Bethany Bullet - May 20, 2014

Week 4: A Five Tool Christian – Open Mouths

As an avid baseball fan and one time leader of a group of dedicated autograph hounds, I can attest to you that the ultimate ‘wow’ moment is when a fan actually gets to interact with a player.  Maybe baseball isn’t your thing? It is still our analogy (for this worship series) but I’ll detour for you... 

·         You’re a theater buff – after taking in a wonderful musical you stop by a diner to grab a bite, when low and behold, a Tony award winning performer sits down at the counter next to you...

·         You’re a country music Stagecoach regular – an onstage talent pulls up a stool next to yours and knocks one back with you...

·         You’re a news junkie – on a business trip as you take your middle seat you find one of your favorite on-air personalities sits on the aisle next to you, only to listen to you for the next three hours...

·         WOW moments indeed! 

What a WOW moment PRAYER ought to be! 

V  Therein we get to interact with One who is not merely on the roster, but One who is greater than an all star.

V  In prayer, we engage with the One who was and is unequaled in His performance on the field of life!  Jesus Christ.  

V  In prayer, we speak with more than an award winning actor – we connect with THE director of all and He who is the script of life.

V  In prayer, you speak with One who is more than a singer, but He who is the lyric.

V  In prayer, you speak with One who is greater than a commentator, with He who is the news (the Good News) incarnate.

Open Mouths follow Open Ears for good reason.  Last week we spoke of how God speaks to us, through conscience, comrades and clergy true, but chiefly through the Word. 

Luther said of Scripture, “The Bible has hands it grabs me and won’t let me go.”  Perhaps we can say, “Prayer has hands, it grabs God and won’t let Him go.”  Best of all, He doesn’t want to get away!

Read (or click on the link) John 14:1-14

Most of us are familiar with those words. I don’t know if most of us have, but I however have inadvertently separated these words where Jesus does not.  His self declaration of being the way, truth and life and all that comes before it; that is about being with Him in heaven has been a dearly loved text at the time of death.  The following portion about Him and the Father being one, promising to hear, and answer prayer has been a dearly loved passage when referring to the unity of the God-head and His desired unity with His people.  BOTH ARE TRUE – however, in such a division something so important is left unnoticed.

Context is everything in Bible reading.  We need to understand and keep this text in its contextual entirety.  Jesus told His friends, as He was on His way to heaven, that when they died they would be with Him where He was at.  Then He said, “Ask, me, my Father. . .”  Grasp the context?  When we die we will be where He is at in heaven; until we die He is where we are at (regardless of what is at us) in prayer.  In prayer we can talk to Him as personally and intimately as the disciples did in Jerusalem; and as powerfully and gloriously as the saints do in Heaven.

People of Open Mouths, what is a better way to start than:

“Dear Father I have so often forgotten just what a privileged prayer is.  Lord I have ignored too frequently the powerful place that prayer is.  Spirit of God I have failed to fully embrace the personal space that prayer is.  So I pray, ‘O Lord, Open My Mouth’ – to you in prayer. - Amen”

-Pastor Kevin Kritzer