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Wed - February 27, 2008 Prayer
I noticed today that a lot of people come to my
site after searching on Prayer.
I wanted to point you to the GCF Daily Devotional pages.
Spring 2008 is all about prayer, as our Bible study, the 4-1-1 is talking about
prayer for the semester. The devotionals that are sent out on weekdays lead up
to the Bible study on Thursday evenings, so there is a LOT of great information
there!
I hope you find it helpful!  Mon - September 19, 2005 A Response to 'Whispering'
Fight always with your thoughts and call them back when they wander away. God does not demand of those under obedience that their thoughts be totally undistracted when they pray. And do not lose heart when your thoughts are stolen away. Just remain calm, and constantly call your mind back. St. John Climacus Thu - September 15, 2005 Samaritan
Tonight in the Bible study, we talked about the parable of the Good Samaritan in
Luke 10:30-35. Parts of it really resonated with me.Here is a bit of the
discussion:
First, a little history is necessary. In the mid-tenth century BC, the united kingdom of the twelve Israelite tribes (built by David and maintained by Solomon) split "Israel" and Judah (today roughly the area known as Judea). The capital of the northern tribes, originally Shechem, was moved to Samaria in 876 bc by King Omri. Omri's son, Ahab, married Jezebel, a princess of Tyre, a non-Jew. This was the beginning of the difficulties between the tribes. By the time of Christ, some of the religious differences between the Samaritans and the rest of the Jewish nation included the belief that Mt. Gerizim, not Jerusalem, was the one true sanctuary where God should be worshipped; the priests are the interpreters of the law and the keepers of tradition; unlike Judaism, there is no distinction between the priesthood and the scholars; Samaritans also reject Jewish codes of law. The divide between these groups was violent. Samaritans were considered to be unclean and the entire are of Samaria was completely avoided by the Jews. We compared the relationship to that which is between the Arabs and the Israelis. For a Samaritan to stop and help a Jew would be a huge sacrifice. So, one of the things we always do with a parable is to break down the characters into who they represent. The Samaritan, of course, represents Christ and his sacrifice for us. We, of course, are the injured man. However, after much discussion we agreed that we are also represented by the robbers. We are the ones who move away from God, we are the ones who ignore Him and live our life our own way. As someone pointed out, we rob ourselves of the riches of the kingdom. For more discussion of the parable, take a look at the Blessing Verses dated between Sept. 12 and 16th. Mon - April 26, 2004 Living the Life
Notes from the GCF Bible study on April 23,
2004
We
believe
that
it
is
not
enough
to
simply
state
that
Jesus
is
Lord
and
let
that
be
enough.
We
are
called
to
a
higher
spiritual
life;
our
actions
are
the
fruit
that
shows
what
we
are.
We
are
called
to
offer
our
bodies
as
a
living
sacrifice.
Our
actions
do
not
EARN
grace,
but
should
be
a
REACTION
to
His
grace.
So
how
do
we
do
that?
Submitting our lives to God's will is an important part of this. We may feel He is leading us in a direction we don't want to go, but it is a discipline for us to do it anyway. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "When Christ calls a man, He calls him to die." Anna mentioned this during the study...I thought it was a great way to get the point across: If we give someone a gift or a plant or a puppy...what a waste it would be for the receiver to put it on a shelf and let it die. They did not EARN the gift, it was given out of love. But the gift on it's own is nothing...it is what we do with it that makes it special. The disciplines that we talked about for our private time with God are not useful in public, however what is learned during this time should be reflected in our public life. To some degree, these can be thought of as training; when you need to sacrifice, you understand something about doing that because you've trained for denying yourself by fasting. What about temptation? Is it a temptation if you aren't interested? If someone offers to take you out, foot all the bills and get you home safely if you'll go with them to get sloppy drunk, it isn't a temptation if you don't WANT to drink or get sloppy drunk. That's pretty obvious. But what about cheating on your taxes, or procrastination, or slovenliness...what about watching TV when you should be studying, or playing solitaire when you should be working? Temptations that are less physically destructive are still temptations and can be spiritually destructive. Again, if you've spent time cultivating a relationship with God, you have some experience denying yourself a pleasure, and you have some wisdom as to how to defeat the temptation. And if we fall to temptation, we have the wisdom to understand that God's grace is sufficient for us. Hopefully, you know what the line is for you to avoid a temptation; hopefully you have set some boundaries that help you avoid temptation. What about struggling with God? The story of Jacob wrestling with God is a great analogy to our spiritual walk. We SHOULD struggle with Him...we NEED that struggle to understand our place in His kingdom. Sometimes that struggle is in understanding His will, sometimes it is in giving up our desires, sometimes it is in making changes in our life. But we all go through wrestling with Him; I believe He understands our need for it. (I apologize that these are so sketchy...) Fri - April 16, 2004 Creating a Personal Time with God
Notes from the GCF study on April 15,
2004.
What do we need to have a personal
time?
A quiet space without distractions...a place where you can be honest and open and free to be with God. A set time when you are able to concentrate. If you are a morning person, morning is great. If you have trouble waking up in the morning, find a better time. "We live from the outside in." When we get alone, we tend to find out that our mind wanders, we think of all the things we need to do, we worry, etc. What to do?! You need a transition from the world to the throne of God. Set the time during a time when you are normally calmer anyway. Start with a pre-written prayer, or a psalm. Sing a few inspirational songs - use songs you don't usually listen to, maybe music set aside just for this time. Expect to spend time transitioning, focusing, and THEN praying and worshipping. Budget yourself more time than you think you will want so you aren't 'rushed' to be done. What should this time be like? It should be very open, honest time, reverently, humbly acknowledging our humanness, but being willing to honestly share with Him. We should also be willing to hear Him and look inside yourself. Metropolitan Anthony: "Live your prayer." -- THINK about what you're praying. "God, I want to do well on this test", but "help me see what I need to do to succeed on this test." You don't want to spend all this time in prayer. You want to spend time listening to him, searching your heart and spirit for His words and desires. Keep a prayer journal - write your thoughts about what you read, if a lyric or poem or prayer strikes you, what you feel God reveals to you... What about fasting? Many people fast before taking communion. Some people fast from things they know they don't need or things that consume them and their time. Perhaps fast for a period before your time with God, not necessarily a 'forty day' fast. What about scripture? Spend time reading scripture before prayer. Spend time searching scripture referring to some of the prayer concerns, sin in your life, etc. What about worship? Spend time acknowledging to God what you believe about Him; reminding yourself and praising Him for those things (ex: I believe Christ died for me...praise God for Christ, His death and resurrection, the path to God that He gave us...) It is important to remind yourself of your beliefs; the Adversary will throw plenty of arguments at you to confuse you, so reminding yourself helps to cement the foundation. Sat - April 3, 2004 The Journey to Jerusalem
Notes from the GCF Bible study on April 1,
2004
The Gospels of Luke & John talk more about
Jesus' journey to Jerusalem than either of the other two Gospels, so we took
most of our material from them.
After the transfiguration, the disciples think that Jesus is preparing to set up his earthly kingdom, so they spend their time worrying about their position in the kingdom. They want to know who will sit on his right and who will sit at his left. Jesus tells them that the least will be the greatest, because the kingdom he is setting up will be in Heaven. When he talks to them about his upcoming death, Peter tries to convince him otherwise. When Jesus tells him, "Get behind me, Satan" perhaps it is because he is tempted by the ideas that Peter has. Luke 19:1-10 The Story of Zacchius As chief tax collector, he would be considered the 'lowest of the low.' Yeshua told the disciples that the least would be the greatest, and he chooses the 'lowest' person here to break bread with, showing his favor on this house. A lesson - Any time we come in to the presence of Christ, we are in a spiritual crisis of some kind because we must make a decision at that point. If we truly want to come in contact with Him, we must be prepared to have our world turned upside-down. Compare this story to the rich young ruler, who is 'great' but can not give up his riches. Luke 18:35 - 42 -- Blind Beggar His response to Yeshua passing by is to beg for his mercy; he then tells him exactly what he wants (to see) and when Yeshua heals him, he immediately follows him. He knows exactly what he needs, doesn't ask for 'oh, just help me' or whatever, he asks for exactly what he needs. John 11: -- The Lazarus Story This is a preview of what will happen to Yeshua. John 12 - Mary and the Perfume This is her dowry, what she would be able to give her husband to sell and use for her new family. She would not be able to marry, now. She gives everything to HIm, including her future, her finances, her respect in the community. This anointing is in preparation for His death and burial. He will go into Jerusalem the following day and will die 5 days later. The Triumphal Entry (Palm Sunday) - John 12:12-17 Yeshua comes seated on a donkey to show that he comes in peace. But it also shows that He considers Himself king, although not an earthly king as the people think, but a spiritual king. He is trying to tell the people that He is not the king they think He his, but they do not understand. (In Revelation, He will come on a white charger...not in peace, but in strife. Could it be that this is how He comes to us now? That the charger is symbolic of the war that is waged in our hearts and spirits daily?) This is also the day that the Jewish people will bring a lamb into their home to live for 5 days until they slaughter it for Pesach. Wow! One His way to die for us, He took time to heal individuals, visit friends, teach...how much more should we be willing to take time out for His people during our every day lives?! Fri - March 26, 2004 Canon of Scripture
Notes from the GCF Bible study on March 25,
2004.
Canon of Scripture or Where did we get
the Bible?
This will be a very, very brief lesson in comparison to the information that is available and necessary for a complete discussion. Different Views of Inspiration 1. God spoke to the writer who wrote with a minimum of freedom of expression. 2. God dictated to the writer 3. Each individual is writing what they want to write, the inspiration being only that he has a relationship with God. 4. God inspires the ideas, the principles but the writer is given freedom to write in their own style and perhaps use their own experiences in their writing. Canon Jewish Canon - Old Testament is made up of the Pentateuch, the Histories, the Prophets, the Wisdom Books. Sadducees accepted only the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Old Testament) as Canon, while most other groups accepted other books as well. The writings were examined by the Prophets, who are the only ones at that time that were given the Holy Spirit. The prevailing idea used to decide what would be considered scripture was 'we don't want to limit God's inspiration so anything is accepted until it is proven unacceptable.' They added a few more Wisdom books than what we currently use, including Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon (Sirach, Ecclessiasticus, Wisdom of Sol, Eccl/Barruc, and a few extra Proverbs.) Originally Ecclesiastes was argued about due to its occasional use of sarcasm and Song of Solomon was also in jeopardy due to the sexuality discussed. Job is the first book written in Hebrew about God - it is the oldest book and is written in a simple Hebrew referred to as 'proto-Hebrew'. Psalms is a collection of songs that were added to until a point when it was decided to close the book at 151 (or so depending on how the Psalms are counted.) The Prophets are more dictated since the prophet is the 'mouthpiece of God.' The major prophets - Is, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel (Ezra, Nehemia, Esther (debated because God himself is not mentioned) appear as Histories.) Minor Prophets are added and the book is closed with the end of prophecy. Many other things are written, but they are not considered Canon. These writings were found in a cave near the Dead Sea and are called the Dead Sea Scrolls. They were probably written by the Essen communities, who were Christians who left their Jewish communities to live a monastic life. Some of our oldest copies of some of the Old Testament books are found there. The oldest Old Testament's we have are the Septuagint. Copies of the Jewish Covenant were carried to Alexandria (a center of knowledge and learning at the time). They were translated into Greek because so many of the people at this time spoke Greek. A group of 70 Godly men consulted together and set the translation. However, they also continued to add to the Bible with Greek writings and some things that would have been considered Christian and not Jewish at all by some Jews who did not accept Jesus as the Messiah. Some of these additions were Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Judith, Tobit, Baruch, Jeremiah, Bel and the Dragon, 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th Maccabees --- since these were not written in Hebrew and were added in Alexandria, the Jews still in Babylon did not have them. At this point, there are two different groups of writings that are being called Scripture. A council 70-90 A.D. got together to decide what would be considered scripture so everyone would be using the same text. Some of the criteria that was set included that the text must have been written in Hebrew & in Palestine, so much of what was added in Alexandria was left out. Christian scholars often consider this to be due to the bias that Jesus was not the Christ, so it is possible that some of those texts should have been kept. Some, in fact are included in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles and even most Protestant scholars consider them useful and important texts, even they do not consider them inspired by God. The earliest copies we have of the Hebrew text are Masoretic texts from about 700 A.D. Christians, however, are still using the Septuagint at this point, so there are STILL two texts. Some of the Septuagint books seem to be historically inaccurate (although, histories at that time were not intended to be necessarily accurate...they were written to tell a story and get the point across, so some consider this not to be a problem.) However, the church decides they should all be using one text, so decisions must be made as to what will be considered the Christian Bible and what will not. The prevailing idea is that, opposite of the Jewish scholars, a text is considered 'out until it's proven in.' (Earliest copies of scripture we have dates around 125, with possibly fragments of Matthew's original writings). Earliest canon - Mutorian canon from 190 A.D. (Matthew and Mark are missing - document is torn) which includes most of what we have plus Wisdom, Apocalypse of Peter. Marcian - decides 'mankind has no role in God's plan of salvation.' He believed there were 2 Gods; the evil God of the Old Testament and the good God of the NT. Anything that disagrees with this, he will leave out. Matthew, James, several of the letters of Paul are removed in his texts. The church calls him a heretic, but some follow his teachings. Valentineus - was a gnostic ('knowledge') and believed Christ was not God and not human - he was a spiritual being. He would not need to eat, rest, would not cry, etc. John writes many of his comments to show that Christ IS real. So gnostics write a bunch of bizarre gospels to support their ideas. These ideas are still present in some groups today, but were also considered heresy by the church at the time. Origen - moves several of the Old Testament books to the back of his bible. These are eventually removed by protestant groups and are kept by Catholic groups. Athanasius declared the 27 books that we now have to be canon in 367ad. These were sent to the churches and were the first 'canon' to be set. He considers some to be important but not canon - Shepherd of Hermes and the Didacea have important information about how to run the church. The canon is not 'set officially' until the councils of Trent in the 1500's. This was in response to Luther's translation of scripture into German. He removes the 12 books that Origen pulled out (the Jews don't use them, so he didn't want it). The section of Daniel about Suzannah is removed, etc. Recommended texts: F.F.Bruce's The Canon of Scripture The History of the Church - Eusivius It is important to remember that whatever your denominational preference, the books that were argued about, while they may or may not be God inspired, were written by Godly men for the edification of the church. Those groups that accepted them did not accept them lightly. They are still useful for us today. If the protestant churches can accept the reading of Max Lucado, who is a Godly man in our day, we should be able to accept the reading of the texts that the Catholic and Orthodox churches contain, as well as the sayings of the Desert Fathers, the Saints and other historical traditions that many of the ancient faiths still use today. I encourage you to seek God's wisdom and the wisdom of Godly men and women wherever you can find it, and with the abundance of texts that have been approved and accepted for centuries as the wisdom of Godly people, there should be no shortage of reading for the seeking Christian! Fri - February 6, 2004 What is Vain Repitition?
Matthew 6 verses 6-8 But you, when you pray,
go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is
in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think
that they will be heard for their many words. (NKVJ)
What is vain repetition? What is wrong with
it?
First, we looked into the Old Testament: Psalm 141:1-2 - David prays: Make haste to me! Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You. Let my prayer be set before You as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Incense were usually associated with a sacrifice and prayer. The Revelation 5:8 - Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. The Revelation 8:3-4 - Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel's hand. To learn what it is that God is looking for, when he tells us to pray, but not use vain repititions, we also looked at Hosea 6:6, also - For what I desire is mercy, not sacrifices, knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Psalm 51 – especially verses 16-17 - You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Hosea 6:6 For what I desire is mercy, not sacrifices, knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Psalm 40:7-8 Then I said, "Here I am, I have come - it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart." It is not the repetition that is a problem, but the VAINness of our prayers. We may pray 'Lord, have mercy' every day, a thousand times, but if we don't DESIRE it, if we are just reciting words, we are better off not praying at all! A couple off things to think about: Is it vain repitition to pray a prayer once but never live it; to ask God to make our heart clean, but spend hours a day watching ‘Friends’ swap partners, and scantily clad women in music videos, etc? Sun - January 25, 2004 Types of Prayer
We are still studying prayer in GCF. This
weeks focus was on Private vs. Personal Prayer. Here are my notes:
What is the purpose of private
prayer?
To develop a personal relationship with God. Personal relationships involve sharing. Personal prayer is a time to open your heart to God and share all feelings, even negative ones, all desires and hurts and sins and joys. What about getting stuck when you go to pray in private? • Try using the Lord's Prayer as an outline. • Find a prayer that you can read and use as a guide, such as prayers from the Desert Fathers or early Christians • Write your prayer, perhaps in a prayer journal What is the purpose of public prayer: • Proclamation of faith? – but the only place in scripture where we are told to proclaim his death, burial and resurrection is during the Lord’s Supper. So prayer isn't about telling other people what we believe. • The early church (see Acts) came together to offer praise, worship, etc, as a body. Gary gave us Protestants a lesson from an ancient tradition: Two types of public prayer in the Orthodox Church: • Liturgy of Hours – Daily cycle of prayer, 8 times a day, formal public prayer (saint of the day, etc.) This is a sanctification of our time…all of it is God’s and we should give it back to him • Divine Liturgy – formal service on Sundays and Feast Days – the center of this is Lord’s Supper. Contrast those to private prayer – in public prayer, you pray from a ‘book of hours’ rather than ‘making up a prayer’ – you are praying something that you know you all agree on. When praying in public, does everyone within hearing agree with your prayer? Probably not, if the prayer is intrusive enough to annoy the people around you. Perhaps this can be a guideline when deciding if a prayer is appropriate in a place, or what type of prayer (loud and long or softly and short) is appropriate. Question: If I'm uncomfortable praying in public, what about the verse "Don't be ashamed of Christ?" Now, this verse isn't actually talking about prayer, but let's apply it to some degree, anyway. Does discomfort mean you are really ashamed of Christ? What is it that is uncomfortable? Could it be that you are simply uncomfortable because the place is inappropriate...perhaps respect for the people are you around is what is making you uncomfortable. One thing we talked about is that, in PUBLIC prayer, the focus is on what the people who are present agree on, the prayers they are lifting up together. If there are people present who are not praying, they have not agreed to the prayer. If the prayer is quiet and unobtrusive to them, this is not a problem. But if the prayer is loud and intrusive to what they are doing, say it is in a restaurant or the middle of a mall, this is not appropriate. Four types of prayer: Praise, thanksgiving, intercession, contrition (or humility & asking forgiveness.) |
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