Prayer that Lives: Living Your Prayers

With so much happening in our world, most specifically our nation, I would be remiss not to mention both the four year anniversary of 9/11, and the devastation of hurricane Katrina along the gulf coast. I know that we all hold those involved in our hearts and prayers. But it also got me to thinking about how we can more concretely facilitate connection to each other and the community of the church through our prayers.

Prayer has long been one of my favorite subjects. The Heavenly Doctrine for the New Church describes prayer as: speech with God (AC 2535), disposing ourselves to what is holy (AC 3054), adoration in worship (AC 10298), asking help (AC 8391) and seeking peace (AC 8179:2), desiring that God’s will and not one’s own be done (AC 8179:3) , and even life itself (AR 956). We’re also told that our conscience guides us in what to pray for:

They who have conscience, speak from the heart the things which they speak, and do from the heart the things which they do. They have also an undivided mind, for they act according to that which they understand and believe to be true and good. (NJHD 131)

Jesus Christ, God Himself prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, while He was in the throes of temptation prayed the supreme example of an effective plea for help: “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” On the threshold of the glorification, His struggle against all the external heredity from the world pulling against the Divine will is an image of what the challenge of true spiritual life looks like. It is also a beautiful picture of how we ask the Lord for help in despair. We have to surrender. We have to recognize that it is He and not us that forges the path to heaven, and overcomes the battles against temptation. He reorders our lives for the sake of a lasting relationship with Him. We make the as of self choice to follow Him in life, and He fills in that heart.

For all these reasons and more, I’d like to see us make prayer more of a priority in the life of the church this month. As always, there are devotional cards at the back of the church for you to include a favorite passage, prayer, or struggle in your life which you would like to have included in the thoughts of the congregation during the week. Please take advantage of this opportunity to engage the power of prayer in the church. I read those cards, and make sure that both the passages and prayers are dedicated in the collection plate along with the financial contribution.

Let’s remember our church, our country, and our whole community in our prayers this month. All of them our neighbors. We are to pray for the Second Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ – that it might touch the heart, mind, and life of all God’s children with a sense of the guidance of His Providence and the eternity of His peace.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love You.” (Ps. 122:6)

A New Christian Paradigm

Hi there! First of all, I'd like to take some time to welcome you to my new site. I am a pastor here in Sarver, Pennsylvania. My church, the Sower's Chapel, is a community of believers, dedicated to the worship and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

My theology is built on three basic principles:

• A committment to living out the greatest of the Lord's commandments: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you." (John 15:12-14)
• A commission to do the work of spreading that message, the core truth of the church, to the world. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:19, 20)
• A belief that faithfully carrying out the work of the Lord God Jesus Christ through hearts that are open to His love and minds that are dedicated to His truth will stamp on the soul the character of Jesus our Lord and Savior, and grow a church driven by the power of His fully revealed Word to change lives, and not self-help or pop-psychology.

The embodiment of my faith can be found in True Christian Religion 2 and 3:

1. The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world to subdue the hells and to glorify His Humanity. Without this no mortal could have been saved, and those are saved who believe in Him.
2. God is one, in Whom is the Divine Trinity. He is the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ. Saving faith is to believe in Him.
3. Evils must not be done because they are of the devil and from the devil.
4. Goods must be done because they are of God and from God. And these things must be done by a person as if from himself, but it must be believed that they are from the Lord with the person, and by means of him.

May we all be true servants of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.