The term recovery is used in the medical field, and that makes it appropriate for church revitalization, because our goal should be to have a healthy church. So many pastors and church leaders today are striving for church growth, but that is putting the cart before the horse. The objective should not be church growth, but church health, because growth must proceed from health.”
–Harry L. Reeder, III; From Embers to a Flame, 46.
Lyndon Unger, following Dr. Albert Mohler, addresses what we have seen to be true for many years–Hispanics have gone from one damning heresy to another. We seriously have our work cut out for us.
I was listening to Al Mohler while having lunch today and he mentioned a recent Pew Research Center study on American Hispanics. He mentioned that America Hispanics are leaving their traditional Catholic Churches in record numbers, and he said:
Now what’s really interesting in this report is where those who are following this kind of research indicate that Hispanics are going. You’ll notice two things were said in that Wall Street Journal article. The first is that there is a significant shift in terms of Hispanics in the United States away from Catholicism and towards evangelicalism, but when you look at the data more closely, it is clear that it’s not evangelicalism in general. That is the target where so many of these Hispanics are going. It is rather in particular charismatic evangelicalism, and precisely it is often the health and wealth gospel, the prosperity gospel, that is attracting many…
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Joseph Sunde over at The Federalist manages to pin down the empty promises and tragic vacuousness of this pseudo-religious movement meant to make self-centered people feel virtuous. Check it out.
“We’re all looking for a soul at rest, and we’re all looking for inner peace. But where God is Self and Self is God, we ought not be surprised when we find ourselves at the mercy of human depravity, stuck in first-world ruts of self-obsession and excuse-making, afflicted by our own prosperity and privilege. The “life we want” surely requires “something more,” as Bell would say, but that certain something must be life-giving in its essence and orientation — absolutely, thoroughly, and completely.”
In 2009 a woman was attacked by a friend’s pet chimp in Connecticut. The chimp’s owner had raised him from infancy. He was treated as a member of the family, even eating dinner at the table, sipping wine from wine glasses and dressing himself. But, Travis the chimp wasn’t without his problems. The 200lb chimp had been disruptive, even escaping into town and avoiding police for 2 hours. The consequences were devastating. Travis May have been raised as a family member but he was by nature a wild animal.
Should we be surprised when a wild animal, even one raised from infancy, acts like a wild animal?
And when we are dealing with sin, even little, so-called harmless sins, should we be surprised that when we pamper these little vipers that one-day they will rise up and fill our hearts with their venom? We are, after all, sinners we a deep, dark secret well hidden by niceness and manners. We are desperately sick with sin.
The sixth and final petition from the Lord’s Prayer addresses our needs when we face temptation and evil. Of course, we need to see the serious nature of sin before we will be driven to our knees in prayer.
Let's examine this petition in its two parts, the first being a desire to avoid temptation, and the second to beseech God’s deliverance when evil comes.
This is clear from James 1:13. The word tempt, peirasmos, can mean either “temptation” as well as ”trial” or “testing” depending upon the context.
The difference in the way that we understand it depends not only on the context, but upon the intention. A temptation is meant to destroy, while a trial or test is meant to strengthen and confirm our faith.
This too is clear from James (1:14). Notice that temptation desire (or lust) is universal (“each person” (ESV), “every man”).
Notice too, that the lust you have is custom to your own tastes (“his own”).
Matt 4:3 says that Satan is called “the Tempter.” Additionally, 1Peter 5:8 warns us of the danger of our enemy, therefore we are to put on the full armor of God (Eph 6:11) so that we can fend off his attacks.
Why would God do this? Because like a goldsmith purifies the gold in fire by heating it to remove the dross, so our Lord tries our faith in order for it to grow stronger and more secure.
As we all know, in this physical world trials and hard times are those times when we often grow and mature the most as people. Great men of faith were strengthened and matured through trials—think of Abraham and the sacrificing of Isaac, Moses and the exodus, David and his sin with Bathsheba, and the attempted coup of his son Absalom.
Look at 1Peter 1:6-7. From this letter written to persecuted Christian, Peter teaches us that the trials we go through are meant by God to shine forth the genuine quality of your faith, and in the end will bring glory to God.
So, why would Jesus teach us to pray that we not be lead into temptation, if there is the potential for such a great outcome?
In testing, we recognize that the intention of God is for our good, but the intention of Satan is for our destruction. Although there is always a way of escape there is always a danger and terrible risk of our failure. In this way we are driven in prayer to depend upon God.
As we depend upon God for our daily bread and our forgiveness of debts, we also depend upon our Lord for the deliverance that we need from evil. 1Cor 10:13 shows us that in every temptation, God is faithful.
We cannot overcome evil by ourselves. We cannot survive any of these trials in our own strength.
Consider the example of the Apostle Paul in 2Corinthiqna 12:7-9. Notice that the Lord allowed for this “thorn in the flesh” to be given to Paul in order to keep him humble because of the incredible insights he had into the heavenly visions described in 2Cor 12:2-4.
Now, the Lord could have removed this burden from Paul; that is why he prayed for it. But, the Lord did not. Why? Look at verse 9. To show to Paul that he needed to depend upon the Lord for his sufficient grace through this trial.
The Lord is sufficient in his grace for your every trial. God could remove every problem and trial from your life. He could remove from you every temptation and every danger—but you would no longer need his grace and power. For Paul, he learned the lesson and boasted in his weakness because through this trial the power of Christ rested upon him.
How is it that we can depend upon the Lord for our every need, including the deliverance from evil? Because His is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. To him and him alone. We once again start where we left off—the God-centeredness of this prayer!
May we beseech our Lord that he cause us to avoid temptations, but if the trials come, we pray that he would deliver us from evil, for He, and He alone has the power to do that. Amen!
As we’ve been learning how to pray over the last posts, we have looked at the God-centeredness of our prayers. We have seen that our prayers should be about God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will. But as I stated before, we are not to think that we cannot come to God with our needs. We just need to begin with the right priorities. If we begin our prayers with a God-centered attitude, we will more than likely be unable to continue in a selfish man-centered manner.
In this post we are going to begin with the first of three petitions that address the needs that we have:
As we consider the fourth petition, we will see two lessons concerning our prayers, so that we will ask for our physical needs with greater understanding as to how we should ask:
We can’t forget the original audience that Jesus was speaking to: the Jews of Galilee. Every year, continuing even to this present day, the Jews remember an event that forever shaped them-the Exodus from Egypt. Immediately after the Jewish people left Egypt, they found themselves in the wilderness—a desert wasteland that would not supply for a million people food or water. They had to learn that God would supply all their needs.
Where do you find food for a million people in the desert? God had to supply it: Ex. 16:1-7. We live in such a different world, don’t we? Where does our food come from? The market. Costco. We have massive farms and huge distribution chains. It can become easy to forget that God is the one who supplies our needs.
The stock market crashed on Oct. 29, 1929. It was called Black Tuesday and the start of the Great Depression. The depression had devastating effects in virtually every country, rich or poor. International trade plunged by half to two-thirds; as did personal income, tax revenue, prices and profits. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by roughly 60 percent. Thirteen million people became unemployed. Industrial production fell by nearly 45% between the years 1929 and 1932. Homebuilding dropped by 80% between the years 1929 and 1932. From the years 1929 to 1932, about 5,000 banks went out of business. By 1933, 11,000 of the US’s 25,000 banks had failed. In 1933, 25% of all workers and 37% of all non-farm workers were unemployed. Between 1929 and 1932 the income of the average American family was reduced by 40%.
We are in fear of a return to such an economic disaster, but this scare can have one benefit: It can remind us of what wealthy nations often forget, our prosperity comes directly from the hand of God, and we are dependent upon Him for everything.
Again, as the Jewish people were listening to Jesus teach about how to pray, they would have immediately thought about the manna given in the wilderness: Ex. 16:13-27. Notice a couple of things here:
This daily dependence upon God means that we aren’t to be anxious, because God will supply all your needs: Matt 7:7-11. He supplies your needs, but we need to understand the difference between a need and a want. He supplies your needs out of love. As a father loves his child, so our heavenly Father takes care of us, his adopted children.
With all of this, let me ask you a question. If at the end of the day, you have a full stomach and a warm place to sleep and clothes to wear, is that all that you need?
Look up John 6:25-40 in your Bible. The feeding of the 5,000 had just occurred. Jesus proved that He, the Son of God, was able to provide for their physical hunger. After leaving them, they sought him out to meet their continued physical needs, but Jesus wanted them to look beyond that. He wanted them to see their real hunger was deeper—a hungering for their souls’ desire to be satisfied. He said that He was the bread of life.
We continue to hunger after every meal. We hunger after every shopping spree. After every physical desire. We hunger for more. Jesus satisfies what our soul longs after. He is the bread of life. Have you come to partake of Jesus, the bread of life?
Always Reforming 