These 3 Things We Pray, Day, By Day, By Day, By Day...

Lately I have been pondering the topic of prayer, and its purpose in our lives. This may be a fitting topic, as lately I have been sending up many prayers courtesy of the Oilers (and for those of you non-hockey fans, rest easy, as that is the extent of my hockey talk for the duration of this blog). There are some passages in the Bible that seemingly make our prayers as needless (I am not saying that they are), but they made me think about why we pray. Romans 8:26 says, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." From this passage, it would appear that regardless of whether we choose to pray or not, our requests are still being brought before God. And God, being all knowing, knows our thoughts even before we think them, and knows our every need. So this begs the question: Why pray, if everything is already known to God, as He is able to accomplish His will regardless? I have several ideas on this topic.

My first thought is that prayer is what builds and maintains a close relationship with Jesus Christ. It is impossible to carry on a healthy relationship without communication. I even know this fact, being a single guy and all! It's really a very simple concept. One of the central goals of Jesus' death on the cross was so that us humans would be able to once again have a personal relationship with God, instead of having to always go through a priest. When God created Adam and Eve, he had a personal relationship with them, and would walk with them and talk with them in the garden. If this was the environment into which the first humans were created into, obviously God desperately wants to have a loving and personal relationship with humans. So it is crucial that we keep the lines open through prayer, as that is the only way that our relationship will flourish.

My second reason for prayer is that prayer, like any form of communication, is a two way street. I firmly believe that if we our 'keeping in touch' with God, that He will in turn speak to us. He may not always speak to us when and how we wish to hear, but it will always be what we need to hear. So if you are wondering why God hasn't spoken to you for quite some time, could it maybe be simply because you haven't been spending the time to talk to Him?

My third point is that prayer helps keep us humble, as it forces us to recognize the source of all we enjoy here on earth. When we thank God for the many blessings that He has showered upon us, it is acknowledging that all we have is not the result of our own sweat and toil. Even if this appears to be the case, just remember who enabled you to be able to sweat and toil to earn a living. James 4:10 says, "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up." It is through a humble and grateful heart that God can accomplish His greatest works.

My last thoughts on this topic revolves around the parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8), who day after day would petition her cause before the judge, until one day, the judge granted her plea for justice. He did not grant her wish because he believed in God, or even because he necessarily believed in her cause. He granted her pleas because she was persistent, never giving up. I am not quite sure on the correct interpretation of this parable, but I believe that it teaches us not to ever give up praying about something. I do not think that it means that if you pray every day for that shiny red Corvette or the house with a pool that God will eventually grant you these wishes (although He very well could). I do believe that it is a form of encouragement, that if we are faced with a tough situation in life, that God will hear our cries out to Him. I welcome any thoughts or ideas that you may have on this topic.

Duck Season Is Over!

More From Our Lady Peace...

As I promised in an earlier blog, here are some pics from the OLP show a couple weeks ago:


Picture #1: Can't you see the excitement on our faces? (actually, we were half asleep during the opening bands in this pic!)










Picture #2: The girls, on the other hand, had a little more enthusiasm. Or maybe they just have entirely too much fun with cameras!
















Picture #3: The only opening band that we actually enjoyed: Neverending White Lights.












Picture #4: Our Lady Peace finally hits the stage. It was about time!!! Only two hours into the show...











Picture #5: Raine Maida (of OLP fame) up close and personal! He actually made it all the way up to the second tier seating where we were!











Picture #6: The hand that touched Raine Maida...












Picture #7: A couple of thoroughly impressed concert-goers. Until next time...

Oilers 6, Sharks 3, and Other Thoughts

For those of you who are not hockey fans, I will apologize in advance, but it is playoff time in Alberta (at least in northern Alberta!), so I cannot help but let talk of the Oilers filter into my blogs. Today I would like to share my thoughts on a passage that we discussed at our youth service last week. The passage is found in Matthew 7:21-23. It reads, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" This can be an extremely frightening passage, as it reveals that a person could go through life doing the things that the Bible says please God, yet will fail to enter the kingdom of heaven. I believe that this is all the result of wrong motives and intentions. When we carry out so-called 'godly' actions for the purpose of exalting ourselves above other Christians, or to appear 'holier-than-thou' to non-believers, or even to try and earn God's great love, or maybe even because that's just how we've been raised, it simply won't cut it in God's eyes. It is only when our actions are motivated out of our love for God and our love for our fellow human beings that they amount to anything. It should be our passion and love for God and others that fuels and motivates us to follow Christ's example, as anything less and Jesus will say "I never knew you" on judgement day.

Here is where playoff fever comes into play to illustrate my thoughts. Just as a hockey players motivation should be the a great love of the greatest game on earth and the burning desire to win the Stanley Cup, to a greater extent should we be motivated by love. Take Ryan Smyth for example. In game 3 against the Sharks, he took a frozen puck off the face. After he slowly made his way to the dressing room, the rink attendants headed onto the ice with shovels to recover Smyth's missing teeth, and to clean up the trail of blood. While some lesser players would have chosen to resign for the rest of the game, no such players are found wearing the Copper 'n Blue. Smytty got stitched up, and returned to the ice, eventually helping set up the winning goal in triple overtime. Now there is a player who wears his heart on his sleeve and his teeth on the ice! His effort and dedication to his team and to the game of hockey is to be commended. If we as Christians went through life with this never-say-die attitude, and kept our focus on Christ instead of on our own selfish motives, what would the world look like? I believe that if we pursued a relationship with Jesus with this much passion, the world would have to sit up and take notice. I think that instead of being a source of ridicule for many, respect for the church as a whole would increase. Paul says that he would rather people be either white-hot or ice cold, not lukewarm. At least that way people know where you stand. I for one would like to someday hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant!", and rest easy in the knowledge that all I accomplished in this life was not without meaning, because hopefully I will have done everything with God's purposes in mind. I for one do not want to be disowned on judgement day. There is one more lesson that can be drawn from watching the play of #94. And the lesson is this: the mullet is a thing of beauty! GO OILERS GO!!!!

For Those About To Rock...

Before I say anything else, I would just like to say: "OILERS BEAT DETROIT! WOOOOOOOO!" Now that I've got that out of my system (for now), I can begin telling you about the great time I had yesterday. You see, I got my hands on four tickets to the Our Lady Peace show at Rexall Place last night, and skipped work to head to the city with a couple good friends of mine. The trip their was rather uneventful, but I will say this much: Traffic circles are pretty much the worst invention EVER! (being the small town boy that I am). Moving on. I enjoyed a marvelous dinner at the Bul-Go-Gi House, a Korean restaurant located not far from Whyte Ave. The food was delicious, the company was delightful, and the chop-sticks were unmanageable. Try as I might, I could not master them like Mr. Myogi on the Karate Kid, and after giving it my noblest of efforts, gave up and resorted to the good ol' fork. But enough about that, as I could go on about food for hours.

We then headed off to Rexall Place for the concert, which began rather disappointly. The first two opening bands, Pedestrian and Jets Overhead, were a let-down. Not only could we not understand a word that they sang, but the music generally put us to sleep, not the kind of stuff to energize a crowd before the headlining band. The third band was much better, as Neverending White Lights took to the stage as the final opening band. Although their music was still fairly mellow, it was enjoyable. All of these bands attempted to get the crowd going about the huge Oilers victory the previous night, but being as at least one of the bands was from Canucks territory, it didn't really work all that well. And finally, it was time for Our Lady Peace to hit the stage, and WOW, what an incredible show they put on. I will share some of the highlights of the night with you.

As the tour is promoting OLP's latest album "Healthy In Paranoid Times", I kind of half expected them to just play their new stuff, which in my opinion is not as good as their earlier stuff. However, I was wrong, as they played both old and new tunes. I think that they played most of their major hits, including: Is Anybody Home?, Innocent, Superman's Dead, Clumsy, Where Are You?, Angels Losing Sleep, Somewhere Out There, 4 a.m., and many more. Needless to say, the crowd loved it.

I have never seen a band that seems to sincerely appreciate their fans in the way that OLP does. During one of the songs, as the guitarist was ripping up a solo, I heard cheering circling through the stadium like a wave. I looked over, and saw a guy in a red shirt running down the aisle around Rexall in the second tier of seating. I thought, so some crazy fan is doing something stupid, but then I looked again and realized that it was none other than Raine Maida, the lead singer from OLP! To see the lead singer of a great band in the upper levels of seating with the fans was priceless, but things got even better. He came around to where we were, and stopped directly in front of us (about two rows in front of us, or about 6 feet or so), and finished singing the song from right in front of us. If any of you happen to notice Steph's hand turning black and growing fungus, it because she actually reached out and touched Raine Maida, and as a result refuses to wash her hand. GROSS! Anyways, that was probably the best part of the show for us.

Another thing that I thought was pretty cool was for one of the songs, the band went and grabbed about twenty or thirty fans from the audience and brought them on stage behind the band, in an attempt to make it feel like a small club. They then let the crowd sing the next song (which was 4 a.m., by the way), while they accompanied all of us on their instruments.

Apparently not all artists are against downloading music on the internet. Before Our Lady Peace proceeded to play a brand new, un-released song, the grabbed some guys i-pod or cell phone with a microphone from the audience, and recorded this un-released song for him, giving him instructions to post it on the internet for everybody to download. What a classy move!

Anways, the concert, coupled with the Oilers victory over the mighty Red Wings, has made a great start to the week. I will be posting some pictures of the show as soon as I get them. So, for those about to rock... WE SALUTE YOU!