About Me

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Antioch, California, United States
John is the under-shepherd of Agape International Church & Ministries Inc, Antioch, California and the President of Agape International Ministries Foundation, Inc (www.agapebfm.net) John has been a Preacher, Bible Teacher, Counselor and a mission-minded servant of God from 1984 till the present time. Married to Alice since 1987, he enjoys being a father to 2 sons and 1 daughter. He is available to preach, participate in evangelistic crusades and revivals, lead or participate in a Marriage Enrichment program internationally. John preaches on a weekly radio broadcast called "KNOW THE TRUTH" (Based on John 8:32)and the broadcast is aired every Sunday at Radio KDIA 1640AM. The broadcast is also accessible through the website of the radio station: www.kdia.com. You can follow him on twitter @agapebfm

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Watchmen on the Wall & Prayer Walk to Strategic Points in Washington DC


Watchmen on the Wall & Prayer Walk to Strategic Points in Washington DC

It’s been a very long day that is filled with enormous and impacting spiritual activities. The day started with an hour of Prayer for the nation and for pastors from 6am to 7:00am. There were many guest speakers today. Two of them stood out because they are well known names in evangelical circle. I will share about some of their speeches before the end of this blog.

Some of the programs planned for today include a meetings and prayers with our state congressional officials. As it happened, our California Congressional officials did not respond to our request to meet with and pray with them. I suspected that this could be because it coincided with the visit of President Obama to California. Another program that was planned for the day was prayer walk around the strategic points of Washington DC. I was a part of a group that went on the prayer walk to the area of the Whitehouse, ACLU headquarters, Planned Parenthood headquarter, Treasury Department, FBI headquarters and National Museum. One remarkable thing in this prayer walk is the unity by which we prayed for the president, the elected officials, and the nation in general. The focus was not on painting one party as saints while the other is of the devil. That is remarkable. It is an inspiring exercise as we also sang some historical national songs like Battle Hymn of the Republic and the like.
         
As indicated earlier, two noted speakers spoke, in addition to a host of others like, Dr. Johnny Hunt, Ken Ham, Dr. Kenyn Cureton.

Dr. David Jeremiah who spoke on the Biblical Perspective of the America’s Debt shared talked about 4 things that we could as Christians during this time of financial crisis. Here are his suggestions:
1. Keep your head in the game. 1 Thessalonians 5:6; Romans 13:1; 1 chronicles 12:32; Matthew 16:3.

2. Keep your house in order.
Take a personal inventory. Minimize your indebtedness.
Cf. Crown ministry is very helpful with debt and financial education.

3. Keep your heart in your faith. Daniel 8:27; 11:32-33.
GOD can still do great things.

4. Keep your hope in GOD. Job 17:15, Jeremiah 17:7-8. Lamentation 3:21-26.
Nothing is too difficult for GOD.

Dr. Ravi Zacharias spoke on the topic: convincing your church to engage culture. He was a very powerful speaker. He captivated the audience throughout the time given to him. He used the story of Nehemiah to motivate pastors to action.  He said that when there was a need, Nehemiah rose up to the occasion. He gave us a few suggestions as follows:
1. Nehemiah felt the pathos for his people. You will never lighten any load until you feel the pressure in your own soul.

2. Nehemiah prioritized his mission in prayer. Eleven times in the book of Nehemiah, he fell on his knees to pray. He shared a popular quote of Chrysostom on prayer. I remember sharing the same quote in our church before.

3. Nehemiah got close to the situation. You cannot address the problem in a distance. We must understand that we are dealing with people and people have feelings and needs.

4. Nehemiah prepared for the task ahead.

5. He avoided the paralysis of pessimism and we should do the same.

6. Nehemiah built the build the wall in 52 days and returned to Persia.
In conclusion, we are advised to do what is bright and we will be able to help the people.

Before concluding this brief blog for today, I must say that we also had a great worship experience throughout the event. Charles Billingsley, worship leader for Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, VA led us in a rejuvenating and inspiring worship time.

We ended the day with an hour of night watch prayer for our nation. I am now getting tired and needs to go to be because we are starting out by 5.00am tomorrow morning. See some of the pictures and videos below: