Mission Faithwalk

You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:2-3)           Sunday morning, Pastor Scott challenged us with the idea of listing ten “Big God Prayers” for the coming year. Those prayers are the sort that we can’t answer. They are also the sort of prayers that a lesser god, like the ones we tend to want to serve, can’t handle. They demand an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, true and living God, and they demand trust and obedience from us. They’re the sort of prayer that I am afraid to pray. It’s not that God can’t do more than all I ask, but that my asking will mean that God has to say “No” because anything I ask is the wrong thing, my motives are wrong – I want it to glorify me, not God. ...

He also hired one hundred thousand mighty men of valor from Israel for one hundred talents of silver.             But a man of God came to him, saying, “O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel – not with any of the children of Ephraim. But if you go, be gone! Be strong in battle! Even so, God shall make you fall before the enemy; for God has power to help and to overthrow.” (II Chronicles 25:6-8)             Don’t let our fellow Israelites help us? Our brothers-in-arms? They’re our allies against Edom. After the split between Judah and Israel, at least at times, there seemed to be this notion that they were allies. Israel might have been doing evil, but it was Israel, they were fellow descendants from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and isn’t the enemy of my enemy my ally?          ...

           A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.              David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, A...

  The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-4)   “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)   And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 4:19)   I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.   I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:12-13)             Tod...

So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”           He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Af ter he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.              They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:6-9)           ...

                  In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:1-5)           In one of the classes I attend, we’re going to start the books of Acts. I don’t know if I’m going to make it a part of what I share here, but I thought I’d get a head sta...

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’           But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’          I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 18:10-14)   In another of Jesus’ parables, He tells of two pray-ers, and their prayers. At the time that He told it, those who heard it might have had a different response than we do. Pharisees were the do-gooders, the ones who were supposed to know. They decided...

  Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ f or some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:1-8)   This is a teaching on prayer that at first sight, seems more than a little strange. Why would Jesus compare...

  And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.   But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 5:5-6)           “I want nothing to do with the church, it’s full of hypocrites.”          “Mother Theresa went to church”           “Then Mother Theresa was a hypocrite.”          I suspect there are people who would make this claim. I’m just using it as an example of how ridiculous the charges of hypocrisy can be. The reality is a little different. Humanity is fallen and sinful, and among those sins is hypocrisy. You are a hum...

Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots (Luke 23:32-34) But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?   Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:44-48)           Just after the Beatitudes, and just before Jesus taught His disciples to...

          “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” (Luke 22:42-26)             Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”...

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Luke (22:31-32)   “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man, himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD . (Job 1:9-12)             We have to back up a little. I forgot a prayer from earlier in the night than the High Priestly Prayer. It was sort of easy to forget because Jesus didn’t even pray it where anyone can hear. He just reports having pr...