Thanksgiving Prayer

Most Gracious Heavenly Father,

We humbly come before you praising you and all your glory; praising you for your grace and mercy; praising you for your love. Father, forgive us our debts and help each of us to forgive our debtors. Lord, this Thanksgiving I am reminded of Psalm 30 where we hear; 11 You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, 12 that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.

So Father, this day we stop and say thank you, thank you forever! Thank you for all things; every precious breath, every wonderful sight, every beautiful sound; and we thank you for the many blessings of life. Mostly we thank you for your Son, our Lord and Savior, our King, Jesus Christ. We thank you that by His work on the cross, our debt is paid and we can have a restored and glorious relationship with you for all of eternity!

Oh God, how good and gracious you are! And as we thank you for all blessings, we still recognize true need. This day we pray for the homeless, the poor, the hungry, those with health issues and those struggling in these trying times that you would comfort, heal and provide. We pray for our men and women in the Military and especially those overseas away from friends and family during the holidays that you would protect, encourage and help them to feel loved. We pray for this nation and our leaders that you will work mightily granting wisdom and direction that would be pleasing and glorifying to you. We pray for your Church that it will be strengthened and encouraged with the unity that comes from loving you. We pray for families and family values; that you would protect and solidify the very concept of family and align family values according to your will. We pray for our children that you will touch their hearts helping them to stand firm in these trying times. And we pray for all Christians, Christians facing trials, temptations, uncertainty, praying as the words of King Hezekiah remind us; "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. Father, no matter our circumstance, help us to be strong and courageous as there truly is a greater power with us.

Finally, we pray that you would open our heart and minds to the glorious power of your word, praying as Paul prayed in Philippians; "that our love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that we may be able to discern what is best and that we may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, that we may be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the Glory and praise of God."

Father God, we love you and pray these many things in the most holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen!

Grace and Peace!

Double Listeners

Have you noticed a trend in our Churches to be cool or hip and I am not even sure what the new trendy description might be. However, the word I keep hearing over and over is relevant. We need to be relevant in our culture. I have been thinking a lot about that and what does that mean?

Yourdictionary.com says that relevant means; bearing upon or relating to the matter in hand; pertinent; to the point. So to me, applied to our current culture Christians need to be able to relate to those in our culture with something to the point. I think I can agree with that. However, I think there is a tension; a tension between the draw to be cool and hip and the need to be set apart.

Wouldn’t you agree as Christians we should be different? There should be some difference between us and the world. I think this is a healthy tension as long as we keep it in perspective. We do need to fit in, we need to be able to relate to the world, we need to build relationships and trust; so that we can share exactly what make us different; to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

1 Chronicles 12:32 describes the men of Issachar like this;

men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.

Pastor Tullian Tchividjian says of this verse; “The Bible makes clear that Christians must be people of double listening—listening both to the questions of the world and to the answers of the Word. We’re to be good interpreters not only of Scripture but also of culture.”

Double listeners; I love that image. Dare I say I can relate to it? Yes, we must be able to navigate in the culture of our time, we must welcome the tough questions of the day, but we must remain set apart from some of the world’s trappings. So while there is this tension; be on guard, stand firm. I heard it once said, “Love them until they ask why”.

Father, like the men of Issachar; may we all understand and know what to do!

Grace and Peace!

Fishing with Jesus

Our Church is progressing through a sermon series on Christian community. In conjunction with that our small groups and home fellowship groups are doing a study on Christian community called “The Life-giving Power of Community” written by John Ortberg, Laurie Pederson and Judson Poling. It is a challenging series and study.

Recently we were given an interesting premise. Jesus is not only our Lord, Savior, and teacher, but Jesus also longs to be our friend. We are given this to reinforce the reality that true Christian community requires true relationship. It is very interesting to think about Jesus as all that He is, but to also realize in a true relationship He is also our friend is simply amazing beyond words.

We can see this in scripture. In Matthew 11, Jesus is described as a “friend of sinners”. More clearly in John 15 we see; “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

I just love that thought and as the old song goes, “what a friend we have in Jesus”. As part of our study we were given a spiritual exercise to take time to do something you love and to invite Jesus to be part of it. We were encouraged not to make this too formal as in prayer, but to just bask in the presence of Christ and to just speak to him as a friend there with you in this activity.

As you might have guessed I invited Jesus to go fishing with me. I gathered all the equipment, walked down to the edge of the water, marveled at creation, and began a most excellent fishing expedition. Things started out great, just some casual conversation and it was amazing to recognize the presence of Christ there fishing with me. However, soon I became focused on the fishing, the lures, the timing of the tides, the movement and forgot my friend was with me.

I suddenly realized I had invited Jesus to go fishing with me and in the busyness of my activity I had forgotten Him. Oh, isn’t that like life? Do we all get so busy, so focused on the things of life that we forget our Lord, our Savior, Our Friend? I know I do. Try the spiritual exercise some time. Invite Jesus to do something with you. Don’t hold back; something amazing might happen.

Father, forgive me my lack of attention to that which is so important, so vital, so loving and (here’s the good news) so filled with grace and mercy. May we all focus more on a true loving relationship with Christ our King!

Grace and Peace!