Are You Generous?
Generosity practiced will change your life. Check out myt latest teaching on becoming generous.
I Am SVA – Conversation 3: I Am Generous from Snoqualmie Valley Alliance on Vimeo.
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Justice Begins In The Home
Check out my latest talk in the “Be The Change” series…
“We can change the world, by starting at home. When we honor and elevate women to their true biblical-equal-status in our culture, we will have the credibility to empower women in other cultures and other faiths where the gender-line of inequality remains so thickly drawn that death, devastation and poverty follow her cries.” – Monty
Be the Change – Week 5 from Snoqualmie Valley Alliance on Vimeo.
What’s Not In Heaven
In Revelation 21-22 the apostle John is trying to describe the day that heaven and earth combine…when God once again becomes a permanent resident with humanity; A renewal of the Edenic reality, but even better. How do you describe that which you have never seen or known? When language exhausts her best expressions and you still haven’t even begun to reveal your experience, a new tactic is needed. This is what John does as he tries to describe the new heavenly reality. Instead of telling us what is there, he focuses more on what is not there. “No more tears, no more death, no more pain, etc.” Here is my A-Z list of what won’t be in heaven to help us grasp the beauty of what will be there. Obviously my list is finite, incomplete, borrowed and missing items. That is where you come in. What else won’t be there that I have missed. Continue this story in the comments…
What Won’t Be In Heaven
In Heaven there will be no more:
Acne, aches, addiction, anxiety, anxiety meds, amber alerts, amputations
Bad breath, body odor, broken hearts, broken homes, break ups, bills, bill collectors, bi-polar, bullying, battles
Cancer, coughs, catastrophes, conflict, crash diets, CPS, concussions, court rooms, corruption, crutches, casts, child abuse, chemo therapy, crosses along the side of the road, cutting,
Deception, depression, divorce, drama, doctors, disease, double chins, disco
Evil, erosion, embarrassing moments, enemies, elections, evictions, earth quakes
Fighting, fruitcake, foreclosures, flu-shots, fear, funeral homes, funerals,
Gossip, guilt, greed, graves,
Hospitals, hurricanes, hate, homelessness, hormones, human trafficking
Injustice, infertility, infidelity, insecurity, infomercials, inoperable tumors,
Junk mail, jealousy,
Kooks, k(c)anker sores, kombucha (that stuff is nasty), killjoys,
Legalism, life-support, lawyers, loneliness, labor camps, lines for the lady’s room, love handles,
Motionless ultra sounds, metal detectors, MRI’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Middle of the night phone calls, miscarriages, misunderstandings,
Neurosis, night sweats, nursing homes, negativity, needles,
Operations, orphanages, oppression , Obama Care
Pretending, plastic surgery, politicians, pacemakers, persecution, pain, prejudice, poverty, pink slips, potlucks
Quitting, queasiness, qualifying,
Racism, rejection, road rage, rape, revenge, radiation
Special weigh-loss plans, spanks, saddle bags, sox without a match , security systems, sleepless nights, slums, suicides, suicide bombers, school shootings, sadness, spandex, slander,
Treatment centers, tear stained divorce papers, tissue boxes, tornado, tsunamis, typhoons, trafficking, tiny caskets, taxes
Unibombers, unwanted, unloved,
Victims, violence, vindictiveness, vaccinations, vice
Waiting rooms, wheel chairs, waxing, wounds,
X-rays, Yelling, Zoos, Zero (because everything will have value)
Jesus says, “Look!, I am making everything new!”
3-30 Prayer Challenge
I am excited about the response received about engaging my 3-30 prayer challenge!
Just as a reminder, here is the plan:
To pray three types of prayers three times a day for the next thirty days!
Here is the prayer breakdown:
1. morning prayer: Start your day with a morning breath prayer like “Abba, I belong to you.” Breath in fully while you pray the name “Abba” for about 2 counts, and then breath out for 5 counts on “I belong to you” Abba is the word Jesus used to acknowledge God the Father. It is a very person word that means “Daddy” Isn’t that powerful that Jesus helps us relate at a far more intimate level with God as we embrace Him as Daddy.
I tend to pray this in a Trinitartian format of “Abba” (which speaks of God the Father as Daddy) “Yeshua” which is the Hebrew name which Jesus translates from. And “Ruach” Which is the Hebrew term for the Holy Spirit. So it goes like this:
Abba…I belong to you
Yeshua…I belong to you
Ruach…I belong to you…
The ancient church, going back to the first century practiced this kind of prayer which they called “The Prayer of the Heart” The most tradition prayer was” Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” That is still a prayer that i meditate on through the day as well. I also enhace the aforementioned prayer in this way:
Abba…I love you (please forgive me) (thank you)
Yeshua…I love you (please forgive me) (thank you)
Ruach…I love you (please forgive me) (thank you)
Feel free to select words that help you focus on who God is and align your heart through confessiona nd repentence…there is no wrong way to pray this!
2. mid-day prayer: Sometime around mid-day, pause and slowly pray through the Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen.
Here is The Message translation of the same prayer. Reading this translation helps you see the original thoughts in a more cureent way:
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best—
as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.
3. Afternoon or later: Redemptive prayer:
What I mean by a redemptive prayer, is to simply pray God’s blessing on someone, escpecially someone with whom you might currently be struglling with, for example:
* pray for someone you are currently angry, bitter or struggling with.
* pray for your enemy, as jesus asked us to…who is your enemy?
* pray for the people you disagree with, politically, philosophically, theologicalley etc.
* pray for those you know who struugle with God or are anti-God
So each day pick one person and pray the God would simply bless them, eve if you disagree with them!
I am excited for what God will be doing in you as you pray this way the next 30 days with me! I have already been receiving emails telling me that God started working on day 1!
Grace and Peace
Monty