The Mystery of Prayer

Greetings All,

     After two weeks away I am back from a relaxing vacation! Time spent in nature, in the woods and mountains of New England, has its benefits in refreshing the soul!
     This morning a friend asked a question about prayer.  It was a question many ask, since prayer is something that takes time to understand, even though we will never fully comprehend the mystery of it. After all, there are so  many different views and opinions and approaches people have toward praying.  Therefore, I decided I would send out this "thought" on prayer by Gary Thomas, entitled: "The Mystery of Prayer."  It is found in his book, "Sacred Pathways."  It does not address the question asked this morning, but given the fact that most all people struggle at one time or another in their prayer life, I thought some might find it helpful and encouraging -- especially those who have encountered the often confusing dilemma called "unanswered prayer."  Enjoy.

The Mystery of Prayer

     "Is there anything more mysterious than prayer? Prayer moves us to call on a Being we cannot see and ask him to altar that which we can see.  Formulas do not work; rituals cannot guarantee success. Neither the length nor the form of prayer makes the prayer potent. This is why we need to create pockets of prayer in our lives, learning to trust God to come through in unexpected ways. There is an element of mystery, however, against which we sometimes rebel -- the mystery of unanswered prayer, or, perhaps more appropriately stated, prayers that receive the answer "no." 

     Because God sometimes answers our prayers with a yes, it can become intoxicating, and this intoxication can become so addicting that we begin to demand that God answer every prayer with a yes When a prayer doesn't get answered in the way we want it to be, we may mistakenly assume there must be hidden sin, lack of faith, or some other buried obstruction, which then sends us into hours of fruitless introspection.  But to demand that God answer all our prayers with a yes is to ask for his omnipotence (power) without having the benefit of his omniscience (knowledge).

     Looking back, I'm thankful that God said no to some of my prayers. The mystery of faith calls us to love and serve a God whom we can't always understand. We love this when the result satisfies us and God answers in ways that make our knees weak. It is much less exciting, however, when the mystery leads us to believe that God is silent, indifferent, or even cruel. Mystery is mystery. It has its exhilarating elements as well as frustrating ones, and we can't expect one without the other.

     The pursuit if maturity will lead virtually every one of us through this canyon of unanswered prayer, where expectancy runs dry and the only mystery seems to be where God is hiding. Understand that this is a necessary avenue on the destination to holiness and that it usually has an end -- in God's timing however."

     Some thoroughly enjoy prayer.  Some struggle with snags and disappointments in prayer.  And some have dispensed with prayer -- at least in the more formal sense -- though I do not believe it's possible for the true believer to dispense completely with conversational interaction with God. Few will go an entire lifetime without the "why's" of both answered and unanswered prayer, yet there is blessing in persevering. Just as a child passes through phases of equilibrium and disequilibrium in their trek to maturity, so also the person maturing in prayer goes through such phases. The key, in the famous words of Winston Churchill, is to, "Never, never, never give up." 

     With you in what is often the struggle to find God, and the pathway to the throne of His grace, in prayer, Pastor Jeff

The Unity of the Bible

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" will take some thought!  It's not your typical, casual, quickly processed quote.  It will require you to think. Hopefully you are up for the challenge!  It is the response I often give to those who say ask: "What proof we have for the existence of God?   Where did God come from?  And, "Did God create because He needed someone to love, or because He was lonely?
     The following quote seeks to address these three questions and explains why it is that God did not create out of a sense of need within himself.  Part of the answer to question 3 is taken from Daniel Fuller's book, "The Unity of the Bible" -- a must read, in my opinion, for any earnest believer.  Enjoy!

The God Who Has No Needs

     1.) "What Proof Do We Have for the Existence of God?" The best proof for the existence of God goes something like this:  Being cannot come from non-being.  That is, something cannot come from nothing.  Yet, most all scientists agree that at some point in the long-distant past the space now occupied by the physical universe was empty and void and consisted of "nothing."  But its precisely because something cannot come from nothing that helps us see that the creation itself is the greatest proof of the existence of God.  Since being cannot come from non-being, our existence as beings proves His existence.

     2.) "Where Did God Come From?" To answer this, we can take the previous argument a step further.  Because being cannot come from non-being, our existence as beings proves His existence, and His existence proves He always existed.  If God is, He must always have been.  Most all theologians have tended to agree on this, and Malachi 3:6 confirms it where it says, "I am the Lord, I do not change."  Change is part of that which is limited, lacking, or finite. A God who changes would be finite and limited and could not by definition be God. To be infinite is by nature to be changeless, immutable and everlasting -- none of which would be true of God if He had a beginning.  If being is, it must always have been, since being cannot come from non-being.  Even the fact that God is all-knowing demands that He must have existed forever, for if He was not an eternal Being, or came into being at some point in time (which is an impossibility since being cannot come from non-being), then He could not be omniscient, for He would not know what transpired before He came into existence.

     3.) "Did God Create Because He Needed Something to Love, or Because He Was Lonely?  The Christian answer, based on the fact that God is a Trinity, is best given by Daniel Fuller in his book "The Unity of the Bible," in the section entitled, 'Why Did God Wait So Long to Create the World?'  In this section of his book he points out: "The declaration in Psalm 90:2 that, 'Before the mountains were born or you (God) brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God,' indicates that vast eons of time elapsed before God acted to establish the earth so it would reflect His glory.  But Irenaeus, Augustine, and Calvin -- some of the church's greatest leaders -- have sternly warned people not to ask what God was doing before he created, or to wonder why he waited so long to create...  I believe, however, that it is both lawful and expedient to ask why the Triune God waited a long time to create the world.  For from the very fact that God waited, we know that he did not create out of the necessity involved in need-love. [That is, he did not create because he was lonely, or needed someone to love, as many often suggest].

     Since God the Father found infinite happiness in Jesus, the Son, then it becomes clear that from all eternity God has enjoyed his Son's love and companionship, showing the creation of the world was NOT a necessary act that God undertook to overcome loneliness, but an act that flowed from the freedom involved in benevolent love. It would be threatening to our future happiness to know that God created us to meet some need in himself... Yet the moment we understand that all of God's need-love was met in being a Trinity, then we see that he was free to act toward us, his creation, solely in terms of the freedom of a benevolent love.  A striking way to represent the difference is to say that if God were to have created us out of need-love, it would be like inviting us to a banquet, only to inform us that we were one of the courses for the meal!  But when God invites us to a banquet out of benevolent love, he wants us to join with him as guests at his table, to enjoy the feast along with him – as the psalmist put it, to drink from the river of his delights (36:8).  So, God's having delayed creation for a long while makes it unmistakably clear that he created us not out of need, but in the freedom of his benevolent love – out of mercy and grace.”

     What a different view of God we have when we consider his eternality in light of his Triune nature.  If God created out of a "need" that was unmet for all those many millions and trillions of eons before He spoke things into existence out of nothing (as the Bible does state), then the only picture one can draw is of a God who was sad, frustrated, or unhappy until He created, due to the long-standing unmet need in himself.  But when we consider God as Trinity, and the love and delight that existed between the Father and the Son from all eternity, we see that the fellowship and love between the Father and the Son resulted in a God who was eternally contented and happy!  A God who created, not out of need, but out of the overflow of delight, love and happiness that existed within Himself.  To put it in human terms, the best of all scenarios is not when a husband and wife seek to have a child to meet a need in either one of them, or out of an attempt to "save the marriage," but when they so love each other that they choose to bring a child into the overflow of love and delight that already exists between them. Not when they create out of need, but out of a desire to share their overflowing love with another.  And not only does it give us a different view of God, but a whole different ground for relationship!  For when we know we were not created to meet a need in God, we are freed to walk and share in the overflow of God's infinite Self-adequacy and Self-completeness!

     At any rate, just something to think about!

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

The Knowledge of the Holy

Greetings All,

     Today's 'thought' goes along with a sermon I preached from Revelation 4:1 this past Sunday, entitled: "The Script Has Already Been Written."  For that verse speaks of God's plan for the future and how it "must" come to pass.

     In this thought A. W. Tozer elaborates on that same topic with his typical clarity. This selection is found in his superb book, "The Knowledge of the Holy."

     Given the world situation at this present time (which seems like a pressure cooker about to explode!) such biblical truths can ease many of our fears, and give us the encouragement we need to look to the future with hope.  Enjoy.

     "God's Sovereignty is the attribute by which He rules His entire creation, and to be sovereign God must be all-knowing, all-powerful, and absolutely free... Only God is free. God is said to be absolutely free because no one and no thing can hinder Him or compel Him or stop Him. He is able to do as He pleases always, everywhere, forever.  To be thus free means also that He must possess universal authority...

     Even to discuss the authority of Almighty God seems a bit meaningless, and to question it would be absurd.  Can we imagine the Lord God of Hosts having to request permission of anyone or to apply for anything to a higher body?  To whom would God go for permission? Who is higher than the Highest?  Who is mightier than the Almighty?  Whose position antedates that of the Eternal?  At whose throne would God kneel?  Where is the greater one to whom He must appeal? (Is. 45:5, 20-21 / 46:5, 8-10)...

     [Yet] if God rules his universe by His sovereign decrees, how is it possible for man to exercise freedom of choice? And if he cannot exercise freedom of choice, how can he be held responsible for his conduct? Is he not a mere puppet whose actions are determined by a behind-the-scenes God who pulls the strings as it pleases Him?

     The attempt to answer these questions has divided the Christian church neatly into two camps [one denying God's sovereignty, the other man's will to choose]...

     Here is my view: God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make, but that he should be free to make it.  If in His absolute freedom God has willed to give man limited freedom, who is there to stay His hand or say, "What doest Thou?"  Man's will is free because God is sovereign. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. He would be afraid to do so.

     Perhaps an illustration might help us to understand. An ocean liner leaves New York bound for Liverpool. Its destination has been determined by proper authorities. Nothing can change it. This is at least a faint picture of sovereignty.

     On board the liner are several scores of passengers. These are not in chains, neither are their activities determined for them by decree. They are completely free to move about as they will. They eat, sleep, play, lounge about on the deck, read, talk, altogether as they please. But all the while the great liner is carrying them steadily onward toward a predetermined port. Both freedom and sovereignty are present here and they do not contradict each other. So it is, I believe, with man's freedom and the sovereignty of God. The mighty liner of God's sovereign design keeps its steady course over the sea of history. God moves undisturbed and unhindered toward the fulfillment of those eternal purposes which He purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began.

     Toward [the fulfillment of all God has decreed and promised] God is moving with infinite wisdom and perfect precision. No one can dissuade Him from His purposes; nothing can turn Him aside from His plans. Since He is omniscient, there can be no unforeseen circumstances, no accidents. As He is sovereign, there can be no countermanded orders, no breakdown in authority; and as He is omnipotent, there can be no want of power to achieve His chosen ends... Within the broad field of God's sovereign, permissive will, the deadly conflict of good and evil continues with increasing fury. God will yet have His way in the whirlwind and the storm, but the storm and the whirlwind are here, and as responsible beings we must make our choice in the present moral situation."

     There are certain things I might phrase a bit differently than Tozer, but his points are well taken. God is sovereign, man is responsible. God decrees and ordains all that happens, yet without ever violating our liberty to choose. His plan will unalterably come to pass -- the ship is going to Liverpool! (to use his illustration) -- but we still have the liberty to make choices for which we will be held responsible (Westminster Confession, Chapter 3, section 1 -- On God's Eternal Decrees).

     To use the words of Revelation 4:1, "Come up here and I will show you what MUST take place after this."  In the end it will all unfold just as God has decreed. This means that when things look out of control (from our perspective) we can be thankful God still occupies the throne of His sovereign rule, and is, "moving with infinite wisdom and perfect precision" to carry out His plan for the ages.

Under the shadow of His wings, Pastor Jeff

Do Not Fear

Greetings All,
This weeks thought comes once again from Charles H. Spurgeon, and is found in the devotional book, "Beside Still Waters - Words of Comfort for the Soul." And once again I will repeat that this is my favorite devotional book and well worth the cost to pick up a copy.
     This selection has to do with fear.  Rather, it has to do with the remedy for fear. In a world filled with news that can sometimes make us shudder, and circumstances that can often spawn fear, Spurgeon's words offer some fear-quenching truth we should all consider. Enjoy.

Do Not Fear

Luke 12:32

     "Do you believe that anything is left to chance? Is there any event outside the circle of divine predestination? No, my friend, with God there are no contingencies. The mighty Charioteer of Providence has gathered the reigns of His horses, and He guides them according to His infallible wisdom.

     Foreknowledge and predestination are in everything, from the motion of a grain of dust to a flaming comet blazing across the sky. Nothing can happen unless God ordains it; nothing happens without divine power. The Lord said, 'Behold, I have created the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire... and I have created the spoiler to destroy' (Isaiah 54:16 / Isaiah 45:5-7). The most violent people could not move a finger if strength were not lent them by the Lord.

     As for nature's catastrophes, the Lord is distinctly in them. 'He shakes the earth out of its place' (Job 9:5).  Our Father works all things! Why then should His children be afraid?

     Regardless of how tremendous events may be, we know that nothing can happen to shake the kingdom of God. Even the gates of Hell shall not prevail against that kingdom (Matthew 16:18).  Our chief possession lies there, and if that is secure then all is safe. Our highest, best, and most vital interests are beyond even the shadow of harm. Therefore, 'Do not fear.'

     Suppose an accident should take our lives? I smile as I think that the worst thing that could happen would be the best thing that could happen (Phil. 1:21-24). If we should die, we shall be with the Lord (I Thess. 4:17). So, if the worst that can befall is the best that can come, why should we fear? This is good reasoning -- if you are a believer, and if God is your refuge, there is no logical reason to fear."

     It is so true. To believe that our loving, just, and all-powerful God is in control of "everything," as Spurgeon puts it, "from the motion of a grain of dust, to a flaming comet blazing across the sky," puts the heart at ease. It not only subdues our fears, it enables the soul to be at rest even in difficult circumstances. For knowing that God is in control means things can't possibly be out of control even when they seem to be, and it means I no longer need to try and control the outcome of things! The one who believes God is in control no longer has to be controlling.

     The Bible assures us that God is not just, "in charge like the president" (as one person put it, which would not relieve anyone's fears!), He is in control. Nothing takes Him by surprise. Nothing catches Him off guard. There is nothing He does not know (He's omniscient) and nothing He cannot do (He's omnipotent) -- which means that if it happens, He has a reason for allowing, permitting, or ordaining it.

     It's a truth that does require us to trust that our God has a good/redemptive purpose in all things (even the worst), yet it should also work to remove our fears -- for if our Father ordains it (everything that happens to us must pass through the filter of His love for us) there is hope, divine purpose, and holy love expressed in everything that could ever come our way.

     My prayer is that you would live each day in the soul-liberating and fear-quenching effects of such truth, Pastor Jeff