Prayer for faith

This week, I have been reading a book on attitudes. It is entitled, "Lord, change my attitude" by James MacDonald (I hope to review it here when I am finished). In this book, MacDonald points to a negative and sinful attitude and follows it up with a good attitude that glorifies God that must replace the sinful attitude. In the chapter on replacing doubt with faith, he gives a prayer for faith. I find this prayer for faith important as I grow in faith. Here is the prayer...

"Father, thank you for giving me Your Word. Thank You for ordaining that the way to You is by faith. Forgive me for wishing that everything about You could be seen and known as a fact. Forgive me for preferring the ways of this physical world to the spiritual realities that You have chosen to create. Teach me deeper lessons about what it means to walk by faith. Give me spiritual eyes to see this world as You do. Help me to embrace by faith the brevity of life and the nearness of eternity. Give me strength to guide those I love toward faith in You, and help me to be a good example of what it means to really trust You. Lord, my needs are great, but You are a great and faithful God. I pray that You would, by Your Word and through my witness and walk of faith, increase my capacity to rest in and trust You. Might it be said of me before my days are through that I am a man of faith. Keep this goal ever before me, I pray in Jesus' precious name. Amen".

I thought this prayer for faith was important because it includes repentance for when our faith is weak, request of stronger faith, and a desire to take our faith and touch others with it. I hope this prayer is a challenge to our faith and helps equip stronger faith. 

Parable of the Prodigal Son

Jesus was and is the perfect teaching. He would tell parables to challenge people's thinking. He preform miracles to teach important lessons. He even gave direct messages (think Sermon on the Mount) to conform and inform people what it mean to be His followers. But Jesus was always going about redefining what people thought about God, sin, salvation, and religion.

Jesus parable of the prodigal son is one instance of his teaching that redefined important truths. Jesus taught this parable to both sinners around him and Pharisees challenging him. But when Jesus taught this parable he was redefining, for all of his listeners, 3 important truths.

What is redefined? 

First, Jesus redefines God. All of the sinners and the religious leaders would have understood that Jesus was showing God as the father. But God as a father was a new concept. God as an extravagant celebratory joyful father would have been totally radical. Yet, there is Jesus, God in the flesh, showing that God is a father. We have a father who is God. We can approach him like a father. We can love him like a father. God is the perfect father. And Jesus wants us to see, understand, and be impacted by his definition of God as a prodigal father.

Second, Jesus redefines sin. Whether it is the use of the father for one’s own gain, the true nature of what sin is and its rejection of God, or the fact that those closest to the Father could be the most lost, sin is redefined by the Savior. We, like the first time listener think that sin is something that is far from God or a selfish grievous act committed against God. Jesus shows that the great sinner is the sin done by those closest to the Father. The fact that sin can be done by those who appear the most good and righteous. As I said before, sin can even be done when good and right acts are done. And Jesus makes it clear sin can take place anywhere and by anyone and if we do not realize, recognize, and humble ourselves in it, it will lead to our destruction and loss of the love of the Father.

Third Jesus redefines Salvation. We think we have salvation figured out. We might even think like the older brother we are saved. But just like the older brother we will miss it, even in our goodness. The older brothers miss the generosity of God’s grace and the true conversion of salvation. See older brothers miss salvation because they miss the fact they are really the younger son, in fact we are all the younger son every day. But in the goodness, rightness, and self-righteousness the older brothers miss the entire fact of salvation. The older brother need to see it like the younger brothers when he sees 3 things that Jesus redefines as salvation. First we need the love of God for salvation. Then we need a right repentance and frame of the heart. And last, we need to melt, move, and be humbled in our response to God…as Jesus shows in this story there are 2 ways that we can be our own savior, breaking all the moral laws and setting our own course or by keeping all the moral laws and being very, very good. Both of these ways show his redefinition of sin and salvation and the true nature of the prodigal father with his two lost sons.

Prayer of Gratitude

In preparing for Sunday's worship service, I cam across a prayer of gratitude or thanksgiving. As I was reading this prayer, I realized how much, we as Christian do not pray for a grateful heart. And that does not even include the times we never pray with gratitude  for the things God has graciously done for us or to us. A prayer asking for a grateful heart is important. And a prayer showing gratitude will be produced by a grateful heart. Here is the prayer I read. I hope it makes us all think about true gratitude to God.


Lord, thank You for Your Word. Oh, that I would give 
thanks to You, Lord, for Your wonderful works in my life. 
I thank you today for the gift of life. I thank you for air to 
breathe. For health and for strength, I am grateful. And 
for loved ones around me-not perfect people, but people 
who support me and care for me-I am grateful. I thank 
You for my church family and the joy that I find in them. 

God, thank You today for Your Word. And thank You 
for Your Holy Spirit, who pursues me so faithfully and 
brings Your truth to bear upon my behavior. Thank 
You for the life-changing experience of walking with 
Jesus Christ. Thank you for the assurance of sins 
forgiven and the promise of eternal life. 

I choose today by an act of my will to turn away from
those things that would frustrate and defeat me and to
focus upon Your goodness. I pray even now that You would
cause genuine gratitude to continuously come forth from
my lips, for You are worthy. In Jesus' name. Amen. 

God's Glory

Psalm 57:5, 11

"Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! 

Let your glory be over all the earth"!

The why question is the biggest question in life. The why question is rooted in the thought of “what’s the point”? People want a reason why things happen. The Scriptures tell us some things happen because we live in a sin filled world. But this Psalms shows there is a deeper answer to the question. Why does sin happen? Why does God ordain things to happen in life that cause heartache? I believe this Psalm teaches us the root of all. This answer is not one that will give us good feelings. This answer is not one that will make us all warm and fuzzy. We are not going to get goose bumps because the answer to the “what’s the point” will make us feel good. This answer is not even what we want to hear many times. But David in this Psalm roots everything to one purpose. Did you see it? Look at verse 5 and verse 11. Let’s read them both again. “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, let your glory be over all the earth.” The reason for everything, even sin in the world. The reason we worship while life is falling apart. I would even say, like I believe David is saying, the reason life falls apart is…So God can be exalted and His glory shine over all the earth.

God’s glory and His glory being the root of our pain, is hard for us to hear. If we are honest with ourselves. When life is falling apart we want a comforting word, telling us the outcome will be ok. This Psalm never gives a solution to David’s problem. But when David was in the cave, not sure if he was going to die or become King. It was still about the glory of God. Friends, this is the reasons we exist. To exalt God and let His glory be over all the earth. Many of us did not see the word play in this Psalm because of the translation. But if you go back to verse 8 of Psalm 57, it is there. Verse 8 says, awake my soul. The Hebrew word here is kabod. This word also appears 2 other times in this Psalm. Kabod is in verse 5 and verse 11. In those verses it is translated glory. If we translate it the same in verse 8 it would read, “awake my glory”. This word means literally; riches, heaviness, honor, reputation, importance, splendor, and testimonial. This word is given both for David’s being and the being of God. What is David actually saying in verse 8? “Awake my glory so that I can praise God”. Or “let my glory be about your glory”. Did you hear that? In verse 8 with the word play David is saying, Awake, let my glory be about the glory of God over all the earth. That means the reason we exist is to glorify God. The reason David is worshiping is to glorify God. The reason David is stuck in the hard time of life is to glorify God.

Now go back to the definition of kabod; riches, heaviness, honor, reputation, importance, splendor, and testimonial. The glory of God is a heavy topic. We are to feel the heaviness of this statement. We must feel the heaviness of God on us. Like a 50 pound bag of cement, the weight of God should press upon us. At the same time, it is simple. The glory of God is His reputation, His testimony, His importance. To worship God then; is to take his reputation, His testimony, and His importance over all the earth. Even in the midst of pain. In the middle of our hurt what are we doing for the glory of God? This Psalm shows us. This Psalm reminds us that God is of utmost importance in the middle of falling apart. We suffer, we express, we cry out, we trust, and we praise, all for the glory of God so that He will be exalted. That’s the point of it all. Everything is about the glory of God. We exist to make His name great, both in the good and in the heartache. We exist to spread His reputation over the earth, both in the good times and in the bad times. We exist to be testimonies of God. These are the actions that take our glory and align it with the glory of God.

But this is a hard lesson to learn. What we feel is still real. What we feel is very present in life’s moments. We can just wipe the pain away. We can’t just turn off the sin and its consequences. % years ago, there were moments when the sin was real, and I wished I could have imagined it away. But we can’t do that. David could not just imagine Saul and the kingdom his. But it is what we know and what we do that defines us in the pain. That was the greatest lesson I learned through that experience. I, and all of us, as God’s children, are defined by how we glorify God. This Psalm shows us that step by step process for exalting God when life is hard. Be aware and admit what we feel. Declare and hold fast to what we know. Respond with confidence and trust to God. And worship and exalt God. God is much heavier, greater, and ore powerful than any painful, broken, sinful, or hurtful situation this life can throw at us. We can and must worship God through life’s pain. 

Your Great Name

One of the new responsibilities I have in ministry, is giving input to Sunday Morning worship songs. As I have begun to explore both modern worship music and old-time hymns, a number of songs have jumped out to me, as great songs for corporate worship. One of these songs is, "Your Great Name". I wanted to post the lyrics to this blog today. As we all read them and hum the tune, think through what these words are saying to God and about God. This song is one of the few great modern worship songs.

Lost are saved, find their way, at the sound of Your great name
All condemned, feel no shame, at the sound of Your great name
Every fear, has no place, at the sound of Your great name
The enemy, he has to leave, at the sound of Your great name

Jesus, worthy is the lamb that was slain for us, son of God and man
You are high and lifted up, that all the world will praise Your great name

All the weak, find their strength, at the sound of Your great name
Hungry souls, receive grace, at the sound of Your great name
The fatherless, they find their rest, at the sound of Your great name
Sick are healed, and the dead are raised, at the sound of Your great name

Jesus, worthy is the lamb that was slain for us, son of god and man
You are high and lifted up, that all the world will praise Your great name
Oh, Your great name

Redeemer, my healer, almighty
My savior, defender, You are my king

Redeemer, my healer, almighty
My savior, defender, You are my king

Jesus, the name of Jesus 
You are high and lifted up and all the world will praise Your great name
Slain for us, son of God and man
You are high and lifted up, that all the world will praise Your great name
Your great name, yeah
Your great name, yeah

The Bible is Sufficient

Simply put, the Bible is all we need for a life of faith and worship to God. The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks and answers; what rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him?, the word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him. The Bible is sufficient for the Christian life. 

Let’s get a definition of the sufficiency of the Bible and what I mean when I say the Bible is sufficient for everything we need. The sufficiency of the Scripture means: The Bible contains all the words of God he intended his people to have at each stage of redemptive history, and it now contains all the words of God we need for salvation, for trusting Him perfectly, and for obeying Him and we do not need any new revelation from heaven for this life. 

First, the Bible being sufficient means that it has all we need for salvation. The Bible tells us everything we need to know about salvation; including election, repentance, justification, faith, and bearing fruit. The faith that is a conduit for God to save us, only comes from the hearing and knowing of God's Word. Without the Bible, no person would be saved. In a clear concise thought, the Bible is the only tool that brings salvation to men. 

Second, the sufficiency of the Bible means that it has all we need in order to obey God. When we disobey God, it is our failure to follow the Bible. What does it mean to worship God? The Bible gives the only clear answer. What does it mean to walk humbly before God's face? The Bible is all we need to be humble. What does it mean to obey God? The Bible gives both the command to obey and the delight to fulfill the command. All we need for a life (lived perfectly, if sin was not involved) comes from the Bible. As the definition states, we need no other revelation from heaven to live in this world. 

Third, I want to point out from this definition; the Bible does not make every decision for us. For example, the Bible will not tell us who to marry, it simply tells us how to be a good spouse and who would make a good spouse. The Bible will not tell us what job to take but will tell us how to be a worshipful employee. God’s Word will not make every decision, that is not sufficiency. God has given us a brain and the sufficient Word that will form and equip our brain to make wise, worshipful, and God glorifying decisions. The Bible is not a magic eight-ball that will give us a yes or no answer to all of life's decisions. The Bible, as it is obeyed and faithfully followed, forms and equips us to make the right choice. And when there are cases where there are no "right" or "wrong" choices, the Bible and a life of worship will form us to make the best decision. 

The Bible is sufficient. It is a gift to be cherished. It is a treasure to be delighted in. It is a gold mine to be dug into. The Bible is all we need for this life. The question is, do we act like it? 

God's Word does something

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work".

2 Timothy 3:16-17

In verse 16 Paul lays out the rest of what it means that God’s inspired Word is fully sufficient for the whole Christian life. Paul begins talking about sufficiency with the reason God’s Word is sufficient. It is God’s inspired Word. A big word that simple means; All Scripture is from God and God gives all Scripture from Himself. As our translations say; God breathed. Paul in the original Greek word is telling us that the Bible is the very breath of God, God breathed, God spoken, God written (with human authors), and God’s idea.

This means Paul is saying all scripture is sourced in God. God pours himself, his very essence into the Scriptures. Just like our breath is part of us, so the breath of God, the Bible, is part of who He is. If I would go and eat a lot of onions, you would tell me I have onion breath. You could tell what I ate by my breath. I am revealing something about me by the breath that comes out of my mouth. The same is even more important when it comes to the breath of God. Paul is saying with this one word, God himself pours who he is, reveals his character, tells the reader of himself, in the Bible because it comes from the very mouth of God. Paul is telling us that the Bible is God’s story of love for and to us. Paul is instructing us that this Bible is sourced from, revealed, poured out, from God into the lives and hearts of those who listen and digest it. Paul wants us to catch the nature of Scripture because this is what makes it sufficient to his godly life.

Paul begins to build up the sufficiency of God’s Word from the nature of its inspiration. Paul says that all Scripture is useful or profitable for 4 important actions. Before we jump into the 4 specific things, think about the line. All Scripture is useful. Paul in his writing, God in his breath, tells us that all of Scripture has a 4-fold purpose. All Scripture is beneficial, which means this is not a book that is to be place on his shelf and let dust grow on it. The Bible does something. It takes action. When the Bible is used, it is sufficient to accomplish its purpose from its inspired author. All Scripture has a useful purpose, which carries the truth that the Scriptures must be read, studied, learned, digested, saturated into our souls, and given a place in the godly life to form a person. Paul wants us to live a godly life, which is formed by the purpose of all of Scripture flowing from the breath of God himself into the soul of the child of God. So again, what is our relationship and dependence level with God’s sufficient Word?

One of the writing styles of Paul is to include a prepositional phrase at the end of a thought but have the prepositional phrase point back to the entire thought. Paul unpacks the 4-fold purpose of God’s breath with the thought of righteousness, looking at the end of the flow in verse 16. The idea of righteousness is a whole sermon in itself. But let me explain a little to help us understand what Paul is saying. We were created to glorify and worship God. We as God’s children, were redeemed and saved to glorify and worship God. God saved us so we could again glorify and worship Him. Glorifying and worshiping God in one sense is making the name of God right and living a right life. We could say that righteousness is making the name of God and the worship of God right by living a right life, pleasing to God. This is a basic picture of righteousness, but it helps gives us the picture of righteousness in this text.

Paul is telling us that God’s Breath is useful for teaching what is right, the first action of the four. Teaching is the first action the Word of God takes upon God’s children. The Bible teaches us what is right and what to do to live rightly. Think through that for a moment. A purpose of the Bible is to teach us to live rightly and make the name of God right in a sinful and broken world. The idea of teaching here brings with it the word, doctrine (truth that is learned). All the truth we need to learn, is made clear in the Bible. Everything we need to know about God, sin, humanity, salvation, the end-times, the Holy Spirit, or the church is made clear in the Bible. And this means, the Bible alone is sufficient for right knowledge of God. There is nothing more we need to know about doctrine, outside of God’s Word. We just need to be learners and students of the Word, because it is our perfect teacher. The Bible is our sufficient “professor”.

The second sufficient action of God’s Word is rebuking what is not right or we could say it like this, “rejects a life that does not make the name of God right”. Think about this truth of Scripture. Not only does the Bible teach us perfectly, it also disciplines us perfectly. The Bible is clear with what is sin and what is not. The Bible points out what is wrong, how the devil deceives, what it means to live an ungodly life and attitudes we need to remove from our heart. The Bible perfectly rebukes our evil desires and is the perfect rule book for life. We tend not to think of God’s Word in this way, but just as it does positive work on our lives, it also rebukes and removes the negative in our hearts.  The Bible is our sufficient “paddle”.

Paul gives another negative aspect of Scripture when he says that God’s breath is useful in correcting into becoming right. Again, we could say this as, “The Bible corrects and steers us back to a life that is right and makes the name of God right. When we lose our way or when sin takes us away”. The picture of steering something is important. Like a rudder on a ship. When we humbly submit and follow God’s Word, it both keeps us on the path to a godly life and it corrects us when we walk off the path. Not only is the Bible our rule book, it is also our guide book and map to a life worshipping God rightly. The Bible is our sufficient “compass”.

Which leads Paul into the 4^th aspect of God’s Word and its training to stay right. This aspect of Scripture is Paul’s letters to the churches in a nutshell. Paul understands that the Christian life, a life of godliness, is a battle. This is why he encourages and instructs his brothers and sisters what to do and what to say right. And Paul loves to use sports images. This image is like a coach, training schedule, or work-out app. The Bible makes and keeps us healthy. The Bible keeps our spirits and hearts strong for God. The Bible is like a blower on the fire of our hearts, aflame for God. When we run the race of the Christian life, the Bible alone is what we need to succeed in winning the race and running the Christian journey in such a way that God is pleased. The Bible is our sufficient “trainer”.

The Bible teaches us what is right, rebukes us when we do not do right, corrects us back into what is right, and will keep us in the right if we obey and follow it. Simply put the Bible helps us to perfectly make the name of God right and worship Him. That means when we have problems, are confused, sin, or do not get it, it is not the breath of God’s problem, it is our problem for not obeying and understanding God’s revealed character to us. The Bible is sufficient for everything we need as a Christian. Once more with feeling this time, what is your relationship and dependence level with God’s sufficient Word?

But Paul does not just stop with the sufficient purpose of God’s Word, he shows the results in a person’s life as they holds fast to this very Word. Paul builds off the 4-fold actions of the Bible in verse 17. Paul gives the results that will take place when the Bible is kept and held to. Paul wants us to catch that God did not give us His breath just for fun. There is a purpose in the fourfold action God’s sufficient Word takes. And what is the result that Paul gives us? The man of God will be formed, complete and equipped for the work of God.