss them. I wish I could hug their neck and kiss their face and tell them I love them. But I will have to wait until it is my time to see them again. Until then, the LORD will take me up.

There may be some orphan out there reading these words wondering whether there is anyone caring for them. Let me assure you that God wants to be your Father and He will take you up.