Daily and effective prayer is essential to one’s relationship with God. We are instructed in Scripture “…in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6). We are given guidelines in various scriptures regarding prayer, including how to pray, in what spirit and attitude we should pray, and specific things we should pray for. How often do you remind yourself of these precepts, and are you applying them in your prayers daily?
Author Archives: Rod Reynolds
Fundamentals of Prayer — Part 1
Prayer is an essential element in spiritual vitality. It’s in prayer that we develop the close personal relationship with God that makes his spirit a power in our lives. We repent in prayer. It’s in prayer that we labor for the salvation not only of ourselves but of others. It’s in prayer that we give praise and thanksgiving to God and seek of him those things of which we have need. It’s vital to pray–and to understand how to pray, when, for what.
2025 Festival Observance Planned
The Messenger Church of God keeps the festivals God commands his people to keep. The commanded festivals and annual Sabbaths are listed in Leviticus 23. They include, in addition to the weekly Sabbath, the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, the Feast of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day, associated with the Feast of Tabernacles, but technically a separate feast. The 2025 festival observance planned by the Church for the commanded annual festivals is summarized below.
God’s Name
In the Bible are found many names and titles for God. The faithful who abide in God’s word are called by his name (Jeremiah 15:16). The true Church bears the name of God. It is said of the Philadelphia era of the Church in part “you…Have not denied my name” (Revelation 3:8). He who overcomes bears the name of God. Those dwelling in the new Jerusalem shall have the name of God on their foreheads (Revelation 22:4), symbolic of having engraved in their minds the knowledge of the inherent meaning of God’s name and the spiritual and intellectual likeness of God which his name expresses.
The Kingdom of God in the Old Testament
When Jesus Christ began his ministry of three and a half years nearly 2000 years ago, he went about preaching the Kingdom of God. “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel’” (Mark 1:14-15). Later, when he sent his disciples out he commanded them to preach, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 10:7).
The good news concerning the establishing of the Kingdom of God was the focal point of Christ’s ministry. The underlying theme of the entire Bible is in the establishment of the world ruling government or Kingdom of God. All of God’s true servants have looked forward to the establishment of God’s Kingdom. It has been a subject of primary concern to all of them, without exception, from the very beginning (Hebrews 11:13-16). These all sought the promise — the same promise every Christian should seek, an inheritance in God’s Kingdom (Hebrews 12:28).
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