The Treasures In Heaven.2

"Once there was a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen, enjoying a life of extravagance. In the same town there lived a homeless man named Lazarus, who sat near the gate that led to the rich man's house. He did not ask for anything but the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. Stray dogs were his only friends, and they licked his wounds.

Finally, one day Lazarus died and was carried by angels into the arms of Abraham. Not long afterwards, the rich man also died, and was buried.

From the agonies of hell he lifted his eyes full of torment, and seeing Abraham a great way off, he cried: “Father

Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send the beggar Lazarus to comfort me! Have him dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue, for I suffer here in these flames!”

But Abraham replied: “My son, remember that in your lifetime you enjoyed your good things, while Lazarus knew only suffering and misery. Now, he is comforted, and you are the one tormented. Besides, between us is fixed a great gulf of separation, so that those who would come to you from here cannot, neither can you cross over to us from where you suffer.”

Hearing these words, the rich man cried out: “I pray, then, that you send Lazarus to my Father’s house. I have five brothers, and he must warn them, so they do not end up in this hell.”

To this Abraham answered: “They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them.”

"But surely," the rich man protested, "if one were to appear to them from the dead, they would repent."

Abraham replied: "If they do not repent because of the words of Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded, even if one should appear to them from the dead." 

--Jesus 

The one principle of hell is: 

'I am my own. 

I am my own king

and my own subject.' 

From this principle flows much evil: 

• I am the center from which go out my thoughts 
• I am the object and end of my thoughts
• Back upon me as the alpha and omega of life, my thoughts return
• My own glory is, and ought to be, my chief care 
• My ambition, to gather the adoration of men to the one center, myself
• My pleasure is my pleasure 
• My kingdom is as many people as I can bring to acknowledge my greatness over them
• My judgment is the faultless rule of things 
• My right is: what I desire
• The more I am all in all to myself, the greater I am
• The less I acknowledge debt or obligation to another the more I close my eyes to the fact that I did not make myself
• The more self-sufficing I feel or imagine myself-the greater I am. 
• I will be free with the freedom that consists in doing whatever I am inclined to do, from whatever urge may come the inclination 
• To do my own will so long as I feel anything to be my will, is to be free, is to live. 

Jesus comes (He is a Living Savior, after all) to show us all the way things are! What joy to those poor in spirit who recognize at some point in this life their true condition and neediness to God! Sorrow and agony to those who, using the pomp and show of this world, attempt to insulate themselves from their true condition. But make no mistake truth will come out--in this world or the next!

The path across the gulf is repentance. 

 "The only vengeance worth having on sin is to make the sinner himself its executioner. Sorrow and confession and self-abasing love will make up for the evil in us; suffering alone will not. Evil is eternally evil. But I may be saved from it by learning to loathe it, to hate it, to shrink from it with an eternal avoidance."

Repent and keep on repenting. The path to our true condition and the place of comfort & rest!

(adapted from MacDonald's Unspoken Sermons III, Kingship & Justice)

The Power of Prayer.7

"Pray in this manner:

Our Father in heaven, may all the earth recognize that you are the one and holy God.

May your kingdom dwell among us.

May your purpose be accomplished on earth, as it is in heaven.

Provide us with daily bread to sustain us, and forgive our falling short.

Help us to forgive those who have wronged us.

Keep us from wandering into faithlessness, and deliver us from the evil one.

For to you belongs all power and glory, eternally. Let it be so.”

--Jesus

A little girl crosses in front of my school bus to board, her eyes furtively looking back at the man sending her off. He's blowing kisses. She's not sure how to respond; he's not sure how to win her heart. Broken promises make futile a father's desire to draw his child close.

Those who have wronged us. How little do we grasp the impact on a human being's ability to trust when wronged. Those little eyes fresh out of the womb looking up into the eyes of the love that concieved them. A father's eyes. What damage to faith when they are wronged. How many of the world's children struggle to trust in their Maker, their eternal Father because of the wrong done them by dad or mom: neglect, carelessness, injustice, abuse, indifference, brokenness?

"Teach us to pray" the disciples asked the Master. The One through whom the world exists, in whom resides the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Who rejoices in things felt, known, imagined that cannot be put into human words, cannot yet be understood by human hearts. The truths that lay behind the words those he trusts in the Spirit of His Father to teach the childlike hearts. He will heal the broken until they can trust again.

"Father" 

Restore honor to that name; heal our brokenness to look into the eyes of love again.

"May all the world recognize that you are the One and Holy God!" 

Destroy the campaign to impugn your glory. Shine the light of your devotion and power on all the inhabitants of the earth!

"May your kingdom dwell among us." 

May we be the kind of people you would rejoice to be King over! People who love righteousness and truth; among whom there would be not one desire we would be ashamed of before You and your universe!

"May your purpose be accomplished on earth, as it is in heaven." 

May there be no ruling power on the earth but your Perfect Will. Make us one with you because we trust in You!

"Provide us with daily bread to sustain us, and forgive our falling short." 

May we know the joy of wanting what we have knowing it all comes from your abundant supply and perfect devotion to every creature. May we be like you to help, heal and save.

"Help us to forgive those who have wronged us." 

May we let forgiveness have its work uniting hearts and compelling Oneness; may we love where we cannot yet forgive; may that love reach the coldest heart, the deepest wound, the worst evil. May we be like you to spend ourselves to make lovely those who have fallen into the "gulf of separation" that accompanies all sin. May we remember the "debt of love" we owe to every friend, neighbor and enemy; may we be willing to pay up to the very last penny of what we owe!

"Keep us from wandering into faithlessness, and deliver us from the evil one." 

May we remember in our striving against sin--the evil in us and others--we have not "resisted to the point of shedding blood" so that we do not lose heart and give up. May we continue to stand strong with the company of those who are committed to sending evil from the earth!

"For to you belongs all power and glory, eternally. Let it be so.” 

Let us each day "taste" a little more of the power & glory ready to revealed to all who look for your returning!

Amen!

The Power of Prayer.6

"Pray then, to the Father who hears your most intimate prayers and rewards them openly; and whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will provide. If you live your life in me, and let my words live in you, you may ask what you wish and it will be given to you." 

Crossing a bridge

To the elephant said the flea,

'We sure shook that one,

didn't We?'"
(author unknown)



Yeah. Prayer is a lot like that...

--Jesus

The Power of Prayer.5

The prophet Isaiah has written: "My house shall be called by all nations, a house of prayer."--Jesus




Not a little pang we feel when a son shows some preference for a friend's family's influence: "They have a fun night!", "You should see their game room!", "Wow the vacations they take are awesome!", "Their mom is such a great cook!"

What is your house called? 

• House of fun? 
• House of horrors? 
• House of order? 
• House of chaos? 
• House of the unambitious and ill mannered? 
• House of opportunity? 
• House of the ill prepared and untrained? 
• House of responsibility & citizenship? 
• House of faith? 
• House of the immoral and impure? 
• House of kingdom values? 
• House of the vain and fashionable? 

The design possibilities of the external house are almost infinite. It is interesting that shows like "Extreme Home Makeover" focus on renovating the physical shell of the home. Why? Because we can, because its easier. But the true heart knows that the physical building is not the essence of home.

In a sermon I heard recently the pastor challenged the congregation to "Envision what you want your family to be." Let's say you have done that and your home is well on its way to achieving your vision. What would you do if someone or something invades your home and attempts to change its character? Instead of integrity and peace being the rule, deception & bickering begin to spread like a cancer engulfing the serenity you once enjoyed.

On two occasions in his earthly ministry, the elder brother,

Jesus, had to "clean house." With "hate-less vengeance" he forcefully evicted nefarious characters who had invaded the serenity of his Father's house. By symbolic act he demonstrated to the world his mission to rid the world of sin & misery.

If all the ills of the world could be identified in one single source it is this: the disruption between the Creator and the created. 

Perfect Will plus Perfect Obedience equals Perfect Love.

Jesus came to lead home to the heart of the Father many sons & daughters who long have sensed His presence but not known his arms; whose troubled hearts & lives yearn for his comfort. Those who walk, with fading hope, "through the dank mists of doubtful thought or the cold winds from the desert of foiled effort" and are hidden from the Light of the world.
But every now and then the blue pledge of a great sky breaks through the clouds overhead. Gradually they grow more capable of imagining a world in which every good thing thinkable may be a fact. Best of all, the story of Him who is Himself the Good News, the gospel of God, becomes not only more and more believable to their hearts, but more and more a minister to their life of conflict, and the assurance of a Living, Loving Father who hears when his children cry. (adapted from MacDonald, The Hope of the Gospel)

Take heart, then, you who sincerely want to know God and understand His work in the world but are besieged with woeful explanations of God's nature that repel a true heart. Jesus will come, once again, to clean house, expel the nefarious, and establish righteous order to God's House!

The Power of Prayer.4

"I do not mean that you should let your prayer fall into a pattern of mindless repetition. The unenlightened pray in this manner, imagining that they will be heard because of the great number of their prayers. Do not imitate them. Remember your heavenly Father knows what you need even before you ask."

--Jesus

Mindless Repetition. Remember the McDonald's commercial where the little boy keeps asking his dad, non-stop, for a world of wonderful things like, "Can we build a tree fort?" "No." "Can I use the chainsaw?" "No." "Can we go scuba diving?" "No." Near the point of breaking, the exasperated dad finally hears a request that makes him smile: "Can we go to McDonalds?" "Yes." 

 "Can I drive?" "No!"

Maybe its like that. Or it could be the toddler anthem: "Why? Why? Why?" You know no amount of explanation will satisfy the hunger of knowing & wanting...even long past the point we are reduced to a feeble "Because."

-------------------------
Viewing life through the eyes of grand-parenting is considerably different than the eyes of a parent.

Trust me on this. Its like watching the foothills from the mountain peaks and not having to fret nearly so much for the climb! Its much harder to see progress when you are herding, prodding, picking up, setting down each labored step up the hill. But when you have already made the climb you have the pleasure of looking away for moments at a time to enjoy the wonderful view. Looking back down you see more clearly the advances your posterity is making and rejoice.  You rejoice that they are still climbing. You rejoice that they have not quit. You rejoice in the willed effort to make progress one step at a time.You rejoice in the transformation from pedestrians to climbers.You rejoice in the stronger minds, bodies, faith and character.You rejoice in the painful learning process seeing that those lessons come no other way than by making the climb.
Our Father, from his vaunted view rejoices as He watches His Son, our eternal brother, Jesus, lead each of us up that painful trail herding, prodding, picking up, setting down each labored step to glory!

Why? Because!

The Power of Prayer.3

"In a certain town, there lived a hard-hearted judge, who neither feared God nor cared for his neighbor. In the same town there lived a widow, who pursued him for justice concerning a person who had harmed her. Time passed, and the judge persisted in ignoring her pleas, refusing to hear her case, until finally, one day, he said to himself: "Though I do not fear God, nor concern myself with charity, I will see to it that this widow gets justice; for she wears me out with her constant appeals."

Will not God, then, offer justice to his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he too ignore your earnest cry for help? I tell you this: he will see that they who seek him receive justice, and quickly! And yet, the real question raised in this story is this: When the Messiah returns, will he find many on the earth with such persevering faith?" 

--Jesus

MacDonald's Insight:

"Here then is a word of the Lord about prayer: it is a comfort that he  

• recognizes difficulty in the matter 
•  sees that we need encouragement to go on praying,
•  that it looks as if we were not heard, 
• that it is no wonder we should be ready to faint and leave off. 

He tells a parable in which the suppliant has to go often and often to the man who can help her, gaining her end only at the long last.

Actual delay on the part of God, we know from what follows, he does not allow (as an interpretation); a better understanding is that he recognizes how the thing must look to those whom he would have go on praying.

Here as elsewhere he teaches us that we must not go by the look of things, but by the reality behind the look.

A truth, the thing that presents itself to us and is born of God's own willed nature, (in Jesus' mind) is enough to defend against a whole army of appearances, for this is what He would have us know from the core of our being:

• It looks as if he does not hear you: never mind, he does; 
• It must be that he does, go on as the woman did, you too will be heard. 
• She is heard at last, and in virtue of her much going; 
• God hears at once, and will avenge speedily. 
• The unrighteous judge cared nothing for the woman; those who cry to God are his own chosen— plain in the fact that they cry to him. 
• He has made and appointed them to cry, they do cry. Will he not hear them? 
• They exist that they may pray; 
• he has chosen them that they may choose him; 
• he has called them that they may call him
• He desires that that there may be much communion, such interchange as belongs to their being and the being of their Father. 

The gulf of indifference lay between the poor woman and the unjust judge;  

God and those who seek his help, 

are closer than two hands clasped hard in love,

he will avenge them speedily.

It is a bold assertion in the face of what seems great delay—an appearance acknowledged in the very groundwork of the parable. 

Having made it, why does he seem to check himself with a sigh, adding,

'Howbeit when the Son of Man cometh, 

shall he find faith on the earth?' 

After all he had said, and had yet to say, after all he had done, and was going on to do, when he came again, after time given for the holy leaven to work, would he find men trusting the Father?

Would he find them, even then, beyond the tyranny of appearances, believing in spite of them? 
Would they be children enough towards God to know he was hearing them and working for them, though they could not hear him or see him work?
Would they lose their way because the ways of God are so wide?
That what they saw, so small a part of what he was doing, that it could give them but little clue to his end? 
That because the goal God had in view for them was so high and afar, that they could detect no movement of approach closer to it?

The sigh, the exclamation, never meant that God might be doing something more than he was doing, but that the Father would have a dreary time to wait ere his children would know and trust in him. 
The utterance recognizes the part of man, his slowly yielded part in faith, and his blame in troubling God by not trusting in him. 

If men would but make haste, and stir themselves up to take hold on God! They were so slow of heart to believe! They could but would not help it and do better!" 

Let us do better. 

Adapted from George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons II, Man's Difficulty Concerning Prayer (editing and emphasis added for effect)

The Power of Prayer.2

"Once a man appeared at his friend’s door after midnight. 'Lend me three loaves of bread,' he called. 'I have visitors who have traveled far to see me, and my cupboards are bare.'

But his friend replied: 'Please don't disturb me now. The door is locked, and my children are asleep. I can't get up and help you.'

Here is a lesson. Though the man did not get up and provide the bread because of their friendship, he did eventually give in to his friend’s earnest pleading, and rose from his sleep to give him what he asked.

Be so persistent in your requests to God. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, those who seek find, and to those who knock, the door will be opened wide." 

--Jesus

Is this a true statement:

"To understand what Jesus meant 

is the business of life?"

Jesus speaks to every human being from depths of existence, knowledge, understanding, experience, creative power and love that dwarf our ability to comprehend. Limited by the frailty of our faith, He gently reduces these treasures to forms that are simple to grasp yet slightly out of reach to all but those who will "put his words into practice" thus releasing their transformative power.

The things that are essential to the development of our humanity are the things he taught most passionately. 

Prayer is essential to our humanity. 

It is the critical link to the heart of the Father--the source of our existence.

Here then is a vital element of prayer: Earnestness.

Earnest means "seriously important; demanding or receiving serious attention".

Some synonyms include:

image from facebookfamilyfeudguide.com

• impassioned
• industrious
• passionate
• purposeful
• determined
• meaningful
• thoughtful

To illustrate this kind of passionate concern consider trends in American society. Many commentators have been warning of the impending difficulties awaiting America: insolvency, currency devaluation, hyperinflation, massive debts, rioting in the streets. They earnestly urge us to prepare for these disasters by subscribing to their newsletters, blueprints, plans, dvd's, books and such--for a small fee, of course! (Which, it appears, is the real secret to survival: sell your secrets!)

One piece of survival advice I thought relevant to Jesus' lesson on earnest prayer warns that "in a crisis, parents will go to extremes to provide food for their children."

"If your neighbor's kids are hungry 10 days into a disaster that has no end in sight and they have seen your year's supply of food, you can guarantee that they're going to do whatever they need to get food for their kids." from Urban Survival Guide

Most of us can relate to that kind of desperation at providing for our children. But would we be as desperate on behalf of "visitors"? In Jesus' illustration, wouldn't it have been easier to send unexpected guests off to the nearest motel, or take them to a restaurant for a bite to eat rather than disturb a neighbor? 

When an unexpected moment arrives to demonstrate charity and hospitality will we be embarrassed by our lack of preparedness?

God's pantries are always full. What level of trust do we show in His provision for us? Are we as earnest in going to him on behalf of friends as well as family? How prepared are we to minister to others?

Let us, then, put into practice that quality of earnestness in pleading with our Father to be a blessing to others!