I just read this beast of a prayer by Philip Reinders in his amazing prayer book Seeking God’s Face. Enjoy:
Forsaken God, you really did die. The cross was no theater or mere metaphor; you weren’t whisked away badly injured yet alive. You set out to save, and you went all the way to death, fulfilling God’s justice and truth, fully paying for my sin. And so today, between the cross and the resurrection, I wait for your salvation to dawn again in my life. Amen.
Waiting with you for the dawn…
“When a leader sins…”
Leviticus 4:22
Leaders do sin. Will sin. Leaders, you hurt your followers when you pretend you’re perfect. You confuse struggling Christians who need to see repentance, not “perfection.”
Sometimes the greatest thing you will pass on is how you deal with your brokeness, your evil, your need in a way that is honest and leads to Jesus.
New Year’s Day, Covenant Presbyterian gave me the opportunity to preach my first sermon. I’m so thankful for this gracious and supportive community.
The audio picks up after an intro and the Scripture reading, which was Romans 3:23-24.
Let me know what you think. Peace…
This is the prayer of assurance that I did for our church last week. Reading Numbers 6 that week, a popular benediction, I was struck by why God could have so much favor and grace on such a sinful people (including me).
First the Scripture, then the explanation:
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
(Numbers 6:24-26 ESV)
The Lord can bless you because on the cross He cursed Jesus
The Lord can keep you because on the cross He forsook Christ
The Lord can make His face shine upon you because at the cross He turned His face away from Jesus
The Lord can lift up His countenance upon you because Christ was lifted up on the cross
And because Jesus was given the wrath that our sins deserve, we can have peace.
Be encouraged. In Christ your sins are forgiven.
Random Family... you're welcome. (Image via Flickr)
I feel like one area of deep struggle for teens is to be Christ-like toward their parents. This was a struggle for me growing up and, as I look back, these are some things I wish I had dug into.
Spend some time thinking about this: if Jesus has transformed your life, is this transformation being worked out in your home?
1. Most Teens Are Jerks To Their Parents
Note: I’m not saying parents are never wrong. They’re sinners too. But there’s a big difference in lovingly questioning your parents while expressing your needs and shutting them out because they “don’t get you”.
2. They Don’t Get You… So Help Them
Part of your job as a teen is translation. There are decades separating you and your parents. That’s a lot of room for miscommunication. Your teen years are a great time to learn how to express and explain yourself to your parents (your reasons, your motives, your wants). It’s not much good expressing yourself if you can’t explain yourself.
3. Look on Him (Hebrews 12.2)
For spiritual strength, direction, and hope look to Jesus, the perfect family member. Look to Him as the perfect older brother. If I could summarize the way I think most youth feel about younger siblings, it’s embarrassed. Younger siblings in all their immaturity are a great source of shame. So they are either ignored with rolled eyes or made fun of.
Look at Jesus. God is our Perfect Father. Jesus, His Son, is our Perfect Older Brother (this is the point of Luke 15′s The Prodigal Son and Romans 8.14-17). Imagine Jesus’ thoughts of us. We have rejected His Father, trashed our inheritance, run away from home, and dragged the family name through the dirt. Through it all, Jesus comes not to condemn or shame, but to lovingly point us to the Father. He rebukes us in love, not so we “get what we deserve” but to make a way to God.
If you cannot treat your little brother, little sister, or parents this way, do you really understand how Jesus loves you?
4. This is a Great Opportunity
As Christians, we should have mission on our minds: showing all that Jesus is better than life. I cannot think of a way to be more counter-cultural than to be a teen that is respectful and loving toward their family. This does not mean you and your family are best friends. It means to be one who loves sacrificially. Who prays for them. Who argues well. Who humbly admits when they’re wrong. Who serves their family as Jesus served His family…
us.
Cover via Amazon
A praying life feels like our family mealtimes because prayer is all about relationship. It’s intimate and hints at eternity. We don’t think about communication or words but about whom we are talking with. Prayer is simply the medium through which we experience and connect to God. Oddly enough, many people struggle to learn how to pray because they are focusing on praying, not on God. Making prayer the center is like making conversation the center of a family mealtime. In prayer, focusing on the conversation is like trying to drive while looking at the windshield instead of through it. It freezes us, making us unsure of where to go. Conversation is only the vehicle through which we experience one another. Consequently, prayer is not the center of this book. Getting to know a person, God, is the center.
- A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World by Paul Miller
It seems that one of the great enemies to growing as a Christian is abstraction. Prayer is incredibly hard to do when it is an idea, a field of study, something you have to get a degree to do.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t think deeply about the subject of prayer. But when prayer is only a subject, and not a natural way to meet God, it becomes overwhelming and distant.
It becomes something other than the simple, insanity that is this: I get to talk to God.
Having a blog has been like having an exercise program. It has been working on and strengthening different parts of my personality and tendancies that I struggle with. Here are a few of them.
1) Decisiveness.
People that know me better than I’m comfortable with know that I am painfully indecisive unless I’m trying really hard. The blog has been good for me because I have to say: “OK, just do it” or I never post anything.
2) Need to Please Other People
The blog has helped me learn to say: “screw it”. No matter how hard I try, no post is going to be perfect. Nothing I write is going to be written perfectly, absolutely agreed with, or even deemed relevant. I’m learning to say: “Forget it. My audience is God. He has made me, and I am His. I am His work in progress.”
3) Focus
I don’t have ADD, as far as I know. I’m just easily bored, commitment to a task is difficult, and projects other than the one I’m working on always seem the most attractive. Setting the goal of a post a week has helped me grow in this.
