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Showing posts with label Lord's Prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lord's Prayer. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 19, 2013


    Is 55:10-11

Thus says the LORD:
Just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
And do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
Giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
So shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
It shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.

Ps 34:4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 18-19
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.

Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.

The LORD has eyes for the just,
and ears for their cry.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.

When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.

Gospel Mt 6:7-15
Jesus said to his disciples:
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

“This is how you are to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

“If you forgive men their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”


Talking to God:

One of the most difficult and yet most wonderful and amazing things about the Christian faith is the belief that we can talk to God and He hears us.  Throughout scripture we told over and over that God hears the prayers of his people and that he responds.

Now there are times in scripture when he seems not to respond.  Particularly we see this non-answering God when Israel and Judah became a “stiff necked people”.  When there is obvious and un-confronted sin in their, in our,  lives, it created a separation between God and his people and he says “I cannot hear you,”  “I turn my eyes away” or worse he ‘sees’ and he takes action but not in a way that seems at the moment to be good at the moment, but in the end, draws the people back to repentance.
Other times, we see like in Daniel life when he prayed fervently and the prayer was slow in being answered because of the opposition from the enemy.

God and his Word are inseparably linked and that Word is more than a construction of letters that make sense to us.  The opening chapter of John is a most incredible revelation, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God”.  In the following verses of that 1 chapter of John we see that, that Word was the very source of the Creation in Genesis 1.

If I am honest, many times when I pray – or have times when I don’t – I have forgotten too whom it is that I speak.  Prayer has become common place – at meals, at the openings of events, in pre-ordained spots and times in our services that it comes mundane – and more ritual and habit than it is encounter.
We’ve been going through the ‘Story’ at church – it’s a sermon series that covers the main stories of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and highlights the upper story of God and the lower story of humankinds journey.  This past week was focusing on Daniel and his friends being taken from Israel as young men and growing to be old men in captivity in Babylon.  One verse stands out that explains their ability to stand in the face of all the oppositions of fiery furnaces and lions dens and other life and faith threatening events.  “Daniel resolved in his heart not to defile him with the Kings table”.  We know that this was more than just an issue of food and drink for Daniel and his friends – it is repeated in Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

We see in today’s readings that God’s Word is neither void nor empty – His Word is full of purpose and reason.   He hears the cries and the words of His people when they come humble and broken-hearted and not filled with pride and sin.
Psa 24:3-5
Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

If you’re like me when you hear the words of the Psalmist, I wonder, how can I ascend that hill or stand in His holy place?  Then I remember the wonderful words of Hebrews 4:15-17

 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.  Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

I am not the one without sin, He is.  My boldness and my ability to come and speak directly to God through no mediation are because of righteousness and holiness are not mine, but of His.

We constantly need to keep the promise God makes to us squarely in our hearts and minds “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”  - I need that daily remembrance, moment by moment, not as a get out of jail free card – it is a get our out of jail card, but it certainly isn’t free.  My, our, ability to speak boldly and free to God and know that He hears us comes at a great and terrible cost – the crucifixion.
This week is the beginning of lent in the Christian calendar – the of Body of Christ remembers together the events of our Lord and Saviour as he turned his face toward Jerusalem and began to make that journey toward the Cross with full knowledge of the pain and anguish that awaited him there.  Yet, so that we may be able to pray and that God our Father would hear and respond to us – he did not turn away.

1.    When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
2.    Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
3.    See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
4.    Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
 
Closing Prayer:
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. A-men

Anyway, I was just thinking.
Neil

A God who hears

Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 8:53 am · by Neil · in , , , , , , No comments


    Is 55:10-11

Thus says the LORD:
Just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
And do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
Giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
So shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
It shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.

Ps 34:4-5, 6-7, 16-17, 18-19
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.

Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.

The LORD has eyes for the just,
and ears for their cry.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.

When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.

Gospel Mt 6:7-15
Jesus said to his disciples:
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

“This is how you are to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

“If you forgive men their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”


Talking to God:

One of the most difficult and yet most wonderful and amazing things about the Christian faith is the belief that we can talk to God and He hears us.  Throughout scripture we told over and over that God hears the prayers of his people and that he responds.

Now there are times in scripture when he seems not to respond.  Particularly we see this non-answering God when Israel and Judah became a “stiff necked people”.  When there is obvious and un-confronted sin in their, in our,  lives, it created a separation between God and his people and he says “I cannot hear you,”  “I turn my eyes away” or worse he ‘sees’ and he takes action but not in a way that seems at the moment to be good at the moment, but in the end, draws the people back to repentance.
Other times, we see like in Daniel life when he prayed fervently and the prayer was slow in being answered because of the opposition from the enemy.

God and his Word are inseparably linked and that Word is more than a construction of letters that make sense to us.  The opening chapter of John is a most incredible revelation, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God”.  In the following verses of that 1 chapter of John we see that, that Word was the very source of the Creation in Genesis 1.

If I am honest, many times when I pray – or have times when I don’t – I have forgotten too whom it is that I speak.  Prayer has become common place – at meals, at the openings of events, in pre-ordained spots and times in our services that it comes mundane – and more ritual and habit than it is encounter.
We’ve been going through the ‘Story’ at church – it’s a sermon series that covers the main stories of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and highlights the upper story of God and the lower story of humankinds journey.  This past week was focusing on Daniel and his friends being taken from Israel as young men and growing to be old men in captivity in Babylon.  One verse stands out that explains their ability to stand in the face of all the oppositions of fiery furnaces and lions dens and other life and faith threatening events.  “Daniel resolved in his heart not to defile him with the Kings table”.  We know that this was more than just an issue of food and drink for Daniel and his friends – it is repeated in Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

We see in today’s readings that God’s Word is neither void nor empty – His Word is full of purpose and reason.   He hears the cries and the words of His people when they come humble and broken-hearted and not filled with pride and sin.
Psa 24:3-5
Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

If you’re like me when you hear the words of the Psalmist, I wonder, how can I ascend that hill or stand in His holy place?  Then I remember the wonderful words of Hebrews 4:15-17

 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.  Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

I am not the one without sin, He is.  My boldness and my ability to come and speak directly to God through no mediation are because of righteousness and holiness are not mine, but of His.

We constantly need to keep the promise God makes to us squarely in our hearts and minds “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”  - I need that daily remembrance, moment by moment, not as a get out of jail free card – it is a get our out of jail card, but it certainly isn’t free.  My, our, ability to speak boldly and free to God and know that He hears us comes at a great and terrible cost – the crucifixion.
This week is the beginning of lent in the Christian calendar – the of Body of Christ remembers together the events of our Lord and Saviour as he turned his face toward Jerusalem and began to make that journey toward the Cross with full knowledge of the pain and anguish that awaited him there.  Yet, so that we may be able to pray and that God our Father would hear and respond to us – he did not turn away.

1.    When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
2.    Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
3.    See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
4.    Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
 
Closing Prayer:
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. A-men

Anyway, I was just thinking.
Neil

Monday, December 06, 2010

The first candle is the candle of hope which we talked about last Monday. This past Sunday many churches lit this candle to reflection on the Way.   When I hear "the way' the words that springs to mind are those of Christ
“I am the way, the truth, and the Life, if anyone comes unto the Father, he must come through me” Jn 14:6

Without question, this is the most polarizing claim in the world. Many would want to deny Christ ever made this statement. It is a most inconvenient truth. For us, as followers of Christ, the wonder of Christmas does not make sense without the truth and reality of Easter. I thought we’d reflect a few moments on this claim of Christ.

The Way:

Jesus says HE is THE WAY – a way is a road – hence ‘roadway’. He could equally have said I am the only path, or I am the one way street. It’s a claim that no other route can, or will ever, exists.

Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved”.

While many would fight and hate these words, what is truly remarkable, is that ‘any’ way has been provided by or to God. There is A WAY, we can know Him, we can find Him, in fact, He himself searches for us when we have lost THE WAY (the 99 and 1).

The Christmas Season is our worship and praise to God for that the gift. Christ opens the way to God, free, grace filled and accessible to all. In Christ is the greatest of inclusion strategies.

The Truth:

Jesus is not saying “I’m telling you a truth”, or even pointing to the Truth – He is declaring of Himself that He Himself is THE TRUTH. Join this with the prologue of the Gospel of John, “In the beginning was the WORD and the WORD was with God and the WORD was God”. John goes on to say “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that was made”.

Truth exists and can be known, because He exists and is knowable. Reality itself has no substance, no ability to remain in existence apart from the very TRUTH of Christ. X-files claimed – the truth is out there – with the coming of the Holy Spirit, the truth is not ‘out there’, it’s within us! God with us – Immanuel.

The Life:

Jesus says He is Zoe – It’s more than Jesus offering a life – He is offering the source of all life. It is greater than earthly temporal life, it is an eternal – never beginning, never ending in the presence of God life. In Christ is all Being. Christ is not all beings, but all beings owe their existence to Him. One of the greatest miracles and great gifts of God, that is not often considered, is the gift of self-determination, of choice, of being able to exist in oneself. But this does not mean that I exist ‘by’ my self. I did not choice to exist. I can choice to reject God and still temporally exist. I have life, which I did not will into existence, but through Christ I know have Zoe life.

It’s one of the things that I wonder if changed when Adam and Eve was removed from the Garden. Adam and Eve were not created to die – that comes later. When we receive Christ’s Being into our being, although our body self dies, our spiritual self continues. However, in the culmination of time God rejoins our spirit and body self. When we receive the life of Christ, the Holy Spirit brings Zoe life back into our bodies that where born into trespasses and sin. It why Paul can say

“Oh death where is they sting, Oh hell where is thy victory, the sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is law, but thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ "  1 Cor 15:55-57

If anyone comes to the Father

Whosoever will may come unto the Father. However to come to the Father means we give up the possibility that in ourselves is a way, a truth, or a life. It means we reject that these things can be found anywhere or in anyone else.  You are not required to come to the Father – but He calls, He pleads, He dies in order to woo you and I. Scripture tells us in numerous places that God considers us his bride, his lover, his children – it is His desire that all would be saved, and that none would perish.   However, for now the door is open, the way has been made clear, the invitations have been sent. It is up to each to receive and answer, each according to their own will.

Must come through me

This is where the WAY becomes very narrow. These words are either the most delightful or the most terrible. They are met with wonder and praise, or hatred and fear. Upon these words hinge every being, every life, from the greatest and most powerful, to the weakest and most vulnerable. These words make this candle we light a blazing sword that pierces the darkness – or an invader that threatens and must be attacked and if possible destroyed.  1 John tells us, greater is He that is in us, than is in the world – His Light will overcome all.

As we reflect on this Candle, let us recite the Lord’s Prayer together.

Anyway, I was just thinking…

Neil

Second Candle of Advent: The Way

Monday, December 06, 2010 at 3:20 pm · by Neil · in , , No comments

The first candle is the candle of hope which we talked about last Monday. This past Sunday many churches lit this candle to reflection on the Way.   When I hear "the way' the words that springs to mind are those of Christ
“I am the way, the truth, and the Life, if anyone comes unto the Father, he must come through me” Jn 14:6

Without question, this is the most polarizing claim in the world. Many would want to deny Christ ever made this statement. It is a most inconvenient truth. For us, as followers of Christ, the wonder of Christmas does not make sense without the truth and reality of Easter. I thought we’d reflect a few moments on this claim of Christ.

The Way:

Jesus says HE is THE WAY – a way is a road – hence ‘roadway’. He could equally have said I am the only path, or I am the one way street. It’s a claim that no other route can, or will ever, exists.

Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved”.

While many would fight and hate these words, what is truly remarkable, is that ‘any’ way has been provided by or to God. There is A WAY, we can know Him, we can find Him, in fact, He himself searches for us when we have lost THE WAY (the 99 and 1).

The Christmas Season is our worship and praise to God for that the gift. Christ opens the way to God, free, grace filled and accessible to all. In Christ is the greatest of inclusion strategies.

The Truth:

Jesus is not saying “I’m telling you a truth”, or even pointing to the Truth – He is declaring of Himself that He Himself is THE TRUTH. Join this with the prologue of the Gospel of John, “In the beginning was the WORD and the WORD was with God and the WORD was God”. John goes on to say “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that was made”.

Truth exists and can be known, because He exists and is knowable. Reality itself has no substance, no ability to remain in existence apart from the very TRUTH of Christ. X-files claimed – the truth is out there – with the coming of the Holy Spirit, the truth is not ‘out there’, it’s within us! God with us – Immanuel.

The Life:

Jesus says He is Zoe – It’s more than Jesus offering a life – He is offering the source of all life. It is greater than earthly temporal life, it is an eternal – never beginning, never ending in the presence of God life. In Christ is all Being. Christ is not all beings, but all beings owe their existence to Him. One of the greatest miracles and great gifts of God, that is not often considered, is the gift of self-determination, of choice, of being able to exist in oneself. But this does not mean that I exist ‘by’ my self. I did not choice to exist. I can choice to reject God and still temporally exist. I have life, which I did not will into existence, but through Christ I know have Zoe life.

It’s one of the things that I wonder if changed when Adam and Eve was removed from the Garden. Adam and Eve were not created to die – that comes later. When we receive Christ’s Being into our being, although our body self dies, our spiritual self continues. However, in the culmination of time God rejoins our spirit and body self. When we receive the life of Christ, the Holy Spirit brings Zoe life back into our bodies that where born into trespasses and sin. It why Paul can say

“Oh death where is they sting, Oh hell where is thy victory, the sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is law, but thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ "  1 Cor 15:55-57

If anyone comes to the Father

Whosoever will may come unto the Father. However to come to the Father means we give up the possibility that in ourselves is a way, a truth, or a life. It means we reject that these things can be found anywhere or in anyone else.  You are not required to come to the Father – but He calls, He pleads, He dies in order to woo you and I. Scripture tells us in numerous places that God considers us his bride, his lover, his children – it is His desire that all would be saved, and that none would perish.   However, for now the door is open, the way has been made clear, the invitations have been sent. It is up to each to receive and answer, each according to their own will.

Must come through me

This is where the WAY becomes very narrow. These words are either the most delightful or the most terrible. They are met with wonder and praise, or hatred and fear. Upon these words hinge every being, every life, from the greatest and most powerful, to the weakest and most vulnerable. These words make this candle we light a blazing sword that pierces the darkness – or an invader that threatens and must be attacked and if possible destroyed.  1 John tells us, greater is He that is in us, than is in the world – His Light will overcome all.

As we reflect on this Candle, let us recite the Lord’s Prayer together.

Anyway, I was just thinking…

Neil

Thursday, April 09, 2009



Maybe you are thinking that because we have gotten to the end of the prayer the pressure is finally off. Honestly, I did too. I was ready to rattle off the last bit of this prayer as I do when I am praying it. But I got stuck! I just wanted to get to the forever and ever Amen. Alas however, I tripped over a word – "Thine". Thine is the power, Thine is the kingdom, Thine is the Glory.


Here we find ourselves confronted by our own Copernicus moment. One day Copernicus was doing what he usually did, staring out into space, (the telescope was not invented for another hundred years) and slowly he began to see things that shook his concept of reality, but even more than this - the very teachings of the religious structures of that time. Here is the thought that almost got him killed: "we are not the centre of the universe". Consider: without even thinking about it, we learned right from kindergarten that the earth revolves around the sun. However, in the 14th Century the belief was that the sun revolved around the earth! So, his was truly avant-garde thinking.


As believer our thinking is even more avant-garde– which is even more revolutionary than Copernicus' discovery - is connected with the last phrase of this prayer. It is this: the Son does not revolve around us, but we are to revolve around the Son. Personally, I think that this is a far more dangerous and universe shattering revelation. Largely I still believe that I am the centre of my (and maybe your) universe. However, this belief is as foolish as believing that the earth was flat. We've got to consider something here: that perspective is everything. In the sciences, in which I include Theology, this is called a presumption. A presumption is 1. The acting of presuming or accepting as true or 2. acceptance or belief based on reasonable evidence; assumption or supposition. You see, theology operates in accordance with a presumption – Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God…" There is no way for us to get behind this point, we have to either accept it or reject it. Everything we know, how we interpret, how our knowledge is guided is based on this reality. We build our life and science accordingly. Modern Science has three criteria for reaching a presumption 1. Observation, 2. Measurement, 3. Repeatability. If it anything lies outside of these limits it is not in the realm of 'science' and therefore does not possess the methodology required to be accepted as a presumption – and therefore excludes a presumption that starts with 'In the beginning God'. This if fine as long as the foundation you are standing on and using as your hypothesis is in fact, the right one. Early Roman belief was that a headache was created by trapped vapours or a demon wanting to get out and the only method was to drill a hole. The very intelligent people of Columbus' time maintained the belief that the earth was flat. We would laugh and say how foolish. Yet, based on their perception, they reached a logical presumption. Were they wrong? – Absolutely. Our presumptions inform and powerfully direct our lives. We live our presumptions – even unconsciously. If I look at my life here's what I discover about my presumptions. I believe it is about my power, my kingdom and for my glory. I have a terrible admission to make. I am a glory hound. I want you to recognize me, re-enforce my existence, and stroke my ego. Even when I step to the sidelines, to push someone else into view, I want you to see my humility, my self- sacrifice…. 'oh he's such a great guy'. However, if you look at me through the power of a spiritual telescope – your discovery (and mine) is that the world revolves around me. I am trying to get the sun/Son to revolve around me. To pick up on a point from the last blog, Lucifer's purpose is to get our lives to revolve around him. Either way, he wins.


I have to leave you to figure out what your rotation patterns are. But before you become too judgmental of me or state "well it's about time he saw what we do", do your own spiritual telescope check on yourself – I think you might discover I'm not so alone. What is your presumption?


This line of the prayer is devastating to my universe – and yours. It can create as much anger, fear and irrational outrage responses as when Copernicus postulated his theories to the Church. You can imagine their responses: "Who are you to tell us"! "How dare you!", "Who do you think you are?" and it goes on.


Thine power, not mine. Thine kingdom, not mine. Thine Glory, not mine – not mine, not mine. It is so hard to get out of the centre. I'm comfortable here and I like it here. It hurts and is too hard to give that up. The gravitational pull that keeps me in place is massive. Yet, with you I know that the presumption of Scripture is right: "In the beginning God…". Therefore, my conclusion must be "…for Thine is the power, Thine is the Kingdom, Thine…the Glory forever and ever A-men."


Anyway, I was just thinking

Neil


(this post ends the Lord's Prayer blog posts)

For Thine is the power, the Kingdom and the Glory, forever and ever A-men

Thursday, April 09, 2009 at 8:50 am · by Neil · in , , No comments



Maybe you are thinking that because we have gotten to the end of the prayer the pressure is finally off. Honestly, I did too. I was ready to rattle off the last bit of this prayer as I do when I am praying it. But I got stuck! I just wanted to get to the forever and ever Amen. Alas however, I tripped over a word – "Thine". Thine is the power, Thine is the kingdom, Thine is the Glory.


Here we find ourselves confronted by our own Copernicus moment. One day Copernicus was doing what he usually did, staring out into space, (the telescope was not invented for another hundred years) and slowly he began to see things that shook his concept of reality, but even more than this - the very teachings of the religious structures of that time. Here is the thought that almost got him killed: "we are not the centre of the universe". Consider: without even thinking about it, we learned right from kindergarten that the earth revolves around the sun. However, in the 14th Century the belief was that the sun revolved around the earth! So, his was truly avant-garde thinking.


As believer our thinking is even more avant-garde– which is even more revolutionary than Copernicus' discovery - is connected with the last phrase of this prayer. It is this: the Son does not revolve around us, but we are to revolve around the Son. Personally, I think that this is a far more dangerous and universe shattering revelation. Largely I still believe that I am the centre of my (and maybe your) universe. However, this belief is as foolish as believing that the earth was flat. We've got to consider something here: that perspective is everything. In the sciences, in which I include Theology, this is called a presumption. A presumption is 1. The acting of presuming or accepting as true or 2. acceptance or belief based on reasonable evidence; assumption or supposition. You see, theology operates in accordance with a presumption – Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God…" There is no way for us to get behind this point, we have to either accept it or reject it. Everything we know, how we interpret, how our knowledge is guided is based on this reality. We build our life and science accordingly. Modern Science has three criteria for reaching a presumption 1. Observation, 2. Measurement, 3. Repeatability. If it anything lies outside of these limits it is not in the realm of 'science' and therefore does not possess the methodology required to be accepted as a presumption – and therefore excludes a presumption that starts with 'In the beginning God'. This if fine as long as the foundation you are standing on and using as your hypothesis is in fact, the right one. Early Roman belief was that a headache was created by trapped vapours or a demon wanting to get out and the only method was to drill a hole. The very intelligent people of Columbus' time maintained the belief that the earth was flat. We would laugh and say how foolish. Yet, based on their perception, they reached a logical presumption. Were they wrong? – Absolutely. Our presumptions inform and powerfully direct our lives. We live our presumptions – even unconsciously. If I look at my life here's what I discover about my presumptions. I believe it is about my power, my kingdom and for my glory. I have a terrible admission to make. I am a glory hound. I want you to recognize me, re-enforce my existence, and stroke my ego. Even when I step to the sidelines, to push someone else into view, I want you to see my humility, my self- sacrifice…. 'oh he's such a great guy'. However, if you look at me through the power of a spiritual telescope – your discovery (and mine) is that the world revolves around me. I am trying to get the sun/Son to revolve around me. To pick up on a point from the last blog, Lucifer's purpose is to get our lives to revolve around him. Either way, he wins.


I have to leave you to figure out what your rotation patterns are. But before you become too judgmental of me or state "well it's about time he saw what we do", do your own spiritual telescope check on yourself – I think you might discover I'm not so alone. What is your presumption?


This line of the prayer is devastating to my universe – and yours. It can create as much anger, fear and irrational outrage responses as when Copernicus postulated his theories to the Church. You can imagine their responses: "Who are you to tell us"! "How dare you!", "Who do you think you are?" and it goes on.


Thine power, not mine. Thine kingdom, not mine. Thine Glory, not mine – not mine, not mine. It is so hard to get out of the centre. I'm comfortable here and I like it here. It hurts and is too hard to give that up. The gravitational pull that keeps me in place is massive. Yet, with you I know that the presumption of Scripture is right: "In the beginning God…". Therefore, my conclusion must be "…for Thine is the power, Thine is the Kingdom, Thine…the Glory forever and ever A-men."


Anyway, I was just thinking

Neil


(this post ends the Lord's Prayer blog posts)

Monday, March 30, 2009


Matthew 5:37 "But let your statement be, 'Yes, yes ' or 'No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil.

John 17:15 "I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

2 Peter 2:9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgement,

Although we generally recite the prayer ‘…and deliver us from evil’, the consensus of most scholars is that Jesus is clearly identifying the very real presence and purposeful intent of the evil One. Personally, I believe this as well. Although, on one level most Christian still accept the idea of an Evil One, we tend to pragmatically respond as if evil is more of a faceless force. Intellectually we seem to resist this concept of a conscious, intentional and personal incarnation of evil. Christian Science, started by Mary Baker Eddy at the turn of the last century, describes evil as unreal; only good is real, therefore sin is when we do not operate according to our ‘True’ selves. Many other groups have sought to explain away the reality of a conscious evil being. Others have attempted to equate Jesus and Satan in a more Eastern religious approach – as sons of the god caught in struggle of good and evil - one becomes the personification of good (Jesus) and the other evil (Lucifer). This places both Jesus and Satan on the same ‘created’ by God level. The result is more the man/god ideas of Greek mythology. While Lucifer was created, as we are created, Jesus is everlasting God. Lucifer’s separation from God is as wide as our own. It is what drives the obsession of ‘he who would be god’. Though he has access to God’s presence (Job 1) he has a broken relationship. Ours, on the other hand, is repairable.
Consider the entrance of the original sin introduced by the evil One. He slithers into the good, the pure, the holy and by a ‘promise’ - temptation brings Darkness and Death into what was Light and Life. Up to this point he had no part in the relationship equation between humanity and God. But Lucifer wanted in. The distortion is often not obvious and in fact, that is what makes it so dangerous. Lucifer was seeking to affect the rotation of the universe (more on this in next blog). Had Eve clearly seen the resulting impact of her simple decision that day, there is no question she would not have hesitated to flee the other way to ‘escape’ the temptation. Had she seen the darkness and death that indwelt that forbidden fruit, the poison would not have been ingested and passed on to her mate.
If we could see the full implications of a quick, self indulgent and gratifying decision not only in ourselves but also on all those around, I sure it would give us both pause, and the ability to reject the attending Darkness and Death. Sadly however, many times, we like Eve listen to the enticing and slippery words of the evil One.
Here is the incepted and attractive underlying message “You can have your cake, and eat it too”. Think about it for a minute. What was the first temptation? It was not ‘turn your back on God” or “I have something better follow me”. It was taking something that God Himself had made and Lucifer twisted “You can have it both ways”. Look at the temptations of Jesus. Was this not the essential core of those temptations: “you don’t have to deny yourself, you can have what you want and more – you can have both – your cake and eat it too”. On the surface, Lucifer’s temptations were not a rejection of God, but an acceptance of him as a legitimate authority – a god.
That I think is the source of many of our own temptations. I would venture that the vast majority reading this blog are not struggling with the desire to be honouring and pleasing children of God. However, we are constantly faced with the self-denial that it takes for this to happen. Remember the pattern that Jesus calls us to each day in our prayers. Every moment we are called to: “His will done on earth as it is in heaven” - to share our bread in such a way that we keep only our daily need; to seek full forgiveness and repentance of all our sin and to fully and completely forgive those who have created debt with us.
The evil One’s messaging has not changed nor have his tactics. Every day we are faced with self-serving and personally gratifying decisions. Every day he comes to us and seeks to be included as a god. These temptations come to us wearing disguises of ‘good’ with the underlying silky message of ‘you can have your cake and eat it too” You don’t have to deny yourself – God doesn’t mean for you not to have thing that your heart so badly wants. Our weakness lies in our attempts to justify our actions by saying – “God will understand”, “it’s only a little thing and it looks so good” – or, “it’s just too hard”.
What is that forbidden fruit that evil One is holding out to us? “Come on, one little bite, it is not going to hurt”. Don’t deny yourself this little indulgence of ________ (insert your issue here). God doesn’t take it that seriously. What we don’t see is the poison of darkness and death injected into what seems at first as ‘good’. That is why it must be a part of our constant prayers - why we must develop wisdom, discernment, discipline, obedience, all of which are unattainable without self-denial. We cannot have our cake and eat it too – we cannot live both in the Light and Darkness (read 1 John 1).
God is calling us to live according to His truth, His law, His kingdom - to only have one God. He calls us to a radically different pathway of living than that of the world. I think more than we’d like to admit, many of us are yet standing at the cross roads of these two paths. We have stepped toward the narrow and difficult path of self denial, of picking up His cross – but we have not yet managed to fully pull our foot out of the mud of the broad and wide way. The serpent’s voice is still ringing in our ear, ‘come, taste and see, this beautiful fruit won’t kill you – immediately’.

Anyway, I was just thinking.
Neil

But deliver us from [the] evil [One]

Monday, March 30, 2009 at 4:31 pm · by Neil · in , , , No comments


Matthew 5:37 "But let your statement be, 'Yes, yes ' or 'No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil.

John 17:15 "I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

2 Peter 2:9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgement,

Although we generally recite the prayer ‘…and deliver us from evil’, the consensus of most scholars is that Jesus is clearly identifying the very real presence and purposeful intent of the evil One. Personally, I believe this as well. Although, on one level most Christian still accept the idea of an Evil One, we tend to pragmatically respond as if evil is more of a faceless force. Intellectually we seem to resist this concept of a conscious, intentional and personal incarnation of evil. Christian Science, started by Mary Baker Eddy at the turn of the last century, describes evil as unreal; only good is real, therefore sin is when we do not operate according to our ‘True’ selves. Many other groups have sought to explain away the reality of a conscious evil being. Others have attempted to equate Jesus and Satan in a more Eastern religious approach – as sons of the god caught in struggle of good and evil - one becomes the personification of good (Jesus) and the other evil (Lucifer). This places both Jesus and Satan on the same ‘created’ by God level. The result is more the man/god ideas of Greek mythology. While Lucifer was created, as we are created, Jesus is everlasting God. Lucifer’s separation from God is as wide as our own. It is what drives the obsession of ‘he who would be god’. Though he has access to God’s presence (Job 1) he has a broken relationship. Ours, on the other hand, is repairable.
Consider the entrance of the original sin introduced by the evil One. He slithers into the good, the pure, the holy and by a ‘promise’ - temptation brings Darkness and Death into what was Light and Life. Up to this point he had no part in the relationship equation between humanity and God. But Lucifer wanted in. The distortion is often not obvious and in fact, that is what makes it so dangerous. Lucifer was seeking to affect the rotation of the universe (more on this in next blog). Had Eve clearly seen the resulting impact of her simple decision that day, there is no question she would not have hesitated to flee the other way to ‘escape’ the temptation. Had she seen the darkness and death that indwelt that forbidden fruit, the poison would not have been ingested and passed on to her mate.
If we could see the full implications of a quick, self indulgent and gratifying decision not only in ourselves but also on all those around, I sure it would give us both pause, and the ability to reject the attending Darkness and Death. Sadly however, many times, we like Eve listen to the enticing and slippery words of the evil One.
Here is the incepted and attractive underlying message “You can have your cake, and eat it too”. Think about it for a minute. What was the first temptation? It was not ‘turn your back on God” or “I have something better follow me”. It was taking something that God Himself had made and Lucifer twisted “You can have it both ways”. Look at the temptations of Jesus. Was this not the essential core of those temptations: “you don’t have to deny yourself, you can have what you want and more – you can have both – your cake and eat it too”. On the surface, Lucifer’s temptations were not a rejection of God, but an acceptance of him as a legitimate authority – a god.
That I think is the source of many of our own temptations. I would venture that the vast majority reading this blog are not struggling with the desire to be honouring and pleasing children of God. However, we are constantly faced with the self-denial that it takes for this to happen. Remember the pattern that Jesus calls us to each day in our prayers. Every moment we are called to: “His will done on earth as it is in heaven” - to share our bread in such a way that we keep only our daily need; to seek full forgiveness and repentance of all our sin and to fully and completely forgive those who have created debt with us.
The evil One’s messaging has not changed nor have his tactics. Every day we are faced with self-serving and personally gratifying decisions. Every day he comes to us and seeks to be included as a god. These temptations come to us wearing disguises of ‘good’ with the underlying silky message of ‘you can have your cake and eat it too” You don’t have to deny yourself – God doesn’t mean for you not to have thing that your heart so badly wants. Our weakness lies in our attempts to justify our actions by saying – “God will understand”, “it’s only a little thing and it looks so good” – or, “it’s just too hard”.
What is that forbidden fruit that evil One is holding out to us? “Come on, one little bite, it is not going to hurt”. Don’t deny yourself this little indulgence of ________ (insert your issue here). God doesn’t take it that seriously. What we don’t see is the poison of darkness and death injected into what seems at first as ‘good’. That is why it must be a part of our constant prayers - why we must develop wisdom, discernment, discipline, obedience, all of which are unattainable without self-denial. We cannot have our cake and eat it too – we cannot live both in the Light and Darkness (read 1 John 1).
God is calling us to live according to His truth, His law, His kingdom - to only have one God. He calls us to a radically different pathway of living than that of the world. I think more than we’d like to admit, many of us are yet standing at the cross roads of these two paths. We have stepped toward the narrow and difficult path of self denial, of picking up His cross – but we have not yet managed to fully pull our foot out of the mud of the broad and wide way. The serpent’s voice is still ringing in our ear, ‘come, taste and see, this beautiful fruit won’t kill you – immediately’.

Anyway, I was just thinking.
Neil

Wednesday, March 18, 2009


Surely this does not suggest that God will lead us into temptation? This would be against God’s very nature, right? James says, “ 13Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. Why then do we need to pray this?

We find an interesting statement in Hebrew 2:18, “For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.”

Jesus was tempted. WHAT? Yup! Jesus was tempted. TEMPTED TO DO WHAT? To sin. Now you may be tempted to take up shovels and axes and yell, ‘Heresy! we say – burn him. Burn him - he’s a witch.’ However, just before you tie me to a post and light the sticks, consider these verses!
"In all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted" (Hebrews 2:17,18). .
"For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin (Heb 4:15)

Did you catch that? “In all points tempted as we are…” Wow! I don’t know what you think but this is huge. And what is more “…yet without sin”. Man, when I think about that I’m blown away. Looking no further than myself, and seeing what I am and how I can be tempted - and thinking that perhaps Jesus was tempted in same as the rest of us? – now that’s messed up.

We encounter a couple of points in scripture where we see Jesus being tempted. I’m sure there were more, but these are the insights we have. Jesus was 30 before he was baptized. Now this next statement might come as a shock, and I’m sorry if it does – but I had sinned once or twice before I was 30. But not Jesus! He had a clear awareness of who He was in His relationship with the Father e.g. at age 12: “did you not know that I had to be about my Father’s business?” We don’t know a lot about Jesus’ early years, but this we do know – from a very early age, He immersed himself in the Scripture. So much so that he was able to hold an advanced debate on the law with the Pharisees even as a boy. This would be like you or I walking into a PhD program, at Harvard let’s say, and challenging them in a theological discourse on whether a didactical rhetoric in the synoptic gospels advances an immanent Kairos or post-Chronos eschaton inauguration. Yah, so what you say - but hopefully you get the point. I’m just saying that at 12, my arguments were essentially based around facts such as “My dad is stronger than your dad!” and “Mommy! He hit me!”

The first record we have of the Christ being tempted is right after His baptism. The Holy Spirit leads Him into the wilderness for 40 days. There we see three temptations: 1. to use his power to satisfy his own flesh (make and eat his own bread), 2. all this can be yours if you just bow down to me (take the easy short cut), and 3. manipulate God rather than following God’s will (throw yourself down from here).

Although we could spend a whole lot more time here, we’ll continue to examine some of this in our next post.

The primary point here is this. As we are praying the Lord’s Prayer, we need to recognize that our temptations all revolve around these same three points that Jesus was tested in: 1. fulfilling our fleshly desires through immediate gratification (making and eating our own bread). 2. Short cutting or seeking to avoid making and walking through those tough patches in our life and doing these things God’s way and 3. Testing God – stepping out side of God’s purpose and design and expecting Him to catch us.

When we pray, lead us not into temptation we are not suggesting that God brings sin into our life in order to test us to see if we really are of the faith or to demonstrate that we are miserable failures. Here’s the deal. Since we are already surrounded and drawn by temptation, we are praying that in the midst of these temptations we will seek and grasp onto God’s grace and mercy – the only remedy for a sin sick soul. We must, like Christ, immerse ourselves in His Word – letting it become our life giving and sustaining daily bread. We must hold out before us the three primary things we have already prayed in this prayer, that we would: a) live our lives and bring our decisions and choices and purposes in accordance to His Will, b) share our bread liberally with others and c) live lives of forgiveness. These are the big three! If I can, in praying the pattern of the Lord’s prayer, walk in these things, then I’m closer to discovering and being in God’s Will.

Anyway, I was just thinking,

Neil

…and lead us not into temptation

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 2:03 pm · by Neil · in No comments


Surely this does not suggest that God will lead us into temptation? This would be against God’s very nature, right? James says, “ 13Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. Why then do we need to pray this?

We find an interesting statement in Hebrew 2:18, “For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.”

Jesus was tempted. WHAT? Yup! Jesus was tempted. TEMPTED TO DO WHAT? To sin. Now you may be tempted to take up shovels and axes and yell, ‘Heresy! we say – burn him. Burn him - he’s a witch.’ However, just before you tie me to a post and light the sticks, consider these verses!
"In all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted" (Hebrews 2:17,18). .
"For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin (Heb 4:15)

Did you catch that? “In all points tempted as we are…” Wow! I don’t know what you think but this is huge. And what is more “…yet without sin”. Man, when I think about that I’m blown away. Looking no further than myself, and seeing what I am and how I can be tempted - and thinking that perhaps Jesus was tempted in same as the rest of us? – now that’s messed up.

We encounter a couple of points in scripture where we see Jesus being tempted. I’m sure there were more, but these are the insights we have. Jesus was 30 before he was baptized. Now this next statement might come as a shock, and I’m sorry if it does – but I had sinned once or twice before I was 30. But not Jesus! He had a clear awareness of who He was in His relationship with the Father e.g. at age 12: “did you not know that I had to be about my Father’s business?” We don’t know a lot about Jesus’ early years, but this we do know – from a very early age, He immersed himself in the Scripture. So much so that he was able to hold an advanced debate on the law with the Pharisees even as a boy. This would be like you or I walking into a PhD program, at Harvard let’s say, and challenging them in a theological discourse on whether a didactical rhetoric in the synoptic gospels advances an immanent Kairos or post-Chronos eschaton inauguration. Yah, so what you say - but hopefully you get the point. I’m just saying that at 12, my arguments were essentially based around facts such as “My dad is stronger than your dad!” and “Mommy! He hit me!”

The first record we have of the Christ being tempted is right after His baptism. The Holy Spirit leads Him into the wilderness for 40 days. There we see three temptations: 1. to use his power to satisfy his own flesh (make and eat his own bread), 2. all this can be yours if you just bow down to me (take the easy short cut), and 3. manipulate God rather than following God’s will (throw yourself down from here).

Although we could spend a whole lot more time here, we’ll continue to examine some of this in our next post.

The primary point here is this. As we are praying the Lord’s Prayer, we need to recognize that our temptations all revolve around these same three points that Jesus was tested in: 1. fulfilling our fleshly desires through immediate gratification (making and eating our own bread). 2. Short cutting or seeking to avoid making and walking through those tough patches in our life and doing these things God’s way and 3. Testing God – stepping out side of God’s purpose and design and expecting Him to catch us.

When we pray, lead us not into temptation we are not suggesting that God brings sin into our life in order to test us to see if we really are of the faith or to demonstrate that we are miserable failures. Here’s the deal. Since we are already surrounded and drawn by temptation, we are praying that in the midst of these temptations we will seek and grasp onto God’s grace and mercy – the only remedy for a sin sick soul. We must, like Christ, immerse ourselves in His Word – letting it become our life giving and sustaining daily bread. We must hold out before us the three primary things we have already prayed in this prayer, that we would: a) live our lives and bring our decisions and choices and purposes in accordance to His Will, b) share our bread liberally with others and c) live lives of forgiveness. These are the big three! If I can, in praying the pattern of the Lord’s prayer, walk in these things, then I’m closer to discovering and being in God’s Will.

Anyway, I was just thinking,

Neil

Friday, March 13, 2009


Add Image
Let’s pick up on our discussion from the last post. We were considering the parable of Jesus as it related to our conversation of the two debtors. Our prayer, and very real need is that God forgives us of our debt (again see previous post), but now what does that mean as the prayer continues, ‘AS WE ALSO HAVE forgiven our debtors’? There are two primary assumptions here: a) God has and will forgive us our debt – freely, b) we have already forgiven our debtors. There is an ‘in advance’ quantity here. The prayer is not ‘help us to forgive our debtors’, which is how I think most of us interpret the request. It is quite pointed in its intent - we will forgive our debtors.

Now depending on your experiences in life, this may not be an easy decision to come to. For myself, being a part of social services work for many years, pastoring, and simply just reading the news, I have seen the depth of trespassing that can be done from one human being to another and at times it has been unspeakable . As a result, we sometimes ask, “How can God ask or expect us to forgive our debtors – it is too much”. Please do not think that I am minimizing the pain or trauma you may have experienced in any way. But here is what has led me to the conclusion that God can ask and expect that to be our prayer. WHY? We are quickly approaching the Easter season. For years many of us have heard sermons on Christ’s death, resurrection and the days and hours leading up to the Cross. Whatever we might personally think of Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion, the horrific reality of the actual experience way surpasses what the movie depicts. However, the scene that remains most vividly in my mind is not so much the brutality leading up to the crucifiction, but at the tear that falls from heaven and hits the earth causing the earth to quake. It is a perspective from God not often considered. Humanity took God in the flesh, beat Him, humiliated Him, drove nails through His hands and feet – all the while mocking – and in Luke 23:34 we find these words “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.”

I’m thinking, how do they not know what they are doing? They just tortured and nailed Him to a cross. You don’t do that by accident like knocking over a glass of milk with your elbow. This was some intentional and well-planned stuff that happened here. They didn’t kill Him by mistake. And yet the words “Father forgive them for they know not what they do….” fall from those gasping, pain riddled lips. How can this be? How can this be forgiven? It does not deserve to be forgiven as it is the deepest of violations and rejections directed toward God Himself! Yet He forgives. It is what causes Paul to write in Roman’s “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. It would take the power of God to forgive this unimaginable debt. What could possibly be sufficient to pay for the cost of death of Christ? That debt could not be paid if all creation and the universe itself could be sold and the payment applied.

It is true, the debt that one human can incur on another can be great,and seemingly humanly unforgivable and without possible re-payment. But herein lies the conundrum, it has already been paid. Christ’s death was and is sufficient payment for all sin, for all time – no matter what it might be. There is no sin greater than Christ’s ability or willingness to forgive (except for one, blasphemy – which could be a whole other series of blogs). There is one simple key 1 John 1:9 “if we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness”. Ha ha, you might declare, there’s the loop hole! The person that has sinned against me has not asked for forgiveness so I do not need to forgive that so and so for what they did.

However, that is not the prayer we find here. It says, “Forgive us of our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors”. There is another element at work here - we are commanded to forgive. Our relationship with God is inhibited when there is unforgiveness toward someone. It is because of what the unforgiveness of debt does to the human spirit, mind and body. It is a major cause of depression (internalized anger) and anxiety. It not only affects us psychologically but physiologically. It controls, destroys and imprisons us - and God wants us free. This is a prayer of freedom. Freedom from all the handles the enemy wants to maintain in our lives in order to play us like a marionette puppet.

The deeper the injury, the more the need of finding that pathway to forgiveness. I read once that forgiveness is not letting someone off scott free and saying or believing that what was done to me is okay or doesn’t matter. What forgiveness does is takes the person off my hook and puts them on God’s. God knows what this means to you . He knows the depth of pain and anguish. He does not minimize the situation. His call is, ‘take on my yoke which is easy and light, and put your burdens and hurts on my shoulders – let me bear them’.
Anyway, I was just thinking.

Neil

…as we also have forgiven our debtors

Friday, March 13, 2009 at 7:30 am · by Neil · in , , No comments


Add Image
Let’s pick up on our discussion from the last post. We were considering the parable of Jesus as it related to our conversation of the two debtors. Our prayer, and very real need is that God forgives us of our debt (again see previous post), but now what does that mean as the prayer continues, ‘AS WE ALSO HAVE forgiven our debtors’? There are two primary assumptions here: a) God has and will forgive us our debt – freely, b) we have already forgiven our debtors. There is an ‘in advance’ quantity here. The prayer is not ‘help us to forgive our debtors’, which is how I think most of us interpret the request. It is quite pointed in its intent - we will forgive our debtors.

Now depending on your experiences in life, this may not be an easy decision to come to. For myself, being a part of social services work for many years, pastoring, and simply just reading the news, I have seen the depth of trespassing that can be done from one human being to another and at times it has been unspeakable . As a result, we sometimes ask, “How can God ask or expect us to forgive our debtors – it is too much”. Please do not think that I am minimizing the pain or trauma you may have experienced in any way. But here is what has led me to the conclusion that God can ask and expect that to be our prayer. WHY? We are quickly approaching the Easter season. For years many of us have heard sermons on Christ’s death, resurrection and the days and hours leading up to the Cross. Whatever we might personally think of Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion, the horrific reality of the actual experience way surpasses what the movie depicts. However, the scene that remains most vividly in my mind is not so much the brutality leading up to the crucifiction, but at the tear that falls from heaven and hits the earth causing the earth to quake. It is a perspective from God not often considered. Humanity took God in the flesh, beat Him, humiliated Him, drove nails through His hands and feet – all the while mocking – and in Luke 23:34 we find these words “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.”

I’m thinking, how do they not know what they are doing? They just tortured and nailed Him to a cross. You don’t do that by accident like knocking over a glass of milk with your elbow. This was some intentional and well-planned stuff that happened here. They didn’t kill Him by mistake. And yet the words “Father forgive them for they know not what they do….” fall from those gasping, pain riddled lips. How can this be? How can this be forgiven? It does not deserve to be forgiven as it is the deepest of violations and rejections directed toward God Himself! Yet He forgives. It is what causes Paul to write in Roman’s “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. It would take the power of God to forgive this unimaginable debt. What could possibly be sufficient to pay for the cost of death of Christ? That debt could not be paid if all creation and the universe itself could be sold and the payment applied.

It is true, the debt that one human can incur on another can be great,and seemingly humanly unforgivable and without possible re-payment. But herein lies the conundrum, it has already been paid. Christ’s death was and is sufficient payment for all sin, for all time – no matter what it might be. There is no sin greater than Christ’s ability or willingness to forgive (except for one, blasphemy – which could be a whole other series of blogs). There is one simple key 1 John 1:9 “if we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness”. Ha ha, you might declare, there’s the loop hole! The person that has sinned against me has not asked for forgiveness so I do not need to forgive that so and so for what they did.

However, that is not the prayer we find here. It says, “Forgive us of our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors”. There is another element at work here - we are commanded to forgive. Our relationship with God is inhibited when there is unforgiveness toward someone. It is because of what the unforgiveness of debt does to the human spirit, mind and body. It is a major cause of depression (internalized anger) and anxiety. It not only affects us psychologically but physiologically. It controls, destroys and imprisons us - and God wants us free. This is a prayer of freedom. Freedom from all the handles the enemy wants to maintain in our lives in order to play us like a marionette puppet.

The deeper the injury, the more the need of finding that pathway to forgiveness. I read once that forgiveness is not letting someone off scott free and saying or believing that what was done to me is okay or doesn’t matter. What forgiveness does is takes the person off my hook and puts them on God’s. God knows what this means to you . He knows the depth of pain and anguish. He does not minimize the situation. His call is, ‘take on my yoke which is easy and light, and put your burdens and hurts on my shoulders – let me bear them’.
Anyway, I was just thinking.

Neil

Tuesday, March 10, 2009





Most Bible versions translate the Greek word opheilema (ὀφείλημα) as debts, some as sins, a few as trespasses. Now I ask for your indulgence here on the use of Greek. I am not a Greek scholar and have forgotten more of the Greek than I learned – I remember just enough to be dangerous. However, original language word study is important and can often bring nuances otherwise missed as I believe is the case here. So please, aphiemi (forgive) me and bear with me (yes there is a similar root of forgive and debt – so much to explore so little room).

Many of us probably have recited the prayer as “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that have trespassed against us”. While all are valid interpretations, I believe that the use of the words ‘our debts’ has the most original intent. The weight of the word debt, I believe, communicates a deeper aspect of the request ‘forgive us our debts’, than ‘forgive us our trespasses’ or forgive us our ‘sins’ can. Certainly I need my trespasses and sins forgiven – but again, we tend to individualize and internalize this request – and the focus is me…me…me. Two things I notice here - that again, the request is communal “forgive us”. ‘Forgive me’ of my sins, which I need as well, is an important aspect; but here it appears that it is communal debt, of which I as an individual am a part, that is to be forgiven. This in no way lessens or removes personal sinfulness and the need of individual right standing with God. It is just that in the mindset of the 1st century Jewish mind, they thought and functioned in community. They saw much more their collective responsibility to and with God.

The idea of ‘debt’ evokes a monetary feel intentionally. It is not just a sin or trespass that we have committed, but a debt that has incurred. The accumulation of debt is not just sin that is committed, but that right action has been omitted. “We” owe that debt – we share both blame and responsibility (that has both a good news/bad news kind of deal).

To understand this idea of debt more fully, we need to connect this prayer request with the parable that Jesus told about the two debtors (Matt 18:23-35). The parable begins “the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. As Jesus told the parable, the people were drawn into the story in a dramatic way. They understood exactly what Jesus was talking about because they saw this played out in real life. Life was difficult – between taxes and the cost of materials often sold at highly inflated prices - it was hard to make ends meet. A small landowner would get a loan from a wealthy landowner or even a well-to-do religious leader. These loans would come at a high interest rate. Inevitably, what would happen was that the small landowner would default on his payment and the interest would compound resulting in an astronomical un-payable debt (by design). The lender would demand full payment which the lendee could not pay and for which there was little or no legal recourse. It was the legal right of the lender to then take possession of the land in question, plus have the lendee and his family put into debtors prison until such time that the lendee could pay his full debt, which by the way was still accumulating interest debt (much like my Visa). It was a double whammy – you lost both your land and you still owed the debt! Often the only option was to ‘sell’ yourself and your family members into a type of slavery to work off the debt which of course was impossible because it would continue to accumulate. To add insult to injury, that same wealthy land owner, or well-to-do religious leader would put you to work on the same land you once owned – but now as a slave to him.

As the listeners took in the story – it was one they knew well. What was surprising was first, the generosity of the King; second, the actions of the one who owed a great opheilema (debt) and third, the surprise ending. They themselves would have longed to encounter such a forgiving king – The crowd would have become uniformly angry at the man forgiven of such a great debt demanding payment of the lesser debt.

However, one more shock is yet to be revealed. Matthew 18:35 35"My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart". Essentially Jesus tells the listeners, and us by extension: “you are the man forgiven of great debt”. We are going to expand on this theme next post.

An additional important question is ‘what is the debt’ owed by us? It’s a deeper question than we can fully explore here, but I want to raise one portion of the answer to that larger question. Remember the line before this one “Give us our daily bread”? I think a significant portion of that debt is this – where we have not shared our bread with those most in need. We have consumed and horded and have ignored the unmet ‘daily bread’ needs of those around us – and are daily accumulating that debt. It is both our individual communal responsibility to both repent and respond. It is not enough to simply realize that we have sinned in this area – we need communal repentance - “we have sinned against You Oh Lord”. For the sake of space, time and your patience with me, I will not go into another Greek diatribe, but want to point this out – repentance, which is an essential part of forgiveness (on our part) is an action. True repentance is the leaving of the thing that is wrong and the doing of the thing that is right. When we are forgiven, it means that we are released to go and do the right thing. I better quit here because I feel a full-blown sermon coming on.

Anyway, I was just thinking,

Neil



And forgive us our Opheilema

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 1:01 pm · by Neil · in , No comments





Most Bible versions translate the Greek word opheilema (ὀφείλημα) as debts, some as sins, a few as trespasses. Now I ask for your indulgence here on the use of Greek. I am not a Greek scholar and have forgotten more of the Greek than I learned – I remember just enough to be dangerous. However, original language word study is important and can often bring nuances otherwise missed as I believe is the case here. So please, aphiemi (forgive) me and bear with me (yes there is a similar root of forgive and debt – so much to explore so little room).

Many of us probably have recited the prayer as “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that have trespassed against us”. While all are valid interpretations, I believe that the use of the words ‘our debts’ has the most original intent. The weight of the word debt, I believe, communicates a deeper aspect of the request ‘forgive us our debts’, than ‘forgive us our trespasses’ or forgive us our ‘sins’ can. Certainly I need my trespasses and sins forgiven – but again, we tend to individualize and internalize this request – and the focus is me…me…me. Two things I notice here - that again, the request is communal “forgive us”. ‘Forgive me’ of my sins, which I need as well, is an important aspect; but here it appears that it is communal debt, of which I as an individual am a part, that is to be forgiven. This in no way lessens or removes personal sinfulness and the need of individual right standing with God. It is just that in the mindset of the 1st century Jewish mind, they thought and functioned in community. They saw much more their collective responsibility to and with God.

The idea of ‘debt’ evokes a monetary feel intentionally. It is not just a sin or trespass that we have committed, but a debt that has incurred. The accumulation of debt is not just sin that is committed, but that right action has been omitted. “We” owe that debt – we share both blame and responsibility (that has both a good news/bad news kind of deal).

To understand this idea of debt more fully, we need to connect this prayer request with the parable that Jesus told about the two debtors (Matt 18:23-35). The parable begins “the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. As Jesus told the parable, the people were drawn into the story in a dramatic way. They understood exactly what Jesus was talking about because they saw this played out in real life. Life was difficult – between taxes and the cost of materials often sold at highly inflated prices - it was hard to make ends meet. A small landowner would get a loan from a wealthy landowner or even a well-to-do religious leader. These loans would come at a high interest rate. Inevitably, what would happen was that the small landowner would default on his payment and the interest would compound resulting in an astronomical un-payable debt (by design). The lender would demand full payment which the lendee could not pay and for which there was little or no legal recourse. It was the legal right of the lender to then take possession of the land in question, plus have the lendee and his family put into debtors prison until such time that the lendee could pay his full debt, which by the way was still accumulating interest debt (much like my Visa). It was a double whammy – you lost both your land and you still owed the debt! Often the only option was to ‘sell’ yourself and your family members into a type of slavery to work off the debt which of course was impossible because it would continue to accumulate. To add insult to injury, that same wealthy land owner, or well-to-do religious leader would put you to work on the same land you once owned – but now as a slave to him.

As the listeners took in the story – it was one they knew well. What was surprising was first, the generosity of the King; second, the actions of the one who owed a great opheilema (debt) and third, the surprise ending. They themselves would have longed to encounter such a forgiving king – The crowd would have become uniformly angry at the man forgiven of such a great debt demanding payment of the lesser debt.

However, one more shock is yet to be revealed. Matthew 18:35 35"My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart". Essentially Jesus tells the listeners, and us by extension: “you are the man forgiven of great debt”. We are going to expand on this theme next post.

An additional important question is ‘what is the debt’ owed by us? It’s a deeper question than we can fully explore here, but I want to raise one portion of the answer to that larger question. Remember the line before this one “Give us our daily bread”? I think a significant portion of that debt is this – where we have not shared our bread with those most in need. We have consumed and horded and have ignored the unmet ‘daily bread’ needs of those around us – and are daily accumulating that debt. It is both our individual communal responsibility to both repent and respond. It is not enough to simply realize that we have sinned in this area – we need communal repentance - “we have sinned against You Oh Lord”. For the sake of space, time and your patience with me, I will not go into another Greek diatribe, but want to point this out – repentance, which is an essential part of forgiveness (on our part) is an action. True repentance is the leaving of the thing that is wrong and the doing of the thing that is right. When we are forgiven, it means that we are released to go and do the right thing. I better quit here because I feel a full-blown sermon coming on.

Anyway, I was just thinking,

Neil



Friday, March 06, 2009



(Reader beware, you may want to skip this one – it could be hazardous to your wealth)



On the surface this appears to be a safe and reasonable prayer: “Lord give me just what I need today”. Yet, is this really what it means? If what we were asked to pray was “Give ME this day MY daily bread”, we’d be golden. However, that is not what it says…or means. Consider: you pray, “Lord, give us this day our daily bread” and God provides your daily bread and then some. Your neighbour prays, “Lord give us this day our daily bread”, and no bread comes. Has God shown greater favour to you because you are somehow more righteous and desiring than your neighbour? Although I believe we’d say a collective ‘NO’, our actions reveal something quite different. You see, in answering your prayer of “Give us this day…” God has not only answered your prayer, He as equally answered your neighbour’s prayer. But you got the bread and your neighbour did not – so where does the problem lay for my neighbour’s lack? The problem is me! I’m withholding my neighbour’s answer – I’m hording it, banking it, eating it all myself. This came into new perspective for me as a result of two unrelated but closely timed experiences. Firstly, I sat in a class with Dr. Haddon Robinson as he spoke about the Lord’s prayer and unpacked the idea of ‘our daily bread’ and the subsequent implications. Secondly, a few weeks later I spent two weeks traveling throughout Haiti and seeing the effects of lack of bread first hand, in a country less than a two-hour flight away from what is known as the ‘bread basket of the world’. Kind of ironic isn’t it: the prayer, ‘give us this day our daily bread’ and North America known as the ‘bread basket of the World’? I think, few of us would deny, even in this time of economic crisis, that North America has stacks and stacks of horded stuff – in fact, it’s those very stacks of horded stuff that are collapsing on us. A big part of the problem is that while we have prayed the prayer “Give us this day our daily bread” and it would appear that God has answered us, we have not accepted the truth that it is not ‘my’ bread – it is also my neigbour’s bread. It is not North American bread, but it is Haiti’s our neighbour’s bread, it is Africa our neighbour’s bread, it is… you get the picture.
Jesus has an encounter with a rich young man (Luke 18:18) that gives me great concern. You know the account. The wealthy young man comes to Jesus and asks what he must do to have eternal life. Jesus tells him to follow the law. The young man responds “All these things I have kept since my youth”. Upon hearing this, Jesus says to him, “You still lack one thing, sell all you have and give it to the poor and then you will have treasure in heaven; then follow me.” When the young man heard this, he became very sad because he was a man of great wealth.
This disturbs me. Quite frankly, I don’t like that story and here is why. We, us, North America, in so many cases are that young wealthy ruler. We want to know the answer to the same question “What must I do to have eternal life”. Jesus says, “Keep the law.” We answer, “I’ve said the sinners prayer; I’ve taught Sunday School; I’ve read my Bible, said my prayers, went to church and tithed regularly. Jesus hearing this says to us “You still lack one thing, sell everything you have and give it to the poor and then you will have treasure in heave;, then follow me.” I hear your self-justifications and sensibilities kickin’ in: “But it’s a different world” – “I’m not that wealthy” – “That’s not really what Jesus was asking,” you say. How do I know that is what you are saying? Because it’s exactly what I’ve been saying to myself for years – the same empty rationalizations. And I become very sad because of my great wealth. When you hear of children who are eating a mixture of flour and mud in order to stretch the meal for the family – I am stinking, piled high and deep, drowning in wealth! I hear you say: “But you don’t understand - I’m not that wealthy - I have responsibilities and bills - I have more bills than money” and I realize that for some this is truly the case. Although this may not be reflective of you – it is for those of us who have created a life system of credit debt and relentless consumerism that forces us to upgrade, buy bigger, and buy…buy…buy! This is for those of us that believe we deserve newer, faster, brighter, bigger, more, better… The new phrase is the “rich poor”. Ah, poor, poor us.
I’ll be honest, I don’t know yet what all of this means to me - to begin to pray this prayer as Jesus instructed “pray this way”. But I do know this, I gotta figure it out and fast – because I’m responsible for a lotta bread that my neighbour is waiting for.
Anyway, I was just thinking

Neil

Give us this day our daily bread.

Friday, March 06, 2009 at 9:00 am · by Neil · in No comments



(Reader beware, you may want to skip this one – it could be hazardous to your wealth)



On the surface this appears to be a safe and reasonable prayer: “Lord give me just what I need today”. Yet, is this really what it means? If what we were asked to pray was “Give ME this day MY daily bread”, we’d be golden. However, that is not what it says…or means. Consider: you pray, “Lord, give us this day our daily bread” and God provides your daily bread and then some. Your neighbour prays, “Lord give us this day our daily bread”, and no bread comes. Has God shown greater favour to you because you are somehow more righteous and desiring than your neighbour? Although I believe we’d say a collective ‘NO’, our actions reveal something quite different. You see, in answering your prayer of “Give us this day…” God has not only answered your prayer, He as equally answered your neighbour’s prayer. But you got the bread and your neighbour did not – so where does the problem lay for my neighbour’s lack? The problem is me! I’m withholding my neighbour’s answer – I’m hording it, banking it, eating it all myself. This came into new perspective for me as a result of two unrelated but closely timed experiences. Firstly, I sat in a class with Dr. Haddon Robinson as he spoke about the Lord’s prayer and unpacked the idea of ‘our daily bread’ and the subsequent implications. Secondly, a few weeks later I spent two weeks traveling throughout Haiti and seeing the effects of lack of bread first hand, in a country less than a two-hour flight away from what is known as the ‘bread basket of the world’. Kind of ironic isn’t it: the prayer, ‘give us this day our daily bread’ and North America known as the ‘bread basket of the World’? I think, few of us would deny, even in this time of economic crisis, that North America has stacks and stacks of horded stuff – in fact, it’s those very stacks of horded stuff that are collapsing on us. A big part of the problem is that while we have prayed the prayer “Give us this day our daily bread” and it would appear that God has answered us, we have not accepted the truth that it is not ‘my’ bread – it is also my neigbour’s bread. It is not North American bread, but it is Haiti’s our neighbour’s bread, it is Africa our neighbour’s bread, it is… you get the picture.
Jesus has an encounter with a rich young man (Luke 18:18) that gives me great concern. You know the account. The wealthy young man comes to Jesus and asks what he must do to have eternal life. Jesus tells him to follow the law. The young man responds “All these things I have kept since my youth”. Upon hearing this, Jesus says to him, “You still lack one thing, sell all you have and give it to the poor and then you will have treasure in heaven; then follow me.” When the young man heard this, he became very sad because he was a man of great wealth.
This disturbs me. Quite frankly, I don’t like that story and here is why. We, us, North America, in so many cases are that young wealthy ruler. We want to know the answer to the same question “What must I do to have eternal life”. Jesus says, “Keep the law.” We answer, “I’ve said the sinners prayer; I’ve taught Sunday School; I’ve read my Bible, said my prayers, went to church and tithed regularly. Jesus hearing this says to us “You still lack one thing, sell everything you have and give it to the poor and then you will have treasure in heave;, then follow me.” I hear your self-justifications and sensibilities kickin’ in: “But it’s a different world” – “I’m not that wealthy” – “That’s not really what Jesus was asking,” you say. How do I know that is what you are saying? Because it’s exactly what I’ve been saying to myself for years – the same empty rationalizations. And I become very sad because of my great wealth. When you hear of children who are eating a mixture of flour and mud in order to stretch the meal for the family – I am stinking, piled high and deep, drowning in wealth! I hear you say: “But you don’t understand - I’m not that wealthy - I have responsibilities and bills - I have more bills than money” and I realize that for some this is truly the case. Although this may not be reflective of you – it is for those of us who have created a life system of credit debt and relentless consumerism that forces us to upgrade, buy bigger, and buy…buy…buy! This is for those of us that believe we deserve newer, faster, brighter, bigger, more, better… The new phrase is the “rich poor”. Ah, poor, poor us.
I’ll be honest, I don’t know yet what all of this means to me - to begin to pray this prayer as Jesus instructed “pray this way”. But I do know this, I gotta figure it out and fast – because I’m responsible for a lotta bread that my neighbour is waiting for.
Anyway, I was just thinking

Neil

Wednesday, March 04, 2009


The immediate questions that come to my mind are: “ What does the coming of God’s kingdom look like?” and “What exactly is His Will?” These are big questions! Yet, we are called to make this a pattern of our prayer as Jesus tells us “pray this way”. We need to think about it. We are praying for it, but even more so, we are commanded to pray it. But, what does it mean? What does it require of me? First, we must look at what we know about God’s kingdom. As we read the various statements of Jesus in relation to the Kingdom, we find these common themes: justice, kindness and humility. In seeking God’s kingdom, and doing His Will, we must constantly be asking – is what I’m doing Godly justice, Christly love, Holy Spirit humility? All my relationships and encounters are to be marked and come under the subjection of these qualities. I challenge you to re-examine the gospel passages that speak of the kingdom and apply these themes. Ask what is Kingdom justice, Kingdom kindness, Kingdom humility. These are the elements of God’s Kingdom and expressions of His Will. These are the things that if the Kingdom of God is to come, they must be lived through me. Everything is on the table. My choices, wants, attitudes and opinions are a big part of this kingdom. My relationship with my wife, my children, and my co-workers are considerations for coming of the Kingdom. For others is it is their relationship with a girl friend or a boy friend. As persons called ‘Respond to the Call’, it is directly tied to the ‘how and what’ we do as support workers for those with exceptional needs. It comes to play in our conflicts, how we relate to those in authority, etc. In addition, being that this is being written at the end of February, how and what I report on my taxes. It is at the most fundamental pragmatic levels that we need live out the Kingdom of God. I think that is the root of Jesus’ statement: “Seek first the Kingdom of God, then these things will be added to you”.
I have had many people tell me “this or that is God’s Will” after which I am left wondering, “How do you know that?” The problem with declaring something as God’s Will is we effectively lock down input or counsel from anyone else. How do we know with certainty what God’s Will is? I am afraid I have used this, or seen other people use the statement “it’s God’s Will” as a method of manipulation or self-justification of what we personally want to see happen. As well meaning and convinced as I may be, there are few things that I should be as dogmatic about to as to claim “This is God’s Will”. I am not suggesting that we cannot know God’s Will, I am merely pointing out that we need to be very careful and very sure of making that claim. Here is the ironic bit: many, including myself, have claimed this as a truth regarding particular things. However, if you look closely enough at those things that we feel we know for sure are God’s Will – maybe we aren’t doing quite so well with them. Here is what I mean: if you knew the specific Will of God, would you do it? If you knew exactly what He required of you, would you commit all you are to do it? Well here is the rub, He has told us – clearly. The answer to this is found in Micah 6:8
8He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?
We do this in our personal walk with God, in our journey with each other, and in our mission to a world that desperately needs to experience the coming of the Kingdom of God (refer to the Haiti reflections).
Here’s my suggestion – for myself especially: first I must focus on what I know to be the Will of God: justice for the poor, broken and forgotten; kindness be the quality that I am known by, and humility to be my character –

Anyway, I was just thinking,
Neil

Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven

Wednesday, March 04, 2009 at 8:00 am · by Neil · in , , , No comments


The immediate questions that come to my mind are: “ What does the coming of God’s kingdom look like?” and “What exactly is His Will?” These are big questions! Yet, we are called to make this a pattern of our prayer as Jesus tells us “pray this way”. We need to think about it. We are praying for it, but even more so, we are commanded to pray it. But, what does it mean? What does it require of me? First, we must look at what we know about God’s kingdom. As we read the various statements of Jesus in relation to the Kingdom, we find these common themes: justice, kindness and humility. In seeking God’s kingdom, and doing His Will, we must constantly be asking – is what I’m doing Godly justice, Christly love, Holy Spirit humility? All my relationships and encounters are to be marked and come under the subjection of these qualities. I challenge you to re-examine the gospel passages that speak of the kingdom and apply these themes. Ask what is Kingdom justice, Kingdom kindness, Kingdom humility. These are the elements of God’s Kingdom and expressions of His Will. These are the things that if the Kingdom of God is to come, they must be lived through me. Everything is on the table. My choices, wants, attitudes and opinions are a big part of this kingdom. My relationship with my wife, my children, and my co-workers are considerations for coming of the Kingdom. For others is it is their relationship with a girl friend or a boy friend. As persons called ‘Respond to the Call’, it is directly tied to the ‘how and what’ we do as support workers for those with exceptional needs. It comes to play in our conflicts, how we relate to those in authority, etc. In addition, being that this is being written at the end of February, how and what I report on my taxes. It is at the most fundamental pragmatic levels that we need live out the Kingdom of God. I think that is the root of Jesus’ statement: “Seek first the Kingdom of God, then these things will be added to you”.
I have had many people tell me “this or that is God’s Will” after which I am left wondering, “How do you know that?” The problem with declaring something as God’s Will is we effectively lock down input or counsel from anyone else. How do we know with certainty what God’s Will is? I am afraid I have used this, or seen other people use the statement “it’s God’s Will” as a method of manipulation or self-justification of what we personally want to see happen. As well meaning and convinced as I may be, there are few things that I should be as dogmatic about to as to claim “This is God’s Will”. I am not suggesting that we cannot know God’s Will, I am merely pointing out that we need to be very careful and very sure of making that claim. Here is the ironic bit: many, including myself, have claimed this as a truth regarding particular things. However, if you look closely enough at those things that we feel we know for sure are God’s Will – maybe we aren’t doing quite so well with them. Here is what I mean: if you knew the specific Will of God, would you do it? If you knew exactly what He required of you, would you commit all you are to do it? Well here is the rub, He has told us – clearly. The answer to this is found in Micah 6:8
8He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?
We do this in our personal walk with God, in our journey with each other, and in our mission to a world that desperately needs to experience the coming of the Kingdom of God (refer to the Haiti reflections).
Here’s my suggestion – for myself especially: first I must focus on what I know to be the Will of God: justice for the poor, broken and forgotten; kindness be the quality that I am known by, and humility to be my character –

Anyway, I was just thinking,
Neil

Monday, March 02, 2009


A number of years ago a young boy came up to me after a service in church and declared “Pastor Kneeo, I know God’s name”. Curious I asked, “and what is that name” “Howard” he stated triumphantly having knowledge that I did not possess. I inquired, ‘and how do you know that?”. With a great smile of delight he declared, ” Our Father, who art in heaven, Howard be Thy name!”
Holy is the name of God. Hi, my name is Neil. It identifies me. If you have the misfortune of knowing me you may have images and memories that are conjured up in your mind when you hear the name Neil. First, for some it is a decision, on which Neil. Neil Diamond? Neil Rogers? (whose email is occasionally misdirected to me), or Neil Cudney? Once it is determined that it is me, Neil Cudney that we’re talking about, there are feelings, sentiments, opinions that all come into play – we won’t explore those images too deeply because I’m afraid. However, the name ‘Neil’ itself does not describe me. There are occasion perhaps when someone might be too loud or thick headed you might say “Oh stop being such a Neil”, but beyond a few that might have that same experience of me, it holds no meaning or power in itself. The name of God is something quite different. It is not a result of a mom and dad looking at their kid and saying ‘let’s name it… Neil’, because they liked the name. God’s name is Himself. I could have had the name Larry, Curly or Moe – but God can and only can have the name Holy. The Jewish people believed that God’s name was so Holy that it was not to be written and are able to refer to Him as Adonai (which means simply “my Lord”. They knew God’s name as YHWH, but it was not supposed to be written or spoken in fear of taking God’s name in vain, or creating a graven image. God revealed His name as YHWH to Moses, “I am that I am’ (though Hebrew tenses don’t work the same as ours so it could be “I am what I will be” or “I am what I have been”). God’s name is being, existence itself. Essentially, existence -- is God. Although that does not mean that God is all things and therefore all things are Holy – Existence is without exception in God, but God is not found in existence – He is beyond. That is kind of a mind bender, it makes one’s head hurt. It is what caused one ancient theologian to state: “God is greater than that which can be conceived, once it is conceived, it cannot be God”.
I think we need to follow a Psalmist tradition and have a “Selah” insert at this point. A Selah was put in as a pause and means “stop and think about that”. Every time we begin the Our Father prayer, we require a great pause of silence, reverence and awe as we are impacted by the immensity of that statement and the privilege that has been grant to us to let it pass over our lips. Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be they name, Selah…

Anyway I was just thinking.

Neil

Hallowed be Your name.

Monday, March 02, 2009 at 9:26 am · by Neil · in , , No comments


A number of years ago a young boy came up to me after a service in church and declared “Pastor Kneeo, I know God’s name”. Curious I asked, “and what is that name” “Howard” he stated triumphantly having knowledge that I did not possess. I inquired, ‘and how do you know that?”. With a great smile of delight he declared, ” Our Father, who art in heaven, Howard be Thy name!”
Holy is the name of God. Hi, my name is Neil. It identifies me. If you have the misfortune of knowing me you may have images and memories that are conjured up in your mind when you hear the name Neil. First, for some it is a decision, on which Neil. Neil Diamond? Neil Rogers? (whose email is occasionally misdirected to me), or Neil Cudney? Once it is determined that it is me, Neil Cudney that we’re talking about, there are feelings, sentiments, opinions that all come into play – we won’t explore those images too deeply because I’m afraid. However, the name ‘Neil’ itself does not describe me. There are occasion perhaps when someone might be too loud or thick headed you might say “Oh stop being such a Neil”, but beyond a few that might have that same experience of me, it holds no meaning or power in itself. The name of God is something quite different. It is not a result of a mom and dad looking at their kid and saying ‘let’s name it… Neil’, because they liked the name. God’s name is Himself. I could have had the name Larry, Curly or Moe – but God can and only can have the name Holy. The Jewish people believed that God’s name was so Holy that it was not to be written and are able to refer to Him as Adonai (which means simply “my Lord”. They knew God’s name as YHWH, but it was not supposed to be written or spoken in fear of taking God’s name in vain, or creating a graven image. God revealed His name as YHWH to Moses, “I am that I am’ (though Hebrew tenses don’t work the same as ours so it could be “I am what I will be” or “I am what I have been”). God’s name is being, existence itself. Essentially, existence -- is God. Although that does not mean that God is all things and therefore all things are Holy – Existence is without exception in God, but God is not found in existence – He is beyond. That is kind of a mind bender, it makes one’s head hurt. It is what caused one ancient theologian to state: “God is greater than that which can be conceived, once it is conceived, it cannot be God”.
I think we need to follow a Psalmist tradition and have a “Selah” insert at this point. A Selah was put in as a pause and means “stop and think about that”. Every time we begin the Our Father prayer, we require a great pause of silence, reverence and awe as we are impacted by the immensity of that statement and the privilege that has been grant to us to let it pass over our lips. Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be they name, Selah…

Anyway I was just thinking.

Neil

Thursday, February 26, 2009


We have such a convoluted and an ethereal view of heaven. Philadelphia Cream Cheese isn’t helping. I certainly know I cannot tell you ‘this is where and what heaven is’ in a conclusive manner. For the simple reason, I do not know. We know it is real, it has tangible qualities – God is there, Jesus will greet us personally, it will come to have its city on earth. We are given some ideas about heaven. Jesus tells us ‘it is at hand’. He tells that thief on the cross, ‘on this day you will be with me in paradise’. We have numerous references “the Kingdom of God is like….” We know that heaven itself finds its existence within the person of God – in that it is an extension of who he is – much like the earth itself.

It also tells us something of God – although he is infinite, he also has location – a specific address, so to speak. We all struggle ontologically – which is a fancy word for the nature of being or existence of God. We ask; where is God? Where do we ‘go’ when we die? How do we know that it a real place? And on and on the questions go. I have them, I know you do as well.
We speak of the omni-presence of God – He is in all places with equal presence and awareness – he is ‘close’, but He also has transcendence – complete ‘otherness’, He is above and beyond all that is. We often translate God’s presence as spatial - separate distance, close near, here or there. God is not governed or confined by the physics of time and space. He created them. God is not living outside or breaking the laws as an outlaw might – but they exist in, by, through and for Him. They exist because He exists, they are reflections of the nature and character of God.

If anything is true, we are the outlaws, and presently we living outside the Laws that God created to govern the world. We are not living according to God’s ‘natural laws’ at the moment – quite the contrary – sin is the invader, the unnatural law. We exist surrounded by the Kingdom of Heaven – the enemy kingdom itself exists as small almost immeasurable rebel outpost within the infinite borders of God’s kingdom. It’s all a matter of perspective. A poor example is like the Miami airport I recently visited in route to Haiti. Walking around that airport, it is huge – especially when you have to run from one gate to another. However, once you lift off the ground, the large airport becomes only a small element with the city of Miami itself, and becomes an unidentifiable dot at 33,000 feet. If I was able to afford the millions dollars for a ride on the Soviet space shuttle, my perspective would even be greater as I’d see the continent that Miami was one, but would be indistinguishable as its own identity.

We are surrounded by heaven, by God – we exist as a small dot inside it/Him. Heaven is bigger, infinitely bigger than earth. When we pray, “who art in heaven” we are not praying to some far off place and our prayers travel at the speed of light to get there. It is here and now enveloping us. We are separated by what is to God a thin veil, but to us a massive steal wall. We can’t break out without death, but by life God has entered in.
Anyway, I was just thinking.

Neil

Who Art in heaven

Thursday, February 26, 2009 at 9:24 am · by Neil · in , , , , No comments


We have such a convoluted and an ethereal view of heaven. Philadelphia Cream Cheese isn’t helping. I certainly know I cannot tell you ‘this is where and what heaven is’ in a conclusive manner. For the simple reason, I do not know. We know it is real, it has tangible qualities – God is there, Jesus will greet us personally, it will come to have its city on earth. We are given some ideas about heaven. Jesus tells us ‘it is at hand’. He tells that thief on the cross, ‘on this day you will be with me in paradise’. We have numerous references “the Kingdom of God is like….” We know that heaven itself finds its existence within the person of God – in that it is an extension of who he is – much like the earth itself.

It also tells us something of God – although he is infinite, he also has location – a specific address, so to speak. We all struggle ontologically – which is a fancy word for the nature of being or existence of God. We ask; where is God? Where do we ‘go’ when we die? How do we know that it a real place? And on and on the questions go. I have them, I know you do as well.
We speak of the omni-presence of God – He is in all places with equal presence and awareness – he is ‘close’, but He also has transcendence – complete ‘otherness’, He is above and beyond all that is. We often translate God’s presence as spatial - separate distance, close near, here or there. God is not governed or confined by the physics of time and space. He created them. God is not living outside or breaking the laws as an outlaw might – but they exist in, by, through and for Him. They exist because He exists, they are reflections of the nature and character of God.

If anything is true, we are the outlaws, and presently we living outside the Laws that God created to govern the world. We are not living according to God’s ‘natural laws’ at the moment – quite the contrary – sin is the invader, the unnatural law. We exist surrounded by the Kingdom of Heaven – the enemy kingdom itself exists as small almost immeasurable rebel outpost within the infinite borders of God’s kingdom. It’s all a matter of perspective. A poor example is like the Miami airport I recently visited in route to Haiti. Walking around that airport, it is huge – especially when you have to run from one gate to another. However, once you lift off the ground, the large airport becomes only a small element with the city of Miami itself, and becomes an unidentifiable dot at 33,000 feet. If I was able to afford the millions dollars for a ride on the Soviet space shuttle, my perspective would even be greater as I’d see the continent that Miami was one, but would be indistinguishable as its own identity.

We are surrounded by heaven, by God – we exist as a small dot inside it/Him. Heaven is bigger, infinitely bigger than earth. When we pray, “who art in heaven” we are not praying to some far off place and our prayers travel at the speed of light to get there. It is here and now enveloping us. We are separated by what is to God a thin veil, but to us a massive steal wall. We can’t break out without death, but by life God has entered in.
Anyway, I was just thinking.

Neil

Monday, February 23, 2009


– Matthew 6
9"Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10'Your kingdom come Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 11'Give us this day our daily bread. 12 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.'

I am old enough to remember when we started our school day with the “God Save the Queen”, and the Lord’s Prayer. Yup, as my adult children constantly remind me, I’m old. Growing up in the church, the Lord’s Prayer was recited on a somewhat regular bases. Enough that I can recite it without much thought –therein lays the problem. Recent events have brought the Lord’s Prayer into a new perspective and priority for me. A number of those events I have already shared with you in the Haiti reflections. The young children begging for a dollar, and being told that do not worry, you will become immune; the drive through Citie Soleil thinking “God you have forgotten this place” – and hearing the answer in my heart “I have not forgotten, Neil you have”. Over the next week, I want to share with you some of the wrestling of my soul as they pertain to the Lord’s Prayer.

If we read the preceding account of the disciples asking, “teach us to pray”, we will discover that Jesus sets out the Lord’s Prayer as a pattern for how we pray in general. The prayer positions us in the following:
o Orienting ourselves in the universe
o Orienting ourselves in society
o Orienting ourselves in our responsibility to God, each other, the world, ourselves
Reading, studying, and slowly praying through the prayer I am increasingly struck by its radical, subversive nature. The Social/political/economic/ spiritual implications of this prayer are both profound and life altering. So, let us journey through the words of this prayer to discover ‘why’ Jesus set this out as a pattern for all prayer.

Our Father –
God is our complete source. Our existence is found only in Him. He is the seed of life, awareness – of all things. He is Creator God, but more, He is Father God. Here we find a deep personal relational God. You have heard sermons, I am sure, before describing that the word Father here translates “Abba” – which is not a formal address but a very personal endearing name given. Our closest association would be “daddy”. It denotes a complete dependency and trust – of innocent and devoted trust. God is not far away, but close and aware - accessible.

It is a unifying word. The prayer is not ‘my Father’ but ‘our Father’. It is like when my sisters and brother visit my parent’s farm and each of us are aware that he is not simply ‘my’ father – but he is our father and although I am my own person, my existence, our existence, to borrow a Biblical reference is from his loins. Our Western sensibilities shy away from such language or imaginary. When I was attempting to remind my children that this was why I could make the decision as ‘dad’ their response was “ew gross”. However, it is true.

We have lost an important traditional sense of reliance, dependency and thankfulness for the life that has been passed on to us from our parents. Yes, I am my own person, but I did not do anything nor could do anything to bring this to pass.
Likewise, all of us have a common parentage. Not only us here, but every person that draws breath on this small rotating ball of dirt, suspended in an, as far as we know, endless universe. We are all intimately connected. Therefore, from the very first words of this prayer both relationship and responsibility are established. That little Haitian boy that pushed his hand through the window and asked “Dollar minister?” is in fact…my brother. The man dying of AIDS laying on a mat in Sudan is …my brother. Those young Nicaraguan girls that are forced to prostitute themselves in order to gain food for themselves and their families are my sisters. I think you get the picture.

If I am to pray the Lord’s Prayer and begin with “Our Father”, I must see, accept and embrace the solidarity of those words. We are not North American, Baptist, Pentecostal or Anglican – we are children born of the Spirit and Our Father is God.

Anyway, I was just thinking.


Neil

Living the Lord's Prayer "Our Father"

Monday, February 23, 2009 at 12:50 pm · by Neil · in , , , No comments


– Matthew 6
9"Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10'Your kingdom come Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 11'Give us this day our daily bread. 12 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.'

I am old enough to remember when we started our school day with the “God Save the Queen”, and the Lord’s Prayer. Yup, as my adult children constantly remind me, I’m old. Growing up in the church, the Lord’s Prayer was recited on a somewhat regular bases. Enough that I can recite it without much thought –therein lays the problem. Recent events have brought the Lord’s Prayer into a new perspective and priority for me. A number of those events I have already shared with you in the Haiti reflections. The young children begging for a dollar, and being told that do not worry, you will become immune; the drive through Citie Soleil thinking “God you have forgotten this place” – and hearing the answer in my heart “I have not forgotten, Neil you have”. Over the next week, I want to share with you some of the wrestling of my soul as they pertain to the Lord’s Prayer.

If we read the preceding account of the disciples asking, “teach us to pray”, we will discover that Jesus sets out the Lord’s Prayer as a pattern for how we pray in general. The prayer positions us in the following:
o Orienting ourselves in the universe
o Orienting ourselves in society
o Orienting ourselves in our responsibility to God, each other, the world, ourselves
Reading, studying, and slowly praying through the prayer I am increasingly struck by its radical, subversive nature. The Social/political/economic/ spiritual implications of this prayer are both profound and life altering. So, let us journey through the words of this prayer to discover ‘why’ Jesus set this out as a pattern for all prayer.

Our Father –
God is our complete source. Our existence is found only in Him. He is the seed of life, awareness – of all things. He is Creator God, but more, He is Father God. Here we find a deep personal relational God. You have heard sermons, I am sure, before describing that the word Father here translates “Abba” – which is not a formal address but a very personal endearing name given. Our closest association would be “daddy”. It denotes a complete dependency and trust – of innocent and devoted trust. God is not far away, but close and aware - accessible.

It is a unifying word. The prayer is not ‘my Father’ but ‘our Father’. It is like when my sisters and brother visit my parent’s farm and each of us are aware that he is not simply ‘my’ father – but he is our father and although I am my own person, my existence, our existence, to borrow a Biblical reference is from his loins. Our Western sensibilities shy away from such language or imaginary. When I was attempting to remind my children that this was why I could make the decision as ‘dad’ their response was “ew gross”. However, it is true.

We have lost an important traditional sense of reliance, dependency and thankfulness for the life that has been passed on to us from our parents. Yes, I am my own person, but I did not do anything nor could do anything to bring this to pass.
Likewise, all of us have a common parentage. Not only us here, but every person that draws breath on this small rotating ball of dirt, suspended in an, as far as we know, endless universe. We are all intimately connected. Therefore, from the very first words of this prayer both relationship and responsibility are established. That little Haitian boy that pushed his hand through the window and asked “Dollar minister?” is in fact…my brother. The man dying of AIDS laying on a mat in Sudan is …my brother. Those young Nicaraguan girls that are forced to prostitute themselves in order to gain food for themselves and their families are my sisters. I think you get the picture.

If I am to pray the Lord’s Prayer and begin with “Our Father”, I must see, accept and embrace the solidarity of those words. We are not North American, Baptist, Pentecostal or Anglican – we are children born of the Spirit and Our Father is God.

Anyway, I was just thinking.


Neil

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