The Name Above All

Praying the Jesus prayer as often as possible felt hard today. Perhaps it was the intensive meeting schedule, the ever present cold or the impending doom of the Polar Vortex cold of the next few days. It just did not flow.

However, praying to the Lord Jesus, regardless of how many times is always fruitful and a blessing. When I did pray the Jesus prayer, I reflected on the second word - Jesus.

His name is the name above all names, the name by which we are saved, the One who reveals God to us and the One who brings us to God.

His name means, "The Lord Saves", and in Hebrew is Joshua.  

His name is one of the most common names given to children in some cultures today as a sign of love and respect for who He is. Thousands of times a day people unwittingly shout out the very gospel of God - the Lord Saves, the Lord Saves. 

Knowing His name speaks to a fundamental truth about what Jesus came to do...provide a way to develop a deep and personal relationship with God. There is an intimacy implied in knowing his name. Jesus speaks about this intimacy in one of my favorite passages from the book of John, found in the Bible. It comes from John 15:13-17:

^"13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other."

Yet, knowing His name, and having that intimacy with Him, must never become mundane. He is my friend, but my friendship must not lead to presumption. He is God, He is King! He deserves and has earned my respect, my adoration, my worship and my submission.  I am reminded of Dr. Lockridge's famous sermon (Seven Way King) and the many clips of a segment of that message. Jesus is my friend and He is my King. Do you know Him?

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Yes Lord...

The opening word of the Jesus Prayer takes some guts to pray with authenticity..."Lord Jesus Christ..."

The greek word for Lord is kurios.  It implies absolute master, the equivalent of the Hebrew YHWH name for God. (YHWH is the name God gave Moses which is translated as LORD in the NIV - see Ex 3:14).

To have an absolute master means to have someone who is always in charge of you, always right, and always in control. To have an absolute master means to be an absolute servant - one who submits, surrenders hands over control to that master. Praying "Lord..." these past few days has highlighted how much I am not a servant who submits.

Submission is hard! I don't like submitting and I think many people don't like submitting either. We pride ourselves on being self-sufficient and independent.

But, the Jesus Prayer begins with the posture of submission. As I pray that word my mind fills with all the times I have not submitted, I have not made or kept him Lord. It's hard to pray the Jesus Prayer when you spend more time asking for forgiveness after the first word, than it takes to pray the entire prayer.

My heart's desire during this Lent season is that Jesus would be Lord in my life. Not just Savior, but Lord.

Jesus, Be Lord of my mind; Lord of my body; Lord of my soul; Lord of my family; Lord of my life; Lord of my past, present and future - Jesus be Lord over me and guide me in submission.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Overcome Evil with Good OR How to make it through a School Vacation Day!

Our lounge has become a tent making industry...and not the type that helps with income.

Rather my children have turned blankets, chairs, clothes pegs and pillows into a sprawling complex that would make any architect jealous. Their building is empowered by Pandora (Katy Perry station which plays more Rihanna than Katy Perry - go figure).

Then...a cat jumps on the tent and it falls like the old Vegas Casino implosions.

And so, on this snowy and cold school vacation day, the goodness of tent making is hampered by the evil of a black cat called Luke. The solutions of the moment: an array of bags that will trap the cat by its own curiosity for anything boxy, much yelling followed by cries of despair. The tent has been built at least 3 times and the boys have yet to discover the truth of Paul's words to "overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21).

As the battle between Cat and Boys continues, I am reminded by how hard it is to live by that verse in our current society - how's that for a segue and burying the lead!

How can we not be overcome by the evil of our day but overcome that evil with good? What does it mean to be good to ISIS, to be good to political corruption, to be good to systemic and transitory evil? This is not a rhetorical question...I would love your thoughts. Feel free to leave them in the comments section...they might even help with a certain black cat!

And Jayme, you thought I could not write today!

Ash Wednesday

You probably have seen them all over your social media...what people are giving up for Lent. Sacrifice is a quintessential Christian act.  Living on less or giving up something for a period of time to allow you to better focus on God is a good practice to have. And it works.

This Lent there are many things I would like to give up on...

...all this snow for one!
...bad news reporting would be another!
...an end to violence!
...demands on my time from all areas!

But let's be more realistic...none of those is going to happen. The snow will be here till the Ice Age ends, bad news reporting is an epidemic, violence (well say no more) and demands on my time...I might as well step off the planet (and who made me the center of attention - as though my time is worth more than anyone else's!) Jesus faced nearly all of those challenges - bad news reporting about him, violence surrounding him, and constant demands (in fact many of his miracles were due to interruptions). I'm not convinced Jesus faced our snow...so I have that one...maybe.

So here's my Lent sacrifice, small as it is.

I want to take each day of this Lent and pray the Jesus Prayer as often as I can.

The Jesus Prayer:

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

I'll post thoughts on this as they come to me.

Here we go again and the week of hell

It has been some time since I last blogged.  A comment sometimes repeated to me in hurried conversation with SOME people who like to harass me (not think of anyone in particular...no really, not ONE).

It's about time I took this back up again. I find myself filled with thoughts about what is currently going in and wish I had a way to express myself...and then I remember...I do...that funny blog with the weird pizza on it.

Of course, getting back into an account that is years old takes some doing. But here we are...

CNN called this past week: Religion's Week from Hell. I am dumbfounded by the seeming growth of religious hate and violence - and it is not all muslim. There has been religiously instigated violence from Atheism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. As a pastor and as a person I can't stand violence. Please, I get squeamish at the thought of killing a mouse (spiders, on the other hand, are dealt with in Armageddon-like finality)! However, the need to kill someone whose views are different from your own leave me bereft of reason and thought. I can understand the hatred, but I cannot understand the action. Forget the moral, theological, political or social arguments, historically, this line of action is a monumental failure.

Killing someone for religious reasons in order to advance your own religion and eradicate another religion has never worked. At least, to the best of my knowledge. Martyrs become heroes and the cause gets stronger as a result. ISIS is doomed to fail with its current tactic.  They now have Egypt, Lebanon, USA and Israel amongst others standing against them. It would seem more will follow.

I, also, cannot stand with those that would call for the eradication of all religious extremists. I find the call for violence against violent acts a tough pill to swallow. I am fully aware that this is a necessary step when no other course of action is left open, but it is not a good choice. In the end...we all lose! Perhaps this is what saddens me most of all - the current state of affairs from this hellish week shows only losers, no winners.

I cannot offer solutions, but I do think we have an action. God calls us to pray - pray for our enemies, pray for His intervention, pray for our own repentance and witness. I know it seems insipid and weak to talk about prayer in the midst of beheadings, shootings and slaughters, but prayer is where it begins.

Join me in prayer1