My Online Faith Journal

    This book I mentioned in the last post has really gotten me thinking about prayer and why we pray.  It also got me to thinking about the church and where it is today.  It is just my opinion, but it seems to me that the church today lacks the power and authority that it should have.  You look at the church in the New Testament and you see the ground shake when the believers prayed.  You hear stories of how the early christians faced death in the lions dens and in other ways with courage and strength.  Then, I look at my own life and it seems there is a total absence of that kind of strength.  I don't see it in my life and I don't see it in most christians lives that I know of, so what is the problem here?     I'm not sure, but I came away from this book feeling convicted that I need to pray more.  I know that that is true, but sometimes it is easy to talk about and not to do.  I get busy and with a lot of other things prayer gets put on the back burner.  Yet, as busy a

   Recently, I picked up a book at the library called "Talking with My Father" by Ray Stedman.  The late Ray Stedman was a great bible preacher and teacher, so I was anxioius to read what he had to say.  I have heard him preach on several internet sermon sites.  So far, I have not been disappointed with this little book.  It appears that the chapters were adapted from sermons that he preached on prayer.            One of the first passages that he quotes is in Luke 18:1-18.  The parable is about an unjust judge and ruler who is bothered by a widow who is seeking justice for herself.  She decides she will bother the judge until she gets justice.  The story is one of contrast.  Jesus is contrasting the unjust judge with a just God.  In effect, Jesus is saying that unlike this judge, God is a willing giver of gifts.  God is like a merciful Father, who loves his children and is willing to give.    Ray makes a comment early on in the book that really struck me as interesting

"And behold, they were bringing to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed; and Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, "Take courage, My son, your sins are forgiven."" Matthew 9:2         This appears to be the same story where the young man is lower from the roof to Jesus by his friends (also mentioned in Luke 5:18-26).  Jesus is in the middle of a home, one of the few times we see him teaching inside, and the roof is literally taken off the house to get this paralyzed man to Jesus.  Seeing their faith, Jesus responds to them.  That is so important to get.  It was the faith of those present, who were desperate to get this man to Jesus, that made this miracle possible.  God honors our faith even when it is as small as a mustard seed.       Isn't it interesting though, that the sickness that Jesus first mentions is not the physical illness.  The Bible clearly states that this sickness affects us all.  Paul said in Ephesians 2:1 "And you were dead in you

   One of the best books I read to help me understand the church and its problems was a book by Edwin Friedman called "Generation to Generation" http://www.amazon.com/Generation-Family-Process-Church-Synagogue/dp/0898620597  .  What I got out of the book, is that Friedman compares churches and synagogues to families (Friedman is Jewish).   In the sense that, families have role and expectations of each member and so do churches.  This expectation is set whether it is consciously acknowledged or not.    These expectations and roles that churches have, both of their congregations and the ministers in them often will lead to conflict.  When one or more members is not living up to the role or trying to take on a role that is not designated to them.  This can be particularly difficult for a new situation where the roles and expectations have not been clearly voiced or understood or where the expectations were different somewhere else.  I think this is, in part, what led to some c

  I decided this morning since I could not sleep to do some Bible study in the gospel of Mark.  This site in particular seemed like a good bible study tool  http://bible.cc/   As I was studying Jesus' words, I noticed his first sentence in this gospel starts with "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdome of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." Mark 1:15   Looking at that a little more in depth, we see that Jesus said that the time for his coming was fulfilled.  God set aside a time, mentioned in Daniel 9:24-27, when his messiah would come.  This was a time in history when it was perfect for the Son of God to come.  The Romans had made a universal language that made the telling of the gospel story easier.  They had made roads to make it easier to travel and spread the gospel.  But, unlike today, most people's hearts were not cold to the gospel and many were open to hearing the message preached.  It seems today that for many people they have already decid

  In Hosea 13:5b-6 it says, "In the land of drought. As they had their pasture, they became satisfied. And being satisfied, their hearts became proud; Therefore, they forgot Me."      In several instances in the book of Hosea, God goes back to the time of Egypt.  When he led the people of Israel across a land of drought to the promise land.  Here he does so again, reminding the people that when they reached the promise land they quickly forgot Him.  Moses warned the people before they entered the promise land that this would happen.  Yet, it was not only in the promise land that they strayed from Him.  It just made it easier to walk away.  They also disobeyed him in the desert also time and time again.  When times got tough they accused God and Moses of leading them into the desert to kill them.     It is easy to point fingers at the people of Israel saying that I would not do that.  But, the truth is that this is a part of our sin nature.  This tendency to be self-suffic