H208 slideshow

cool.

yes and no

it's funny how God works.

it's so true. God works in ways we don't understand. for a while now i've had two dreams. the earliest of the two started in 2005 when i started this job of "student minister". since then i've wanted to go to seminary in order to improve my capacity and ability to minister. the second dream began last summer as my roommate, craig, and i were sitting in our living room talking about missions--we thought it would be great to organize a missions trip that was open to the entire church body. both of those dreams have been growing since they were born. today God answered them both.

i got home from the gym this morning and checked my mail. i was really hoping to get my IRS economic stimulus check...no dice. i only got one letter and it wasn't from the IRS. at first i wasn't too moved by the letter. i looked at who it was from "The Cornerstone Seminary." huh. (does your mind ever do those double-takes?) wait a minute!? the Cornerstone Seminary?!? This is the letter I'd been praying about and hoping would come! Would they say I could go? Would I get accepted? Or is this a letter saying, "sorry, you didn't make the cut." I felt the envelope, there was definitely more than one page in there...it only takes one page to say "nope." but if there's more than one page...it was probably a "yes" and the other pages were to let me know what to do from here! I was too excited to open it right away. I took it inside and prayed that my attitude would be right no matter what. "God, where You lead I will follow" was my prayer. I opened it up..."Dear Matthew, I am delighted to tell you that you have been accepted into the Master of Divinity program at The Cornerstone Seminary. We are privileged to have you in our student body and egley elgheyroue alehg..." the rest of the words were a blur through my tears and excitement. I read that first sentence about three times and then cried, shouted for joy and laughed all at the same time. I was so excited!

After celebrating a bit more, finishing the rest of the letter and letting people know, I went about the rest of my day.

Then Craig gave me a call and said he needed to talk about Belarus. He came back to the apartment where I was also. Craig is the one who is heading up the trip...the one we had brainstormed about together last summer. He said that my funds weren't coming in and basically I needed to make a decision today: am I going to Belarus or not? Wow. Let me look at my list of "to do's" today...nope, that wasn't on it. The quick version of my decision process: I prayed, asked God to give me peace no matter what. Earlier I had prayed "God, where You lead I will follow" regarding Seminary. I prayed the same about Belarus. I called many people trying to see if God would provide financially and keep the doors open for me to go. He didn't. He closed the doors. He said "yes" to Seminary..."no" to Belarus.

It's funny how God works.

on prayer

i'm saddened by our prayers. by our prayer requests. we pray so often for safety. for healing. for a "good day". for things to go "well". that we would have "fun". we pray that our days would be easy, our work would go by quickly, our weekends would be long, and that we'd have a good night's rest. we pray for our dogs, our cars, our food, our stubbed toe.

is that what prayer is? a direct line to God so that He can make our life enjoyable and worry- and pain-free? listening to the prayers of so many people and reading the prayer requests that circulate on our email prayer chain have caused me to think this is how we view prayer.

should we be seeking safety? is that our goal? should we be seeking for *our* days to be "good"? is that our goal? what is the goal of prayer? should it not fall in line with the ultimate goal of man? the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. prayer should fit in with this. but when we simply pray for our safety, comfort and enjoyment, we are seeking our own glory, our own interests and not those of Christ Jesus.

I was speaking with a student today. We had prayed and one of his requests was that work would go by quickly. I talked to him about this, and attempted to let him see that his request wasn't focused on the glory of God, which is what our entire lives should be focused around. Praying for patience no matter what the situations in work would be a better prayer. God receives the glory when we are patient because this is a fruit of the Spirit--a proof that the Spirit is in us, controlling our lives and producing His fruit in us. When we have patience it points to Him and brings Him glory. On our own we would not be patient, when we are, praise Him! He is working!

At another time today I was talking with Pastor Bob on the phone and he was telling me a bit about what his studies for the sermon this week had brought him to. He said he had studied so many different prayers in Scripture and they are so God-focused. He mentioned the Lord's Prayer:

'Our Father who is in heaven,
      Hallowed be Your name.
'Your kingdom come
      Your will be done,
      On earth as it is in heaven.
'Give us this day our daily bread.
'And forgive us our debts, as we also
      have forgiven our debtors.
'And do not lead us into temptation, 
      but deliver us from evil. 
[For Yours is the kingdom and the power
      and the glory forever. Amen.]'

Look how God-centered that is! "Our Father who is in Heaven" [side note: i always try to capitalize the word "Heaven". is it not a proper noun? a place? the place of all places i would say! why don't people capitalize it??] this phrase acknowledges who God is: He is our Father--He created us, He has authority over us. He is "in Heaven", He rules, reigns, is glorious and sovereign. "Hallowed by Your name" points to His holiness and how we should revere Him. "Your kingdom come"--God will be greatly glorified when His kingdom is set up on Earth! We need to seek His glory. "You will be done, on Earth [there they go again not capitalizing proper nouns...this one isn't so bad as "Heaven".] as it is in Heaven." Whose will should we pray for? Our own? Our own desires and wants? No, His--our Father's. "Give us this day our daily bread." I love this part. This is a command--"give". Jesus tells us we can command God to do things. That's intense. I think a key to understanding this is found in Proverbs 30:7-9

Two things I ask of you, O LORD;
       do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
       give me neither poverty nor riches,
       but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
       and say, 'Who is the LORD?'
       Or I may become poor and steal,
       and so dishonor the name of my God.

This request/command is for the glory of God. We can ask for our daily bread. Not too much, so that we don't become self-reliant. And not too little so that we are not tempted to steal and thus sin and thus dishonor God. It's okay to tell God things when what we are saying is in line with Scripture. In that case it's simply restating the truth He has already communicated to us through His Word.
"And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." This takes into account our need for forgiveness, and we need to ask God for forgiveness because He is the only one who can give it (that's the gospel in short, definitely glorifying to God). And we also need to make sure we are living the gospel, not simply praying a prayer of forgiveness and not experiencing it. Elsewhere Jesus communicates that when we experience true forgiveness, we will live changed lives and forgive others (cf. Matt. 18:21-35; Mark 11:25).

"And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil." As we succumb to evil, we sin and do not please God. Sinning is the opposite of glorifying God.

Lord, God, may our prayers be pleasing to You. May we seek Your glory first and foremost, not our own happiness, safety or pleasure. Thank You for Your promises in Your Word that as we seek You first, we will find true joy, peace and pleasure.