Posts Tagged with Prayer
God Can Restore
My preaching schedule of preaching through both halves of Kings took me through chapter four of second Kings last week. There’s nothing really amazing about that, finished chapter three the week before. (My preaching schedule is not that complicated.)
I do take breaks from the schedule from time to time. I’m known to shift out of the schedule with some calendared events such as Christmas or Resurrection Sunday. (I rarely follow the Hallmark Card industry calendar, such as Mothers’/Fathers’ Day, Valentines’ Day, etc… but never for Groundhog Day…) I’ve been know move out of the schedule when there are special events happening in the life of our church, but these are really quite rare. I’ve even been known to not break out of the schedule at Christmas or Resurrection Sunday.
That said, after I preach I’ll usually sit down at some point in the next couple of days and read the text I just finished preaching and look at my notes and many times listen to the audio; This practice has been helpful in many ways.
- I usually see or hear something but missed in my preaching. Or hear something I did say that was not in my notes.
- Sometimes I hear me say things that I wish I hadn’t said or things I wish I had written down.
- If the text has an uncommon name I laugh at how many different ways I can butcher a name (out loud).
- I want to make sure I don’t misrepresent God, ever, and if I need to make correction to something I said I want to do so as quickly as possible.
- I hear my my incomplete sentences or stammering tendencies and wish I would just say it already.
But what I like best about looking back over a text I just previously preached is a fresh view of the text just preached.
This past week, for example. I saw the compassion of God in the text but I wish I had focused more upon it than I did. Chapter four of Second Kings had four sections.
- A widow in need – After re-reading the text I called a widow in our church I have not done a good job of checking in on recently. I was touched by her confidence in God to help supply all of her needs. And He does. And she was kind to me.
- A woman without children – After re-reading the text I was able to let the Holy Spirit minister to my soul for the desire of my children to want children. The Holy Spirit used to text to minister to me in a very close and personal way that would not have been appropriate in the pulpit.
- A woman in grieving pain – After that same woman who was previously without child lost that child in death, her grieving process was unlike most. She was disciplined in her emotion. I spent time in prayer for the many in my church who have recently lost family. My prayer was for their emotional well being and that they would find stability for that emotion in a disciplined way.
- A group of prophets mistakenly poisoned during a time of famine – This was an unexpected moment for sure. I thought upon this for a few more extra days. The beauty of God restoring the food to a healthy state was an encouragement for me as many will arrive at Eastside late this week for some bible training. Yes, the bible talks about famines of food and a famine for the word of God. Just as God restored the poisoned food for the prophets in a time of physical famine – He can restore a poisoned word for his church in a famine of the word.
God Can Restore!
Join me Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls.
Meal provided Thursday and Friday night at 5:15 pm, Teaching time begins at 6:00 pm each night. Saturday morning at 9:00 am
Protected: Mid-Week Prayer Gathering
Protected: Mid-Week Prayer Gathering
Protected: Live Streaming Test
A Social Media Storm
Dear Eastside Baptist Church
I have an urgent caution for you.
My reason to address this urgent message with you publicly today is because it is possible you are beginning to notice a relational social media storm brewing. Many of you have faithfully interceded for the past three-and-a-half years for the Abedini family. There is every reason that your praying ways should remain steadfast even in release.
My writing you today is to request your social media silence in the relational matters of a struggling relationship. The court of public opinion is open and a social media storm is brewing. Not because you have been, but to caution you not to.
There are times to be loud. There are times to be aggressive. There are times to even be harsh. Today is not that day.
This is a problem that is not isolated only to a high profile couple such as the Abedini’s. But this is true about all relationships. In matters like this… social media silence about our friends is best until truth is known; not rumor, not opinion, not emotion. We are disciplined people.
Here are a few things I want to caution you about… (I argue this is good practice for all relational matters you feel compelled to discuss in public.)
- Yes, you are expected to exercise judgement, not as a ruling judge, but as one discerning with understanding (1 Corinthians 6).
- Don’t play into the unrighteous ways (they are lesser and lower ways) of dealing with serious relational matters fueled with gossip and emotion. The ‘court’ of public opinion is no place to work out a relationship as a just and honorable reflection of our God.
- Our desire to know personal issues is like a starving beast. Don’t feed that beast by searching out what is going on. Discipline yourself right now, rather, to pray. Show yourself to being different. It is to our shame (1 Corinthians 6), not God’s glory, to participate as the unrighteous.
- This is no time to defend or attack – nor is it appropriate in the public court of opinion to do so on an issue best settled in private, and if necessary, at the local church level. Discipline yourself right now, rather, to not participate in commenting/liking/sharing; This is not appropriate activity.
- Yes, this is a public issue involving the larger body of Christ because so many have been praying, united even, by this family. I can not forbid your activity, but hear my strong caution.
- Do not give your unconverted friends a reason to increase the hardness of their hearts by your engaging in public discussion of a matter we really don’t understand.
- Be an advocate to speak out against abuse. It is a serious issue and a complicated one to understand especially when we are not aware of all truth.
- Let all of our speech be seasoned with grace.
- If needed, comment in private messages, and limit your words. You and I are not close enough to the matter, or the people, to be considered legitimate advisers.
Now, rather than feeding a savage beast that wants to feast on the brokenness of others, go as you have a hundred other times, with your lamp of Scripture and pray.
Paul Thompson
The Weakness of God
“…and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Corinthians 1:25b)
It is strange to use the term “weakness” when speaking about an all powerful God. It almost feels blasphemous. I’m not at all comfortable with saying that until I understand it in the powerful conclusion; “…the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
Just this week an Idaho citizen and fellow pastor of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ past his 1,000th day in jail in Iran. His wife, Naghmeh, has just reported that Saeed’s dad was able to have a short visit with him today and that he is encouraged. He told his dad to let us know,
“that for 1000 days he has experienced utter darkness and has died, yet for 1001, he has been resurrected with Christ.”
Oh, follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, not all of us are called to labor in such hardship but all of us are called out, to live differently, daily dying to self, humble lives.
Today, where it appears a Christian brother is in bondage to men, behind prison bars, beaten and mocked for his faith, there is a power in God that raises that brother each day.
May you too, experience the weakness of God.
What has you in bondage today? Are your trying to defeat or endure it in your own strength? Why not stop depending on your strength and lean on a liberating power of the “weakness” of God. Your most powerful display and clever genius thought cannot even begin to compete with God at his weakest moment on the cross. Surrender today, be resurrected again.
_______
In light of this; I respect that not all are able, but the church I pastor, Eastside Baptist Church, will gather in prayer again tonight, 6:30pm. We will pray, labor, take the battle ground as prepared men and women to lean into that weakness of God. What will keep you off the battle ground tonight?
The Plague of the Christian Celebrity Culture
There may be a plague in the land. Consider this…
- If I were to secure a popular Christian musician to be present at a Wednesday night at Eastside Baptist Church (the going price to do so is a minimum of $10,000.00) I suspect we would have to rent a facility to house the number of people who would come.
- If I were to secure a popular Christian athlete to be present at a Wednesday night prayer meeting at Eastside Baptist Church, I suspect we would have to turn people away.
- If I were to secure a popular Christian actor to be present at a Wednesday night gathering, I suspect we would gather more than just Christians.
- If I were to secure a popular preacher we could fill the Lord’s house and would talk about that gathering for months to come.
thus showing us at least two problems…
- The current atmosphere among the “Christian” community is plagued with an attraction for the popular, the rich, the talented, the attractive, the comfortable and is completely naive of the opportunity that is before them to be in the manifest presence of Holy God.
- What pastor’s (myself included) are calling “worship services”, “prayer meetings”, “bible study” etc, may not be genuinely Christian in nature and more a product of his imagination.
It is my observation that both may be part of the problem. Christian, you have before you an opportunity to gather with the Lord’s people for perhaps the most uniquely compelling reason you could imagine. Can you imagine a worship service where the presence of the Lord God Almighty is so obviously present? Can you imagine a prayer meeting where those present experienced a pouring out of the Holy Spirit that all present were radically changed?
- Put that moment up against the last episode of American Idol or Dancing with the Stars.
- Put that gathering up against the opening night of the long anticipated movie blockbuster.
- Put that time of prayer up against a date night with your spouse.
Our casual approach to worship, prayer, bible study exposes a serious issue. And pastor (I’m preaching to me again) your casual approach to preparing shows you have little knowledge as to who you are representing.
There is no celebrity guest appearance showing up at 204 Eastland Drive North in Twin Falls, Idaho, tonight. There is no celebrity interesting enough to take the stage as the opener. We will humbly ask for the Lord’s manifest presence to be present. May He visit us tonight.
Cheap Prayer
(Edited at 10:19 p.m. on May 21, 2015 for grammar and clarity or for butchering the kings English.)
Any prayer that asks God for something and then has no expectation of God to do something (or more personally have a personal cost as a result of God answering that He might call upon you to do something) is a cheap prayer. It’s like knowing a biblical instruction and then not obeying the Lord. It’s like asking God to help orphans and foolishly thinking that God has placed this need upon your heart with no expectation to be used of God to be a doer of His word. Being a doer may cost you something; your time, your reputation, your money, your friends, your effort, your agenda…
Consider James 4. After reading this text, how would you pray?
7 Submit therefore to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners;
and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.
- It would be a cheap prayer to ask God to help you submit to Him and then resist submitting after you are done praying.
- It is a cheap prayer to ask God to help you from falling into sin and then not expect that God would expect you to resist such devilish desires.
- It is a cheap prayer to think you are drawing near to God while at the same time remaining where you are. You can not obey this directive to “draw near to God” without moving from where you currently are.
- It is a cheap prayer to think you are guiltless of sin and that you are not the sinner being instructed to cleanse his hands.
- It is a cheap prayer to expect God to purify your heart while you remain double-minded in your understanding of God.
- It is a cheap prayer to mourn and weep over your sin while you are plotting your next sinful encounter.
- It is a cheap prayer to pray for God to correct others and draw them unto Himself while pride rules your own heart.
Do you see how cheaply our prayers might be?
Prayer is costly… maybe this is why so few people pray anymore? Maybe this is why the prayer meeting has grown so cold in the life of the Lord’s church? Maybe this is why we don’t see the mighty hand of God as frequently as before? We have become so addicted to praying such cheap and silly prayers and refuse to pray costly prayers.
So many within the church don’t even know that it’s possible to instigate God to anger with our cheap prayers.
“O LORD God of hosts, How long will You be angry with the prayer of Your people?” (Psalm 80:4 NASB)
The Fight Against God
Many are prepared to say that the war raging in the land for the definition of marriage is over. Look at nearly any online dictionary and you will agree, the modern English language has redefined marriage to include same-sex partners.
The agenda to redefine marriage from a biblical worldview has launched the attack in a strategically smart way (this should not surprise anyone.)
The battleground is messy, like any battleground would be.
It’s hard to engage in public forum or face to face conversation because the language of hate has been turned upon the ones who carry the message of love. Those who love are accused of hating, they are accused of being bigots, they are accused of being barbarians and backwards. They are told to get used to the new America, one that is finally free for all to do as they please.
This is what the conversation has looked like for me in recent days on the matter in public forum, emails in response to blog posts and conversations with friends.
- Paul Thompson, perhaps you could look at it like this: There are “God ordained ways” of doing many things that we, and you, no longer follow; for example, how to properly conduct genocide, own slaves, stone children to death, own women, and sacrifice animals are all among the deed that God ordained to be done “just so” in his “specially approved way”…Just add marriage to your list, please, so that we can finally end the thousand-years-reign of inequality, injustice, bigotry, and hypocrisy to finally enter a new era of peaceful acceptance. Thank you.
-
Whose God? Yours, the Muslims, the Hindus? There are so many to choose from. Seriously.
-
If you don’t like gay marriage…don’t marry a gay person
-
Ok well in my place of worship my pastor fully supports gay rights. I’m a bisexual Christian I married a man when I was 19 and that man cheated on me and divorced me and with man or woman I’m happy and God is happy to call me his child and is proud that I spread love throughout the state.. So keep your rude remarks to yourself.. Same sex is here to stay and God is proud of his same sex children
-
Paul: This is not about christ, christ SHOULD have nothing to do with this discussion. Unfortunately people like you can involve Jesus and impose your own fear of homosexuality onto the population
The reaction to the Supreme Court decisions this week is not at all surprising. It is difficult to not let the comments distract or derail the message of calling all people everywhere to repentance. There is nothing more natural than for anyone who has crowded God out of their worship than to be offended when a biblical worldview is expressed.
What is more natural for anyone who has begun to worship and serve the very things they’ve created rather that the Creator who made them? Now, until all of us repent of this arrogance and turn to God, all we have to save ourselves is the romantic idea of love and fulfillment of a self navigated path born in decadence.
The use of godly language only exposes the overwhelming evidence that the heart has been busy deceptively leading to a faithless relationship with God. The best way for a deceived heart to gather momentum is to draw others into their circle of corruption. And then, of course, a grand place to launch the greatest front on truth is to sow that seed of deception in the heart of a lazy western church being led by men and women who think they can prevail against the God they have crowded out of their lives and churches.
Decadence is nothing new. The temptation to do as one pleases without regard to God is constant with all people. The powerful indictment against the church today is that she is in great need of revival. The problem in our land is not homosexuality, the problem in our land is that many pastors are afraid to speak biblical truth into the culture. There is a backslidden condition that has the church is a place she has not been in, or better, not known she is in for a very long time.
They are in the church and the pulpits across the land. They serve on committees and teach bible study groups. Consider it…
- How many Christians will attend your mid-week prayer gathering this week?
- How many homes will gather the family together tonight to pray and give priority to Christ?
- What will the church people complain of this week?
- Christ-likeness is made light of in the church as much as it is out of the church.
- Consider how many times you pray, “thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven,” while you steadfastly refuse to do the will of God.
- Many will say “amen” when the preacher speaks of marriage between one man and one woman while they laugh out-loud in their home with the children watching degenerate characters made heroes to the family while suffering saints are not even prayed for.
This day we are in today, is not a secular problem. The day we are in today is a spiritual problem where the saints of God have grown cold and quiet. The church of the Lord Jesus has lost her militancy. Our land rarely looks to the church seriously any more. She’s made a circus of the church and looked at as the same kind of silliness as we do of the furniture store going out of busyness (again) or the car lot with a gimmick to get you on the property.
As in Jeremiah’s day, the Lord says, “what iniquity have your fathers found in Me, that they are gone far from Me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?” (Jeremiah 2:5) In their vanity they have determined that God is no longer important or relevant.
My plea is to the church. Marriage needs to be defended, but we must stop blaming the homosexual for the decay of the nation. Look to an arrogant church caring only for herself and the advancement of her “brand.”
Church, where have you been? Repent! Then call all sinners to the place you have found your hope, the place of the cross. The soul who looks at their sin on the body of Christ doesn’t have to be told to stop your decadent ways, He sees holiness and knows he is ruined in his current place of arrogance. He humbles himself and repents, then turns to Christ.
Reader, look at that cross again. See your sin? You own it and its cost is death. Stop fighting and cry out to God for forgiveness. Rise up a new creature in Christ as you turn from your sin.