A Resolution Idea

City Gate Jan/Feb 2012

Dear Church Family,

Now is the time of year when resolutions are made, when the best of intentions, if we are honest, often find themselves buried in the snow of January or February. Nevertheless, most of begin each New Year with commitments that flow from the good and bad we remember from the previous year. As I remember 2011, I am reminded of the Lord awakening within me a new awareness of spiritual warfare. I gained a more experiential understanding of Ephesians 6:12. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (ESV). Because of invisible forces of evil, Paul first instructs us to put on the whole armor of God, Paul now describes what we are to do now that God’s armor has equipped us. “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people” (Eph 6:18, NIV). The purpose of God’s armor is so God’s people can pray.

Each year seems to begin with a refreshing energy and a desire to reestablish priorities. May I encourage each of you to begin 2012 by making corporate prayer a life-priority? Not just for 2012, but for the rest of your life.

I would like to make two suggestions for making corporate prayer a life priority for you and your family.

1.     Don’t come to our corporate prayer gathering to see if you like it. That consumerist attitude is not the proper posture for prayer. We would all admit things that are worth being a priority are not necessarily pleasing at first. Think of the first few times on the treadmill or the stationery bike – not exactly the easiest thing. God’s Word commands us to pray together and never says praying together is going to come naturally or is going to be easy. Even so, I do believe you will be pleasantly surprised about how refreshing and fulfilling it is to gather in prayer with God’s people.

2.     Do come to our corporate prayer gathering to be with Jesus. We begin each gathering with a prayer in Jesus’ name, asking him to be present with us through the Spirit that he may teach us to pray. This practice is based squarely on Matthew 18:20. “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (ESV). Jesus is present with us when we pray together in a way that he is not present when we pray by ourselves. This is the plain teaching of the New Testament, but it has proven to be true through my experience along with many others. In 2011, my most vivid experiences of God’s presence have occurred at our Wednesday Gathering.

So as each of us contemplates resolutions for 2012, please consider making Gathering to Pray a priority each Wednesday at 6pm.       

A Call to Prayer

Frankly, it amazes me how little effort most of us are willing to exhibit when it comes to the matter of corporate prayer. We are meeting this Wednesday in the sanctuary at 6:30p to engage with God in corporate prayer. These are difficult days for many of us. Please come pray for those for whom these days are especially difficult. Are these days filled with difficulty for you and your family? Be encouraged to prayerfully lean toward God all the time, but especially during difficult times. Consider these words from Stan Grenz and I hope to see you this Wednesday evening.    

The church of Jesus Christ faces many challenges today. Yet the greatest challenge is not what might initially come to mind. The greatest challenge is not that of urging Christians to speak out on the great social issues of the day or to engage in political action, even though such involvements are crucial. Nor is our greatest challenge that of encouraging each other to be more fervent in evangelizing the world, even though evangelization ought to be of concern to every Christian. Rather, the greatest challenge facing the church of Jesus Christ today, and therefore every local congregation, is motivating the people of God to engage in sincere, honest, fervent prayer (Stanley Grenz, Prayer: The Cry for the Kingdom, 1).

 

Prayer and the Full Armor of God

At the conclusion of his letter to the Ephesians, Paul teaches us concerning the primary tactic God’s people should use in doing battle against the enemy and the forces of evil he seeks to energize (6.10-20). Paul coaches us with these imperatives,

Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power …

Put on the full armor of God …

Stand firm …

Take up the shield of faith …

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit …

Having obeyed Paul’s instructions, we are now prepared to receive his final and climactic exhortation.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should (6.18-20, NIV).

It seems as if the paragraph concerning the Full Armor of God (6.10-17), is designed by Paul to prepare us to go to battle in prayer as we obey the encouraging words that follow (6.18-20). Prayer is the context in which the Armor of God is designed to be effective. Prayer is the way we take our stand against the devil’s schemes. Prayer is the way we struggle against the authorities, the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Please consider enlisting in the battle against evil that will occur through the prayers of God’s people. Gathering to Pray happens at SBC on Wednesday evening at 6:30PM! We will sing, pray, receive communion, and pray some more.  Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests (Ephesians 6.18a, NIV).

For further encouragement to spend time in prayer with our gracious Abba in heaven, view this short video.

Francis Chan on Prayer and the Fatherhood of God

Listening to the Prayers of Our Ancestors

We learn to pray by listening to others pray. When Jesus' disciples asked him to teach them how to pray, he simply prayed in their presence. We learn to pray by praying in each other's presence - by hearing how each of us prays and by praying ourselves with our brothers and sisters. It is also important to allow our brothers and sisters from Christian history to teach us to pray. Speaking of the vital importance of tradition, G.K. Chesterton wrote: 

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.

Similarly, we must not only allow our living brothers and sisters in Christ to teach us to pray, but those who "have gone one before us" have much wisdom to offer and a vital ministry to perform. This is the role of prayer books and collections of written prayers in shaping our understanding of the prayer tradition. Within our tradition The Valley of Vision offers a stimulating collection of prayers and devotions from the Puritans. This collection is intended by Arthur Bennett to stimulate our own prayers. So may this following prayer of confession and petition teach us and stimulate us to pray. 

HOLY LORD,

I have sinned times without number,

    and been guilty of pride and unbelief,

of failure to find thy mind in thy Word,

of neglect to seek thee in my daily life. 

My transgressions and short-comings

present me with a list of accusations,

But I bless thee that they will not stand against me,

for all have been laid on Christ;

Go on to subdue my corruptions,

and grant me grace to live above them.

Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings of the mind

bring my spirit into subjection,

but do thou rule over me in liberty and power.

I thank thee that many of my prayers have been refused--

I have asked amiss and do not have,

I have prayed from lusts and been rejected,

I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness.

Go on with thy patient work,

answering 'no' to my wrongful prayers, and fitting me to accept it.

Purge me from every false desire, every base aspiration,

everything contrary to thy rule.

I thank thee for thy wisdom and thy love,

for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject,

for sometimes putting me into the furnace

to refine my gold and remove my dross.

No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin.

If thou shouldst give me choice to live in pleasure and keep my sins,

or to have them burnt away with trial,

give me sanctified affliction.

Deliver me from every evil habit, every accretion of former sins.

everything that dims the brightness of thy grace in me,

everything that prevents me taking delight in thee.

Then I shall bless thee, God of Jeshurun, for helping me to be upright.

(Valley of Vision, 77)

This prayer should awaken a spirit of repentance within us, as should these words from Ezekiel. 

Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declared the sovereign LORD. Repent and live (Ezekiel 18. 30-32, NIV). 

Prayer: Evidence We Are Being Revived

Revive us, and we will call on your name (Psalm 80.18a). 

Last week these words from the Psalmist stuck out to me like a sore thumb. For the last five weeks, we as a Church family have felt a renewed call from the Lord to pray. To cry out to him for his Kingdom to come - for his will in heaven to be known on earth - for zeal for his agenda and not ours - for revival. Frankly, this final petition has weighed heavy on my heart as a pastor. My thinking was something like - If I just pray hard enough, revival will come to our church. If I can just convince SBC to pray with enough fervency, then revival will finally happen. It was as if prayer for revival was the X-Games in the sport of prayer - reserved for only extreme sort of folks who are world-renown for the vast number of "Father God's" they can fit into an offertory prayer. 

Prayer and revival, however, are spoken of differently in Psalm 80. Revival, being brought back to life, that is, precedes calling on the name to Yahweh for deliverance. Did you catch that? Calling on God for salvation-power is evidence that we have been and are being revived. This was refreshment for my thirsty soul. As a Church family we have been pursuing prayer with a measure of fervency that I have not known in some time. After seasons of prayer like we are presently enjoying, we often judge the "effectiveness" of the season by what we see God accomplish after we have prayed. I believe "the effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous one avails much," but I want us to remember that the season of prayer itself is evidence of the life-giving power of God among us. We have been praying. We are feeling a renewed commitment to boldly come before the throne of grace. This, in and of itself, is clear evidence that God is at work in our midst. He is reviving us because we are calling on his name. Amen.

Please make plans to attend our Combined Worship-Driven Prayer Meeting with Cornerstone Church. We will gather at SBC at 6:30pm.


For further encouragement on prayer, please enjoy another sermon clip by Pastor John Piper
Prayer: A War-Time Walkie Talkie              

Guarding Against Bibloatry

Why do you love the Bible? I will freely confess to loving Bibles, but that is not the same thing as loving the Bible. Fourteen Bibles are presently stationed to the left of my desk and I have a specific love for each of them. Whether it be, the language, the translation, the notes, even the special binding - each of these aspects are things I find attractive about Bibles. It needs to be the right size. It must remain appropriately open as I teach and preach from it. You see the reason I love "Bibles" is because a copy of the Scriptures is the tool of my trade, pastoral ministry. I carry a copy to the coffee shop, into the hospital room, through the hallways of the nursing home, and up to the teaching lectern and the pulpit. Furthermore the Bible a pastor carries says something significant about his ministry. What passages are underlined? How easily does it open? Are the gold edges sufficiently missing - betraying a minister who "loves the Word?" What translation does He prefer? I can imagine construction workers having conversations about which power tools they prefer. Are you a DEWALT or a PORTER CABLE man? Pastors discuss Bibles in the same way!

But I am praying to be a man who loves the Bible for the appropriate reason. Our love for the Bible should necessarily be linked to our love for the God of the Bible. We should love spending time in the Word because it is through the Word that we encounter the God to whom the Word testifies.

Listen to the words of the Psalmist.

Let my cry come before You, O LORD; give me understanding according to Your word. Let my supplication come before You; save me according to Your word (Psalm 119.169-70).

Notice that for the Psalmist, the word of God is that which guides his prayer life. The word is a means by which he encounters the God whose Spirit inspired the word. So the word cannot be loved for its own sake. It must be loved for God's sake. Otherwise we are guilty of what I like to call Biblioatry - a love for the Bible that can be disconnected from our love for God. An ancient practice that guards against Biblioatry is lectio divina, or sacred reading. As early as the Third Century, Christians practiced this discipline of praying the Scriptures. Because of a desire to purge my life of Biblioatry I am researching lectio divina. An introductory book on this ancient discipline is Conversing With God in Scripture by Stephen Binz. I have added a link below. As I read the book, I hope to share my thoughts on the blog. But more than that, I pray the book increases my love for the God who gave me the Bible. May each of us love the Bible because in it we encounter to God of the Bible whom we are growing to love. 
Conversing With God in Scripture