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Prayer 101 Part 3

1/18/2015

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Heal Me and Forgive Me

Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18; 1 Corinthians 6: 12-20; John 1: 43-51

January 18, 2015


Our Psalm today speaks of God's intimate knowledge of us. And as we continue our look at prayer, I think it's important to look at this and consider why we pray when God knows us so completely. Here's what the psalmist wrote, “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.” Why do we pray when God already knows the words on our tongue? This type of question was put to me just this week in a counseling session. And it was answered by a non-christian who said, “God wants to know that we know what we need.” I thought that was pretty good. My answer is that God doesn't like to eavesdrop—God wants us to be direct with our wants and our needs. Last Sunday Bev pointed out to me that the devotional These Days had an article about prayer last Saturday. I share some of that, “Watching our church bell-choir I’ve noticed things that have helped my prayer life. Each single note forms the song, a beautiful whole. Each musician has to play his or her notes, but if someone misses one the song goes on. I am learning to pray this way: I show up with my prayers and concerns but let others voice their own notes to God. I realize I am part of something bigger that myself, my congregation, even my denomination: I am a part of a choir of pray-ers.” Our prayer lives mix and match with millions of others to join us as one in the presence of God...another reason to pray; individually and as a congregation.


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Prayer 101 Part 2

1/11/2015

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Psalm 29; Acts 19: 1-7; Mark 1: 4-11

January 11, 2015


John the Baptist baptized the people of the region of Jerusalem with a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. People came to John and he proclaimed that one was coming who was more powerful; who was going to baptize the people with the Holy Spirit. We don't read about the prayer life of John, but to be used mightily by God—prayer is an important part.

Today we look at our prayer 101 seminar, part 2. Last week we looked at the importance of prayer in our own lives; personally and as a church family. We used the Max Lucado book Before Amen to guide our discussion. I shared the pocket prayer which is printed in your bulletin again this week. I announced that we'd continue to use this pocket prayer to guide our close look at prayer. And we studied that first word in the prayer—Father. Today we take a look at the phrases following starting with: “You are Good”. It declares a truth about God that the scriptures repeat continually: Psalm 25: 7 and 8 “you are good, Lord, good and upright is the Lord,” Psalm 86: 5, “For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving.” Jeremiah 33: 11 “For the Lord is good, his loving-kindness is everlasting.” Jesus tells us, “I am the good shepherd”. To make this our opening statement in prayer assumes that we trust these affirmations about the goodness of God; and that we are willing to put our lives in the good Lord's hands.


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Prayer 101

1/4/2015

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Prayer 101

Psalm 84; Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a; Matthew 2:13-15,19-23

January 4, 2015




In this month's newsletter article I noted that I want to increase our emphasis on prayer in our church this year; kind of like a New Year's resolution. With that in mind, I'm planning to do a series on prayer during January. I'm basing it on a book, called Before Amen by Max Lucado, who you've heard me quote often from the pulpit. I tell you that because I want to make clear I am not preaching from a position of expertise on prayer. I have done a lot of reading on prayer, I have revised and reviewed my prayer procedures throughout the years; but an expert, I am not.

That said, there are some common elements that go into successful prayer lives, some tricks you may have heard of. There is the acronym ACTS-adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. The 5 finger prayer: Thumb, people close to you-family and friends. Pointer, people who point the way, teachers, bosses. Long finger, people in authority. Ring finger, this is our weakest finger, pray for those in need, the sick, the poor. Little finger, your own needs. Just a system to organize prayers. A powerful book when I got serious about Christianity was this little handbook, Power Through Prayer by E. M. Bounds. He writes about the need the church has for people of prayer to bring the power of the Holy Spirit into play. An quote that has inspired me for many years is found in this little book where Bounds quotes Robert Murray McCheyne: “If the veil of the world's machinery were lifted off, how much we would find is done in answer to the prayers of God's children.”


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    Pastor Gordy

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