Life Prayer

Where is God when you pray? How do you perceive Him? What role does He play? What portion of your life is given to this person and His active involvement in your life? How would you describe this aspect of your life?

During my years working on a Master’s Degree at Azusa Pacific University I did a serious study of prayer. While it never ended up in an Academic Paper I did save a Manuscript of the work. Recently I taught through that Manuscript for a Class of Single Adults at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena California. The result of that teaching was a re-write of the Manuscript and a new title.

The new title came out of what I would agree was a discovery of the nature of prayer in Judaeo-Christian understanding and practice. Prayer for the characters in the Bible is a “way of life.” It is “life” lived in virtually constant contact with the one to whom they pray. It is, in essence, “companionship” with God who is “always near” and intensely, intricately interested in the life of people who pray. He is determined to be active in these lives. Consequently those who pray quite often find the activity takes up more and more of their lifetime. It becomes a most important, if not the most important aspect of their lives.

Out of these conclusions the title, Life Prayer: A Companionship that Transforms, was born.

Nowhere have I found a better, more succinct summary of the premise on which this Manuscript is built than these words from the pen of Walter Wangerin, Jr. He is showing, petition by petition, how the prayer Jesus taught His followers to pray formed the framework for His own prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. He writes, “When Jesus teaches us to pray, He does not teach plain recitation. Rather, He calls us to a way of being. He makes of prayer a doing. And by His own extreme example, He shows that prayer is the active relationship between ourselves, dear little children, and the Dear Father, Abba.” (Walter Wangerin, Jr. Reliving the Passion ...)

May you, this Lenten Season, find yourself more intimately involved in a life being lived as a truly childlike companion of the Most High God A Supreme Sovereign determined to have you know Him as your tirelessly attentive, truly devoted, inexhaustibly loving, joy-filled, delightful Father who is never any further from you than the air that you breathe.

What is God Thinking?

Do you ever wonder what God is thinking?

There is actually an answer to that question. Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Matthew 17: 1 – 8; Mark 9: 2 – 8; Luke 9: 28 – 36) recount an incident in Jesus life that gives us a glimpse of what’s going on in the mind of God and the people of Heaven.

Jesus took Peter, along with James and John, the Sons of Thunder, on a climb up a “high” mountain. While they were there He was dramatically changed. His face became as blindingly bright as the sun. Even his clothing shone with the brilliance of a lightning bolt. Two men appeared, Moses and Elijah. They, too, were in “glorious splendor.” They talked with Jesus. It was one of those moments in time we humans never want to end. Peter, confused and bewildered by all that was happening, had to say something. Grasping at straws he suggested they immortalize the moment. “Let’s build sacred shrines. We can build one for you Master, as well as for Moses and Elijah.”

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than they were enveloped by a thick cloud. Peter and his fellows were terrified. The voice they then heard was far more alarming. They fell to the ground hiding their faces. This voice had to be phenomenal. These men had just seen Jesus transformed into a glorious, nearly “unapproachable light.” Moses and Elijah were there; equally glorious and conversing with Jesus as if they were longtime Friends. Jesus’ Followers were certainly moved by all of this. They wanted it to never be forgotten. This voice, though, overwhelmed them. It had to be the voice of God. Their ancestors had begged never to hear it again. These men hid from it. When God speaks He gets people’s attention. He certainly did on this occasion. What He said revealed His thinking.

“This,” He said, “is my Son! I love Him! I have chosen Him! I am well pleased with Him! Listen to Him!”

Moses and Elijah had just been talking with Jesus. Their conversation, Luke tells us, was about Jesus’ imminent “departure.”

From these words; the words of God Himself; and the words of these Heavenly men comes the answer to the question “What is God thinking?” Christ is the central figure; the subject of all about which they are talking. From that fact alone we learn that Christ is the subject of Divine, Heavenly thinking. If there’s anything humanity needs to know about the Mind of God or His Kingdom; the Kingdom of the Heavens all around us; Jesus is the “Word.” Immerse yourself in everything He said. Know all there is to know about His life; particularly those events leading up to and including His “departure.” His return “to the Father” and forever presence with Him is THE GREATEST AND MOST HIGHLY RELEVANT EVENT IN ALL HISTORY! The fact of the presence of the Christ – the Consummate Human Being – “with” the Father establishes for all time and forever the centrality of our Race in the mind of God. “I,” Jesus said, “am with You always!” He, Christ, is thinking of you, and me. Since he and the Father share hearts and minds, the Father, too, is thinking of us!

Sacrificial Love: The Greatest Power in the Universe

“Get outta my face! You’re nothin’ but trouble!”

Have you ever had someone say that to you? Have you ever felt the urge to say it to anyone?

Surprisingly Jesus said as much to a Friend. It was about this time of year. He was explaining to all of His Friends that He was going to Jerusalem and would die there. But, He said, “on the third day He would be raised from the dead.” Matthew tells us that Peter took exception to Jesus explanation of the upcoming events. He, Matthew said, “took him aside and began to reprimand Him for saying such things. ‘Heaven forbid, Lord,’ he said. ‘This will never happen to you!’” It was then that Jesus “turned to Peter and said, ‘Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.’”

What, pray tell, was so serious that Jesus would talk this way to His Friend? Could anything justify such harsh words?

Jesus answers. “You are seeing things from a human point of view, not God’s.” His Friend was being dangerously misguided and Jesus saw his acquiescence as an alliance with the devil. Peter had succumbed to the long held Jewish notion that Messiah would establish a powerful Kingdom. His dying was anathema to all who believed that. Jesus knew this and called it what it is. The devil’s notion. From before a word of Creation was ever spoken Satan believed God was wrong to create free creatures. Power and absolute power alone can maintain order and give a ruler control. Jesus had embraced the Father’s way. And He explains it to Peter and his fellows. “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” (This conversation is recorded, by Matthew, in Chapter 16: 21 – 25)

The way of “sacrificial love,” is the “way of the Cross;” the “way of Christ.” Christ’s unswerving adherence to it lead through a most ugly, shameful death to a life that brings “forever” existence to all who trust Him. The “way of the cross” is paradox. It is a life tragically given at all cost so that triumphant life can be freely given.

Sacrificial Love is a costly way of doing things. But it is, surprisingly, the only way to live. More importantly, it is the only way to effectively influence the nature of our world and give life to those we affect. Jesus is living proof that the Father was right when He created a magnificent world and free creatures to rule it. We are, by faith in Christ, and unrelenting determination to follow Him through the Cross, those “free creatures.” His Royal Children; we are destined to “reign with Him forever” by the power of His love.

Nothing is more powerful than “Sacrificial Love”! Any suggestion that there is must be dismissed as the devilishly dangerous notion that it is!