Prayer - God's Sufficiency

 

Father God,

In 2 Corinthians we read: Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God...

How wonderful, how awesome is your Word, what great news we have in the gospel that we can come not obsessed with self- sufficiency but we can come in your sufficiency. So we come with thankful hearts, we come amazed and praying that you would help each of us to truly hear this gospel message, the message of your amazing grace. And help us Father to hear it over and over and over again as we need it over and over and over again. 

Father we pray that through the gospel we will always have a safe place; a place for all to come and that we will never try to make it a performance place; we pray that the gospel comes shining through in all we do, where we understand we are saved, we are rescued, we are holy children of God not because of anything we have done, but because of all Christ has done! 

Father, while at times we will all struggle; that while we will all face trials, we pray that we can rest, that we can move forward, that we can be encouraged in the knowledge that the gospel is not a message of do more but a message of "it is finished!" 

Father, we pray that as we all come to terms with this, as we truly get it, as your truth fills our hearts; that we would overflow with awe, praise and joyful worship...we pray that as we come to know your love that we would grow in our love for You, our love for each other and our love for our neighbors. 

Abba Father we love you and pray these many things in the most beautiful name of Jesus Christ...

Amen and Amen!

Continential Divides

When I think of the division I see in this country – or better yet, when I see the reconciliation that is needed over great divides including political divides, racial divides, economic divides it gives me pause. A recent poll showed that 40% of the people surveyed felt the recent election damaged a relationship with a friend or family member. That is astounding, that is so troubling, and for that we need help. 

I turn to God for wisdom, for answers, for a path. It occurs to me that when we consider the great sacrifice, when we consider how we have wronged our great God, when we consider the love and grace and tender mercies offered through the finished and complete work of Christ to reconcile us with God, to bridge the enormous divide between God and each of us, then I know through Him all things are possible. 

When I am thinking clearly and truly understand this, when I truly understand the sacrifice and love of Christ then I am humbled and if we can humble ourselves enough, if we can be slow to speak, if we can listen and understand other perspectives, if we can agree to disagree and still love each other, if we can love one another just as our Savior loves us, then these divides don’t seem so impossibly large. 

It has to start somewhere... 

Grace and Peace!

The Gospel is Absurd...Unless...

As I mentioned in my last post: I am just captivated with the writing of Brennan Manning. It touches my heart and moves me in a great way. Here is a little more from his book; “The Furious Longing of God”... 

“How is it then that we’ve come to imagine that Christianity consists primarily in what we do for God? How has this come to be the good news of Jesus? Is the kingdom that He proclaimed to be nothing more than a community of men and women who go to church on Sunday, take an annual spiritual retreat, read their Bibles every now and then, vigorously oppose abortion, don’t watch x-rated movies, never use vulgar language, smile a lot, hold doors open for people, root for the favorite team, and get along with everybody? Is that why Jesus went through the bleak and bloody horror of Calvary? Is that why He emerged in shattering glory from the tomb? Is that why He poured out His Holy Spirit on the church? To make nicer men and women with better morals?

The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand-new creations. Not to make people with better morals, but to create a community of prophets and professional lovers, men and women who would surrender to the mystery of the fire of the Spirit that burns within, who would live in ever greater fidelity to the omnipresent Word of God, who would enter into the center of the flame that consumes, purifies, and sets everything aglow with peace, joy, boldness and extravagant, furious love. This my friends is what it means to be Christian. Our religion never begins with what we do for God. It always starts with what God has done for us, the great and wondrous things that God dreamed of and achieved for us in Christ Jesus.” 

Oh my!

Grace and Peace!

The Furious Longing of God

In the foreword of Brennan Manning’s book “The Furious Longing of God,” Pastor Mark Batterson writes “If Brennan Manning writes it, I’m going to read it.” You know that is how I feel these days.  As such I have recently started reading this book. I am only 20 pages in, but there is so much in those few pages. Manning starts by telling of a 30 day retreat where he prayed a verse from Song of Solomon every day. The verse was 7:10: 

I am my beloved’s and His desire is for me 

His said his prayer of this verse lead him to believe that God’s desire for us can be best described as a furious longing. That if we through prayer begin to take these words personally a number of beautiful things can come about. These things seemed so appropriate to share at the start of a new year so here they are (these are directly quoted from the book):

1. The drumbeats of doom in your head will be replaced by a song in your heart, which could lead to a twinkle in your eye. 
   
   
2. You will not be dependent on the company of others to ease your loneliness, for He is Emmanuel – God with us. 
   
   
3. The praise of others will not send your spirit soaring, nor will their criticism plunge you into the pit. Their rejection may make you sick, but it will not be a sickness unto death. 
   
   
4. In a significant interior development, you will move from I should pray to I must pray. 
   
   
5. You will live with an awareness that the Father not only loves us, but likes you. 
   
   
6. You will stop comparing yourself with others. In the same way, you will not trumpet your own importance, boast about your victories in the vineyard or feel superior to anyone. 
   
   
7. You will read Zephaniah 3:17-18 and see God dancing for joy because of you. 
   
   
8. Off and on throughout the day, you will just know that you are being seen by
   Jesus with a gaze of infinite tenderness.
   

He closes this section of the book with the statement: "I am a witness to these truths."

How encouraging... 

Grace and Peace!