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MARCH, 2010
REFLECTION
For the reflection this month,
let’s explore and combine three
separate Scriptures as a teaching
on true and powerful
intercession. The first Scripture
passage is from Jeremiah 17,
verses 5-10 and a parallel
passage from Psalm 1: “Thus
says the Lord: Cursed are those
who trust in mere mortals and
make mere flesh their strength,
whose hearts turn away from the
Lord. They shall be like a shrub
in the desert, and shall not see
when relief comes. They shall
live in the parched places of the
wilderness, in an uninhabited
land. Blessed are those who trust
in the Lord. They shall be like a
tree planted by water, sending out
its roots by the stream. It shall
not fear when heat comes, and its
leaves shall stay green; in the
year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.
The heart is devious above all
else; it is perverse – who can
understand it? I the Lord test the
mind and search the heart, to give
to all according to their ways,
according to the fruit of their
doings.” In the Psalm: “Happy
are those who do not follow the
advice of the wicked, or take the
path that sinners tread, or sit in
the seat of scoffers; but their
delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day
and night. They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its
season, and their leaves do not
wither.” The lesson is this: In
order for our prayer to be
effective, we must be united in
heart and spirit with the Lord.
We must trust Him and we must
meditate on His law and His
love. The closer we are to Him,
the clearer it will be how we
should pray and the more
meaningful and fruitful our
prayer will be. Without this, our
prayer is empty. The second
passage is from Exodus 17,
verses 8-13: “Then Amalek came
and fought with Israel at
Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua,
‘Choose some men for us and go
out; fight with Amalek.
Tomorrow I will stand on the top
of the hill with the staff of God in
my hand.’ So Joshua did as

Moses told him, and fought with
Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and
Hur went up to the top of the hill.
Whenever Moses held up his
hand, Israel prevailed; and
whenever he lowered his hand,
Amalek prevailed. But Moses’
hands grew weary; so they took a
stone and put it under him, and
he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held
up his hands, one on one side,
and the other on the other side;
so his hand were steady until the
sun set. And Joshua defeated
Amalek and his people with the
sword.” There are three
spiritual analogies here: First,
we are engaged in spiritual
warfare; battle rages around us
for souls and the defeat of the
Church. And we are the
warriors as followers of Jesus
Christ. Second, perseverance in
prayer is critical. We will grow
weary, but we must keep our
eyes and our hearts raised to
God in fervent intercession – and
God will hear and respond.
Third, we all need each other, to
support one another, buttress
one another and offer all to God
together. We are not in this
alone. The third passage is from
Luke 16, verses19-26: “There
was a rich man who was dressed
in purple and fine linen and who
feasted sumptuously every day.
And at his gate lay a poor man
named Lazarus, covered with
sores, who longed to satisfy his
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hunger with what fell from the
rich man’s table; even the dogs
would come and lick his sores.
The poor man died and was
carried away by the angels to be
with Abraham. The rich man
also died and was buried. In
Hades, where he was being
tormented, he looked up and saw
Abraham with Lazarus by his
side. He cried out, ‘Father
Abraham, have mercy on me, and
send Lazarus to dip the tip of his
finger in water and cool my
tongue; for I am in agony in
these flames. But Abraham said,
‘Child, remember that during
your lifetime you received your
good things, and Lazarus in like
manner evil things; but now he is
comforted here, and you are in
agony. Besides all this, between
you and us a great chasm has
been fixed, so that those who
might want to pass from here to
you cannot do so, and no one can
cross from there to us.’” There
are two lessons here: First, in
order to be effective intercessors,
it is not enough for us to pray.
We must also have servants’
hearts that seize opportunities to
reach out to the hurting, to those
in need. If we do not, our prayer
again is empty and self-centered.
Second, hell is real! True
intercessors have a strong sense
of the eternal, of the danger that
the lost are in, and that
awareness adds key fervor to

prayer. This is probably not just
a parable. Given the details and
the name of Lazarus, Jesus was
probably describing a real event.
So, the effective intercessor 1)
seeks every deeper union with
God, for it is through this that
prayer is meaningful; 2) remains
fervent and persevering in
prayer and is conscious of the
body of intercessors that we are
part of; 3) has a heart for those
in need through service to others
in addition to prayer, as the
Lord leads and as is possible
based on one’s station in life.
PATRICK
In this month of March, as the Feast
of St. Patrick is celebrated in many
places in the world, it seems
appropriate to take a look at his life.
Patrick was a well-to-do English
young man, born in the latter portion
of the 4th century. His life radically
changed when Irish slave traders and
raiders captured him and transported
him to the wild and pagan island of
Ireland. No one every returned from
there once captured, and Patrick
underwent six years of slavery. The
Irish were ruthless people, known for
their butchery, with emphasis on
cutting heads off. After the six years,
Patrick tried the unthinkable; he
planned an escape back to England.
The Lord was with him, and he
convinced some traders to transport
him back home. There was great joy
upon his arrival, for his family and
friends were sure they would never see
him again. After a time of
recuperation, though, he heard the
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voice of God, telling him to return to
Ireland! That was clearly something
he did not want to do, but he finally
became convinced that it was indeed a
divine call. He realized that he needed
to first become a student, as that had
not been part of his life. He studied
with difficulty for almost two decades
and was eventually ordained a priest.
His superiors and peers thought his
desire to return as an evangelistic
missionary to Ireland was foolhardy.
But they finally agreed and made him
a bishop. This became the only time
in the history of the Christian Church
that a man sought to specifically
evangelize an entire nation on his own
– and he did. Patrick knew the
language of the people and also the
religion of the Celts, based on many
nature gods and with a special
reverence for water. So he was able to
teach the truths of Christianity and of
the life of Jesus in a way that the
people understood. And he was able
to use their love of water as an
incentive for Baptism. Patrick was
also an eloquent preacher and that,
combined with his loving and servant
heart, drew more and more people to
the faith. Interestingly enough, and
not surprisingly, his greatest
opposition came from the Church in
England. The religious leaders did
not approve of his methods and
ordered him back to England to stand
before a tribunal. But Patrick refused
and continued his untiring
evangelism. He died in the middle of
the fifth century. One of his
biographers said that if Patrick were
standing on a balcony today and
watching one of the St. Patrick’s Day
parades, he would tell them to stop
and to go home and pray! And, oh, by
the way, Patrick did not banish snakes

from Ireland; there had not been any
snakes there since the last Ice Age.
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
Puns for “educated” minds: The
roundest knight at King Arthur’s
round table was Sir Cumference. He
acquired his size from too much pi…I
thought I saw an eye doctor on an
Alaskan island, but it turned out to be
an optical Aleutian…She was only a
whiskey maker, but he loved her
still…A rubber band pistol was
confiscated from algebra class,
because it was a weapon of math
disruption…The butcher backed into
the meat grinder and got a little
behind in his work…No matter how
much you push the envelope, it’ll still
be stationery…A dog gave birth to
puppies near the road and was cited
for littering…A grenade thrown into a
kitchen in France would result in
Linoleum Blownapart…Two silk
worms had a race; they ended up in a
tie…Tim flies like an arrow; fruit flies
like a banana…Atheism is a non-
prophet organization…Two hats were
hanging on a hat rack in the hallway.
One hat said to the other: “You stay
here; I’ll go on a head.”…I wondered
why the baseball kept getting bigger;
then it hit me…A sign on the lawn at a
drug rehab center said: “Keep off the
grass.”…A small boy swallowed some
coins and was taken to a hospital.
When his grandmother telephoned to
ask how he was, a nurse said, “No
change yet.”…A chicken crossing the
road is poultry in motion…The short
fortune teller who escaped from
prison was a small medium at large…
The man who survived mustard gas
and pepper spray is now a seasoned
veteran…A backward poet writes
inverse…In a democracy it’s your vote
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that counts. In feudalism it’s your
count that votes…When cannibals ate
a missionary, they got a taste of
religion.
MORE ON THE LIGHER SIDE
A man was driving through the
countryside when he saw a sign,
“Talking dog for sale.” He stopped at
the house and rang the bell. “Do you
really have a talking dog for sale?” he
asked. “Yep,’ said the owner, showing
him a handsome Labrador Retriever.
“What’s your story?” the man asked
the dog. “Well,” said the dog, “I
discovered I could talk when I was
young, so I joined the CIA. They sent
me from country to country as a spy,
because no one would suspect a dog of
eavesdropping, After I got older, I
signed up as undercover security at an
airport, I stopped a lot crimes and
won several medals. Then I got
married, had puppies, and now I’m
retired.” Shocked, the visitor asked
the owner how much he wanted for
the dog. “Ten dollars,” he said. The
visitor was amazed. “Why on earth
are you selling him so cheap?”
“Because,” said the owner, “he’s a
liar. He never did any of that stuff.”
PRAYER MOBILIZATION
Please pray for: Keith and
Dottie Kellum and their
daughter, health…Royce Baar,
health…Randy and Gail Baar,
continued health…Etha,
recovering from an accident and
finances/direction…Tiffany,
health…Liz, health…Suna, a
Muslim lady in the area who has
colon cancer…Reflection of
Christ ministry to homosexuals,

and the Loftins…Emil’s sister
Pena, in Hospice…Kim and
family…Janice, cancer…
Tatyana and Eliza, Russians who
are seeking to come here…
James, health…Gatekeepers
prayer ministry…all area
churches and ministries…Asleep
kNOw More ministry and its
work to have “personhood”
applied to human beings from
the moment of conception…all
other intentions, spoken and
unspoken.
TRUE STORY
From “The Voice of the
Martyrs:” “Mr. ‘Chin’ traveled
all night. Before dawn, he
crossed the Tumen River and
stepped back into his homeland
of North Korea. The guards
patrolling the river’s banks
remained deaf to his footsteps.
They also remained ignorant of a
very dangerous item that was
buried under clothes in his
backpack. Mr. Chin knew the
item could lead to his execution,
but he chose to carry it anyway.
After ten days, he arrived home.
His wife and daughter greeted
him with a sigh of relief. If his
neighbors even suspected that he
had traveled outside the country,
they would tell the authorities
and Mr. Chin would be locked
away in a labor camp, probably
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for life. His wife knew the
danger of the item her husband
brought home. She could not be
at ease until it was well hidden.
Their 16-year-old daughter
didn’t know what was in her
father’s backpack, and her
parents did not tell her. After
waiting for the cover of
darkness, Mr. Chin carefully
wrapped the item he has
smuggled from China and
buried it in the yard outside his
small two-room home. This was
the fourth time he had
accomplished this risky task in
the last four years, and he
prayed that God would grant
him at least two more successful
trips. He looked at the freshly
covered hole in his yard. He did
not know when or if he would
ever have the courage to dig up
the items he had buried. He
knew that if he used them or
gave them away, he would
probably be killed. Buried in
Mr. Chin’s yard are copies of the
most dangerous book in North
Korea – the Holy Bible…Mr.
Chin is in his mid-40s and of
modest means. Like most North
Koreans, he grew up believing
that Christianity was evil and
that missionaries kill people to
harvest their organs. He also
believed that the Bible speaks
only of evil and that it should
never be read or owned. The
official state religion, or

ideology, of North Korea, is
called Juche. Created by Kim-
Il-Sung, the founder of modern
North Korea, Juche teaches self-
reliance and that man is the
master of everything. It is a
theology that holds the country’s
founders as divine god-kings…In
the 1990s a devastating famine
spread across North Korea,
killing nearly 3 million people.
Many North Koreans risked
death to escaped across the
border into China. Mr. Chin
was one of them. In 1999, he
escaped to China in search of
churches that were rumored to
be giving away food. After being
fed and supplied with food, he
was handed a Bible. The pastor
told him that if would read it, he
would find truth. Mr. Chin read
the Bible and realized that it was
filled with good. He believed
what he read and gave his life to
Christ…Testimonies gathered
by Christian workers indicate
that North Koreans who
evangelize have a life expectancy
of about three months. Mr.
Chin knows that to declare his
Christian faith publicly in North
Korea is to die. And he knows
that he risks death if he gives a
Bible to another person and is
betrayed to authorities. Having
taken extreme risks and been
betrayed once already, he feels
that he is not ready yet to face
that consequence. For now, the
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Bibles remain buried, but not
forgotten. When Mr. Chin is
ready, he will dig up the Bibles,
give them to others and tell them
– as he was told years earlier –
‘If you read this book, you will
find the truth.’”
CLOSING SCRIPTURE
“I am going to bring recovery and
healing; I will heal them and
reveal to them abundance of
prosperity and security. I will
restore the fortunes of Judah and
the fortunes of Israel, and rebuild
them as they were at first. I will
cleanse them from all the guilt of
their sin against me, and I will
forgive all the guilt of their sin
and rebellion against me. And
this city shall be to me a name of
joy, a praise and a glory before all
the nations of the earth who shall
hear of all the good that I do for
them.”
God bless you; peace to you and
yours.
Bob Burton: bburt98@aol.com;
(417) 331-1028