Friday, October 15, 2010

Does God Ever Change His Mind?

Isaiah warned King Hezekiah that he would soon die and that he needed to get his affairs in order. He said, "Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live."

Sobering words, to be sure.

E.M. Bounds (in The Classic Collection on Prayer published by Bridge-Logos Foundation, Inc.) writes, "What can set aside or reverse that divine decree of Heaven? Hezekiah had never been in a condition so insurmountable, with a decree so direct and definite from God. Can prayer change the purposes of God? Can prayer snatch from the jaws of death one who has been decreed to die? Can prayer save a man from an incurable sickness? These were the questions that his faith now had to deal with. But his faith does not pause one moment. His faith is not staggered one minute at the sudden and definite news conveyed to him by the Lord's prophet. No such questions that modern unbelief or disbelief would raise are started in his mind. At once he gives himself to prayer. Immediately, without delay, he applies to God who issued the edict. To whom else could he go? Cannot God change His own purposes if He chooses?"

So, Hezekiah prayed, "I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight." Hezekiah then began to cry.

Bounds writes, "Hezekiah had hardly finished his prayer, and Isaiah was just about to go home when God gave him another message for Hezekiah, this time one more pleasant and encouraging. The mighty force of prayer had affected God, and had changed His edict and reversed Him in His purpose concening Hezekiah. What is there that prayer cannot do? What is there that a praying person cannot accomplish through prayer?"

As a result of Hezekiah's prayer, God healed him and gave him an additional fifteen years of life! There is great power in prayer. We know that prayer changes things, but did it change God's mind in this case? Our God knows the end from the beginning, so I doubt that He changed His mind, but He did use this situation as an opportunity to show His people the importance of prayer and faith.

Tennyson wrote, "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of."

Let us pray, pray, pray, pray. Let us believe, believe, believe, believe. Let us receive, receive, receive, receive.

Our God hears and answers prayer.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

The Surpassing Greatness of Knowing Christ Jesus as Lord

Paul writes, "I consider everything to be loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8).

In Morning by Morning (a Pure Gold Classic published by Bridge-Logos), Spurgeon writes, "I must know Him, not as the visionary dreams of Him, but as the Word reveals Him. I must know His natures, divine and human. I must know His offices, attributes, works, shame, and glory. I must meditate upon Him until I 'have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.'"

When we really know Christ Jesus as Lord, we will love Him in the way Spurgeon describes. Our knowledge of Him, according to Spurgeon, must be:

  • An intelligent knowledge
  • An affectionate knowledge
  • A satisfying knowledge
  • An exciting knowledge
  • A happy knowledge
Spurgeon writes, "This knowledge of Christ Jesus will be a most happy one. In fact, it'll be so elevating that sometimes it will completely bear me up above all trials, doubts, and sorrows, and will fling about me the immortality of the ever-living Savior, and gird me with the golden-belt of His joy. Sit today at Jesus' feet and learn about Him."

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Do You Know the Shepherd?

To be a courageous Christian is to have confidence in God. Paul writes, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13). Yes, with Him and through Him we can do all things, but without Him, it is impossible to accomplish great things. Jesus said, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).

How do we learn to abide in Christ? It is accomplished through worship, prayer, fellowship, and getting into the Word of God on a daily basis. God's Word provides the believer with hope, as we learn to trust in all His promises.

We must get to know God intimately and personally. The great Bible teacher Dr. Alexander Maclaren said that everything he knew was due to one habit: spending an hour each day alone with God. On of his assistants wrote, "He read it [the Bible that was spread open on his lap as he prayed] as a child would read a letter from an absent father, or a loving heart would drink in words of a loved one from far away."

Yes, to know God and abide in Christ, you have to spend time in the secret place. An old chorus says, "Shut in with God in the secret place; there in the Spirit beholding His face, gaining new power to run in life's race, I long to be shut in with God."

Bob Gass, in his Bridge-Logos book, A Fresh Word for Today, writes, "One night, a famous orator recited the 23rd Psalm to a packed house and great applause. Afterwards, he spotted his vicar in the crowd and called him to say a word. To their surprise, he too recited the 23rd Psalm. But when he was through, there was silence. People dried their tears all over the audience. At this point, the orator stood beside his pastor and simply said, "The difference is, I know the 23rd Psalm--but He knows the Shepherd."

Do you know the Shepherd? Really know Him?

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Quiet Time in the Morning

In the morning, when the world is waking up and the rush of life has not begun, is a good time to draw close to God. He has been speaking to me about this lately through the Scriptures and a book I'm reading: E.M. Bounds--the Classic Collection on Prayer--a Bridge-Logos Pure Gold Classic.

Robert Murray McCheyne wrote, "I ought to pray before seeing anyone. Often when I sleep long, or meet with others early, it is eleven or twelve o'clock before I begin secret prayer. This is a wretched system. It is unscriptural. Christ arose before day and went into a solitary place. David says, 'Early will I seek thee'; 'Thou shalt early hear my voice.' Family prayer loses much of its power and sweetness, and I can do no good to those who come to seek from me. The conscience feels guilty, the soul unfed, the lamp not trimmed. Then when in secret prayer the soul is often out of tune, I feel it is far better to begin with God--to see His face first, to get my soul near him before it is near another."

Intimacy with God is so important. It's what He wants from us. When we look at some of the prayer habits of Christian leaders, we realize how prayer influenced their ministries:

Charles Simeon devoted the hours from four till eight in the morning to God.

John Wesley spent two hours per day in prayer. He began at four in the morning.

Martin Luther said, "If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day."

Bishop Asbury said, "I propose to rise at four o'clock as often as I can and spend two hours in prayer and meditation."

Samuel Rutherford rose at three in the morning to meet God in prayer.

John Welch, a holy Scottish preacher, thought the day ill-spent if he did not spend eight or ten hours in prayer.

I could cite several others, but the above review is enough to convict me of my sin of omission. I need to spend more time in prayer, so I resolve to get up earlier in order to meet with God.

When God awakens me in the middle of the night, that is time for prayer, too.

The Bible says, "Draw night to God, and he will draw nigh to you" (James 4:8).

Monday, October 11, 2010

Two Phobias

A new word was coined recently; it is "Islamaphobia"--the fear of Islam and its followers.
Certainly it is possible to be afraid of those things we may not know much about, such as a religion that is different from our own.

Wouldn't it be great if our fear would drive us to learn more about what we fear? I believe this is one way people are treated for various phobias that may develop in life--to approach the fear step by step until we totally vanquish it.

I know many Islamic people, and I do not fear them. Of course, terrrorists are a different matter altogether. What should our response to terrorists be? (By the way, Islamists are not the only terrorists in the world. In fact, I believe we can find them in every religious group.)

Jesus said, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:44-45). I wonder what an impact it would have on current world conditions if we practiced what Jesus preached?

Would it change the way we view homosexuals as well? There is another word that has come forth in recent decades. It is "homophobia." It is probably a misnomer, because I think an analysis of the word would suggest that it means, "fear of the same," not "fear of homosexuals."

Whatever the case, many do seem to fear homosexuals. Consequently, like many Islamists, they are bullied, ridiculed, insulted, hated, and sometimes hurt or even killed. I know many homosexuals, and I certainly am not afraid of them. Sometimes I wish they could change, but they tell me they can't. The Bible suggests otherwise, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

People tend to punish differences that they perceive in others, whether those differences involve skin color, religion, sexual orientation, or other things. This response comes from fear, which I believe is essentially a fear of the unknown.

Isn't our job to love and preach the Gospel? People of all backgrounds tend to respond to sincere love. "Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that whichy is evil; cleave to that which is good" (Romans 12:9).

God's perfect love casts out all fear, including Islamaphobia and homophobia. (See 1 John 4:18.)

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Christ Is God's Everything for You

This afternoon (at 2:00) I will have the privilege of interviewing Harold J. Chadwick on my blog radio show, "We're Talking Books." I consider Harold to be a personal friend--a brother who possesses great wisdom and compassion. His new book is entitled, "Christ Is God's Everything for You."

Harold writes, "The Gospel of Jesus Christ is intended by God to bring joy, peace, righteousness, and rest to all those who believe in His Son. Christ is the fulfillment of the glorious promise made to Abraham--the promise of the Spirit and eternal justification by faith that the Old Covenant prophets and saints looked for in faith but never received. It was the promise whereby those who had struggled to live righteously under the burden of the 613 laws of the Old Covenant, would be made righteous by an imputation of righteousness by God because of the sacrificial death of Christ on their behalf."

Harold loves Jesus, knows the Bible, and walks closely with the Lord. He is now an octogenarian, but his wit, wisdom, and youthful outlook remain steady. One night in my home, as he shared the Scriptures with us, I felt a great sense of peace and the presence of the Lord. I expect we will experience the same in my interview with him today.

Is Christ God's everything for you? Have you accepted Him as your personal Savior and Lord? Do you have an intimate relationship with Him? Harold writes, "All the things that God has for us in this life are contained in Christ, and all things that God has for us through the endless ages of eternity are also contained in Christ, for He himself is all of those things. In Heaven as on Earth, there is nothing for us outside of Christ. He is God's everything for us here and will be God's everything for us there!"

Friday, October 1, 2010

Thomas Merton

In my last week of service with the U.S. Army I went to Bardstown, Kentucky, for a retreat at the Trappist Monastery--the Abbey of Gethsemani. This is where Thomas Merton spent a good portion of his life. I was there when he was there.

I appreciate the insights he left behind in his many books, most of which I've read. Many people seem to have problems with him, but I think we can derive much from his wisdom.

For example, he said, "Anyone who imagines he can simply begin meditating without praying for the desire and the grace to do so, will soon give up."

Meditation and contemplation were important elements in his life, and they should be in ours too.

He wrote the following about the spiritual life: "The spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived. Like all life, it grows sick and dies when it is uprooted from its proper element. . . . We live as spiritual [people] when we live as [people] seeking God. If we are to become spiritual, we must remain [human]. And if there were not evidence of this everywhere in theology, the Mystery of the Incarnation itself would be ample proof of it. . . .Jesus lived the ordinary life of the men of His time, in order to sanctify the ordinary lives of men of all time. If we want to be spiritual, then, let us first of all live our lives. Let us not fear the responsibilities and the inevitable distractions of the work appointed for us by the will of God. Let us embrace reality and thus find ourselves immersed in the life-giving will and wisdom of God which surrounds us everywhere.
This reminds me of some of the things Saint Francis said. It also reminds me of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's words: "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."

Merton wrote, "Anyone who imagines he can simply begin meditating without praying for the desire and the grace to do so, will soon give up." I'm sure he's write about this. We need to seek God's grace for every aspect of our physical and spiritual lives.

Trappists in those days greatly fascinated me. They had a vow of silence that only permitted them to use a sign language that they had developed. They used their voices to sing and to praise God, not to judge others or speak negatively.

I need to be more like them, and I'm sure spending more time in prayer, meditation, and contemplation, as Merton did, will help me with this.