My daughter had her first accident this evening.  While driving the speed limit on the interstate in the drizzling rain she somehow lost control and hit a guard rail which sent her back across the two lanes and off the other side.  According to the word I received the car is probably totaled.  The airbags did not engage but, God is good and He is merciful; she was not seriously hurt.

I was reminded of an accident many years ago where the state trooper, on arrival at the scene, declared his surprise that I was able to stand and address him.  The paramedics told my daughter something similar.  Even though I lived for many years in opposition to God, sometimes actively fighting for the enemy of us all, I can look back and see the many instances where it seems the protective arms of our Creator were wrapped around me.

I believe this is true for my daughter, and my other children and grandchildren.  I believe it to be true because no matter what we are doing or where we are in life, God loves us.  He loves us before we love Him and He loves us even if we never love Him.  I also believe it to be true because I am praying for them all.  My wife is praying for them all.  In fact, there are a lot of us praying for them all.

It is an amazing thing to realize that the Creator of all things cares enough for every one of us that He protects us even if we do not deserve it.

I praise God tonight.  Not for what He does or has done.  Not even for His part in saving my daughter from harm.

I praise Him for who He is.  Because who He is, is the answer to all we need.

Pray for your loved ones tonight.

Love you all

Tags: Creator, God, grandchildren, Love, Praise

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

Tags: bloody sweat, crucifixion, Discussion, God, Kingdom, Personal, Praise, Prayer, Relationships, romans, Self, warfare

“It’s a sanctuary where they don’t get shot, they don’t get stabbed, they don’t have to worry about somebody trying to sell them drugs.”

Can you guess who made this statement?  The man who said this and is the one behind the “school of rock” that it references also wrote and sang the following lyrics:

Welcome to my nightmare
I think you’re gonna like it
I think you’re gonna feel that you belong…

He is also known for his horrific theatrics in the performance of his shock rock shows.  Songs about necrophilia and tearing apart baby dolls, snakes and spiders, lots of fake blood and torture; all of these made many parents pray their kids would not listen or see this man perform in the seventies.

But now that man is praying with us.  He is a brother in Christ and has been since the eighties.  I remember hearing about it back then and thinking he had sold out.  His music changed a little (most of you would not recognize it but promiscuous sex, alcohol, satanic glorification, and others are not a part of his show or songs) and he started performing less.

Alice Cooper, yes that is who I said, Alice Cooper teaches a Wednesday night class at his church, has never cheated on his wife of 32 years, has three children, loves golf and is pretty good at winning for charity, and in 1995 started the Solid Rock Foundation which provides money for children’s causes and Christian student scholarships.  He also conceived and initiated The Rock which is a 20,000-square-foot recreational hall on the urban campus of Grand Canyon University. It will be open to children 12 to 18 at no charge; the prime target is at-risk teens, whose parents may be in jail or on drugs, and whose brothers are thugs.

Cooper says alcohol and tobacco will be banned at The Rock. There won’t be a chapel, but counselors will proselytize by example and offer religious guidance to kids who want to learn about the faith.  He says, “We are overtly Christian, but we’re not going to beat you over the head with a Bible.”

Praise God for using any and all of us who are willing.  I so wish that we would learn to stop judging and leaping to conclusions about people because of what they look like or do.  Coopers shows are still bloody, ghoulish and sometimes shocking.  But read some Shakespeare if you think this is new.  He is not a “Christian celebrity” but is open about his faith and wants the focus to be on Christ and not on Alice.

If Alice Cooper had cut his hair, quit performing and singing, and had started a church like a lot of us would have wanted and a lot did, in the eighties, he probably would not be relevant at all today.

Serve where you are.  Be who you are.  God wants you for these very reasons.

Love you all

Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock

Tags: alice cooper, brother in christ, Christian, ghoulish, God, grand canyon university, Praise, proselytize, Relevant, risk teens, school of rock, shock rock, solid rock foundation, welcome to my nightmare

As any follower of Christ should know, he is worthy.  But, what exactly does that mean?  Do our lives reflect in any way that we believe that he is worthy?

I know that most of the time my own does not.  Sure, I praise him.  I adore him.  I love him.  I talk to him.  I listen out for him.  I look for him.  But am I really serving him like I should, if he is worthy.

To define worthiness is to understand that he is great.  He is excellent.  He is valuable.  He is important.  He is deserving.

We sing about how great our God is.  We know when we need, he supplies, when we hurt, he heals, when we cry, he wipes our tears.  And even though you probably don’t have any doubts, I sometimes do.  And he sends what I need to overcome them.  He loves me and forgives me and accepts me as I am and that is just a small part of why he is worthy.

We celebrate his excellence.  Just look at the magnificence of his creation.  When each of my grandkids were born, I went to see them at the hospital and one of the first things that always caught my attention was their tiny fingers.  So small and delicate, some not much thicker than a matchstick, yet they worked just like my own.  As they grasped one of my fingers, I marveled that something so tiny worked just like mine did and also had a surprisingly strong grip.  And the fingers of a baby are just the beginning.  Even though with twelve grandchildren, that did give me 120 amazing little symbols of God’s excellence.

We all have different ideas about value.  Some find money valuable, some knowledge, some power, and some prestige.  Some find family valuable, some friends, and some pets.  Some find solitude valuable, some a noisy crowd, some a quiet few.  Valuing something or someone is simply seeing it as very important.  Since this is so, God is the most valuable.   He is the one who actually provides all the things that I have listed here and any other thing that anyone values.  And even without those things, he is simply all we really need.

God’s importance just cannot be overemphasized.  Everything I have said so far would not even be, without him.  If you believe in him, and I did not for so very long, then you know that every day that you wake up, you owe to him.  Without him, nothing that exists would or could exist.  And just think of the fellowship with him.  As I said, there was a time when I did not believe that he was real, and I was a miserable, depressed person.  I did not love, except myself, and could not love.  I am still learning how even now.  And he helps me by, and in, his closeness.

What does he deserve then?  He deserves me.  And he deserves you.  He deserves my praise, my adoration and my love.  He deserves my time, my attention and my thought.  He deserves my effort and my ability.  He deserves my obedience and my labor.  He deserves so much more than I am or can give.  So I simply have to give him all of me.  You have to also.

He is worthy and we need to start showing him we believe it.  There are so many ways we can do this better than we do.  Thinking about this, I have come to realize we blow it right at the start.
What is Sunday to you?  For me it is the day I go to church.  I go to serve (teach) and worship.  I go to praise and get fed.  I go to rest and receive from God.  This is probably what a lot of us do.  And there is nothing wrong with this.

If we think about it further, how much preaching and teaching and singing do we allow before we start getting a little frustrated?  Doesn’t the pastor realize I have some things to get done this afternoon?  A little extra work would get me so far ahead next week.  Penney’s has a great sale and it ends today.  The game starts at two o’clock and I still have to eat lunch.  The kids are bringing the grandchildren over.  Just how much time does God need?

But what is Sunday to God?  Some of us confused Christians like to say Sunday is the Sabbath.  I do not think it is.  God began his work on the first day and he stopped on the seventh.  He called it Sabbath and it was for rest.  He did not need rest, but he knew we would, so he set the example.  I believe Saturday is still the Sabbath and we should still be resting on it.  I believe if we truly used the last day of the week as God intended we could have real rest.  The week’s battles could be laid at his feet and he would guard and protect us in our downtime.  (Thoughts from a warfare worldview)

Sunday is the first day, the Lord’s day.  It is the day our work starts.  What we do at church is only the beginning.  We need to get up out of bed with the knowledge and attitude that this is the day we start our weeks work.  And we start by meeting our God and King for his guidance, equipping, and blessing for this week’s mission.  We have to realize our work is warfare.  The work he began by creating has been corrupted and usurped by his and our enemies.  Our work (mission) is to take it back and help to restore it.  By noon or a little after, most of us are done.  We have given almost all we are going to give to God this week.

Let’s show him we think he is worthy by trying to at least give him all of ourselves for that one day.  What might that look like?  I am not sure but I would love to read some of your ideas.

I do know that to serve him is to love.  It is to love him and to love others.  This is all Sunday should be.  A day of love.  If we start the week off with love, the rest will more readily follow the same path.

Love you all.

Tags: Church, Creation, grandkids, Love, Praise, Sin, warfare, Worth, worthiness