[Denver Post]

Gloria Aguda was on the verge of losing her home to foreclosure and couldn’t afford a trip to the doctor. Depressed, the 50-year-old Fountain resident prayed for help. Last week those prayers were answered when she matched all six numbers in the Lotto drawing for a $9 million jackpot.

Read about it here.

[From me]

I won the Irish, British, and Jamaican Lottery today according to the e-mails I received.  Would you accept the tithe?  Wasn’t it David Jeremiah who said the devils had it long enough?

What do you think?

[Associated Press]

A storm crashed through the Southeast and brought up to an inch of rain in parts of drought-stricken Georgia, but forecasters said the storm likely did little to ease the state’s historic drought.

The roof of a Baptist church in Tennessee’s Marion County was heavily damaged, said Jeremy Heidt of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

City Hall across the street from the church suffered minor damage, Heidt said, and an ambulance business next to it had heavy damage. A house also collapsed, but the residents went to the hospital themselves.

“I couldn’t get the door open because the outside pressure and wind was so strong,” said Justin Lawhorne, manager of Wendy’s restaurant in Kimball.

County schools were closed Thursday due to the storm.

The rainfall came two days after Gov. Sonny Perdue led a prayer service on the steps of the state Capitol to beg the heavens for an end to the drought.

Read about it here.

[From me]

Some scoffed at praying for rain but it came didn’t it? I wonder if those whose homes or businesses were damaged can sue?

What do you think?

[Boston.com]

What to do when the rain won’t come? If you’re Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, you pray. The governor will host a prayer service next week to ask for relief from the drought gripping the Southeast.

“The only solution is rain, and the only place we get that is from a higher power,” Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said on Wednesday. Perdue’s office has sent out invitations to leaders from several faiths for the service, set for Tuesday.

Perdue has several times mentioned the need for prayer — along with water conservation — as the state’s drought crisis has worsened. Over the summer, he participated in day of prayer for agriculture at a gathering of the Georgia Farm Bureau in Macon, Ga. Perdue, a Baptist, has enjoyed strong support from Georgia’s Christian conservatives.

Read about it here.

[From me]

This should be fun. Sonny is the real deal. He even teaches a Bible Study at a church in metro Atlanta. Before people blast him he has opened it up to people of all faith. Maybe we could have a prayer off?

What do you think?

I’ve been fortunate to have many people of different faiths and yes some atheists who frequent this site. Yesterday my friend Ask an Atheist commented after this comment from me.

I know the God of the Bible personally.

AAA said this:

I’d like to hear more about that. That might be a good idea for a new topic: asking Christians (and other theists who might be here) to describe their personal relationship with God.

I told him that he didn’t have to twist my arm so here it is:

I became a follower of Jesus when I was 5 years old. My parents shared with me after church one day how I could know God personally, so I asked Jesus to become the leader of my life. I know for certain that my decision to follow Jesus was real because I was never a rebellious child. I 1st saw God move in a mighty way through me while I was in Jr. High School. I prayed that God would lead my best friend to Christ and using a comic book called “The Late Great Planet Earth” my friend asked Jesus to live in his life.

However I did experience some spiritual snobbery. I began to look down on people who didn’t live a life that I thought honored Christ. I was a Pharisee. You can read about that whole experience here.

God revealed himself to me personally on many occasions. I should have been killed on several times. I was kidnapped by a Brokeback Cowboy. I’ve been in my share of car accidents and have been in the middle of a shootout between one of America’s 10 most wanted and the FBI. For some reason God protected me.

In college God began to speak to me through His word. I have never heard an audible voice from God but I know for certain that He spoke to me. One occasion was the summer before my Senior year at Samford University. I was on a summer beach project with Campus Outreach. We spent the summer training for ministry and working full time jobs. I don’t know how to explain it but God was rocking my world. One night I was praying and I was giving things to God like my girlfriend, my education, my health, my family and my car. My car was a 1966 Ford Mustang, white with red interior. My dad and I were restoring this beauty and I had just put brand new Firestone 721 raised white letter tires on my car and charged it to my first credit card. I prayed this prayer at 11:00 PM. I went to bed by 11:30 PM and my discipleship leader woke me up at 12:30 AM and asked if I let someone borrow my car. I said no. He said someone just drove off in it. To make matters worse, my car was parked next to a Lancia convertible with the top down and the keys in the ignition. Some may say that was coincidence but I say it was God seeing if I was really serious. To add insult to injury I had no theft insurance and have never recovered that car.

I was delivering newspapers for the Birmingham News in Birmingham, AL. I was a graduate student at the Univeristy of Alabama @ Birmingham. I was paying my way thru college delivering 4 paper routes. I had just bought an engagement ring for Cassandra (my lovely wife of 18 years). Cassandra and I were studying at my apartment with Bob Webb (my roomate) when I received a call from a customer whose dog ate their paper. Why that was my fault, I’ll never know. I went to deliver them another one, but by this time it was dark. I was driving down one of the mountains in Birmingham (Homewood), listening to my Allies Cassette when an object crashed on my windshield out of nowhere. I slamed on the brakes and the object flew through the air about 15 feet in front of me. I leaped out of the car only to see a man lying on the pavement. Then a young lady yelled at me, “you’ve killed him.” A man literally jumped on my car. He had committed suicide. Unfortunately he died a few days later.

This was the hardest thing I have ever faced. I cried in my shower for weeks to come–maybe even months. I still have a hard time driving at night. Whenever I see a TV show or movie that shows a person being hit by a car it brings back bad memories.

But right then in the midst of tragedy God was at work. I had been attending Shades Mountain Baptist Church for years, but Cassandra was a member of Dawson Memorial Baptist in Homewood, AL. You know how it is when you are dating, you end up at your girlfriends church and I was no different. I had been going to Dawson eventhough I was a member of Shades. The first people to arrive at the scene of my accident was an ministry team from Dawson. One of them was an Associate Pastor there. They did so much that week it was unbelievable. They ministered to me in a great time of need.
The people at Dawson took care of me all week so I decided to join the church that Sunday. I was already going there, I may as well get involved with what God was doing. Little did I know the team from Dawson was ministering to the girlfriend of the man who committed suicide on my car all week long. Sunday morning during the invitation I walked down one isle of the church to join and the girlfriend of the man was walking down another to accept Christ into her life. The whole day was surreal. I still remember it like it was yesterday. The staff was crying and many others were too. God used an older couple that morning to minister to me because they had run over someone 2 months before.

It was a tragic event and I wish it had never happened. But God used it to lead a young lady to Christ. He used it to shape and mold me. He continues to use pain to shape me. I love Philip Yancey and his book “Where is God when it Hurts.” He says that pain is actually a good thing. Without it we would hurt ourselves. It warns us when we need to make adjustments. God has used my pain to help others. I have had the chance to minister to at least a half dozen people who have experienced similar accidents as I did. Only someone who has gone through something like this can understand. He has used it to make me more like Him. I am grateful that God loves me that much.

Then after I got married and was working in the business world I was working for an Insulated Wire company traveling across the southeastern US. God was dealing with me about going into vocational ministry. I was out running on the beach in Florida and praying. I gave things to God again. You would think I would have learned my lesson. But I gave God my car (it was a company car), my house, my wife, my health and my job. This was on a Thursday and I flew back home to Alabama and went into work Monday morning. I was told by my boss that our whole sales force was being let go! I started laughing because I knew God had spoken.

I’ve asked God to meet specific financial needs and we had the exact amounts sent to us in the mail by people who had no idea what we needed. God speaks to me every day through His Word and when I pray every day.

I admit to being a gadget geek.  Ever since I was a young kid I had all of the new electronic toys from Mattel’s Electronic Football to a calculator that had a clock.  That is so low-tech today but not when I was a kid.

Today I have a killer Dell desktop @ work and a laptop for when I’m out of the office.  I have a Sprint Palm Treo 700 and use my Franklin-Covey software religiously.  I even have a NIV Study Bible on my Treo.

But I’m low-tech when it comes to my prayer life.  I read Bill Hybel’s Book Too Busy Not to Pray back in 1995 and something really hit me over the head as I read his words.  I’m a very driven, goal oriented person.  I also run off a lot of adrenaline.  I guess that is why I love Starbucks and Diet Mt. Dew.  It is hard for me to stop and just be still.  But Hybels suggested writing out your prayers.  Why?  Because it forces you to slow down and think about what you are saying.

Above is my current prayer notebook.  It goes all the way back to 2004.  I’m almost ready to start a new notebook.  (One of our church members gave me new notebooks for Christmas last year.  That was cool!)  I literally write out my prayers using the ACTS method.

A- Adoration=I praise God during this portion of my prayer.

C- Confession=I confess my sins during this time.  If there is a confession I don’t want someone to see I cross it out afterwards because that is what God does.

T-Thanksgiving= I thank God for what he has done in my life and those around me.  I thank Him for just being God.

S- Supplication= This is the time in my prayers that I ask God to meet the needs of our National leaders (President, Government officials and Military), my family, my friends, missionaries and my church.  I ask God to send me a opportunities to serve Him and to share my faith.  I also ask for wisdom every day.

Then I ask 4 questions that Hybels suggests.  This is a time to listen to God.

 What is the next step in:
1.  My relationship w/God
2.  Family
3. Adjustsments
4. Ministry

This time of prayer is different than my Quiet Time or Devotion time.  I journal when I go and hang out before work at Starbucks.  There are coffee stains all over this notebook and it has given me several chances to share Jesus with people who want to know what I’m doing.  I hate to disappoint those who thought I was totally electronic. 
What do you do to stay close to God?