How do I Pray?

One of my Facebook friends asked people in her friends list how they pray. I shared this on her post. Not that my prayer patterns need to be exactly the same for you, but still I thought it might help someone else who's struggling in prayer to encounter God more fully, so here it is:

I pray randomly as I go through my day... about everything.
1 Thes. 5:16-18 16 Rejoice evermore. 17 Pray without ceasing. 18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

That isn't personal enough for me though so I also try to spend time alone with God as I can, and I like to pray uninterrupted for more than an hour because it seems that is when my breakthrough comes. I'm not sure, but this is perhaps because it takes me that long to get my mind on more spiritual things and off the distractions of everyday life.
Matthew 6:6-8 "6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him."
Matthew 26:40-41 "40 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed [is] willing, but the flesh [is] weak."

I also try to pray according to the "pattern" (not a repetition of words, but according to the method) that Jesus gave His Disciples, because this is HOW He said to pray: Addressed to the Father, with Praise, seeking His will over my own, then with petition (requests), asking in a repentant spirit, asking for deliverance from the plan of Satan, and finally more praise.
Matthew 6:9-13 "9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as [it is] in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."

I pray in faith and under the authority of Christ. Faith is based upon the word of God not upon my wishes or my hopes. Hope is like the soil, but faith is the seed. If my prayers are based on what He has promised in His word, I can be confident that they are His will. (I usually have my bible right with me for reference.) "In His NAME" is not just a proper ending for a prayer, but a statement of authority... I am asking IN his authority, as He has given me His name and His authority comes with it..
Mark 11:24 "24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."
John 16:23 "And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you."
1 John 5:14-15 "14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him."

I also like to have some paper and a pen close by, in case the Lord speaks something to me I want to remember. This also comes in handy if I want to make a list of requests or promises that I want to continue to bring before God later. Satan will steal your God given thoughts if given the opportunity, so I do my best to combat that by writing down what I want to retain.



There's much more I could add, but this is a good start. Hope this helps someone!
Pastor Jerry

Born Broken

As many of you probably know our oldest daughter Lindsey recently graduated college, accepted a position in a local school district, and has begun to teach.  She has a double major, but took a job as an Intervention Specialist working with kids in the K-3 age range.  She has her first week of working with these kids behind her but a whole career ahead of her.

In relation to education, Intervention Specialist is a relatively new term for most of us who aren't involved in the educational system. The position operates within the field of special education, with a focus on children who generally have more severe physical, cognitive, behavioral or communication delays than the majority of other kids. This can be caused by a host of reasons, so each child has an individualized education program (IEP) and at first, their goals are usually more developmental than academic.

As a new teacher, and especially as a person with a very soft and loving heart, Lindsey is struggling greatly with the fact that so many of these kids seem to be so broken at such a young age. Not only are they difficult to reach, but her heart breaks for them because of their circumstances.  This could be seen in her tears earlier this week.

Many of these students are in their current quandary due to poor parental choices, apathy, or unconcern. Others have dealt with, or are dealing with, neglect or abuse from someone in the home. Some it seems, were not given a fair chance to succeed even from birth because they have not experienced proper love from a parent. Some of them have developmental disabilities or other struggles that have put them behind the majority of the students. Perhaps their struggle is even because of a genetic trait that pushes them toward a disability. Whatever the reason, because so many things are stacked against them, they falter. It's almost as though some of these kids need someone to save them from themselves.

Lindsey's job is to help them get on track, help them develop properly and even catch up if possible, or in other words, to give them a fighting chance.  Her main task is perhaps to let each child know that someone believes in them, someone is fighting for them, someone is with them. Although this assignment is very heavy and extremely difficult, I believe that given time she will absolutely excel in her task.

Thinking about the difficulty of her job in the first full week of school, and the struggles that the kids are dealing with today, I recently shared with her that I feel that she has been placed with these hurting children by design.  I think the Lord has called her to this. She's made for it!  And, if that is the case, then He has also equipped her to succeed.

Thinking of the struggles and brokenness that so many of these kids seem to deal with caused me to realize that, honestly, we are all born broken. Sin has broken our relationship with God. Sickness, depravity and addictions are real inherited conditions. Racism, hatred, elitism, divides us from one another and causes us to act in a character unlike God. We find ourselves in spiritual disability, needing someone to save us from ourselves. We need to know what love really is. We need someone to believe in us and show us there is hope. We need someone to come alongside us and fight for us, someone who believes in us.

Thank God for Jesus! Thank God that we have access to all that and more, in Him!! Also, thank God for godly men and women of character who will come alongside us to teach us, or mentor us, in the ways of Christ and help give us a fighting chance! Thank the Lord for people in the Kingdom of God, who like an intervention specialist in the education system, will take the time and effort to fight for us and with us, to see that we succeed. We were ALL born broken, but thank God, we are born again through Christ and with His help and the help of others we will develop into His likeness!

The Missing Link in Modern Christianity...

I have been in a time of extreme pursuit, for clarity of God’s plan for our church, Abundant Life Tabernacle, Mansfield, Ohio. I have prayed, searched the Word and looked deep within my heart to see what God was saying and what I was missing, or even resisting. I feel like I have heard some things.  Some of them are hard to accept and some are pleasant.  I am about to share many of these things during the next few Sundays (from the time of this writing), but you may or may not have heard the crux of them by the time of this printing so I want to share a few things here.  What I am sharing today deals with Discipleship.

One of the missing elements of the modern church, Christianity’s missing link if you will, is a real focus on discipleship.  It's been lost as a focus it seems, for more than 100 years. Remnants remained until about 40 to 50 years ago, but those have mostly been lost now as well.  Sure, we do some discipleship naturally because of relationships that form within the Body, and that’s great!  Discipleship should happen naturally. But in large, it seems to me that it has been missing from the majority of the Body of Christ for a very long time. 

Biblical Discipleship has been so ignored in the modern Church that few even know what it is now.  I recently saw a study that was done by the Barna Group and published by the Navigators.  In the study, a host of things were explored but the question was also asked, “What is discipleship?” The researchers found that it was unclear, to much of the church, what a good definition of Discipleship is.  Many disagreed upon the particulars, as we Christians so often do.  It was found that most in the church didn’t particularly like the term either, preferring “Becoming Christ-like” or “Spiritual Growth” to the term “Discipleship.”  And that’s okay, these are valuable terms, and the Bible doesn’t particularly use the term “Disipleship”. Still these terms fall somewhat short of the biblical idea of a disciple. Furthermore, the ‘principle of Discipleship’ is clearly biblical whether the exact term is found or not.  Jesus called followers to himself and then told them that if they were not willing to forsake everything, they were unfit to be disciples. Certainly, He’s still looking for people who will put Him above all else! So, what is discipleship?

I’ve done my own inquiry into the subject and I’ve found that ‘it seems’ that Abundant Life has a little better understanding on the subject than most, but then again the Barna Study said that pastors often think that (lol).  Our experience in understanding Discipleship, in general, has been that most people have understood it from the perspective of a weekly Bible Class, or a short term class on Christianity; the art of being Christian, if you will.  Another very good thing, yet it falls short. Some will say that discipleship relates to progress in their own spiritual growth.  Progress in spiritual growth is always a wonderful thing for a Christian, but it’s about half of what is Biblical Discipleship. Many people feel that discipleship is the same as evangelism; preaching and winning the lost to Christ.  It can certainly be argued that it falls within the same category, but I don’t think they are the same.  Discipleship is for already-believers of the Good News, while evangelism is to reach not-yet-believers with the Good News.

So what is discipleship? The study I’ve mentioned has said that from the results, “it’s unclear”.  However, I think Jesus made it very clear. He exampled it boldly with His life and then He told His followers to go make other disciples (Matt. 28:19a), “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you”(Matthew 28:20a).  Jesus took twelve believers into a relationship with Him. He spent time with them.  He ate with them.  They did life together!  He lived His life pointing consistently toward the Father.  He corrected them, when they were wrong.  He applauded them when they did well.  He held them accountable and He taught them everything He could possibly teach them in the time they had together.  He doubtless felt sorrow when Peter denied Him and I’m sure felt sadness when Judas betrayed Him, but He didn’t reject the remaining disciples.  He kept on loving.  He kept on pouring into them and He believed that they would accomplish even greater things than He had accomplished in ministry (John 14:11-13).  Jesus lived it, He taught it, and that’s what discipleship looks like.

So, discipleship is not just about my OWN spiritual growth or just about ME becoming Christ-like. It’s ALSO about helping others do the same.  There is a ‘revival’ of discipleship beginning to happen in the world. I am excited to see it!  I believe that God is taking His church back to basics in many areas and again I’m glad to see it!  There is also a new movement of discipleship about to happen here at ALT, and I’m thrilled.  I am fully in favor of the disappearance of the 'missing link in modern Christianity', or I could say I'm excited for the return of biblical discipleship.  Why am I so excited?  Discipleship properly links members of the Body to one another, it links our past to our future, and it's a return of biblical doctrine to the modern church.  I think we are going there!  (Stay tuned…)

Christianity is a Love Affair!

Christianity is a love affair with God.  Being led by the Spirit is about romance with a Savior.  This might sound odd, but Christianity is about God’s love for us, and our love responding to Him.

About 24 years ago, I met a young lady who completely changed my world.  Her name was Tracy. She was beautiful, intelligent, witty, loving, and had a sweet disposition.  Yet she was passionate and fiery and feisty, and was not to be crossed.  When I first noticed her, I was instantly attracted to her but with an introduction and time, that relationship developed. In a while, I realized that she was pursuing me even more so than I had been pursuing her. Once I got to know her, I just couldn’t see my life without her.  I loved everything about her, from her tenderness to her fiery personality.  Finally, I made her my wife.  And all these years later, I’m more in love with her now than I was even back then. Her love has captured me and because of it, I want to be with her as much as possible. 

About 44 years ago I met someone else who completely changed my life. His name was Jesus. He was beautiful, intelligent, witty, loving, with a sweet disposition.  Yet He was passionate and fiery and not to be crossed.  When I first became aware of Him, I was instantly attracted to Him but with an introduction and time that relationship developed. In a while, I realized that He was pursuing me even more so than I had been pursuing Him. Once I got to know Him, I just couldn’t see my life without Him.  I loved everything about Him, from His tenderness to His passion.  Finally, I made Him my Lord.  And all these years later, I’m more in love with Him now than I was even back then. His love has captured me and because of it, I want to be with him as much as possible.

Our relationship with God isn’t about legalistically following a set of rules, it’s about love. Just as faithfulness to my wife, isn’t only about the vows I made to her, it’s about the love I have for her… So it is with my relationship with Christ Jesus. I follow Him in holiness, not just because I’m required to by the Law of God, but because I am passionately in love with Him.  Love causes the Law to be fulfilled in my life. 

I have this little thing that I often say to my wife when she asks me to do something that I may not really want to do. I say, “You know I’d do anything for you babe.” And I mean it! I may not want to do it but if it makes her happy, or makes her life easier and she has asked me for it, I can hardly ever say no. That’s not because it’s required, or because I’m weak, it’s because I’m in love and it gives me pleasure to make her life better.   

The same is true for my Jesus. I will do anything He asks because I’m madly in love with Him. I may not necessarily want to do it, but because he asked me to, I will. I love to make Him happy. I live for Jesus simply because I love Him. I do what I do because He desires it. When His Spirit draws me toward something, or away from something, I joyfully conform because “I’ll do anything for Him.” 

If our love is as strong as it should be, we will willingly comply… not because of the rules, but because of the love. Christianity is a love affair with God.  Being led by the Spirit is about romance with a Savior.  I’ll follow you anywhere Jesus! “Anything for you Lord.”