A Blog by Leslie Schmucker
I believed, therefore I spoke. (2 Corinthians 4:13)
Christ ends the preface of The Lord's Prayer with establishing the inviolableness of God’s name. God’s name is to be set apart and high above all other names. He is to be revered and viewed utterly sacrosanct. His tender fatherliness does not give us license to relax our reverence toward him.
After establishing our relationship to God (Our Father), his whereabouts (in Heaven), and reminding us of our obligation to revere him (Hallowed by your name), Christ presents his first supplication: to bring God’s kingdom to earth.
Jesus Christ’s desire for his father’s will was paramount in his earthly life. Eternal yet begotten, Christ was the linchpin in the plan of salvation, and he knew that the good of Creation depended on God’s will, established from heaven, being accomplished on earth. So he taught his hearers to pray for God’s will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven.”
Christ has begun his model prayer with establishing the goodness, greatness, and supremacy of God, and our need to seek his perfect will for us. Now he models supplication. We are told in scripture to ask God for our needs and desires. Notice in Jesus’ prayer, he asks for bread for “this day.” Like the manna given to the Israelites in the wilderness, we are given what we need on a day to day basis.
Jesus wisely establishes God’s goodness, holiness, and our need to reach out to him for provision before he gets to this difficult point in the prayer. Reliance on the Father to give us the courage and humility to forgive others is essential, since only the Holy Spirit can keep us aware of the immense and infinite height, width, and breadth of God’s forgiveness.
Jesus ends The Lord's Prayer with a plea for protection. The Bible is clear that God does not tempt anyone. James tells us, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” (James 1:13-14).
There is no other gospel. There is no better news.
To be curious is to pursue love, for others and for Christ.
When we are denied what we think we so deeply desire or what we tacitly assumed we will receive, the sharp sting or crushing pain of disappointment can propagate a bitter root. What can be done to prevent the disillusionment from proliferating that bitter root and instead lead us to the hard won conclusion that God is, indeed, profoundly good?
Of all the sin and discord in the world that cloys my soul, it is the sin that resides in my own heart and mind that wearies me the most.
Nowhere does God’s Word say to get down and dirty with our opponents. And God is wise in that instruction. Because when we join the clamor with our own opinion, we become just another voice in the fray. But when we stay on point with the gospel message, who knows how many people will hear and be changed?
Though all sincere Christians agree on the “Reason for the Christmas season,” there are clearly two camps among Christians when it comes to the subject of Santa and secular Christmas traditions. One camp says Santa should be spurned lest the true reason for Christmas be lost. The other says to enjoy the trappings because, despite the unbelief of the world, they point directly to the true meaning and Author of Christmas.
At the end of this past August was my first day of school, for the fifty-fifth time — my thirty-seventh as an educator. Twenty-eight of those years I spent teaching in public school, and the last nine in the Christian school where my husband and I sent our children.
Unlike many Christian schools, this particular one goes beyond tacking a few Bible classes onto their classical curriculum. Here, the Bible is the heart of the curriculum. Every day, in every subject, in every class, the students are taught that God is the Creator of every bit of information. Teaching at this school goes past merely imparting knowledge. The goal is to use the subjects as vehicles to behold the glory of Christ...
A few years ago, in preparation for a Bible study, I threw out a little test on Facebook which read, “Quick, I say church, you say…” The responses I got included fellowship, pastor, pray, God’s people, community, lady (that one made me chuckle), Amen, worship, people, building, steeple, and mouse...
My husband and I often don’t see eye to eye. After 36 years of marriage, you’d think that we would have figured out how to navigate our differences. We do love each other. We both have come to understand, by God’s grace, that love is not a feeling but a choice. People who don’t have that figured out don’t last 36 years...
In a culture that not only scrapes against the grain of Christian principles, but also brands Christians as a hate group, how do parents help children develop the faith muscles to not only “demolish arguments,” but to do so winsomely and with grace so that in the end they will be a person who will “hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it” (Titus 1:9)?
The journey to Christ can be long and fraught, and maybe there will not be one single miracle on that road. But what God offers through Jesus Christ is hope at the end of the road. Not a wishful thinking kind of hope, but a sure hope. A solid promise of eternal happiness, peace, and an eternity free from pain and strife. And best of all, complete, intimate, unhindered relationship with the triune God, in fellowship with him and every single person who ever wrestled with God and came to the conclusion that he is good, and that he is the only way to overcome the rottenness of this world.
In celebration of the first episode of the second season of the episodic series on the life of Christ The Chosen being released on Easter Sunday, I am publishing my review of it again. If you haven’t seen the first season, well, what are you waiting for? Do yourself a favor, and binge watch this wonderful show. No need for a “cheesey-Christian-content” alert. This show is the real deal.
An ambassador represents his king and country. And our King commands us to love, because our Country has love as its very air. What defines a Christian, the thing that makes us look different, must be love.
Coming to God means turning to him in prayer, in Scripture, and in obedience and submission. It is a quiet resolve, a conscious, Spirit-compelled choice to turn our thoughts to him and away from our troubles.
