The Lord’s Prayer

THE LORD’S PRAYER – Part 2: ‘OUR DEPENDENCY’

(June 20, 2024) Dr Jim McClure shares more great insights on the Lord’s Prayer –

In The Lord’s Prayer-Part 1 God’s Dominion posted earlier this month, I wrote that Jesus was teaching His disciples in response to their request, ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’ It is such a short prayer – we can recite it in 30 seconds – but it is also very profound because it covers the foundational principles that should be present in all our praying. So really… it is not a prayer that can be adequately prayed in 30 seconds!

Notice that Jesus did not say, ‘This is what you pray,’ but ‘This is how you pray.’ Obviously, it is not wrong to pray this actual prayer, but Jesus gave it to the disciples to provide some basic prayer principles, not as a strict formula to be followed.

(more…)

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.

(more…)

BARNABAS – ‘SON OF ENCOURAGEMENT’

(September 4, 2022) Brian Bell reflects on Barnabas’example…

‘Son of encouragement’ is a tremendous accolade for anyone to receive from their contemporaries. Not that it means a person is without imperfections, but it says something special about how other people find them to be in the general demeanour of their character and daily living.

As with other biblical characters, the life and witness of Barnabas has profitable lessons for us all to consider, and I share with you those which have spoken to me.

The disciple
We are introduced to Barnabas by Luke the writer of Acts, who tells us that the early believers were of one heart and mind. They freely shared their material possessions not considering what they each owned to be their own! Some even sold land or houses and gave the proceeds to the apostles to give to others in need (Acts 2:44-45).

Among those who sold land was a disciple named Joseph nicknamed Barnabas which means the Son of Encouragement (Acts 4:36-37). Luke also tells us Barnabas was a Jew from the tribe of Levi and came from Cyprus. Clearly the Holy Spirit had done a wonderful work in the life of Barnabas since he had come to faith whether it was before or even among one of those 3,000 who responded to Peter’s message (Acts 2:41).

(more…)

LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION

(January 22, 2018) Dr Jim McClure, straight shooting theologian, shares on understanding an important scripture…

Recently Pope Francis suggested that in the English version of The Lord’s Prayer  the phrase, which is usually translated as ‘lead us not into temptation,’ should be revised to ‘do not let us fall into temptation.’

He maintains that the phrase ‘lead us not into temptation’ implies that God tempts humans.  One can understand such reasoning in view of what is found in James 1:13-14 which states ‘When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.’

So it states that God does not tempt. Consequently it would seem that the Pope’s suggestion (‘do not let us fall into temptation’) is a good one since it suggests that God will help us when we are tempted… and this seems to be in line with what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:13, ‘When you are tempted, he (God) will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.’

While that seems to settle the matter in favour of the Pope’s suggestion, let’s look more closely at the actual text of The Lord’s Prayer which is found in Matthew 6:9-13 and a shorter account in Luke 11:2-4.

Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)
9 ‘This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,  but deliver us from the evil one”.’

The following line is often omitted (See *Footnote):  ‘For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’  (more…)