Jesus said:  “I come to bring you LIFE.”  When we have conversation around life’s questions we are on a quest in finding wisdom, and blessing.  Join us as we discuss Life’s questions that have arisen in our walk with GOD.
Questions will be added periodically, so come back once in a while to receive a blessing for LIFE. 

Why Marriage is worth all the trouble...

• Marriage is not about happiness, it is about holiness.
• How you discipline, self-sacrifice, and seek reconciliation in your marriage is the beginning grounds to do so with others for the LORD. These are the core weapons of furthering the Kingdom of GOD.
• In marriage, many principles of the Kingdom of God are manifested. When a marriage is true to God’s loving design, it brings spiritual, physical, emotional, economic, and social benefits.— not only to a couple and family, but also to Church and to the wider culture.
• The deepest struggles we have in life will be lived out in the context of marriage.
• Marriage helps us to be better servants
• Marriage allows ourselves to see the depth of our sin and our profound need for GOD.
• The way you love your spouse (is in a lot of sense) the way you love Jesus. A genuine relationship with God depends on right relationships with other people, especially your spouse.
• A true marriage is the best example of receiving/ giving love as children of God.
• As much as you centralize God in your marriage is as much joy you will have in life.
• We all want love, everybody thinks they know love, yet God is love. Therefore, the way you change your thoughts on LOVE, is the way you will change your life! The way you live in LOVE is your salvation.
• Loving a spouse is a constant reminder to die to the self and serve someone else.
• It is God’s first institution

What Prayer is NOT...

Prayer is not a wish list, you are not praying to Santa Clause.

Prayer is not about praying one or two minutes at dinners or before bed. Prayer is essential; it was essential to the Son of Man, so it is essential to us. I once heard someone say “everyone of us is as close to the Lord as we want to be. Prayer determines how close we are. We live the way we pray and we pray the way we live. The easiest and most effective way to change the way we live is to change the way in which we pray. Jesus was devoted to private prayer. He prayed often, He prayed long, and He prayed for others. He was the Son of God. Two minute or 30 sec. prayers are not going to cut it.

Prayer is not a last resort… this shows lack of faith. If you find yourself saying “well… I have done all i can so I guess I will pray now.” you have it backwards!

Prayer is not about gaining pleasures for yourselves. Instead it is communication with God, building your relationship, trust, and love with HIM. God’s goal is not to give human beings what their own impulses demand; his goal is that human beings will learn to love what he loves. It is not that God does not want people to have pleasure, but that he wants to train them to take pleasure in what he knows is truly good. It is like the world has been giving us junk food (which we like) for a long time, God is saying learn what is healthy, and good for you. Taste and see that the LORD is good.

Prayer is not a device for inducing God to change his mind and do what we want. It must be offered in accordance with His will if it is to be effective. When it is offered in this way God is able to bring heaven to earth. When you pray you have to know that prayer will transform you to His will, not Him to you.

How can I improve my prayer life?

No Christian is greater than his prayer life, because the way we believe is the way we pray. 

According to a recent survey, 9 out of 10 Americans say that they pray. 98% say they have prayed for their family, 92% for forgiveness, 23% for victory in a sports event!  It seems that prayer is an important part of our culture by these statistics.  But it leads me to question, if so many people are praying, why is our world still in the mess that it's in?… Do people really know what prayer is about or do they just do it?  How can we pray so that we will truly experience the power of God?

Just because you are a Christian DOES NOT MEAN prayer is an innate thing.  The disciples figured this out, and went to Jesus and asked Him, “Rabbi teach us to pray”  we have to do the same.  If you don’t feel like you know how to pray or your prayers are not answered, the fact that prayer is learned should give you hope. Prayer has to be learned.  If you ever learned a foreign language you know that you learn it best when you actually have to speak it.  Plus it does not come quickly and/or automatically.  The same is true with the “foreign language” of prayer. 

Often we do not pray because we doubt that anything will actually happen if we pray.  Of course, we don’t admit this publicly.  Main reason we do this is because we are a microwave society,  that expects results in 30 seconds.  Or we have not given pray a chance, we have just tried it without learning it.  Prayer does not happen quickly or is something you just try.  Faith would never grow if all prayer were answered immediately. Plus, prayer involves communication in the spiritual realm.  Many prayers are answered in ways that cannot be seen in the material/ or carnal realm.  Many prayers are answered in ways different from what we asked.   

Therefore as prayer is available, there are bound to be hindrances.  The world, the flesh, and the devil create these hindrances so that you will think prayer is worthless or not what the Bible promises.  Greatest threat of prayer is giving up, or approaching it half-hearted and when if fails or (when we cannot speak the language right off) we get discourage with God.  And then soon after that… our hearts become harden to God.  When the desire to pray is weakened, we can find many other things to do.  Until pray become nothing.  This why so many people, even in church are walking around not tapping into the power of our GOD. 

The Great fault in prayer is that we do not continue in prayer, we do not go on praying; we do not persevere.  If we desire anything for God’s glory, we should pray until we get it.  God wants things to happen more than we do.  God wants his children to be happy more than we want our children to be happy.  But His justice, sanctification, and His will is first.

We must be taught how to pray in order to know the power of prayer and how to tap into that power which is in heaven, so that earth may be more.  “on earth as it is in heaven.”    If you want to pray affectively, with Power, and confidence you need to know how to pray!  Get with someone you trust and learn from one another how you experience your Savior through prayer.

Learning about Prayer- Hindrance of Prayer

WARNING: Just because you are a Christian does not mean prayer is working for you or will be effective. If your relationship with God or others is not right then your prayers are not effective.

Many Christians have never given prayer a fair chance. Also, it’s very easy to make people feel guilty about failure in prayer, and that’s not the intent of this article. But as followers of Jesus Christ we need to know that prayer is powerful, and is a holy invitation for us to communicate with the all-powerful creator, who is God of all. God wants the best for us, and as the scripture says he will do anything we ask. Yet without holiness, justice and doing God's will prayer will be hindered. In other words, prayer will be answered when we understand prayer. Therefore, let us look first at ways prayer can be hindered. To see if you are doing the following, then you know that your prayer is fruitless. The following are ways that your prayers will not be answered even if you pray:

1. FOR YOUR PLEASURES
James 4:3—“you ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

Meaning: if you are praying to glorify your name, your gratification of self or pleasures… you are asking amiss. Prayer is only to bring glory to God. To bring heaven unto earth for HIS name sake.

2. EVIL MEANS
I Peter 3:12— “God’s ears are open to the prayers of the righteous, but his face is against evildoers”
Meaning: if you are doing evil… gossip, divorce, lying, putting people down, prideful, etc., Your prayers will usually fall back on you. Usually people are praying against you rather than with you. You must first seek forgiveness and/or get your heart right. You have to know what God hates and what God loves, then pray accordingly.

3. FORGIVING OTHERS
Matthew 6:14—“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Meaning: if you hold a grudge, do not forgive, your prayers are useless
God’s forgiveness of our sins should motivate us to forgive those who offend us.

4. LOVE OTHERS
1 John 4:20—“for those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen…
Meaning: if you are a Christian and you cannot love other Christians in your church or neighborhood then your prayers are useless. Those who love God must love their brothers ands sisters also.

5. REGARDS TO THE WORDS OF LIFE
Proverbs 28:9—”He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination.”
The person who doesn’t love the Bible, and who isn't’ eager to read it, and doesn’t gladly accept its commands— cannot meet the conditions of these promises, and thus his prayer-life will be hindered. (ONLY in the times of belief and unbelievers will this vary)
The greatest marking of the Holy Spirit is your desire and yearning of the things of GOD.

6. RESTRICT YOURSELF FROM THE WORLD
John 14:31— “You must love the father not the world.”

Meaning: if you seek and listen to the teachings of the world and put them before God your prayer life will be hindered. If you go by what you see rather than faith, why are you praying for heaven to come down to earth?
In claiming to trust in God and yet living according to their own desires these people are adulterous . The term is literally ‘adulteresses’, not that they were all women, but that the church is the bride of Christ ( 2 Cor. 11:2 ; Rev. 19 , 21 ) as Israel was God’s bride ( Is. 1:21 ; Je. 3 ; Ho. 1–3 ). To go after another lover is to be unfaithful to God, so friendship with the world is hatred towards God ( cf. Mt. 6:24 ; 1 Jn. 3:15 ).

7. RIGHT RELATIONSHIP
1 Peter 3 — “wives submit to your husbands… husbands pay honor to the women as the weaker sex… so that nothing may hinder your prayers.”
Meaning: According to marriage and Mt 18 two people together can pray anything and God is among them. When marriages are estranged no prayer will be heard. God will put the relationship and living like Christ and giving and forgiving ahead of any request—except that of repentance.
Therefore Men, God sees tears, oppression, He has compassion and justice. God will stand up for the weaker and the oppressed. Therefore if you do not honor your wife your prayers are hindered
Women, if you do not adorn yourself to the man, or hold proper respect for the husband prayers are hindered.
a genuine relationship with God depends on right relationships with other people.

8. PRAYER WITH LIPS NOT FAITH
“because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith…nothing will be impossible for you.” - Mt 17:20
Ask in faith, nothing doubting; for he that doubteth . . . let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord" (St. James i. 6-8).

The greatest problem the Bible states is people with hardend hearts: For those who have harden heart, YOU MUST START HERE:
If you really want to have heart-felt prayers that have tremendous power and are dynamic in its workings. (James 5:16) then you need to be honest and humble and say, “Lord, Help my unbelief”

Bottom line, you have to have faith before prayer is powerful and effective.

Working with Hurting Kids?... You need the 3 A’s

In the journey of life, youth are hurting because bad things happen to them. Some youth are hurting because they make bad choices. Some youth are making bad choices because bad things are happening to them. Yet, instead of looking at their bad behavior and choices, we need to learn why these choices are being made. Just as Jesus responded with compassion and gentleness, we to should love them as they are, but refuse to leave them as they were.

Sometimes it is very hard to work with teenagers that are dealing with family distress, addiction, “cutting,” or contemplating suicide, because we judge and look at the outcome without looking at the heart of the person. Yet, we must remember that we need to work at understanding rather than condemning, as well as try to understand the underlying dynamics by responding relationally, just as Jesus did.

Jesus did not respond to the woman caught in adultery, the lepers, the blind, the thief on the cross with judgment, but He loved them as they were but HE refused to leave them as they were.
The greatest thing to know as you deal and work with youth is you need to be like Jesus. Do not be afraid that you do not know what to do or say be encouragement.

So here are some helpful hints for you. First, know that the LORD has called you to be there for the teenagers in your life. Not because of your education per se, but because of your heart.

Second remember the “triple A” that you need to know when dealing with hurting teenagers:
Availability: Teenagers are looking for someone that is accessible. It is not just about making time but having a welcoming spirit. Availability says we have time to hear their stories and make room in our hearts for them.
Authenticity: Teenagers need to know you are real; that your walk matches your talk. The last thing they need is an adult that presents a perfect exterior, but their interior is much different. They are too smart to believe it anyway.
Acceptance: Teenagers are constantly feeling judged, and are under a lot of pressure to perform. The last place they want to go is the church for more of that. Please make sure they do not get that from you, but a spirit of compassion, hope and grace.

Lastly, this does not mean that we do not set boundaries with our youth. Yet, we are to engage in love, being creative in spirit, to help them grow and get them to another place in life. Sometimes this gets messy, sometimes teens will choose to stay crippled under these strongholds, but you have been called for a time such as this, and if you will not step up in faith… who will?


You can always contact our pastor, Noel Naff by email...
mhpastor@embarqmail.com