We had a beautiful young lady to sing Happy Birthday to this morning. Kirsten Crosby is now another year older. We are so glad to have her in our church family. Pray that God will grant her many more blessed birthdays.

Brother Bob Cartwright was asked to sing a very moving song called "I'm too Close too Heaven to Turn Around." He did a great job and all were blessed.

The message for this Lord's day was one that hit pretty hard. You see, none of us could say that we pray as much as we should. You see, the devil's job is to keep us so busy we don't have time to pray. I for one have never seen a busier time than we face today. It seems that we cannot spread thin enough to accomplish what we need to in our 24 hour days. There is so much confusion and we never get our chores done till it's time to start another day. Do you feel the same as the rest of us? Well, we really need to stop and say OK I am going to take time to pray and you will find that everything else will fall into place.

In Genesis 4:25-26 we read about the birth of a son born to Adam, his name was Seth. Then Seth had a son named Enos, who caused men to begin to call on the name of the Lord. So with this awareness, men began to realize the importance of prayer.

Genesis 6:5 is the account of God seeing the wickedness of man. In verse 6 he actually repented he had made man. He was very grieved by the sin that was being spread throughout the land. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and he was willing to find good praying men. When Noah heard God saying he wished he had never made man, I'm sure he knew it was time to pray. Why is it that we always wait till troubles are all around us, then we pray?

Stop and look as the events of today, evil is all around just as it was in the days of Noah. Don't you think it is time to pray? I mean pray as if your very life depends on it, because it does. We serve a True God who will hear and answer our every prayer. Maybe not as we think it should be but in the way that he knows will benefit us the most. Remember he sees the future and we sometimes ask for things that would be harmful to our lives. You know even Jesus prayed in the Garden but the last line of his prayer was, "Not my will but thine be done."

The best illustration of praying in the very face of evil is found in Daniel Chapter 6. Daniel was told not to pray to his God or he would be thrown into the lions' den. Well, he just opened the windows of his abode and prayed, not once or twice but three times a day. The governors and counselors demanded that the King punish Daniel so he, against his better judgment, put him into the lions' den. The King was so upset with the night's event that he could not even sleep. He arose very early in the morning to find the mouths of the animals shut and Daniel sleeping soundly. He was so relieved to see no harm had come to Daniel that he declared God was surely a protecting God and prayers are answered even when it seems there is no way.

We should always know that prayer is the only way to obtain a way out of troublesome times. God is so good to us and in these evil times we must pray more than we ever have. So be blessed and come worship with us at the Cove in Lanagan, Mo. We would love to have you.