The Lord’s Prayer: God who hears

What do you do in the face of temptation?  We’ve all been there, we’ve all been tempted, we all will continue to be tempted?  What do you do, do you fall, do you try to distract yourself, do you look to do something else?  Do you try to get through temptation alone?  Too often people try to deal with temptation on their own, but God never told us to get through temptation on our own, rather He said to follow Him all the more in the face of temptation.  He said to us in the teaching of the perfect prayer, “Lead us not into temptation”, mean that we follow Him into the great victory over all temptation!  He also taught us in this prayer that we are to depend on Him to deliver us from the “evil one”. 

In the death and resurrection of Jesus we see that He really did pave the way to answer our prayer.  We know that when we turn to follow Jesus, He will lead us from temptation and deliver us from the evil one.  Meaning that we will know true living with God paving our path.  In the face of temptation, may we never go at it alone, may we always shout out Lord you must lead, you must deliver it is your promise, and we are then reminded that God always hears our voice, and keeps His promise each and every day. 

May you be led today, may you be heard today, and may you be delivered by Him each day!

Serving Christ Together,

Pastor Greg

Forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

Forgiveness is something that we all know we need.  Every person regardless of belief knows that they have done something wrong.  It just depends on who we hold ourselves to be accountable to. Athletes have to sometimes acknowledge mistakes to teammates, or coaches.  Coaches to bosses and to players.  Employees to peers, and employers, and Employers to the public. Kids to parents, and teachers, and peers, and Teachers and parents to one another as well as children.  We all know that we have done wrong.

In the Lord’s prayer we as Christians recognize that not only do we do wrong to one another, but more importantly and first we have sinned against God.  Whenever we wrong another, we first wrong God, for we have not shown love.  We need forgiveness.  Romans 8:23 says “for all have fallen short of the glory of God.”

Whenever we confess our sins before God, He who is faithful and just will forgives us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness; 1 John 1:8-9.  Notice that when we do wrong to God, He never says “It is okay, or don’t worry about it, or no sweat”.  He says “I forgive you“.  Those three words acknowledge that we have done wrong, they give us forgiveness and grace and they remind us not to do that sin again.

As we receive from God forgiveness, we then may truly go and forgive others, I encourage all of us today though not to announce forgiveness in the form of modernity, but in the form of clarity!  No longer say ‘It’s okay, or don’t worry about it, or no sweat’, because it wasn’t okay, that is why it hurt!  They are concerned, that shows they care.  And the pain caused did raise our levels of emotion.  Let us know say “I forgive you!”  Let us remind them they wronged us, let us remind them our love is an outpouring of His love, and let us remind them not to do it again.

We forgive as we have been forgiven, we love as we have been loved, we share as He has shared His blessings on us.  Today, tomorrow and forever FORGIVE!

Serving Christ Together,

Pastor Greg

Praying the Lord’s Prayer

The Lord teaches His disciples to pray, Give us this day our daily bread!  Does He only mean our daily food, or does He mean more.  We know He means more, we are reminded in this passage that the Lord will provide all our needs, He always has.  When we look at the people of God wandering through the desert, they were provided manna daily, and were told not to take more than they need, for the Lord will provide.  We are reminded today, that God will provide all we need, He will provide plenty in all things.  We see this when we see images of those in Haiti celebrating and praising God even amidst tragedy and turmoil.  The see God providing.  We are remiss when we think that God is not present in turmoil, for in reality when we are weak He is strong, we we are small He is big.  Those on the ground and in the rubble of Haiti know God’s provision.  May you and I today, tomorrow and forever see His provision of all we need!

Serving Christ Together,
Pastor Greg

Your Kingdom Come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

When we pray this, we are praying a couple things.  We are praying that the Lord would return now…which means A: We must be ready for His return, and B: that everyone we know and love (even those we don’t) are ready for His return too!  We also are in the knowledge that the Kingdom of God is present here and now anyway.  With the resurrection and ascension of Christ, we do live in the now of the Kingdom.  Satan and the devilish schemes don’t have power over us, nor do they have dominion in our world any longer.  The kingdom of God has conquered and now lives.  We can celebrate that we as Christians do live in the Kingdom now and not yet (His return).

Also, we pray that the Will of God would be exercised in our life and our world.  We cannot divert or prevent the will of God from happening, but we can live up to it, and pray it to be in our lives, namely that we would live a biblical life, and that we would preach, teach and live His word in all its purity, truth and grace each day.  This prayer petition reminds us that our earthly life is to be a mirror of the heavenly realms.  We don’t do it perfectly, which then gives us the greatest gift of exercising His will, Forgiveness each day.

May we continue to lift up the perfect prayer and may we continue to see its work in our lives and our world.

Serving Christ Together,

Pastor Greg.

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Praying the Lord’s Prayer!

The Lord gave us this prayer as the perfect prayer to pray.  When we pray this prayer we pray for all that we truly need.  This prayer reminds us who God is and who we are!  It reminds us that He is Lord of all, and He has come and is coming.  We are reminded that He provides all our physical needs, and then we are reminded that all our spiritual needs are met in this as well.  We are even reminded in this prayer to respond to His love by loving others.  Let us pray each day the perfect prayer, with purpose and love.  May you come to the Lord boldly each and every day in prayer.  May you find His strength in the prayer He taught us to pray.

Serving Christ Together,

Pastor Greg

Praying with Purpose

In Matthew 6:7 the Lord reminds in prayer not to babel like the Pagans do.  The Pagans used to babel by invoking the name of the gods over and over again in hopes that they would hear their prayers.  Today, Christians don’t babel in this way, but we are reminded still not to babel in our prayers.  How do we babel?  I believe that the church is in attack by satan through the use of the Lord’s prayer.

How so,  you might be wondering.  Well, during almost all of our worship services (no matter which denomination) the Lord’s prayer is said, but how often do we really think about what we are saying?  How often do we just go through a motion, or a rote memorization during this prayer?  When we do this it is sinful not to actually think about what we are praying, and then we are doing nothing more than babbeling. 

I would implore all Christians to think about the Lord’s prayer, one way that I have begun to say the Lord’s prayer in a more thoughtful and meaningful way is to use common language.  I pray the Lord’s prayer know saying:

Our Father who is in heaven, holy is your name.  Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.  Amen.

Try this and see how you have to actually have to think about what we are praying.  Do it and notice that our churches will no longer be babbling, but will be praying the prayer as the Lord desired, with thought, with purpose.  God Bless your prayer life to Him!

Serving Christ Together,

Pastor Greg

Merry Christmas

This Christmas may your family and friends see the real focus that Christians have on Christmas!  The Gift!  The Gift of life and salvation made possible through the birth of Christ, the life of Christ, the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ.

This Christmas may you see His Birth, Life, Death and Resurrection all as the Gift for you!

Merry Christmas!

Serving Christ Together,

Pastor Greg

Live 2 Give…Hope

Living in Michigan, when I travel to a certain hospital, there always is one person on the off-ramp of the freeway.  He is homeless, he is cold, and he is unkempt.  He truly is suffering.  As a child growing up, I am certain he didn’t say I want to suffer, he didn’t say I want to be homeless when I grow up.  So what is the point of his suffering, is it self-imposed, is it consequences from poor decisions?   Maybe, but we are reminded that in all our sufferings (some greater than others), that we then can minister to others. 

It is in the midst of suffering, that God steps in and then prepares our hearts, minds, and hands and feet to minister to someone else in a way that no one else could. We are able in our sufferings to then come and say I’ve been there, I’ve seen others help, I know what it is to go through what you are going through.  No one can minister to another mother who looses a child like one who has, no one can minister to someone who has been out of work for ages like one who has.  2 Corinthians 1:6-7

There is always hope with Christ, and through Him working through others.  In our sufferings God will gather us around Himself and strengthen and encourage us through the hands and feet of others.  May we be open to ministering to others, may we be ready to share His love with Hope, reminded that God is using us in unique and purposeful ways to Live 2 Give and give Hope, Hope in the reality of His love, today, tomorrow, and forever.

Serving Christ Together,

Pastor Greg

Live 2 Give Worship

Romans 12:1  urges us in the view of God’s mercy to offer our bodies as a living Sacrifice.  There is so much that can be said about this passage as we look and see that we are not being reminded, suggested, or encouraged, rather we are being URGED!  to do offer ourselves as a living sacrifice.  Why would we do this, because of God’s Mercy, that He sacrificed everything for us and views us with grace, truth and love. 

Often times when we think of sacrifice, we think of death, but Paul here reminds us that this is not death rather this is living life!  We live as our sacrifice to God, offering ourselves completely to Him because of what He has done, and in this we then are at Spiritual Worship, of Him.  How great it is to know that because of God’s mercy we then can worship Him wholly, and frequently as we live for Him.  This is so different than the world would live.

Romans 12:2 affirms that the worldly patters are so different.  We see it clearly, we see that the world doesn’t live for anyone but itself.  It is about money, power, prestige, sex, or selfishness of our own time.  Paul calls us not to conform, but to transform.  What is the difference between transformation and conversion!  Transformation is ongoing, we continually are transformed to live more and more for Christ each day.

This Christmas season, as  you see neighborhoods transforming into winter wonderlands, think and pray about the transformation of your hearts and minds and of your neighbors hearts and minds s they continually become more and more Christ focused giving Him our entire acts of worship.

Live 2 Give Charity

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 reminds us that we are to Live to Give, with Love.  When we give charity to others but have not love, then it is worthless.  What is Love, love is Christ, it is clear through the Scripture passage that this is all about Love.  Christ is kind, He is patient, He does not rejoice in wrongs.  And Love (Christ), will never fail, nor fade away.  How true it is that when we Live 2 Give, we live 2 Love! 

This Christmas as you pass the Salvation Army bell ringers, as  You look at giving at the cash register, be sure to share not only with Charity, but share Love, share Christ, with a gentle proclamation of Love.