Musing The Mysteries

Is there a different way to see this famous mantra of prosperity promisers?

Intercession is the kind of praying that we do on behalf of those who don’t know how to or don’t care to pray for themselves. And when we pray this way we’re playing our role in the world as “priests," responsible to not only intercede for our Christian family but for the rest of the human family – terrorists included.

This is a kitchen table talk wherein I unpack a blog I did a while back on "The Candy Store Church." It's a little cynical, so beware. I mean no disrespect. I do love the Church and just want us to be better than this...

You can find the blog at: https://musingthemysteries.wordpress.com/2015/07/08/the-candy-store-church/

This is Part 2 of 2 episodes on the basics of a life of prayer. You'll find the outline and list of passages referred to at https://musingthemysteries.wordpress.com/2015/09/26/a-primer-on-prayer/.

I’m concerned about the prayer lives of many Christians with whom I engage. I don’t see many prayer meetings in churches anymore and it seems to me that many spiritual leaders and church members have less than exemplary lives of prayer.

This is a primer on the topic of prayer, the outline with a list of passages can be found on Musingthemysteries.wordpress.com.

The kind of love that produces balance/shalom doesn’t love everything. It hates some things but never hates people. Love hates only the things that hurt people. It’s not biblical balance when you hate the democrats or the republicans or gays or whites or blacks or Asians. What you should hate is what does harm to the gays, whites, blacks, Asians, democrats and, yes, even republicans.

In this message based on Elijah and Elisha I address young disciples in particular toward a courageous life of discipleship. I encourage both young and old to listen to this, apply it to your own lives, and share it with someone you think would benefit from it.

Here's a kitchen table talk on the purpose and power of worship. I find that most Christians worship for the propriety and pleasure of it, but have not understood the power of it. This is a simple message that I first shared with some friends with whom I worship weekly in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco at a place called "Hippie Hill."

You’d be hard pressed to find a better example of courage in Bible than the prophet Elijah. This is the guy who openly rebuked kings, predicted a drought, was fed in the wilderness by ravens, raised the dead, called down fire on a water-soaked altar, and was eventually taken to heaven in an angel-driven chariot! He was a pretty special guy whose bravery seems out of reach for us. And yet James said he was a “man just like us”! So there must be something we can glean from his example and apply it to our own contexts. Listen and ask the Spirit for more courage to share Christ with a co-worker, to ask someone for forgiveness, to ask a pre-christian friend if you can pray for them, to speak up when prompted by the Spirit, to confront a Christian friend who’s living in a compromising way . . .

Soren Kierkegaard said, “Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.” Here I propose an alternative to that culturally dictated frenetic pursuit.

For an outline of the passages referred to here, see my blog post called "Simple Pleasure" at https://musingthemysteries.wordpress.com/2015/07/22/simple-pleasure/.