A gentleman and a lady recently called me – from two different states – as they had discovered this website. They called me “Mr. Shields”. About the 2nd time they did, I had to stop and follow my Master’s command in Matthew 23 and said, “My name’s Philip. Since I’m a brother, I’m Philip, not “Mr. Shields”. We don’t call brothers or sisters by their last name”.There was a long pause, then a delighted chuckle.
Are we limiting what the Eternal would do?
There’s an old, lesser known story in the Scriptures about Elisha and one of the kings which has intrigued me for years. Elisha was old and about to die. Joash, one of the righteous kings of the northern ten tribes of Israel, had come to pay his last respects apparently. Elisha asked King Joash to shoot an arrow out of an east window, and then explained that arrow symbolized victory over Syria at a future battle. Now let’s read what happened.
Don’t miss God’s commands to pray about these things also.
It’s very common for ‘prayer warriors’ and children of God to have prayer lists. Why? So we can go down our check list to be sure we’re praying for everyone and everything we think we should be praying about. These would include praying for people who are mentioned on various prayer request lists we see. It’s a noble thing to be spending precious prayer time in intercessory prayer for others.We would also normally be praying the central points found in the “the Lord’s Prayer”. That too, is a good list of topics to be praying about. This would include elements of “thy Kingdom come”, praying “thy will be done on earth…” and providing for our daily physical and spiritual bread. As you continue on down that sample prayer, there are other elements, such as “forgive us our trespasses”, even as you ask for help in forgiving others. There are other points as well. So far, so good.
So many of us talk about being “children of God” or in the family of God. We say Yahweh – the Eternal God – is our Father. We call people who are of like mind, our “brothers and sisters in Christ”, or simply “brethren.”
