Another issue on which I think we can say that God stands firm is slavery. There seems to be no case in which slavery is acceptable. Holding a person against their will goes against the dignity of the human person who is made in the image and likeness of God. It goes against "love your neighbor as yourself." By its very definition it goes against free will. No doubt we should consider the issue of Paul's writings about slavery. He speaks of slavery in various ways. Paul likes to contrast being slaves to God with slaves to sin. In Colossians 4 he urges slave owners to be fair to their slaves. Slave masters were to treat their slaves as God, the Supreme Master, would treat the owners. It is true, he does not condemn slavery outright, but he does expect slave owners to treat their slaves with respect and to set them free when possible (see Philemon). In Galatians 3:11 he declares that in the Kingdom there is no slave or free. Since we are trying to bring the Kingdom of God on earth, is this not the attitude we should take toward slavery? Today, modern societies have recognized that all forms of slavery are wrong whether it is the slavery of domestic workers, field hands, soldiers, or sex workers. So let us stand with God against slavery, against abusing people, against seeing others as inferior to ourselves. For Reflection: Is there any way in which I have treated another person as a slave? Have I withheld wages? Have I coerced someone to do what I wanted? Have I failed to grant another freedom when I could have? Have I considered someone to be my inferior? Let us pray. Jesus, I repent of all the ways in which I have participated in slavery and I ask you to forgive me. I stand with you now against slavery in all of its forms throughout the world. I stand with you in declaring an end to slavery. I want to be part of bringing your light to the darkness of this issue. Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
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Often in my prayers I have pictured God standing with me on a certain issue that I am praying about. But I began to think the other day, what if we were to stand with God on God's issues, rather than asking him to stand with us on ours. If we were to take this approach, what issues do we know that God absolutely stands for? If you have read this blog for very long, you know that I believe that God absolutely stands for healing people. I say this because Jesus healed everyone who asked him, and many who didn't ask. It is not recorded in Scripture that Jesus said, "No, I am sorry, but I'm not going to heal you." Nor does he say, "Today is not your day for healing, maybe tomorrow." Jesus did not turn people away when it came to healing. So I think we can reasonably say that God stands for healing people no matter what kind of sickness they suffer (Luke 4:16-21). We can reasonably know God's will on this issue: He wants to heal people. Why then are not all people healed when we ask God for healing? I suppose we won't know until we get to the Kingdom what stood in the way of a particular healing, but we can be sure the fault lies with us, not with God. And when God explains to us why the healing did not occur, we'll probably smack ourselves on the forehead and say, "Why didn't I see that?" For Reflection: Can we, do we, stand with God on this issue of healing? What does it look like to stand with God? How does it feel to stand united with God on an issue? Let us pray. Jesus, I stand with you on the issue of healing. I stand with you on healing (fill in the name of the person). I believe that you want this healing to occur. If there is anything I can do to bring about this healing more quickly, please let me know what it is. I am standing with you for this healing. The bride in Scripture is vividly portrayed. There are many references to God's people as his bride and God providing a wedding garment both in the Old Testament and the New. In Isaiah 61 we have, "He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." And in 62 we have, "As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you." Psalm 132 tells us, "I will clothe her priests with salvation . . . I will clothe his enemies with shame, but the crown on his head will be resplendent." In Matthew 22 we have the parable of the wedding feast where we learn that guests were provided garments to wear to the feast. It was an intolerable insult for someone not to wear the garment provided. So when Jesus attends a wedding at Cana (John 2), we can't help but wonder what he wore. These images of brides and weddings continue in the book of Revelation. Chapter 19 has, "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready, fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. . . . Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb." Chapter 21 describes the New Jerusalem as the bride, the wife of the Lamb (21:9), adorned lavishly with jewels. This is not to say that a city, mere buildings, are the bride, but that the members of the Kingdom of God are those who have deserved to become the bride of Christ. Why should we care about these images of brides, bridegrooms and wedding feasts? It is often helpful to see ourselves as God see us. If we are followers of Christ, disciples of Christ, intent on being part of the Kingdom, then wouldn't it be nice to see ourselves in the wedding garment we are being given? Several people have reported to me that, in prayer, they have seen their wedding garment. They don't all look the same. They are not all white, but they are all beautiful and uniquely suited to the wearer. For Reflection: Do I know how God sees me? Have I ever asked God to let me see my wedding garment? Let us pray. Jesus, I do want to know how you see me. I want a garment of salvation, a robe of righteousness and jewels befitting your spouse. Thanks to God for family, friends and prayer partners on this Thanksgiving Day. Happy Thanksgiving to all those in the U.S. who have written in or called for prayer. I will be posting more praise reports soon. Today I received an email from a pastor in a muslim country who is speaking to 200 other pastors this week about healing, miracles and deliverance. He is asking for prayer for safe travels. Please join me in this prayer request if you would. Let us rejoice with Psalm 134: Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who minster by night in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord. May the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion. In reading Mark 10:35-45 today, I began to wonder, and, frankly, speculate about who really is sitting at Jesus' right hand. In that story, the brothers James and John asked Jesus if they could sit at his right hand. What they wanted, of course, was earthly power because they thought Jesus was going to establish an earthly kingdom. Jesus doesn't tell them that they are wrong about the kingdom, but that they are wrong about the role of power. However, I got off on speculating about who sits with Jesus. My first thought was that it might be Mary and Joseph, two important people in Jesus' life. Then I thought about the Transfiguration and reasoned that maybe it was Moses or Elijah. I even considered Judas as an example of what a forgiving Father God is. In the text, though, Jesus seems to imply that whoever it is will be someone who is a martyr. Perhaps Peter? Could it be a rotating position with all the saints getting a turn? I don't know. Who would you nominate for sitting next to Jesus? Another aspect of the ear and eye gates is the imagination. What we hear and/or see can lead us into imagined conversations, interactions or even imagined relationships that are unholy. They can lead us into gossip, judging other people and misjudging ourselves. The fascination that so much of society has with celebrities' lives, their clothing and housing may lead into a fantasy life and to dissatisfaction with our own life, spouse, children, or home. We may find ourselves following certain famous people on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. If nothing else, we have wasted that time on social media which we could have spent with loved ones, reading a good book, exercising or praying. For Reflection: God gave us our bodies, our hearing, our eyesight to use for his glory. Have I neglected my family or my prayer time, yet found time to spend on TV or social media? Have I developed an improper fantasy life with a celebrity? Do I find my real life to be lacking and humdrum when compared with my imagination or the lives of others? Has this led me to depression and dissatisfaction with what God has given me? Let us pray. Father, I don't need to be rich or famous. I appreciate all that you have given me in the way of family and home. I don't need to store up riches. I don't need the latest electronics, the most expensive car and homes around the world. I don't want to seek after a fantasy life. I want to seek after you and after your kingdom and trust that you will provide for my needs (Luke 12:14-31). I repent of all the time and imagination I have wasted and I ask you to forgive me. Another gate into our lives is our eyes (for context see the previous two posts). This gate may be even more under attack than our ears. Images abound in our society. From TV, to YouTube, to movies, to billboards, to Facebook and Instagram, to everything and everyone we see in a day or a night, our eyes are constantly bombarded with pictures good and bad. Are not most of the reality TV shows nothing more than voyeurism? Once seen, an image cannot be unseen, so we need to guard this opening into our lives very carefully. For Reflection: We can train ourselves to avert our eyes and even avoid the temptation altogether. If we think a TV show or movie is going to be excessively violent or sexually suggestive, we can avoid it. TV and movies now warn of sexual and violent content. Do we pay attention to the ratings or disregard them? Now that pornography is readily available over the internet, have we succumbed to watching it? When did voyeurism become acceptable in our lives? Have we been flooding our eye gate with harmful images? Let us pray. Jesus, first I repent for looking at images I should not have. I ask you to forgive me for not being more careful with the eyes that you entrusted to me. Second, I ask you to remove from my memory the images that don't belong there, that tear people down, that tear me down, rather than lifting people up. I ask you to remove all images that don't give glory to you in some way. Help me to close my eyes to people and things around me that are not good for me to see and to concentrate on those images that are uplifting. Help me to see all people as you made them to be, in your image. The wall around Jerusalem had 12 gates. Although the number 12 may remind us of the 12 tribes of Israel, it was also a fact that Jerusalem was a hub of travel and commerce. Many roads converged at Jerusalem, so a number of gates were necessary. Walls were thickest around the gate areas because those would be the logical places of attack. Walls were built of stone while gates were constructed of wood. More watchmen were placed above and to the side of gates for extra vigilance and protection. We've spoken before of the need for "walls" for our own lives (see the discussion on Ephesians 6 in July 2014), but our entire life, our entire being cannot be a wall. We must also have gates, and those gates will have to be guarded. So what gates do we have? Obviously we have ears, eyes and a mouth as openings in our own lives. We must be careful what we listen to with our ears. Who and what are we letting into our mind through our ears? Are we listening to gossip? Perhaps we've gotten used to hearing foul language from friends or in movies. We might have developed a taste for music with racist or sexist lyrics. Whatever the source, the ear gate, if not guarded constantly, can allow in many things which pollute our mind and spirit. If we listen to enough of these expressions they become a part of us and a part of our thinking. Before long we begin saying them aloud ourselves. For Reflection: Let us examine our listening habits. Have we become immune to foul or crude language so much so that we don't even notice it when we hear it? Have we listened to gossip at work or at church? Do we spend more time putting people down than building them up. Do we need to clean out our ears and close up the gates? Let us pray. Father, I ask you to help me clean out my ears and hear anew the language around me. Help me to identify and remove from my life language that is harmful to me. Give me a greater love of reading and listening to your words. Over the last week or so, I've been reading the book of Nehemiah. Yes, it is ancient history and has long lists of who and how many did what. But I've been intrigued by the necessity of building a wall of protection around the city. The setting is Jerusalem during the time of the exiles returning from Babylon in the mid-400s B.C. (The Babylonians had completely flattened the city while taking all but a few of the Israelites captive.) Ezra, the priest, has been leading the returnees in rebuilding the Temple and restoring worship. People also had to start their lives over. Housing, farms and flocks had to be re-established. In the middle of all this, Nehemiah, a wine steward to the Persian king (the Persians had conquered the Babylonians), asked to be allowed to return to Jerusalem to help rebuild the city. He even gets supplies, particularly timber, to erect a new city wall. Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem, rallies the people and builds a new city wall, gates included, in only 52 days. Even their enemies recognize that such a feat is only possible with God's assistance. This story got me thinking about walls and what wall of protection we might need in our own lives as Christians. Do we need such a wall of protection? If so, do we have one? If not, how do we get one? Stay tuned. We'll have more on this in the coming days. There is a famous line from the movie Cool Hand Luke. The prison warden is speaking to the prisoner, Luke, trying to teach him that resistance will only get him in trouble. The warden recognizes that Luke is obviously going to be a stubborn prisoner who refuses to give up, and says to him, "What we've got here is failure to communicate." In some ways it seems to me that is where we are in the United States between various groups. We could cite Democrats and Republicans, pro-life and pro-choice, in favor of gay marriage and against gay marriage, pro- and anti-Confederate flag wavers, climate changers and deniers, and even Texans vs. the U.S. military. The issues are many and complicated. We not only don't communicate well, we also don't believe the other side has good intentions or is telling the truth. So it is not just a failure to communicate but a failure to trust. It is a sad state to be in because open, honest, and trusting dialog is important in society. However, it is not a new problem in the U.S. or elsewhere. If it were we would never have had all the wars we have had. Paul had a bit of the same problem in Corinth. He recognized that people didn't always understand him even though he made the effort to speak clearly. In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 he explains that he didn't speak to them with great eloquence or wisdom, but he came in the power of the Spirit so that the truth of his message did not rest on his powers of persuasion but on the power of God. Spiritual truths need to be expressed with the power of the Spirit and with spiritual words. Otherwise, "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor 2:14). Perhaps what we need now in public discourse is a prophet who can speak the truths of God with the power of the Spirit so that the world can understand. Let us pray. Come, Lord Jesus, send out your Spirit. Renew the face of the earth. Send prophets today like the prophets of old. But let us not have hardened hearts and closed minds. Help us to hear your truth and walk in it. |
AliceI started this website and blog on May 1, 2012. I am a Catholic who has been in ministry for many years. I first developed what I would call a close relationship with Jesus in the early 1970s. Ever since then I have been praying with people for healing and other needs. It is because I have seen so many of these prayers answered that I am so bold as to offer to pray for you individually through this website and phone line. Archives
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