How To Pray: What To Say To God

How To Pray - Review:
Week 1 - How Prayer Works
Prayer is collaboration between God and you – alignment of your will and desires with what God knows and is doing in the world.

Week 2 - Why We Pray
We pray to express concern, worry, fears, anxieties, terrors, tensions, problems; to join God in doing what is best for us and the world

Week 3 - What To Pray For
What are you willing to help answer? What will be a win-win-win for everyone involved? What have you learned about what Jesus values? What’s my motive for this prayer?

This Week - What To Say To God
***********

WHAT TO SAY TO GOD?

With your mouth. With your mind. With your tears.
With your attitude. With your actions. With your choices.

If we think of praying as only asking God for stuff, then we'll limit what we can say to God. But if we consider prayer as a form of communication, we open ourselves up to a wide range of opportunities. Think of all the ways you can communicate with the people around you.

Same with God. You can communicate with God through your mouth, of course - but also with your mind, he knows your thoughts. God sees your tears, which is a form of communication, and if you want, a kind of prayer. And so it is with your attitude, your actions, and your choices.

How's that saying go? Actions speak louder than words? Consider what that means for your praying.


So when you go to pray, what can you say to God? You can say anything you want to God.
Psalm 54:2 
Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth.

Here the Psalm-writer is desiring God to listen - whatever is said, he wants it heard. And so we can have confidence that God always hears everything we utter. We don't have to worry about how we start our prayers, end them, or how we express our thoughts or wants to him - God is less interested in the form and pays much more attention to our character and the content of our communication.


If you want God to hear what you say, consider your position before God – does he see you as righteous or wicked?
Proverbs 15:29 
The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

Who you are matters much more to God than what you say or do, or even what you are going through. You were created in the image of God. Humanity is the crown of creation. And more than anything, God wants righteousness to prevail on earth through you. This is what Jesus is getting at when he teaches us to pray: "Your kingdom come, your will be done."

So if you are thinking wicked thoughts, planning wicked deeds, guilty of wicked behavior - unrepentant, or apathetic, or defiant, or whatever, then don't think that God wants to hear what you have to say. If you care nothing for what God wants, there is no "right" way to say your prayer.

But, if you seek to do the right thing in God's eyes and your neighbors eyes, if you work for justice and mercy, if you care for the poor, if you forgive those who sin against you - all the things that Jesus qualifies as righteous, then you can say what you want to God with confidence.


Say “Thanks God…” and then say, “Help, God…”
Daniel 6:11 Three times a day [Daniel] got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Then these men…found Daniel praying and asking God for help.

There are two basic kinds of prayers when it comes to saying something to God. By noticing what God has done in us, for us, through us, around us - it should prompt words and actions, attitudes and choices that reflect thankfulness. Praising God for his accomplishments is an appropriate response of gratitude.

Of course God wants us to come to him for help. He's the most capable Being in the Universe! There is no wrong or right way to ask for help. Again, it's the attitude and posture behind the help - the motive. Keep it simple when it comes to what you say to God - especially when it comes to asking for help.

The length of the prayer, the urgency of the prayer, the posture while you pray does nothing to increase the likelihood of getting the prayer answered, though. Who you are effects the answer to your prayer much more then what you say. Even more, what God wants in the world to happen is way more important a factor then you using the correct words when you pray.

So, relax when you pray - don't worry about getting the words right! Don't fret about what to say to God! Just say it.


Say, “God, I don’t know what to pray for…”
Romans 8:26 
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

Sometimes you don't know what to say to God. The attitude of gratitude is so rich in your heart, words are inadequate to express what is within. That's okay - a smile goes a long way with God! And sometimes the pain and suffering in life leaves you speechless. Your rage, your disappointment, your confusion make it almost impossible to formulate a request. Or maybe, in light of how complicated life can get, you just don't know what to ask for.

What a relief it is to know that God's Spirit, which dwells within those that trust Him, knows what we need, knows what we ought to pray for - and offers up the prayers to the Father and Son in Heaven on our behalf. This goes to show you how much God wants to be in relationship with us, to be in communication with us, to have us join him in the work he is doing in the world.


A few final words on what to say to God:
The art of conversation…
Prayer may begin as simple exchanges of "thanks" and "help" - but what we want to develop is an ongoing, unending conversation with God. As we move through life, as we come to understand that God is always with us - well he's always ready to communicate with us about whatever we are experiencing. Sometimes he initiates the conversation, sometimes we do. But at some point we'll realize that our exchange with God has never really stopped - it just picks back up where it left off. Like a good friend.

Conversation implies listening - and this is the oft overlooked part of prayers. By focusing on prayers as requests, you cut off the desire to listen. You just want miraculous results from God. But God wants relationship with you, and he wants his will done on Earth. So conversation and communication, listening to and looking for Him are part of our prayers, shaping what we say.

If you ask me how to have a conversation with God, it'd be like you asking how to have a conversation with your parents, or friends, or other adults. Learning how to pray may be part of you learning how to have a conversation with somebody that isn't rooted in complaining, trashing somebody, talking about yourself, or gossip.

Learning what to say to God may enrich your ability to have constructive communication with others.


Prayer as a speech/letter/journal entry to God
Writing out your prayers has a long and rich tradition. It takes longer to communicate through writing then it does speaking - and sometimes this slowed-down process is good for our minds and hearts. An advantage of writing out your prayers is that then you can review them at a later date.

By putting down on paper what you want to say to God, or what you think you are hearing from God, can add clarity to your mind. People have learned that sometimes what is swirling around in their head gets sorted out when written down. So it goes with our concerns, questions, fears, and prayers.

What to say to God in a letter? I always start my written prayers with: "Dear Father..." and then I just write and write and write. Try it.


Prayer as a song/psalm/poem to God
So many of the prayers in the Scriptures are communicated as a song, as a psalm, as a poem. It's a sophisticated, rich, thoughtful, beautiful way to express yourself to God. For the artist in you, this may be a great way to experiment with how you pray. To fashion what you say to God says as much about what you say as why you say it. Again, it matters less what you say, and more about why you say it.


In conclusion:
There is much more to learn about praying. And you only learn by doing it. Relax when you pray. Do not be afraid of saying it "wrong." If there is any fear in you while you pray, you are sabotaging your prayers! Again and again Jesus says to us: Do not be afraid! When you pray, whatever you say, do it with confidence.

Prayer requires belief: you must believe that God wants to hear your thanks and cry for help. You must believe that he wants to be in a relationship with you, that he wants to communicate with you, that he wants the conversation to pick up again and again and again. That he wants to hear what you have to say. Trust him in this.

Just start talking. Start reflecting with him about your life and everyday situation. Faith as small as a mustard seed is enough to get your prayers launched up to a God who is a close as the next breath.


When the disciples asked Jesus what to say to God, here's what he gave them:

Lord, Teach Us To Pray:
"Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.

Like this:
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what's best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You're in charge! You can do anything you want!
You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.

"In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part."

BASED ON THIS TEACHING OF JESUS ON WHAT TO SAY TO GOD, WHAT CONCLUSIONS COULD YOU DRAW?

*

*

*

*

*

What else do you want to know about how to pray?

How To Pray: What To Pray For

How To Pray: Review:
Week 1 - How Prayer Works
Prayer is collaboration between God and you – alignment of your will and desires with what God knows and is doing in the world.

Week 2 - Why We Pray
We pray to express concern, worry, fears, anxieties, terrors, tensions, problems; to join God in doing what is best for us and the world

This Week - What To Pray For

Week 4 - What to say to God
**********

WHAT TO PRAY FOR

Or: What to listen for
Or: What to thank for
Or: What to bless
Or: What to communicate about
Or: What to discuss
Or: What to argue with
Or: What to see
Or: What to want
Or: What to ask for…yourself or others

We have to move beyond thinking of prayer as asking God for stuff. Prayer is not synonymous with requests, petitions, begging, pleading, or desiring. Prayer is mostly synonymous with communication, with conversation, with meditation, with contemplation.

If you only want to know how to pray so that you know what to pray for in order to get what you want, then there is nothing more to know about prayer.

But if you want to know how to pray, if you want to know what to pray for so that what is best, what God wants, prevails in your life, the lives of those around you, and in the world - well then there is much to learn, much that is possible.

In light of this refreshing understanding of prayer, here are some suggestions on what to pray for:

for God to be trusted as Father
for God to be seen for who he is (truth prevailing)
for God to set the world right, to do what is best for everyone
for God to give us just enough food for the day
for God to keep us forgiven with himself and forgiving others
for God to keep us safe from ourselves and evil
for God to be celebrated and honored for his work in the world
for God to be praised and enjoyed for his beauty in the world

When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, he taught them what we call The Lord's Prayer. The above listing is a reflection on what to pray for based on what Jesus taught his disciples. Consider how Jesus' teaching on prayer gives shape and direction to what to pray for. It moves beyond a laundry list of requests and wishes, it moves to something more substantive, more God-centered, more humanity-centered, and less self-centered.


What to pray for? The desire to ask God for help is primal. We often equate praying to requesting God for stuff, whether out of habit, desperation, or prompts by the Spirit. So if we are going to ask God to intervene, give us an answer, solve a problem, what kind of thinking should influence what to pray for?

Here are four questions to ask as you ask God for help, what to pray for when you pray:
What are you willing to help answer?
Stop praying for miracles. Stop praying for ballistic missile solutions (have God solve your problems from a distance at your behest without anyone getting their hands any dirtier.) If you want God to help answer your prayers, you need to pray in such a way that you are willing to get involved in helping answer your own prayer.

God is most times more interested in what he can accomplish in your character during hard times then getting you out of hot water. When we want God to intervene, he wants to do something with us more than just give us what we want.


What will be a win-win-win for everyone involved?
To often our prayers are mostly about our own life, feelings, perspective, and values. Even when we pray for others, it is often rooted in what we want for them. When we want God to do something for us, we'd be wise to contemplate how his work would benefit not only us, and others, but also Him.

We need to think community when we pray - what are the spillover effects if God actually answers this prayer? How much is this prayer about me, and how much is this about others?


What have you learned about what Jesus values?
As Christians, we follow the way of Christ. As disciples of Jesus, we study his teachings so that we may live by them. When it comes to prayer, how do we incorporate what Jesus taught about life and prayer?

If, as Christians, we don't live as Jesus instructs, and we don't pray in the way he taught, if we don't incorporate his values into our heart, then we may not ever really know what to pray for, or how to get what we want.


What’s my motive for this prayer? Pleasure and Convenience?
Motive is everything. How many prayers, if we are honest, are more about our desire for pleasure and convenience? Instead of our prayers fueled by love for others, we pray for the pain to go away because we just want everybody to be happy. Especially us.

But God doesn't really have an interest in making our life more convenient. If he does ever make life more convenient, you can bet it is for much bigger reasons then just for the sake of convenience. Our desire for our pleasure and convenience often blind us to the deeper realities going on within us and others, and the world around us.

What's your motive? Does your motive reflect the values of Jesus? Does your motive include a win-win-win attitude? Does your motive for praying involve a willingness to help answer your own prayer?


Here's what Jesus taught when the disciples requested of Jesus...

Lord, Teach Us To Pray:"Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply.

Like this:
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what's best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You're in charge! You can do anything you want!
You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.

"In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part."

BASED ON THIS TEACHING OF JESUS ON WHAT TO PRAY FOR, WHAT CONCLUSIONS COULD YOU DRAW?

*

*

*

*

*

What else do you want to know about how to pray?

He Learned Trusting-Obedience

Hebrews 5

Who was Jesus? It seems that Jesus had several key identities. His title of Christ was a challenge to Caesar.  It is the Greek word for Messiah, which means "anointed one" in the Hebrew language. An "anointed one" referred to either a prophet, priest, or king. As Messiah to the Hebrew people, Jesus came as all three.

In this letter to the Hebrews, the author is connecting the dots between Jesus the Messiah and Israel's True High Priest. Jesus was the ideal High Priest for the people of Israel. He was compassionate with sinners. He was set apart by God, he didn't seek the position out for himself. Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow before God as he offered up his priestly prayers on behalf of the people. What a gift this kind of High Priest would be to the masses. 

I imagine that this kind of generous and kind behavior from Jesus would have irritated and enraged the reigning and former High Priests of Israel. They had been politically appointed, had amassed great power and wealth, and sought to stabilize Israel's future with Rome. And then Jesus comes along, anointed as a High Priest of Israel, mediating between God and the people with beautiful results. No wonder they wanted to kill him!

What's interesting is that the one writing this letter to the Hebrews makes a point to remind us that Jesus had to learn "trusting-obedience by what he suffered, just as we do." We are often closest to Jesus when we suffer. Though we might even be suffering because of our own sins, even that has been fueled by those that have sinned against us - and it is there that we suffer like Jesus. And it is there, like Jesus, that we can learn trusting-obedience in God.

Jesus lived out a picture of what a True High Priest of Israel out to be. As this gracious High Priest, full of lovingkindness, Jesus laid down his life as if he were the unblemished lamb on the Day of Atonement. He's the High Priest that laid down his own life for the people of Israel. He's also the High Priest that becomes the scape-goat that wanders into the wilderness bearing on his backs all the sins of the people, carrying them away to be remembered no more.

Jesus is the Holy High Priest of Israel, through whom the world can be rescued from their sins as well. Anyone who believingly obeys Jesus, following his example, keeping his instructions, trusting his way, will find eternal salvation. Salvation from our sins that begins in this life and continues into the next. 

A salvation that changes us into priests for God like Jesus in our world - ones who mediate between YHWH and the people in our life. We treat sinners graciously, we learn trusting-obedience through our suffering when sinned against, we weep as we pray on behalf of the people in our life.

Jesus learned trusting-obedience, and so should we until our last breath, until "It is finished."

God Has Given The Skill

Exodus 36-40

God has given men the skill to create the works of art he has given them. Put another way, God has given men and women the wisdom to keep his commands. Or: God has given humanity the capacity to participate in the flourishing of the Earth. 

Israel is discovering their identity at Mt. Sinai. God has given them a second round of Ten Words (or Commandments), plus a lot more words and commands to live by. Keeping these commands will lead to them becoming a unique nation in the Ancient Near East. If everything goes according to plan, unique so that they can be a blessing. 

At Mt. Sinai they get detailed instructions on how to worship YHWH. Of course they would, how would they know to honor and praise him, they've been steeped in Egyptian idolatry for hundreds of years. They also were given detailed instructions on how to craft the objects to be used in this worship. We read these details with glazed over eyes. But if we read between the lines, what will we see?

God has given the detailed instructions on what he wants, and then he gives the skill to people to do it.

Think about that.

God is creating a new people, giving them a new way to worship him, to become a blessing to their neighboring tribes, to become a nation of their own having been delivered from an impressive and oppressive empire. And to do this, he not only gives them his presence - as cloud and fire - but words to follow, and then skills to accomplish it. That is good news for Israel. And us.

Alas, the rebellious instincts that lurk deep within us are powerful enough to derail us from the details God lovingly spells out for us. When Israel kept the commands, when the craftsmen hammered out the objects of worship, when the people participated in the worship of a holy God, they were blessed. But when they rebelled, grumbled, turned to idols, and rejected Moses, they became cursed. Despite all God did for them.

When we look around our community, our neighbors, our home, our church - God has details for us on how to get involved and join him in on the work he is doing. And the giving of the details often includes the capacity to do it with skill. Because God works through a community of people, he will place people in relationship to you so that together you can accomplish what he is doing in the world. Good news indeed!

You're Such A Stubborn, Hard-Headed People!

Exodus 31-35

We like to think that if we had been the ex-slaves traversing through the Desert of Sin, milling around the lonely Mt. Sinai, that we would have been much more obedient to God. It's easy to assume that we would have chosen different had we been in those difficult and trying circumstances. Us stubborn? Me, hard-headed? Ha!

Several million Hebrews have been herded along by their shepherd Moses to meet the God who delivered them. There at the mountain God will sign a covenant, much like a king would create for his people, outlining the terms and conditions of his kingdom. The language and elements of this treaty between God and the Israelites is very similar to that of other treaties found in the Ancient Near East. What an unruly crew God was seeking to tame!

It's interesting to note that God grants special wisdom and skill to craftsmen so that they can create the buildings and ritual objects for worship. That encourages me: whatever God is asking his people and church to do today, he will give us the wisdom and skills to accomplish it.

But it's also interesting to note that following the tragic and disgusting episode of the Golden Calf, Moses has to talk God out of destroying the Twelve Tribes of Israel. God is so angry and offended by the blatant disregard for his commands and covenant and commitment to them that he wants to wipe the rescued slaves off the face of the earth. And Moses has to wrestle to get God to change his mind.

This becomes a helpful picture for what Jesus accomplished on the cross when he bore the penalties of our sins. When you think about how angry you get when you hear about sins committed against others, imagine how God reacts.

It's his creation, it's the people he loves, its the world that he is always at work in - and when people sin against Him and one another and creation in all the flagrant ways that we do, it angers him. On the cross Jesus bore the wrath of God for all the sins ever committed, and ever to be committed. Though we would still sin, we live as if already forgiven. 

We're such a stubborn and hard-headed people yet today. God has impressive patience with us still. There are still consequences for our sins though, there are still missed opportunities from our fears and mistakes.

But God is still at work in us and through us to accomplish his work in the world - a work begun with Exodus, continued through Israel, climaxed with the crucifixion of Jesus, and now enlarged through the lives of the church. Jesus is now our shepherd, leading us though we resist and still rebel. But he still leads, he never leaves or forsakes us, rescuing us, and then reforming us. 

Oh, how we still need to be reformed! The work God has for us to do - he makes us capable of accomplishing it. Though we might look at our past and grimace, or our life now and frown, God sees what he can do through us and smiles!

In letting God reform and renew us, in our being honest with God about our stubbornness and pride, we become more humble and useful to him. And to others.

And God Just Stands There

Job 15-16

When you suffer, is it a direct result of your sins?

Yes and no. 

For many of us, our complicated situations flow from our pride, anger, lust, gluttony, greed, envy, or apathy. So in these cases, there is a connection between our hardships and our transgressions.

But what about when someone sins against us? When we are innocent? When they trespass against us and produce hurt and anxiety and fear and woundedness into our life? What then? Are we too blame for the tsunami of difficulties that flow out of that?

For Job, he was convinced that he was innocent, and that God was to blame for his horrors. And to a degree, he was right - since we get to know the backstory, the conversation God had with Satan. For Job's friends, who like Job don't know the backstory, they are convinced that Job is guilty of sin, and this explains his terrible suffering.

Despite Job's protests to his innocence, the friends are sure that deep inside, despite the great reputation Job had for being blameless and upright, despite his life of righteousness, somewhere deep inside was lurking sin that has produced this terrible affliction of suffering.

Here is how Eliphaz puts it:

If you were truly wise, would you sound so much like a windbag, belching hot air?
Would you talk nonsense in the middle of a serious argument, babbling baloney?
Look at you! You trivialize religion, turn spiritual conversation into empty gossip.
It's your sin that taught you to walk this way.
You chose an education in fraud.

But Job resists their simplistic and unfeeling accounting of the situation:

I've had all I can take of your talk.
What a bunch of miserable comforters!
Is there no end to your windbag speeches?
What's your problem that you go on and on like this?
If you were in my shoes, I could talk just like you.
I could put together a terrific harangue and really let you have it.
But I'd never do that. I'd console and comfort, make things better, not worse!

And then Job speaks directly and forcefully to God about his dire situation:

People take one look at me and gasp.
Contemptuous, the slap me around and gang up on me.
And God just stands there and lets them do it,
let's wicked people do what they want with me.
I was contentedly minding my own business when God beat me up.
He grabbed me by the neck and threw me around.

Do you ever feel this way towards God? That the hard times you're going through are undeserved? We'd be wise to contemplate the thoughts of both Eliphaz and Job. There are times when our sins produce chaos in our life, and thus our repentance and return to God put us on the path to healing and restoration.

But sometimes, when we get sinned against, and life turns upside down, we have a choice: of either retaliating, of sinning in response, or crying out to God for intervention and rescue.

Job is caught in deep tension: he's convinced that the hard times are undeserved, and yet from God. He's also sure that God is the one that can rescue him. Job must wrestle with relying on a God who has seemingly been so unfair to him. Job is forced to reach out to a God who just seems to stand there.

Job is being tested. And in his rage against the injustice of his situation, he still trusts God for resolution. Even though he sees God as the cause of the storm, he's willing to believe that God will bring it to pass. And that God will have a good reason for all of this. But in the meantime, it's as if God just stands there.

Believe Without Seeing

John 19-21

Is it more difficult to believe in Jesus now then it used to be?

Does the lapsing of time between the resurrection and our life today make it increasingly harder to have faith in Jesus? If we had been there to see the crucifixion of Jesus, would it be more likely we would have stronger faith? Probably not.

Here's how Jesus perceives the situation - it gets phrased through his discourse with Thomas the Twin: "So, you believe because you've seen with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing." 


Meaning: Jesus had a hard enough time getting people to believe in him while he did walk and speak and heal and celebrate with sinners. Imagine how hard it will be to get the next generation of Israelites and Gentiles to believe in a Jesus that is gone!

And yet... here we are two thousand years later and Jesus still has quite a following of believers. Impressive! Jesus pronounced a blessing upon those that would someday believe without seeing. Of course, this doesn't imply that you turn off your brain, become a robotic in your obedience, and cease to ask questions. It's about engaging your mind and not just your eyeballs.

The Gospel of John is a great example of how the disciples attempted to help people believe in a Jesus they had never seen, maybe never even heard of, possibly who don't like Jews. John blatantly admits his purpose in writing this gospel:

Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book. These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it.

Believe without seeing came to mean: believe through hearing and reading and listening. This taps into Jesus' own ministry - his preaching and teaching required hearing and listening. Seeing Jesus - his life, even his death and resurrection - did not provoke belief, but rather denials, abandonment, and fear.

But the story of Jesus still needs to be told, and people need to be able to have the events unfolded so that we can see them in our mind.

Why was Jesus killed? That's kind of the point of the gospels that John and the others wrote. What did Jesus do that led to his crucifixion? But not just the why or how, but: what did it mean? What was the significance of the King of Israel being crucified by the elite rulers and mobs of fellow Israelites? What was the significance that King Jesus also claimed to be the Son of Man, but also understood to be the Son of God?

Be thankful that the Gospel writers gave us stories and not volumes of theological reflection. The stories of Jesus keep alive in us the powerful truths that change our life. Every generation must again, anew, go back to the stories and figure out what they mean for our day.

Seeing Jesus does not lead to believing. Reading and hearing and listening to the stories - and processing them, wrestling with them. understanding them - that leads to belief.

You must figure out the implications of what Jesus claimed, of what he taught and did. You must wrestle with it. Belief must be born out of struggle. Belief without seeing is difficult for sure. But belief born out of listening and contemplating and striving to understand - that is a gift, rare and precious.

Take The Mercy, Accept The Help

Hebrews 3-4

This letter was possibly written by Priscilla, a well-regarded Christian woman who collaborated with the Apostle Paul. Since no author has been attributed to this thoughtful and rich letter, lots of theories have emerged. Some say Paul wrote it, but the style is much different then his other letters.

We know it was written by a Hebrew to Hebrews, hence the title it was given. It was written by someone with a deep love for Israel, a mastery of the First Testament, a deep understanding of their history, and unwavering loyalty to Jesus the Messiah.

The Hebrew Christians who received this letter needed assurance of their faith. They also needed more thorough explanations of how Jesus is connected to Israel as the High Priest, to God as the Son, and to the world as fully human. The author of this letter will draw extensively from Torah, but also the Poetry, the History, and the Prophets of the First Testament. This is an excellent letter to read with a Reference Bible - and then follow the "links" it provides, connecting the letter to the Hebrews with the hundreds of references in the First Testament.

It is vital that these Hebrews and Hebrew Christians that are reading the Bible don't make the same mistake as that first generation of Israelites who followed Moses out of Egypt. The Exodus was God's intervention for his people to deliver them to the Promised Land. And along the way, the people gave up on God, they turned a deaf ear to him, they quit trusting him. And so it is with this first generation of Christians - don't repeat the same mistake of our ancestors, don't turn a deaf ear to Jesus. 

So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He's the centerpiece of everything we believe, faithful in everything God gave him to do. 

In our life, it's too easy to take our eyes off of Jesus. We can make other issues too important, too distracting. When it comes to our life as Christians, Christ is the focus. Christ the person, Christ the one who lived and died, the one who was resurrected and ascended. Christ the one who rescued us from sin and restores us to new life, reconciled with God and ready for life in the age to come. It's important that we not just focus on what Jesus does for us, but what Jesus was like and what he did for others. 

Now that we know what we have - Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God - let's not let it slip through our fingers. We don't have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He's been through weakness and testing, experienced it all - all but the sin. So let's walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.

Isn't that a great image of Jesus? He's eager for us to meet, to talk, to be present in the same place. At times he tracks us down, he follows us to our dark places, he stays with us despite our defiance and doubts. And then, when we're ready to turn around, he's right there, ready for us to receive what he has to offer. Are you ready to take the mercy and accept the help Jesus has to give?

Don't Boil A Kid In Its Mother's Milk

Exodus 21-30

In reading through the whole First Testament and New Testament, the most difficult sections is the pieces that go on and on and on about arcane laws, tedious construction details, and disgusting sacrificial instructions. According to historians, the Exodus would have happened around 1400BC. Our society and culture is so different from then, which helps explain our slogging through some of these chapters.

Some of the commands we understand: Don't kill or beat people, don't steal or kidnap, don't be irresponsible or immoral, don't sacrifice to idols. Okay, we can appreciate those kinds of laws - in fact we seek to keep them yet today. But there there are other statutes that seem to baffle us, the most famous one being: don't boil a kid in its mother's milk. 

As I read through the lists of do's and don'ts, it helps to remember the practicality of this book and the situation of the people. They are listing stuff that has been experienced, stuff that has been a problem requires a solution, hence the commands. Obviously there had been problems with abuse, robbery, idolatry, sexual immorality, and so on. What we get is a snapshot of what the complicated problems were facing the people, and the solutions they proposed.

I was put off by how many times death is proscribed as punishment for so many of the laws. It seems rather harsh. I suppose it helps to remember that we are dealing with document over three-thousand years old. Culture was different then. But it's interesting to note that when the death penalty was put in force, an option of redemption was possible. "If a ransom is agreed upon instead of death, he must pay it in full as a redemption for his life." 

Admittedly, I skimmed through some of the details on how to construct the Tabernacle and other related items, including the vestments for the priests. I tried to read every single word, but I jumped ahead sometimes. I'm sure there is a good reason for including this information in the Bible, but it seems to have little practical application to my life. However, it does teach me that God cares about details, about creating fine art, about letting us know what he wants us to do, about practicality and beauty and functionality and holiness.

One last thing: the idea of holy is connected mostly to the idea that something is different, set apart. The priests are holy because they are not like the common person. The Tabernacle and related items are holy because they are set apart from common use, only to be handled by priests for worship.

Holy does not mean pure or unblemished, it just means different. However, the point of making the item holy is so that it won't be made impure or mishandled. In our lives, we don't become holy by becoming pure - we become holy by a decision of God. In making us holy, he sets us apart for a special task he enables us to accomplish.