Liturgy

And He said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.  But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarepath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.  And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”  (Luke 4:24-27)

 

When we contend for the miracle working power of God, we look like fools in the world.  For some answers to prayer, where we would look on the results as an obvious indication of God’s power, the world looks on with rationalizations of one sort or another.  For them it’s not that your God, the only God, answered and intervened and provided the result; for them it’s more that you tapped into a higher power, or you were able to actualize a kind of faith–a faith or belief that is like a force and indistinct to an actual Person of God, or you were able to exercise some kind of science or mystical principle heretofore unknown, or any host of bizarrely inept excuses to say that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had anything personal to do with your “miracle” or answer to prayer.  While with the world we can expect this suspicion and contempt; yet, when you find it closer to home, let’s say amongst other believers, it really is infuriating.

I remember one professional believer years ago, he had degrees and a practice, saying to the effect, “What will you do if God doesn’t come through?  We need a plan for that eventuality.”  On the surface, this sounds wise.  After all having a plan is proactive.  It’s smart.  You can keep some semblance of control and manage the crisis or problem.  Still, this struck me.  There is a kind of faith that’s gotta be all in.  There’s no fall back plan.  See, we Christians have gotten too smart to really depend on God for a miracle.  I’m speaking about us as a Western culture.  Maybe this isn’t true specifically for some; but as a whole, you don’t see God moving in the miraculous.  Yes, we hear of the stories of so and so from some time ago, or some other place, or someone somewhat far removed from us where God did the miraculous.  Of people saved from death, from dire straits, from financial ruin, from all kinds of perils; yet, by and large, you have whole masses of believers in their comfy churches who are engrossed with hearing about worldly matters: psychology, personal happiness, success, prosperity, science, and any other study that doesn’t necessarily depend on an exegetical foundation on the Word of God.

Did God make the world like He said?  Or was it evolutionary process?  Is it OK to accept the teachings of Jesus as among other teachings, like the Quaran, the Upanishads, and so on? Should sermons prepare us for globalism? Encourage marrieds to have better sex?  Does Israel matter anymore?  If your sermon starts with what God says, then the answers are:  God made all creation in seven days and evolution is wrong; no, you will not accept other so-called “holy” texts to be on the same level or equal to what Jesus said–and accepting teachings of Jesus is different than believing in Him for eternal life, so you have to receive Jesus as God or you don’t; the chief aim of biblical sermons are not to prepare us for globalism, so as to be a part, but rather to warn of us of the coming Judgment Day and so help us to be a light in the world, not another cog in the world or a friend of the world.  There will basically be two types of people in the last days: the saved and the damned; better sex speaks of the love affair the pulpit tends to have with the counseling profession to where what should be offered in a counseling session, a home group, a conference setting, or such then is taken up in the pulpit: no, it’s not the purpose of sermonizing to fixate on this point of coitus.  Sing about it: go Song of Solomon.  Mention it: it’s been done in the bible.  But devote an entire sermon to it?  A teaching class, sure, but not your Sunday sermon.  Marital sex is an issue for our life now, while salvation and sanctification proper, while obviously affecting our life now, is really about our life hereafter, i.e. When Jesus comes;  Israel matters and belongs to the Jews: to say otherwise is a betrayal of what Jesus and the bible stands for.  Yet on these points answered on the go here, we in the West differ.  We have gotten very comfortable in our church cultures that we no longer depend soley on what God says to guide our conscience, our lives, or our faith.  As a whole we entertain what’s in vogue.  We’re sophisticated and we seek to be entertained, counseled, comforted, entreated upon, and cajoled.  Services service us and not God.  We want affirmation and validation: not correction and instruction.  The minister is just one of the guys.

In our passage, Jesus basically tells the people that there is something wrong with them.  Jesus did miracles elsewhere, but here the Christ was appreciated as just one of the guys; or even as the hometown hero, so to speak.  Jesus would do no miracle.  Jesus points to them as to the reason why.  This is why He brings up the historical accounts of Elijah and Elisha.  The fact that shortly after being corrected by Jesus the town tried to kill Jesus should tell us that although they were “church goers”, they were so full of themselves to repent for their unbelief and so reacted in primal hatred against the one who exposed their sin.  We in the West are guilty of this sin.  Jesus is our buddy, the object of our love songs, our companion, our principle, even our role model; yet, we don’t revere Him.  He’s an idea to manage, a teaching to discuss, a guide to success, a means to self-actualization, or another “Master” among other “Masters” to which we look to for inspiration and enlightenment.  Is He our God and only Master?  He should be.

So, when the question arises why there aren’t more supernatural healings and miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Western church, it’s because we as a whole by and large are just full of ourselves.  We’re too smart for a miracle and we actually want a holistic therapy or scientific process to do the trick, or even the power of the human spirit, to be honest.  While this is true for the culture, it doesn’t have to be true for you.  When you empty your soulish ego and lay it at the foot the cross, you will find the kind of faith that will believe God for salvation, sanctification, and miracles … if you listen for it.

 

 

 

 

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If No Mother Or Sister

“Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.  And he said to his people, ‘Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.  Come, let us deal shrewdly with them. . .”  (Ex 1:8-10)

 

That’s how it can be sometimes.  You go somewhere.  You’re blessed.  And then, somehow, the whole world turns against you.  For the Jews in Egypt, they were where they needed to be.  Joseph, who was basically the right hand of Pharaoh in his day, saved the ancient world and brought his family into blessing.  Now, years later, the very government itself was set to oppress all Israel.  We the church can forget sometimes about the very big picture of salvation history and The Second Coming–when Jesus comes back–that we get cozy with the world and begin to think they’re our friends.  Come on.  Don’t you do it sometimes?  You do good.  You do the company good.  You’re the blessing in the building.  You’re the reason the gears turn, perhaps; or at least you thought you were all that.  Until someone in power remembers who they serve and they don’t serve Jesus.   Then it’s all target practice on the Christian!  Hasn’t it happened here in the U.S.A.?  Weren’t the Founding Fathers good men?  Not perfect men, not without flaws; but, weren’t they basically good men?  Christianity was indispensable to the formation of this nation; and yet, years later, there are those who have risen up in power; those who figured that they must be shrewed with the believer; they must be cunning; so, they can squeeze all Christianity in God blessed America under the grindhouse.  Friend, keep your eyes on Jesus.  Remember where your faith belongs.  The world is the world’s friend and don’t you forget it.  Save who you can.  Keep serving and doing good.  Be the light and the blessing wherever you go, wherever you stay; and at the end of the night, keep waiting for that trumpet call and remember He who calls you is faithful.

 

 

 

 

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[Belatedly] Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

For those who have followed me with The Reveal Christ Mission, with Bible Cast, Euthetos, and the like, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Christmas is about “The Incarnation”, which is about God’s Love. If you don’t know this Love, you can through Jesus and be born again!

 
 
 
 
 

Under God’s Shadow

On Prayer: Your Prayer Program

 

And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to Your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matt. 6:5, 6 ESV)

 
 

What Your Program Is Not and Should Not Be

Your prayer program is not a substitute for a personal relationship with God. It should not be a point of pride upon which to demand value for oneself or to pit against others. This is rudimentary, but it should be stated here that your prayer program should flow FROM your relationship with God. The point of programming petitions, supplications, and intercessions is God’s answer. In the process of joining with God’s own heart in prayer, and if you are so fortunate to ascertain Jesus’ prayers and pray with Him His prayers, you grow in intimacy with the Almighty; yet, this is intimacy borne of shared labor and this is not a substitute from the kind of intimacy which should exist and be cultivated in a devotional life. While in previous sermons the tone regarding devotionals were possibly understood in the negative; they are of utmost importance for the livelihood of your prayer program; in effect, they should provide the underlying impetus for the program. In any relationship, let’s say, you have shared activities of industry and you have special shared time which is wholly relational; one feeds the other, but in the longstanding course of the relationship, if you only had one then it should be the intimacy which precedes the activity for industry; yet, you are unproductive without both. I make assumptions here that you love the Lord and seek to establish a prayer program for the benefit of seeing God’s answers in your life, in the lives of those you love, and for God’s overall Kingdom plan where you live and more. This, answered prayer, will typically not come about without putting forth the effort TO PRAY, and the commitment to do so rarely survives the spontaneous stage of need without the foresight to apply discipline to make your prayer accountable, hence, the prayer program. Remember structure does not make fire; but it sure does help it and protect it. Devotion should be your fire, your program the structure.

 

The Intent and The Practical Exhortation

Our text details the individual prayer life and the entire chapter does well to tell you what Jesus expects of His own to pray; this is deeply personal. There is the caveat in that while God already knows what you need, we are exhorted, nonetheless, to petition His aid and intervention; else, the exhortation given later in Matthew would scarce apply; but Christ does, indeed give it; as it is written, “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matt. 7:7 ESV) The intent is that you will apply discipline to your particular burden of prayer; practical exhortation is that you would journal your time and make some kind of notation to help build your awareness, especially in the matter of God’s answers to your prayers. It is the height of folly to ask God for His help and then to never bother to even notice or appreciate the help when it arrives; hence, the journal. As we close our series on the prayer program, and I admit that we really didn’t go too far into the details—and that’s alright as you will work these out naturally—the essential matter is in becoming aware of your prayer life; laying out a plan, a program, for your prayer life; and applying discipline to make it accountable. Pray on!

 
 
 
 
 

Where the Heart is In

On Prayer: Awareness and Accountability

 

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:4-7 ESV)

 
 

Awareness and Accountability: Align Our Hearts and Minds.

Admittedly, we live in a busy world. The technology is supposed to help us. Unfortunately, we tend to let it actually take advantage of us. The prayer life begins to suffer. Our hearts begin to drift. Next thing you know, we’re no different in our walk than the pagan who’s feasting on all kinds of nasty demon things. It doesn’t have to be that way. No. If you have an idea what your prayer life is actually like, then you begin to have a better step towards awareness. Our text from Philippians is wonderful because it unpacks the benefits all there for you. Rejoice! This is a great way to start. How can you properly enter into any prayer program if there is no sense of joy or rejoicing in your heart? Even in the midst of sorrow, the Christian’s connection to God will bring him/her great joy in the Holy Spirit. Reasonableness is the expectation of a properly aligned heart disposition. The inference is that you are mentally active and able to exercise proper judgment, and better still, when your sight is breathing fresh with the wind of God’s own perspective! When you pray in your program, the sense of the bigger picture comes to mind. There is a definitive time frame by which you are establishing your progress—Jesus is coming! Do you want to be found complacent? Of course not! So, better He find you engaged with Kingdom business than not and how will you be effective in God’s work if you have no prayer life to speak of? If you have reason for God’s help, then by all means pray and pray through! Make sure supplication! And keep on with it and don’t stop! So many of us are beset with troubles and we lose our peace and our hearts are in turmoil; yet, when we seek God’s strength and help through prayer, we find our hearts and minds girded with grace! This is a sure truth of the bible. This is a what I wish for you, friend. That you heart and mind would be guarded in Jesus. Here’s a practical help, journal your prayer time. Not only the journaling by means of maintaining an awareness of intentional prayer, but write down specific requests, what you feel God is helping you with, answered prayer and the like. This practical help will supplement the practice of prayer.