Names on a rock...

Names on a rock...

Painted rocks are popular now...every once in a while a new painted rock turns up in my yard...I take one and put it in another yard....a way to encourage others to pass the kindness around ...

The ideas for painting can be complex and intricate down to a painted smiley face....😊😊😊...the plan is to welcome, encourage...or post on Facebook the location...I picked up one in Alaska last year and brought it back to the lower “48”... and passed it on...it continues to make its way around...

This past weekend, with the theme of persecuted Christians, we could choose names and their stories for whom we can pray...on the dining tables we had rocks which were engraved with the word, “Pray”...I chose one and wrote the names of three persecuted Chinese Christians...a reminder above my kitchen sink to pray for these people...

As I stood under the hot running water in the early morning, I was reminded that these people whose name I had written on my rock probably didn’t have the  luxury of hot running water...they may not even the luxury of a writing instrument on which to write their story...or a doctor to treat their ailments...or a pillow on which to lay their weary heads...maybe nothing but a cold cell...poor food...nor fresh air...nothing to look forward to during the long dreary days and nights...maybe tortured on a regular or irregular basis, distorted entertainment for others...

Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote letters, witnessed to his jailers...Silas sang...John wrote in his exile...John Bunyan wrote “pilgrims progress “...all writings we have  handed down through generations...published in hundreds of languages...

Open my eyes to the groanings of the prisoners...whether in real prisons or imprisoned by sin...help me not forget the “names of the rock”...thank YOU...

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 18:2 

May the groans of the prisoners come before you; with your strong arm preserve those condemned to die.

Psalm 79:11

He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free,

Psalm 146:7

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

Acts 16:25 

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory. 

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:1,13-21

So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.

2 Timothy 1:8

Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.

Philemon 1:7 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 

John 3:16-17