No one’s been with this blog longer than Erlene, and she needs our prayers today: “Extreme migraine headache,” she tells us.
Please join me in prayer:
Dear Lord our God, in Jesus’ name and by the power of Jesus’ name, please, Lord, be swift to aid your servant, Erlene Talbott–restore her health and take away her pain. We love her, and we need her in our fellowship. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
I’ve just had four hours, punctuated by a cigar break, of ay-yi-yi.
*Take down our Christmas tree, two hours. I’m sure it didn’t used to take so long; but we have a lot of ornaments, family heirlooms going back for many years, gotta be careful with them.
*Cigar break. It’s survival, dude.
*Bring in the recycling bins.
*We need to use our cars tomorrow, so I had to clear all the ice off the windshields, headlights, etc. That was another hour.
*Take the rather large and heavy Christmas tree out to the curb. (I’ll miss it.) Did I once have more energy than this? Anyway, it’s all done and I can’t do any more.
O Lord! thank you for this Christmas season, bless it, and give it power to work within us, for us, and for our country all year round to the next Christmas. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
My friend and editor, Susan, is in the hospital with pneumonia and some as-yet undiagnosed afflictions. She hasn’t been healthy for weeks now, and she needs our prayers.We need her back in the front lines. Please, Lord, heal her! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
As for me, I went to the doctor this morning because my right leg has pain and stiffness that wanders all around–knee, hip, groin, glute–and hasn’t been right since the summer. He will write me a prescription and we’ll give it a week to see if it works. So I need some prayers, too–as many as I can get. Please, Father, heal your servants! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
It’s been weeks since I’ve written a word of Ozias, Prince Enthroned. It’s too cold to sit outside and write, the ink won’t come out of the pen; and we’ve had all sorts of tsuris around here lately. But I am still thinking about the book; the Lord has shown me two incidents that will have to be included in the story.
I’ll have to wait for more.
And while we’re at it, let me request some prayers for Susan, my editor at Chalcedon and my friend, who’s been sick for weeks now and needs some TLC from above. Please, Father, restore her health and strength and let her take up her work again: bless your servant with healing. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
No Christmas hymns entered in our contest today, so I have to provide one: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, by Johann Sebastian Bach; performed by the London Symphony Orchestra in 1961, Leopold Stokowski conducting.
[Reader comments made yesterday have left me not knowing what to say or do. I have tried to make this blog a haven for all Christians, for anyone who needs a bit of shelter from the storm. And what do you do when your friends fight? When someone does something he’s convinced is for the best, and yet it turns out badly?
I’m praying over this, and I need all the prayers that I can get.]
Cardinal Burke
Francis I, the “go-along to get along” pope, has reportedly “punished” Cardinal Raymond Burke [am I supposed to say Raymond Cardinal Burke? I’d like to show respect] for being “a source of disunity in the Church” (https://www.8newsnow.com/news/international/ap-pope-punishes-leading-critic-cardinal-burke-in-second-action-against-conservative-american-prelates/).
Anonymous leaks from a Nov. 30 meeting said the pope took away the cardinal’s Vatican apartment and his salary.
Well, he spends most of his time in America anyway; and you can be sure he isn’t in it for the money. And millions of Christians, in a heartbeat, would freely contribute to the cardinal’s expenses if he needed it.
Burke’s offense? He does not go along to get along. Unlike this pope, he does not trawl the depths for political allies among liberals and communists. Cardinal Burke does not subscribe to this pope’s addiction to playing footsie with the Far Left Crazy.
Pray for Cardinal Burke: O Lord our God, stand by your faithful servant Raymond Burke, whose defense of the Scriptures and the truth is a shield of faith for all Christians regardless of denomination. Please, Father–uphold him and confound his enemies. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
So Patty’s brand-new oxygen generator, that we only got on Monday, hiccuped on Wednesday and went belly-up on Thanksgiving Day–and just try getting any help on a holiday (“Urgent care–we’re sometimes there!”)… And we bought all this new cat food for Robbie, which she liked for fifteen minutes and then avoided it.
Neither of us feels all that great, either.
Please, we need your prayers. Just the three of us here.
P.S.–Well, at least they’ll replace the oxygen machine today. I’ll have to do all the weekend errands by myself–we don’t know when the guy will show up to install the new machine.
Anyway, Lord, we need a boost today–in Jesus’ name, Amen.
I was just posting the Doc Watson video when this prayer request came in: from my friend and editor, Susan.
Today she opened a door and one of her cats darted out–the one she adopted from her cousin. It’s an indoor cat, it won’t know what to do out there, might not be able to find its way back home: so let’s pray about that.
O Lord our God, bless your servant, Susan, and bring her cat back home; she’s very fond of it. You know how we love our animal companions. Please, Father, make this right. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
We have an urgent prayer request for our friend and colleague, Elder Mike. He’s got a creeping numbness in his hands and feet that’s now threatening to spread–in a matter of hours, he fears.
O Lord our God! Your servant Michael needs you now! Hear our prayers for him. Please, Father, protect him and heal him. Be swift to come to his aid. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
The sun came out again today, and I was taking a break, enjoying the weather, when this hymn swept me into its arms. I thought I’d better post it–especially this closing verse.
Our fathers’ God to thee, author of liberty, to thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright, with freedom’s holy light!
Protect us by thy might, great God our King!
Our country, and indeed the whole world, is in the most terrible trouble. Sin, folly, wickedness, war: we are in dire need of God’s protection, in desperate need of repentance and God’s grace. We need your grace, O LORD, and need it now.
In Jesus’ name, Amen!