Monthly Archives: January 2017

Prayer Changes the Person

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Here is a quote from A.W. Tozer from his collection of essays called “The Price of Neglect”.

And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. –John 14:13-14

“In all our praying, however, it is important that we keep in mind that God will not alter His eternal purposes at the word of a man. We do not pray in order to persuade God to change His mind. Prayer is not an assault upon the reluctance of God, nor an effort to secure a suspension of His will for us or for those for whom we pray. Prayer is not intended to overcome God and “move His arm.” God will never be other than Himself, no matter how many people pray, nor how long nor how earnestly.

God’s love desires the best for all of us, and He desires to give us the best at any cost. He will open rivers in desert places, still turbulent waves, quiet the wind, bring water from the rock, send an angel to release an apostle from prison, feed an orphanage, open a land long closed to the gospel. All these things and a thousand others He has done and will do in answer to prayer, but only because it had been His will to do it from the beginning. No one persuades Him.

What the praying man does is to bring his will into line with the will of God so God can do what He has all along been willing to do. Thus prayer changes the man and enables God to change things in answer to man’s prayer.”

Let’s pray,

Heavenly Father,
Praises to You who are in heaven. Holy is Your name. We pray that your kingdom would come. That your will would be done, on earth as it is in heaven. May our will conform to Yours.
We pray this in Jesus name,

Amen

Always praying for the glory of God,

Identity in Christ

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Our identity seems more often than not to be tied to race, gender, profession, geography, sports teams and politics these days. Everyone wants to be associated with those that are like them or we want to be like. It is easy to get drawn into that mindset.

But as a Christian, our identity is in Christ.

Matthew 10:24-25 (NASB)
24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.
25 “It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master.

I think I’m focused on my identity in Christ, but then I catch myself thinking and saying things that prove otherwise. However, spending time on spiritual disciplines takes us away from those false identities and allows us to adjust our identity to only Christ. It allows us to live in the world and enjoy God’s creation without being of the world.

Have you come up with your list of spiritual disciplines? It takes some thought because they are not detailed in scriptures as spiritual disciplines. Instead they are attributes modeled by Jesus in the way He lived and by the things He taught. Bible scholars don’t always agree on the definitive list, but there is always a common group that all agree upon. Here is a list from author Don Whitney in his book on “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.”

Bible Intake
Prayer
Worship
Evangelism
Service
Stewardship
Fasting
Silence/Solitude
Journaling
Learning

Wow, it is easy to look at this list and get overwhelmed. Yet when you consider how much time we spend in life focusing on false identities, we realize that if we are to become disciples, we are going to need to change our priorities.

If you want to change your priorities towards becoming a disciple, join us on Tuesday nights as we explore getting to know Jesus through prayer.

Always praying for the glory of God,

The Pursuit of Holiness

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The last year has been an interesting journey. Looking back, I would not have predicted the path where I would be led, or where I would end up. But God has a way of getting you where you need to be.

Part of the journey has revolved around spiritual disciplines, or as Donald Whitney describes it, “spiritually placing ourselves in the path of God’s grace and seeking Him.”

He also said that “Christians are called to make themselves do what they would not naturally do (practice spiritual disciplines) in order to experience what God desires them to be (like Christ).

1 Timothy 4:7b (NASB)
7 discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness

So, this is not something that comes naturally to any of us. It only appears as a desire when we fully embrace the love of Christ and what He has done for us. But we do have a way of getting it wrong as we pursue it. First of all, we forget that spiritual disciplines are a means to a goal (to be like Christ, to grow in godliness). We forget that they are activities, not attitudes. When we make them an end in themselves, we make them into idols. We can, in fact practice disciplines without being godly. I guess that is Satan’s way of undermining God’s perfect plan.

Have you known anyone that gets involved in a lot of church activities, but doesn’t read their Bible, or doesn’t spend time in prayer? Many people treat the disciplines in scripture as a smorgasbord from which to pick and choose. They often do this because they are so involved in one that they tell themselves that they have no time for any of the others.

I had to back away from some areas of service last year because I began feeling that I needed to address some of the other disciplines. The goal of godliness can’t be achieved if you only address one or two of them.

So, I continue to pray that God would give me the proper balance to work on all of the spiritual disciplines. I pray that through all of this He will “discipline me for the purpose of godliness”.

Always praying for the glory of God,

Bearing the fruit of Life

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Romans 7:4-6 (NASB)
4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

Romans 8:1-2 (NASB)
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Paul points out to us in Romans 7 that before the Holy Spirit enters us, we are under the Law, the perfect Law of God. While we are in the flesh, the Law (instead of drawing us to God), rather inflames our sinful passions, leading to death; bearing the fruit of death. It is like the child that is told by their Mother that they cannot have a cookie. It makes them want it even more. In the garden, God told Adam and Eve that they couldn’t eat the fruit of one tree. It didn’t take much persuasion (one conversation, not years and years of influencing) for the serpent to convince them to eat it anyway.

However, when we die to the Law through the sacrifice of Christ, we are then able to bear fruit for God, the fruit of life. We are able to live for Christ rather than die because we can’t keep the Law of a perfect God.

This new life in Christ should bring us to our knees in continuous prayer with praise and thanksgiving.

This is why Charles Spurgeon made the following statement…
“Prayer is the breath, the watchword, the comfort, the strength, the honor of a Christian.”

Always praying for the glory of God,

Praying Future Prayers – On that Day

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Isaiah 12:1-6 (NASB)
1 Then you will say on that day, “I will give thanks to You, O LORD; For although You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, And You comfort me.
2 “Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For the LORD GOD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.”
3 Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation.
4 And in that day you will say, “Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples; Make them remember that His name is exalted.”
5 Praise the LORD in song, for He has done excellent things; Let this be known throughout the earth.
6 Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

This brief chapter of Isaiah is full of principles of prayer.
1. Pray with thanksgiving to God for His comfort,
2. Pray as those of the future kingdom will pray,
3. Pray in joy overflowing,
4. Pray with a heart of gratitude,
5. Pray trusting in God, for He is great.

Isaiah was pointing to the Messiah, when he said “on that day” and was telling Israel that they should look towards the future with hope and trust in God, praying in thanksgiving to that future state.

I know I am often stuck in today’s troubles and today’s issues, when I should be praising God for His faithfulness and for His promises. I should be rejoicing in that future state, trusting in Him. When we have our eye on the prize, today’s troubles have little meaning. Paul said it well in Romans…

Romans 8:18 (NASB)
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

If you want to turn away from thoughts of self to the glory that He is, then join us this Tuesday at 7pm for a time of thanksgiving.

Always praying for the glory of God,

Nothing but the Truth

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Psalm 25:5
Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day.

John 4:24 (Jesus speaking)
God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.

The Truth – Christians believe that they have been given the truth from God and that is true (no pun intended). However, we often forget several important things about truth…

  1. The truth isn’t ours, “lead me in Your truth”. It comes from God.
  2. Just because we are Christians, we don’t come anywhere close to living the truth,
  3. Because we still deal with a sin nature, we can get the truth wrong, or distort it in a way that God didn’t intend.

The problem isn’t the truth, for it comes from a perfect God. The problem is us.

We forget that there are ways to speak the truth, to not compromise the truth, yet speak it in love. For when we forget the last part, we become something that turns others away. I wonder why I get that wrong so often? Why is it so easy to compare others to my standard when I am not living the truth? Why do I forget to love and instead judge others?

Because we know the truth, for Christians it can be very dangerous because it can lead to pride, arrogance, and elitism. We take the truth and without God’s leading, we then believe it creates in us wisdom, goodness and purity in our lives. Without a humble heart, it can turn into something quite ugly.

Psalm 25:5 is something I need to pray and meditate on each and every day. It is something that should come to mind every time I am faced with someone that doesn’t know or hasn’t been exposed to God’s truth. It should especially come to mind when other Christians have made the truth a hammer to correct others, rather than a reason to love them and show them God’s truth by the way they live.

I pray for God’s teaching and that I will wait on him all day, for He is my salvation.

Always praying for the glory of God,

Do we want revival?

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I was reflecting today on the church, revival and the Holy Spirit. It seems that A.W. Tozer was concerned about how the Holy Spirit was grieved by the church during his days in ministry in the 1920’s to the early 1960’s. He was quoted as saying, “If the Holy Spirit left most churches today, 95% of the people would not even notice, but during the early church it would have been immediately recognized.”

Leonard Ravenhill had an interesting thought about the church. He said, “You never have to advertise a fire. Everyone comes running when there’s a fire. Likewise, if your church is on fire, you will not have to advertise it. The community will already know it.”

Both quotes are about the role of the Holy Spirit in the church. It seems that today most churches are a revolving door, people coming and going. There are always a lot of reasons why people leave and move to another church, but I don’t think anyone ever left because the Holy Spirit had too much influence, or because people loved each other too much. It is probably why a major revival has been absent for so long in America.

Henry Blackaby, once said, “When Holy God draws near in true revival, people come under terrible conviction of sin. The outstanding feature of spiritual awakening has been the profound consciousness of the presence and holiness of God.”

Everyone says that revival would be wonderful, but after you think about what it really involves, most people would rather just keep the status quo. Leonard Ravenhill said, “As long as we are content to live without revival, we will.” Revival requires prayer, a lot of it and by a lot of people. It requires prayers of repentance, a deep inward look into ourselves and that “terrible conviction of sin”.

It’s only when we quit deceiving ourselves by thinking that we are pretty good people, that revival has a chance. It’s not much fun thinking about and confessing your sins. The Holy Spirit has been revealing some of these to me and I have to say, it’s not a pretty picture. And I’m very sure that I don’t even know a small portion of it yet. But I do know that if Christ’s church is to be what He wants, we have to make sure the Holy Spirit, and He alone is in control of it. When He is in control, we will be in love with Him and with each other so much that it will draw other people to the fire. Then revival can begin.

If you want to pray about that, come this Tuesday to prayer at 7pm.

Always praying for the glory of God,

Grace and Prayer – Journal Entry

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I wish that I had known about grace when I was 12 years old. I know God had a reason for not teaching me about that until I was 40, but after He did, I do regret the lost years. I went through the motions of accepting Jesus when I was a youth. I attended church faithfully with my family, sang in the choir, went to the youth classes and events, but my main motivation was that I was running away from hell, not running towards Jesus. Prayer was about pleading with God to save me from eternal destruction rather than talking and getting to know the only real friend we have.

The Christians in the church that I attended growing up, who appeared to be the proper “models” seemed pretty serious. There was the pastor who spent his sermons telling us about all of the things we shouldn’t do, because Jesus didn’t do that. In the church choir, I sat next to a man who was that serious type. He rarely smiled, didn’t say much, and took pages of notes during the sermon. I really worried that I would need to be like him if I was to be a good Christian. I didn’t realize until years later that they all just wore masks to cover the guilt that they felt because they didn’t measure up. Until I learned that, I did the same, creating my own masks. I think we all do to some extent.

But, they weren’t all like that. God’s grace has a way of working in people even without good teaching or if we look to the wrong role models. But I guess back then I thought that if you weren’t serious enough, you really weren’t serious about God.

Then years later I learned about grace. It took a long time for that to sink in. And it is still working on me. We talk about sanctification in our walk with Him and I think a lot of it is allowing the Holy Spirit to help us unlearn the lies that the world has told us in our life journey. It is also allowing the Holy Spirit to help us recognize all the masks that we have so carefully created, so we can put them away, never to wear them again.

What I have discovered about grace is that it naturally draws you to prayer. Not the prayers of “save me from hell” or “help me in my time of need”. But grace creates prayers of love, worship, praise, and thankfulness. Those are the prayers that we can pray that go on forever and ever.

Grace and Prayer, it is a powerful combination that allows the love of God to change us. It’s freely accepting His grace and praising Him for it. It’s not about being or doing anything. It is about loving Him and allowing that love to flow out of us to others.

Always praying for the glory of God,

Prayer Thoughts 01/09/2016

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Humility – A Daily Struggle

1 John 4:19-21 (NASB)
19 We love, because He first loved us.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

Humility towards others, if we profess to love God, is the only proof that our humility towards God is real.

Every day I look at the “Holiness Meter” that I hung on my office wall a few months ago that has a pointer that can be adjusted between one end that says Pride and the other end that says Humility. If I am completely honest with myself, the meter needs to be adjusted towards the Pride side all of the time.

Along with reading of scripture, the books of Andrew Murray bring this topic into focus.

A humble person seeks to honor others, to be servants of others, counting others as better than ourselves. The struggle is when others don’t show the grace and mercy that we expect – should I say demand, especially from those that are our brothers and sisters in Christ. How easy it is to not be humble before another who shows us no grace. The expectation of humility, when it isn’t shown to us in others, drives our pride into full view.

Only when we see ourselves as nothing compared to the pure holiness of God, only when we have completely lost ourselves in Him, only when Jesus is our only focus, can we no longer compare ourselves to others.

1 Peter 1:14-16 (NASB)
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,
15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;
16 because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”

How do we give up forever every thought of self, present ourselves as servants to ALL others? I think it begins by remembering that humility doesn’t start with our outward ways, but it begins in our hearts. Through prayer and meditation of scripture, we have the capability as new creatures in Christ to have that humble heart. When the Spirit leads us, there is no envy or jealousy, only love, for those emotions don’t exist in the Spirit. I long for the day when the only pride that is left in me is the pride that Jesus is my Savior.

Always praying for the glory of God,

Prayer Thoughts 01/02/2017

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Malachi 4:5 (NASB)
5 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.

Matthew 11:14 (NASB)
14 “And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come.

Matthew 17:11-13 (NASB)
11 And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things;
12 but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.”
13 Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.

The prophet Malachi was the last prophet in the Old Testament and he prophesized that Elijah would return. What is amazing about this is that 400 years pass between Malachi and John the Baptist. To put that in perspective, 400 years ago in 1616 is the year that Shakespeare died. 400 years elapsed where the prophets of God were silent until the coming of Christ.

As I thought about the magnitude of that time period, I realized how thankful I should be that I live in a point of history after the first coming of Jesus. I’m thankful that I didn’t live in times where the prophets of God were silent. I’m thankful that the Holy Spirit now lives in the hearts of all the saints.

It’s easy to focus on the forces of evil and all of the challenges that we are faced with in our current times. However, we are truly blessed to live in 2017. As we start this New Year, may our praises and thanksgiving to God be the foundation of our prayers. We have much to praise God, for He is truly worthy and we can live a life of gratitude for knowing Jesus as our Savior.

If you would like to praise God and express your thankfulness to Him with other Christians, come to prayer this Tuesday at 7pm.

Always praying for the glory of God,