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Praying Powerful Prayers
If you REALLY want to pray for someone, use Paul’s prayers in Ephesians. I pray these prayers over people in my church, my family, friends, enemies… I want to know God the way Paul knew him! What generous prayers! God’s overwhelming power is at work in each of us. Truly PRAY over your friends this way this week!
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Tenacious Waiting and Our Millisecond Attention Span
I will take my post; I will position myself on the fortress. I will keep watch to see what the Lord says to me and how he will respond to my complaint. (Hab. 2:1, CEB) We often think we are just THE THING when it comes to walking with God. We’re smarter, faster, more “spiritual”… We certainly know better than the…
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A prayer for my students
Before a final exam I prayed, “Lord, what is there in their memory, let it be retained. What was never there in the first place, let it stay away.” Ironically, some students did not appreciate that prayer.
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Getting God to Change His Mind
This isn’t a very good Calvinist post. Good thing I’m not a Calvinist. I’m probably not an Arminian, either. I love Exodus because it messes with Calvinist and Armininian viewpoints. It brings the tension of the action of God and the action of humanity into sharp relief. In Exodus 32 Moses has been up on the mountain receiving the covenant…
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We are all capable
C.S. Lewis said the person sitting on the bus next to us is capable of extraordinary horror or extraordinary heroics. This is the battle we all face. This is what the disciples faced on the night Jesus was betrayed. They didn’t know who would betray Jesus. Then, Peter, big mouth that he was, declared his death-defying allegiance to Jesus. He ran…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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The Spirit, Forms, Ritual, and New Things
I was in Mark 2 for my preaching text this past Sunday. The subject was new wine and new wineskins. When the Kingdom of God is bursting on the scene, we need to be able to move with what the Kingdom is doing. I was able to walk through vv. 1-17, but didn’t get to 2:18-3:6. Often when I hear…
Tag: Prayer
