One of the New Year traditions in the Kaylor household (ok, to be fair, it’s actually my tradition that my family tolerates) is that we serve sauerkraut and hot dogs on New Year’s Day. It’s a nod to my mother, who used to make us kids eat sauerkraut that day under pain of death if we …
On Sunday we looked at Daniel 6 and Daniel’s daily habit of praying and praising God three times a day with his window open toward Jerusalem. While it’s the story of the lion’s den that gets all the press (and all the songs) in that chapter, none of what Daniel does in the entire book …
Luke 11:1-4 We have come to the conclusion of our course in the School of Prayer, but really we’re just beginning. Learning to pray and wrestling in prayer is something we need to do for a lifetime. In this series we’ve talked about prayer from a biblical perspective—that the Bible’s focus on prayer is that …
Acts 10 So far in the “School of Prayer” we’ve talked about why we pray—that prayer is asking God to come through on his promises. We’ve talked about what we pray for, following the example of the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets who “called on the name of the Lord” to crush the serpent through …
John 14:8-14 We have now come to our third lesson in the School of Prayer and, like any good course of study, it’s often helpful to have some review before moving ahead. In our first lesson, we looked at the reasons we struggle with prayer and one of those major reasons is that we don’t …
“In the Name of Jesus:” The Mission of Prayer Continue Reading »
Second in the series “School of Prayer” Genesis 4:25-26; Romans 8:18-27 What was the first prayer you ever prayed? For those of us who grew up in the church it might have been a table grace you used in your family (God is great, God is good…) or that nighttime prayer many of us were …
Calling on the Name of the Lord: The Beginning of Prayer Continue Reading »
First in the series, “School of Prayer” Luke 11:1-10 “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Every time I read that verse, I think to myself, “Yes, Lord, teach me to pray because I’m not very good at it.” The disciples of Jesus were observing him in one of the many …
Joshua 6; Acts 10 In ancient Israel there was a man named Honi, which later generations also knew as Onias. You won’t find his story in the Bible but in some of the history of Israel surrounding the Bible, like in the Mishnah (a first/second century AD piece of rabbinic literature that captures some of …
A few years ago I was at a retreat for pastors where we were asked to draw a timeline of our spiritual lives, charting the ups and downs of all the things that we had experienced so far. When I looked at mine I noticed some significant peaks and valleys—times when I felt that spiritual …
Prayer: The Base Camp of the Christian Life Continue Reading »
Matthew 6:5-15 This week we move into a new section of the Sermon on the Mount. Remember where we’ve been. We started by looking at the nine beatitudes, saying that they outline the inward character of a disciple. Remember how those began—“Blessed are…” Those who have the character of a self-emptying meek, pure in heart, …
The Rule of Prayer (Sermon on the Mount Series, part 9) Continue Reading »