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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.

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

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Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Exodus 4

Signs for Moses

4 Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

2 Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,” he replied.

3 The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”

Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 “This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”

6 Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous[a]—it had become as white as snow.

7 “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.

8 Then the Lord said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. 9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”

10 Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”

11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”

14 Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. 15 You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. 16 He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. 17 But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”

_______________________________________________________

Oh man, did I hate Algebra! I didn't mind Geometry, because it involved drawing shapes, but I could not see how my life could possible be improved by finding the value of "x". I started to neglect my Algebra homework, and focus more on drawing. In a normal Jr. High School, I would have been been advised to pursue the Arts, but this was an Exam School focused apon a "Classical" Education. Since nearly all the graduates of this school continued on to College, candidates from all over Boston took the Exam to get in. It was an all-girl school, free of charge, and run by the Boston Public School System. It was located in Dorchester, and accessible by Public Transportation that snaked around the toughest sections of the Inner City on the way. I rode for hours on the "El" and several busses every day to get to school, and I hated it. My one consolation was Art Class once a week. Then I was told that if I did not pass Algebra, I would be dropped from the Art Class. I argued that, although Math was important, Civilization was nurtured by The Arts. Some people were good at Math, others were good at Art. But NO. That Algebra Homework had to be completed and turned in every day or NO ART CLASS FOR YOU!

And so, I buckled down and studied. It took me hours to do the Algebra homework, and I wasn't even sure it was correct, so, somewhere between Dudley Station and Codman Square, in a hot, stifling MBTA Bus (no A/C), I opened up my Algebra book at the top of the stack of books, to recheck my homework. Suddenly, a gust of hot wind from a passing garbage truck picked up my Algebra Homework and blew it right out the window! I saw it, skipping down the street, being smashed and torn by traffic. I was devastated. I couldn't remember anything about the paper and could not reconstruct it even if I tried.

In front of the whole class, the intimidating male Algebra teacher asked for my homework, and I told him what happened. He accused me of lying, and said;

"What, you don't have a dog? Usually the excuse is 'The Dog Ate My Homework'. At least YOUR excuse is ORIGINAL! HA HA!"

I was devastated. That night, I fell weeping into my mother's arms, saying that I couldn't go to that school anymore. She understood! Even though she was to endure criticism for allowing me to quit the free, exclusive, all-girl's high school, I was enrolled in a "normal" Jr. High the following year. I had Art five times a week, was able to assemble a portfolio, and won a scholarship to a High School Art Program at the Museum of Fine Arts.

Some excuses are like "The Dog Ate My Homework." they are presented as a cover-up of a sin. Other excuses, like my elaborate tale of the MBTA Bus, are genuine, but really don't address the underlying problem. The excuses of Moses were like that. Moses knew that he was not qualified to speak for God in his own power. He didn't understand that, if God was giving him an impossible task to do, He would also provide the means to do it. It takes four miracles to convince Moses to lead his own People out of Bondage: the staff becomes a snake, Moses's hand becomes leprous, Moses's hand is healed, and water turns to blood. All of these signs would mean a lot to the Egyptians. They were scrupulously clean, shaved their heads and bodies and bathed several times a day. The Snake was one of their gods, as was the River Nile. These were powerful signs that God gave Moses and should have convinced even the most stubborn Egyptian to "Let The People Go."

Fifty years after the bus incident, I was sitting in Real-Estate School, figuring out closing costs on a sale of property. The figure, which would include "doc-stamps", commissions, and attorney's fees, were calculated by using an equation. And then I realized how important it could be to find the value of "x".

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

"He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:25)

God Bless America.

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

[Hiskid]

Amen