Dog prayer

Recently I am seeing and hearing this prayer a lot. “Lord, help me to be the kind of person my dog thinks I am.” I see stickers of this in cars. Today I heard a Christian Radio channel asking people to like a Facebook page on this prayer. I want to know what other Christians think about this prayer. It originated from a sermon given in a Unitarian Church. The following link explains the sermon -http://www.orlandouu.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1943&Itemid=165

I personally feel that this prayer is very insulting to Lord. God wants us to be like his Son Jesus Christ. Why in the world would I care about what a Dog thinks about me and want to become like it.

I agree, Sree.

There is another trend that alarms me - that is that of people's affection for dogs that equals to one's reserved for humans.

You have people devoted to rescuing dogs from whatever abuse they think it suffers. Recently one of my friends on FB posted a pic of a chow dog sitting on a snow-covered doorstep. To her this was abuse! Hey! This teddy-bear of a dog was very comfortable with this cold and snow. I also learned last night from a man whose sister is famous in animal rescue that it is a felony in MS to kill a dog!!!

(I love dogs but they are an animal, not a human! I also think a Christian should not abuse an animal, but if killing one to do it humanely, not torture it to death.)

Anyhow, go figure....

There is, it seems, a trend toward the philosophy that Christianity can be boiled down to,"being a good person." It is interesting to me that the quote was taken from a Unitarian Church, but I have noticed this attitude even among those who attend mainline Christian denominations. The distinction may be subtle to some, but it is monumental. Doing good things or being a good person does not make one righteous. Being righteous will bear the fruit of good works. I think it was C.S. Lewis who said something to the effect that if an unrighteous person does what he thinks are good deeds, they are really unrighteous deeds for the originate from a heart of evil. It is almost as if people are under the deception that, at the end of all things, their deeds will be weighed, good vs. evil, and that the side on which the balance falls will determine their destiny. Yet we know that is not he case.

I would look for this deception to increase as the return of the Lord nears. We need, more than ever, to walk close to the Lord and allow His love and His truth to flow out of us. Our society, in America, is becoming more and more a post-Christian society. An ever increasing proportion of our society had never heard the truth, and so they latch onto whatever sounds plausible in their own minds.

Quote: There is, it seems, a trend toward the philosophy that Christianity can be boiled down to,"being a good person."

The flesh is capable of doing both good and evil…

Quote: The distinction may be subtle to some, but it is monumental. Doing good things or being a good person does not make one righteous. Being righteous will bear the fruit of good works.

It is vey subtle you can be born of the spirit but live and walk by the power of flesh in the Christian life.

The flesh will fight for the faith ‘like’ the reformers and preach salvation by grace, and gain strength by its efforts. The flesh seems to strengthen in religion and is lives unchallenged in the Church…

The flesh is capable of doing both good and evil…

What I meant by this is, when viewed through the eyes of man, the flesh can to both good and evil. We might look at a person who is not born again who feeds the hungry and say that they did a good work. But from an eternal perspective, that person will not be made righteous by this "good" work. So this good work was not really "good" in an eternal sense but simply charitable or positive in a fleshly sense as it had no eternal value or weight. Yet, when a man who is born again, motivated by the love of God flowing from him feeds the hungry, that good work does have eternal value, since we know that born again believers will have their works judged.

It is vey subtle you can be born of the spirit but live and walk by the power of flesh in the Christian life.

The flesh will fight for the faith ‘like’ the reformers and preach salvation by grace, and gain strength by its efforts. The flesh seems to strengthen in religion and is lives unchallenged in the Church…

Absoulutely. I know of, and have at times been, and still find areas of my life where I, as a born again man, walk by the power of the flesh. Oh that my flesh could be totally dealt with and that I could always walk in the Spirit. But Christ has not returned and my salvation that is complete in my Spirit is not yet complete in regards to the soul and physical body.

I am not sure what you mean by the flesh preaching salvation by grace and gaining strength by its efforts. But religion does cater strongly to the flesh. In fact, what we often think of as religion in a negative sense (the form and trappings devoid of the Spirit and life) is a product of man trying, by his own efforts, to be acceptable to God. It is man trying to obtain spiritual ends through fleshly means. And, unfortunately, we do see a lot of this in the modern church, especially in the free world where persecution is not so great.

Quote: I am not sure what you mean by the flesh preaching salvation by grace and gaining strength by its efforts.

You got it at the end of your post "It is man trying to obtain spiritual ends through fleshly means. And, unfortunately, we do see a lot of this in the modern church, especially in the free world where persecution is not so great"