onsdag 11. mai 2022

The Lord's prayer

[An updated version of this text is available at medium.com]

Once a diciple of Jesus asked the Master: Please, teach us how to pray.

They had seen Jesus pray; seen him walk away from them early in the morning, to seek the heavenly Father in private. They had also seen the religious strivers and the religious leaders, praying long and beautiful prayers. But yet, it was Jesus they asked for guidance when they wanted to learn how to pray. Why him and not the others? Because it was obvious that God were with Him, and not the others. Even the religious leaders knew that. (John 3,2)

Jesus started his answer with a warning:
"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men."

OK, nice tip. It's not about bragging. Your prayers are not for those around you. Your prayers are for God. They can corcern the onces around you, but it's not for their entertainment you pray, it would rather be for their well-being.
Jesus mentions the hypocrites. A hypocrite is one pretending to be something he is not. The title of this blog, Esse quam videri, actually means "To be, rather than to seem to be". Be real, and don't pretend. If you seek God, come as yourself, as is.


Jesus continues:
"I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full."

OK, nice tip again. If you would rather like to get your reward paid as honour from people around you, make sure people see you when you pray. But don't expect God to reward you.

Reward?
What is this talk about being rewarded anyway? Isn't that to be quite megalomanian to think God would reward you for seeking him?
The author of the letter to the Hebrews (6,11b) says:
"Anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

If you earnestly seek God, he will reward you.
"OK," you may say, "I understand this with my brain, but my heart can't get a hold on it."

Let me help you on that one. Let's read the sentence again:
"Anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists AND that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

Do you know what we can derive from this? Prepare; this fact is building faith:
Just as obviously as it is to believe that God exists when you talk to him, it is that he rewards you when you seek Him! If you believe the fact that God exists, you should also believe the fact that he will reward you when you seek him!

Jesus goes on:
"But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

Jesus states what we just learned: God will reward you.
You don't need to go into a room in a house to pray. Jesus prayed out in the open, but he went away from the others, he "closed the door" to be together with God in private. Even the houseless can have a room in this context.

Don't babble
Jesus said:
"And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

OK, we do not need to talk to God with many words if we are able to make our point with few words. It's not the words that count, and God don't count words.
Talk to him as your Father, you don't need to address him as the Creator of the Universe, King of Kings, Alpha and Omega and so forth, every time you want to talk to Him. You can say: "Father" or "Dad" or "God" or something, whatever suit you. Sometimes it's good for us to use those words, to build our faith, and to remind ourself of whom we are seeking.

You don't need to explain everything either. He is quite aware of why you are seeking him. Jesus says that he already knows what you need, even before you ask him. It's like me overhearing a conversation between my son and his buddy, planning to go to see a movie. I will then know what he will ask of me when he sticks his head in and says "Daddy?"
I would definitely be both anxious and suspicious if he came in, crawling backwards towards me, talking in a strange voice with his eyes shut: "O Mighty Father, from which I come. Oh, what am I, but dust and dirt, not worthy to be called a man..." I would definitely NOT let him go to watch a movie that day :)

Sometimes I find myself anxious to pray for God's will to happen. When I ask of something, I find myself explaining what I don't mean. It's like the short story of William Wymark Jacobs called 'The monkey´s paw'. This is what it is about (excuse me if the details are wrong): A friend of the family comes home with a dried monkey paw that grants three wishes to each person. If you hold the paw and make a wish, it will come through. But the paw doesn't care about the person making the wish, so when the Mrs in the family wishes for more money, her son is killed in an accident, and she receives a fair amount from the insurance company. And so the story continues.

God is not like this dried monkey paw. He knows what is best, and if you ask of him anything that will not be good for you, he will say "No, you will not get what you ask for, for it is not my will to give it to you. My will for you is good. Trust me on this!"
So, it is safe to say: "Let your will be done."

A last comment on this one: When Jesus tells us not to babble, he is not talking about praying in tounges. As that is the spirit helping us to pray, we can trust that we don't babble when we pray in tounges. So keep that up!

The prayer
We all know this one:
"This, then, is how you should pray:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen."


The different parts of the prayer
We have learned this prayer by heart, and we don't really need to think of what we are praying. The thing is; by doing so we end up just like the pagans, we just say the words without putting anything in it.

Our Father in heaven,

God is our Father. Jesus states this as a fact.
He could have said "Father", but he says "our Father". God is not just my God, and he is not just your God. He is OUR God.

God care for the society. That's where love can flow. How can God give me love? Through the society, i.e. other people. My family, my wife, my friends, my colleguas, through you!

God is love, and love always include. If you shut people out, you don't love.

hallowed be your name,

or "Let your name be holy, lifted above all other names,"
I used to think that this was something we just stated: Your name is holy.
Well, it is, but I can't see the point in stating so when I approach my Father. I think what this means, is more like this, in the words of Michael W Smith:
"Your name be lifted high in my life."
We are not just stating that His name is hallowed, but we ask of Him to act through our lifes so that His name continously will be hallowed.

Jesus was a miracle maker, but everything that happened was from our Father. God was hallowed through Jesus' life. He can (read: will) do the same through your life.

your kingdom come,

Jesus came with the Kingdom of God. We could talk for hours about the kingdom of God.
Let me just tell what we are asking of God here:
Let forgiveness come, let sacrifice come, let healing come, let salvation come, let mercy and grace flow, let life and freedom and life and living water run like a river. Let the powers of your kingdom come and outlive the things that are not."

your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.


It's pretty much the same as above. Let your will be done on earth... We sometimes say that there is a meaning with everything, often when something bad happens. Remember then that Jesus also said ...as it is in heaven.

Bad things don't happen in heaven. Evil things don't happen in heaven. There is no disceases in heaven. Pretty challenging prayer, this one.

God do not want bad things to happen. Some things are meaningless. But God can bring forth meaningful things even through meaningless situations. But that is not the same as God has a meaning with the bad things that happens.

You know the Phoenix? The bird that Dumbledore has in his office, and in old myths is a bird that is born in the ashes that is left of the previous Phoenix that caught fire and died. That tells me something about God. Everything seems to be gone, there is nothing left but ashes. But from the ashes of what once were, a new life is risen. For me this is how God can create something new of dead stuff. The Bible is full of those stories.

Give us today our daily bread.

This one is not as straightforward as you may think. Note the double mentioning of the day.
today - daily.
Why not just say: "Give us our daily bread."

I think God provides for this day, not for tomorrow. He will provide for the day that comes tomorrow also, but not until tomorrow, if you know what I mean. You can not save what God provides for future needs, because He provide fresh meals only.

Forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

You can't be unforgiving and yet be forgiven. If you think so, you need to read the gospels again. If you find it hard to forgive, ask God to provide. Forgive with your words, and the rest will follow. I will not talk to much about this, it's too big a topic for this little blog article.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.

I've heard one preacher saying that this first line, "lead us not into temtation", is where we ask God to promote us with caution. If He promote us more than our character can handle, we may be proud, and that is dangerous. Pride was the cardinal sin of the devil.

for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.


Whatever God uses you for, and no matter how high he puts you and promotes you, it's still his kingdom. You are not in charge, you are still a servant.

His is the power, not yours.

His is the glory, not yours.

Amen."

And all the people said: Amen!

tirsdag 16. januar 2018

iMac-skjerm blir svart, må ha brightness lavest mulig

Reset SMC og PRAM.

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3603

søndag 4. oktober 2015

Problems with partial downloads in app store on OS X

This article, http://www.cnet.com/news/fix-corrupt-mac-app-store-downloads/, gives this solution:

Open the Terminal utility (in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder) and run the following command (copy and paste it):

open $TMPDIR../C/

This will open a directory that holds various caches for applications and system services, so locate the one for the App Store, which should be a folder called "com.apple.appstore." Once found, you can either open the folder and try removing the installation package for the program itself, or simply remove the entire folder (it will be recreated when the App Store is next run).

After removing the cache or the installer within it, try running the App Store again and downloading your desired program.