Building Project

Our church is planning on doing a renovation to its sanctuary. I know that it is much needed but I also know that there are mixed feelings about spending the money at this time. I am both in favour as well as opposed to the building. Let me explain.

I am in favour if it means that we will do ministry better. Now I don't mean enhance our worship because we don't need a better sanctuary to do that but a new vision of God's holiness. However I do mean that if we have a better way to do ministry both at home and overseas then I am all in favour. Some feel frustrated with the sanctuary as it is now so they do not get involved as they should. I know the reasons are poor but that is the reality.

So why might I be opposed? I don't want us to focus on our comfort rather than on doing ministry. I heard good things at the meeting regarding ministry at home but as I heard that I had this feeling that the world wide mission is some how being downplayed. Don't get me wrong, I am excited that we see the needs in the community but why should they hear twice while some never get to hear the good news. Let us not think that we have done our part because we have done something.

Will renovating our sanctuary mean that we can do ministry and missions better? I believe it can but we must have an undivided heart, dedicated to the Gospel.

How does this relate to the Lord's prayer? Your kingdom come.

North Korea

Of all the nations in the world North Korea is number 1 in persecuting Christians followed by Iran and Saudi Arabia. If we take the Lord's prayer seriously then we must pray for the persecuted Church. We need to pray for Christians in North Korea and other parts of the world. When Jesus said that we were to pray, "Your kingdom come" He was referring to the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God stands against sin, evil and injustice. Are we praying for these to end?

Radical

David Platt wrote a book called Radical. There are three questions that he asks:
1. Will you choose comfort or the cross?
2. Will you settle for maintenance in our churches or mission?
3. Will you be marked by an indecisive mind or an undivided heart?
One man who is reading this book said that it sometimes makes him glad and other times it makes him mad. I can understand that totally.

Missions, Missional, Next

The current buzz word is that the church should be missional. When asked what that means it usually means that the church should be what the church should be. However, missional has replaced missions and that would not be bad but something else happened on the way.

The church has decided that it needs to be involved in it community. That is good, that was what it was established in the community to do. But the church forgot that it is to be a blessing to the nations. We can be missional and missionary at the same time but somewhere we have allowed the former to replace the later. Let us be missional but not forget missions.

The Lord's prayer says, Your kingdom come. The kingdom involves people from all nations. Churches need to renew their vision of missions while keeping alive the missional aspect of ministry. They shouldn't be different but they have become different.

I am not going to Pray for that

A friend of mine was having marital problems and he asked me to pray for him. I said to him that I wasn't going to pray that his marriage would be restored but rather that he would have the joy of the Lord renewed in his heart. I then backed up and said I would pray for his marriage but not that it would be primary in his life. He began to see what I was talking about.

However, the wife of his pastor told him that his marriage would be restored, the Lord had told her that. The next week the wife filed for divorce. Was the pastor's wife wrong or just saying what she hoped would be true? I know that God's first concern for my friend is that he would fall in love with the Lord again. Now I should add that he is not angry at God but he has lost the joy of the Lord.

Bells and Prayer

Someone told me one time that as Christians we should use breaks in our routines to stop to pray. Because I was a high school teacher I was told that I should stop when the bell rang for the end of a class and pray for the next class which would start when the next bell rang. It sounded like a good idea except that I never did have that break. Students wanted to talk, papers needed to be photocopied, messages had to be answered. At first I felt guilty but I soon learned that my job did not allow that kind of interruption. Besides my wife will tell you that I rebel against order like that.

I am now retired and I love the routine of prayer in the morning. No bells to interrupt only the occasional phone call.

Free Will, Sovereignty and Prayer

I believe in the sovereignty of God but also the free will of man. Is there a conflict? Sometimes but the sovereignty of God is always first.

The problem comes when we pray for other people especially when it involves their wills. Praying for other things like healing, finances, safety, etc. is not a problem but what about when it involves another person's free will? Can we pray that their free will will be over ridden? Just wondering. Of course we pray that their free will will be changed when we pray for their salvation but what about other things like leadership roles?

This is different than two sports teams praying for victory when they go against each other. That trivializes prayer. But this is much deeper than that. What do you think?

Praise Power???

John White tells this story in his book, Parents in Pain:

My friend Jean has a seventeen-year-old daughter who drinks too much, has been on and off drugs of various sorts, has mad three suicide attempts and had two illegal abortions. Jean is a single parent, torn apart both by the frustration of trying to keep a home together (she has two younger children) and by mingled rage and compasion toward her oldest daughter.
"Try praise poer," a christian friend advised.
"Praise power?"
"Yes, Have you never praised God that Sasha tried to commint suicide? Have you never praised him that she drinks too much?"
Jean was shocked. But desperate, she was ready to clutch at straws. She knew enough of the Bible to be dubious about the theology of the suggestion, but she could not resist the force of her friend's enthusiasm and her glowing accounts of "deliverance through praise power>"
"God has to respond to praise! He can't resist it! What's more, the devil can't stand it. Demons take flight. Just praise him, Jean! Praise him for the mess she's in! Praise him because you're torn in two and can't stand it anymore! Praise him that he will come in and take over!"

John White goes on to say that this story is not extreme.

People do not relize that what they are doing is making them selves above God by controlling Him. That is heresy.

John's Truck

John told us this story yesterday.

When he was about 7 years old he was riding with his father when they went past a gas station. There in the window was a toy truck. John said to his dad that he wished he could have that truck. His dad slowed down, turned around and went in an bought the truck for John. John was delighted that his dad had done that for him.

That is the way prayer is for those who call God their Father. We ask and when we get we are delighted because we know that it is because of His extravagant love for us. Just as John's dad bought him the truck because of his love for his son.

It really doesn't matter

I have looked at my prayer life and knew that praying my shopping list was not necessarily the best way to pray. But when I thought about changing I realized that this was the way I was best expressing my hearts desires to our Father.

I then thought about prayer even more and realized that lately the answers to my prayers were not that important as the fact that I had spent time with our Father. Do I care about answers? Of course. I pray for the sick that they will be healed, I pray for the lost that they might be saved, I pray for my children and the concerns they have but in the end I pray because He is our Father.

Can I trust our Father? Can I leave my hearts cry with Him? Will I continue to pray? Yes, yes and yes.

This I Know

My father-in-law gave me this poem this morning after class:

This I Know

I know not by what methods rare,
But this I know - God answers prayer.
I know that He has given His Word,
Which tells me prayer is always heard.
And will be answered, soon or late,
And so, I pray and calmly wait.

I know not if the blessing sought
Will come in just the way I thought,
But leave my prayers with Him alone,
Whose will is wiser than my own -
Assured that He will grant my quest,
Or send some answer far more blest.

Thanks Ray and happy birthday.

What did I order?

Do you remember the best meal that you ever had? How about the worst? I certainly can remember the most interesting.

It was 8 years ago and we were at the orientation session for missionary candidates. It was Sunday and we were given instructions about a visit to China town in Toronto which included a meal in an authentic (not Westernized) Chinese restaurant and then ending up in a true Chinese worship service.

We went into the restaurant and when we looked at the menu nothing made sense. So we ordered. Rice came with everything but I had ordered jelly fish. It was raw and like rubber - very difficult to eat.

I think prayer is like that. Not that we end up getting what we don't like but rather trusting someone else with what we don't know. To often our prayers are like going to Burger King and placing the order "my way". Sadly that is the way most Westerners pray while Easterners have learned to trust rather than control.

What defines us?

In Jeremiah 2:26 - 28 we read,"As a thief is disgraced when he is caught, so the house of Israel is disgraced— they, their kings and their officials,their priests and their prophets. They say to wood, 'You are my father,'and to stone, 'You gave me birth.'They have turned their backs to me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble, they say,'Come and save us!' Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah."

Jeremiah tells us that we take something good and use it to define us. We look to it for meaning, worth and even for out existence. We look to it for our salvation. What are the good things that we are looking to for our meaning? Is it our job, our family, our church, our pension, our possessions, our work for the Lord?

God as our Father must be the One to do all of these things.

The Role of a Father

A father is to be both a provider and a protector. However, in this world there are many fathers who are neither a provider or a protector. In fact there are children who need to be protected from their fathers, the one who should be protecting.
God is both our protector (Jehovah Sabaoth) and provider (Jehovah Jireh). There are some who do not want to think of God as a Father because of their earthly fathers. However, they need to be reminded that is not our heavenly Father. They know what a true father should be like and that is our God.

Aren't we all God's Children?

I remember a meeting at a former church we attended when one of the members said about those who were obviously non-Christian, "After all, we are all God's children."

In one sense she was right. We are all God's children in that He created us all but that does not give everyone the right to call Him 'Our Father". To use that term means that you are member of His family together with other believers. As believers we are part of the family because He has adopted us into His family. We just cannot call Him Father because He created us, we have to have a family relationship.

Our Father

‘Too much “Our Father” – too much Abba, too much Daddy, turns into sentimentalism, and we could drag God down to a kind of buddy-buddy relationship. … We’ve got the Father part down; but we think of God as the big Daddy who is going to give us everything we want.’
John MacArthur Jr.

Drive Through Prayers

We were talking about prayer this morning and some one described most of our prayers as a drive through restaurant where we place our order and then drive away without either paying or getting our merchandise.

Two Problems

When I look at prayer I see two problems.

The first is why doesn't God act the way we want Him to act? We ask for one thing and He gives us something else. If we could look back over our lives we would see that what we wanted was not the best but God gives us the best.

The second problem comes to me when I read scripture. Why don't I act the way God wants me to act? The difficulty is that I want to do it my way, even my obedience is in my strength while God says to me, "Just let me do it for you."

What to pray for?

In Matthew 9 we read, "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Matthew 9:36 - 38

When Jesus saw the crowd He didn't tell His disciples to go and tell them about Him but rather He told them to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send workers into the field. Why not just tell them to go as we see Him doing in Matthew 10. Before the disciples could go they need to spend time in prayer so they could see the need as Jesus saw it.

Prayer isn't about you

Did you notice the pronouns in the Lord's prayer? Our Father; give us our daily bread; forgive us our trespasses.

How different is this than many of our prayers. I pray for my needs, my family, my health, my friends. This prayer teaches us that we are not individual Christians but we are part of a community. We may come to Christ as individuals but we do not remain individual Christians. It is much more than "Jesus and me".

Just another question

When our children were small they would ask questions about everything. Someone said that an average 3 year old will ask about 300 questions each day. This is how they learn. They would see you doing something and ask you why. One question they didn't ask as often is "Would you show me how to do ...?" They would rather say, "I'll do it myself."

The disciples had seen Jesus in prayer and they wanted to pray like that. They had been taught how to pray from childhood but their prayers were not authentic prayers like their Lord's. The question they may have asked could have been, "Lord, would you teach us to pray real authentic prayers like you and John the Baptist pray?"

That is what we need. We need to learn to pray real authentic prayers.

Glory and Grace

So what is the purpose of prayer? God is sovereign, God is all knowing, God controls the future so why pray?

We first pray that God will be glorified on earth. We pray that His glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Jesus said, "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father." John 12:13 When we pray we need to remember that it is to bring glory to the Father.

But we also must remember God's grace. We pray that God's grace will be felt by all peoples in the world. When they see God's grace then they can glorify the Father.

Some people think prayer is getting what they want from God. That is why we have those that preach prosperity, health and wealth and name it and claim it. That is not theology but me-ology. Let us remember two words when we pray, glory and grace.

Lord, Teach us to Pray

This coming Sunday we will be starting a new series. Here is a brief discription of that series:

Lord, teach us to pray. This was the request of the disciples as they saw Jesus praying. In answer to their request the Lord gave them what we know as the Lord’s Prayer. Like the disciples we do not need to be taught how to pray but we need to be taught to pray. I have many books on prayer but those books do not help me to pray. In this study we will look at the Lord’s Prayer and how that teaches us to pray.

My Favorite Books - The Final

I was going to give a list of 50 of my favorite books but I have decided that it is time to bring this list to an end. I want to end with the book that has made the most difference in my life. It is a book that I have read through over 50 times and I am currently reading it again. I have read this book in many different versions including listening to it on tape. The book I am referring to is the Bible. I have read the Bible in the following versions:
King James
New King James
Revised Standard Version
Today's English Version
New American Standard Version
English Standard Version
Living Bible
The Message
The Amplified
And there are probably more.

My Favorite books Part 6

It is time to end this list but I have a few more books to add. Today I would like to add some of my favorite fiction books.

39. Randy Alcorn - Safely Home
40. Howard Fast - My Glorious Brothers.
41. Chaim Potok - The Chosen
42. John Grisham - The Appeal

And a few non- fiction works.

43. Keith Leenhouts - A Father, A Son, anda Three Mile Run
44. Bill Watterson - Calvin and Hobbs.

Still a few more to add.

Unjust Laws

A person I respect a great deal questioned Linda Gibbons confrontation with the law over the abortion issue. She said that we have a responsibility to obey the law. I know she has a great deal of respect for the law but what if the law is wrong? The people of Germany obeyed the law but the law was sinful.

Isaiah said:

Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,

to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless. Isaiah 10:1, 2

Arrogant

“May the arrogant be put to shame for wronging me without cause; but I will meditate on your precepts.” (Psalm 119:78)

We are told in the book of Proverbs that pride goes before a fall. How often we see that to be true. When you take pride in what we accomplish, or what we own, or whatever, when we fail to accomplish or we lose what we had then what we had pride in is empty. It is like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch.

We may find arrogance in an associate troublesome to us but it is much worse in a Christian. Christians can be like the Pharisee who went down to the temple to pray and was thankful that he wasn’t like others. He was proud that God had made him righteous. He wasn’t even proud that he had made himself righteous but it is equally repulsive if we are proud of who we are even when we contribute that to God.

Linda Gibbons

Why does a woman like Linda Gibbons spend eight of the last sixteen years in jail for protesting abortions while I have known murders who have served less time in jail? Where is the justice? If she was the murder of the unborn instead of protesting their slaughter she would he heralded as a hero? Read her store in the Toronto Star.
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/brian_lilley/2010/08/31/15203891.html