God's Kingdom Has Come Near

Acts of Worship
Learning to Pray

A Model for Prayer

Luke 10:1-12  The Message

Lambs in a Wolf Pack

10 ^1-2 Later the Master selected seventy and sent them ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he intended to go. He gave them this charge:

“What a huge harvest! And how few the harvest hands. So on your knees; ask the God of the Harvest to send harvest hands.
³ “On your way! But be careful—this is hazardous work. You’re like lambs in a wolf pack.
⁴ “Travel light. Comb and toothbrush and no extra luggage.
“Don’t loiter and make small talk with everyone you meet along the way.
^5-6 “When you enter a home, greet the family, ‘Peace.’ If your greeting is received, then it’s a good place to stay. But if it’s not received, take it back and get out. Don’t impose yourself.
⁷ “Stay at one home, taking your meals there, for a worker deserves three square meals. Don’t move from house to house, looking for the best cook in town.
^8-9 “When you enter a town and are received, eat what they set before you, heal anyone who is sick, and tell them, ‘God’s kingdom is right on your doorstep!’
^10-12 “When you enter a town and are not received, go out in the street and say, ‘The only thing we got from you is the dirt on our feet, and we’re giving it back. Did you have any idea that God’s kingdom was right on your doorstep?’ Sodom will have it better on Judgment Day than the town that rejects you.

 
For Reflection
How does one campaign for the Kingdom of God?  Just as in Luke's day, not all people will respond well to the gospel.  Those that have been seduced by the promise of self-determination and are mired in the quicksand of common practice will see weakness where there is strength and folly where there is wisdom.
Some are so hogtied by fear that they are incapable of escaping the bonds of the material world.  Little is to be gained by the lamb batting heads with the wolf.

The faithful must begin with prayer.  Prayer engages the intimate relationship one has with God and confirms one's identity, purpose and mission as a healer, not a warrior. The faithful must act with integrity, forthright and consistent in faith, promise and act.  The kingdom of God is populated by those who are in need of spiritual restoration.  Harvest those who's time has come and whose blooms have turned to seed.

Pray

that you will be an authentic God whisperer.  Pray that you, by your action, will be recognized as a healer.  Pray that you will be a guide into the Kingdom of God for those who seek to be fulfilled.

Bless God's Holy Name

Acts of Worship
Learning to Pray

A Model for Prayer

Psalm 103:1-18  The Message

A David Psalm

103 ^1-2 O my soul, bless God.
    From head to toe, I’ll bless his holy name!
O my soul, bless God,
    don’t forget a single blessing!

^3-5 He forgives your sins—every one.
    He heals your diseases—every one.
    He redeems you from hell—saves your life!
    He crowns you with love and mercy—a paradise crown.
    He wraps you in goodness—beauty eternal.
    He renews your youth—you’re always young in his presence.

^6-18 God makes everything come out right;
    he puts victims back on their feet.
He showed Moses how he went about his work,
    opened up his plans to all Israel.
God is sheer mercy and grace;
    not easily angered, he’s rich in love.
He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold,
    nor hold grudges forever.
He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve,
    nor pay us back in full for our wrongs.
As high as heaven is over the earth,
    so strong is his love to those who fear him.
And as far as sunrise is from sunset,
    he has separated us from our sins.
As parents feel for their children,
    God feels for those who fear him.
He knows us inside and out,
    keeps in mind that we’re made of mud.
Men and women don’t live very long;
    like wildflowers they spring up and blossom,
But a storm snuffs them out just as quickly,
    leaving nothing to show they were here.
God’s love, though, is ever and always,
    eternally present to all who fear him,
Making everything right for them and their children
    as they follow his Covenant ways
    and remember to do whatever he said.

 
For Reflection
God is not the Holy Gotcha!  God does not lurk in dark corners, waiting to catch the unsuspecting engaged in sin.  God is not the moral cop.  God is the healer.  God acts in love.  God knows what is right and true and makes all things work for good.  God holds no grudges. God has our best interest as God's first interest.

Pray

prayers of praise for the living God.  Pray so that you may become more intimately related to the God who has made you.  Pray so that, by example,  you will carry God's will into the next generation. Pray so that you will become infected with the goodness of God and enlarged in love and thankfulness.

Whenever You Pray

Acts of Worship
Learning to Pray

A Model for Prayer

Matthew 6:1-13  The Message

The World Is Not a Stage

6 “Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding.

^2-4 “When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—‘playactors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.

Pray with Simplicity

⁵ “And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

⁶ “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.
^7-13 “The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best—
    as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
    Yes. Yes. Yes.

 
For Reflection
In this interpretation, the Lord's Prayer seems a bit pedestrian.  Perhaps that's precisely the point.  Prayer doesn't need a spiritually acceptable place, or a special  language.  Nor is prayer a production, or a means for manipulating God.  Prayer is your honest, humble recognition of the relationship between you and God.  Prayer is an intimate conversation with God.   The act of authentic prayer wipes away any and all barriers between you and God.  It doesn't matter how you pray -- it matters that you pray!

 

Pray

Pray frequently.  Pray in humility.  Pray so that you grow into grace.  Pray so that you fortify your faith. Pray so that what you think, say and do are acts or worship that glorify God.

Great Is Your Faith

Acts of Worship
Awe of God

Glory To God in the Highest

Matthew 15:21-31  The Message

Healing the People

^21-22 From there Jesus took a trip to Tyre and Sidon. They had hardly arrived when a Canaanite woman came down from the hills and pleaded, “Mercy, Master, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit.”

²³ Jesus ignored her. The disciples came and complained, “Now she’s bothering us. Would you please take care of her? She’s driving us crazy.”
²⁴ Jesus refused, telling them, “I’ve got my hands full dealing with the lost sheep of Israel.”
²⁵ Then the woman came back to Jesus, went to her knees, and begged. “Master, help me.”
²⁶ He said, “It’s not right to take bread out of children’s mouths and throw it to dogs.”
²⁷ She was quick: “You’re right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master’s table.”
²⁸ Jesus gave in. “Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!” Right then her daughter became well.
^29-31 After Jesus returned, he walked along Lake Galilee and then climbed a mountain and took his place, ready to receive visitors. They came, tons of them, bringing along the paraplegic, the blind, the maimed, the mute—all sorts of people in need—and more or less threw them down at Jesus’ feet to see what he would do with them. He healed them. When the people saw the mutes speaking, the maimed healthy, the paraplegics walking around, the blind looking around, they were astonished and let everyone know that God was blazingly alive among them.

For Reflection
What are we to make of this story?  In my mind this is a "What If?" story.  What if Christ were to adopt the conventional wisdom of the Chosen People and acted according to their perception of God's exclusive favor?  Would Jesus, then, not act in ways that offered exclusive favor to the proud spiritual and political superior and ignore the inferior outsider? 

How does this Canaanite woman react to being disrespected by Jesus? She approaches in humility.  She is not angered by Jesus reaction.  She accepts her political status but pleas for her spiritual equality by evoking the name of  David, indicating that she, a Canaanite, recognized the God of Israel and, recognizing Jesus authority, begged mercy.  Because of her acceptance of Christ the distinction between Jew and Gentile is taken away

Pray

as did the Canaanite woman.  Ask God for mercy.  Recognize the authority of God.  Pray that you will worship God with patient expectation that God will answer your prayer. Pray for the healing power of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

A Mustard-Seed-Sized Faith

Acts of Worship
Awe of God

Glory To God in the Highest

Matthew 17:14-20  The Message

With a Mere Kernel of Faith

^14-16 At the bottom of the mountain, they were met by a crowd of waiting people. As they approached, a man came out of the crowd and fell to his knees begging, “Master, have mercy on my son. He goes out of his mind and suffers terribly, falling into seizures. Frequently he is pitched into the fire, other times into the river. I brought him to your disciples, but they could do nothing for him.”

^17-18 Jesus said, “What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here.” He ordered the afflicting demon out—and it was out, gone. From that moment on the boy was well.
¹⁹ When the disciples had Jesus off to themselves, they asked, “Why couldn’t we throw it out?”
²⁰ “Because you’re not yet taking God seriously,” said Jesus. “The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, ‘Move!’ and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn’t be able to tackle.”

 
For Reflection
A little faith is a good thing.  A little faith will grow.  A little faith will begin a lifelong journey into righteous living in the hollow of God's hand.  Just a little faith will set you free.

 

Pray

for a little faith.  Pray for earth moving faith.  Pray for the confidence in God that comes from just a little faith.  Rejoice this Christmas Day in a little faith.  Give thanks to God for the gift of God's son.

I Believe, Help My Unbelief.

Acts of Worship
Awe of God

Glory To God in the Highest

Mark 9:15-24  The Message

There Are No Ifs

^14-16 When they came back down the mountain to the other disciples, they saw a huge crowd around them, and the religion scholars cross-examining them. As soon as the people in the crowd saw Jesus, admiring excitement stirred them. They ran and greeted him. He asked, “What’s going on? What’s all the commotion?”

^17-18 A man out of the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought my mute son, made speechless by a demon, to you. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and goes stiff as a board. I told your disciples, hoping they could deliver him, but they couldn’t.”
^19-20 Jesus said, “What a generation! No sense of God! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here.” They brought him. When the demon saw Jesus, it threw the boy into a seizure, causing him to writhe on the ground and foam at the mouth.
^21-22 He asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been going on?”
“Ever since he was a little boy. Many times it pitches him into fire or the river to do away with him. If you can do anything, do it. Have a heart and help us!”
²³ Jesus said, “If? There are no ‘ifs’ among believers. Anything can happen.”
²⁴ No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the father cried, “Then I believe. Help me with my doubts!”

 
For Reflection
Reviewing recent National and world events, I wonder too, "What a generation! No sense of God!"  So many wars, so much fear, so much vendetta.  Christ came into the world to end fear, to end vendetta.  Christ came into the world to free us to follow an alternative path.  Christ's path leads to peace.

 

Pray

for those who follow the false Gods which foster hate and fear.  Pray for those who follow the false God of self-righteousness.  Pray that all will see the wisdom of forgiveness and peace.

Where Is Your Faith?

Acts of Worship
Awe of God

Glory To God in the Highest

Luke 8:19-25  The Message

^19-20 His mother and brothers showed up but couldn’t get through to him because of the crowd. He was given the message, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside wanting to see you.”
²¹ He replied, “My mother and brothers are the ones who hear and do God’s Word. Obedience is thicker than blood.”
^22-24 One day he and his disciples got in a boat. “Let’s cross the lake,” he said. And off they went. It was smooth sailing, and he fell asleep. A terrific storm came up suddenly on the lake. Water poured in, and they were about to capsize. They woke Jesus: “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”
Getting to his feet, he told the wind, “Silence!” and the waves, “Quiet down!” They did it. The lake became smooth as glass.
²⁵ Then he said to his disciples, “Why can’t you trust me?”
They were in absolute awe, staggered and stammering, “Who is this, anyway? He calls out to the winds and sea, and they do what he tells them!”

 
For Reflection
Even more important than blood, Christ's obedience to his Father's mission is of paramount importance.  Christ's family already understood and were committed to God, but, the crowd who gathered needed to hear the good news.  The disciples once again misunderstood the priorities of faith.  It was not the conventional wisdom of family above all it was God above all.

Perhaps as much as Christ's family wanted to hear Jesus speak they knew that the crowd was more important and they stayed at the perimeter.  Like us, the disciples had a hard time with trust.  They were growing into their faith.

Pray
that we, like the disciples, will grow into grace.  Pray that you will listen to God in every day events, in scripture and in prayer so that you might continue to grow in faith and trust in God.