"Well might Mary Queen of Scots say, "I fear John Knox's prayers more than an army of ten thousand men."" - Ryle, A Call to Prayer.
And of course, this is but a small example of what the enemy knows about prayer. Is it any wonder that he will do all he can to distract us from it and to tempt us to disbelieve in its effectiveness?
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Friday, March 28, 2014
The Never-Failing Passport for our Prayers
"There is a way by which any man, however sinful and unworthy, may draw near to God the Father. Jesus Christ has opened that way by the sacrifice he made for us upon the cross. The holiness and justice of God need not frighten sinners and keep them back. Only let them cry to God in the name of Jesus, only let them plead the atoning blood of Jesus, and they shall find God upon a throne of grace, willing and ready to hear. The name of Jesus is a never-failing passport for our prayers. In that name a man may draw near to God with boldness, and ask with confidence. God has engaged to hear him. Think of this. Is not this encouragement?" - Ryle, A Call to Prayer
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Easy to Pray
"I ask whether you pray, because prayer is an act in relation to which there is great encouragement. There is everything on God's part to make prayer easy, if men will only attempt it." - Ryle, A Call to Prayer
We just noted how difficult it is to become a man given to prayer. So what does Ryle mean here? It is not that prayer is actually easy when it comes to ourselves. His point is that through Christ, we have been granted easy access to boldly approach the throne of grace. We have no theological or super-spiritual hurdles to jump over in order to come into the presence of our Father. We simply have to come in the name of Jesus (dressed in His righteousness).
We just noted how difficult it is to become a man given to prayer. So what does Ryle mean here? It is not that prayer is actually easy when it comes to ourselves. His point is that through Christ, we have been granted easy access to boldly approach the throne of grace. We have no theological or super-spiritual hurdles to jump over in order to come into the presence of our Father. We simply have to come in the name of Jesus (dressed in His righteousness).
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
When Excruciating Suffering Comes
A friend of mine recently witnessed his young son-in-law pass away after a very short battle with cancer. The family, full of faith and hope in Jesus, prayed first for healing, and did so until his dying day. But as it became more and more clear that the Lord was going to take this young man, they said they were preparing for the worst while praying for the best. All too quickly, the young man succumed.
One of the tough parts of their story was hearing about how terribly the young man suffered in his final hour before he passed. Excruciating pain and suffocation, gasping for breath, writhing as his body fought for one more minute and then another and then another. After his death, this was the horrible last memory of a son, a husband, a friend, and a brother in our Lord.
Why, after such faithful praying, would God allow such horror?
As I reflected on this, maddened myself over a sovereign God allowing such suffering and hardship, four thoughts came to mind. In no particular order, I share them here. In addition, I am sure there are far more important thoughts to bring to bear. I simply share what came to me in a cascade of response.
First, I remembered my own anger when my oldest son, now 25 (and the same age as this young man), was only three weeks old. He was in the NICU in Baltimore. After an emergency Cesarean, a frantic rush to a hospital with all of the best services, days upon days of tests, pokes and proddings, we had no diagnosis and no sense of what was going to happen next.
Nathan was on an intravenous drip, for antibiotics if I recall rightly, but his little body was having trouble providing veins for the IV. One day, I helped the nurses as they tried to get a new vein to re-insert the IV. They couldn't find one. For thirty long minutes I helped hold him down while he screamed and cried as they kept sticking and resticking, twisting and searching with that needle in his arm, his leg, and finally up on his head. I remember the hot anger I had that day at God. "You can't even give him one little vein - I'm not asking for a healing - just one little vein."
What kind of sadist did I worship?
Second, I remembered a question my 9th grade student asked in Bible Class just a couple weeks ago. He wanted to know why Jesus had to suffer so much on the cross? Why did God need Jesus to die a slow, painful, humiliating death? If the point was for His death to pay for our sins and for His blood to be shed by that death, why not a quick death without prolonged suffering?
Third, I am reminded of how much death really is an enemy - and all that leads up to that death. Death is an enemy whose sting has been removed for the believer because at the moment of death we pass into the immediate Presence of our Lord and Savior. But death itself remains an enemy that will not be conquered in full until the return of our Lord.
Fourth, I was again reminded of 2 Corinthians 4:16–18 (NKJV)
One of the tough parts of their story was hearing about how terribly the young man suffered in his final hour before he passed. Excruciating pain and suffocation, gasping for breath, writhing as his body fought for one more minute and then another and then another. After his death, this was the horrible last memory of a son, a husband, a friend, and a brother in our Lord.
Why, after such faithful praying, would God allow such horror?
As I reflected on this, maddened myself over a sovereign God allowing such suffering and hardship, four thoughts came to mind. In no particular order, I share them here. In addition, I am sure there are far more important thoughts to bring to bear. I simply share what came to me in a cascade of response.
First, I remembered my own anger when my oldest son, now 25 (and the same age as this young man), was only three weeks old. He was in the NICU in Baltimore. After an emergency Cesarean, a frantic rush to a hospital with all of the best services, days upon days of tests, pokes and proddings, we had no diagnosis and no sense of what was going to happen next.
Nathan was on an intravenous drip, for antibiotics if I recall rightly, but his little body was having trouble providing veins for the IV. One day, I helped the nurses as they tried to get a new vein to re-insert the IV. They couldn't find one. For thirty long minutes I helped hold him down while he screamed and cried as they kept sticking and resticking, twisting and searching with that needle in his arm, his leg, and finally up on his head. I remember the hot anger I had that day at God. "You can't even give him one little vein - I'm not asking for a healing - just one little vein."
What kind of sadist did I worship?
Second, I remembered a question my 9th grade student asked in Bible Class just a couple weeks ago. He wanted to know why Jesus had to suffer so much on the cross? Why did God need Jesus to die a slow, painful, humiliating death? If the point was for His death to pay for our sins and for His blood to be shed by that death, why not a quick death without prolonged suffering?
Third, I am reminded of how much death really is an enemy - and all that leads up to that death. Death is an enemy whose sting has been removed for the believer because at the moment of death we pass into the immediate Presence of our Lord and Savior. But death itself remains an enemy that will not be conquered in full until the return of our Lord.
Fourth, I was again reminded of 2 Corinthians 4:16–18 (NKJV)
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Whatever suffering we do go through, however long that suffering is, God works it in us something so much more glorious in comparison to the suffering. It is a glory which will exceed any suffering. It is a glory whose heavy weight so knocks the scales of balance to its side that we all will be amazed - all who are in Christ. But we cannot and will not see that glory on this side of eternity. This is something we must embrace by faith.
But having embraced this truth, having embraced these sufferings from Christ, not only do we endure. We will strangely find ourselves looking forward to them, hearing from our Savior, "more glory, more glory."
To the Praise of His Gracious Glory
Ephesians 1:6 - "to the praise of the glory of His grace..."
While normally translated, “to the praise of His glorious grace” or “to the praise of the glory of His grace,” I think it is worth emphasizing “His glory which is gracious, or His gracious glory.” When we behold God, we behold His glory. That glory is not sterile white fluorescent light. It is a rainbow of love and mercy, with favor and acceptance; it is dripping with grace. This helps explain why God predestined what He predestined.
This is the nature of God's glory. It is gracious.
While normally translated, “to the praise of His glorious grace” or “to the praise of the glory of His grace,” I think it is worth emphasizing “His glory which is gracious, or His gracious glory.” When we behold God, we behold His glory. That glory is not sterile white fluorescent light. It is a rainbow of love and mercy, with favor and acceptance; it is dripping with grace. This helps explain why God predestined what He predestined.
This is the nature of God's glory. It is gracious.
"I'm Not the Praying Type"
"Have you forgotten that it is not natural to any one to pray? "The carnal mind is enmity against God."" - Ryle, A Call to Prayer
Prayer is not something that comes naturally to anyone. It is something that we will have to rouse ourselves to, against the flesh, from this point on until we are ushered into eternity. I have never found it simple and easy to turn to prayer. It seems I am always easily distracted, tempted to think in my materialistic way that prayer won't change anything. This is not because I'm just not the praying type. It's because none of us are.
Prayer is not something that comes naturally to anyone. It is something that we will have to rouse ourselves to, against the flesh, from this point on until we are ushered into eternity. I have never found it simple and easy to turn to prayer. It seems I am always easily distracted, tempted to think in my materialistic way that prayer won't change anything. This is not because I'm just not the praying type. It's because none of us are.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
The Unsearchable Riches of Christ
Ephesians 3:8 (NKJV) To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
Revealing the Unsearchable Riches (v8) – Here is a wonderful summary of what it means to preach the gospel. It is for a finite and fallible man to imperfectly declare and describe that which is unsearchable and incomprehensible to other finite and fallible people. But when God blesses it, we hear Christ (Rom 10:14-15) which is why we come to this service of worship by faith expecting to hear Christ by His Holy Spirit through His Word proclaimed.
It also describes the breadth of the gospel. The riches are not just about what Christ has given us; the riches are Christ, “…who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD”” (1 Cor 1:30-31).
Christ is My Wisdom – Jesus, by His Spirit, teaches me about God, about myself, about my sinfulness, about my need for redemption, about what it means to die to self, about what it means to live in the new Humanity, and on and on.
Christ is My Righteousness – Righteousness is less of a thing than it is a Person and a relationship. In Christ, I have righteousness – I am righteous, for His name is “the LORD, my righteousness.”
Christ is My Sanctification – In Christ I stand faultless and blameless before God; it’s already done. And then, in Him, He works into me by His Spirit that sanctification which then I work out in my life, led by Him all the way along.
Christ is My Redemption – Among other things, this means that I will be raised from the dead and all suffering, all shortcomings, all tears, all the imperfections that are me – will be gone. There will be nothing lacking in body, mind or spirit. Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10) – Whoot! Whoot!
Again, summarizing the gospel, John wrote, “And from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16, ESV). We are thimbles placed under a Niagara Falls of riches – but no worries – we have an eternity to explore and grow into the fullness.
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