The Inauguration Highlight

Update: 1/23

Now we find out that this performance was the instrumental equivalent of a "Milli Vanilli lip sync". Wasn't there a ruckus made last year when the Chicoms did the same thing during the opening ceremony for the Olympics?

And to think that I thought that it was the best thing to happen during the coronation inauguration. Silly me, the whole thing was phony.

Prayers for a New President

Especially since inauguration prayers have been much in the news lately there have been a number of prayers for the new President posted on the internet in various blogs that I frequent. A few have been poor, some have been fair, many of them have been very good, but this one is the best I have yet seen.

"Lord, our greatest desire is not that the economy would be righted, or that health care would be solved, or that the war in Iraq would be resolved. We want to see You glorified in whatever way you choose. Glorify Yourself through Barack Obama. We pray that four years from now more people would know and love you because Barack Obama was in office."

No, we can't

Just a reminder this morning that we cannot trust ourselves, or any other man, to be anything other than a wretched sinner in need of a Savior:

9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:9-26, ESV)

It's not about you...

C. Micheal Patton shares why Christianity is not dependent upon your character.

"Thankfully, God did not confine the validation of his message to the character witness of sinners. If he did, we are all in trouble. Why? Because your character is grossly lacking."

"Arrow" Prayers

Yet as ancient, excellent, and helpful as this prayer pattern* is, it hinders our devotion if it causes us to doubt that we can speak to our heavenly father as readily, spontaneously, and familiarly as does the Son with whose voice we pray.

Often people ask me to pray for specific needs. I always promise to do so despite my faulty memory and the number of requests. I make the promise because I learned from a mature pastor to send an "arrow prayer" to heaven even as I speak to the person making the request. I cannot model these arrow prayers after the A-C-T-S pattern; they are more the reflexes of my spirit affirming the most basic requests: "Yes, Lord, please help Ginny find her way"; "Watch over John during his surgery"; "Give Marge and Steve your wisdom as they speak to Jerry." My prayers in these moments are not very elegant, but I do not believe God minds. He is more concerned to hear my prayers than to grade their form.

Praying Backwards: Transform Your Prayer Life by Beginning in Jesus' Name, by Bryan Chapell, pg. 94-95

I imagine that there were a number of these "arrow prayers" voiced on US Air flight 1549 yesterday.

*Chapell's description of the A-C-T-S (Adoration-Confession-Thanksgiving-Supplication) prayer acrostic and demonstration of its antiquity as shown in a quote from Origen.