Via: Today I Learned Something New
How far would you go for your beliefs?
“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.”
— Jesus (Matthew 16:24 [NLT])
My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
— Paul (Galatians 2:20 [NLT])
Karen and I pray before our meals.
I guess I grew up doing this, so we do it as well.
Pausing to give thanks for God’s provision is a good thing and meals seem to be an appropriate time – you know, “the bounty” and all.
We also typically pray before our meal when we are at a restaurant.*
I don’t think there is a specific command in the Bible about praying before a meal, though we read about Jesus praying before several. [I did find an interesting article over at the Stuff Christian’s Like blog that provides some “insight.”]
Anyway…
Today, I was reading in Matthew and read this:
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But 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.”
Matthew 6:5, 6 (NIV)
At lunch, I thought about these verses:
“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.”
Matthew 10:32, 33 (NIV)
I guess I never thought about our “restaurant” meal prayer in the context of Matthew 6: the thought that it might fit with what Jesus described.
As the same time, I don’t think not praying for a meal is a form of denying Him as Matthew 10 describes.
Over to you:
*Funny story:
We were at Disneyland years ago with some friends and had just sat down to eat dinner. We were at the Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante in Frontierland and purposely sat near the wall so we could watch people as we ate.
After everyone was settled, we bowed to pray for the food. As my friend prayed, I opened my eyes and glanced up – just in time to see a kid reaching to take one of my nachos!
Everyone was still praying, but I made eye contact with him and quietly said, “Dude, not cool.”
He and his friends made a beeline – “running like the wind!” – never to be seen again.
My friend said Amen, I shared the story, and we all cracked up!
Ever read the Bible with an MS Excel or mathematical mindset?
I read these familiar passages today:
=IF(my_people=”humility+prayer+seek_Me+repentance”, hear_forgive_heal, uproot_reject_scorn)
=IF(me=”(take_yoke+learn_from)God”, rested_soul, distress)
=IF(me=”serve_money”, 0, serve_God)
Sometimes being a nerd can be fun…
…though looking at them this way doesn’t make them any easier to live!
Several weeks ago, I shared Matt Redman’s song “Endless Hallelujah” during the offering time at church. The song has quickly become one of my favorites from his new 10,000 Reasons album [iTunes].
One thing that gets me each time I listen to the song is the phrase:
“Ev’rything as it was meant to be“
In the context of the song, it’s:
When I stand before Your throne
Dressed in glory not my own
What a joy I’ll sing of on that day
No more tears of broken dreams
Forgotten in the minor key
Ev’rything as it was meant to be
The thing that challenges me in regard to that phrase is the frequent difference between how I feel or expect “things to be” and how God would have them – in His position as Sovereign Lord in my life.
Quite often, miles and miles separate the two…
…and my version of my “story” is without adversity or challenge.
With certainty, God has promised a life with, as the song’s chorus declares,
No more tears, No more shame
No more sin and sorrow Ever known again
No more fears, No more pain
We may enjoy a foretaste of that on earth, but the reality of a life like that – life “as it was meant to be” – will only come in heaven.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
— Revelation 21:3-4 (NIV)
Maranatha!
A year ago, my dad and his wife died in a car accident. Then and now: it hurts.
A person I’d loved my entire lifetime and another I’d only known less than a year were tragically gone…
I’ve been and still am: angry, confused, bitter, regretful, sorrowful, apathetic, depressed, broken, … many things.
I’ve grappled with the knowledge that others have lost loved ones as well, often thinking to myself, “who am I to think that I am any different.”
I’ve asked “why?” too many times to count, knowing that I’ll never know the answer to that question this side of heaven – for we read:
“Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”
I Corinthians 13:12 (NLT)
I believe clarity will come…
…and yet, at the very moment it does, it probably won’t matter.
For, as the song Soon expresses:
I will be with One I love.
With unveiled face I’ll see Him.
There my soul will be satisfied.
Soon and very soon
Maranatha!
I find this funny, sad, and frustrating at the same time…and am thankful that we are not doing any of these songs tomorrow.
[YouTube link]
my wife gets credit for finding this one.
“I run in the path of Your commands,
for You have broadened my understanding.”
Psalm 119:32 (NIV)
Funny how we sometimes read the words, but comprehend them differently:
“I sit comfortably and complacently alongside the path of Your commands,
satisfied with my limited understanding of You, Your ways, and Your purpose for me.”
Psalm 119:32 (HP*)
[or, maybe I’m alone in this observation…]
*”Hearer’s” Paraphrase
“Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart. My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end.”
Psalm 119:111, 112 (NIV)
may this be true in me, o Lord…
Whenever I prune our roses, lessons abound. It’s a given.
Yesterday, I was working in the backyard on a gangly bush and saw the limb shown above. I thought, “If I grab it just right, I won’t get stuck.”
Guess what – I wasn’t ninja enough…
It hit me: temptation, or the attraction of sin can be exactly the same. We see/think/do something obviously wrong, and think, “It’s OK, I’m a ‘ninja’ – I won’t get stuck/caught/discovered/etc. No one will ever see/hear/spot me.”
The truth is, we’re wrong. We all get stuck, caught, discovered, seen, heard, spotted, etc.
We may be able to fool some in our sinful, game of thorns (like my creative reference to the book & HBO series); but rest assured, God knows – which is key since He’s the One we most offend by our blatant, would-be ninja sins.
Thank God for His amazing and wonderful forgiveness and grace!
For there is no distinction: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
Romans 3:22-25 (ESV)
DENNARR(dot)COM 