INTRODUCTION – Somewhere between a year and two years ago I think – we started a sermon series in the gospel or book of Matthew . Our ultimate objective in going through this book verse by verse, passage by passage, is we want to know Jesus better, and we want to follow Him more fully.
The longer some of us go in this life, the more we see – – there is no one like this God/man Jesus.
INTRODUCTION – When Anne, Josh and I traveled to Switzerland a couple of years ago to pick up Caroline we were surprised and inconvenienced by the so called blue laws that they still have in place there.
Blue laws are laws that restrict what a person can do or what a business can sell on the Sabbath day, which usually is Sunday, though In Israel – it would be Saturdays. And I think in Switzerland it starts Saturday evening.
My ideal is to mow my lawn on Saturday, but a couple of times at least I have had to mow it on Sunday because I was too busy with other stuff on Saturday. Each time I’ve caught myself being a little anxious about what someone might say about me mowing it on Sunday since Sunday is thought to be the Sabbath – even by non church going folk.
Tonight at the dinner table with my wife, mother in law, and daughter I learned that none of them had ever read my blog. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I rarely mention it around the house. And I rarely write in it.
One of the reasons I write with such rarity is because as someone has so aptly said, “History belongs to the intercessors.” If I only have so much time during a day and I haven’t prayed sufficiently, I usually am going to choose to pray rather than write. The writer of the Proverbs said in ch. 10 vs. 19, “Where there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.” Another Proverb has also challenged me in this regard, “In all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” (14:23) I see prayer or intercession as the highest form of work and the most productive.
Now lest I mislead you, I do not pray as I should, though I pray every day and throughout the day.