It simply amazes me that when someone asks questions that do not align with the majority, that majority turns and instead of engaging oftentimes abandons the discussion.  I have watched a few come to this blog and enter the conversations and quietly go their own way.  Maybe they are engaging in the more profitable and important area of Facebook farming or maybe they just want to be around those that believe exactly like they do.  I still love you.

Some have entered the conversation only long enough to let me know I am either not saved or that I am purposefully causing division.  Hit and run commenter’s that I have begged to come back.  I think they probably do this every where they go.  And then there are those that have come occasionally, left some good comments but have now decided the conversation is getting too rough, too offensive or whatever else they may think.  I still love you also.

I hate this.  I want to have some conversations that lead to a better understanding of who God is so that we can abandon the rather unfruitful way we have been reaching out to those outside the Kingdom and become more effective.  I know that some think that these conversations are more divisive than helpful and I expect no less.  Some will never question what they have been told to believe and some will only come around very, very slowly.

But if we are not growing, we are dying.  And we are supposed to be living, and engaging the enemy everywhere he is and chasing him back behind those gates which we let him escape from to begin with.  This is what I and this blog are about.  I hate to lose readers and even more, commenter’s.  But I will not abandon what I feel led to do here.

Confrontation is not always fun but when error is so easily tossed around in the Kingdom of God then it must be confronted.  Who am I to do this?  I am just a man; fallible, imperfect, very much capable of making mistakes, but still willing to posit my understanding of Kingdom and God issues and allow the discussions, the ridicule, the harassment, and the offensive words to come as they will.  You can’t hurt me with words or by holding your words back.  God is with me in this even though some do not see it and think this has nothing to do with God.

If no one ever stood up to wrong theology, wrong doctrine, wrong attitudes, just where would we be today.  I am not saying everything is wrong that you or anyone else believes, but at least have the courage to hear another side sometimes.  Everyone is a heretic in someone’s eyes.  I am chief among them.

But I am only concerned with what God thinks.  As long as I am trying my very best to know Him more and advance the Kingdom, I believe I am okay.  That is all any of us have to remember.  We all have a part to play, a battle to engage, a mission to fulfill; and they are not all alike.  For any willing to keep on furthering the discussions here, I am deeply grateful.  For all who have left or are leaving, thanks and God bless you.

I still and will keep on loving you all

A few posts back when I first started this series about prayer I mentioned the early days in my walk with Christ when I struggled to figure out how I was supposed to pray.  I believe a lot of us have faced this same issue.  Is there a way of doing it right?  Is prayer an easy thing to do?

Very often prayer seems like a struggle.  That is because sometimes, it is.  Jesus bled from wounds that were given to him by the Romans before the crucifixion but even before that, He broke out in bloody sweat from the action of prayer.  Prayer is sometimes warfare, and the enemy does not want you doing it.  When we finally get to that mature level of prayer where we are in the process of aligning our will with Gods, the battle will rage as it did for Jesus at Gethsemane.

Some people believe prayer should be spontaneous and free, led and urged by the Spirit.  If we wait on that then more often than not we won’t be praying.  I read once what one woman said about how she never prayed except as the Spirit directed.  She would not pray unless she felt the definite urging of the Spirit of God.  I feel sorry for her.

If you ever feel that you are the only one having problems praying, realize you keep good company.  Saint Teresa of Ávila, known for her prayer communion, admitted to sometimes shaking the hourglass to speed up her prayer time. Luther wrote about how often he was overcome with feelings of unworthiness.  Many saints and Church fathers wrote of the distractions they faced quite often while attempting to pray.  Some of us just want to do it right, so in our attempt to emulate others we fail in our own prayers.

When I got to that certain place in my walk with God, I thought I had to learn someone’s method of prayer to move forward.  But I found that there is no such thing as doing it right.  There are so many different prayers and methods of prayer that, this itself should show us there are no set ways of doing it right.  There are pious words of adoration, there are the rants and raves of victims of injustice, there are desperate pleas of a persecuted church and the soaring liturgy of a state church.  There are mechanical ritualistic words that all know and there are private prayer languages that no one knows.  Monotone deliveries, passionate outcries, ecstatic praise, humble repentance, serene words, agitated mumblings, and on and on; these are just some examples of the many varieties of communication with God.  And He hears and listens to them all.  God is a real being, a real person, and He wants us to talk to Him like we would any other person.

What He does not want, is to be ignored.

All we need to do it right is to remember some basic things about prayer.

• Our main goal of prayer should be intimacy with God.  Relationships do not grow from hit and miss interaction.  Instead, consistent, real communion fosters growth and healthy relationships.
• A personal private discussion with God is the most beneficial thing that we can add to any day we live.  So we need to find a private place for just that; to have our fellowship with God and let it transform us.
• We need to pray always, without ceasing.  This is not impossible because prayer is not just verbal communication.  It is the spiritual aligning of our wills with Gods.  It is communion and it is for every minute of every day.
• We need to let the Spirit lead and even take over because He knows how to reword our prayers or even pray for us in a way that will get Gods attention.
• We need to pray in the name of Jesus. This does not mean just invoking His name on the end of all we ask but instead is praying consistently with His will and His teaching.
• Ultimately we need to pray so we can submit to the will of God and He will be glorified and His Kingdom advanced.

Everyone is different.  Personalities, circumstances, life situations, work situations, all contribute to how we will pray.  God wants a relationship with you, as you are.  If you are praying, you are already doing it right.

Just be real with God, be transparent, be yourself.   But most of all, stay in touch.

Love you all

Have you ever found yourself being drawn into a conversation about someone else?  This can be called gossip; small talk or light chat about others.  It can also be slander; in the same family as gossip but more malicious and based on untruth usually.  It can be rumor; something heard but not substantiated either good or bad. 

Other types of discussion can be more worthy.  We sometimes talk about others to lift them up.  We praise and congratulate and affirm them in conversation also.  Conversations about others can be both positive and negative.

However we talk about people, what exactly are the limits of its value?  What does it accomplish?

Sometimes we find ourselves immersed in conversation about events.  What is going on around us is always important to us.  These conversations drive a lot of the discussion boards on the internet.  A forum I frequent seems to be very top heavy in its discourse on events. 

These events can be about things that are closely personal, community driven, of culturally impacting substance or of worldly import.  The events that are important to someone are as wide as the east is from the west.  If you find yourself wanting to discuss an event you can always find someone to discuss it with you. 

But again what do these conversations actually accomplish?

Then there are those who want to discuss ideas.  These people are a little strange to most of us.  Who hasn’t heard of a think tank?  Some people find significance just in the thinking on a thing.  A conclusion does not have to be reached for thought to find relevance.  This seems to me to be not that praiseworthy. 

But some discuss ideas with the desire to make a conclusion.  Application is the very essence of what the conversation is supposed to glean.  These idea driven conversations can be about a lot of different subjects.  Again, most people will only participate when it is a subject close to their heart. 

I love to talk about God.  I love to talk about what He has done.  But most of all I love to talk about what He wants.  What does he expect of you and me?  How does this particular issue look to Him? 

I read somewhere that small minds discuss people, average minds discuss events, but that great minds discuss ideas.  I don’t say this to belittle anyone.  It was just something I read and it made me think about the things we talk about and the ways we conduct our conversations. 

I hope we all get to a place where all we want is to discuss the person of God, the events of God and the ideas of God.  And especially those ideas.  I see it as glorifying Him when we talk about His person, praising Him when we talk of what He has done, but as actually having the means to effect change when we come to the discussion of Godly ideas and reach conclusions. 

(Isa 1:18)  “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Our Lord is asking us to discuss ideas with Him.  I am sure that is what He would want us to do among each other.  I see the discussions about these ideas as the only conversations that have any real impact. So that is what I would love to do.  Discuss the ideas of God.

Love you all