Tag: paul

  • Pray also for me

    Pray also for me

    I have a prayer list. If you are reading this, you probably do too.

    Some of the names on mine: Lissette, Rachel, David, Ashley, Dad, Ed, Ken, Jenny, Tom, Robin, Marianna.

    Please pray for these loved ones of my family.

    I guess that all Christians pray for our families at times (as we ought). It’s in our own best interests, in addition to theirs. IF God blesses a family member and does not curse them, our prayer is answered (maybe not in our way, but in His).

    But the truth is that most people, probably even most christians, do NOT take any time to pray for others (except out of circumstances of desperation).

    Why not?

    Why don’t we at least take time to pray for our family (let alone our boss or workers or neighbors or friends or our President and Congress or the hungry or homeless or one in prison or any others…)?

    I suspect that most of us are too caught-up in our ‘selves.’

    So it is with some hesitation that I even ask you to pray also for me.

    Let’s talk about prayer briefly from the Bible. (For an in-depth study of prayer would take more time than we are willing.)

    In fact: PLEASE take just a moment right NOW to STOP reading, close out the world, close your eyes, bow your head & PRAY.

    amen. 

     

    What does it mean to pray?

    To begin, perhaps you would like to look at a few examples: first, from the Hebrew word for pray:

    God speaking to Abimelech in a dream here: Genesis 20:7 Now then, return the man’s wife,for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live.

    Here is a reason to NOT complain about God: Numbers 11: And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. 2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. 

    The story of 1 Samuel 1 shows the prayer of Hannah, the answer of the Lord and the sacrifice of thanksgiving from Hannah.

    Many of the Psalms of David speak not only directly to our hearts, but also provide examples of prayer to God:

    Psalm 5

    Give ear to my words, O Lord;
    consider my groaning.
    2 Give attention to the sound of my cry,
    my King and my God,
    for to you do I pray.
    3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
    in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.

    Do we do that?

    Do we pray to the Lord in the morning? (Did you this morning?)

    Do we even offer a small sacrifice of our mortal time?

    We also know that the Priests and Prophets prayed to God on behalf of their people. In fact, we probably recall at least one Prophet also praying to God for himself.

    Jonah 2: Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,

    “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
    and he answered me;
    out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
    and you heard my voice.

    In ALL prayer we should see something in common:

    Prayer implies conversation with God

    A faithful man or woman may assume an answer from God our Father.

    In the New Testament, Jesus and later the Apostles teach us to pray.

    A brief look at the Greek word for pray:

    Jesus sums it up perfectly in Matthew 6 (some of which we memorize & other of His instructions about prayer we sometime forget).

    5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray… that they may be seen by others…

    6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

    7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases… for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

    8 … for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:

    “Our Father in heaven…

    (Though your memorized words are good, Jesus was showing us HOW to ask. Pay attention to the structure of His Prayer and you will learn truly how to pray.)

    Peter and the Apostles prayed before decisions [Acts 1:24], prayed before healings [Acts 6:6], prayed and fasted, prayed and sang hymns.

    One of our best instructions about prayer from Paul, Silas, and Timothy:

    1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

    Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances;

    for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

    Most encouraging to the churches of the first century – to all of the believers – the Letters from the Apostles and leaders of the Church are filled with references of personal prayers for individuals and prayers of thanksgiving for the church corporately as a body of believers for whom they prayed.

    Colossians 1: (from Paul and Timothy)

    3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard ofyour faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints…

    9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding…

    (I pray that ALL of our church leaders pray for us like that and also encourage us by such public praise in prayer as did Paul and Timothy.)

    Do our church leaders call us to pray for each other and pray also for them?

    Colossians 4:3 Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains.

    1 Thessalonians 5:25 Dear brothers and sisters, pray for us.

    2 Thessalonians 3:1 Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us.Pray that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you.

    Hebrews 13:18 Pray for us, for our conscience is clear and we want to live honorably in everything we do.

    Since I do not address you as a church, but individually as my brother or sister in our Lord Christ Jesus, I do ask that you will pray also for me.

    I would ask that you pray for our Christian Social Witness and for the sharing of the Gospel through this place for your encouragement.

    I will pray for you, as will others with whom you Share your COMMENTS.

    Please ASK for prayer in our comments. May we add you to our prayers?

    May our Lord, Christ Jesus bless you and keep you for His own until we pray with each other once again. amen.

  • This is my son

    This is my son

     “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

    I am well pleased in some things: like how hard he has worked and what he has achieved as part of his football team. In other things: I am not so well pleased.

    We know that this quote is not mine alone and that the original speaks of another Son.

    Yet I would like you to think of God our Father in a more Personal way.  I would like you to have a more personal picture of God’s only son Jesus.

    Imagine that Jesus grew up doing other things (like football) that boys and young men do as part of their preparation for what God, our Father has planned for their life.

    Can you picture our Heavenly Father saying, “I am well pleased,” when He watches every play of that football game? 

    Of course, God our Father witnessed this of his only Son: Jesus.

    You probably haven’t thought much about Luke 2 past the familiar Christmas pageant scriptures.

    Jesus of Nazareth, as he was known, was born of a virgin… And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. – Luke 2:40

    You know the story that follows: Jesus was twelve and remained in Jerusalem after His parent’s left for Nazareth without Him. We don’t know every detail of Jesus’ youth.

    God did not reveal much about this young man; but the Father watched over every game and all the challenges of His growing up in obedience to His Father and His step-father, Joseph.  Turn the page in Luke’s Gospel and Jesus’ story now continues in about his thirtieth year.  

    This is one source of our familiar quote when Jesus was baptized AND born again in the Holy Spirit (as we say; but that is a different conversation).

    Luke 3:22 And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”

    Returning to our personal picture:

    Just like I am far from the example of a Perfect Father, our son is not the Perfect Son, either.  I am not so pleased in other things with my son; but I love him and pray for him that he will look to the Perfect example of Jesus, with whom our heavenly Father is well-pleased with all things.

    We’re thankful that David is not a prodigal son.’ (We know Jesus’ story is a parable about our Heavenly Father.) Our son is not a rebellious prodigal anymore than King David was a prodigal when he sinned against God with Bathsheba.

    Our David is not the resentful son who would not rejoice with the father when the prodigal son was welcomed back to the family.  I don’t think my son resents anyone, but loves his family and friends.

    While I’m at it, David is my step-son. I am no more his father than Joseph, husband of Mary and father to Jesus’ brothers, was father of Jesus, born to Mary when she was a virgin.

    Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son (you may remember) was about adoption.

    The resentful son is Israel, chosen sons of God. The prodigal son is the gentiles, nations rebellious to God before Abraham; and their descendants include most of us.

    When Jesus was born of Mary, God our Father was not pleased with the Jews.

    God was not pleased with the Gentiles (or Nations).

    Yet God through his mercy and grace, gave Jew and Gentile alike the welcome of a loving Father to the rebellious sons of the Nations AND of his Chosen family.

    “The means of grace is Christ Jesus, in whom God our Father is well-pleased.

    So why my picture of David?

    Two reasons:

    1. The Jews had become comfortable in the nostalgia of their past and worshiped King David more as the Son and the Temple as their heritage.  Jesus IS the Son AND our heritage. The Father has adopted followers of Jesus.
    2. We often fail to think of God in the way that Jesus taught – as a Personal Father to a Personal Son.  Picture our David and think of me sending my only son to the cross. This is how personal God’s love is for us.

    David is my beloved son.  His soul is a personal concern of mine.

    The Apostle Paul had adopted or mentored a son of the faith, Timothy, who followed his earthly example of righteous leadership of the church, people he loved personally like a father.  Paul writes: 

     Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. 

    16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.

    Imagine: Christ Jesus came into the world to save you and me. How Personal.

    Imagine: The Father condemning His only Son to the suffering and Sacrifice of the Cross for you and me. How personal.

    And imagine the confidence we have knowing that the Father will send the Third Person to His obedient children in the HOLY Spirit who follow His Son our Savior.

    (Imagine Paul writing to Timothy about his Personal God… imagine me, a step-father to David writing about our Personal God… Imagine God your Father sending the Holy Spirit to you.

    +

    Our Father will always be Personally with you IF you will call on His Son Personally.  Christ Jesus.

    God will do much more than just watch over you, as He watches your every game (mine too).

    Remember, our Heavenly Father, His Heavenly Son and His Holy Spirit all want to hold us very near.

    “God’s love for us is Very Personal.

    1 Tim. 1:17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

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