I had been in and out of prayer this morning. Then I was Given this to think about.
Humans are made up of the physical and the spiritual. The physical part we can readily see. The spiritual we can only see manifestations thereof.
So where, exactly, is the spiritual located inside the human body? The heart? The brain? I couldn’t figure it out.
My best guess is that the spiritual in a human body is where the “brain bone” is connected to the “heart bone.”
INTRODUCTION
Paul's admonition to Timothy is still appropriate.
“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”
In my next few blogs I want to share with you with you some foundations, preparations, and suggestions for improving biblical preaching.
I am including them here in my Thinking In The Spirit blog because I don't want to start a new Blog for something that will be short term. I believe I have some things to share with you. And I pray that God will bless your ministry through them.
FOUNDATION
The first thing you need to settle is why you are preaching. You need to ask yourself several questions here. It may benefit you greatly to ask yourself these questions even if you have your sermon together for this Sunday.
Have you been born again? In John 3:3 Jesus said you cannot even see the kingdom of God if you have not been born again. A call to preach must be linked in your mind to the calling to be a child of God.
Do you have a vital relationship with Jesus Christ? If you are not in tune with Him, you will not touch lives. In Matthew 23:8-10 Jesus said.
“But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.”
We have one teacher. If He does not speak through you, you are wasting your t
Is God telling you to preach? I remember God calling me to preach my freshman year in college. His call was as clear to me as Isaiah's call in Isaiah 6. Proclaiming God's word is my life calling. And it may be yours. But I believe God tells others of us to preach in different ways. Some of you may have been asked by your church or your pastor to preach, not necessarily as a life calling. Others may have been led to start a home church. And you have to fill the needs of those who have gathered with you. But you need to settle this issue.
Do you care about the people you preach to? My pastor when I was in high school once told me, “David, you cannot preach to people that you don't love.” Many years ago I was in a preaching slump. I talked to an experienced preacher about it. He suggested something that proved to be powerful for me. He said, “In the early part of the worship service, look into the eyes of individuals in the congregation.” It is amazing what you will see, when you really look at people. I found myself understanding and connecting with them. This will not keep you from worshipping. In fact, you can pray for each of them while you praise God.
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THE SERIOUSNESS OF HYPOCRISY
It is interesting how we rank sins. My nephew has noted that different Christian denominations rank sins differently. He said divorce is about at the top in the denomination we belong to. But he told me a story of a similar church in a different denomination that was considering making someone he knew a deacon. They never questioned his divorce, but they would not ordain him, if he couldn't quit smoking.
I don't mean to minimize these or any other practices God's people treat as serious. But we often overlook hypocrisy, which is the sin Jesus condemned most severely. Jesus spoke so much about hypocrisy that I will not attempt to draw out everything He said about it. That might be a worthwhile subject for future blogs. But looking at one passage we can see some crucial reasons it is such a plague on our spiritual lives.
In Matthew 23:25-26 Jesus condemns the Pharisees because of their hypocrisy.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.”
Hypocrisy is devastating because of
The Seriousness Of Whom You Impress.
I am too horrified at the ways I have been a phony in my life to share them with you here. But I can tell you, I often catch myself trying to impress other people. I want others to think I am smart, or honest, or manly, or good. Trying, even wanting, to impress people makes them into false gods. God sees into your heart. He is not pleased with what impresses other people.
Hypocrisy is dangerous because of
The Seriousness Of Whom You Deceive.
You know that being a fake doesn't fool God. You may deceive other people some. Probably the more people you deceive, the worse the cancer in your soul. But the person you deceive most is yourself. The Pharisees were blind to the fact that appearing to be good, or close to God, didn't make it so.
And hypocrisy kills because of
The Seriousness Of What You Miss.
Pretending to be smart may not always keep you from learning. Pretending to be strong may not always make you week. Pretending to be rich, may not always make you poor. But pretending to be holy always offends God. Trying to appear good to people will cause you to overlook the corruption in your heart. Hypocrisy will make you miss God's forgiveness. And there is nothing worse in this life or the next than missing a relationship with God. And even as a child of God, a fake spiritual life will corrupt your relationship with Him and stunt spiritual growth.
Holding to the truth
Today is a day of confusion regarding truth, and that confusion has invaded the church. Confusion reigns where the church fails to hold firmly on to the Word of God.
The letter to the church at Pergamum starts this way: "These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword." (Revelation 2:12) This double-edged sword is the word of God, which comes out of Jesus' mouth (Revelation 1:16; see Hebrews 4:12). Both the church at Pergamum and the church at Thyatira were guilty of turning away from this word and embracing false teaching (Revelation 2:14-15, 20, 24). In both cases, as we saw previously, straying from God's word led to idolatry and sexual immorality.
Doctrine matters. When we stray, for example, from the simple truths in Genesis about creation and God's creation of human beings as male and female, we lose our grip on understanding of gender. Does this sound familiar? When we blindly accept the "proven" science of evolution and long geologic ages, rejecting the Biblical stories of Creation and the Flood, we lose our grip on God's righteous judgment (and possibly even on his right to judge). When we stray away from an insistence on God's Word as objective truth, we fall prey to relativism and lose the basis for evangelism.
Later, Jesus would write to the church at Philadelphia, "I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name." (Revelation 3:7) Strength is great - but holding to the word of truth and not denying the name of Jesus is more important in our Savior's eyes.
How do we pray for our churches and for our pastors in light of the importance of holding to the truth of God's Word? Here are a few thought starters - I'm sure you can think of more.
We'll look in more depth at Paul's prayers for the churches a little later. Those prayers are all grounded in the truth of God's Word. In a society where confusion and outright falsehood often hold sway, firmly holding to the truth will distinguish the church as little else can.
Perhaps no area of our walk with God is more challenged by our culture today than the area of sexuality. Having strayed from the truth of God's word, as a society we no longer even know how to define gender. More and more, our culture reflects Paul's warning to the Romans:
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:21-27)
It's interesting that Paul ties sexual immorality so closely to idolatry in this passage. The letters to the churches at Pergamum and at Thyatira also make this association:
I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. (Revelation 2:14-15)
I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. (Revelation 2:20)
Sexual purity, under so much attack in our culture today, is important not only on an individual level but also on a church level. Jesus warned the churches at Pergamum and at Thyatira that their tolerance of sexual immorality was going to result in judgment. These are words that our churches and church leaders today need to take seriously. Perhaps one of the greatest testimonies to the transformation that God brings into a life is the difference that obedience to Scripture makes in our sexual lives.
So, how do we pray for our churches in light of this? Here are a few suggestions:
This week my personal devotions are in Matthew 24. And I have been struck by a number of things that Jesus said in this chapter about the last days. I am aware that what I am writing may be disturbing to some of us. And that is not my intent. God is in control no matter what we face in these times. I have joked in the past that in 1 Thessalonians 4:18 where Paul says, “Comfort one another with these words,” we misread it, “Scare the life out of one another with these words.” However, these things need to be taken seriously.
Matthew 24 begins with Jesus caught up in His sadness over the destruction that was going to come upon Jerusalem because His own people rejected Him. Like excited tourist the disciples point out to Jesus the wonderful buildings of the temple. And Jesus shoots back at them, “Do you see these stones? I tell you that there will not be left one stone upon another here that will not be cast down.”
Now, this was shocking to the disciples of Jesus. The Temple was the largest building in the Eastern Mediterranean. It had taken 46 years to build. So the disciples came to Jesus asking when this would happen, and what would be the sign of the second coming of Jesus, and the end of the age. They could not imagine that the destruction of the Temple would not mean the end of the world. From our perspective, we know that the Temple and the entire city were destroyed by the Roman general Titus in 70 AD. That was a terrible time for the people of Jerusalem. Thousands and thousands died at the hands of the Romans.
Interestingly enough Jesus did not correct His disciple’s misconception. He rather used the comparison of the two events to teach about the end times and His return. Let's look at this passage beginning with verse 3. I have emboldened the text in three places to highlight what Jesus gives us to do in these days.
As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ’, and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
The first thing that Jesus tells us to do is, “See that no one leads you astray.” The point and purpose of all the false rescuers, false teachers, and false teachings is to lead astray those who will and can be led away from Christ. Later in this chapter Jesus said that the false teachers and christs will perform signs and wonders that would, “if it were possible, deceive even the elect.” Not being led astray depends upon God keeping us safe. Relationship with God is crucial to endurance to the end. We must depend upon Him. Only God can keep us safe.
The second of these assignments is, “See that you are not alarmed.” Jesus’ words should disabuse us of the notion that everything will get better and better, possibly more and more Christian, right up to the end. I do believe more and more people will probably continue to come to faith in Christ right up to His return. But I also believe it will cost us more and more to follow Him. The Bible does not teach that it will be easy for us. Jesus says, “See that you are not alarmed when you see all the things happening on the Earth.” How do we keep from being alarmed? Well, we need to recognize that God is sovereign in the midst of school shootings, airplanes being flown into buildings, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, floods, famines, climate change, and pestilence. Jesus told us ahead of time that these things would happen. And He has told us that He will be with us to the very end. We need to focus on Him. And He will minister through us to the world that He still loves and weeps over.
The final assignment is not given here as an admonition, but as an assumption. This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in the whole world as a witness to all peoples. But make no mistake. We are the ones who must carry this out in the power of God. Elsewhere Jesus gives this to us as a command. And if you are anxious for Jesus to return in His glory, tell people that Jesus died for their sins, and rose again to give them new life. And pray for His power to break their hearts and transform their lives through the gospel.
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A Grandparent’s Challenge
I received the special gift of grandparenting as I approached my midlife season. It was exciting to become a grandparent! However, I learned that along with this gift came a sacred trust to imprint another generation with the message of God’s faithfulness. Reflecting on my new responsibility, I realized my prayers were too general and vague and I became frustrated with how I was praying for my grandchildren.
After I asked God for wisdom and read several books about prayer, my praying changed dramatically. I discovered God’s Word was a great resourceto help me with my praying, not only for my family, but also for myself.
In Hebrews 4:12 we read, “The Word of God is full of living power”. When I pray according to God’s Word, I am in line with His will, enabling me to pray with direction, power, and wisdom. I not only find myself in intimate communication with God, but my mind is renewed to think His thoughts about the situation for which I am praying, instead of my own thoughts.Ultimately, God shrinks the situation that I thought was overwhelming and impossible into a viable possibility. He gives me peace as I wait for His answer.
As I started claiming God’s promises and personalizing the scriptures, I experienced more boldness and confidence in my praying. Nothing threatens the enemy (Satan) more than when we are intentionally praying God’s Wordfor our children, grandchildren, and ourselves. Many scriptures in Psalms, Proverbs, the Gospels, and Paul’s writings can be used in our prayers.
While surfing on the Internet looking for help in my praying, God directed me to the Christian Grandparenting Network. After sharing my passion with them, they invited me to become their National Prayer Coordinator, writing devotionals and prayer suggestions on their website.
Christian Grandparenting Network (CGN) is devoted to challenging Christian grandparents to live intentionally as representatives of Christ for future generations. It is committed to providing a network of resources and opportunities for grandparents to have powerful opportunities for inter-generational dialogue to strengthen grandparent-grandchild relationships and spiritual growth.
We live in a time when the darkness of sin and unrighteousness ravages our land seeking to capture the minds and hearts of our youth and young families. The enemy is determined to steal their faith and the plans God has for them.The enemy’s attacks against our families and our nation’s moral foundations are relentless. It is urgent that grandparents stand in the gap praying for the spiritual, emotional, and physical protection of these who are under attack and CGN can help you.
Resources available from Christian Grandparenting Network
Lillian Penner, Co-Prayer Director for Christian Grandparenting Network
Most of us think there is very little hope for mankind in the law of God. And if you think of keeping the law in your own efforts as your self-salvation project, it is indeed absolutely hopeless. However the law of God was not given to bring Salvation. It shows us God's standards of right and wrong. And when we come to it with a transformed heart, it shows us how we are able to please God who has done everything to save us. And the law helps us break free from sin in our lives Buy pointing out the sin that is beneath our sins.
The content of The 10 Commandments is the foundation of all relationships and all social engagement. You judge relationships and societies by trustworthiness, goodness, and love.
And if I live in a vile society where everyone is oppressed, where my loved ones are raped and abused in every way imaginable, I need an assurance that there is a God of justice for me to have any hope at all.
The 10 Commandments that God gave on Mount Sinai came from God Himself. They came with ultimate authority and ultimate rightness. In Deuteronomy 5 Moses reiterates the 10 Commandments as the people were preparing to enter the Promised Land. And Moses recounts to them the working of God that led up to the initial giving of The Commandments. Deuteronomy 19:33-35 reads,
“Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.”
Modern people may be able to think of the ten Commandments as something conceived by Moses or by humans in general. But the children of Israel did not have that option. They could not but say after what they had been through, “The Lord He is God! The Lord He is God!
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A civil worker in Kentucky loses her job for refusal to issue a license for a gay marriage due to her religious convictions. A baker on Colorado is sued for refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding, again due to religious convictions. Celebrities who are believers get criticized for positions taken by their pastors on controversial topics. Long-standing mottos like "In God We Trust" get challenged.
All around us, the church is challenged and squeezed by a culture that practices the very intolerance it claims to stand against. She responds in various ways - sometimes bowing to the culture and becoming nearly indistinguishable; other times lamenting the direction of society, other times militantly (and sometimes abrasively) speaking out against that direction. And, while the church in America has not experienced the level of persecution experienced by believers in many other countries around the world, we see it coming and we can be tempted to fear.
Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown. -- Rev. 2:10
The church around the world has much to teach us in terms of enduring persecution with faith rather than fear. They have seen Jesus' faithfulness to the words spoken to the church in Smyrna; they have experienced his presence in the midst of persecution, his provision, peace, and mercy. And, sometimes, they have experienced death at the hands of their persecutors. But they have faced that death with courage, faith, and hope.
As the church adjusts from becoming a majority culture in America to being a minority sub-culture, how do we pray in light of the increasing pressure we're seeing in this country?
Pray for courage. Jesus' words to the church in Smyrna are his words to us today: "Do not be afraid". Our prayers should be based on faith, not fear. This particular moment in history looks increasingly difficult for the church - but this should not surprise us. Jesus himself told us, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) As we pray, then, we need not fear. Jesus has overcome the world, even when it looks like the world is winning. And he is with us when we suffer for his name.
Pray with hope. While this moment in history is a difficult one, this moment is not all of history. More moments are yet to come, and we know the end of the story. There will come a time when “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.” (Rev. 11:15) We need to pray with hope, not despair. Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church - it's not just that the church will endure; she will actually win the battle.
Pray for God's intervention. While there are times when God calls us to speak with a prophetic voice against the evil of our culture and times when he calls us to take specific action, real change - lasting, widespread, transformative change - will come about only as a result of his actions. We might lobby against laws, demonstrate in front of clinics, and sue for protection of our rights - and there are times when these are all actions we must take. But none of these will change the hearts of men and women. Only God can do that. Only God can change the church's greatest persecutor into her greatest missionary. Only God can save jailers and their entire households.
Commit ourselves into God's hands. Scripture tells us that Jesus, rather than retaliating or lecturing when people insulted him, entrusted himself into God's hands (1 Peter 2:23). We can do no better than to follow our Master! In fact, as he was dying on the cross, with his very last breath he entrusted his spirit to God. As we pray, then, we can certainly pray for protection from harm and for our freedom. But above all, we must entrust ourselves into God's hands, counting on him to bring the results that will ultimately bring honor to Himself.
Forgive our enemies. It's hard, when we see injustice in the form of persecution, to pray for the persecutors. We naturally want revenge (which we call "justice" to make it sound better). And indeed, sometimes God's judgment and justice can lead people to repentance. Our prayers for justice, then, should be prayers not of vengeance or punishment, but rather a justice that leads to repentance. This is a hard one for us, because we often see persecutors of the church in the same way as Jonah saw the Ninevites. But God also sees them in the same way He saw the Ninevites and says to us, "Should I not be concerned?"
Perhaps this last one is the one that most distinguishes the Christian in the midst of persecution from people of other faiths. We don't respond in anger and we don't fatalistically accept our "fate". Instead, we actively pray for those who persecute us, as Jesus taught (Matthew 5:43-48). Jesus pointed out that anyone can love those who love them. But it takes a believer relying on the grace of God to love someone trying to hurt them. Just as Paul prayed for the salvation of King Agrippa even as he was on trial for his faith (Acts 26:29), so we are called to pray for those who persecute us - whatever form that persecution may take.
A good friend focused my attention on Isaiah 60:1-2 as a word from the Lord for the New Year: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.”
I can feel the invading darkness of evil that is like a heavy moral and spiritual fog infiltrating our nation at every level. At the very same time that our nation is enveloped in thick darkness, God commands us to arise, let our Light shine, and the distinctive glory of our Lord will be evident to all. It is wonderful to know that God is in control and we read in his word in Psalms 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength”.
As grandparents let’s not let the enemy dull our desires to intentionally pray for our grandchildren and their parents. Prayer is our most strategic weapon. The enemy wants to disintegrate and divide our families, rendering them chaotic, restless, and unfruitful.I believe it’s our place to get on our knees, humble ourselves, seek God’s face, repent of our sin, and intercede for our nations, our children and grandchildren. Then having done all, we stand firm in our faith that God has heard and will answer our prayers according to His will.
Years ago, Esther stood in the gap for her people, the Jews when their lives were physically threatened. Today grandparents can stand in the gap with prayer for their grandchildren in the same way as their spiritual lives are threatened.
There is an urgency for the power of prayer to keep the hearts and minds of our grandchildren from falling captive to the enemy’s deception and lies. We are engaged in a spiritual battle that requires the spiritual weapon of prayer.
As grandparents, we can make a significant difference in the world by praying regularly and intentionally for our grandchildren and their parents. We have an opportunity to join together to powerfully touch the lives of another generation.
Grandparent @ Prayer (G@P) intercessory prayer groups consist of small or large groups of people meeting once or twice a month for approximately one hour at a designated location for prayer and fellowship. Groups are meeting in retirement centers, schools, churches, and homes weekly.
Now would be a great time to get started, just ask a few grandparents to join you, try it for a few months, and see what you think. Many grandparents have told me that they appreciate a safe place to share their concerns for their grandchildren.
I would like to invite you to become a part of a prayer group for grandparents to pray together for each other’s grandchildren and families.
Recently a grandparent shared with me she had read my previous blogs about the Grandparents @ Prayer groups. She thought it would be a good idea and felt God speaking to her to sign up to start a group but hadn’t done so. If this has been your experience, please follow God’s voice will you sign up today you will not regret it.
Please go to https://www.christiangrandparenting.net/prayer/grandparents-prayer/participate-in-gapto sign up to receive some helpful information. We will also send you some prayer resources you can download free.
By Lillian Penner, Prayer Coordinator, Christian Grandparenting Network, lpenner@christiangrandparenting.net
When I was born, the hospital in Temple, Texas had a show window where they placed their idea of the best-looking baby to be born that day/week. Partly because someone thought I was that baby, and partly because my mother was a registered nurse in the same hospital, I spent a full week in the show window. Of course, I don’t remember it, but I was reminded of it many times through the years. Last week I walked through the new-born section of a local hospital. One cannot do that without also talking a trip down memory lane. First it was the memory of a hospital in McAllen, Texas where our daughter was born. Then memory shifted to a slow trip on an ice-covered road, to a hospital in Greenville, Texas, where our son was born. Another memory shift took me to a hospital in Fort Worth, Texas where my granddaughter was born. Finally, my memory shifted to another Fort Worth, Texas hospital where my grandson was born. What a trip! How can one walk through the new-born section of a hospital without thinking about the days ahead for the new parents (and yes, the new grandparents also), knowing that there will never be another day quite like the day (or night) when their baby was born. You already know what they will soon learn, that one of the amazing things about becoming a parent is that you are no longer your own first priority. You pray that the new parents will raise their babies, “In the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). You pray that the babies will make good use of their years, years that pass more quickly than they, or their parents, can imagine, as you remember the words of legendary sports announcer, Vin Scully, “It’s a mere moment in a man’s life between an All-Star Game and an Old-timers Game.” From a hospital show window in Temple, Texas to the hallways of a local hospital – a long trip; a rush of memories, a heart-felt prayer.
Several months ago I wrote a blog post that was primarily on Jeremiah 29:11. I was reacting to something I heard said from the pulpit. The preacher said we could not take this as a promise if we were not Israelites being sent into exile. I took exception to this in my blog, showing that this verse has universal application. But in this post I want to apply this truth to Scripture as a whole. Look with me at something Jesus said in Matthew 22:31-32
And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
Jesus addresses the Sadducees in these verses. But he quotes the words spoken to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3. Jesus asks them, “Have you not read what was said to you by God.”
It is crucial to understand that God speaks to you in His word. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:11 that,
“These things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.”
Some of you are rightly thinking, “But we need to approach Scripture with spiritual discernment.” Most of us know examples of misusing Scripture. The old joke tells of someone opening the Bible for direction and blindly stabbing his finger in and landing on, “Judas went out and hanged himself.” This startled him enough that he thought he had better look for another. So he stabbed his finger again. This time he landed on, “Go thou and do likewise.”
But God's people can discern. We are enlightened by the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 reads,
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”
That is a powerful statement. “We have the mind of Christ.” Let me point out how these verses say God speaks. Verse 14 concludes that the things of God are, “spiritually discerned.” Let me suggest what this means. Spiritual discernment is only given by the Holy Spirit. It means the Spirit of God speaks to us personally and as gathered believers in the church. This does not mean we will never misunderstand Scripture. But it does mean He will speak to me in His word correcting my thinking.
You might ask, why then do we have so many denominations? I don't think I am qualified to answer that comprehensively. But let me tell you an experience I have had. Many years ago our church participated in a National Day of Prayer gathering and another pastor invited me to join a pastors’ prayer meeting. I started meeting with them weekly. The group had two Episcopalian pastors. There were some Congregationalists. There were a few more Presbyterians from several Presbyterian groups. There was a Lutheran pastor. And in those early days, I was the only Baptist. I prayed regularly with those men for over ten years. A week never went by when we did not quote or read aloud some scripture. And my impression was that we never disagreed on how to apply a verse in our lives. That was because God speaks through His word.
More than 40 years ago I was leading a group of adults in my church to memorize Scripture in our mid-week services. One week I was helping them memorize Acts 27:25.
“Wherefore sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God that it will be even as he has told me.”
A lady in the group shook her head saying, “What does it mean?”
I answered, “God has said some things to you, too.” And this truth immediately dawned on her. God will speak to you in His word. And you can confidently apply it to your life.
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What is the wedding garment in the parable in Matthew 22:12? In the parable recorded in the first verses of Matthew 22, when those who would not come to the king's wedding feast were destroyed, the servants were sent out to bring anyone they found, good or bad, to the wedding feast. But when the king came in to see his guests he found one without a wedding garment. “Friend,” he said, “how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” And there was nothing the man could answer. The king commanded his servants to bind him hand and foot and send him out into the outer darkness where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus consistently uses this phrase for those who will be excluded from the kingdom of God. I believe it has to describe hell.
I think the wedding garment represents three things in our lives.
Jesus applies this parable by saying, “for many are called but few are chosen.” I don't believe it is consistent with the gospel to say that those who are chosen are chosen because of their good works. In that parable we would assume that there were bad people who had a wedding garment. And we are not told that this man was better or worse than others at the table. I rather think Jesus is saying we will know those who are truly chosen by God from the fruit His personal intervention produces in our lives.
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We face two dangers whenever we talk about prayer. We can make prayer seem so difficult that only the “super-Christians” can pray effectively while the rest of us just muddle along. Sometimes the stories we tell about saints who spent hours on their knees crying out to God end up discouraging us because we’re busy and tired and the kids are wearing us out and our job is a hassle and life feels like a burden, so even if Luther prayed two hours every morning, that was a long time ago, and he’s been dead for almost 500 years.
You know what I mean.
It’s easy to get intimidated about prayer.
Or we can go to the opposite extreme and make prayer seem like texting a friend to meet you for dinner and a movie. That has the advantage of making you want to pray, but you can end up with a lightweight view of prayer. Instead of coming into God’s presence to talk to your Heavenly Father, you feel like you’re chatting with a friend who is checking his Instagram while you are talking with him.
We would do better to think of prayer as a gift from God that enables us to stay connected with the Lord of the universe. If we use the gift, we will grow deeper in our knowledge of God.
Our Father wants us to pray, he encourages us to pray, and he invites us to pray. With that in mind, let’s look at James 5:16-18 and see what it teaches us about the power of prayer. We find in this passage a pattern, a promise, and a proof. Let’s take those one at a time.
A Pattern to Follow
“Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (v. 16a).
You don’t hear many sermons on this verse. We don’t think about it often because we don’t know what to do with it.
On one level, it’s not difficult to understand. In this verse James gives us a three-part pattern to follow:
First, we confess to one another.
Then we pray for one another.
Then we are healed.
Let’s be frank and admit it is the first instruction that trips us up. Confession of sin is never easy, even when we know confession is good for the soul. Proverbs 28:13 tells us that when we confess and forsake our sins, we will find mercy from the Lord. That’s the dilemma of this verse. We know we need to confess our sins, we know it is good for us, but even so we do whatever we can to wiggle out of that obligation.
This is the only place in the New Testament where we are told to confess our sins to one another. In thinking about that, we can’t overlook the context (vv. 13-15), which teaches us how to pray for the sick. The whole passage emphasizes the communal nature of the Christian life. What happens to you touches me, and what happens to me touches you. We need each other more than we know, and we never need each other more than when we are sick.
James 5:15 includes the phrase, “If he has sinned, he will be forgiven,” suggesting the close interplay between the physical and the spiritual. Sometimes our bodies get sick because our souls are sick with unconfessed sin. We cannot get better physically until we get better spiritually.
Why does this matter?
Sin isolates.
Confession brings us together.
Sin destroys unity.
Confession repairs the breach.
Sin makes us sick.
Confession leads to healing.
Why are we hesitant to confess our sins? I can think of many reasons. It feels intrusive, it’s humbling, we are embarrassed, afraid, and our pride keeps us from admitting the truth.
Let me pause and ask a question of the text. Is James thinking about private confession or public confession? The answer is yes, depending on the circumstances. Most of the time our confession will be to another person against whom we have sinned. Occasionally we may need to be more public if the sin was of a public nature.
James is not telling us to confess someone else’s sin. I can’t do that, and it’s a big waste of time. We can’t force anyone to confess. After all, “a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” We aren’t called to bludgeon people into confession.
James wants us to think about the man in the mirror, not the man next door. If you are married, don’t keep a record of the sins of your husband or wife. What good does that do? Keep track of your own shortcomings, and then be quick to confess them to the one you love.
Suppose someone says, “Yes, I sinned, but he sinned against me.” Well, that’s probably true. It’s a rare case where the fault is 100% with one person. What do you do if the other person refuses to confess their sin? The answer is not hard to find.
Take care of your side of the street.
God can take care of the other side.
What happens when this is ignored?
We confess together so that we might pray together.
Confession clears the way for prayer to happen.
Otherwise, there are obstacles in the road.
James pictures the church as a community of believers where we are close enough to be honest and open enough to be real. When that happens, true healing can take place.
The devil will fight you every step of the way. It’s not just lust that he uses against us. It’s the shame and guilt of what we’ve done, and the recurring thought, “What if others knew what you’ve been doing?” So we live in the shadowy realm of fear, worried someone will find out the truth about us, desperately hoping for a way out. We will not get better until we decide to do whatever it takes to be pure before the Lord. You can’t have clean hands until you decide to wash off the dirt.
I knew a Christian counselor who repeated one key phrase: “You’re only as sick as your secrets.” Then he would add: “If you’ve got a lot of secrets, you’re really sick.” He’s right, and the cure to those secrets that pile up is found in verse 16:
Confession.
Prayer.
Healing.
When we sin, everything within us screams out “Cover it up. Turn off the lights. Bury the evidence. Destroy the tapes. Make up an alibi. Leave the scene of the crime. Run! Run! Run!” John 4 tells the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well. He caught her attention with the promise of “living water” that would quench the thirst deep within her soul. When she asks for that “living water,” Jesus responds by saying, “Go, call your husband and come back” (John 4:16). On one level it appears Jesus is being insensitive. Why bring up anything about her past? Is Jesus trying to embarrass her? The answer is no. But his instruction to call her husband made her very uncomfortable. She doesn’t want to go into detail, so she simply replies, “I have no husband” (v. 17). That was true, but it wasn’t the whole story. She knew she was hiding the truth, but what she doesn’t know is that Jesus knows it too. This woman has had five husbands, and the man she is living with currently is not her husband.
Does Jesus love this woman? Yes, he does. He knows the truth and still offers her eternal life. Here is the wonder of God’s grace. Only someone who loves you can look at your past without blinking. Real love means knowing the truth about someone else and reaching out to them anyway.
Don’t miss the kicker to the story. “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did’” (v. 39). Once the woman’s secrets were out in the open, she was set free and a revival broke out.
Oh, the blessedness of having nothing to hide. If you are ready to be rid of your secrets, you can be set free.
A Promise to Believe
“The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (v. 16b).
The word “working” comes from a Greek word that means "energetic” or “boiling.” The boiling prayers of the righteous have great power with God. What's a boiling prayer? It has nothing to do with standing or sitting, kneeling or lying down. It has nothing to do with lifting your voice or speaking in a whisper. It has nothing to do with how loud or how long you pray or whether you open your eyes or keep them closed. When they take your daughter away for lifesaving surgery, you'll discover what a boiling prayer is. When your children are in trouble, you'll pray boiling prayers to God. When anything becomes life or death to you, you’ll pray an earnest, fervent, boiling prayer, and it won’t matter how long or how short you pray.
I heard a Bible teacher tell of a wreck in which his wife was badly hurt. When he got to the crash scene, his wife was unconscious, and her life was hanging in the balance. As he rode in the ambulance to the hospital with her, he stretched his arms over her body. “In that moment all I could do was repeat, ‘O God, O Jesus, O God, O Jesus, O God, O Jesus.’” Then he added, “I felt like it was the first time in my life I had ever really prayed.”
When I heard him say that, my mind went back to the night our first child was born. My wife was several weeks overdue, and that night there were various complications. During the long hours of waiting, the doctor warned us they might have to do a Caesarean delivery. Sometime in the late-night hours, the doctor came in and told us the baby was having fetal heart distress. He showed us on the monitor how the heartbeat was going way up and way down. “We’re going to watch this, but it doesn’t look good.” Two or three hours passed, and about 5:15 AM the doctor came striding in with a very concerned look on his face. He spoke one sentence: “We’re going to take the baby now.” That was not a question. He wasn’t asking for my permission. Suddenly the room exploded with activity: nurses coming in and out, carts being wheeled in, someone grabbed my wife, and within thirty seconds the room was completely empty except for me. It happened so fast I didn’t have a chance to kiss my wife good-bye. I didn’t have a chance to pray with her. The last thing I saw was her frightened face as they wheeled her into the delivery room. As I sat alone in that room, I tried to pray but I couldn’t. All I could do was say, “O God, have mercy. O Jesus, have mercy.” After what seemed like hours, though it was only about 20 minutes later, the doctor came in and said, “Mr. Pritchard, you’ve got a son. He’s healthy. He’s going to be okay. Your wife is doing fine.” I felt that day like it was the first time I had ever prayed in my life.
A Proof to Remember
“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” (vv. 17-18).
James 5:17 adds a fascinating fact about Elijah when it calls him a man "with a nature like ours." The King James Version says he was a man of "like passions." He was like you, and he was like me. Read the story and see for yourself. Elijah had his ups and downs. He was a little rough around the edges. Not so polished. Not so refined. You're not going to have Elijah over to watch the World Series because you don't know when he's going to go off. He's that kind of man. When he gets a message from God, he's going to take action. You're not going to talk him out of it either. He was far from perfect. He's got a temper, and he is prone to depression and discouragement. James used him as an example for us to follow because, despite his human weaknesses, he was a man of prayer who walked with God during an evil generation. Though he was an imperfect mountain man, he was also a man of prayer and enormous faith in God. And that's why he's in the Bible.
It's easy to argue with James when you think of all Elijah did. He was a man of extremes, never settling for the moderate middle. When Elijah was at his best, he called down fire from heaven and defeated 850 false prophets. When Elijah was at his worst, he ran across the desert and hid in a cave on Mount Horeb. He did nothing by halves. Talk about life on the edge! He was on the edge half the time and over it the rest of the time. What about that story of Elijah laying himself on the body of a dead child and praying for God to bring him back to life (1 Kings 17:17-24)? Most of us can't imagine doing something like that. But then we're not like Elijah. Or are we?
Elijah was not some superhuman man in a category far beyond the rest of us mere mortals. He experienced all the emotions of life—joy, sorrow, victory, defeat, frustration, exultation, encouragement, discouragement, anger, forgiveness, despair, and relief. We face a twofold danger when we study a life of great accomplishment. Sometimes we tend to canonize a man, treating him as if he were exempt from the normal temptations of life. It is easy to chisel Elijah's head on some religious Mount Rushmore and say, "There never was such a man before or since." Or we may focus on a great man's failures, faults, and foibles, exposing every sin and every foolish mistake so that in the end he seems not very great at all. We pull him down into the muck and mire of ordinary life until the luster of his greatness has disappeared underneath the veneer of his frailty.
All the heroes of the Bible had their weaknesses, and Elijah was no exception. And that is one reason we are drawn to such a man. God used him in spite of his weaknesses. After his greatest victory, Elijah ran away. He ran away! God had to go and find him and talk him back into his senses. Then God used him again. That's a good story because it’s our story. We've all run away under pressure. We've given up, thrown in the towel, quit the race, caved in when the heat was on. No one is strong all the time. We're all made from the same clay. Elijah's story is our story because Elijah's God is our God too. Just as he came after Elijah, he comes after you and me again and again and again. He doesn't know when to quit. He doesn't accept our letter of resignation. He finds us, calls us, refines us, rebukes us, encourages us, and refits us. Then he commissions us all over again.
James wants us to remember that this imperfect man of God prayed, and the rain stopped. It didn’t fall in Israel for 3 ½ years. Then he prayed again, and the heavens opened up, and rain fell from heaven, ending the drought. If God would listen to Elijah’s prayers, he will certainly listen to ours.
Not long ago a friend of ours was going through a desperate battle with cancer. She wondered how she should pray about it. One day I passed along this bit of advice: “If you need a miracle, ask for one. There’s no extra charge for large requests.” That’s entirely biblical. Sometimes we shrink back from “big” requests because we think they are too much for us to ask. But such thinking reveals a man-centered theology. When we pray, we are coming to the God of the universe who holds all things together. Why not ask for what we need? It’s quite true: There is no extra charge for large requests.
What, then, is the application? Let’s confess our sins, let’s pray together, so that the Lord might heal us. Pray boiling prayers because those prayers get God’s attention. Remember Elijah and ask God for what you need.
In the end prayer is not a burden, not a duty, but a blessed privilege. We should not pray because we have to but because we want to. Let us pray with confidence, expecting God will answer our prayers. Nothing is too great to ask, and nothing is too hard for the Lord.
In 2 Timothy Paul gives us a marvelous example of integral hope in his life. Paul's life even at that difficult end was still buoyed by a higher purpose. 2 Timothy 4:1,2 reads,
“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”
Paul challenges Timothy, and us, to preach the word. And faithful endurance in his painful situation was crucial to that encouragement. He saw his approaching death as part of his challenge and a crucial part of his worship. He encourages us in versus 6-8 by comparing his life to a drink offering.
“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”
A drink offering was a powerful expression of devotion in the desert middle east where water is life. The first drink offering mentioned in Scripture was made by Jacob as he met God at Bethel in Genesis 35. As he emptied his canteen onto the ground, he was trusting his life to the Lord who had appeared to him. Later when drink offerings were included in worship in the Tabernacle the vessels for it were to be of gold, befitting costly devotion.
Paul sees his final circumstance as the ultimate worship and witness for God. And he could endure it however long it would last for two reasons. First, as he wrote earlier to the Philippian Church, (Philippians 1:22-24) God might still allow him to continue his purpose on this Earth. And, he knew the reward waiting for him in the presence of God was worth whatever he had to endure.
I have terminal cancer, and I don’t know how long I will live. I believe God has called me to write. It is an extension of my call to preach. And I want to write everything He leads me to write. But I also need to see what I may not be able to complete as a drink offering. If it is God's will for me not to live long enough to finish books that I am writing, I pour them out to Him in worship.
There are other things that I put in this category. I no longer have the strength or energy to Pastor a church. And I offer that loss in worship to God. I have also had a vision of prayer in the church like we have never prayed. Well, even the small platform that I had has diminished. And I don't see God allowing me to promote this. I had an idea for a prayer retreat center with prayer rooms devoted to prayer for every people group on Earth. Everyone coming to the center would be encouraged to spend at least an hour a day in one of the prayer rooms. Of course I do not know if this is the will of God at all, although the Scripture calls us to radical prayer. But even if this is God's will it does not look like I will get to be part of bringing it about. And I pour this out as a drink offering before God.
So whether I eat or drink(1 Cor. 10:31) or write or pray, I want to pour these things out as a drink offering to God.
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I have a confession. Growing up, it seemed the preachers always used at least one Hebrew or Greek word in every sermon to help clarify or explain the biblical text. This was good. It was helpful. I appreciated it. But I also assumed if I didn’t understand a word or phrase in the worship service, it must be Hebrew or Greek. So, my youthful observation led me to assume the word “Amen” was either Hebrew or Greek for “Sit down.” Every time someone ended a prayer with the word “Amen” we all sat down. It made sense. As I grew older and wiser, I understood the “Amen” was not a command to be seated, but rather a concluding thought to the prayer, meaning, “So be it.” However, the word came to mean “Over and out” or “Signing off here” or just “Good bye for now” and I understood why it was used in public prayer – to indicate the prayer was concluded, and it was indeed time to be seated. But why use the word in private prayer? No one else needed to know the one praying in private was finished with the prayer. Why not leave the prayer open-ended? Maybe God wasn’t finished. After all, prayer is two-way communication isn’t it? How about employing a time of silence before ending your private prayer? Listen for God. The Psalmist ended a prayer with the words, “Truly my soul silently waits for God . . . wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him” (Psalm 62:1, 5). As the Psalmist waited in silence, two thoughts came to him. “God has spoken . . . power belongs to God” (Psalm 62:11) and that God would “render to each one according to his work” (Psalm 62:12). Although the Psalmist was disturbed by his circumstances to the point of prayer, he found comfort as he stopped talking to God and started listening to God. So next time you pray in private, don’t say “Amen.” Listen and let God conclude your prayer.
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Always Be Creative
When we are introduced to God in Genesis, God is creating something awesome and beautiful with a creative potential of its own.
When we gather people to worship God's attributes or wonder about God's word, to work with God on mission, we should always be creative.
Hear from different voices and envision with different visuals. Use questions to help build competent disciples.
Preach and pray through creative presentation or exploration of Scripture, Song, Story, Statement, Supplication ...
Prayer experiences must become:
Phil Miglioratti
Pray.Network
According to Christianity Today, the United Methodist Church's General Session this weekend will be determining the church's stance on LGBT/gender issues. At stake are questions like whether to ordain LGBT ministers, whether to perform gay marriages, etc. (1)
The stakes are high in all of this, and there are believers on many sides in this issue. Words like "love" and "grace" get tossed around a lot, with definitions being assumed and never really spelled out (if you don't spell it out, no one can challenge it).
What does God think of all this? How would he have us pray in the midst of a divisive situation with very clear implications for how Scripture is interpreted and applied, and high stakes when it comes to conformity with the culture?
Most believers - on either side of the issue - will pray for particular outcomes. They'll pray for this decision or that decision, convinced that their prayer is aligned with God's will (or perhaps not having thought about it from that viewpoint). I personally feel very strongly on this one, so it's hard for me not to pray for an outcome. But can we learn anything from Scripture about how to pray in ways that please God in situations like this, and others where the church must decide between accepting and conforming to culture on the one hand and sticking to tradition on the other?
"I hold this against you - you have forsaken the love you had at first." (Rev. 2:4)
The church needs to love people well - both people inside and outside the church. But, as the Bride of Christ, the church's first love needs to be none less than her Groom. In her desire to love people well, she has at times forgotten her first love, paying more attention to the opinions and interests of men than to the Word of God.
Jesus is described in Revelation 1:16 as one who has a sharp, double-edged sword coming out of his mouth. The obvious reference here is to the Word of God, which is described in exactly this way in Hebrews 4:12: "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."
In fact, we know from John 1 that Jesus himself is the Word (John 1:1, 14). So love for the Word of God is the same thing as love for Jesus.
The warning to the church at Ephesus was serious: "Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place." (Rev. 2:5) The danger to the church today is that she may be removed from her place if she does not repent and regain that first love. We don't know exactly what this means, but we do know that one of the main challenges of Islam, for example, to Christianity is the relative lawlessness of Christians - we do not obey the word we claim to believe.
As we pray for the church today, then, one of our first concerns ought to be to pray that the church will remain true to her First Love; and where that love has been forgotten, that it will be regained. Let's pray that our churches' leaders will be so filled with love for God that their times of decision and debate will be characterized by much prayer, by earnest seeking of God's will, and pleading for God's wisdom (James 1:6). Let's pray for repentance where that's needed (without our necessarily having to be the judges of where it is needed). Let's pray that God's Word will be given its (and His) rightful place in our churches, and that our leaders will themselves be led by the Word that is also Truth.
And as we pray, let's grow in the area of lifting up the questions to God and letting him be in charge of the answers. I'm very tempted to pray for certain decisions to be made, for a specific direction to be set, etc. In other words, I'm tempted to give God the answers and just ask him to "make it so". But I'm trying to learn to hold my own "wisdom" lightly and to seek first of all his wisdom. Only he can see all sides of issues as complex as the ones facing the United Methodist leadership this weekend. So only his wisdom could possibly be sufficient.
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(1) https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2019/february/united-methodists-lgbt-vote-umc-general-conference-denomina.html?utm_source=ctweekly-html&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_term=23466744&utm_content=636798186&utm_campaign=email, accessed on 02/24/2019.
