Monday, March 31, 2008

Oswald Chambers on Prayer

This year one of my daily devotional resources is Oswald Chambers' 'My Utmost for His Highest'. I must admit that some of them kind of pass over my head, but this morning's caught my attention...

The reason many of us leave off praying and become hard towards God is because we have only a sentimental interest in prayer. It sounds right to say that we pray; we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial, that our minds are quieted and our souls uplifted when we pray; but Isaiah implies that God is amazed at such thoughts of prayer.

Worship and intercession must go together, the one is impossible without the other. Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ about the one for whom we pray. Too often instead of worshipping God, we construct statements as to how prayer works. Are we worshipping or are we in dispute with God - "I don't see how You are going to do it." This is a sure sign that we are not worshipping. When we lose sight of God we become hard and dogmatic. We hurl our own petitions at God's throne and dictate to Him as to what we wish Him to do. We do not worship God, nor do we seek to form the mind of Christ. If we are hard towards God, we will become hard towards other people.

Are we so worshipping God that we rouse our selves up to lay hold on Him so that we may be brought into contact with His mind about the ones for whom we pray? Are we living in a holy relationship to God, or are we hard and dogmatic?

"But there is no one interceding properly" - then be that one yourself, be the one who worships God and who lives in holy relationship to Him. Get into the real work of intercession, and
remember it is a work, a work that taxes every power; but a work which has no snare.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

I'm Back...

I didn't intend to take 2 months off from blogging - it just kind of happened. It has been an extra busy time at work and I'm in the midst of a 3-month stint as chairman of the elders. So far during this 3 month period we have gone through a reaffirmation process (for the first time ever at Skillman) of 1/3 of the current elders, have had the retirement of our senior adults minister, the resignation of our worship minister, our annual congregational business meeting (as required by Texas state law for non-profits), and the regular congregational meeting that we have on the 5th Sunday of each of the months that have 5 Sundays - and I have another month to go....

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My original bracket has North Carolina beating Memphis in the finals - I am still in good shape on that half of my bracket. I won't bring up the fact that my other 2 final 4 selections were Duke and Georgetown...