Prayer for Tomorrow's World

By Jim Prestidge

Today’s world has brought awareness of where we are going and with it anxiety. Thinking people advocate looking for a new direction to take. Ordinary people feel that their lives could be much better.
We see need and inequality on our doorstep and everywhere. Public conscience is pricked, but people feel unable to do anything. Politicians struggle to balance conflicting demands and policies. Quality of living has gone out of our lives.
People ask, where is God? A better question is, where are we, in relation to God? Prayer for tomorrow’s world brings out fundamental things to rethink and put right. It looks at what the Bible has to say. The book stimulates our thoughts, as we seek God’s way into a future that he can bless.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664254794

Jim Prestidge

Jim has behind him a lifetime of Bible reading. He uses a variety of Bible translations and computer technology. Jim has travelled extensively in most of the continents, worshipping with christians of differing christian traditions and cultural environments. He draws on his wife’s studies of Bible background. Jim and his wife spent time in Israel, the land of the Bible. It was a prayer and study tour, with other christians and Messianic Jews. They visited the places of the Bible, reading what happened there, and praying peace on Jerusalem. Jim wants the Bible to speak for itself. He wants to revive Bible reading. He wants Bible study to be guided, not by church doctrines, nor by commentators, nor by videos, nor by Jim, but by the Holy Spirit. Jim aims to expose the real Jesus and his message: God enters our understanding of his world and how to fit in.

Book preview

Prayer

FOR TOMORROW’S WORLD

JIM PRESTIDGE

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Copyright © 2022 Jim Prestidge.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by

any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system

without the written permission of the author except in the case

of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author

and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy

of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names

of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web

addresses or links contained in this book may have changed

since publication and may no longer be valid. The views

expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do

not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the

publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are

models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations taken from the Revised English

Bible, copyright © Cambridge University Press and

Oxford University Press 1989. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-5480-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-5481-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-5479-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022901814

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/15/2022

‘No, set your minds on his kingdom,

and the rest will come to you as well.’

(Luke 12:31)

CONTENTS

Introduction

1     All to be One

2     The blessed

3     God’s message to the world

4     Loving one’s neighbour

5     Limitless goodness

6     Repentance

7     Gifts of the Spirit

8     Being together

9     Paul to the Romans

10   Humility

11   Be an angel

12   My bad angel

13   The Seventh Trumpet

14   Plain ‘yes’ or ‘no’

15   Parables

16   Possessions

17   A call to abandon wickedness

18   How many countries in Africa?

19   The Peace of God

20   Paul’s imprisonment

21   Noah and the Ark

22   The Rainbow

23   Generation gap

24   The Lord is my Shepherd

25   Rich and poor

26   Psalm 139

27   Hunger

28   Kiwis

29   International trade

30   God’s thoughts, the world’s thoughts

31   The Woman at the Well

32   Psalm 96

33   Gifts to the Lord

34   Wash each others’ feet

35   Your Need is our Concern

36   Let it drop

37   Forgive and forget

38   Man proposes, God opposes

39   Love Me

40   Peace to this house

41   Luli

42   God’s law in our heart

43   Love your Enemy

44   The oil of nard

45   The way of truth and life

46   Christianity Spreads

47   The Sabbath

48   Wind of change

49   Equality

50   Gods, ancient and modern

51   Little brown scorpions

52   The Lord’s prayer

53   Garments for God’s people

54   Sodom

55   The name of Jesus

56   The important people

57   My pop star

58   Do not fret

59   The two trees

60   A new created world

INTRODUCTION

The world is entering a new stage in its history. People are recognising the interdependence of all peoples and the fragility of the pillars which support our civilisation. The future we build has to be different. Building it needs careful thought and informed prayer. We should live peaceably and cooperate, one planet, one world.

Prayer for Tomorrow’s World aims to stimulate thinking. It is a collection of reflections. Each one ends with discussion points. These prompt further thought, either by the reader or in a study group. They are not necessarily true.

Prayer for Tomorrow’s World does not make suggestions. It does better. It helps us to find answers together. Many heads are better than one. Then, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we shall arrive at our true destination, which God planned before the world began.

In tomorrow’s world we will share ideas, discuss our differences, learn from and help each other—all without fear or reserve.

The book draws wisdom from scripture. Some passages have been shortened so as not to take up too much space. The reader can read the full passages in their own Bible and check them in context. Square brackets indicate a parallel text.

The stories in the book are all actual happenings, to me and my wife, and so I tell them in the first person.

Jim Prestidge

Christmas 2021

1

All to be One

Jesus came to earth to put God’s chosen people back on track. The Jews had drifted away from God. They had lost God’s way for the world, the world which he had designed. As Jesus’ ministry unfolded it took in other peoples, in fact his teaching was for all of us, then and now.

Looking round the world we see so many things which are not right. We find problems at personal, family, national and international level. We see people trapped in circumstances over which they have no control. People need help that does not come. We see world leaders judging each other, rather than working together for the good of all.

We also see progress, but not nearly enough, and too slow. No one can tackle all the problems. We need a super intelligence. And there is God, trying to show us our part to bring the system together. With his thought and guidance our efforts coordinate, controlled by his wisdom.

As everyone does their bit, then our world returns to what God planned in the beginning. Surely that is the best for everyone.

We have to work together. We have to be one, a unified effort under God. We have to come back to him.

As Jesus came to the end of his time on earth he set his face towards Jerusalem and prepared for the ordeal of the crucifixion. Before going to Gethsemane, where he was to be arrested, he prayed.

Then Jesus looked up to Heaven and said:

‘Father, the hour has come…

‘I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work which you gave me to do…

‘I have made your name known to the men whom you gave me out of the world…

Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name…that they may be one, as we are one.

‘… the world hates them because they are strangers in the world, as I am. I do not pray you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one…

‘It is not for these alone that I pray, but for those also who through their words put their faith in me... The glory which you gave me I have given to them, that they may be one, as we are one; I in them and you in me, may they be perfectly one.

(John 17:1–23)

We too should look up to Heaven. In that prayer Jesus prayed for us. The prayer made quite