S1:E15 – Quieting The Magic Words – Listening For The Tune скачать в хорошем качестве

S1:E15 – Quieting The Magic Words – Listening For The Tune

Quieting Magic Words, Listening for the Tune by Matthew Clark | One Thousand Words https://www.matthewclark.net/mcwordpr...   “It’s not magic words,” he said. “It’s not a phrase that you say at the end of your prayer that somehow gives the prayer power or makes God do something.”   “Right,” I said, “that’s why you’ve got the first commandment: no other gods, and then a whole separate second commandment against idolatry.”     “Yes, idolatry is about procedures, special words, or actions that we use to try to manipulate God. At Sinai, for instance, God is saying he’s the only real God, manipulation doesn’t work on him, and that you don’t need to manipulate him, because he’s already committed to doing what’s good for you. That was totally new for a bunch of people raised under paganism. Paganism is all about having to do the rain dance just right so that you can obligate the gods to do stuff for you. Beside just being a lie, it’s exhausting. God is opening up a way out of that misery – they can’t manipulate him, and he’s good so they don’t need to.”     “Ok, so, when we say ‘in Jesus’s name’ at the end of prayer, it’s not magic words.” I said.   “That’s right. It doesn’t give us power over God. It just a way of saying, ‘here’s my prayer, answer it according to your story.’”   “What do you mean ‘according to your story’?”     “Well, think of the way that you edit a story that you might be writing. You decide what to keep or leave out depending on its relevance to what you’re trying to say through the narrative, right? Do you remember learning about topic sentences in Jr. High English? The topic sentence sets up your editing principle. You decide what to keep in your story or essay, by the degree to which it can connect back and support your topic sentence.”   “I do remember that, even though I fell asleep a lot in English class. In fact, one time, I woke up and the whole classroom was empty and the lights were off; everyone, including the teacher, had left for lunch without waking me.”     “And look how well you’ve turned out?”   “I know, right?”     “So, “in Jesus’s name” is kind of like asking God to provide your topic sentence. And the topic sentence is the story revealed by God in the Scriptures and especially in Jesus.”     “Interesting, so, in a way Jesus himself does this when he’s tempted in the desert, or at Gethsemane. Some desire or opportunity or alternate choice comes along and he holds it up to the story God is telling to see whether it fits. The temptations don’t fit, so they get edited out or rejected. In Gethsemane, he kind of says, “if there’s some way to keep from drinking this cup that’s still in keeping with the story you’re telling, let me know – but I don’t want to tell any other story than the one you’re telling, Father.”     “Yeah, that’s the idea. If something I’m praying doesn’t line up with what you’re about, Lord, answer my prayer accordingly. Or another way of thinking about it might be that when I say “In Jesus’s name” I’m saying ‘if this is something Jesus is praying for too, then that’s what I want to be about.’”   “Because when we pray we’re entering into a conversation that God is already having within the Trinity.” I said.   “Yes, when we pray we’re participating in whatever God is already doing. We’re being invited into the Life of the Trinity. That’s why prayer changes us, because through prayer we are shaped for participation and we learn ways that we can be a part of telling the story,” he said.     “That reminds me of a time when I had two flat tires in the middle of Kansas. I posted a video online and asked people to pray, and within a few hours some friends sent enough money to cover the tow truck, two new tires, and all the repairs. It was incredible!”     “Yes! What happened was that those friends joined God’s conversation about your situation and were given an opportunity to go do with God what he wanted to do for you. And little more of the story got told. When we pray we’re asking God to make a place for us in whatever he’s doing.”   “Right, and if we’re praying for something that he’s not doing, or we aren’t sure, we practice submitting to the story he’s telling, by saying, ‘in Jesus’s name’.”     “Yeah, I think that’s a way of putting it.”     “Another way of putting it could be in musical terms.”     “That’s interesting.”     “Yeah, Lewis says at the beginning of Mere Christianity that all of our desires are like keys on a piano. The keys or notes aren’t right or wrong in themselves – it’s all about context. Any key, any human desire, could be right or wrong depending on the song the composer is trying to play. The way you know what notes to play, is by learning the tune.”     “So wh...