Archive for the ‘Prayer’ Tag
Stories Of Prayer In Acts
Filed under: Bible, By Greg Williams, Christian Living, Church, Evangelism, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Humor, Love, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, Sermons, Trinity, Uncategorized | Tags: Autumn Brassell, Christian Living, Church, Evangelism, god the father, Gospel, Grace Communion International Regional Superintendent, Greg Williams, Holy Spirit, Hope, Jesus, Love, new life fellowship, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, trials, Trinity
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Grace Communion International Regional Superintendent, Greg Williams, recently visited New Life Fellowship of Baltimore, Maryland and took them through various stories of prayer in the book of Acts. These stories demonstrated how the Church can and does experience the Father, Son and Spirit in relationship through prayer and the importance and encouragement of relating with God in this way! Greg concluded the message by leading the congregation in a prayer gathered around on of its seriously sick teens, Autumn Brassell, who looks to be suffering the symptoms of Lupus.
Hand-to-Hand Combat? Really?
Filed under: By Nan Kuhlman, Prayer, Spiritual Warfare | Tags: Prayer, Spiritual Warfare
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I recently saw a sign outside a church that said: “Prayer is hand-to-hand combat.” This placard represents a common view of many Christians that we must pray diligently to keep Satan and his minions at bay, and that any slacking on our part could turn events for the worse. This attitude says that God’s plan for the world is resting squarely on our shoulders, and that if we mess up, Satan will wreck it.
I have a number of problems with this saying. First, I think prayer is a conversation, a back-and-forth, between us and God, and it’s the type of conversation that invokes change in us without guilt or “shoulds.” It’s the kind of conversation that affirms who we really are, loved and accepted despite our flaws. I don’t see prayer as a fight or even a wrestling, though any wrestling I’ve ever done in prayer has not been with God, but with my own ego and misperceptions.
Next, the idea of fighting against Satan and his minions gives the evil one more attention than is really needed. Many Christians live their lives as if the fate of the world is still hanging in the balance, as if Satan could still possibly snatch all humanity from God’s hand. The fate of the world, of all humanity, was sealed in Christ, and nothing that Satan could do would ever change it:
2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. (Eph. 2:2-9)
Christ trumps Satan and has included us all in himself, and we are seated with him at the right hand of the Father. While we may still be influenced or tempted by the evil one to see ourselves as unworthy and unacceptable, our fate and the fate of world does not hang in the balance. Before the foundation of the world, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit determined that humanity would not be destroyed but restored into their fellowship. We can rest in knowing that the salvation of the world doesn’t rest on our shoulders, but on the strong shoulders of Jesus Christ, and our prayers do not need to be a “fight,” but a simple giving of thanks for what has already been accomplished.
~by Nan Kuhlman
Small Gadget. Stunning Grace!
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Gospel, Humor, Love, Prayer, Relationships, Trinity, Uncategorized | Tags: Christian Living, Gospel, Grace, Hope, Jesus, Prayer, Relationships, Trinity
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While attending a leadership meeting, taking things out of my backpack, one of my pastor friends noticed my stuff and exclaimed “Inspector Gadget!” I laughed right along with him – proud and guilty as charged! Something similar happened just this past week as I drove a friend to a conference. Pulling out and setting up my iPod, GPS, iPad (GPS plan B!) Bluetooth, phone (phablet and GPS plan C!), and all the accompanying cords and chargers my friend exclaims “Techno Pastor!” I laughed heartily with him as he named and exclaimed me appropriately! Apparently this “gadgety” look follows me everywhere because at a dance this past weekend, as I simply pulled out my phone, a friend of mine exclaims “Pastor Gadget!” All that is enough to make the point that I not only like my gadgets, I actually use them………..and “wuv dem, vewwy, vewwy MUCH!” Haha!
So, imagine my sadness on Superbowl Sunday (after my Ravens victory), when I couldn’t find my favorite Bluetooth and put it back in its special compartment that night! Grrrrrrrr… Where was it??? Slightly frustrated at that late hour of 2am (when I naturally become a “whiney baby”), I decided to be mature and go to sleep. “I’ll find it in the morning after I am rested!” No such luck! Grrrrrr...”Oh,where is my “favowit” Bluetooth?!” “Tim, get a hold of yourself, it is just a little Bluetooth and you have another…and another!” “I know but I want my ‘favowit’ one! Waaaaiillllll!! I don’t wanna use last years model – I want THAT one! Wah-wah-wah-boo-hoo!” After looking everywhere, even reaching out to those who had attended our Superbowl Party to see if it “accidentally” got placed into one of their bags before leaving our home (you know, one of those potentially thieving “friends” who probably liked it as much as me when they saw it! Hmmpf!), I finally KNEW where it was…and it grieved me to no end!
You see, before the Superbowl Game, I had gone to get snacks at the local Giant store. As I left the store I distinctly heard something hit the ground. I looked around, briefly, but didn’t see anything. I proceeded home and all was well – till I couldn’t find my Bluetooth at 2am! Thinking back, I thought, “I must have dropped it in the parking lot and failed to see it! Oh, no! I better rush over there NOW and see if it is still there – or shattered!” I rushed to that part of the parking lot where I remembered dropping something but, again, no luck. Plus, now all kinds of cars were there and surely it had gotten smashed (“Lord, can’t I at least see the remaining pieces of that tiny thing and pay last respects at the burial?! Pleeeeeease?!” Bawl….). Not a piece anywhere! “I know! It’s in the lost and found of the store, turned in by another wonderful gadget loving person!” Nope!!! Triple Grrrrr…
Heading home, defeated, I resigned………to buy another one just like it, RIGHT AWAY, the NEXT DAY! Ha!
It wasn’t to be! For some reason I felt convicted (while researching the Internet for another one) to quiet down, enjoy my “old, rotten Bluetooth’s representing last year’s model”, and to remember the complex financial challenges that had recently sprung up on our family over the past few weeks. That sobered me up right quick! I decided to let that tiny gadget go and trust Father for the more important things. I also decided to become quite “ungadgety” and just get quiet. No TV. No iPod. No CD’s. No radio. No nothin’! Just me, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Funny thing happened in that silence! As I prepared to go out on a quiet drive, I heard a “Whisper” – “Have you looked under your bed? Look under your bed!” There was such a certainty about the prodding I didn’t hesitate. Falling to my knees and lifting up the bed sheets I looked to the right. Nothing. Then I looked to the left and – Walla! Right in front of me my small, beautiful, darling, “favowit” Bluetooth! Yay!
It was a real come to Jesus moment! I KNEW Who had directed me and answered my prayer in that silence! Our relational God! No doubt! Talk about a “Holy Ghost” dance! It was on, as I SHOUTED “Thank You Abba Father! Thank You Jesus! Thank You Holy Spirit! HaHaHaHa! Go Jesus, Go Jesus!” I honestly had something akin to “butterflies”! After settling down from the shout came quiet and another “Whisper”. This time “She” said something like “If I care about you and your small Bluetooth, then surely I care about your bigger issues, too, right?! So, no more worrying for you cause I’ll handle the “small” stuff like your Bluetooth AND the “big” stuff like your finances, okay?!” Butterflies again!
Don’t you know that within one week of speaking to me in that way, one of those huge financial issues was solved in a creative and surprising way by this Relational God in and as Stunning Grace?!
My reason for sharing this encounter I had with the Father, Son and Spirit is to remind you that He doesn’t love you, me, or us, despite and apart from our weird idiosyncrasies, but in and through them (and you KNOW you’ve got some too! Ha!) He REALLY Loves, Likes, and addresses us, YOU, as Love, right in the middle of them! He is FREE, as Grace Himself, to meet and address us, YOU, personally, any and everywhere – and does! Period! As my friend Paul Young, author of “The Shack” says repeatedly “If anything matters, everything matters!” In my weirdness, gadgets matter (or at least are fun!….teehee…)
And, just as God the Trinity whispered His Love and Assurance to me in a small thing, perhaps, through me, He is whispering to you now (maybe even SHOUTING), “(Your Name), it is my privilege to meet you anywhere, even in the small seemingly insignificant things of your everyday life, as Love and Stunning Grace! So, no more worrying for you cause I’ll handle the “small” stuff like your _______________ and the “big” stuff like your ___________, okay?!” 🙂
Y(Our) Struggles Aren’t Against Flesh And Blood, Part 3
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Church, Gospel, Love, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, Sermons, Spiritual Warfare, The Plan of Adoption, Trinity | Tags: Christian Living, Church, Gospel, Jesus, Love, Perichoresis, Prayer, Relationships, Spiritual Warfare, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity
Leave a comment 12.09.23 Y(Our) Struggles Aren’t Against Flesh And Blood, Part 3 (Eph 6.10-20) – TAH
What if, in the Light of God the Trinity, spiritual warfare is actually God’s passionate Love and determination that all of His creatures know and experience Him as Jesus does? That would ultimately make spiritual warfare Good News since it is initiated by the Relational God Who IS good, acting personally and unceasingly to share His Love and Life with All creation! But in come the Doubter’s questions: Is God REALLY Good?, Can God really be trusted to be and do good?, Doesn’t God really have two minds about us all? And by the way, where is the hell we all know and love? From this message get a better definition of spiritual warfare and the REAL attacks going on!
Nascar Prayer
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Gospel, Prayer | Tags: Jesus, Perichoresis, Prayer, Trinity
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As I read Nan’s post on prayer last week I was reminded of three of my favorite prayers. These prayers speak clearly to me of how included our humanity is in the life of God the Father, Son and Spirit RIGHT NOW, in the humanity of Jesus the Son. They provoke me to remember that it is not so much that we have received Jesus into our lives but, in His Incarnation, was receiving us into Him and His Father’s Life in the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit. (2 Cor 13:14)
I hope they are of Gospel encouragement to you! I also hope that you will be able to see with greater clarity how included all people and every part of our humanity is involved in the rich and overflowing conversation of the triune God in our adoption.
O God, our Father, we remember at this time…
how the eternal Word became flesh and dwelt
among us. We thank you that Jesus took our
human body upon him, so that we can never again
dare to despise or neglect or misuse the body,
since you made it your dwelling-place.We thank you that Jesus did a day’s work like
any working-man, that he knew the problem of
living together as a family, that he knew the
frustration and irritation of (being in the public eye),
that he had to earn a living, and to face all the
wearing routine of everyday work and life and living,
and so clothed each common task with glory.We thank you that he shared in all happy social
occasions, that he was at home at weddings and
at dinners and at festivals in the homes of ordinary
people like ourselves. Grant that we may ever remember
that in his unseen presence he is a guest in every home.We thank you that he knew what friendship means,
that he had his own circle of men whom he wanted to
be with him, that he knew too what it means to be
let down, to suffer from disloyalty and from
the failure of love.We thank you that he too had to bear
unfair criticism, prejudiced
opposition, malicious and deliberate
misunderstanding.We thank you that whatever happens to us,
he has been there before,
and that, because he himself has
gone through things, he is able
to help those who are going
through them.Help us never to forget that he knows life,
because he lived life, and that he is with
us at all times to enable us
to live victoriously.This we ask for your love’s sake, Amen.
—From Prayers for the Christian Year, by William Barclay
“We are always praying, when we are doing our duty and turning it into a work for God.” He added that among the things which we should regard as spiritual in this sense are our household or professional work, the social duties of our station, friendly visits, kind actions and small courtesies, and also necessary recreation of body and of mind; so long as we link these by intention with God and the great movement of his Will.
—From The Spiritual Life by Evelyn Underhill
And this is one of my favorite modern prayers that you just have to see and experience in living video action:
Feel free to share other creative prayers like these with others of our brothers and sisters in this world as you have opportunity in the bubbling over love of the Trinity!
In the name of the Name of the Father, Son and Spirit,
~ Timothy J. Brassell
Do Our Prayers Really Matter?
Filed under: By Nan Kuhlman, Relationships, Uncategorized | Tags: 90 Minutes in Heaven, Bob Woodruff, Don Piper, healing, Prayer, Primetime
Comments (10) On the ABC news program “Primetime: Beyond Belief,” reporter Bob Woodruff discussed what happens after death by sharing his own near-death experience and interviewing others who had died and come back to life 
. One of those interviewed was Don Piper, a Baptist minister who died during a car/truck crash in Texas in 1989. After being declared dead for 90 minutes by paramedics, Piper came back to life and later wrote about what he saw in the bestselling book, “90 Minutes in Heaven” (http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/beyondbelief/describing-heaven-pastor-don-piper-pronounced-dead/story?id=14214140).
While what Piper reported he saw in heaven is inspiring, I’m more interested in the way he came back to life. Dick Onarecker and his wife were driving by the wreckage when he felt the urgent need to pray for whoever was in the car. He and his wife stopped, began praying, then started singing the hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” Soon a voice from the wreckage, that of Don Piper, began singing along with them.
Did the prayers of the Onareckers change God’s mind? Or had God decided that Don Piper would live, and simply allowed a passerby and his wife to participate with him in raising the dead? Why didn’t God do the same for Dick Onarecker, rather than letting him die in 1996 at a relatively young age of 52?
To understand better our part in prayer, let’s consider the Canaanite woman who had a demon-possessed daughter in Matthew 15:
Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”
23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment (Matt 15:21-28 NIV).
What can we learn from these two examples where people prayed in what seemed to be hopeless situations? First, we have to be willing to try. It would have been easy for Dick Onarecker to look at the terrible wreckage and decide that no one could survive. It would have been understandable for the Canaanite woman to give up since it was unlikely that she had ever seen anyone healed of a demon-possession. Yet these people were willing to pray and ask for help despite the overwhelming circumstances they saw.
Next, healing power does not come from us and is not dependent on our personal righteousness or faith. The power to heal comes from the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who move as they lovingly see fit for each situation. The Triune God chooses to work incarnationally through the requests of regular human beings just like us.
Lastly, we have to accept that the situation we pray about may or may not be resolved in the way we think is best. As parents, we understand that even though our children ask us for many things, sometimes what they want would not be in their best interests. The perspective the Triune God has over our lives is infinitely bigger and better than ours is, so we need to understand that sometimes our prayers will not be answered with a “yes.” Yet the possibility of a “no” should not hinder our willingness to ask.
The examples of Dick Onarecker and the Canaanite mother can inspire us to step out boldly in prayer, knowing that our loving God is always listening.
~by Nan Kuhlman
~photos courtesy of ABC News.com;
Baker Publishing Group; Don Piper
Prayers Today for GCI
Filed under: By Jonathan Stepp, Christian Living, Grace Communion International, Love, Relationships, Trinity | Tags: Church, Daily Office, Jesus, Prayer, Trinity
Comments (8) Many of our brothers and sisters in the Church will be praying for Grace Communion International (G.C.I.) today.
Go to this link: http://www.missionstclare.com/english/November/morning/23m.html
Then, scroll down the frame on the left side until you see the link labeled “Denominational Cycle of Prayer.” Click that link and be blessed!
Renewing My Brain Cells
Filed under: Bible, By John Stonecypher, Christian Living, Gospel, Trinity | Tags: Bible, Christian Living, Church, Jesus, Perichoresis, Prayer, Spiritual Disciplines, Trinity
Comments (3) I have spent much of my lifetime drowning in an ocean of toxic core beliefs.
Nowadays, I’m investing a lot of effort into swimming toward the beach. I am working to change my core beliefs. This has been difficult, because my most toxic beliefs are so deeply embedded in my psyche, they are sub-conscious and seemingly immovable.
A little brain science: Each time a connection between neurons fires, that connection gets thicker.
Although thoughts/beliefs are complex and involve many factors, one of the biggest factors is repetition. The strength of a belief is partly determined by how often that belief/thought is repeated in the mind.
Physiologically speaking, my toxic beliefs are among the first neural connections ever made in my brain, and those connections have been firing (and therefore strengthening) several times a day for decades. They are the physically thickest connections in my brain. My new, healthy beliefs (which come from my new, healthy theology) are composed of neural connections that are unthinkably thin and fragile.
Through my union with the incarnate Christ, I have been given a share in the Holy Spirit’s multi-layered task of transforming me by renewing my mind.
At the cellular level, this means wearing down and eventually breaking the thick neural connections (the toxic core beliefs), and thickening and strengthening the new connections (the healthy core beliefs).
A large part of this task is, again, repetition. The Christian spiritual formation tradition is full of varied ways to work gospel repetition into your life. Prayer, Meditation, Study, Fellowship, Confession, Thanksgiving, Preaching, Fasting, Acts of Mercy, Submission, Celebration—At the cellular level, these are all simple ways for your mind and body to repeatedly think and act the truth of the gospel.
When viewed this way, I think spiritual disciplines actually start to make sense.
~ John Stonecypher