Springing to Action

On today's Headline Prayer Live we covered a great number of topics facing America and the world today, including two articles Joyce and I wrote.

Here's Joyce's:

Prayer for the Lost

Lord, point those who need salvation toward the mercies of the Savior. Let them mourn their sin and turn to Jesus for forgiveness and restoration. In His Name. 

As we move from the blessed Holy Week, I am more acutely aware that millions do not yet know the love of God and the grace of Jesus. Millions passed through this past week unaware of the precipice upon which their souls teeter. For me, the joy of Resurrection Sunday is tinged with sadness for these many whose eyes are blinded to the horror of sin and its effects.

[Click for the whole article...]

And here's mine:

Film Inspires Prayers for Persecuted Christians
Lord, use this film about some who were killed in A.D. 203 for being Christians, to target our prayers for those persecuted today.
A film about Perpetua — who was martyred for her faith about 1,820 years ago — is now available to watch online and with your church. Not only does it bring to life the first book we know was written by a woman, but it also shines a spotlight on the 360 million people being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ today.

[Click for the whole article...]

My article is mostly an introduction to two videos of interviews. The first is with some of the creatives behind The Diary of Perpetua:

Nooshig Luz Salvador, whose grandparents survived the Armenian Genocide, is glad the film is giving her a platform to talk about today’s Armenian Genocide in Azerbaijan. She and Father Andreas Garabedian did an interview to talk about the siege of an Armenian village that has lasted more than 120 days:

Nooshig sent a link to an organization that empowers you to send letters to our leaders urging them to stop the genocide. 

Here's the program: 

And here's the entire film followed by a discussion with the cast and crew: 

You can also order a DVD with extras from Still Small Theatre's Store, and also set up a screening in your area with a representative of Open Doors International, to help connect the dots to modern persecution.

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I Dreamed I Was Free tells the story of Quaker abolitionist John Woolman, who spoke against slavery a century before our Civil War.

The Call of God Upon the IFA Call Team, Part 1

A blessed St. Patrick's Day to you! If you haven’t seen it, or want to be blessed and recalibrated again, enjoy one of the one-man plays that launched my career: www.RichDrama.com/StPatrick.

Tuesday morning Part 1 of my article about Intercessors for America's Call Team posted to www.HeadlinePrayer.org and I got to talk about it on Headline Prayer Live: 

Lord, thank You for our wonderful IFA Call Team and for all the ways You are answering their prayers for our intercessors!

Intercessors for America has a Call Team that reaches out to our intercessors to thank them for their support and to pray by phone with them and for them, and for their families. Shortly after Dave Kubal became President/CEO of IFA in 2009, he began telephoning some of the intercessors himself. As the organization grew, Dave told the staff: “OK, this is what we’re doing: We’re calling everybody.” But by 2020, IFA had grown so quickly and so much that a specialized Call Team was needed to do all those calls.

[Click here to read about miracles...]

Join us in praying:

To get email alerts when we're going to be on Headline Prayer Live sign up at www.RichDrama.com/Prayer.

Part 2 is now available.

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I play a pastor whose prayers are answered decades later in Providence.

Collegiate Day of Prayer Is a Taste of Revival

On Friday I posted about the Collegiate Day of Prayer, but we were watching Jesus Revolution while it was being streamed Thursday night. Friday night we watched the CDOP service. WOW! It's a real taste of the Asbury Outpouring! We had revival break out in our living room! 

They included many of the same elements that we saw while we were there during the Outpouring: Students reading Scripture, testimonies, invitations to Salvation, and a commissioning to share what the Lord is doing! SO POWERFUL! Between Facebook and YouTube about 414,000 people joined the 1,500 in Hughes Auditorium and those in at least two campus chapels who were watching the live-stream. 

Pray millions eventually see this and that many souls are saved and many are commissioned for lives of ministry, no matter their career! 

In case you haven't experienced it yet: 

Don't forget to sponsor a college: www.CollegiateDayOfPrayer.org. There's no cost, just the commitment to pray for that school. 

If you don't have 3.5 hours to experience it now (we're already planning to watch it again with as many friends as we can pack into our apartment), here's a brief documentary (8m, 20s) that will give you a sampling:

It includes interviews with Asbury students Zeke Atha and Charity Johnson, who we had on Headline Prayer Live on February 14. That kicked off daily Live from Asbury updates for Intercessors for America. Joyce and I got to do two of those (February 15 and February 16) before IFA board member Jeremy Story took over. He was one of the founders of the modern Collegiate Day of Prayer (February 23 was the 200th anniversary of the original founding). You can see all of the daily Asbury Outpouring updates at www.IFApray.org/watch.

The update for February 16 was IFA's most watched Facebook livestream. I point that out not because Joyce and I happened to be on but because it shows that our intercessors were tapping into this answer to our decades of prayers, and they wanted to see what was happening on Asbury's campus. I wanted to repost it, because we filmed some of it near a statue of Francis Asbury riding his horse away from campus, commissioned to bring the Good News out across the land: 

If you've read this far, consider yourself commissioned! It may be challenging to lead into the Gospel by talking to someone about how they've sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but we've found it very easy to strike up conversations by telling people there was a chapel service that lasted for 374 hours because no one wanted to leave the presence of the Living God. Let's pray many desire to know more: www.RichDrama.com/MyPassion.

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

What Is Satan Afraid Of?

Joyce and I were on Intercessors for America's Headline Prayer Live today and covered two of our articles, which ran today on www.HeadlinePrayer.org. Here's Joyce's:

What Is Satan Afraid Of?

Lord, strike Satan’s dominion with our prayers by lighting them with the fire of heaven and the power of the cross until all of the dark kingdom falls into dust. In Jesus’ name. 

Analysis. In Birmingham, England, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, leader of March for Life UK, was arrested in early December 2022 on a charge of silently praying in front of an abortion clinic that was closed at the time; her prayer was deemed a violation of a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) that established a “buffer” zone around the facility. PSPOs in the U.K. prohibit a range of peaceable activities, including audible prayer and “expressing opinions” about or “influencing” abortion-clinic activities.

[Continue reading...]

And my article:

Justice for Pro-Life Orgs? “Cautiously Optimistic”

Lord, thank You for answering IFA’s prayers as justice is beginning to come in the wake of 186 attacks on pro-life organizations. 

On Sept. 29, IFA prayed with Rev. Jim Harden, CEO of CompassCare, a nationwide network of 650 pro-life medical centers, in the wake of their Buffalo facility’s being firebombed. In an answer to prayer, the FBI is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of perpetrators of crimes against pro-life entities. Additionally, alleged perpetrators Caleb Freestone, 27; and Amber Smith-Stewart, 23, were the first to be indicted for such crimes, in Florida, on Jan. 18.

[Continue reading...]

Here's footage of me presenting Michael Bonning, Regional Executive - Buffalo, with a plaque honoring them for boldly re-opening 52 days after their facility was firebombed: 

Here's the video he showed after his acceptance speech.

Today IFA also posted our prayers:

Demonic Abortion Statues in NYC–On-site Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, tear down the lies that these statues represent and be exalted in our nation. 

New York’s Madison Park now features a large golden statue in honor of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and there’s one to match a block away atop the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court. Watch and pray with IFA Contributing Writers Joyce and Rich Swingle, as they break down the demonic symbolism and intercede in front of the statues.

We prayed over these articles and more on Headline Prayer Live today:

To get email alerts when we'll be on Headline Prayer Live again sign up at www.RichDrama.com/Prayer.

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

Why Joy Matters

On Tuesday Joyce and I each had an article post on www.HeadlinePrayer.org. 

Mine was based on an interview I did with Fred Defoy about his study on joy. His wife, Johanna Defoy, worked with me to coach actors on their French accents for Washington's Armor. She recommended me to Fred as a Joy Exemplar. My article was "Why Joy Matters": 

Lord, during these dark times show us how You want to be our joy! May we be unstoppable in our assigned intercession.

Fred Defoy is looking for “joy exemplars.” While working with Christian ministers, he happened to notice that those who wanted to quit the work of ministry were those who had lost their joy. [Continue reading...]

Here's the interview with Fred:

Joyce's article was "In 2023, Let’s ‘Resolve’ to Pray!":

Lord, help us honor Your Word as we seek You this year. Help us live as You would have us live. In Jesus’ name.

We’re a couple of weeks into 2023, and if you haven’t already tossed the New Year’s resolutions, this may be the week they hit the trash. I gave up on these earnest-but-doomed-to-failure attempts at self-improvement many years ago, but when a new year starts, I do desire to establish benchmarks for what is to come. [Continue reading...]

Later that day Joyce and I covered those articles and others on Headline Prayer Live: 

Then, on Thursday, Joyce's article "Dave Kubal: Truth and Justice in 2023 posted on www.HeadlinePrayer.org": 

Lord, we pray Proverbs 21:15. ”When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous, but terror to the evildoer."

IFA President and CEO Dave Kubal is calling intercessors to pray that 2023 would be the year of truth and justice. Kubal highlighted three situations the Lord used to show him the prophetic prayer direction: the miracle of Twitter and how it now protects free speech; how Twitter’s new policies have revealed proof that there were government agencies that were weaponized against the freedoms of America; and, finally, how this resulted in the spiritual battle for the Speaker of the House. [Continue reading...]

If you'd like to receive email reminders that we'll be on Headline Prayer Live every Tuesday and Thursday, sign up at www.RichDrama.com/Prayer.

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We've changed how we send out email. Check out our new options at www.RichDrama.com/Updates.

Looking back in gratitude and forward in challenge

For our last Headline Prayer Live of the year Intercessors for America reran our Thanksgiving episode, in which Joyce and I were on a team of intercessors reporting on answered prayer for the year.

This morning IFA posted a blog post I've been updating since 2012: "Take this Challenge in 2023." It includes several plans to read through the whole Bible in a year, and an invitation to join Joyce and I in reading through the C.S. Lewis Bible. Click for more details. 

Pray that the program empowers the prayers of many and that the article inspires many to read through the whole Bible again or for the first time. 

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See the rest of Olympic champion Eric Liddell's Chariots of Fire story in Beyond the Chariots. Watch it online and book a live performance. 

Waging War Through Intercession

Joyce and I were on Headline Prayer Live today, covering six articles, including some of our own. Joyce wrote two articles on Intercessors for America's Policy & Prayer Summit: "Policy and Prayer: The Intercessors’ Wars" and "Policy and Prayer: The Intercessors Speak." I wrote "Afghani Refugees Still Need Help and Hope."

Click the image to pray with us...

Here are some highlights from my article:

This state of Afghanistan is a complete disaster and meltdown. Security is gone. Executions and assassinations are up. People are behind on electric and gas, and it’s being shut off. People are without food. There is massive starvation. Inflation is affecting Afghanistan as well.

The Taliban is not intent on building a nation. Their primary interest is to kill, torture, and imprison others tied to the U.S.

... the entire Muslim world has abandoned their Afghan neighbors. They all mistreat the Afghans. They all have closed their borders, except for limited ability we have to get people to (two nations).... (Afghanistan) is one massive prison.

Hamidullah (name changed for his protection) is waiting to be liberated, and he confirms Angell’s report:

Yes, dear friend. What you said is true: We are stuck in this cage, and there is no one to (liberate) us. … The day has come when families sell their innocent children … because we don’t have food. We don’t have fuel.

Hamidullah wrote a word that I think his phone corrected, so I asked Angell what he thought Hamidullah meant. Angell says he wonders if Hamidullah was talking about human organs. People are so desperate, he says, that they are selling their organs....

You can help more refugees come to freedom. Donate by sending a check made out to Heart of an Ace, and write Project Angell in the memo. Send donations to Marty Angell, at 9601 Forest Lane, Apt. 716, Dallas, TX 75243.

“For us, this silent holocaust is our modern-day Schindler’s List moment and our Dunkirk moment all at once,” Angell says. “We need to respond with boldness, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Corrie Ten Boom.”

Read the full article by clicking here.

I was blessed to cover the revival that is happening globally through the ministry of a former pro soccer player during the World Cup. They've seen 18,000 come to the Lord: "World Cup Fans Embrace Christ in Gospel Campaign."

It inspires us to pray for our ministry using my one-man play about Olympic champion Eric Liddell during the Paris Olympics in 2024. If you're not subscribed to our emails, I hope you'll join us in prayer as things develop: www.RichDrama.com/Updates.

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See the rest of Olympic champion Eric Liddell's Chariots of Fire story in Beyond the Chariots. Watch it online and book a live performance. 

Headline Prayer Live

Today was our first appearance on Headline Prayer Live... only because that's the new name of Pray with Others Live, which we've been on for a while. The new name is a better description of what we do: lead people in praying through articles posted to www.HeadlinePrayer.org. 

We had an important program today. I hope you'll join us in prayer as you're able. We covered a number of articles today, including one I wrote, "How to Pray for a ‘Post-Constitutional’ America." 

If you don't have time to watch the program before 3:45 p.m. Eastern today I urge you to read this article, which I addressed, and take action: "URGENT Prayer Needed NOW!"

Click the image to watch today's program...

To get reminders to join us live on the second and fifth Tuesdays every month sign up at www.RichDrama.com/Prayer. 

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Views of the Manger will be live-streamed on www.BCONLove.org. Spanish subtitles only at the live event in Butler, NJ.