Christianity After

  PRAYING   (Luke 11:5-13)  I am sometimes fascinated when some people pray. They seem to have a shopping list of requests they want Him to supply. These same people often give up praying if they feel God is not answering their prayers in the way they want them answered. And often they give up if He does not answer their prayers fast enough. This parable teaches the importance of persistence. The friend who needed bread kept asking for bread because he was confident of the outcome. People must not be deterred by an apparent lack of response. Jesus stated that God will certainly answer our prayers. If an answer is not evident, it may be that god has heard the prayer, but we have not listened to His answer. If we truly accept that god knows our needs better than we do, we must allow Him to respond to our prayers as He sees fit--not what we think is best. Sometimes it may be years after we have prayed for something that we realize that God did indeed hear or listen to our petitions.

  Adulterous Woman (John 8:3-11) It can be difficult for people to break free of their past reputations. Ex-prisoners may find it hard to convince potential employers that they are reformed. People who have recovered from mental illness may still be viewed with suspicions by neighbors. Diseases such as multiple sclerosis can cause negative effects on people's attitudes. I remember not long after I was in the ministry I was appointed to a charge of three churches in south Choctaw County, Alabama. Before I entered the ministry I had been a security technician (read bouncer) at a local nightclub. Some of the people in one of these churches knew this and I experienced the hometown prophet syndrome. (see Luke 4:24) My reputation had preceded me. In the story about the adulterous woman ( John 8:3-11 ), those who brought the adulterous woman before Jesus were ready to publicly humiliate and condemn her for her immoral behavior. Jesus clarified the situation by turning the accusers back on

  Read Luke 15:4-10-The Parable of the Lost Coin In the parable of the lost coin, in the ancient Middle East with dirt floors, low areas and limited light, it would have been easy to lose a coin if it was dropped in the home. The economy of the time made it so that a simple coin was valuable for the people. In the modern Western world, people are more likely to be concerned about the loss of a key, a ring, or a credit card than of a coin.  But a society in which people spend time and energy in recovering personal possessions does not always show the same determination to help those who are lost, such as the unemployed, the homeless, or alcoholics, to rediscover a meaningful worthwhile life.  People today may have trouble believing that God is so determined to find and bring home those who are separated from Him. When people accept God's love, however, they can pass it on with the same single-mindedness as the shepherd and the woman who lost the coin. This is surely a cause for joyf