“Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies.”
B. B. Warfield (from a story he was telling about D.L. Moody)

“I believe that prayer is the measure of the man, spiritually, in a way that nothing else is, so that how we pray is as important a question as we can ever face.“
J. I. Packer

He loves thee too little, who loves anything together with thee, which he loves not for thy sake. – Augustine

How the Early Christians pray for Everything for Joy

The early Christains called on God:

•    To exalt his name in the world.
•    To extend his kingdom in the world.
•    For the fullness of Holy Spirit
•    To save unbelievers
•    For healing
•    For Strategic wisdom
•    For unity and harmony in the ranks
•    To help them know HIM better
•    Comprehend the love of Christ
•    For a deeper sense of assured hope
•    For strength and endurance
•    For their faith to be preserved
•    That they might not fall into temptation
•    To complete their resolves and enable them to do good works
•    For forgiveness for their sins
•    For protection from the evil one.

Jeff Mobley started doing quotes on his blog so I thought maybe I will do one on occasion. I came across this quote in some of the reading I am doing.

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate… Let the Christian rest content with his worldliness . . . Let him be comforted and rest assured in his possession of grace—for grace alone does everything. Instead of following Christ, let the Christian enjoy the consolations of his grace! That is what we mean by cheap grace… The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ… We… have gathered like eagles round the carcass of cheap grace, and there we have drunk of the poison which has killed the life of following Christ.

John Piper once again wrote a blog entry that I needed to see and pray through. So I post it here to help remind me of some things that I need to do when I feel rotten, which unluckily is more often than not.

How I Approach God When Feeling Rotten

November 17, 2008  |  By: John Piper

A vague bad feeling that you are a crummy person is not the same as conviction for sin. Feeling rotten is not the same as repentance.

This morning I began to pray, and felt unworthy to be talking to the Creator of the universe. It was a vague sense of unworthiness. So I told him so. Now what?

Nothing changed until I began to get specific about my sins. Crummy feelings can be useful if they lead to conviction for sins. Vague feelings of being a bad person are not very helpful. The fog of unworthiness needs to take shape into clear dark pillars of disobedience. Then you can point to them and repent and ask for forgiveness and take aim to blow them up.

So I began to call to mind the commands I frequently break. These are the ones that came to mind.

• Love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Not 95%, 100%. (Matthew 22:37)
• Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Be as eager for things to go well for him as you are for things to go well for you. (Matthew 22:39)
• Do all things without grumbling. No grumbling—inside or outside. (Philippians 2:14)
• Cast all your anxieties on him—so you are not being weighed down by it anymore. (1 Peter 5:7)
• Only say things that give grace to others—especially those closest to you. (Ephesians 4:29)
• Redeem the time. Don’t fritter or dawdle. (Ephesians 5:16)
• Set your mind on things that are above. Connect all your thoughts to Christ. (Colossians 3:2)
• Do not return evil for evil—like when your wife or daughter says something you don’t like. (1 Thessalonians 5:15)
• Rejoice always, and again I say rejoice. Always. If sorrowful, keep rejoicing. (Philippians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 6:10)
• Give thanks in all circumstances. All. All. All. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

So much for any pretensions to great holiness! I’m undone.

But now it is specific. I look it in the eye. I’m not whining about feeling crummy. I’m apologizing to Christ for not keeping all that he commanded. I’m broken and I’m angry at my sin. I want to kill it, not me. I’m not suicidal. I’m a sin hater and a sin murderer (“Put to death what is earthly in you” Colossians 3:5. “Put to death the deeds of the body” Romans 3:18.)

In this conflict, I hear the promise, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:9). Peace rises. Prayer feels possible and right and powerful again.

I found a blog today off of the Between Two Worlds blog called Buzzard Blog. It is a blog by Justin Buzzard who is a pastor at Central Peninsula Church. He did a message on “Thinking Biblically about Facebook”. I think he does a nice job looking at Facebook in an even handed way. There are pros and cons to it as with everything.

For me one of the bigger reasons I check Facebook on a daily basis is to see how my friends are doing and to find specific reasons to pray for them. Some of the social interaction on Facebook may not be great, but I have found it a nice way to pray for my friends and keep in contact with people I normally wouldn’t

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
C.S. Lewis
The Weight of Glory

Why is it that I find that the mud is far more attractive than the holiday at sea. It is something that I have been reflecting on a lot lately. The things that I want are to be love, to love, and to glorify God. What I do of course the second someone gets close to me, shows me love, shows me that I have value because God gave me value is go dive back into the mud hole just to be able to go “see, I am worthless”. Having strong desires and truly getting them met is very scary to me. I am comfortable in my sin. I feel I deserve my sin. I DESIRE my sin. But the sin is so empty, so meaningless.

Whether you voted for Barack Obama or John McCain, whether you’re recovering from your all-night celebration or drying the tears from your pillow, today’s a good day to remember the words of the apostle Paul: “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness” (1 Timothy 2:1-3).

And the new President will surely need our prayers because he and his administration face huge, serious challenges to the health of our nation and to peace in the world—challenges that, in my opinion, neither he nor any government on earth will have the power to overcome without divine aid.

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Politics

The election is over. The candidates that most Christians voted for lost. I think we need to be very careful on how we react. Our ultimate authority is NOT Barak Obama, but God. The world is not going to fall apart (unless God wills it) because of the election of these people. We need to be praying for our new leaders and asking God to be using them to glorify Him.

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.”
(Romans 13:1-2 ESV)

“Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.”
(1Peter 2:13-14 ESV)

People are watching our reaction, if we are bitter and complaining about this election, it may show that we are not putting our faith into our Lord. We need to stop worrying, start praying, and keep our hope focussed on our treasures in heaven.

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hopethat the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
(Romans 8:18-25 ESV)

Matthew 6 has a lot to say on how our attitude is supposed to be, at all times, but I think especially on a day like today.

Maybe with this election this is a chance for us to become more dependent on God and not depend on institutions of this world to reach out to those we are supposed to.

Technorati Tags: Politics