Tag: pastor

POTD: One Who Really Needs Your Prayers

If there was ever a reason to pray, here’s a good one—especially now. Pray for your Pastor—they’re under enormous pressure to do the right thing for their flock in a time of great uncertainty—where the best information contradicts, making errors inevitable and regret inescapable. No wonder Paul added to his list of sufferings, “Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.” Check this out…

97% of pastors have been falsely accused or hurt by their trusted friends
70% of pastors battle with depression
7,000 churches will close each year
1,500 pastors quit each month
10% will retire a pastor
80% of pastors feel discouraged
94% of pastor’s families feel the pressure of the ministry
78% of pastors have no close friends
90% of pastors report working 55-75 hours per week.
Pray for your Pastor.*

Let’s pray…

*By Victor Marx

A Prayer to Be Like Jesus

Lord help me live from day to day
In such a self-forgetful way
That even when I kneel to pray,
My prayer shall be for others.
Help me in all the things I do,
To ever be sincerely true,
And know that all I do for you
Must needs be done for others.
Others, Lord, yes others,
Let this, my motto be.
Help me to live for others,
That I might live for thee.
—Author Unknown

Just like Jesus—so it’s what we do.

Go make someone else’s day.

—j

Well Done, Guys

God wants heaven filled, and its radiant population continues to grow. Last Monday it gained Pastor Douglas Mark, known to me as “Dougie”. I knew him all of five hours on earth though it feels like we were lifelong friends. As he prepared for his graduation, he wrote some lyrics in his prayer diary, which were read to him as he stepped into glory…

‘Just think of stepping on shore—And finding it Heaven!
Of touching a hand—And finding it’s God’s!
Of breathing new air—And finding it celestial!
Of waking up in glory—And finding it Home!’

Welcome home, Dougie…and Jack…and Roger—faithful shepherds of God’s flock; servants of Jesus.

Well done, guys.

—j

You Are One

“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And that which I can do, by the grace of God, I will do.” —D.L. Moody

There’s your day. Blessings.

—j

The Perfect Church

I think that I shall never see 
A Church that’s all it ought to be;
A Church whose members never stray
Beyond the Strait and Narrow way;
A Church that has no empty pews,
Whose Pastor never has the blues,
A Church whose Deacons always deak,
And none is proud, and all are meek.
Where gossips never peddle lies,
Or make complaints or criticize;
Where all are always sweet and kind
And all to other’s faults are blind.
Such perfect Churches there may be,
But none of them are known to me.
But still, we’ll work, and pray and plan
To make our own the best we can.
—Author Unknown

Happy Sunday!

—j