Prayer of Thanks for a 70 Year Old Dad

Father God

Thank you for  my Dad.  Thanks for the gift on his 70th birthday of an amazing man who brought me up, by your grace, in the Word of God.  A man who showed me prayer as a life, showed me a love for the lost and demonstrated how to reach out to people and have fun. 

Thank you for showing me Your patience through His patience.  Thank You for showing me Your passion for people's transformed lives through Dad's passion for people. Thank You that Dad is "all in" and that you, Jesus, are His magnificent obsession. 

Thank You that He showed me what it was like to be crazy about one woman and how he was a father to the fatherless around him and cared for the widows of this war weary world.  Thank You for 70 years of football and french fries and movies and for his Emeril inspired cooking and how he showed us what it was like to be a man who helped with cleaning.  Thank You for his generosity.

Thank You that You brought him through that heart attack and the subsequent bypass surgery so we could have him here with us for more years.  Thank You that he doesn't mind when I call for advice and that when my youthful arrogance surfaces his patiently waits and says nothing while I sort it out that I am an idiot.  And then that he has always been there to pick me up and tend to my self-inflicted wounds after I ran into the wall of truth.

Thank You for passing on his strengths and weaknesses to me.  That impulsiveness and spontaneous joy and intense emotion that propels us into leaps of faith and overnight trips to Edmonton to watch live football games after purchasing cheap tickets.  Thank You for the same literal Achilles tendon that aches while I play basketball like his does.  Thank You that in that weakness and all of the hundreds of others that You show up in Your strength and prove Yourself faithful and full of grace.

Thank You for showing me what grace and mercy look like.  When I wrecked his car he gave me $100 to go to a Bible Camp.  He didn't punish me when I deserved it because he knew that You didn't punish us when we deserved it but instead Your Son Jesus took the justice for the whole thing on the cross. 

Thank You for a Dad who is full of grace and truth.  A man who isn't afraid to speak the truth in love with boldness and a confidence that is fueled by the scripture rambling through his veins.  Thank You that he, at 70, is gonna use the years that remain on Earth to try and change lives when He could be spending time doing useless stuff.

May I, like Dad, make it to 70 without shipwrecking my marriage and my reputation.  Help me to be as wary of the devil's subtle schemes as Dad is.  Help me to remember to put on my armor every morning through prayer and enter the battle field swinging that Sword of the Spirit and bracing myself behind that Shield of Faith.

LORD and God, I come today with gratitude and love for You, Father God because You have saved me.  Bless Dad with a double portion of Your Spirit this year ahead to be able to lead many to Christ and I pray for that same heart in me.

It's all Because of Jesus,

AMEN

What Jesus Would Say Over Pumpkin Pie

This is the time of year when the temperature drops to below half of what it was in the summer around here, there is a little more need for comforts like hot beverages and sweaters and blankets and good hot meals with comfort food. None are so satisfying as meals like thanksgiving and a piece of your favorite pie and a good cup of coffee with a friend.

In my adult life I have come to believe that every time I participate in something like a great meal with people I love or a good cup of coffee and a piece of pie with someone who loves me back that all of it is there because there is someone else who loves us all and gives us these good things because He is good. Whenever I look at the setting sun or enjoy a walk or a talk I know that He is there too and He is saying "I love you" with that good gift. When you see a shooting star or a rainbow or hear a great piece of music He is there speaking through it and telling you that you were made for more than what's in front of you.

As the temperature in the world drops, and we see from the news that things are getting colder, we need some comfort food today for the soul.

Jesus predicted in Matthew chapter 24 that the love of many would grow cold and men would fall away from what is right. While we Christ followers are not callous to the news we are not surprised because He said that all of the dark headlines around us would happen.

And I was thinking about today and praying about it and I wondered what would Jesus say over pumpkin pie this year. And the Words of Jesus from John 14 popped into my conscious mind and I knew I had my answer. 

"Take Your eyes off the News."

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and so trust in me. I Am here. I am God revealed in the flesh. I am God in human skin. I have walked where you walk. I have held the hand of the hurting and I have confronted death and walked through it all the way to its defeat. I beat it. I am stronger. For I am Love itself. 

When everything is ready I will appear and you will see me with your own eyes and your faith, though right now it may be small, will be made sight. Your leap of faith into the mysteries of life will end up with you safely landing in my unbreakable hands and unfailing love. Everyone who wants a place in an eternal, never-ending life will find it in me.

And the way to this indestructible life has always been right in front of you.

I AM the WAY when you don't know the way.

I AM the TRUTH you've been looking for. 

I AM THE LIFE.

I Am even the LIFE that will one day permanently defeat death. I AM the LIFE that will put in You the undying life of God and save You from the futile efforts of a failing world. 

I AM THE ROCK that you can build Your life on that will house you safely from the storms and the earthquakes and the ultimate shaking that will happen to this world when the bad is finally beaten out of this planet for good like the dust off an old carpet. When I burn away the impurities from this world in my fire of righteousness when I return you will remain unscathed. 

You've been wondering where God is in the middle of world gone cold and dark. And today I am telling You that I AM here walking with the hurting. I AM shining through the lives of people all around you who run into the path of death and risk their lives to offer hands that heal and I am in the arms of an unconditional hug. 

 
And in the Words of Amena Brown:

HE IS HERE

He is here - He’s right here - In this room, in your heart

He is near - Nearer than breath, heartbeat - Nearer than you are to you

Closer than second chance, or next opportunity - Closer than tonight or yesterday

He is real - More real than touch, see, hear, smell, or taste

More real than reality—he is our reality

More real than joy, pain, sorrow, or the love of being in love

He is present - Like space, wind, time, silence, night

He is waiting - Like creation, like words on the tip of tongue

Like songs that have yet to be sung

He is beauty - In oranges, blues, every hue, every shade - Sunset and sunrise whisper his name

He is holy - Cannot be touched, explained - Like sweet seconds of prayer

like grandmother on knees, wood floor bare

He is old hymns - The extending of limbs stretched across trees

Stripes to heal disease

He is Son - Distinctly three, distinctly one

The only one, the only wise, the only resurrector of lives

He is king - And no earthly throne can house him

No amount of elegant words can espouse him - He is moment and voice, power of choice

In word and deed, in fruit and seed - Nailed hands, nailed feet - Innocent wounds that bleed

He is belief - He is all, he is call and purpose

Everything we can sacrifice—he’s worth it and more, much more

Our good deeds are mere pennies, will never even the score

He is behold and wow - He is who, what, when, why, how

He’s the one who puts on the show - He’s the one that we come to see

He is soul’s cry and sinner’s plea - He is the epitome that no one light a candle to

Or come within a million foot pole of

He is above - He is a father’s love

Maker of ways, of earth and wind, Ancient of Days

Have no fear, have no fear, have no fear

Our God is here