Saturday Vespers

                                                  

As we relax on Saturdays, its time to not only think about ourselves but also all those people who need our prayers and support. We are sharing some prayer needs so that we all can support each other.

We want to pray for peace and normalcy to prevail in Bangladesh and protection of minorities there. 

We ask for divine intervention:-

For a Pastor in Australia and a senior citizen - :

We pray for healing and strength allowing him to continue his work for God. 

For a senior in India suffering from Dementia. We continue to  pray for her peace as well as strength for her caregiver.

For a senior in India suffering from a debilitating back pain, we ask for prayer of strength and healing. 

Tanu requests prayer saying:
Heavenly Father I thank you for the wonderful organization where you have blessed me and other families with a job. I continue praying that you look at us with mercy and favor, protect the organization from individuals who do not have good intentions for the company and for others, protect us from individuals with selfish ambitions and designs. For it is in the mighty name of our Lord Jesus Christ that I do pray believing and trusting (everything has to have an end many people have been frustrated by this one person, enough is enough please consider the majority of us) Amen.

For Latvia and its people: After decades of Communism, the Soviet Union's collapse left a moral vacuum in Latvia which was quickly filled by opportunistic negative influences. Drug and alcohol abuse, a widespread sex trade, and high rates of abortion and suicide all point to significant needs. People often feel numb or even helpless. Latvia has done relatively well from a technology and development perspective, but needs prayer for the deeper and eternal needs of its people.

For all those who are without jobs, facing financial stress or health issues. 

PLEASE MAIL YOUR PRAYER REQUESTS TO: THISWEEKWITHJESUS@GMAIL.COM

Learning from Covid

Remember this picture? A frequent picture during the dreaded Covid-19 days. 

Since you are reading this post, you have obviously survived Covid. You are among those who got past the gate. Sadly, not everyone survived those days of trauma, dread and heartbreak. Lives were lost. Businesses were lost. Families were ruined. Covid experiences are deeply sobering. One of the most tragic things about Covid-19 is the way that people dying from it so often had to say goodbye to their loved ones via video-link rather than in person. 5 million people gone and the aftereffects of Covid are still being experienced today, 3 years later.

But for those who did survive, the question is what did we learn? Did we gain anything new?

For me, I learnt a few lessons which changed my life.

Lesson no. 1. Life is not to be taken for granted. No matter how many times we quarantine ourselves, hide ourselves, evil can and will always find us. Our only protection is God.

Lesson No. 2. Don't take others for granted. Family and friends and strangers. They all are part of who we are. They are part of Gods family. When we lose them, a part of us dies with them. All that is left are memories. Let us honor and love those we have with us today.

3. Learn to live with the minimal. That's resilience. Never, ever, again, become dependent on luxuries. Covid taught us what we knew but forgot: Needs outweigh luxuries.

These are a few lessons among many. But by far, the biggest learning was and is, that there is a God who rules the Earth, who protects and provides for us even though we may not understand the events around us. That we have hope through Jesus Christ who, went to the extent of undergoing the worst suffering from evil, for us, opening the door for our hope. That He continuously guides us through His Holy Spirit, if we care to listen. That if we look, we can find His hand at work in our everyday life. We have to trust.

Some say Where was God during Covid? Honestly, I do not know. What I do know and believe is that Covid was an attack of evil against a Humanity that God established, and God was part of that attack, along with us, and suffering, along with us. 

Jesus was among us then and with us now; in life & death. And we believe that those who died are seeing Him in paradise. Those who lost this life, are cradled in His bosom and those who are left back are consoled in this life.

God Bless everyone.   

In Case You Missed

 

Dead Ends
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Sunday Quotes

How wonderful to know that Christianity is more than a padded pew or a dim cathedral, but that it is a real, living, daily experience which goes on from grace to grace. Jim Elliot

The Gateway to Christianity is not through an intricate labyrinth of dogma, but by a simple belief in the person of Christ. Norman Vincent Peale

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. C.S.Lewis

If only Jesus' followers shared his personality. That one shift alone would correct so many of the ridiculous and horrifying things that pass for popular Christianity. John Eldredge

The great redemptive religion which has always been known as Christianity is battling against a totally diverse type of religious belief, which is only the more destructive of the Christian faith because it makes use of traditional Christian terminology. John Gresham Machen

For Christians, they need to access the power of Jesus and not look at Christianity as a religion. It is our Lord Jesus that makes you change, and Christians need to actualize it and put it into practice. Erwin McManus