Reignite Your Prayer Life

Don Whitney / October 9, 2015

How’s your prayer life?

Hardly any question — unless perhaps someone asks about your evangelistic efforts — can cause more chin-dropping, foot-shuffling embarrassment for Christians than asking about their prayer life.

Why is that? Why do so many followers of Jesus suffer with such unsatisfying prayer lives and consider themselves hopelessly second-rate Christians because of it?

Method Is Our Madness

For almost all followers of Jesus, I believe the problem in prayer is not with the quality of the Christian, but with the method of their prayer.

Of course, no change in method will make prayer consistently meaningful to someone who is spiritually dead. But it’s different for those who are spiritually alive. They are born again through faith in Christ and indwelled by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s presence causes them as God’s children to cry, “Abba, Father!” (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6), giving them a Godward orientation they didn’t have before.

In other words, all those indwelled by the Holy Spirit really do want to pray. And if an individual Christian sincerely seeks to live for Christ, and has no specific sin issue that he or she refuses to confess and fight against, then the basic problem in prayer is not with sin or failure, but with method.

And what is the method of prayer for most Christians? It’s this: when we pray we tend to say the same old things about the same old things. Sooner or later, that kind of prayer is boring. When prayer is boring, you don’t feel like praying. And when you don’t feel like praying, you don’t pray — at least with any fervency or consistency. Prayer feels much more like duty than delight.

The problem is not that we pray about the same old things. To pray about the same things most of the time is normal. That’s because our lives tend to consist of the same things from one day to the next. Thankfully, dramatic changes in our lives usually don’t occur very often.

No, the problem isn’t that we pray about the same old things; the problem is that we tend to say the same old things about the same old things. The result is that we can be talking to the most fascinating Person in the universe about the most important things in our lives — and be bored to death.

So we can experience boredom in prayer, not because we don’t love God, and not because we don’t love who or what we’re praying about, but because of our method.

Solution in the Spirit

What is the solution? Well, whatever it is, it must be simple. God has children all over the planet, and they represent the widest imaginable diversity in language, culture, age, IQ, education, and Christian privilege (such as access to a Bible preaching church, Christian books, Christian content online, and more). If all these believers, despite the various and dramatic differences among them, are invited to pray, then prayer must be doable by all God’s children.

The simple solution to the seemingly universal problem of saying the same old things about the same old things in prayer is this: pray the Bible. In other words, slowly read a passage of Scripture and pray about all that comes to mind as you read.

Do this, and you’ll never again be left to say the same old things in prayer.

Simple, Powerful, Biblical

Praying the Bible isn’t complicated. Read through a few verses of Scripture, pause at the end of each phrase or verse, and pray about what the words suggest to you.

Suppose you are praying your way through Psalm 23. After reading verse one — “The Lord is my shepherd” — you might begin by thanking Jesus for being your Shepherd. Next you might ask him to shepherd your family, making your children or grandchildren his sheep, causing them to love him as their great shepherd too. After that you might pray for your undershepherds at the church, that Jesus would shepherd them as they shepherd you.

Then, when nothing else comes to mind, you go to the next line, “I shall not want.” You might thank him that you’ve never been in real want, or pray for someone — perhaps someone you know, or for a Christian in a place of persecution — who is in want.

You would continue through the psalm until you run out of time. You wouldn’t run out of anything to say (if you did, you could just go to another psalm), and best of all, that prayer would be unlike any you’ve ever prayed in your life.

That means if you’ll pray the Bible, you’ll never again say the same old things about the same old things. You don’t need any notes or books or any plan to remember. Simply talk to God about what comes to mind as you go line-by-line through his word.

As John Piper puts it, “Open the Bible, start reading it, and pause at every verse and turn it into a prayer.”

If nothing comes to mind, go to the next verse. If you don’t understand that verse, go to the next one. If the following verse is crystal clear, but doesn’t prompt anything to pray about, read on. If you want to linger long over a single verse, pray from and about that verse as long as you want.

By this method, your prayers will be guided and shaped by Scripture, and be far more in conformity to the word and will of God than they will if you always make up your own prayers.

Jesus prayed the Bible in Matthew 27:46 and Luke 23:46, and the early church prayed the Bible in Acts 4:23–26, and so can you.

The Promise of God in Threatening Pain

This morning I read a blog post that started with the words:

We live in a society that is petrified of suffering. Each day starts with a thousand moments of flinching at pain — at our alarm clocks, at the shower’s cold water, at missed emails that threaten loss and tragedy. We resent suffering, and what it could mean for us. 

I was captivated.

"That's so true!" I thought, that's me....flinching at little stabs of pain the whole day long. And so I read on. The post is written by a pro American Football player who I'd never heard of - you probably haven't either - but who knows his theology. It really strengthened me and my grip on joy-infused gospel centeredness was made just a bit tighter.

I want to commend it to you. It flies in the face of the culture's view of suffering, a view that has become the air we breathe in much of the contemporary western church, and for that reason alone it's worth a look.

http://bit.ly/1Uyvwi3     

How to Read Your Bible

Have a look at this great video from the guys at Whitehorse Inn

  https://youtu.be/YCenfA5eKqs

Vintage Worship: The Glory of Historic Hymns

Here's another great post from Matt Boswell.  I think he makes some good points that the wider church needs to hear.   

I love old hymns. I keep a stack of hymnals on my nightstand, and have an ever-growing collection in my library. I cut my teeth on Charles Wesley and John Rippon. I hope to write academically on the pastoral theology of hymns. I even have a dog named Watts.

While I certainly don’t think that historic hymns are the only thing we should sing in corporate worship, I am concerned that omitting older hymns in our gatherings silences the rich voices of church history. Some churches seem uninterested in any song that is more than two years old, much less two hundred years. Yes, the church will continue to write and sing new songs (Psalm 96:1), but it is also good and helpful for us to sing old songs.

What’s New Is Not Always Best

When I mention historic hymns, maybe you cringe as you recall a “worship war” in your local church. Maybe you’re eager to only sing the old hymns. Or maybe you wonder why it is important at all. My aim is not to renew local church disputes or bolster mere sentimentality, but to commend something else altogether — to encourage younger churches to remember their history by joining with the countless men and women who have shared these songs over hundreds of years.

Our society is fixated on what’s new and what’s next, but hymns remind us that what’s next is not always what’s best. Singing the historic hymns of our faith reminds our congregations that we are not the first generation who have wrestled and prayed, asked and believed. We are not the first to write hymns of praise to God. We walk gladly in the footsteps of our fathers who have written praises to Christ that have stood the test of time.

With a steady diet of merely new choruses, we can develop both modern idolatry and historical amnesia. Perhaps we should adopt this paraphrase of C.S. Lewis?Sing at least one old hymn to every three new ones.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise him all creatures here below,
Praise him above ye heavenly hosts,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
–Thomas Ken, 1674

Hymns Teach Us

Hymns are portable sermons that articulate, exegete, and pronounce biblical truths. They shape the way we view God, man, Christ, and how we are to live in light of the gospel. The truths they communicate preach to us throughout the week following the style of Deuteronomy 6 — at home and away, when lying down and waking. As R.W. Dale famously said, “Let me write the hymns of the church and I care not who writes the theology.”

Singing is a form of teaching that uses poetry to open to us the word of God. When Isaac Watts published Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, his intention was not to sing Scripture line by line, but to create poetic and emotive renditions of Scripture that enabled the church to sing the truths of Scripture.

Singing for the Christian is formative and responsive, and therefore must be informed by Scripture. We learn what we sing.

The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her
And for her life He died.
–Samuel Stone, 1886

Hymns Admonish Us

Throughout the week, other things call for our praise, attention, and affection. Singing hymns of God’s character reminds us of his greatness. Singing hymns of our sin reminds us of the role of confession. By singing hymns of the atonement, we remind one another of the efficacy of the work of Jesus. Hymns of consecration remind us of the dependence of the Christian upon the steadfast grace of God.

We sing to admonish the weak and weary that their salvation is in God. We sing to admonish the doubting to believe and be renewed. We sing to admonish the suffering that they have a hope that is unwavering.

Begone unbelief, my Savior is near,
And for my relief will surely appear:
By prayer let me wrestle, and He wilt perform,
With Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm.
–John Newton, 1779

Hymns Inspire Worship

We should choose historic hymns that provoke thankful hearts. The aim of singing hymns is engaging both the head and the heart. Just as we read and meditate on the Scriptures to see and worship God, so we choose songs that teach robust theological truth that cause our hearts to erupt with praise. The chief end of theology is doxology.

In choosing historic hymns for corporate worship, we should choose those that make our hearts sing. From the content of the lyric, to the movement of the melody, we want beauty and transcendence to come together and serve the people of God. In our pursuit of theological precision, we must not neglect the pursuit of heartfelt response.

A church’s hymn-singing — whether old or new — is not simply an opening act for the sermon. It is not obligatory filler-time to warm up a congregation. Singing is a holy practice. We sing because God has commanded us, and our songs should fill our hearts with thankfulness and delight in God.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.
–Martin Luther, 1529

The New in the Old

Surely the hymns recorded for us in Scripture are meant for our singing today. In these songs of praise and prayer, contrition and confession, we see the breadth and inclusiveness of the hymns the church has sung for ages.

Regardless of the median age or church experience of a congregation, when I lead in worship by singing these historic hymns together, a sense of identity and reverence seems to rest upon the people. These songs unite the body of Christ as they have for generations, joining the youngest and oldest of our congregation and everyone in between, as they consider and hope in the same truths of God and his grace.

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.
–Isaac Watts, 1719

Holiday Reading

Holiday Reading

At LBC we try and rest as a church, during August.  It’s not about going on holiday but about being in a healthy rhythm where we slow down, stopping some regular activities in order to gain space to remember God and his grace shown towards us in Christ.  It’s the Sabbath principle.  One of the ways we can make good use of that time is to read a decent Christian book that will strengthen and encourage us in our faith.

It’s worth remembering that Christianity is a book oriented faith; God has revealed himself in a book, the Bible, and Spirit filled teachers have written other books to help us understand it.  So whether we love reading or struggle with it, it’s important to persevere and try, with God’s help, to receive the blessings that he wants to make available through books. 

“I do not remember 99% of what I read but if the 1% I do remember is a life-changing insight, then I do not begrudge the 99%” John Piper

I’m going to make some suggestions of books that I would recommend to you as your Pastor.  They are books that, if read humbly and carefully, will be helpful to you as you seek to live a fruitful life for Christ.   If you were to read just one of these every six months, perhaps painfully slowly, you would be extremely well served.   In 5 years you could have read 10 excellent books which would strengthen you hugely but would also impact those around you. 

So in no particular order my recommendations:

Knowing God by Jim Packer.     

A true spiritual classic that will open your eyes to the amazing God we celebrate.  If your understanding of who God is and what he is done is thin your worship will be thin too.  This book will help you to grow in you r worship of and love for God.  It was written in 1973 and it will still be being read in another 40 years and beyond. 

Enjoy Your Prayer Life by Michael Reeves. 

At just 48 pages this short book wonderfully conveys what prayer is really all about.  It’s super encouraging and makes you want to pray. 

You Can Change by Tim Chester.  

This is book shows you how the gospel – not trying hard, doing more, learning more or getting special prayer ministry – can change our actions and attitudes.   This is old-time “reformed theology” written for the nitty gritty reality of 21^st century life.  

The Me I Want to Be by John Ortberg.  

I read this “by accident” on holiday last year and loved it.   How can we be the best version of ourselves, the one that looks like Jesus, the one that is flourishing and not languishing?  Deep, profound and at times laugh-out-loud funny.  A book you will want to go slowly through.  

Anything by Tim Keller.  

Literally anything - I bet even his shopping lists will lead you closer to Christ!  As far as I know Keller didn’t write anything for the first 30 years of his ministry but now when he’s a seasoned pastor and evangelist it feels like he’s writing a book a month.  

The Reason for God       How to explain Christianity to a sceptical world.

Kings Cross                     A journey through Mark’s gospel.  The thing you’ll say the most: “Why had I never noticed that….I want to tell my non-Christian friend

The Prodigal God              The teaching he gives here changed my life and ministry for ever about 10 years ago.   There are two ways of being lost…

Counterfeit Gods                Unbelievably helpful stuff about what we trust in other than Christ, why it fails to deliver and how it hurts us.  He then shows how Jesus will always be sufficient and better than anything else that calls for our allegiance.   

 Prayer                              This is on my pile of books to be read.  I cannot wait!

Honest Evangelism, Rico Tice    

I keep meeting people who have read this book and rave about it, I’ve read extracts and reviews but I need to read it and soon!  I need to be stirred to share my faith in only the way Rico Tice can do it.  

Compared to Her by Sophie de Wit

I’ve not read this but it sounds great.   I’ve read another of her books and she’s got a great style.  Here’s the blurb:    "I am a recovering Compulsive Comparison Syndrome sufferer. It causes me to feel envy, despair, pride and superiority. It cuts away at my relationship with God, with my loved ones, and with myself. It has promised me contentment, and yet robbed me of it.  This book is about how to spot this syndrome and its effects in your life; the view of life that causes it; how the gospel treats it; and how you can move beyond it to live a life of true, lasting contentment.”

Is God Anti Gay by Sam Allberry

I’d like everyone to read this.  It’s a short book that addresses the issue of same sex attraction, what God thinks and how Christians should respond.  It’s not the last word but it is super helpful for those who want to live under the authority of Scripture and truly love others.  

The Art of Pastoring by David Hansen

Ever wondered what a Pastor is for?  For many years I wasn’t sure and I was one!  This book is a gift to Pastors who don’t want to sell out to the “pastor as CEO” spirit of the age and it’s a gift to those who they serve. 

A Resilient Life by Gordon MacDonald.  

A wonderfully encouraging book about how to walk with Christ over the long haul and finish strong.   

More by Simon Ponsonby.  

This book was the excellent basis for a Sunday evening sermon series looking at the person and work of the Holy Spirit.   How can we have more of the Spirit when we already have everything in Christ?   Mining the Cross without undermining it!

Living the Cross Centred Life by CJ Mahaney.

I’ve recommended this little book before.   Read a chapter a day and see what God does in your heart.  It’s wonderful!

I think I’ll leave it there for now!    Most of these you will be able to pick up second hand from Amazon for £3-£5.

I really hope that these books will help you as you seek to live well for Christ.

How Bible-reading Can Damage Your Health

I love this article (an extract form John Hindley's book).  I think he makes a good point really well. 

For years, I have struggled with Bible reading. Most Christians I know struggle to read the Bible (though we don’t like to talk about it).

We wonder why it doesn’t seem to make a difference to us. We wonder why we don’t miss it when we don’t read it.

We know we should read its words, but often we don’t really feel like reading it. We know it’s true; we don’t remember it’s beautiful.

Maybe you’re in that position as you read this. Maybe you are in church leadership and wish your church family would read the Bible more (even as you wish that your own Bible-reading was more than doing your duty).

Well, I think I’ve worked out what I was getting wrong about the Bible. I was reading the Bible as though it were about me—my understanding, behaviour, guidance, feelings. But it is not about me. It is about Jesus. And really knowing that changes everything.

When my wife and I were dating, we wrote each other letters. I read Flick’s letters for information on how she had been doing (you might call that reading intellectually), to know how to be a good boyfriend to her (reading morally), or because they made me feel good (reading emotionally). But if that had been it, I’d have entirely missed the point. I read those letters first and foremost because I loved Flick, and I wanted to hear from Flick because of my love for her and her love for me.

  

I read them because I couldn’t not read them—because I loved her.

The Bible is first and foremost a love letter, from Christ, to us as his people. Yes, the words are the words of Moses, Matthew, Paul and so on, but they are the words of Christ’s Spirit, too. This is why Jesus says to a group of people who were very, very good at making time for “quiet times”:

“You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5 v 39-40)

The Scriptures are all about Jesus. They point us to him, because they are from him. So reading the Bible is not about me learning more, but loving more. It is my chance to hear from Jesus, to see Jesus, to grasp more fully the love and power and perfection of Jesus.

When we forget that, our Bible reading not only doesn’t grow us, but it can actually stunt us. It can turn our Christian life into an intellectual pursuit, or a moral crusade, or an emotional rollercoaster, or a job on the to-do list. Even a “good” quiet time (I understood the passage, or I saw how I must change, or I felt great, or I got it done) doesn’t really change anything, for very long. Too much of this and I give up Bible reading, or I shrink through Bible reading.

Let’s read the Bible because it’s about Jesus. We’ll need to understand it. It will show us how to live. It will sometimes fire our feelings. It will need to be done diligently.

But it will change so much, and help you grow so much, if you sit down with your Bible and think: I am about to hear from Jesus, about Jesus. I am opening up his love letter. You may need some notes or devotional books to help you. But most of all, you need to know what the Bible is: or rather, Who the Bible is from and who it is about. He is true, and he is beautiful, and he is speaking to us.

Get that, and you and I will read the Bible because we can’t not read the Bible.

This is an edited excerpt from John Hindley’s new book, You can really grow: How to thrive in the Christian life.

You Snooze You Lose

Jesus himself said that we should be careful how we listen to what God has to say (Luke 8:18) and so it's worth giving some thought to how we approach the sermons we listen to.

Christopher Ash's book "Listen Up! A practical Guide to Listening to Sermons" is excellent and we used it at Lymington Baptist Church some years ago as study material for small groups.

And this week's edition of Mortification of Spin speaks really helpfully to the same issue.  Worth a listen - it's about 15 minutes.  (MOS isn't everyone's cup of tea and much of the time, theologically, it isn't where I am but I absolutely love it!)

Four Powerful Words

Please take 11 minutes to watch this piece of film.   It speaks to such an importnat issue that we all need to get more familiar with.   Click here

A Glimpse of Heaven

The other week I had the opportunity of preaching from the book of Revelation, the last in the current morning series at LBC based on the Community Bible Experience readings.   I chose as my text Chapter 5.  I couldn't wait to get into the study to start work; sleeves rolled up, brow furrowed.

I recalled, as I have done on a few occasions, how Revd Glen Marshall's preaching on Revelation at the Baptist Assembly in 2002 had knocked me off my feet.  He had presented Christ to me in such a vivid and compelling way it was etched in my mind.  In particular I had been gripped by his introduction to the book itself and, amazingly, I managed to find his notes on this introduction online. As I read his opening remarks about how we should approach this particular book I was again transfixed by the very nature of the text God had given to us in John's Apocalypse.

I read this introduction at the beginning of my sermon as I could find no better way of being able to capture people's hearts and imaginations for the message that would follow from Rev. 5   I've pasted in Glen's notes below and also the link to the sermon itself.   I have to say I was blown away by it. That's sounds kind of inappropriate doesn't it but I'm not referring to my own preaching but what the experience of announcing this particular section of God's Word to the congregation (including myself!) did to me.   It was a rare thing I can say.   Heralding the truth that despite all manner of horrendous circumstances "the lamb still wins" was an incredible privilege.  

An Introduction to Revelation by Glen Marshall

Revelation is a virtuoso performance.  John is the Salvador Dali of the prophetic image, the Lewis Carol of biblical literature and the Tim Burton of scriptural story telling.

He breaks all the rules - the Greek is a nightmare, he is radically creative with the conventions of apocalyptic and daringly innovative with the prophetic tradition.

Why? Because what he is dealing with, what he has seen, what he has been charged to share is so huge, so profound, so fundamental, so gob-smacking that he has to find a way to assail our senses and our sensibilities in the hope that we might see it too - and be changed as a result.

It’s worth remembering that Revelation was designed to be read out loud in church (“Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it …1:3).   It’s a spoken drama - imagine it - in Ephesus, eyes closed, transported to another world - not an imaginary world but a heavenly world, not a dream world but our world viewed from the perspective of the eternal purposes of the creator redeemer God. It is designed to break open our world to transcendence. 

John wants us to see what he’s seen so that the vision will invade our hearts, infect our dreams and so transform our living. 

That’s why the last thing that you must do to Revelation is turn into a doctrinal textbook or still less a futurist timetable like some eschatological equivalent of the national rail enquiry service. 

John did not use his images to conceal what could have been said more straightforwardly, but to communicate that which could not be expressed in any other way.

This is a Pink Floyd Video not a government information film. This is Moulin Rouge, not a documentary on the Parisian entertainment industry.

We evangelicals need to repent of the violence we have done to scripture – Like some insane cook we have spent our time extracting the individual ingredients from the stew in order to analyse their taste; we’ve been so busy dissecting the body of scripture in order to extract precise and consistent doctrinal formulations that we’ve been left with a corpse, not a living word.

So let’s get on and see what he saw - and don’t just bring your reason with you bring your imagination as well.

Revelation 5: A Glimpse of Heaven

Flowers for Gay Weddings

I'm always interested in what James Emery White has to say about church and culture.   This post addresses an issue that we will find more and more in the UK and it's worth giving some thought to.   It reminds me of DA Carson's book "The Intolerance of Tolerance" in which he says that it's no longer enough to permit and accept things you don't agree with, you have to support them and be in favour of them if you're to be tolerant.  

By now, most have heard of the many and varied court cases related to conscientious objection, usually of a religious nature, to serving gay weddings. They are filling the courts as bakers and florists, bed and breakfast operators and caterers, are being sued for not wanting to engage in activity they deem supporting the wedding itself.

But now we are starting to get the decisions.

A judge ruled that a Washington state florist who refused to provide a flower arrangement for a gay wedding "because of [her] relationship with Jesus" violated the state's anti-discrimination and consumer protection laws.

Background: the couple asked the florist to provide flowers for their wedding in March 2013, three months after Washington state legalized same-sex marriage. The florist had served the couple at least twenty-times before, and knew they were gay. But when the request came to provide flower arrangements for their wedding, she said that she could not provide the arrangements because doing so would have constituted a demonstration of approval for the wedding itself.

"I just put my hands on his and told him because of my relationship with Jesus Christ I couldn't do that, couldn't do his wedding."

The charge against the florist was discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The State Attorney, who brought one of two lawsuits against the florist (the other came from the ACLU), said "If a business provides a product or service to opposite-sex couples for their weddings, then it must provide same-sex couples the same product or service."

But the legal team for the florist said she hadn't denied the couple flowers, just the arrangements. An arrangement, it was argued, was a form of free speech. They were welcome to her flowers. Further, they argued the florist's faith should exempt her from anti-discrimination laws.

In a sixty-page opinion, the judge maintained that "religious motivation does not excuse compliance with the law…In trade and commerce, and more particularly when seeking to prevent discrimination in public accommodations, the courts have confirmed the power of the legislative branch to prohibit conduct it deems discriminatory, even where the motivation for that conduct is grounded in religious beliefs."

More specifically, the judge maintained that while religious beliefs are protected, religious actions are not. When the state of Washington approved gay marriage, a Christian refusing to serve gay weddings became illegal.

The florist's attorney, Kristen Waggoner with Alliance Defending Freedom, said of the pending appeal: "The ruling basically said that if you dare to not celebrate same-sex marriage because it violates your religious convictions, that the government has a right to bring about your personal and professional ruin…Her home, her business…her life savings and retirement, these are all in jeopardy…all because of her deeply held religious views."

Many Christians are conflicted about such stories, not to mention verdicts. No one wants to see true discrimination take place.

But there is a significant difference between serving a wedding and, say, serving a meal. Many in opposition to the florist's stand want to link it to the civil rights movement and the abhorrent Jim Crow laws that were in effect until the mid 1960's.

However, the analogy is specious on several fronts, but most importantly because a wedding has always been a deeply religious event. Among many Christians, it is one of the holy sacraments. It is not about a general refusal of service on the basis of race, gender or even sexual orientation. It is about forced compliance in regard to what has historically been, and continues to be for most, a sacred act being treated in a sacrilegious way, and people being forced into participating in that sacrilege.

She would sell them flowers. She just didn't want to create something that would be used for the wedding itself. She didn't try to stop the wedding, or refuse them flowers for their wedding…she just didn't want to be aparticipant. They could use the flowers for whatever they wanted, but that was their concern. She didn't want to have to create something expressly used to, in her heart and mind, dishonor God.

Think of it this way: suppose she had been asked to make a floral arrangement for a Hindu wedding, a floral arrangement that was destined to be given as a sacrifice to a particular Hindu god. To make such an arrangement would be, for a Christian, unthinkable. It would be making something for a purpose that they simply could not bring their hands to craft. And for some reason, I think the court of public opinion would be with her.

To say that belief cannot be linked with action is to say that religion is fine as long as it isn't real. As long as it doesn't result in an actual lifestyle of conviction. It should be treated as a personal, private preference, but not a transcendent reality. As such, it must compromise itself to anything society deems desirable.

Let's not be naïve about the not-so-subtle agenda that seems to be creeping into the cultural discourse on such matters. For many, it is not enough for homosexuality to be allowed; it is not enough for it be accepted; it is not enough for gay marriage to be legal. The end game for some seems to be the penalization, if not criminalization, of any and all convictional opposition.

To my thinking, this is the heart of the "religious freedom" concern.

And this is the heart of the matter for the florist as well, for after being offered a settlement in this case she responded by saying:

"Your offer reveals that you don't really understand me or what this conflict is all about. It's about freedom, not money. I certainly don't relish the idea of losing my business, my home, and everything else that your lawsuit threatens to take from my family, but my freedom to honor God in doing what I do best is more important."

So when the argument goes, "Yes, of course I believe in religious freedom. But if you're going to be a photographer, you will have to subvert that to your role in society as a photographer. After all, you don't have to be a photographer!"

...or,

"Of course clergy and churches should not be forced to officiate gay weddings. But if they don't, they should lose their tax exempt status,"

...let's call it what it is. This is the active penalization of religious conviction, and the polar opposite of religious freedom.

Of course the photographer has to be a photographer. It is their vocation, their livelihood, the fruit of their training and education. If you want discrimination, here it is: you are saying you can't be a Christianphotographer, at least not a practicing one.

So there you have it.

A judge has ruled that a "relationship with Jesus" doesn't justify acts of conscience. The only problem is that a relationship with Jesus demands just that.

James Emery White

Fifty Shades of Black and White

The fastest selling book of all time has hit the cinema screens this weekend.   It would seem that the whole world is saying that “50 Shades of Grey” is harmless fun.  It’s also being thought of this way by people professing to be followers of Christ.  

What’s the issue?   

Consider listening to this podcast from Mortification of Spin.  It’s not the last word on the subject but for many I hope it will at least be the first word on a culturally significant issue that will quite literally impact the wiring of your brain and the condition of your soul.     

http://www.mortificationofspin.org/mos/podcast/22448  (and hit the ‘play’ button).    

What to do When We're Prayerless

Here's an article from Jon Bloom about prayer that I found really helpful.  He addresses a common issue with fresh encouragement and great insight.   His illustration about prayer being like a train was particularly useful.   I hope it strengthens you as you seek to follow Christ wherever you are.  

Prayerlessness is not fundamentally a discipline problem. At root it’s a faith problem.

What Prayer Is

Prayer is the native language of faith. John Calvin called prayer the “chief exercise of faith.” That’s why when faith is awake and surging in us, prayer doesn’t feel like a burden or an obligation. It feels natural. It’s how faith most instinctively speaks.

Throughout the Bible, faith and prayer are inextricably linked. One of the clearest examples is Jesus’s statement in John 15:7: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, [ask whatever you wish] and it will be done for you.”   “Abiding” in Jesus is faith—fully believing his words. Asking whatever you wish is prayer. The Bible tells us to “trust in [God] at all times” (Psalm 62:8) and to “[pray] at all times in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18), “believe in God” (John 14:1) and ask of God (Luke 11:9). 

Prayer is the chief exercise of faith.

John 15:7 also shows us that God’s Word and faith and therefore prayer are inextricably linked. Faith is a response to God’s word: “faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). As Tim Keller rightly says, “If God’s words are his personal, active presence [see John 1:1-3 and Isaiah 55:10-11], then to put your trust in God’s words is to put your trust in God”.  

So if our trust is in God (in God’s promises — 2 Peter 1:4), and God says if you trust me “ask whatever you wish” (John 15:7), then the natural expression of our faith in God is prayer.

The Primary Cause of Prayerlessness

First, when I say “prayerless,” I don’t mean completely prayerless. I mean relatively prayerless. I mean that we aren’t anywhere close to “pray[ing] without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). We aren’t communing with God in prayer, so prayer feels like a burdensome, boring, perhaps futile exercise that we rush through in a perfunctory way or avoid. When we do pray, our prayers seem feeble and powerless, which just leads to less praying. We don’t have it in us to “pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1).

So what’s wrong?

If prayer is the native language of faith and we’re struggling with prayerlessness, then the first thing we need to do is look for a faith problem. There’s a faith breakdown somewhere and until we get that fixed, our problem will remain.

How do we fix this? We’ll talk about that in a minute, but first let’s talk about what not to fix first.

The Role of Discipline in Prayer

Often our first attempt at fixing our prayerlessness is to try and be “more disciplined” in prayer. We look at heroes, mentors, and peers who seem to have vibrant, powerful prayer lives and figure the solution might be doing what they do/did. If we get up earlier and use a more effective list or app or acronym we’ll fix our problem. Methods are necessary and beneficial as we’ll see, but “more discipline” is a false hope if faith is the problem.

Think of prayer as a train. Faith is the engine of prayer, God’s promises are the fuel, and discipline is the rails. Prayerlessness is almost always due to a stalled engine. For prayer to get going again, we first need to fire up our faith engine again with fuel of God’s promises.

You see, discipline doesn’t power the train of prayer. Faith powers the train as you trust God’s word. But discipline will guide the train. The rails of planning, structure, and methods are necessary. But the best time to address those is when you’ve stoked your engine, because when faith is firing you want to move forward in prayer and you are more likely to be led by the Spirit to choose the rails that are best for your prayer train.

Help for Fighting Prayerlessness

So when we’re prayerless, the first thing we must address is the cause of our faith deficit. Here are a few suggestions for doing that:

1. Recall God’s past grace: I put this first because in my experience, when my faith is ebbing low and I’m not even clear why, remembering how God has been faithful to me in the past primes my faith engine to trust in God’s future grace for whatever is causing my current unbelief. “This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope” (Lamentations 3:21).

2. Find the leak: Where is the leak in your fuel tank? If the fuel of faith is God’s promises, then there is a promise(s) that you are not believing. Look for fears, doubts, indulgent sinful habits, unresolved anger, bitterness, disappointment, etc. Often these don’t take long to find. But sometimes they are tricky because something has tapped into a buried past experience that is still muddled in your mind. If this is the case ask trusted believers to help you figure it out. But when you identify it, name it. Get it clear.

3. Repent of Unbelief: A lack of faith is sin. It’s dishonoring to God whose every word is true (Proverbs 30:5). We must repent of unbelief. But God loves to help our unbelief (Mark 9:24) turn into belief. In fact, sanctification is largely a process of growing towards trusting in the Lord with all our hearts (Proverbs 3:5). Like he did with Thomas, Jesus holds out to us his scarred hands to remind us that our unbelief is paid for and says, “Do not disbelieve, but believe” (John 20:27).

4. Fuel Your Faith Engine with Promises: God’s promises are the fuel that fires the engine of faith. Get your eyes off of the focus of your unbelief and get them on the promises that God wants you to believe instead. This is often not as hard as it feels like it’s going to be. It’s amazing how powerful God’s promises are. You can feel completely different in a half hour after recalling God’s past faithfulness and remembering some promises without any change in your circumstances. The difference is believing.

5. Fan Your Faith Engine Fire with Resources: Here are just a few of many resources that can help you tune your faith engine and build helpful rails for your prayer train:

“Enjoying Your Prayer Life”: a short booklet by Michael Reeves that you can read in 30-40 minutes. It’s broken into 14 chapters of a couple pages each, which makes it easy to incorporate into your devotions. I have found this very helpful.

Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God: an excellent new book by Tim Keller that addresses in-depth both engine and rail issues. I’m reading it currently and greatly benefitting.

A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World: this book by Paul Miller has been a strength to me. He compassionately pastors all of us prayer-strugglers and helps us both tune our engines and build helpful rails.

Praying in the Closet and in the Spirit (John Piper, video or audio, 53, min): a great sermon for your engine and your rails.

Prayer As a Way of Walking in Love (Francis Chan, video or audio, 1 hr.): mainly for your engine. I’ve listened to this numerous times.

George Mueller’s Strategy for Showing God (John Piper, audio, 1 hr., 15 min): mainly for your engine, but some rail help too. I’ve listened to this repeatedly.

The Ministry of Hudson Taylor as Life in Christ (John Piper, video or audio, 1 hr., 12 min): mainly for your engine. I’ve listened to this repeatedly.

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One Embarrassing Fact

I've just finished reading Carl Trueman's book Reformation, Yesterday Today and Tomorrow.  He is a specialist on Martin Luther and this short book talks about the ongoing benefit and relevance of the Reformation that he was a principle player in. 

One of the points he makes is about the fact that we must not be swayed by our culture when it comes to the fact that we have to read and study in order to know God.  I hear it often "You can't expect people to read the Bible or to read Christian books because we live in a visual age....blah blah."  But we simply have to get our minds around, as Trueman says, "One embarrassing fact: God gave us a book full of words as the basic means of giving us access to his revelation".  

Some people like reading books, some people don't but the fact is God has communicated himself to us through a book and has given us teachers who teach using....books.  

And just imagine how much God is glorified through the person who finds reading difficult but who perseveres with daily Bible reading or who keeps going reading one page a day of a good Christian book in order that they can understand more of the nature and character of God.  And do you not think that God won't be cheering that individual on strengthening him and helping him?  

Trueman: "Command, promise, Messiah - the basic terms of the bible's message are ineradicably verbal and cannot be communicated in isolation from words. Bin the words and whatever else you are left with is not Christianity. We do need to think about how such a word-based religion can be communicated in this day and generation; we do need to avoid at all costs becoming a middle-class ghetto for frustrated academics. But we also need to be faithful to the Bible's own form and matter, both of which involve words at the very centre."

So let's get on with it - let's READ!  However much we struggle or don't enjoy it.  Let's stop whinging and instead make much of God by seeking to know Him more as we read His Word and the good books that faithful teachers have provided us with.  Even if it's a page a day or even a page week.   Soli deo gloria!

Continue!

Continue in what you learned…

We talked on Sunday about how we need to continue (2 Tim. 3:10) in what we have learned about Christ.  It’s as we keep growing, increasingly enjoying our Father in heaven, that we display more and more the glory of God.  When we settle for the amount we already know we don’t make God look good.   We make God look ordinary.   If I said to you that I had discovered as much as I needed to know about Louise after 22 years of marriage and that I wasn’t looking to know her any better than I do now what would you think?   You’d think that I considered her to be only moderately impressive and it wouldn’t inspire you to consider her much at all.    But when we make much of anything it attracts the attention of others.   How much more with the Lord Jesus?   

I’d like to encourage you not only to read your bible so you can “thoroughly equipped for every good work”(2 Tim. 3:17) but I would like to strongly recommend you commit to reading a good quality Christian book.   Some people like reading others don’t but the fact is that we’re in a book oriented faith for God has revealed himself in holy writings and given us teachers (Eph. 4:11) who, often through writing, explain these Scriptures.  If you read just one Christian book every six months you would be incredibly well served.   Your understanding of God and his ways, his nature and his character would sky rocket and so would your worship.     

As a starter listen to this short podcast from “Ask Pastor John” where John Piper, in response to a question about his own extensive writing he makes some recommendations.  Further you could look here for some excellent books from the aptly named “Good Book Company”.   

One good book every six months and you’ll be blown away by the impact.  

Thinking of Reading the Bible in a Year?...Think Again

Yesterday I finished Selwyn Hughes' (CWR) "bible in a year" plan and you know what, I wouldn't recommend it.  Don't get me wrong, the CWR plan was good and came with devotionals from "Everyday with Selwyn" himself which were generally excellent but....it's just too much.

I've come to the conclusion that unless you've got loads of time or, are in some way exceptional, trying to get through the entire Bible, meaningfully ie understanding the authorial intent behind each passage and meditatively reflecting on the content - it's too much.  It's been the first time I've done the "bible in a year" thing and I've really valued revisiting parts of the OT that I'd pretty much forgotten even existed.  It's also been good to get through the whole Bible in a specific period of time rather than covering some of it regularly and other parts hardly ever.  But truth be told it's too often been about "me getting through the bible" rather than "getting the bible through me".  It's not so much been about allowing God's Word to shape me in those times but more often it's been about simply getting it done.

Has it been good to read the Bible through in a year?  Absolutely - there's certainly been benefit but I think there's a better way.

Systematic and regular (most days) Bible reading is essential if we're to know God, His nature and character, and enjoy walking with Him in gospel-motivated obedience.  So we need a plan.  Bible notes can be good if they help us to understand the text without degenerating into banal "a funny thing happened to me yesterday" stories. But if you want a plan that covers the Bible in a sensible time frame then check this out.   Tim Chester's plan covers the whole of the OT in three years and the NT twice.  But more helpfully it works on a weekly basis which I've never come across before and which is pure genius.   He describes the thinking behind the plan here.  

At LBC we're going to be doing the Community Bible Experience in February and March and this is going to serve us really well as we journey through the NT together.  But however we read God's Word, let's be doing it in a way that allows us to cultivate relationship with our Father, knowing Him, trusting Him, revering Him, enjoying Him.