The Pastor's Pocket

  Prayer puts God to work.  At the same time God puts prayer to work.  God has ordained prayer as the one force which moves Him to act in our earthly affairs. Consider how Jesus committed Himself to the power of prayer in Mark 11:24, John 14:13, 15:16 and 16:23. Is it not an incredible thing that God moves in our situations, but only as we pray and cry out to Him!  Look at Psalm 116:1-2, Psalm 130:1-2, Psalm 138:3, Psalm 144:1-2 and Psalm 142.  Is it not obvious that prayer that is vocal makes the difference? Remember Daniel and his crisis moment in Daniel chapter 6?  A royal statute declared if any man be found praying to any other god besides King Darius they would be thrown into a den of hungry lions.  What did Daniel do in verse 10?  He prayed 3 times a day just as was his habit and gave thanks to the true and living God.  God was moved to protect him.  The lions strangely lost their appetite.  Why? Prayer! Prayer made the difference. What crisis may you be facing today?  What situ

For the child of God, prayer has to be a priority.  It cannot, it must not, be a secondary force.  If prayer is considered a last resort, it makes God a last resort. In Acts 6, the apostles were confronted with the challenge of multiple ministry needs.  Lots of people had realized they could not do it all.  God’s solution?  Delegate.  The business of caring for the widows and other church related affairs would be delegated to other believers (other men) while the apostles would give themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.  The result?  The church continued to grow (verse 7). Above all else, prayer had to be the major thing.  To “give themselves to prayer…” What does that mean? It means these men devoted themselves, they remained steadfast at the business of praying.  The same principle is found in Colossians 4:12 and Romans 12:12.  Prayer is a necessity!  It must be priority #1 for effective ministry. We are all busy with work, family, church, civic responsibilities, but

  The scriptures teach us in Psalm 9:12 that God doesn’t forget the “cry of the humble.”  Humility is an attitude that God has promised to honor.  James 4:6 says that “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” God will honor the cry of the humble man because it demonstrates our utter dependence upon the Lord in our time of need.  Let’s face it, we want people to think we’ve “got it all together.” We don’t like to admit we might have problems we can’t solve ourselves.  Remember this: any move toward self-sufficiency is a move away from God.  God won’t intervene in our affairs, our problems, our crisis, unless we cry out to Him with a humble and sincere heart. A sincere cry to the Lord is an open declaration that we are unable to “fix” the situation we are in without God’s intervention.  It says, “Lord, I don’t have the wisdom, ability or strength to solve this.  I need your help.”  At that moment, God delights to reveal His power, His wisdom. When Peter began to sink a

  Perhaps we’ve all felt our prayer life was inadequate or ineffective at times, yet as we have been learning, crying out to God with fervency, with an audible voice  makes a difference.  Somehow God responds to our desperation. When Peter was about to sink, as he attempted to walk on the water, he cried out in desperation, “Lord, save me” (Matthew 14:30). In verse 31 we read, “And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and caught him…” before Peter went under. Elijah experienced the awesome power of God as he prayed. In James 5:17 it says, “…and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain:” And guess what? It didn’t rain for 3 ½ years! In verse 18 we read where Elijah prayed again, “and the heaven gave rain”. The word earnestly sticks out doesn’t it?  The phrase “effectual fervent prayer” in James 5:16 comes from the Greek word “energo” from which we get our English word “energy”.  Praying with energy and fervency is powerful prayer that gets results and isn’t that what we all wan

 Learning to pray can be enhanced if we study the great prayers of the Bible.  From Abraham to Moses, to Elijah, to Nehemiah, to David, the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, to Jesus and to Paul, all of these men got answers to their prayers.  Their prayers are recorded in scripture so we know they were audible. Many of Moses’ prayers got God’s attention.  He was a great intercessor – he cried out to God on behalf of the people.  Many of David’s prayers were worshipful in nature.  We can learn from them. Let’s look at Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah 1:5-10.  It begins with praise.  It includes confession and petition.  Notice the sequence – although Nehemiah desperately wants something from God, he needs something from God (vs. 11), he begins with praising God for who He is (vs. 5).  This is a good pattern for us to follow. Jesus taught the same sequence in the “model prayer” (Matthew 6:9-13).  Might we learn not to rush to God with our needs until we have paused to thank Him for being the a

  The basics; the things we all must have to survive physically speaking are food, air and water.  Remove any of these for a period of time and we will perish.  It’s that simple. Spiritually speaking, there are basic things we need as well to survive, for example, the Word of God, prayer, and the church. When we read and study the Word of God, hear it preached or taught - God speaks to us.  He guides us along as we learn the principles of scripture When we pray, we talk to God.  This is essential if we are going to have communion and fellowship with Him.  Prayer is such a necessary part of our Christian experience.  If we neglect to pray, something essential will be missing, so we must learn to pray if we are serious about developing our relationship with God. All Christians are not called to preach.  As believers, we are all called to serve in some capacity and we are all called to pray.  Have you answered this important call to pray?  It’s life-changing – the moment you take seriousl

  Desire, discipline and delight.  Our prayer life must move through these stages in order to become a part of our life so that we actually look forward to praying with anticipation and expectation. I believe the Holy Spirit places within us the desire to pray.  People heard God’s voice in days gone by – no doubt about it.  However, we need to hear God’s voice today (Hebrews 3:7).  As a believer, I want to talk to God.  It’s my privilege.  I also want to hear what He says to me.  Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice…” (John 10:27). All of the great prayer warriors of the past learned the discipline of prayer.  Yes, we must be disciplined if we are going to have an effective prayer life.  Prayer requires some effort.  We have to beat back the flesh that is lazy and undisciplined.   If we get disciplined and learn to pray even when we don’t “feel” like it, prayer will go through a transformation.  It will become a delight.  Read the Psalms.  David and others looked forward to their time w

  Desperate moments – we’ve all experienced them. Or we will!  Those moments, sudden moments, when crying out to God is all we can do. You remember when Peter walked on the water.  He did fine for a while.  Then the wind and waves kicked up.  Peter was afraid.  Maybe he lost his focus – looked at the trouble and took his eyes off of Jesus. At any rate, he began to sink.  The Bible says he cried (cried out) “Lord, save me”. Immediately, the Lord stretched out his hand and caught him.  I’d call this a prayer of desperation. Old Jonah had a similar experience.  His desperate moment came from inside the belly of the whale and even from there he cried out - “by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord”. Jonah must have yelled, “…out of the belly of hell cried I…”  Then he said, “and Thou heardest my voice” (Jonah 2:2).  Just as we who are fathers would respond to our child in serious trouble, God responds to our desperate cries. Ever felt helpless?  Most likely you have or you will someday. 

  “…Could ye not watch with Me one hour?  Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:40 & 41). If we want happy homes (a happy spouse and happy children), successful churches and a nation that honors God, someone will have to “pray the price”.  Pray the price – think about it. Prayer by men who are passionate about the Lord can get it done! Every genuine revival I know anything about was first bathed in prayer.  This “one hour” thing convicts me, challenges me, and maybe it does you too.  There are 24 hours in each day.  Can we not find “one hour” to get alone with God and talk to Him?  The scripture teaches me that Jesus, at this present moment, is in heaven making intercession in prayer for us (Hebrews 7:25).  Think about it – you and I are on His prayer list right now! This thing called prayer is so important that the Son of God has a continuing ministry with prayer.  Yes, He prayed when He was on the earth

 “…In the day of trouble…” (Psalm 50:15), a moment of crisis!  We’ve all experienced it.  If you haven’t yet, you will! May 9, 2001, a day in my life that forever changed my future.  I was high up on a lift trying to change a light bulb. Something happened, I lost my balance and the lift went down with me in it.  I thought it was going to be bad – and it was!  In a moment, I hit the concrete floor. I broke my left pelvis in three places and my right arm was badly broken.  I was alive, but badly injured and rushed to the hospital.  I survived and can walk today because fervent prayers went up on my behalf. Praise God! We men find it difficult for some reason to cry out to God. We don’t even want to stop and ask for directions when we know we are lost.  Bit if we humble ourselves in a “day of trouble” and pray with intensity, God will respond and He will be glorified.  Humility is a confession that “we can’t, but God can”. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “…when I am weak, then am I str

 Somehow the heartfelt cry of God’s children moves Him.  Danger, misery and desperation will not stand when someone cries out!  For example, when the children of Israel were so long in bondage to the Egyptians, it is the heartfelt cries that ultimately turned the situation in favor of the people (Exodus 2:23-25).  The Bible says God heard them and God remembered His covenant. In verse 25 the Bible says, “…God had respect unto them”. In Exodus 3:8, God said, “I am come down to deliver them…to bring them up out of that land…” At the Red Sea, it was a moment of desperation with the Egyptians coming after them and the Bible says, “…the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD” (Exodus 14:10).  Again, God came to the rescue in response to a dangerous situation (Exodus 14:14). I think of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus in John 11.  The scripture declares that Christ Himself “cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:43).  What happened? A man, dead for four days came walking

Our voice is a gift from God!  Have you ever stopped to consider this truth?  God gave us our voices to communicate – to praise our Creator.  We are to sing unto God, to pray and call out to Him in prayer, to witness for Him and to proclaim the Gospel.  Of course, with our voices we communicate with other human beings and God tells us how we are to do that.  It’s unfortunate that we slander, criticize, gossip and lie with our voices.  We need to remember that God could take our voices away from us as He did with Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father (Luke 1:20, 22, 64). Imagine how it would be if you were mute!  What if your voice was useless or somehow rendered inoperative? Imagine how different your life would be if you had no voice! My brothers, if we have the gift of a voice, let’s use it to call out to God!  Let’s learn to cry out to God (Psalm 27:7), “Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy on me and answer me.” In Psalm 28:2 we read, “Hear the voice of my supplication

  Crying out to God is not some magic formula that requires God’s attention.  God is sovereign, He can and does as He pleases.  However, God stands by His Word when He makes a promise (2 Timothy 2:13, Numbers 23:19). When God says, “Call unto Me and I will answer thee…” (Jeremiah 33:3), it’s like “if you will – I will”.  There are many such conditional promises in the Bible. For example, in Malachi 3:7 & 10, God says, “return unto Me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts… bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse… I will open the windows of heaven.” In other words, you do something and I will do something. As we learn to cry out to God with our voices, it should simply be an outflow of our love for Him and our desire for a hearing. David was a man after God’s own heart (I Kings 14:8). In other words, David’s heart was in harmony with the will of God.  When David cried out to God, he had confidence that God would hear his prayer (Psalm 55:17 and Psalm 34:15 & 17)

  I was reading in Genesis recently and came across Chapter 21.  Something struck me as I read these words, “and God heard the voice of the lad” (verse 17).  This was a desperate cry and God responded to it!  It was Ishmael’s cry. You remember the son born out of Abraham’s impatience.  Because of Sarah’s envy, Ishmael and his mother were sent away and they traveled into the desert.  Near exhaustion and out of water, Hagar and Ishmael both cried out and the Lord responded with a miracle! This story is just one of many in scripture where someone verbally cried out to God and that cry of desperation got God’s attention. You remember the account of blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46-52. It was his desperate and deliberate cry that got Jesus’ attention.  Even after others told him to hold his peace (to be still), “…he cried out the more a great deal”.  Then the Bible says, “Jesus stood still…” and called for Bartimaeus, healed him of his blindness, and in an instant he could see! Wow – the powe

  God told His prophet Isaiah to “cry aloud” (Hebrew: “from the throat”), spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet…” (Isaiah 58:1).  God told Isaiah to make this loud and clear.  Desperate times called for a clear call to action. In Isaiah 40:9 God said, “…lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid…”  Crying out to God is a humbling reminder of our total inability to accomplish anything significant for God without His help and His power. The promise to the prophet Jeremiah long ago is just as true for us in these uncertain times.  “Call unto Me (Hebrew: “qara” – to call aloud or to cry out audibly) and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3). Incredible as it seems, our Creator desires an intimate, loving fellowship with the people He created.  One vital component of that fellowship, is the actual voicing aloud of our need of Him, especially in times of trouble and distress.  Somehow, crying out to Him is a fe

  There is just something about our VOICES that brings pleasure to God (Revelation 4:11).  Somehow, we move the heart of God when we “cry out” to Him!  God tells us to sing aloud (Psalm 9:11), to praise Him with our voice (Psalm 47:1), and yes, to call out to Him in prayer (Jeremiah 33:1). What earthly father would not quickly respond to the cry of “Daddy” from one of his own children?  I am the proud father of two daughters.  I can remember coming home many times to the voices of those girls (when they were little) crying out “Daddy, Daddy,” and running into my arms to greet me.  Something leaped in my heart every time! Listen, my brothers… God wants to hear your voice!  Accept it.  Believe it. Remember the children of Israel in their Egyptian bondage? “Their cry came up unto God…” (Exodus 2:23 & 24).  God heard them and sent them a deliverer – Moses (Exodus 3:7 & 8).  David cried out to the Lord many, many times (Psalm 18:6, 28:2 & 6,  34:17,  55:17, 116:1) and the Lord r

  How do you define success? If you’re a Christian your definition is different from how success might be defined by our present culture. In America, we are so consumed by materialism, most people think you’re successful based on the amount of “things” you have. Let’s consider these definitions of success: (1) Learning what God wants us to learn. (2) Becoming what God wants us to become. (3) Doing what God wants us to do. (4) Going where God wants us to go. The plan and purpose of God involves two distinct aspects: The Person of Jesus and the Principles He taught.                          One involves:                                The other involves:                          The Son of God                           The System of God                                    The Life of God                           The Laws of God                          The King                                         The Kingdom                          Our encounter with God           Our experiences

  God told His prophet Isaiah to “cry aloud” (Hebrew: “from the throat”), spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet…” (Isaiah 58:1).  God told Isaiah to make this loud and clear.  Desperate times called for a clear call to action. In Isaiah 40:9 God said, “…lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid…”  Crying out to God is a humbling reminder of our total inability to accomplish anything significant for God without His help and His power. The promise to the prophet Jeremiah long ago is just as true for us in these uncertain times.  “Call unto Me (Hebrew: “qara” – to call aloud or to cry out audibly) and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3). Incredible as it seems, our Creator desires an intimate, loving fellowship with the people He created.  One vital component of that fellowship, is the actual voicing aloud of our need of Him, especially in times of trouble and distress.  Somehow, crying out to Him is a fe

  There is just something about our VOICES that brings pleasure to God (Revelation 4:11).  Somehow, we move the heart of God when we “cry out” to Him!  God tells us to sing aloud (Psalm 9:11), to praise Him with our voice (Psalm 47:1), and yes, to call out to Him in prayer (Jeremiah 33:1). What earthly father would not quickly respond to the cry of “Daddy” from one of his own children?  I am the proud father of two daughters.  I can remember coming home many times to the voices of those girls (when they were little) crying out “Daddy, Daddy,” and running into my arms to greet me.  Something leaped in my heart every time! God wants to hear your voice!  Accept it.  Believe it. Remember the children of Israel in their Egyptian bondage? “Their cry came up unto God…” (Exodus 2:23 & 24).  God heard them and sent them a deliverer – Moses (Exodus 3:7 & 8).  David cried out to the Lord many, many times (Psalm 18:6, 28:2 & 6,  34:17,  55:17, 116:1) and the Lord responded.  The early

  Somehow, the heartfelt cry of God’s children moves Him. Danger, misery, and desperation will not stand when someone cries out. For example; when the children of Israel were so long in bondage to the Egyptians, it was their heartfelt cries that ultimately turned the situation in favor of the people (Exodus 2:23-25). The Bibles says in verse 24 that “God heard” them and “God remembered his covenant”. In verse 25 it says that “God had respect unto them”. In Exodus 3:8 God said, “I am come down to deliver them…and to bring them up out of that land.” At the Red Sea, it was a moment of desperation for the Israelites as the Egyptians were coming after them, and the Bible says, “The children of Israel cried out unto the LORD” (Exodus 14:10). Again, God came to the rescue, in response to a dangerous situation (Exodus 14:14). I think of Jesus, at the tomb of Lazarus in John 11.  The scripture declares that Christ Himself “cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:43). What happene

  Peter wrote, “add to your faith virtue” (2 Peter 1:5).  It’s also been said that a thankful heart is the parent of all other virtues.  Let us all strive to be grateful, because this one attitude allows us to keep things in perspective, does it not? We tend to complain about what we do not have. Would it not be better to be thankful for what we do have ? The words of a song written by Reagan Riddle of the Primitive Quartet says it beautifully, “I’ve always had a place to sleep, clothes to wear and food to eat. God has been so good to me.  If all I had he took away, then I still would have to say God has been so good to me.” This Thanksgiving, let us determine to be grateful for all we do have – given to us by a kind and gracious Heavenly Father. “Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done”. The Pastor’s Pocket Pastor Bruce Freeman

  Desperate moments… …we’ve all experienced them. Or we will. Those moments, sudden moments, when crying out to God is all we can do. You remember when Peter walked on the water.  He did fine for a while.  Then the wind and waves kicked up.  Peter was afraid.  Maybe he lost his focus – looked at the trouble and took his eyes off of Jesus. At any rate, he began to sink.  The Bible says he cried (I believe he cried out) “Lord, save me”. Immediately, the Lord stretched out his hand and caught him.  I’d call this a prayer of desperation. Jonah had a similar experience.  His desperate moment came from inside the belly of the whale and even from there he cried out - “by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord”. Jonah must have yelled, “…out of the belly of hell cried I…”  Then he said, “and Thou heardest my voice” (Jonah 2:2).  Just as we who are fathers would respond to our child in serious trouble, God responds to our desperate cries. Have you ever felt helpless?  Most likely you have or y