We are entering the final month of the GospeLines contribution campaign. Thank you for your generous response during these difficult economical times. We are only $400 short of what we received in 2008, and I am certain that our needs will be met before the end of April.
Prayer is so much more than communion with God. It is a vehicle for God to show us who He really is; prayer is meant to impress you with God, more than it is to impress God with you or your needs.You don’t pray to make God think you are holy; you pray to know the majestic holiness and glory of God.True prayer brings the mind into contemplation with God and holds it there until your soul is completely impressed!
Of all the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer, this is the most difficult to understand and even more difficult to explain.“Hallowed,” from the Greek word hagios, is the word we translate as holy, but the root meaning is “different.”A Christian is hagios because there is something different about her/him.God is hagios because he is set apart from everything and everyone else.So the meaning of “Hallowed be Thy Name” is to let God’s name be treated differently from all other names because it reflects a divine character that is above all others. However, just knowing the meaning of the words is not enough.We are required to act on them.
Martin Luther asks, “How is God’s name hallowed amongst us?”And his answer is, “When both our life and doctrine are truly Christian.”
I have tried to think of an English word which explains how we give God the unique position demanded by His character.If there is such a word, maybe it is reverence.William Barclay says there are four ways we give reverence to God:
·In order to reverence God we must believe that God exists.When we look inward unto ourselves and outward to the universe we are driven to God.We know that He exists because we experience Him every day.
·We must also know the kind of God He is:He is holy, He is righteous, and God is love.
·To reverence God is to be constantly aware of Him.He is in the workplace and the holy places; He is with us everywhere and at all times.
·We must submit to God in order to reverence Him; obedience follows awareness.
Beloved, please hear me carefully…when we say “Hallowed be Thy Name” we are not giving God the reverence His nature and character deserve until we have lived it.We would do well never to pray the prayer until we have surrendered to its meaning, or else it is a mockery to Him.“Hallowed be Thy Name,” means “God be on display through me!”When you have the right thoughts about God and you do the right deeds through God you are hallowing His name (1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV). Is His Name hallowed in you?Let us pray.
GospeLines Prayer:Father, may those who read these words hallow Your name, and may we live so others may see our good works and glorify their Father, who is in heaven.Amen and amen.
We are entering the final month of the GospeLines contribution campaign. Thanks to your generous response during these difficult economical times, we are only $400 short of what we received in 2008. I am certain that God will meet our needs before the end of April. If you choose to participate, cash and checks may be sent to:
GospeLines Ministries
P.O. Box 1793
Cordova TN 38088-1793
Or, you may send your gifts using our PayPal account located on our website at the bottom of page connected to this link:
Now we come to the fourth article about The Lord’s Prayer, and we are not half way through it because we have intentionally broken it down into its many parts.But I would ask you to notice, too, how the petitions of The Prayer depend on each other for translation.“Thy Kingdom Come” is impossible without the “Hallowedness of The Father.”And there is no possibility for “Thy Will be Done,” unless first, “Thy Kingdom Come.”God’s will cannot be done apart from His Kingdom’s work, which is tied eternally to who He is, the Father of creation, to whom be the glory forever and ever!In our piecemeal explanation of each word please don’t lose the continuity of the prayer for the sake of being thorough:
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven,Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9-10KJV )
To understand the New Testament, to grasp the truth of The Prayer, we must figure out what He meant by, “Thy Kingdom Come.” FIRST, Jesus felt obligated to preach about the Kingdom (Luke 4:43 NIV) to everyone, both Jew and Gentile.SECOND, when He spoke of the Kingdom, He could have easily said, “reign” which is really a better English translation of the word.If I spoke of a king who ruled in history, you would understand the reign of Henry VIII perhaps better than the kingdom of Henry VIII.So when we pray for “Thy Kingdom Come,” we are asking for Jesus to REIGN on earth as He does in heaven; and, in the THIRD place, we are asking to let it immediately and suddenly come.Let it come and let it come now, and let it come completely!
It is not OUR kingdom, but it is HIS kingdom we seek!We are not talking about a man-made kingdom because they come and go.Historians tell us there have been 21 great civilizations which have all become extinct.Some of those were Rome, Egypt, Syria, Assyria, and Medo-Persia.In The Prayer, we are talking about God’s kingdom, one that is permanent and a place where Christians nurture and take care of each other.One of the great tragedies is that in the early years of America, when America was Christian in a greater sense than it is today, the Christians took care of the needs of their own, as well as their neighbors.But the church relinquished to the government certain rights; they let the government take over the tasks of caring for the widows and orphans.Now we have allowed the government to take over all those social responsibilities that rightly belong to the church and we don't know how to get them back again.
Beloved, America is not to be mistaken for the Kingdom of God! When we pray “Thy Kingdom Come” it is the Reign of Jesus we seek, and we do so (1) with an ear to the past when Jesus was obligated to preach about it just as we are today; (2) we give attention to the present mess we are in because we have rebelled against the Kingdom of God; and (3) we look hopefully to the future that God will straighten out our world before we implode upon our sinful selves.Clearly, God is calling us to repentance… if we choose to ignore the signs we do so at our peril.
GospeLines Prayer:Father, thank You that no matter where we live we are first and foremost citizens of the Kingdom of God, yesterday today and forever!Remind us that while we have a moral obligation to participate in this world, we must never trust our souls to anyone but You.Amen and amen.
Have you ever walked alone down a long dark street at night and wondered what was hiding in each shadow? Did you jump at each strange noise or maybe walk a little faster?
Have you ever gone empty and cold inside because you suddenly realized that you faced an inescapable future that you knew was going to be filled with pain and sorrow?
We frequently find ourselves in these situations because of bad decisions we have made or situations that are forced upon us. A man arranges to have his car stolen and burned so he can collect on the insurance. When he sees the police at his doorstep, he knows his future is about to change forever.
When a wife tells her husband that she doesn't love him anymore and that she wants a divorce; that man experiences the dark and soul-crushing feelings of loss, emptiness and rejection.
When a son leaves his dad out of his wedding party because his parents are divorced and he doesn't want to make his mother feel uncomfortable, the dad feels the weight of everything he ever did wrong pressing on his heart making it hard to breathe.
Each of these was forced by their actions (or the actions of someone else) to walk down a street filled with tears. Nothing could have forced them to willingly accept the pain, sorrow, emptiness and rejection that they experienced. Nothing could have convinced them that this was "for the best."
However, there was one man who walked down a street filled with tears willingly. He chose to endure unbelievable pain, rejection by his closest friends, and, worst of all, abandonment by the father he loved. He chose this "Street of Tears" because of someone else he loved. He chose it because he knew that his sacrifice would bring freedom from pain and sorrow to those he loved.
He suffered beyond our ability to imagine. He was cursed, condemned and humiliated. He gave everything, including his last breath. Yes, he died. But, there was a difference in his walk. Three days later, he arose from the grave to live forever at the right hand of his father and to forever intercede for those he loves.
That man's name is Jesus.
Your servant,
Pastor RonU
Be made new in the attitude of your minds and have the same attitude, purpose and humble mind that was in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 4:22-24; Philippians 2:4-7)