Jesus' Expectation for Prayer Gatherings

For your own sake and for the sake of the world, Jesus wants you to prayer regularly with other believers. Jesus doesn't have some narcissistic need to be included in your daily routine, but he and the other persons of the Godhead have so shaped the world that God's people are invited to approach The Control Room of Creation, Heaven, in prayer. Listen to the words of Jesus. 

Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For there two or three gather in my name, there I am with them (Matthew 18.18-20, NIV).

More than once I have heard N.T. Wright assert that "according to Jesus, heaven is earth's control room." What's more, Jesus tells us in Matthew 18 that heaven and earth come together in him and heaven responds to the requests of those who have gathered. 

Jesus is with us when we gather on Wednesdays to ask things of Jesus' Father in heaven. He is with us in a way he is not with you in your "prayer closet." So please, for your own sake and for the good of the world, gather with other believers to agree on earth together and "it will be done for you by Jesus' Father in heaven."

O how I love the reality of the Trinity!! 

BLEST COMMUNITY

O Most Holy Trinity
Undivided Unity,
teach us the gentle deference
of your dance of surrendered love
how with infinite tenderness
and utmost esteem
you so gently
adoringly
are present
to one another.

Teach us your perichoresis,
your grand circle dance,
where you eternally birth joy
from the womb of reverence.

Teach us your unending,
enfolding regard
for the pure holiness
you hold and behold.

You,
sweet breath and the lungs of creation,
eternally giving,
empty
and eternally receiving
are filled.

You release and bind,
but never push nor pull.
You hold accountable,
but never blame.

You incline yourselves to one another
as a grove of green willows
bending in the breeze
bowing to each other’s grace
known and cherished
on the broad plain of mutuality.

Deepen our trust, O Blest Community,
that we may enter such intimacy.

Loretta F. Ross

Manna from Monday

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8.3, NIV).

I am doing my best to “get into” biographies. When I consider those who have influenced me most and whose ministries have blessed me significantly – they are folks who are always reading biographies. Hebrews 11 and 12 exhorts us to consider the lives of the faithful saints as one way of “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” So take up and read Christian biography!!

At present, I am reading Eric Metaxas’ critically acclaimed biography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was a brilliant scholar who felt called of God to minister on behalf of all kinds of people, even children, within the context of ministry in a local church. Early in his ministry he spent two years in Grunewald ministering to the children of a small parish. Listen to his love for these kids as he describes his farewell to them. 

I spoke about the man with palsy and especially about the assertion that your sins are forgiven, and tried once more to disclose to the children the core of our gospel; they were attentive and perhaps a bit moved, for I spoke, I think, with some emotion. Then came the farewell…. The congregational prayer has long sent shivers down my spine, and it did so incomparably more when the group of children, with whom I have spent two years, prayed for me. Where a people prays, there is the church; and where the church is; there is never loneliness.

After leaving Grunewald, Bonhoeffer found himself in Paris, on his way to Barcelona, Spain with a friend. It was in Paris that he had this formative experience while attending a church service in Sacre’ Coeur.

The people in the church were almost exclusively from Montmartre; prostitutes and their men went to [church], submitted to all the ceremonies; it was an enormously impressive picture, and once again one could see quite clearly how close, precisely through their fate and guilt, these most heavily burdened people are to the heart of the gospel. I have long thought that the Tauentzienstrasse [Berlin’s red-light district] would be an extremely fruitful field for church work. It’s much easier for me to imagine a praying murderer, a praying prostitute, than a vain person praying. Nothing is so at odds with prayer as vanity.

Please notice how crucial prayer was to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Later on in his life, he was faced with unimaginable stress and the threat of torture. He credits his daily discipline of prayer and Bible meditation with the ability to not fall apart under extreme circumstances. Please consider joining us for our weekly prayer gathering this Wednesday at 6pm.  Blessings.

Manna from Monday

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8.3, NIV).

In December of 2007 I learned the sad news that one of my theological heroes had died – Thomas F. Torrance. I recently received a theological biography of sorts that describes how Thomas Torrance did theology and more specifically how he approached the Scriptures. Jesus’ words in Matthew 11.27 formed much of Torrance’s work

All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal to him (NIV).

What Jesus is saying here is that we do not know God unless Jesus has revealed God to us. A.W. Tozer famously said, “What we think about God is the most important thing about us.” What Jesus is telling us and what Thomas Torrance reminds us of is that if our thoughts about God don’t begin with Jesus, then it is not the true God who is occupying our thoughts. The Son is the image of invisible God (Col 1.15) because God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Col 1.19). The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (Heb 1.3).

What are your first thoughts about God? Does Jesus shape your God-thoughts? God has willed that we know him through his Son, Jesus. May God’s Spirit move each of us to take every thought about God captive to Jesus Christ.  

"What Jesus was on earth God is forever ... What God is toward us in Jesus Christ, he is eternally forever." ~ Thomas F. Torrance

When you see in the face Jesus Christ the face of God, you know that you have not seen that face elsewhere and could not see it elsehow. ~ Thomas F. Torrance

Manna from Monday

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8.3, NIV).

Give Them Christ

At approximately 11:15 am on Sunday, I will do something that I do 49 weeks out of every year. I will open my Bible and I will preach to a group of people who have gathered. Do you participate in a similar “ritual?” I have a pretty firm grasp on the question: What are preachers trying to accomplish? What interests me presently, however, is: What are the hearers expecting? What do you anticipate receiving during the “preaching” portion of a given worship gathering? Just in case you think I am formulating a philosophy of preaching that begins with the listener’s “felt need,” let me show you my cards. I want us to consider the content of the Apostles’ preaching as a way to inform how we listen to preachers. In other words, the goal of the preachers in the Bible should be the goal of all preachers. Furthermore, that biblical goal for preachers should shape how we listen to sermons.

Preachers in the Bible did NOT preach to give their hearers their “best life now.” ~ Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matthew 5.11-12).

Preachers in the Bible did NOT preach to gather a crowd. ~ Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple (Luke 14.25-27).

Preachers in the Bible proclaimed themselves as weak and Christ alone as trustworthy ~ And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, . . . that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God (1 Corinthians 2.1-2, 5).

Preachers in the Bible proclaimed Jesus Christ as Lord and themselves as servants of the people ~ For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake  (2 Corinthians 4.5).  

Having heard the historical preaching of Jesus and because they witnessed it’s world-transforming effect, the apostles realized they had nothing better than Jesus Christ to offer their people. Brothers and sisters, there is nothing more beautiful and valuable than Jesus Christ. If you are blessed with the opportunity to preach there is nothing better you can offer your hearers than Christ. Give them Christ. 

William Willimon challenges us as preachers and listeners: “Whenever our preaching ceases to be about the truth of God in Jesus Christ is degenerates into another program of human betterment” and what this world needs is not another program of human betterment. This world needs the only eternal human betterment Person and his name is Jesus Christ.

Preachers, Give them Christ.

Hearers, Listen for Christ.

Manna from Monday

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8.3, NIV).

Who tells you who you are? Where do you find your identity?

Sometimes we are tempted to look to the things of earth to tell us who we are. The Gospel, on the other hand, exhorts us to gaze upon the things of heaven to gain our sense of self. When we are tempted to let our earthly families define us – When we are tempted to let this nation define us – When we are tempted to let the good and evil events of our past define us, the Lord Jesus comes to us and exemplifies a better way. Jesus shows us how to defer to his Father in heaven when we want to know who we are. God knows us better than anyone. God knows us better than we know ourselves. He told Jeremiah:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1.5, ESV).

Before Yahweh sends him on mission as a prophet to the nations, Jeremiah is reminded that he is known exhaustively by the One who sends him. When Jeremiah doubts his ability (1.6), he is reminded that he rests within the intimate web of God’s comprehensive knowledge. God knows us and wants us to know ourselves as we are known by him.

John Frye, in his book, Jesus the Pastor, encourages us with these words.

[Christian], on the brink of or neck-deep in your [daily tasks], do you live in the confidence that God knows you, calls you by name, and is with you? Do you find strength in the truth that he knows the deep you with whom you are perhaps out of touch or of whom you are unaware? Do you depend on and find courage in the truth that Jesus is also called “Immanuel”? God is with you!

Sisters and brothers, God knows us. He has known us for eternity (Rom 8.29; 1 Peter 2.1). He not only knows us, he loves us and is on our side. May each of us live out the confidence of an identity that is offered to us by the One who truly knows each of us.  

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things (Rom 8.31-32, ESV)?       

Manna from Monday

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8.3, NIV).

Each Monday morning I try to spend a couple of hours reading the Bible and a book about the Bible that is not connected to anything I am teaching or preaching. This discipline (and I am not as disciplined at this as I need to be) is driven by a desire to have my life sustained, not by bread, but by words that come from the mouth of the Lord.

At the moment, I am reading John Frye’s excellent book, Jesus the Pastor. Basically the book imaginatively explores how Jesus shepherded people with a view toward how we as Pastors can lead people like Jesus led people.

In the first chapter, “Watching Him Work,” the author describes in detail how Jesus interacts with Nicodemus in John 3 and the Samaritan Woman at the Well in John 4. Aside from the many aspects that we have noticed our entire lives in these two common stories, John Frye notices something that is quite simple and extraordinarily profound. “Jesus went with the flow.” Notice how Jesus allows both Nicodemus and the Samaritan Woman to establish the direction of the conversation. In John 3, everything Jesus teaches is a direct response to a question from Nicodemus. Jesus didn’t have “a planned presentation for religious leaders who come to me at night.” Jesus respected Nicodemus as a person. He is made in the image of God, and Jesus values him as such. Jesus has a similar respect for the woman at the well. Don’t blow over that fact too quickly. Although both situations presented him with unique challenges, Jesus has the same respect for a religious leader that he has for Samaritan woman living an adulterous lifestyle.

Jesus treated her the way our loving God and Father treats everyone: he accepted and respected her as a person. He did not treat her as women were then treated; he treated her as a person. He did not treat her as Jews treated Samaritans; he treated her as a person. He did not treat her as a heretic; he treated her as person…Jesus gave the Samaritan woman her rightful place in his life. Her rightful place was as a human being, a person made in the image of God. She had the right to be treated as a person. That is always the way God in his love treats us. 

May the peaceful example of Jesus shape they way we deal with all the people in our lives today. Treat everyone you encounter today with love because each one of them is a person.