Category Archives: Prayer

Could I Invite You to LOVE the Body of Christ?

1 Therefore, I have a request for the elders among you. (I ask this as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings, and as one who shares in the glory that is about to be revealed.) I urge the elders: 2 Like shepherds, tend the flock of God among you. Watch over it. Don’t shepherd because you must, but do it voluntarily for God. Don’t shepherd greedily, but do it eagerly. 3 Don’t shepherd by ruling over those entrusted to your care, but become examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive an unfading crown of glory. (1 Peter 5:1-4, CEB)

As pastors it is such a privilege to love people. It isn’t easy. It isn’t simple. But it is joy.

We need good healthy practices in our churches. We need to do “good business.” But we need to shepherd people. We need to care for them as pastors.

We need to watch over those we are called to care for with a sense of watchfulness. It is loving people so that we help them grow. We keep the enemy at bay. We pray over the church we have been privileged to watch over.

There are the peaks and the valleys. We celebrate the peaks. We weep in the valleys. As shepherds we rely on the strength of the Lord to carry people through those times.

We sit by bedsides as those we love struggle with health issues. We cheer on basketball teams our youth play on. We celebrate job promotions. We celebrate new births like they are our own kids.

Loving the Body wrings the emotions out of us at times, and we go the Shepherd who knows what that is all about.

As pastors, could I invite you to LOVE the Body of Christ? Don’t look to them to further your career. Look to them as ones precious in the sight of God. They are so precious the Lord called you to watch over them.

When We’re Not Effective… We Argue

In Mark 9 Jesus comes down from the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John. He finds the rest of his disciples in an argument with the legal experts.

14 When Jesus, Peter, James, and John approached the other disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them and legal experts arguing with them. 15 Suddenly the whole crowd caught sight of Jesus. They ran to greet him, overcome with excitement. 16 Jesus asked them, “What are you arguing about?” (Mark 9:14-15, CEB)

The issue was a demon-possessed boy. The father had brought him to the disciples and they couldn’t cast the demon out.

Somehow, what had resulted in that ineffectiveness was an argument with the legal experts.

When we get caught in a setback, it’s often our default position as well. I think of such an episode in today’s world. Maybe we had prayed for deliverance for someone and watched God deliver someone. Then, here comes another case and we take it on in the same way and… nothing.

In our day, the argument might look like this:

“How do you know it was demon possession? Maybe it was just an illness.”

“What is your problem? You did it before! We watched you!”

“How dare you cast out a demon when all he may need is a good therapist!”

And on and on.

When we hit bumps in our road, we try to figure out what went wrong. Often we end up in arguments. Sometimes those arguments may be with ourselves.

Jesus nails the disciples hard on this one. They are called “faithless” (along with others in that crowd), and then when they ask him why they couldn’t cast it out, he fires back, “This kind requires prayer.” (Newer manuscripts added “and fasting,” which helps make the point.)

What Jesus is saying is this: “No more formulas, fellas. You better learn to pray and hear from heaven consistently.”

The Kingdom isn’t for the faint of heart.

Do We Quit Too Soon?

18 Then Elisha said, “Take the arrows!” so Joash took them. Elisha then said to Israel’s king, “Hit the ground with them!” Joash hit the ground three times and stopped. 19 The man of God became angry with him. He said, “If only you had struck five or six times, you would have finished the Arameans off. As it is, you will defeat them only three times.” (2 Kings 13:18-19, CEB)

Elisha was on his deathbed and one last king comes to consult Elisha because the king is in trouble. Elisha predicts victory over the enemy, then tells Joash to strike the arrows on the ground. Elisha was angry because Joash gave up. He was half-hearted. He wasn’t told how many times to strike the ground, so he gives it a weak effort and stops.

Prayer and asking things of God can be like a dial-up connection in a 4G world. Who has time to stop and actually ask what God may want? We think we can fire off a text to God, keep him up to date on our Twitter account, and that should be good. Why can’t God answer a request of 140 characters or less?

Hey, as long as we get into this argument about the Bible doesn’t “apply” to us today, let’s just throw out that whole, “Ask, seek, knock” stuff. (Of course, we’ve already done that in practice, but let’s make it official.) Who has time to keep on seeking? I have a life, you know!

The principles of the Kingdom are soooo out of date! Let’s see if we can get God to speed things up a bit.

But the Kingdom moves on… and it moves in power. And that power comes through prayer. Asking. Seeking. Knocking.

For how long?

As “old-time Pentecostals” used to say, “You pray until.”

“Until what?”

That’s when they would give me a weird look.

Lord, help us to hear the voice of the Spirit.

The Miracle in Your House

I am blatantly stealing from Tommy Barnett. I am an honest thief.

He had a sermon called, “There’s a miracle in your house!” (And then a book.)

2 Kings 4:1-7 tells the story of Elisha and the widow. She has nothing to pay her debts. Elisha asks what she has in the house. She had nothing but a small jar of oil. Elisha tells her to go collect as many jars from her neighbors as she can find. Bring them all into the house and start filling each jar. The widow went to find as many jars as possible. Then, she began pouring. The oil didn’t run out until the last jar was filled.

In Mark 8 Jesus has his disciples feed the 4,000. The disciples are worried about the huge crowd.

“How much do you have?” Jesus asked.

“Seven loaves.”

“Start feeding, then.”

8 They ate until they were full. They collected seven baskets full of leftovers. (Mark 8:8, CEB)

They ate all they needed. And then there were leftovers. God isn’t about scarcity. He is about abundance. But this is interesting in these stories: God isn’t about storing it up in our bank accounts, vast property holdings, or flashy jewelry, either. (Just a thought. I’m meddlin’ now… I know.)

Here is the incredible lesson of the Kingdom of God: pour out what you have and watch God keep supplying. Don’t wait for a better day, or a richer day. Pour out NOW.

The “No More Signs” Generation

We can’t be pursuing Jesus simply for the signs. We are in pursuit because of who he is. May we not be in the generation where Jesus says, “No more signs.”

11 The Pharisees showed up and began to argue with Jesus. To test him, they asked for a sign from heaven. 12 With an impatient sigh, Jesus said, “Why does this generation look for a sign? I assure you that no sign will be given to it.” 13 Leaving them, he got back in the boat and crossed to the other side of the lake. (Mark 8:11-13, CEB)

How to Get Jesus to Say, “Good Answer!”

Mark 7 has Jesus exploding all over the religious leaders’ views of what is “in” and what is “out.” What is “proper” and what is “improper.”

Then, it’s lived out in the story of Syrophoenician woman. She has come to beg Jesus to cast a demon out of her daughter. Jesus has never hesitated to cast out demons. Here, he does. And he insults the woman along the way. She was a Gentile.

It was proving a point with the disciples. They were all too ready to reject the woman because of who she was. Her need didn’t matter to them.

But she kept at it. When Jesus insulted her, she stayed with the request. Finally, he slams her by saying it wasn’t right to give the children’s food to the dogs.

28 But she answered, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

29 “Good answer!” he said. “Go on home. The demon has already left your daughter.” 30 When she returned to her house, she found the child lying on the bed and the demon gone. (Mark 7:28-30, CEB)

Jesus responds to an “unclean” woman because of her tenacious faith.

While the “religious” people were complaining to Jesus about this, that, and the other this unclean woman was in pursuit of an answer. She was tenacious. She wasn’t giving up. She came to the Kingdom out of need. And the Kingdom didn’t disappoint.

How are we coming to Jesus? With our complaints? With our gripes? With our views of perfect theology and pointing out the flaws in others?

Or, are we coming in desperate need for the Kingdom to touch us with power?

Which one could illicit the response: “Good answer”?

The Lazy Prophet

29 Elisha said to Gehazi, “Get ready, take my staff, and go! If you encounter anyone, don’t stop to greet them. If anyone greets you, don’t reply. Put my staff on the boy’s face.”

30 But the boy’s mother said, “I swear by your life and by the LORD’s life, I won’t leave you!” So Elisha got up and followed her.

31 Gehazi went on ahead of them. He set the staff on the young boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So he went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy didn’t wake up.” (2 Kings 4:29-31, CEB)

This post is more directed at me than anyone else. I’ve journaled about it as well, but I’m still thinking out loud about ministry, laziness, the flesh, egos… all that good stuff.

Elisha has prayed for the Shunnamite woman to conceive. Years before she had built a room for Elisha, allowing him a place to stay when he was in the area. Imagine the scandal. A single prophet living in the home of a married woman…

I digress.

Elisha prayed and the woman conceived. Flash forward several years. The son has just died and the woman has gone out to hunt down Elisha. Finding him she rips into him for giving her a son and then letting him die.

Elisha calls his servant Gehazi and gives him his staff. He tells Gehazi to run ahead and lay the staff on the dead son.

He didn’t get up and go right away. He sent the servant.

There are good reasons for doing this. Perhaps he is up in years a bit and he can’t move as fast. He wants the answer to come quickly so he sends the servant with his staff. It represents him.

Perhaps he is not feeling well. He just needs someone to get there quicker.

There is also a reason that’s not so “nice.” He may have just been lazy. He may have thought, “I am really tied up with things here. Sending my servant with my staff should do the job.”

We don’t know why. Those who love prophets and think prophets can do no wrong will go with the first option. That’s okay.

It’s that second option that challenges me. Not because I think Elisha was in that category. It’s because too often I find myself in that category.

There are several issues facing me currently that require far more of me than I feel I can give right now. Yet, it’s not a matter of wanting to be more busy. They are issues that truly need my attention.

And I’m trying to send substitutes. I am trying to throw a little effort in and hoping for a big result.

Of course it’s not working! DUH!

There are times as ministers, as pastors, as prophets… we need to push the effort through. YES we are tired. YES we are pushed to the limit. YES we have too many things on our plates.

But there is a call from God and sending some substitute won’t get it done. We have to go and lay on the dead body ourselves! Resurrection can happen.

Push through.

Short Attention Span Theater

30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him everything they had done and taught. 31 Many people were coming and going, so there was no time to eat. He said to the apostles, “Come by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while.” 32 They departed in a boat by themselves for a deserted place.

33 Many people saw them leaving and recognized them, so they ran ahead from all the cities and arrived before them. 34 When Jesus arrived and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he began to teach them many things.

35 Late in the day, his disciples came to him and said, “This is an isolated place, and it’s already late in the day. 36 Send them away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy something to eat for themselves.”

37 He replied, “You give them something to eat.”

   But they said to him, “Should we go off and buy bread worth almost eight months’ pay and give it to them to eat?” (Mark 6:30-37, CEB)

They had just returned from a successful ministry trip. They had laid hands on the sick, cast out demons, proclaimed the gospel, and they excitedly told Jesus everything.

Then… POOF! Their memory is gone.

Jesus turns to them when this huge crowd shows up and says, “Well, go to it, guys!”

And they freak.

We have short attention spans when it comes to incredible blessings of God. We watch God come through in some powerful way and then the very next obstacle we hit we’re panicked all over again.

It happened to Elijah. He takes on the prophets of Baal and wins, then runs for his life when Jezebel threatens him.

Don’t live in the short attention span theater. Get the long view. Recount what God has done for you.

We used to sing out of this thing called a hymnbook in church when I was growing up. (It was a bit of a misnomer since many of the songs were really gospel songs, not hymns, but that’s another issue.) And in this hymnbook was a song called “Count Your Blessings.”

Name them one by one. Count your many blessings and see what God has done.

Take the time. Remember. Recall. Thank God. And get after the next miracle he is asking you to do!

Two Possible Responses to Jesus

In Mark 6 there are a couple of responses to Jesus.

In vv. 1-6 the people familiar with Jesus didn’t think much of who he had become. They launched into stories of “I remember little Jesus when he was following his daddy around with a hammer…”

In vv. 7-12 there is a different response.

7 He called for the Twelve and sent them out in pairs. He gave them authority over unclean spirits. 8 He instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a walking stick—no bread, no bags, and no money in their belts. 9 He told them to wear sandals but not to put on two shirts. 10 He said, “Whatever house you enter, remain there until you leave that place. 11 If a place doesn’t welcome you or listen to you, as you leave, shake the dust off your feet as a witness against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should change their hearts and lives. 13 They cast out many demons, and they anointed many sick people with olive oil and healed them. (Mark 6:7-13, CEB)

We could actually go out and do what Jesus did.

He is our Savior. How will we respond?

How to Make Jesus Useless

1 Jesus left that place and came to his hometown. His disciples followed him. 2 On the Sabbath, he began to teach in the synagogue. Many who heard him were surprised. “Where did this man get all this? What’s this wisdom he’s been given? What about the powerful acts accomplished through him? 3 Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t he Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” They were repulsed by him and fell into sin.

4 Jesus said to them, “Prophets are honored everywhere except in their own hometowns, among their relatives, and in their own households.” 5 He was unable to do any miracles there, except that he placed his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 He was appalled by their disbelief. (Mark 6:1-6, CEB)

When Jesus becomes too familiar to us, and we think we know him… the power is gone. The majesty and beauty are gone.

How do you keep your walk with Jesus fresh? How does it NOT become routine and “familiar” to you?

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