Relevant Prayer Requests

 Those confessing Jesus as Lord know that prayer is an important part of our lives.  Prayer is a mystery as to how it works, but somehow when we pray we get God involved in our situation and He acts. His answers come quickly, slowly, in clarity or in ways that are not clear until some time has passed. It's part of the mystery of prayer, since we are dealing with the transcendent God.

The Apostle Paul has some prayer requests in the book of Ephesians that are good ideas for us to pray today. In that letter chapt. 6:18-20 his first request is for the church. In verse 18 he writes to pray " ..... for all the saints."  That means the church.  We should pray for ourselves because in these wicked days the church has to know and be clear as to what our message is and what we stand for. We need love and truth and to be able to be strong in Christ to face the ungodly challenges confronting us. We need the power of the Holy Spirit and that comes through prayer, and it should be one of our prayers also.

Another request is to pray for Paul himself. His request is that he could "....make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel."  We should pray for our pastors and leaders in our churches. They need to be able to stick to the Gospel message regardless of it's popularity or society's resistance to it, and to preach it with the boldness of the Spirit. So many today speak encouraging messages, well crafted and engaging, but lacking in spiritual power and truth about salvation. Our pastors face difficult challenges today, and need our prayers to preach the gospel with boldness and fulfill their holy calling. 

Lastly, and similarly, his request is for him to speak,"....as I ought to speak."  That is, he knows the Gospel is a mystery, and for him to make it clear he needs to speak in such a way that is relevant to his hearers. Our pastors face the same challenge. People today are becoming more and more illiterate when it comes to the Bible. Pastors must be able to speak with clarity so that the Holy Spirit may apply truth to the hearts of the hearers in ways only He can.  For this they need the power of His Presence, and for that they need us to be prayerful and supportive of them in this great endeavor. So Paul's requests for his ministry in his day is one we can consider for our time and ministry as well. 

Our USA is in serious trouble, and only a true revival of our Christian faith in this nation will turn us around and bring healing.  The church, and our pastors/preachers/teachers are vital to this mission. Accordingly, our prayers are vital to their effectiveness.

Make it your ministry to pray Paul's requests.

If Not Us, Who?

 As the United States of America continues to reap the consequences of our own wrong headed and sinful decisions, perhaps we will feel enough pain to do what we should do, repent, confess, and plead with God for His mercy and revival, corporately. It is past time for pastors to take the lead in this sin burdened society and lead our congregations, large or small in prayers of confession and repentance. I have just a few thoughts that may be helpful as each congregation cries out to God. 

These suggestions are from the Scriptures, specifically the book of Ezra, when he prayed and confessed the sin of his people.  They are heart attitudes that must be ignited by the fire of the Holy Spirit. We can not just pray as a kind of "duty" rather we must sense His Spirit burdening us and compelling us to respond in prayer as we see the dreadful condition of our nation. May He so act quickly upon our hearts.

First, we must by the Spirit have a sense of guilt, and an urge to confess. Jesus said the Holy Spirit will come and convict the world of sin and He must convict us as well of the depth of our wrongs. As He convicts us of sin, our responsibility becomes glaringly apparent and confession is the natural outflow. Anytime the Holy Spirit convicts us, we have a sense of  culpability and wrong, with a sense of shame and a godly sorrow that drives us to confess and turn from wrong. This is what we need to sense today to pray rightly.

Secondly, we must acknowledge Gods patience and mercy.  Our sins today are of the grossest sort. They are an offense to God and are destroying people.  There is perverse actions and worldviews. Evil doers are allowed to run unrestrained, robbing, beating, burning, perjuring, bearing false witness, killing children in the womb, false gospels and prophets, schools are teaching and affirming homosexuality to kindergarten age children. You can add to the list I know. Yet, in light of this and more, God is showing remarkable, wonderful  patience with us. His mercy endures forever, but the day is coming when His patience will be withdrawn. Today is not that day thankfully, and we still have time, time to repent, turn, pray and implore His mercy and reviving. Christ Jesus is our merciful High Priest, who is and will intercede for us as we seek Him and pray for the nation and for His Spirit to be poured out. Know that day by day we are the objects of His great mercy, though we don't deserve any of it. 

Thirdly, ask forgiveness based on His Person and promise. He promised that if we His people will pray, turn from wrong ways and seek His face, He will have mercy, forgive our sin and heal our land. This promise flows from the perfect nature of God. He is merciful, and He is just and righteous in all His ways. He waits for His people to seek Him out, acknowledge our sin, and be truly humble and repentant. His Covenant is sealed in the blood of Christ, and God will never go back on His promise. The road may be long and difficult, but ultimately God will execute perfect mercy and justice and fulfill His covenant. 

America is in desperate need of repentance. We seem to be looking everywhere for answers, and have forgotten the foundations of our nation. We are a nation founded upon biblical principles and the precepts of the christian faith, that at one time permeated or whole culture. It was the worldview that for our citizens and way of life, brought cohesion to a diverse people.  But we have long since forsaken those principles and are now unraveling as a society. Our healing isn't to be found in government. Our form of government is an excellent one, but it is now being manipulated and trampled upon by corrupt and ungodly individuals, hungry for power and fueled by a utopian, globalist, and delusional vision for America and the world. Renewal does not come from the top down, but bubbles up from beneath. 

This is where pastors and the church of Christ can take true leadership by calling people to prayer, fasting, intercessions and lamenting. Perhaps God will have mercy on our once great nation and revive His people to spiritual fervency and godliness once again. If not us, then who?

 

 

One Constant In Many Seasons

 I was having my prayer time the other day as I usually do. For me it's early in the morning, with a cup of coffee, my bible and some soft worship music playing quietly in the background. After a while as I prayed I began to thank God for the many blessings my wife and are enjoying at this season of our lives. As I did I remembered the many years of life that I have seen. Throughout the years we have had times of real joy and blessing, as well as times of struggle, stress and serious issues and decisions to make. In short, many of the pressures that most people are called to face as we live and work our way through life's challenges. 

But as I sat and considered where we are at this point of life I can say with gratitude that we have all we need and more beside. We have health, a solid marriage, money in the bank, our children are grown and doing well, and yes, the grand babies are coming! The Lord has created a ministry for me that I wouldn't have envisioned but it is tailor made for me.  We are at a season of blessing and stability even in the midst of unstable times and are very aware that it is because of God's grace and mercy. 

Now as I traced the many years leading to this point, there are not many reasons to credit myself for these good things. There have been tough calls, adversities, right decisions yes, but wrong ones to, recessions, church conflict, good presidents, foolish ones, lack of income, illness, surgeries, times when we were deep in debt, got close to losing our house, many answered prayers, many times of silence. Throughout the whole time I did what I knew to do and what I could do and tried to negotiate and work with people to find ways to navigate the various circumstances as they arose. Now, there is a great calm, and the blessings I described earlier are ours by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. 

The one constant has been prayer. I have always made it the priority in my life to read the Scripture and to pray daily. It has been what we call the devotional life.  It is the cultivation of relationship with God, the learning of right teaching, the relief and struggle of prayer, an insight that turns into a sermon, the whisper of His assuring voice that He is with me no matter what the circumstances look like. It is the activity that somehow engages God to act on our behalf, to His glory. 

So as I sat and considered His blessings, I realized that He is faithful no matter what the culture is doing or how irresponsible and wicked our government becomes. He will fix our wrong decisions, forgive our sins, restore what the destroyer ruins, if we are constant in the discipline of prayer. Then, one day we will realize how patient He has been with us and how good he is to us. But we must pray. It is the only sane and rational thing to do in these insane and irrational times.

I'm very grateful for my times of prayer and devotion. I'm very grateful for the blessings I enjoy today. There is definitely a connection.  It's not a simple thing. It's not that we pray and poof ! our wish comes true. It is the discipline to pray, trust, listen, persist, and when it turns out to be not what you would have chosen, to go God's way by faith and submission. It's God by His Holy Spirit shaping and molding you and me into His image, for life in His economy. I hope you will begin today, to cultivate a life of devotion and prayer through faith in Jesus Christ.  One day you will look at your situation and say like I say, surely God is good and has been good to me.

Fight Your Good Fight

 I think most people who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ have as their real hope that at the end of our life on Earth we will be ushered into the Presence of God, the risen Christ, and the glory of heaven. It has served as a kind of compass that I focus on as I pass through all the situations and events that make up life. I've referred to that as a kind of north star, constant, fixed and certain and have found it to be very helpful when circumstances get difficult and hurtful. It reminds me that the hurts and trials of this life are only temporary, and a new life full of the glory of God awaits me and all of us who trust Jesus for salvation. 

The other day I finished a book that had to do with getting rid of sin in our lives. It is called," The Mortification of Sin" by John Owen.  There were definite steps and mindsets that could be taken and developed and the author was solemn and encouraging at the same time. It has touched me in a way that one book hasn't in quite a while. As I've been thinking about it the past several days, the importance of purity in body, mind and soul has been heavy in my thoughts. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that without sanctification none of us will see the Lord. So my question to you who may be reading is-What is that sin you need to deal with? We all have at least that one sin that we just don't overcome. Try as we might, with all our good intention to do better next time, the prayers, tears, repentance and feelings of guilt, etc. just have not cut it.  It's there and some of us have gotten to the point where we just live with it. 

Let me encourage you to realize that no matter what that sin may be that plagues you, there is victory possible in Christ, and you can be rid of it. Mark 7:21-23 has a list of sins that Jesus said were particularly defiling to us. As we read the list we know that some things I may be prone to, you have no problem with. Conversely you may struggle in an area that for me was settled long ago. We all know that none of us are prone to all these things, but all of us are prone to some of them. 

What is it that you really want to rid from your life? There is a way to be free from it. Basically and very simply, step one is to call it for what it is-sin. Then through a process of prayer, confession, brutal honesty, and faith no matter how weak it seems to be, declare yourself dead to that sin and a recipient of the strong grace of God. It is a daily battle that can be fierce and draining, but the victory will certainly be yours. 

Remember,  God has saved you and me for a purpose and a home in glory with Him. Holiness is required for that purpose to be fulfilled, and your longing for the heavenly realm to see the face of the Savior can be a strong motivator to press on and fight this good fight. Don't let one particularly stubborn sin or habit be the obstacle that threatens you eternal hope and joy. It is a fight, but it is a good fight. God be with you as you start.

The Purpose Of Godliness

 The Apostle Paul gives instruction to his co worker Timothy who he assigned to serve as pastor of the church in the city of Ephesus. His instruction was to avoid worldly myths and fables and to be disciplined for the purpose of godliness. The same instruction is pertinent for our time. We as the church of Jesus Christ are those to whom God has revealed truth, His Spirit, salvation, and His great purpose for humanity. This purpose is that God will through Jesus redeem and make holy a people for Himself and His eternal glory to dwell with Him forever. This is the great unrecognized theme being accomplished in all history and it will certainly be fulfilled one day.

Timothy was encouraged to discipline himself for the purpose of godliness, because godliness is living in accordance with God's great eternal purpose. As such we reject fables, myths, and all systems of thought and practices that are contrary to the eternal and sure principles of truth and the word of God to humanity.  Our discipline consists of first learning and understanding that word from God to us, and then living according to the clear and unchanging principles and teaching that it is. As we grow in this respect, we demonstrate lives that are unique, different from the prevailing culture and trends around us. We live out the reality of God's word through His Spirit,  Who dwells within each true follower of Christ. This living out is what may be called godliness. 

So what is the purpose of godliness Paul stresses to Timothy? It is in part, to testify to truth. To make known that the myths and fables of our time are just that, imaginations of deceived minds and souls that lead people, families and entire nations astray. The myths that are supposed to bring happiness, justice and equality to all people, end up being the means of oppression and tyranny. Fables that attempt to explain and give cohesiveness to lives, instead destroy hope, reason, purpose and cause life to be cheapened and to deteriorate. Our United States is under the burden of such fables and myths. It is much deeper than political differences. Our leaders are of the most immoral and unstable character.  They have imposed upon us policies and laws that have no foundation in reality, but are the product of fables and myths they have adopted in their own perception of life.  

 The people of Jesus must be a people disciplined for the purpose of godliness  now more than ever before in our history. We have moved far away from the original vision our fathers had for America. The only hope for us is that we recapture that vision through a true resurgence of Holy Spirit activity with power. He will bring  conviction of our sins, a repentance and determination to live in truth, and a realigning of personal and cultural priorities.  It's a huge need and a huge purpose, but it is the purpose of godliness for which we must discipline ourselves. If we don't who will? We have the solution the means and the purpose. Do we have the discipline?

 

 

Still Confident In Christ

 It's a snowy winters day as I begin to write once again.  It's been about one year since my last entry, and I really am not sure how this will proceed in the days ahead. At the time of my last entry I was extremely troubled over the state of things in the USA. Now one year later I think I can say that my troubled heart was and is correct. An illegitimate president, enacting illegitimate decisions and policies have driven us to more confusion and disruption. His cohorts in Government and the media propaganda machinery have added fuel to an already hurtful state of the union. 

 My faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is intact, and I realize He is not taken by surprise at the ungodliness being foisted upon the nation in the name of politics and policy. My heart is grieving for my nation, yet I know I'm created for a greater nation, a heavenly one, where all this confusion and wrong will have no place. But today the cold snow flies.  Yet still, that snow has a good purpose in the hand of God Who sustains all things. It will bring moisture to the ground which in turn will bring forth life, food, and bread to those who sow the seeds of produce in our blessed land.   As a Christian I trust that even the confusion and trials besetting this nation will be used in the mighty hand of Christ, to sow seeds of victory and worship, as people begin to recognize the wrong we have done in excluding Christ from our national life. 

Maybe we will repent because we get sick of our sins and their natural and logical consequences, and have had our fill of our ways. Maybe. It is up to the church of Jesus Christ to be His voice and hands in this time. That has been my prayer for many months now, and I will continue to pray along those lines. Whatever insights and thoughts that may find their way to this little blog, I trust will be helpful to some. May God help me to be who I should be, and His church to be what it should be as well.