Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Oh LORD,
Our God!
Sanctified and Holy is Your Most Hallowed Name.
How Excellent,
How Wonderful,
How Perfect You Are!
My heart is Overwhelmed With Your Glory,
Your Magnificence,
and Your Power!
When I think of how Awesome You Are,
Of How You Transcend Time and Space,
Of How You Created Everything That Is and Ever Was,
Of How You Tell History
From the Beginning to The End
and the End to The Beginning,
Of How You Give us a Glimpse into Your Infinite Mind
through Your Holy and Unchanging Word,
How You Are Faithful To Your Promises
Even When We Fall Away,
And How You Fulfill Every Detail of Your Precepts,
When we ourselves fall so short of the target,
I just have to stop everything,
And say, "How Great and AWESOME YOU ARE!"

Almighty God, When My Heart is so troubled by Events,
To Whom can I turn,
But To You?

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 (Interpreter)

Genesis 40:9 8 And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray you.

King James Version

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The Charter Bus to Negril, Jamaica, had a particularly garrulous bus driver. He pointed out every historic monument, every abandoned sugar plantation, every bauxite mining scar (the Red Stripes on the mountains from which Jamaican Beer got its name), The Red Stripe Brewery, every church, and every house that we passed. In between information, the driver talked about other things like history and politics. As the bus rode through a veritable cloud of marijuana smoke, the driver said:

"Now don't you buy none of that ganja, mon, or you could end up in a Jamaican Jail. They're NOT NICE like your American Jails!"

I have never been incarcerated, either in an American Jail or anywhere else, so I couldn't make a comparison, but I suppose he had a point. In the United States, there was a movement in the 19th Century to make the prisons more humane, in order to "reform" the convict. In fact, the word "prison" got changed to "Reformatory" or even "Penitentiary". Various services were made available, such as Psychiatric care, Educational Opportunities, Law Libraries, Gyms, and Exercise Yards. It still wasn't fun, and convicts were known to coalesce into their own hierarchy within the walls, and life could become just as dangerous and vicious as it was outside.

I imagine that an Egyptian Jail in around 1500 BC would have been much worse!

The Warden had a new prisoner who didn't seem to belong there. A handsome youth, accused of the rape of the wife of the Captain of the Guard (YIKES!), was remanded to his custody. The Youth claimed that he had been falsely accused, and from the dignity and integrity of his demeanor, the Warden thought that this was the case. But it wasn't the Warden's job to judge, just to keep these criminals out of society as ordered.

The Youth quickly made himself useful to the Warden, and made the squalid jail a lot more livable. Soon the Youth was entrusted with the running of the prison, and taking care of the other prisoners.

Two new prisoners, who had been in direct contact with Pharaoh, were added to the population, and the Youth (named Joseph) attended to them. Both of them had disturbing dreams on the same night, and went to Joseph for the interpretation. (This is perhaps the first recorded incident in history of a prison offering psychiatric services to its inmates).

Joseph could have presented himself as a psychic or a mystic, and provided some arcane, self-serving interpretation. He could have extracted money or favors in exchange for his services. He could have manipulated his petitioners to obtain power over them. But that's not what Joseph did.

The first thing Joseph does is to give Glory to God. Since the Baker and Cupbearer were polytheists, this must have puzzled them. Which "god" was Joseph talking about?

By giving a truthful, unadorned, God-inspired interpretation, Joseph was setting himself up to be attacked, especially by the baker, who's news was bad.

It was an opportunity for Joseph to be a powerful Witness to the One True God. Both dreams came true after three days, just as Joseph had said.

From this story we get another Name for God: The Interpreter of Dreams.

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