I’m as big an Indy fan boy as any. I grew up watching the Indiana Jones trilogy probably close to a 100 times cumulatively, about half of that during my 2 year tenure in Australia when during the cold winter, instead of studying for exams, I would be watching either Indy 1,2 or 3 on my little 15 inch monitor. When I was younger, I would write my own stories of Indiana Jones on an old school typewriter–you know, the one that you need to roll the paper in and push it back with a ‘zing’ sound and if you type too quickly, the letter stamps or whatever get tangled. When the internet came about, I’d participate in forums discussing the movies, on how Belloq was a greater villian than Mola Ram; about how annoying Willie Scott is and why was Marion Ravenwood considered the hottest female lead of all time–how many female leads looked that good in a silk dress, surrounded by flying death angels when the Ark of the Covenant was opened? And what about Short Round, that chinese boy in Temple of Doom who provided one of the best comic relief for an Indy film? I recall the scene in the jungle when he caught Indy cheating in cards and yelling, “You cheat, Dr Jones!”. Man, that was funny.

And of course, one of my most endearing childhood memories, when I was 11, and my parents took me to the old State cinema and watched The Last Crusade on big screen.

Anyways, whats the point of this post?

Well, we caught the new installment of Indiana Jones over the weekend and while I did come out a little disappointed, on further retrospect, it would be disappointing if compared to the older Indy flicks. It doesn’t have Nazis, and the Russians are not as memorable, seriously. It doesn’t have Short Round or Sean Connery. And it was just a little overdone on CGI for me.

But hey, it’s Indiana. And one thing about Indiana Jones is that it’s not a movie that takes itself seriously. Compared to the interminable babble of The Matrix and the oversized fantasy world of Star Wars, Indiana Jones is refreshing because it’s based on our world, with ridiculous stunts that just tell you, “Please don’t take this movie too seriously, folks.” And the moment he turned around in the first scene to reveal his face, exactly the same way as in Raiders, you immediately know that this was a homage of sorts to the other movies. As an Indy nerd, I can probably quote you two dozen references in the movie, but will spare you the torture =). Suffice, thinking about the movie a little, I thought, while it wasn’t as good as Crusade, and obviously Raiders, it was quite fun, much like Temple of Doom was. There were only two things in the movie that jarred me. That Mutt character doing a Tarzan is just unbelievable even in an Indiana Jones movie where everything is possible. And…

Aliens. Why did it have to be aliens?

Why Indiana Jones have permanently installed himself into the psyche of every person born during the 70s, early 80s era was the fact that every installment was a quest for spiritual answers. The Raiders was entrancing because it dealt with the Ark of the Covenant, which biblically, it did destroy the enemies of God (1 Samuel 5). Crusade was fun to watch because it also brought out the Christian–or Catholic–theme of the Holy Grail, and the quest for immortality. Of course, Temple of Doom was largely panned by critics, but I thought it was a great movie as well, since at the end, Indy was dealing with something largely spiritual, even if it was on the demonic side.

What Raiders and Crusade did was to bring out more curiosity on Biblical themes, and while I generally don’t like to tie movies in with our faith, Indy transcends movies and has become a cultural reference in our time, and has considerable influence over the themes that it deals with, even if done tongue in cheek. Which brings to the Crystal Skull themes of alien existence. While the other movies dealt with subjects that carried a little gravity of their seriousness, the whole aliens concept just reeks of George Lucas and his obsession to destroy everything we love about movies with his concept of aliens and whatever science fiction ideas he can conjure up (which are generally not good ones). I mean, come on, what did Indy get at the end of the adventure? Married to Marion?

I think if ever Indy 5 would be made, it should ditch the science fiction and go back to what made it work before: an old school worldwide chase for spiritual answers. Maybe the Garden of Eden, or the Spear of Destiny, or the Shroud of Jesus? Will Indy ever come to a realisation that searching for artifacts and treasures are simply markers for the real spiritual truth? I don’t think so, since it’s a character that embodies the spiritual curiousity of the world, that no matter what he finds–may it be the Ark or the Holy Grail, it does not change his aspiritual perspective of the world. Is he a role model for Christians? Of course not. But is he one of the best characters ever created? You bet your last cent he is.

From a Christian point of view, whatever spiritual answers that Indy seeks, we can almost see him take a wink at us on screen, as if to say, with his twisted cynical half grin and a tip of his fedora, “You already know the answers, kid.”

Continuing the study on the Lord’s prayer, the second half of it begins with

Give us today our daily bread

Bread here signifies our needs. It can be physical needs like shelter, food, protection for us and our family and loved ones; it could be social needs like friendship, restoration of relationships, career improvement; it could be emotional needs like love, removing depression and sadness; it could be spiritual needs, like the power to overcome temptation, to pursue purity. The fact that we’re asking God to provide us isn’t begging; it’s acknowledging that everything is owned by Him and it is for Him to give. In Psalm 145:15-16:

The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.

You open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

Daily here also corresponds to the words in James 4:13-15:

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”  

That is not to say that we do not plan, or have ambitions for the future, or be conscious of what’s happening in the world. James wrote this with the context of earthly and heavenly wisdom in James 3. And immediately after these words, he puts it in perspective. It applies to those who have no need for God’s guidance in their lives. It’s a matter of finding what God’s will is and planning around it, instead of opposing His will and depending on our own wisdom to plan our future. In this way, it’s ‘boasting’ and ‘bragging’, the fact that we exclude God’s purpose in our lives. Are we considering to start a family? Are we considering migration to Australia or somewhere else? While it might seem true in some ways to say you must make decisions based on your own benefits; isn’t this the earthly and demonic wisdom that is self seeking and boastful that James warns us in chapter 3? Seek first His will, and He will add all things to you.

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors

God’s love is unconditional. But He also warns us against unforgiveness. He talks in Matthew 18:21-35 about the unforgiving servant. It is when we demonstrate our compassion and forgiveness to others, and release it, that we receive forgiveness. Unconditional love, yes, but conditional forgiveness. Why conditional? The scripture says in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God’s grace is permanent. His mercy is forever. But without confession of sin, and the willingness to release bitterness, unforgiveness, the ‘if’ in that verse puts the ball in our court. We make decisions in life that either opposes or follow God. That’s why sin is our accountability. True, Jesus says, “Forgive them for they know not what they do,” when he hung on the cross. But as it is written in Hebrews, this was an intercessory prayer of Jesus; which could be read, “Forgive them, as they repent and confess their sins.” There are no other terms for forgiveness.

Likewise, forgiveness and reconciliation is related. We can only reconcile if the other party is willing. If there are unforgiveness, it’s useless to say, “Well, I’ve forgiven him, so I don’t need to meet him anymore.” The Bible also says, before bringing a sacrifice to God, be reconciled first. If the party refuses, and continues in bitterness, then we can only pray for them, as how Jesus interceded for his persecutors. But if the other party seeks reconciliation and forgiveness, then we must grant that and forgive our ‘debtors’.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one

This is a tough one to consider. The first part: “Lead us not into temptation” begs the question, is God the tempter? This is impossible, because James 1:13 to 15 clarifies this:

Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. 

The key word here is ‘drawn away’. The visualisation of ‘drawing away’ is removing oneself from something. When we walk away from God, when we walk outside his will, when we do not pray; we are like the person who came down from Jerusalem to Jericho in the Parable of the Good Samaritan; from the place of worship to a place of curse; and we expose ourselves to thieves and robbers who steal away our garments of praise. Drawn away by our OWN desires. It’s clear that temptation is two fold. One is that everyone is tempted; even Jesus. However, temptation leads to sin, if we allow it. Two, temptation is from the devil as it is said in Thess 3:5:

For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor might be in vain

and Mark 1:13

And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan
Now, why would our Father in Heaven, who knows all things, lead us into temptation? 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” God doesn’t tempt us, but He allows us to be put into situations where our faith is tested and strengthened.

So if we were to read this differently, it simply means, “Father, provide us with the means and strength to resist temptation, that will come.”. Hence the second part that says to ‘Deliver us from the evil one.”

In conclusion, the Lord’s Prayer is a framework to pray. It begins with praise and worship; then sets the direction of His will as your prayer’s objective, it then goes to petitioning for our needs, physical, spiritual, social, emotional; then it seeks forgiveness, and also intercedes for others; and ends with the need to protect us and cover us with His grace and mercy.

These ‘ingredients’ should be present in our prayers to Him.

There was this computer game I played during my uni days (and I played A LOT), where one of the heroine, a mercenary, when faced with overwhelming odds against the enemies would utter under her breath:

To old school computer gamer geeks, this was taken from the famous game: J_______ A___________

Anyways, the point is that like Raven, (the heroine’s name), some believe that uttering the the Lord’s prayer word for word would invoke some kind of spiritual aid, or angels to their side.

The Bible teaches us otherwise. Like Saul offering sacrifices, but his heart wasn’t set right before God, it doesn’t mean that if we pray those words while living in disobedience, it’s going to force God to answer us. God is far more interested in our hearts when we pray than He is in our words. Matthew 6:6-7:

“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

“And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.”

In prayer, we speak to God and tell him everything (Philippians 4:6-7), not simply recite memorized words.
It’s a pattern, an outline on how to pray. You can just imagine how new prayer is to the disciples. Before this, the people speaking to God directly would be the High Priests. The simple fishermen, the disciples would never deem themselves worthy to talk to God directly, as a friend and father, probably remembering their ancestors in the wilderness who refused to talk to God and instead pleaded Moses to intercede for them. Instead, they were raised up to pray as Jews did, not the way Jesus did. So, when they see Jesus praying, they were like, “What on earth is this? A direct line to God? This is crazy! Yet so awesome!” Notice in Luke 11:1:

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

I think the disciples were nudging each other for days to ask Jesus how was his prayer different from theirs. They finally pushed someone to the front and he probably sheepishly asked Jesus, taking care to mention that well, John taught his people how to pray as well, so this request isn’t so bizarre or rude, right?
And of course, Jesus taught them. I based the following on

http://lightofdawn.wordpress.com/2007/02/26/lords-prayer-breakdown/

Our Father in heaven
Addressing. This is a great start to the prayer, we are praying as Jesus did who called out Abba (father) to God as well. It puts it in perspective that we are children coming before a familial person; one who cares as father should. It identifies the relationship between us and God, a new relationship that the disciples were not so familiar with. At this point, they probably thought that only the holy partriarchs could address God with such familiarity.

Hallowed be your name

This recognises that as He is our father, He is also Holy. This is a form of praise to Him. So in prayers, petitions and requests come after the acknowledgement and worship of our Father.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

This is actually not as easy as it sounds. This sets the centrality of all our prayers. His will. Not ours. So, when we pray, Lord, give me that spanking new Mercedes. Or Lord, I pray that the girl that I am infatuated with will break up with her boyfriend I can go after her. Or Lord, I pray my boss will fall sick so I can extend my dateline for a work I didn’t do because I was watching football in the weekend. I mean, seriously, God’s not a genie.

But how do we know the will of God? How do we ’seek first the kingdom of God’? I think the simplification of God’s will is:

1. He has an overall will that cannot be thwarted

2. He has a will for all individuals

A good readup is found in http://www.gotquestions.org/Gods-will.html.

In fact, if we were to ask what’s God’s will in our life, it would be to love Him and love people. That includes the clown that just cut you off into your lane and nearly cause you to crash. That’s tough. But that’s love. So it’s never part of prayer when you pray for bad things to happen to anyone. That’s not prayer, that’s just being mean. I think we have all been mean at one point or another.

It also means that when we pray, we need to understand the overall direction God has for us. In James 3, it warns us that wisdom that is self seeking and envious is demonic. Likewise, self seeking and self glorifying prayers are not of God. Sure, you can say, what is self seeking? Is praying for a cheap house, or parking in One Utama on a Saturday self seeking? I believe self seeking means an overiding self interest at the expense of integrity and character, and at the expense of your testimony for God. It’s a fine line, but like what’s already said, God sees the heart when we pray and He knows if you mean it for good, or for evil.

So it’s not just a matter of sitting down and start going through a grocery list with God. Prayer requires listening, understanding and studying God’s will so we can align our prayers to it.

I’ll continue with the last part of The Lord’s Prayer in a few days!

I actually have a basic question:

Why is it called the Lord’s prayer?

True it was the Lord Jesus who said it, but it was used in teaching his disciples what and how to pray, not exactly being the prayer itself. Perhaps it should be called, The Lord’s Outline of a Prayer. Obviously, that will not fly. So let’s go right in!

The Lord’s prayer is a prayer that Jesus taught His disciples in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4. Matthew 6:9-13 reads, “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. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”

Many people mistakenly understand the Lord’s prayer to be a prayer we are supposed to pray word for word. Some people treat the Lord’s prayer as almost a magic formula, as if the words themselves have some specific power or influence with God. Some routinely begins their day with this prayer and to them, saying ‘prayers’ means the repetition of these words and that’s it. Done for the day.

I myself start the day sometimes going through the prayer, not so much as a ritual but more to prepare myself for further prayer. It’s quite common among christians that while we really enjoy the corporate stuff (like ministry, worship, jamming the guitar, getting shot on a stage production), the heavy stuff like prayer and intercession are left unattended.

The past two weeks, the cell has been focused on prayer. Face it, prayer isn’t glamorous. It’s not a ministry like worship or music, where we can exchange notes on how to sing a song, play a riff, or harmonise in parts. It’s not like production ministries where we get creative with scripts and all. It’s not like sports ministry where we do the things we like to do. In fact, for many of us (yes, us, that’s me included), prayer is exactly what we do last, because we put it off till the very end of the day. We do it just before we knock off, and sometimes, while we knock off and say ‘amen’ when the alarm rings the next morning.

But the thing about it is this: it’s the lifeline for our ministry, our walk, our relationship with God. It’s indispensable.

When we pray, things happen. And you gotta see it and believe it before it happens. In missions, I remembered praying for shade while we trekked up a mountain in the blazing heat. A patch of cloud literally followed us (I’m not kidding about this). Shading us all the way like a giant umbrella.

When we pray, God blinds the eyes of the enemies and they couldn’t find us in the Philippines mountains.

When we pray, God delivers the sick and the oppressed.

Last week, the cell did an activity, where we separated the house to several ‘Prayer Lots’. In each prayer lot, a specific prayer was listed, with a verse, or a thought and the individual assigned (randomly through numbers, but specifically through the spirit) would pray for 20-25 minutes on that specific prayer topic.

I remember praying for the traffic to clear as I left work late. It cleared.

I remember praying for 10 people, (many people had called and said they were to be absent), as I prepared 8 prayer posts, which included the kitchen and the stair case! 11 people came but one had to go off half way. I should have prayed for 20!

I remember praying for one of the topics (intercession by the Holy Spirit) to go to a cell member who was new to prayer and who wasn’t sure how or what to pray. The topic was from Romans 8:26:

“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

And amazingly, through random selection of numbers, the member got exactly that topic.

I think it’s amazing how God answers prayers. Sometimes it’s not the way you want it to be, but He knows what is best for us even when we don’t. The important point is that we need to ask God and pray for breakthrough, pray for healing, pray for the will of God to be done.

“Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” (James 4:2)

We’ll be going through a prayer series subsequently, but as an introduction, I was just sharing with a cell member, a new believer.

I can just imagine how excited God is when a person decides to follow Him. It’s like, “Wow, you wouldn’t believe what I have in store for you!”. And the thing is, the very basic of prayer, and christianity is actually a relationship with Him. Once that is established and the will of God is known and we pray according to the will of God, He is like, “OK, stand back and watch how this works, it’s gonna blow your mind!” I think He’s a creative God, and He will answer in mind blowing ways. And in this way, the new believer builds up faith.

I remember someone mentioning that when a new believer prays in faith, lots of stuff happen, because it’s the faith building phase of his spiritual walk. The more mature we get, the more we are required to seek and to ask and to knock for our prayers to be answered. We are called to eat the solids and no longer rely on just short miracles, events and ‘milk’ to build our walk on.

I’m not sure how much of that is true, but I do believe God answers prayers when prayed specifically, with faith, and according to His will. And if an answered miracle builds up faith, then, pray some more!