Prayer brings us together 

Prayer

Prayer is just talking to God. It is also listening to God and getting God's perspectives on a matter.

Prayer does no evil. A prayer with unworthy motives will simply be ignored by God.

I think sometimes we are benefited when some of our prayers are unanswered-just like our children are when we do not give them everything that they request. Everything we want is not necessarily good for us.

A good friend taught me that it is hard to be mad at someone that you are praying for.

A person at prayer is not a threatening sight; however, the Scripture says that the "effectual prayers of a righteous person, availeth much."

If we move God through our prayers, that is powerful.

God sees our heart when we pray. We are transparent to God, and our motives are known.

Seeing a person at prayer is one of the most intimate and beautiful sights in the world.

And prayer when good hearts are united in unity and purpose is a most wondrous thing. It is as gentle as a flower and as powerful as a storm.

HarleyDad is a novice in the prayer area. He is not a prayer "warrior"-but he does believe strongly that prayer can "move the hands of God."

He believes that the great things in the church and in our society that are truely good are born in prayer and delivered in faith before we see them standing like a young child and then a full grown man or woman.

Prayer is the implantation of the mustard seed that grows into the mighty tree.

H.D.

I'm feelin' good about myself today! Got my new pedals on and I'm feelin' fine as dandelion wine! 

Hey, Jesus! What is all this business about being thrown into the fire tomorrow. You mean the grass, don't you? 

Hi! We are better dressed than the ladies that buy from Nieman Marcus in Dallas! 

Hey, Solomon, my robes have more purple than yours!!!!! 

The Lillies of the Field

Luke 12:27 and 28:

"Consider the lillies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.

But if God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow was thrown into the furnace, how much more will you clothe you? You men of little faith!"

-Jesus-

God knows your needs-all of them. And He will care for you just like He makes provision for the flowers. Evil is prevalent in our world-but the care of God surrounds us on a daily basis. The daily rising and setting of the sun witness to His care. The stars serve as an ever-present reminder of His faithfulness. The flowers of the Spring are a witness to the love and beauty of God. It is man and his evil designs that trample down the beauty of God's nature.

HarleyDad

Sometimes even the nicest people go nuts! 

Crazy

The Gasarene Demoniac

Step 2-Alcoholics Anonymous-
"Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity".

Luke 8:26-37

They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs.

Comment: We who have had relatives on drugs do not find these events as hard to imagine as one might expect. Some people may doubt the existence of God but most do not doubt the existence of a personal evil. They have seen it and experience at one or more occasions in their lives. So interestingly, the existence of Satan and demons is actually fairly easy for modern man to believe. It is interesting that he was living in the tombs. Although physically alive, he was spiritually dead. How ironic that the tombs were his home.



When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.

Comment: This man was under the control of evil. Evil does not treat its subjects well. Here a Higher Power had come into the man’s life and the evil within recognized this Higher Power. Evil drives people to “solitary” places. They are dangerous and people do not want to be around them.




Jesus asked him, “What is our name?” “Legion” he replied because many demons and gone into him. And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. A large heard of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and he gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

Comment: How strange that Jesus would show mercy to this group of demons. They were called Legion because they were many; but they were also strong. It is absolutely clear that the demons preferred not to go to the Abyss because a worse fate awaited for them. Jesus did let them go into the pigs. Unclean spirits for unclean animals so to speak. But that did not really help them for pretty soon, the animals were dead.


When those tending the pigs saw what had happened they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside and the people went out to see what had happened.

Comment: News travels fast.



When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’feet, dressed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured.

Comment: Jesus frees us from our insanities and brings us to our senses. Interesting, a man who was free from his demons scared the people more than the demons themselves.


Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear.

Comment: Now here is the story behind the scenes. A insane person did not scare the townspeople. However, someone who could bring him to his right mind scared them. We become comfortable living with our familiar demons and are more afraid of being cured from our insanities than being sick. We love insanity because we fear change. Some would rather lives with their demons than have Jesus in their lives.


So he got into the boat and left.

Comment: If you don’t want Jesus in your life, he will respect your choice and leave. The choice is up to you. Jesus makes the insane, demon possessed man sane and in his right mind. The townspeople who were sane made an insane choice. It is a story filled with ironies. What is the story of your life and your choices?

It is a beautiful morning, the night of your life is over. 

Jesus appears to the apostles as the sun rises. 

How about a few fish for breakfast? 

Would you like to attend a fish fry put on by Jesus? Now that would be a "prayer breakfast!" 

Jesus and the Fish Fry

Jesus and the Fish Fry

We all love a good fish fry and so did Jesus. It is good to get together with the “buds.”

It was after the resurrection and the guys had time on their hands. There were 5 of them and some day church people would call them “apostles.” There was Thomas, Nathaniel, Peter, James and John. Now Peter, James and John had all been professional fishermen before following Jesus so they all knew how to cast a net or drop a hook. Nathaniel was from their home area. And Thomas he was along for the ride. Peter’s bro, Andrew, was out of town. So whaddya do with time on your hands-yep, you go fishin’.

So these 5 guys head for the Sea of Tiberias a.k.a. the Sea of Gallilee grab one of the family boats and head off to go fishing.

So off we go to John 21, verses 3-11:

Scripture: Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing” and they said to him “We will also come with you.” And they went out and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing.

H.D. Comment. So what is so startling about this. H.D. never catches anything when he goes fishing. I guess the big deal is that these guys are pros, and they still caught nothing. Besides it was night fishing. We know that Peter was a married man –I wonder what his wife was thinking about him spending another night out fishing again.

Peter was called by God to do something. But right then was not the time to do any of them. So Peter went fishing. He obviously loved fishing, and besides it gave him time to think. He was probably a more humble Peter have denied Christ, and yet he was probably also very excited because of the resurrection. So whaddya do-You go fishing.

But thing seemed to back to their old ways. Perhaps nothing had changed after all. His efforts weren’t paying off. A whole night out on the lake and not one darn fish! Heck!

Scripture: But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. So Jesus said to them, “Children, you do not have any fish, do you. They answered Him, “No.” And He said to them, “Cast your net on the right-hand side of the boat and you will find a catch.” So they cast, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish.

H.D. Comment. When Jesus comes onto the scene it is not uncommon for our night to go away and for there to be a daybrake in our lives, a son rise, so to speak. Note that Jesus called them “Children”-not friends, not brothers, not apostles. The resurrected Jesus is here to give counsel, provision and hope. Besides as every woman knows a bunch of men out fishing act like children, and I presume Jesus knew this too.

Also, Jesus as usual knows the right place to fish. He knows where the fish are, how many husbands the woman at the well had, and lots of other neat stuff that nobody knows how he knew. You know why, Jesus is tuned in. Supply is just around the corner (or the other side of the boat)—we just need a little guidance to find it.

Scripture: Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved, said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on for he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea.

H.D. Comment: Note that John, the Beloved, knows the sound of the Lord’s voice. Peter has to have someone tell him.

As a kid I always wondered about Peter out on the Sea of Gallilee fishing in his underwear. Wasn’t that embarrassing and cold too. I never could figure out dress at the time and what people wore and did not wear. Some of the medieval artists could not figure it out and Peter is often seen in various stages of undress. Certainly not always dressed for Sunday School.

But note Peters enthusiasm. He doesn’t wait for the boat to get in. He puts on his cloak and dives into the water and does the Australian Crawl to the shore. Well, we sure know one thing. Peter could swim and he was pretty good at it too-well at least he could swim for 100 yards.

Scripture: But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about 100 yards away, dragging the net full of fish. So when they got out onto land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid and a fish placed upon it and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish which you have now caught.”

H.D. Comment: OK, so who made the fire? Where did the fish come from? How did Jesus catch it? Where did the bread some from? All I know is that Jesus shows up and already has the fire going for the fish fry. And isn’t that the way it always is. Jesus is prepared, he is in charge. When Jesus shows up, our hours of not catching anything are over. Our dead church programs all of a sudden spring into life. There is excitement instead of depression and hope instead of despondency.

Scripture: Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.”

H.D. Comment. And so the Christian fish fry was born. I note that that there were a hundred and fifty-three instead of one hundred and fifty-four. I would like to comment on the spiritual significance of that but unfortunately neither you nor HarleyDad is ready for that. But someone counted every single fish. Not one got lost, not one was unnumbered, and the net did not break. In short, the disciples were back into their calling they were to be “fishers of men.” What’s more they would be successful fishers of men. They would catch many. And so many of us little fish have been caught in the net of Christ by these apostles. None of us has been lost. Every one of us has been counted and what is even better we count in the Great Scheme of Eternity-that men and women of many nations would come to Jesus Christ. And yes all fish are not the same. There are many differences like the fish in the sea-but we are in the net of Jesus Christ.

And what is more, the fish in turn become fishermen and fishwomen and they in turn catch fish.

You know Jesus and those apostles loved fish. They even had it for breakfast.

So now it is time for breakfast and HarleyDad is signing off with another fish story from the Scriptures.

H.D.

Here, shekel, shekel, shekel. Got to pay the tax or it will be heckle, heckle, heckle. 

Pay Taxes or Go Fishing

Pay Taxes-Go Fishing Pay taxes-go fishing? Go fishing-pay taxes? I don’t know. Why not do both?

And so begins one of the most extraordinary stories of the Bible. It is in Matthew 17:24-27:

When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter and said “Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?”

He said, “Yes.” And when he had come into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?”

When Peter said, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are exempt.”

However, so that we do not offend them, go to the sea, and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for you and for me.”

Now the two drachma-tax was used for temple up-keep. The people who were collecting it were religious Jews.

Now Jesus had much to say about the temple. At one point he told the woman at the well that eventually people would worship neither on the mountain or at the temple in Jerusalem Later he threw the merchants out of the temple because they had make His Father’s house a den of thieves instead of a place of prayer. On another occasion, he compared his body to the temple and said if it were tore down, it would be raised up in three days. (This was one of the charges made against Jesus when he was taken by the Jews.)

Well HarelyDad has a few comments and questions about this very strange account.

If the tax collectors had a problem about the tax why they not take it to Jesus personally?

Note that Peter just winged his answer. “Ugh, sure. Jesus paid the tax.”

Why did the tax collectors not ask Peter whether Peter had paid the tax?

What was Peter doing outside the house anyway?

How did Jesus know what Peter had said, anyway. (Jesus had a way of doing that from time to time.)

How did Jesus know where the shekel was?

I love this story. It is a real fishing story.
The tax collectors were fishing to see if they could trap Jesus-that is why they not ask Peter about himself.

Peter was fishing to come up with an answer to the tax collectors.

Everyone is fishing about except Jesus. He knows what is going on. He knows what the questions are getting at. He even knows where the shekel is—It is in the mouth of a fish in the sea.

We have a lot of questions in our lives. Sometimes, like Peter, we try to fake it. But Jesus knows the truth. He knows what we say and what we do. He knows when we are trying to hide the ball. And we do like to hide the ball.

He is also the God of supply. He can take the loaves and fishes and feed the multitudes. And if there is a pesky little tax, he can supply that need as well.

Oh yeah. Peter had gotten into the mess by shooting his mouth off about something he knew nothing about. So Peter for your punishment-“Go fishing!” Go drop a hook into the sea. And yes, those people that you told about the fact that Jesus had paid a tax that he hadn’t you take the shekel from the mouth of the fish and pay them and let them know the truth that neither you nor Jesus had paid this tax.

And oh, by the way, the tax was not rightly collected from us any way-but don’t bother telling them, the whole world will know it shortly.

Well, if I were a preacher, I don’t think I would preach on this topic. People might get to thinkin’ that they are “children of God” too and not bring all the money into the store house and pay my salary and help maintain our church building. These are dangerous topics that Jesus was dealing with.

Maybe my sermon topic had better be: “The workman is worth of his hire.”

I think I will just go fishing. Who knows maybe I will find a shekel or two.

A great picture-but I bet Jonah was not this clean after living in the belly of the fish for three days. Keep in mind-the fish was the instrument of God's mercy that saved Jonah and got him to dry land. But I suspect it was not first class transportation. 

A lithograph depiction. I wonder what the fish told his friends about this episode of indigestion. 

Done by a Chinese artist. I like it. Neat. 

Medieval Jonah 

Now who caught who.  

Fish Stories

Fish Stories.

Yes, we all hear them. And some seem almost unbelievable.

You know the Jonah story. God tells him to preach repentance to Ninevah. Jonah doesn’t want to and runs away. While he is on ship a big storm comes up. Everyone soon figures out that Jonah is the problem. He is thrown into the sea and is swallowed by a big fish. After 3 days and nights the fish regurgitates Jonah onto dry land and Jonah goes to Ninevah like God says in the first place.

Wow, what a detour. At least it was not like Moses and the Children of Israel wandering around the desert for 40 years because they will not obey God. It is not such an uncommon experience for us to take our little detours when we don’t want to do what God has called us to do or go to where God has called us. Most of us know about detours because we have taken them.

After all, God may be trying to get a message through to us with the story of Jonah.. We ignore the headline: “Man catches fish.” We take notice if the headline reads: “Fish catches man.” This is akin to “man bites dog.” Now that makes headlines.

Jonah 1:17 says “And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. In Jonah 2:1 it says :”Then Jonah prayed to the Lord from the stomach of the fish.”

Jonah 2:10 says:”Then the Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.” This verse, I presume, means that it is hard to keep a good man down. Just kidding.

At any rate, I am not sure what the big deal is on being swallowed by a fish. We all run from God and get ourselves into horrible messes. We get ourselves into situations that we can not escape from without the help of God. We need God to make a way where there is no way. You would think we enjoyed being in the whale. While we are there we can hum Frank Sinatra’s song: “I did it my way” . At some point we get tired of “having it our way" and repeat like Jesus did in the Garden “Not my will, but Thy will be done.” But until we do it is back to being in the belly of the fish.

I read somewhere that what was going on inside of Jonah’s mind and heart was really more important than what was going on inside the fish.

So perhaps being swallowed by a fish is no big thing.

The frog prince ran from God and got himself swallowed up by an Ozarklandian institution and now lives at the Emerald Palace, which I understand is somewhat akin to living in the belly of the great fish. At some point God will hear the prayer of the Emerald Prince and view the integrity of his heart and cause him to be spat out on dry land. So big fish, whales or not –they are no big deal. Three days, that is no big deal either. Right Frog Prince?

A girl gets pregnant-the person to be born is carried around for nine months inside of her. Now, if you think it about it, that is more extraordinary then the Jonah fish story where a man is carried inside a fish. And I guarantee you getting out of that is more difficult than just being vomited onto dry land. The whole process is more miraculous, more extraordinary and more unbelievable-but it doesn’t mean that it does not happen. It happens every day. The big fish story is nothing in comparison.

Jesus compared his death and resurrection to the Jonah story. In Matthew 12:40 he said: “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Another fish story. Extraordinary, but true. Our faith is built on it. My faith is built on a fish story so to speak. It doesn’t bother me one bit. I see things as extraordinary as this everyday.

You know the difference between the way we see things and the way God sees things. We see miracles as extraordinary events. But miracles are everyday common events with God. For after all, that is the way He does things.

Sometimes those fish stories, although extraordinary, just happen to be true.

River at sunset 

Green River 

An Ozarklandia River 

Fresh-water Fish

Fishy, Fishy in the Brook
Papa catch you with the hook
Mama fry you in the pan
Baby eat you like a man.
(An ancient poem from when HarleyDad was a boy.)

I love the eschatological books of the Bible-Books like Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation. Don't understand them but love them anyway.

In the Book of Ezekiel in the 47th Chapter, God shows Ezekiel the river of life. It begins at the very Temple of God and it flows through out eternity until it becomes the river in Revelation 22:1,2 described as follows:

Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and the Lamb.

In the middle of its street, on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, bearing its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Wow! What imagery. The water of life-clear as crystal. The symbols blow us away! The river of life is really of blood from the sacrifice of Christ. Blood-water; red-clear. The tree of life is also a picture. Barren, rugged cross becomes tree of life. 12 Fruits, 12 Tribes of Israel, 12 Apostles-the people of God. Our minds reel with the symbols presented to us. Pictures and symbols that convey theological truth and reality that is so sublime that it can only appear in imagery and symbols. Sign posts to the reality of heaven and eternity.

This is the same water that Jesus spoke of to the woman at the well. This is the water of eternal life. It is the very river of life proceeding from the throne of God.

Even the handicapped stall has its fishing decorations. Yep, it is a fly fishing pole. This one must be reserved for the pastor. Note, the boats in the picture. 

Now is this a fishing church or what? 

I thought we were gonna have fish with the communion loaves! 

Yep, just another Sunday at CCUMC. Note the two rods and the nets. 

Notice where he left his fishing rods. 

Yes, that is a tackle box on the altar. But it is not Chris'--it is way too small.