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Posts Tagged ‘Prayer’

When Wings Make Flight

Posted in Church, Holy Spirit, Prayer, tagged , , , on March 21, 2012| 4 Comments »

The most wonderous and perhaps the most hazardous period in a bird’s life is when it first learns to fly. Given wings by the Creator a bird is meant to fly. Yet in those first few days of flight a young bird is liable to find itself on the ground stranded and within reach of cats and other animals that are more likely to swallow it than help it back up into a tree.  New believers are a lot like those young birds.  Entering a life changing relationship with the Lord gives us wings and prompts us to desire flight.  But it is dangerous to believe we are ready for all the world, the flesh, and the devil are going to throw at us now that we are on God’s side opposing them.  We must realize that becoming a believer in Jesus Christ means we are at war.  The verse, “the devil prowls like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour” certainly applies and new believers are his particular target.  Knowing this to be true and having a daughter who is enthusiastically embracing her newfound faith, I thought it would be appropriate to share a few keys that I have learned about flying the flight God created us to fly.

As in many list of “To Do’s” the following will be categorized into what I understand are 1) Must Do, 2) Ought to Do, and 3) Nice to Do.  I encourage you to ask the Lord to highlight to you which of these you need to prioritize more or less.

MUST DO

1) Get an easy to understand bible and dive in.  I read several translations, but I recommend getting one that has a fair amount of scholarship behind it like the NIV or NASB.  While all the bible is “God-breathed” (See 2 Tim 3:16) the gospels are the best place to start.  Get to know Jesus, our Saviour and Lord.  After the Gospels I would move through the New Testament before tackling large portions of the Old Testament.  I have gone through Psalms and Proverbs a number of times reading small sections each day with longer readings from the New Testament. 

2) Since the bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit ask the Holy Spirit to give you understanding as you read.  It is His story and He wants you to understand and apply it to your life.  Take time to think about what the Word of God is saying.  This time of meditating upon the Word should be intentional.  A time to quietly talk to God and listen for Him to speak through His Word is a vital element in our life.

3) Talk with God.  When we are His, God says He will never leave us or forsake us.  Take time to begin to converse with Him.  This will begin with our talking… most of the time.  But be aware that He will impress truths from the bible upon your heart.  That is one of the ways He communes with us.  There are many types of prayer: adoration where we simply glory in Who God is, supplication where we lay our needs before Him, intercession where we lift up the needs of others, confession where we open our hearts to God and pour out the dirty laundry of our lives and ask His forgiveness.  All of these have their time.  But every day set aside time to just talk with the Lord.  And whenever you think of Him offer up a word of thanks.

4) Find a local body of believers and join them.  The Church was God’s idea.  He calls the Church His bride.  Therefore we should joyfully seek out a faithful, bible-believing, gospel-living church and join.  As in all our decisions after we become believers we should ask Him to guide us.  Sadly not all churches are faithful or bible-believing, or gospel-living.  Steer clear of those churches.  The Lord wants you to be plugged in and nurtured so He will guide your steps.

5) Give.  Jesus is our model… He GAVE His life for us.  God is our model… He GAVE His only begotten Son.  We are encouraged to give over and over.  I suggest reading about giving and tithing then praying for God’s guidance in this area.  Jesus talked about money more than prayer.  I think it is because money and how we handle it are a much clearer indicator of the condition of our heart than whether we pray or not.  Prayer comes easily and in a way it is usually doesn’t cost much.  Tithing always costs us, but the growth of our faith is assured when we tithe trusting in God to provide.

OUGHT TO DO

7) Get plugged into a small group.  This may happen through your association with a local church, but if not then seek out a group of believers who share your faith and a lot of your interests.  If there is a co-worker, a neighbor, or friend who exemplifies the faith you want to have, ask them if they know of any small groups that might accept a new person.  As in seeking a church to join, pray for the Lord to help you land in the right place. 

8) Seek ways to minister to others.  I am not talking about immediately getting a guitar and beginning street evangelism.  I am saying take an inventory of your giftedness (and God has given everyone at least one gift and usually more than one) and offer it up to God.  The list of ways to minister is just about limitless.  To minister is to simply find ways to reach out and help others in Jesus name. 

9) There are 3 types of individuals that everyone should have in their life – a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy or in other words a Mentor, a Friend and Peer, and a young protegé. 

Paul in the bible was a leader in the early church and wrote many of the New Testament epistles.  One of the characteristics of Paul’s life was that He took a few individuals under His wing and acted as a mentor to these younger believers.  So a Paul is a mature believer who can mentor you. 

Barnabas was a peer with Paul.  Barnabas was known as an encourager.  He acted as an intermediary in a personality clash between believers and helped bring reconciliation.  So a Barnabas is a friend and peer in the faith.

Timothy was one of the young men that Paul mentored.  He was following in Paul’s footsteps although he seemed to lack a lot of Paul’s confidence early on.  Two of the epistles are actually letters from Paul to Timothy where Paul exhorts Timothy in the work of the church.  Timothy is a young believer that you can pour into from what God has given you.

A word of caution here as I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me – these should be persons of the same sex as you.  If you are male these persons should be male and if you are female then they should be female.

10) Practice spiritual introspection.  Those are fancy words that simply mean you ask God to reveal things in your life that need to change and then, with His help, you change them.  If you are doing the things mentioned above; reading the Word, Praying, having Godly fellowship then these will come up sooner rather than later.  I was intentional about this early in my walk and there were several things that I realized did not fit with the new person that I had become.  The bible says we are a “new creation”.  It is incongruous to be a new creation and walk in the same old sin.  You will not know lasting peace until you go through this.  In reality you will still have deep-rooted things to address later as you mature, so you might as well get started early.

11) Ask God to fill you with His Holy Spirit.  This is closely related to the item above.  I would rather put this in the must do list, but…

I am a strong-willed person.  That can be positive and negative.  In the positive, when I commit to something I am going to fulfill my commitment.  In the negative, I can go good places that God did not intend for me to go.  I have realized that I must be submitted to God completely, even to the point of giving Him authority over my will.  When we are born again His Holy Spirit is placed within us.  However the Holy Spirit is a gentleman.  He does not dominate or dictate.  He moves and fills what we give over to Him.  I realized I wanted the Holy Spirit to fill all of me.  That is my continual prayer… God have your way in me completely.  Holy Spirit fill me completely.  He has transformed much of me and I anxiously await His continuing work in me.  I urge new believers to begin this transformation. 

NICE TO DO

12) Begin reading good literature.  CS Lewis is my favorite author.  There are outstanding thinkers and there are outstanding writers.  CS Lewis was one of the greatest of both.  There is a plethora of great things to read that edify the mind and spirit.  I encourage you to read deeply of the godly authors and classic literature.

13) Begin listening to uplifting music.  There is an area of our soul that music touches that talks, sermons, and writings can’t quite reach.  Music that glorifies God is a balm that soothes the spirit.  While my personal preference is contemporary christian music, there is much that does not specifically fall under that genre that can still be refreshing and uplifting.  For both of these two follow the admonition of Philippians 4:8, “Fix your thought on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.  This about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

14) Get fit.  The bible says our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  We should treat that temple as something special.  Diet, exercise, and getting out of addictive and hurtful habits should become our goal.  While this may have the same end result physically as getting in shape for vanity reasons, it is radically different.  We don’t look good for others to admire.  We are fit because we are made in God’s image and we are special to Him.

15) Work diligently.  As Christians we reflect on our Lord.  If we are poor workers then we give people a bad impression of the Lord.  Paul admonishes us to “work as unto the Lord.”  We should be the top performers where we work because we have reasons to have a great attitude, we are empowered by God’s Holy Spirit, and we know that God’s got our back.

These are 15 areas that I have found as helpful in my walk with Christ.  Even as I wrap up I can think of other helpful steps, but for now these will do.  Please send comments with the steps that you found most needful when you first came to faith in Jesus.  I would love to hear from you.

Take care and God Bless.

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Prayer, Power to Transform

Posted in God Stories, Prayer, tagged , , , , on March 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Why do we pray?  The first time we pray is usually based upon our need and our inability to fulfill that need.  It is a cry for help not unlike an infant who can do nothing for themself and must have someone else tend to all their needs.  However just like that infant that grows and matures, so to our prayer, or more correctly our life, should grow and mature as we continue to live connected to God our heavenly Father.  I believe the most important purpose of prayer is not the fulfillment of our specific prayer needs, but transformation.  The consistent, progressive development of the mind of Christ.  2Corinthian 3:18 says, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

Prayer is our on-going communication with God who is our Father.  For me the imagery of God as Father is full and rich as I was blessed with a wonderful dad who loved, taught, corrected, coached, and poured life into us all the while looking toward the day when I would be a man and father in my own right.  While not everyone is fortunate enough to have an earthly father who modeled traits that forshadowed our heavenly Father, that does not limit God.  The bible also says He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother and He is a wonderful counselor.  The point is that God is able to meet us wherever we are and relate to us in a manner that begins the transformation process inside us.  That process begins as we begin that conversation with Him called prayer.

Before going further I want to point out that I am not making light of the many other purposes of prayer such as intercession for the needs of others, prayer for guidance, prayers of praise and adoration, etc.  In fact I believe that all of these carry within them the ability to transform us and others.  There was a time when I was engaged in a focused period of prayer with 2 – 3 others for an hour early every morning.  One day after leaving the Prayer Tower and going to work I was flushed with the joy that comes from spending quality time with the Father and other believers.  A little later that morning one of the admin assistants, Chris, asked me if I knew a young man who had worked at the mill.  It turns out the young man, Tim, had felt called to missions and was in Singapore with his new wife and they had just found out he had lukemia with no money and few good options.  I immediately said I didn’t know Tim, but I knew Tim’s Father and that we should go to Him and ask for Him to heal Tim.  We prayed right there and I was totally confident that God heard.  A few weeks later Chris stopped me and told me Tim had gotten to the Philipines and they were planning a procedure which among other things meant he would never be able to have children.  Well we prayed again including asking that the Lord would not make Tim unable to father children.  God answered those prayers over time.  Tim was healed, he was not sterile, he is a father now, and he continues to minister.  I never met Tim personally and I know my prayer was joined with many others in interceding for this young man and his wife.  However I know this on-going prayer with the Father helped build faith for me, for Chris, and for Tim and his family.

I have heard people say that God answers prayer with a “Yes”, a “No”, or “Wait”.  I know for a while I suscribed to this simplified explanation and on a rudimentary level that can be applied.  However this simplification of prayer tends to reinforce a picture of God as Santa Claus… “Yes, here is your present”, “No, this is not your present”, or “Wait it’s not your turn for a present”.  In our early days of walking with Him God may seem more like Santa – a distant, benevolent giver of gifts, but in reality He is so much more.  And He wants us to become so much more than consumers of gifts.  His goal is that we become obediant loving children who are being changed into the likeness of His Son, Jesus.

While yes, no, and wait may apply it is always accompanied with a conversation – if we are still and take time to listen.  I’ve just had a major decision come up.  I have been praying for guidance and asking a few close friends to join with me in seeking God’s will.  Well the answer came, but it was wrapped in a conversation with the One who loves me more than I can even imagine.  While I am happy to have a clear answer, my joy is even greater that I am a child of God Who is intimately involved in my life.  And even better He is continuously working in my life to transform me.  I know I am still far from where God is taking me.  Those who know me well can still see plenty of work for God to do, but He is making progress.  And so it is with all of us.  God wants to work in us, He wants to converse with us.  He wants to love us in tangible ways that we can see, feel, and hear.

I encourage you to take time to just tell God what’s on your heart today.  He already knows but He likes to hear it from you.  As you pour this out read His word and listen for His voice.  He will speak life into you.  He will transform your places of pain into places of victory because He loves you!

Be blessed and be a blessing.

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Is it Real?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on February 13, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Some of the things young children innocently come up with can be rather amusing… and poignant too. When our oldest daughter was young she fairly quickly grasped the meaning of the word REAL. However for some reason she got it in her mind that the opposite of real was not FAKE but rather PLASTIC. Her world was divided into that which was real and anything that wasn’t real was plastic. When she was 5 years old we took her and her 2-year-old little brother to King’s Island in Cincinnati. Not too long after we entered the park I heard Rhiannon squeal and shout, “Look it’s a Smurf” To which we all hurried over to meet the Smurf. I have pictures of Rhiannon and Jonathan hugging the Smurf. As the Smurf walked away I heard Rhiannon tell her little brother, “See, I told you we’d see something REAL!”

This morning as I think about that time I still chuckle remembering the earnestness in her voice. In her mind she had just met a REAL cartoon character and that was about the coolest thing ever.  I realize that my perspective as her father allowed me to see the reality of the person inside in a Smurf outfit. What was REAL was the person doing whatever they could to earn a living. Using Rhiannon’s own lingo of the time, the Smurf was really just PLASTIC, a facade of a character put on for an occasion.

You know our Heavenly Father sees perfectly.  He understands that we sometimes put on our Smurf suits to do whatever we can to get by.  We feel we won’t be accepted or taken seriously or loved if we don’t act / look / think a certain way.  We try to become something else other than who we are created to be.  The who we are created to be is a child of the King – a beloved daughter or son of the Lord God.  Unfortunately this truth is often hidden or, if perceived, hard to hold on to.  But it is a truth that God wants us all to know and to share.

As I write this I realize there are two groups of persons who may read this.  First are those who feel this way and struggle to gain an accurate picture of who God is and how valuable they are to Him.  Jesus specifically reaching out to them, speaking to them is hard to believe.  And yet that is the truth of all truths.  God loves you unconditionally.  He willingly died in your place so that you could be made whole.  Second are those who know this truth as a settled fact.  This group is responsible to live out the reality that God is REAL, His love is REAl, and our purpose is to know Him and make Him known.

My prayer today is that you gain and hold a clear picture of God and His transformative love for you.  That God speak to your deepest need and that you respond to the REALity of who He is and what He asks of you.  And that you find yourself wrapped in His love walking out your days in His peace and joy.

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The Beginning

Posted in Prayer, tagged , , on May 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

A group of friends from work decided to commit to one another to pray for our company and co-workers.  This blog is an outcome from that effort.  While this began as a Lenten discipline leading up to Easter 2011, several of us found so much encouragement in the shared journey that we have decided to continue to pray with and for one another.  Below is the initial posting that we shared.  I will also add a few other posts from that time, but for the most part I will share new material.

I have no idea who else might read this, but I hope that whoever joins us will either be encouraged in their walk with Christ or will be intrigued to enough to seek the One that we acknowledge as God Incarnate – Jesus Christ. 

This is our first posting from March 9

Good Day to You,

A few weeks ago as I was praying, I sensed that I was to make a special prayer effort during the lead up to Easter.  I am going to be more specific about praying for our company, or more precisely the persons within our company in their many different places and needs.  As I have allowed the idea to take shape I have thought of each of you.  I am asking you to consider partnering with me in this season of prayer.  This will begin Wednesday, March 9 and go through Easter.

Since I accepted this “nudge” from the Lord, several things have occurred which give me specific items to pray for.  The CP machine shutdown and the many persons affected by it…The announcements of significant amounts of other market downtime which reflects the difficult markets we live in…Labor -Management discord at several of our sites with P and FF being two with very specific needs at this moment…Health struggles by some of our co-workers…And over all this is the continual need of many that we work with to know the love and forgiveness that our Father offers in and through His Son, Jesus.

Here is what I am planning to do and I offer it up to you as potential ideas for you to consider.

I am going to pray a hedge of protection around the persons working in our company that they would be safe and live lives that bring them to meet Jesus…before it is too late.
I will pray for the leaders of our company and our mills, that they would have the wisdom and guidance to make good decisions.  
I will pray for those who are experiencing life disruptions because of the difficult work situations such as mill closings or multiplied workloads.  As many of you have probably seen, these life disruptions are often the mechanism the Lord uses to get our eyes on Him.
I am going to lift up the persons within the company who are battling illness, difficulty, and loss.
I will lift up my brothers and sisters in the Lord that we might be faithful, consistent, obedient children of our heavenly Father.
There will be times when this prayer is combined with fasting.  (This is completely dependent upon each individual and what they are able and feel lead to do.)

I do not want this to feel in any way like compulsion on my part.  If this is not something you are comfortable with, I respect and accept that.  This is going out as a blind copy initially since some of us will likely not be in a position to commit to this at this time.

I do not mind you asking others if they would like to participate, however I do have a couple of specific requests.  First, I believe that I, and whoever participates, must be respectful of our company’s rules and guidelines (to the extent they do not violate a clear writ of scripture).  That being the case, this will probably be the only e-mail sent during normal work hours.  In the future I will post in the evenings or early morning.  I would ask that you not let this activity interfere with your work either.  Second, I would ask that you prayerfully consider before you invite someone else to join.  This endeavor is specifically for mature believers.  

In closing I want to share a scripture that really impacted me the other day.  I bought a very small bible for traveling so I can have it with me at all times.  It is an NLT translation.  The verse is from 1 Corintians 4:20  For the kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.  That is my prayer today for each of us, that people can see the kingdom of God in our lives because we are living by His power.

Have a blessed day!

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