Prayer Focus for Tanzania – Sunday, February 1

 Tanzania, Africa: Missionaries continue to play a strategically vital role, even as they are increasingly replaced by capable national workers. They serve in a wide range of ministries in outreach, church support, training and specialist ministries. Major mission agencies are IMB, YWAM, AIM, Missionshaus Bibelschule, Swedish Pentecostal Church, Danish Lutheran Church.

Bible translation is an urgent need finally being addressed. Widespread use of Swahili masked the need for further translations. Still, 51 languages have no Scripture at all and a further 32 have only portions. Several agencies focus on translation: The Bible Society, Pioneer Bible Translators and Word for the World among them. Pray for more translation teams, including Tanzanians and foreigners, for projects to be finished quickly and well, and for the necessary literacy programmes to accompany the translations.  (www.operationworld.org)

 

Tanzania

The Book of Nahum – January 25, 2015

An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

God’s Wrath Against Nineveh

The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
    the Lord is avenging and wrathful;
the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
    and keeps wrath for his enemies.
The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,
    and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
    and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
    he dries up all the rivers;
Bashan and Carmel wither;
    the bloom of Lebanon withers.
The mountains quake before him;
    the hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
    the world and all who dwell in it.

Who can stand before his indignation?
    Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
    and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.
The Lord is good,
    a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
    But with an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries,
    and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
What do you plot against the Lord?
    He will make a complete end;
    trouble will not rise up a second time.
10 For they are like entangled thorns,
    like drunkards as they drink;
    they are consumed like stubble fully dried.
11 From you came one
    who plotted evil against the Lord,
    a worthless counselor.

12 Thus says the Lord,
“Though they are at full strength and many,
    they will be cut down and pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
    I will afflict you no more.
13 And now I will break his yoke from off you
    and will burst your bonds apart.”

14 The Lord has given commandment about you:
    “No more shall your name be perpetuated;
from the house of your gods I will cut off
    the carved image and the metal image.
I will make your grave, for you are vile.”

15  Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him
    who brings good news,
    who publishes peace!
Keep your feasts, O Judah;
    fulfill your vows,
for never again shall the worthless pass through you;
    he is utterly cut off.

Prayer Focus for Tajikistan – Sunday, January 25

Tajikistan, Asia: Expatriate involvement. Tajikistan, with its great social and spiritual needs, is ripe for Christian ministry done sensitively and appropriately. Relief and development are much-needed and fruitful ministries, as are education and business training. Young people, prisoners, drug addicts and women in difficult situations are particularly responsive. Pray for the calling and entry of more long-term personnel. Pray for ethnically related Iranian Christians to become witnesses; they could play a unique role in winning Tajiks to Jesus. Tajiks number 13 million in Central Asia. For nearly a thousand years, there was no significant outreach to Tajiks. Now, in addition to more than 1,000 believers in Tajikistan, there are a greater number of Tajik believers in Afghanistan as well as some in Pakistan and Uzbekistan. Pray for further growth, and pray for the establishment of a truly indigenous Tajik Church – this is beginning to happen as Tajik church leaders emerge. Pray especially for unity in this young expression of Christ’s body.  (www.operationworld.org)

taji-MMAP-sm

Prayer Focus for Syria – Sunday, January 18

Syria, Asia: Unreached peoples to pray for:

  1. a) The Sunni Arab majority, most have never heard the gospel.
  2. b) The Alawites are a minority but also the group that produces the presidents. They are very influential in the army and government. They are an offshoot of Islam whose beliefs differ much from orthodox Islamic faith, with some potential spiritual bridges to Christianity. c)The Druze in the south are a secretive offshoot of Islam. Though hard to reach in the past, there is increasing contact and response, with a few small groups of believers. d) The Kurds of the north and northwest are more receptive than most Arabs. Due to the politically sensitive nature of the Kurdish issue, it is generally difficult to engage them. Some are Orthodox Christian, others Yezidis and Shi’a, but most are Sunni Muslim. (www.operationworld.org)

syri-MMAP-sm

Habakkuk 1:1-2; 2:2-4; 3:17-18

The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

Habakkuk’s Complaint

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
    and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
    and you will not save?

The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith

And the Lord answered me:

“Write the vision;
    make it plain on tablets,
    so he may run who reads it.
For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
    it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
    it will surely come; it will not delay.

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
    but the righteous shall live by his faith

Habakkuk Rejoices in the Lord

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
    and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
    and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

Prayer Focus for Switzerland – January 11, 2015

Challenges for Prayer

Renewed vision for evangelicals is bubbling up. The Swiss Evangelical Alliance, Free Churches and other agencies are working on a renewed vision for the evangelization of Switzerland. Most Christian non-profit groups have united as a more audible voice within society regarding religious freedom, evangelism and mission, aid and social responsibility, environmental issues, media, youth and others. While church planting remains an important goal, they see renewal and Christian testimony within society as equally important. Pray for increasing numbers of congregations as well as for renewal of many existing ones. Pray for newer groups, such as the International Christian Fellowship (ICF) and the house church movement, that are reaching people outside of traditional church structures.

In the Catholic cantons, predominantly in the south and centre of the country, the small evangelical witness is growing; centuries-old prejudices and religious polarizations are breaking down. Pray that many may find a personal relationship with Jesus and come to assurance of salvation, and that a living fellowship of believers may come into being in every community.

swit-MMAP-sm

Unity in the Kingdom of Christ – Ephesians 4:1-6

uwe heimowski

Pastor Uwe Heimowski

Crossroads Presbyterian Church has become a sister church to an Evangelical Free Church in Gera, Germany (located in what was the Communist-controlled area of East Germany) and to a Baptist Church located in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. The purpose of the “sisterhood” is to demonstrate the reconciliation that can be found only in Christ among three churches who have been enemies to each other. Crossroads joined this ‘sisterhood’ in 2014 and participated in a joint construction project at the Russian church location in May of 2014.

Pastor Heimowski preached from Ephesians 4:1-6.

How might the original recipients of Ephesians have been in need of unity? What things may have been causing discord among believers living in the Roman Empire?

Economic disparity, ethnic differences, political differences…

Marsh-BLACK-SHEEP-2

Black Sheep by Marsh

What did Pastor Uwe point out as three important aspects of unity according to the Apostle Paul?

Godliness of life

Simplicity of message

Deep faith in God

What verses from Ephesians did he use to support his points?

Did any point in particular stand out as important to you?

How did his message relate to the German-Russian-American Partnership?

How might this message lead you to pray for the partnership?

How might it relate to the congregation of Crossroads?

Prayer Focus for Sweden – Sunday, January 4, 2015

 Sweden, Europe: A secular, postmodern worldview dominates society. It is difficult to express a biblical faith in public or in the academic sphere without deprecation and opposition. Good apologetics and sharp Christian thinking are required to win back this lost ground; helpfully, a number of scientists and academics have recently “come out” as believers. Pray for God to raise up outstanding Christian speakers and thinkers who can establish the legitimacy and indeed the superiority of a classical biblical worldview in the marketplace of ideas. www.operationworld.org

 

swed-MMAP-sm