Posts by Dorci

Sunday Praise and a Prayer to Keep Pressing In

Posted on by Dorci

Heavenly Father, we praise you.  We praise you for who you are and for all you do. 

Father, we need you desperately, and yet there are times when we press into you more, pray more, read more, that we then begin to feel attacks from the enemy. But you are with us, Lord.

Please give us focus and wisdom to “be alert and of sober mind. [Our] enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Give us strength to “resist him, standing firm in the faith, because [we] know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)

We lift up our fellow believers all over the world who are facing severe persecution. Please, Holy Spirit, we ask that your presence would fill jail cells and other places where believers have fled, that you would fill them with your peace that passes all understanding when they are tortured, when they are hated, and rejected. We pray you would lift them up and encourage their spirits because the joy of the Lord is their strength. And remind them that their very great reward is with you. 

Help us stay focused, Lord. No matter how the enemy tries to throw us off course, discourage us, make us feel unloved, unneeded, and unwanted, remind us Who has called us. Remind us Who loves us, Who died for us, and Who gives us purpose every single day.

Remind us that when we feel the enemy’s breath, he’s there because we have become a threat to him, because through our prayers You, the Almighty God, moves mountains, changes hearts, and pulls souls back from the brink of hell.

Encourage us to keep pressing in, to keep praying, to keep reading, no matter what, and even more as the day grows nearer to your return.

Like Isaiah, we say “Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near.” Isaiah 50:7-8a

We pray it all in the mighty, precious, holy name of Jesus, amen.

 

Time to Pray Big

Posted on by Dorci

There are many faithful and trusted believers who have studied the scriptures and find that we may very well have just entered the last decade before Christ’s return.  No, no one knows the day or the hour, but the year?  Quite possibly. 

If that’s so (and even if it isn’t, none of us knows when we’ll be called home), we don’t have a minute to lose.  More than ever I want to pray.

Now, I’ve never been a big thinker. I think in small details. Up close and personal. Which is great on one hand, but on the other, my small thinking can cause me to have a hard time praying big.

 

God-sized.

 

There have been times I’ve dared to step out to think and pray big, and many times there’s been someone right there, ready to tell me how ridiculous that is. That I’m just an idealist, a dreamer, living in a fantasy. 

There will always be those. But those are not thoughts from the Almighty God who created a universe, heals the sick, brings bodies back from the dead, forgives sins, redeems a people, indwells souls, and creates a future, eternal home for us.

Ours is a God who does miracles.

I recently asked God again to help me think and pray big, to not limit Him and what He may want to do in and through my prayers.

Of course, being the faithful God He is, He’s already given me some understanding about praying big, limitless prayers. You know, since we have a big and limitless God.

A couple of days after that I ran across this video again.  A friend sent it a few months ago, and the Lord brought it to my attention again, at just the right time. 

This is the story of Rhonwyn Kendrick. She’s the mom of Stephen and Alex Kendrick who have given us movies like Courageous, War Room, and Overcomer. Her sons understand the power of prayer because she is a woman who prays big. Watching her story again, especially right after my prayer for bigger prayers, encouraged me and cemented my resolve to think and pray big. I hope it encourages you to let God out of that box and pray big, enormous, God-sized prayers. To pray bigger than our own minds can comprehend on their own. To pray in the Spirit, in God’s big, amazing, ridiculous, nothing-is-impossible will.  

To pray with faith, and with hope.  

I can’t wait to see what He’s going to do this year. 

 

 

“Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in Him and He will do this:
He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
    your vindication like the noonday sun.”

Psalm 37:5-6

Heavenly Father, help us to let you out of the box in our minds. To throw the box away. Holy Spirit, help us to pray big and mighty prayers for our families, our neighbors, our churches, our country, and our world.  May we be known as a praying people, who pray to a big and mighty God. May your will be done in and through us. Help us redeem the time, O Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. 

 

 

The Shepherd’s Lamb, and Ours, Too

Posted on by Dorci

A couple of blogs ago I gave a link to the series, The Chosen.  

This time I want to bring to you the short film that started it all. 

Writer and director, Dallas Jenkins (son of Jerry B. Jenkins who gave us the Left Behind series and more), shares here the story of how God led him to make The Chosen through a short film (24 minutes) he made for his church’s Christmas Eve service.  How at the moment he felt like a failure the Lord led him to depend on Him to make a series that is defying all odds.

The Christmas Eve special about the birth of Jesus is told from the perspective of the shepherds, one in particular.  

Grab some tissue.  And maybe share with your family and friends.  I’m going to. Hearing all God did to bring it to pass, I can’t wait to see what He does through it. 

Merry Christmas! 

 

What Hope Looks Like

Posted on by Dorci

Not gonna lie, this Christmas has been a little bit more difficult than usual. 

I’ve needed more recuperating/decorating/planning/shopping time from Thanksgiving to Christmas and had less; we’ve had a storm of things breaking down over the past 8 weeks or so, sometimes two things conspire to break down at once; we’ve had multiple plans change beyond our control; and this Christmas season has been one of those I miss, well, a lot. But I know I’m not alone. 

The holidays are notorious for being stressful, wishful, mournful. We’re worn and weary. Family members can be difficult to deal with, and so can not having them with us. We can compare our lives to others and think theirs looks like a Hallmark Christmas movie or a Rockwell painting.

And then there’s the outside world with its constant fighting, crime, threats.  I can’t read the news without seeing words like hostile, accuses, attacks, and my personal favorite – throws shade.  (Where do people come up with these phrases?) So much pride, so much hate, so much despair.

With all that going on we can start to feel a little lacking in peace. In hope.

So where can we find hope?  What exactly does hope look like?

Hope looks like this. 

 

 

A young woman who humbled herself and answered the call of God on her life no matter the cost.

A young man who humbled himself, obeyed God, and married a pregnant woman.

And Hope Himself, The King and Creator of the world who humbled Himself, giving up all that was rightfully His – His throne, His equality with God, His divine splendor, His right to be treated like the King He was, and was born a helpless babe, for the joy that was set before Him…

And that joy was us.

To forge a relationship with us so that no matter what’s going on in our personal lives or in the world around us, He can be our Light in a dark and weary world, He can give us His peace that passes all understanding, and He can give us hope.

He calls on those of us who are weary to come to Him and He will give us rest. 

I know firsthand that’s true. It doesn’t always come immediately, but if we keep seeking Him, it will come.

I was walking around the house the other day, and though I’m not normally one to spontaneously break out in song (the very next gift I’m getting after my crown is a beautiful singing voice), I suddenly found myself singing a song I hadn’t even thought of in a while. And it made me smile.

My Lord, my Heavenly Father, had heard my cries, seen my weary heart, and turned my focus again toward what’s important – my relationship with Him, my eternal salvation, my hope in the life of the One who came to save me and all this weary world.

It may not be a traditional Christmas song, but it embodies the spirit of it as much as any. 

I hope you’ll come away from the stress of the season, from the world, from life and weariness, and embrace the Hope that was born that day in all humility for the joy of knowing you and giving you hope.

 

 

Treasure Hunting

Posted on by Dorci

This time of year we start seeing and hearing scripture about the birth of Jesus, and if we’ve been a believer long enough, or even alive long enough, they’re probably all words we’ve heard before…

 “And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7

“Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” Luke 2:8-12

As beautiful as those words are, as amazing and miraculous as those events were and what they still mean for us today, we might start thinking we’ve heard it all before and there’s nothing new to learn. 

But that’s the amazing thing about God’s Word – it is chock full of buried treasure just waiting to be uncovered. 

Rabbi Jason Sobel gives us an amazing jewel that I’d never heard before about Jesus’s birth and the significance of being wrapped in swaddling cloths.

The series Rabbi Sobel refers to – The Chosen – is an amazingly well-done show that portrays the life of Jesus and how He radically changed those who encountered Him. 

I can relate.

Life is hard and I need God’s treasure, the seen and unseen. The treasure left for me in plain sight and the deeper, buried treasure that can only be found by those who are willing to hunker down and dig deep.

More than ever I want to go treasure hunting in the coming year. I want to continue encountering Jesus in new and precious ways so He can continue molding me into the person only He can make me to be.

I hope you come with me as we seek Him and His treasure together.

 

Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of your Son.  Please lead us in the coming year as we seek to know you on an ever-deepening level. Change us into the men and women you desire us to be, and may we bring you glory as we follow you.  In Jesus’ name, amen.