Pastoral Prayer Ministry

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Help and Family for the Wounded in the Church Today

8/16/2014

 
Loving "community" for the wounded is hard to find and is frequently fragile when you do, here in North America. The emotionally mature are few in number and this has often been the case (read: 1 Corinthians 4:15 (Amplified Bible (AMP)) "15 After all, though you should have ten thousand teachers (guides to direct you) in Christ, yet you do not havemany fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the glad tidings (the Gospel).") 

Spiritual Parenting and Adoptions are desperately needed by the wounded in loving community, but so many leaders are merely "guides" and not "parents". This is not a negative judgement, it is a painful reality. People like the Apostle Paul are just as lacking now as they were when he wrote this two millennia (two thousand years) ago. The sad thing is that many wounded persons have to look outside already established "communities of faith" to other organizations to get support and "family". Fortunately some churches are adopting healing and parenting structures or new wineskins like Living Waters (www.livingwaterscanada.org) or Celebrate Recovery (www.celebraterecovery.com). 

I say to those in Christian Communities who are touched by the wounded (and if you aren't loving, compassionate and willing to reach out toward the wounded and disenfranchised, I question your faith: James 1:27 (The Message (MSG)) "26-27 Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world."), put your compassion to prayerful action! Start, do something as God leads you from His Heart. Jesus makes it clear when He reads Isaiah 61 in the Temple that He came to heal the "Brokenhearted" and He chooses to do that through us: His Body. Regrettably, we know how immature and broken and dirty His Body is today and many of us grieve over this, for ourselves and for others who are deeply in need of "spiritual adoption". Many who are called Elders are actually Youngers (and must choose between parenting their own families and ministering to the body, often neglecting their own families) and those of Elder chronological age are still emotionally stunted and trying to care for their own needs. How many "seniors" are off galavanting around "fulfilling their dreams" while the body of Christ languishes for need of true spiritual mothers and fathers? 

You think me too harsh or severe, remember Paul's admonishment in the above passage? "Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world." We will not grow to serve in love in this way if we "...get squeezed into the world's mold..." (Romans 12:1) We can only find this kind of loving maturity in Jesus' and in spiritual family and true spiritual family is TOO hard to find these days for many brokenhearted people! Be part of the solution! Want to know more about how you can help, write me, I'd be glad to suggest some options.

No One Can Live the Christian Life! or Galatians 2:20 or Come Take a Great Class Starting in January!

12/19/2013

 
Did you know what "Christian" means?  Yep, it means "little Christ"...  Wierd eh?  Or is it?  Think... little Christ.  That's what the early Christians were sometimes called: "little Christs".  I'd be fine with being called that!

So why doesn't the Christian life work for you?  Maybe, just maybe, it is because YOU are trying to live it out... YOU may be trying to live out your Christian life, when it is Jesus who needs to be living in and through you...  Am I being ironic here or hyperbolic or playing with words?  No!  It's a paradigm shift, of sorts, it is a spiritual and mental shift as to what it means to be alive in Christ and walking in and by Holy Spirt.

Am I confusing you or is your spirit curious or intrigued?  Romans 12:1 says it clearly, look it up in the Amplified Bible and The Message, they are great ways of communicating this message that we as believers in Jesus are to be "Living Sacrifices".  Galatians 2:20 says it even more radically or bluntly: who is to be living in and through this "earth suit" (what Bill Gillham calls your body)? Jesus is!  Or take a look at what Jesus confronts His disciples about in The Message's rendering of Matthew 16:24-26!  Clearly there is a key point here to get in our hearts and lives!!!

So, if this kind of discussion intrigues you, let me add something that is a "downer", but very honest and real and needs to be said:  If WE are trying to live our own Christian lives, even the best "performers" amongst us will fail miserably (you may do a good job of hiding the failure in the short run, but all who live the Christian life in their own strength are designed/destined to fail!)...   bold words, eh?  Well, come and learn why and how to get out of that "pit" if you find yourself there!  This a key to many people's faith walk!

Come and take the course in January!  http://www.pastoralprayer.com/webinars-and-training.html



Food with No Expiry Date - Satisfaction!

12/7/2013

 
27 Stop toiling and doing and producing for the food that perishes and decomposes [in the using], but strive and work and produce rather for the [lasting] food which endures [continually] unto life eternal; the Son of Man will give (furnish) you that, for God the Father has authorized and certified Him and put His seal of endorsement upon Him.

28 They then said, What are we to do, that we may [habitually] be working the works of God? [What are we to do to carry out what God requires?]

29 Jesus replied, This is the work (service) that God asks of you: that you believe in the One Whom He has sent [that you cleave to, trust, rely on, and have faith in His Messenger]. (John 6, Amplified Bible)

In Verse 29 of John 6, Jesus is speaking of himself, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  So tell me reader: have you investigated His claims? He is, as C.S, Lewis asserts, as a result of His claims, either a: Liar, Lunatic or Lord (one worthy of our worship and loyalty). http://merecslewis.blogspot.ca/2011/09/deciding-about-jesus-liar-lunatic-or.html

So, why do I share these verses from my readings, today? Well, I struggle with going to real earthly food that perishes, at times, versus finding my value, comfort and calling in Jesus and His Body (of believers). True emotional maturity means seeing the ways that I try to comfort and care for myself and understanding if they are truly healthy and worthy ways in my Saviour's eyes/heart, for His heart is mine and mine is His and I can do His Will in His Strength (Plillipians 4:13 & Galatians 2:20).  I can find "food and drink" that truly satisfies!

As I seek to live by faith, this idolatry of wrongly running to food as my comfort in my life has become clearer. Yes, I said idolatry. That's an old word, maybe for some.  It's meaning is to look for meaning and value in things apart from the Lordship of Jesus Christ. To look to food as what will fill the ache in my soul is to idolize.  Yes, anything can take the place of our Lord Jesus in our lives and Paul and the other writers of the New Testament frequently ask us to be wary of this carnal or fleshly detour. The Father's Ten Commandments address it as: having no other gods besides Him. So we are left to see that apart from living in Jesus Christ, our fallen nature will get us looking anywhere but to God for comfort and meaning (Romans 8:6-8).

So, I surrender again to my Lord and Master and Friend: Jesus Christ and choose to recognize and relate to Christ within as my All-in-All.  For He alone can give me what I truly need to thrive here and to live with Him in Heaven. Consider the posted site/blog above on Jesus' claims, they have the potential of revolutionizing your life and outlook, fovever.  Find the "food" that never spoils and truly satisfies.

    Author

    Christian pastoral counsellor and exhorter/teacher; registered social worker in private practice, full-time since 1999

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