Tues.12.23.14...Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

Jesus has been teaching us a more excellent way to pray using the pattern of the Lord’s prayer. It begins by focusing on God- His praise and his priorities. So we began by praising God as our Father and honoring his holy name. Then we aligned ourselves to God’s priorities- seeking first his kingdom and his will to be done in our lives. It is after this that our glorious King graciously invites us to present our requests before him. He is happy to hear even our requests for daily bread.

It is our daily bread- our physical needs that so often people worry about. Jesus seems to almost gently laugh at the thought of worrying about food and clothing (Read Mt.6:25-34). He had just taught us to pray to our Father in heaven who is so great. We saw he is so amazing that 900 different names and titles are showered upon him in Scripture. So how silly to worry about food and clothing. He is our devoted Father. We are to “seek first the kingdom of God.” The appropriate way to pray about any such earthly concerns is given to us by Paul, “Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” Phil.4:6 NLT. (Worry and worship don’t fellowship together.) It’s interesting to note how little ink Paul gave to praying for others' physical needs. But he certainly wrote a lot about praying for the spiritual needs and growth of others.

1.- Click the following link and you’ll see a very helpful arrangement of Paul’s prayers.  http://www.regent.edu/lib/research/divinity/divinity-paul.pdf
Pick out one that you’d like to use when praying for others. Please share that with us now. Feel free to use another translation or paraphrase it. And if you wish, share anything that you especially liked about it.

2. Write the most important part of that verse on your 3x5 and then do the “Did it.” As you look over that powerful prayer you picked, please pray it for your loved ones, teammates and your future protégés. One day you can look at them and say, “I’ve been praying for you before I even met you!”

Yes, the Lord invites us to pray about our daily bread- the physical provisions that we need for food, clothing and health needs. But now you are armed with a powerful prayer to help others spiritually. This seems to be far more important in God’s priorities. When praying, I don’t always know what to pray- does God want to miraculously heal this elderly person? But I always know that God wants to improve their spiritual health. Speaking of which, do you ever wish you had a guide for praying more significantly for the spiritual health of your family? Then pray for your FAMILY members that they would be Faithful with A+Attitudes, that they would become Mature in character, that they would be Influencers for the kingdom, Loving and Yoked to good spouses. 

I’m so glad God is giving you such great daily bread from his word. Feel free to share it with others. I had a friend from seminary days who would ask me, “Got any fresh bread?” Yes, you and I do- hot out of the oven of Scripture today.

Special Announcements!
Give a special shout out to Vince Diaz, your newest M3 teammate and to Daniel for inviting him to join up. Vince was raised in a pastor's family and has served the Lord for quite a while, but he had never taken the step of believers baptism. So Daniel helped Vince go through the Blue Book to baptism just a couple weeks ago. Welcome aboard Vince!

Tomorrow, we will focus on the most important event of history- D Day- Deliverance Day- when the Deliverer came and began to retake earth from the enemy. "Thank you Lord that you would rescue us and then involve us in this great, manly battle." 

Christmas will be a day of rest from the blog. But would you take the time over the next few days to help me help you? I'd like to create a powerful tool to help you recruit other coach quality men. So would you write a few lines about what you like about M3? From what I've been hearing back from several of you, I think your words will be very influential. I'll gather them all together and put it on one doc that you can share with others. It would be best if we could get our new men on board by the end of the month. I also want to share your testimonies in upcoming Prayer Partners weekly updates. (Please get me the names and email addresses of your prayer partners by Dec.29th.) You can simply post your testimony on any of our blogs over the next few days. Thanks!

Notice below that our GREAT scoreboard now shows a new letter filled in- T for new Team members you have recruited. Wow, Daniel recruited Vince and Jack had already recruited Daniel to begin with. That makes Jack a grandpa of sorts already! Men, this is firstfruits of what will happen for each of you as we focus on multiplying MANLY men! This is the fastest time for such to occur as we focus on recruiting other coach quality men for the next few weeks. Call your prospects up and let me know how I can help you. Some wanted clarification: If you recruit men who are even more mature than you are, relax- it doesn't mean you will be mentoring them. They will be coaches in training as well. It does mean that if they don't drop out, they will be credited to your family tree as you see below.

Congratulations! 

		G=God's Word	R	E	A	T=Team members recruited
		For Fri.12.19.14
	Alpha Force	100%
	Fire Team 1
1	Jack Rogers	Y				2	Daniel & Roger
2	Daniel Contreras	Y				1	Vince
3	Vince Diaz	Welcome!
4	Roger Vinlasaca	Y
	Fire Team 2
5	Israel Fuentes	Y
6	John Pallozzi	Y
7	Sam Vargas	Y
	Delta Force	100%
	Fire Team 3
1	Alvin James	Y
2	Dave Heidekruger	Y
3	Mike Pagan	Y
	Fire Team 4
4	Eddie Morales	Y				2	Gary & Ismael
5	Gary Remson	Y
6	Ismael Andrade	Y

This Sunday- 2-5pm is the Open House at my house. Talk to your loved ones about coming. Hope you can drop by.