2025 07 26

Psalm 51:14-19 New King James Version

14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
The God of my salvation,
And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
     Jesus, I plead with you for all those who are guilty of shedding blood, please set them free of guilt by your blood.

15 O Lord, open my lips,
And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
     Holy Spirit, please help us speak and sing your praises.

16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
     Holy Father, the only sacrifice that you desire from us is claiming the sacrifice made by your Son on the cross.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.
     In your mercy, LORD, please give me a broken and contrite heart.

18 Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion;
Build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
With burnt offering and whole burnt offering;
Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.
     Father, I pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
     May they prosper that love you.
     Peace be within your city walls and prosperity within your palaces.
     And for the sake of my brethren and companions, I say,
     'Peace be with you.'
     Because of the house of the LORD our God,
     I will seek to do you good. (From Psalm 122)

A Word Received: Let me have your burdens and your sins; I can set you free.

Albany Intercessor

2025 07 25

Warsaw Concerto (Richard Addinsell)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg0QEpXYmUw&list=RDEg0QEpXYmUw&start_radio=1

Psalm 51:1-13 New King James Version

1 Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
     Jesus, you are my mercy, all my hope is in you.

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.
     Holy Spirit, please wash me and cleanse me of my sins.

3 For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me.
     Lord, I confess my sins to you.

4 Against You, You only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in Your sight—
That You may be found just when You speak,
And blameless when You judge.
     Father, I deserve judgment for my sins, but my hope is in your mercy and in the resurrection.

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.
     Lord, I am heir to the sins of my forebearers.

6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,
And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.
     Jesus, please help me embrace the truth of the gospel and thereby your wisdom.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
     Holy Spirit, please help me confess my sins and be made clean (1 John 1:9).

8 Make me hear joy and gladness,
That the bones You have broken may rejoice.
     Father, help me hear of joy and gladness.

9 Hide Your face from my sins,
And blot out all my iniquities.
     Jesus, please stand between me and your Father so that my sins are covered.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
     LORD, only you can make me clean.

11 Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
     Holy Father, please keep renewing you Holy Spirit in me.

12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
     Lord, once again fill me with the joy of my salvation.

13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners shall be converted to You.
     Jesus, please help me bring the comfort of the gospel to many.

A Word Received: Look to me for the hope of salvation.

Albany Intercessor

2025 07 24

     Jesus, please help me increase in virtue so that I increase in boldness.

2 Peter 1:5-6 New King James Version
5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
     Holy Spirit, please let my faith in Jesus lead me into greater virtue.

6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
     Holy Spirit, lead me into greater self-control. Thank you.

Philippians 4:8 New King James Version
8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
     Lord, help me think on those things which are lovely and true and of good report.

Ephesians 4:1-3 New King James Version
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
     Father, please help me walk worthy of my calling.

Proverbs 10:9 New King James Version
9 He who walks with integrity walks securely,
But he who perverts his ways will become known.
     Jesus, please help me walk with integrity.

A Word Received: Come into my presence with the joy I have for you.

Albany Intercessor

2025 07 23

Jeremiah Clarke - Trumpet Voluntary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRrss4kBi2M&list=RDbRrss4kBi2M&start_radio=1

Colossians 1:9-17 New King James Version

9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
     Holy Spirit, we ask that you fill us with the knowledge of you will and with wisdom and spiritual understanding.

10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
     Jesus, please help us to be fruitful in good works.

11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;
     Father please help us live out patience and longsuffering.

12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
     Father, thank you for admitting us into your kingdom life.

13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
     Father, thank you for delivering us from darkness into the light of your son.

14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
     Jesus, thank you for redeeming us by your shed blood on the dross and your resurrection.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
     Jesus, thank you for revealing to us the likeness of your Father.

16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
     LORD, all creation gives you glory. Help us rejoice in your creation.

17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
     LORD, you were before all things and all things are created to serve you.

A Word Received: Rejoice in what is good and shun what is evil.

Albany Intercessor

2025 07 18

1 Corinthians 15 New King James Version
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.

A poem by our son Jonathan on Jean’s death ten years ago:

She’s Not Here

The flowers on her graveside look beautiful.
I’m sure she would have loved them, her eyes giving that special twinkle they
always did when delighted.

But she’s not here.

I remember once, after attending a wake how she took me aside and said,
“When I die, that won’t be me in there.
It’ll only be a shell, and I’ll be in heaven.”

Still I cried when she took her turn.
Her Spirit dancing beyond the veil,
yet my eyes stayed fixed upon
her simple wooden box – now safely hidden beneath a heavy carven stone,
holding fast my heart.

Today my burden lifted, set free by two simple phrases, “She’s not here. She is
Risen.”

I wonder now why it took me so long to move from remembering to knowing.
Why I kept on seeking her among the dead and not the living.

I miss her so much, but she’s not here.

She is risen.

Albany Intercessor

2025 07 16

Colossians 1:1-8 New King James Version

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse:
     Jesus, please help us reach out in faith to the faithful in our congregations.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
     Holy Spirit, please help us reach out with the grace and peace of Christ Jesus.

3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
     Father, thank you for the fellowship we share in Jesus.

4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints;
     Jesus, thank you for the love and faith we share.

5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,
     Jesus, please help us share the hope we have in the resurrection.

6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;
     Holy Spirit, please help me share the truth of the gospel.

7 as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf,
     Thank you, Jesus, for those witnesses who brought me to faith.

8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
     Thank you, Holy Spirit, for the love we share through your witness.

A Word Received: Look to me with hope and expectation with what I will do with you in your resurrection life.

Albany Intercessor

2025 07 16

          A Well-Watered Garden
     "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings." (Isaiah 58:9b-12)
     Lord, let us become well-watered gardens, like springs whose waters never fail.

     "Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters." Exodus 15:27
     Lord Jesus, let the gathering of your people be a time and place of Elim springs where your people may find refreshment. When we return to our homes, let springs of living water flow out of us to our communities so that the weary and sin-sick may find rest.

          A Watered Garden, by W. B. Anderson, 1919
     I have a precious memory. It is the memory of a garden that I happened upon one tired midsummer's morning, in the midst of a torrid plain in India. I was weary, and travel-stained, and thirsty, when over the drooping head of the horse, I saw a clump of trees on the far horizon. I hoped it might be a garden. It seemed ages until we should reach it. When we did arrive under the spreading branches of great mango trees, a cool zephyr, as grateful as the fanning of angels' wings, rippled over my parched cheeks. It was still early in the day, when, swinging myself wearily from the hard seat of the springless yekka, I walked straight into the heart of the garden, down the shady aisle of mango and loquat trees. Before dawn there had been a shower of rain, and now the gardener was running the clear, cool water from the irrigating well all about among trees and shrubs. Everywhere leaves were green and flowers were bright. Parrots circled through the cloudless blue, swung upon the swaying branches, calling merrily to one another. The air was ladened with the intoxicating odors of roses and jasmine. The fountain sparkled laughingly in the shaded center of the garden. I stooped to bathe my hands and face in the cool waters of the fountain's basin. Then, from its joyous spring I drank until satisfied. I sat for a few precious moments upon the marble edge of the fountain and reveled in the refreshment of a watered garden. The driver called, and I hurried out again across the stifling, heated plain. I had tarried for so short a time, but I was a new man. I carried away the song of the garden in my heart, and its echoes shall never die from my life.
     I was making the same journey in another year. The road was more uninviting than before, the weather was hotter, and I was not only weary, but ill. But I had a memory! For hours I looked and longed for the place of the garden of refreshing. At last we came to the shade of its trees. Wearily and weakly, but eagerly, I climbed from the seat of the torturing, springless cart. With unsteady steps I entered the door of the garden. The trees were gray with dust. The flowers drooped in the heat. The little water courses were parched and dry. The fountain was stopped. My soul sank with weariness, and I turned away sick at heart to finish the torturing journey unrefreshed. At the door I met the gardener. I asked him why his garden languished so. He explained with guilty look that he had been absent attending to affairs of his own for a week. I asked him if the raja would not be vexed at the neglect of his garden. He explained that the raja had gone to the mountains for a month. Then I knew that the garden had been neglected because the master's orders had been disobeyed. He intended that every traveler might be refreshed; but his gardener had not been faithful.
     I have a precious memory. It is a memory of a friend. Sin-stricken and weary, and far from God, I was traveling one day when I came into his life. His whole life was wet with the dews of Heaven; his garments were redolent with the odors of Paradise; he just breathed the very life of God. I sat and communed with him, and from within his life there flowed into mine rivers of living water. I walked with him through lovely avenues of restful shade in his friendship, and saw heavenly vistas, and drank from life-giving springs. I went out to my life renewed and refreshed. I was a new man, and there rang through all my being a song of the memory of that blessed life. All through eternity shall the echoes of that friendship call from peak to peak for me.
     In time of need and anguish I came again to that friend. I ran to meet him as a shelter from my sore distress. I found him and entered into communion with him. But the fountains of his life seemed dried up. The refreshment seemed to have vanished. His own life seemed parched and drooping. His speech was as the speech of other men. I struggled back to my own life as I came. Later he told me that the King of his life was not being obeyed, and the garden of his heart was not being watered.. The trees and the walks of his friendship were still there, but they no longer soothed and strengthened. The fountain of his friendship was still there, but its waters had been hushed. The King had intended that this garden, this life, should be kept perpetually refreshing for the souls of all who might come to it, but the King had not been obeyed, and the living water had not been kept flowing, and I went away unrefreshed.
     Then I prayed, "Oh God, keep flowing into me, and within me, and from within me Thy rivers of living water for the health and joy of other men! Oh, King of life, make my life a watered garden!"

A Word Received: I want you to delight yourself in my garden. It is a place of refreshment for you.

Albany Intercessor