Red Letters/Black Letters: Day 54: The Guiding Prayer

So He said to them, "When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven. Hallowed be Your name

Your Kingdom come. Your will be done. On Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us

into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." Luke 11:2-4

One of the longest sermons I have ever preached was based on Matthew's version of this prayer, I will attempt to make this post shorter.

Our prayers should look like Jesus' in the following 8 ways:

1) we acknowledge God which at the same time places us below God

2) we accept that our will is not God's will

3) we ask that God's will be done, which requires our participation

4) we ask for what we need for this day and this day only

5) we acknowledge our failures and request forgiveness for them

6) we recognize that our forgiveness can occur because we are also in the forgiving business, consequently if we aren't we have no right to ask for our own forgiveness

7) we ask God to led us and we promise to follow

8) not just lead us in general but specifically lead us away from temptations and to deliver us from evil

This prayer is a servant's prayer. It is also a partner's prayer. It is a sinner's prayer. It is a prayer of need, not want. It is a desperate prayer. It is a humble prayer. It is Jesus' prayer, and it should be our prayer.

+ Do your prayers follow these guidelines? 

+ If not how do they differ and do you believe that they should follow these guidelines?

Red Letters/Black Letters: Day 53: The Sin of Sodom

"Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. 

But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little." Luke 7:47

Here Jesus is, a guest in the house of a Pharisee and he has been welcomed, but only so much.

Here is this woman, so sinful that the whole of the city knows of her transgressions, yet she enters the house in order to serve Jesus.

It's a Sodom story.

People read the story of Sodom and come to the conclusion that it is a story about sex, or more specifically homosexual sex. It is not. It is a story about those who are unwelcoming of the stranger, by their lives and by their actions. [Ezekiel 16:49]

Here, again, we see the mighty doing a poor job of welcoming and we see the whore weep at Jesus' feet.

Jesus says that the person who has been forgiven more will show more love and that the person who has been forgiven little will love little. And so, Sodom loved little and was destroyed; the Pharisee loved little and was shown up by the sinner. 

Be careful friend should you be the one who loves little, if you do, you may indeed be laid low by those you deemed unloveable.

+ Are you the pharisee, loving little? or the sinner, loving large?

+ Which do you act like in public?

Red Letters/Black Letters: Day 52: Storm Warnings

"Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like. 

He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.

And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, 

and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock." Luke 6:47-48

If we follow Jesus, take his saying to heart and live them out in our daily lives, we will be like a house with a deep foundation and we will stand strong.

When will we stand strong? When the floods come, when we get 'beat vehemently'.

I think it is important to remember that even if we listen and take hold of Jesus the floods are still going to be coming at us. We are still going to get beaten, repeatedly, in fact, in some places in this world we may get beaten because we have taken hold of Jesus. 

Jesus never promises a life free from the storms and floods, but he does promise that when they come, if we have listened and been changed that we will stand strong, we will not wilt, we will not fold. That is what following Jesus can mean. It's not a life free from pain, it is a life that survives the pain, no matter when or how often the pain comes.

+ What has following Jesus saved you from?

+ Do you believe that following Jesus' teachings has helped you deal with negatives in your life?

Red Letters/Black Letters: Day 51: From our abundance

"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." Luke 6:45

Out of the abundance of one's heart, the mouth speaks. I have to lower my head in shame at that one.

While I would say that often I say positive things and do positive works I must admit that I also do things of which I am not proud and I too often say things that are not edifying to my fellow human being. I don't often say these things to people's faces, usually it is in my car or in my head on in secret conversations with family or friends, but I think them and I say them, out of the abundance of my heart.

This happens in part because of the pain I have suffered. It happens in part because of the anger I harbor toward others, towards myself, even occasionally towards God and 'God's' church. It happens because of my reactions to the lack of use of a turn signal or when things don't go my way or when people don't respect me or praise me the way I believe they should. 

It happens, but it needs to happen less until the day it doesn't happen again. And on that day my heart will have an abundance of a different sort.

+ What kind of abundance do you have?

Red Letters/Black Letters: Intermission's End

Welcome all, welcome all

Welcome all my friends

Welcome all, welcome all

Welcome all again

Welcome All Again - Ed Roland

As you have no doubt guessed by the title of this post as well as the fact that this post exists at all my intermission has ended. Starting tomorrow this devotional blog once again goes daily. I have made progress over these last weeks [almost a month] and am once again ready to share my thoughts on Jesus' words with you.

It has been a time of church hunting and finding [to attend, not pastor, that search continues], a time of camping, a time of licking wounds, a time of decision, a time of thought, a time of anger, a time of prayer. The journey, as always, continues.

Won't you come along again.

Welcome all again.

Peace and Love,

Kenny