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<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Prayer Does Not Need Proof</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Prayer does not need proof outside itself because its
proofs are within. It is in the nature and function of man, like breathing,
eating and drinking, and he practices it as part of his very being.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Samuel Johnson</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">__________</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">A People of Prayer</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">I know of a pastor who regularly uses his church
directory to pray for the members by name. Although he didn't say it, my guess
is that his prayers do much to change him and his relationship to those
members.<BR><BR>Within the gospel of Luke, there is abundant encouragement to
pray. There are examples of Jesus' praying - if he needed to pray, how much more
do we? If nothing else, during the period when we are waiting for the kingdom to
come, we are to be people of prayer.<BR><BR>Brian Stoffregen, Exegetical
Notes<BR>___________________________________<BR><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">And Then Some</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">James Byrnes, who was Secretary of State under FDR, said
that the difference between successful people and average people can be summed
up in three words. Here are the three words, "and then some." He said, "Average
people do what is expected. Successful people do what is expected, and then
some." Our widow did what was expected, and then some.<BR><BR>John Wayne Clarke,
Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost (Last Third): Father, Forgive Them, CSS
Publishing Company,
Inc.<BR>_______________________________________<BR><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">God Knows What I Need</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">A little boy knelt down to say his bedtime prayers. His
parents heard him reciting the alphabet in very reverent tones. When asked what
he was doing, he replied, "I'm saying my prayers, but I cannot think of the
exact words tonight. So, I'm just saying all the letters. God knows what I need,
and he'll put all the words together for me."<BR><BR>Now, that is not far from a
proper way to pray! In seeking prayer we are looking for Christ's mind. We are
not sure quite how to word our prayer. So we ask God to take our words and fit
them into the correct prayer. We ask him to edit our prayers by cutting out the
unnecessary, making corrections, and adding the necessities. We ask God to take
our minds and make them his. We ask the Holy Spirit to pray through us. And when
we seek in prayer like that, Jesus assures us in the text, we shall
find.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Stephen M. Crotts, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost:
Music from another Room, CSS Publishing Company </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">_____________________</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Let Us Pray</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">When the late composer Leonard Bernstein was composing
his famous contemporary Mass —his rock, blues and jazz Mass—he said that he
wanted it to be “an honest Mass.” What he meant was that he wanted the words and
music of this Mass, this worship service, to ring true even to people who didn't
see themselves as particularly religious, or churchy.<BR><BR>Well, as such, he
knew that the most demanding moment in the Mass would not be “Credo,” “I
believe.” Most people out there believe in the culture, at least believe
vaguely, in God. The most demanding moment would not be Credo. It would be
Oremus, “Let us pray.” Because to pray, to talk to God, we cannot hedge our bets
about God, we have to move beyond vagueness and enter into a relationship with
God.<BR><BR>Sure enough, in Bernstein's Mass, when it comes time to pray, a
chorus begins to intone a traditional prayer of confession, but then a lone
tenor voice soars up above the others to sing:<BR><BR>If I could, I'd
confess.<BR>Good and loud, nice and slow<BR>Get this load off my chest<BR>Yes,
but how Lord, I don't know.<BR><BR>What I say, I don't feel<BR>What I feel, I
don't show<BR>What I show, isn't real<BR>What is real, Lord?<BR>I don't
know.<BR>No, no, no, I don't know.<BR><BR>According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus
told his disciples a parable because they were having problems with prayer. Now
Leonard Bernstein may have assumed that only contemporary, and non-religious
people would have problems with prayer, but Jesus knew better. We all have
problems with prayer.<BR><BR>Thomas Long, Praying Without Losing Heart
<BR>______________________________________<BR><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">God's Timetable Not Ours</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">I heard a story which illustrates how we often confuse
God's timing with ours. A country newspaper had been running a series of
articles on the value of church attendance. One day, a letter to the editor was
received in the newspaper office. It read, "Print this if you dare. I have been
trying an experiment. I have a field of corn which I plowed on Sunday. I planted
it on Sunday. I did all the cultivating on Sunday. I gathered the harvest on
Sunday and hauled it to my barn on Sunday. I find that my harvest this October
is just as great as any of my neighbors' who went to church on Sunday. So where
was God all this time?" The editor printed the letter, but added his reply at
the bottom. "Your mistake was in thinking that God always settles his accounts
in October."</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">That's often our mistake as well, isn't it -- thinking
that God should act when and how we want him to act, according to our timetable
rather than his. The fact that our vision is limited, finite, unable to see the
end from the beginning, somehow escapes our mind. So we complain; we get
frustrated; we accuse God of being indifferent to us; we do not live by
faith.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Larry R. Kalajainen, Extraordinary Faith for Ordinary
Time, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">_____________________</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">If You Just Hold Up Your Head</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">In a Peanut’s cartoon Lucy encourages Charlie Brown:
"Look at it this way, Charlie Brown," she consoles. "These are your bitter days.
These are the days of your hardship and struggle ..." The next frame goes on:
"... but if you just hold your head up high and keep on fighting, you'll
triumph!" "Gee, do you really think so, Lucy?" Charlie asks. As she walks away
Lucy says: "Frankly, no!"</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Hope is like that. We speak of it more often than we
believe in it. Hope is not a strong word for us. It has more to do with
"wishing" than "expecting." It has the sound of resignation, an inability to
bring about, influence, or even believe that a desired event or goal might ever
come to be.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Theodore F. Schneider, Until the King Comes, CSS
Publishing Company </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">______________________</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Parable of the Crazy Old Lady</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Frankly, don't we wish that Jesus had told this parable
in a little different way. Couldn't he have gotten the same point across if He
had told it something like this:</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Verily, verily I tell you that once upon a time there
was a good lady who lived next door to an atheist. Everyday, when the lady
prayed, the atheist guy could hear her. He thought to himself, "She sure is
crazy, praying all the time like that. Doesn't she know there is no GOD!" Many
times while she was praying, he would go to her house and harass her, saying,
"Lady, why do you pray all the time? Don't you know there is no GOD!" But she
kept on praying.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">One day, she ran out of groceries. As usual, she was
praying to the Lord explaining her situation and thanking Him for what He was
going to do. As usual, the atheist heard her praying and thought to himself,
"Humph...I'll fix her…</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The conclusion to this illustration and for many
additional illustrations and sermons for the Proper 24 can be accessed at <A
href="http://www.sermons.com/"><FONT color=#ff6600>www.Sermons.com</FONT></A>.
</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Please visit <A href="http://www.eSermons.com/"><FONT
color=#0000ff>http://www.eSermons.com/</FONT></A></SPAN></DIV>
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