Much of our lives includes ordinary work and chores. We all have to do things that don't excite us at work or around the house or in running errands. It's easy to lapse into feeling bored, empty, or like we are trivial. Or to complain (in our thoughts if not out loud) about what we have to do.
This was my temptation beginning my Monday.
To keep from grumping along today I picked up a special prayer rock. It's piece of the outdoor stone theatre in Sephoris Israel. Jesus may have helped to build this marvelous theatre where the "play actors" (same word as "hypocrite" in the Bible) performed.
As I've held my rock today I've thought about Jesus working hour after hour as a carpenter or a stone cutter. I've thought about my "Blue Collar Savior" smiling as he serves hard to please customers and blesses them when they complain. I've imagined him meditating on Scripture and praying while he worked.
For most of his life on earth Jesus worked an ordinary job in an obscure village, loving God and people, praying and playing with his Father, day after day.
Today, Jesus is helping me to appreciate his presence in my midst. In the words of the Apostle John: "I am the disciple Jesus loves!"
Could there be any greater cause for rejoicing than that? Even on a mundane Monday!
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Monday, October 26, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Why did Paul rarely quote Jesus?
Recently I read an article that pointed out that the Apostle Paul only quoted Jesus three times (Acts 20:35, 1 Corinthians 11:23-25, and 2 Corinthians 12:9).
How could this be? The man who was the most like Jesus and who wrote half of the New Testament only quoted Jesus three times?
Like Jesus, Paul spoke and wrote with the authority of the Holy Spirit. He didn't "proof text" his teachings with quotes. He simply oozed Jesus!
For Paul the life and teaching of his Lord and Savior was so interwoven in his character and in all that he said and did that you couldn't separate Paul from Jesus. When people saw Paul they saw Jesus. Even today, 2,000 years later, when we think of Paul we immediately think of his Master Jesus.
Paul was "in Christ." His identity - his every breath - was about Jesus Christ: loving him and encouraging other people to love him. What a great example of being a disciple of Jesus!
May you and I be like Paul, living confidently "in Christ" and oozing the Spirit of Christ out from our pores onto people all around us!
How could this be? The man who was the most like Jesus and who wrote half of the New Testament only quoted Jesus three times?
Like Jesus, Paul spoke and wrote with the authority of the Holy Spirit. He didn't "proof text" his teachings with quotes. He simply oozed Jesus!
For Paul the life and teaching of his Lord and Savior was so interwoven in his character and in all that he said and did that you couldn't separate Paul from Jesus. When people saw Paul they saw Jesus. Even today, 2,000 years later, when we think of Paul we immediately think of his Master Jesus.
Paul was "in Christ." His identity - his every breath - was about Jesus Christ: loving him and encouraging other people to love him. What a great example of being a disciple of Jesus!
May you and I be like Paul, living confidently "in Christ" and oozing the Spirit of Christ out from our pores onto people all around us!
Monday, October 5, 2009
In Jesus' Name
Probably you offer many prayers "in Jesus' name." What does this mean?
To pray in Jesus' name is to pray by and for him, with his strength and for his purposes.
Names in the Bible always refer to the character behind the name. So to pray in Jesus' name is to pray with and for his character, to pray in the way that he prayed and for the purposes that he prayed.
Imagine how it would change our lives to do that!
Have you ever studied the way Jesus prayed? He often went away by himself to seek the Father alone. He used the Psalms. He was quiet. He waited to make decisions and he listened. He acted on what he discerned from the Father. He learned how to do whatever he did as an expression of prayer.
Today there are a lot of "experts" giving us advice to solve all sorts of problems (many of them are psychologists like myself). We wouldn't need most of these "solutions" to improve our lives if we simply learned this one thing: how to pray in Jesus' name.
To pray in Jesus' name is to pray by and for him, with his strength and for his purposes.
Names in the Bible always refer to the character behind the name. So to pray in Jesus' name is to pray with and for his character, to pray in the way that he prayed and for the purposes that he prayed.
Imagine how it would change our lives to do that!
Have you ever studied the way Jesus prayed? He often went away by himself to seek the Father alone. He used the Psalms. He was quiet. He waited to make decisions and he listened. He acted on what he discerned from the Father. He learned how to do whatever he did as an expression of prayer.
Today there are a lot of "experts" giving us advice to solve all sorts of problems (many of them are psychologists like myself). We wouldn't need most of these "solutions" to improve our lives if we simply learned this one thing: how to pray in Jesus' name.
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