Wilderness Wanderings

David stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hills of the Desert of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God did not give David into his hands. While David was at Horesh in the Desert of Ziph, he [was afraid because] Saul had come out to take his life. And Saul's son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God. "Don't be afraid," he said. "My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this." The two of them made a covenant before the LORD. Then Jonathan went home, but David remained at Horesh. (1 Samuel 23:14-18)

This is the story that introduces the cat and mouse game of David evading Saul in the wilderness. It happens at "Horesh," which is a word that can take two different meanings. It can refer to a sort of silence or to the work of human hands. In this set of verses, both meanings are in play.

David is faced here with God's "silence" (horesh) and his own fear of Saul. The question is will he trust his fear and so rely on the "work of his own hands" (horesh) to solve it, as Saul does? Or will he trust in this God who is horesh, silent?

It is here in this wilderness that David must begin to learn a more mature fear of the Lord. This is not the battle of David and Goliath where the battle lines are clear, the army and King stand behind him and the Lord before him. No, now David is a fugitive from the State, driven from his home, searching in deserts and foreign countries for refuge, clinging to the promise of God while facing down God's "horesh" silence.

It is not unlike so many wilderness moments in our own life. Something happens that unsettles us, leaves us feeling threatened. A medical scare, a financial jolt, a shifting landscape underfoot in the society or institutions we thought were secure—even the church. Faced with God's relative silence and a threat looming overhead do we choose to fear the Lord or the threat?

It is at this moment that Saul's son Jonathan suddenly appears. No one knew where David was. Yet somehow Jonathan finds him. His name means "gift of God." "Nathan" being the Hebrew word for "gift," and "Jo" being a prefix that refers to God.

The text says that God did not "nathan" (give) David into Saul's hands. But God's hand does offer a "Jo-nathan" (gift of God) to David in the form of a friend who appears in a silent, wilderness moment to help David re-find his strength in God. "Do not be afraid" Jonathan says. They then reaffirm their love and commitment to one another and Jonathan leaves. David remains in Horesh, this wilderness place of silence. But now, somehow, David is no longer quite so alone or afraid. God may be silent, but by his gifts of friendship, love, and encouragement, David can once again recognize God's hand on the move.

As the story continues, Saul really does find out where David is and comes down in pursuit of him. However, we discover that David is no longer in the "horesh" place of silence and testing. Now he is in the Desert of "Maon," a word which means "help" or "refuge." Though "Saul and his forces were closing in on David to capture them," God suddenly intervenes to force Saul to turn away. David and his men are saved, not by what their hands have done (horesh), but by the one in whom they have taken refuge (maon).

God remains our refuge and strength today, though at times he is also silent. The invitation is not to take matters into your own hands in those moments, but to trust him even if you can't hear him. His gifts are usually not far away.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful" (John 15:1-2).

In John 15, Jesus offers us some keen insights into being His disciples. The Bible uses a variety of phrases to fill out our understanding of faith in God. In 2 Peter we had the phrase, "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). Yesterday, we heard two Old Testament phrases, "the way of the righteous" (Psalm 1:6) and the challenge to Israel, "now choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:19).

Here, Jesus uses agricultural imagery to help us understand the Christian life. Today, I want to consider only this: we humans are both physical and spiritual beings. Its easy for us to understand our physicality: eating, sleeping, working, playing – all physical activities. Healthy eating and sleeping patterns lead to better health. Becoming hungry and tired and sore remind us that we are physical. Moreover, many of us have discovered the limitations of virtual relationships. Physical presence offers us something that virtual realities miss.

But we are also spiritual beings. This is more difficult. For many decades, western culture has promoted the idea that we are only bodies. When we die, there is nothing left – finito. We are born, then we die, living a brief time in between; what we do with our time between birth and death doesn't matter much. But Christians believe it does.

Spirituality is subtle. It has to do with our morality, discerning between right and wrong; it deals with attitudes and priorities. It also speaks to what happens when we die. As Christians, we believe that after death our bodies decompose while our souls go to be with God. But in the end, when Christ returns, our bodies will be resurrected to be reunited with our souls. They belong together.

As our bodies need food, drink and sleep, so our souls need nourishment. This is what Jesus addresses in John 15:1, "I am the true vine…" Here is one of those places where the Bible keeps Christianity very simple. To be a Christian is to be connected to the Christian vine: Jesus.

Jesus is the only soul food for Christians. He echoed Moses, "We do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). And then he added, "I am the bread of life" (John 6:48). If we want spiritual life, food for our souls, we must feed on Jesus. Feeding on Jesus leads us in the way of the righteous, it is choosing life, it enables us to discern between good and evil, it causes us to grow in grace and knowledge.

As you prepare for summer, here are some questions to ponder: How does being spiritual affect me? Do I care for both my body and my soul? We cannot truly separate these two. If we neglect our bodies, our souls tend to shrink. If we neglect our souls, we will either neglect our bodies or make them into idols.

How do I stay connected to the true vine? Bible reading, prayer, worship, etc. Reflect on how you best engage with these practices. Do I connect more with Jesus 'in the prayer closet' or 'when I pray with others'? Do I enjoy reading the Bible by myself or does it come alive when I get to discuss it with others?

As you stay connected to the vine:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. (Psalm 1)

Today we enter into summer rhythms of our Wilderness Wanderings. A good place to start is right where we ended in Peter's letter last week: with the theme of vaccines against lawless ways and growth in God's good ways.

Psalm 1 also draws a contrast between two ways of life, as Peter did. There is the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. It is reminiscent of Moses and Joshua setting two ways before the people in days of old—the way of life and the way of death—with the injunction: "now choose life!"

This question is set before us all throughout the Psalter as the wicked are contemplated and the righteous too. What separates them? Why do the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer? What does God mean by the "way of life" and "fruitfulness," even and especially in times of hardship, sorrow, evil and enemies? In the Psalter we are confronted even with dark and painful expressions of faith in lament, like Psalm 88, that makes no turn back to God at all and yet somehow remains on the faithful path of the righteous.

The psalm paints fruitful trees by waters on the one hand, and chaff without substance or life on the other. Mind you—this is not always or even often the way that things look. As noted above, the Psalms often speak of the prosperity of the wicked and the hardship of the righteous. So this Psalm does not describe our experience in the way it appears, but does describe reality as it really is—a reality that can only be seen and experienced through the eyes of faith by the one who meditates on the scriptures.

The wicked gain much as they transgress boundaries of Sabbath, speed, and relationship. But don't be fooled: they aren't putting down roots, nor is their life bearing the kind fruit that generates stability or life in the kingdom of God. They are only as good as the next economic cycle or the fortunes of a particular political regime. Chaff in the wind. Substance, rootedness, generativity, and life are found only in God: a meditation on his way, an exclusive use of his means, a keeping of his boundaries.

The picture is that of a fruit tree planted by an irrigation ditch—this is the literal meaning of the phrase "streams of water" in Hebrew. Even though most of the holy land is pretty dry and arid most of the time and its streams intermittent with the rains—a tree with access to an irrigation canal receives refreshing waters consistently, in all seasons, regardless of the storms and droughts of life.

So: Blessed is that one who is nourished upon and lives the law of the Lord: there is a rhythm to their lives like the seasonal rhythm of a cultivated, well cared-for tree. Rooted in God, we find the nutrients that enable us to live fruitfully, rhythmically, and fully this life we've been given. Drinking from His waters of life build the muscles of our mind, heart, body, and soul to react in the attentive ways of righteousness and love, rather than in the greedy, lustful, cruel, prideful, self-righteous, or escapist ways that can otherwise become easily our default.

To that end, our devotional life is better thought of as a life devoted. It's not only Bible reading and prayer—it is a life devoted to the love of the Lord and His ways. Blessed is that one who devotes all their life and living to him.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.

An extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The texts come from Matthew 6:16-18, from the New International Version of the Bible. To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. (2 Peter 3:17-18)

It would be fair to say that the book of 2 Peter is a vaccine. Vaccines are there to inform our immune system, catalogue new threats for it to respond to, and simply reinforce good, healthy immune responses.

As Peter describes his purposes for writing across the letter—it is for things like reminding, recalling, and now here he adds reasons like forewarning and raising a defensive guard against more harmful strains of teaching that float about in the church environment—whether they be spread maliciously or develop within us naturally when we're worn down and drowsy.

Peter declares that the believers already are "looking forward," already are standing firm in a "secure position." But given enough time of inactivity—our immune system, like our muscles will atrophy. Given enough boredom and monotony from the day-in, day-out dailyness of life's routines, our eyes will begin to wander and we will get distracted from the path.

So Peter gives us a jab in the arm. Wake up! Remember what you already know! Be on your guard against these "errors of the lawless," even as you fix your eyes forward to the very thing they say isn't coming: Jesus' return to judge—to repair all wrongs and heal all hurts.

But it would be wrong to think this letter is just a vaccine against threats and a reminder to stand firm where we are. Peter also invites a movement forward. "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," he says. We're right back to the virtues of chapter 1. Remember them? Peter writes so that you will. There's no better way to end our consideration of this letter, than by going back and hearing that beginning again for ourselves. Starting in chapter 1, verse 2:

"Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:2-8)

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master. Grow in the grace and understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ. Glory to the Master, now and forever! Amen! (2 Peter 1:2; 3:18 MSG).

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:14-16)

Our faculties of perception need to be trained. I've been reminded of this over the past few years as I've attempted to teach our boys how to ride their bikes. Sure enough, my own driving instructor back when I was 15 said the same thing I find myself saying now. "Your hands will go where your head goes." In driving, of course, you need to learn to cut this connection so that you can check your blind spots without running someone off the road. But for teaching kids to bike it is enough simply to say: "keep looking forward! Keep your eyes on the path!"

Peter used the word for this phrase "looking forward" twice in yesterday's passage and again in the beginning of today's. From what Peter has earlier said about false teachers—it seems that not everyone was "looking forward" to Jesus coming again. Instead, they were looking around with greed and lust at all the material satisfactions they could enjoy in this life. Jesus didn't seem to be coming anytime soon, so they contented themselves with living in the moment, rather than keeping eyes fixed on the Christ who stood ever before them.

This remains an easy distraction for us all. Jesus didn't come during our parent's lifetime, after all. Nor in that of our grandparents nor any of the hundreds of years before them. It is easy therefore to lose sight of the path—the direction that history flows. It is easy to believe that the world we see is all there is. And if that's the case—then we need to secure our own lives and resources, our own pleasures and purposes. If there is nothing beyond this world then the meaning of this life has to be something we forge in the fires of our own authentic refinements. Many people—Christian and otherwise—do exactly this. But are they looking forward? Are we?

Peter has spent his letter addressing, accusing, and correcting this at times malicious diversion. He has thumped the same theme over and over. The scriptures are reliable. Jesus is coming again. And judgement comes with him: setting things right, making things whole, and ensuring justice and righteousness flow. Remember, remember, remember and do not forget. Keep looking forward! Keep your eyes on the path!

Finally here at the end now, Peter begins to assume that we've heard him. "Since you are looking forward" he says, "peddle toward the prize." At the beginning of the letter, we heard about the "everything" gifts God had given to equip us for the journey of living out his calling. We were told then to add virtues to our faith. Now Peter wraps it up with the encouragement to reconcile the living of our lives with the one who stands before us. That "author and perfector of our faith" that the writer of Hebrews tells us to "fix our eyes on." "Since you are looking forward," Peter writes, "make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him," that is—with the one we're looking to.

So where are your eyes? Where your eyes go, your hands and energies in this life will go too. Keep looking forward, and let the vision of Jesus shape your living.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master. Grow in the grace and understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ. Glory to the Master, now and forever! Amen! (2 Peter 1:2; 3:18 MSG).

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:11-13)

A few things about "the end" bear mention here: the surprise, the sanctification, and the steadfastness it calls us to.

First, the surprise. God may indeed be patiently waiting for his grace to have its impact before the day of Christ's appearing and the time of judgement arrives. Yet when that day finally does arrive—it will come suddenly! Throughout the Bible this theme is repeated—by Jesus particularly. "Keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour" he says in Matthew 25 (v.13).

Secondly though, as I alluded to yesterday, we have this tendency to view judgement in a negative way. As a cruel, angry god with poor emotional self-regulation coming to wreak vengeance over petty grievances. That is never the Biblical picture though. Firstly—God is a Spirit. The Bible condescends to our comprehension when it makes emotional references to God, so we must understand that what we have in God is both a being beyond our comprehension, and also one who holds all things in perfection. Aristotle once said: "Anybody can become angry—that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way—that is not within everybody's power and is not easy." Exactly. But God can do those things. In God—a perfect love, a perfect knowledge, a perfect justice, and a perfect intervention are all held together.

So what we ought rather expect in judgement is what marginalized and oppressed folks the world over have long longed for—like the widow of Jesus' parable facing down the unjust judge, day-in and day-out demanding justice—they want justice. They want to be saved from those who have unjustly stolen, lied, cheated, and used violence, manipulation, and power against them, but also to see that those wrongs get righted. Judgement may be distasteful for us who have grown up in peace and plenty. But for those who have suffered under dictators and fled in fear of their lives—the notion that a God of justice might see their plight, save them from it, and see it redressed is a comfort and a grace.

This second word then is "sanctification." God comes with fires of judgement not like a toddler toward an ant hill—to indiscriminately destroy—but to refine, to cleanse, to purify and burn off all impurities and burn away all chaff such that what remains is just, true, right, and beautiful. The fires of judgement burn, not only so that justice might be done in human lives and communities, but also so that every trace of sin and evil might be done away with. The "creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God" is the way Paul says it in Romans 8 (v.21).

So, the third word: be steadfast. Continue to live congruently with this promise God has given. The false teachers understood God's delay in coming as God being late. And if God didn't care to honour his commitments, why should we honour ours? One could also imagine a less rebellious scenario. God has forgotten about us and so slowly we drift off to sleep too, forgetting about him. Either way—by rebellion or sleepy forgetfulness—the delay can lull us to a false sense of security that nothing's coming down the tracks.

Not so, says Peter. He echoes again what the scriptures everywhere declare: God is coming suddenly to sanctify—so be steadfast! Remember and do not forget! More on what that means tomorrow.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master. Grow in the grace and understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ. Glory to the Master, now and forever! Amen! (2 Peter 1:2; 3:18 MSG).

Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:3-9)

Many great tales in our world are woven of the stuff that 2 Peter references. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is one of them. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Galadriel speaks of the ring of power, and says: "some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge."

Tolkien speaks through Galadriel here of something quite commonplace. Us human folk can live no where else but in the present moment we inhabit. So events of the distant past and promises given for the future can equally pass from history, to legend, to myth, to becoming lost entirely.

This is what Peter confronts. The line between remembering and forgetting is very thin indeed. All it takes is a few people to question the narrative, to buck the norms, to "reinterpret" things according to their liking for the foundation underneath our feet to unravel. In nothing more than the serpent's words from Eden, whole worlds of meaning and cohesion can be undone. A wee seed of doubt: "did God really say…?" That's all it takes.

The serpent's voice echoes in the words of the scoffers (and in the words of Morgoth and Sauron in Tolkien's world). The lie enters when Peter's scoffers ask "where is this 'coming' [Jesus] promised?" It is an argument from silence, or an ad hominem attack against God's faithfulness—logical fallacies we are warned not to entertain.

Peter responds that these scoffers have made a deliberate choice to forget the scriptures and the Word of God that created the world, spoke in judgement and in redemption in the days of Noah, and that has decreed an end to history when all will be set right and made well in the cleansing and justice-bringing of God.

Peter invites us to make a different choice: to deliberately choose to remember what we have received in the scriptures instead of forgetting it. God is still faithful to his promises. Jesus will come again.

One other doubt is addressed here too though. We tend to find God's judgement too indecent and, well, "judgemental" for modern consumption. Yet don't all our most satisfying stories and movies still end with a "putting things right" that resolves the narrative tension? And when they don't—like in the movie Marriage Story that matches our modern sensibilities of "no resolution please"—we're left with nothing more than a discordant, restless malaise. Yuck.

Peter writes to remind us both that the scriptures are a reliable witnesses to His-story (God's), but also that this God in whom we have believed is a Good God. His desire in judgement is not to punish, but in his patient, merciful forbearance to restore all people to himself. The narrative tension will be resolved to justice, but God is willing to wait long years and ages for a positive resolution. Will we wait as patiently as God, in hope and trust that the one who began this work will see it through? Peter invites us to, even as he sends us out with a blessing.

Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master. Grow in the grace and understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ. Glory to the Master, now and forever! Amen! (2 Peter 1:2; 3:18 MSG).

Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. (2 Peter 3:1-2)

Remember what Peter said in chapter 1 about the importance of remembering? Peter isn't so sure you do—so here come those memory words again! Over the course of this chapter, more encouragements are given to shore up our memory and stave off our forgetfulness.

In case you forgot you were reading 2 Peter—Peter is here to tell you. And he doesn't only wish to tell you that he has written, but why. These letters are "reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking." He wants us to "recall" the scriptures—both Old and New Testaments such as they were in his day—and so be grounded again in a firm foundation from which a wholesome life in Christ can be imagined and lived.

The Christian life is a life of apprenticeship to Jesus as we come to know him more deeply through the Bible and conversations with him directly in prayer. There is nothing new or fancy or complicated about it. So Peter hammers home the same thing again and again. "Recall the words" of the scriptures, he says.

Of course, this reminder needs to be given, because it is so easy to take all that God has done for granted as we (again) talked about yesterday. Precisely because we are "free in Christ," there is no whip on our back driving our obedience or coercing our response. Instead comes an invitation: "remember and believe." "Recall." "Let your mind be stimulated to the wholesome virtues that are the gifts of Christ" as you remember all God has given you through these letters.

Remember, remember, remember. Peter drums away at the theme. A broken record that repeats the things we already know over and over is no sin, because knowing something in the deep ways of habit and muscle memory takes exactly this: time, attention, and repetition. So today, if you've already forgotten the list of virtues to add to your faith—go back and read it again. Start right at chapter 1, verse 1 and recall again what you already know: the "everything" that God has given us to make his calling in our lives sure.

Against the false teaching we heard about in the previous chapter, ultimately what Peter offers here in these reminders is the ability to come back to ourselves—to remember what we have known, to return to our first love, and think again on what we have first believed. The world is full of distractions that put us to sleepy forgetfulness. This letter comes to us as the whisper that awakens prodigal daughters and sons from their sleepwalking to recall the home of the Father with its lavish gifts and place of belonging. It is the invitation to come home.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master. Grow in the grace and understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ. Glory to the Master, now and forever! Amen! (2 Peter 1:2; 3:18 MSG).

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text of Matthew 6:5-15. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

DIVE IN QUESTIONS:

1. How does "At Home" describe our praying?

2. There are two things Jesus tells us not to do when we pray. What are they? Can you name examples in which the Christian community disregards these instructions?

3. What three words did Martin Luther use to summarize how we should pray? (HINT: they each begin with C)

4. What three words were used to summarize the intent of the Lord's prayer? (HINT: they each begin with S).

5. How does "At Home" describe the Lord's Prayer?

6. What two specific things can you to help you practice the pattern Jesus lays out for us?