In The Name of The Father and The Son...

“…Let Me say it again: if you ask for anything in My name, I will do it…” Jn 14   The early church never presented Jesus as the solution to their marriage choices or issues, or career failures or house hunting or finding a parking place in a crowded lot. Heavy sigh…

I know that there are instances in the Bible of people praying for natural desires — protection from enemies and escape from danger & recovery from sickness, etc. These desires are NOT wrong, but I think that just maybe our American Evangelical prayers sometimes run amuck, become more like wish lists, and yield to fleshly desires more than kingdom priorities. 

In the first couple of centuries after Jesus's resurrection there were the  most amazing transformations occurring. Social and religious cultures were being altered by perhaps one of the most peaceful means in the history of the world. How did it happen? Did these ppl have wish lists they hurled towards heaven too? What kind of people were these, Christians? 

Maybe the profound success of the early church was more about their focus and less about their needs. Back then, Jesus was presented as the King of the Jews, the true Lord who conquered sin, death, and evil, forming a new humanity, in an epicenter called the church. The church wrote of themselves: “…We are a body knit together as such by a common religious profession, by unity of discipline, and by the bond of a common hope….” @ 

An aging, spiritually experienced, Apostle John gives us some balance to his Gospel writings when he says in his First Epistle: “…We live in the bold confidence that God hears our voices when we ask for things that fit His plan…” John’s bit of durable pastoral advice should sound an alarm against the idolatry of — me. If we look carefully at our culture and into our own hearts, it's possible we find more concern about ourselves, our entertainment, our comforts, and our wallets as opposed to that which is worthy of our highest devotion: spiritual, kingdom, fruit-bearing desires; Gospel-spreading, God-centered desires; Christ-exalting, God-glorifying desires. 

Consider this invitation: Live the miracle life God has given us by yielding our natural desires to the greater desires and making them the subject of my prayers…#pkes

#MinMChurch  #MetroLifeChurch

@ Apology of Tertullian, AD 197