20210105 Prayer Focus

BEYOND the Quarries

Covid-19:

Tony McCall

Grays

Jerry Cochran

Brook - (Second time)

Brian and Melissa Heard

Doris Loven (Jimmy's wife)

Mike's step dad (Hospital - Becoming Critical)

Merlin and Shelby Wilson (Hospital)

Lisa and her husband - (

Ira and Lena - (

Elections in Georgia

House Rules - father, mother etc.

Beyond!

The United Pentecostal Church International has chosen the theme “BEYOND,” as we soar to a destination of greater success!

Beyond is defined as “over and above or greater than; more extensive or extreme; surpassing; exceeding; in excess of; having progressed or achieved more than; happening or continuing afterwards; at or to the further side of; apart from; or outside the physical limits or range of.”

As applicable, let’s go forth beyond the ordinary to the... extraordinary!

Join with us in prayer and fasting, believing that we, the Church, will go beyond all boundaries and beyond Jordan, up towards our spiritual promise land to claim every inheritance from our Almighty God!

WEEK ONE:

Pray that we live a life of repentance and allow God to take away our stony heart and give us a heart of flesh. Pray that we go beyond the quarries (rough rocky places) of this life and overcome any challenges or crises in our world. “And Ehud escaped while they tarried, and passed beyond the quarries...” (Judges 3:26).

Judges 3:26 AV

26 And Ehud escaped while they tarried, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped unto Seirath.

Moab’s oppression:

Judges 3:15 NKJV

15 But when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. By him the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon king of Moab.

Judges 3:16 AV

16 But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh.

Judges 3:19–26 AV

19 But he himself turned again from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand unto thee, O king: who said, Keep silence. And all that stood by him went out from him. 20 And Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting in a summer parlour, which he had for himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he arose out of his seat. 21 And Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly: 22 And the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly; and the dirt came out. 23 Then Ehud went forth through the porch, and shut the doors of the parlour upon him, and locked them. 24 When he was gone out, his servants came; and when they saw that, behold, the doors of the parlour were locked, they said, Surely he covereth his feet in his summer chamber. 25 And they tarried till they were ashamed: and, behold, he opened not the doors of the parlour; therefore they took a key, and opened them: and, behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth. 26 And Ehud escaped while they tarried, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped unto Seirath.

Gilgal. The name gilgal [1537, 1652] appears 40 times in the OT, only twice without the definite article. Possibly not a true proper name, it can denote any stone-encircled encampment (cf. Zertal 1991:28–49).

Stone, L. G. (2012). Judges. In P. W. Comfort (Ed.), Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (p. 240). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Joshua, Judges & Ruth Notes

There also, Joshua erected stone monuments when the Israelites crossed the Jordan (Josh 4). Might the “carved stones” mentioned here be those monuments? Joshua 4 did not use pesel or pesilim (see note above) and did not refer to the stones as carved or inscribed. Moreover, these terms never denote a legitimate monument to Yahweh. Still, the presence of idols at Gilgal, the very place where stone monuments from Joshua’s time stood, would underscore the depths to which Israel had sunk.

Judges 3:27–30 NKJV

27 And it happened, when he arrived, that he blew the trumpet in the mountains of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mountains; and he led them. 28 Then he said to them, “Follow me, for the Lord has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So they went down after him, seized the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross over. 29 And at that time they killed about ten thousand men of Moab, all stout men of valor; not a man escaped. 30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years.