If you call your faith “a personal relationship to God” you already know it is true: You should be drawing close to God. How can you say you have a relationship that matters if the two of you don’t spend time together? There’s a name for drawing close to God. It’s called praying. Christians used […]
Okay, Why “Trespasses,” “Debts” and “Sins”? (Heidelberg Catechism Q119)
One peril of visiting a new church comes when it is time to pray. At least if the congregation of a traditional flavor they will wrap up with something like “Now let join our voices in the prayer Christ himself has taught us, saying…” It all goes fine for a while: …Father… …Name… …kingdom… …will… …daily […]
How to Organize Your Faith (Heidelberg Catechism Q24)
Shhh! A whole lot of Christians are quietly afraid that someday, someone will ask them about their faith. We need some outline points, like the pegs on a coat rack. No hooks and you just have a pile of stuff on the floor. Add a row of pegs and you can hang up a whole lot of stuff […]
The NEXT-to-Last Word in Prayer: “In Jesus’ Name”
Last week I wrapped up my series-within-a-series on the Lord’s Prayer in the Heidelberg Catechism with a post on “Amen!,” the little word we use to wrap up most of our prayers. I made an off-hand remark about the phrase Christians often slip in as the penultimate word: “In Jesus’ name we pray…” To my […]
The Last Word in Prayer: Amen!
Let’s just admit right now that, over time, clichés start to creep into the conversation of active Christians. Just a few. The early Christian Rock musician Larry Norman had a great little schtick on this. He has the zealous Christian trying to share his faith with a friend. They guy has no clue what “washed […]