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I love the LORD because He Listened to Me. A Sermon on Psalm 116:1–9
I love the Lord,
Because He Hears Me!
Psalm 116:1–9
† In Jesus Name †
May you always respond with love and adoration to the God revealing His grace and mercy, and the love of God shown you in Christ Jesus!
Why Do We Love?
It is the topic of thousands upon thousands of songs, of poems and novels, artists in every form have tried to paint it.
The greatest philosophers tried to explain it, the greatest psychologists have no explanation for it, and no one comes near being able to explain it, it is a mystery. Even languages can struggle to define it.
Yet, a child can express it in ways that brings tears and joy to your heart.
This word. Love
cHesed in Hebrew
agape
eros
storge
And phileo in Greek
It includes within it the words devotion, mercy, loyalty, adoration, honor and so many more in English. It is physical and spiritual, emotional and psychological.
And the psalmist dares to say…
I love the Lord….. and with the word because, explains what we need to hear today.
We love the Lord, for He hears our voice and our prayer for mercy. Because he bends down to listen……
The Despairs of Life
These words, sweetly said by a 2 year old their mother, or said during a wedding or whispered between two people in their 90’s as they look in their lives, seem more powerful than any words said by any president or king.
The truth in that second is clear, blunt, disarming, and said with everything aspect of our beings.
It doesn’t matter if the 2-year-old just opened a present, or just finished a tantrum and is near exhaustion. The same goes for a psalmist, the cries of love for God in scripture come from the times where God has blessed, but also when the blessing is harder to see.
That is the context for the Psalmist, the writer of these words,
He knows God hears, that God reaches down to him, even when life is as broken.
3 Death wrapped its ropes around me;
the terrors of the grave overtook me.
I saw only trouble and sorrow.
4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“Please, Lord, save me!”
In the midst of the cries of love, are these pleas for mercy. It is as in the gospel story, as the father cries out in adoration and faith, there is also the desperate begging to heal, and even to given our broken faith the strength to believe, to trust, even to depend on God.
I love those words of the father,
“I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
Been there, done that, Even as recently as yesterday.
We can know every instance of people crying out in Scripture, we can know all the prayers, but what I needed to hear, and I know we all need to hear, is that God will.
He won’t write us off because we don’t have the perfect life or enough faith.
He won’t write us off because we struggle to see His plan…
He won’t abandon us to our own wisdom, our own brokenness, We don’t have to remain condemned by our own sin,
No one is beyond hope, no one beyond God’s hearing range.
This is the testimony of the psalms, read them, over and over, as life tries to crush the writers, they find God’s peace, even if their problems aren’t alleviated the way they think is best.
They find as the psalmist describes so vividly here….something amazing.
He Leans Down.. and Hears
Hear it again…
1 I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy.
2 Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!
Last week, when my friends Jon was here, his wife commented about something we take for granted perhaps. She noted that when people come over and greet Debbie, many bend down, so as to greet her at the same level. (For reader’s, she is in a wheel chair) She, a lady whose husband has played and pastored in huge churches, said the love we show each other in this church is incredible and beautiful. I’ve seen the same thing done as people get on one knee to greet a child here.
It is that action that the psalmist pictures God doing, bending down, not in condescension, nor in anger, but with a heart full of love, a love which causes Him to listen intently, to listen carefully, to hear each one of us.
God listening to each of us, not like a potentate or world leader listening to us, but listening to us, hearing us.
God bending over to talk to you, to me, his eyes making contact with us, and we have His attention. He hears us…. And we love Him for it
No wonder the psalmist responds,
Yahweh is merciful and upright, our God is tenderness. Yahweh looks after the simple, when I was brought low he gave me strength. My heart, be at peace once again, for Yahweh has treated you generously. He has rescued me from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling. I shall pass my life in the presence of Yahweh, in the land of the living. Psalm 116:5-9 (NJB)
I used a different translation here for a couple reasons, but none as good as this.
You see that word Yahweh?
A lot of translations use the term LORD there, in all capitals. LORD is a title.
But the Psalmist uses the personal name of God, the name God gave Moses to give to Israel to use when they talk or pray to them, We aren’t talking about some God distant across a galaxy. We aren’t talking about a god made of brass or wood. We’re not talking about a God is weak and tolerates evil, but Yahweh, who is patient, not willing that any person should perish, but that all have the ability to return to Him.
As Luther reminds us, it is not enough not to use God’s name in vain, but we need to
He doesn’t just tolerate our prayers; He wants us to call out to Him. God wants to hear us, listen to us, care for us.
And assure us that we will dwell forever in His presence.
And so we can say with the psalmist
My heart, is at peace once again, for Yahweh has treated you generously.
For He is our loving God, who bends down to hear us, who comes to us to care for us, to reconcile us, to heal us, to send us to others to send us to the world, to let them know He will listen to them as well, and love them even as He loves us, cleanses us from sin, and makes us hole, and holy.
This is why we adore Him, why we are devoted to Him, why we trust and depend on Him, why we honor and praise Him!
Why we love Him… Because He hears us…
And promises to give our hearts the peace and rest that comes from knowing the love of God. A love in which Christ keeps us forever. AMEN?
Why “They” Are Wrong About Sin….
devotional thought of the day
8 And when he comes, he will prove to the people of the world that they are wrong about sin and about what is right and about God’s judgment. 9 They are wrong about sin, because they do not believe in me; John 16:8-9 (TEV)
Prayer does not fall into a void; neither is it just a kind of psychotherapy that helps us to assemble our spiritual forces and bring them once more into balance; nor is it merely a kind of pious fiction to exercise our souls and calm them. Prayer is directed to reality. It is both heard and heeded. God, then, is someone who has the power, the ability, the will, and the patience to listen to us men. He is so great that he can be present even for those who are small.
If I bring you to this point, I have also brought you to confession. Those who really want to be good Christians, free from their sins, and happy in their conscience, already have the true hunger and thirst. They snatch at the bread just like a hunted hart, burning with heat and thirst,
33 as Ps. 42:2 says, “As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God.” That is, as a hart trembles with eagerness for a fresh spring, so I yearn and tremble for God’s Word, absolution, the sacrament, etc.
34 In this way, you see, confession would be rightly taught, and such a desire and love for it would be aroused that people would come running after us to get it, more than we would like.
I am curious about who you thought “they” would be, when you read the title of this blog.
Maybe you were hoping I would lay into those rejoicing over the jailing of the court clerk in Kentucky. Maybe you were hoping I would chastise those who complained about her being arrested, sure that she is the bravest person under persecution in the world today.
What if both groups of people are those that are wrong about sin? What if, when they are describing sin, when they are pointing out sin in others are proving Jesus correct. They don’t understand sin because they don’t get that it isn’t about breaking this rule or that rule.
It is because they don’t trust in God, they don’t know Him. They don’t understand about sin because they don’t have the relationship where they depend upon Him.
Take away hat intimate relationship with God away from someone’s understanding, and sin can only be defined as breaking all the rules. But that can’t be what defines sin, because to do so would result in condemnation, and there would be no hope.
For hope, for relief and comfort comes within a relationship. Forgiveness, mercy, love are all words that exist withing the nature of a relationship.
And sin is ultimately, denying that relationship is the ultimate sin.
You see that clearly in the quote from Pope Benedict XVI where he talks about prayer, about what it is and what it isn’t. It is that greatness of God that He can relate to us, not in a condescending manner, but He comes to us. He listens to us, not as a king listens without empathy or interest to his serfs, (or a CEO to one of his p/t employees) but as a friend, as a Father, as one who loves us. He listens, He cares, He knows us.
Which brings us to the quote from Martin Luther, about confession and absolution. Sometimes we treat a sin, or a tendency to sin as if it is the worst thing that can happen. In the Kentucky case, she is either the greatest sinner since Hitler, or those that deny her the office she was elected to.are the equivalent of those who crucified Jesus. In either case, I will not say there is no sin, my instinct is that both groups of observers need to be called to repentance, and to reconciliation. As do the actual people involved in the case
In fact, if there is a need to be reconciled to another person, you can be pretty sure that there is a need to be drawn closer to God. Not for Him to punish, but for Him to heal. For God to be so manifested in their life that His call on their life is understood, not just a law to obey, but as the loving guidance of a parent, We need to realize His law is not punitive, bt based in wisdom. Wisdom beyond us.
That is why reconciliation, why confession and absolution are so critical. We desperately need to hear that our sin is not going to wreck our relationship with God, that He will still hear and answer our prayers, that He will comfort us as anxiety threatens, That is what absolution does. It reconciles us to Him; it assures us of His presence. It helps us to trust, to wait in His presence.
That’s why Luther says if we understand what Absolution gifts us with, we won’t hesitate to confess our sins. We wouldn’t hide in denial of them, we wouldn’t play the game of “their” sins are worse than ours. We would rejoice in the word of God, rejoice in our forgiveness, and we would plead with others to be reconciled, rather than condemn others without the intent of showing them the love of God.
May we spend our days rejoicing in God’s answers to our plea – “Lord have mercy on us sinners!”. Amen.
Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans., I. Grassl, Ed.) (p. 286). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (pp. 460–461). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
Church – Do Those Broken By Sin Have to Shout Their Prayers Over You?
Devotional Thought of the Day
35 As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind beggar was sitting beside the road. 36 When he heard the noise of a crowd going past, he asked what was happening. 37 They told him that Jesus the Nazarene* was going by. 38 So he began shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
39 “Be quiet!” the people in front yelled at him.
But he only shouted louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
40 When Jesus heard him, he stopped and ordered that the man be brought to him. As the man came near, Jesus asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?”
“Lord,” he said, “I want to see!”
42 And Jesus said, “All right, receive your sight! Your faith has healed you.” 43 Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus, praising God. And all who saw it praised God, too. (Lk 18:35–43 NLT)
914 How pitiful are those crowds—high and low and middle-class—without an ideal! They give the impression that they do not know they have souls: they are a flock, a drove, a herd. Jesus, only with the help of your merciful love will we turn the flock into a legion, the drove into an army, and from the herd of swine draw, purified, those who no longer wish to be unclean. (1)
27 The need which ought to be the concern of both ourselves and others is quite amply indicated in the Lord’s Prayer. Therefore it may serve to remind us and impress upon us not to become negligent about praying. We all have needs enough, but the trouble is that we do not feel or see them. God therefore wishes you to lament and express your needs and wants, not because he is unaware of them, but in order that you may kindle your heart to stronger and greater desires and spread your cloak wide to receive many things.
As I hear the words of the gospel, as I picture the blind man there, I would hope to be him. I would hope my church would be like Him as well. I would hope that when we need healing, that nothing would stop us from calling out to God, that nothing would quiet us, that nothing would stand in our way, until was are sure He heard us, and we were confident of the answer. Such is Luther’s point about prayer. God wants to hear them, even if we are the flock that St Josemaria talks of, and we are simply praying that we would no longer be unclean.
I fear that the Church (not just my congregation – the Church as a whole) is often like the crowd that surrounded the poor blind beggar. Rather than hear their cries and carry them to Jesus, we tell them to shut up, to be quiet, to not cause trouble with their cries for help.
Maybe it is because they seem like poor broken beggars, and we forget it is for such Jesus came. (and that we are no better)
Maybe it is because we don’t recognize their cries as cries for help, or that the help they need is something that God can help with? In those cases, we try to drown them out, rather than hear them out, till we see the brokenness and can offer them help and hope.
Maybe it is because we are afraid that if we are called to help them, to bring them to Jesus to be healed, that will somehow require us to reveal our own brokenness, the things we are still struggling to see completely healed.
Maybe it is because we forgot our call is to be pastors, shepherds, ministers, servants, priests. Instead, we may have thought we are executives, entrepreneurs, ranchers, consultants and motivators
We have to stop silencing their cries. We have to have the compassion of those who would point them to Jesus, and point Jesus to them. We have to want them to know the healing we are experiencing.
Even if their brokenness is a threat to our own lives.
We need Jesus to kindle our hearts, to reveal His merciful love through us, to see all of those who are blind to it healed. We need for them to catch the kind of fire Luther so eloquently talks of, as he shares about the Lord’s Prayer. They need to spread their cloaks out wide, to receive the presents that come with His presence. We need to help them..which means we too need to spread our cloaks wide, to call out to Jesus to heal us.
Such is our vocation, not to quiet them from crying out to Him, but to encourage, lift their pleas even louder, to help them know the God, who hears… and heals.
Lord Have Mercy!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 2126-2129). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 424). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press. The Large Catechism
What Do You Invest in?
Devotional Thought of the day
5 “The purpose of my covenant with the Levites was to bring life and peace, and that is what I gave them. This required reverence from them, and they greatly revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 They passed on to the people the truth of the instructions they received from me. They did not lie or cheat; they walked with me, living good and righteous lives, and they turned many from lives of sin.
7 “The words of a priest’s lips should preserve knowledge of God, and people should go to him for instruction, for the priest is the messenger of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.(Mal 2:5–7 NLT
758 The wholehearted acceptance of the will of God is the sure way of finding joy and peace: happiness in the cross. It’s then we realize that Christ’s yoke is sweet and that his burden is not heavy. (1)
Yesterday I ha the blessing of baptizing a young man named Aiden.
And then I was able to give to 60 or more people Christ’s body and blood. Somewhere in the middle I delivered a sermon, This is what I live for in life when I am consistent with the Spirit given me in baptism some 50 years ago.
It’s what i do, it is, in many ways, what I’ve invested my life in, at least the investment that is worthwhile.
I have invested time in other things, some that were fun, some that were silly, some that caused suffering, my own or someone else’s. Are some of those things good? Well, God promises that all will work for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.
It is when we see God’s will when we see His presence, His mercy, and His love made manifest, those are the times of the greatest peace, the most incredible joy. Which is why giving and yes receiving the sacraments, or studying God’s revelation of love is so much a time of blessed peace. It is when we are praying with someone, asking for God to reveal Himself, to reveal His mercy, whether that person is 98 and on their death bed, or 2 years old and crying because she doesn’t want to leave church, or with a bunch of friends at lunch that we see this.
You see the work of a pastor/priest is different, but no different in that God is working through us all, reconciling the world to Himself. That is His desire, that none should perish, but that all are transformed into this life.
He is here, He is with us, He brings us life and peace… this is what we all are to pass on, That is the greatest investment we can make… giving someone else the peace of God, found in life united to Christ.
And may we rejoice as we turn many from their sin because of this gospel message, lived out in Christ.
Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 1766-1767). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Will we stop them from coming… and knowing Jesus?
Devotional Thought of the Day
36 As he saw the crowds, his heart was filled with pity for them because they were worried and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 So he said to his disciples, “The harvest is large, but there are few workers to gather it in. 38 Pray to the owner of the harvest that he will send out workers to gather in his harvest.” Matthew 9:36-38 (TEV)
28 Then the woman left her water jar, went back to the town, and said to the people there, 29 “Come and see the man who told me everything I have ever done. Could he be the Messiah?” 30 So they left the town and went to Jesus. 31 In the meantime the disciples were begging Jesus, “Teacher, have something to eat!” 32 But he answered, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33 So the disciples started asking among themselves, “Could somebody have brought him food?” 34 “My food,” Jesus said to them, “is to obey the will of the one who sent me and to finish the work he gave me to do. 35 You have a saying, ‘Four more months and then the harvest.’ But I tell you, take a good look at the fields; the crops are now ripe and ready to be harvested! 36 The one who reaps the harvest is being paid and gathers the crops for eternal life; so the one who plants and the one who reaps will be glad together. 37 For the saying is true, ‘Someone plants, someone else reaps.’ 38 I have sent you to reap a harvest in a field where you did not work; others worked there, and you profit from their work.” 39 Many of the Samaritans in that town believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of his message, 42 and they told the woman, “We believe now, not because of what you said, but because we ourselves have heard him, and we know that he really is the Savior of the world.” John 4:28-42 (TEV)
54 Meanwhile they neither hear nor preach the Gospel about the free forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake, about the righteousness of faith, about true penitence, about works that have the command of God. But they spend their time either on philosophical discussions or on ceremonial traditions that obscure Christ.
800 The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few. Rogate ergo!—“Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his vineyard.” Prayer is the most effective means of winning other apostles.
I have to wonder what the disciples thought when people who were typically antagonistic towards Jewish peopel started streaming out fo the town towards Jesus. Were they frightened, were they on edge, considering their need to defend themselves? Were they concerned about Jesus reputation, what if the good people saw him hanging out with Samaritans? (Remember they had enough problems when Jesus hung out with Jewish Tax collectors and hookers!)
There is no doubt people are flocking to the United States. We have people trying to legally enter and people trying to come across both borders. There are people that come here on tourist visas and student visas and they expire. They are coming for hope, but like the people coming from the Samaritan Village, they may not understand what they hope they seek is found in Jesus. They come for an opportunity, yet the opportunity they seek may not be the one they need. Even so, they are coming here, looking for something. They may even be looking to do harm, as Paul was, as he travelled to Damascus.
The problem is that they won’t find the hope they seek, just by coming to the USA. As nation we don’t have what they need. The opportunity, the hope they need is here.
We, the people who follow Jesus, have the hope they don’t know how to find. What they need is the exact same thing we need, a relationship with God, with our creator. A relationship where love and mercy overwhelmed guilt and shame and anger. A relationship so tight that nothing can get in its way. A relationship that doesn’t depend on ethnicity, or gender, or economic status.
They are coming to find that relationship.
Our work, our calling to share with them the new of God’s love starts in prayer. It starts not with philosophical reasoning or with a worship service that impresses God or man. (whether traditional liturgical worship or freestyle or attractional concert.
It starts in knowing the very love of God that resulted in our being delivered from sin into His presence. It starts in spending time in prayer and awe before God, and realizing how incredible the Lord we trust in is, how deep His love is. As we spend time looking to Christ we become conformed to His image, an image that would die to see people share that hope that we have.
A pretty famous Christian has looked at the crowds heading toward America and pleaded with the public to urge our government to stop them from coming. People responding to him have brought back the ideas of camps like Manzanar, about rounding up these people and basically imprisoning them. Many have echoed their sentiments. Those sentiments, those ideas are wrong. I would even say they are sinful, as we put up a protective barrier that would keep them from hearing of God’s love.
Think about this, from the book of Revelation
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “Now God’s salvation has come! Now God has shown his power as King! Now his Messiah has shown his authority! For the one who stood before our God and accused believers day and night has been thrown out of heaven. 11 They won the victory over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the truth which they proclaimed; and they were willing to give up their lives and die. Revelation 12:10-11 (TEV)
As people look at us, as they come to our communities looking for something, may they see the hope we have in Christ, and may we lovingly, patiently share it with them…. as we know Jesus would.
—–
Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 278). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 1843-1845). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Can You Hear God Now? Why You Need to!
Devotional Thought of The Day:
28 About a week after he had said these things, Jesus took Peter, John, and James with him and went up a hill to pray. Luke 9:28 (TEV)
42 They spent their time in learning from the apostles, taking part in the fellowship, and sharing in the fellowship meals and the prayers. Acts 2:42 (TEV)
551 Flee from routine as from the devil himself. The great means to avoid falling into that abyss, the grave of true piety, is the constant presence of God. (1)
There is a joke (at least I hope it is a joke) about an elderly gentleman and an odd sense of romance. He was asked by a newlywed how often he told his wife he loved her. The old guy thought for a moment and said, “the day we got engaged.” Seeing the shocked look on the young man’s face, he followed that up with, “and I told her if I changed my mind, I would surely let her know!”
I can’t believe there exists a woman for whom this would be satisfactory.
And so I wonder why many of us settle for that kind of relationship with God. It’s not that He doesn’t tell us constantly that He loves us, for He dearly wants us to know He loves us, to be aware of His presence.
That is what all of creation is about, about our relationship with Him.
Imagine for a moment that the old man’s wife told the young couple, “Oh, don’t worry about us, I am too tired to pay attention to my husband telling me he love me. It’s too much work to drop what I am doing, and read a loveletter he carefully wrote me. I don’t want his comfort, or for him to treat me special. Are our excuses for not spending time with God, with His people, any better?
Are our lives so perfect that we don’t need to be comforted by the Holy Spirit, that we don’t need to be encouraged by our brothers and sisters in the church? Are we somehow more mature than the early church, who gathered regularly to pray?
If this letter is producing some guilt, that is not its intent. We have been given an amazing gift, a blessing beyond compare. The presence of God, and in scripture, the proof of His love. A gift we need to use, a gift that is a life changer, to know we walk through life with God.
Spending time in prayer, in readying and stuyding His word wih others, in celebrating the Lord’s Supper – it isn’t about duty, it is about knowing we are love… about hearing and seein that love…. Together, as His family.. And there is nothing better…
1. Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 1331-1332). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Prayer, Holiness Mission and the Unplugged Cellphone
Devotional Thought of the Day:
8 O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge. Psalm 62:8 (NLT)
107 Sanctity without prayer? I don’t believe in such sanctity.
109 If you’re not a man of prayer, I don’t believe in the sincerity of your intentions when you say that you work for Christ. (1)
I woke up this morning and reached for my cellphone to see what time it was. I unplugged it and tapped the screen three times to turn on the screen.
Immediate I got a warning, less than 5% power remaining, and it shut itself off. No power and it didn’t work. No phone, no internet, not even the simple information about what time it is. Apparently, while I ensured I plugged the one end of the cord into my phone, the other end wasn’t plugged into the wall.
No problem, I’ll just switch to my tablet. It had power, and I found out it was 8 o’clock here, or 5 am at home. Okay. I got what I want.
But then during my devotion time, I came across a number of passages about prayer, and the necessity of it. Then a blog post that talked about all of the different conferences and things that help pastors become more missional, more serious about the apostolate.
I started to wonder, how many of these conferences have a focus, not just a section or a speaker, I mean an entire conference, If it were, would pastors and church leaders come?
Do we see the correlation between time spent in conversation with God, bi-directional conversation, and effective ministry? The Apology of the Augsburg Confession (one of the basic documents explaining the Lutheran understanding of our relationship with God) encourages prayer, even naming it as a sacrament because then men may pray more.
Because we need it. It is not just our source of power; it is our source of life. It is the source of our mission as well. Without an active conversation with God, our life becomes stale, our wisdom is reduced to dry knowledge, and there is no relationship we can share with others. Like a cellphone with a dry battery, a believer without prayer is dead.
But an active prayer life helps us understand the will of God, His desire to love all of us, to show us mercy so we could realize that love. It brings healing to our brokenness. Healing so great it drives us to others, with the compassion to share the healing with them.
One last thing. Don’t read this and start praying so that you will be a more effective evangelist, to be a better witness of God’s mercy. The more time you spend with Him, the more the zeal for inviting others to the conversation will occur, not forced, but naturally.
Just walk with God, pouring out everything to Him, and hear him pour out His heart to you.
Have a blessed day…. with Him!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 399-402). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Our Need for Prayer
Devotional Thought of the Day:
3 So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? Hebrews 2:3 (NLT)
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)
The more you suffer, the more you are tempted the more you need to pray; prayer now alone can strengthen you with help and consolation. Let not pain and fierce temptation paralyze you prayer. The devil does all he can to prevent you from praying at these times. But rather than give into weak human nature which absorbs the soul in its paid so that it sees nothing else for the time, turn your eyes to our Lord and speak to Him standing so near. He is with you, looking on you lovingly, listening for your words. He tells you to speak, that He is there to hear you, that He loves you and you have not a word to say to Him, no look to give Him. What ingratitude! Look at Him speak to Him without ceasing, The deeper your agony, the deeper you must bury yourself in the Heart of your Beloved, and cling to His side with ceaseless prayer! (1)
I have to admit, while I don’t spend the time i would like, perhaps as much time I really need in prayer, the words in blue resonate with me.
I know them true, and it is why I can desire to spend more time, more hours, more days in prayer.
You may ask why I put the first reading there, about ignoring salvation. Simply put, because salvation isn’t just about the event, where God cleanses us from sin, washing us clean as He promises in our baptism, replacing our heart of stone with a heart of flesh and giving us His Spirit, (see Ezekiel 36:25). Salvation is rescuing us from and delivering us to something that is incredible.
As we are saved we become something. We become part of the people of God, daughters and sons of God, adopted and marked as His children, we enter into a entirely different relationship with God, one where He promises to never forsake us, never abandon us, never to stop working in our lives. We find life, a life lived in fellowship, in community, in communion with God.
And that is what we should never neglect, that is what we need to grow in, the awareness that the Lord is with you. (and yes, thank you – also with me). We need to learn to depend up this, not as a fact, but as reality. He is with us, ready to listen, ready to comfort, ready to heal, ready to reach out into this broken world.
Prayer then becomes the way of life, the very meaning of our salvation. Walking with God. Please re-read the second scripture passage and the italicized blue above, there is our hope. our peace, our comfort, our very ability to live.
In the past couple of weeks, many people I know have encountered death of their loved ones. I’ve talked to others, who have lost jobs, or are afraid of losing a relationship. Just knowing this is exhausting, tiring, painful, the feeling of emptiness and loneliness I observe is… crushing. For those directly involved, the devotional writer gets it right. The sorrow and grief consumes us. Nothing else can matter in that moment.
Until God breaks through, until He reminds us that He is here. There is a strong correlation between how quickly we hear His voice in those moments, and the time we spend walking with Him at other times. Even if we feel that there aren’t the other times. Yet if we neglect this, if we take Him for granted, it may take a longer time to find Him, when only His comfort is the answer. Don’t neglect Him, don’t
Then we can find rest and peace, dwelling in His love.
So pray my friends, realize God walks with you, and share with Him everything… and spend some time in stillness, and in quiet, and know He is God. AMEN!
(1) from Celtic Daily Prayer: Finian Reading for April 10th.
Where God Puts His Name
Where God Puts His Name
1 Kings 8:22-30; 41-43
† In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit! †
May your ministry as people and pastors, proclaim the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ to all of the broken people you come in contact with, including each other
When God Put His Name
Ted my friend, today you are going to hear some very special words… then again, you have heard them before. Sometimes with your ears, and other times, they sunk right down into your soul.
The first time your soul heard these special words, was just three years after the end of World War II. You were only three months and seven days old, and before you could even play the organ (I think), those words forever changed you, and your life. God marked you with them, He put His name on you in Baptism.
I messaged you last week, and asked you to think about how many times you’ve heard them in your life, and I could hear you laughing. Just the number of times you heard them, while sitting over on that organ bench, is beyond count.
From that bench, you heard Dr. Hendry say them, and Pastor Jerry, you heard the Reverend Vicar Dustin say them, and watched Vicar Matthew say them, and heard Dr. Stoterau say them, when Matt became a pastor, your pastor.
Each time you heard them, it was a blessing. It was a moment to remember and re-call that God made you one of His children, and the blessings of that relationship, both in this life and for eternity.
Today, when Dr. Stoterau says them over you as you are ordained, it is not for your sake, it is not to bless you. Stand up, and look around, see your friends, your church family. The reason you will hear these words is for their blessing… even as it costs you.
Adter you hear the words “I ordain you”, these are those special words, “in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. Those words are for them to hear, as God places His name here, for them! When you see the excitement in their eyes, because God has marked you again with His name, when they are as excited as Patriot fans in February, it is for their sake you will endure this. They may not realize it, but those words are for them.
The Parable of Solomon’s Temple
The Old Testament reading this afternoon is a parable, an illustration for everyone here to understand what ordination is.
As Solomon prays, he reveals why God puts His name places, why He will identify certain buildings and people to have an identity that is set apart from the norm. Maybe that is why pastors are not all that normal! Seriously, you know enough of us Ted to know it is not that the person who is ordained is anything special, it the reason that God ordains us that is special…
The same reason the Temple was built, for your parish to know that God hears their prayers, and responds to their prayers.
For Your “Identified” Parish!
When someone works as a chaplain, or a social worker in the medical field, you talk of your identified clients, and your unidentified clients. It is true about ministry as well You have your identified parish, and your real parish,
Your identified parish is the people here at Good Shepherd, the members, regular attendees, young and old, brand new Christians and those who have been Christians back into the middle of the last century.
When they come to you, whether it is here, or to your home, or at C&S coffee shop, pray with them, just like people went to the temple of Solomon. As you do, assure them, what was true in Solomon’s day, is still true. He prayed,
And listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen in heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.
By the way, this is the hardest part of your ministry, and sometimes the most frustrating. For in helping them to hear that God forgives them, you must remind them that they need to be forgiven.
That can happen in a coffee shop, as you preach, or hear their confession. It can happen as you counsel them.
Every one of us needs to know that God desires to forgive us, to heal our brokenness, to give us hope. Every one of us, including your peers in ministry, especially us. For if God can clean us up…
That is why God is marking you with His name. So that they can know that nothing will separate them from God, including their sin, and the sin of this world. As John writes in his first epistle, “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous forgiving us of sin, and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.”
Still, they will not like to hear that they are sinners. Be patient and loving and you will get past that. They realize you are here, that God has put His name on you to assure them of that forgiveness, so they could audibly hear it, then, they will rejoice.
That is why you will preach, that is what you guarantee them in baptism, and part of what they receive as they the Body and Blood of Christ. It is what they hear when you say, as a called and ordained servant, I forgive you in the Name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. You will use His name, as He calls you to, and they will know they have been reconciled to God.
It is what they need, what God wants them to have.
It is why He marks you with His name today. To make sure they know His love and mercy!
For Your “Real” parish
Solomon’s prayer insisted that the temple was not built just for Israel. It is the same thing for you. Never think your people are only the people who find their way here on Sunday morning.
Your parish includes every person that comes to you! It includes the former students of La Contenta; the people you know about the town; anybody who knows you are a pastor. Your parish includes those who come up to and says, “Ted, can I have a few moments of your time, I need to talk.” It might be a former co-worker, it might even be one of these guys dressed funny. It might even be someone you do not know, who sees you in your collar.
God is putting His name on you for them that they too could pray, even if they do not know God by name yet! God knows their name, and He will have them contact you, so that you can encourage them to pray. Remember Solomon’s words here as well,
“In the future, foreigners who do not belong to your people Israel will hear of you. They will come from distant lands because of your name, 42 for they will hear of your great name and your strong hand and your powerful arm. And when they pray toward this Temple, 43 then hear from heaven where you live, and grant what they ask of you. In this way, all the people of the earth will come to know and fear you, just as your own people Israel do. They, too, will know that this Temple I have built honors your name. 1 Kings 8:41-43 (NLT)
The same Name that will mark you as one of the shepherds that He has given to His people. Not to make you famous, or special.
He is putting His name on you again, so they can know Him.
I’ve said this day, this time is a blessing for all of the people you know, and will know.
God placing His name on you is going to cost you a lot, and I am not just talking about those college loans. You already know this, that you will spend time at people’s bedsides. You will miss dinners (and Barb will miss you cooking dinner!). You will hand someone those last couple of bills you have in your pocket. You will cry with them, rejoice with them… be crushed when they refuse to repent, dance (reverently) when the prodigal comes home.
You will be here. You will be the place where God has put His name. So the believer can pray and know that God hears… and forgives. So that the unbeliever can pray, and know God hears… and know and trust in Him.
Those two things will make it all worth it.
When God puts His name on you, and makes you one of those that gets to help people realize He makes them His… I cannot explain the joy of this ministry (I can explain the pain) …but you will know it.
Blessings to you my friend, for God has made you His child by placing His name on you, and is putting His name on you again, to bless them, and so many others,
In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit! AMEN!
