The following article is an excerpt from this book.
When we look at the Disciples Prayer (or The Lord’s Prayer), I believe we see three types of petitions that Jesus taught (Matthew 6:8-13).
1. Invocation
We get this idea from the first three requests: “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name; Your Kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
This first type of petition, according to Jennings, is the invocation of our prayer; it is the summoning of the Spirit of God that He would come to us and be God to us, to help us pray and do His will.5
Yes, it is asking Him to help us pray that His name be hallowed–let Your name be hallowed. And bring your kingdom to us; and bring your will to us.
Church change. I have been praying about this and churning it over in my mind for a few months. And I finely now have made the change. I feel a little sad about it—not to see certain folks regularly. But I feel I must move on to what I think is the right move. I’m not going to talk about the reasons, but there are doctrinal reasons. So, I feel that I am following the Lord, but yet I am sad. I feel a peace about it. Yet I know there will be struggles, and I must endure them and push on.
Working less. This last summer I worked much more that I figured I would. And I was suffering in the heat—90-degree heat for many days. I think I have to push myself to slow down. I have resolved to take more days off between jobs—I’m a house painter; semi-retired. And I will take only easy jobs. I will not quit working completely, because I really like what I do. But I also like days off and having time to write and read more, etc.
Health issues. I’m finding that I’m having more and more health issues—because of my age I suppose. But it is also a challenge to concentrate more on good eating habits and regular exercise, etc. Nobody wants to be sick—unless you have a death wish. I know that much sickness in people is because of heredity. But we can’t use that as an excuse. We all, especially us older folks, must work extra hard to keep ourselves healthy—watch our diet, exercise, and deal with any illnesses. And I find that daily prayer is very helpful. I follow the Jabez prayer. Why not? He prayed that God would bless him and keep him from harm (1 Chron. 4:10).
For every person, the longer a person lives the more knowledge they have a chance to obtain. But what they do with it is what matters. Knowledge is knowledge, but what we do with it makes it true or false.
I’ll start with what I will call false knowledge.
False knowledge is knowledge, but it has no good purpose.
False knowledge is knowledge that is prideful in what it knows.
There is a gift of knowledge but it can become a snare to us. It makes knowledge an end in itself, in order to pass an exam, to get a grade or a degree. It does not lead to any good actions or deeds.
False knowledge puffs up. In this case he has an impatience with any opposing view or any correction. He enjoys his knowledge. He spends a lot of time reading just for the sake of reading. He may read to gain knowledge about God but not of God.
What is True knowledge?
True knowledge is having a growing knowledge of the truth.
True knowledge is to know God. The end of theology (the study of God) is to know God.
True knowledge is to experience God: to experience His truth, His love, His peace, His joy, His glory and fulness, His holiness.
To really know God is to love Him, because God is love. Therefore, true knowledge always leads to a love of God.
True knowledge will produce good character—the character of God.
True knowledge is experiencing His Spirit. It is praying in the Spirit, which is real communion with God.
Source: My notes and thoughts from the book, The Puritans, by D. M. Lloyd-Jones.
Click on the picture above to see a YouTube: a 3D animation of Ezekiel’s temple, showing all the measurements.
In Ezekiel 43:7 it says,
And He said to me, “Son of man, this [the millennial temple] is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever. NASB
When I first read this I was a little confused. If the temple in the millennium is built with earthly building materials like iron and concrete and wood, etc., how can it last forever? And besides, if after the millennium the earth is destroyed and God creates a new heaven and new earth, how can the millennial temple then still exist?—unless God pulls it from the earth and then sets it back down on the new earth. Well then, if He can do that, He will have no problem…
As I see it, from my study of this topic, there are two very basic natures or meanings of prayer: (1) petition, and (2) soul to soul communication with God (which really includes all parts of prayer). In this post we will focus on petition.
According to the original Biblical words translated for us as “prayer,” every Hebrew and Greek word I studied (three Hebrew words and eight Greek words) indicate that prayer is petition—asking God for something. It is an expression of a wish or a desire; Christian prayer is an expression of a wish or desire to God. We see this particularly in the following Greek words: euchomai (to pray to God, to wish for), deomai (to desire, to want, to ask, and to beg), and deesis (a wanting, a needing, then an asking, entreaty, and supplication).
Here we see in these words that desire comes first…
Reading in Job this morning, I ran across an interesting passage: Job 27:16-17 (my thoughts mainly on verse 17). It reads…
Though he [the wicked] heaps up silver like dustand clothes like piles of clay,17 what he lays up the righteous will wear,and the innocent will divide his silver. NIV
Adam Clark says of verse 17:
Money is God’s property. “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord; ” and though it may be abused for a time by unrighteous hands, God, in the course of his providence, brings it back to its proper use; and often the righteous possess the inheritance of the wicked.
Another verse that says something similar is Proverbs 13:22. It says…
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children,but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous. RSV
There are so many different views on the meaning of prayer. One author, John R. Rice, says that prayer is nothing but petition. He insists that prayer is not meditation or communion or spiritual enjoyment or praise or confession or humiliation; “[it is simply] asking something definitely from God.”1
Many other authors (that Rice would say are liberal or modern) seem to say the opposite—that prayer is fellowship and communion and friendship with God, and not a demand for His gifts. For example, E. M. Bounds said, “Prayer is communion and intercourse with God. It is enjoyment of God.”2
Ronald Dunn seems to agree with Rice. He wrote, “Prayer is an act. While we should live in an attitude of prayer, prayer is more than an attitude.”3
Others I have read would disagree. They would say that since prayer is communion and fellowship with God that would…
This is our fifteenth study. Please click HERE for an intro to this study. Today we will listen to what Jesus said to His disciples about how to regard the Pharisees’ teaching.
Matthew 23:1-7
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. 5 “But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries, and lengthen the tassels of their garments. 6 “And they love the place of honor at banquets, and the chief seats in the synagogues, 7 and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called by men, Rabbi.
Observations
Jesus taught here that because the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat and have authority as a teacher, they must be obeyed. But Jesus also warned the people not to follow their example, because they were hypocrites. Then Jesus showed them how to spot a hypocrite: 1) they are not willing to do the work they demand of others; 2) any deed they do they do to be noticed by others; 3) they try to make themselves appear spiritual; 4) they love places of honor; and 5) they love respectful greetings and being called Rabbi.
Application
First, we must respect anyone in authority, like a teacher or professor. Second, we are not obligated to follow anyone’s example. Jesus is the one we should follow. Third, be careful to do all things for the glory of God, not to be noticed by others, to appear spiritual or to get the respect of others.
The following article is an excerpt from this book.
Stephen Nielsen 