I don’t pray in order to get answers. Sometimes I feel like I’m not very spiritual when people talk about prayer and I compare my prayer life to theirs. I will admit that I do not pray as I ought. I need to work on the discipline of prayer. But it seems to me that some people, in their prayer lives, treat God like a genie in a bottle and prayer like rubbing the bottle.
I think that, instead of praying because we know prayer is powerful and because we know God will answer, we ought to pray just because we know God hears us. Pray simply because God is attentive to us. Have you ever been disappointed by God? Have you ever felt like God does not hear your prayers? How would our prayer life be different if we really believed that God really hears?

I think that one of the most misunderstood of the commands of Jesus is this one: Do not judge (Matt. 7:1). You tell me: Is it judgmental to stand outside Joel Osteen’s church and preach against him? Check it out on YouTube. Is it judgmental to speak out against the legalization of gay marriage? To tell a friend that her sexual promiscuity is sinful and destructive? To confront a friend regarding his drinking? The command is clear: do not judge. To judge is God’s responsibility, not mine. If I do judge others, I will be judged. But what does it mean to judge?

Of all the stuff I own, my most prized possessions are probably my golf clubs, my car, my yard, and my laptop computer. If my house was on fire and my family and the cat were safely outside, and I still had time to run in once more, I would grab my laptop and the car keys. I would pull the car out of the garage thus saving both the car and my golf clubs which are always in my trunk. (Thinking about this reminds me of a few things I need to put in the fireproof safe!) I’ve got a lot of stuff and, even after saving the most important things, I would still be devastated to lose everything else. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses our attachment to possessions. He issues a prohibition and a command: Do not store up treasure on earth, instead store up treasure in heaven (Matt. 6:19-20). Then He describes the reasons for the prohibition and command:

I’m not much into fasting. I get grouchy when I don’t eat (just ask my wife). I guess, with my high metabolism, my body doesn’t like being starved. But I have, a couple times in my life, fasted for a brief period of time. But neither of them really count for much. One of the times was when I was in elementary school – the children’s ministry at church had an all-boys over-night event at church and if we made it the entire night without eating we won a prize. It wasn't very hard because there wasn't any food there anyway. And the other time was a sort of assignment as part of a spiritual formation class in seminary. It was a good time of prayer and meditation, but I’m not sure I would have fasted if I weren’t required to. Obviously my experience with fasting is not authoritative or exemplary. But I wonder, is there any spiritual value to fasting? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says to His followers, “When you fast…” (Matt. 6:15). Jesus assumed that His followers were fasting. Is that a safe assumption? Do we fast? Should we fast?

I’ll admit it… I have a problem… a problem with prayerlessness. I don’t pray as regularly and passionately as I ought. I recently told my wife that I’d much more enjoy reading the Scriptures than spending time in prayer. I don’t know why and I guess it doesn’t matter why. Maybe some of you have a healthy prayer life, but if you’re like me… I have to confess that my prayer life is not the way it should be. Most of the responsibility falls on me. Most of the problem is me. However, I think sometimes part of the problem is a misunderstanding of prayer and improper expectations we ourselves or others put on us. For instance, sometimes we might feel, hearing stories of great prayer warriors, that we’re expected to spend an hour on our knees every day. Or sometimes we misunderstand what prayer is and how it happens – we think that prayer is that thing you do while kneeling beside the bed with your eyes closed. (Again, this is does not excuse my prayerlessness - most of the problem is me.)

In the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 6:5-15, Jesus assumes that His followers are praying: “When you pray…” I wonder if He would be satisfied with my prayer life?

How much money do you make? How much do you give? I really shouldn’t even ask those questions. You’d be right not to answer me. So here’s a better question: Why do you give? If I had to answer that question, I would first have to think for a moment. I guess I give because I know it’s the right thing to do. Maybe I give because I was taught to give. I give because I have to give. But I guess I don’t like to.

In the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 6, Jesus addresses three spiritual disciplines: prayer, fasting, and giving – each of these being things we do to express, or exercise, our spiritual life. Spiritual disciplines are important for two reasons: First, these outward acts express inward attitudes – your love for God is shown through action. Second, these disciplines grow us – obedience changes us. Jesus does not command us to give, instead He assumes that we are giving. He begins by saying, “When you give…” I wonder if that’s a safe assumption to make...

Cowboys and Indians. The Autobots and the Decepticons. The Red Sox and the Yankees. Enemies. Living in our reasonable civilized society, not many of us have personal enemies. There certainly are enemies of Christianity: secularists and atheists. There are enemies of Western society: Islamic terrorists. And enemies of our worldview: the liberal media. Most of us, however, do not have personal enemies. But we do have people we don’t like and who don’t like us. In our families there are people who we really don’t look forward to seeing at Thanksgiving. At work there are people who we don’t get along with and try to avoid. Even at church there are people who irritate us and we would prefer not to be around them. It’s natural to gravitate toward certain people, but is it right? Is it right to keep our enemies at bay? I don’t remember who said it, but he recommended keeping your enemies close; keep them close so that you can keep your eye on them. I think Jesus would also tell us to keep our enemies close, but for a different reason…

In the recently released movie, Taken, ex-CIA agent Bryan Mills’ daughter is kidnapped. I have not seen the movie, but in the trailer, while on the phone with the abductor, Mills hisses: “If you don’t [let my daughter go], I will look for you. I will find you. And I will kill you.” It appears, from the clip I saw, that the remainder of the movie follows Mills on an incredibly violent, retaliatory, killing spree as he searches for his daughter’s abductors. After killing over 30 people and grieviously wounding a dozen more, Mills rescues his daughter. Does the kidnapping justify the bloodbath? Jesus said, “You have heard it said: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say, do not resist an evil person!” (Matt. 5:38-39). What would Jesus have to say about Bryan Mills' rampage?

Last weekend we celebrated the 233rd birthday of the United States of America. On Wednesday my wife and daughters and I watched the Rochester Hills fireworks in the rain. Even though we were about a mile away, far from the startling booms, after the first little thud Riley buried her head in my shoulder and wouldn’t look up until it was over. But Madelyn loved the show. Heather took her to another show on Saturday and they sat just a few hundred yards away, right below the action. I stayed home with Riley. I guess fireworks are one way of celebrating our nation.

As kids we’re taught to salute the flag, say the pledge, and stand for the national anthem. We’re taught how great this nation is. I was taught the same thing. I said the pledge everyday at school when I was a kid. (Do they still do that today?) But as a young adult I began to question the greatness of our nation, mostly in reaction to the over-idealization of our nation by many Christians. I heard “American was founded as a Christian nation” asserted and demanded as if it were a cardinal truth, a non-negotiable of orthodox Christianity. But Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, was a deist for goodness sake! I reacted to the seeming worship of America, usually America of the past. But I’ve had a change of mind. I still don’t believe that America is a Christian nation. (People are Christians, not nations. We may be founded on Christian principles, but we, as a whole, are not Christian.) And I do not believe that the kingdom of God depends on the existence of the United States of American. But, that being said, I have rediscovered my love for our nation.

One thing that really bothers me is when people tell you they’re going to do something, but then they don’t do it. They tell you they’re going to call you back, but they don’t. They tell you they’ll be there, but they’re not. They say they’ll take care of it, but they don’t. That really bothers me. And don’t worry, those of you that know me – I’m not thinking of any one particular incident. It’s just a problem in our culture, even in our Christian culture. Our words don’t mean anything. We make promises and then break them. We exaggerate and shade the truth. We think that if we say, “I swear,” people will be more apt to believe us. We are not people of our word. But Jesus said, “Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t’” (Matt. 5:33-37). The problem in Jesus’ day was similar to ours: people would make vows lightly and then break them. The rabbi’s would distinguish between types of oaths depending on by whom or what you swore. Oaths made “by the Lord” – you couldn’t break those. But oaths made “by heaven,” “earth,” or “Jerusalem” – you could break those. Jesus’ contemporaries had a problem with truthfulness. And so do we.