"I Pray And Nothing Happens?"

Folks This will be my last post until the 16th of August as I will be away on holidays enjoy thank you for listening. 
July 28 2013   Psalm 85  Colossians 2:6 -15  Luke 11: 1-13

Last week we listen to and discussed the story of Mary and Martha. We may have learned that being faithful to God involves more than doing things out of love - that an authentic doing of the word arises out of hearing the word.  I believe that was what Jesus was trying to say to Martha, that Mary has chosen something better than just doing first.  First we need to hear the word then we put it into action.  Many have a difficultly taking time out to attend a gathering where the word is shared.  Many never really hear the word for themselves and often take in only someone else's perspective of the word and accept that prespective as gospel. 

Jesus reminded Martha when she became anxious and upset that simply listening to him and talking with him is a good thing to do first - an important thing, a necessary thing - and that perhaps a simple meal with good conversation might be better than a fancy meal with anger and or being upset.  We too need to be reminded that God’s provision is daily, not all at once.  We cannot store up on provision and then disconnect or stop communications with God.  Therefore Folks, we dare not be self-satisfied.  May I suggest if you feel you are running low on strength to face life and its challenges, ask yourself this question?  “How long have I been away from the source”?   Your relationship to God is moment by moment, not day by day or week by week as many of us unknowingly try to make it.   If you have been overcome with life’s circumstances, anger, frustration, sickness or unforgiveness be it a family or personal issue, stop; take a time out and communicated with God in prayer.   Prayer will lower your blood pressure, ease, balance and calm your soul. Something is always happening when we pray, even if we do not feel it or  see God's handy work at the moment.  Jesus teaches us how to get into lineament with God's amazing grace,  so we can access the awareness of manifested prayer even is it is a no to a specific plea, don't give up hope because something good is always happening somewhere. 

"JESUS TEACHES US HOW TO PRAY"

Today's gospel reading continues by showing Jesus a few days later - at prayer.   When he is finished praying, one of his disciples says to him: "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples to pray."  Jesus gives them and us a formula to begin our prayers.   Some years ago somebody developed this little reminder of how to pray.  It was coined, Praying the ACTS.    The letter A stands for Adoration, C for Confession, T for Thanksgiving, and the S is for Supplication.    This formula comes to us out of the common prayer Jesus taught, we heard its beginnings this passage this morning.  Our Father in Heaven, hollowed be thy name.  Prayer should start with Adoration:   You can use words such as: Oh Great and Merciful God, creator of all that I am and will ever be,   In other words let your heart speak words of praise to your God, lift up His holy presence.   The words are not as important as your honest enthusiasm for a loving and merciful God, for the great things that he has done.  Does a hymn come to mind here?  "Oh Come to the Father great things He has Done."   Look up expressions of Adoration in the Psalms there are lots of expressions in the poetry and music found there.  Make notes of things you read.  How many here Journal?  If you keep a record of your personal pleas, I promise you, later on you will see the good and how your prayer was answered.   

Next we have CONFESSION:   Then Jesus says, acknowledge your sin, using these words  “And forgive our sins as we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us”.   This moment of confession is the corner stone of all prayer.  If I have not forgiven those who trespassed against me, no matter who, what or why, how then can I pray asking God to do for me that which I have not done for others?  In other words we break the great commandment which instructs us to do for our neighbour as we have done for ourselves.

Jesus has already sealed my forgiveness with his act of unconditional love.  All I have to do is accept it.  If that were not so his love and forgiveness would have conditions.   Let me illustrate this act of forgiveness using a metaphor.  Jesus from the cross, offers to take our cloak of sins, which by the way would include acts of hate, rage, murder, jealously, greed, selfishness etc.   He takes these sins unto himself and in exchange, offers us his cloak of righteousness.   This can only be done with the attribute of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness.  If we accept his cloak, that is how He will present us to God.  Not in our sinfulness, but in his righteousness.   We are no longer held in bondage by our dirty old rag of sinfulness, but we are awash in His love and forgiveness, dressed in the garment of his righteousness.   Understanding this act of grace, we can go into the next phase of prayer with thanksgiving in our heart.

THANKSGIVING:   Here is where you get to say thank you God for all that you have done for me, for food,shelter, work, family, friends, life whatever comes into your thankful heart and mind.  {let us keep in mind here for many in our world who pray food, shelter, work, life, etc. may be meager compared to yours, but the thanksgiving is the same.} Say it from the heart with honest enthusiasm letting Him know how appreciative you really are for whatever you have.  It delights God to hear your words of gratitude, thanks and praise and all the Saints of heaven cheer you on.   The last stage of the ACTS prayer is supplication. 

SUPPLICATION:  Supplication is the final component, and this means praying not only for your needs but also for the needs of others.  Pray for your friends, family, your pastor, missionaries, government leaders, and persecuted persons around the world.  Don't forget to include you as we are all in need.  You may want to pray for such things as God's guidance, wisdom, and opportunities to serve, you may ask for anything in my name Jesus tells us and something will happen.  

Unfortunately there are many who still think of God as a kind of santa clause figure, where you give him your wish list and he fills it.   Here, generally the first three stages of entering into pray are missed.  Often we go right to the asking stage, without taking the proper time to tune in.  I have often used the metaphor of a musical instrument to illustrate this point.  If I don’t take time to check the tuning of my instrument before I begin to play, I will make noise, not music, and no one will make any sense of what I am attempting.   Same with prayer, if we don’t take time to tune in for prayer, our prayer will be nothing more than a noisy gong.  Everything in the Universe has an alignment process, where things must be aligned as they should.  I believe that Jesus is telling us a formula for alignment here, something we can follow when we want to communicate with God.   

I would like to debunk 5 of the most common reason why people say they just cannot pray. 

1.   Those who feel not good enough to approach God.   Don’t you know that none or us are good enough, and it is probably the best reason why we need to pray.  On our own we will never be good enough, we all need God by our side.   

2.   God has more important things than me to take care for.   If you believe you are a part of His creation and that He knew you before you entered the womb He is your real Mother, your real Father and your God.  Nothing in this world is more important to Him than His child.  No matter how old you are, or what you have or have not done, you are his child. 3.  I should not ask or pray for myself, it selfish, I should pray for others.    If I have  never prayed for own deliverance, healing, or peace of mind so I can experienced his hand of mercy on me, how can I assure others that prayer works?         

4.  I prayed, once should be enough.   The scriptures debunk this theory by telling us over and over again to pray without ceasing.  One gesture of gratitude is not enough to fill the cup for ever, one thank you is not sufficient.   As you drink the good drink you will need to refill the cup moment by moment, day by day.   

5.  I don’t know what to ask for, I am afraid that I will ask for the wrong thing.    Prayer is not meant for asking, prayer is meant as a means to communicating with God.   Speak openly with your God show Him worship and praise, tell Him your sin and accept His forgiveness, then shower Him with gratitude and speak of your needs for yourself and for others.  Do it as many times a day as you feel the need.   He will help you rise us up out of your circumstances and will supply you with your true needs for living spiritually.  Isn’t God GREAT!!!   Take a time out to pray. 

"The Devil Made Me Do It"

Allowing yourself just to be who you are, is often very difficult in our western culture.  The pressure to improve your image is constant.  The enticement of social media, facebook, twitter, linkedin and by advertisements to conform, project an image, look slimmer, smarter, or to find that perfect job or mate is overpowering at times.   Often we feel the pressure, placed on us by our peers, family or colleagues to maintain the status quo; accept certain old out dated traditions or conform to group opinion.    Question: When you were growing up did anyone ever coach you into doing something that you didn’t want to do?  What was the result?  2.   Have you ever compromised your own principals to satisfy someone else or the status quo?   Do you remember how that made you feel?

Readings: Psalm 52 Colossians 1: 15-28  Luke 10: 38-42

The story we heard about Mary and Martha in the gospel of Luke this morning is often our story is it not?   Who is right and who is wrong in this situation comes to mind?   I knew a young boy who, when chores had to be done, instantly he would make his way to the wash room for a time.  Sound familiar?  Chores are not always seen as fun things to do.

Others might see Martha as overbearing and bossy, wanting to control the situation by laying a guilt tip on Mary.  You know the old saying; Idle hands makes for the devils workshop.  Martha seems to think Mary should know her place.   What’s wrong with you girl, don’t you understand our obligations here.?  A question to think about here folks might be this:  Is there really a right and wrong here or, is it all about choices? 

 I suppose that if I were to ask all of the ladies or gentlemen here today if these statements sound familiar, I would get a nod or two.    Martha gets so frustrated that she asks Jesus to settle the matter.  But, Jesus doesn't help at all and gives her an answer she is not really looking for.   Mary has chosen what is best for Mary.   How often do you compromise yourself and do not do what is best for you?  May I suggest that it is because you do not know yourself well enough yet.

Folks, I going to challenge you this morning asking you to examine your choices for coming to church today or why you are taking time out to read my blog.   We all come well aware that we are going to spend time with Jesus RIGHT!   

We all come to talk with God and to open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit, to learn something new about ourselves from the wisdom of the text RIGHT!   
We all come to unload our burdens and recharge our batteries for the weekly battle. Right!   Well, unconsciously this might not be the case with all of us.   Some may have come strictly out of tradition.  Others come out of duty, it is something we have always done.  Some may have come out of curiosity, just to see what I am going to say, sing or do next. How many of us come like Martha, finding it hard to take a time out of our buy day for Jesus.  Find it hard to give our full attention to God and His word.  Many of us come with unfinished business on our minds, often pre-occupied with things to do the minute we leave the building.   I think many of us are programmed to ONLY FEEL WORTHY when we are busy doing.    Regardless of the reasons why we came, I am glad you came because I believe God wants us all to learn something about ourselves from this story.

I believe the story or Mary and Martha is not about who is right or who is wrong,  worthy or unworthy, nor is it about obligation.  I think Jesus is offering us a deeper meaning here and it is all about our choices.  In examining our choices in life, we can be enlightened and get to know our true self much better.      

I have said this before and I will state it again this morning, one of the hardest things I have ever to do is to be up front honest and truthful with myself.   If I cannot be true to me, about who I am, about my needs, my hopes, my past, my dreams how can I be truthful with others?  Being truthful to self is no easy task folks, especially if you do not have the wisdom of knowing and accepting your strengths and your weaknesses.  Being truthful will cause you to look deep within which helps you to choose what is best for you.  Jesus tells Martha, Mary has chosen and because it is right for Mary, here choice will not be taken from her.    

Often we choose what we think we want or need, only to be disappointed.  But, whatever the choice, it should be fruitful, and the fruit of our choices gives us an opportunity to get to know ourselves better.   Choices were not meant to destroy my life or my relationships with others but should begin to tell me something about who I am, and what is right or wrong for me.  Please note I said for ME here.  I may want to point out right from wrong for others but my true need is to find out what is right and wrong for ME.  We need to let others be, so they too can work it out for themselves.  Sometimes we choose to please others because we don’t want to cause a fuss nor do we want to be seen as a disappointment to family or friends.  Other times it is because we don’t want to be misunderstood as being selfish.  Then there are those among us who just cannot hand out an appropriate no, or even an appropriate yes.  I do believe that is because we are not fully aware of our true self.    We are instructed by Jesus to love ourselves so we can offer the same to a neighbor.  In the parable of the wheat and weeds, Jesus teaches us about judging others.  In Matthew 13: 24 -30 the field workers are instructed not to pull up weeds that were planted among the wheat less they pull up some wheat by mistake, suggesting that we do not have the wisdom or authority nor the understanding to distinguish who is right, who is wrong, who is bad or who is good.   We are to see the choices we and others make as learning curves that teach us more truth about who we really are and what we have or have not learned from our experience.   Folks it is all about choices.  

So then, Mary has made a courageous choice for herself here.  It wasn't the traditional one and many would disagree with her through some form of assumption or judgement.  But because of her “COURAGE” to go against the status quo and spend time with Jesus she will begin to get to know herself better. 

In both cases neither is right or wrong.  One sister is struggling with this situation more than the other, because Martha insists she knows what is right for Mary, she breaks one of the cardinal rules of self-awareness.  You can never really live your life fully through another, nor can you change anyone except yourself.    In fact the only YOU, you really need is you, and the only person you should change, is YOU.   As crazy as it may sound IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU! 

Any person who doesn’t understand this teaching, will always want to control and change others.  It’s a given folks.  Jesus understood this truth and when we choose it, it will not be taken from us either. 

We have a struggle when it comes to letting the other person find and fill their own need, letting the other person just be who they are.  Every persons needs are personal and if they go unfulfilled, their lives becomes boring dependent.   If you look closer you will see that the real problem lies within the person who is trying to control everything as was Martha.  Look closely and you will see that one of her struggles is, her inability to accept herself as she is, not as the servant she truly wants to be.   You see Mary recognizes her need, and she is willing to go for it, regardless of the results, be they a positive or negative learning.  The fact that Jesus commends her, this should tell us something about her choice.  You see it is not about who’s right here it is about knowing yourself and testing the waters of your own needs.  It’s about having the courage to say an appropriate no, or yes, even if it goes against the status quo.  It’s all about learning about yourself first, then, you will begin to understand others.  If you do not know and understand yourself well, you will never know or understand others well either.  We need to be reminded often, of this deeper wisdom teaching.     Love yourself just as you are. 

"Sorry Gents but God isn't Male"

                                   

 John Calvin, writes in his book “Institutes of the Christian Religion Book I, and I quote “For though the divine glory is displayed in man’s outward appearance, it cannot be doubted that the proper image of God can only be found in Spirit.”   In Calvin’s eyes we were created man and women, yet God is Spirit and we are one in Spirit with God. 

In Galatians 3:28 We hear the Apostle Paul stating:    There is neither Jew nor Gentile, 
neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ 
Jesus. We are of one mind, body and one spirit.  When discussing man being made in the 
image and likeness of God we need to understand Genesis 1:26 -27 {Good News} Then God said, “And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us. They will have power over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic andwild, large and small.”  So God created human beings, making them to be like himself.  He created them male and female.  

May I suggest we need to comprehend just how important a good understanding of this truth is. We need to have a  clear understanding that both male and female, were made equally and made to be like God.   Equality here does not mean that our bodies would be equal in proportion, nor does it mean that our physical strength would be equal for we were made to be different each with special qualities.  What it does mean is that all aspects of our spirit are the same and they are equal in every way.  Our human orientation {sexuality, race, or color } has no place in this equality.   In order to be like God and in the image of God we would need to have within our human physical bodies something of God.  That something is our spirit, something that is equal in all aspects of equality and is eternal. I believe that is what the writer meant when he says we are made in the image and likeness of God.  The continual use of a male reference within the scriptures makes it far to easy for men to discount the female as somehow inferior.  The use of the Parental name Father was never meant for that purpose.  This interpretation of the scriptures has been a problem over the centuries and continues to be in many modern day religious teachings, Christianity included.    Sorry gentlemen but God is not a man.  Sorry ladies but God is not a woman either.   Therefore God being neither male nor female but SPIRIT, God then can represent for us an all-encompassing parent, from whom we have inherited our Parent attributes which include love, forgiveness, humility, compassion, peace, joy, justice and hope.  All these inherit attributes need cultivation. That is why we were given the word both in print and in flesh which in turn develops gratitude.  Gratitude becomes the soil which cultivates faith.  We were made human, but with a Spirit in likeness and in the image of God’s all-encompassing love.   This is what makes you so precious in God’s eyes.  Here is why I believe God will never for sake or leave you.  It is because of your spirit, which is the God factor in you.   If this were not so, how then could the Spirit in you fulfil the great commandment to love its neighbor as itself?   Who is your spirits neighbor?  Your humanness, your human nature and your physical body.  Your spirit wants you to love and respect it just as the Spirit loves itself "the God in you" Without the Spirits attribute of humility, you would not have the power or the strength to love your human nature and your physical self without falling prey to EGO.  Folks do things to build up the Spirit in you.  Jesus said in John 4:24  “God is Spirit,”  . Throughout the Old Testament, the Spirit of 
God repeatedly appears, beginning in Genesis 1:2  and let us be clear it does not say He or 

She hovered over the waters, it states The "Spirit" of God hovered over the waters.  
The Spirit that give life is ignited in ordinary people, anointing them to act as God’s voice, to 
speak out for injustice among the poor and marginalized.  To act as God’s hands as we 
serve one another with love and compassion and to act as God’s feet as we spread his 
attributes all over our world.   We can hear this in 2 Samuel 23:2). and I quote “ The spirit 
of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue”.    Through God’s Spirit, 
the way is shown to us, the plans, purposes and desires of God are revealed to us, then 
through us to others. When God created humanity in Genesis 1:26-27, God set us apart as unique among all creation.  In doing so, he also gave us a spirit .  At conception we are given life, we do not know exactly how, as stated in Ecclesiastes 11:5.“ As you do not know the path of the wind or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, you cannot understand the work of God, the maker of all things.”   

 We are given a physical body, it comes with the gift of life and yet it cannot be the

 image of God, for it returns to the dust from which it was formed.  Yet we were created

 in Spirit and it is that which lives forever and returns to its source.  Again in Ecclesiastes

 12: 7 We hear “ and the dust returns to the ground it come from, and the spirit

 returns to God who gave it”   We are spiritual beings temporally housed in an earthly

 body.   We were given an eternal spirit that will never die.  Thanks be to God.   

Here is what can happen if God's Spirit gets ignited in you!

Take time to Pray!