Undead Cause Traffic Jams in Austin

Fox News reports that some hackers have had some fun with the road signs in Austin. Or maybe they really have risen and now we know where.

via The Reformed Pastor

The Power of Prayer....to Burn Stuff Down

Here's a story that's floating around the internet. I don't know if it's true or not but it's in keeping with the current theme of prayer.

In a small Texas town, (Mt. Vernon) Drummond’s bar began construction on a new building to increase their business. The local Baptist church started a campaign to block the bar from opening with petitions and prayers. Work progressed right up till the week before opening when lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground.

The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, until the bar owner sued the church on the grounds that the church was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, either through direct or indirect actions or means. The church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the building’s demise in its reply to the court.

As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork. At the hearing he commented, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to decide this, but as it appears from the paperwork, we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer, and an entire church congregation that does not.'

A Step by Step Guide to Praying using the Lord's Prayer as a Format

Here is something I put together and handed out on Sunday morning as a part of the sermon. The sermon posted below explains it (sort of). The format isn't pretty but it still might be helpful. Questions are always welcome.

Daily Prayer Using the Lord’s Prayer as a Model

1. “Our Father Who Art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name……..”
Praising and Thanking God

a. Name or write down some things you are thankful for – be specific
b. Sing a hymn or a praise song
c. Do something special for God to say “thank you.”

2. “Thy Kingdom Come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Intercession – Praying for others and our world

a. Keep a list of people and situations you are praying for
b. Date when you begin praying for each need
c. Date when you receive an answer to the prayer
d. Several lists may be used : – family, business colleagues, friends, community issues, church, wider world issues

3. “Give us this day our daily bread….”
Petition – Prayers for ourselves

a. Keep a dated list
b. Several lists might be used – finances, relationships, tasks for the coming day
c. Date when you receive the answer to your prayer

4. “ And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors…..”
Forgiveness - of others and ourselves

a. Name people who have wronged you and ask for God to bless them – be specific and concrete in your blessing (pray for their marriage, their health, their family, their faith)
b. Ask for the healing of the wounds that have been caused
c. Keep at it over time until you feel a sense of release – forgiveness is a process
d. Ask for God’s forgiveness for your sins and help to turn away from them.

5. “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”
Prayers for Protection -

a. Name some of the things that threaten your faith and ask for God’s help
b. Lift up any worries or anxieties you have

Teach Us to Pray

“Teach Us to Pray”
Based on Matthew 6: 9-13
Preached at lifepath church on January 25, 2009

You can see by the title in your bulletin that this sermon is going to have something to do with prayer. Perhaps that interests you greatly and you are sitting on the edge of your seat. Perhaps the thought of a message on prayer makes you sigh and grit your teeth, steeling yourself to endure a half hour of boredom. The subject of prayer produces a lot of mixed feelings in us. That’s because prayer is full of paradoxes. It is the easiest thing in the world to do – prayer is simply talking to the God who is all around us - but it is also seems strangely complicated and we often feel like we’re not doing it right. And very few of us would admit to being much good at it. Prayer taps into the most powerful Force there is and sometimes when we pray mountains are moved; and yet our prayers often feel weak and ineffective. Prayer can be the most uplifting of experiences, filling us with a peace that passes understanding and a sense of fulfillment and yet our mind often wanders while we’re doing it, don’t they? Prayer is at the heart of our most important relationship but we often find ourselves making excuses to avoid it. When you stop to think about it, prayer is simple and complicated, easy and difficult, powerful yet expressed in weakness, deeply fulfilling yet often a labor. Prayer is full of paradox.
And while we know we should pray, we really feel like we need a bit of help if we’re going to do it. Many of us struggle to set aside time to pray. When we pray it feels shapeless and unfocused. We’re not really sure what we’re supposed to do. What are my prayers supposed to look like? We’re not sure how to begin and we’re not sure when we’re done. Often we’re not sure if we’re praying the right way. Am I supposed to do it this way? Am I missing something? The first disciples of Jesus were just like us. The Gospel of Luke tells the story in chapter 11, “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples’” (Luke 11: 1). Hey, Jesus, we really could use some practical instructions when it comes to prayer. Jesus then proceeded to teach them what Protestants call “the Lord’s Prayer.” If you grew up Catholic, you know it as the “Our Father.” It’s the prayer we recite each week in church, “Our Father, who art in heaven…...” And while it is a good exercise to say it together as a fellowship, another way to use it is as a structure – an outline – for all our prayers. And if we want to know better how to pray, it’s worth looking at.

So what we’re going to do is go through the Lord’s Prayer – we’re going to travel fast and light and get through the prayer in its entirety. We could devote a whole sermon to each little portion of the prayer. But this morning we are going to focus on doing something very simple and very practical: we’re going to use the Lord’s Prayer to create an outline for how you do your prayers each day. So if it feels like I’ve rushed through a section of the prayer that you’d like to have spent more time discussing, shoot me an email and send me your question. But by the end of the sermon you should have a practical step by step process to structure your daily prayer time.

I’m going to ask the ushers to pass out something that you can take home with you to use as a step by step guide.I *(I'm posting this on the blog as well)

Let’s turn to Matthew. There are two versions of the Lord’s Prayer, one in Luke and one in Matthew. We’ll look at Matthew because it’s closer to the one we recite each Sunday. Also, I’m going to read from a different translation than I normally do. The New Revised Standard Version uses language that is a bit closer to what we recite while still being modern English. I’ll read the whole thing and then we’ll go back and look at it verse by verse. Listen now to the word of God. (Read Matthew 6: 9-13 NRSV)

“Our Father in heaven…..” (verse 9). Knowing what to call God and how he wishes to be addressed is both important and controversial. Calling God “Father” is natural to some people and very difficult to others. Our view of God is often shaped by how good a father our dad was. Some people had earthly fathers who were harsh or uncaring or weren’t there at all and so the image of a father may be more emotionally tricky for them. A couple of quick words. Don’t measure God’s fatherhood by the frailties of earthly fathers. There is an interesting line in the prophecy of Malachi which talks about a coming prophet of God whose mission will be to “turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children” (Malachi 4: 6 NLT). Why would such a mission be necessary? Because as earthly fathers, our hearts naturally incline away from our children to other things. God’s desire is to turn our hearts back to our children. Why? Why is that his desire? Because his heart is always turned toward his children. He is constantly bending his love toward his children. And who is a child of God? What does the Bible say? “But to all who believed (Jesus) and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1: 12 NLT). The reason why we can approach God in prayer is because our faith and acceptance of his Son makes us brothers and sisters of Jesus. When Jesus instructs us to pray to God as “Father,” he’s saying to his followers, “Because you have placed your faith in me, you are now full members of my family. God is not abstract and unknown to me. He is my Father. My Heavenly Father is now your Father as well. You are accepted and welcome. My Father’s heart is always turned toward his children.” When you pray you don’t have to call God “Father” every time but it’s a great reminder that now we are a part of the family. And God loves his kids.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” (Matthew 6: 9 NRSV). Hallowed be thy name. Hallowed is an old word for holy. If we were to put this line into simple language it might sound something like, “God, may you be treated according to your true worth. May you be honored and loved and respected and thanked because of who you are and what you do.” Before we know God very well our prayers usually consist of asking for things. Asking for things is good and we’ll talk about it in a moment, but as we begin to know God better we sense that prayer should be more than me asking for things. Jesus says the first component of prayer is to honor God - to praise him and thank him for who he is and what he has done. Starting off your prayer by saying thank you is a spiritually healthy thing. Whether you are thanking him for the beauty of the day or perhaps thanking him for answering a prayer you said yesterday. Saying thank you lifts us up and out of ourselves. Saying thank you takes our focus off our own problems and helps to focus on the Solution. There’s a promise in the Bible that says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand…..” (Philippians 4: 6-7 NLT). Do you hear the promise there? Make praising and giving thanks a part of your prayer time and you will experience the peace of God. Praise is the first element of prayer. I’ve given you some suggestions for how to do that in the little handout. I find singing to be the best way for me. I sing quietly – off key – sometimes I use a song I learned in church. Sometimes I just kind of make up the words. You may not be that dorky. There really are a million ways to praise him.

We’re traveling fast and light. Let’s move to the next line of the Lord’s Prayer. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6: 10 NRSV). God has a plan for this world. He is bringing his kingdom into it. That’s why Jesus came. His death and resurrection began to establish the kingdom of God. The Bible says the future the kingdom is consummated and fully realized. But the present time is a time of already and not yet. The kingdom has begun to arrive but it’s not fully here. The Lord is King but not everyone recognizes his authority. In the meantime those who are loyal to the king serve him and carry out his orders and his work. We are the King’s people. And one of the things he has told us to do is pray. We pray for others. We pray for the sick. We pray for peace. We pray for God’s purposes to be carried out – his will to be done. We wonder what good prayer does. Doesn’t God already know what needs to happen? Wouldn’t he do it anyway? Why does he need to talk to him about stuff that he needs to be doing? Think about it this way. Why does God ask us to do anything? He could do everything himself. Yet he tells us to care for each other and help each other. And we do. We feed the hungry. We buy school supplies for disadvantaged kids. We help people in need. And when we do something good, we realize God did it those things through us. Yes, God could do all things alone, but a part of God’s love for us is that he gives us the dignity of sharing in his good work. Prayer is not much different. We are not just physical creatures. We are spiritual creatures. Prayer is sharing in the spiritual work of God’s kingdom. When we pray for others God works through those prayers just as much as when we take someone a hot meal, God uses that action.

There’s a ton of other stuff I could say about the nature of prayer but we’re moving quickly and I want to convey to you how important our prayers for others are. You see in the little outline I gave you some suggestions for how to pray. I keep a prayer journal. It’s nothing elaborate. It’s just a three ring binder with a section for each part of the Lord’s Prayer. There’s a section where I write down things I’m thankful for. Maybe you don’t need to do that. But I would encourage you to keep a prayer list. You can keep the list in your daily planner, or on your laptop, whatever works. Have it handy so that when you pray you have the list. What goes on the list? I just write the date, the name of the person and a word or two about their need. Each day I use it to make sure I haven’t missed anyone. I keep a list for my family, one for church members and issues, and one for the wider world. I usually keep my prayer for each need quite short. And then when the prayer is answered, I put the date on which it was answered and draw a line through it. There’s nothing that gives encouragement like seeing a list of answered prayers.

What’s next in the Lord’s Prayer. “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6: 11 NRSV). Ah, finally we get to what we normally think of when we think of prayer: God I need some help! You could keep a list of these things too - or several lists for several areas of your life. Or if you’re someone who has your day planned out, you could go through your day and ask for God’s blessing on each component of your day. The point is that there is nothing wrong with asking God for very practical help. God help me deal with this client. God help me get my kids out to the bus stop without losing my mind. Don’t be afraid to ask God to help you with little things. Daily bread isn’t a big thing. But it’s a pretty important thing. We learn to trust him by walking with him through our day. And our days are filled mostly with little things. By helping us with little things, God helps grow our faith so that we can trust him with big things. Give us this day our daily bread.

Moving fast and traveling light: “And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6: 12 NRSV). This is one part of the Lord’s Prayer that people memorize differently depending on which church they go to. Some churches say “forgive us our trespasses…” Both are fine because both are using slightly different language to say, “ask God’s forgiveness for the things we do wrong and forgive others for the wrong they’ve done to us. In the Matthew version of the Lord’s Prayer the Greek word really is best translated as debt. The idea is that when someone sins against us, they incur a debt, which is why we talk about “getting even.” But be that as it may. The main point is that Jesus says a huge component of our prayer should be asking for and offering forgiveness. I used to wonder why God made our forgiving others so important. Right after he gives the Lord’s Prayer he says, “If you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6: 15 NLT). But the Kingdom of God is all about forgiveness. God is reconciling the world to himself. If we want to participate in the kingdom we have to participate in what the kingdom is all about – forgiveness. You can’t bring your hate and bitterness into heaven with you. It wouldn’t be much of a heaven if you could, would it? But enough of the why of it. Let’s have a little how. I have a section in my prayer journal where I write down the people who have wronged me or wounded me. And pray for those people. I try to make the prayers specific if I know of specific needs. Bless their marriage. Give relief them from their arthritis. Things like that. I don’t always enjoy that part of it. I don’t always “feel” forgiving. But I tell God that I release the debt. I forgive the debt that person owes me. I also spend some time asking for forgiveness for the wrongs I’ve done. I don’t always like listing those either. But putting the two together sometimes makes it easier for me to forgive others. Because I’m not so perfect myself.

And finally we see, “And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one” (Matthew 6: 13 NRSV). This is the only part of the NRSV that really sounds different from the one we recite – “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” But the basic point is this. There are a lot of things in this universe which are bigger and more powerful than we are and many of them threaten us spiritually or emotionally or physically. If you get to the end of your prayers and there is still something you are anxious about. Lift it up and ask for God’s protection. I love the line in the Bible that says, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (1 Peter 5: 7)

So there you have a simple structure for how you can have a rich and full prayer life. If you go quickly through this you can do it in 15 or 20 minutes. Of course you can spend quite a while with it too. I realize that there are lots of paradoxes and mysteries about prayer we didn’t talk about. And I’d be happy to get a few emails with questions. But the best way to learn about prayer is not to talk about it. It’s to do it.

Amen

What Does God Want from Us?

I'm going to begin posting the sermon each week. Normally I'll try to have it up by Monday. Here is what I preached last Sunday.

“What Does God Want from Us?”
Micah 6: 1-8
Lifepath Church
January 18, 2009

What does God want from us? I’m going to take a gamble this morning and assume that all of you are here this morning because you really do want to know the answer to this question. I’m going to make the assumption, take a chance, go out on a limb and believe that you are not simply here because your parents made you come, or you thought it would be good for the kids, or somebody nagged you into it, or it was the only way to see your grandkids, or you work here and wouldn’t get paid if you didn’t show up (my church attendance is very regular these days). While these things might have been minor factors in your decision to be here this morning, I am going to take a gamble and assume that deep down inside we all want to know the answer to the question, what does God expect from us?

How does God want us to live? What is pleasing to him? Who does he want us to be? What does he want us to do? These questions have been answered in 100 million ways down through the centuries. Monks take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience because they believe that is the way of life God demands of them. Missionaries spend their lives sweating in third world countries because they think that is what God wants them to do. One person starts a hospital while another blows up a clinic and both believe they are doing something to please God. Some people take four wives while others never get married at all. Some people teach the illiterate to read while others burn books. Some people are pacifists while others declare holy wars and it’s all done in the name of serving God. It’s done because we want to do what is pleasing in his sight. The cynic looks at all the confusion and the contradiction and concludes that we can never really know what God wants us to do, so why try?

What does the Lord want from us? This is not a new question. People were asking this question two thousand and seven hundred years ago, right about the time of the prophet Micah. This is kind of a strange passage. It begins, “Stand up and state your case against me. Let the mountains and hills be called to witness your complaints” (Micah 6: 1). That’s kind of weird. What we have here is a court case between God and his people. “He has a case against his people,” it says in verse two. And every court case needs witnesses and a jury and what-not. Who else is going to hear a court case between God and his people? “And now, O mountains, listen to the LORD’s complaint (verse 2).” The natural elements are being asked to listen to this controversy and decide the case. Perhaps that sounds a bit whimsical but the conflict between God and the people is not. The relationship between them is not working; the covenant agreement between them is frayed to the breaking point. God begins the trial by saying, “O my people, what have I done to you? What have I done to make you tired of me? Answer me!” (v. 3). He sounds like an exasperated parent, doesn’t he? Or a spouse that is at the end of his rope. “What have I done to deserve this? Is it me? In what way have I let you down? I work and work at this relationship and what do I get?” Does that sound familiar? Then God reminds the people of the past. “For I brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from slavery” (v 4). God is saying, “Look at what I’ve done for you. You were slaves. I freed you. You didn’t have a place to live. I spent 40 years leading you people through the desert. I fed, clothed, and protected you. And all you did was complain, complain, complain. I get you safely into the Promised Land. And as soon as I had established you there, what do you do? You disobey me. You don’t follow my rules. You worship other gods. What am I supposed to think?”

I want you to notice something. When I asked the question at the beginning of the sermon, “What does God want from us?” probably some of you sat back and thought, “Well, doesn’t this preacher know that we are justified by faith alone? I have faith that Jesus Christ died for my sins. That is the basis for my relationship with God. My relationship is founded not on what I do for God, but on what God has done for me. He saves me. I don’t save myself.” True. But this passage is not for people who are ignorant of God. It’s for the people he already has a relationship with. He doesn’t say, “I’m going to free you from slavery. I’m going to lead you through the desert to the place of salvation.” He doesn’t say, “I’m going to save you so therefore why don’t you act a little more nicely.” No, he says in effect, “I’ve already saved you. I’ve established this relationship with you. Why are you not living your lives based on this relationship?” God might as well be saying, “Look, I sent my son to die for you. He suffocated to death on a cross for you. I sent out missionaries to the four corners of the world who were tortured and martyred to bring the Good News. I led people into your life to tell you personally about the faith. For some of you it was your parents. For some of you it was a Sunday school teacher. For some of you it was a friend. But to all of you I brought the good news of salvation and helped you to believe it. I gave you forgiveness. I have you a fresh start. And what have you done with everything that I’ve given you? How have you acted in this relationship? I saved you. Why are you not acting like saved people?” You see, the conflict God has is not with them out there – the unsaved. It’s with us!

“Well…..what do you mean, God? I thought I was doing pretty well. I may not be perfect but I haven’t committed any crimes or anything. I’m no different from everybody else.” Exactly. The biggest reason why the Church is no longer seen by our society as being a particularly worthwhile institution is because they can’t see any difference between people who go to church and everybody else. Who do you see standing around the water cooler trading trashy stories? Is it only the non-Christians? Who is it that hollers profanity at the Little League umpires? Is it only the people who don’t go to church? Who is it that steps on people at the office? Who tells racist jokes? Who shoots the finger in traffic? Who? Is it only the atheists, the pagans, and the agnostics? In the day-to-day grind of living is there any real difference between those who are saved and those who aren’t?

At the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount Jesus says that those who follow him will be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. In other words our actions are to have an impact on the whole world. Four out of five people in this nation call themselves Christians. That’s a whole lot of light and salt. We should have a very well-seasoned and very light-filled society. What happened? Is it someone else’s fault? It’s so easy to blame everyone and everything else, isn’t it? According to a recent poll 89% of us believe our society is impolite. 73% believe mean-spirited political campaigns are to blame. 67% thought rock music is to blame. 52% think talk radio is to blame. 1% said their own behavior is to blame. 1%. That’s a busy 1%! We will blame anybody but ourselves, won’t we? That’s what the false prophets recorded in Micah say, “Don’t say such things….don’t prophesy like that. Such disasters will never come our way” (Micah 2: 6). That’s what false prophets always say: “Don’t worry. Be happy. God is just pleased as punch with you. It’s somebody else who is to blame.” Four fifths of our society claims to be Christian, but it’s not our fault the world looks like it does. Well, when you live the service and shake my hand you don’t want to say, “I enjoyed your sermon. I just wish So-And-So had been to hear it.” If you do I’ll know you weren’t listening. I like it when you enjoy sermons and many of them are to be enjoyed but not this one. And it’s not for somebody else. It’s for you and me. It is with us that God has his quarrel. “O my people, what have I done to you? What have I done to make you tired of me?” (Micah 6: 3) God is saying, “I have saved you. Are you acting like someone who is saved?”

Well, what does God want from us? What does it take? Or, as the people respond to God in Micah: “What can we bring to the LORD? What kind of offering should we give him? Should we bow before God with offerings of yearling calves? Should we offer him thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins?” (Micah 6: 6-7) What do I have to do? Put in $100 a week into the offering plate? Should I volunteer 20 hours a week at church? What’s it going to take to keep God happy? $10,000 a week and 168 volunteer hours? Sell all my possessions and give them to the poor? My firstborn child? What’s enough? It’s very natural when wondering what God wants from us to think in terms of money and works of service. Things. External things. But God doesn’t want external things, does he? What does he want? He wants us.

Listen to the prophet. “No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good….” (Micah 6: 8). You see, this word is not for people who don’t know God or have no history with him. It’s for those of us he already has a relationship with. He says we already know what he wants. “…The LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6: 8). He wants us to be a certain kind of person. But what kind?

The Bible says a lot about the kinds of people we are supposed to be. Let’s see if we can boil it all down. A father tells a story about his daughter. When she was a little girl she had a doll. It started off a new doll, bright, clean and well-made but his daughter took it with her everywhere. She played with it. She slept with it. And after a while the doll began to look pretty frayed. The eyes fell out. She lost most of her hair. Her dress was stained and ripped. But the little girl still loved it. And whenever she had to put it down to take a bath or eat a meal she would ask her mother or her father to hold her doll. And she would say, “Be careful, Daddy. Hold her very carefully. Watch her head.” And the father would look at that ragged, dirty little doll and think, “This thing is not worth the thread it takes to keep it together. It has no value. It’s worthless.” But he still held it very carefully and watched its head to make sure it was supported. He didn’t treat the doll according to its value to him. He treated it according to its value to his little girl. And to his little girl that doll was absolutely precious.

The basis for all the instructions in the Bible is that each person is absolutely precious in the eyes of God. That person you are gossiping about, that person you had to fire because she was incompetent, that person who cut you off in traffic – they may all seem pretty worthless to you. They may seem ragged, stained, worn out and beat up. But each one of them is more valuable than all the money ever made, more valuable than all the art in all the museums in all the world, more special than 100 million sunsets. In the eyes of God that person is absolutely precious.

And we are to treat them not according to their value to us but according to their value to God.
And when we do that, when we begin to treat each person with the value that God places on them, then we are living as God’s people. Then we are living saved lives. Then we are being the salt of the earth and the light of the world and all those unsaved folks out there will look at us and wonder, “Why are they different from others I meet?” But then, you already knew this. You know what the Lord requires of us. He’s been telling us all along. Do what is right. Love mercy. And walk humbly with your God.

Amen

A Dangerous Message

Lifepath Church supports several missionaries in places where Christianity is severely persecuted. Here is a portion of a Christmas update from one of them. It makes you realize how dangerous the message of Jesus is perceived to be by many nations.


Did Christians and Churches in the Middle East Celebrate Christmas publicly?

North Africa: 26 churches have been forced to shut down in North Africa, though more then half have reopened, allowing churches to celebrate a quiet, public Christmas.

Egypt: more than 8 churches have been rioted, vandalized, and many forced to close. In spite of these tragedies churches across the country celebrated a vibrant Christmas January 6th , Eastern Orthodox calendar (i.e. the 12th day of Christmas)

The Turkish area: an Anglican church was forced to move locations, but they were open in time of Christmas.

Turkey: despite legislative amendments to harmonize with European Union law there has still been strong discrimination against all minority communities, but disproportionately toward the Protestant church. No churches have been able to legally register as a place of worship, and a 1600 year old Monastery is under threat of losing its property and being razed. So the Armenian, Greek and Catholic Churches had a public Christmas, but the Protestant churches had to be more careful.

Iran: Public Christmas was illegal for all Christians. Including legally recognized churches (historical church communities), but especially for converts from Islam. Until today tens of Christians are being arrested for choosing to gather for Christmas.

Palestine: Prior to the problems in Gaza only a handful of Christians were given permission to travel to churches in Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas, because of the current situation Christians in Palestine and Jordan chose only to observe silent services.