heavenly Father

THE LORD’S PRAYER – Part 1: ‘GOD’S DOMINION’

(June 06, 2024) Dr Jim McClure teaches… and challenges –

How good is your prayer life?

I guess that for most of us prayer is lower on the ladder of importance in our lives than we would be prepared to admit.

We excuse ourselves by thinking that we are so busy that other urgent things make demands on us and, sadly, prayer is set to one side to be attended to later.

Many churches place an emphasis on the importance of their regular prayer meetings and sometimes Christian organisations plan citywide, and even nationwide, prayer meetings and Christians are encouraged to commit to them. However, valuable and important such gatherings may be, the number of participants is ultimately not the determining factor in the effectiveness of prayer.

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GOD IS PERFECT IN ALL HIS WAYS

(October 12, 2021) Carol Round reminds us that…

… God is indeed perfect! And that his Son, Jesus, declared it in Matthew 5:48, challenging us to be perfect too: ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’

Confession time
I’m a Christian, but not perfect. I make mistakes and I mess up – sometimes big time. But God’s grace is bigger than my sins. And, for that, I am grateful.

As a recovering perfection seeker, I know what it’s like to strive to do and to be perfect. The only thing I accomplished, in the end, was my own unhappiness. The more I tried, the more I was burdened to maintain what I thought being perfect meant – ‘a state of flawlessness, without defect.’ For humans, that is impossible!

Jesus is talking to his disciples – the Sermon on the Mount, and Matthew 5:48 however can be puzzling to some. It was for me… until I read different translations of this verse and a commentary.

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