[Faith-talk] FW: [thefamilyoffaith] "Leave Your Garbage at the Door" - Ron Hutchcraft Ministries

[Eric Calhoun]

Original Message: 
From: "thefamilyoffaith" <TheFamilyofFaith at tampabay.rr.com>
To: <thefamilyoffaith at yahoogroups.com>,
<INTERCESSORS-ALLNATIONS at yahoogroups.com>,
<dfpprayerwarriors at suddenlink.net>, <unitedprayermail at aol.com>,
<CcHhEeSsTtEeRr at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [thefamilyoffaith] "Leave Your Garbage at the Door" - Ron
Hutchcraft Ministries
Date: 
Sat, 21 Apr 2012 08:48:53 -0400

Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - A Word With You



     
        
     
     

     
              
            Leave Your Garbage at the Door 
            Saturday, April 21, 2012

            The passenger across the aisle from me wasn't very happy. He
was complaining to his seat mate on the plane about everything and
complaining with a lot of profanity inserted, oh I'd say maybe like every
third word. The man next to him was mostly listening as this shall we say
colorfully spoken speaker cussed out his favorite baseball team, then the
service on the plane and the clients he was working with.

            In fact, I thought he might be religious from the number of
times he mentioned the Lord, but well it wasn't really in the right
context. He stopped to ask - more like demand I guess - a coffee refill
from the flight attendant. And then as the attendant left, he said to his
fellow passenger, "By the way, what do you do?" He was going to finally
give him a chance to speak. What do you know? And his fellow passenger
said, "Oh, I'm a minister."

            Well, the expression on that man's face was a priceless
combination of surprise and embarrassment, but he bounced back pretty
quickly. The flight attendant returned right at that moment with his
coffee, and this man said with an angelic smile, "God bless you!" Well, it
was pretty put on, but it illustrated how quickly we change when we think
we're in holy company.

            I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today
about "Leave Your Garbage at the Door."

            Our word for today from the Word of God, well, it gives us
familiar words from Matthew 6:9, reading out of the NIV. "This then is how
you should pray, 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name. Your kingdom
come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our
daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our
debtors.'"

            Now, you notice here that Jesus, in teaching us to pray, says
that the point of entry into prayer is to say to God, "hallowed is Your
Name." Hallowed is not an everyday idea to us; probably you've not heard
anybody talk about hallowed things today. I looked it up in the Greek
language that the Bible was written in, and the word hallowed is "hagiaso"
in the Greek. It's used for objects that were reserved for sacred purposes
in the Bible. For example, let's say there was a lamp that they designated
just to be used in the temple, just for sacred ceremonies, only for holy
purposes. That was hagiaso.

            Whatever is hagiasoed (is that a word?) is elevated; it's
treated with reverence. It's treated as if it's highly special. So,
basically, we're supposed to begin praying by recognizing the specialness
of God like this, "Father, there's no one in your category. There's no one
like you, and I really am in the presence of absolute purity." Prayer
begins by recognizing who you're talking to, not what you're asking for.
And people clean up their act just because there's a minister around, like
the guy on the plane.

            Well, what about when you're in God's presence? You can't
realize who God is without cleaning up your act. The first order of
business is to go back over the last 24 hours in your prayer and expose
those places where you've disappointed God; where you've disobeyed Him and
confess it. Express your sadness over that sin.

            All through the Bible we see this. In Nehemiah 1, his great
prayer, he says, "Oh, great and awesome God, I confess our sins." Daniel 9
- another great prayer - he says, "Oh, great and awesome God, we have
sinned." This prayer says, "hallowed be Your Name." And then very shortly
after that it says, "Forgive us."

            Maybe your prayers have become a little flat and powerless.
Maybe there's a request without repentance, and there's praise without
purity. See, we need to be saying to God, "Father, I know I'm in holy
company. I can't be around You with this garbage."

            You have an open invitation to God's Throne Room to call the
King, your Father. But before you rush to petition the King, please leave
your garbage at the door.
           
     
     

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

     

 








            Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc. · PO Box 400 · Harrison,
Arkansas 72601