The Lord's Prayer "on earth as it is in heaven"

When we pray that God's kingdom and His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven there are a few things to think about. The first thing is how does His kingdom work in heaven? His rule is fully over the realm of heaven. His rule is realized by all who reside in heaven. We pray that this world would feel the greatness and majesty of His rule. We ask that He would institute His rule over all of us.
The second thing to contemplate is how does His will work in heaven. I would surmise that when His will is made known in heaven that there isn't any argument, any second guessing, any unwillingness to complete His will. In heaven, God's will is done without delay. So when we pray that His will would be done on earth, we are asking that His will would be accomplished without hesitation. That we would do His will immediately as it is made known to us.
Take some time to contemplate what God Kingdom and His will would look like if they ruled your life. What would you do different knowing that God wants you to do His will without argument or indecision?

The Lord's Prayer "your will be done"

I have been praying this prayer a lot recently. I have asked for God's will to be done. Sometimes it is easier said than done. It can be hard to determine God's will for my life and how I should go about fulfilling it. I believe that this prayer is part of figuring out what God wills. When we ask for His will to be done and during the day we have something happen that was unexpected, a phone call, an interruption that really messes up our day, how do we respond? We asked for God's will to be done and now something seems to be getting in the way of our plans. Maybe, just maybe it is God interrupting our plans so that His will could be done. We need to be aware that when we pray this prayer that God will bring about His will. We should look for it to happen instead of looking at our plans and wondering why they didn't happen. Expect God's will to become known to you throughout the day and get on board with His will. Pray that you will see interruptions and disruptions as divine appointments in your day that God planned for you to see His will completed. Be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit throughout the day.

The Lord's Prayer "your kingdom come"

What is God's kingdom and how should we understand it? When we think of a kingdom we tend to think about a geographical domain that in under control of a leader or country. Or a realm of control. The United States of America has clearly defined borders where you can look on a map and say there it is or isn't. This isn't how the kingdom is used in the New Testament. When Jesus and the apostles use the word kingdom they mean something else. The kingdom is the right to rule and not real estate. When Jesus prayed for God's Kingdom to come he was asking that God would exercise His authority, His right to rule based on His might, power and glory. When we pray this prayer we are asking God to bring abut His right to rule on this earth. We want God to display His kingly rule and power over all of creation. We are asking Him to destroy the kingdom of darkness. We seek that He would be ruler over all. One day He will rule over all the realms of this earth. We pray that His rule would expand until the day comes when He takes the entire realm. Is His rule expanding over your life? Pray that He would rule in all your affairs this week.

The Lord's Prayer "hallowed be thy name"

Jesus continued the Lord's prayer with "hallowed be thy name." This is not meant to be a statement of praise. It is a request in the original language saying: "Father... sanctify your name!" You could paraphrase it like this. Father, lift up, exalt, single out, manifest and reveal Your name to all who inhabit the earth. Become famous for who you really are. Make the people of the earth come to know and adore you.
Jesus was in effect asking, and telling us to ask, His Father to glorify His own name. We need to recapture this meaning of hallowed be thy name. We are asking God to make His name known and praised in all the earth. It is a reminder that God is the one who does the work in and through us as we follow Him to make His name known in all the earth. So go ahead and praise God, but also ask Him to make His name known so that the whole world would praise Him also.

The Lord's Prayer "Our Father"

When Jesus was asked to teach his disciples he started out by saying "Our father." This is significant because God was not seen as a father figure. God was an almighty, most powerful God who created everything and had a list of rules and regulations to follow. Jesus introduces us to God, the Father. He includes his disciples in this when he uses the word our. God is our Father. He isn't a remote God who you cannot approach except in dire circumstances or with specific rituals. He is a father who cares deeply for his children. A father who sees exactly what they need and gives it to them. A father who is perfect. More perfect than even the best of fathers. Many of us can't even grasp what kind of father God is because our own earthly fathers have not been good examples of God's love. Take some time in the next few days to ask God to show you how he cares for you as a child. Look at your own earthly father and be honest with yourself in where he failed you and don't expect God to fail you in the same way. God is the Father that all of us fathers should strive to be like but fail so short of time and time again. Ask God to open your eyes to His love for you. He is Our Father.

Vacation

I feel like it's been forever since I last posted and it has been. I have been on vacation. I realized when I thought about it that I haven't taken a vacation in just about 2 years. Not since the summer of 2008. That is a long time to not take a break from the normal every day stuff and spend time exploring new places and spending time that if focused on my family to the exclusion of most other things. We had a great time, met people all over the country, took part in a wonderful wedding and bonded with many great memories that we can pull out in years to come. We all need a break sometime from our crazy pace of life. We need to be reminded of the beauty of this place that God created for us. We need to know that the world is much bigger than the little part of it we see on a daily basis. We need to experience that our God is so much bigger than our problems. This vacation helped me gain some perspective on all of God's creation.

Romans 14:13

Paul says in Romans 14:13 "but rather determine this - not to put an obstacle of stumbling block in a brother's way." I keep coming back to the this verse and asking God if I am doing this in anyway. Am I by my actions or words putting something in front of other followers of Jesus Christ that would cause them to fall into sin? This is something we all need to be aware of in our daily life. Some people believe that certain kinds of music should not be allowed in church. I believe that God is ok with those same forms of music. If I were to go to their church and make them listen to it I would be putting up a stumbling block before them. Something to trip them up in their walk with God. I pray that God would reveal to me and to you if we are doing this and that we would be willing to stop so that our brother or sister in Christ is not led into sin.

Romans 12:1-2 continued

In verse 2 of chapter 12 of Romans we receive some commands from Paul. First he says that we are not to be conformed to this world. Conformed means to take on the same pattern. If you were to patch a piece of clothing you would want the pattern to match up so that the patch disappears. To use a patch that does not match the pattern would be for it stand out glaringly. We are not to blend in with the world. We should not be able to just fit into the patterns of this world. I am afraid that we do this to easily. But Paul doesn’t stop with just telling us what not to do. He tells us how to not be conformed.

Paul says for us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We once were the same pattern as the world and maybe we haven’t changed much. We think the way everyone else does and we act out of that.  But we can be transformed into something else. The word here has a root that means to metamorphose which is involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure which is usually accompanied by a change of habit or behavior.  As our mind is renewed through spending time in prayer and searching out the word of God we are transformed. And it should result in a change of behavior. Our pattern, what we look like and where we fit in should change. If it hasn’t then you need to take some time to examine where you stand with God.

The reason you need to be transformed is so that you may prove what the will of God is. As your mind is renewed you are better able to determine God’s will in all areas of your life. The word prove means to test or examine. As decisions and choices come before you and you decide what to do and where to go you are able to determine what God wants to do in this situation and how God wants you to respond. And His will is good, it is acceptable or well-pleasing and it is perfect.  We stand on this, that God’s will for our lives is good. 

Do not be conformed to this world, but let your mind be transformed so that you can do the will of God.

 

 

 

Romans 12:1-2

I was reading Romans 12:1-2 one morning this week and I took some time to think about what it was really saying. I have probably read this passage at least 30 times before this time. Yet I never stopped to ponder what it meant. Sometimes I get so caught up in making sure I read a passage that I never stop to find out what it means for me.

A couple of things jumped out at me. It says for us to present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice that is acceptable to God. It sounds like a good idea but what does it mean? Obviously we can’t present our bodies as a traditional sacrifice since we still need to live afterwards. Once a sacrifice is offered to God it is no longer in your control or under your authority. When we present our bodies as living sacrifices we are giving authority over our flesh to God on whose altar we have placed ourselves. A sacrifice once offered cannot be used again for other purposes. Only for the purposes of God. Our bodies, our flesh are offered up to God and should not be joined into sin anymore. We are saying in effect we are dead to sin and all else except God’s will for our lives. This is how we worship God. We submit not just our spirits or mind to Him but also our very flesh to His will.

Next time I will go into what verse 2 spoke to me.

 

 

Sometimes the Bible is confusing

Take Proverbs 26:4-5 ⁴ Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself. ⁵ Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes. (NIV) At first read these two verses seem to contradict each other. In verse 4 is says to not answer a fool according to his folly and in verse 5 it says to answer a fool according to his folly. What do you do when you come across something like this? Well, there are several things that you can do. The first thing I would recommend is to pray about it. God has given us the gift of His Holy Spirit living in our hearts. God can and will illuminate the meaning of a passage as we ask Him to do so.

The second thing I would suggest is to read the passage through in a few other versions. www.biblegateway.com allows you to look at many of the versions out there for free. It we applied this to the above passage we see this from the NASB translation.  “⁴Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will also be like him. ⁵ Answer a fool as his folly deserves, that he not be wise in his own eyes.” In this translation verse 5 becomes much clearer. It doesn’t contradict the earlier verse. In fact it tells us to answer a fool as his folly deserves. Don’t answer according to his folly but give him what he deserves which may not be the answer he was looking for at all, but with the goal of making sure he realizes his own foolishness.

Another thing you can do when you have trouble understanding a verse or passage is to do some research. There are many sites on the internet that allow you to look at commentaries that examine the meaning of the passage. Places like net.bible.org or www.biblegateway.com . You can also do an internet search on the passage. I would put a caution here when searching. Not all of the pages you come across will be helpful or correct. You should always go back to a trusted source. One program I use often is called Bible Explorer 4. It allows you to download many commentaries and other study helps to your computer.

The last suggestion I have is to ask others. There are many people in our church who have vast amounts of knowledge of the Bible from years of study. Use them as a resource. Ask your house church leader or pastor. Seek out the answer. Don’t let the hard questions or things you don’t understand stop you from learning more about God. Seek out answers to your questions so that you can better understand God’s grace to you.

Sin's reign is over

Romans 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

We face many choices each day whether to let sin reign in us and be our master or to present ourselves to God. Each word spoken, each action taken falls into one of these two categories. Either we serve God or we serve sin. There is no in between. There is no grey area. We are to consider ourselves dead to sin. If we are dead to sin then it cannot reign over us and we are no longer subject to it. We don't have to sin anymore. Let me repeat that, you don't have to sin anymore. When we do sin we are choosing to do it whether we admit it or not. If we live like we are truly dead to sin we can then use our members, our bodies, as instruments of righteousness to God. Count yourself dead to sin today and live the life that God has called you to live.

Dead to sin but alive to God

What does is mean for you in Romans 6:11 when Paul says “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. “ When we are baptized we are symbolically dying to sin and raising to new life as Christ did before us. Now, Jesus is living a life unto God. The old way is dead and gone and the new way of living is in its place. Count yourself dead to sin. Sin has a hold on you as long as you are alive. But when you become a follower of Jesus Christ something happens. You are now identified with the death of Christ and also with the new life that Christ brings. You are now dead to sin. Sin does not have a hold of your life. You are dead to it. When it comes to knock at your door you can say, “Who? That person died.” It is like a bill collector who keeps calling and you know they have the wrong house but sometimes you answer and get all caught up. You are dead to sin. I am dead to sin. But do I live like it? And further more do I live my life to God in Christ Jesus? Are all my post death actions ones that are for God and not myself or sin? Sadly, I fall short in this area also. This is part of getting our thinking right about God. We are dead to sin and alive to God. Before we were dead to God and alive to sin. The tables have been reversed. Things don’t have to be the way there always were and in fact aren’t the way they always were. We need to adjust our thinking to the new reality we have in Christ that we are DEAD to sin and ALIVE to God in Christ Jesus. Live like you know this truth today!

Blessed to bless others

I am taking a class for my ordination that covers world missions. In the first class it covered how God had blessed Abraham so that Abraham's descendants would be able to bless all the peoples of the earth. God didn't bless Abraham so that he could have a whole lot of stuff. He bless Abraham so that Abraham could be a blessing to others.

We live in a nation that has been blessed beyond possibly all other nations ever. With that blessing comes the responsibility to bless others who have not been so fortunate. God requires that we don't just use the blessings He has given us for our own enjoyment but to be able to bless others which is something we can enjoy also. God has blessed me in so many ways and I need to be looking for ways to bless others. How has God blessed you and how does He want you to bless others?

Works of the Law

I am currently reading in Romans and I was reminded again about how what we do does not justify us. Our good deeds and works do not make us right in God's eyes. It is by the blood of Jesus Christ that we have forgiveness of sins. We cannot earn it by anything we do with our lives. I think there is a danger that followers of Jesus Christ begin to forget this and we start to depend on what we have done after we have become followers of Jesus Christ to make us right with God. That we need to make sure we spend 30 minutes a day with God or He won't be pleased with us. Maybe we think that we have to be involved with every program to earn our salvation. The worst part is we deceive ourselves. We do this by never examining our motivation for doing the works of God. If we do them out of love for God we are on the right path. If we do them because we think we have to then we are trying to earn something that cannot be earned. Grace is a gift from our loving heavenly Father. So why do you do the things you do? Have you taken time recently to examine your own motivations? Take some time today to think about what you do and how it may point to where your heart is.

Life happens (follow up to paths)

After I wrote the last blog about paths and how God is constantly working on us I ran into a situation that I was able to later identify as God digging some roots out of my life. I got angry over a set of circumstances that I didn’t like. I felt like everything was working against me. As I processed through why I was angry and began to pray a little bit I realized it was all about my own selfishness. I was being selfish. I was thinking only about how I felt and about how things affected me and my plans. I was not looking at it from a viewpoint of how can I most serve God in this situation but how could I get what I wanted. Thankfully I did not get what I wanted and God was able to show me at least this tendril of root. The only problem is that the roots of selfishness are similar to the roots of bamboo. They snake all over the place and continue to grow even when you think you have gotten them all out. I pray that God would open my eyes sooner to my own selfishness in the future so that I can see Him and glorify Him through how I respond. What is God using in your life to open your eyes to how you need to change?

 

 

 

Paths

Over the last 2 weekends I worked on putting a brick paver path from the front door out to the side walk. It was about 28 feet long and 39 inches wide. I had to dig down (with a lot of help) about 7 inches overall to get the foundation set. It was a difficult and tiring process. Once the digging was done I needed to put in the landscape fabric to keep the stones from migrating away from the path. Then I needed to put the layer of stone which needed to be packed down. Then came the sand which needed to be packed down and then leveled to the correct depth. After that was the layer of pavers and then finally the edging to hold it all together. It was a long process and all the steps needed to be followed to get a good looking, long lasting final product.

It reminded me of how God works in our lives. He digs out the unneeded soil where things have taken root in our lives that would disrupt the path He wants us to take. He puts in a firm foundation of His word that everything else rests upon. Then God works to level out the rough and uneven spots in our lives before He can complete the work. But our lives are much longer than a 28 foot path. Time and again we come to a new section and the work starts over. Realize that all that is going on in your life if God's way of doing the work that needs to be done for you to become what He desires. God began a work and He does all things right the first time, so sometimes it seems to take longer than it should. Trust that the Master Builder has a plan and purpose for all that you go through.

Easter is coming!

The next 2 weeks in the yearly calendar of the church are the most important. More important than Christmas even though Christmas seems to get more attention. Easter is when we take time to be reminded once again that Jesus Christ, God in flesh, came to this Earth to lay down His life for each of us and then 3 days later pick it back up again to be glorified at the right hand of God. God sent His only begotten son to die on a cross because of my sin and because of your sin so that we can be made right with Him. Easter is about remembering this and celebrating that we are God's children when we have accepted the sacrifice made on our behalf.

I recently read a survey in which many people in this country didn't know why we celebrate Easter. It seems absurd to me that people don't know what Easter is about but it is true. Even people who attend church regularly are unsure of what Easter is about. Maybe that is because we as followers of Jesus Christ fail to speak about it or focus on it ourselves. This year, make the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the focus of your Easter and let the egg hunts and parties take a backseat to what is really important.

Judges 13 - Sampson's parents (continued again)

The final thing that I was wondering about in Judges 13 isn't spelled out in the text and is just one of those things as a parent I wonder about. I know how Sampson's life turns out. I know that choices he made, I know how God used the poor decisions that Sampson made. I just wonder what role his parents played in him making poor judgments. Did they coddle him and speak to him about how special he was all the time so that he began to think he was better than others? Did they just do that things the angel said and forget to teach him about God's law? Did they teach him everything they were supposed to teach him and he still choose the path that he did? We may never know this but I would like to think that I am raising my girls to know God and follow His will for their lives. I just have to remember that I need to do what God has called me to do and leave the outcome in His hands. If you look at Sampson's life you see that God used Sampson's sins for His own glory. God can and will use all things for His glory and I need to trust Him with my children.

Judges 13 - Sampson's parents (continued)

Another thing that I never saw before in this story is contained in verses 6-8. The angel of the Lord appeared to the wife of Manoah who was barren. He tells her that she will bear a son and that he is to be a Nazirite from birth. She comes home and tells her husband. In verse 8 we see how Manoah responds. He prays to God for the man to come again to teach them how to raise this child. What I found significant was that he didn't doubt what his wife said to him from what was recorded. He trusted her and went to God with it. And God answers his prayers in verses 9-14 by sending the angel of the Lord to them. I was convicted because sometimes I don't have the level of trust in my own wife that Manoah showed. And the problem isn't that she has done things to lose my trust. I just don't put the trust in her that she deserves. I need to work on this one in my daily life.

to be continued...

Judges 13 - Sampson's parents

I was reading through Judges 13 this morning and I was struck by a few things. The first thing that jumped out to me was that once again the people of Israel turned from God and He put them under the rule of the Philistines for 40 years. That is a long time. If I lived in that day and I was born at the beginning of this time of subjugation to the Philistines there would still be 6 more years left before Israel is delivered. It took that long for the nation to wake up and turn back to God. I hope and pray it doesn't take 40 years for God to get my attention to turn back to Him if I fall into sin. Sometimes the hard things in our lives are the result of sin. We reap the consequences of what we have done wrong. Some choices we make now, will affect us later in life in ways we can't even understand. That is why it is important to stay in God's will since He know what the future holds for us.

I will share the other things that jumped out to me in future posts.