Also view us on FACEBOOK:

View us on FACEBOOK: http://on.fb.me/1Ps6aEG

Sunday 25 August 2013

'HOW TO PRAY' (Part 1)

Rev. Canon George Sinclair
by Rev. Canon George Sinclair                           
 Pastor of the Church of the Messiah, Ottawa, ON.
 www.messiahchurch.ca 

 _____________________________________________________________
(Podcast of CFRA broadcast on Sunday, August 25th , 2013)
  _____________________________________________________
Broadcast Notes:
*********************************************************
(Abridged notes covering discussion on Luke 10: 25-42)
 
How to Pray’  (Part 1)

(Please click on the audio link: http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/15331/good_news_067_aug25.mp3 for far greater detail.)
 
This week, we look at the only place in the Gospels where somebody asks Jesus to teach them to pray.  (Luke11: 1-4 )

Luke 11:1-4   [English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)]

The Lord's Prayer

11 Now Jesus[a] was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,[b]
and forgive us our sins,
    for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”

Footnotes:
  1. Luke 11:1 Greek he
  2. Luke 11:3 Or our bread for tomorrow
In prayer, can we address God by anything we want? What did Jesus say when he was asked? Jesus said, “When you pray, say ‘Father’.”
When talking of God abstractly, we speak of him in terms of our father/parent (Greek: ‘pater’). But, when addressing God directly and personally, the Greek word is “ab-ba” or “Father/Daddy”.

In adult terms, some may think it childish to say “Daddy”, but we are after all, “children of God, by adoption and grace”. (Reference, also: Romans8: 15-17.)
One way of treating the matter is to address God in public prayer as “Father” (in the personal sense), and in private prayer, use, “Dad” to intimately express recognition before God of one’s respectful/loving father-child relationship, of one’s belonging in a familial sense of service, trust and obedience.

Such intimacy in addressing God seems all the more proper in light of the fact that Jesus is telling us in this scripture that we are God’s children by adoption and grace. Jesus, on on his way to die on the Cross and to rise again, Jesus is pointing to the fact that through his death on the cross, and through his resurrection, God is providing the means through which I can become, and you can become, God’s child by adoption and grace.

Here’s the final take-away: Jesus, on His way to the Cross instructed us on how to pray, intimately to the living God, and to call Him “Father”… as, “Dad”.

That’s spectacular!

Let’s Pray:
Father, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you for His death upon the Cross and His mighty resurrection. We thank you, Father, that by His death upon the Cross, on my behalf and on each person’s behalf, He has provided the means by which you can adopt us, by grace.
And so, Father, we ask that you grow in us a humble trusting knowledge of the greatness of Jesus to be the means by which we can become your child by adoption and grace, and that you help us to turn to Him in faith.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Rev. Canon George Sinclair
_____________________________________________
To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:

Sunday 18 August 2013

'NON-APOLOGIES'

Rev. Canon George Sinclair
by Rev. Canon George Sinclair                           
 Pastor of the Church of the Messiah, Ottawa, ON.
 www.messiahchurch.ca 

 _____________________________________________________________
(Podcast of CFRA broadcast on Sunday, August 18th , 2013)
  _____________________________________________________
Broadcast Notes:
*********************************************************
(Abridged notes covering discussion on Luke 10: 25-42 )
 
Non-apologies’ 



(Please click on the audio link: http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/15257/good_news_066_aug18.mp3 for far greater detail.)
This discussion considers the following points:

1. Self-justification is a significant force in peoples’ lives - in my life and yours.



2. We long for someone who knows us and loves us to justify us.


Why does Jesus tell the parable?

Jesus tells this parable on His way to Jerusalem to die on the cross. He will die for others, not Himself.

3. Jesus justifies us.

4. The death of Jesus upon the cross pushes me, draws me, inspires me, shapes me, and secures me.

Prayer:

Dear God, please grow in me a repentant clarity about the power of self-justification in my life AND please grow in me a humble trusting knowledge of the greatness of Jesus to justify me today and every day for all eternity. AMEN

Rev. Canon George Sinclair
_____________________________________________
To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link: