Making Life Work

By: Ronald L. Dart

God so often disappoints us.

    No, let’s not kid ourselves, we place our hopes in God and those hopes are all to often disappointed. The fault, however, is not with God. The fault is with our expectations, and with what I call, "the God of our imagination." The only reason we could ever be disappointed with God is if He somehow doesn’t meet our expectations.

By: Lenny Cacchio  

No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you! (Job 12:22 NKJV)      Christians have a problem. We know. And we know that we know. And this knowing can get us into trouble. The Apostle Paul said that “knowledge puffs up” (I Cor. 8:1), and certainly those with lots of knowledge can become arrogant about it.     There was once a Pharisee who went into the temple to pray. Jesus tells us that this man gave a very special prayer of thanks. He said, “God, I thank you.” That’s a noble way to start a prayer. But notice what he thanked God for: “ … that I am not like other men.” (Luke 18:11).     Here was a man who on the outside appeared to be everything God expected him to be. He didn’t cheat people. He didn’t sleep...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    I was on the hospital gurney, buck naked except for one of those flimsy hospital gowns. As a nurse was preparing me for my procedures, an elderly woman, bent from age, peaked in the doorway. “I’m The Prayer Lady”, she announced. “I’m here to pray for you.”     I’m all in favor of prayer, but must confess to being a little startled and a lot surprised. Here I was, surrounded by some of the best medical personnel and equipment that science and technology can provide, and an elderly retired lady is allowed to roam the halls and interrupt whatever the science and equipment are doing in order to pray.     I said, “Let’s do it,” and, taking my hand, she prayed a gentle, short prayer that reflected all my anxieties. Moved...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    On September 28 most Jews and a small but growing number of Christians will be keeping one of the Holy Days mentioned in Leviticus 23 known as the Day of Atonement, or in Hebrew, Yom Kippur. The day is unlike any of the other High Days because, rather than being a feast day, it is instead a fast day, where the people of God are instructed to “afflict” their souls before God.

    Christians who keep this day focus on the atonement the Messiah makes for our sins. Those of the Jewish faith also view it as a day of atonement for sins, and in addition they view it as a day of judgement. But sometimes missed is a nuance revealed throughout the Biblical descriptions of this day that lead me to describe this year’s observance...

By: Linda G. Gallia

    I received a prayer message from a friend the other day. It was one of those sweet emails meant to give encouragement and make people feel good. It said: "GOD OUR FATHER, WALK THROUGH MY HOUSE AND TAKE AWAY ALL MY WORRIES AND ILLNESSES; AND PLEASE WATCH OVER AND HEAL MY FAMILY. IN JESUS’ NAME. AMEN. This prayer is so powerful. Pass this prayer to 12 people including me."

    I sat for a few moments, gathering my thoughts about why this particular little prayer disturbed me. My concern is that prayers such as these might cause us to believe things about God that could actually hurt us. When people ask God to take away all their worries, illnesses, and trials, and it doesn’t happen, they often lose faith in God. I realized...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    In times of crisis, American political leaders from time to time have called for a day of prayer, and sometimes even a day of fasting and prayer.  The Pilgrims did it.  The Puritans did it.  In 1746 the settlements in New England did it when the French fleet threatened them.  Shortly thereafter a storm destroyed the fleet.  

    In Revolutionary times, Civil War times, and even as recently as 2003, political leaders called for such observances.  Various religious groups periodically call their congregations to days of prayer, and there is even a National Day of Prayer every May that Congress authorized in the 1950s.  

    God gave the nation of Israel a national day of prayer and fasting.  It is commonly known...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Peter was free! The jails doors swung open and he walked right past the guards, out the gates, and to the house of his friends, who had spent the entire night in prayer for this very thing! (Acts 12:1-13) And yet this episode is anything but a shining example of faithful prayer.

    James tells us that the "effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much", and he tells us to pray "nothing wavering", that to waver is to be tossed about the sea, and in such a case we should expect nothing from the Lord (James 5:16, 1:6-7).

    But God in his mercy and love often answers prayers even when we do waver. God sprang Peter from prison by an unassailable miracle in answer to the fervent prayers of the brethren. Even...

By: Lenny Cacchio

"Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him." (Matthew 6:8 NKJV)

I am thankful that God knows what I need even before I ask, but that leads me to wonder:  "If God knows what I need before I ask, then why ask at all?"   God is good.  He’ll give me what I need.  Besides, Paul says that "we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." (Romans 8:26 NKJV)

It’s tempting to think that we might bore God with things he already knows, but we run no risk of doing that.  Even though God knows everything we need, he likes to hear us talk.   In John 17, Jesus prayed the obvious:  The hour has come.  God gave Jesus...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    When God first rained manna from heaven onto the children of Israel, he told them they had to eat it all in one day.  That is a curious thing to tell someone, akin to telling them not to plan ahead, and to be honest I find it a bit troublesome.

    Everything in my training and everything in my bones tells me to take charge of my own future.  My generation and those behind us know from the simple demographics of the matter that we will not get our shot at the passel of government safety nets that graced the generations before us.  We must save and invest for our own well-being.  Eat your manna today and let tomorrow take care of itself?  I don’t think so.

I can even find scriptural support my position.

“A...

By: Lenny Cacchio  

    Our God is a patient sort, and that goes for our prayer lives too. As Paul once wrote,

    “The Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” (Rom 8:26-27 NKJV) That’s almost like saying that God sees our hearts even if our tongues don’t say it right.

    But God is patient even if our hearts aren’t quite where they ought to be. Anciently there was a man who was known as Deceitful. This was not just a nickname, and he wasn’t one of the Seven Dwarfs. “Deceitful” is what “Jacob” means in Hebrew. Jeremiah so uses that word in chapter 17 of his book: “The heart is deceitful above...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Several weeks ago in this column I wrote about a number of instances in our national history where duly elected officials called the nation to a day of fasting and prayer.  Upon further research I found a striking pattern that often followed.

    In 1746, the French fleet threatened New England settlements, and the people of New England called for a day of prayer and fasting.  It is true that a storm destroyed the fleet.  But it is also true that within a few years the colonies were engaged in the French and Indian War, which lasted nine years.

    On June 1, 1774, the Virginia House of Burgesses called for a day of prayer and fasting in support of the people of Boston, and again in 1775 the Continental Congress...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    If I were President, the first thing I would do is resign because I would probably be impeached anyway.  I am sure I would be accused of combining church and state even though technically I wouldn’t be.

    For if I were President, one of my first acts would be to call a National Day of Prayer and Fasting.  It wouldn’t be just a National Day of Prayer.  We have one of those, and for those few who participate, it has become an hour of prayer and music.

 

    I would make my day a real day of prayer by doing it the old fashioned way :  I would add back the fasting part.  And I would make it during the week and request all non-essential services be closed so that people could devote themselves to prayer, soul-searching,...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Some time ago, when I was going through one of my periodic trying times, an acquaintance suggested keeping a journal of "God moments".  At the end of each day, I was to open my journal and write down the incidents where God’s day intersected with mine.      After beginning my journey in search of such moments, I was amazed to see God’s fingerprints in my life. Often I pray for God’s protection on my family and me. At the end of the day I might recall that if I had not been delayed at the office, I might have been engulfed in the middle of a jackknifed eighteen-wheeler instead of in the traffic back-up behind it.      Another time a friend happened to pop into the office on a particularly dreadful day, and gave me a God...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    This might be his only chance.  As he sat by the road begging, someone told him that the man from Nazareth, a certain Jesus, was walking by.  Unable to restrain himself, he cried,  "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!"     He was a blind man, Bartimaeus by name, and the more those around him demanded he be quiet, the more he yelled, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"     "Son of David."  By this simple phrase, Bartimaeus, who could not see, revealed that he could see what most around him could not, that this Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, the promised son of David who was to come.  Mark tell us that Jesus, upon hearing this, "Stood still and commanded him to be called" (Mark 10:49 NKJV).  Then Jesus asked him, "What...

By: Lenny Cacchio

The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger. So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. (Ezekiel 22:29-30 NKJV)

Then said I, Here am I; send me. (Isaiah 6:8)

In a recent sermon a reference was made to Ezekiel 22:29-30, followed by the lamentation that in our land today there is no one standing in the gap, no one to repair the walls of morality. It’s a point well-taken, and it should have been a point of challenge for the thousand people who heard it. Would they be willing to stand in the gap, or were they...