Jesus heals a young girl who had died, and a woman who touched his garment
Opening Prayer 7:05-7:20
Lord, you promised that when two or three of us are gathered in your name, you are there – which means there is power in numbers! Therefore, together we ask for your blessings to be poured out upon those who have asked for your help and healing.
We would also ask the same for all of us here tonight gathered here to learn more about your Word.
Please bless our lives, families, our health, our friends, our work, and, most of all, our relationship with you.
Finally, Lord, we ask the Holy Spirit to fill the Zoom Air between us: open our ears so we can discern your words; open our minds so that we may receive wisdom and understanding; and open our spirits so that we learn to reflect your love onto all those who cross our paths. We ask these things through your Son, Jesus Christ.
And as he taught us to pray:
Our Father who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.
Lead us through all our trials and temptations
And deliver us from evil.
Amen
The Lord’s Prayer III
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
Our Father who art in heaven … Thy Kingdom Come … on earth as it is in Heaven.
This statement (Thy Kingdom Come) is a bridge, connecting God in the preceding statement to earth in following statement. This linkage is not by accident. God’s Kingdom in Heaven is now also to be established on earth. This is the era that Jesus came to usher in. Ushering in the Kingdom is what Jesus came to do. He came to remove humanity’s barrier (corporal sin & spiritual death) that lies between us and Heaven, which then allowed the Holy Spirit to come and help us with our job of bringing the Kingdom here. Because of this, some call our time the “era of the Holy Spirit,” but the HS would probably say it’s our era. Jesus opened the door for us, and the Holy Spirit has been sent to take us by the hand and help us walk through that door.
Q: Have you ever thought, “Too bad our first parents weren’t so bright, taking the apple. If it had been me….!”
Yes or no, we now get our chance. Because Christ reversed the Fall of Man, it’s kind of like going back in time to the Garden of Eden before the Fall, except this time we get to make our own choices. The first door we must walk through is to accept God’s offer to return to Him which is made possible through the merits of Christ. The second part is our new partnership with the Holy Spirit where we actually start using our free-will as God originally intended and as Jesus extensively taught and showed us: exercising love in everything we do.
You see, God’s offer (though Jesus Christ) is His Absolute Love that nobody can take away from us. That nobody can take from us means that Heaven is ours to lose. God’s offer of love is absolute, but for love to exist it must be two-way. The receiver must reciprocate in order for the love offer to be accepted and complete.
Q: How does a lover of God reciprocate?
First we must remember that love is a verb, an action word. Words only have truth to the extent that they are lived. If someone apologizes for bad behavior but doesn’t change their behavior, how real was the apology?
If we tell someone we love them but then treat them selfishly or betray their trust, have we reciprocated?
If we say we love our neighbor and even our enemies and yet we still curse people who cross our paths for whatever unfortunate reason (it doesn’t matter what), is your “love of neighbor” real, or just words?
Q: How is it possible to exercise love in all we do? Is that even remotely possible?
On our own, No. That’s why we have the Holy Spirit. If we don’t use him this way, then the Holy Spirit is just a picture on the wall, not part of who we are. God wants to take us through a learning process – that’s why we’re here – to learn to be more like Him. It means instead of using our own egos as our conscience, we learn to use the HS in this way instead. We should be talking to Him all the time. This is the way God delivers wisdom to humans – through all the trials and errors, and talking through our successes and failures, with the HS.
To make all this even easier, Christ paid for our forgiveness so that it’s free for the asking.
Let me repeat that, “forgiveness-is-free- for-the-asking.” God will not force forgiveness on anyone unless he plans to eliminate human free-will. Therefore, we need to emulate the humility of Christ and ask for forgiveness throughout all our life’s lessons, especially in the small stuff.
The Holy Spirit is also the “yoke” in our relationship with Christ, because everything the Holy Spirit says or does, one way or another, points us towards Christ.
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart; and you will find rest. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” - Mt 11:25-30
Q: Do you recall how a yoke works?
Note that whatever is yoked moves together, in perfect unison. In effect, this cuts the load in half for each of them and accomplishes twice as much. When we allow Christ to become our conscience instead of our ego, then we start to move in unison with him more and more. That’s the goal. This is relationship with the Trinity!
Q: In the beginning for me, the idea of yoking myself to Christ seemed utterly nonsense, if not downright claustrophobic, not just because I have claustrophobia, but metaphorically! Where was my freedom? So I ask you, does yoking to Christ mean we give up our freedom?
Not at all. You see, without Christ we have the weight and worries of our lives all by ourselves. It’s not our freedom we’re giving up but our egos.
We were not designed to operate without God. If we were laptops, separating from God is like unplugging ourselves from the wall and then operating arrogantly on our backup battery.
Thy Will Be Done, On Earth As It Is In Heaven
The Fall of Man – of all humanity – is when our will replaces God’s will. This is the same as self-centeredness – or apathy – replacing God’s perfect love and perfect wisdom.
By sending Christ to us, God shows us what His will looks like. It’s called Agape in Greek and Caritas in Latin: it is all-giving, all-loving, patient, kind, forgiving, self-sacrificing love. These are Jesus’ requirements for gaining the Kingdom of God which he states throughout the Gospels; e.g., the Sermon on the Mount, in the Parable of the Talents, and his very specific explanation to the Apostles about how to get into heaven:
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? … “The King replied, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. – Mt 25:34-41
These examples are both literal and metaphorical. “I was hungry/thirsty/sick/a stranger” also means being we should be present, considerate, and helpful to everyone in our lives, regardless if these “brothers and sisters of the Lord” are co-workers, neighbors, a clerk at the 7-11, or in idiot in traffic. Christ wishes to live with us in the minutia of or lives. God starts small all the time. If we get it right small, then we will be ready for the big when it comes.
Q: What does prayer, faith, will, humility, surrender, relationship with God, and wisdom have in common?
Our relationship with God is like a boat trying to dock, where we are the boat and God is the dock. When humans pray, they often try to pull the dock to their boat, but that's not a very effective praying strategy. We need to pull ourselves to the dock. The dock is God’s will. The goal is surrendering our will to His.
We are the boat and God’s will is the dock. Should we pull God to us, or pull ourselves to God?
As for surrendering, doing God’s will versus our own is not a matter of eliminating our will. It is the education of our will, just as a disciple learns wisdom from his teacher. If the boat is our will, and the dock is God’s will, we aren’t eliminating the boat! We are pulling our boat into alignment with God. It is this process that grants wisdom and transforms us into children of God.
As to initial question above: prayer requires faith; God’s will in our life requires surrender of our self-will (self-centeredness) which itself requires humility; true relationship results from this kind of prayer; and we gain God’s wisdom from this relationship.
Q: Paul had a weakness, a thorn in his thigh, so to speak. He complained to God to remove it. God refused and said to Paul: “My strength is made perfect in your weakness.” (2Cor12:9) What does God mean?
Well, what God didn’t say is that His strength is made perfect in Paul’s strengths, because humans don’t tend to ask for help when they are experiencing success and confidence. Nor is it likely this is where we need help. On the other hand, we pray for help where we need it most, which is often tied to some present weakness. God gladly works with us in our weaknesses, whatever they are. In this way, our weaknesses slowly become God’s strength in us!
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