Prayer: The Gate

Be without fear in the face of your enemies.

Be brave and upright that God may love thee.

Speak the truth, even if it leads to your death.

Safegard the helpless.

Serve the king.

From the movie “Kingdom of Heaven“, the knight’s oath.

Not a bad oath for any of us to take.  Not a bad prayer.  Side note, my personal theology is that God loves me even when I am not at my best or when I am not brave.  Although it is important to live  each day to do so.

I am fascinated by oaths that people take.  It seems to me that those who figure out what they believe, define their purpose and direction, create an oath or vow and commit to it, are able to change the world and the course of history.  Think Mother Teresa, Martin Luther, John Wesley, or King Leonidas

Most Holy God, let us all find our purpose and make this world a better place. Let us safeguard the helpless, let us be brave and upright always.  Amen

Matthew 18:20  For where two or three have gathered together in My name I am there in their midst.

As I meet and talk with people of various denominational backgrounds, a common challenge is revealed.  Prayer teams can be difficult to build and maintain.  Things always change.  Jobs and hours worked change.  Care for children and older people become priorities.  Class schedules, appointments clutter things up. People move or pass away.

The face of the prayer team is changing.  But, the purpose of the prayer team remains the same.  It is intercessory prayer.  It is a valuable and unselfish act of doing the most and best you can by coming before God on behalf of someone else.

I believe praying together is extremely important.  I wonder what holds people back from joining with a prayer partner or team?  If you have thoughts on this, I would love to hear them.

Here, I will offer suggestions about prayer partnering.  

• *Don’t hold out for, or expect a large team.  Be satisfied and delighted in finding one or two other people to pray with.
• *Leave politics at home.  It is important to be in agreement, and that is tough enough for two people to do on any matter of the heart.  When you bring your political view in, you may bring disagreement which will diminish your efforts in prayer together.
• *Pray for what you agree the outcome should be.  Don’t get caught up in a person’s troubles or disease.  Agree on, and pray for the healing and comfort for the person, pray for wisdom for the doctor, or skill and guidance for the surgeon.
• *Have grace and tolerance with different people’s styles of prayer.  Some use many words, some use few, some pause between thoughts, some don’t.  Simply work together. It can be like dancing, and you will get better at praying together.  That is the purpose.
• *Keep prayer requests confidential!
• *You don’t need to know the whole story on anything to pray for someone.   It is better, in fact, not to know too much. 
• *You don’t have to like them to pray for them.
• *You didn’t have to vote for someone to pray for them.
• *Don’t worry you don’t pray well enough to partner with someone.
• *Come into it with a heart for service and you will do fine.

It has been a while since I took a whole weekend off.  Headed out to the Gunnison Valley in Central Colorado.

God knows we need time to rest in order to stay healthy.  He even stated in the 10 Commandments (not the 10 suggestions) that we honor the Sabbath Day.  It  holds a place in the instructions along with “Thou shalt not kill.” Taking time to rest  is a place I definitely fall short. 

We stayed in a Pioneer Cabin, built around 1939.  It is surrounded by National Forest and was the first ski resort in Colorado called the Pioneer Ski Resort.  It is eight or nine miles to the town of Crested Butte in the Gunnison Valley.

Pioneer Cabin Crested Butte

Cozy and warm.

Pioneer Cabin Cement Creek

It rained everyday which made me glad we rented the cabin instead of going tent camping.  There were several varieties of wild flowers.

Wild Flowers

A beaver pond on Cement Creek.

Beaver Pond

A very nice French Restaurant in Crested Butte called Le Bosquet. They have great food and a nice wine selection.

Le Bosquet

I am renewed and rested.  Hope you all are as well.

The Memorial Day holiday weekend is at hand.  Many of us will begin by this afternoon to celebrate three or four glorious days off.  The purpose of the holiday is to remember and honor those who have died in service to others, specifically military service.  Some take the holiday to remember family and friends who have passed away. 

We make salad and grill something over an open fire. We will drink beer, ice tea and lemonade.  Mostly we enjoy family and friends.  In Colorado, many of us head for the mountains to join tens of thousands of our best friends in an attempt to escape civilization and experience the peacefulness of nature.

For what ever activity you choose for the weekend, my prayer is this:

Father God, I pray travel mercies for those who plan an adventure.  Let there be enjoyment, grace and beautiful memories shared with family and friends for all over the next few days.  Let us practice moderation in all things and find ourselves refreshed and renewed at the conclusion of this long weekend.  Amen

Henry David Thoreau wrote, “The mass of men live their lives in quiet desperation.”

Between 1739 and 1745 John Wesley wrote, “How lively a portraiture this is of one who struggles “under the law”! We feel a burden than cannot be shaken off.  We long for liberty, empowerment, and love, but remain in fear and bondage still!  We await the time when God will answer our desperate cry…:

Something within us knows there is more to life than mere survival.  It is an awakening where we might get a glimpse of the possibilities in place of the limitations.  What if today brought joy and excitement instead of the same old routine?

There is a God and he loves you so dearly.  It is not about rules and the church and the doctrine steeped in 400 year old tradition .  That can be part of your spiritual walk, but first dip your toe into a thing called UNMERITED GRACE. 

Wesley writes about Life Under Grace, Awakening to Unmerited Grace, Freedom from Guilt and Fear.

“Only then is the miserable imprisonment ended, so that we are no longer “under the law, but under grace”. We are now ready to describe the condition of evangelical existence which has found grace and acceptance in the presence of God.”

Prayer for today.

Most loving God, let us all find grace and acceptance in your presence today.  May we learn to walk with you in love. Turn our eyes not only to the splendor about us, but also to the gifts you have lavished upon us.  Then we know that our personal gifts stem from the grace you have placed within us.  Amen

What a strange word, content.  Who in our society attains contentment?  Is it a good or a bad thing?  Is it a long term goal, or simply a temporary state?

1 Timothy 6:6 – 6:8  But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either.  And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.

This is not about being poor or frugal. Making money is an honorable thing.  In Timothy Chapter 5, Paul writes that the laborer is worthy of his wages.

But we do strive.  We want more, bigger, better, and yet there are those who live in a perceived state of continual lack.

Lately there are thousands of articles on pinching pennies, what are you doing to survive the recession, how to get free stuff, and how to buy large amounts of food for little money.  How did we get in debt, how did we become overweight?  Did anybody see the Pixar cartoon Wall-E? 

I am working on having contentment and finding godliness.  I think contentment is kind of a temporary state.  But we can go there as often as we like.  It comes from within, and from knowing there is more than enough to sustain us this day.  Then tomorrow we know there is more than enough for that day as well.

Sure I want to sell books, and make money.  But how much stuff do I need?  The answer is very little.  My small house is somehow overflowing with stuff even though I am not a shopper.  Perhaps I should call that Peter Walsh Clean Sweep guy to help me get rid of a bunch of items and go minimalist.

Father God, find me today in an attitude of gratefulness.  I know all good things come from you.  I am blessed.  There is more than enough to meet all my needs.  Thank you God for the richness of my life.  That richness is not numbered possessions, but the depth of my joys, friends, family, and by how I use the gifts you have given me to contribute to the family of Christ.  Amen.