He Touched Me - My Pilgrimage of Prayer

Greetings All,

     After sending out my "thought"  last week from John Powell's book, "He Touched Me - My Pilgrimage of Prayer,"  and receiving the positive response I got back as a result, I thought I would send out one more from the same book.  This selection has to do with honest "self-disclosure" with God in our times of prayer.  I have found what he says to be true to my own experience and have recommended it to others. Therefore, I also commend it to you.  Enjoy. 

     "I hear Jesus say, "Without me you can do nothing. You can bear no fruit. I am the Vine and you are the branches. Cut off from me you are dead."  I hear St. John say that only he who knows God can know the meaning of love.  I hear St. Paul describe love as the highest and greatest gift of the Spirit.  Wherever I have found love I have felt the presence of God; God at work in the minds and hearts and muscles of people.

     My experience of God has been working this transformation in me, too. Oh, I am still a very selfish person. God is not finished with me yet. Others may not think of me as a very effective lover, but they do not know the before and after; they cannot read the motives of the heart. The process of divinization, in which God makes us more and more into his image and likeness, is a slow and gradual process.  I am still a pilgrim.  But I have been touched and I am partially transformed. This is the basis of my hope. The God who has touched me in the past will act again and again in my life. Over and over again I will feel his finger and find him.

     Where has all this led me? Where has God, through all this, been leading me? I now understand and approach prayer as communication in a relationship of love, a speaking and listening in truth and in trust. Speaking to God honestly is the beginning of prayer.  It locates a person before God.  I believe that the primary "giving" of love is the giving of one's self through self-disclosure. Without such self-disclosure there is not real giving, for it is only in that moment when we are willing to put our true selves on the line, to be taken for better or for worse, to be accepted or rejected, that true interpersonal encounter begins.  We do not begin to offer ourselves to others until we offer ourselves in this way, for love demands presence, not presents. All my "gifts" (presents) are a mere motion until I have given my true self (presence) in honest self-revelation.

     As in all interpersonal relationships, so in the relationship with God. I do not put myself into his hands or confront his freedom of choice to accept or reject me, to love or loathe me, until I have told him who I really am. Only then can I ask him: Will you have me?  Will you let me be yours? Will you be mine? Martin Luther's first law of success in prayer was: "Don't lie to God!"  In speaking to God in the dialogue of prayer, we must reveal our true and naked selves. We must tell him the truth of our thoughts, desires, and feelings, whatever they may be.  They may not be what I would like them to be, but they are not right or wrong, true or false. They are me.

     I am sure that this has benefited me in many other ways, but certainly it has enabled to speak more honestly to my God. It has freed me from the lie of those prefabricated pious cliches that are death to true conversational prayer.  I have told him where I really live -- in belief and unbelief. I have told him of my weariness in answering his call.  Of the emotional resentment I feel at being a public utility, a servant to be used and taken for granted. I have ventilated all my neurotic, throbbing emotions... I have been like Job of the Old Testament, cursing the day he made me, and like the prophet Jeremiah, accusing God of making not a prophet, but a fool of me. I have been a King David singing of his mercy and forgiveness, which I have always needed along the way of my pilgrimage.

     There is something so healing about "letting it all out" with God. The psychiatrist Karl Jung defined neurosis in terms of an inner cleavage, a war within, the existence of fraction-hood or inward division. With Paul we all know that there is, "another law warring in my members."  The real problem is confronted when we come to the question of our willingness to accept ourselves in this human condition of weakness. Will we be comfortable as a fraction, a creature of ambiguity whose evil is always mixed somehow with good and whose good is always somehow tainted with evil?

     I am sure that my comfort in this human condition depends for me on whether God will accept me this way or not.  I am worth only what I am worth in his eyes.  All the rest is charade. So, I have to put myself on the line the way I am. Charades with God is wasted time. I have to place myself in the posture of trusting his greatness and understanding. This is the essential beginning of prayer."

     Self-disclosure with God requires two things:

     1st) It requires the assurance we will not be rejected for what we share. That is, we need to be assured of the Gospel doctrine of justification; that our acceptance is secured through another on our behalf. That God accepts us fully for Jesus sake, through faith in Him.  Or to put it in theological terms, we must believe the message of the Gospel -- that our justification is not dependent upon our sanctification or performance, but just the opposite!  If we do not believe this, then complete honesty with God and others is nearly impossible.

     2nd) To be searingly honest with God I must believe the biblical declaration that the God  who loves and accepts me in Jesus is all-knowing (Psalm 139:1-4). We must believe that there is nothing hidden from Him, not even the secret things we alone know about ourselves (Ecclesiastes 12:14).  If we think we can hide something from God, we will.  It's not until we know He knows all that we are, that we are  freed to share what we truly feel and struggle with - that mishmash of conflicting desires and compulsions Paul speaks of in Romans 7.  In fact, believing that God knows all, even the secret things, makes anything but complete openness and honesty and transparency and truthfulness with God seem so utterly childish and foolish -- like the child who naively thinks he's not fully exposed to the sight of others simply because he covers his own eyes with his hands! 

     God's omniscience actually beckons me to be completely truthful with him, because it assures me he already knows everything I'm thinking, feeling, and even repressing.  It helps me realize that in prayer he simply wants to hear me tell him what he already knows about me!  It's part of healing that neurotic cleavage and fraction-hood and bringing me (and you) to wholeness. And Powell is right, it does open the door to become the true beginning of real prayer.  Then honest communication replaces the pious cliches we often use to mask the truth of who we are and experience God loving even the darkest parts of us.

In the Bonds of the Transforming Truth of the Gospel,  Pastor Jeff

Every Good Endeavor - Connecting Your Work to God's Work

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" comes to you from Tim Keller's book "Every Good Endeavor - Connecting Your Work to God's Work."   I have not finished it yet (just over half way through), but what I have read is enlightening, inspiring, well-thought-through (as is typical for Keller) and so helpful for those seeking to find meaning and purpose in their jobs or work.  Better yet (as the title suggests), it is helpful for those who would like to connect their work to God's work in this world, and bring redemptive change into their workplace.  In my humble opinion, this book really is a must read.

     We all function according to some type of underlying worldview -- a worldview that guides our choices, priorities and pursuits. "Our worldview," says Keller, "places our work in the context of a history, a cause, a quest... and in so doing it frames the strategy of our work at a high level."  My challenge to you today is to see if your worldview is Christian, non-Christian, or a mixture of competing worldviews spliced together?  Read below and find out...  Enjoy.

The Gospel and Other Worldviews

     "Any worldview consists of posing and answering three questions:  1. How are things supposed to be?  2. What is the main problem with things as they are?  3. What is the solution and how can it be realized?  Leslie Steven's book (Seven Theories of Human Nature) includes Christianity among its "theories," but the author points out how different Christianity is from the alternatives. He observes that "if God has made man for fellowship with Himself, and if man has turned away and broken his relationship to God, then only God can forgive man and restore the relationship." In other words, the biblical worldview uniquely understands the nature, problem, and salvation of humankind as fundamentally relational.  We were made for a relationship with God, we lost our relationship with God through sin against him, and we can be brought back into that relationship through his salvation and grace.

     Plato, Marx, and Freud all identify some part of the created world as the main problem and some other part of the created world as the main solution. The protagonists and antagonists of their respective world-stories are played by finite things.  Thus, Marxism assumes that our problems come from greedy capitalists who won't share the means of economic production with the people. The solution is a totalitarian state.  Freud, on the other hand, believed that our problems come from repression of deep desires for pleasure. The villains are played by the repressive moral "gatekeepers" in society, like the church. The solution is the unrepressed freedom of the individual.  Many people have a worldview that to some degree is indebted to the Greeks or Plato. They think the problem with the world rests in undisciplined and selfish people who won't submit to traditional moral values and responsibilities. The solution is a "revival" of religion, morality, and a virtue in society.  Philosopher Al Wolters writes: "The great danger is to always single out some aspect of God's good creation and identify it, rather than the alien intrusion of sin, as the villain. Such an error conceives of the good-evil dichotomy as intrinsic to the creation itself...  Something in the good creation itself is identified as the source of evil.  In the course of history this "something" has been variously identified as the body and it's passions (Plato and much of Greek philosophy), as culture in distinction from nature (Rousseau and Romanticism), as authority figures in society and family (psycho-dynamic psychology), as economic forces (Marx), as technology and management (Heidegger and existentialists)...  As far as I can tell the Bible is unique in its rejection of all attempts to either demonize some part of creation as the root of our problems, or to idolize some part of creation as the solution. All other religions, philosophies, and worldviews in one way or another fall into the trap of idolatry -- of failing to keep creation and fall distinct.  And this trap is an ever-present danger for Christians [as well]."

     Look again at the uniqueness of Christianity. Only the Christian worldview locates the problem with the world NOT in any part of the world, or any particular group of people, but in sin itself (our loss of relationship with God). And it locates the solution in God's grace (our restoration of a relationship with God through the work of Christ).  Sin infects us all, and so we cannot simply divide the world into the heroes and the villains. (And if we did we would certainly have to include ourselves among the latter as well as the former.) Without an understanding of the Gospel, we will be either naively Utopian or cynically disillusioned We will be demonizing something that isn't bad enough to explain the mess we are in, and we will be idolizing something that isn't powerful enough to get us out of it. This is, in the end, what all other worldviews do... The Christian story line, or worldview, is: Creation (plan), Fall (problem), Redemption and Restoration (solution): 

     1.  The whole world is good.  God made the world and everything in it was good. There are no intrinsically evil parts of the world.  Nothing is evil in its origin... You can find this "creational good" in everything. 

     2. The whole world is fallen.   There is no aspect of the world affected by sin more or less than any other. For example, are emotion and passions untrustworthy and reason infallible?  Is the physical bad and the spiritual good?  Is the day-to-day world profane but religious observances good? None of these is true. But non-Christian story lines must adopt some variations of these in order to villainize and even demonize some created thing instead of sin.

     3. The whole world is going to be redeemed. Jesus is going to redeem spirit and body, reason and emotion, people and nature. There is no part of reality for which there is no hope.

     The Gospel is the true story that God made a good world that was marred by sin and evil, but through Jesus Christ he redeemed it at infinite cost to himself, so that someday he will return to renew all creation; end all suffering and death; and restore absolute peace, justice, and joy in the world forever. The vast implications of this gospel worldview -- about the character of God, the goodness of the material creation, the value of the human person, the fallenness of all people and all things, the primacy of love and grace, the importance of justice and truth, the hope of redemption -- affect everything, and especially our work." 

     That's obviously a bit to chew on!  But I hope it helps you see how the worldview one chooses to adopt will have great effect on how they view their work, carry out their work, and choose to live. My question is:  Do you have a Christian worldview?  Or, like many, have you adopted elements of a Marxist, Greek, Capitalist, or Freudian worldview?  Everyone has a worldview that under-girds their life choices and endeavors. Is your a Gospel worldview, or a syncritistic mix of many others with a small element of Christian lingo or references to Jesus added in?

     And I must stress that it is NOT irrelevant.  Since God commands us: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all you soul and all your mind and all your strength," it would seem to lay upon us as believers an unavoidable responsibility to think things like this through as best we possibly can.  For whatever worldview we have has a profound effect on influencing the choices we make, why we make them, and what we will pursue. It will impact how we treat people, why we love and value the things we do, live as we do, and view work the way we do. 

     So my prayer for everyone is this:  If you have come to Christ, yet retained a non-Christian worldview (or elements from various ones), you will seek (by the grace God gives) to root those elements out and replace them with distinctly Christian or Gospel elements -- something Keller's book distinctly aims at helping us with! 

In His Service, Pastor Jeff 

Prayer, Finding the Heart's True Home

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" is about prayer - simple, awkward, unrehearsed, and often bumbling prayer.  The stage of prayer we must all go through. The stage of prayer we can even feel guilty or embarrassed about (simple and self-centered as we realize our prayers sound after the words have come out of our mouths)!  Yet, as Richard Foster will assure us in this selection, taken from his book, "Prayer, Finding the Heart's True Home," it is a stage that cannot be avoided. And to our surprise, one we may need to return to.  So, whether you are one who has rarely rayed and would like to learn how to pray, or consider yourself to be a seasoned "prayer warrior," this book is helpful, instructive and practical.  This thought comes to you from the very first chapter on, "Simple Prayer" or "Beginning Prayer."  Enjoy.

"Pray as you can, not as you can't."

Dom Chapman

     "We yearn for prayer and hide from prayer... We believe prayer is something we should do, even something we want to do, but it seems like a chasm stands between us and actually praying... We are not quite sure what holds us back. Of course, we are busy with work and family obligations, but that is only a smoke screen. Our busyness seldom keeps us from eating or sleeping or making love. No, there is something deeper and more profound keeping us in check... It is the notion -- almost universal among us modern high-level achievers -- that we have to do everything "just right" in order to pray. That is, before we can really pray, our lives need some fine tuning, or we need to know more about how to pray, or we need to study the philosophical questions surrounding pray, or we need to have a better grasp of the great traditions of prayer. And on and on it goes.  It isn't that these are wrong concerns, or there is never a time to deal with them. But our problem is that we assume prayer is something to master the way we master algebra or auto mechanics. Something that puts us in the "on-top" position, where we are competent and in control...

     I used to think that I needed to get all my motives straightened out before I could pray. I would examine what I had just prayed and think to myself, "How utterly foolish and self-centered; I can't pray this way!" And so I would determine never to pray again until my motives were pure... But the practical effect of all this internal soul-searching was to completely paralyze my ability to pray. The truth of the matter is we all come to prayer with a tangled mess of motives -- altruistic and selfish, merciful and hateful, loving and bitter. Frankly, this side of eternity we will never unravel the good from the bad, the pure from the impure. But what I have come to see is that God is big enough to receive us with all our mixture. We do not have to be bright, or pure, or filled with faith, or anything. That is what grace means, and not only are we saved by grace, we live in it as well. And we pray by it (Ephesians 2:1-10, Romans 5:2, Romans 8:26-27).

     Jesus [in the Lord's Prayer] reminds us that prayer is a little like children coming to their parents. Our children come to us with the craziest requests at times!  Often we are grieved by the meanness and selfishness in their requests, but we would be all the more grieved if they never came to us at all.  We are simply glad they do come -- mixed motives and all. This is precisely how it is with prayer. We will never have pure enough motives, or be good enough, or know enough in order to pray rightly.  We must simply set all these concerns aside and begin praying. In fact, it is in the very act of prayer itself -- the intimate, ongoing interaction with God -- that these matters are cared for in due time. 

     What I am trying to say is that God receives us just as we are and accepts our prayers just as they are. In the same way that a small child cannot draw a bad picture, so a child of God cannot offer a bad prayer.  So we are brought to the most basic, the most primary form of prayer -- Simple Prayer -- where we bring ourselves before God just as we are, warts and all. Like children before a loving father, we open our hearts and make our requests. We do not try to sort things out, the good from the bad. We simply and unpretentiously share our concerns and make our petitions. We tell God, for example, how frustrated we are with the co-worker at the office or the neighbor down the street. We ask for food, favorable weather, and good health. In a very real sense, WE are the focus of simple prayer. Our needs, our wants, and our concerns dominate our prayer experience. Our prayers are shot through with plenty of pride, conceit, vanity, pretentiousness, haughtiness, and general all-around egocentricity.  No doubt there is also magnanimity, generosity, unselfishness, concern for others and universal goodwill. 

     We make mistakes -- lots of them. We sin; we fall down, often -- but each time we get up and begin again. We pray again. We seek to follow God again. And again our insolence and self-indulgence defeat us. Never mind.  We confess and begin again... and again... and again... In "Simple Prayer" the good, the bad and the ugly are all mixed together... Abraham prayed this way, as did Joseph, Joshua, Hannah, David, Gideon, Ruth, Peter, James, John and a host of other biblical luminaries. Simple Prayer involves ordinary people bringing ordinary concerns to a loving and compassionate Father. We do not pretend to be more holy than we are, more pure, or more saintly than we actually are. We do not try to conceal our conflicting and contradictory motives from God -- or ourselves. And in this posture, we pour out our heart to the God who is greater than our heart and knows all things (I John 3:20).

     Jesus calls us to Simple Prayer when he urges us to ask for our daily bread. As John Dalrymple rightly observes, "We never outgrow this kind of prayer, because we never outgrow the needs that give rise to it." There is a temptation, especially by the "sophisticated," to despise this most elementary way of praying. They seek to skip over Simple Prayer in the hopes of advancing to more "mature" expressions of prayer. They smile at the egotistical asking, asking, asking, of so many. Grandly they speak of avoiding "self-centered prayer" in favor of "others-centered prayer."  But what these people fail to see, however, is that Simple Prayer is necessary, even essential, in the spiritual life. The only way we move beyond "self-centered prayer" (if indeed we ever do) is by going through it, not by making a detour around it... When we pray, genuinely pray, the real condition of our heart is revealed. This is as it should be. This is when God truly begins to work with us. The adventure is just beginning."

     I love to hear new believers pray. They often pause searching for the right word, don't use flowery language, and say exactly what comes to their mind (that is, if they are thankfully freed from feeling the need to try to impress others). To me, there are few things more beautiful than getting to listen in on a new-born Christian's first attempt to speak with their Savior. It's like listening to my grandchildren (when they were two and three) praying at the table before dinner!  Who could not love it despite the odd nature of many of their requests!?  So with the adult who has recently come to Christ, Simple Prayer is a phase one must go through, not seek to avoid. They can do no other because they know no other.  And to encourage them to pretend to be what they're not, kills true prayer in its beginnings. We learn more about ourselves (and thus grow) by hearing what comes out of our mouths and hearts when we pray, than being told by others what should be coming out of them. 

     When I was first asked (as a new Christian) to pray with others, I refused.  I didn't know what to pray, or how to pray, or what to pray for. I didn't know what was selfish or non-selfish, the right things to pray for or the wrong things to pray for -- so I didn't pray at all.  Yet I thank God they were persistent, for I did finally consent, and have come to cherish praying with others. (Though I must confess they did have to first assure me they would not judge me if I said something "wrong," or said it the "wrong way," or stumbled over my words, or used no "thee's" or "Thous" or other fancy religious words or phrases -- and they didn't -- or if they did, it never came out of their mouths!)

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Simply Sacred

Greetings All!

This week's "thought" comes to you from Gary Thomas, and is taken from his book, "Simply Sacred."

     As I was reading through the book, this particular entry caught my attention.  Why?  Because I can sometimes be disappointed at the way things are going in this world.  All it takes is glancing at the days headlines -- "Man kills another over parking spot dispute...,"  "Suicide bomber kills 13 and injures 24 at Baghdad ice cream shop..."  "Brother who drugs and rapes sister gets probation..."     The values, the priorities, the political rants, the greed, the language, the unreasonableness, the selfishness, the lack of respect, love and common sense... it can tend to bring one down.

     That's why I chose this entry.  It helps us look at all that from a different perspective.  A redemptive perspective. A perspective that reminds us that Jesus' call is for us as His followers to be salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16).  And what we sometimes forget is this: Salt is the most desired where the food is the most bland, and light is the most cherished when our surroundings are the darkest and our path littered with dangerous obstacles.

     Gary's entry for today reinforces this biblical idea, and in doing so helps turn our disillusionment with this world into a motivation to carry out Christ's mission for us. That of being salt and light. Enjoy.

Defiant Beauty

     "Years ago on a trip through southwestern Washington [state], I traveled through miles and miles of tree farms...  Interspersed among these tree farms were occasional stretches of clear-cut logging projects. The land looked devastated, broken, and abused. Even knowing that the land would come back after planting new trees, it's still a bit sad to see such brutal scarring of a forest.

     Yet, as I passed another clear-cut stretch, my eye caught something that almost made me pull off the road.  There, in a devastated patch of land, stood a startlingly beautiful maple tree, in full autumn colors. Somehow, the loggers had missed it.

     The contrast could not have been more stark -- or more beautiful. Beauty surrounded by beauty begins, after a time, to seem mediocre. But beauty in the midst of chaos or ugliness stuns us. It seizes our attention. In a barren and broken stretch of land, this tree captured my imagination and told another story. Had it stood in the midst of New Hampshire's White Mountains during autumn, it likely would have been missed -- one stunning tree in a forest of thousands of other stunning trees.  Here, however, in a broken, hurting land, this glorious tree proclaimed a transcendent truth.

     In the deepest part of us, we truly yearn for such "defiant beauty." In a world where people choose self-centered lives, where ugly things happen, where sin seems to spread unchecked, where daily assaults take their toll, we can point to the defiant beauty of a selfless life, seeking first the kingdom of God, putting others first, and even sacrificing (if need be) -- all to proclaim a transcendent truth much greater than ourselves.

     I invite you to develop this defiant beauty..., the kind that has shone through all generations of the church. At your office, in your house, at school, during walks through the malls, or visits to friends houses, let's carry the defiant beauty of our Savior's love and hope to a sin-stained world."

     The apostle Paul put forth this same truth in Romans 12:9-21; I Corinthians 13:1-13; II Corinthians 5:11-6:13; Galatians 5:16-26, and elsewhere.  There will always be things in the world that will tend to bring us down. Yet, it is in the face of all such things that we have the opportunity to add the most flavor, or shine most brightly.  Love in the face of hate, caring in the face or indifference, sacrifice in place of selfishness, generosity in the face of greed -- can not help but be noticed.

     Like that one, solitary, beautiful maple tree decked out in its autumn splendor, in the midst of a clear cut swath of destruction, we can make a difference. We can hide our light under a basket of self-protection, or lose our flavor by associating only with those who live and believe just like we do.  Or, we can do what Jesus called us to do and go out into the world, without being a part of the world, and seek to be His ambassadors of love and reconciliation.  Negative situations can discourage us, or they can be what Jesus and Paul both suggested they could be -- our renewed motivation for mission!  Determine that it may always be the latter, for Jesus sake.

Make it your goal today to be the light that shines into some dark situation, Pastor Jeff

Learning to See the Glories of God's Love

Greetings All!

Today's "thought" comes to you from a small, concise, easily readable book called, "A Gospel Primer for Christians - Learning to See the Glories of God's Love." It was written by Milton Vincent,  using a commendable bare minimum of words!  He covers some hefty Gospel truths with an economy of words.  If you are short of time, and would like to cover many important Gospel truths, and how to apply them to life, this is the book for you. Today I share two selections that spoke to me as I read through them.  1.) A Heart for the Poor and  2.) Chosen for Prayer.  Enjoy.

A Heart for the Poor

     "Like nothing else could ever do, the gospel instills in me a heart for the downcast, the poverty-stricken, and those in need of physical mercies, especially when such persons are of the household of faith. When I see persons who are materially poor, I instantly feel a kinship with them, for they are physically what I was spiritually when my heart was closed to Christ.

     Perhaps some of them are in their condition because of sin, but so was I.  Perhaps they are unkind when I try to help them; but I, too, have been spiteful to God when He has sought to help me. Perhaps they are thankless and even abuse the kindness I show them, but how many times have I been thankless and used what God has given me to serve selfish ends? Perhaps a poverty-stricken person will be blessed and changed as a result of some kindness I show him.  If so, God be praised for His grace through me. But if the person walks away unchanged by my kindness, then I still rejoice over the opportunity to love as God loves. Perhaps the person will repent in time; but for now, my heart is chastened and made wiser by the tangible depiction of what I myself have done to God on numerous occasions.

     The gospel reminds me daily of the spiritual poverty into which I was born and also of the staggering generosity of Christ toward me. Such reminders instill in me both a felt connection to the poor and a desire to show them the same generosity that has been lavished on me. When ministering to the poor with these motivations, I not only preach the gospel to them through word and deed, but I reenact the gospel to my own benefit as well."

Chosen for Prayer

     "When God chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), He did not merely chose me to be "holy and blameless in Him."  He chose me to be "before Him in love" (see Eph. 1:4 NKJV). To be sure, I am always in God's presence on earth, and in heaven I will be in His presence more fully than ever. But it could also be said that in this life I am especially "before Him in love" when I come before Him in prayer and worship (Ps. 100:2 / Ps. 68:4 / I John 5:14).

     Therefore I can infer that prayer is not simply something I am allowed to do as a Christian, prayer is actually one of the great purposes for which God chose to save me.  Christ Himself confirms this fact when He makes the following statement to His disciples: "I chose you... that whatever you ask of the Father in my name He may give it to you" (John 15:16). As I come into God's presence to behold Him, worship Him, or make request of Him, I am arriving at the pinnacle of God's saving purposes for me. God is radically committed to my life of prayer. He shed the blood of His Son so that I might be cleansed and rendered fit to stand before Him in love. He also permitted the brutal rending of His Son so that I might now have a way into the Holy Place through the torn flesh of Jesus.

     "Draw near" He says in Hebrews 4.  "Draw near" He says in Hebrews 10. "Pray without ceasing" he urges elsewhere. How can I not feel the infinite sincerity of these invitations, especially when considering the painful lengths that God endured so that I might enter into His presence in prayer?  Indeed, the gospel itself serves as the sweetest of invitations to pray; and preaching it to myself each day nurtures within me a mighty impulse to come "before [God] in love" and do the praying I was elected to do."

     May his words be an encouragement to contemplate and then apply the Gospel to the way we live.  Not just in private times of prayer, but in the way we relate to others in every sphere of life. In helping the poor, in the way we do business, in the way we treat our spouses and children, friends and co-workers, fellow believers and non-believers.  If we are Christian, and thus saved by the sheer mercy of God, we have experienced His grace. But oftentimes we as believers forget that our experience of His grace obligates us to show that same kind of grace to others (Matthew 21:18-35). If we've received grace, but do not in turn show it to others, have we not stifled one of God's primary intended purposes in giving it to us? "Love others as I have loved you," says Jesus.  Can we do that if we are not seeking to exhibit grace in all we do and to all we meet?

In the Service of the Gospel, Pastor Jeff

Practical Christianity

Greetings All!

After a couple weeks of vacation I returned to the office today. Part of what I had on my list to do was send out this insightful little "thought" regarding temptation and fighting sin.  It comes from a book entitled , "Practical Christianity," which contains helpful advice on the Christian life from over 80 well-respected Christian authors.

     This particular selection is from Adrian Rogers.  His advice is short and simple but wise.   Enjoy!

Filling Legitimate Desires Illegitimately

     "The devil is a pervert. He cannot create things himself. He can only take things God has created and twist them. We sin when we give in to the devil's temptations and try to fulfill legitimate God'-given desires in an illegitimate way. For example, food is a God-given necessity, but gluttony is a sin.

     Sex within a loving marriage is a God-given blessing, but adultery is sin. Having and enjoying material things is a God-given privilege, but pride, dishonesty, stealing, greed and selfishness are sins. When we are tempted, we need to figure out what legitimate desire the devil is trying to pervert. Then we need to find God's way to fulfill that desire legitimately. If we do that we will have no itch the devil can scratch.

     Rather than always trying not to sin, we ought to turn our focus in another direction -- on finding our satisfaction in the Lord Jesus Christ. I think parents, pastors, school teachers and youth workers make this mistake with young people. We try to keep our young people from doing wrong. If you've ever tried to take a bone away from a dog, you know that's a good way to get bit. The way to do it is to lay a piece of red meat in front of the dog. He will drop the bone in order to grab the meat. We need to show young people how they can get their needs legitimately fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then they won't have to guard the bones."  

     It is helpful, as he points out, to remember that "sin" is often nothing more than seeking to meet legitimate needs in illegitimate ways.  It is to meet them prematurely, in excess, or outside the boundaries God has set for their enjoyment or exercise, The particular need is not evil, nor is the fulfillment of that need when met in a godly fashion.  The "sin" lies in the inappropriate way we go about seeking to meet holy, God-given and legitimate needs. For more often than not, the devil's temptation (or perversion) is to tempt us to partake before we should, consuming more than we should, in a way that violates how we should -- thereby dishonoring the wise and good purposes of God in creation.

In the Bonds of Gospel Fellowship, Pastor Jeff

The Root of the Righteous

Greetings All!

Today, as I sat at my desk, my elbow bumped a book which promptly fell to the floor. And when I leaned over to grab it, and picked it up, it opened to this selection which I had previously read and underlined way back in 1992 when a Christian and Missionary Alliance pastor and friend (Pastor Art Warner of Foxboro, MA) had given it to me. The book's title is "The Root of the Righteous," and it's author is A. W. Tozer.
     I usually put much more thought into which portion of a book I will send you, but this one intrigued me again (as it did then)!  So I pass it along and ask if you might consider his words.  Though he is no longer with us, he was considered something of a "modern day prophet" a generation ago.  He was born on April 21, 1897, in Newburg, PA and died on May 12, 1963, in Toronto Canada -- living most of His life with an earnest zeal for Christ and His Church.
     He is the author of many books, but two of my favorites are, "The Pursuit of God" (a classic in its own right), and "The Knowledge of the Holy."  I trust today's selection will challenge, and if necessary, convict you to change certain habits in prayer. Enjoy.

     "Within the past few years Christ has been popularized by some so-called evangelicals as one who, if a proper amount of prayer were made, would help the pious prize fighter knock another unconscious in the ring. Christ is also said to help the big league pitcher get the proper hook on his curve. In another instance He assisted an athletically-minded person to win the high jump, and still another not only to come in first, but to set a new record in the bargain. He is said also to have helped a praying businessman to beat out a competitor in a deal, to underbid a rival and to secure a coveted contract to the discomfiture of someone else trying to get it. He is even thought to lend succor to a praying movie actress while she plays a role so lewd as to bring blood to the face of a professional prostitute.

     Thus our Lord becomes a Christ of utility, a kind of Aladdin's lamp to do minor miracles in behalf of anyone who summons Him to do their bidding. Apparently no one stops to consider that if Christ were to step into a prize ring and use His divine power to help one prize fighter to paralyze another He would be putting one fighter at a cruel disadvantage and violating every common instinct of fair play. If he were to aid one businessman to the detriment of another, He would be practicing favoritism and revealing a character wholly unlike the Bible picture of the real Christ. Furthermore, we would have the grotesque situation of the Lord of glory coming to the aid of an un-reconstructed Adam -- on Adam's terms.

     All this is too horrible to contemplate, and I hope that the proponents of this modern accommodating Christ do not see the implications that lie in their shoddy doctrine. [I hope... they do it in ignorance and not purposely.]  But perhaps they do see, and are willing nevertheless to offer this utilitarian Christ as the Savior of mankind.  If so, then they no longer believe in the deity, nor the Lordship of Christ, in any proper definition of those words. Theirs is a Christ of carnal convenience, not too far removed from the gods of paganism.

     The whole purpose of God in redemption is to make us holy and restore to us the image of God. To accomplish this, He disengages us from earthly ambitions and draws us away from the cheap and unworthy prizes that worldly men set their hearts upon. A holy man would not dream of asking God to help him beat an opponent, or win over a competitor. He would not wish to succeed if to do so another man must fail.  No man in whom the Spirit dwells could bring himself to ask the Lord to help him knock another man unconscious for filthy lucre or the plaudits of the vulgar spectators.

     A Joshua fighting the battles of the Lord, a David rescuing Israel from the Philistines... this is up on a high level of moral and spiritual principle and in line with the purpose of God in history. But to teach that Christ will use His sacred power to further our worldly interests is to wrong our Lord and injure our own souls. We modern evangelicals need to learn the truths of the sovereignty of God and the Lordship of Christ.  God will not play along with Adam.  Christ will not be used by any of Adam's selfish brood.  We had better learn these things fast if this generation of young Christians is to be spared the supreme tragedy of following a Christ who is merely a Christ of convenience and not the true Lord of Glory after all."

     There are probably very few of us (if any) who have not at one time or another asked Jesus to bless something that would be contrary to who He is -- contrary to what He as a loving, just, holy, and good Savior would affirm or be willing to do. I personally know there have been occasions where I have fallen into this trap, and have therefore had to ask forgiveness for asking Him to give me something my sinful nature or selfish desires wanted, rather than that which would be "in His name" (or "in keeping with all that He is, and what He would want for me and others).

     Praying "in Jesus name," after all, is not simply tacking the words "in Jesus name" to the end of a prayer!  A selfish, carnal, worldly prayer is never prayed "in Jesus name" even if the words "in Jesus name" are tagged onto the end of it.

     Tozer is right. It would do us good to remember who Jesus is, and what He would want us to be asking for before we start praying, lest we inadvertently make Christ into, "a Christ of carnal convenience, not too far removed from the gods of paganism."

In His Service, Pastor Jeff