by: Dave Harkey

What am I thankful for? I could say all the cliché things – family, health, and wealth – and that would be true. However, the thing I am most thankful for is none of these. While I am thankful for these things, I am most thankful for salvation – thankful to God (Jesus) who humbled himself and blessed us through that, who basically kneeled for us.

There is blessing in kneeling. The Hebrew word for blessing is “barak”. Not only does it mean to bless, but it also means to kneel. To kneel is to humble oneself – it is an act of submission. Who blesses us more than all? God. How did he kneel? He humbled himself and became a man; He submitted himself to man and his mockery; He submitted himself to judgment, to death on a cross – this is how He kneeled. And He who kneels is He who blesses. Through His kneeling, we are blessed. In His kneeling comes the greatest blessing we have – salvation.

In light of this, can we do nothing less than kneel before Him and bow down our lives? Let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord.

Thank God for His barak.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Psalm 95:6 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+95%3A6&version=ESV
Philippians 2:5-10 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+2%3A5-10&version=ESV
James 4:6-10 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+4%3A6-10&version=ESV
Barak - https://biblehub.com/hebrew/1288.htm

by: Dave Harkey

As we deal with the stresses of life, especially life as we are experiencing it now, I find myself in some sort of prayer more often. Prayer is how we communicate with God, it how we get close to Him and share our hearts and our lives with Him in a more deliberate manner – and right now it seems I have a lot to say to Him (don’t we all right now?). I have to wonder sometimes if God is using these times to draw us closer to Him? While I don’t think this pandemic is good, I do think He is using it for good (good ole Romans 8:28 - maybe a blog for another day).

All this prayer time has me thinking about Ephesians 6:18. Paul tells us here to pray at all times. ALL TIMES?! How are we supposed to do this? Certainly, we cannot be on our knees 24/7. What does this look like? And in the Spirit? HUH?

We think tend to think of prayer of this sacred time where we shut everything out and focus on God; talking to Him and listening to Him. While I think we should do this on a daily basis, we also need to understand that this is not the only way we can pray. Here are some practical ways to pray at all times and in the Spirit:

• Listen to the nudgings you get from God, the Spirit. When they come, say a quick prayer when they come to you. Prayer does not have to be all flowery and full of words. One sentence works – He knows your heart – it doesn’t even have to be proper grammar. “God – insert word hear – please, thank you” works. The Holy Spirit will do the rest (Romans 8:26-27)

• Act on the nudgings you get from God, the Spirit. Notice when he gives you direction that seems to come out of nowhere. If He tells you to give the guy at the exit a dollar, just do it. Don’t debate it and wonder what the guy is going to use it for. Likewise, if he tells you to turn away, do that too.

• Live your life as if it is a prayer – as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). Try to please Him in all you do. Honor Him in all you do and in your lifestyle. It is the ultimate form of worship.

• Don’t discount those short little prayers – “God Help Me”, “Thank You God”, “Lord, give me strength” They are powerful. They help you stay focused on God and to acknowledge Him in your life.

• Use words you understand – keep it simple (1 Cor 14:15). I used to think that I had to use the big religious words and long prayers. I thank God that he taught me that simple is good – it was freeing.

• Sing – even if it’s in your head. I love music, it is good for my soul and helps me express those things I cannot put into words on my own (Psalm 96:1, Psalm 47:6)

During these times, there is nothing more comforting to me than to be in God’s presence and to draw strength from him in all things I do and all things I deal with. These days can be overwhelming; so, I pray.

“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere”
Ephesians 6:18

by: Dave Harkey

Well, we have just gotten through what may be one of the toughest weeks we’ve been faced with in who knows how long and are well into the second week. There has been so much change in a very short period of time and, no doubt, it’s been stressful and there are tensions. It is times like these that I love to go spend time with my church family in discussion and worship, to get comfort from the storms of life; it is these times I love to be around people. I truly believe God made us to be relational and that He wants us to be together. He tells us in Hebrews 10:25 to not neglect our meeting together, but this seems hard to do right now in this time of social distancing.

We need to make sure we meet together and encourage each other. I don’t know about you, but as we go through this, I certainly can use some encouragement. Working from home, schooling from home, staying home – I see the challenges of this every day. I do thank God my kids are grown (those with little ones trying to do this are probably wishing they were grown). Who doesn’t need encouragement now (and maybe some other voices or faces)?

 In James, we are told to be doers of the word and not hearers only (James 1:22). What is interesting to me is that the Greek word that was used for “doers” was taken from the word “poites”, the same word that was used for a poet - It carries the idea of creativity. So, one could infer from this that, when times make it difficult to be doers of the word, we have to get creative. I think that applies to us right now – especially when it comes to meeting together.

 So how do we do this, how do we ‘meet’ while still keeping our distance and get that much-needed interaction that God has so wonderfully designed us for? It’s time to get creative! It’s time to use the tools that God has given us. For this, technology can be a wonderful thing – let’s use it to our advantage:

• We can still meet as groups via a number of ways – we can video chat, we can use conference lines. We should make this a priority. Most of us already do this at work, let’s do it for connecting to one another

• Make a phone call or face time a friend. We have a tendency to default to texting; but what a blessing it is to hear a voice or see a face. It’s happened a few times for me this week and, man, what a bright spot in my day it was.

• Do church on Sunday morning via the live feed. You can take comfort in knowing others are there with you. Get the family in a room together and worship. Yeah, it’s different (a little, ok a lot, weird) but so worth it. We did this last week, our church did a great job with it. In our house, you would have laughed at us trying to sing together; but, for the first time in a long time we prayed together in a setting that wasn’t around a table of food or in a church setting – it warmed my heart. I’m looking forward to it again.

“And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”

Hebrews 10:25

Amen!
God’s Peace,
Dave