prayer coach

God enthrones Himself among the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3). The believers in the video below build a throne for the everlasting God within a mall in Beirut. In doing so they expressed their love of Jesus and His resurrection last Easter that brought beauty in a non-threatening way.

I encourage you to watch the video. Even though the song is sung in Greek and Arabic, their love for Jesus will boast your own worship this Easter. I have found the English translation and added it below.

Rough translation of what is being sung:

Christ is risen from the dead,
and by His death, He has trampled upon death,
and given life to those who are in tomb.

This day is the day that God has made,
let us be happy and rejoice in it.

Truly, He is risen!
Truly, He is risen!
Truly, He is risen!

Every Christian seems to have their technique for keeping from sin. We have to—if we are trying to follow God, we will be aware of our sin. It must be dealt with.

The Easter season makes this more prevalent because of the so many participating in the tradition of fasting things for Lent. This is wonderful tradition to prepare us for the Easter celebration.

Some of the tools Christians use for motivation not to sin are the following:

• Accountability: If I sin, I’ll have to tell someone what I have done.
• Consequences: If I sin, I’ll do something. This may be 100 pushups, give someone money to pay “the fine,” run an extra mile, etc.
• Think It Over: If I sin, I’ll go contemplate how bad that decision was, how it made God feel, and how bad I feel afterwards.
• Guilt: If I sin, I’ll sit in guilt.
• Shame: If I sin, I’ll beat myself up. Sin is bad, and if I sin I must be bad.
• Ignore It: If I sin, I’ll quickly move on. That’s not who I am. Plus, I am forgiven already.
• Sense of Value: I am too good to sin.

I have heard each of these options from preachers over the years, and not all of them are bad ideas. Very rarely have I heard how God motivates us not to sin.

God’s main motivation is love. It’s His kindness that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). Jesus said if you love me, you will do what I have commanded (John 14:15). Find out what pleases the Lord and have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of the flesh (Ephesians 5:1-13). We are not to beat ourselves up over our sins. We are not even to focus on how bad it makes God feel when we sin. Sin has been dealt with. Our motivation for not sinning is an expression of love to the One who loves us. When Jesus comes to Peter after his denial, Jesus gets Peter to focus on his love. “Do you love me?”  (John 21:15-17)

image courtesy of Carl Heinrich Bloch

I was recently reading 6 Principles for Prayer from Jesus by Bogdan Kipko. He took the prayer of Jesus from the Garden of Gethsemane to pull out these principles of prayer. The principles were well thought out and neatly explain what Jesus did as He prayed. Probably because my mindset while reading, I was struck that these principles without Jesus’ motivation can be very dangerous to our faith.

I have recently been rereading Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. One point he makes throughout the book is that focusing on the dynamics of the disciplines over our relationship with God would lead to a form of religion. Religion leads us away from relationship with God by making us try to earn His response to us.

Bogdan’s six principles are there in Gethsemane (distance, demeanor, disposition, declaration, dedication, and determination). Jesus sweated blood as he prayed here. But, what was motivating Him to go to such lengths in prayer?

Jesus said earlier that He only did what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19). Was this what the Father was doing? We know that God so loved the world that He sent His Son to die (John 3:16), but that was the Father’s motivation for sending Jesus. Was Jesus’ motivation the same? We know that for the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2), but this was just the preamble to that suffering. So what was His motivation?

As I understand it, Jesus needed something before going through the suffering that He could only get from prayer. He had become sorrowful and troubled to the point of death (Mark 14:33-34). He is so troubled He asked His three closest disciples to watch and pray. We know that Jesus asked God to take the pending cup from Him. We also know He bowed to the will of the Father. What we don’t know is what He prayed for so long?

A friend of mine posted this video to her Facebook page. I found it interesting, and loved seeing it was in Eastern Europe. You tend to think of Eastern Europe being more reserved, so it was fun thinking how different this must have been. It was also great to see the different types of people involved from young girls to men in ties to elderly.

But as I thought of the power of dance, I was almost overwhelmed by what they were creating. There were declaring that they had something to celebrate. Jesus is alive and we have reason to dance! See more of these videos on Up To Faith. Enjoy.

image courtesy of The Passion of the Christ

“You know the Greeks didn’t write obituaries.
They only asked one question after a man died:
‘Did he have passion?’”.  – Serendipity

Did Jesus have passion in His life? Absolutely! He put all of His emotions, strength, thoughts, and will to His one goal: to do the will of His Father who sent Him (John 6:38). What was the main direction of the Father’s will: to bring you to God (1 Peter 3:18). Jesus did not have to die, but He chose to die to accomplish the will of the Father.

Jesus went to Jerusalem knowing the religious leaders wanted to kill him. Jesus told Judas to do what he had planned. Jesus had to wait for the soldiers to get back on their feet for them to arrest Him. Jesus chose to stop Peter from defending Him. Jesus had to put the servant’s ear back on before they took Him. Jesus gave the high priest the answer to assuredly irritate him. Pilot tried to get Jesus give him anything in which to let Him go. Jesus wanted to die.

Jesus’ choice to die was not to become a martyr, but for that joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). The discussion with His Father in the garden of Gethsemane revealed this was the only way (Mark 14:35-36). And since it was the only way, Jesus gave everything to make it happen.

So now, do we have passion? Is it okay for us to have passion? Let us be passionate about the things that Jesus died for. Let us have passion for being with God, passion for bringing others to God, passion for experience all that Jesus death and resurrection has given us.

image courtesy of Christ Washing the Feet of the Apostles by Meister des Hausbuches

One of the celebrations of the liturgical church for Maundy Thursday is the foot washing. This is a beautiful ceremony where are reminded of where Jesus set an example for His disciples (John 13:15). But what was that example? Why did Jesus wash their feet?

We often think about the servanthood of Jesus to take on the role of a slave and wash their feet. Love most certainly cares for the needs of those it  is directed towards. While there is an aspect of this that cannot be exalted too highly, I believe that many Christians have taken this view too far where they abase themselves. Someone being a servant will not create the stir that Jesus did in the room that night.

This passage starts with, “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God” (John 13:3). The confusion in the room was around someone who knew He was awesome submitting Himself to becoming a servant. This is the humility of Jesus. It is saying, “I know who I am and I give myself freely.”

Jesus was not only giving an example of servanthood, He was also giving an example of identity. Service without identity is normal. It says that you are better than me and I will do things for you so I will feel better about myself. Service in the midst of knowing your identity portrays love – I am not trying to get anything from you other than to display my love.

Pete Greig of Campus America wrote a great blog post the other day on the Holy Saturday or … the day before Easter. He entitled it Where is God When Heaven is Silent? and I believe this is the struggle of many Christians. We are living in what seems to the second day world and trying to generate third day faith. I encourage you to read it.

If you are not familiar with Campus America, here is a video clip of their vision statement. Pray blessings on their ministry. Go after it!

image courtesy of HolyLandPhotos.org

As a Christian you just have to love Easter. It is the celebration of the transaction that defines what we believe. I hope that you yesterday you were able to be reminded of extent Jesus has gone through to show you His love and to show you your freedom.

During the worship time yesterday, the music led into a line about God has moved away the stone. Immediately I thought that this represented the stone God removed from our hearts.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;
I will remove from you your heart of stone and
give you a heart of flesh.” – Ezekiel 36:26

This is what Easter is about. It is when God has removed our hearts of stone to give us hearts of flesh. He has pulled back the stone that has deadened everything inside of us to allow the air of His Spirit in. O Lord, breathe new life into us. May we be awakened to that which You have created us.

In John 11:39 Jesus had another stone removed away, and He follows it up by calling out the dead man.  Our hearts are tombs because it is where all of life dwells and without the Author of Life living inside, we are the walking dead. As Christians we have the stone removed, but we need to come out. We need to hear the voice of Jesus and to step forth into life.

Life does not come from what we can muster or from what we can avoid. Life comes from the connection to the Spirit who has entered the tomb to lead you to your new home – the heart of flesh.