I've been reading through the minor prophets. Much of the prophecy deals with the indictment by God upon His people Israel. What has struck me is that the very same things describe the church of our day--superficial religion, little concern for God, religious practice as an end rather than a means, disdain of the things of God, compartmentalized lives with religion kept in its place, lack of appreciation and even awareness of His amazing grace and love. For example, I was reading this morning in the book of Amos where the prophet expresses the hearts of the people in these words: "When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale."
The picture that comes to mind is people in the Sunday worship service looking at their watches, shifting restlessly in their seats. turning to look at the clock on the back wall so the preacher knows the noon hour has come and it's time to punch the clocks and get out of there. Stomachs are rumbling. The game's almost on. They've put in their time, done their duty.
Where is worship as the highlight of the week, a re-centering on God and His glory, finding refreshment in His grace and love and a renewed commitment to Him in every facet of our lives, every fiber of our being? I know this convicts me personally and it troubles me as a pastor for the well-being of the sheep and impact of the church on the world. What is even more troublesome is that this appears to be symptomatic of the prevalent strain of Christianity with a lack of spiritual depth and godly desire and thorough commitment to Christ.
Pray with me that God pours out His Spirit upon us, to shake us from our slumber and to restore us to the delights of relationship with Him through Jesus Christ, animated by His amazing grace.
The Essential Ingredient to Effective Evangelism
What would you say is the essential ingredient to effective evangelism? Your Lord Jesus Christ has draped the mantle of witness across your shoulders. You carry that call into the comings and goings of everyday life. What will make your witness work? It's got to be the power of the Holy Spirit, right? Yes, but what about the presentation of biblical truth--God's love, the cross, their need? True, but what about the importance of prayer. God hears and uses prayer.
All these answers are undoubtedly correct. But what is the essential ingredient to effective evangelism? All these are indispensable facts or indisputable facets but what makes them work? The answer has to be the sovereign purpose and providence of God. That's true, but what does that look like in you as the evangelist? The key characteristic in your evangelism for its effectiveness is humility.
Humility adopts the posture of the fear of the Lord, giving Him the glory, the sway, the ability, the right, the timing, the power and everything else necessary to be an instrument of God in the communication of the gospel of life in Christ.
For example, listen to what Paul says about the effectiveness of his gospel message. "I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." (1 Cor. 2:3-5) You can hear Paul living up to the meaning of his name and becoming smaller and smaller that the power of God might be prominent. The encouraging thing for us in our witness is that we can stutter and stumble but God even uses that. That's not to invite carelessness in doctrine or communication but to incite a confidence in God and not self.
In evangelism we are instruments in the hand of God. According to James, humility is what brings us to rest in that hand (see James 4:5-10). Paul's prayers reek of humility as he recognizes his inability at every point, whether in him as the evangelist, in the message of the evangel or in the hearts of the evangelized.
In other words, humility enables us to keep all those facts and facets mentioned above prominent. Humility eschews self and exalts Christ. Humility waits on the Lord, trusting Him, serving Him, submitting to Him. Humility provokes prayer and patience and perseverance, because it operates on Christ rather than self.
Humility, Christ's not ours, reaches to the heart of the evangel. Just read Is. 53, Phil. 2:3-11 and Gal. 4:4-5 to see what I mean. Humility, ours not Christ's, reaches out in heart of evangelism. Humility is even the Spirit-induced posture of those who would be reached with the Christ. The humble heart stands filled with both belief and unbelief: belief in the gracious trust of saving faith that rests in Christ alone for salvation; unbelief in the incredulous state of the saved sinner wondering, "Who am I that my Lord should come to me?" And so our prayer is:
O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel.
All these answers are undoubtedly correct. But what is the essential ingredient to effective evangelism? All these are indispensable facts or indisputable facets but what makes them work? The answer has to be the sovereign purpose and providence of God. That's true, but what does that look like in you as the evangelist? The key characteristic in your evangelism for its effectiveness is humility.
Humility adopts the posture of the fear of the Lord, giving Him the glory, the sway, the ability, the right, the timing, the power and everything else necessary to be an instrument of God in the communication of the gospel of life in Christ.
For example, listen to what Paul says about the effectiveness of his gospel message. "I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." (1 Cor. 2:3-5) You can hear Paul living up to the meaning of his name and becoming smaller and smaller that the power of God might be prominent. The encouraging thing for us in our witness is that we can stutter and stumble but God even uses that. That's not to invite carelessness in doctrine or communication but to incite a confidence in God and not self.
In evangelism we are instruments in the hand of God. According to James, humility is what brings us to rest in that hand (see James 4:5-10). Paul's prayers reek of humility as he recognizes his inability at every point, whether in him as the evangelist, in the message of the evangel or in the hearts of the evangelized.
In other words, humility enables us to keep all those facts and facets mentioned above prominent. Humility eschews self and exalts Christ. Humility waits on the Lord, trusting Him, serving Him, submitting to Him. Humility provokes prayer and patience and perseverance, because it operates on Christ rather than self.
Humility, Christ's not ours, reaches to the heart of the evangel. Just read Is. 53, Phil. 2:3-11 and Gal. 4:4-5 to see what I mean. Humility, ours not Christ's, reaches out in heart of evangelism. Humility is even the Spirit-induced posture of those who would be reached with the Christ. The humble heart stands filled with both belief and unbelief: belief in the gracious trust of saving faith that rests in Christ alone for salvation; unbelief in the incredulous state of the saved sinner wondering, "Who am I that my Lord should come to me?" And so our prayer is:
O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel.
Ephesians Prayer Guide
A prayer guide for life structured along the lines of Paul's letter to the Ephesians.
100 Days of Psalms for Prayer
The psalms are songs for all seasons, capturing the breadth of human experience in relationship with God. The psalms also provide templates for rich prayer, covering praise, thanks, confession and petition along the lines of that experience. This guide divides the psalms into 100 readings for reflection and prayer.
Praying the Imprecatory Psalms
Sometimes people post Bible verses in their homes for encouragement, or to remind themselves of something. My guess is not too many people have this passage from Psalm 137 posted on their refrigerator door:
O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us! Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock! (Psalm 137:8-9)
Leave the Local Congregation!
"Little children, let no one deceive you." 1 John 3:7
"Flee the church. God is finished with the local church. God's judgment is about to be unleashed on the local congregations. Get out." So sounds the alarm from radio and print personalities.
Will God judge the church? Peter tells us judgment begins with the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17). Inclusion on a church roll does not ensure salvation. Paul urges us to examine ourselves to see if indeed we are of the household of faith (2 Cor. 13:5). The weeds will be sorted from the wheat and burned in the fires of God's judgment (Matt. 13:14–30).
But the church is Christ's sheep pen. In it He has raised up shepherds who are to watch over and care for the sheep (Acts 28:28–30). In it the keys of the kingdom are exercised for the preservation, propagation and purity of Christ's church (Matt. 16:13–20). In it He has provided means of grace in the ministry of the Word, sacraments and prayer for the well-being, growth and effectiveness of His sheep. The fellowship of believers guards the sheep from the hardening of sin's deceitfulness (Heb. 3:12–19). Believers are given one to the other, a community to stir one another on to love and good deeds (Heb. 10:19–25)—the fruit of saving faith, the design of Christ's saving work (Eph. 2:8–10; Titus 2:11–14).
Since the local church is Christ's visible sheep pen, we wonder who in the world would ever urge sheep to leave God's provision for their safety and nurture? Who would want to bring harm and ruin to the sheep of God, under the guise of their own good? Who twists Scripture for his own purposes? Who would disguise himself as an angel of light, a wolf in sheep's clothing to lure the sheep into the darkness?
"Little children, truly, truly I say to you, come unto me from the sheep pen of the church and find life and safety," says the stranger. But when a voice seeks to compel us contrary to Christ (John 10:1–5), let us discern what it is—the spirit of the antichrist, the counterfeiter, the seducer, the father of lies seeking to devour the straggler from the flock and wanderer from the sheep pen. Rather, let us hearken to the warning of the Good Shepherd:
"Flee the church. God is finished with the local church. God's judgment is about to be unleashed on the local congregations. Get out." So sounds the alarm from radio and print personalities.
Will God judge the church? Peter tells us judgment begins with the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17). Inclusion on a church roll does not ensure salvation. Paul urges us to examine ourselves to see if indeed we are of the household of faith (2 Cor. 13:5). The weeds will be sorted from the wheat and burned in the fires of God's judgment (Matt. 13:14–30).
But the church is Christ's sheep pen. In it He has raised up shepherds who are to watch over and care for the sheep (Acts 28:28–30). In it the keys of the kingdom are exercised for the preservation, propagation and purity of Christ's church (Matt. 16:13–20). In it He has provided means of grace in the ministry of the Word, sacraments and prayer for the well-being, growth and effectiveness of His sheep. The fellowship of believers guards the sheep from the hardening of sin's deceitfulness (Heb. 3:12–19). Believers are given one to the other, a community to stir one another on to love and good deeds (Heb. 10:19–25)—the fruit of saving faith, the design of Christ's saving work (Eph. 2:8–10; Titus 2:11–14).
Since the local church is Christ's visible sheep pen, we wonder who in the world would ever urge sheep to leave God's provision for their safety and nurture? Who would want to bring harm and ruin to the sheep of God, under the guise of their own good? Who twists Scripture for his own purposes? Who would disguise himself as an angel of light, a wolf in sheep's clothing to lure the sheep into the darkness?
"Little children, truly, truly I say to you, come unto me from the sheep pen of the church and find life and safety," says the stranger. But when a voice seeks to compel us contrary to Christ (John 10:1–5), let us discern what it is—the spirit of the antichrist, the counterfeiter, the seducer, the father of lies seeking to devour the straggler from the flock and wanderer from the sheep pen. Rather, let us hearken to the warning of the Good Shepherd:
"Children, it is the last hour, and as you heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might be plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life. I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you." 1 John 2:18–26
Dusting for Satan's Fingerprints
The church at Corinth had problems. Moral problems. Doctrinal problems. Worship problems. Division and party spirit, infighting and competitiveness, lawsuits. Authority issues. In his letters, the Apostle Paul pastorally addresses each of the issues as well as the pride that fueled them, bringing God's will to bear, pleading for a focus on Christ. At the same time Paul identifies for us an enemy at work behind the scenes in the church to turn hearts from Christ.
Paul's second letter to the Corinthians in particular is replete with reference to spiritual warfare. Satan is described in his cunning attempts to undermine the gospel and emasculate its forgiveness achieved in Christ (2 Cor. 2:5-11), in his stealth to combat the spread of the gospel (2 Cor. 4:3-6), in his strategy to contaminate and compromise the light of gospel purity and integrity in persons and relationships (2 Cor. 6:14-7:1). Satan, enemy of the gospel, adversary of Christ and His church, continues to oppose us in our walk with Christ and our work for Him.
The weapons of divine warfare cited in 2 Cor. 10 (vv. 3-4) remain sufficient and effective to combat an enemy whose character is a liar and tactic deception (vv. 5-6). The lines of battle have to do with truth in its appropriation and application. Our enemy is not flesh and blood, but spiritual--the cosmic powers over this present darkness, spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, so we are informed in Ephesians 6. But, while our enemy is not people, we notice that Satan uses human agents enslaved to his rule, subjects of his kingdom (2 Cor. 11:4). The great irony is that our enemy himself is used of God as a pedagogue to Christ, teaching us the futility of self-reliance and the lesson of standing in the resurrection life and power of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor. 12:7-10).
The fingerprints of our enemy find themselves all over our lives, our relationships, our own churches in his efforts to cause us spiritual ruin and render us spiritually ineffective. The dusting of God's revelation to us alerts us to be on guard and ready with the weapon of God's truth as we seek to stand firm in Him who is our surety, our shield, our strength, our song.
Paul's second letter to the Corinthians in particular is replete with reference to spiritual warfare. Satan is described in his cunning attempts to undermine the gospel and emasculate its forgiveness achieved in Christ (2 Cor. 2:5-11), in his stealth to combat the spread of the gospel (2 Cor. 4:3-6), in his strategy to contaminate and compromise the light of gospel purity and integrity in persons and relationships (2 Cor. 6:14-7:1). Satan, enemy of the gospel, adversary of Christ and His church, continues to oppose us in our walk with Christ and our work for Him.
The weapons of divine warfare cited in 2 Cor. 10 (vv. 3-4) remain sufficient and effective to combat an enemy whose character is a liar and tactic deception (vv. 5-6). The lines of battle have to do with truth in its appropriation and application. Our enemy is not flesh and blood, but spiritual--the cosmic powers over this present darkness, spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, so we are informed in Ephesians 6. But, while our enemy is not people, we notice that Satan uses human agents enslaved to his rule, subjects of his kingdom (2 Cor. 11:4). The great irony is that our enemy himself is used of God as a pedagogue to Christ, teaching us the futility of self-reliance and the lesson of standing in the resurrection life and power of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor. 12:7-10).
The fingerprints of our enemy find themselves all over our lives, our relationships, our own churches in his efforts to cause us spiritual ruin and render us spiritually ineffective. The dusting of God's revelation to us alerts us to be on guard and ready with the weapon of God's truth as we seek to stand firm in Him who is our surety, our shield, our strength, our song.
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