Thinking of giving up on prayer?

On the brink of giving up on prayer? Here's that widow in all her persistence, for your  and our inspiration. Maybe this is the day or night that this Bible-picture turns out to be the spur for renewed persistent prayer?  

Yesterday and today, Gordon and I prayed for our very treasured adult children and grandchildren;  we love them too much to stop.  Truth is, we have seen concrete things in their lives that are mega encouraging to us; yes we have seen God at work and our children follow the road of glad obedience.  This evening it was my turn and highest honour to pray at our Free English Cafe during the voluntary Bible Study, while others facilitated and students followed the Bible portion. Erik, Tendry and I  had a quiet, happy confidence in His presence, knowing He who gave us His Son, in whom is tied up eternal life - invites us to come into His presence, before His face, knowing we are the  apple of His eye - with faith and ask anything!  That's just what we did:  asked for jobs, improved English, and that they will see Jesus in the Bible and find the life He offers.

So here's that feisty, persistent even insistent widow - like a dog with a bone!  Is this us in prayer not to a reluctant, tight-fisted, closed-heart Father - everything but!

A young preacher from Eastbourne, England writes:Luke 18:1-8Notice the position of the widow. She has no husband in a patriarchal society in which men ruled and the weak were often overlooked. She has no advocate in an uncaring and unfair legal system.  She is desperately weak, but also incredibly bold.Can you imagine her?She writes a letter, 78 pages long, including supporting documents.  She hears nothing so she writes again, this time 53 pages long with new photographic evidence.  She follows it up with phone calls – 4 or 5 times a day.  Still nothing.  So she buys a computer and despite her advanced years learns how to email.  She floods his inbox with messages.  She gets no reply.  So every morning she waits outside his front door and walks him to work.  ‘Have you dealt with my case yet?  Why haven’t you dealt with my case?  Where’s my justice?  I demand justice.’  After months of persistence, his in-tray topples over, his email has crashed and he daren’t answer the phone because he knows exactly who it’s going to be.  She’s the persistent widow.  Or as the old King James bible translated it – she’s the importunate widow.  The insistent, petitioning, never-give-up widow. This woman is Jesus’ object lesson in prayer. Does that mean that God is like this unjust judge?  No, Jesus is contrasting the judge with God.The judge (v2 & v4) cares nothing about God or men. Our Father cares desperately.  Verse 7 – He calls them His “chosen ones.” His children who are CHOICE in His eyes – we are His delight, His pride and joy, His chosen ones. God is so much better than this judge.And we are so much more privileged than this woman. It would be easy to think that Jesus just wants us to compare ourselves with this woman. But this is a parable of CONTRASTS. We are meant to CONTRAST the judge with God. And we’re meant to contrast this woman with ourselves.

For the rest of Glen's sermon at "Christ the Truth", please go right here.
Posts related to prayer:
Prayer fuelled by the Bible - here.

Evidences of the New Birth

On Tuesday,  our Time Out Bible Study group completes a 14-week journey in 1 John.  I bless our Lord for each one of my fellow-travellers, study-buddies and friends.  I can only wish you were a fly against a wall hearing and seeing the honesty, grappling, discovery, laughter and earnestness. The fellowship of kindred spirits! If you belong to such a group meeting around the living Word of God to meet Him there, you will know exactly what is meant!

Sadly, it's impossible to relate here the truths the Spirit taught us about Jesus, love, faith, glad obedience - the list goes on!  Talking about lists:  1 John is one of those Bible books that fires one up to sift and organise life-changing truths in bullet-point form.  How blessed then to find one of the 1 John summary lists on the Desiring God web-page.  I've included a link at the end of this post.

John's aim is that Christians will be sure they are born of God.
John's second aim is that those who make false claims about knowing God, will have their
false assurances dashed and come to Christ as their atoning sacrifice.

How can I know I have been truly born again of God?

John Piper writes:  

"I think God wants the totality of 1 John to have its impact on us. It is dominated by the concern to give “tests of life” or effects and evidences of the new birth. He gives at least eleven evidences that we are born again. We could probably boil them all down to faith and love. Here they are: 

1. Those who are born of God keep his commandments.1 John 2:3-4: “By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
1 John 3:24: “Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him.”
2. Those who are born of God walk as Christ walked.1 John 2:5-6: “By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”
3. Those who are born of God don’t hate others but love them.1 John 2:9: “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.”
1 John 3:14: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.”
1 John 4:7-8: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:20: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar.”
4. Those who are born of God don’t love the world.1 John 2:15: “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
5. Those who are born of God confess the Son and receive (have) him.1 John 2:23: “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.”
1 John 4:15: “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”
1 John 5:12: “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
6. Those who are born of God practice righteousness.1 John 2:29: “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”
7. Those who are born of God don’t make a practice of sinning.1 John 3:6: “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.”
1 John 3:9-10: “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”
1 John 5:18: “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.”
8. Those who are born of God possess the Spirit of God.1 John 3:24: “By this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.”
1 John 4:13: “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.”
9. Those who are born of God listen submissively to the apostolic Word.1 John 4:6: “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
10. Those who are born of God believe that Jesus is the Christ.1 John 5:1: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.”
11. Those who are born of God overcome the world.1 John 5:4: “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”

Let's not be tempted to conclude that those who are born again have turned into sinless little gods.

1 John 1:8-10, “If we say we have no sin [present tense], we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins [present tense], he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” So John is at pains to say that “walking in the light” (1:7) does not mean walking flawlessly. It means that, when you stumble, the light of Christ causes you to see it and hate it and confess it and move forward with Christ.

Here is the link to John Piper's full transcript of his sermon on 1 John 5.

Simple interactive questions on Luke 8:22-25

Since I posted this a days ago, we sat around our tables with International Students who are eager to learn English.  It was something deeply moving to hear them read Luke 8 in their own accents.  Heaven is going to be populated with every tribe, nation and tongue - just the smallest of a foretaste.
The leaders gave the participants maximum opportunity to participate, basically being led by the questions and the living Word itself.  In the kitchen two of our prayer-warriors prayed for ears that hear, for the work of the Spirit which people can't do, for seeing Jesus in Luke.

Here is a very simple Bible Study aimed at some highly qualified students who are working hard at improving a low-level command of English.  

This could also be used by parents with young children.  Instead of prep-time, busy dads and moms can dive right in with this simple material and discover together at Jesus, the Son of God in action.

"Who is this man?"

Can you remember a time when you were in a crisis and very frightened?

Bible Study Luke 8:22-25. 22 One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and started out. 23a As they sailed across, Jesus settled down for a nap. Verse 23b But soon a fierce storm came down on the lake. The boat was filling with water, and they were in real danger. 24a The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” Verse 24b When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves. Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm. 25a Then he asked them, “Where is your faith?” Verse 25b The disciples were terrified and amazed. Verse 25c “Who is this man?” they asked each other. Verse 25d “When he gives a command, even the wind and waves obey him!”

1 What was the crisis in Verse 23b?

2  What was Jesus doing during the fierce storm and why? (v 23a)

3  What do you think the disciples thought about Jesus being asleep during the fierce storm?

4 What were the disciples shouting in verse 24a?

5  So what did Jesus do to bring an end to the storm and what happened in verse 24b

6  What was Jesus’ question to his disciples in verse 25a? What did Jesus mean by faith? How would the disciples have felt in the storm if they had confidence in Jesus?

7 How did the disciples react after they saw Jesus’ power over creation?  25b? And what question did they ask and why?  Verse 25c

8 How does this miracle show us that Jesus is the Son of God? (Verse 25d)

The disciples were starting to learn who Jesus was.  “Who is this man?” becomes one of the most important questions we ever ask ourselves about Jesus.

Vocabulary

Disciple: a follower of a teacher. (verse 24) Starts out: to begin a journey. (verse 22)

Nap – sleep  Lake: a large area of water surrounded by landRebuked -expressed disapproval

Faith - complete trust or confidence;  Obey – listen to

Can I trust my conscience?

Is your conscience at rest or condemning or recommending you?  Can our consciences be trusted?  Recently, at our Time Out Bible Fellowship, we discovered together life-truths in 1 John 3.  The Holy Spirit impressed these verses so much on our minds and hearts, that they came up again in conversation a week later. 19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 if our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: we know it by the Spirit he gave us. So, with one of those themes, ( "conscience") alive in my own conscience, Kevin de Young's writing about Luther and his conscience, leapt off the internet page and made a few somersaults!  I also post it for our far-away grown-up children, because how often don't we wish we could be chatting about these for example, with our dear ones around a kitchen table. Kevin writes: "As Christians, we don’t think about the significance of our consciences as much as we should. Of course, the conscience is not infallible. It can be evil (Heb. 10:22), seared (1 Tim. 4:2), defiled (Titus 1:15), or weak (1 Cor. 8:7). But that doesn’t allow us to ignore our conscience. There are more than a dozen occasions where the New Testament makes a positive reference to the testimony of the conscience. For example: •Romans 9:1 “I am speaking the truth in Christ-I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit.” •Hebrews 13:18 “Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honourably in all things.” The conscience was not the final judge and jury in matters of the heart, but it is one of the most important witnesses to bring to the stand.  Here's how the Puritans put it, “God’s spy and man’s overseer.” It is our prosecuting attorney, and just as importantly, the conscience is also our defence attorney, helping us face false accusations and slanders of the evil one (Rom. 2:14-15). Having a conscience is a mark of being a sentient adult. The conscience is what separates us from the animals, which is why Pinocchio becomes a beast when he ignores his conscience and persists in deceit. Conscience is indispensable to being a human being that lives the good life, enjoys peace with God, and lives a life pleasing to God. In a day where we are encouraged to do whatever feels good, in a day where a moral compass is thought to be prudish and narrow, in a day where the state thinks nothing of trampling on the liberty of consciences, we would do well to remember what the Bible says. •Acts 24:16 “So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.” •1 Tim. 1:5 “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” •1 Peter 3:16 – “Have a good conscience so that when you are slandered those who revile your god behaviour in Christ may be put to shame.” If you are caught in sin and your conscience accuses you, turn from iniquity. If you are smitten with regret for past mistakes and offenses, run to the cross. And if you are faced with the choice to follow the world or obey your conscience, pray for the same courage that descended upon Luther at Worms. The interrogation was no short affair, but by the end Luther had summoned his courage, concluding with these famous words: “My conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, for going against my conscience is neither safe nor salutary. I can do no other, here I stand, God help me. Amen.” “Conscience is either the greatest friend,” Richard Sibbes once remarked, “or the greatest enemy in the world.” Don’t ignore his wisdom.  There is no friend like a clean conscience and no enemy like a conscience doing its God-given work. Turn from sin and turn to Christ. Stand your ground. Get on your knees. Be a captive to the Word of God which setst you free and shows you how you can set your heart at rest in His presence. I do hope you have time to follow this link to Kevin de Young's article, here.

Catchy tune about God's solid and protective love for us.

Here's catchy tune expressing

something of God's solid care and

our confidence in life.Psalm 55:22


http://ministry-to-children.com/video-psalm-55/

Happy Families?

This post states the well-experienced riddle about close family life.  It touches on the answer. ie  "gospel". However, without some definition of "gospel", that word remains a code word.  I'm in the middle of preparing for our weekly discovering together of 1 John and it's thrilling to see how the gospel works through love. As soon as the content of the Time Out study is in some orderly form, I'll add a link, so that we we'll have something of both the dilemna and the gospel-solution of  "Close Family Life".

We all love the thought of family.

•           home, fireplace, welcome, rest—

•           the freedom to be yourself, to plop down in front of the TV or raid the fridge.

•           It’s the place where we’re known, where we’re not ashamed to bring our dirty    clothes.

Yes, we love the thought of being in relationships…But in reality, relationships are hard. And although we love the thought of family (at least from the outside), the daily grind of family is something entirely different.

Here’s the reality:

• being in long-term relationships means that you’re going to be sinned against, even by people who really do love you. And it’s not going to happen just once!
• It also means that you’ll sin against people you love…over and over again…Self-recrimination, guilt and despair hammer away at your hope for that you’ll ever be the kind of family man or woman, the kind of parent or child, you had hoped to be.
• Spouses will disappoint. Children fail to “make us proud.”

Relationships are hard…No, they’re not just hard, they’re broken.

• Just how do we keep on loving when we are flawed and our loved ones are flawed too?
• Where does the strength to forgive (again!) come from?  And the strength to ask for forgiveness?
• What does it mean to live transparently, humbly and yet hopefully before someone who knows you all too well, someone you have hurt…someone who has hurt you?

Simply put, grace teaches us to love.

• The grace that has been given to us in the gospel trains us to love sinners—nearby sinners, sinners you sleep with, sinners who see you at your worst, sinners you see at their worst.
• In the gospel we’re given a grace that humbles our hearts and enables us to wash dirty feet, for the gospel teaches us that our Saviour loved sinners and humbly washed their feet when he was on his way to die for them.
•  Nothing will transform our hearts and turn us from demandingness and despair to gentleness and generosity like the gospel.

None of us need more rules about how to be better family men or women. You’ve already seen that list, haven’t you?  We all know we’re to love one another.

The question is not “Should we love?” the question is “how do we do that?” and the answer always is, “Because Jesus has done it for us.”

To be continued....

Who am I?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote “Who Am I” just one month before he was executed. This is an English translation of the famous text:

Who am I? They often tell me, I step out from my cell calm and cheerful and poised, like a squire from his manor.

Who am I? They often tell me I speak with my guards, freely, friendly and clear, as though I were the one in charge.

Who am I? They also tell me I bear days of calamity serenely, smiling and proud, like accustomed to victory.

Am I really what others say of me? Or am I only what I know of myself?

Restless, yearning, sick, like a caged bird, struggling for life breath, as if I were being strangled, starving for colors, for flowers, for birdsong,
thirsting for kind words, human closeness, shaking with rage at power lust and pettiest insult, tossed about, waiting for great things to happen,helplessly fearing for friends so far away, too tired and empty to pray, to think, to work, weary and ready to take my leave of it all?

Who am I? This one or the other?

Am I this one today and tomorrow another?Am I both at once? Before others a hypocrite and in my own eyes a pitiful, whimpering weakling?

Or is what remains in me like a defeated army,Fleeing in disarray from victory already won?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.

Whoever I am, thou knowest me; O God, I am thine!

 

Lavished, Redemptive Love!

Jesus loves me, this I know….. 

The autumn colours are on fire in Scotland and walking in the woods is a pure gold-experience.

When I saw this  (necessary) demolished tree my thoughts flew (is this a Puritan-expression?) to Jesus who has authority to lay down His life and take up His life again.

At our Time Out bible discussions on Tuesday mornings at Edinburgh Baptist Chapel, the Spirit has shown us in the Word, time and again, that Jesus loved us and laid down His life for us, and…….that we are to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.  No longer messing around with mere empty words, but with open hearts and hands meeting known needs with  resources, with genuine love and compassion.  We love. because He first loved us with lavished love in Jesus.  We love, because He loves and we are – by grace and faith – born of God.  Like Father, like children.

This picture is infinitely less than a shadow of the deep, deep, deep love of the Father.  The Father who gave His Son, the Father who welcomes the repentant ones who run to Him by faith –accepts each one with exuberant welcomes, forgiveness and celebrations, because His only Son loved me and give Himself for me.

Overwhelming and motivating.