A gift you can give

Everytime I see John (not his real name) he asks me to pray for him. Invariably, when we bow our heads and I pray, he cries, touched by the love of God. It’s been my privilege to pray for and with too many people to count over the years; at the front of the church during prayertime, as they lay in a hospital bed, in their living room, when we meet in the supermarket, over a meal in a restaurant, when we connect by phone. Monday I prayed for the Senators of the state of New Jersey when I was invited to bring the invocation in their session. 

Sometimes my prayer is just “Jesus, help my friend!”  Sometimes it is long, usually brief, in simple language, not eloquent. Regardless of the words or place, prayer is a holy moment, earth touching heaven!

I, too, have been given the gift of prayer, lifted before the Father by others in times of need in my own life.  I remember, with deep emotion, those moments when friends have come alongside of me to pray for me - for encouragement, for healing, for spiritual renewal. Their love is most evident when they speak to God on my behalf.

We all need the prayers of others. St. Paul, himself, wrote to his friends in Thessalonica and concluded his letter with this request - “Finally, dear brothers and sisters, I ask you to pray for us… that we will be saved from wicked and evil people.”   (2 Th 3:1) 

One of the primary ways that Christians can serve the purposes of God in this world is to pray - for others and for the world’s needs. God told the people of Israel “if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine,  you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”  (Exodus 19:5) 

Centuries later, Peter wrote to Christians to tell them that they were called to be "a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God’s holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light." (1 Peter 2:9, NLT)  John, in the Revelation, says “He (Jesus Christ) has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father.” (Revelation 1:6)

The work of a priest is to represent God to the world and to carry the world into the Presence of God!  That work in not reserved for some special class of person or for those who stand in front of a Christian congregation to administer the sacraments. In Christ we (*you and me!) are called to the priesthood of Believers, to share the goodness of God with others, to carry them before God in prayer. This is not a duty, it is a high and holy calling, a privilege given to everyone.

Our prayers need not be long or filled with religious cliches to be heard in Heaven. We pray from our heart, with faith that God hears. We are not concerned with ‘answers’ or ‘results.’ We are just faithful in the work.

Let me ask you - do you pray for others?
If presented with the opportunity will you pray for a friend in need, stepping into God’s Presence together?

This is a gift everyone can give.

Pray - for your spouse, for your children, for your church, for your pastor, for the nation, for the world, for the advance of the Gospel message, for peace, for the Light of Christ to break through the darkness - and in a thousand other ways! Be ready, in an instant, to bow your head to do priestly work for the world around you. In this you will find great joy and make a difference, though often unseen, when your prayers are heard at the Throne of God.

Let me pray a wonderful prayer for you today. Though they are the words of a prayer Paul first prayed, they are my heart for you. Receive the gift!

"I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources God will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God." (Ephesians 3:16-19, NLT)  Will join me in agreement?  Let’s say it together - Amen!

(Video of this blog at this link)

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Lord I Need You

Lord I come I confess

Bowing here I find my rest

And without You I fall apart

You're the one that guides my heart

 

Lord I need You oh I need You

Ev'ry hour I need You

My one defense my righteousness

Oh God how I need You

 

Where sin runs deep Your grace is more

Where grace is found is where You are

And where You are Lord I am free

Holiness is Christ in me

Where You are Lord I am free

Holiness is Christ in me

 

So teach my song to rise to You

When temptation comes my way

And when I cannot stand I'll fall on You

Jesus You're my hope and stay

And when I cannot stand I'll fall on You

Jesus You're my hope and stay

 

Lord I need You oh I need You

Ev'ry hour I need You

My one defense my righteousness

Oh God how I need You

My one defense my righteousness

Oh God how I need You

 

Christy Nockels | Daniel Carson | Jesse Reeves | Kristian Stanfill | Matt Maher

© 2011 sixsteps Music; Sweater Weather Music; Thankyou Music; Valley Of Songs Music; worshiptogether.com songs

CCLI License # 810055

 

Peace? Really?

Christians talk about peace; peace with God, the peace of God. Sometimes I wonder if it is just that - talk? Ours is not a planet of serenity. Congress debates $billions in weapons designed for death and destruction. The President of Ukraine pleads for increasingly lethal bombs to meet the Russian army. Israel and Gaza are caught up in a dance to the death with unimagineable suffering that is ongoing. Some streets in major cities of America have become dangerous because roving gangs believe that the way to settle a dispute is with a bullet in someone's head. 

Our political parties fill the news with endless jousting for power, arguing from the extremes of policty so often, the middle ground a no-man’s land. Then, too, the Church which ought to be an oasis of peace can be, and too often is, full of factions struggling for control. Closer to home, we see the family unit under seige. Stress, pressure, and missed expectations make too many homes anything but peaceful. Capping this sad list, we know that anxiety is America’s most common mental health problem as people try to cope with life.

Is this peace for which we yearn possible?
It is, but not in the way we commonly think. Peace will not be found in gaining power, getting our way, or controlling more resources.

True peace is a gift of God, found in Christ Jesus, received by faith. 

Here is His invitation. "Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, NLT)  Sounds good, right? Note that He does not invite us to retreat from life, to escape from responsibilities. “Take my yoke… it fits perfectly.” 

Christ Jesus invites us to become His followers, to learn the way He desires us to live, so that we can carry life’s responsibilities without the weight chafing us, in a way that has meaning, purpose, and with reward. He will not meet us with power, bossing us around, abusing us. He will work with us because the Lord of Glory is ‘humble and gentle.’   Peace is not discovered in some paradise; it grows from inside out, the result of learning God’s ways.

Jesus says, for example, that we set aside offense, offering forgiveness to others. Not once or twice, but always!  We give our ‘enemies’ to Him, trusting Him to bring about justice in His time. IF we will do this, we can find peace.

In another example, He tells us to abandon the quest for building great treasure, choosing instead to ‘lay up treasures in Heaven.’  When He is our Master, we learn about the meaning of real wealth and are released from the endless striving for stuff! In this, there is peace.

Peace must be pursued. It will not simply break over us like sun through the clouds. We find peace in the practices of the Spirit, in putting ‘first things, first.’  Let me say it again. Peace begins within us, a work of the Spirit of God, accomplished in us as we choose to open our minds and hearts to Christ Jesus each day in faith.

I love the story that Mark tells about an ordinary day when Jesus’ friends learned about how He creates peace. They were sailing across the little Sea of Galilee when their small boat was caught in a storm. Jesus had fallen asleep in the back of the boat. What a testimony to the power of inner peace that picture is! His friends grew frantic as the storm increased in intensity. Finally, they scream at the sleeping Jesus, "Don't you care that we're about to die?" "Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm." (Mark 4:39, NKJV) 

How many times have we watched the storms blowing up around us and felt the panic rising?  We feel the sting of another’s rejection. We live with criticism. Money runs short again. Health issues arise. That promising business deal flops. Some personal sin returns.  What then?

Will we screamed at God with bitterness or accusation?  "Don't you care that I'm about to be swept under? Where are You?"

Or will we turn to Him in confident faith, laying our need before Him, renewed in supernatural peace?

From a lifetime of walking with Jesus, I can assure you that He is near. Time after time I have known His presence with me and felt the ‘peace that passes human understanding’ flow over me.

If you're afraid today, or in turmoil, or at war - come to Jesus, the Peace-maker. Invite Him to speak to your storms.

Here's a word from the Word to meditate on for a few moments today.  Don’t miss the profound promise because the words are so familiar. "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7, NKJV)

(Video of this blog at this link)

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Good God Almighty
(Yes, He is a good God, the Almighty.
Find joy in this happy song today)

I can't count the times

I've called Your name some broken night

And You showed up and patched me up

Like You do every time

I get amnesia I forget that You keep coming around

Yeah ain't no way You'll ever let me down

 

Good God Almighty

I hope You'll find me

Praising Your Name no matter what comes

'Cause I know where I'd be

Without Your mercy

So I keep praising Your name at the top of my lungs

 

Tell me is He good (He's good)

Tell me is He God (He's God)

He is Good God Almighty

 

You say Your love goes on forever

That Your mercy never stops

So why would I assume

You'd be somebody that You're not

Like sun in the morning

I know You're gonna be there every day

So what on earth could make me be afraid

 

Praise Him in the morning

Praise Him in the noon time

Praise Him when the sun goes down

Love Him in the morning

Love Him in the noon time

Love Him when the sun goes down

 

Jesus in the morning

Jesus in the noon time

Jesus when the sun goes down

Jesus in the morning

Jesus in the noon time

Jesus when the sun goes down

 

Ben Glover | David Crowder | Jeff Sojka

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Be my “Prince of Peace”

My head hit the pillow last night after a Sunday filled with good. I was privileged to worship in a beautiful building dedicated to God. I connected with friends, sharing laughter and encouragement. I taught my little class of middle school students about the coming King of Glory. Yet, when the lights went off and I gave voice to prayer, the suffering of millions around this world who are caught in the crossfire of war, who exist on the edge of starvation, who are tormented by those more powerful weighed on me. 

For more than a hundred years governments spent $billions to attempt to create peace and yet the 20^th century was the bloodiest in human history.  With all of our education and advances this world still teeters on the brink of war. Yes, it made me anxious!  Perhaps for you the anxiety is much closer to home - a chronic illness, a broken heart, money troubles, or just the ordinary irritants of everyday life.

Here is the passage on which I meditated last night as I prayed for peace - personally and in this world. "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." (1 Peter 5:6-7, NIV)   There are two directives for us there.

First is “humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand.”  
Peter knew the subtle seduction of pride that invites us to attempt self-sufficiency. When Jesus warned him that he was about to go through a time of intense temptation, that he was a target of Satan, he bragged before the other disciples: “Lord, I am ready to go to prison with you, and even to die with you.” (Luke 22:33, NLT)  Hours later, when questioned by a servant girl about his relationship to Jesus, he swore “I never knew him!”  He became the victim of his own bravado!

Like toddlers experiencing independence, we may declare -“I can do it myself.”  And just like those same toddlers who find themselves frustrated by their inability to actually do what they thought they could do, we find ourselves at the end of our patience, without peace, sometimes in a worse mess for all our flailing about to make it better. Or, am I just talking about myself?  A step on the pathway to peace is choosing to be humble, acknowledging our weakness, our fear, our inability to control our own lives, much less the world in which we live. In that choice, we then turn to the One who speaks to the storm, who quiets the waves, who holds us securely in His grasp. We say, from the heart, “Lead on, O King Eternal!” 

Second we are urged to  “Cast all your anxiety on Him.” 
In another season of life, I wrestled with anxious thoughts often in the dark hours of early morning.  You may smile at my choice, but it was effective for me. I would think of those things that were keeping me awake, that were robbing me of peace, and imagine that I held them in my hand, then I literally would turn my hand upward, open my hand and think of handing those things to Jesus. It was a kind of visualized prayer. 

Peter’s words tell us to throw our cares onto His shoulders, that He is willing to carry our load!  

The Gospel song says -
“Are you weary, are you heavy-hearted? Tell it to Jesus!
Do you fear the gath'ring clouds of sorrow? Tell it to Jesus!
Are you anxious what shall be tomorrow? Tell it to Jesus alone!
You've no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone.”

This second week of Advent we are invited to peace. Let’s make it more than a nice thought. Let’s live in peace.

The word from the Word speaks of the One who came to us in Bethlehem. Pray with me “be my Prince of Peace.”   "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this." (Isaiah 9:6-7, NIV)

(Video of this blog at this link)

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Tell It to Jesus

(Willie Nelson sings the song)

Are you weary are you heavyhearted

Tell it to Jesus

Are you grieving over joys departed

Tell it to Jesus alone

Tell it to Jesus

He's a friend that's well known

Tell it to Jesus alone

You've no other such a friend or brother

Tell it to Jesus alone

Do the tears flow down your cheeks unbidden

Tell it to Jesus

Have you sins that to men's eyes are hidden

Tell it to Jesus alone

 

Do you fear the gath'ring clouds of sorrow

Tell it to Jesus

Are you anxious what shall be tomorrow

Are you troubled at the thought of dying

Tell it to Jesus

For Christ's coming kingdom are you sighing

Tell it to Jesus alone

 

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