Ever since City challenge last year I have been thinking about prayer much more than I ever did before, but as of recent I have thought about how different people pray differently. The result of a different kind of prayer can be influenced by many things, age, how they grew up, their vocabulary, how they think, what they are praying about, and how they view God.
One thing that struck me one day was how the prayer of a faithful and trusting child and the prayer of a revering and proper priest or saint are both beautiful in their own ways.
The prayer of a child can be so amazing because it can be simple, worded wrong, and the child probably doesn't even understand all that he should, but still his heart is for the Lord. He sees God on His throne in heaven which is a beautiful palace where everything is fantastic. The child does not understand how awful and unholy his sin makes him, but he knows that God loves him and we wants that love. The child has a very simplistic understanding that is just so raw and real in his heart.
The prayer of a saint inside of a great cathedral is very proper, revering, and understanding. The saint doesn't know everything about God or the whole Bible, but he understands that he doesn't know everything and therefore knows much. A saint can understand how unworthy of God's grace or love he is. The saint sees God as the highest being in this world and himself as one of the lowliest. From that understanding comes the reverent, praising, and humble prayer a of saint. The saint presents himself before God as a servant would to his king because God is his king and he is God's servant.
One of the prayers is simple and innocent the other is long and revering, but I think both are equally beautiful. Both are accepted by God and neither one is greater than the other. No matter how well you say what you pray God will see your heart. A ''good sounding" prayer doesn't mean much if you don't mean what your saying in your heart.
We should profoundly understand that when we pray we don't have to be perfect or say the "right words" its about the heart. The immaculate and extensive prayer of a priest isn't any better than the simple and fervent prayer of a child.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Verseinsanity II
Awhile ago I posted a post called Verseinsanity that showcased some really good, meaningful, and profound verses. The reason behind this showcasing is to offer verses to think about and hopefully relate to. Versinsanity II is merely more of these meaningful verses.
James 1:19-25
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
Galatians 5:24-25
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Psalm 33:4-5
For the word of the Lord is right and true;
he is faithful in all he does.
The Lord loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love.
James 1:13-15
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Matthew 15:46
“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Proverbs 15:33
Wisdom’s instruction is to fear the Lord, and humility comes before honor.
Isaiah 55:8-9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Jonah 2:8-9
“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.
But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”
Daniel 4:37
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
James 1:19-25
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
Galatians 5:24-25
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Psalm 33:4-5
For the word of the Lord is right and true;
he is faithful in all he does.
The Lord loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love.
James 1:13-15
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Matthew 15:46
“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Proverbs 15:33
Wisdom’s instruction is to fear the Lord, and humility comes before honor.
Isaiah 55:8-9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Jonah 2:8-9
“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.
But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”
Daniel 4:37
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
I'm Ready to Meet You
So I had gotten an album from my brother this summer, but never really listened to it much because it was a band I didn't really know. However, recently I was listing to one of the songs and near the end of the song the lyrics hit me, hard. Now every time I listen to that part of that song I have to stop and sing because there is something inside of my heart that that just longs for what the lyrics say.
Parachute band - Run To You ( + Meet You )
You will chase me
No matter where I run to
So I’m ready to meet you, I am
Ready to meet you, I am
You will chase me
No matter where I run to
So I’m ready to meet you, I’ll be
Ready to meet you, woho
I know I have written about this subject often like in post I Just Want to go There and others, but this subject keeps on coming up. For some reason I'm just so ready to meet my maker and Lord. Yea I guess "life is good", but there is sin plaguing this life. To meet God face to face will be incredibly amazingly indescribable! I just want to meet God! What more do I need to say? I just hope that all of you reading this want to meet God as much and more.
God profoundly desires to meet us, do we want to meet Him?
Parachute band - Run To You ( + Meet You )
You will chase me
No matter where I run to
So I’m ready to meet you, I am
Ready to meet you, I am
You will chase me
No matter where I run to
So I’m ready to meet you, I’ll be
Ready to meet you, woho
I know I have written about this subject often like in post I Just Want to go There and others, but this subject keeps on coming up. For some reason I'm just so ready to meet my maker and Lord. Yea I guess "life is good", but there is sin plaguing this life. To meet God face to face will be incredibly amazingly indescribable! I just want to meet God! What more do I need to say? I just hope that all of you reading this want to meet God as much and more.
God profoundly desires to meet us, do we want to meet Him?
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
My Hypocriticalness
So I must admit my hypocriticalness to you who read this blog. I often write about how we should be doing something more, less, differently or whatever else. Well even though I say we should do these things and that includes me I often don't. Even though they are sometimes my thoughts and ideas I forget about them. Its not that later on I disagree with what I have written, but that I have so many ideas and things to try to keep in line I often forget them. Firstly there are God's laws for me to obey, then there are my thoughts written about on here so don't always get around to acting my ideas out.
Yes I am a hypocrite to my own writings because there are a lot of them to act out and remember. This is one of my faults that helps to remind me of how much I am flawed. You can read about that in Fault-Full.
Sometimes I just can't believe how much of a hypocrite I am. One week I have an amazing life changing learning experience or realization and around two weeks later I'm doing pretty much the exact opposite of what I learned. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I make mistakes, I forget, often times I am very hypocritical, but God isn't any of those things.
We are all hypocrites in our own ways regarding different things, but most importantly we must not be hypocrites when it comes to our relationship with God. Either we are for God or against Him, there is no middle ground. Its ok to mess up and make mistakes, but whether your for God or not is not something you want to be unsure about.
Andy Mineo - Every Word
Want to know the fast track to look stupid?
Talk about obedience and never go do it
Lord I'm a hypocrite and I'm sick of it
I need Your spirit to come help me live different
We must all learn from our mistakes and try to not be hypocrites. Profoundly throw away hypocriticalness with the help of God. I say that not just to you, but to myself.
Yes I am a hypocrite to my own writings because there are a lot of them to act out and remember. This is one of my faults that helps to remind me of how much I am flawed. You can read about that in Fault-Full.
Sometimes I just can't believe how much of a hypocrite I am. One week I have an amazing life changing learning experience or realization and around two weeks later I'm doing pretty much the exact opposite of what I learned. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I make mistakes, I forget, often times I am very hypocritical, but God isn't any of those things.
We are all hypocrites in our own ways regarding different things, but most importantly we must not be hypocrites when it comes to our relationship with God. Either we are for God or against Him, there is no middle ground. Its ok to mess up and make mistakes, but whether your for God or not is not something you want to be unsure about.
Andy Mineo - Every Word
Want to know the fast track to look stupid?
Talk about obedience and never go do it
Lord I'm a hypocrite and I'm sick of it
I need Your spirit to come help me live different
We must all learn from our mistakes and try to not be hypocrites. Profoundly throw away hypocriticalness with the help of God. I say that not just to you, but to myself.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
The Cutural Differentiation - A Story
There is a tale taken from the expanse of time of a young lad who lived in outreaches of Seattle Washington. This lad was the son of two very nice and responsible parents. Ever since he was born he was in church every Sunday, so all throughout growing up God was always a huge part of his life. After growing up a little he started to really think intellectually and started to really read the Bible as more than just a book with stories. The stories had an overall moral and meaning, but throughout the stories there are many other important lessons that he really started to notice. For him it really seamed like he was getting somewhere new and real in his walk with God that he never really had when he was younger even though he knew God most his life. differentiation
As I said before his parents were responsible and wanted to train their son well in the ways of God. So to benefit his education and keep him from being exposed to all the evil influences that lie in the public schools they decided to homeschool him. Yes it did seem to limit his number of friends and some would call him "sheltered", but by the time he got to highschool we was glad his parents decided to homeschool him. When he turned 16 it was time for him to have the responsibility and experience of a job. It wasn't that the young lad was irresponsible because his parents had taught him much about responsibility it was just that getting a job was a part of that teaching.
The lad put in applications for a few restaurants, but never heard much of anything back. Eventually he was forced to apply at the one place in town he really didn't want to apply at, but they were hiring so he went ahead and applied. A few weeks later he was interviewed and got the job.
This restaurant in Seattle Washington was a place which was mostly filled with people that definitely were not the desired crowed of people for a Christian. However, because of his parents desire for him to get a job he had to try working there and stick with it for a little while.
The next days he worked were days where he was exposed to pretty much everything he had always tried to stay away from. Most of the people he worked with had bad language problems, smoked, had tattoos, were not Christians, and made sinful connotations with the words they said. For the lad who had been kept away from most of those things most of the time during his life it was a culture shock and just a huge burden to constantly be bombarded with these sins he wasn't used to. The lad had to constantly make sure he didn't let the words seep into his mind, change his heart, and then become like them. Which was a big burden besides having a real job for the first time.
Often times the lad wondered why he a fine breed of Christians had to be with people that were totally not on his level. In a sense the lad felt like he was higher up on the imaginative American caste system. Then why did he have to be with these people and work with them he often asked himself.
Then one day he was listening to a new band he was introduced to and found one of the songs to be quite good sounding. However, when he actually started to listen to the words in the song they really hit him because it explained exactly how he felt about his experiences at his job. The lyrics also showed him where to find hope and he was finally able to start to understand why he had to work with those people. Its wasn't just because his parents made him do it, but because it was God's plan for him at that time. The song went something like this -
Broken hearted friends of mine
Lives of a lost and wasted time
And I stand watching with hot tears
Longing for you hearts to hear
And Jesus, Jesus don't you feel this pain?
They think I'm insane
I call on your name, Lord
The journey how to be that friend
For out of me you love for them
Cause they don't seam to understand
And I can not relate to them
And Jesus, Jesus don't you feel this pain?
They think I'm insane
I call on your name
And the greatest cry will rise from hell
Since Satan and his angels fell
Cause you take back the world you dreamed
Perfected for eternity
And I know that some will not come home
And that it hurts your heart more than mine own
But, you my God are in control
You'll never give up on my soul
In that I finally find my hope
The lad felt like he worked with those who waste their time and he could not relate to them at all because he had always been a "good kid." The lad knew that some of his workers would not make it to heaven when the time came for them to leave earth, but because God is always in control the lad knew that he had hope. Hope that he could keep from being influenced in bad ways and hope that he could influence others in good ways with God's help. Whatever the outcome of his work at his job he knew that he would not lose God or his love.
This tale is based on a true story. The song was written by Coastal Rise, is called Of Mine, and can be found on iTunes.
As I said before his parents were responsible and wanted to train their son well in the ways of God. So to benefit his education and keep him from being exposed to all the evil influences that lie in the public schools they decided to homeschool him. Yes it did seem to limit his number of friends and some would call him "sheltered", but by the time he got to highschool we was glad his parents decided to homeschool him. When he turned 16 it was time for him to have the responsibility and experience of a job. It wasn't that the young lad was irresponsible because his parents had taught him much about responsibility it was just that getting a job was a part of that teaching.
The lad put in applications for a few restaurants, but never heard much of anything back. Eventually he was forced to apply at the one place in town he really didn't want to apply at, but they were hiring so he went ahead and applied. A few weeks later he was interviewed and got the job.
This restaurant in Seattle Washington was a place which was mostly filled with people that definitely were not the desired crowed of people for a Christian. However, because of his parents desire for him to get a job he had to try working there and stick with it for a little while.
The next days he worked were days where he was exposed to pretty much everything he had always tried to stay away from. Most of the people he worked with had bad language problems, smoked, had tattoos, were not Christians, and made sinful connotations with the words they said. For the lad who had been kept away from most of those things most of the time during his life it was a culture shock and just a huge burden to constantly be bombarded with these sins he wasn't used to. The lad had to constantly make sure he didn't let the words seep into his mind, change his heart, and then become like them. Which was a big burden besides having a real job for the first time.
Often times the lad wondered why he a fine breed of Christians had to be with people that were totally not on his level. In a sense the lad felt like he was higher up on the imaginative American caste system. Then why did he have to be with these people and work with them he often asked himself.
Then one day he was listening to a new band he was introduced to and found one of the songs to be quite good sounding. However, when he actually started to listen to the words in the song they really hit him because it explained exactly how he felt about his experiences at his job. The lyrics also showed him where to find hope and he was finally able to start to understand why he had to work with those people. Its wasn't just because his parents made him do it, but because it was God's plan for him at that time. The song went something like this -
Broken hearted friends of mine
Lives of a lost and wasted time
And I stand watching with hot tears
Longing for you hearts to hear
And Jesus, Jesus don't you feel this pain?
They think I'm insane
I call on your name, Lord
The journey how to be that friend
For out of me you love for them
Cause they don't seam to understand
And I can not relate to them
And Jesus, Jesus don't you feel this pain?
They think I'm insane
I call on your name
And the greatest cry will rise from hell
Since Satan and his angels fell
Cause you take back the world you dreamed
Perfected for eternity
And I know that some will not come home
And that it hurts your heart more than mine own
But, you my God are in control
You'll never give up on my soul
In that I finally find my hope
The lad felt like he worked with those who waste their time and he could not relate to them at all because he had always been a "good kid." The lad knew that some of his workers would not make it to heaven when the time came for them to leave earth, but because God is always in control the lad knew that he had hope. Hope that he could keep from being influenced in bad ways and hope that he could influence others in good ways with God's help. Whatever the outcome of his work at his job he knew that he would not lose God or his love.
This tale is based on a true story. The song was written by Coastal Rise, is called Of Mine, and can be found on iTunes.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
What is This Life all About?
I am no scientist, but I believe that I can reduce the equations of the whole universe that is known down to one word, love. God decided to create us so he could have domination over us, but he decided to give us the choice to love Him because he wanted real love. Now God doesn't need our love, but He wants our love. God wants our love so much that he sent His son to die for us to that we could live on after death with Him and praise His name forever. God did not send a "special" human, or one of his angels, but He sent His son who was as much a part of Himself as your are to yourself.
If you think about it Lucifer falling from heaven, Adam and Eve sinning, and Jesus dying for us on the cross was all God's plan to be able to show us His love so that we would love Him by choice not because we must. I just think that it's insane to think about how God was willing to see sin enter his creation, mess it all up, see many men who were made very good die, and worst of all see His son die painfully so that He could get our love. That is an insane amount of love for us and desire for our love.
Suppose you went through what Job went through willingly so that you could show love to and get love from someone who you had complete power over and ability to destroy and recreate them. I mean a fair amount of people have said that they would die for their loved one. However, that is only one person to die for and death (if you know God) really isn't that bad.
Christ died for all people that have ever lived and took on all their sin! God is so righteous that He can't even have sin near Him! And yet He chose to take on all our sin just so that He could show His love for us and so that we could love Him.
People describe God's love as indescribable, incredible, or whatever else, but I think that there is no way that we can somehow put a word to how much God loves us. Therefore, I measure God's amount of love for us as unmeasurable. Profoundly come to partial realization of how much God loves you and your mind will be blown away. God did all of this around us for us so that we may love Him more and more each moment.
If you think about it Lucifer falling from heaven, Adam and Eve sinning, and Jesus dying for us on the cross was all God's plan to be able to show us His love so that we would love Him by choice not because we must. I just think that it's insane to think about how God was willing to see sin enter his creation, mess it all up, see many men who were made very good die, and worst of all see His son die painfully so that He could get our love. That is an insane amount of love for us and desire for our love.
Suppose you went through what Job went through willingly so that you could show love to and get love from someone who you had complete power over and ability to destroy and recreate them. I mean a fair amount of people have said that they would die for their loved one. However, that is only one person to die for and death (if you know God) really isn't that bad.
Christ died for all people that have ever lived and took on all their sin! God is so righteous that He can't even have sin near Him! And yet He chose to take on all our sin just so that He could show His love for us and so that we could love Him.
People describe God's love as indescribable, incredible, or whatever else, but I think that there is no way that we can somehow put a word to how much God loves us. Therefore, I measure God's amount of love for us as unmeasurable. Profoundly come to partial realization of how much God loves you and your mind will be blown away. God did all of this around us for us so that we may love Him more and more each moment.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Lyrical Weaknesses
Proclaimer: The content in this blog post may be slightly offending to some people or some people may not agree, but I am just merely trying to state what I think.
So lately I have been thinking about worship songs. A lot of times I feel like we sometimes end up singing worship songs without really realizing what were singing. I know that we know that we are worshiping God, but are we thinking about what the words we say really mean?
Because of this realization of possible unrealisation of meanings I decided to start thinking about what I am actually singing when worshiping. Sadly what I have realized happens to not always be very good. I have listened and read the lyrics of some of our worship songs and realized that sometimes either the words and phrases are grammatically incorrect, confusing, or not always saying something correct.
I don't want to specifically pick out a song and explain what I think is wrong about the lyrics because I don't want to be going around critiquing and putting down people's work. However, I will say that I think that we should start to put real meanings into our worship songs. Put lyrics straight from the scriptures in, I don't want to be singing words that aren't correct to my savior. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I feel like there are a lot of Christian rap songs out there that are much more meaningful and doctrinally sound than most worship songs out there. However, this doesn't really fix our lyric problems because rap doesn't really work for congregational worship.
I think we should really evaluate the lyrics of the songs that we sing in church. If the words are not doctrinally sound I personally don't what to be singing them. Why waste my time singing songs that don't make sense or are not quite correct. However, I must say that even if the words are not exactly correct much more of worship is really about the heart and what we mean to say to God. To be honest I don't really think that its too much of a problem if the lyrics aren't exactly grammatically correct if our hearts are in the right place. Having good lyrics are very beneficial, but not exactly crucial.
Know what your saying when you worship, don't be just haphazardly sing the words. Profoundly examine what your singing so that you are not just "singing words".
Disclaimer: Now I'm not saying that all worship songs have problems or that the ones you play at your church do, but I'm saying that this is what I have realized from some of my observations of songs around me. I'm not trying to hate on worship songs, but just to examine them.
So lately I have been thinking about worship songs. A lot of times I feel like we sometimes end up singing worship songs without really realizing what were singing. I know that we know that we are worshiping God, but are we thinking about what the words we say really mean?
Because of this realization of possible unrealisation of meanings I decided to start thinking about what I am actually singing when worshiping. Sadly what I have realized happens to not always be very good. I have listened and read the lyrics of some of our worship songs and realized that sometimes either the words and phrases are grammatically incorrect, confusing, or not always saying something correct.
I don't want to specifically pick out a song and explain what I think is wrong about the lyrics because I don't want to be going around critiquing and putting down people's work. However, I will say that I think that we should start to put real meanings into our worship songs. Put lyrics straight from the scriptures in, I don't want to be singing words that aren't correct to my savior. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I feel like there are a lot of Christian rap songs out there that are much more meaningful and doctrinally sound than most worship songs out there. However, this doesn't really fix our lyric problems because rap doesn't really work for congregational worship.
I think we should really evaluate the lyrics of the songs that we sing in church. If the words are not doctrinally sound I personally don't what to be singing them. Why waste my time singing songs that don't make sense or are not quite correct. However, I must say that even if the words are not exactly correct much more of worship is really about the heart and what we mean to say to God. To be honest I don't really think that its too much of a problem if the lyrics aren't exactly grammatically correct if our hearts are in the right place. Having good lyrics are very beneficial, but not exactly crucial.
Know what your saying when you worship, don't be just haphazardly sing the words. Profoundly examine what your singing so that you are not just "singing words".
Disclaimer: Now I'm not saying that all worship songs have problems or that the ones you play at your church do, but I'm saying that this is what I have realized from some of my observations of songs around me. I'm not trying to hate on worship songs, but just to examine them.
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