Prayer & Praise
Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
(attributed to Sir Francis Drake -1577)
Amen, amen amen – to add a mundanity: we have all the navigation tools we need to sail on course… I’m afraid mine are kept below deck more than they should be… if I’m leaving a trail on the water, it zig zags embarrassingly
God keep all the souls of the Phoenix Preacher family – past and present – close
A fine prayer to start this fine day. Thank you Lord for another day. Amen.
Amen and amen……….
And, Em, it’s good to have you around again!
Prayer Requests: July7-14
brian – I just got some real hard news as to two people I had known for years had passed, one in a tragic accident and another who had struggled with illness. it has just been a rather hard weekend. I dont know what to do with the pain.
Trey – recovering from mono
Filbertz- been completely overwhelmed with tasks, trying to finish school year, business responsibilities, and a new grandson (our dear Amber) who along with his 14 month old brother and momma needs a lot of care and support. It has been very satisfying and enjoyable, but exhausting. Amber needs much attention and assistance with two little ones in diapers and hubby not available (long story) so we’re pulling long hours. Baby Charles is doing great and older brother Isaiah too. All that and career transitions…so prayer for strength, wisdom, and mercy appreciated.
.Michael and Trey Needing prayer covering
J2 and her husband facing nonsense from the local government which may result in $6000 in fees. Prayers for wisdom and the community voicing their frustration, and that they would be heard.
Michael Liles “Smurf” A man Derek served with in Bosnia and Iraq, he has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, ALS. The lifespan for those diagnosed with this is very short. Prayer for Michael and his family. You can find out more, also about his speaking before Congress for more attention to ALS, on his FB page: https://www.facebook.com/michael.liles.169
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Nonnie- her Grandson Bennet’s recovery from his surgery!
Gary – for a solid job opportunity and something to come quickly for housing. Also, just for some encouragement during this frustrating time.
Michael Needs a job and income. Now.
J2thePerson – disability application processed quickly.
Chile -family member who was given just two years to live.
Ryan – dealing with loneliness and a desire for true friendship.
Derek – friend Dennis , served two tours with Derek and is possibly PTSD
London – for her eyes.
Sarah’s Nephew-in-Law Blake Serving 9 months in Afghanistan. Pray for safety.
Pastor Saeed FREEDOM
Gomergirl – coworker/ friend, Kathy. niece was one of the victims in Santa Barbara
Captain Kevin – cervical spinal stenosis (narrowing of the upper spinal column), which causes pain in my neck and shoulders as well as down into my hands. , bone spurs in my hands, and
what appears to be a separating of my left wrist and hand. I should be going in for an MRI on that hand sometime in the next week. I’m wearing braces and taking some pretty strong meds, but the relief is minimal. My pain specialist says that pain sensations I feel are probably heightened by the fibromyalgia.
Children on the border
Thank you, Dusty!
fire update… since I interrupted the links thread today to ask for prayer, the direction of the fire has changed – the wind is blowing it back into unpopulated wildlife areas and the evacuation levels 1,2 & 3 are lifted per the 9pm update – won’t unpack, but I’ll claim prayer prevailed and thank the pray-ers and our God and I will sleep well tonight – after all the push to be ready to evacuate, I’m ready (to sleep or evacuate)
I need prayer on a situation. I can’t really go into specifics, but basically my husband and I made a mistake. It’s not even something that really effects anyone other than us, but it could still be very costly for us. I need to find a way for it to not be costly and detrimental to us.
Praying for you J2. I’m guessing most couples have made mistakes with money. I’m praying that it’s not detrimental, and I believe thatas you have entrusted it unto the Lord, He will work it all out.
J2, If I can be of any help, Michael may be able to facilitate an exchange of email addresses.
J2, praying that those in authority in this situation will deal kindly – by God’s grace – may He give the both of you strength and wisdom to go thru
Basically, we bought an old house that needed a lot of work. We’ve been fixing it up, but we didn’t know we needed permits because we were doing it all ourselves. The work we did was safe and, with maybe the exception of some minor finicky things, to code. But someone reported us to the city and now we need to get permits and it looks like the only way we can is if we open up all our walls so a licensed person can okay the work. I just don’t even know how to handle this or what to do. We put in so much hard work and it’s all going to be ruined because of bureaucratic rules and not even because what we did was bad or unsafe or harmful to anyone. I need to find a contractor that would be willing to approve it based just on what he can see from the outside, but no contractor is going to do that.
J2, if it is plumbing or wiring, they will not budge – but will pray for a miracle, non-the-less … did you, by any chance, take pictures of the work in progress? praying
We took pictures, but there wouldn’t be enough to prove anything. I really wish we hadn’t come clean. We wanted to try to do the right thing, the christian thing, but all that has gotten us is punishment and pain. I would rather spend 30 days in jail than have to open our walls up. I would have no problem signing some kind of waiver taking all the blame if something went wrong. It’s insane the amount of control the government has over private matters.
Em, just watching the local/regional news and thinking about you and the fire. They said the Entiat fire has tripled in size……….hoping and praying you are safe as well as the horses.
We found a plumber and electrician to work with. The electrician just went through this exact scenario a month ago and they did not have to open walls. The electrician actually used to employ one of the city’s electrical inspectors. Hopefully it will work out okay, unless, for some reason, they’re being really unfair and arbitrary with us.
J2, I’m not familiar with the local laws in your State and town, so please take this with a grain of salt. Now that you’ve had this situation identified, I recommend you resolve it strictly in accordance with the local laws and ordinances. If you ever sell the house, there may be questions on a property disclosure form which would ask if you have had work done and whether proper permits were obtained and inspections, etc. You don’t want to place yourself in a future position of having to choose between making the disclosure or making a fraudulent misrepresentation. Then there’s the issue of potential back property taxes and penalties for failure to obtain permits and potentially a reassessment of your property value. Lastly, if you should every have a casualty, such as a fire, and were found to have done work without a permit or inspection or without a licensed electrician, your insurance company might fight the claim and you could open yourself up to a lawsuit by a neighbor if their property was damaged in the fire.
I don’t mean to alarm you, but these are just some issues that in some jurisdictions could become a problem for a person who doesn’t follow local construction laws. Now that this has been brought up, I think you will sleep better if you just follow the book at this point. Perhaps, in a weird way that you don’t appreciate currently, this situation has saved you from something worse that could have happened down the road.
I’m glad you found a plumber and electrician to help you with this.