Just a few days before Christmas two ladies stood looking into a department store window at a display of the Nativity scene with ceramic figures of the baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, and assorted animals. Disgustedly, one lady said, “Look at that, the church trying to horn in on Christmas!”
Sadly, that little apocryphal story may not be all that far removed from reality. More and more the world around us—and many so-called churches—have totally removed from their consciousness any semblance or recognition of what Christmas is truly about. Read more…
Posted on December 7th, 2010 by Pastor Larry
Filed under: From the Pastor’s Pen
Three ministers were talking about prayer in general and their opinions regarding the most appropriate and effective positions for prayer. As they were talking, a telephone repairman was working on the phone system in the background of the study where they were meeting. One minister shared that he felt the key was in the hands. He always held his hands together and pointed them upward as a form of symbolic worship. The second suggested that real prayer was conducted on your knees. The third suggested that they both had it wrong—the only position worth its salt was to pray while stretched out flat on your face.
By this time, the phone man couldn’t stay out of the conversation any longer. He interjected, “I found that the most powerful prayer I ever made was while I was dangling upside down by my heels from a power pole, suspended forty feet above the ground.”
I cannot speak for you, but personally, I think the repairman had it right! Read more…
Posted on November 7th, 2010 by Pastor Larry
Filed under: From the Pastor’s Pen
Ever notice how some of the clearest truths are among the hardest to live out with understanding? There often seems to be such a disconnect between what a truth plainly says, and what we think it somehow must mean. Usually, of course, this is because what the truth plainly teaches us is rather uncomfortable when laid alongside the way we usually live. Read more…
Posted on October 1st, 2010 by Pastor Larry
Filed under: From the Pastor’s Pen
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
This well-known Bible statement is found in Matthew 6:11. I can recall making a plaster plaque with this verse upon it in a Vacation Bible School as a child. In fact, it is part of a beautiful calligraphy and pressed-paper art piece that hangs in the dining room of my condo even now. It is a frequently quoted, alluded to, paraphrased and applied Scripture verses out of the whole of the Gospel of Matthew.
It is also one of the least understood. Read more…
Posted on September 12th, 2010 by Pastor Larry
Filed under: From the Pastor’s Pen
How is your conversation with God?
I ask because over the past several months this column has been used to explore how each of us might better learn how to utilize the “Lord’s Prayer” in light of the entire context of where that model prayer is given to us in Matthew 6:5-13. Read more…
Posted on August 12th, 2010 by Pastor Larry
Filed under: From the Pastor’s Pen
It goes almost unnoticed when people read through the Gospel, but in His teaching regarding prayer Jesus says, “When you pray” (Matthew 6:5, 7;compare verse 9 where He says, “Pray then like this”). The Master does not say, “If you pray”; He expects those who are truly His disciples to pray! Of course, when Jesus made this point, He was talking about real prayer. Read more…
Posted on July 1st, 2010 by Pastor Larry
Filed under: Elim Refresher Newsletter, From the Pastor’s Pen
This is priceless.
A seasoned Christian who attended his church prayer meeting faithfully always spoke the same things during the time of public prayer. His prayer never varied: “O Lord, since we last gathered together, the cobwebs have come between us and Thee. Clear away the cobwebs, that we may again see Thy face. ” One day an exasperated brother called out, “O Lord God, kill the spider! ” Read more…
Posted on June 1st, 2010 by Pastor Larry
Filed under: Elim Refresher Newsletter, From the Pastor’s Pen
Maybe you have been “keeping score” and maybe you have not, but over the past several months this column has been considering the topic of prayer as Jesus taught. And, in these brief exhortations we have found that we are called to pray with developed guards upon our hearts and minds. For instance, we learned that we are to pray with humility, for the Master commanded in Matthew 6:5, “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. According to the Savior, such people “have received their reward,” and so their prayers avail nothing. Read more…
Posted on May 1st, 2010 by Pastor Larry
Filed under: From the Pastor’s Pen
Allow me to begin by stating an important truth: God will faithfully and unfailingly bless those who come to Him in sincere prayer. Without question, the Lord will recompense those of His children who biblically pray according to His will and Word. Jesus made it plain in Matthew 6:5-8 that those who pray insincerely and hypocritically will receive the world’s reward (Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward), and those who pray sincerely and humbly will receive God’s reward. Read more…
Posted on March 1st, 2010 by Pastor Larry
Filed under: From the Pastor’s Pen
There are some things in the truth of God that, quite frankly, make the head ache if you think about them for very long! For instance, try to really get your mental arms around the biblical teaching regarding the Trinity. God is three personages and yet one Being. Each person of the Godhead is fully God and equal with the others, and yet they are distinct. That is hard stuff! Read more…
Posted on February 1st, 2010 by Pastor Larry
Filed under: From the Pastor’s Pen