We live in a day of urgencies and emergencies. We have addresses but we may not be there. We have e-mail addresses but we may not answer. We have phone numbers but we also have answering machines to take our messages. Planned agendas often get bumped in favor of some sudden need either of our own or of someone needing us. In times like these, we find it incredibly difficult to “be still, and know” (Ps. 46:10) or as one translation words it, “cease striving and know.” I have found three things to be non-negotiable in these current circumstances. My time in God’s Word, the Bible, is invaluable. It really is my guide for faith and practice – “a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105). Likewise I must have times – planned and unplanned – to communicate with God. Prayer is the priority of the Christian life. How can a student study without a teacher, an athlete perform without a coach, a musician play without a conductor, a worker toil without a supervisor? How can I serve without continual communication with my Lord? One thing more is needed. I must have the mentoring, advising, supporting, counseling, directing, of trusted friends. When the voices calling to me are many and diverse, not to mention mixed with the world’s voices, I need help in hearing and discerning. Of the three this is the one most easily overlooked. The key word is “trusted.” In these days of distrust and mistrust, “trusted friends” are hard to find and maintain. If you have them, rejoice. If not, seek them soon. May your urgencies and emergencies be few this week.

Join me in praying for the following global concerns:

• My soon-to-be sixteen year old granddaughter, Whitney, and some of her friends who are on a mission trip this week to the Santiago Atitlan area of Guatemala.
• For Jan as she returns to the states from Spain for a much needed three month break.
• For missionaries and others as they continue to find creative ways to help victims of Cyclone Nargis in the two months since the storm unleashed its fury on Myanmar.
• Final preparations for ministries during the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

How many times have you used or heard someone use the phrase, “unanswered prayer.” Where did that phrase originate? Not with Jesus. In His teaching on prayer, our Lord never once referred to unanswered prayer. Sometimes the answer is “no” as it was for Jesus when in Gethsemane, He asked the Father to let the Calvary cup pass from His lips. Sometimes God may ask us to wait for a better-timed answer, since His ways and times are not identical to ours. Sometimes, God doesn’t answer our prayers in the way we asked them. But if we pray “in His name and for His sake,” God will answer according to His will, not ours. So, God always answers prayer – even though sometimes different from our chosen response and often delayed according to our calendar. Otherwise, how do you explain, “Ask, and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7; Luke 11:9). We’d prefer the Scripture to say, “Ask and it will be given to you exactly as you prefer and precisely on your schedule.” But then we would be conforming God to our image rather than being conformed to His image. So, pray on . . . and wait. God always answers the prayers of His children, even when we do not recognize the answers.

Pray with me this week for the following global concerns:
• Summer English Camps which are held in many countries of the world, directed by missionaries with the assistance of teams of volunteers from the U.S.
• Jim and Charlotte as they begin to research and develop a strategy to reach the Roma (Gypsies) of Brazil.
• Mark and Sharon in England and the new church plant thru Beacon Heath Church.
• Nearly 300 International World Changer (IWC) volunteer teams serving in Romany communities in both Romania and Czech Republic this summer.
• The family, friends, and co-workers of Southern Baptist missionary Theresa, following her death last week in Germany.

Have you ever balked at something God impressed upon you to say? Sure you have and so have I. Well, we’re not the first to do so. Jeremiah’s response to God’s instructions was that he was too young to speak. You and I might respond that we are too old to speak, too untrained to speak, to unqualified to speak, too inexperienced to speak, too poor to speak, too fearful to speak, too intimidated to speak, or a dozen other excuses. After God had chastised Jeremiah for his feeble excuse, there came a comforting promise, “Whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid . . . for I am with you” (Jer. 1:8). Next time you feel led to speak, to one or to one thousand, first be sure both the prompting and the content have come from God, then speak boldly with full assurance that God is your commander, prompter, interpreter, defender, and strength.

Join me in prayer this week for these global concerns:
• Missionary family settling into a new home and a new place of ministry in Uganda.
• Team Serbia as some team members complete their term of service and others begin.
• Follow-up to the recent distribution of 700 Bibles in Macau.
• Relief effort in the rain forest of Suriname, where thousands of families are in desperate need of assistance.
• Missionary family who have recently travelled from Bucharest to Budapest to begin their son’s therapy. He will be in sessions on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

Birthdays are usually about gifts and gains and growth. They can also be about losses. Shortly after Jesus’ twelfth birthday, his parents took Him to Jerusalem and lost Him. In the midst of the return caravan, they discovered Him missing and hurried back to Jerusalem to look for Him. They found Him in the Temple, among the people of God (Luke 2:41-52). This week Americans celebrate a national birthday – 4th of July, we call it. There will be gifts and gains and growth, but perhaps there are losses as well. Maybe we’ve lost a little more of Jesus in the past year. As we journey along, it may become more apparent that Jesus is no longer with as He once was. What will we do then? Hopefully, we will return to where we last experienced Him and find Him there among the people of God. Have we lost Jesus as a nation? Time will tell. If so, it is time to seek Him again. We will find Him among the people of God.

Pray with me this week for the following global concerns:
• A missionary in an east Asian country who has just recently arrived back on the field and is re-adjusting to her living conditions after some time in the U.S.
• Missionaries in France whose young son needs a place in a specialized school for the coming school year.
• A team of sixty International World Changers who will spend July 5-12 in Moravia.
• A third world missionary whose visa was extended until the end of August, but needs a Residency Card to remain in her country.

Have you ever noticed in the life of Jesus that mountain revelations were often followed by valley applications? No sooner had Jesus ended his spectacular sermon on the mount than, coming down, He was confronted by a leper (Matthew 8:1). Truth taught on the mountain, had to be applied. Later, the almost unbelievable experience of transfiguration, complete with the re-appearance of Moses and Elijah, was met on the down-side of another mountain, this time with a man crying for Jesus to help his son who was an epileptic (Matthew 17:15). The unique glory which had shown in the face of Jesus on the mountain now had to be applied to the daily hurt of the valley. Yet again, Jesus stood on an appointed mountain and delivered what we have labeled, “the great commission” (Matthew 28:19-20). But wait! Just as I was about to make an application, the Gospel of Matthew ended. What did Jesus do to apply His commission? Oh, He left the application to His disciples, you say? You mean we are the ones who are responsible for applying His mountain words - going, making disciples, baptizing, teaching, etc.? Bummer, just when I was enjoying the solitude of mountain revelations. Truth revealed on the mountain, can never camp out there for long. Calls from the valley hurry us downward.

Join me in prayer this week for:
• A team of 42 people from the USA doing missions evangelism in Lusaka, Zambia.
• Missionaries leading in a camp in the Carpathian mountains near the border of Hungary and Slovakia.
• Needed law changes in order for personnel to continue to remain and be a viable witness in Croatia
• Missionaries from Cambodia who will be on a much needed vacation in the U.S.
• Missionaries in Spain who are learning Euskera, the Basque native language.