Riverside Covenant Church -- West Lafayette, IN
Life together.
A form of contemplative prayer linked to the rhythms of breathing:
“Be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
Intercession is not prayer. Intercession is something a person does that he or she can do in prayer. To intercede is to go or pass between; to act between parties with a view to reconcile those who differ or contend to interpose; mediate or go between (like an attorney re-presents a client). It involves delegation, authority and representation.
Discussion centered on God’s sovereignty and the reasons we are called to pray with regard to His ultimate plan for creation and mankind. Sheets referenced the teachings of other well known prayer warriors who contend that God’s plan “needs” for us to pray, not because God can’t complete the task on his own, but because God chose to limit himself in this way in order that mankind may have choice in the matter. God chose from the time of creation to work on the earth through humans, not independent of them. My asking of God is an exercise of my choice—it releases Him to do something in my life and the lives of those for which I intercede.
Discussion focused on reasons why we pray. Sheets teaches that no one is born a prayer hero. They are shaped and refined on the practice field of life.
In The Last Days Newsletter, Leonard Ravenhill tells about a group of tourists visiting a picturesque village who walked by an old man sitting beside a fence. In a rather patronizing way, one tourist asked, “Were any great men born in this village?” The old man replied, “Nope, only babies.”
Sheets makes his claim based upon Galatians 6 which says to pray for one another and to be persistent in doing so.
The five passages for this week all come from the book of Exodus. The title Exodus comes from a Greek word (exodus) which means departure. In the Hebrew Bible the book is known by the first two words of the text, a common practice for labeling a book at that time, and so its title is “these are the names,” or simply, “names.” In any case, this is the dramatic account of how God brought his people out of their slavery in Egypt. The book ends with the Israelites on their way to the Promise Land, though difficult days lay ahead.