A Good Book

     I just finished reading Cat Telling Tales by Shirley Rousseau Murphy.  This is the 17th book in the Joe Grey mystery series, and I've read them all.  For those of you who don't know, Joe Grey is a talking cat who solves mysteries in the town of Molena Point, California.  All of the books in this series are excellent, and Cat Telling Tales is one of the the very best in the series.

Weekend Sermon--The Prayer of Jesus-- Part One.

John 17

     For the past few weeks, the Weekend Sermon has focused on Jesus' teachings on the subject of prayer.  In that study, we examined the importance of prayer and how to use the Lord's Prayer as a pattern for prayer.  Last week,  I discussed the matter of being persistent in our prayer lives and never giving up.
     This week, I'd like to talk about a prayer Jesus prayed which takes up an entire chapter, chapter 17 in the Gospel of John.  Some bible scholars refer to this prayer as the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus because, as we will see, Jesus prayed to the Father on behalf of those who did and who would believe in Him.
     Jesus' prayer in John 17 comes immediately following a long teaching Jesus gave known as the Upper Room Discourse.  Before He was betrayed by Judas, Jesus and His disciples celebrated the Passover in Jerusalem.  During this time, Jesus gave His disciples a substantial body of teaching.  John chapters 14, 15, and 16 contain the teaching of Jesus on this occasion.
     Jesus began His prayer by, "lifting his eyes to heaven and praying to the Father."
     Jesus asks, "Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.  And this is eternal life that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.  And now, Father, glorify me your presence with the glory I had with you before the world existed."
     This passage is an absolute affirmation of the deity of Jesus Christ.  Jesus was asking that He be glorified and have the glory He and the Father shared before the creation of the world.  This is reminiscent of John chapter one when it states, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  Jesus is claiming that He is God.  It distresses me greatly when I hear those claiming to be Christians deny the deity of Jesus.  The belief in the deity of Jesus Christ is an absolute essential belief of the Christian faith.  Jesus makes it clear who He is.  To deny the deity of Christ is to call into question Jesus' character.
     All authority has been given to Jesus, and He has the power to grant eternal life to those who believe in Him and call upon His name.  Jesus says that He will judge the earth because all judgment has been given to the Son by the Father. 
     Jesus says that eternal life is to know God.  We have the opportunity to have a personal relationship with the King of all the universe because of what Jesus has accomplished on our behalf.  The thought of this is amazing to me when I think of the vastness of space and realize the awesome power of God.  Just to think that this God loves me and wants me to spend eternity in His presence is more than humbling.  Praise be to God.
     In verse four Jesus says, "I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work you gave me to do."  In verse six, Jesus spells out the nature of this work when He says, "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.  Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.  Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.  For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me."
     In His earthly ministry, Jesus proclaimed His message through His actions, the miracles He performed, and through His teachings.  Jesus' twelve disciples were the one's who received the bulk of His teachings.  Part of Jesus' ministry on earth was to train those who would go into the world after He was gone and spread the same message Jesus came to proclaim.  Jesus had to clearly demonstrate to the disciples that His message was true and that His message was divine and not merely human in origin.
     Jesus accomplished the task.  The disciples recognized who Jesus was, and they believed His message.  It took them a long time, and often Jesus became frustrated at their lack of progress.  But during the Upper Room Discourse, the disciples(except Judas)said the following as recorded in John 16:29-30, "Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech.  Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God."  Peter also expressed the fact that he knew who Jesus was when he made his confession, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."
     It may not seem by the world's standards that Jesus teaching of His disciples was a big accomplishment. But after the Spirit was poured out on the Day of Pentecost, these eleven men spread the message of Jesus Christ all around the world.  From this band of eleven followers, the message of Jesus is now claimed as true by roughly 30% of the world's population.
     Beginning in verse 9, Jesus begins His intercession on behalf of His disciples.  In verse 11, Jesus asks the Father to keep them.  This means that Jesus is asking that their faith would be preserved to the end.  He was praying that none of them would fall away from the faith or turn from His message.  We know that none of them ever did.
     Jesus continues in verse 11 by asking the Father that the disciples might be one, even as the Father and Son were one.  There can be no greater unity than the unity among the persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  This is the level of unity Jesus desired for His disciples.  He wanted them to work together to proclaim His message.  And, they were one.
     Jesus knew that divisions and fighting among His followers would only bring the name Christian into disrepute.  Those who followed Jesus' teachings should be filled with his love and be able to love one another.  For a better understanding of this read I John chapter 3.
     I believe one of the great hindrances to people coming to know Jesus today is the great level of disunity and disharmony in churches.  There are so many different groups and denominations it boggles the mind.  This ought not to be.  All that this factionalism does is turn people away.  If the church is just like the world, why would anyone want to become part of it?  The Bible says that they will know we are Christians by our love for one another.  It is something to consider and correct.
    Next week, Lord willing, we will continue studying the prayer of Jesus.
    

Happy Thanksgiving

     I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

     The Weekend Sermon will be posted on Saturday this week.

Rhino Extinction

     I read a report a few days ago saying that all species of rhino are on the verge of becoming extinct in the wild.  This is extremely sad.  One of the first duties God assigned people was to take care of creation.  If you are able, try to support organizations that are working with wildlife issues.  Hopefully, people will realize the great wrong they are doing in hunting these magnificent creatures.

Weekend Sermon--Jesus' Teachings on Prayer--Part 4

Luke 11:5-13
Luke 18:1-8

     For the past three weeks, we've been focusing on Jesus' teachings on the subject of prayer.  Part one was an examination of Jesus' example of prayer and the importance of prayer.  Part two and part three were discussions of the importance of praying the Lord's Prayer and the way in which the Lord's Prayer can be used as a pattern to construct our prayers around.
     This week, I would like to focus on Jesus' teaching on being persistent in our prayer life.
     In Luke 18:1-8, Jesus tells a very interesting parable about prayer.  Jesus said that there was a judge in a certain land who didn't honor or fear God , and this judge didn't care what any human being thought about him.  A widow lived in this judge's jurisdiction who kept coming and coming seeking justice from the court from someone who had treated her unjustly.  This judge didn't care about this woman or her problems and put her case off time and time again.  However, after this widow kept coming, and coming, and coming back to his court, the judge finally got sick of it.  He ruled in her favor just so he didn't have to see her in his court room one more time.
     Jesus said that we as His followers could learn a lesson from this tale.  First of all, God is not like the judge in this parable.  God cares about all of His children all over the world no matter their nationality, race, ethnicity, age, or economic status.  Jesus clearly states this in Luke 11:11-12 where He says, "You fathers-if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead?  Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion?  Of course not!  If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly  Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him."
     Secondly, God wants us to not give up on our prayer life.  Just as this widow didn't give up, God wants us to continue in prayer. 
     Jesus makes this same point about persisting in prayer in Luke 11:5-9.  In this passage, Jesus talks about a man who went over to his friends house at midnight to borrow a few loaves of bread.  At first, the man didn't want to get out of bed and get the bread.  However, the friend kept knocking at the door and making his request over and over again.  In order to get any sleep, the man got up and got his friend some bread.
     Jesus says that we should keep asking, keep seeking, and keep knocking because as Jesus says, "For everyone who asks, receives.  Everyone who seeks, finds.  And the door is opened to everyone who knocks.
     I know that in my own life there have been times when I had to keep praying in spite of the fact that things didn't look like they were getting any better.  When Toby was still with me, he had a lot of very bad medical problems.  One of his problems was a bad skin condition.  This condition made his life pretty miserable.  I prayed for Toby day after day.  I'm glad I kept praying, because Toby's skin got better, and for the rest of his life he had no more trouble with this problem.
     In the church I use to preach at, we always prayed for peace in the prayer time.  I remember at one time the war in Bosnia was terrible.  We prayed for peace for that troubled area every Sunday.  After many weeks, peace came to that part of the world.
     Sometimes, we pray and pray and our prayers aren't answered in this life.  I prayed for my Mom everyday for five years that she would recover from the effects of her bad stroke.  She never got any better.  I know that she is with Jesus now, and all of her problems are over.
     Many of the things we pray about will not have their ultimate answer until Jesus comes again.  Then all things will be made new.  Everything will be the way it was always intended to be.
     Keep praying.  Keep trusting.  In this world, or the next, God will come through. Amen

Prayer Needed

     Continue to pray for the people in Thailand who are facing such terrible flooding.  As always, pray for peace.

Weekend Sermon--Jesus' Teachings on Prayer-Part 3

Matthew 6:5-15
Luke 11:1-13

     For the past two weeks, we've been studying Jesus' teachings on the subject of prayer.  In part one, we talked about Jesus' example of prayer and how prayer is necessary to having a victorious Christian life. 
     Last week, we began an examination of the Lord's Prayer.  First of all, we discussed the fact that the Lord's Prayer should be prayed in and of it self.  Second, we examined the way in which the Lord's Prayer is a model, guide, or pattern of prayer.
     We saw that we should incorporate praise and adoration into our prayers, as well as thanksgiving.  Also, we saw that we should pray for the will of God to be done on earth just as it is always done in heaven.
     Now, let's pick up our discussion of the Lord's Prayer as a model.  Jesus says in Matthew 6:11, "Give us this day our daily bread."  Jesus is saying that it is definitely right and proper for us to pray that the Lord will meet our needs in this life.
     All of us have basic requirements that need to be meet just to live.  We need food, clothes, water, etc. Jesus expects us to pray for the provision of these things.
     A lot of us, however, pray for things we want but don't really need.  I don't think that praying about these things is totally out of bounds if kept in the proper perspective.  We don't want all of our prayer time taken up with a litany of things we want God to do for us.  Praying in this way seems to be rather self-centered, and I believe that Jesus teaches us to focus on the other and the needs of the world more than focusing on our own satisfaction.   We need to keep things in the proper perspective.
     Jesus continues His teaching with verse 12 of Matthew 6 where He states, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."  All of us need forgiveness from the sins we commit.  I don't know about you, but the harder I try, it seems the more I slip up.  Thankfully, as I John 1:9 says, " If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  Confessing our sins restores our fellowship with the Lord.  If we have unconfessed sin in our lives, our relationship with the Lord can't be what it is supposed to be.
     However, forgiveness works two ways.  As God for Christ's sake has forgiven us, we should forgive one another.  As Jesus says in Matthew 6:14-15, "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.
     If someone who has offended us repents and asks forgiveness, we as Christ's followers are obligated to forgive.  Otherwise, when we commit a sin against God and ask His forgiveness, we won't be forgiven.
     Jesus speaks about this same principle in Matthew 18:21-35.  Peter comes to Jesus and asks if he should forgive someone up to seven times.  Jesus says that Peter should forgive not seven times but seventy times seven times.  To illustrate His point, Jesus tells Peter a story.  A man owed a huge debt he couldn't pay to his master.  This man begged and pleaded to have his debt forgiven, and his master graciously forgave the huge debt that was owed.
    Later, a fellow servant came to the servant who'd been forgiven and asked for the forgiveness of a small debt.  The servant who'd been forgiven wasn't gracious.  He had his fellow servant thrown into debtor's prison. 
     This didn't set well with the other servants who reported the situation to the master.  The master revoked the servant's forgiveness and tossed him into prison because the servant wasn't willing to forgive his fellow servant.
     Jesus sums it up in Matthew 18:35, "So also my heavenly Father will do to everyone of you , if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."
     Those of us who have put are trust in Jesus have been forgiven from the debt of our sin.  How can we not forgive others?
     The Lord's Prayer continues with a request for deliverance from temptation and evil.  When we pray, we need to ask the Lord to not allow us to be placed in a situation that will cause us to fall into sin.  We also should pray that if temptation does come, that we will find a way to avoid sin and follow Christ fully.
     We also need to pray for protection.  There are many forces of evil at work in the world.  Let us always remember to pray for God's protection for our family and loved ones.
     Finally, Jesus concludes the Lord's Prayer with praise and adoration once again.  He says, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever."  I repeat, we can never praise the Lord enough for all that He has done and accomplished on our behalf.
     If you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I hope you will invite Him into your life this week. 
     Next week, Lord willing, we will continue with part four of Jesus' teaching on prayer. Amen.