Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: thessalonians

  • 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.

  • What’s the DIFFERENCE between Christians & non-Christians?

    What’s the DIFFERENCE between Christians & non-Christians?

    So as not to reinvent the wheel or simply understate what others have taught previously, I share with you the Christian witness of a wonderful background history of context, culture, and some geography of Paul’s Letters to the Thessalonians as HOMEWORK for a Bible Study I will be teaching, God willing, next Sunday, 9:15 a.m. at Bender’s Mennonite Church.  Please pray also for me.

    The following is for benefit of ALL believers. Please SHARE YOUR COMMENTS.

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    What’s the DIFFERENCE between Christians & non-Christians?

    This is essentially the question by residents of every city and every town to first century Christians as they preached the Gospel.

    “What makes YOU different from US?

    How do you answer this question in your town for your 21st century non-Christian neighbors and unsaved relatives?

    Do you get it right?  Do you TELL them how DIFFERENT you are from them?  Do you suppose that this DIFFERENCE sounds like “Good News” to unbelievers?

    Many Letters of the New Testament make much mention of ‘Jews and Gentiles,’ from the language and cultures of the first century.  What we fail to realize of this distinction is an important one of Holiness that requires separation to God from the evil and sin of the world.

    • The Jew was separated to the Holiness of God.
    • The Gentile was not yet adopted for separation to the Holiness of God. Gentile is a term meaning Nations or Ethic Peoples other than Jews.
    • The Gospel, consistent throughout ALL Letters to the first century church, is Good News:

    “The Perfect Sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the Cross is for ALL Peoples – Jew and Gentile.

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    So in a nutshell, what was the first century Christian answer?  Essentially:

    There is NO difference between me (a follower of Christ Jesus) and you (an unbeliever).

    You may read of it in great detail in Paul’s Letter to the Romans; or you may read succinct summary in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians; OR you may study your Old Testament and the History of the first century Church as detailed by Luke in The Acts of the Apostles.

    With some homework and study of the background leading up to the Letters to the Churches, God will reveal much more than the former and current relevance of all Scripture, including the Good News of these New Testament Letters.

    The familiar New Testament story of witness is that a Jew from Judea, with Jerusalem as home of their God, travels to a town.

    Take for example, Thessaloniki, Macedonia on the Aegean Sea, with local gentiles (Greeks) of their own traditions and culture.  Thessalonians (as they are called) are ruled by the same empire (country) Rome, on the Tyrrhenian Sea, on the Italia peninsula across the Adriatic Sea from Macedonia, with power over all the lands of the Mediterranean.

    (The embedded PowerPoint Slideshow by Cooper Church of Christ in Cooper, Texas, US is our homework.)

    Thessalonica of Macedonia

    For 21st century readers of Thessalonians: Consider the hostile environment of the Roman Empire as compared to our current environment in all the world, hostile to Jesus Christ.

    • Jews who had dispersed into the Nations (Gentiles) tended to act as if they were morally better than their native hosts.
    • ALL Gentiles had in common a civil authority and local culture inclined toward godlessness, unless some rule of god could help maintain the political power of local, state, national, and international rule.

    (Of course, 21st century governments are so much different in their attitudes toward religion and God.  Right?)

    These first century Christians acted different from other “religious” people.

    HOW ARE CHRISTIANS DIFFERENT?

    WHY would a non-believer WANT to accept our GOOD NEWS?

    Learn a lesson from the first century evangelists.

    We are ALL the same WITHOUT Christ.  Yet ALL believers of every NATION are equal in CHRIST OUR LORD.

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