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Prayer for a Christian Counter-Culture
There is a cancer update at the end of this message. CHIP STAM STEM CELL DRIVE: BE THE MATCH www.carlstam.org/stemcelldrive ===================================== Today's WORSHIP QUOTE features two paragraphs about the Lord's Prayer. This is from John Stott's commentary on The Sermon on the Mount, titled CHRISTIAN COUNTER-CULTURE (IVP 1985). Perhaps these reminders will help you and me to pray more biblically as we test the "reality and depth of our Christian profession." PRAYER FOR A CHRISTIAN COUNTER-CULTURE It is comparatively easy to repeat the words of the Lord’s Prayer like a parrot (or indeed a heathen "babbler"). To pray them with sincerity, however, has revolutionary implications, for it expresses the priorities of a Christian. We are constantly under pressure to conform to the self-centeredness of secular culture. When that happens we become concerned about our own little name (liking to see it embossed on our notepaper or hitting the headlines in the press, and defending it when it is attacked), about our own little empire (bossing, "influencing" and manipulating people to boost our ego), and about our own silly little will (always wanting our own way and getting upset when it is frustrated). But in the Christian counter-culture our top priority concern is not our name, kingdom and will, but God’s. Whether we can pray these petitions with integrity is a searching test of the reality and depth of our Christian profession. In the second half of the Lord’s Prayer, the possessive adjective changes from "your" to "our," as we turn from God’s affairs to our own. Having expressed our burning concern for his glory, we now express our humble dependence on his grace. A true understanding of the God we pray to, as heavenly Father and great King, although putting our personal needs into a second and subsidiary place, will not eliminate them. To decline to mention them at all in prayer (on the ground that we do not want to bother God with such trivialities) is as great an error as to allow them to dominate our prayers. For since God is "our Father in heaven" and loves us with a father’s love, he is concerned for the total welfare of his children and wants us to bring our needs trustingly to him, our need of food and of forgiveness and of deliverance from evil. — John Stott, THE MESSAGE OF THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT (MATTHEW 5-7: CHRISTIAN COUNTER-CULTURE). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, pp. 147-148. ISBN 978-0877842965 ==================== THE PLACE OF THE CHOIR IN WORSHIP: PART 1 (Ed Willmington): http://www.wqotw.org/quote.php?date=2010-01-05 THE PLACE OF THE CHOIR IN WORSHIP: PART 2 (Carl Stam): http://www.wqotw.org/quote.php?date=2010-01-12 THE PLACE OF THE CHOIR IN WORSHIP: PART 3 (Donald Hustad): http://www.wqotw.org/quote.php?date=2010-01-19 THE PLACE OF THE CHOIR IN WORSHIP: PART 4 (Ron Man): http://www.wqotw.org/quote.php?date=2010-01-26 ==================== Blessings to all! Chip Stam Director, Institute for Christian Worship School of Church Ministries The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Louisville, Kentucky www.wqotw.org www.sbts.edu/icw ===================================== HEALTH UPDATE & PRAYER REQUEST FOR CHIP STAM, CANCER PATIENT www.carlstam.org/stemcelldrive ===================================== Dear Praying Friends, We have almost reached our goals www.carlstam.org/stemcelldrive. Praise God! Longer journal entries at www.caringbridge.org/visit/carlstam (click on "journal" or "photos"). THE WEEK AFTER This is the week after strong chemotherapy. I go to the clinic every day for blood tests. Depending on my numbers, they give me some combination of blood, platelets, and growth factor injections (NEUPOGEN). I am very weak, and my ANC (overall disease fighting strength of my blood) is low, such that the doctors sent me home (Wednesday) and advised me against being around anyone. We are praying that my blood will be stronger by a little later in the week. (I have a few things I want to do). We continue to fight this terrible disease. Please keep praying with us; pray for success of the current treatment to put the cancer into remission; pray for a very wise decision by my doctors about the donor and for protection from Graft vs. Host Disease. Don't forget to care for the cancer patients in your families, churches, neighborhoods, and places of employment. Pray that our stem cell drive will provide many, many cancer patients with life-saving options for their treatment. Resting in the wisdom and goodness of God, Chip Stam www.caringbridge.org/visit/carlstam =========================== WORSHIP QUOTE OF THE WEEK: To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view a complete index of worship quotes, please visit http://www.wqotw.org. =========================== |