13 October 2019
Two-Minute Features | 20 October 2019 | 06 October 2019

So Where is God Today, Right Now? (TMF:1240)

Friday, October 18, 2019
Peace to Live By: So Where is God Today, Right Now? (TMF:1240) - Daniel Litton
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       So, just as many of us are familiar with having a loving, earthly Father, we know that we have a Father, who is truly our Father, in Heaven who loves us greatly. The Apostle Paul even took it so far as to say we are to address God as ‘Daddy’ (see Romans 8). Now, the second part of the open, “Our Father in heaven” involves where God is. So, third, we note that God the Father is in Heaven. That is where he resides. Again, we learned a couple weeks ago that God is in Heaven because this world has been affected by sin. God no longer freely comes down to the earth and communes with us like he did with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Now, God did come down to the earth as God the Son, Jesus, but he went back up to Heaven until his enemies can be made a footstool for his feet—until the world is ridded of sin. So, today, Jesus sits at the right hand of God in the throne room of Heaven. In the same breath, it’s also true that God the Holy Spirit dwells within each of us, as Christians. We are collectively God’s temple as the body of Christ, but we are also individually temples of God.

How are We to Address God in Prayer? (TMF:1239)

Thursday, October 17, 2019
Peace to Live By: How are We to Address God in Prayer? (TMF:1239) - Daniel Litton
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       So, is it wrong to pray directly to Jesus or the Holy Spirit? No, I don’t believe it’s wrong as you are still praying to God, obviously. Like I said, on some occasions I will pray to Jesus and the Holy Spirit, so I do not personally believe it is wrong. It’s just we don’t find these examples in Scripture. Jesus tells his disciples to call God 'Father' when addressing him then in his model prayer here. In the Old Testament, God was referenced as Father in only fifteen occurrences. However, when looking at the New Testament, we see almost 250 occurrences, which is quite a dramatic difference. As a matter of fact, in the Sermon on the Mount here, where the Lord’s Prayer is located, there are many references to God as 'Father.' So, Jesus wanted to show God as personable, and that a personal relationship with Him is not only feasible but is to be desired among as, as his followers. Certainly, this was good news to those hearing this for the first time, and it is still a great reminder of God’s personal nature for us.

Who are We to Address When We Pray? (TMF:1238)

Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Peace to Live By: Who are We to Address When We Pray? (TMF:1238) - Daniel Litton
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       So, while this prayer is straightforward and basic perhaps, I think Jesus intends and want us to fill in the columns, if you will, under each section of the prayer. Coming to the first area, then, we read the following: “Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven.” Notice first, who we are praying to. We are praying to “Our Father.” Anyone who knows me well, and anyone who’s listens to me pray, knows that I almost always pray strictly to God the Father. I usually do not pray to the Son or to the Holy Spirit. And why do I personally practice this? Well, The Lord’s Prayer is certainly one of the reasons. Jesus tells us to pray to God the Father, not to himself or to the Holy Spirit. And, believe it or not, nowhere in the New Testament are we told to pray to anyone except God the Father. That’s who the Apostle Paul prayed to anytime he prayed. That’s the order that God has setup. Now, that being said, I know a lot of people who pray to Jesus primarily, and occasionally you’ll hear someone pray to the Holy Spirit.

The Lord's Prayer is a Daily Skelton (TMF:1237)

Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Peace to Live By: The Lord's Prayer is a Daily Skelton (TMF:1237) - Daniel Litton
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       So, now, we are at the start of The Lord’s Prayer. Jesus gave us those two preliminary warnings before he jumped into the prayer, and now we are at the prayer. Now, again, while this prayer is often used in a corporate, collective sense, I want us to realize today that really this prayer, I believe, is also for daily, individual use. Midway through the prayer, Jesus says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” I think this captures the fact that this prayer is a daily prayer that is to be recited by Jesus’ disciples. I would also like to state that this prayer being a model prayer is also a skeleton. In other words, this is just a basic rundown of the order of what we are to say to God and also the different areas of which we are to pray to God. Interestingly enough, I think this prayer, when really analyzed, as we are going to try to do, actually captures all the specific areas of our praying. What I mean is that anything you want to pray to God usually can be fit somewhere into Jesus’ formula here.

Heaping Up Empty Phrases to God (TMF:1236)

Monday, October 14, 2019
Peace to Live By: Heaping Up Empty Phrases to God (TMF:1236) - Daniel Litton
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       Jesus also talked about the fact that when we pray, we are not to heap up “empty phrases” to God in order to be heard by him. This, again, was a pagan custom during Jesus’ day, as Jesus tells us. The people who believed in other gods thought those gods would hear them if they just keep repeating and repeating things in their prayers. Jesus called this “vain repetitions.” In contrast, when we have a request for God, as Christians, we are believe that God cares about our need, even knowing it before we ask it, and we should believe that God will provide for us. So, while the pagan believed in a ‘work’ of repetitions to obtain his or her request, the Christian believer should just believe by using ‘faith’ that the request will be received in the future, when it is God’s will and we are not asking with a wrong motive, as James has told us. Sometimes we are to petition God for a certain request that we believe is his will, as Jesus told us to always pray and never give up (see Luke 18:1), but often times all it takes is one prayer (as we learned in Daniel chapter 10 a couple of weeks ago).