Monthly Archives: April 2023

April 30th, 2023

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Prayer is a global phenomenon. About 85 % of the world’s population are part of a world religion where prayer of some form is an integral part of their lives. Muslims pray 5 times a day. Jews pray 3 times a day. Buddists pray with the use of motion in a flag or a cylinder. Hindus pray to multiple gods.  Even Atheists admit to praying in times of desperation. Why is this? Why is it that billions of people across different religions, cultures and levels of prosperity all participate in prayer? Prayer has been and will continue to be a deep desire in humanity because we are created in the image of God, and in all humans is the desire to have a connection with where we came from. But it is only in Christianity that prayer draws the individual to an intimate exchange with God. That intimacy is revealed in the fact that Christians call God Father, because he is the origin of our existence. In no other religion is God as personal or accessible to the follower. 

One of the most rewarding aspects of being a father is when his children call him father and talk with him. And when a child cries out “father” or “daddy” or “appa” the father wastes no time in responding and taking action to alleviate the distress that caused the cry. The father and child relationship is a great example of what Prayer is. We cry out to our heavenly father for help and He is quick to hear and respond to our needs. Jesus tells us we need to have the faith of a child to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But that attitude of childlike faith needs to be an attitude of our ongoing relationship with our Father in heaven. Prayer is the habit of talking with God as a child talks with their father. Join us this Sunday as we look at the Healthy Habit of Prayer.

Additional Resources

Book – Prayer by Tim Keller

RightNow Media personal Study – The Disciplines of Abiding

Article – The Prayer God Answers

Podcast – The Role of Faith in Prayerhttps://share.transistor.fm/s/72a4f559

Article by Local Author – A (God-Centered) Path from Anxiety to Peace

Video – Introduction to Prayer

Book – Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough, revised and updated: A Practical Guide to Nine Biblical Fasts

Article – The Pur­pose of Fasting

April 23, 2023

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Unfortunately, much of Christianity has a very narrow understanding of worship. That worship is confined to that part of the Sunday service where we sing. Or that we haven’t really worshiped unless we have a strong emotional response to a “worship experience.” Worship is so much more and the best way to understand all that worship entails is to simplify its definition. Worship is the practice of being with God.  In John 4:23 Jesus tells us the Father seeks worshipers. In his book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster defines worship as, “. . . our response to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father.” The more you hear the heart of God from His Word and understand the depths of His love for you, the deeper and more intimate your worship of Him will be. 

The Devil is a sneaky guy who wants to prevent the Christian from experiencing true intimacy with God, so he does his utmost to fill our lives with everything else but being with God. As we develop the habit of being with God we need to consider making room in our lives for times of solitude, to come apart from all the noise of this world and simply be with God. This Sunday we will spend some time in Psalm 27 where David says he will “inquire in the beauty of the Lord.” In an art museum benches are placed in front of the works of art to afford the museum guests a place to fully inquire to the beauty of the art. The world we live in, including nature and our fellow humans, are God’s creation. It is through those we will see the beauty of God, if we will only take the time to be with God. Join us this Sunday as we continue our Healthy Habits Campaign with understanding how worship needs to be a regular habit of our lives. 

This Week’s Resources

April 16th, 2023

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This Sunday we are starting a Church Wide Campaign – Healthy Habits for Spiritual Growth. The elders of the church have established a discipleship pathway, through which, we desire to lead our congregation to a closer relationship with God as well as strengthen the ministry of our church. Healthy Habits is one phase of the discipleship pathway. Over the next 6 weeks what I preach on Sunday will be reinforced through a Bible Study during the week. All of our Small Groups will be doing these studies, but if you are not in a small group you can do them individually with the materials provided in our weekly newsletter / digital program. We are asking our congregation to make a commitment to participate in the Healthy Habits Campaign in the following ways: 1) to attend or watch on YouTube each of the Sunday services 2) to do the Bible Study through the week, either in a group or on your own and 3) regardless of where you are in your spiritual journey, ask God to reveal areas of your life He desires to change during our Healthy Habits Campaign. You can share your commitment digitally or by paper copy and placing them in the plastic receptacle on the stage at the services this Sunday.

This Week’s Resources