...and everything you ask for in prayer, believing, you will receive

Really? I memorized that verse, Matthew 21.22, some years ago, but I don't really understand it. I mean, the Bible says that asking with wrong motives will mess things up (James 4), and that asking according to God's will (1 John 5) is important. But here in Matthew, it just says, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matthew 21.22). How can this be?

Here's my take on it. How can we have this kind of faith? How can we be so sure (verse 21 has if you have faith and do not doubt) that what we're praying will happen? I have two possible answers.

First: this comes from God; he might speak to someone in a way that is utterly convincing: "I will do this."

Second: this verse shouldn't be taken alone to form your understanding of prayer. Other verses, from James and John among others, and the experiences of the saints recorded in Acts and in the letters (I'm thinking especially of 2 Corinthians 12) must also be considered. This isn't exactly a cop-out; Jesus is recorded as saying that "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her" (Mark 10.11), but Matthew 19.9 has him offering an exception: "I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery." (Matthew 19.9).

So it appears that Jesus sometimes says things that he intends for us to take along with other things. He sometimes seems to say extreme things to make a point, and the trouble is that we think he's making a dozen points when he's only making one or two.

Looking at the context, it's right after the fig tree incident and before the elders confront him on his authority. That makes me think his point is this:

The most powerful force that mattered to Jesus's disciples was the existing religious order. This order was opposed to Jesus and his followers, and appeared to be immovable - like a mountain. I think he was saying that no force in all the universe was too powerful to thwart the will of God and the power of prayer. And that faith with prayer would be required -- probably you need help from God in that department, too (I certainly do).

And fortunately, our God is willing and able!

Reality 1, Denial 0

The other night Carol and I saw The Pursuit of Happyness, based somewhat on the book of the same name. The hero, Chris, drove me batty for the first half of the show; he constantly said things would be OK, though taxes weren't paid and they were 3 months behind on the rent. He worked hard and persevered, but he had to move, first to a motel and then into homeless shelters. The story has a happy ending, but his denial of reality made his situation worse.

Pharaoh king of Egypt had the same issue: he didn't like the way things were going in his confrontation with Moses, but his stubbornness made the situation a whole lot worse. You may remember that Moses asked Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go; when Pharaoh refused, Moses started with a few demonstrations of power. Pharaoh summoned sorcerers etc., and "the magicians did the same things by their secret arts...." (Exodus 8.7 inter alia).

At some point, Moses and Aaron did things that the magicians couldn't do, and more destructive things, too. Hail came, destroying crops and killing livestock. Moses told Pharaoh to let the people go, lest locusts come and devour what little was left. It was at this point that ...

Pharaoh's officials said to him, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the Lord their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?"

Exodus 10.7

Incredibly enough, Pharaoh ignores his officials; locusts, darkness, and thousands upon thousands of deaths follow. Reality seems to have a way of barging in on our fantasies.

And so it is today: people don't save money, but they're hoping to send their kids to college, or to retire. Or both. The typical father talks with his children a few seconds a day, but he thinks it's several minutes. Looking back, I see that I've said many thoughtless and hurtful things, while yet thinking myself a nice guy.

I guess that's why we should ask God to help us to be unlike Pharaoh -- that we would pay attention to reality, listen to God, be willing to change course when we've made mistakes.

If you're like me, that's hard to do. Who likes admitting he's been wrong? So I think we also need strength from God to accept the truth as well -- something else to ask him for!

Feeling older...

Without my usual train rides last week, my not-quite-daily essay became even less daily. then what happened this weekend? Saturday the elder teen and I went to do some painting at Flood School. There was indoor and outdoor work to do, and we got assigned to indoor. There were too many people in one of the rooms so I went to another, and was assigned to paint behind a big ventilation pipe. The previous crew used rollers so they couldn't get to the edges or corners, and especially they couldn't get behind the pipe. It took quite a while longer than it looked like it should.

One of the volunteers had arrived just a few weeks ago; her husband is an undergrad at Stanford, and she's a graduate of some college in Oklahoma. Married students' housing is where they live. "Escondido Village?" I asked. Yep.

So she asked me where I went to school and what I studied. I told her about getting an MSEE (courtesy of my former employer) in 1980. I looked at her and said, "You weren't even born then, were you?" Nope; 1984.

Feeling a little older....

What's happened this week...

Friday was only the second day this week I took the train to work. Tuesday I had breakfast with a friend and went for an individual appointment with our counselor in Belmont. Wednesday I drove to work in order to get to Rich's funeral at 3:30. And yesterday I was on the hook for taking the younger teen to the doctor.

I've mentioned our counselor before - she does the theophostic thing besides having the usual training and license. If you believe in Jesus and need to discuss personal issues with someone, you could do a lot worse than to talk to Susan Fisher. (Whoa, Google points me at San Mateo; another person maybe?) She's talked with both Carol and me, individually and together, and so she's got a pretty good idea of what we're up to.

Rich's funeral service - "Celebrating the life of Rich Girerd" - was, well, I won't say it was fun, but it was good. I met Rich in the '80s but didn't know him all that well. We lost touch and then I saw him occasionally at church. Several people spoke at the memorial service; I was touched by the last one in particular. His voice broke and he had to pause a few times as he spoke.

And it made me think, at whose funeral would I choke up? Is there anyone I've let into my life enough that if I spoke at his funeral, my voice would break? Other than my relatives I mean? Something to think about.

Had a great day Friday: got up early enough to be the first one in the pool at the 'Y', swam 900 yards, drove the kids to school and walked to the train. After work, Carol and I saw "The Pursuit of Happyness," a great story which nevertheless gave me a stomach-ache for the first half or so.

Today the older teen and I helped with painting at Flood School with "2nd Mile" for a couple of hours. The painters were overwhelmingly female -- well, I guess I'm accustomed to being outnumbered...

I'm on the hook to make pancakes today -- ran out too early to do that at breakfast so we'll have them for lunch -- then some cleanup and time to start on taxes!

I hate taxes. I mean, I don't mind paying them, but all the documentation required to deal with filing -- that's a headache.

What's in a name?

OK, quick: what was the name of Moses's father-in-law? Jethro, right? Right. But that's not the name we see the first time he's mentioned. Perhaps you remember the story:

Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock. When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?"

Exodus 2.16-18

I don't think we're told why there was a feud between the shepherds and the priest's family, but the thing I noticed here was the guy's name, "Reuel," which I think means "friend of God" in Hebrew.

Why two names? Is this like Simon and Peter, or Saul and Paul? We aren't told the story, but to have even one of my names be "friend of God" would be great. Presumably there was something in his character - I don't think it could have just been his job - that caused him to be called by that name. We know he's a man of hospitality and wisdom, and not much beyond that.

But he was called "friend of God." Am I a friend of God? And if I am, what in my character, in my habits, shows that? Not "what kind of show do I put on?" but "who am I, really?"

posted 1/29

Not the swiftest

Today's New Testament reading doesn't put the disciples in a very good light. Let's see what happens.

• Crowds come to Jesus, and he heals many of the people. Then he tells the disciples that he wants to feed them (Matthew 15:32). In the previous chapter, the disciples told Jesus to send a similar crowd away, but instead Jesus took five rolls and two fish and fed the crowd of over 5000. Here we have a smaller crowd and more rolls, but the disciples only manage to say, "Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?" (Matthew 15:33). Jesus feeds the crowd in roughly the same way.
• A little later, Jesus warns them to be on their guard "against the yeast of the Pharisees and Saducees." The disciples say to each other, "It is because we didn't bring any bread." (Matthew 16:6-7). Jesus explains a little more to them, and they finally figure out that he means the "yeast" is the teaching of the Pharisees and Saducees.

I find this passage fascinating. Jesus says these sort of oblique things to them, and they completely don't get it. First, with the crowd. The disciples at least don't tell Jesus to send everybody away (the way they did in chapter 14). But when he says he has compassion on the crowd, the disciples don't even recognize that they're in the same situation: deserted place, big crowds healed by Jesus, people need something to eat. If they did, perhaps they might have said, "Hey, last time Jesus fed the whole place with five loaves and two fish! Maybe this time he'll do the same thing? Let's ask him!"

But they don't do that.

Then he says something about the "yeast of the Pharisees and Saducees" and they think he's talking about bread. These guys are really something.

Now, why do you suppose we get all this detail about how the disciples so often miss what Jesus says? Here's a possibility.

Have you ever gone through a difficult period, when you

• forgot to think about God; or
• didn't know what God wanted you to do; or
• couldn't understand what God was saying to you?

Did you ever feel kind of dumb or incompetent afterward?

I think that it's because of people like us that the Holy Spirit wanted this particular passage recorded. Think you're sometimes too silly or too self-absorbed or uneducated to be used by God?

Read this passage... and think again:

"Be careful," Jesus said to them. "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

They discussed this among themselves and said, "It is because we didn't bring any bread."

Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, "You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? .... How is it you don't understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

from Matthew 16:6-12

Judah grows up

Today's Old Testament reading has a bizarre story. Joseph, still incognito as an Egyptian official, plays a trick on his brothers: he has his steward put a silver cup into Benjamin's sack. Then, as the brothers head home, Joseph sends the same steward out to arrest the man who "stole" his master's cup. Of course it's Benjamin. The distraught brothers return to the city, and Judah offers to be made a slave in Benjamin's place.

It's at this point that

... Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, "Have everyone leave my presence!" So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh's household heard about it.

Genesis 45.1-2

What's this about? Why does he play such a nasty trick on them, and why is it at this point that he loses control?

I think the answers are found in Genesis 37, when Joseph's brothers were angry with him, and some of them wanted to kill him. At that time, Judah said it would be better to sell him as a slave, which is what they did. Is that why Joseph is so mean to them now, because they were so mean to him? I don't think that fits the rest of the story.

Somewhere I read the theory that Joseph set up the situation with Benjamin, parallel to his own situation, to see whether his brothers had changed at all. And look at who offered himself to be a slave in Benjamin's place. What a change! Judah gets the highly coveted "greatly exceeds expectations" award, and that's why Joseph can't control himself any longer.

Much has been written about Joseph's example and his growth, but what I notice here is how Judah grows and changes.

Which is good news for sinners like you and me. Because if a guy like Judah, who sold his brother into slavery, had sex with his son's widow (he thought he was using a prostitute), then threatened to kill her for immorality -- if a guy like that could repent and become the ancestor of King David and of Jesus Christ -- well, then you and I can turn from the past and serve the Lord by doing good. And that's good news.

posted 1/26