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“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts. – Isaiah 55:8-9
How do your thoughts align with God’s? Do you think like God? Do you ever try?
In light of passages like the one above, is that a silly question?
Clearly, although we can know of God, …
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“But wait — there’s more. If you act now, we’ll also include…”
You probably heard enough infomercials to finish that line a hundred different ways. And although the announcer wants you to believe he’s offering an unbelievable deal, you’re not convinced there’s really anything of value in His offer.
I suspect we sometimes treat promises like the one Jesus made the disciples in Luke 11 with a similar dose of skepticism.
We saw the disciples come to …
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Let’s try a word-association exercise. I’ll mention a concept, you make note of the first thing that comes to mind.
Ready?
Dependence on God.
What came to mind?
OK, one more …
…
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In high school, one of my brother’s friends owned three dogs whose names were logically connected… sort of. They were:
“A”
“B”
“3”
I don’t know about you, but I can appreciate the wit of this. While a certain logic is evident, the third name is unexpected. And it is this surprise which makes it interesting — gives it impact.
I want to return to our exploration of dependence and Jesus teaching the disciples how to pray like Him …
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“Master, would you teach us to pray?”
“Sure. Approach God as your Father, and align yourself with His agenda. Ask Him to fulfill all your needs: provision, forgiveness, and guidance. Just ask, and He’ll give you all these things. He’ll also give you the Holy Spirit, if you’ll ask.”
“Ok, I was with you, right up until the ‘Holy Spirit’ part. Where did that come from?”
Sometimes, when Jesus answers a question, there is a part of …
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What would it mean to “keep Christ in Christmas?”
At this time of year, I frequently hear of the need to “keep Christ in Christmas,” that we are loosing the “reason for the season,” and that recovering a proper emphasis at Christmas must be a priority. Indeed, the trends seem to reflect a declining Christian influence. Christmas break has become Winter Break, “Merry Christmas” is replaced by “Happy Holidays,” and public nativities with Jesus in …
(We are taking a break from our Dependence on God series to spend a couple of weeks looking at Christ and Christmas. We will pick up with the final discussion of Jesus’ teaching on prayer in Luke 11 with the first article in January.)
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We got to know Clay and Patty through our involvement in youth sports. Their son played on a football team I coached.
As we got to know them, we learned Clay had …
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Ever feel like God is ignoring you? Like your prayers are just dripping off the ceiling?
Have you ever prayed for days, weeks, months, even years for something that seemed really critical, and still God didn’t seem to come through?
Probably all of us have.
After seminary we moved to Colorado to pastor a church. Although we persistently prayed for our house in Fort Worth to sell, it didn’t. Dad had to take over payments, and it …
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You can pray like Jesus. Really.
In Luke 11:1, the disciples come to Jesus after one of His frequent prayer times, asking Him to teach them how to pray. In other words, they were saying, “Teach us how to do what you’ve been doing.”
Of course, He grants their request, and in so doing, teaches how to pray like Him.
Let me pause here for a brief detour, relevant to our discussion.
Much of what I share with …
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Jesus, living among men — what must that have been like?
How do you envision that? Something like Superman goes to kindergarten? I mean, He was the Son of God… right?
Of course He was. And is.
But if we emphasize His deity and minimize His humanity, we end up with a caricature – a distorted picture – of His earthly existence and His identity. For, while He came to earth as the Son of God, …
