March Celebrity Prayer Project: Michael Phelps!

                                                        
                                                 (Photo from Wikipedia.org)

What more can you say about the most successful Olympian in history?  Michael Phelps and all of his gold medals make me wish that I took my time in the pool more seriously.  At any rate, I am glad that he used his athletic career to bring more honor and prestige to the sport of swimming.  I saw many of his events at the Olympics last year and was extremely impressed.  This month, I will be praying that he gets saved, so that he can be extremely impressed when he goes to heaven and meets the One Who gave him his swimming prowess: Jesus Christ!

February Celebrity Prayer Project: Helen Mirren!

 

(Photo from Wikipedia.org)

This month's celebrity prayer project is going to be Helen Mirren, who did an excellent job as Lillian Hobson in "Arthur."  That should come as no surprise from one of the most accomplished actresses alive, but in that film, she was even better than I had heard.  In the movie, her character said that she would most likely be looking up to Arthur from beyond the grave, not looking down.  I will pray as hard as I can that this will not the case for Helen Mirren herself.  Hopefully, she will encounter Jesus Christ this month so that she can become saved and continue to prosper in heaven.  However, whether or not she does (as well as when), will ultimately be up to her. 

Playing Catch-up

So far, I have prayed a total of 45 minutes for The Rock.  In other words, I have some catching up to do.  No excuses.  I set this deadline and I am going to meet it.

 

Accept The Ultimate Deliverance!

"I will save you from the hands of the wicked and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel.” (Jeremiah 15:21)

This verse carries a lot of significance for me, because I know what it is like to be saved from the wicked and the cruel.  Long story short, I refused to attend a church on an island in the Pacific which did not teach the true gospel of Christ.  Would it have been easy to compromise my faith in order to fit in with the community?  Of course, but you should go to a church because it teaches the truth, not because you want to be part of the crowd.  As a result of my choice, my reputation was sabotaged, my job was put into jeopardy, and eventually, my life was threatened.  Nonetheless, Jesus saved me, ensuring that I was safely evacuated from the island in one piece.  Even before that, he raised up allies from the most unlikely places to help me out when I needed it.  Two of them are my good friends Richard and Emily, whom I am still in contact with.  I was also helped by my friends Shrew, Heinson, Songro, and Timothy, although we have since fallen out of touch.  Instead of winding up unjustly fired or worse, dead, I am alive and well, and it is all thanks to Jesus. 

I want to make it clear that, sometimes, God allows Satan to have his way with people's lives.  Even His servants are not immune from being attacked, raped, or killed in this world.  Why does He deliver some people from an evil fate and not others?  That is a question to be answered in another post.  For now, I will just be thankful that, ultimately, we can all be delivered from the evils of this world through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  If you are saved, no matter what happens to you in this world, you are guaranteed eternal life with God in heaven forever.  That, my friend, is the ultimate deliverance.   

January Celebrity Prayer Project: The Rock!

                                                           (Photo from wikipedia.org)

FINALLY, THE ROCK HAS COME BACK...HOME!  Those are the words that I want Dwayne Johnson to hear when he goes before God after he enters eternity.  The Rock is the most entertaining man I have ever seen.  He is great as a wrestler and phenomenal as an actor.  I've never met him personally, but every story I hear about him from those who have is positive.  He seems like a really kind-hearted and humble individual and I would love to get his autograph.  However, in the meantime, I will pray that he meets the God who gave him his electrifying talent and personality and gets eternal life from the True Great One: Jesus Christ!  

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Finishing the Jennifer Lawrence Celebrity Prayer Project was not easy; I had to deal with a lot of turmoil in my life to finish it and had to do some 2-3 hour prayer sessions to catch up.  Nonetheless, I completed it.  To be perfectly honest, it's the first one that I have finished.  In every other prayer project, I only made it about halfway and then gave up.  That's the reason why I will now provide periodic updates on how I am doing for accountability purposes.  These updates will occur roughly every week of the month. 

Ironically, praying about others makes me feel better and more refreshed.  Very often, when I pray for myself, I end up treating Jesus like Santa Claus and just read off my mental wish list.  When I pray for others, I am a bit more selfless.  In addition, it relieves a lot of stress because it causes me to remember that God is more powerful than my problems.  I won't say what those problems are because I want to publish them in a book called "That Was Then, This Is Now."  The title is a nod to S.E. Hinton, who wrote an excellent novel with the same title in which Bryon, the main character, has to make some really difficult choices in order to grow up and become a man.  In the past three years, I've had to make a lot of difficult choices so that I could pursue the path that God has placed before me.  Granted, I also made some decisions which I regret, but God has used these to teach me wisdom and discernment.  Now, things are starting to change for the better, and I have the feeling that 2013 is going to be an amazing year in which I will be blessed and, in turn, be able to bless others.   

Value The Greatest Gift Of All

"The Lord had said to Abram, 'Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.  I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.'" (Genesis 12:3)

Most people choose the opening chapters of Matthew or Luke when discussing Christmas.  However, I decided to choose a different verse which proves that God had Christmas planned even during Old Testament times.  Roughly 2,000 years before Jesus was born, God picked a wealthy, cosmopolitan man named Abram from the Babylonian city of Ur to be the ancestor of His chosen nation, Israel.  Little did Abram (who was renamed Abraham) know that one of his descendants would be God's greatest gift to mankind: Jesus Christ.

At Christmas, we give gifts to each other and bless those whom we love.  However, we are only able to do that because God first loved us.  God is love, and we are only able to love each other because He gave us that ability.  He loved us so much that He gave us His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we could have eternal life.  This is what He meant when He told Abraham that He was going to bless all of the nations on earth through Him.  He was going to use Israel as the vehicle for bringing Christ into the world.  On top of that, He used Israel to preserve monotheism and to give us His Word, the Bible.  No one has the Christmas Spirit more than Christ Himself.  Even the myth of Santa comes from a devout Christian named Saint Nicholas.  

So during this time of the year, open your presents.  Spend time with your family.  Reconnect with your friends and make new ones.  However, most of all, reflect upon all the gifts that God has given you, including the greatest gift of all: Jesus Christ.   

Merry Christmas!