Not ‘Just’ A Prayer Meeting

Some thoughts on why you should attend prayer meetings at your church from 2 Corinthians 1:3-11.

First, God uses prayer to accomplish His work. 1:11

Second, Praying together is a reflection of our sharing together both in Christ’s sufferings and comfort. The context of the verse is the sharing of Christ’s comfort through his death and resurrection. 1:5, 8-11

Third, Praying together is a way that we can share in the sufferings and joy of our brothers and sisters in Christ. 1:6-11

Fourth, Praying for one another is a practical way that we can comfort one another.  Paul had been helped by the prayers of Christians and received comfort from God through their intercessions for him. 1:8-11

Fifth, Praying together produces more praise to God for answered prayer.  Imagine that I make a request in our prayer meeting.  God answers that request and I bring the report back to those who were with me in the prayer meeting.  If three people were present to help me pray and receive the report of answered prayer, then God gets three times the praise than if I alone were praying and praising.  If ten people helped me pray and received the report of answered prayer, then God gets ten times the praise for answering my request. The more Christians that are gathered to pray, the more praise that God gets for answered prayer. 1:11

Why I Did Not Attend The Courthouse Prayer Rally On Thursday Night

There has been a dust up in the County where I live in East Tn.  I guess some atheists are upset that the School board opens it’s meetings with a prayer.  Then there is a badge that the Police Officers wear that has three words on it…Industry, Education, Religion.  So the atheists wanted the Police Officers to get rid of the badge.  Then the well-meaning citizens of Loudon County got together and organized a ‘Prayer Rally’ at the County Courthouse last Thursday night.  You’ve probably seen this same story a thousand times on Fox News.  Atheists come to town, Christians get stirred up, Prayer Rally, Courts, etc.  Same story, different county.

I did not attend the ‘Prayer Rally’.  Here’s why…

1. Prayers are not to the Government or Politicians.  Matthew 22:21.  Caesar can have my material possessions,but he cannot have my spiritual inheritance.
2. Prayers are not to be seen by others.  Matthew 6:1-6.  Not that I am against praying in public, but what is the purpose when praying in public?  When I bow my head with my family in a restaurant before we eat the purpose is to give thanks to God, whether others notice or not.  The purpose of this gathering at the Courthouse was to be seen by men and have our voices heard before men.  I cannot participate in that.  If you want to organize a protest against the erosion of religious freedoms, I’m for that.  But let’s not cast the spiritual pearl of prayer before the pigpen of politics.
3. Prayers are not to be used to make a political point.  Ephesians 6:10-20.  Prayer is a weapon wielded by the Christian to fight against spiritual forces.  It is our line of communication with God in the midst of our spiritual war with the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers over this present darkness.  It is our ‘wartime walkie-talkie’ as we fight against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
4. It demeans the Triune God.  It is demeaning to the Father to use our method of communication to make a political point.  It is demeaning to the Son to use our access to the Father granted through His life, death, resurrection and ascension in order to play politics.  It is demeaning to the Holy Spirit who indwells us, helps us to pray and makes our deepest, unknowable groanings known to the Father, when we use prayer as a political chess piece.
5. It was too ecumenical.  I cannot unite in prayer with others who do not affirm an orthodox view of God as Trinity.  If Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons or Oneness Pentecostals were present, then we are not praying to the same God.
6. It wasn’t ecumenical enough.  If the goal of the gathering was to be a protest against the erosion of religious freedom, would Hindus, Jews, Muslims, etc. be welcome to help in the protest?  I seriously doubt it.  Besides, since this was billed as a ‘Prayer Rally’, I would expect that only those that conform with the ‘cultural christianity’ of the South would be welcome.  But, if JW’s Mormons or Oneness Pentecostals were present, then why exclude other faiths?
7. It is a distraction from the true fight.  There is an onslaught of atheism, false religion and cultural christianity that we must fight against.  Instead, the enemy has tricked us into wasting our time fighting for our rights as Americans.  Jesus said His Kingdom is not of this world.  If His Kingdom were of this world then His servants would fight.  Jesus’ Kingdom is a spiritual Kingdom that is at war with spiritual (not flesh and blood) enemies.  True, this war is played out in some sense in the physical realm, but as Christians let’s not get hung up on our civil rights and the enemies of those rights.  That is the place where you work as a citizen of the United States.  As Christians, we have another citizenship, and a whole other set of rules to live by that are not embodied in the Declaration Of Independence, the Constitution or the Bill Of Rights.  As Christians, we have the right to be mistreated.  We have the right to suffer as Christ suffered.  We have the right to be persecuted.  We have the right to be marginalized.  But we also have the right to bring our requests, burdens, cares and trials to the throne of grace through the vehicle of prayer.  Let’s take advantage of those rights and fight the battle that God has called us to fight.

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
(2 Corinthians 10:3-6)

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison– that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
(Colossians 4:2-6)

Why We Need Steady Bible Intake

A snippet from the introduction to my sermon this past Sunday morning:

Let me go on a little rant here and tell you that this is why Bible reading, Bible study, and church attendance is so important for the Christian.  If you are not reading your Bible every day, then I can say with complete confidence that you are not repenting every day.  You are not changing your mind about Christ, about sin, or about your life because you are not being confronted with the facts of our life in Christ as God knows them and has told us.  If your mind is not being changed then your passions are not being changed.  If your passions are not being changed then your conduct is not being changed.  Instead, you are repenting backwards.  All that you see and hear in this world is going into your mind unchallenged by God’s truth and changing your mind about Christ, about sin, and about your life.  Instead of being conformed to the image of Christ through the Gospel you are becoming conformed to the mindset of the world through music, movies, media, and the mouths of friends, co-workers, acquaintances.  The same goes for church attendance.  If you do not regularly attend a church where the Bible is preached according to what it says, then even your personal Bible reading can be corrupted by the onslaught of information that is coming from the world.  We need Pastors who will tell us, “This is what the Bible says and this is what the Bible means when it says this.”  We need that.  We need it because our enemy controls most of what we see and hear in this world.  And Pastors need Pastors too.  That’s one reason we have more than one Pastor here.  I need to hear the Bible preached to me just as much as you do, because if I don’t have that, then just like with you, the world will influence the way I read the Bible and understand the Gospel.

Encouragement For Perseverers

It’s been a while, so I’m going to try to ease back into the blog with something that I hope isn’t too controversial.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

Over the past four weeks at church, I have been teaching on the three ‘omni’s’ of God.  Omnipresence, Omniscience, and Omnipotence.  For those who may not know, the prefix ‘omni-’ means ‘all’.  So when we say that God is Omnipresent we mean that God is everywhere.  When we say that God is Omniscient we mean that God knows everything.  And when we say that God is Omnipotent we mean that God has all power.

Studying these three attributes of God have been a great comfort to me in my own petty afflictions and so I hope these thoughts will give greater comfort to His children who are suffering under more intense afflictions and even in the weight of those afflictions are persevering in the hope of eternal life.

First, God is ‘Omnipresent’.  He is fully and completely in all places, all the time, and in all times.  He is past, present, and future are all present to Him equally (Psalm 139).  He exists outside of time and space as well as within time and space and He is actively working to sustain the whole of His Creation.  So no matter what you are suffering, God is there with you.  More than that, God is working in your situation and He has promised to be with you.  Before Jesus ascended into Heaven He gave His followers a promise: “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)  What this means for us is that not only is God with us simply because He is everywhere, He is especially with His followers in a special way.  Jesus, who endured all the same kinds of struggles that we face is always present with you as a faithful High Priest ready to comfort you, strengthen you, sustain you, and plead for you before the Father.  God’s Omnipresence is a source of comfort for believers.

Second, God is ‘Omniscient’.  God fully knows all things, past, present, and future.  Far from being a Rolodex of information, God does not need to recall anything.  He knows all things perfectly at once.  God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).  He knows you and I, when we sit down, when we rise up, our thoughts, our paths, when we lie down, and our words before we speak them (Psalm 139:1-6).  God knows everything about us because He created us and also created the days allotted for us to live (Psalm 139:16).  The word ‘days’ here does not only mean the number of days that we will live, but also the contents of those days.  God knows all of these things because He ordained them to be so!  This would be a scary thought if we were speaking of an evil being ordaining our days, but with God we know that whatever He ordains is right.  The reason we know this is because God is infinitely Good, Loving, and Righteous.  But also because He is All-Wise.  The definition of wisdom is knowing the best goals and knowing the best means to accomplish those goals.  In the case of God, we know that whatever He ordains is in accordance with His infinite Wisdom.  He who knows all perfectly must perfectly know the best goals.  And the One who knows all perfectly must also know the best way to accomplish those goals.  God goal for those of us who trust in Him is to bring us to glory (1 Corinthians 2:7).  So, what ever situation you find yourself in, whether persecution, wealth, sickness, health, traffic, green lights, marital problems, marital bliss, life, or death, we know that God as an infinitely wise God has the best goal in mind for us and He is using this to bring us to glory.  Affliction is our friend, sent from God, to accompany us in this life so that we may be presented faultless before His throne with great joy (Romans 8:28-39, Jude 24-25).

Finally, God is ‘Omnipotent’.  God has all power and He’s not afraid to use it.  He has the authority and the freedom to use His power and He is willing to use it to accomplish His  wise goals (Isaiah 46:8-13).  The God who created the Heavens, the Earth, stars, planets, galaxies, and you and I is the same God with the same power to strengthen us when we suffer.  He can put our enemies in the dust, exalt us above our circumstances, bring life out of death, and whatever else you can imagine.  This is the God who loves us and cares for us.  Nothing will ever thwart His plan to bring us to glory, because He is the first cause behind all that happens and all that happens is designed for His plan for His people.

So whatever circumstance you find yourself in, be comforted in these three truths concerning your God.  He is Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Omnipotent.  He is always near, He hasn’t been taken by surprise in your situation, He has a plan, and He is using His power for your good (Romans 8:28).

Maybe I will start blogging again…

…but I doubt it.

What I Didn’t Post

I didn’t post that last entry, and I don’t know how it got into my feed, and it’s not here now.  Anyway, this is a good time to tell you that if you were coming or linking here through http://www.doxoblogy.com, I let that address expire.  Now the only way to the blog is through this address: http://www.doxoblogy.wordpress.com.  Thank you and good day.

The Venerable Bede on ‘God is Love’: L

The Venerable Bede on ‘God is Love’: Let no 1 say that when he sins he sins against other people but not God,4 how can U not B sinning against God when U R sinning against love?