Tuesday, October 30, 2012

10/30/12

Not so long ago we were all celebrating a great economy.  My, don’t times change?  Skyrocketing fuel prices have us carpooling, parking our gas-guzzlers and riding the bus.  We’d never heard of a ‘sub-prime mortgage crisis;’ now the equity in some of our homes has flat disappeared, or we are ‘upside down’ on our houses, or they are being auctioned off on the courthouse steps.  Tsunamis hit Japan and Hawaii.  Earthquakes hit Chile and California.  Tornadoes hit Alabama and Joplin, MO.  Wild fires rage in Colorado.  And today we are anxiously awaiting reports on Hurricane Sandy’s impact on the eastern seaboard.  It seems that our security blanket has been stripped away and our comfort zone has shrunk dramatically.

But there’s a groundswell.  If you listen you’ll hear it: “It’s time to seek God, to repent, to change the way we’re living.”  It’s an old message for a new generation.  II Chronicles 7:14, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”  You say, “The people around me aren’t saying that.”  Then you might want to examine the company you’re consistently keeping!  We don’t need a majority to turn things around.  God told Abraham that just 10 people with a heart for righteousness could save Sodom.  The question is, will you be one of them?

Pray with me… Our Creator and Lord, we come to you in humility, seeking your grace, praying for your mercy to fall on our people, many of whom are in rebellion against your law of love and liberty.  As we move ever closer to our national elections, now just days away, give us wisdom and discernment… to vote for what is right and true… to vote for Biblical values in this generation when many call the truth a lie. Give us hope in the midst of all the bad stuff that is happening around us.  We pray in the name of Jesus, amen.

Blessings,
Pastor Ken

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

10/23/12

When you get a card in the mail, what means the most to you?  Is it the beautiful poem written by a professional, or the little handwritten note scribbled by your family member or friend at the bottom?  For most of us it is the handwritten note, even though it may not be as articulate or eloquent.  We appreciate it more because it is personal and heartfelt.

Likewise, Jesus said, “When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.”   He taught that chanting the same words over and over was not a prayer that God would honor.  He taught that droning on and on has no merit.  He taught that when prayer is rote and ritualistic, it may be therapeutic for the person praying, but the God of heaven is not attentive.  Instead Jesus said, “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.  Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

As children, our prayers often consist of a memorized verse or series of verses… “Now I lay me down to sleep…” or “God is great, God is good.  Let us thank Him for our food…” But, as we mature, both in age and faith, our prayers should change.  They are not to be a memorized recitation, a fingering of beads, or even repeating the Lord’s Prayer without thinking about it.  Prayer should be an authentic expression of what is in our hearts and on our minds… a personal conversation with our Heavenly Father.

Pray with me… Dear Father, we want to be focused and thoughtful as mature children of God when we pray.  Forgive us when we revert to the practice of saying a prayer instead of truly praying.  In Jesus’ dear Name we pray, amen.

Blessings,
Pastor Ken

Monday, October 15, 2012

10/15/12

“9/11” is a day that will live in infamy.  That day 3,497 people died.  1609 people lost a spouse and 3051 children lost one or both parents.  That day is at least a scar, if not still an open festering wound, in the psyche of millions of Americans. You know don’t you, that on those airplanes and in those towers and at the Pentagon, there were desperate ‘9/11 prayers’ screamed and spoken and whispered as men and women and children realized they would not survive the ordeal?  For some of them, that prayer moment would have been like the peaceful words of Jesus from the cross, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”  For others, that prayer was likely more of a panicked exclamation of a dramatic reality they never expected they would have to face.

A man named Jonah prayed such a prayer of desperation.  He found himself being digested in the stomach of a great fish.  His fate of an unsavory death seemed certain.  We read about it in Jonah 2:1, “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.”  And, in this passage we can actually read the prayer Jonah offered up in his 9/11 hour.

And many have a prayer life that could well be identified by a sign saying, “Use only in case of emergency!”  Such prayers are offered in an hour of extremity, when there is no other viable alternative but to look to heaven and cry out for help.  In His mercy, God often answers, providing a temporary solution to an immediate problem.  But, the Lord wants us to enter another level of experience with him.  This is why Jesus said that when we pray, we should close ourselves off in a quiet place [Matthew 6:6].  Christ visualized a time of intimacy with the Father in which the objective of our prayer would be life transformation, the enjoyment of a relationship with Him.  In our best moments, this is the prayer life we want to cultivate, the prayer path we want to walk.



Pray with me… Our Father and God, once we have known the joy of your presence, the peace of your presence, the overpowering love we experience in your presence, we will never be able to settle for a ‘9/11’ prayer life again.  So, meet us at the point of our need as we pray and impress on us by the Holy Spirit the difference between religion and a relationship, formality and fellowship, duty and delight in the beauty of your presence.  In the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray, we pray… amen.

Blessings,
Pastor Ken

10/8/12

We are in a season of prayer at Crossroads, interceding for our nation and our national leaders for these 40 days leading up to the elections on Tuesday, November 6, 2012.  We are also going to experience prayer challenges in weekend worship for the next 4 weeks.  ‘Faithfulness in prayer’… ‘for your family,’ ‘for our church’ and ‘for the nation.’  In keeping with the spirit of this season in our ministry, today I want to reference a verse in Colossians 4:12, “Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings.  He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.”

We know very little about Epaphras.  To us he is one of thousands of anonymous heroes who played a part in the expansion of the church during the first century.  However, this verse gives us a glimpse into his character.  He was a man of prayer who understood that, even at a distance, he could affect lives through intercession and petition on their behalf.  According to Paul’s testimony, he carried out this prayer ministry with tremendous fervor and intensity, revealing a passion that is not often seen even among Christians.  With prayer we can touch lives in ways that are impossible through activity.  Many believe the real work of the ministry is attending meetings, teaching and counseling.  Richard Foster, in his book, Prayer, reminds us that, “If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it is within our power to give them, and this will lead us to prayer.  Intercession is a way of loving others.”

Pray with me… Our loving Father, give us more of a conscience, more of a heart and more personal discipline to pray purposefully, intentionally and intensely for our family, our church family as well as our national leaders.  In the name of Jesus, amen.

Blessings,
Pastor Ken







Monday, October 1, 2012

10/1/12

It hasn’t been too long ago [2008] that Focus on the Family surveyed Christian leadership couples with thriving marriages to find out some of the things they habitually do, as a couple, that builds their marriage.  If some of the following [in no particular order] habits are missing from your marriage, I encourage you to take the initiative to develop them:

-They schedule a regular time for undistracted [no I-phones, no TV, no I-pads] communication.

-They kiss hello and good-bye.

-They fight fair.  They don’t attack each other.  Rarely do they raise their voices or start sentences with “You never…” or “You always…”

-Their differences compliment.  For instance, the organized and detailed spouse balances the checkbook, while the night owl stays up until the last teenager is home.

-They pray together and look for ways to develop spiritual intimacy.

-They carve out time for regular dates and getaways.

-They encourage each other, concentrating on the positive, not the negative.

-They laugh together.

-They often say, “Please forgive me” and “l love you.”

Now, most reading this will say, “I’ve heard that. I knew that!”  But what we know is never the issue is it?  It is much more important to say, “I do that!”

James 1:22, “ Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.”

Pray with me… Father, thank you for your wisdom that is so easy for us to tap into as we read and meditate on your Word each day.  And thank you too for your wisdom that is not necessarily revealed in a book, chapter and verse in your Word, but is available to us if we ask you in faith, nothing doubting.  Thank you for the way prayer and intimacy with you make us wise for salvation and models of wisdom for those who are watching us, those close to us we are teaching by example.  In the name of Jesus, amen.

Blessings,
Pastor Ken