Moving from Palm Sunday to Change the World Monday

I grew up attending church. This was the era of flannel graphs in Sunday School. Palm Sunday was a time of kids with palm branches and conversations about donkeys. The shift then moves to Good Friday and Easter. But if we move too fast we miss a lesson that Jesus taught to change our world and rock our heart.

In Mark’s telling of the story he sandwiches the story of the clearing of the temple with the strange story of Jesus killing a fig tree. The depth of the message of Mark 11:12-25 is beyond what I can cover in this post, but let me challenge us with three lessons that could impact the world.

Be on your guard against hypocrisy

Jesus finds a tree that has lots of leaves, but without any fruit. Moving from there to seeing Jesus disrupting the religious establishment of the time makes the message clear. You can have a lot of the trappings of religious activity but not be producing any spiritual fruit. This is hypocrisy. The danger of hypocrisy is that it is easier to see in others and hard to see in ourselves. Hypocrisy insulates our heart from the humility we need to be hungry for more of God. We need to be desperate for God in order to produce fruit out of our connection to Him. I realize that even this post loses its power without the energy of God.

Hypocrisy insulates our heart from the humility we need to be hungry for more of God.

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Be aware of our own draw toward racism

In Jesus’ day a reference to a verse in the scripture is a reference to the whole chapter where it is found. Jesus’ reference to, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations” comes from Isaiah 56. Isaiah 56 is a word of encouragement to the immigrants living in the land. Jesus’ here matches the challenge that He and the early disciples gave to confront the ethnic superiority of the day. If we read carefully we see Jesus getting in trouble again and again for disrupting racial stereotypes. Speaking of immigrants and racism today may be read as a political statement of some kind.

Although I do see racism in both political parties that is too safe to point that out. Jesus wants to get closer to our heart. Rather than engage in arguments what if the church led the way by going in the opposite way of love? But even that is too safe. What about me? So I am committing right now to learning Spanish to a level that I can preach in Spanish. What about you? Will you let God’s word break through your heart to an actual change that may be uncomfortable?

What if the church led the way against racism with radical love?

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Prayer should not be a side dish

The story of the fig tree is explained by Jesus with a challenge to pray things that require faith. I wrote a book on simple ways to engage in conversation with God. But we must not forget that prayer also has great power to change things. Prayer invites us into a faith adventure with Jesus that should produce fruit. God invites us to change the world with our prayer.

Are you praying dangerous, audacious prayers? As Lisa Bevere says, “If you are not praying the kind of prayers that scare you, believe me, they are not scaring the enemy.” We need Christians who believe for a life that makes a difference. As Pete Grieg says, “We need to move from survival to revival.” What are you going ask God for that will make a difference for Jesus’ kingdom?

We need to move from survival to revival.-Pete Greig

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I believe that if we really let these things past our guard and into our heart we could change the world. Are you with me?

What to do when God seems silent?

Recently I was at my home church and a lady came up to me with a question that basically said, “What do you do when God doesn’t seem to be talking to you in your prayer life?” After more conversation I asked if I could get back to her with a more detailed answer. Since I figured this is a question that more than just she has I thought that I would pass it along to all of you.

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One of the most interesting books on prayer I have read in a while

It is weird how God can bring things into your life. I have an interest in learning how to travel for cheaper so I listen to some travel podcasts. I was checking out a new one when I saw that they were interviewing Jared Brock about his book A Year of Living Prayerfully.

I read more than my share of prayer books. When I told my wife that I had just read the most interesting book on prayer that I had read in a while she said, “That is saying something.” Books on prayer can have good stuff in it, but not be something I would recommend because they are boring. A Year of Living Prayerfully is not one of those books.

The subtitle will start to give you a picture of what you are in for: How a Curious Traveler Met the Pope, Walked on Coals, Danced with Rabbis, and Revived His Prayer Life. A Year of Living Prayerfully is one person’s journey to bring new life to his prayer life. In the book Pete Greig says that most prayer books are written by introverts; this book definitely is not one of them.

I love how Jared travels the world to do what he can to take his prayer life to the next level. He visits places like monasteries to learn the history of prayer. We follow his attempts at meeting Billy Graham and he even visits Westboro Baptist Church.

Although it is a personal journey he introduces the reader to many varieties of ways to pray. Quoting from Pete Grieg again, “The Bible says to pray at all times with all kinds of prayers, but a lot of people think that prayer is just one thing. That’s like going to a buffet and only ever eating one item. You’ll get sick. You need a huge variety in order to stay healthy. Prayer is a menu, not a dish.”

Prayer is like a buffet. You need a huge variety to stay healthy.

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Now let me remind you that this is one person’s journey in the life of prayer. Some of his conclusions were impacted by the experiences he had. He did not have a good experience visiting the world’s largest church and it showed. I have written here before that I had a great experience visiting the world’s largest church. Even with saying that, I think that if you take his honest journey with him you will grow in your prayer life. I recommend you check it out. (or affiliate link)

(Disclaimer: I have not been paid in any way to write this review. If you hate the book you can take it up with Jared. If you like the book you can send me Chipotle gift cards.)