Forgetting God

It's easy for me to forget God. It doesn't matter if things are going well for me, or if they are going poorly. I have a very independent spirit that tries to do everything myself. So if things are going well, then I kind of coast along and don't seek after God and His wisdom. If things go poorly, I look for solutions and ways to get out and implement them.
Rarely, if ever, do I earnestly seek God and His help in my life.
I think that's what will keep me from being remarkable. That's what will hold me to an ordinary life. When we refuse to seek God and ask for His help, we limit ourselves to our own abilities, and no matter how great they may be, they are nothing compared to God's infinite power. JM

Acts 12:1-5

I wonder what the church's prayers were like for Peter. I wonder if they were filled with confidence and hope, or more just simple passionate prayers imploring God to intervene. It's cool to think about the church doing this too as they are spread throughout the city. A lot of times it seems like we think we need to all come together if we want to passionately pray about the same thing. But this group was almost certainly not together (due to persecution) yet they were all praying in concert for Peter. I love the thought that my prayers can have the power to bring God to act. Amazing. JM

Acts 10:30-33

I think it's interesting that God chose Cornelius because he heard his prayer and saw that he gave to the poor.  It's good to pray.  It's awesome to pray.  But when our prayers are merely requests we shout at God and we refuse to have a relationship with Him or live a life of obedience to Him, I bet he gets tired of granting those requests.  

I hope that God hears my prayers and sees that I'm living a life of obedience rather than just seeing me as some little kid going "gimme, gimme, gimme".  JM

Mission Impossible

Tomorrow night we have our biggest event we do all year. It's an outdoor capture-the-flag type game called Mission Impossible. We did it at my old church, and I've adapted it for down here. It's a lot of fun and we have kids come out like crazy for it. Last year we had 129 middle school students. So tomorrow I'll be busy making sure everything is ready for it. I'd appreciate some prayer if you've got a spare minute. Pray that we would provide a high-quality event, that students would bring their unchurched friends, and that I would be able to present the gospel in a clear and relevant fashion. Thanks. JM

Acts 4:23-31

Talk about fervent prayer. I guess we don't pray with passion anymore because we don't live lives that need it. Or at least we don't think we need it. We don't really see our lives as a battle. Now granted, I'm totally against battle/war imagery in student ministry. But I do think it is sad that we don't feel like we are doing anything for God, at least not anything that requires passionate prayer.
What if we prayed that we would be brave and that God would provide us with signs to show that God was real. I think our lives and our evangelism would be massively different.
We have neighbors down the street that we have become close friends with. They don't go to church anywhere and have no real relationship with God. But I don't pray for them with any sense of passion. And I definitely have never prayed that God would give me the ability to heal as a sign that he is real. Maybe that's not literally the answer (praying for the gift of healing), but prayer has to be more than just selfish requests and passionless intercession. JM

Matthew 27:62-66

You can be convinced of something. You can believe it passionately. You can be absolutely sure of it. You can even believe that God wants it that way, but you can still be wrong about it. Certainly you would have to miss some fairly obvious signs from God in order to get to the position that the pharisees were in, but it's possible. So how can we be convinced that God is in something and be right about it? I think it all comes down to how we interact with Him. If we give God no opportunities to speak to us, then we are trapped into listening to God through circumstances and wise counsel. Counsel is easy to dismiss, and circumstances can be easy as well. This reason is probably the most crucial reason in my opinion as to why we need to have a daily time of bible study and prayer. Otherwise we might be the one crucifying Christ and be convinced that we're serving God. JM

SYATP

See You At The Pole is coming up again. I've never been a huge fan of this event. Really, I just don't quite understand it. Why are they gathering around the flagpole to pray? Most people say that it's so that people will know they are Christians. But if you have to go pray around your flagpole so that somebody knows your a Christian, what does that say about your actions.
I came across this post by Dino via a post on Mark Riddle's blog. It's an interesting rant on SYATP. While some of it is written with a negative, instigating tone, what he says rings true. I just wonder if there is a way to redeem SYATP and turn it into a truly remarkable event. JM

Matthew 26:41-46

God didn't answer Jesus prayer. A lot of times I like to think that God should always grant my prayer requests. I'm a good person, I only ask for good things, and I generally do the things God wants me to do. So why would he not answer my prayers.
It's just awesome to see that God doesn't answer Jesus prayer request. Jesus is begging God to not make Him go through with the crucifixion, but God tells Him that he must. And Jesus is way holier than I will ever be. JM

Matthew 26:37-40

I think Jesus was frustrated because the Disciples didn't understand what He was saying. They couldn't see that Jesus was incredibly anxious and facing tremendous temptation. They failed to really listen to him, so they dozed off, not taking the time to really feel his pain. I wonder why they didn't get it? Jesus doesn't seem to be an overly dramatic person, so why didn't they see that something was wrong?
I think we spend too much time concerned about our own needs and too little really listening to people and trying to understand what they are going through. JM

Meeting Today

So there is a meeting today concerning the opportunity that I might have concerning budget and if there is really any opportunity at all for me. I've been praying earnestly about it. I'm anxious. JM

Matthew 26:36

Not everybody needs to know about everything that is troubling you. If you're having problems and need people to pray with you, it might not be the best solution to involve everybody. Look at Jesus. he's facing the most stressful night of his life. He's being tempted to not go through with the mission, and he tells 8 of his disciples to sit here while he goes somewhere else with 3 of them to pray. Pretty interesting. I can't imagine the stress he was under.
The other thing that is amazing to me is that Jesus took the time to pray. I tend to react and plan when I'm in high stress situations. I rarely, if ever, stop to pray about it. JM

Meeting

So pumped about my meeting tomorrow. Hopefully it will go well and soon I will be able to talk about it here and the adventure that will start. I know that's vague, but pray for me please. JM

Emotional Check

One of the things my mom taught me was not to get too excited about things until they were a sure thing. I don't like to talk about things unless they are for certain. Sometimes I'll get pumped up about them, but I try not to get overly excited about possibilities until they become more sure.
I talked to a friend last night about a cool opportunity and was able to set up a meeting to further explore this opportunity next week. It's crazy because it sounds so cool, but I don't want to get too pumped about it because I don't know if it's going to happen.
Still exciting to see God answer prayers. JM

Matthew 20:29-34

I think it's interesting that these blind guys use the word mercy and not grace. I mean, they want Jesus to heal them, even though they don't deserve it, so they were asking him to show them grace. I wonder why they used mercy, then? There has to be a meaning to it, I'm just not sure what it could be.
It's cool that Jesus felt sorry for them and healed them. I think that might be the key to getting God to seeing God answer a prayer request. We will never be able to earn anything from God and will never receive anything because we deserve it. So basically, we're just trying to get God to have mercy on us and feel sorry for us. Kind of changes your perspective on prayer. JM

Matthew 17:14-20

I love seeing the power of faith demonstrated. It's incredible to me the things that Jesus says that we can accomplish through faith. Moving mountains. I wonder how different my life would be if I really prayed desperately for things and had faith that God would provide? Perhaps that would be a great experiment. JM

Matthew 15:21-28

Have you ever really begged Jesus for something? I know I have. I think God desperately wants us to bless us with the things that we desire. But he refuses to give us things that will hurt us. It's like C.S. Lewis says: one day we'll be more thankful for the prayers that weren't answered because many of our prayers are misguided. I'm still trying to get a handle on my prayer life.
I think I'm going to start praying to God for some big stuff. We'll see what happens. JM

Matthew 14:22-23

Jesus does something amazing. He feeds 5,000 people from just a negligible amount of food. Then he sends his helpers away, and all of the 5,000 people and goes off by himself to pray. How incredible is that?
Every time that God uses me to do something, I don't immediately go to pray. No, I'd rather sit and think about it, share the news with lots of people, and glory in how I'm suddenly effective. But Jesus wasn't like that. He went off to pray. By himself. The more I study the life and ministry of Jesus, the more I realize how pathetic my prayer life is. JM

Psalm 69:13-36

Man, I wonder if it's okay to pray for people to go to hell? To me that seems a little harsh. I mean, I can understand being frustrated and not liking people, but to want God to send them to hell seems to be a little much. I do like that David is amazingly transparent with God. He knows he can't hide anything from God, so why even try?
I don't think I've ever wished that someone would go to hell, but I have wished that they would fail, or be miserable, and I have definitely enjoyed the suffering of others. I'm getting better, though. I mean, there are very few people that I hate. JM

Prayers Of A 2-Year Old

Here's my son's prayer at lunch today:

"Dear Jesus,

Thank you for food. Thank you for juice. Thank you for outside. Thank you for bird. Amen."

I love hearing him pray. JM

Matthew 12:33-37

How scary is it that we are going to be held accountable for "every careless thing" we have said. Right now one of the major things I am struggling with is my anger. If you know me, then that is probably really surprising to you. I hide it extremely well, but I have a tendency to instantly express my frustrations through anger. I'm starting to improve on it, though. My strategy is instead of yelling, or saying something that I would regret, I pray. Out loud. It's really helped me so far. JM