Weekly Update, June 11, 2011

Heya guys,

I missed a couple updates, my bad :( but SMILE cus now I'm making up for it. 

“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, – Matthew 6:9

Hehehe I wondered when my random scripture thingy would throw me this one :) At first I asked my friend Bethany to do this dedication for us, but she couldn't quite make the words make sense. Then I thought I'd get my friend Danielle to do it, because, you know, i'm lazy. Same problem though! Guess God's telling me to do this one :) :) 

It raises a good question though. If I asked you why we say the Lord's Prayer, what would you say? 

I guess the best way is to break it down a bit, right? So lets start with 'Our Father' which gets us in the mood. It's a prayer, not just a string of words we're indoctrinated into saying. It brings a certain amount of intimacy to the table. '...in heaven' is pretty self explanatory, God, see, he's in heaven. That's one of the core beliefs of Christianity. 'Hallowed be thy name' is reverence. I like to think it's to make us remember that he is the Holy Creator of life - not a tool to grant us wishes. God is not a genie. 'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done' can be taken as a request for the kingdom of Heaven to come, in a literal sense, but how about we look at it like this. It's an invitation from God to make our world of flesh and blood as close as we can make it to his kingdom. 'daily bread' is a phrase that brings to mind Holy Communion, but it really does relate to all denominations of Christianity. God will provide for the faithful. 'Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us' goes straight for the golden rule. Treat others as you wish to be treated. If you want someone's forgiveness, you had better be willing to forgive as well. 'Lead us not into temptation' can remind us not to be overwhelmed and become obsessed with material possessions, or other corruptions of the mind. We don't carry them with us to Heaven, and all they do is weigh us down. 'Deliver us from evil' is a simple, straight forward plea for God to have our backs, when we find ourselves in trouble. 

So that's a breakdown of the prayer. As for why we say it? Well that's really quite simple. Jesus tells us to :)    

So anywho, this post has like a billion dedications. Firstly, to my buddy at work, Cory. He's lost his grandfather and father-in-law this past week, and needs our prayers. 

Secondly, this is dedicated to the Team and Candidates on Mid-America TEC 225, which is being held in Taos, MO right freaking now! Keep them all in your prayers as they work to further their relationships with God this weekend!!

Peace, and God Bless!

Jake, and Bethany, and Danielle!!