Kingdom of Heaven

My favorite quote from the movie, Kingdom of Heaven is from the Hospitaller:

" I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of god. Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. What god desires is here [points to head] and here [points to heart] and by what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man. Or not."

And the ending title slide (the writing that comes up at the end of the movie before the credits) is pretty profound:

"The King, Richard the Lionheart, went on to the Holy Land and crusaded for three years. His struggle to regain Jerusalem ended in an uneasy truce with Saladin. Nearly a thousand years later, peace in the Kingdom of Heaven remains elusive."

My God's Kingdom come and His will be done -

on earth
in my family
in my church
in me

as it is in Heaven.

"Help!" Is On the Way.

"He will send down help from Heaven to save me because of his love." - Psalm 57:3b (LB)

I ran across a great quote from Jim Cymbala's Book, Breakthrough Prayer. It was fortuitous that I read it this morning. The day ahead of me seemed bigger than me and I was feeling overwhelmed. Really? You think? Everyday is bigger than me. Each problem itself isn't always, but the cumulative effect of them all looming on the horizon like an approaching wildfire is sometimes paralyzing with fear. On Monday I was feeling the weight of caring for my father when I received these words from my buddy Matt Waldron who was in the Amazon with his dad:

Joel,

I'm at an Internet cafe in Leticia, Colombia (on the Amazon) and just got an email from Laura about your dad. I know that is a difficult time for you but wanted you to know that I was thinking about you and that someone was offering up prayers for you on your dad from the Amazon basin.

Because He has overcome, we will overcome.

Matt

Think about that last line. Praise God! Praise God! Praise God!

So I'm reading this morning when I ran across these words of challenge and hope:

"Such times of trial and difficulty remind us of [the great challenge] regarding the prayer of faith. The first challenge is to believe that no situation, however evil or entrenched, is beyond the scope of prayer. In theory, we know that God can do anything, but many of us fail to trust him when it comes time to pray for specific people or situations. Instead of looking to the Lord for help, we keep our eyes on the problem, which grows bigger the longer we gaze at it. We don't pray seriously about such problems because they just seem too big, too hard, or too complex for prayer to resolve." - Jim Cymbala, Breakthrough Prayer

Read your blogs.
Post your comments.
Do your day.
But don't forget to pray.
In fact, I challenge you to stop right now and just pray.

Pray.

Climb up in Daddy's lap.
Approach your King.
Storm the Gates of Heaven.
Have a little talk with Jesus.
Meet with your Maker.

Just Pray.