Nana Porcupine: July 2009

My husband had the opportunity to lead our Porcupine Mission Worship yesterday. He spent hours preparing, he gave the message on The Lords Prayer. We have many children who come and we say the Lords Prayer every service. This was a good way to briefly go over the meaning.

This is at the very start. Our Father, who art in Heaven. He talked about us like children and how we can always turn to our true Father in Heaven in prayer. He also talked about the Triune God as the one true God. Hollowed be Thy name.

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done on earth

as it is in Heaven.

You can see the flannel graph pictures as the prayer went on

and my husband carefully explained each part.
Give us this day our daily bread;

and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us;

and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

I have enclosed a copy of the message as he had written it so if you care to read it you certainly can. We pray that God would use this message and His Word, through His Spirit to strengthen us in faith.

The Lord’s Prayer
God gives privileges to those who believe in Jesus Christ, and believe in His Death and Resurrection for their salvation. One of those privileges is prayer. God even commands and invites us to pray. He tells us whom we should pray. Who is that? It is the one and only true God; God the Father who is in heaven, God the Son, Who is in heaven and where is God the Holy Spirit. He is here on earth. Remember on the Day of Pentecost Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to earth as a helper for the Disciples, That is when fire was dancing above there heads and they started speaking in other languages. And at this time they under stood everything Jesus had taught them even how to pray. We are not to pray to idols, saints or any thing God has creates. 1 John 5:20 tells us: We are in Him who is true even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is true God and eternal life. Dear children keep yourselves from idols. Another thing to remember is God only hears prayers from those who believe in Jesus Christ.
How should we pray? We should pray for everything that tends to the glory of God and for our and our neighbor’s spiritual and bodily blessings. We should praise and thank God for who he is and for what he has done for us. In Philippians 4: 6 we are told not to be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present you request to God. And how do we present our request to God? We do it through prayer.
As little Children we are taught to pray by our parents or by a pastor or a teacher. They teach us to pray in the name of Jesus, and with faith in Him as our Savor and redeemer. We are to pray to the Father through the Son Jesus. In John 16:23: Jesus says “I tell you the truth, My Father will give what ever you ask in My name, ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. So with the help of the Holy Spirit we are to pray to God through Christ Jesus our Lord. Did you know that the Holy Spirit helps you pray? Well he does in Romans 8:26-27 Paul tells us; In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. That is why the children are with the Holy Spirit. God hears prayers of all Christians and answers them in His own way and time.
When we pray we should pray for ourselves, other people, even our enemies. However we are not to pray for those who have died. In Heb 9:27 we are told Just as man is destine to die once and after that to face the judgment. After they die there is nothing more we can do for them. We should pray everywhere and when we are alone with our families and our church. When some one is praying we should show respect by being quite and folding our hands. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:6: When you pray go into a closed room close the door and pray to our Father who is unseen. Then our Father who see what is done in secret will reward you. And remember we are to pray regularly and especially in time of trouble or need.
One day Jesus was praying and when he finished one of his disciples said; Lord teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples. And what prayer did Jesus give us to pray? It is the Lords Prayer. This is a prayer we pray every Sunday and when we Christians get together in fellowship. The prayer has an introduction, seven petitions or request, and a conclusion.
In our introduction we say; Our Father who art in heaven. With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that he is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children. God loves us and wants us to pray to Him. 2 Corinthians 6:8 God says I will be a Father to you and you will be my children says the Lord Almighty.
Next we have The First Petition is Hollowed be Thy Name. Gods name by itself is holy, we pray this petition that it may be kept holy among us also. We keep Gods name holy when we teach it in its truth and purity. In this petition we pray for exactly the same thing God demands in the second commandment: You should not misuse the name of the Lord your God but use it rightly to the praise and glory of God. We misuse Gods name when we teach contrary to God’s Word and live lives contrary to God’s Word.
The Second Petition is Thy Kingdom come. God’s kingdom would come by itself without our prayer but we pray that it may come to us also. God’s kingdom is the whole universe, the church and angles in heaven. Psalm 103: 19 says The Lord has established His throne in Heaven and rules over all. We also ask God to give us the Holy Spirit so we believe His Word and live godly lives as members of His kingdom of grace. In Isaiah we are told that God word will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
The Third Petition is Thy will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven. We are asking God that His will be done among us also. His will is done when He breaks and hinders every plan and purpose the devil, the world and our sinful nature has. Which is does not hallow Gods Name or let His kingdom come, or our belief in Jesus Christ. In John we are told that God wants everyone who looks to Jesus, and believe in him to have eternal life and He will raise them up at the last day.
The Forth Petition is; Give us this day our daily Bread. God gives bread to everyone, even to evil people, without our prayers but He wants us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. Daily Bread is anything we need to support our needs, food, drink, clothing, shoes, and a place to live, job and a Christian family and the like. We need to look to God for physical as well as spiritual blessings. God provides us with our daily bread by making the earth fruitful and blessing us with the ability to work for the things we need. God does not want us to be selfish but to share with those who are unable to work and include them in our prayers for their daily bread also. Jesus says this to teach us not to be greedy or wasteful or the worry about the future. He wants us to live contentedly in the confidence that He will provide everything we need.
In The Fifth Petition God said, Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Or for God to forgive our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. We ask that God would not look at our sins or deny our prayers because of them. We are not worthy of the things we pray for, or do we deserve them, but we ask God to give them to us by His grace. It says in 1 John 1:8-9: If we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not within us. But if we confess our sins, He who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and purify us from all uprightness.
The Sixth Petition is: And lead us not into temptation. The first thing to remember is that God tempts no one. We want God to guard and keep us safe so that the devil, the world and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame. We pray that we may finally overcome them and win the victory. James 1:13-14 says: When tempted no one should say God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil nor does He tempt any one; but each one of us is tempted when by his own evil desire is dragged away and enticed. We are to ask God to give us strength to resist and overcome these temptations. Romans 13:14 tells us to clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
The Seventh Petition: But deliver us from evil. We ask God to rescue us from every evil of the body and soul, possessions, and reputation; and finally when our last hour has come give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this life of sorrow to Jesus in heaven. We are asking God to rescue us from the devil and all evil that has come into the world because of sin. In a world ruined by sin the Lord keeps us from harm and helps us to endure the troubles that He allows come into our lives. In Acts 14:22 we are told that we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. So we want God to keep us faithful so when we die He will take us to where? Take us to Heaven to be with him there.
Last we have The Conclusion. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. This means that we can be certain that these petitions are pleasing to Our Father in heaven and are heard by him, for He has commanded us to pray in this way, and has promised to hear us.
Then we close with the word Amen which means “so shall it be” and emphasizes that God wants us to pray and that He will hear our prayers and answer them. This is God’s promise! Amen. And with that all Gods children say. AMEN

If you would like to read more, hear is a link to The Lutheran Small Catechism

http://bookofconcord.org/smallcatechism.php#lordsprayer

Large Catechism.

http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/LCMS/5_ourfather.pdf

Last week, while I was very busy in the house creating a Mission photo album for our Mission Pastor, Guess what my husband was busy with outside?

Yes, trimming things up. Our front yard had gotten a little overgrown and out of control in the last 20, 30 Years or so!

One of the prickly landscaping shrubs that he trimmed, had very yellow wood.

The yellowness surprised me and I would bet this wood or bush was at one time and maybe even now used for some medicinal purpose. Anyone have a clue?

Or even what this shrub is called?

The grown under rock garden is coming to life!

Lots and lots of clean up work! I did help with that project. 4 big garbage cans full!

Can you see it yet?

Hey! There it is, We found it! The rock! The flat top rock! This is the very rock I used about 30 years ago when I took pictures of our two cute 4 and 5 yr old, 5 and 6 year old daughters. I also took many pictures of friends children on this picturesque rock. It made a nice picture due to a beautiful birth tree just behind it!

This was the year, if any to do all the trimming, we have had much moisture and cool temps. The last 7 or 8 years have been very dry and hot,

so we hope the shrubs survive their huge hair cut!