The Conditional Prayer

"Pray then like this: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

 I have been intrigued by the fact in the prayer Jesus taught as the model prayer of praise and petition has a condition in the middle of it. The petitioner asks don't do something unless I do it to others. Is God really so picky that he forces us to pray not to forgive us unless we forgive others?

The answer is no. Jesus isn't just offering a trade you forgive and then I will forgive you. God knew what science has recently proven and common sense has known for years; if you are full of unforgiveness, bitterness, and anger your life will be miserable. I might add the lives of those around you too.

One of the reasons, Jesus gives us this reminder in the middle of this prayer is because if we are going to know the freedom found in forgiveness then we have to forgive others. He isn't saying we pretend people did no wrong. He is saying that we can not hold on to the anger and bitterness and have a good life. So in this prayer, he places this reminder, if we are going to know the freedom that comes from forgiveness of our sins, we have to be willing to forgive others.

So let's find the greatest freedom God has and forgive. He never said it would be easy but God doesn't ask us to do anything he will not give us the grace to do. 

 

How do you cook, denominations?

 

How do you cook, denominations?

No! I'm not saying we should cook denominations. I want to look at how cooking and denominations are the same. Indulge the chief if you will.

There are people who will claim that their denomination is right and everyone else is wrong. They may even say that others are of the devil. It sounds crazy sometimes but consider cooks or if you prefer chefs. Ask one what makes spaghetti and you may get meat, sauce, and pasta. Another may say you only need pasta and a sauce. Another may claim it's only pasta and marinara if there isn't meat, or if the sauce isn't made a specific way. In fact, you might get some die-hard foodies into a fight over the matter and this isn't even touching what makes a pizza. 

I think you get an idea. Chefs, cooks, and foodies often have criteria of what makes a specific dish that dish. The problem comes when different people want a perfect definition or when people think they have a perfect definition. What sometimes happens is our preference becomes our perfect definition. If someone wants to add red pepper flakes to our spaghetti, some may claim it's false, or pasta heresy. (It's neither, but it is strange) 

Is there food heresy? YES. If someone claims it's an all-beef burger made with turkey. It's not an all-beef burger, it's a turkey burger perhaps with beef flavor, but it is not beef. I'm not saying turkey burgers are bad, they usually aren't but they aren't beef.  

 I don't think anyone would say raw pasta is spaghetti, or a pound of cooked ground beef is spaghetti sauce, but then again we all know some people who would want to, if only so they can argue. We have to decide what is real and what may be a preference.

People can really get heated up on this issue, but then ask them about changes in the rules of their favorite sports and I bet the debate will get even more heated. The disagreement doesn't make them bad people just perhaps a little immature, but we all have areas we need to grow so give grace.

HOWEVER? 

What if someone claimed only McDonald's was real food? or only food created by Julia Childs? We would say they are crazy. 

On the other hand, I think that we could all agree that pasta with a tomato-meat sauce laced with cyanide isn't food, it's poison. 

This is where denominations come in. Some, I might say, most denominations are variations on a recipe in the Bible. Some emphasize some points others don't. It doesn't make them wrong only different. The problem comes in when an entire vital doctrine/s are left out or if poison is put in. You may think red pepper flakes are poison but they aren't, hemlock is. 

If something is wrong there is a time and a place to point it out. People's spiritual, eternal, lives are on the line. On the other hand, let's give grace to a change in the recipe. 

Perhaps, also give grace to those who only see grandma's secret recipe as the only right way. Because ultimately, the great creator chef will teach them when the time is right. 

Photo by Mae Mu on Unsplash 

LCD or GCF

Which do we want?

I don’t know about you but when I was learning math I had a difficult time trying to remember if I needed the least common denominator or the greatest common factor. Luck for both of us is this is not what I’m going to talk about today. I am thinking about where we put our focus. What are the least or the greatest things we have in common?

For some, the idea is that a church should be a place for everyone, and in some ways that is exactly true. However, in the church are we focusing on what is the least or the greatest? For some, it seems to me (this is my post after all), that they want to focus on the least. The ideas that I see in the modern church, in the least category are; we all believe in a God, we want to feel good about ourselves, we want social change (for either side of the debates), etc. These may be good things but is this what a church should focus on? I don’t think so.

The church that Jesus established was to be focused on Him and it was seen in the apostles (Acts 4:13). This church’s greatest common factor was Jesus himself, his life, his teaching, and his promise not just to save us from sin but to transform us into His image (2 Corinthians 3:18). We may not all agree on some of the minor details (food, holidays, etc) according to Paul but we all need to agree that the purpose of the church is to teach the life-transforming message of Jesus. If we aren’t doing as Jesus said, “making disciples”(Matthew 28:19-20) then are we really part of Jesus’ church?

I understand that people in the church aren’t perfect. The church as an institution has made mistakes, however, are we now trying to be what Christ wants us to be? First as individuals and then once we deal with that (get the beam out of your own eye, Matthew 5:7), then we need to ask ourselves, how do we help our church be a place where Jesus’s mission is being carried out?