Why Should We Pray?

“The spectacle of a nation praying is more awe inspiring than the explosion of an atomic bomb. The force of prayer is greater than any possible combination of man made or man controlled powers, because prayer is man’s greatest means of tapping the infinite resources of God.”

Guess who said that? J. Edgar Hoover! That's right! The 48 year Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. I never would have guessed that as a source, but the last thought is very profound... "prayer is man's greatest means of tapping the infinite resources of God."

Isn't that an amazing thought. God has "blesseds us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ." (Eph 1.3) The means by which we appropriate those infinite blessings is the intimacy of prayer. See James 4.2 "You have not because you ask not!" God tells us to ask in the name of Christ and we will receive. When we ask God for His will, we can be confident that we are going to find it. We ask GOd for His blessings on His terms in His time and he showers them upon us! As Pastors, we might wonder why our church doesn't grow. As Parents, we wonder why we struggle with our children. As Sunday School teachers, we wonder why our students are not growing and appropriating the Truth. How much do we pray for these things. You ever wonder why people don't come to the Lord in faith and repentance? How much do you pray for God to work a miracle of rebirth in the lives of people? Prayer is the means by which we tap the infinite resources of God.

How much have you tapped into the resources God has stored for you? Prayer is an earnest discipline of pouring your heart out to God and seeking His face and His will in the issues of life. It is not vainly repeating some prayer found buried in the an Old Testament geneology. It is honest and passionate. It is heartfelt and mind driven. What a privilege we have to enter into the presence of Holy God and pour out our requests to Him in confidence and boldness.

Grace to You!

Blame it on the Brain!?

An recent article at Fox News reporting the recent delcarations by the National Institutes of Mental Health that 46 % of all Americans will development a mental illness, caused me to once again ponder the issues of sin, psychology and Biblical answers.

Where do I even begin? When I was an elementary student in the early 1980s, the school counselor recommended that my parents put me on a regular intake of Ritalin. It seems I was not performing up to par. I was easily distracted and could not stick to a task for very long. Now I am 31 years old ... I am still not the most disciplined person. It takes a lot of work to excerise discipline and self control, especially for an 8 year old boy who had an overactive imagination. Did I need drugs to control by chemically "imbalanced" brain? Did I need someone to help me discipline myself for life?

Please don't misunderstand me! I understand that there are some situation in which legitimate, physiological concerns must be addressed by qualified medical professionals. However, this does not change the clear meaning of God's diagnosis and subsequent prescription for what ails the human condition.

What God has called sin, modern "doctors," have labeled sickness, disease, and (when they have no quantitative evidence) disorders. See for example:

Stealing (Eph 4.28)= Kleptomania
Worry Phil 4.6,7 = Anxiety
Laziness (Ecc 9.10) = Attention Deficit Disorder
Homosexuality (Rom 1.26,27) = Sexual Orientation
Fear (1 John 4.17,18) = Phobia
Selfishness (Rom 12.3-5) (Phil 2.3,4) = Depression
Drunkenness (1 Cor 6.9-11) (Eph 5.18) = Alcoholism

And so on and on the list goes. There are of course many dangers in creating excuses for sin. The greatest danger, as I perceive it, is the failure to offer any real solutions, a lack of hope. For example, when a drunkard is told he has a disease and will always have this disease, there is no hope. Sure, he is relieved from responsibilty, he is released from the consequences of his actions, and is given a formula to attempt to control the disease. But in reality, he is left with no hope.

When we call rebellious action what God calls it - sin - there is a solution, there is hope! Jesus came to "save his people from their sins" (Matt 1.21). "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim 1.15). There is an answer for sin. It is repentance and faith in Lord Jesus Christ. When we simply seek to mask the evidence and reality of sin, we are blocking God's call of repentance to the individual. When we tell a homosexual struggling with the guilt and shame of his sin that his lifestyle is a result of an innate sexual orientation, we are redirecting his God-given sense of guilt and shame away from the path of real hope, namely repentance and forgiveness.

By the definitions provided by the National Institutes of Health and the American Psychological Association, all humankind has a variety of mental disorders. I prefer simple recognize the problem of sin and declare the only true prescription, repentance and faith in the Lord!

Grace to You!

Further Resources
Articles from the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors
Blame it on the Brain, by Ed Welch

(I anticipate the response to this post will be varied and emotional. Let's try to interact on a rational, biblical level)

Isaiah 8.11-22 - Fear God; Heed His Word

I am using the London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1689 for my personal Bible Study time. Chapter 1, "Of the Holy Scriptures," has provided much for my musing these last couple of days. Of particular interest to me was the opening phrase "The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience." A footnote here references, among other passages, Isaiah 8.11-22. Here Isaiah has just prophecied the coming Assyrian invasion. Even in the midst of the pending threat and sure overwhelming force and influence of the Assyrians, God tols the people not to walk in the ways of these people or take counsel from them. Isaiah declared from God, "And when they [the Assyrians] say to you, "Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter," should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?" (v19)

In other words, God knew the temptation to seek counsel, wisdom, truth from sources and resources other that through His declaration through the prophets would be powerfully tempting. He reminded them in verse 20, "If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn." They have "no dawn;" there is no light in them; they have no understanding! Truth, all truth, comes from God alone. Truth is not discovered, experienced, developed... it has once for all been delivered.

We are probably not prone to turn to "mediums and necromancers" (unless your an avid Harry Potter fan - had to take that shot, sorry) to discover truth. God clearly condemns that! We, however, are prone to seek truth in other places: our experience, our feelings, science. The temptation to interpret Scripture in light of our experiences (i.e. "I know this works") or through the lense of our emotions ("it feels like the right thing to do") is great. But we must remember the truth with which our Baptist forefathers opened their confession: "The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience."

Praise the Lord that He has declared to us all we need to be all that He wants us to be (John 17.17; 2 Tim 3.15-17; 2 Peter 1.3)

Grace to You!

Back to the Grind

Praise the Lord for a great vacation. We had a tremendous time as a family. I survived even though ...
... I haven't turned my laptop in 9 days (I am on my home PC tonight)
... I haven't had Starbucks in nearly two weeks
... I haven't stepped foot into my office in over a week

Seriously! The Lord did provide for us a much needed and very pleasant family vacation. Some highlights...
... swimming in Lake James with my daughters
... "hiking" with Jonathan
... sitting by the fire with Crystal after the kids were tucked into their tents
... the "Nature Center" at Pokagan State Park, specifically the film celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Lewis & Clark Expedition
...reading The Little Pilgrims Progress by flashlight with the family sitting around the fire

Also, it appears that I picked a good week to be gone from the blogosphere. Phil Johnson had a quiet week, Steve Camp simplyrepublished articles I already read at Audience One (though I did enjoy the comments), and my dear friends Curtis Richardson and John Babri still haven't updated their blogs (they must have real jobs). I am looking foward to getting back into the swing of this, catching up with the regulars at World Mag Blog, PyroManiac, Camp on This and a new favorite (the cleverly named) Jeremy Weaver's Blog.

I am especially looking forward to being at my home church tomorrow! I really don't like to miss a service at Emmanuel (last week was the first service I missed since I started my ministry their a year ago). I appreciate the exposition of my Pastor, Philip DeCourcy. You too can enjoy his ministry thanks to the wonders of the web - visit our homepage for Pastor's current series or for his archives.

Anyway, more on Monday! Have a great worship this Lord's Day!

Grace to You!