Kingdom Ready

I just came across this amazing prayer written by Clement of Rome towards the end of the first century. He probably lived through the persecution of Nero after the fire of Rome and wrote some time before the second generation of Christians–those appointed by the apostles–had died out. This prayer is well balanced, saturated with praise, and biblically accurate. He carefully distinguishes between the only God and Jesus, his servant. Furthermore, his prayer for the government is one of courageous submission in accordance with Romans 13. Here is his prayer from Michael Holmes’ translation:

Saw this the other day, a great self-examination quote from John Piper for all of us to consider:

The essence of lukewarmness is the statement, “I need nothing.” The lukewarm are spiritually self-satisfied. To find out whether you are among that number, don’t look into your head to see if you think that you are needy; rather, look at your prayer life. It doesn’t matter what we think in our head, the test of whether we are in bondage to spiritual self-satisfaction is how earnest and frequent and extended our prayers for change are.

In the last two article I wrote I talked about feeling the emotion, pain, and feelings of other. Also how the root of this stemmed from Jesus and his ministry. I would like to relate more as to what kind of affect Jesus should have on us especially with his departure from Earth. Yet Jesus still has an ever growing connection to mankind. It seems that the question is always, are God and Jesus present, or is it because we just allow them to exist simply in our minds? Are they physically present? How real is the presents of Yahweh (GOD) and the roll and presences of Yahushua (Messiah) Jesus our Lord and Savior? I ask is the weight that we put on knowledge sacrificing our actual spirituality? Is the weight that is put on analyzing the scripture, with our own minds drowning or at least quenching the spirit with in us? The verses below present an interesting view. Is the Love of God present in our lives, which includes our Love for God, and our belief in His son(Or Faith In), our belief in who he was and what was his mission was will directly affects our purpose and mission in life, and most important our status to the coming Kingdom.

1 - Prevailing Prayer - http://theresurgence.com/2010/02/15/prevailing-prayer

“Arthur Wallis once said, “A move of God will last as long as the Spirit of prayer that inspired it.” You can tell when this happens. It’s when prayer is used as a last resort, as a spare wheel, but it’s meant to be the steering wheel.”

2 - Prayer Is The Priority - http://theresurgence.com/2010/02/17/prayer-is-the-priority

I have been on a 36 year quest to find the right the path which would give me a greater spiritual awareness and closeness to my Creator. I have found it to be a rocky road at times. On this journey I have finally come to know God in a greater way than I ever thought possible. I have also found that the hard things in life can be good for us, because they help us, by Faith, turn to our Creator and seek his help and guidance. GOD LIKES THAT, yes he likes when we depend on him. It was always that way we just didn’t know it. After all he did create us, wouldn’t you think he has all the answers. WHY NOT ASK? Please read the following Article, in it you may find something that can help you, as it did for me.

The following comes from an early Christian author, Hippolytus who wrote from Rome in the late second/early third century (selections from chapters 35 & 36):

Let all the faithful, whether men or women, when early in the morning they rise from their sleep and before they undertake any tasks, wash their hands and pray to God; and so they may go to their duties. But if any instruction in God’s word is held [that day], everyone ought to attend it willingly,…but if on any day there is no instruction; let everyone at home take the Bible and read sufficiently in passages that he finds profitable.

For any of you who know Pastor David Burge of New Zealand, he has just taken a turn for the worse and the chemotherapy is no longer working. They estimate two weeks. Please pray for him. This is the last update from his wife, Tarnya.

We saw the consultant yesterday. The chemo is no longer working. He estimates that Dave has about 2 weeks left.

We have been blessed by many comments on the blog; by the assurance of your prayers and thoughts; and by some very thoughtful and practical gifts. Thank you.

Thank you to those who have written beautiful letters of tribute. Dave has appreciated these.

I was looking through some old copies of Anthony Buzzard’s “Focus on the Kingdom” newsletter today and re-read an article in it that I enjoyed reading all over again (though it has been over six years since I first read it).  The following is from a woman who attended the 2004 Theological Conference in Atlanta GA and presented the story of her own personal faith journey during the yearly segment that centers on that subject and allows people in attendance to tell the audience their own stories. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

My Spiritual Journey

by Diane M.

Here’s another 1960’s old-school sermon from minister J. Ronald Schoolcraft. And even a near half-century later, this message still has words of truth to help us in the year 2009 and beyond!

“To Scare the Devil”

By J. Ronald Schoolcraft

A young warehouse worker took his customer’s order and started down one of the long aisles of the warehouse to get the desired parts. As he went he was whistling gaily the tune “Just Whistle While You Work” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. “My, he’s a happy fellow!” the customer remarked. One of the girls looked up from her stack of records and said “He says he does that to keep the devils out of his mind!”

For some time now I have been incorporating written prayers into my morning prayer time. I have been using prayers which I believe come from the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) which was nicely laid out day by day for the summer in the prayer manual Phyllis Tickle compiled called Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime. Most of the liturgy/written prayers are actually direct quotations from the Psalms. Furthermore, there is a daily reading of just a few verses from the Gospels and then there are two extra-biblical prayers at the end. I have found that by incorporating this structure it has actually really helped me to be disciplined and enjoy a certain freedom. I still pray “spontaneously” or “from the heart” during my prayer time as well. In fact, with many things, I think this is a case where it might be helpful to take a “bothand” policy rather than “either/or.” Here is a short video clip, I just found, where N.T. Wright speaks on the matter.