Posts by John Staiger (Page 80)
The Second:“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.”
Catholicism was the religion of my birth. Until my early teens I attended Masses regularly and became an Altar Boy for a brief period. One of the things I remember most about sitting in the Catholic Church was the statues. I had been especially taught the significance of ‘The Virgin Mary.’ I was told on more than one occasion that Mary would intercede on my behalf before God, because she is the ‘Mother of God.’ This was vital doctrine. And…
The First: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
It must be like living through your own personal horror scene to wake up one morning to realize that the ‘god’ you have been worshiping was a figment of someone else’s imagination. The only thing that to turn this curse into a blessing, is if it is discovered while meeting the One true God.Only then will the wasted time, effort and resources be placed into the gracious hands of the One who “causes all things to work together for good”…
Lead us not into temptation…
Peter, James and John had fallen asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus, knowing that danger was imminent, woke them, warning: “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mt.26:41).Jesus was being led by the Father, and disciples were being led by Jesus. They were about to endure their own sets of temptations. All but John fled the scene. Peter, given opportunity to confess Christ, denied him instead.…
And forgive us our debts…
I have oft repeated the story of a brother who received a phone call from a member who had long since left the church. Sadly, the person’s motives and actions had left bitterness in the mouth of more than one person. The brother was surprised when the person apologised for all actual or perceived hurts, either caused or participated in. Apparently, the former Christian had met a spiritual adviser who told them that they could make no progress without forgiving…
Give us this day our daily bread
If God knows what we want before we ask for it, why pray at all?The correct answer is, to put it bluntly: ‘Because if you don’t ask, don’t expect to get!’James says, “You don’t have because you don’t ask…and when you do ask, you ask with bad motives.”I am sure that all of James’ readers felt that barb cut deep. No one believes that their motives in prayer are questionable. But that is exactly what they are when individuals see…
Thy will be done …
Prayer brings our desires into line with God’s. We most desire that His ‘will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ Before the world began God purposed to redeem man. His will, set forth in heaven, was carried out on earth by Christ. Jesus, understanding the spiritual and physical agonies of his sacrificial death before him, closed his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane with: “Not my will, but thine be done.”In obedience to the Father’s will, he…
Thy kingdom come
How many good Christians, when praying the Lord’s Pray, have slammed on their theological brakes when coming to: “Thy Kingdom come”? It is usually at that point that the voice of their favourite teacher or preacher is heard in their heads to say, “The Kingdom has already come. Jesus was saying this before the day of Pentecost.” Of course, they are right…to a point!The ‘Church phase’ of the Kingdom, did indeed arrive with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on…
Hallowed be your name
A Christian sister told me that she had once gone to work with a fellow church member. She said that she didn’t stay in the job long. To this day I wish I hadn’t asked her why. She told me that the other Christian employee, unaware that she could hear, “blasphemed three times, in three different ways, in the space of three minutes.” She was horrified, and wondered at the spiritual state of the other Christian.The Third Commandment (Ex.20:7) plainly…
Our Father in heaven
Pray, then, in this way:“ Jesus first and foremost directs our minds to our divine Father’s dwelling place. He who made everything without help or advice from anyone on this planet on which we walk or, for that matter, anyone within the confines of the unbelievably vast night sky above us. One marvels at the efforts made by man to travel beyond our atmosphere, but we are humbled by how minuscule a distance it is when measured against the staggering…
“Don’t kid yourself!”
Whichever way you cut it, the reasons for touching that fruit in the garden of Eden had ‘Lie’ written all over it!The lines were crossed one by one. Man went from seeing, to wanting, to taking, and then to eating with relative ease. The devil really didn’t have to work that hard. Once he had gotten them past the first lingering look, the dominos fell in quick succession.Job had it right. Despite his misery, he was not going to self-medicate…