THE LORD’S PRAYER PART 8: THE FATHER NEVER LOSES A LIGHTNING BOLT!

Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 

–Matthew 6:9 (ESV)

    I was watching the movie Percy Jackson and the Olympians recently with my kids. The story goes that Zeus loses his lightning bolt and is threatening a war if it is not found. What strikes me is that, although great and powerful, these gods living in Olympus are also limited and flawed. Zeus, for example is limited by his omniscience, because he cannot find his lightning bolt and he doesn’t know who stole it! These gods are also lonely and want to be with humans. Some of them procreated with humans and sired demi-gods. And they are prohibited by Zeus to be with their children for fear that they will wish to become human in order to experience the love and affection of their human partner and children.

    Compared to the God of the Bible, these gods of Olympus are losers! Unlike Zeus, the Almighty God never loses a lightning bolt!

How great is God—beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out.

He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams; the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind.

Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds, how he thunders from his pavilion? See how he scatters his lightning about him, bathing the depths of the sea.

This is the way he governs the nations and provides food in abundance. He fills his hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark.

His thunder announces the coming storm;  even the cattle make known its approach.

-Job 36:26-33 (NIV)

    Unlike Zeus, the Father loves his children and desires to gives them everything they need to live. The Father has given us the gift of prayer so that we can talk to him. Truly the greatness of our God is incomparable!

    The phrase “in heaven” is meant to communicate that the Father is far above us in majesty and greatness. It does not convey this erroneous concept that prayer is us talking to God who is far away. We think that there exists a great gulf of space between us here on earth and the God in the heavens. So our prayers must travel through this great distance. That's not the point at all.

    “Our Father in heaven”, it is a declaration of God’s greatness. Jesus is then teaching us that we approach the Father not just with affection but also with reverence because the Father is great and glorious. Be careful then to address the Father with a sense of familiarity. Also come to the Father in worship. Be in awe of his majesty. God is both personal and majestic! Our personal lives are finite, limited and weak. Our God is infinite, limitless, and powerful! God is personally concerned for us and treats us with love and compassion but we must never lose sight that He is the creator of the universe and that he is sovereign over all!

Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise,  in the city of our God, his holy mountain.

-Psalm 48:1 (NIV)

For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;

-Psalm 95:3,6 (NIV)

    I wrote earlier that my God never loses a lightning bolt! It serves as a personal reminder to me that I must avoid making God small when I pray. He is already great and glorious and does not need us to make him look greater. However, we must declare his true greatness as we pray. Far be it, that we limit him with our minds as we lift up our requests.

    How do we make God small in our prayers? In the book Knowing God, author JI Packer points out 3 ways :

1. Wrong thoughts about God.

"To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.

–Isaiah 40:25 (NIV)

    Sometimes our thoughts of God are too human just like how the gods of Olympus are portrayed in Greek mythology. This is where we go astray. Because we ourselves are limited and weak, we then imagine that God also must have weaknesses at some points. We think that he is much like we are and fail to truly grasp the reality of his infinite power and wisdom.

2. Wrong thoughts about ourselves.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD;  my cause is disregarded by my God"?

- Isaiah 40:27 (NIV)

   In suffering, we sometimes think that God has abandoned us and has not heard our prayers. JI Packer says [1],

“God has not abandoned as anymore than he abandoned Job. He never abandons anyone on whom he has set his love; nor does Christ, the good shepherd, ever lose track of his sheep. It is as false as it is irreverent to accuse God of forgetting, or overlooking, or losing interest in the state and needs of his own people. If you have been resigning yourself to the thought the God has left you high and dry, seek grace to be ashamed of yourself. Such unbelieving pessimism deeply dishonors our great God and Savior”

3. Our slowness to believe in God’s majesty.

Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

–Isaiah 40:28 (NIV)

    This is a rebuke to us from God. He is saying how ignorant we are of him and how we are so slow to understand that that he is sovereign, all knowing, almighty, and limitless. Has he grown old or tired? Of course not! Therefore, let’s know the reality of the Father’s greatness as we pray. Let us remove from our thoughts anything that put limits on him. What a wonderful privilege it is to be children of the great, glorious, almighty, majestic God!

   There is no competition here – Zeus is a loser!

[1] JI Packer, Knowing God, pp. 78-79

Kids, Teens and Media Consumption

     The Kaiser Family Foundation recently released the results from a national survey of children ages 8 to 18 years old about their media use. Here's their findings :

Five years ago, we reported that young people spent an average of nearly 6½ hours (6:21) a day with media—and managed to pack more than 8½ hours (8:33) worth of media content into that time by multitasking. At that point it seemed that young people’s lives were filled to the bursting point with media.

Today, however, those levels of use have been shattered. Over the past five years, young people have increased the amount of time they spend consuming media by an hour and seventeen minutes daily, from 6:21 to 7:38—almost the amount of time most adults spend at work each day, except that young people use media seven days a week instead of five.

Moreover, given the amount of time they spend using more than one medium at a time, today’s youth pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content into those daily 7½ hours—an increase of almost 2¼ hours of media exposure per day over the past five years.

The story of media in young people’s lives today is primarily a story of technology facilitating increased consumption. The mobile and online media revolutions have arrived in the lives—and the pockets—of American youth. Try waking a teenager in the morning, and the odds are good that you’ll find a cell phone tucked under their pillow—the last thing they touch before falling asleep and the first thing they reach for upon waking. Television content they once consumed only by sitting in front of a TV set at an appointed hour is now available whenever and wherever they want, not only on TV sets in their bedrooms, but also on their laptops, cell phones and iPods®.  

That is an astounding finding and yet not surprising. Here's how kids manage to do it today :



(Source : Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18 Year Olds)

   As parents, this is the challenge of our times. The world and its message is now at their fingertips. My response, as a father of two boys, is not to bar them from it but rather harness that technology to teach them about God.  I often ask myself how can these things bring God the glory and use that as the go/nogo test on whether to buy these things for them. Also, we keep a rule in the house that there is to be no Internet or TV during school days except for educational purposes (which is a rare occurence). On the weekends, they are given a block of time but I monitor what they watch or listen to throughout the day. I take advantage webpage histories and automated Windows Vista browsing history reports. Most importantly, I have regularly been teaching them that these must not be their idols. I am thankful to God that they have responded posivitely and understood  that they have freedom to use this technology but Daddy builds fences that protect their minds from  any bad influence.

   How about you? What are some of the protective fences that you have put on your children's use of media?

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.  -Deuteronomy 6:5-9 (NIV)

  

THE LORD’S PRAYER PART 7: THE PRIVILEGE TO CALL GOD FATHER

    According to Scripture, there are two fathers and two kinds of children. God is the heavenly Father. This father is perfect and seeks the good of his children even when he disciplines them. Those who have the right to call him Father are those who are born again through faith in Jesus Christ. As a new creation, saved by grace through faith, the children of God delight in Him and cry out, “Abba, Father”! They follow God’s will and obey his commands. The other father is the devil. He is the father of those who want to carry out his evil plans. He is called the father of lies. This father is deceitful, enslaves his children, and leads them to destruction. There is no affection in this relationship but only fear.

   “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”

      – 1 John 3:10 (ESV)

    The Lord’s Prayer assumes that the petitioner has a relationship with the Father. This prayer is not for the benefit of the entire human race. It is of no benefit to those who do not believe. They are only empty words if uttered by one whose heart is not ruled by Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Prayer is exclusively for the children of God.

    When Jesus taught this prayer, he was making a radical departure from the religious tradition of that time. To refer to God as father was offensive, especially to the Jews. They threatened to take his life. They did not know him despite all the miracles Jesus had done. Jesus healed a paralyzed man beside the pool and yet they were angry at him for healing on a Sabbath.

    “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”

    -John 5:18 (ESV)

    This was all according to the purpose and will of the Father to the praise of his glorious grace. Through Jesus, we enjoy the blessing of adoption as sons and daughters of the Almighty God. It is by the grace of God, that we can address him as Father in prayer.

    So as we pray to the heavenly Father, let us remember that this privilege came at a great cost to himself. It truly is love so amazing.

    “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are….”

     - 1 John 3:1 (ESV)

THE LORD’S PRAYER PART 6: THAT FIRST WORD “OUR”

Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. –Matthew 6:9 (ESV)

  After Jesus points out the wrong approaches to prayer by the religious hypocrites and pagans, he gives us the model in which we are to frame our prayers. It is therefore supremely valuable that we study in depth the model prayer that our Savior has given to us.

   The prayer begins with an address. Our prayers are directed to our Father who is in heaven. Then follows a series of petitions or requests: hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts, and lead us not into temptation. What this means to us is that our petitions should harmonize with the petitions found in the Lord’s Prayer. These petitions are certainly in God’s will because they came from Jesus Christ. What needs and requests do we lift up to the Lord? Before we ask, it is helpful to first test how it agrees with Lord’s Prayer petitions. When we align our requests to the Lord’s Prayer, we can be confident that we are praying in God’s will.

   The first word, “our”, should not be overlooked. This cannot be referring to universal humanity because not all men have that father-child relationship with God. We enter into that relationship by adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:5). The gospel of John says,

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” - John 1:12 (ESV)

   Therefore, the word, “our”, signifies the universal brotherhood of those who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. It points to the amazing and comforting truth that God is the perfect, heavenly Father to all his children. He is the perfect Father because we are all heard equally, blessed equally, and disciplined equally. God does not play favorites! He does not hear the prayer of one over the other because he loves that person more than the other. That is what an earthly father might possibly do, but not God. All too often, we fail to see God as the perfect Father because of our experience with our earthly fathers. We have individual needs, struggles, desires, and blessings but the Father’s love is always the same to all.

   One other thought with the word “our” is that we ought to pray for the needs and interests of our fellow brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. Oftentimes, our prayers are always self-centered. I wonder how our prayer requests will change if we always consider the good of others. How would it change us? I believe that it will result to a more compassionate heart, more sensitivity to the needs of others, and spur action to help the unfortunate. We change and become Christ’s hands and feet.

Are Christians Hypocrites?

    Among the objections skeptics raise about Christianity is that the church is filled with hypocrites. Therefore, Christians are no different from unbelievers. The logic then leads people to conclude that unbelievers can live a moral life without the need of transformation that comes from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

   A well known atheist, Christopher Hitchens, describes it as such in his book God Is Not Great :

"We believe with certainty that an ethical life can be lived without religion. And we know for a fact that the corollary holds true – that religion has caused innumerable people not just to conduct themselves no better than others, but to award themselves permission to behave in ways that would make a brothel-keeper or an ethnic cleanser raise an eyebrow."


   Certainly, hypocrisy is present in the church today. There's no denying that fact. However, the argument set forth by skeptics and by many misled, disillusioned Christians who buy this message is set on false assumptions and wrong understanding of the theology of Christ's redemption.

   How?  Read RC Sproul's TableTalk article : Is the Church Full of Hypocrites?

The Single, Most Worthy Passion To Live For

   In the year 2000, John Piper preached this sermon to thousands of young men and women attending Passion's OneDay 2000 Conference in Memphis, TN. This message has had a significant impact in my life. I hope and pray that it will have the same impact in others. Don't waste your life!

     You don't have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by a few great things. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on for centuries and into eternity, you don't have to have a high IQ or EQ; you don't have to have to have good looks or riches; you don't have to come from a fine family or a fine school. You have to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things, and be set on fire by them.

Read the rest of it >>>

THE LORD’S PRAYER PART 5 : PRAYING TO THE FATHER WHO ALREADY KNOWS

“Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

                                                                                                –Matthew 6:8 (NIV)

   In the previous verse, Jesus instructs us to not pray like the pagans who heap up empty phrases to their gods in order to plead their plight and obtain their favor. Jesus says that we should not be like them for the Father already knows what we need before we ask Him.

   Matthew 6:8 is an astounding statement! Jesus connects two of God’s revealed nature in relation to prayer: His omniscience and His fatherhood.

   David speaks of God’s omniscience in this way:

1 O LORD, you have searched me

and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue

you know it completely, O LORD.

5 You hem me in—behind and before;

you have laid your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

                                                                                             -Psalm 139:1-6 (NIV)

   If God knows the most intimate details of our lives, then logically He knows what we need. Therefore, prayer is not about informing God about something that He doesn’t know. It is not about urging Him to get up and start doing something about this problem that we are having.  It isn’t about making him respond favorably to our request. He already knows! Therefore, praying with an overabundance of words is not necessary. It doesn’t matter how knotted our problems are. He understands our situation more than we ever can. Now because He is our Father, God will meet that need for our good. He is not obligated to look out for our interest. He looks out for us because He is our perfect heavenly Father.

   John Piper says,

   This verse is a great encouragement to remember that God is not disinclined to do you good. He is a Father, not a mortgage holder. And as a Father he is up on what you need as his child. And as a Father he is very eager to give it.


You can tell that this is the meaning of this verse by comparing the same phrase in [Matthew 6:31–32] Do not be anxious, saying "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.


The point is: since he knows your need, you don't have to be anxious about your need. [This] implies that he is the kind of Father who loves to meet the needs of his children for the asking.

                                                                                                                                       - John Piper

   This is the essence of Matthew 6:8, that God knows what is good for us. He does not give anything to us that will harm us and lead us to do evil. His answers to our prayers are always for our benefit. Indeed, Father knows best. Now this begs the question – if God already knows what I need before I even ask Him, then what is the purpose of prayer?

   Here is what John Calvin says,

   But if God knows what things we have need of, before we ask him, where lies the advantage of prayer? If he is ready, of his own free will, to assist us, what purpose does it serve to employ our prayers, which interrupt the spontaneous course of his providence? The very design of prayer furnishes an easy answer. Believers do not pray, with the view of informing God about things unknown to him, or of exciting him to do his duty, or of urging him as though he were reluctant. On the contrary, they pray, in order that they may arouse themselves to seek him, that they may exercise their faith in meditating on his promises, that they may relieve themselves from their anxieties by pouring them into his bosom; in a word, that they may declare that from Him alone they hope and expect, both for themselves and for others, all good things. God himself, on the other hand, has purposed freely, and without being asked, to bestow blessings upon us; but he promises that he will grant them to our prayers. We must, therefore, maintain both of these truths, that He freely anticipates our wishes, and yet that we obtain by prayer what we ask.

                                                                                                                          -John Calvin

   God wants us to participate in accomplishing His purpose here on earth. We participate by praying and Jesus gives us the Lord’s Prayer as the manner in which we are to pray. Our prayers do not change God’s mind. Our prayers will change the world. That is why the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective (James 5:16) because God, in His sovereignty, chooses to respond to our prayers. Prayer also changes us as it helps us to discern God’s will for our lives.

    When we do not pray, we deny the sovereignty of God. When we do not recognize that God knows best, we glorify our self-will, our self-sufficiency, and our own wisdom. When we insist that God must also consider our opinions in how He should meet our needs, then we deny His omniscience. I am glad that God’s will for my life is perfect for me and that spurs me to pray and seek His will in all things.

   Therefore, we should pray and not give up just like the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8). We should pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and present our requests to God (Philippians 4:6).

Social Media...it's here to stay

This world is changing. Social media is revolutionizing the way we interact, communicate, and access information. We are in many ways a part of this revolution. My blogging for instance is an example of this. It's pervasiveness is astounding! Watch this video.





What does the Bible say about all this? I believe in the adage that the more things change the more they are the same. King Solomon says it so well :

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.   -Ecclesiastes 1:9 (ESV)


Paul prophesies this in 2 Timothy :

1-5Don't be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. They'll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they're animals. Stay clear of these people.  -2 Timothy 3:1-5 (The Message)


  Vido uploads inYouTube, status boxes in Facebook, etc, does demonstrate this reality today. The internet and social media is a recent human invention and has in many ways made our lives better but it has also revealed humanity’s fallen state without Christ. It also reveals the real truth that has been there since the Fall – that men are glory seekers and will continue to refuse to acknowledge their need for God. Indeed, there is nothing new under sun.

Some things to think about in living as Christians in a social media saturated world :
1. As any human activity ask yourself: how can I use social media for the glory of God? (1 Corinthians 10:31)

a. Does my facebook page glorify me or God? Do I seek the adoration of my friends with    their comments? Do I base my self-worth on this?


b. Are you addicted to the Internet? So involved in it that you neglect other responsibilities?


c. Do the words that I use and ideas that I express in comments, emails, tweets, and FB status box pleasing to God?


d. Has internet use affected your relationships with others?


e. Do I use it to grow spiritually and in wisdom?

2. Avoid the temptations found cyberspace; set safeguards and limits (1 Corinthians 10:13, Matthew 5:28-30).

3. Be discerning of the content that you read and watch. Is it the truth or a lie? Don’t spread the lie! (1 Timothy 6:20)

4. Avoid useless, banal talk and chatter. Set an example by posting only what communicates grace and what is edifying to those who read. (Ephesians 4:29)