St. MarkReformed Church

If you missed Vespers this past Wednesday, you missed some great insights into the Lord’s Prayer from Pastor Joe.

One insight is that the Lord’s Prayer is a kingdom prayer. When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, he gives them a kingdom perspective prayer. First, their eyes are pointed heavenward, and then even their earthly prayers are directed to kingdom ends: give us food to do our tasks and peace between each other through forgiveness and protection from evil that would suffer the kingdom with setbacks.

Another insight is that the prayer is a “corporate” prayer, not an intensely personal prayer. It’s a prayer the church body prays, collectively. “Our Father…Your kingdom…our daily bread…our debts…lead us…deliver us.”

Further, it’s an actual “prayer.” It’s a model prayer that we can and should use to pray, as well as direction on the things Jesus would have us pray for.

Additionally, it’s not a prayer designed to curry favor with the Father by heaping up all his names and attributes and empty phrases like the Gentiles. They do that to be heard by their gods, but the Father already knows what you need before you ask him. So ask humbly, in awe that the Father is so intimately involved with our lives that he enjoys hearing the prayers of his children.

In conclusion, the Vesper’s service is a place to hallow God’s name and receive daily food!

President Trump is at it again: exercising American power for the nation’s interests. Or so he says; one wonders since it appears the case has not been made very clearly. Didn’t the US destroy their nuclear capability months ago? So how is it possible that Iran is within weeks of blowing things up?

Be that as it may, Christians are often tempted to think, like Chairman Mao, that power comes out of the barrel of a gun. But that’s not true, and both Revelation 8:2–5 and 15:2–4 demonstrate it. What those passages show us, besides how worship is performed in heaven, is that the most significant thing Christians can do to change the world is to worship God and to pray.

The most significant change comes from worship and prayer? Yes! Why? Because just and lasting change in the world ultimately is God’s doing.

Both passages show worship in heaven, and then God acting, first in the trumpets warning ungodly Israel about her coming demise, and then the bowls actually carrying out the destruction of old covenant, unfaithful Jewry. In worship, God’s righteous acts are requested and then revealed. God’s just and true ways as King of the nations are seen so that the nations come to worship him (15:4).

So don’t be slothful this morning. Or next Sunday morning. Sing the Psalms and hymns that declare God’s great and amazing deeds, and that request him to move and act and free the world from oppression, sin, and greed, that his kindness might rule from sea to sea to sea. Sing and pray that the eternal gospel of fearing and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ takes root, now and forever!

This past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, where about half of the congregation had an ashen cross placed on their foreheads. That seems insignificant, but it actually packs quite a bit of punch!

For example, walking around with a cross on your head is making an actual statement to those who see you, that you are a Christian and that you not only believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, but that you follow Him and His teachings in your life. That can be quite exhilarating, seeing how little we get to witness to real pagans nowadays! It seems like everyone in Tennessee is a Christian, and most are, because they drive a Ford or Chevy truck (just kidding). But for all those who see you, you are taking a stand. You are broadcasting out loud, “Jesus lives, He is Lord, and I am one of His followers. I am living under the cross.”

Of course, the whole Bible tells us to “live under the cross,” but Jesus specifically tells us to do that in Mark 8 when he says “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (34b). Jesus is calling you to pick up a cross and carry it; meaning you are trudging along under it! You are living “under the cross” when you deny your interests and place Christ’s interests first. You are to lose your life for his sake and the gospel’s sake. That’s living “under the cross.” That’s losing your life in order to save it!

Which makes me think, maybe we ought to have Ash Wednesday service early in the morning, so that we can visibly, one day per year, live “under the cross” as we go about our daily lives. Hopefully that would strengthen our lives the rest of the year to carry the cross, as well as witnessing to those who don’t drive trucks!