Sign Me Up – I’ll Campaign for Him

In my email box yesterday morning was the news that the Democrats' presidential primary debate (last night) was narrowed down to the top twelve who met the polling and fundraising criteria. Now the rest of the candidates who demanded a lot of media attention before, will be overlooked when it comes to presidential consideration this term..

Overlooked means “being unnoticed”. I know that there is someone reading this blog that feels overlooked today. Maybe it is because you aren’t outgoing and prefer it that way. Maybe you were overlooked on a job promotion or overlooked at school because you were the quiet, less-commanding-attention-one.

That’s why, in my blog yesterday and today, I’m campaigning for Jesus. There are many things I love about Him but the thing I notice and love Him for so much is He doesn't overlook anyone. He went out of His way to bring hope to the rejected and outcast. It didn’t matter what others thought. He paid attention to everyone.

Matthew 4:24 says “..and His fame went out”. The cause of His fame is seen in verse 23: “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness." When He healed a man of leprosy in Luke 5, “the report about Him went abroad” and as a result more people came to hear Jesus’ message and be healed by Him! Jesus’ fame took Him from obscurity to rock star status. It took Him from being an undiscovered talent to being the most sought after Man in the entire Holy Land, all because people were spreading the news about what He had done for them.“. He didn't even need social media!

So here I am today – actually everyday – being a reporter of His powerful work in me. He made me a survivor. Along with all those in the Bible that He didn’t overlook – He didn’t overlook me. So I MUST spotlight Him.. Has God done anything for you in the past week? Have you told anyone about what He’s done? Who will you tell? Together, we can make Jesus famous.

The first place where you and I can start is in our own little worlds. When we read the Great Commission in the gospels, we are told to make Jesus famous…to all nations and to the entire world (Acts 1:8). But the starting point is Jerusalem, the very place where the disciples are located. He says first make Me famous right where you live. The places we live, learn, work, play, shop. We can make Jesus famous by serving/loving the people around us. We can make Jesus famous through prayer. We can make Jesus famous by relying on the Holy Spirit. And we can make Jesus famous by speaking of His greatness.

Seriously, the world has its eyes on you and me. What is it about those Christians who live out love and only speak about love? Let’s make Jesus famous by consistently shining a spotlight on Him through the lives we live and the people we love.

“It is Jesus we preach, warning every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. (Colossians1:28).

He Had Me When He Said: “When You Pray….Say”

Can you imagine walking, talking, eating and laughing with Jesus day in and day out? I believe He had to lighten up and laugh with those misfits He called to be with Him 24/7 for three-and-a-half years. And, as we do with those we love, we have to tighten up when it comes to leading by the example of our "walk AND talk". They knew where His strength came from so of course, they asked: “Lord, teach us to pray.”

What would it be like to have an up-close-and-personal relationship with Jesus every minute of every hour of every day and experience even the most mundane details of life with Him? I thought about how in shock-and-awe the disciples must have been when Jesus kept surprising them with His tactical moves. He’d go where no Jew would go (to Samaria and visit with the Samaritan woman); He’d heal a blind man by spitting on mud and rubbing it in his eyes; He’d bring a dead boy back to life for his grieving widow mother. His ways were scandalous, reckless, mouth-dropping miraculous and, oh my goodness – He would forgive anyone from a woman caught in the act of adultery to “The Rock” (Peter) who denied Him three times. He kept on pointing out how to best handle situations in love.

Every aspect of Jesus' life and ministry is worthy of hours of discussion, yet it wasn't His preaching or His miracles that the disciples asked to be taught. We don't see one recorded time where they asked Him, "Teach us to preach or teach us to heal." After spending those years with the Son of God, witnessing His daily/nightly life, they asked Him, "Teach us to pray."

They wanted His prayer life. They connected the dots and knew that Jesus' public life of ministry was the result of His private life of prayer. He emphasized prayer. Luke 5:16 states, "He often withdrew and prayed." It was the very bone, marrow, and DNA of His life. Not only did He teach on prayer.....He prayed.

They watched Him pray, watched God, the Son, talk to God the Father through God, the Spirit. They saw the intimacy and the intensity that came from Him as He prayed, emptying Himself of all of His divine privileges, giving Himself fully to the Father.

My own desire is for that same intimacy with God. Intimacy comes from a tight relationship that comes from spending time with Him. It was the key to Jesus’ survival – even to death. We know that from the times we read “He went away to pray.”

I've begun to ask myself:" Is my life provoking others to say, "Teach me to pray like You do." I need to work on it, but rather than my prayer, I'll take the lead from our Master Pray-er and suggest you and I both to pray His way (Matthew 6:9-13):
"Our Father Who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen."

I believe it's time for us to interact more with heaven. This next generation desperately needs mothers and fathers to take them by the hand and introduce them to the most beautiful and glorious Person, training them in His glorious school that we never graduate from -- the School of Prayer.