I have been doing a lot of reading this summer--something I have truly missed in the hustle and bustle of this thing we call "life". One book that made an impact on me was The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others by Scot McNight. I think it is worth sharing major points from the book, which I will do over several posts.
3 Things we learn when we infuse The Lord's Prayer with our prayer life:
"We learn to approach God as Abba: to love God means, in prayer, to call him Abba, the signature term of Jesus.
We learn what God really wants: In pondering God's Name, kingdom, and will, we are prompted to yearn for what God yearns for. Love always prompts yearning.
We learn to think of others: When we use the Lord's Prayer as a framework (not rote recitation), we will learn to pray for others.
"Jesus invites to his table those who are (spiritually and socially) sick, because Jesus can heal. When chided by the Pharisees for eating at Matthew's table, Jesus says, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.' He heals them by inviting them to the table and dispensing grace through his presence and his words. In other words, at the table of Jesus other human beings found Abba's love, and they find love of others---a fellowship of the Jesus Creed."
"The observant person's table story: You can eat with me if you are clean. If you are unclean, take a bath and come back tomorrow evening. Jesus' table story: clean or unclean, you can eat with me, and I will make you clean. Instead of his table requiring purity, his table creates purity. Jesus chooses the table to be a place of grace. When the table becomes a place of grace, it begins to act. What does it do? ....It heals, it envisions, and it hopes." (last part sums it up for moi)
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