At His Feet

A good friend of mine called me yesterday morning and told me that he was told that his mother only has days to live. As she was in the hospital, I called my wife and asked her if she would go with me during my lunch time to visit this dear family at the local hospital. She agreed and we went. After visiting for a short time their lunch was brought into the room and we knew it was time to go. I asked if we could pray with them before we left and they said it was fine. As I began to pray it dawned on me that I was not sure if they had told the mother about the sad prognosis. I prayed a prayer of praise and just asked God that he would help all of us to live a life that glorifies Him up to all of our final breaths.
When I returned home I discussed this with my wife and she directed me to something that she had studied during her Bible study that day. In Mark 2 we are given a story of a man with palsy who four of his friends bring to Jesus for healing. Upon arrival, they find that there are so many people there that they can not reach Jesus. They decide to carry their friend to the roof and lower him down to the feet of Jesus so that Jesus may intercede and heal this man. Jesus then forgives him of his sins (the real healing that all of us need) and it is not until later when He has a need to show His power that he heals the man of his palsy. We are not told the answer but did the man with palsy even know who Jesus was or what power he had. We can say one thing for certain, the four men who carried the sick man had faith in Jesus and they literally picked up and carried their friend to Jesus because they believed that Jesus could heal the man.
Assuming that my friend and family had not yet informed his mother of her condition and even if they had, there is a direct correlation here. Through my prayer and the many other prayers that are being lifted up to God on her behalf, we are literally laying this woman at the feet of Jesus and asking that his will be done and that his healing and/or comforting power reign down. If she does not know the prognosis, we are asking Jesus for her to do something that she currently does not even know to ask for.
We can apply this in so many different areas of our lives:
1. Parents of young children - Your kids don't know the snares and dangers of this world but when we pray for them are not laying them at Jesus feet and asking Him to protect them? We know it is impossible to protect them ourselves from all the turmoil of this world. Let us all continually lay our children down
2. Friends - We all have friends who we see that are either straying from the Truth or have never known the Truth. When we pray for them we are asking that Jesus do something that they themselves may not even see to ask for.
3. The world - We live in a world that no longer knows God. Yet, we as Christians continue to lay this world and its leaders at Jesus feet and ask that He restore this world and forgive it of its sins.
4. Elders, deacons, youth minister, preachers - We are the leaders of the Lord's church. We have been chosen and are to know that when we pray for our individual congregations or members of our youth groups that we are laying them at Jesus feet. The people who just come to church are not aware of the decisions and concern that we put into our chosen duties and often times do not see the areas of concern that we must act on. We pray for guidance in this area and often times these prayers go unheard and unknown by many. Let us all lay our congregations at Jesus feet more often.
5. One another - As fellow Christians we need to pray for each other. The New Testament is laden with passages describing the trials that we as Christians go through. Do any of us think that there are disciples out there who do not feel that struggles that we personally feel? Of course not. Let us pray for one another more often and ask that Jesus will intercede in all of our lives even when our fellow Christians may forget to pray.
A final personal example of how this takes effect involves two friends of mine. One is Jason, who I am blesssed to be in the Lord's service with, and the other friend, who I will not name, is a friend who's struggles and my concern have been written about before on this blog. The friend who is struggling with life honored me and a group of men with his presence at a recent men's ministry meeting we held. There came a point where this friend was moved to confess his struggles and to ask for help and prayers. My friend Jason immediately began to pray for this man and took his struggles and laid them at Jesus feet. I don't even think that this other man knows how to pray and I am certain that he is not clear of the healing power of Jesus. I ask that all who read this will think about someone in their life who needs Jesus to intercede and lay them at His feet.

On an Island

You ever felt like you were the only one in a place that fully grasped the reality of right and wrong? I had that experience today. Without diving into too much detail, I will try and briefly explain the situation. My co-worker at work has to give a presentation on the same date as my son Luke's birthday. Being somewhat technologically savvy, this person is sort of dependent I do not mean that word in a negative sense) on me to make sure that the technical aspects of the presentation go as they hope. As I learned of the clash of dates today I informed this individual that should for some slight (note slight) reason my son be out of school on that day, I would more than likely not be able to attend the presentation as I would want to spend that time with my son(s) and wife. After all, I will probably only get 18 or so of these chances in his lifetime. You would have thought that I had slapped this person in the face. Here I am trying to be not just a good father who is involved in his children's lives and who puts them only after God (the two go hand-in-hand in my opinion) as I am commanded to do and suddenly I am looked upon as if I am the worse person in the world. I understand that their need and trust in my ability to make sure things go well is ultimately a compliment but I explained that I can easily show someone how to do the things that need done and reminded this person that there was only the slightest of possibility that I would not be able to attend. Note that I am a therapist, not an IT specialist. After no headway was made, I eventually had to just put it as simply as I could. I had to actually say, as if it was not known by the way I live my life, "My family's needs will always come before your needs." This comment was labeled as offensive, I labeled it as simply true and left the meeting feeling frustrated, yes; abandoned by a peer, yes; misunderstood, yes; alone, NO. I simply left for lunch and prayed. I know I was in the right but was made to feel as if I had some obligation that requires me to take more time away from my family than I already do. The following verses seem to sum up the situation to me:

James 3:16-17 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

This person did not have my best interest at heart but seemed to be seeking after their own interest. I hope that one day they will see that my words and actions are only meant to avoid being seen as a hypocrite. How can I say I am a Christian father unless I live as one? I recently listened to a lesson that discussed the fact that in all our lives something has to be sacrificed to get the things done that we are called on to do. Let me never again sacrifice my family and their needs for someone else's gain.

As the day progressed and fear of vindictive action crept and were noticed by the obvious silence that was sent my direction I asked God to just help me make it through the day and return safely to those who do truly care about not only me because of what I can do for them, but my soul and my goal to be a Christian father and leader first in my life. The day finally ended and I got in my truck to return home but God placed something else on my heart. The Holy Spirit reminded me that a friend's/ fellow Christian's mother was in the local hospital and that I should stop by on my way home. I went and enjoyed their fellowship for a while and all negative feelings left me and as I prayed with them I thanked God for giving us all reminders that we must call on him.
I have since looked at the school calendar and found that I will be able to help on the date and I intend to inform this person of this news first thing tomorrow. I pray that God will lead this person to understand and that this will actually turn into an opportunity to minister to this individual. Mostly, I pray that this person will understand that my desire to put my family and their needs first is nothing personal but that I am trying to do it because I am commanded to do so. If not, I will be fine as I know I am living to serve the Lord. Pray for me.

Pilgrim's Map of the Day

Here are some links that won't make you worse for reading them.

* Does someone finally know the location of the Ark of the Covenant? Read this story. If nothing else, it is very interesting.

* Do you know Todd Bentley? Can you discern the spirits? Maybe this link will help. This is the best and most concise article about Bentley that I have read and it let's you draw your own opinion rather than stating it's own (that's right, real journalism, how I've missed you).

* So, we don't have Chris Farley anymore but we do still have his brother. The posted video is the trailer for a spoof movie about Michael Moore. It looks as if it takes the concept of the Christmas Carol (you know, the ghosts of Christmas present, past, and future) and replaces the ghosts with American icons. I don't know if we should hold the fact that Bill O'Reilly makes a cameo in it against it though. Judge for yourself by watching the video found here.

A Conflict

Obama stated Friday night in the Purpose Driven Forum that he was not sure when a child became an owner of human rights. As my wife and I watched she pointed out that the federal gov't, who says that abortion is not a murder of a human life, contradicts itself in its paperwork. She recalled that as she recently filled out some paperwork for the federal gov't she was told that she had to list our unborn third son that she is presently carrying as a human. That's right, the feds consider us a household of five but state that our third son has no human rights. Is my wife and I the only ones who see the contradiction in thinking here or are we living with some sort of ghost / human / alien? Freedom, only for those who can fight for themselves.

A question for Obama & McCain

I have a quick question that I need answered. As I sat with my wife (I love you Joy) and watched the Purpose Driven Forum (that's what I'm calling it) Friday night I must admit that I was taken aback by Obama's ability and willingness not only to quote scripture, but to boldly proclaim Jesus Christ as his savior. I don't pretend to know anything of either Obama or McCain's hearts or convictions. That being said, I could not help but feel that I was being spoken to as someone who needed to be pandered to, more so with Obama than McCain. While the forum and idea was a great thing and was somewhat revealing, I was left with more questions than answers. Two of those questions are as follows:

1. Should American Jews not come to grips with the fact that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, are they condemned to hell?

2. Since Muslims believe that Mohammed is the way to Allah and that Jesus was simply a great prophet even though Christ tells us the He is the one and true way to God, does either candidate believe that Muslims who are not converted to Christ are condemned to hell?

I fear that neither candidate would have the conviction to answer such questions with scriptural truth. Further, both must have the votes of those people to win the Presidency. At what point have we as Americans become supporters of men who exchange the great commission for power? I would love to hear your comments on this issue and if anyone knows how to get this to to McCain or Obama for clarification, please do so (lol).