Jesus began his ministry in prayer and ended it in prayer.  He prayed in the mornings and He prayed in the evenings.  He spent days in prayer, and He prayed at all the crucial points in His life and ministry; at his baptism, at his transfiguration, at his death.  Jesus wanted to maintain the relationship He had with His Father.  And He knew that while He was here, prayer was the only means for this.

Does prayer matter?

Jesus believed it did.  He prayed about everything and he prayed all the time.  The Romans of the time prayed and kept charms for good luck but they didn’t really expect their prayers to do anything.  The Greeks derided prayer, weaving crude, ridiculous and sometimes obscene prayers into plays and theater to bring out laughter in their audience. But those stubborn Jews believed that they followed the supreme and loving God and that He did hear and answer their prayers.  Prayer matters because we need that communion with God.  It matters because without it, God will ultimately not be able to bring about His will in our lives.  The Bible is the place we go to understand and get a glimpse of the mind of God.  But prayer is where we get to know His heart.

Jesus offers us no metaphysical proof of the effectiveness of prayer, but He not only prayed, He told the disciples on at least one occasion that they failed in their attempts to heal a boy because of a lack of prayer.  If we are going to believe Jesus then we must believe that prayer works and it matters.  Just not necessarily in the way we want at all times.  If we pray we may not get what we want, but oftentimes we get something we need.  Peter once prayed for food and got a lesson in racism, Paul asked for healing and received humility, we ask for relief and get patience.

Are prayers always answered?

No.  I know they are heard but that does not mean they are answered.  Jesus prayed that we would all be one as He and the Father were one yet we have over 34,000 distinct and identifiable denominations and sects of Christianity today.  Sometimes we ourselves hinder even the prayers that God would love to bring about. Unanswered prayer sometimes shows us a God that actually restrains himself due to the freedom he has granted us.  God respects our free will so much he allows things to play out naturally sometimes.  Even though when we are faced with some seriously dire situations we sometimes would like to give up that very freedom.

In God’s creation project, He built in this component that we call free will so that we could share in the maintenance and direction of the project.  He knew we could, and I think He knew we probably would; fail in our area of authority.  But He wanted free, loving relationships with us above all else.  And no matter how happy a five point Calvinist gets at the thought of God’s Omni-control, that just does not show us a loving God.  It shows us a puppet master instead.  God really wants relationships with real people not puppets.

Jesus taught us that prayer was necessary to maintain this relationship with our Father.  Prayer is ultimately only a method of communion with God and this is what Jesus modeled for us.  God desires a dynamic relationship with all of us and the only way that will occur is with consistent, persistent prayer. We pray to involve God in our lives.  Ministry, family, jobs, etc are all areas where we ask God to be there for us and to strengthen us.  But sometimes it has to be just about being with Him.  Our ministries are our calling but our callings came after the Fall.  Before that we had fellowship with God.  We were created for fellowship with God.  And since the Fall, prayer is the method of maintaining that fellowship.

Prayer involves an effort of will.  I must decide to do it and like anything else, doing it consistently will make it become a habit instead of a planned event, a joy instead of effort.  We must all pray and we must do it our way.  If I try to pray like Pastor or some of you I am only setting myself up for failure.  And while I believe it is good to start the day off and end the day talking to God it is not always that deep meaningful communion that I desire.  That has to happen when each of our hearts and our lifestyles dictate.

But it must happen.  Have you talked to your Father today?

Love you all

Tags: Bible, Calvin, Christ, communion with god, Father, Fellowship, Free will, greeks, Love, Prayer, Relationships, romans

We all pray.  I dare say even atheists do at times.  There is even an old saying about there being no atheists in foxholes.  The reason behind this is that when the going gets really, really tough even the tough need someone to turn to.

The Church of God denomination is focusing on prayer as a method of effecting the change we need in our lives and for the nation we live in.  This focus has caused me to pray and to reflect on prayer more than I sometimes do.

This Tuesday discussion is in line with this focus.  I have three questions to ask or one really, with three aspects to it.  If God was to promise to answer only these three prayers what would you ask for?

What one thing would you have Him change about our nation or society?

What one thing would you have Him change about your own life or family?

What one thing would you have Him change about yourself?

The tendency might be to say that you would ask for all people to love each other, and for you to see all of your kids saved, and to make yourself serve and be totally Christlike.  But we should all want these things.  I want to hear what you think would impact the world, your life or yourself.  I want to hear if you just need some personal changes or things.  I want honesty and I want to know what is important to you.

(By the way, what you say has an impact on me.  After writing about criticism last week, my Town Hall graphic was criticized and made fun of, so I am experimenting with some others.)

Love you all

Tags: atheist, atheists in foxholes, Christ, Christlike, Church, Discussion, honesty, Love, Personal, Prayer, town hall

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Genesis 2:25

When God first created Adam and Eve He did not furnish clothing to them.  There was no need.  They were made in the image of God and walked in relationship with Him that you and I just can’t comprehend.  They had been created as adult beings but were actually children in the eyes of God.  They were innocent and they were good.

One of the things the Fall brought about was the loss of innocence.  This was an innocence that not only allowed them to have a perfect relationship with God; they actually perceived no difference between themselves and God.  They did not even realize they were naked.

The serpent exposed them to self-centeredness and one of the results was that loss of innocence that kept them from even realizing that they were different in ways that might need covering.

Just look at children.  All children start out with this same innocence I am talking about.  You can bathe most two year olds, whether the same sex or not, in the same bathtub and they will not notice any difference between them.  This changes in every kids life at a different age.  It changes when they are taught the differences.  A kid will ask certain questions and we give them certain answers.  Our answers will be based on our own notions about our differences.  Some kids can maintain a level of innocence longer than others because some parents are not as anxious about those differences themselves.

Another area where kids are innocent is race.  A small child can play with or have friends of different races and just never perceive any differences.  Again, this usually ends when questions are raised and the answers the adults give start a child along the path to what they think of their differences.  Innocence lost.

I heard a white evangelist say that if he could preach as well as T D Jakes, he would not mind having Jakes color of skin.  He also said at another time that he would not preach at a church that did not welcome blacks.  This actually happened to him and he followed this conviction.  My question is, why, if he does love people of color, doesn’t he see that his first statement is blatantly racist?  I know many “Christians” that are much more vocal in their racism also.

Don Imus went through a lot of strife for statements about “nappy headed” basketball players but insisted it was not meant as a racial slur.  And what about our presidents statement about a black being articulate.  He also said, or people said for him, that nothing was meant.  And even closer, I know white “Christians” that would have their children marry a white atheist rather than a black Christian.

Racism is alive and well in America in 2009.  It is not as bad as it was at another time, but it is far from gone.  And not only is this a white problem, it is also a black problem and a Hispanic problem and many others.  But what really saddens me and has to grieve the Holy Spirit is that the church is not exempt.

Even the best of us have to describe people like this.  “He was a very dynamic black preacher.”  Or, “She is a very beautiful black woman.”  Or many other racially charged descriptive.  What is wrong with just saying he was a dynamic preacher or she is a beautiful woman?  Why do we continue to see everyone as so very different than we are?  Aren’t we all God’s children with no differences between Jew and Greek, male or female, black or white?

I know that everyone that uses the divisive words for descriptions is not using them in a racially motivated way.  But we have to begin to see all people as the same, even with the obvious differences.  All people are worthy of our love because God loves us all.

We are going to inaugurate a man for president tomorrow.  It will be a historic moment because he will be the first “black” president.  Or at least it is being hailed that way.  Actually his racial identity is more along the lines that we all should be.  He has more than a few distinctive racial markers in his makeup.  But yet he is a man with one body.

The church is supposed to be one body.  We need to start acting like it.

Tomorrow will be a historic day and I for one am proud of this nation in this one thing.  This was not even thought possible just fifty years ago.  I doubt when Obama was conceived that any of his family foresaw this day.  Now we need to move on, tearing down more walls in our society, our culture, and our lives.  One day a “black man” will be elected president and we will just say that a “man” was elected president.  Or this is my prayer.

One day we are going to be with God.  I read that we will be clothed in white robes.  But I wonder if maybe we might just once again, be naked before God.  Innocence found.

Love you all

Tags: America, Church, Culture, evangelist, Holy Spirit, image of god, loss of innocence, Love, naked, Prayer, relationship, self centeredness, t d jakes

People come to church primarily for two reasons; for some kind of fellowship with people, or some kind of fellowship with God.  If they are coming seeking God, that is great, but it will not sustain them or keep them in “our” church because, whether they know it or not, they need people.  We all need fellowship.  And without it we ultimately move on.  A lot of people change churches for this very reason and may not even realize it.

If they are coming seeking to make relationships with people, that is actually better in a way.  If we reach out to them and include them then we can probably keep them coming for a while.  There are also potentially two problems with this also.  First, we never introduce them to Jesus, teach them about God, or feed the spiritual hunger in them and they, again, move on.  We can expect this because ultimately someone, maybe even me, will make them mad or hurt their feelings.  Second, we never introduce them to Jesus, teach them about God, or feed the spiritual hunger in them and they do stay, but never mature as Christ followers and may even be in danger of an eternal destination that does not include Him.  Neither of these situations help us grow a healthy church or bring people into the Kingdom.  The first won’t keep them and the second won’t save them.

What is our mission as a church?  It is simple.  It is to make disciples.  But what, exactly is a disciple?

A disciple is one who loves God, loves people, and serves them both.  It is that simple, but yet all too often we mess it all up.  So where are we messing up?  I believe we are dropping the ball right at the start.  We are not properly introducing our Father to them.  Sure, we have preaching, we have worship, we have programs, and we have fellowship; but are we teaching them about a Father in heaven that loved us so much that “He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life…” ( John 3:16)  When we speak out to others about our Father and all his love for us, we can help start them down a path of redemption that keeps going and growing.

But we must reach out to them first.  The same people who ask, “Why aren’t we keeping visitors,” are the very ones at fault all too often.  They either see the visitors and don’t care enough, or are too busy, to reach out to them.  We must not wait for the other person to go talk to that visitor.  If we don’t care enough, then we better get to work on our own spiritual health and if we are too busy, we better slow down.

Jesus told us that all we need to do is love God and love people.  The rest of the New Testament writers told us how to serve both.  The whole bible has this simple message at its core.  Yet we have made this whole business of church exactly that, a business.  One church growth program after another is put forward by some great church leader.  There are a wide variety of church marketing strategies that are pushed at any given time.  And they seem to be ever changing, just trying to keep up with perceived changes in seekers needs.  But seekers need only one thing; they need Jesus.  And we introduce them to Him by simply reaching out to them.

Have you welcomed and talked to that couple that has visited for the last month?

Did you truly rejoice and praise God for another brother added to the family when that guy got saved in church last week, or did you just praise God when the pastor quit talking about it so you could get out and miss the lines at a local restaurant?

Are you so busy that you do not even know about either the new couple or that guy getting saved?

All too often we are either too self centered or we have a wrong view of ministry, and we miss the simple fact that we are to reach out and embrace the other.  God created man for a relationship with us.  He sent His Son to show us the way back into that relationship after we abandoned Him.  And He lovingly showed us that we need each other, or we won’t make it.  We must realize that if we want to increase our church membership then we must reach out to people in love and stop trying to determine the best program or the newest strategy.  If we reach out in love, we not only may keep them in our church, we may bring them into the Kingdom and the family of God.

If we do not reach out, we won’t keep them in “our” church and worse, they may not ever be shown that God loves them and simply wants to start the adoption process.

Love you all

Tags: Church, eternal life, Fellowship, Heaven, Kingdom, Love, Relationships, seeking god, Self, spiritual hunger