JeantetFamily.com will be going dark shortly for an overhaul to prepare for the baby! Let’s be honest, you are more interested in the baby than you are in anything I have to say! The site will resurface with a new design soon.
Tomorrow morning Kim and I, along with a team of 19 others from GRPC, leave for New Orleans. We will be doing a lot of rebuilding work in the city. Follow us at our team site. We will return on July 5th. Please pray for us, our team, for health, safety in travel and that God will use us to bring light to the city.
This time a year ago, I had just graduated from seminary and Kim and I were beginning our summer in New Orleans. From there, we raced back to PA for Kelly’s wedding and then I began at GRPC, with Kim joining the staff of GCA, the church’s school, just a couple of weeks later. We bought our first house in a new state. The list of changes goes on and on.
Yet, for all of those changes, I can’t help but think that life’s about to change, this time in ways I can’t even imagine. Those changes are going to seem minor compared to having a baby. How cool that in a couple of months, I’m going to hold a baby boy in my arms. That boy will is God’s own image and Kim and I will be entrusted to raise him in love, teaching him our holy faith.
Yep, life’s about to change. And I can’t wait.
Tags: Baby
So, we took a little break from posting while our lives went crazy from January to now. In the meantime, we found out that I am pregnant and I spent 3 months just trying to survive the morning sickness. But, now that is over and life is much more enjoyable! We are having a boy and he is due to arrive on September 22nd.
Our Southern Kent campus is beginning a weekly prayer time next week. The elders, who will be leading the prayer time, are going to lead the congregation through a corporate praying of the Lord’s Prayer. At their request, I put together a phrase by phrase breakdown of how to pray the Lord’s prayer that I thought I would pass along to you. I hope you can use in your personal prayer time and will be blessed as you pray the prayer Jesus taught us…
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Our Father, who art in heaven
- Our Father – title used in Bible to refer to God
- Prayer point - Highlight corporate nature of our faith
- Who art in heaven – God is separate from us, above and beyond us
- Prayer point – reflect on God’s separatenes
Hallowed be thy name
- Hallow – means to honor
- Prayer point – prayer of honor and blessings to God
Thy kingdom come
- According to Rev 21, when Christ brings his kingdom to its fulfillment, there will be no more tears, no more pain, no more death and no more mourning
- Prayer point – pray for sick and hurting friends and family that they would experience the healing that will come in the fulfillment of the kingdom
- God’s kingdom is expanding throughout the earth – evangelism is a primary means by which the kingdom grows today
- Prayer point – pray for our family and friends that we want to come to know Christ
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven
- In heaven, God’s will is done perfectly – everything God wills is done completely, totally and perfectly
- One day, the same will be true here on earth
- Prayer point – pray that this world would grow in obedience to Christ and fulfill his will and purpose on the earth
- Aside – I know the Reformed position on the will of God – everything he wills is done perfectly – but this is where the different “wills†of God is relevant
Give us this day our daily bread
- God has not promised us everything we need – he is Jehovah Jireh, the God who Provides
- Prayer point – pray for God’s provision for our needs
Forgive us our sins (trespasses, debts)
- Prayer point – time of confession
As we forgive those who have sinned against us
- Other people have wronged us and we are called to forgive them
- Prayer point – ask God to give us forgiving hearts
Lead us not into temptation
- James 1 promises that “God is not tempted by evil nor does he tempt anyoneâ€
- We can hold to the promise the God does not want us to fall into sin
- Prayer point – thank God that he will not tempt us with sin and acknowledge that we are powerless to flee sin apart from God
But deliver us from evil
- Prayer point - Pray for strength and deliverance to stand up under temptation and to resist “the sin that so easily entanglesâ€
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.
- Prayer point – maybe just make this phrase the close of the night, almost like a benediction
Part of preparing for the baby to come is getting the website ready to share pictures and stories with you. I’ll be working on the website and hopefully getting it back online in the coming weeks.