MINISTRY NOTES

Hi Everyone,

It is great time of the year with daylight starting earlier enabling me to run early. A reason to run or walk for exercise is that God created our bodies to need that type of activity. We were not created to sit on a couch only to get off, just to ride in a car to get fast food poison. Jesus and His family went from Nazareth to Jerusalem, a distance of over 82 miles, every year (Lk 2:41). Back when the phrase WWJD was popular, people would speculate what type of car Jesus would drive. Frequently, the bible mentions that Jesus was in the Galilee area and then in the Jerusalem area, a distance of over 95 miles. Every indication is that Jesus' main form of transportation was walking. Many of the life style illness people have today, could be reduced by functioning (eating and exercising) in a manner that God intended, when He created us. Often people take care of the environment and their cars better than they do their bodies.

Message Notes:

Lot of people claim to tell the truth. Often these claims just end up confusing people. The way to be sure you are telling the truth is to quote Jesus, who said"… I am the truth …"1. When people pray they want their prayers answered and the best way to get them answered is to do what Jesus tells us about praying. Jesus tells us how to pray, which seems to cover most prayer needs2. Notice, Jesus tells us to pray to God and He makes it clear there is only one God3. God is very clear that He doesn't like us to pray to any other Gods4 or even mention their names5. I have known people who consider themselves Christians and yet pray to someone they call mother god - there is no such person. Some pray to the Holy Spirit and yet Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will only "…will speak only what he hears …"6. We need to pray to God, who the Holy Spirit hears. Some Christians pray to angels and yet when John fell down to worship an angel, the angel told John, …"Do not worship me! I am a servant like you ... Worship God!"7.

Some people pray to Jesus and yet Jesus says "…you will ask the Father for things in My name. I am saying that I will not need to ask the Father for you. No! The Father himself loves you…"8. So we pray directly to the one, true God in Jesus' name. Seems simple but people sure get it confused. Regarding prayer in schools, can you be sure that every teacher will pray correctly or even be a Christian? I doubt it. Sometimes we read about public controversy regarding praying in Jesus' name. If you are a Christian, you will pray the way Jesus says to pray, and government groups in the United States are violating our constitution, if they tell you how to pray. Only the Jews pray to the same God. Praying to other gods is useless and may be dangerous4, 5.

1. John 14:6

2. Matthew 6:9-13

3. Mark 12:29

4. Exodus 20:3

5. Exodus 23:13

6. John 16:13 (IC)

7. Revelations 22:9 (IC)

8. John 16:26-27 (IC)