When it happened, I was caught completely off guard. I couldn’t believe that the old temptations, put aside long ago, were back, demanding attention. At first I was confused. Since I didn’t see it coming, I was unprepared. I felt like someone had just turned back the clock about three years. I cried out to…
“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matthew 6:12 Debts – There are only two critical terms in a debt: who and what. Without those two terms, the debt means nothing. So, let’s ask the obvious questions. In the Lord’s Prayer, whom do I owe and what do I owe? Since…
Peace with God does not mean peace with the world. In fact, peace with God means emnity with the world. Peace with God is the status of our spiritual relationship. It is not a description of the condition of our lives. We should expect trails, turmoil, tragedy and death in the course of our journey. …
Someone has to pay. That is a cardinal rule of psycho-emotional development. In order for us to grow as healthy individuals, someone has to make an investment in us. When that investment is short changed, we ourselves are asked to take up the payment. It seems that the psychological makeup of each of us requires…
“Our bread, our daily bread, give us today.” Martin Luther’s translation of Matthew 6:11 Daily – I am indebted to Ernst Lohmeyer for his magnificent work The Lord’s Prayer. Much of his thought underscores our look at this model prayer. His untimely death robbed the world of a man of insight and scholarship. The book,…
Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6:11 Shifting Gears Bread – You can’t see it in English, but in Greek the emphasis on this part of the model prayer is not on the verb. It is on the noun – bread. In Greek, emphasis is determined by position in the sentence since there…
on earth, as it is in heaven Matthew 6:10 Earth/ Heaven – Startling! Uncomfortable! Of course, it isn’t for us because we are not saturated in the Hebrew Scriptures. But the disciples were. They would have expected “heaven and earth” not “earth and heaven.” Glance through the Old Testament and you will find the phrase…
Thy will be done Matthew 6:10 Will – “But how do I know what God’s will is?” Have you struggled with that question? I have – more often than not. I long to do His will, but knowing what He wants in any of the various gray areas of my life is not so easy…
Thy Kingdom come Matthew 6:10 Come – We’re not quite finished with this part of Yeshua’s example prayer. We discovered that this is not clock time. It’s God time. It’s kairos – the time when He fulfills His purposes . . the absolutely right time. Our awareness of His breaking into the world is essential…
