the emmaus road

How to Use the Lord's Prayer

2009-03-11T08:17:00.000-07:00

Thanks everyone for a great study through the Lord's Prayer! I sure learned a lot and was challenged each week through your insight and discussion. During our last session we reviewed some of what we had gone through regarding each phrase in the Lord's Prayer and then we talked about how are we to use the Lord's Prayer.

I think it is important to understand the Lord's Prayer in its context. Jesus was teaching the disciples to pray this prayer as they went about traveling with him to continue his work - and it was intended to be said after their other daily prayers. In other words, it isn't an all-encompassing prayer that should be prayed all the time. Nor does the prayer include everything that we should pray for. Since it is the Lord's Prayer we tend to think that if we aren't praying like this all the time then we are missing something.

I told the group last night that I didn't want anyone to leave this study feeling guilty that they don't pray this prayer more often, or come away with the understanding that this is a formula for successful prayer. We can learn from it, pray it, and allow it to guide our prayers, but it is not the end-all of prayers that all other prayers should follow. I encourage all of you to find a variety of expressions of prayer, just as we find a variety of prayers in scripture (particularly the Psalms).

We also talked last night about what was most meaningful in our study. What did you learn or what did we talk about that has really made a difference in your life, or encouraged you or challenged you? Use this space to reflect on the past few weeks and share what God has done in your life.

Lead us not into temptation

2009-03-05T08:43:00.001-08:00

Tuesday was another great study. Thanks for everyone's openness and honesty!

We talked about the nature of temptation and this key question: Does God lead us into temptation? That's a difficult question. We had people land in different spots so I want to see where you land. Have you thought more about it since Tuesday? If you weren't able to join us, what do you think?

One key point that came out about the prayer - we couldn't hardly pray, "Lord, lead me into temptation in order to prove myself righteous." That is sort of like praying, "Hallowed be my name..."

How does this truth continue to work in you? Would anyone be brave enough to share ways that you are tempted and how are you able to overcome those temptations? Use this space to continue to engage God's Word.

Lenten Journey

2009-02-26T13:12:00.000-08:00

Emmaus Road,

Lent started off well with a great Ash Wednesday service. God's presence was very real in the service - if you weren't there I would encourage you to be sure and make it next year!

Use this blog post to share your thoughts on the Lenten journey. What are you fasting? How is God filling you up as a result of you emptying yourself? How is God speaking to you? What questions do you have about Lent?

I will check back here regularly and I encourage you to do the same. Let's journey together!

Forgive us our debts....

2009-02-25T09:07:00.000-08:00

Thanks for a great discussion last night! For those that might have missed, we talked about the nature of forgiveness. At first it seems like forgiveness is conditional upon our ability to forgive others. We looked at the Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6:14-15 & Matthew 18:23-35. None of us were very comfortable with a conditional forgiveness, so we ultimately landed on accepting forgiveness from God should form us in a forgiving heart.

We recognized, however, that forgiveness isn't always easy. My particular argument was that while our forgiveness may not always come easy, for the Christian, it should be consistent. We can be a forgiving people!

One of the questions we asked that was never really answered was how to understand these passages in light of their direct language that points to a conditional forgiveness. Use this space to react to that question, and share other thoughts / insights regarding this weeks study. I look forward to hearing your comments!

Daily Bread

2009-02-19T10:33:00.000-08:00

This past week we talked about what the petition, "give us this day our daily bread" could mean. Our discussion led us to believe that it can (and does) mean a lot of things. It is a prayer for basic needs, for Christ to fill us up, and a way of looking ahead to the wedding banquet of the Lamb.

Is there one of these meanings that is particularly meaningful to you? Have you gained any new insights this week? How was the last session helpful to you? How have you come to answer the question that was posed at the end of the session, "Can we petition God full of faith?" In other words, can our prayer for daily bread be a confession of confidence that God will meet our basic needs?

Use this space to continue the conversation. Allow God to continue to speak to you through the discussion here.

Thy Kingdom Come

2009-02-11T12:22:00.000-08:00

We had a great discussion on the next phrase of the Lord's Prayer, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done." Our discussion centered on this question: "What part (if any) do we play in God's Kingdom coming?"

To help us out, we looked at 2 parables Jesus tells about the nature of the Kingdom. In Mt. 13 he describes the Kingdom as a mustard seed and yeast. We determined that although there is human involvement, the Kingdom grows and spreads all by itself. For this reason some would believe that we have no involvement in God's Kingdom coming - our only job can be to pray and to wait.

We decided, however, that our role is one of embracing and collaborating. We are called to embrace the reality of God's Kingdom and then collaborate with what God is already doing in the world to build His Kingdom.

We usually talk about the Kingdom in terms of building it, or advancing (in fact, this is often how I have talked about it). However, the implicit posture behind language like "building" and "advancing" is that the Kingdom is up to me. It is a prideful, and selfish way to live - to believe that I, with my own hands, can build God's Kingdom. As though it were up to me. Lord, forgive us when we believe that we are responsible or powerful enough to build your Kingdom by ourselves.

So, how can this truth be applied to our lives? What does it mean to make the shift from building to embracing; from advancing to collaborating? How do we discern the areas in which God is at work so we can join that work? What further questions do you have about the nature of God's Kingdom? Use this space to allow this discussion on the Kingdom to continue.

Thy Kingdom Come prep

2009-02-05T15:01:00.001-08:00

This coming Tuesday we are going to look at the next phrase in the Lord's Prayer, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

If you know me, you know that I have an overblown theology of the Kingdom of God so for me this is a very significant part of the prayer. In preparation for the study on Tuesday be thinking about the following:

-What does God's Kingdom look like?

-What would it look like for the Kingdom of God to come at your workplace, in your neighborhood, at CSU, Front Range, UNC?

-What are the implications of Jesus teaching us to pray for God's Kingdom to come?

-Similar to "hallowed be your name," do we have a part to play in the Kingdom coming, or is that up to God alone?

Be thinking about these things, post comments if you would like. I'll see you Tuesday!

Our Father in heaven....

2009-02-05T14:54:00.001-08:00

I thought this week's Bible study went really well. My goal in studying the Lord's Prayer is to new depth to this common prayer. Understanding it's depth will also help us understand the value of praying this prayer (both corporately and personally).

I encourage you to use this space to bounce ideas off one another, and continue the conversation. So, bookmark this page and leave comments on a regular basis. Here is this week's topic of discussion:

Have you had further understanding of the opening words of the Lord's Prayer as a result of this week's study? Have you found yourself praying, "hallowed be your name?" Perhaps you have a thought you would like to add to what we talked about this week. Let's hear it!

Further Reflection on Revelation 6

2008-11-07T17:15:00.000-08:00

Young adults, thanks for a fruitful discussion at last week's Bible study! I so appreciate your willingness to engage this important book. I hope that the study has been a help to you so far. I want you to know that this is my first in-depth look at this book, so I am learning with you.

With that in mind, I wanted to share some further reflections on Revelation 6. Last week, I'm afraid I might have misled us a bit. We talked that the horses may be descriptors of the violent Roman empire. The horses are often misunderstood as being the work of the Lamb, and I pointed us to 6:9-11 to see that Christians are those who are perishing. Aaron Peplinski pointed out his disagreement that while the 5th seal is talking about martyrs, it cannot be universally applied to the rest of the destruction that the horses bring. I appreciate his comments, and I want to agree with him and help bring understanding to the horses.

Beth pointed out Romans 1 where God "gave them up to their sinful desires." I think this helps us understand the horses! Rather than try to explain this myself, here is an excerpt from Eugene Boring's commentary on Revelation:

"The destruction unleashed by the four horsemen is not directly done by Christ, but neither are the horsemen independent agents of destruction. They are permitted, with God / Christ being the actors hidden in the repeated 'divine passive' verb edothe (vs. 2 'it was given," vs. 4a "was permitted," vs. 4b "was given," vs. 8 "were given")."

"The actual actors in the eschatalogical (future) drama, the direct perpetrators of the eschatalogical woes, are the forces of evil in the world, demonic anti-God forces permitted and used by God as agents of divine judgment (serving as a warning, and call to repent). These forces which seem to be powerful are actually mere parodies of the ultimate power of God represented by the Lamb. The rider on the white horse does look deceptively like Christ (white horse and crowned; rf. Rev. 19:11ff), but his 'conquering' is the this-worldly power of death that kills others, not the true power of the Lamb who dies for others."

I hope this helps to clear chapter 6 a bit. While it can be understood as general description of the Roman empire it's imagery is meant more to expose the evil in the world in general. Please continue the discussion by leaving comments. You don't have to have a Google account to comment, but those who do have a Google account, log in and comment.

Does this make more sense? Any further questions? Use this resource to help us continue our engagement during the week.

Adventures in Missing the Point

2008-09-24T11:08:00.001-07:00

We have been on a journey of confessing the ways Church has missed the point, and trying to rediscover Christ's message so we don't miss the point any longer.

What has God been saying to you? How has He challenged you? Have you discovered ways that you have missed the point? Have you learned ways of living that no longer miss the point?

Let's use this forum to continue the discussions we have started in worship....

God's iPod

2008-06-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

We've been talking about things God really cares about in a sermon series called God's iPod. So far we've discovered that God longs for the restoration of His Kingdom, for our lives to bear fruit, and wants to heal our lives holistically. What are your thoughts on these things? Do you agree? Disagree? What would you add to the list? How has God been speaking to you through these messages? Use this blog as a platform to continue processing what God is teaching us.

You've heard it said...

2008-05-05T13:39:00.001-07:00

But I say to you...

Over the past few Sundays we've been dwelling in the section of the Sermon on the Mount where Christ visits common laws & understandings and reveals the authentic intention and meaning behind them. The theme has been Counter Cultural Living.

So what do you think about all this stuff? It's been heavy, but a great journey stretching our perspectives. Where have you been landing on these issues? What has stuck out to you the most?

Reflections on the Lenten Journey

2008-03-26T16:15:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that the season of lent is over. This Sunday we celebrated Easter and we truly had a great time together. So in this post-lent week and as life returns to its usual way what are your thoughts over the past 40 day season?

I hope that our lives don't really "return to their usual way," but that we have grown and Christ has changed us in very real ways. Where are you at in your journey? What has God been doing in you this lent? What do you feel God has been doing in our life as a church community? Where do we go from here?

High Priest

2008-03-12T11:09:00.000-07:00

We talked last night about Jesus as our high priest, and all that it implies. How is this working in and through us? What do you think about Jesus representing us to God, and God to us? This truth won't leave us the same, how is it changing you today?

Redeemer

2008-02-28T10:37:00.000-08:00

A huge part of the lenten journey is contemplating and celebrating Christ's redemption of humanity. How do you see redemption happening in our world today? Where do you see redemption needing to happen?

On a more personal level, how has Christ redeemed you? How is He redeeming you today? How is He redeeming us together as a community?

Fully God, Fully Human

2008-02-20T12:58:00.000-08:00

Hebrews 2:18 says, "Since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted." Tuesday night we talked about how through Christ's suffering He became a brother to the human being and human condition. He fully embraced humanity in becoming one of us. Fully God, fully human.

How are we to respond to this? How is this reality sinking into our lives as followers of Jesus?

Limitations

2008-02-12T07:50:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday Pastor Andy talked about coming into contact with our limitations. What are some times when you have realized your own limitations? Have you felt God working in the midst of that, like being shaped by the Potter's Hand?

Pastor also talked about three practical things we can do to realize our limitations and show our dependance on God. Did you commit to one of the three things - to establish rhythm, sleep well or play well? Are there other practical things we can do to show our dependance on God? Share your thoughts here.

Lent

2008-02-04T21:46:00.001-08:00

As we enter the season of lent, Christian tradition calls us to a season of repentance and taking an honest look at ourselves. What in our lives needs to look more like Jesus? Lent over the years has encouraged believers to take a step back out of the ebb & flow of daily life and seek to see things with a new, more Christlike perspective. Many deny themselves usual comforts in effort to focus instead on Jesus. Many fast things from food to television as a way to spend more time in prayer. Above all, God calls us to a season of intentional focus on Him.

Here are some recommended scriptures: Psalm 103, Joel 2, Isaiah 58, 2 Corinthians 5 & 6, and Matthew 6.

Forum for Posting: What is God calling you to this season of lent?