JUST PRAY ABOUT IT

             Jesus instructs us in His sermon on the mount, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7) I often teach that we should not only pray without ceasing, but also that we need to pray about everything. No request is too petty for our God.

            God in his infinite knowledge is currently keeping up with 6,000,000,000 + individuals in this world. With His infinite knowledge and His infinite power, I am convinced He is able to keep up with the prayers, great and small, of all these people, and to respond to their prayers.

            I have taught that we need to pray in the least of matters. Car keys lost? Tell God about it and that you need some help finding them. Stymied on a project? Talk to Him about it and your need for some insight or inspiration. I have found that it is not coincidental that I soon have the location of the lost object or the inspiration sought. So I make a habit of praying about everything going on in my life, no matter how insignificant.

            I was pleased recently when someone shared that they, in response to my preaching, had begun to do the same, and that they have been amazed at how often God answers these prayers, sometimes almost immediately. So I urge you once again, pray about everything, great and small. God hears and helps.

 

Grace and Peace

GOVERNMENT SNOOPING

             The news media has given much coverage lately on the government’s collection through the NSA of the phone call history of all Americans. This has been going on since the 9/11 attack and was authorized as part of our defense against terrorists. We are assured that only call history has been logged, not actual conversations. I recognize this as an illegal invasion of privacy, but it does not bother me, nor would it bother me if they had recorded actual conversations. I have nothing to hide.

            It is amazing to me, however, that with today’s technology that the government can store billions and billions of bits of information in a data base. I cannot even imagine the extent of such a record.

            At times I have wondered how God can keep up with complete knowledge of all things. He knows who has phoned who in this world and the content of their conversation. But I am assured that, if man can invent computers of such capacity, God can certainly do better. How He does it we do not know but we are told He does it. “Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding (knowledge) is infinite.” (Psalm 147:5)

            God not only knows whom we have phoned and what was said, He knows all our thoughts and every action. God knows all about us. He knows our needs and desires before we tell Him.

            God knows and God cares.

 

Grace and Peace

CYBER CRIME

              Target stores recently revealed that cyber criminals had stolen information on millions of their customers. This information can enable the thieves to steal the identity of those whose information they have accessed. By stealing someone’s identity they can tap into their bank accounts or use their credit cards. In this age of on-line transactions, plastic card purchases, and cyber profiles which contain complete information about us, we enter a whole new world of theft.

I’ve sought to learn all the things we are advised to do in order to protect ourselves from identity theft and thereby protect our assets from this new generation of thieves. The truth, alas, is these cyber thieves will continue to work and will find new ways to steal. Even as safes, strong boxes and bank vaults could not eradicate theft in former generations, cyber theft, I fear, will not be eradicated.

Jesus gave us a formula for defeating the thieves.

“Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches or moth destroys.” (Luke 12:32-34) But, someone may object, I still will not have my assets. Yes we will. We will have “a treasure in the heavens.” And in this world we will know where our treasure is invested, the people it has helped, and the continuing impact it will have for the Kingdom.

 

Grace and Peace

DUSTING OF SNOW?

                  I am writing this after arriving home this afternoon (Thursday January, 30). I spent the last two nights away due to the snowstorm which hit on Tuesday. I was downtown when the roads became choked and impassable so I walked to UAB hospital and got some lunch in the cafeteria, and then went over into Kirkland Clinic. Gratefully the clinic allowed some of us stranded people to stay overnight in the hallways of the second floor. They provided blankets and pillows for people to “sleep” in the waiting room chairs. They also provided food that evening and Wednesday morning. Wednesday we were advised to continue to stay off the roadways. I received an emergency supply of necessary medications (with a four hour wait and terrible price at the Kirkland pharmacy). Wednesday night I spent with a gracious friend on the Southside. By mid morning I walked back to my auto and the instate highways were all open. So I made it home by lunchtime.

                We all, of course, had to put up with the two inch snow that paralyzed our city. We are just not equipped for such a storm. The stories of many people were worse than mine, i.e. abandoning vehicles and walking for miles and miles through the snow.

                There are plus sides to the storm. One was the beauty of the snow covered earth to us southerners. Another was the stillness and quiet. Everything stopped. Places we thought we needed to go and things we thought we needed to do had to be postponed. For most of us, we just needed to be still like the world outside. It was like God saying to us, “Be still, and know that I am God…” (Psalm 46:10)

HAPPY NEW YEAR?

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Many have said it to me and I have said it to them and many others. Most, I perceive, understand their statement as a wish in the sense of “I hope you will have a happy new year.” For some of us, it is a promise, i.e. I will have a happy new year, and you will have a happy new year!

Now that is a presumptuous statement. None of us know what will happen in the next twelve months. There will certainly be some good times, some victories, some progress, some divine healings and blessings of many kinds. But also there will be troubles such as sickness, death, accidents, setbacks, conflicts and woes of various degrees. But in Christ we share the confidence of David, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want….Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” (Psalm 23:1,6)

            This confidence is expressed in a popular gospel song, “Through It All,” one verse of which says:

            “I thank God for the mountains,

            and I thank Him for the valleys,

            I thank Him for the storms He brought me through.

            For if I’d never had a problem,

            I wouldn’t know God could solve them,

            I’d never know what faith in God could do.          

             ..........

            Through it all, through it all,

            I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God.”

            Because we are confident that Jesus loves us, and because we are confident that God is our Shepherd, we know that, through it all, this will be a happy new year. 

Grace and Peace

 

PROGRESS

Thank all of you who have assured me of your prayers and wished me a speedy recovery. Many have asked me how I am doing and I have not responded to all the emails, posts and other inquiries. So now, at the changeover of years, allow me to do so here.

As most of you know, on November 30^th I looked down at a GPS while driving into a curve, looked up to see I was going off the road into a mud puddle, and over corrected which caused me to slide across the road into some trees. For once I did not have my seat belt fastened so I was thrown around the air bag. My head went through the windshield and I was then thrown against the passenger side door. I was knocked out for two or three minutes but was awake and lucid by the time someone stopped. After twelve hours in the ER I missed Sunday services the next day. I haven’t missed any services since. My face and scalp were cut up, the index finger of the left hand was broken, one vertebrae in the neck was chipped and there were bruises and pulled muscles everywhere. Now, a month later, my face and scalp have healed but I                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         I still have pins in the finger and a brace on my neck. These will be with me for a few more weeks.

In answer to your inquiries, I am doing fine. I haven’t been limited in activities except for tennis (alas!). Without a divine miracle, healing is a slow process, but I will get there. I’ve told a few friends that with the Lord and Lortab (a pain killer) I’m doing fine. (And I have certainly been thanking God for the medical scientists who, under His inspiration, have made pain killers available.)

Please continue to pray for me as I do for you. 

Grace and Peace

THE BOOK OF MORMON?

            The first night of our recent trip to New York City, two went  to a live Billy Crystal performance, four went to see the show “Annie,” and I went alone to see “The Book of Mormon.” I had been warned that it might be over the top for me, but I had read so many rave reviews of this nine Tony Award winning musical, I wanted to check it out. It turned out to be the dirtiest, most sacrilegious thing I have seen or read in all my 78 years. Frankly, I would not have been comfortable watching it with anyone else, even my wife.  Jesus was, I trust, forgiving.It was FUNNY. My daughter, Kit, dared me to blog about it. So here goes.

            In the plot, Elder Price has prayed all his life that when time came for him to do his obligatory two year mission he would be assigned to Orlando, Florida, the land of Disney and sunshine. Instead, he was paired with a nerd, Elder Arnold Cunningham, and they were sent to a remote village in Uganda. Elder Price is devastated but tries to reach the natives with the Mormon message, but with no success. Elder Cunningham, who has never even read the Book of Mormon, however, is accepted by the natives as the spokesman and proceeds to teach them his own made up version of Mormonism. Rejected and disciplined by his supervisors, he is established by the natives as the true teacher and they produce “The Book of Arnold.”

            Now what positive, if anything, can I find in it? First, recognize that we will not receive everything for which we pray, no matter who we are. Second, acknowledge that anything we receive can be used positively by God for His purpose, if we will listen to and follow Him. Not like Elder Cunningham who made it up himself. Our promise, i.e. the promise to those who are following Jesus Christ, is that God is at work in all things to bring about good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28) 

Grace and Peace