Partakers Christian Podcasts

Psalm On Demand - Psalm 25

Psalm 25

 

They shall be shamed who deal treacherously without cause.

Teach me your paths.

For you are the God of my salvation,

I wait for you all day long.

for they are from old times.

Remember me according to your loving kindness,

for your goodness’ sake, Yahweh.

therefore he will instruct sinners in the way.

He will teach the humble his way.

to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

pardon my iniquity, for it is great.

He shall instruct him in the way that he shall choose.

His seed shall inherit the land.

He will show them his covenant.

for he will pluck my feet out of the net.

for I am desolate and afflicted.

Oh bring me out of my distresses.

Forgive all my sins.

They hate me with cruel hatred.

Let me not be disappointed, for I take refuge in you.

for I wait for you.

out all of his troubles.

Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file

~

Psalm On Demand - Psalm 124

Psalm 124

 

A song of ascents. Of David.

¹ If the LORD had not been on our side - let Israel say:

² if the LORD had not been on our side when men attacked us,

³ when their anger flared against us, they would have swallowed us alive;

⁴ the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us,

⁵ the raging waters would have swept us away.

⁶ Praise be to the LORD, who has not let us be torn by their teeth.

⁷ We have escaped like a bird out of the fowler's snare;

the snare has been broken, and we have escaped.

⁸ Our help is in the name of the LORD,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

 

Right mouse click or tap here to save/download this Psalm as a MP3 file

Click on the appropriate link below to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!

Prayer of Patrick (c389 - 461AD)

Partakers Prayers - A prayer of Patrick (c389 - 461AD)

 

We pray together and when Christians pray together, from different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! Come! Let us pray together!

 

Our God, God of all people!

God of heaven and earth, seas and rivers,

God of sun and moon, of all the stars,

God of high mountain and lowly valley,

God over heaven, and in heaven, and under heaven.

~~~~~~

He has a dwelling in heaven and earth and sea

and in all things that are in them.

He inspires all things, he quickens all things.

He is over all things, he supports all things.

~~~~~~

He makes the light of the sun to shine,

He surrounds the moon and the stars,

He has made wells in the arid earth,

Placed dry islands in the sea.

~~~~~~

He has a Son co-eternal with himself...

And the Holy Spirit breathes in them;

Not separate are the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

 

Amen

 

Right mouse click or tap here to save this Podcast in MP3.

Click on the appropriate link below to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!

Prayer of Bonaventure

Partakers Prayer

We pray together and when Christians pray together, from different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! Come! Let us pray together!

A prayer of Bonaventure

Lord Jesus,

as God’s Spirit came down and rested upon you,

may the same Spirit rest upon and be within us.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

O Yahweh,

Grant us the gift of understanding,

by which your precepts may enlighten our minds.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

O Jehovah,

Grant us counsel,

by which we may follow in your footsteps on the path of righteousness.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

O Great God,

grant us courage,

by which we may ward off the Enemy’s attacks.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

O Sovereign God,

grant us knowledge, 

by which we can distinguish good from evil.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

O Merciful God,

grant us piety,

by which we may acquire compassionate hearts.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

O Holy God,

grant us fear,

by which we may draw back from evil and submit to what is good.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

O ineffable God made known through Jesus,

grant us wisdom,

that we may taste fully the life-giving sweetness of your love.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For we ask this, O God our Father,

In the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us

Through the Son who died and rose again!

Amen.

 

Based on a Prayer of Bonaventure 1221 –1274

Right Mouse click or tap here to save this as an audio mp3 file

~

Prayer - Augustine

Prayer - Augustine

 

We pray together and when Christians pray together, from different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! Come! Let us pray together!

 

Watch, O God,
over those who wake, or watch, or weep tonight,
and give Your angels charge over those who sleep.
Tend the sick ones,
Rest the weary ones.
Bless the dying ones.
Soothe the suffering ones.
Pity the afflicted ones.
Shield the joyous ones.
And all, for Your love's sake.

Amen

 

Based on a prayer of Augustine (4th century)

Tap or Click here to save this Podcast as a MP3.

You can now purchase our books! Please do click here to visit our Amazon site!
Click on the appropriate link below
to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!

Prayers for the Global Persecuted Church

 

Partakers Prayers

Persecuted  Church Worldwide

 

We pray together and when Christians pray together, from different nations, different churches and different denominations - that reveals Church unity! Come! Let us pray together!

 

Prayers for the Global Persecuted Church

Sovereign God, we worship you and acknowledge that you know all of those who suffer in your name because they follow you. We remember those who are imprisoned for their faith and ask that they would join with the Apostle Paul to see that even though they remain captive, their chains have furthered the gospel, not frustrated it. May they inspire and embolden their fellow believers to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.
Amen

God of all comfort, for those who are tortured both in body and mind, give them the grace to endure and to see their suffering as part of following in Christ’s footsteps. Merciful God, for those asked to pay the ultimate price; who are martyred because of their love for you, may they truly know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.
Amen

Father God, for those who are widowed and orphaned may they know the comfort that comes from your promised presence even when they walk through the valley. May they be strengthened by your Spirit, enabling them to rejoice with the psalmist as they proclaim that the LORD will not abandon them in death.
Amen

Heavenly Father, we ask that you would make us ever mindful of our brothers and sisters around the world who need us to stand with them as they suffer in your name. Teach us what it means to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony; we pray that we would not love our lives so much as to shrink from death.

We ask these things O Father, through the name of Your Son, Jesus

and in the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.
Amen

Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file~

Psalm 148 - Psalm On Demand

Psalm 148

¹ Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens! Praise him from the skies!

² Praise him, all his angels! Praise him, all the armies of heaven!

³ Praise him, sun and moon! Praise him, all you twinkling stars!

⁴ Praise him, skies above! Praise him, vapors high above the clouds!

⁵ Let every created thing give praise to the Lord, for he issued his command, and they came into being.

⁶ He set them in place forever and ever. His decree will never be revoked.

⁷ Praise the Lord from the earth, you creatures of the ocean depths,

⁸ fire and hail, snow and clouds, wind and weather that obey him,

⁹ mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars,

¹⁰ wild animals and all livestock, small scurrying animals and birds,

¹¹ kings of the earth and all people, rulers and judges of the earth,

¹² young men and young women, old men and children.

¹³ Let them all praise the name of the Lord. For his name is very great; his glory towers over the earth and heaven!

¹⁴ He has made his people strong, honoring his faithful ones- the people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the Lord!

 

Right mouse click or tap here to save/download this Psalm as a MP3 file

Developing Intimacy With God - 12. Jesus’ Teaching About Prayer Part 2

Developing Intimacy With God

12. Jesus’ Teaching About Prayer (Part 2)

“9 ‘This, then, is how you should pray:
‘“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.”
Amen.” (Matthew 6:9-13)

Last week in our Saturday series, we started looking at Jesus’ Teaching on Prayer in what we call the Lord’s Prayer and we continue that this week.

Forgiveness: Forgiveness, of course, is a major part of the Christian faith and Christianity. Both in the way that God forgives me when I come to Him in penitence and repentance, but also in the way that I forgive others and themselves! Asking for forgiveness, particularly from other people, can be one of the hardest things I need to do. When those times come upon me, I need to stop and consider Jesus Christ and the enormity of His forgiveness. If He forgave me for all I have done wrong, then I also should forgive others, regardless of how difficult that might be to do. Again, is that your experience? Forgiveness deals with my emotional responses toward an offender. Forgiveness enables me to have the same openness toward the person after they offend me, as before. When I forgive the offender, the hurt and the wound start to diminish. This is helped when I realise Jesus Christ understands all of this. I can use these experiences for my eternal advantage. Is that your experience of forgiveness – both in giving and receiving?

Temptation: It’s an undeniable and inevitable fact of the Christian Disciple’s life! It is certainly true of my own life. But it is good to know that temptations are common experiences for all Christian Disciples, and not just for me as an individual. No matter what I may think at the time! An important thing to note and remember, is that temptation itself is not sin! Rather it is the giving into temptation that causes me to sin. How easily it is for me to forget that. One of the keys to living a life right with God and not sinning is by dealing with temptation the very moment it confronts us. As a Christian Disciple, I face temptation from three different angles: the world, my old nature and satan. It is not just out and out temptation that Jesus means here, but also the tests and trials of life. We are to overcome both temptations and trials, in order that our character may, through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, become more like that of Jesus, our Master.

Deliver: What I am delivered from, is better translated I think, as “evil one” rather than “evil”. satan tempts you and I for being a Christian Disciple. It is he who suggests to me that I should not forgive others and to trust in myself for my own needs. It is he who does not want God to be my number one priority or for God’s will to be done on earth as in heaven. It is satan who does not want God’s kingdom to be spread. Neither does satan want Jesus Christ to return in glory. Therefore, as a Christian Disciple, I am to pray for these things. I need to rely and trust in God for deliverance from satan, who wants to snatch away the Christian Disciples inner joy and dependence on God.

Your Power: How can God deliver me from temptation, trials and satan? He can, because He is always all–powerful and eternally almighty. Christian Disciples are to rely on God’s strength to overcome temptation, trials and satan, and not to rely on their own strength. By relying on our own strength, failure is inevitable, but by trusting in God and His power and strength, overcoming temptation, trials and satan is assured. How easy it is to forget such fundamentals of Christian living!

Your Glory: What is the aim of being a Christian Disciple, a follower of Jesus Christ? It is for me to give all glory to God regardless of what personal achievements I have gained. His glory is to be my supreme concern, so that God is number one in all aspects of my life as a Christian Disciple. Ergo, I am to pray that His will is done in me, in other Christian Disciples and in the world. I am to pray that His kingdom continues to grow until Jesus Christ returns in majesty and glory.

Amen: May it be so, Lord, as I ask in faith of you.


That is all for today! Our the book this series is based on “Developing Intimacy with God” It can be found at or www.pulptheology.com which will take you to our Amazon page.


Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file

Developing Intimacy With God - 11. Jesus’ Teaching About Prayer Part 1

Developing Intimacy With God

11. Jesus’ Teaching About Prayer (Part 1)

“9 ‘This, then, is how you should pray:
‘“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.”
Amen.” (Matthew 6:9-13)

This is, quite possibly, the prayer that is most frequently used, and repeated, by those professing to be Christians, as well as those who are not. It is often called the “Lord’s Prayer”. This is not, however, because Jesus would have prayed it. As He was without sin, He would have had no need to have asked God for forgiveness of sin. It is the Lord’s Prayer, because it was given by Jesus, to serve as a model for His Disciples to know what prayer is to be like, hence Jesus saying, “How You should pray” (Matthew 6:9). Let’s look at it together now, albeit briefly, over the next 2 studies.

Father: Calling God, “Father”, implies that God is in a personal relationship with me, as a Christian Disciple. I am to think of God as a loving and generous Father. God is not impersonal, but wants to be approached intimately as a child approaches its daddy. By saying “our Father”, the individual Christian disciple, I should realize that I am not alone, but rather, I am part of a wider church family.

Holy: When we call God, ‘holy’, it is symbolic of what is to be our intimate adoration of Him. When I call out and say that God is ‘holy’, it affirms that I am to place Him and His purposes at the very top of my list. That is, God is to be number one priority in all aspects of my life and this world. His glory, His kingdom and His will are to be my supreme concern high above my own needs. WOW!

Kingdom: God is a King and He rules! Jesus has inaugurated the Kingdom of God. He is its King. The Kingdom is not yet complete so I, as a Christian Disciple, as somebody who claims to follow Jesus, must pray that His Kingdom will become more and more complete. This is where I pray that the Gospel will spread far and wide, and that God’s Kingdom will continue to grow until Jesus Christ returns in glory, to rule with majesty and honour.

Will: As God is holy and a king, His Will is already being done in heaven. I am to pray that life here on earth will approximate to life in heaven as the Kingdom grows! As a Christian Disciple, I am to be wanting to place God as number one priority in all facets of life and to see God’s kingdom spread, and that I will also pray that God’s Will be top priority as well! These are, I think, the three priorities for a Christian Disciple, such as I am.

• That God will be number one
• That His Kingdom will spread
• That His will be done on earth

Give Us: This signifies that I, as a Christian Disciple need to rely on and trust in God for all things that are necessary for life to continue. So often, particularly in the Western world, we rely on our own finance and goods, to supply our needs and therefore seemingly forget that God has provided for our needs that way. As a Christian Disciple, I am to be thankful for all the good gifts that God my Father has supplied to me. Often, without my needing to ask Him! That is certainly my own experience in the 35 years that I have been a follower of Jesus. Could it also be said, that this is also your experience of God supplying your needs? 

Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file

~

Developing Intimacy With God - 10. The Function of Prayer

Developing Intimacy With God

10. The Function of Prayer

The function of prayer, which is the act of communicating and conversing with God, reveals a constant hunger for God’s help. An inner yearning, just as a child yearns for its parent. It is consolidating my desire towards the ultimate goal, of eternal life, joy, worship and knowledge of God – and of being fully known by God. It is also through the Bible that my desire to know God and be known by God, evolves and develops. That is why prayer and Bible reading go hand in hand. Prayer emits my words and thoughts to the God I seek to know, in response to His reaching out to me.

Through prayer, God can comprehend the Christian Disciple, regardless of language, grammar or oratory skill, if the Christian Disciple approaches with a correct attitude. Words, however, are not just to be a mental action but also an emotive act, conveying emotions and feeling. Prayer is a way for me to convey my deep emotions, feelings and expressions to God, regardless of my language skills, or lack thereof. The words spoken in prayer portray my innermost feelings and desires to Him.

This is because God is alive, and what is more, He is personal. He values language and expects His people to talk to Him. If for some reason, I am unable to convey my words in prayer, then Romans 8:26, intimates that the Holy Spirit intercedes for me! WOW! Remember, as a Christian Disciple, the Holy Spirit lives within you and I, seals us as God’s children, unites us as family and He is the Great Comforter and Encourager. How easy it is for me to forget this fact of spiritual life. Prayer epitomises the Father–child relationship, symbolized in my relationship with God. It further symbolizes the freedom and peace in prayer, advocated by Jesus to communicate His deepest desires, as in the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9–13) and as we read in John 17. Prayer is not just me talking to God, but also being silent, to allow God to talk to me.

Now a question we all ask at some time or another. I know I have regularly. We ask it, either consciously or even subconsciously: Does God answer all prayers?
Firstly, the answer I expect, may not be the answer I get! Is that your experience of prayer? I know that it is often my experience! So often I pray, expecting one result and I end up getting another completely unexpected result. I then often think that God hasn’t answered my prayer! Sometimes the answer He gives, is ‘Yes’. At other times, it is ‘No’ or ‘Not yet. Wait.’ When I recall that God works outside of my restrictions of time and space, it is a lesson for me to not only learn, but also to remember. A lesson which says that I am to trust His judgement and wisdom. After all, He is God and I am not. I am to acknowledge that He is the Master and I am His servant. Alas, sometimes when I pray, I like to think I am the Master and He is my servant. Is that also your experience?

Why are some prayers unanswered? There are various reasons, I think, that prayers aren’t seemingly answered. It may well be due to things like:

• unconfessed sin (Psalm 66:18)
• disobedience (Proverbs 28:9)
• pride (Luke 18:11–14)
• doubt (James 1:5–7)
• selfishness (James 4:3)
• others not responding to God’s call upon them to be the answer to the prayer
• no reason, that for now that can possibly be conceived, seen or understand.
  
  God knows best and I am to acquiesce to His love and His knowledge – despite my tears and tantrums towards Him. He is the Master and I am to be His servant. He is willing to hear my voice. He wants to hear my voice. He wants to hear of my love for Him. I am in a relationship with God, because of God, and I desire to show my love of God and tell Him that I love Him. His desire is to have me serve Him and for Him to lavish His love upon me, in all manner of ways and in all circumstances of life. Is this your experience of God and your life with Him?

Next week we start to look at Jesus’ teaching on prayer as part of our Developing Intimacy With God.

Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file