Old Testament Psalms are more than poetry, they are Hebrew poetry. They have a unique style and structure. Poetry is not about facts or debatable details, it’s about experience. It’s about expression and feeling. In the coming weeks, we’ll unpack more about the characteristics of Psalms and how important they are in the Christian life.
After unpacking the “Lord’s Prayer” for several weeks, hopefully we’ve realized that Jesus wasn’t giving his disciples another ritual to follow, he was giving them a pattern of prayer to follow. Jesus exhorted his disciples to pray “in this manner” (NKJV) or “like this” (ESV). Jesus never asked his followers to memorize the words or to adopt another ritual to follow. He was showing his believers how to observe and how to pray.
Since Jesus was both man and God, he knew our human needs, cravings, and longings. It is fair to say that he also knew how God would respond. Prayer is a way of asking God for things and for listening to his will. Good prayers present to God requests for specific needs. The Lord’s prayer suggest requests for daily provisions, forgiveness, and strength for resistance to temptation.
God’s kingdom sums up everything a Christian longs for and Corinthians 13 describes this as a world characterized by faith, hope, and love. If our earthly world was built on only these three principles, how much more peaceful, more beautiful, and more livable would it be than the world we’re living in right now?
This month, we’re going to study the “Lord’s Prayer” as many people call it. The label of “Lord’s Prayer” is a little bit of a misnomer. It’s actually a prayer that Jesus taught the disciples to use rather than a prayer Jesus made to God, the father (John 17:1-5). The disciples needed to see a proper example of humility and simplicity in prayer.
Reading Exodus 32 this morning, I was dumbfounded when I came across Aaron’s reply to Moses about creating the golden calf in his absence. Moses had gone up the mountain to talk with God and to listen to God’s commands. Apparently, the conversation took too long for Moses’s people because they started complaining to his brother Aaron.
13 books in the New Testament are attributed to the Apostle Paul. Before his conversion to being a prolific and passionate Christian, he was a Jewish leader zealous for the persecution of Christians. What a twist. He hated followers of Jesus. He ordered the death and destruction of many of them. According to Acts, he approved the stoning of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
Probably, one of the most calming verses in scripture is from Numbers 6
‘”The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”‘
It doesn’t shout, sneer, or condemn. It lifts up. It is easy to understand and applies to all. People have asked me what does it mean to be a Christian and I always tell them that it’s about a man — Jesus Christ.
If you had to answer how you should live your life with so much anger and adversity surrounding you, what would you say? Would you point to others faults and blame them for what’s going on in the world? Would you blame government or our President who seems to polarize opinions about him? Or would you choose a different path?
2020. What a year. Anxiety, stress, fear, and hatred are at an all time high. Just when we think things can’t get worse, we have a flashpoint event like what happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis. More than ever, we need to reach out to each other and show love. We need to look at the light and fire in each other’s souls and embrace (from a distance) one another.