Today's Nehemiah?

Father, thank You for this day, this holy day that began this morning in our small group. It was a spirited discussion with (today) five of us, and Oh! how great You are to let us experience You and share Your love in our journeys.

Lord, it was good.

As you know, we had a spirited discussion of how we need to show our faith in You through our actions. With Your help, we will! All five of us and more!

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A friend of ours forwarded this prayer today. I don't know how far it has spread on the Internet, but it is so appropriate to our conversation and study this morning. We need to pray it, and to get others we know to take it to heart and pray it.

It is a lot like Nehemiah's prayer for Israel.

God heard that prayer, and look what was accomplished!

This prayer is:

Billy Graham's Prayer for Our Nation

"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance.

"We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good.' But that is exactly what we have done.

"We have lost our spiritual equilibrium, and reversed our values.

"We have exploited the poor, and called it the lottery.

"We have rewarded laziness, and called it welfare.

"We have killed our unborn, and called it choice.

"We have shot abortionists, and called it justifiable.

"We have neglected to discipline our children, and called it building self esteem.

"We have abused power, and called it politics.

"We have coveted our neighbor's possessions, and called it ambition.

"We have polluted the air with profanity, and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

"We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers, and called it enlightenment.

"Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!"

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Another friend just sent this quote: "Prayer is the rain that softens the soil." (Jim Hynds, National Campus Crusade Director from Prague).

I don't have a clue when Billy Graham composed this prayer. I daresay that every part of it is true.

Let's pray this and share it, putting our faith into, at least, that kind of action.

IBG / JF

Just a Prayer ...

Lord God, I am amazed by You. I truly am. The more I gaze upon Your face — the more that I am in Your Word, meditate on it, and study with others what You have told us and shown us, the more I realize how much You really are and the more I see You and Your majesty and glory in all things. Yet, I have only but an inkling of You, You who is, have been, and forever will be. So, I thank You for allowing me get this close.

IBG / JF

Righteous, Dude!

Alas. I did not really find what I was looking for. I was hoping I could find a specific scripture passage that succinctly defined “righteousness.” The closest thing I found was Romans 8:10 which seems to suggest that “sin” and “righteousness” are opposites. Here are some more of the puzzle pieces that may be a part of coming up with a complete definition.

• According to Vine’s Expository of New Testament Words, dikaiosune (translated “righteousness” in Romans 3) is defined as “the character or quality of being right or just.”


• The Greek-English Lexicon of New Testament Words defines it as: “the state of him who is such as he ought to be.”


• Unger’s Bible Dictionary says it is “purity of heart and rectitude of life; the being and doing right.”


• Righteousness is both something that describes a person’s character/attributes as well as something we practice (I John 3:7).


• Righteousness is both something we pursue (I Timothy 6:1) and something “credited” to our account through faith.


• Righteousness is both something we possess now and hope for in the future (Galatians 5:5).


• Righteousness is provided through Jesus (Philippians 1:11).


• Righteousness is part of what God provides to protect us from the attacks of our enemy (Ephesians 6:14).

In a discussion of Romans 3:21-26 in The Gospel for Real Life, Jerry Bridges writes:

What is this righteousness from God--or, more literally stated, the righteousness of God? In the famous story of Martin Luther’s life, Luther at first thought the righteousness of God was the righteousness that God required for us in perfectly fulfilling His Law. Because he realized more and more he could not possible measure up to that impossible demand, he grew increasingly angry with God. At one time he had exclaimed, “Love God? I hate him.” Eventually he came to realize that the righteousness of God was that which God provided for us. At that time he said, “Thereupon I felt myself reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.

What then is this righteousness from God that Paul announces to us, and over which Martin Luther struggled? It is a righteousness that He both requires and provides for us. It is the righteousness that He requires be cause it must full satisfy the utmost demands of His Law, both in its precepts and penalty. For although this righteousness is apart from Law as far as we are concerned, it is not as far as God is concerned. Rather it must be a righteousness that both perfectly fulfills the righteous requirements of His Law and satisfies the demands of His justice toward those who have broken His Law.

This righteousness from God, the, is nothing less than the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, who, through His sinless life and His death in obedience to the Father’s will, perfectly fulfilled the Law of God in both its precepts and its penalty.