Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Our Father In Heaven,
Magnified and Sanctified is Your Most Holy Name!
You Alone Are Worthy To Be Praised And Worshiped,
For Your Alone Are Holy,
Righteous,
and Infinitely Just!
You Are Eternally Faithful,
and there is no Shadow of Turning with You.
Light and Darkness Can Not Occupy The Same Space,
and There is No Darkness With You.
Good and Evil Can Not Dwell Together,
And There is No Evil With You.
Yet You Always Judge Rightly,
With Grace and Truth,
Justice and Mercy,
Wisdom and Kindness,
Firmness and Gentleness.
LORD, You desire Truth in Our Inward Parts.
There is no way we can hide from You,
what is going on inside,
no matter what we say with our lips.
That being said,
And Even as You Know Every thought,
You STILL Open Your Everlasting Arms to hold us,
To be Our Strong Tower,
Our Only Refuge,
Our Rock and our Redeemer.
There is no other.

Let all that has been Concealed
Be Revealed.

Father, We Pray For The Peace Of Jerusalem,
According To Your Will and Promise.
We Pray That You Will Forgive The Sins
of Our Own Nation,
and Lead us all to Godly Repentance.
Create in Us Clean Hearts, Oh LORD,
and Renew a Right Spirit Within Us.

This we Pray Together,
As We Await Your Messiah,
Blessed Be He,
To Set Up His Kingdom,
And Make All Things Right.

God Bless America.

ML/LTOS

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

The Names and Titles of God (Messenger of the Covenant)

Malachi 3:1

3 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.

King James Version

________________________

Some Stories:

1. The Paint Job: My Brother-In-Law sells paint to Movie Production Companies for set design. It's a special kind of paint that looks so realistic that many times, what looks like a location shot in a movie is actually a painted set. He told me the following story:

The Movie Studio contracted to close off a street in an old section of Boston to film a Gangster Movie. The street was very ratty-looking, with crumbling pavement, potholes, and worn-out sidewalks. The Mayor of Boston was so excited that the Movie was going to feature one of Boston's iconic old neighborhoods that he sent crews out to repave the street, repair the sidewalks, and put in new street lamps. When the Movie Crew showed up, they were aghast.

"We wanted the street to look shabby! This is a Gangster Movie, not a Tourism Documentary!"

A quick call to my Brother-in-Law produced the paints, and the Set Design Crew went to work.With just the special paint, the street was miraculously changed back to it's mid-century dystopian look, and none of the Movie-goers were any wiser.

2. The Seder: When I was in the Ninth Grade, my girlfriend Gail invited me to a Passover Seder. I had never been to one before, didn't know what to expect.

Along with the unusual foods, songs and stories that I had never heard before, and unfamiliar prayers, there was a place setting at the table that nobody used. Everything was there, plates, silverware, a napkin, and a full glass of wine. I thought it was for a relative or guest who was unable to make it to the feast. Maybe, it was for a beloved family member who had passed away. I didn't want to spoil the party by asking about it, so I waited till the next day at school to ask Gail what was going on.

"Oh that is for Elijah," she said. "He has to come FIRST before Messiah can come." We set a place for him every year, but he never shows up.

I didn't know much about Comparative Religions at the time, so I just figured that "It was a Jewish thing," and left it at that. I knew about the Exodus from the movie "The Ten Commandments" but I didn't remember anything in the movie about Elijah.

3. The Potemkin Village: Legend has it that when Catherine The Great wanted to visit the "little people" in the Russian Countryside, her Prime Minister went ahead and cleaned up all the villages she would encounter. All the fronts of the cottages were given fresh paint and the peasants were dressed up in their traditional costumes. After Catherine passed through the village, everything went back to the way it had been before. This same tactic was used by Gavin Newsom just last year in November, when he cleaned up San Francisco for a visit by the Chinese Communists. This tactic is called creating a "Potemkin Village" after the Russian Prime Minister.

4. Elijah and John: The belief that Elijah needs to appear before the Messiah comes is a part of Christian teaching. All four of the Gospels testify that Jesus's cousin John, who had been born a few months earlier than Jesus, had prepared the people for the Ministry of Jesus. John wasn't Elijah, nor was he a "reincarnation" of the Prophet. He was a messenger, who came in the Spirit and Power of Elijah, to prepare the way for the Messiah.

The Forerunner clears the way for Messiah to come, raising up the Valleys and cutting down the Mountains, making the rough places plain and the crooked roads straight. (Isaiah 40) His job is not to just paint over the squalor and misery of the world, but to bring about true repentance in preparation for total renewal in Messiah. In Today's Scripture we see two "Messengers". The first one is the Forerunner (John, in the Spirit and Power of Elijah) and the second one is the "Messenger of the Covenant", ie: The Messiah. What "covenant" are we talking about? The very one we discussed recently, the Promise made to Eve, that the "Seed of Woman" would come and crush the Serpent's Head.

Come and Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. (Mark 4:22)

God Bless America.

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS