Our Father's Name

This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." (Matthew 6:9-13)

As we work our way through The Lord's Prayer the first petition is that God's Name would be hallowed - that it be made holy and made much of. God as three primary Names in the Old Testament.

God's first name is Elohim - God, the Mighty Creator. By using this name of God we say; "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).

God's second name is Yeweh, which means, "The Lord who is the covenant-keeping One".

God's third name is Adonai, which means "Master" or "Lord". As our Master, God is the one who rules our lives.

Why Should We Pray?

This Sunday we will begin a new teaching series at the church. In this series we will be walking through "The Lord's Prayer" - a powerful model of a prayer given by Jesus, first to His disciples, and passed on to us through the Gospel message.

Yesterday, as we were concluding our worship service I gave a brief promotion about this series and closed with the question; "why should we pray?"

Last night as I struggled to drift of to sleep and then this morning, as soon as I woke up this question flooded my mind like a scrolling marquee


WHY SHOULD WE PRAY?   WHY SHOULD WE PRAY?   WHY SHOULD WE PRAY?

This Sunday morning I plan to take off from this exact point - from this question. It is not that I struggle to answer this question - the Bible is flooded with reasons why we should pray - it is that I struggle to come to a brief and concise list of why we should pray.

Perhaps then, the question should be asked; "Why do YOU pray?"

What is the number one reason that YOU pray?

A Pause Button

We have three (soon four) children in our home - a seven year-old daughter, five year-old son, and a - soon to be - three year-old son. Perhaps I am partial, but I do believe they are the most beautiful (or handsome), the smartest, the funniest, and the greatest children in the entire world. It is a great joy to watch them growing and becoming all that God has created them to be.

Last week my wife and I were talking about how much they have grown this past year and just how quickly they seem to be growing up. Then I asked my wife a very hypothetical question; "If you could stop them from growing up, at what age would you do so?"

And, although this was a very hypothetical question and - as far as I know - not an option yet, it was a very intriguing thought. See, if you stop a child's growth too early you have to deal with diaper changes, highchairs, and car eats for the rest of your life. If you stop a child's growth in their childhood, you deal with their attitude and "sass" forever. But if you wait until their teenage years you have the attitude and independence to deal with.

Perhaps a stop button isn't what we want or need - but wouldn't a pause button be nice? Just to pause everything in their life and cherish it for a bit longer? Wouldn't it be nice to pause and spend a little more time with you three-year-old child? Wouldn't it be wonderful to pause their growth and spend more time with your children while they still "need" you - while they still want to be with you?

Our children's lives aren't the only thing though. Wouldn't it be nice to have a pause button on life in general? To pause everything and have a bit more time before deadlines and obligations? Wouldn't it be nice to pause and spend more time on the important moments in life? Wouldn't it be wonderful to pause and have more time?

This morning we wrapped up a series - "Be Still" - in our church. In this series we, as a church, have been encouraged to stop and spend more time with God, simply being still in His presence. As we are still in His presence we come to realize that we are working on His time.

What If Your Purpose...

 

What is the purpose of your life?

Most hope, dream, pray that their life will impact many people.

At times I have listened to and watched well-known preachers, and pastors of mega-churches and thought; "what would it be like to be in such a place of influence. Challenging? Stressful? Perhaps.

Yesterday I stumbled upon another pastor's blog. I have never met this gentleman, I have never heard of him, his church, I can't even recall where he lived. But I did notice that he had more than 1,000 blog followers - people "subscribed" to his blog and who semi-regularly looked at the thoughts that he recorded on his blog. Then I thought of my own blog, I have several "regular readers", a couple "subscribers" - yet I still influence others.

Today I stopped by McDonald's to get a drink. While I was standing in line a man seemed to be peaking over my shoulder. I made eye contact with him and he apologized. Then he explained that he was trying to see the title of the book I was reading (Praying The Lord's Prayer for Spiritual Breakthrough). We had a brief conversation - in line and at the drink station - then we parted ways. 

What if your life came down to one "post", one thought? What if your life came down to one moment of encouragement? What if you were created to touch - to speak into - the life of one person for one moment?

What if my purpose on this earth was to preach one sermon? What if my life came down to one conversation in a line at McDonald's? What if I was created so that I could speak truth and love and encouragement and peace and encouragement into the life of one person or one small group of people?

Lessons from Candy Crush Saga

Like thousands of other people, I have recently become addicted to Candy Crush Saga. The premise of Candy Crush Saga is simple, you match pieces of candy on a grid to score points. As the levels increase, the difficulty increases. Most recently I have struggled to get past one level, failing time after time. This all got me thinking of how we can learn many lessons from this simple game in relation to our life and days on earth.

1. You only have so much life - use it wisely
In Candy Crush a person has a limited number of lives and each life must be used wisely. If these lives are wasted, a person must wait a given amount of time before receiving another life. This applies to our earthly life as well. We each only have one life to live and thus we should use our life wisely - to accomplish the purpose that we have been created for and to spend our time on the priorities that matter. 

2. Don't take the move that seems obvious and "feels right"
In Candy Crush there are a wide variety of moves that are available at any given time. Making the wrong move is irreversible and could cost you the entire game (a life). Therefore, it is often required to look over the entire board to look for available moves, to consider how a particular move might affect the future of your game. This is true in life as well. We are often faced with situations and decisions that need to be made. We should not take the first and most immediate choice available, instead we should stop and consider how this decision will affect our life and our future. 

3. Friends and family are necessary to our success
In Candy Crush you can ask friends and family members for additional lives, additional moves, and additional tickets to help you proceed throughout he various levels of the game. What is more, you can ask friends and family members for tips and tricks to help with particular levels that you find yourself stuck on. The same is true in life. A solid and dependable foundation of friends and family members - people that we know love us and will support us - are required. Friends and family members bring us inspiration and encouragement at our times of deepest need and desperation. Friends and family members can speak truth and life into us when we think we can't go any farther. 

4. A faithful "higher power" is a necessity
In Candy Crush pieces are dropped from the top of the game board, with little to no knowledge of what pieces might be coming next. (I often complain to my wife that the "man upstairs" is failing to drop the pieces I need). In each one of our lives we need help from The Almighty God, who cares for us, sustains us, and gives us everything that we need to carry on and to find victory in this life. 

When God Says Go...

If you ever played games as a child, I'm sure you took part in "Simon Says" or "Red Light, Green Light". There are many more similar games that remind me of one important truth regarding life and following directions.

When God says "GO" you "go"!

I don't want to ever forget this, and I hope you don't either. See, it's often easy to go where God calls us - when it is apparent that He is calling us in a particular direction and when it is clear that He is saying "go".

What is more difficult it's to stay still when anxiety, fear, or discouragement are upon us.

Sometimes we just feel like running, we feel like hiding, we feel like going when and where God has not called us to "go".

But I don't ever want to "go" where God is not calling me. I don't ever want to run and hide because of fear or discouragement. 

When God says "GO" you "go". When He does not you "be still"

A Jesus Timeline

We just began a teaching series on Sunday evenings - "Journey Through The New Testament". Below is part of the outline from week one  - "The Gospels". This is a brief (limited) timeline of Jesus' time on this earth according to the Gospel accounts.

Autumn, A.D. 28:

•          Jesus left Nazareth and went down for Him baptism

•          Right after His baptism He went into the mountains to be tempted by Satan

•          Then He went back to Salem, and then to Cana

◦          The first disciples were from there – John, Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathaniel

Spring, A.D. 29:

•          The first miracle was at the wedding in Can

•          Jesus then moved to Capernaum, where he established His base of operations.

•          While Jesus was at Passover in Jerusalem, Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, came to Him at night and Jesus explained the need to be “born again” (John 3:16)

•          This was about the time of John the Baptists last testimony

 

Winter, A.D. 29:

•          Jesus met the woman at the well at Sycar

•          Jesus went back to Cana and healed the son of a royal official

•          Jesus healed a man at the Pool of Bethesda

Spring, A.D. 30:

•          John the Baptist had been imprisoned in  Jerusalem

•          In Galilee, Jesus began to broaden His public ministry

•          At the synagogue, in Nazareth, Jesus read from Isaiah and the townspeople tried to throw Him off of a cliff

•          Jesus left Nazareth and went back to Capernaum

◦          There He called four more disciples

•          Peter's mother-in-law and a leper were healed

 

Summer, A.D. 30:

•          Jesus healed a paralytic in Capernaum

•          Matthew was called

•          Jesus and His disciples picked grain on the Sabbath

•          Jesus healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath

•          Jesus preached the sermon on the mount 

Fall, A.D. 30:

•          Jesus healed a blind and dumb man in Capernaum and was accused of doing this by the powers of Satan

•          From this point on Jesus spoke publicly only in parables

•          The seven kingdom parables in Matthew 13 were spoken

•          The people accused Jesus of being Satan

•          Jesus rebuked the storm

•          Jesus encountered the demonic man in the region of the Gadarenes and permitted the demons to go into a heard of pigs

•          The disciples went back to Capernaum

Winter, A.D. 30

•          Jarius's daughter is raised

•          A woman with an issue of bleeding was healed

•          Two blind men and a dumb man were healed

•          Jesus arrived back in Nazareth and opffened people.

•          John the baptist was beheaded

•          The Apostles were sent out in pairs

•          Jesus returned to Capernaum

Sprint, A.D. 31:

•          The twelve apostles returned to Capernaum

•          Jesus then returned to Bethsaida, which became a major base

•          Jesus fed 5,000

•          Jesus walked on water and returned to Capernaum

•          Jesus preached His sermon on “the Bread of Life”

•          Jesus was accused of eating with unwashed hands

•          Jesus went to the region of Decapolis

•          Jesus healed a deaf and dumb man and fed 4,000

•          Jesus went to Magdela where the Pharisee's demanded a sign

•          Jesus took a ship to Bethsaida where he talked about the yeast of the Pharisee's

•          Jesus traveled north to Caesarea Philippi

•          Jesus went up on the Mount of Transfiguration

•          Jesus healed a possessed boy and returned to Capernaum

•          Jesus went down to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles where He declared Himself to be the Living Water

•          He forgave a woman of adultery and returned to Galilee

Winter, A.D. 31:

•          The Samaritan's rejected Jesus

•          Jesus went to Perea, east of the Jordan and presented several parables

◦          the good Samaritan, the unrighteous steward, the rich man and Lazarus

•          Jesus sent out the seventy disciples

•          Jesus traveled to Jerusalem and healed a man born blind

•          Jesus stayed at Bethabara

Spring, A.D. 32:

•          Jesus traveled to Bethany

•          Lazarus was raised from the dead

•          Jewish leaders plotted to kill Lazarus and Jesus

•          Jesus moved to the village of Ephraim

•          Jesus encountered ten lepers and gave a number of parables

•          James and John's mother made the request that Jesus make her sons one and two

•          Jesus traveled back to Jericho where He healed blind Bartimeus

•          Jesus called Zaccheus and presented the parable of the ten talents

•          Jesus went to Bethany for His final week – the “Passion Week"