Author Archives: Jason Graham

Hallowed Be Your Name

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The Disciples’ Prayer Series – Part 4

For the longest time I thought that “Hallowed” was an adjective describing God’s name. I mean, honestly, it isn’t a word that we use all that much in everyday conversation, and to me it seemed to describe God’s name–like saying His name is Holy.

However, I have since learned that “hallowed” is actually a verb. So, this phrase is not describing God’s name as much as it is declaring action on our part toward His name. It means “to be honored as Holy”. Yes, His name is holy, but this simple phrase is a challenge to us. We are to honor His name as holy.

How do we do that? How does that affect the way we live our lives? I discuss answers to these questions in this teaching, and go further into explaining what God could have meant when He told us to be holy the way that he is holy. Is that even possible? Did He really mean for us to be holy in the same way that the transcendent creator of all that exists is holy? If so, what happens if we’re not?

The scripture has so much to say about the concept of God’s holiness and His people’s holiness. This message serves as an encouraging look into the dynamics between the two.

In Heaven

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The Disciples’ Prayer Series – Part 3

After Jesus uses the word Father in the disciples’ prayer, a word that expresses great intimacy, affection, and acceptance in God, He immediately uses a phrase that makes God completely untouchable: In Heaven. Why the great disparity?

On the one hand, we seem invited to accept God as absolutely close and accessible. On the other hand, he is lifted into the cosmos. Ineffable. Unreachable.

How are we supposed to manage such a dichotomy in our daily lives? How do we wrap our theology around a God who is both so imminent and transcendent?

This teaching attempts to give some biblical clarity around these two ideas about God, and shows how–for the believer–God being “In Heaven” doesn’t put him so far away as we may have thought; although, His worthiness of being highly exalted is not diminished in the least.

We will come to this conclusion by looking at scriptures that answer the following questions:

What is Heaven?
What does that make God?
How do we approach Him?
What is our position with the God In Heaven?

I think you’ll enjoy this message. You can read the attached notes and listen to the audio above. Feel free to “like” this post below and leave your comments. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Father

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The Disciples’ Prayer Series – Part 2

The devoted have repeated this word in their prayers for centuries. Jesus modeled the use of this word when teaching us how to pray in scripture. Why? I think it is of utmost importance to understand in-depth what it means for God to be our Father–and us to be His sons–from the rest of scripture.

In the teaching attached to the top of this entry we look into what the scripture explains about God our Father. We’ll look at why we are sons, and how we are made into sons. We answer the question, “Are we sons like Jesus is the Son of God?”

The teaching also explains what the benefits are for us to be sons of God, and they are amazing. Among other things, this teaching also seeks to explain how our relationship with God the Father is defined in His acceptance and discipline, as well as presents an answer to the often-asked question, “If we are sons, then are we still servants?”

As a side note, being a Son of God is a spiritual position, and has nothing to do with physical gender. Women believers are Sons of God in the same way that men believers are the Bride of Christ. Both of these terms indicate spiritual truths about our position in God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.

For those of you who like to download or stream the audio of these lessons, unfortunately there were technical difficulties that prevented this lesson from being recorded when I taught it at my church. I will update audio if I’m able to get it recorded at some point in the future.

Our

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The Disciples’ Prayer Series – Part 1

Our: a simple word.

Three letters.
One syllable.
A world of meaning.

If there is one thing for certain about Jesus’ desire for his church, it is that we would live, work, and love in oneness.

As a matter of fact, Jesus prayed that we would be one in the same way that He and His Father are one. Wow!

John 17:11, 21 (NIV) ¹¹I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name–the name you gave me–so that they may be one as we are one…
²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

So, what would that look like? What would it mean for our daily life? How would it affect our lives individually and as a community of believers? How does it affect God?

In the attached lesson above I seek to answer these questions, and I discuss what the Bible says about how we achieve this unity. You can read the notes and listen to the teaching. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

The Disciples’ Prayer Series Introduction

Jesus taught his Disciples how to pray in what is commonly referred to as The Lord’s Prayer. I tend to refer to it as The Disciples’ Prayer–not for the sake of being different, but to emphasize the fact that Jesus was teaching US to pray in that manner.

I taught a series of 12 lessons based on the words and phrases in the Disciples’ prayer to answer the question, “Why would Jesus ask us to pray this way?”. This series goes into depth on the following topics:

Our
Father
In Heaven
Hallowed be Your name
Your kingdom come
Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven
Give us this day our Daily Bread
Forgive us our debts
As we forgive our debtors
Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one
For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever
Amen

Each of these lessons expands on a thought taken from the words and phrases that Jesus taught us in this prayer as shown above, and focuses on expanding the Christian’s understanding of how each of Jesus’ words is full of life and truth.

From today moving forward I will be posting these lessons here on the blog. Watch for them, read the notes, listen to the audio (when available), and comment! I’d love to hear what you think.

What is Love?

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The Bible explains what it is in beautiful, yet easy to understand language. whatIsLove This is one of the most important things that God wants us to get. What is Love?

Is it a feeling? A commitment? A choice? No.

Well, not in the context of what we are talking about here anyway. The truth is that Love is God. The Bible makes this very clear.

So, that begs the question, “If God is love, then how does love act?” I believe the scripture gives us a concise picture of the nature of God in the description about love in 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV) 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

The degree to which we love like the scripture says is the degree to which we are like God.

This teaching breaks down all 16 attributes of love given in the passage above, and seeks to bring better clarity to what love should look like in God’s people. When I taught it at my church, there was such a sweet spirit of unity that arose from it that is hard for me to explain. God is truly amazing.

I hope you enjoy this teaching. We can discuss it in the comments section below if you’d like.

Love and Kindness

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photo credit: Darinka Maja via photopin cc

God is not nice.

You can’t find a scripture that ever says that he is, and you can’t find him displaying the attribute of “being nice” in the scriptures. What He is, though, is so much better…

God is kind.

In this lesson I talk about what the debt was that Jesus really paid, and what the most natural reaction from us should be to the grace he showed us: walking in love and kindness.

I then talk for some time on the differences between being nice and being kind, why it is important to understand the difference, and why being kind should be our goal–not being nice.

Here is a chart from the attached notes that gives you an idea of some of the things that I talk about:

Kindness	Niceness
Gentle, Mild, Sympathetic, Forbearing, Affectionate	Pleasant, Agreeable, Polite
Kindness has to do with one’s nature. Inward condition.	Nice has to do with how we appear to others. Outward action or appearance. It is so much related to outward appearance that it is commonly used to say things like:That’s a nice car. That’s a nice house. He has a nice smile.
Is always rooted in the Truth (based on scriptures about Kindness).	Can be rooted in DECEPTION. “I was just being nice.”
The Bible tells us to be Kind.	The Bible NEVER tells us to be nice.

Finally, I present some warnings from scripture to those who do not walk in love.

Human Trafficking

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There are more slaves in the world today than there were during the transatlantic slave trade.

www.ExodusCry.com explains: Human Trafficking

The latest global estimate according to the International Labor Organization (the United Nations agency that deals with global labor issues), calculates that nearly 21 million people are victims of human trafficking worldwide. Roughly 4.5 million of those victims are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Many people are unaware of the modern slave trade. Women and children, and even men in some cases, are literally bought and sold like products. In one of the best documentaries ever created on this topic, Nefarious: Merchant of Souls, one brothel owner in Amsterdam compared it to ordering a pizza.

Some people in society actually argue that prostitution is an issue of women’s choice or freedom of expression. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is largely about slavery, greed, manipulation, and control.

I spoke about this topic shortly after learning about human trafficking. To become more aware of this issue, you can listen to the audio of my message and read the notes. However, I would strongly urge you to watch the Nefarious documentary and check out the ministry behind the documentary Exodus Cry.

Christian Maturity

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Christian Maturity Growing up. That term can be used to mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. In this lesson I seek to uncover why it seems many Christians never make it past the most basic levels of maturity in Christ.

This is a touchy subject, because no one ever truly wants to admit their own immaturity; however, it is something that we all deal with in our walk with God, and something that we all must outgrow.

Although I’m sure many of us can observe those around us, and even our own selves if we are willing to be honest, and recognize the fact that we may not mature as quickly spiritually as we do physically. Some of us still struggle with the same things after being Christians for many years, yet others seem to grow up very quickly.

Why is this? That is the question I attempt to answer in this lesson, and I believe it begins with gaining an understanding of the beings that God created us to be.

Biblical Preparedness

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Biblical Preparedness A couple of years ago I started thinking a lot about self-reliance. You know, being able to take care of my family even if the economy takes a turn for the worse, or if the power goes out for a week, or if I lose my job. There is a lot of great information out there about practical ways to prepare for your family, and then some crazier “hollywood-ized” presentations of “prepping” that would lead you to believe that being prepared to take care of your family has to come with a conspiracy theory, or paranoia, or maybe even a little bit of craziness.

The more I studied about prepping, the more I began to be concerned with whether or not my concern was rooted in fear or a lack of trust in God. So, I began to search out this topic in scripture and found that–not only is prepping found all throughout the Bible–it is actually an act of faith to be prepared. God honors preparation.

This lesson teaches a Biblical perspective on prepping, and endeavors to give Biblical grounds for why Christians should see physical preparation for hard times as an act of faith in God to do what He has always done.

One scripture that I’ll add here that I believe is always great to meditate on when it comes to prepping would be:

Luke 12:15-21 (NIV)

15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”