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Showing posts from May, 2014

Is "If it be your will" a Valid Prayer, pt. 2

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Teaching my Boy to grow in faith, relationship and Christian disciplines has made me question so many area of the way I do life – in action and speech. Not big questions, like ‘is the Bible true?’ or ‘is ‘God the one, true God?’, but other stuff that I give no attention to and I do anyway out of habit. It’s important to know what God says, but it’s equally or more important to understand what he says. As my Boy grows and starts thinking and questioning why we ask him to do ‘such and such’, I’m forced to ask myself, “Why do I do that, and why should I teach my Boy to do it too?” Ever since I read “ Using God’s Favorite Word ” by Jon Acuff I’ve been conscious about the language of prayer. (Click on the link and be prepared for prayer to never be the same for you again; plus you’ll laugh because you know you can relate.) Last week I wrote part 1 of a 2-part post questioning the validity of using the common prayer addendum, ‘If it be your will...” In the post I suggested it

Is "If it be your will," a Valid Prayer? pt. 1

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Christians pray. I pray and I’ve heard a lot of others prayer over the years. One phrase I hear often is, “If it be your will...” I used to say it myself, I don’t anymore but I still hear it being spoken wherever prayer is being prayed, especially in prayers over sickness, disease or other dark circumstances. I hear it so often I began to wonder where it’s found in the Bible. Since the beginning of 2014, I’ve read through the entire Bible once and I’m on my 3 rd round of reading through the New Testament. Each time I’ve read in different translations and you know what I’ve found? There is only one example of this being spoken...by Jesus, just before the events leading to his crucifixion. I’m puzzled, and whenever I am puzzled I have questions. Is praying, “ If it be your will...,” a valid prayer phrase? I asked the Lord about it, I’ve looked at the Scriptural reference, and I’ve researched what other [wise and scholarly] Christians have said about it and this is my con

And All God's People Said...

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I absolutely love it when I’m at church and the speaker is leading the congregation in prayer and instead of finishing the prayer him or herself, he says, “And all God’s people said?” Then, the congregation speaks jointly and says, “Amen.” Not only do I value being included as one of God’s people, but I love the collective agreement to what was spoken to God. Amen means, ‘so be it’, it is an expression of concurrence or assent ( dictionary.com ). For years, I misunderstood 2 Corinthians 1:20 to be, “for all God’s promises are yes, and amen in Jesus,” but as the Lord is opening up the mystery of intimacy with him, things that were hidden or unnoticed prior are now seen as if for the first time. I more fully understand the verse. I don’t even have to change the translation I read to see the full meaning. The verse actually says, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”   What

An Invitation

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This week I returned from a leadership conference, and I could have left before it begun. There is nowhere I could park my disappointment; nor would I even say I was disappointed. Before I went to register and sign-in, I spent some time with one of my favourite men in the whole world. He’s like a father to me but because we live in different countries, I see him two or three times a year. While he was speaking, he said something which made my world stop. He said, “The Presence [of God] is the invitation to intimacy.” Boom! I spent 12 hours driving and had been in Redding for less than 24 hours but I knew I could have driven home at that moment because I had just received everything I needed to hear. Do you have seasons where God is teaching you something but you don’t have language to express what it is, and then when you finally hear the language, the idea becomes fully formed in you? That’s what happened for me in that moment. I am in a culture where I hear spe