A confessional of some bad tasting Christian cookies.

Have you ever switched ingredients accidentally in a recipe? Have you ever measured out salt for the flour and flour for the salt? I think we can all agree that a pinch of flour and three cups of salt in a recipe for cookies would make a pretty nasty cookie!

If your Christian life was a cookie, what ingredient would prayer be? If we were honest, I think prayer would be like a "pinch of salt" in the recipe rather than "3 cups of flour". For me, it's so much easier to focus on strategy, leadership, mission, etc. But I know in my heart it's time to re-read the original recipe because all too often our cookies aren't turning out too great. As I read through the book of Mark, I see Jesus trying to reveal the true recipe God designed for us.

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed." Mark 1:35

And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer." (Mark 9:28-29)

And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seasts of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything thorugh the temple. And he was teaching them and sayng to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? But you have made it a den of robbers. (Mark 11:15-17)

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Mark 11:24

I think Jesus was concerned because he saw a powerless people trying to accomplish God's mission. If I'm not mistaken, we believe in prayer WAY more than we actually spend time praying.

Reading about prayer, thinking about prayer, believing in prayer, watching other people in prayer - it's not the same as actual time spent in prayer. Let's get back to the original recipe. Let's put the priority of prayer where it should be, and see things happen that have been needing to happen for a long time. The world is overdue for a really tasty cookie!

Fasting: Direction - not intention - moves the heart of God.

I'm convicted. I'm repenting. I'm headed in a new direction. Here's why:

A word-for-word excerpt from Isaiah 58 about why some prayers are dead and never answered, accompanied with the solution and action to remedy the situation:
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"Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Shout aloud! Don’t be timid. Tell my people Israel of their sins! Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me. ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? “I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves

...this is the kind of fasting I want:

1. Free those who are wrongly imprisoned
2. lighten the burden of those who work for you
3. Let the oppressed go free
4. Remove the chains that bind people
5. Share your food with the hungry, feed the hungry
6. Give shelter to the homeless
7. Give clothes to those who need them
8. Do not hide from relatives who need your help
9. Remove the heavy yoke of oppression
10. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors
11. Help those in trouble.
    

Then

1. your salvation will come like the dawn
2. your wounds will quickly heal
3. Your godliness will lead you forward
4. the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind
5. when you call, the Lord will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.
6. your light will shine out from the darkness, the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.
7. The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength.
8. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.
9. Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes.
10. the Lord will be your delight.
11. I will give you great honor and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob.
    

I, the Lord, have spoken!”

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"They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me."

To be near to God is to be near to the broken and hurting...anything else is pretending. When we move, God moves. If you are desperate for God to move in your life, be desperate to fulfill the needs of others. Your direction - not intention - moves the heart of God.

Point Blank: List the people who fit the one or more of the needs listed above and minister the love of God to them. Do this today, do it everyday...and watch God shine in and through you.

"Be the change?" Sorry Mr. Gandhi - you missed it

Mahatma Gandhi is famous for the words "be the change you want to see in this world". I can appreciate this to some degree...instead of pointing fingers or complaining, we need to do/be what we can do to bring about solutions to injustice. If there are hungry people - we need to be the change - we need to feed them. I get that. I like that. I am doing that more and more.

But I'm sorry Mr. Gandhi - you missed it. We don't have what it takes. We cannot self help our way to solutions. We are absolutely incapable of creating any change that will truly change the lives and destinies of the broken and hurting around us. We can give them food, but "what good is it if a man gains the whole world and yet forfeit's his soul"?

That is why we must pray.

Christians are in danger of blending in with all the humanistic thinking which is so prevalent in our culture today, that "preaches" we can change the world. Pastors and leaders are gathering and trying to come up with the latest and greatest ideas on how to be effective. I love these kinds of meetings. I'm a strategy junkie...but it may need to stop.

We can't do it on our own. We can't come up with Social Justice ideas, we can't come up with strategic programming ideas, we can't formulate ways to truly impact the culture. We don't have what it takes.

If you are a Christian - please hear me: stop trying to figure out plans - and return to your knees and pray.

Pray first...
Be the change second...

If you get those two mixed up you'll be wasting your time.

2 Timothy 2:1-3 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.

Philippians 4:6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Philemon 1:6 and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ

If you're not praying - you're spinning your wheels - and spending time formulating plans without the true power that is necessary to see real change take place.

If you are not a Christian...maybe it's time to ask yourself....for all the effort you make trying to make yourself better, and trying to make the world a better place - as admirable as that is...I'd like you to consider the power of a surrendered life. A life that finally allows Jesus to have the controls. Jesus said "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest." As you turn your life to him - He will empower you, and give you the strength to "be the change" this world needs. You won't have to be fake - you won't be forced into "good works". You'll be transformed, and God will live inside of you and give you a new heart and new desires.

Let's all stop trying so hard - and get back to prayer and ask God to release His will and power into this world to bring the true transformations that need to take place.

Pray as if it all depends on God
Live as if it all depends on you.
In that order.