Psalm 126:4-6 (ESV)
4 Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like streams in the Negeb!
5 Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!
6 He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

Israel asked for a dramatic turnaround in this Psalm. Their prayer was to restore them to the way that they were before they turned away from God.

The streams mentioned in verse 4 are those in the South of Judah. During the dry season, they are just stream beds, no water in them. However, in the rainy season, they become torrents of water. The psalmist is asking for a flood, a rapid change from God. Sometimes God answers prayer with a flood, sometimes He answers slowly after a long period of persistent prayer.

In verse 5 there is a link between the future joy to the present sorrow. The psalmist is indicating that unless we weep over our sin, unless we really understand the full measure of the sin in our lives we will not receive the full joy that God wants to provide. If we want revival, the first step is a deep understanding and acknowledgement of our sin. If I don’t think about it, I can fall into a mode where I look at myself as “not too bad” in God’s eyes. Certainly, because of the blood of Jesus we are now righteous. However, if we are truly going to be sanctified as Jesus would want, we have to deal with our sin at a fundamental level. No sugar coating. No comparison of others that we see as worse sinners. We must fully repent, in tears as the psalmist says. That is how we have to operate each and every day. That is our present condition.

Verse 6 then shows the future result of that. We will see the fruit. Only then can revival come.

When we pray, as we praise God for our relationship in Christ, we must also take a look deep within ourselves. No matter how much we “DO”, unless we are working on the sin in our lives with the help of the Holy Spirit, revival will not come.

Do you want revival? Are you ready to do what is needed? Let’s start with tears of repentance. Let’s pray about our own relationship with God, asking Him to reveal the sin in our lives.

Malachi 3:8-10 (NASB)
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.
9 “You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you!
10 “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.

Not much has changed since the time of the prophet Malachi, where he reminds Israel of their willful disobedience of God. This was around 430 B.C and Israel had turned away from God’s commands. They were not bringing their first fruits into the temple, but rather what little they did bring was worthless in God’s sight. Most Christians today are no different. Only a small percentage bring their tithe into the church today.

Today, Malachi 3:10 is often misused in “progressive” churches that preach a prosperity message. The motivation to tithe that is taught has nothing to do with God’s love and His commandments, but rather only on the financial blessing that they are promised. Those tithes are also worthless in God’s sight.

When I hear of this, I am reminded of the Laura Story song, “Blessings”, where she sings…

“What if your blessings come through rain drops,
What if Your healing comes through tears,
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near,
What if Trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise.”

Pray with me that each of us will bring the entire tithe into Christ’s church, so we can experience the overflowing blessings that God has in store for us. May we pray that the blessing we seek is God’s will for us and not something that we want. May He give us what we need instead, even if it is rain drops or tears. For then we will be truly blessed because we will know that He is near. Pray for God’s mercies, and trust in them even if they might seems disguised to us at the time.

Praises and thanksgiving to Him who loves us so much that He only wants what is good for us.

Always praying for the glory of God,

Chris McKean

I don’t think it is a coincidence that the relationship of Jesus and the church is likened to a marriage. Marriage is a sacred union and one that God has prescribed clearly in scripture. What is interesting is that the churches of the early church suffered with the same struggles we do today. Jesus tells Pergamum and Thyatira that they have neglected congregational discipline, something that is lacking in many modern churches. As a result, marriage is not treated as a sacred union by the general population, but rather a union of convenience, one that can be abandoned as easily as a child abandons a toy that is no longer of interest.

As I thought about that, it brought chills to me thinking: What if Jesus treated His bride like so many do today? What if His love for us was dependent on how much we loved Him? What if He could walk away from us if He grew tired of our sinful ways?

I praise God that Jesus is committed to His bride. I know that marriage requires the commitment of both parties. However, I pray that men in this culture would become committed to their marriages in the same way that Jesus is to the church. I pray that even though marriage is not perfect, even in the best of marriages, men would treat that union in the same way that Jesus treats the church. He will not turn away, He will not abandon, even as we continue to sin and repent our way through sanctification. I wonder how much the divorce rate would go down, if only the men of this world would have that level of commitment.

For those of us that are married, may we pray for each other that our marriages would be a reflection of God’s perfect plan. And for those that aren’t married, may they pray that if God plans for you to remain single that He will use your singleness for the Kingdom. And if He calls you into marriage that He would begin preparing a Christian mate for you even today.  Too many people go into marriage with expectations of change in the other party.  Make sure that your future mate is one that will be like Jesus treats his bride.

We can learn much from the theologians that lived during the Reformation. The doctrinal documents that they created were a result of the dedication to the study of scripture. Actually study doesn’t even begin to describe the level of effort that these people put into what is now fundamental to the reformed church of today. As it was in the beginning of the church, false teaching has existed in all periods of the church. We can use these doctrinal documents in our study of scripture and prayer to help us discern the will of God. There is nothing wrong with leaning on the work of those that have gone before us.

Some of these are the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the Larger and Shorter Catechism which were developed over a 5 year period in the mid 1600’s.

In the mid-1720’s the concept of Ordo Salutis was developed by reformed theologians, again based upon critical study of scripture, most particularly Romans Chapter 8.

Ordo Salutis means order of salvation, so this was an attempt to define the consecutive steps in the work of the Holy Spirit along with our responses to the Spirit.

The beauty of Ordo Salutis is that it highlights that many of the steps of salvation is purely the work of God, with only a couple of steps that require our response or willingness to work with the Holy Spirit.

The order does not imply equal time periods of salvation. Some occur over time, while others are instantaneous.

Here are seven steps:

1. Calling – Initiation of salvation by the Holy Spirit. This is a special “effectual” calling by God.
2. Regeneration – The Holy Spirit renews our hearts, i.e. we are able to hear and understand the Gospel.
3. Conversion – sometimes called the AHA moment. Conversion is a combination of faith, which is a gift from God, leading us to repentance and declaring Jesus as our Lord and Savior. This is the step that is often the beginning point of discussion regarding salvation, yet it is not.
4. Justification – This is a legal act by God declaring us righteous based upon the perfect work of Christ.
5. Adoption – This step gives us the rights and privileges as children of God, i.e. we are now able to call upon Him as “Abba” Father.
6. Sanctification – process that occurs over time where we are willing to be molded by the Holy Spirit. This has been describes as God adding small amounts of glory to us, glory added to glory as we become more Christ-like.
7. Glorification – this is the final step where we become perfect when we join Christ in heaven.

What does this have to do with prayer? Ordo Salutis emphasizes the importance of prayer particularly in those steps that require our participation, i.e. in the step of Conversion and the process of Sanctification. Our initial acceptance of what God has given us the ability to see is critical. The long process of sanctification cannot proceed as God has planned for us without study of scripture and prayer.

As we study God’s word our prayer life changes. As we learn to understand that it isn’t about our wants and needs, but rather His will, our prayers transition from things about us to Him. What I have found is that if I don’t read His word every day, I can slip back into thinking about what I want and my prayer life suffers.

Ordo Salutis shows us God’s plan for salvation, the beauty of His plan, that it is about Him and not about us, which leads us to praise Him even more.

Last week, I had the privilege to share the gospel with a group of people at our Daily Rest. This is what I told them…

I’ve discovered over the years that when you talk to people about spiritual things, you’ll find that some of them have no interest in religion or God. When you ask them why that is so, they often respond with, “Christianity has too many rules and regulations, too many do’s and don’ts. I just want to be free and not tied down to anything.” What you always find as you probe further into their lives, is that the reason they don’t worship God is because they are worshiping someone or something else.

You see, that is the way we are wired. We will worship someone or something. If it isn’t God, then it will be something else. And that something else will be the thing that we serve, the thing that we are a slave to.

That leads us to a question that we all have to ask ourselves, “Why would I want to worship God?”

For Christians, the answer to that question is the Gospel, which literally means The Good News. A challenge I have found is that explaining the Gospel can sometimes seem complicated or mysterious. However, a few years ago, I heard the Gospel explained in 12 words, actually 3 four word phrases. Here it is…

We lost it all,
He did it all,
We get it all.

Pretty simple, easy to understand, and remember. Although some detail about each phrase helps to make sense of them. Then when you say those 12 words, it answers the question of why we would want to worship God.

We lost it all. We know from the Bible that when God created the heavens and the earth, he also created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. God’s creation was perfect, including these two people. They were given a perfect creation to enjoy. God had just one law for them. There was a tree in their garden and they were not to eat the fruit from that tree. Well, if you are familiar with the story, we know that Adam and Eve ate from that tree and broke God’s law. As a result, because God is perfect and a just God, there were consequences for doing what they did. Adam and Eve were no longer perfect, they could get diseases and die, and in fact the entire creation was no longer perfect. We live in a broken world and we are broken people. We literally lost it all, in fact we lost perfection.

He did it all. Fortunately God had a plan, because He wanted mankind to be able to be with Him in heaven one day. His plan was to send His son, Jesus Christ to earth, to live a perfect life (in fact Jesus is the only person that has ever lived a perfect life) and to die on a cross. In three days He was brought back to life to prove that He, Jesus is God, and then sometime later ascended to heaven, where He waits for us. So, what is the “all” that Jesus did for us? Well, when He died on the cross, He didn’t just die physically, He also took on the punishment for all of the broken laws of God (we call that sin) that all of mankind has committed, past, present, and future. That is the Good News, in fact it is great news, because He did the impossible, something that we cannot do for ourselves.

We get it all. Since Jesus did the hard part, the impossible part that we can’t do, we only have to respond to get it all. This is the easy part… There are just a few simple things that we need to do to obtain eternal life with God. First, we need to acknowledge that we are not perfect and have broken God’s laws, i.e. sinned and we have to tell God we are sorry. When we see sinful things in our lives we have to tell God that we are going to turn away from them with His help. Second, we need to acknowledge that we need a Savior, and that Jesus did it all for us. Finally, we need to take a look at the thing or things that we have been worshiping and say to God that we will no longer worship them, but we are now going to worship Jesus.

That’s the Gospel. We lost it all, He did it all, we get it all.

For those of us that are Christians, we know that it isn’t about rules and regulations, about do’s and don’ts. We have realized the amazing thing that Jesus did for us, something that is impossible for us to do. Because of that we love Him and worship Him and we want to serve Him.

If you aren’t a Christian, I would suggest that you take a look at the thing or things that you worship. Is there anything that you worship that is greater than what Jesus did for you? When you worship things of this world, they are like the mist, here today and gone tomorrow. Only God is eternal, only Jesus can save. Something to think about…

We lost it all, He did it all, we get it all.

Praise God for the Gospel.  Lift up your prayers of thanksgiving to Him for what He did for you.

Psalm 66:18 (NASB)
18 If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear;

Psalm 66:18 (MSG)
18 If I had been cozy with evil, the Lord would never have listened.

Psalm 66:18 (ESV)
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

Psalm 66 is a psalm about answered prayer. When you get to verse 18, it clearly tells of a condition for which God will not listen to our prayers. The NASB translation uses “regard”, which is better understood when you read the Message or English Standard version.

It has taken me a lot of years to understand the connection between known sin in my life and God’s willingness to listen to my supplications. It is so easy to not see the sin in our lives or to deceive ourselves into thinking that it really isn’t a sin.

What has made the difference has been accountability from other men in my life. It seems that it is easy for women to seek out other women that they can be accountable to, yet for many men (me included) it is easier to be an island. Easier to rely on my own counsel.

If you dig deep into the lives of the great men of God over the centuries, more often than not, they had other men in their lives that could hold them accountable. Even Jesus, who was fully man and fully God, sought out the counsel of His Father. It is how God wired us. We need others that we trust to speak the truth that we often won’t or don’t want to see in ourselves.

We live in a society today that lives on false beliefs and half-truths. We need partners that can bring our lives back into focus and on the right track.

When we do, it makes our prayer lives so much more fruitful.

Psalm 136, like many Psalms, is a prayer. It is also a responsive reading that was probably used by Israel to praise and remember God and the great things that He did. Remembering what He has done in our lives is what draws us into true worship. Without that, it is an impersonal relationship.

Every verse ends with the following phrase, “For His lovingkindness is everlasting”.
This Psalm has 26 verses, but is segmented into 5 different categories and ends with a final praise.
• The Creator 1-9
• The Redeemer 10-12
• The Shepherd 13-16
• The Conqueror 17-22
• The Deliverer 23-25
• Final Praise 26

During your prayer time this week, use the format of this wonderful psalm and come up with the specific praises that He has done for you. Make this a personal psalm that you can pray with each praise ending with “For His lovingkindness is everlasting”.

I pray that we can use this to draw into true worship and a closer relationship with our Lord.
Always praying for the glory of God,
Chris McKean

I was reading an article this week in the online magazine published by the PCA called “Flirting with Darkness?”. The author was discussing how our world develops wrong teachings and thoughts about Satan.

He quoted a famous statement made by C.S. Lewis about Satan. “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors.”

It made me think about the distortions that can creep into our society and even our churches. The New Testament has a number of examples of false teaching that the apostles dealt with in the early church. Examples can be found in 2 Corinthians, Colossians, 1 Timothy, 2 Peter, 2 John, and Jude to name a few. And it continues today. The worst are beliefs that are 90% truth, but the remaining 10% make the whole thing false. I’m sure we can all identify illustrations of false teaching in our society and in some churches.

So what does this have to do with prayer and what are we to do about it?

As followers of Jesus Christ we have a responsibility to read and understand what God has revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures. One way to gain an understanding of scripture is to pray it back to God. What we then are able to understand about scripture tells us what we need to believe about Him. That distillation of the revelation from God about who He is and what He has done for us is our doctrine.

But doctrine has become a dirty word these days in many circles, probably because doctrinal documents are so closely associated with the various denominations within the church. Our denomination holds that scripture is inerrant and the very word of God. Our denomination also believes that the distillation of that word into doctrinal concepts can be found in the Westminster Confession of Faith, which is based entirely on scripture.

In generations past, especially during times of revival, believers would study the Bible, earnestly praying that God would reveal Himself to them. They would use documents like the Westminster Confession to pray over, so that they could discern God’s will and purpose. Too many Christians today, abdicate that responsibility to the Pastor of the church to teach them what they should believe via the sermon. In times past, exhortation of the Word was primarily worship; worship that encouraged Christians to study the Word even more deeply on their own.

Many in our church have a wonderful grounding of scripture and doctrine because they have a passion for God’s Word and study it every day. It shows in how they pray. If you want your prayer life to grow, use prayer in the scriptures to do that. You might even try praying over the Westminster Confession.

Always praying for the glory of God,

Chris McKean