prayer

War Room: Prayer is a Powerful Weapon

The brothers Kendrick, both Alex and Stephen have come together to produce a film that America desperately needs right now. War Room is a very open discussion on the power of prayer. This topic is not one that our main stream media would discuss. Their agenda seems to support the notion that being Christian is somehow politically incorrect.

However, the apparent success at the box office of this film would support a different conclusion. It would seem that it is very clear that people are afraid and don’t know where to begin a process to lessen that fear.

War Room offers that guidance. Priscilla Shirer, in the lead role of Elizabeth, is a woman fighting with her husband and for her marriage when she finds an unlikely partner in an older, devout woman longing to share the power of prayer.

Karen Abercrombie is Miss Clara, an elderly, godly woman who begins to mentor Elizabeth. Miss Clara knows about love, loss and fighting the right battles in the right way: by prayer. Give me an hour a week and I will teach you how to fight the right way with the right resources, says Miss Clara. Elizabeth learns how to direct her voice to God.

The timing of this film could not have been better. As Alex said, just look around. There is a fight to win on every corner and this fight is for the very soul of our country.

http://www.warroomthemovie.com

NOMINATED FOR THE BEST E-MAIL OF THE YEAR

By dave

After being interviewed by the school administration, the prospective teacher said, ‘Let me see if I’ve got this right. You want me to go into that room with all those kids, correct their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse, monitor their dress habits, censor their T-shirt messages, and instill in them a love for learning.

“You want me to check their backpacks for weapons, wage war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, and raise their sense of self-esteem and personal pride.

“You want me to teach them patriotism and good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, and how to register to vote, balance a checkbook, and apply for a job.

“You want me to check their heads for lice, recognize signs of antisocial behavior, and make sure that they all pass the final exams.

“You also want me to provide them with an equal education regardless of their handicaps, and communicate regularly with their parents in English, Spanish or any other language, by letter, telephone, newsletter, and report card.

“You want me to do all this with a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a bulletin board, a few books, a big smile, and a starting salary that qualifies me for food stamps.

“You want me to do all this, and then you tell me…….

I CAN’T PRAY!”

What goes boo in the night?

By dave

Fear is the most debilitating four letter word in the English language. We all suffer from it in small or very large ways. The word fear needs to be distinguished from being afraid because they are two very separate things. Being afraid is a very natural response to either an internal or external threat, real or imagined but fear contains a much broader area of discussion.

For the sake of this discussion I am going to speak about our internal fears, such as inadequacy, acceptance, self doubt, lack of self esteem and the like. Now mind you I am not a scholar or a clinical psychologist or medical person of any kind, just someone who has come to recognize fear and its impediment to action.

Let me begin by stating simply and for the record, my biggest fear is self doubt and not measuring up to my father. An explanation is probably in order here. My dad was larger than life, a man who grew up in a blue collar home. He finished high school while in the military and became an electrician after coming home from Korea. He was a man who saw no gray areas in life, only good and bad, right or wrong. In my eyes, he was John Wayne and the Marlboro Man all rolled into one. But he was also a hard man, one who did not express compliments or praise. Consequently, I never really understood if my mere achievements were worthy of merit or not. Hence a very large dose of self doubt, through my teen years and on through my young adulthood.

The hardness my father had instilled in me would be present the day I stood at the foot of his hospital bed and listened to the doctor’s prognosis. The life support system he was on was the only thing keeping him alive. My mom could not bear the news and the decision to end the life support fell to me, the oldest. Knowing my father, his life, and what the right thing to do was, I quietly walked over and turned off the system. At that point, I realized what all the teaching, discipline and hard lessons had been for a reason. They had brought me to this point in time where I had the courage to face my fear and do what was needed.

Now I would be remiss to say that all of my fears disappeared that day because they did not. Being this frail human I suffer from the same fears that everyone else does, but I do know what it takes to overcome them, sometimes successfully and sometimes not so successfully.

If you have reached this point, I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this. I must however offer a disclaimer, this was not written to illict sympathy, nor was it written as some cathartic exercise to remove my own personal demons. It was written to let you know that you are not alone. That the challenges or fears you face, however great or small can be conquered. It is all a matter of choice. You have been given the ability to make those choices. Create the life you want starting now.

Start by looking up and asking GOD for forgiveness. Then ask for courage and grace. Say a prayer every day and say Thank You because you have the ability, if you choose to conquer your fears and bring joy and peace into your life.

More to come….