Wednesday, April 27, 2011

And The Time Is...


How much worth can you assign to ten minutes of prayer?  What is the cost/profit margin for five minutes of prayer?  Is there a down side to two minutes of prayer?   What if you were to pray for a minute?  Could you see a risk in praying a minute?  At what point do you cross into the debit side of the ledger when you begin praying?  At the dinner table, thirty seconds of praying becomes an eternity and cause for under the breath cursing.  Forty-five seconds may be a stretch as you lie in bed moments before falling asleep.  Fifty seconds of praying could make you an extremist for church gatherings.   Are a nod and a wink at God enough to make good on your commitment to follow Him?

 Every one of us has a pain threshold at which we have prayed too long and with too much passion.  Few of us would consider ourselves “Prayer warriors” and yet few Christians think they aren’t doing a pretty good job following Jesus.  Most of the Psalms are prayers that were set to music.  In them we find the most profound human misery and heights of theocentric joy.   What if we took a week and prayed a Psalm each morning and evening, using them as a starting point for adding our own concerns?  Would it hurt too much to stay in the arms of Jesus a bit longer this one week?  Could we bear to give God an additional minute each day and stretch out our joy and peace?  Do we have time for a miracle this week?

Monday, April 25, 2011

Questions

A pauper once asked a blind man what he wanted most and he answered, "I want to be poor.  What do you want most?"  The pauper replied, "I want to see."  Which of the two came closest to the Kingdom?  If the blind man could see, would he be as happy as the pauper who lost his eyes?  Who hears better, the deaf or the lonely?  What makes the wicked sinner a better man than the bitter saint?  Can you walk with the righteous if you are on the wrong path?  Are the days ahead more like what what we leave behind or what is at this moment?

A woman sat beside a well waiting for a drink while another milked her cow and filled her cup.  Who made the right choice?  Two farmers sowed seed but only one harvested.  Who lived the better life?  A dollar falls at your feet.  Should you take it?  Is it better to build sand castles or fortresses?  Can you see if you don't know what you are trying to find?

If the pull of the Spirit tugs at your heart, would you know it?  If lion lies down with the lamb, who would you lie beside?  Is grace the end of the matter for you or would you wait for something more?

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."