The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
Cancer, Again
For almost twelve years we have known this day would come. Even so, it felt like we’d been hit by a ton of bricks when the doctor called on September 29 to say that some suspicious spots had been found in Dan’s PetScan of the day before.
This time it is melanoma that has metastasized from the spot removed from Dan’s scalp about two years ago……
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Pray In Faith
Have you ever prayed for something over and over again and it doesn’t seem that God is doing anything about it? Many times we pray repeatedly over a long period of time before we recognize that God has, indeed, answered our prayers.
In George Müller of Bristol: His Life of Prayer and Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1999, pp. 302-303) Arthur Pierson talks about…..
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With Thanksgiving . . .
While the Lord’s Prayer does not expressly include thanksgiving, we find thanksgiving to be a necessary Christian exercise throughout the New Testament.
Philippians 4:6-7 includes thanksgiving with “supplication” and “petition”. Being anxious for nothing, the promise of incomprehensible peace, is conditional on our “prayer and supplication with thanksgiving” along with making our requests (another word for “petitions”) known to God. The context indicates…..
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September 28, 2017
Book-ended By Praise
The Lord’s Prayer ends with the praise phrase “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.” This prayer model given by Jesus to His disciples in Matthew 6:9-13 appears to both start with worship and end with worship. There is some controversy, however, about this phrase as it does not appear in all manuscripts.
I don’t think…..
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… And Lead Us Not Into Temptation
The sample prayer that Jesus gave His disciples in Matthew 6:9-13 also includes the phrase “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”. According to William MacDonald, “This petition expresses a healthy distrust of one’s own ability to resist temptations or to stand up under trial” (Believer’s Bible Commentary – New Testament. Wichita, Kansas: A&O Press, 1989. p……
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Pray Specifically
At Hezekiah’s request, Isaiah asked God to take the shadow backwards ten degrees as a sign of His healing. And God did it (2 Kings 20:8-11). While it is nothing for the Creator to bend time and reverse solar movement like that, it is a significant demonstration of God’s intent to honor Hezekiah’s request.
The Matthew 6:9-13 Lord’s Prayer includes the phrase “Give us this day,…..
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Kingdom Business
I fell and broke my right wrist on Monday. I asked my left-handed daughter if we could trade “handedness” for a while. She doesn’t think it works that way.
When things like broken bones happen, most people bemoan the issue and complain about the crimp the temporary disability puts on their lifestyle. Yes, we are distracted by the pain. But for the Christian living in the…..
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Forgiveness
“Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” (Matt……
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How to Pray
The first time I sang “The Lord’s Prayer” in a high school choir rehearsal, I fell in love with it. The soaring melody lines and close harmonies of the song by Albert Hay Mallotte seemed to capture the beauty and sacredness of Jesus’ words in a compelling way. Even though I had memorized the words as a child, the song gave me a new level…..
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When you pray…
Picture this: you are driving in heavy traffic in an unfamiliar city. You see your destination but there is not an empty parking space anywhere. You drive farther along, then circle around each block in between. Still no vacant parking space. What do you do now? Get angry? Circle the blocks on the other side of your destination? Have you ever thought about praying for…..