Wednesday, Mar 26, 2008

March 26, 2008

Download this episode (21 min)   
March 26, 2008
To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com
Genesis 21:1-21; Ezekiel 23:1-27; Revelation 1

Today is March 26, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. You are part of a devotional community where we put Christ first and our commitment is to spend time with each other and Time with God every day.

My mind is a little muddled this morning. (when isn’t it!) Last night after our Men’s meeting, Dave stopped into my office to talk about sound system needs for our upcoming pastors conference in June, and we began to talk about… I can’t remember what we talked about… but it was 10:30 before Dave took a breath! (You know it can’t be my fault) So I got home a wee bit late. Yesterday I spent the morning rebuilding my lost email data base. Fortunately I have 3 or 4 address books in different places like hotmail, my laptop computer, another email service… so I got my lost emails back, I hope! Cary and Carl stopped in, and we talked about children and jobs. It’s tough raising kids! It is difficult to know which battle to fight, and when we should just back off and go with the flow. Cary was relating his relationship with Andrew. And we had a good time telling him how expert we were at it (NOT!). But now that we’ve got grand kids, we are qualified to tell other people our “secrets.” Most of it is just walking through life, shoulder to shoulder with one another. What value there is in great support groups! After that I spent the rest of my day editing our new radio broadcast called “pigs will be pigs.” A parable of the kingdom. I should have it on the web page today sometime. Then last night, after a few minutes of play with the grand kids, I ran off to our men’s meeting. We had a great time. And by the way, check out the Easter picture posted at. timewithgod.mypodcast.com

This week’s theme verse is Romans 8:26-27: Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

One of the Holy Spirit’s ministries is prayer. God, the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us. There are some religious groups that don’t believe that the HS is a person, but a force, like electricity or gravity. Try this on for size, “Now your electricity prays for you!” “The earth’s gravity itself makes intersession for us.” Mother Nature is inanimate. It has no personality, it can not pray. But the Spirit is a person. Only living, thinking, individuals can communicate and pray. So the living, thinking, Divine Holy Spirit makes intercession for us. To intercede is to be a go between or an advocate. An advocate is someone who stands in for us and speaks on our behalf. The word “intercede” comes from two Greek words, when taken separately come out to be translated, “On The Mark.” An intercessor is someone who shows up in our place and “hits the mark” with his translation of our prayers. The Holy Spirit is praying for me! It seems an oddity that God would need to pray for me after he hears my prayers. Why would He do that? I guess some of them are so off the mark that they just have to be corrected! And get this: rather than chastise us for our foolish requests or ignorant errors of omission, He translates them and “re-prays” our prayers for us, so that they come to Him prayed right! He could just slap us down for our stupid mistakes. He could slam the door and shut us out in the cold because we sometimes don’t have a clue. But because He loves us, He says, “I know that if you knew what I know, you would mean to pray what I pray! So, I am going to re-pray your prayer it so that “in Christ” all of them are just so! Just as they should be!” Hey! Since I’m a perfect prayer (at least after translation by God) I’m not going to worry so much! I’m going to go to God with boldness and I know my prayers will “hit the mark!”

Dear Holy Spirit. Thank you for praying for me. I know that I don’t always pray the way I should, but I thank you, Lord for interceding for me! I come to You, Father with boldness, knowing that everything’s all right once the Holy Spirit gets through with my prayers. I am thankful that you accept me. I am thankful that You love me so much that you make sure that my prayers are in your will. Help me to pray more and more in line with you every day! In Jesus name, Amen.

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 2:20 PM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

<< Home