Article by Dr. Les Hollon, Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church

 

From the story of the Christian movement, we discover that as we follow Christ our lives are changed in 8 distinctive ways.  We become people who live lovingly, live prayerfully, live virtuously, live boldly, live compassionately, live scripturally & evangelistically, live in community, and live faithfully 24/7.  Through this lifestyle the hungers of our life are satisfied, and the world is changed by the power of the resurrected Christ.

 

Today, let’s begin at the beginning – with prayer.

 

We hunger to live intimately with God.  Prayer enables us to know more of God and to know that we are known by God.  Prayer is communion with God.  Prayer enables us to:

 

• Walk with God

• Talk with God

• Listen to God

• Recognize God’s presence in our midst

• Enact our prayers for the benefit of others

 

With revolutionary equality, prayer is equally available to everyone, everywhere, any time.  Why?  Because God loves us equally, and equally desires for each of us to know His love.

 

There are many ways to pray.  Since we are a diverse people with 16 personality types who live in diverse circumstances, we need various ways to commune with God.  Consequently there are more than 100 ways to pray.  We can pray – with words & without words.  We can pray – early in the morning or late at night, and during all the between time.  We can pray whether we are happy or sad, glad or mad, tired or rested.  We can pray with eyes open or closed.  We can pray kneeling or standing; with hands folded, lifted high or holding a shovel.  We can pray when confused or clear. We can pray with prepared words or spontaneous expression.  We just need to pray humbly and thru the Spirit of Christ.

 

In the biblical story of two bewildered believers walking to a town called Emmaus when Jesus appears among them … They were walking away from the Jerusalem stories and scenes they did not understand.  They knew Christ had died because they had witnessed his crucifixion.  They knew he had been buried in Joseph’s tomb because they knew Joseph.  They knew that Mary, Joana, and other women disciples had said they had seen the resurrected Christ because they heard their stories.   And they learned from Peter that the absence of Jesus’ buried presence bothered him because they had seen his excited confusion.  But these two believers were bewildered because they did not know what to make of everything they knew. They realized there was more to learn, but did not know how they would come to know the missing pieces which could link it all together in a meaningful pattern.  They needed to pray as they had never prayed before. How about you?

 

Like the Emmaus story, we too can learn how to:

 

Walk alongside God by being open to His presence;

Talk with God thru conversational ease;

Listen to God with soul-tingling excitement;

Recognize God’s presence by breaking bread in His name;

Act on our prayers so God will enable us to be His way of answering other’s prayers.

 

These two disciples became God’s Easter people because of what happened to them as they prayed.  What happens to you as you pray?  Through prayer you can open yourself to God’s prayerful message for you.

 

Let’s walk with Christ to Emmaus,

Pastor Les

 

“When he was at the table with the, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.  Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.  They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” 

Luke 24: 30-32

 

This article was written by Les Hollon, Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church.  For more information about God and your place in His world, contact Dr. Hollon, click over to Trinity Baptist Church.

 

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