Sunday, 18 May 2014

It was good to see the Church was almost full on Sunday morning, and it was a blessing to have the Coulsons with us.

The morning service was spent looking at James 5:13-18James 5:13-18
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. ¹⁴ Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: ¹⁵ And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. ¹⁶ Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. ¹⁷ Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. earnestly: or, in his prayer subject...: of the same nature, that is, a fellow mortal ¹⁸ And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.  

WP-Bible plugin and the importance of prayer in our daily walk with God.  James tells us that when we have afflictions (trials) that we should pray and if we are happy we should sing praise to God (James 5:13James 5:13
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.  

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The bible also tells us that we can pray on our own and we can share our burdens with others as well (James 5:14James 5:14
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:  

WP-Bible plugin). But it is important that we share these things with those who are righteous. The bible uses the world ‘elders’ in James 5:14James 5:14
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:  

WP-Bible plugin to denote those who were spiritual in the church. This is because A righteous person will be someone you can trust to share your struggles with. You can also have confidence that a righteous person will be heard by God (Psa 66:18Psa 66:18
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:  

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In James 5:16James 5:16
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  

WP-Bible plugin we are also encouraged to confess our faults to one another. This is sharing the areas where we might struggle in our spiritual walk. The reason for this is so we can pray for one another and encourage each other. Again the bible emphasises the importance of sharing these things with righteous people when it refers to the “effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man” in verse 16.

The passage follows on in James 5:17James 5:17
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. earnestly: or, in his prayer subject...: of the same nature, that is, a fellow mortal  

WP-Bible plugin with the example of Elias (Elijah). When he prayed, things happened. Because of this we know he was a righteous man, even though he was “subject to like passions as we are”. This also highlights the importance of asking according to God’s will. The bible says “if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us” in 1 John 5:141 John 5:14
English: King James Version (1611) - KJV
14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: in: or, concerning  

WP-Bible plugin.  A righteous man is in tune with God’s will, therefore we need to have our hearts prepared and aligned to God by spending time in his word.