In most every commentary you read regarding the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee the fisherman, they beat up on both her and her sons to a certain degree. There's more emphasis on the presumption of both mother and sons in their request. So much so that what gets missed, run over if you will, is her love of Jesus, quick submission in worship of Him, and most assuredly her willingness to pray big.
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No this isn't a Nike commercial. But it does have something to do with the race we run. There was an interesting parable recorded in Luke 18 about the widow who constantly badgered the unjust judge for what she needed. The parallel was obvious, but most readers of that story probably don't notice the brief comment Jesus made at the end of that parable. It easily could have been an instinctive knee-jerk reaction, spoken out loud.
"...when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?" The parable was primarily about how much our Father in heaven loves us and will care for us. But Jesus' afterthought belies something more subtly intertwined. Our persistent and consistent conversation (prayer) with our Best Friend on Whom we totally depend and lean on (faith). When He comes, let's be sure we're still engaging in conversation and depending on Him. .....I don't think so. But had you been a pharisee back in the Old Testament era, particularly in Jesus' day, that's just about the burden you'd face. The law by the time of Christ had developed into an enormous oral law, every particular detail having been hammered out. Eventually, by the 3rd century A.D. those details were put down in writing and are known today as the Mishnah and the Talmud.
So what's the point? Today we look into 1st Timothy to see what Paul had to say, and understanding his background helps us understand the incredible freedom and access we have to our Living Lord through prayer. Let's listen. We gave our hearts to Jesus, got involved with a local church, did and do all the things we believe we're supposed to do. And yet as time passes and the complications of life mount, we wake up one day and wonder why we're not feeling and experiencing God's love. Thank our Living Lord He gave us Paul who, more than any other writer of the New Testament, talked about God's love and how we can experience it.
In order to defeat the enemy in war, a critical and most basic strategy is establishing a beachhead. From there you're able to set up base and begin advancing, taking new territory.
When we "gave our hearts", as we say, to Jesus, the reality is that the Holy Spirit actually regenerated our dead spirits. The beachhead was taken. But how do we advance? Let's go deeper. There are a number of dynamics of Jesus' prayer to His Father in John 17. We find that He is completely clear on the fact that He existed with the Father before anything in existence was created. By default Jesus is God, as He acknowledges that the Father shared His glory with Jesus, something that the Father shares with no man. Last week Nancy talked about Jesus' request that the Father now glorify Him and what that meant. But the end game of His prayer, and the reason He arrived on this planet, is to save us. He prayed for our salvation and our protection all the way through our individual lives right into His presence. That is the end game, the ultimate end game; life forever and ever with the One Who created us. The extra bonus is the peace that we can have regardless of our circumstances while we're still on our journey home. This week we continue in John 17.
This week was a tough one for picking a “headline”. That’s because there’s quite a bit packed into this short half hour message. I extracted this one right from the middle of Nancy’s message.
Yes, we’re still on the topic of prayer, in fact the Lord’s prayer; not The Lord’s Prayer, but Jesus’ prayer for His disciples, and us, found in John 17. I'm sure you’ll get the connection to the message’s title as you listen along. This message is about prayer? Yep. The Lord's prayer, the Our Father, depending on your background. We've become so accustomed to it. I think we need to take a second look.
You can either sharpen your pencil and prepare to take notes or simply listen to this message several times. Your choice. We're still on the topic of prayer, without which everything else doesn't amount to much. Please, let's get this right.
We usually say "burden", but there are times when our circumstances really do feel like absolute war. We go to the Lord, we examine ourselves, we ask the Spirit to examine us and make evident if there's anything standing in our way of Him. Is that what's causing this incredible difficulty? Not always. This week as we continue our journey to grow in our conversational life with the Lord...prayer. We're looking at Hannah in 1st Samuel 1.
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