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.

Hearing God Speak

As we prepare to launch into another year one of the best things we can decide to do is to get serious about our relationship with God.    I love this article written by Tim Chester, originally for a great new initiative called Open up the Bible.  www.openupthebible.com    He's right on the money.  

Let me tell you about an amazing experience I had just this morning. Actually “amazing” doesn’t really do it justice. It was out of this world.

This morning God spoke to me.

I know that sounds weird, but I’m sure that’s what happened. The God who made the universe actually spoke to me. I could hear what He was saying just as clearly as you can understand what you’re reading now.

The words He spoke felt like words of life to me.

It was like they resounded deep in my heart.

• There were words of instruction that helped me know Him more and understand his ways.
• There were words of challenge that called me to follow Him better and love Him more.
• There were words of comfort that spoke to my needs and gave me hope. It was like medicine to my soul. It was like a rousing speech before battle. It was like a love song sung to my heart.

But there’s more. Just as God spoke to me, so I spoke to Him. I spoke to Him as someone might speak to their friend. It was like a conversation. He talked to me and I talked to Him. I was able to express my deep appreciation for the words He’d spoken to me. I told Him how I planned to respond. I told Him about my needs and my hopes. I asked for his help, not just for me, but for people I know. I lamented the sorry mess we’ve made of his beautiful world and asked Him to have mercy on specific situations that are weighing heavily on my heart.

I spoke to the God of the universe and He heard me. He listened to what I was saying. And He promised to respond. I don’t know whether He’ll do what I ask. He might have other plans, better plans. But I’m confident He heard me and that He’ll respond in whatever way He thinks best.

What’s more, what happened to me this morning was not a freaky, one-off experience. This happens to me most mornings.

What I did this morning was read my Bible and pray. I just read my Bible and prayed. But there is nothing “just” about just reading your Bible. It really is all that I’ve described. It really is the most amazing, out-of-this-world experience. Every time you read your Bible God really is speaking to you—medicine to the soul, a rousing speech before battle, a love song sung to your heart.

The Holy Spirit spoke through the human authors of the Bible. He ensured that what they wrote truly was the word of God. Their words were God-breathed. So the Bible is the reliable, accurate, sufficient word from God. God has spoken.

But the Holy Spirit is also at work whenever the Bible is read or heard.

He takes the words that were recorded long ago and makes them live afresh. The letter of Hebrews, quoting from the Old Testament, says, “as the Holy Spirit says” (3v7). God has not only spoken in the Bible (past tense). He also speaks through the Bible (present tense).

God speaks to you every time you read the Bible. Personally. Intimately.

I read my Bible regularly because I have to. Not “have to” in the sense that someone might criticise me if I don’t or that God will get miffed with me. But “have to” in the same way I have to eat food every day. This is how I live.

Without God’s word in my life, I too readily get preoccupied with myself, my fears, my insecurities, my reputation. Without God’s word I’m so much more vulnerable to temptation. I need God’s word to realign my heart day by day towards Jesus. I need that medicine for the soul, that battle speech, that love song. And I need it every day.

"I Can't Breathe"

I've just read this from James Emery White who leads a church in the States and who coaches Christians on how to engage more thoughtfully with contemporary culture.  His blog really caught my attention as it gave expression to thoughts that I and perhaps you have had.  

There would be few reading this unaware of the events in Ferguson, Missouri, regarding the shooting death by a police officer of Michael Brown. This was quickly followed by the asphyxiation of Eric Garner in New York as a result of a chokehold during an arrest.

Neither case resulted in a grand jury indicting the officer involved.

Many lumped the two together, but I did not. To my thinking, they were very, very different. Apparently I’m not alone. A USA Today poll found that most Americans supported the Brown decision, but not the Garner decision.

I don’t want to get into the racial elements.

I don’t want to get into the pros and cons of grand jury indictments.

I don’t want to get into the perils of resisting arrest.

I don’t want to get into the difficulties and challenges of police work.

I only want to get into one thing:

“I can’t breathe.”

It’s said a picture is worth a thousand words. If so, a video must be worth ten thousand. Or in this case, an extremely potent three. If you saw it, you know that those three words were repeated eight times. And after he was on the ground, held down by multiple other men, and being handcuffed.

“I can’t breathe.”

I don’t care if he resisted arrest.

I don’t care if he weighed 300 or more pounds.

I don’t care if he had a criminal history.

At the time of the arrest, all I care about are those three words.

“I can’t breathe.”

Why?

Because I am a follower of Christ. I am a follower of Christ before I am a member of a political party, before I am a cultural “conservative” or “liberal,” and certainly before I am either “black” or “white.”

And as a follower of Christ, I understand every human being to be someone made in the very image of God and of immeasurable worth to their Father.

The color of their skin does not matter.

Their arrest record does not matter.

Their non-lethal resistance to arrest does not matter.

What matters is their “imago dei.” The image of God reflected in their very soul. And no human being should have been handled that way, much less in that situation.

Period.

And this includes the breaking news of the extent of torture carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency. [I couldn’t help but think of the connection between water-boarding and a chokehold – both are acts on another that keep them from breathing.] It doesn’t matter whether such acts fell short of a legal definition of torture, or whether they were effective.

Torture is simply wrong. Why? Because no human being, made in the image of God, should be treated that way.

Period.

As I watched the video of Eric Garner’s arrest, I could only imagine one of my sons, resisting arrest for whatever stupid or miscalculated reason, who then found himself thrown to the ground and fighting for air.

And dying.

Dear God. I can barely sustain the thought.

So whatever needs to happen to address racism in our land,

     ...and the great evil is that it does thrive;

...whatever needs to happen to uphold justice,

     ...and only a naïve observer would assume it flows freely;

…whatever needs to happen to support police in their responsibilities, not to mention rid police forces of rogue elements,

     …and both must be pursued;

…whatever needs to happen to end all affronts to the worth and dignity of human beings as made in the image of God;

Whatever needs to happen, until it does,

    …for Christ’s sake,

    …let them breathe.