The Publican and Pharisee...According to Walt Disney

I remember while driving home from Montana some friends and I watched Walt Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (no, football fans, I'm not talking about the Fightn Irish) on a laptop. The whole time I kept thinking, "This is a Disney movie?" We spent the rest of the trip duiscussing the implications of film. Granted, it's hardly a perfectly theologically spot-on production, but there were some very interesting themes. For starters,in the end Notre Dame - which throughout the film symbolized the presence of God - sided with the humble and not the proud, hypocritical elite.

While niether song portrays this perfectly, I found striking contrast the prayer of the outcast...



...and the prayer of the legalist...

8 Benefits of Vulnerability

Ever feel vulnerable and weak like you don't have control over their circumstances? Here are eight blessings to such a state:

1. That sweet feeling of being a feeble child in your Daddy's arms

2. The blessings of walking by faith.

3. The blessed realization that strengths comes from God and not ourselves.

4. The liberating understanding that victory is not contingent on my outstanding preformance.

5. The hunger to seek God in prayer.

6. The deeper appreciation of simple things.

7. The comfort of knowing God is in control.

8. The sharpening of the spiritual senses.

I'll Have the Stone with a Side of Serpent

Do you ever have one of those weeks where it's almost feels like the Holy Spirit just got tired of dropping subtle hints and decided to bring out the big guns? Well, this has been one of those weeks for me. There's a particular issue that's real been driven home to me lately.

This issue keeps popping up in my devotions, in my reading, in sermons and random videos I run into. Basically, I've been convicted about the fact that my actions doesn't complete match the God I claim to serve. I believe God to be omnipotent, sovereign and almighty. I also believe Him to be kind, generous and benevolent. Yet, it's recently occurred to me that my prayers don't match my beliefs.

Jesus said something very astonishing. In fact, His statement is so earth-shattering that many preachers spend most their time trying to look for the fine print. Christ said,

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" (Matthew 7:7-11)

This is an awesome claim. It describes a generous Father who delights in giving good things to His children. But then I realized something tragic. I have a tendency to ask for serpents and stones because I trust God to handle those. Maybe if I'm feeling really spiritual I'll ask for a Ritz cracker or a little goldfish. But nothing too "ridiculous". After all, I don't want to ask too much from God.

I seem to only ask God for things that I'm pretty well convinced He would do anyway. Rarely will I pray for things that could only happen if God did them. I've realized that I need to make my prayers God-sized. I mean, if I really believe that God is so big and so generous, why don't my prayers match His character? So, why shouldn't I ask for more Christ-likeness? Why should I ask for greater things for my church and family? Why shouldn’t I plead more earnestly for people's souls?

The sad thing is that I just know my Daddy's so very eager to give good things. Isn't that what the passage says? Because God is infinitely powerful and infinitely generous, we can never exhaust the riches of His gifts. There’s nothing I could ask for that is outside of my Father’s limits to give. Oh, that our prayers would better reflect the greatness of our God!

Granted, this doesn't mean that He'll give us anything we want, but He will always give us what's best. Another problem is that we're so carnally minded that we sometimes can't recognize bread when we see it. We ask for serpents and then get upset when He gives us fish.

But my point is that we should be bolder in asking our Daddy for good things. Why should we hesitate to ask for things that only He can give? As Jesus said, even earthly fathers are diligent to give their children the very best that they can. Our Daddy delights giving us good things. Let’s purpose to give Him the delight of hearing us ask for God-size gifts.

Polls, Pawlenty, Perry and Prayer

Okay, so today I'm going to do something that I said I would never do on here. Ramble. I really don't want to write something just for the sake of writing something. If I'm going to take the time to write a blog post I want it to be because I actually have something do say...except for today.

You see, yesterday I went to the Ames Straw Poll. It was my first time to go and I had a fun talking with people, meeting candidates and getting to be very "political". Therefore, I have a bunch of random thoughts concerning the poll that I shall now subject you to. [insert evil laugh]

1. I personally the whole thing is over done. As far as I know, George W. Bush is the only one to ever win the Straw Poll and the nomination. Why? Because the only people who come to it are generally conservative, evangelical diehards. So does it matter? Well, yes and no. No, in that it's not a good indicator of how one will do in the caucus or general election. Yes, because if a conservative candidate can't do well in the Straw Poll with his/her own base, there's no way they will do well in the general election. Case-in-point: Pawlenty dropped out after finishing third.

2. Speaking of which, I'm a bit disappointed to see Pawlenty drop out. While he didn't get my vote, I'd prefer him to a lot of the other guys.

3. I really don't get the buzz about Michele Bauchmann. Sorry.

4. I'm glad to see Rick Santorum do better than expected. While I rather doubt he'll win, I appreciate that he's keeping some important issues from being overlooked.

5. Ron Paul can only win fake polls.

6. Thaddeus McCotter got 35 votes. Can you say, 'epic fail'? Plus, he looks like a James Bond villain.

7. Rick Perry's well positioned. As a write-in, he still finished with a solid sixth. I think the nomination will come down to him and Romney.

8. Every time I get into one of my 'political moods' I have a tendency to become a bit pessimistic. Then I remember that I serve the President of presidents. "The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will." (Proverbs 21:1 ESV) Please join me in praying that our Sovereign would put a God-fearing man in the Oval Office. But more than that, that He might use this election to draw our nation back to Himself.