Six Words

I'm not sure how I stumbled upon this but here it is:

Some have reported that the idea was inspired by an old story about writer Ernest Hemingway, who reportedly won a bar bet by composing a story in only six words. Hemingway is said to have called it his best writing. His submission: "For sale: baby shoes, never used."

Taking it further some have used that idea as an amusing parlor game of sorts: Sum up your life in six words, if you can.

Here are some entries:

"Frankly, it is all about me."

"Child, adult, wife, mom, widow, me."

"Not what I expected, but fun."



What would be the six words that sum up your life?

Send in your entry .... you can remain anonymous.

Exposition

"The preached Word, applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit, is the essential instrument through which God shapes His people. As the Reformers remind us, it is through preaching that Christ is present among His people."



From "He Is Not Silent" by R. Albert Mohler, Jr., published by Moody Publishers, 2008, pg. 69.

Remember THE Reason?

I ran across the following portion of a sermon by Charles Spurgeon in a post by Dan Phillips.

I recall reading a small tract which quotes this portion of Spurgeon's sermon regarding Christmas and the unbiblical warrant for celebrating the holiday but this is the first time I have read his position on using the holiday as a means of preaching to the celebrants. I think this perhaps balances Spurgeons thoughts on the subject.




"WE HAVE NO superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas: first, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be said or sung in Latin or in English; and, secondly, because we find no Scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Saviour; and, consequently, its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority. Superstition has fixed most positively the day of our Saviour's birth, although there is no possibility of discovering when it occurred. Fabricius gives a catalogue of 136 different learned opinions upon the matter; and various divines invent weighty arguments for advocating a date in every month in the year. It was not till the middle of the third century that any part of the church celebrated the nativity of our Lord; and it was not till very long after the Western church had set the example, that the Eastern adopted it. Because the day is not known, therefore superstition has fixed it; while, since the day of the death of our Saviour might be determined with much certainty, therefore superstition shifts the date of its observance every year. Where is the method in the madness of the superstitious? Probably the fact is that the holy days were arranged to fit in with heathen festivals. We venture to assert, that if there be any day in the year, of which we may be pretty sure that it was not the day on which the Saviour was born, it is the twenty-fifth of December. Nevertheless since, the current of men's thoughts is led this way just now, and I see no evil in the current itself, I shall launch the bark of our discourse upon that stream, and make use of the fact, which I shall neither justify nor condemn, by endeavoring to lead your thoughts in the same direction. Since it is lawful, and even laudable, to meditate upon the incarnation of the Lord upon any day in the year, it cannot be in the power of other men's superstitions to render such a meditation improper for to-day. Regarding not the day, let us, nevertheless, give God thanks for the gift of his dear son."
From Joy Born at Bethlehem, preached December 24, 1871.


As Mr. Phillips observes, "...even though the association is bad, preaching about the incarnation any day of the year is good..."



Although, for the record, I will do without the 'over-the-top' holiday schmaltz, santa clause, falsity, etc., so celebrated today.

So, What's New?

The following was sent to my wife and I thought worth posting in keeping with the wisdom of Solomon.

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. (Eccl. 1:9)

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refitted, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest (the nation) become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."

Who wrote that sage advice? Cicero. In 55 B.C. The nation referred to is Rome. Cicero was a Roman statesman and constitutionalist of the first level.

For those who refuse to believe the Scriptures but want to know how our nation will fare if it continues on the path it has chosen crack open a history book (preferrably one that hasn't been tampered with by the "factually-challenged", i.e. the revisionists of the past half century). Read what happened to the Roman Empire as it degenerated more and more. As our nation follows in the Roman Empire's footsteps it will certainly come to the same end.

May our Sovereign God wake our nation up!

...my people have forgotten me; they make offerings to false gods; they made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient roads, and to walk into side roads, not the highway....Like the east wind I will scatter them before the enemy. I will show them my back, not my face, in the day of their calamity. (Jeremiah 18:15-17)

A Plea

My Dear Sister in Christ,

You have now been absent from the body for over a month now - failing to attend the services of the church and absenting yourself from the Lord's table. We have spoken on the telephone and both shared thoughts regarding your situation and one of the questions I posed to you was, "What biblical evidence do you give for taking the route you are taking and absenting yourself from the church you so faithfully have been attending?" What biblical reason can you give for leaving the local church you helped to begin and covenanted with others "..to promote its prosperity and spirituality; to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline and doctrines..."?

Is your leaving a result of the Pastor hurting your feelings? You complain that the preaching has been directed to you or against you? Does this wound your conscience? Would you prefer he spoke ‘smooth things'? Is the preaching not supposed to ‘stir the conscience'? If he was wrong have you forgiven him?

Or perhaps, you feel that he is unconcerned about your soul? That he fails to pray for you? That he does not try and meet your spiritual needs as much as possible?

Perhaps you feel the church lacks a proper understanding of the fundamentals of the gospel? Is the soteriology of the church in error? Do you feel that the church does not care for each member of the body? Do you feel unloved by its members? Do you not observe any evidence of God's grace upon the church?

You state that you have a difference of opinion in your interpretation of some doctrine in the Bible that necessitates your leaving the church but also acknowledge that you have an interpretation that many faithful preachers do not hold. Is this an adequate reason?

So, you leave off attending your church to travel some distance to another church to hear someone who you describe as a good preacher. That is for now. What will you do when he says or does something that you feel isn't correct? When he preaches something you disagree with? Things that you feel are directed against you or are offensive to you? What will you do when the church doesn't feel so caring? When you have a disagreement with them?

I'm afraid you're beginning a long, lonely, unbiblical trip that has many problems along the route. Problems that can be avoided by returning to the church you are a member of that wants to grow with you together in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You have many good qualities that the Holy Spirit can use enabling you to contribute to the growth of the church.

We're not perfect. Our pastor is not perfect. I am not perfect. I have lots of questions but seek to resolve them by working in the church. I believe that Christ intends His church to grow and we are to be His instruments used by the Spirit of God. This takes work and charity and love and patience and......well you get the idea.

Christ has provided us with the analogy of His church as a body to help us understand our inter-dependence upon, not independence of, one another. You are part of our body........and we miss you.



If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ....So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-7,13 )

The Confrontation

The following is adapted from the book, "A Simple Way to Pray" by Dr. Archie Parrish, which I thought appropriate to share in this time that some think our world is falling apart.

"One of the most significant events in what would become the Protestant struggle took place in Worms, Germany in the year 1521.....

On April 17, 1521, the marshal of the empire escorted Martin Luther, wearing his monk's robes, from his lodgings to the assembly diet. The archbishop of Treves asked him two questions: Would he acknowledge those books that were laid upon a bench before him to be his productions, and would he recant the opinions contained in them? .... after hearing the titles read, he answered, "Yes". However, to the second question, at the suggestion of his counselor, he requested that he be allowed until the next day to consider his answer.

That night in his room Luther prayed:

‘The bell has been already cast, judgment has been pronounced. Ah God, ah God, O You, my God. Stand by me; do this, You must do it, You alone! The matter is not mine, it is Yours. O God, do You not hear? My God, art Thou dead? No, You cannot die; You only hide Yourself. Stand by me. Lord, where do You tarry? Where art You, O my God? Come, come! I am ready, even to forsake my life for this, submissive as a lamb, for righteous is this cause which is Yours. And should my body perish for this cause, should it fall to the ground, year, be broken to fragments, yet Your Word and Your Spirit are enough. And all this can happen only to the body; the soul is Yours and belongs to You and will remain forever with You.'

In the quiet of his room Luther might have thought about John Huss (1372-1415), who had been burned at the stake for seeking reforms similar to those that he now sought. The words of his prayer show that Luther knew that what he said to the diet the next day might soon result in a similar sentence for him. Luther's heart turned to God in Psalm 46, which was written at a time when the psalmist saw the world falling apart. This at this time of Luther's great crisis this psalm became a major source of encouragement. Psalm 46 reads:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

After meditating on this psalm, Luther wrote:

A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing;
Our Helper He, amid the flood
O'er mortal ills prevailing......."

The rest, as they say, is history.


A Simple Way To Pray (pg. 21) - Published by Serve International, Inc., Marietta, GA. rev. 2005.

Nothing Changes

Under the heading of "nothing new under the sun".....

Regarding the practice of "Pastoral Visitations" and the 'busy-ness' of today's family...

"Indeed, amid the artificial arrangements of modern society, the great difficulty often is to find any time suitable for such visitations, families being so variously occupied with the employments of active life, and so seldom for any length of time gathered together in their respective homes."

From "Pastoral Theology" by Patrick Fairbairn, first published in 1875.
(Old Paths Publications, Audubon, NJ)

An Expositional Listener

"...expositional listening benefits the gathered congregation. Repeatedly, the New Testament writers exhort local churches to be unified - to be of one mind. Paul writes to one local church, "I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there may be no divisions among you, but that you may be united in the same mind and the same judgment" (1 Cor. 1:10; see also Rom. 12:16; 2 Cor. 13::; 1 Pet. 3:8). As we gather together in our local churches and give ourselves to hearing the voice of God through his preached Word, we're shaped into one body. We are united in understanding and purpose. And that unity testifies to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ (John 17:21). But if we listen with our own interests and agendas in mind, if we develop "private interpretations" and idiosyncratic views, we risk shattering that unity, provoking disputes over doubtful matters, and weakening our corporate gospel witness."

An excerpt from "What Is A Healthy Church Member" by Thabiti Anyabwile - Publ. by Crossway Books, Wheaton, Il - 2008 - (pg. 21)

Another Quotable

"I don't know why some people change churches; what difference does it make which one you stay home from?"

Quotable

"If a church wants a better preacher, it only needs to pray for the one it has."

When I Doubt

Amongst those who bear the name Christian, I know that there are two classes of men. One finds it extremely easy to believe all that is said to them in matters of religion. For the other it is extremely difficult. It appears to me that the facility of belief in the first group comes from superstition and superficial thought, while the difficulty in the other comes from excessive reflection. The one never exercises prudence, while the other finds it hard to believe anything at all. So the one will believe many things that are false, perhaps giving more credit to the false than to the true. While the other never believes in the false, but also hesitates to ever accept the truth.

Pondering on this matter, I find that only the Holy Spirit can help both classes of men...While both of them struggle, I believe that they who find it hard to believe anything are in a better position to receive God's Spirit. First, this is because it is easier to recognize the truth than falsehood. Second, whoever believes readily is the more easily deceived. Third, he who easily believes may also live much longer under delusions, such as those in the early church who were converted from Judaism. I am also convinced that he who believes without being taught by the Spirit of God will rely more upon human opinion than upon a personal faith.

However, Christian faith is not based upon hearsay, but upon divine revelation alone. It is this that blesses us and brings us now hope and love. It is this that purifies the heart and it is this that in every way pleases God. May we be enriched with this by God Himself through Jesus Christ our Lord! A man who is tempted to doubt experiences a work of Christian progress. I believe that such temptation originates in a man's desire to believe and to stand firm in his Christian faith. The ungodly are not tempted to doubt, because they neither with nor desire to believe...But Christians have renounced unbelief and they have begun by the grace of the Holy Spirit to accept the pardon which the gospel announces in Christ.

Such are those who have renounced self-justification and have embraced the righteousness of Christ which the gospel offers. But at the same time, they do not yet see clearly all that Christ offers. When such a person begins to doubt, let him counteract such a temptation in the following ways.

In the first place, let one who doubts regard this temptation as evidence of his progress in the Christian life. Let him recognize that had he not wished a desire to believe, he would not be so tempted to doubt. His very distress is indicative of the presence of the Holy Spirit in his life.

In the second place, let him argue like this: If this Christian faith that I have were not something spiritual and divine, it would not find me the contradiction that it does find. Let this comfort me.

In the third place, let him also argue thusly: If this Christian faith were not the gift of God, I would not feel such inward new desires to be united with Christ. But these are the very desires I have since embracing Him in faith.

In the fourth place, let him also think like this: If a Christian's faith was not spiritual and divine, it would not give rise to that very tension I experience between faith and doubt.

Finally, let him think like this: If I knew of any alternative that is better than this, or even equal to this, in getting me to appear before the judgment of God, I might have good cause to doubt the truth to which I know cling. But since I see no alternative that is better or equal to it, I have no cause to doubt.

And so in this way, let him be assured that he is on the side to win and not to lose; by persevering in this Christian faith he cannot lose but win. Let him realize that he knows himself to be pardoned through Christ. Since he realizes himself to be dead with Christ, raised again with Christ, and expecting his fullment with Christ, and let these things assure him.

The Christian who desires to accept the righteousness of Christ will be disturbed with suggestions that tempt him to doubt. But let him take a stand here and close the door to those who threaten to assail him. Let him commend himself to God, saying with Hezekiah, "Oh Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me" (Is. 38:14). Let him be sure that God will help him and fulfill what He promised David. "I will deliver him and bring him to honor" (Ps. 91:15).


Juan de Valdes (1498-1541) fled the Spanish Inquisition in 1531 and led a reform movement in Italy. The following is a short extract from his larger work titled, "The Benefit of Christ", and was made available by Shane Rosenthal for Reformation Ink.

Spiritual obesity and logging on to church

The following is a post by Matt Finn (see credit below) that I felt helpful and may help others.

Two posts I read recently helped me crystallize some thoughts I'd been having about Church and the Internet.


1. Thabiti Anyabwile was interviewed about his latest book "What Is a Healthy Church Member?" and answered this question: What would you say to a twenty something (or thirty, or forty, or fifty...ed.) who is convinced that her routine of watching online sermons and occasionally attending area church bible studies is her "church"?


2. Martin Downes (www.against-heresies.blogspot.com) wrote about the interplay of Global ministries and the local church particularly when it comes to listening to sermons from churches and conferences.

As someone who listens to his fair share of sermons from the web as one part of my spiritual diet I've been seeking to reflect on how I've benefitted from this and also to think about if there are ways in which is it actually unhelpful, even harmful. Of course, one thing to say up front is the issue of content and discernment. Are those preaching those who "contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints"? Of course, for all of the rubbish there is some great stuff out there too. Let's focus on that for now.

Laid out for us is a fine feast of biblical exposition from across the globe. (Let's not forget as Downes reminds us that this isn't new - for example people distributed Spurgeon's sermons all over the place.) Yet, reading sermons and hearing them preached is to my mind genuinely different in that the medium is significant and listening to one preacher on the Internet invites a direct comparison with the preaching in the local church. Three points come to mind:


1. Loving the local church and its leaders

There is a danger of pride, frustration and criticism that comes from a false expectation that the person preaching should be like the person I listen to on mp3. The danger to sin is that I look down on, am unmoved by the Spirit's work through and am not thankful to God for the gifts He has given his people. It's a bit like the "conference effect" where people come back from participating in sung worship with large numbers of people with music lead by highly skilled musicians and the experience back at home is simply not the same. Will I love the local church in its weakness and strength, immaturity and maturity and keep in mind God plan for the church (check out Ephesians!)?


2. The danger of spiritual obesity

There is a danger that I hear but do not obey, especially if it is related to a command which is corporate in its perspective. Jesus tells the story of two people both of whom build houses. One of them builds on the rock and one on the sand. Some have wrongly assumed that this is talking about building our lives on Jesus the rock but look again. Both of the two are said to be like those who hear the words of Jesus. The difference is that one put them into practice and the other did not. We might have a great spiritual diet but if we do not exercise our spiritual muscles we will become spiritual obese: full but flabby!


3. Hearing together

Finally in hearing together we come under the preaching of those God calls to care for us. Knowing that one day we will give an account to God we practice accountability to one another for our thinking, feeling, acting and more. We seek to be wise in what we watch and recognize that isolated and independent consumption of sermons (about which - in being immature - we might be highly undiscerning) we can genuinely fall subject to false teachings. Church community is not about controlling our input and cutting off all other sources of knowledge but a matter of wisdom in that we are not to be ignorant of the Satan's schemes and recognize that "the Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons." (1 Timothy 4:1). This is not to provoke fear but to recognize the value of God-given fellowship.


Downes says it this way:


Preaching is a corporate act. Going to church is not like a trip to the movie theater where I can listen in as an individual with no meaningful connection to the people around me…

There is an obligation to hear the Word, respond to the Word, and to apply the Word together, that downloadable preaching cannot even begin to touch. It actually fails miserably at this point, because it can never do what the ministry of the local church, ordained by God, is designed to do.

Am I making downloadable sermons the primary means of my growth to the neglect of listening to, believing and obeying, God's Word together with his assembled people? Am I dishonoring God and his church through bypassing the ministry of the local church in my pursuit of maturity?

Posted on blogsite www.undercovertheologian.wordpress.com by Matt on August 24, 2008.

John Newton on Handling Controversy

"As you are likely to be joined in controversy, and your love of truth is joined with a natural warmth of temper, my friendship makes me solicitous on your behalf. You are of the strongest side, for truth is great, and must prevail; so that a person of abilities inferior to yours, might take the field with a confidence of victory. I am not, therefore anxious for the event of the battle; but I would have you more than a conqueror, and to triumph not only over your adversary, but over yourself.

If you cannot be vanquished, you may be wounded. To preserve you from such wounds as might give you cause of weeping over your conquests, I would present you with some considerations, which, if duly attended to, will do you the service of a coat of mail; such armor, that you need not complain, as David did of Saul's, that it will be more cumbersome than useful; for you will easily perceive that it is taken from that great magazine provided for the Christian soldier, the Word of God....

As to your opponent, I wish that before you set pen to paper against him, and during the whole time you are preparing your answer, you may commend him to earnest prayer to the Lord's teaching and blessing. This practice will have a direct tendency to conciliate your heart to love and pity him; and such a disposition will have a good influence upon every page you write. If you account him a believer, though greatly mistaken in the subject of debate between you, the words of David to Joab, concerning Absalom, are very applicable: "Deal gently with him for my sake."

The Lord loves him and bears with him, therefore you must not despise him, or treat him harshly. The Lord bears with you likewise and expects that you should show tenderness to others, from a sense of the much forgiveness you need yourself....And though you may find it necessary to oppose his errors, view him personally as a kindred soul, with whom you are to be happy in Christ forever.

But if you look upon him as an unconverted person, in a state of enmity against God and his grace (a supposition which, without good evidence, you should be very unwilling to admit ), he is a more proper subject of your compassion than of your anger. Alas!" he knows not what he does." But you know who has made you to differ. If God, in his sovereign pleasure had so appointed, you might have been as he is now; and he, instead of you, might have been set for the defense of the Gospel. You were both equally blind by nature. If you attend to this, you will not reproach or hate him, because the Lord has been pleased to open your eyes and not his. Of all people who engage in controversy, we . . . . are most expressly bound by our own principles to the exercise of gentleness and moderation.

If, indeed, they who differ from us have a power of changing themselves, if they can open their own eyes, and soften their own hearts, then we might with less inconsistency be offended at their obstinacy; but if we believe the very contrary to this, our part is not to strive, but in meekness to instruct those who oppose, "if peradventure, God will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth." (2 Tim. 2:25) If you write with a desire of correcting mistakes, you will of course, be cautious of laying stumbling blocks in the way of the blind, or of using any expressions that may exasperate their passions, confirm them in their prejudices, and thereby make their conviction, humanly speaking, more impracticable".

Effectual Prayer

This short story makes a good point.

There is a story about a businessman in a small community who changed the whole character of a section of town by opening a tavern. A local church group became concerned and conducted an all-night prayer vigil, asking God to close the tavern. Shortly before morning, a thunder storm came through the area and a lightning bolt struck the tavern and it burned to the ground.

The owner of the tavern sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the group were responsible for the destruction of his tavern. The church hired a defense attorney to argue in court that they were not responsible.

The presiding judge, after an initial review of the case, stated that "No matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear. The tavern owner believes in prayer and the church group does not."

Posted by Robert Hayes at Uganda Short Term Mission Guide website www.ugandamission.net/

Why "Just Me and My Bible" Is Insufficient

"The best way to guard a true interpretation of Scripture, the Reformers insisted, was neither to naively embrace the infallibility of tradition, or the infallibility of the individual, but to recognize the communal interpretation of Scripture. The best way to ensure faithfulness to the text is to read it together, not only with the churches of our own time and place, but with the wider 'communion of saints' down through the age." Michael Horton.

from a recent post by JT at theologica.blogspot.com

Keeping It In Perspective

The following is an excerpt from an interesting post dated Wednesday, October 8, 2008, by Pastor Zack of Lansing, Michigan. You can (and should) view the complete article here.


Eschatological On-Ramp


So a bunch of global banking bigwigs got together today and agreed to cut interest rates. Our own fed chair ironed this out with his counterparts in England, China, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, and some Czar from the European Central Bank. (It hasn't worked yet; the decision to cut the federal funds rate to 1.5% rallied the market for a short time, but the DJI still closed out considerably down. )

That was this morning. Tonight, I taught my Wednesday night Bible class. We've been going through Revelation for a little less than a year. I've been doing my best to slowly, brick by brick, knock down any vestige of Left Behind Rapture cult nonsense that my people may have absorbed and, in its place, teach them the Historic Protestant understanding of the end times.

There are some major differences. Case in point: your average Left Behinder would have jumped into the study of Revelation, using the day's headlines as an interpretive grid. Van Impe makes a living doing this (see yesterday's post). Whether it's 1985 or 2008, we can find prophecy in the headlines. Mikhail Gorbachev is clearly the Antichrist. No, wait! It's Saddam Hussein!... Y2K will mark the beginning of the Great Tribulation! Er...The European Union is clearly the Beast; it has SEVEN STATES after all. Crud, now it has twenty-seven...

The frustrating thing is that these guys never go back and retract what they said about last year's headlines. They plow ahead without a care in the world, effecting as confident a tone and demeanor as they can muster.

Were I a Left Behinder, I'd have spent a good deal of time tonight outlining what had taken place when those seven (oooohhh) nations got together and started acting all one-world-governmenty. One step closer to a world currency. One step closer to the microchip that the Bible predicts! (Greek: pentiumos intelos).

But I didn't do that. I caution students of the Bible against using the Old Testament to interpret the new (it should be vice versa), let alone using the Associated Press to interpret Holy Scripture.

However, there will ultimately be a great crash to the whole thing. And I mean the whole thing. I'm preaching on the Rich Fool in Luke 12 this week. For him, the great market crash was his death, when he found out that he'd been putting all his eggs in the wrong basket and all of his investments in the wrong fund. And that fund didn't pay dividends in the afterlife.

When all is said and done, whether the market is up or down, there's only one place to put your trust that won't crash and burn in the end: in Jesus Christ. If your trust is in Him and you're living for Him, your investments are secure for all of eternity.

That's not quite as sexy as smoke-filled back rooms where one-world currencies are born or tanks rolling into Jerusalem or microchips being injected into people's foreheads. But it's a heck of lot more comforting. And it's actually based in reality and the truths of Scripture.

Why you need to be in a church tomorrow

The following post is intended to be a challenge to our "no organized church for me" friends.

No, you're not the church. You're part of the church. The word ekkle-sia means "assembly," and no, you're not an assembly. Doesn't matter how overweight you are, you still aren't an assembly.

If you're a Christian, you claim Jesus as your Lord.

Where's your Lord today? He depicts Himself as walking among local assemblies (Revelation 1:12-13, 20). Do you know better than He? Which one of you is "Lord," again?

That's the church, that local assembly of believers where pastors lead, the Word is preached, the ordinances are observed, and discipline is carried out. Christ loved it and gave Himself for it (Ephesians 5:25). He died for it. But you won't walk into one? Which one of you is "Lord," again?

Before He died, He prayed for the church (John 17). But you won't attach yourself to one, to work in it and pray for it? Which one of you is "Lord," again?

Who is your pastor? Are you fool enough to say "Jesus"? Nonsense. When He ascended, He gave pastors to the church (Ephesians 4:11). Which one is your pastor, your toe-to-toe, eyeball-to-eyeball pastor?

Your "Lord" charged pastors with the care of souls. That means Jesus — your Lord, so you say — thinks your soul needs watching over (Hebrews 13:7, 17). Which individual flesh and bones living pastor is watching over your soul, in person, individually?

If "none," how is it that you decided you are smarter than Jesus? You know, Jesus. Your "Lord." Which one of you is "Lord," again?

And if you fall into unrepentant sin, which body will discipline you? Jesus says you need that, too (Matthew 18:13-20). I don't care what complex, high-sounding list of excuses you can slap together. If you say you don't need to be in a local assembly, you say you're smarter than Jesus, and are sufficient.

Fool.

And remember, that Jesus you say is your "Lord" said that the second most important thing in the world is to love your neighbor (Matthew 22:39). He moved Paul to tell you your fellow-church-member is your premier neighbor (Galatians 6:10). That's where you take all that rich doctrine (Ephesians 1—3), and live it out in community (Ephesians 4—6). That's where you do all those "one another's."

And if you tell yourself that your spouse or children are all the "one another's" you need, you put your judgment over God's.

Meaning you're a fool and a blasphemer, whether you intend to be or not.

And bringing harm on your spouse and children, by preaching a lie to them.

That's for starters.

So, Jesus — your "Lord" — says you need to be in a local church. You say you don't?

Hm. Which one to believe? You? Or Jesus? You? Or Jesus? Hmm.

See you in church.

Posted on 10/4/08 by Dan Phillips. www.bibchr.blogspot.com

To The Unknowns

Recently I read an article in an American Legion newsletter regarding what is commonly referred to as the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier" (the official title is "Tomb of the Unknowns"), which is located in Arlington Cemetery. Having my curiosity piqued I did some research and came across the "Sentinels Creed". (The Sentinels are the military "guards" at the tomb that have stood watch over the tomb continuously since 1937 - 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, no matter the weather or circumstance!) As I read the creed I thought about my own dedication to Christ and my responsibility in living the Christian life. If we attempt to honor men in this way may it encourage us to live more dedicated and honoring to our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Sentinels Creed

My dedication to this sacred duty is total and wholehearted.
In the responsibility bestowed on me never will I falter.
And with dignity and perseverance my standard will remain perfection.
Through the years of diligence and praise and the discomfort of the elements,
I will walk my tour in humble reverence to the best of my ability.
It is he who commands the respect I protect.
His bravery that made us so proud.
Surrounded by well meaning crowds by day, alone in the thoughtful peace of night,
this soldier will, in honored glory, rest under my eternal vigilance.

The inscription on the outside of the granite tomb reads:

"Here Rests
In Honored Glory
An American Soldier
Known But To God"

2 Timothy 2:1-3 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

It's Not About Me

"For many years I took an individualistic approach to the Christian life. I was concerned about my growth as a Christian, my progress in holiness, my acquisition of ministry skills. I prayed that God would enable me to be more holy in my personal life and more effective in my evangelism. I asked God's blessing on my church and the Christian organization I worked for. But as I learned more about true fellowship, I began to pray that we as the Body of Christ would grow in holiness, that we would be more effective witnesses to the saving grace of Christ. It is the entire Body - not just me - that needs to grow."

Jerry Bridges, The Crisis of Caring: Recovering the Meaning of True Fellowship (P & R, 1985), pgs. 71-71.

A Healthy Prayer Warrior

"Praying for other Christians is a tangible expression of love and care (see Eph. 6:18). Christianity is not a solo sport, and prayer is not a trip through the Burger King drive-thru, where we shout into an inanimate receiver, wait a few moments, and then receive the bag of goodies we ordered to "have it our way." The Christian life is a family life, and our prayers are to focus on the entire family, esteeming others more highly than ourselves."

Exerpt from "What Is A Healthy Church Member?" (pg. 111), by Thabiti M. Anyabwile, available from Crossway books at crossway.org

Not Your Fathers Party

I'm reluctant to post anything "political" but the need of the hour necessitates providing some insight into the truth and what is at stake for our society if we neglect the privileges God has provided for us in this nation. Beginning this post is a quotation from the Democratic Party National Platform. (A party platform, also known as a manifesto, is a list of the principles which a political party supports in order to appeal to the general public for the purpose of having said party's candidates voted into office.) Following the Democratic statement regarding their support of the unborn is a short blurb by Ravi Zacharias published some time ago and appropriate to the issue.

"The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right."

The above quotation is from the Democratic Party National Platform presented to the 2008 Democratic National Convention by the Platform Standing Committee Governor Deval Patrick, Former Attorney General Patricia Madrid and Former Discovery Communications, Inc. CEO Judith McHale,Committee Chairs (As Approved by the Platform Committee at its meeting August 9, 2008)


The Defenseless Among Us

The ultimate test of any civilization is what we do with our children. What we do with the most defenseless among us speaks to the soul of a people. Interestingly enough, every culture today claims, in theory, to place the highest value on its love of its children. Some time ago when one Middle Eastern leader was asked when the fighting in that part of the world would stop, she answered, "When they love their children more than they hate us." I have little doubt that the opposing side would say the same. There is a profound expression of values in that statement. In our own prisons those whose crime was against a child are kept from other prisoners, as even criminals draw a line of civility. In any course on ethics, the bottom-line illustration is still, "Is it all right to torture babies?" rhetorically stated, of course, and always eliciting a thunderous "Of course not!" If this, then, is the ultimate test of a civilization, how are we doing in ours? What is it we live for, and what, in that pursuit, are we doing to our children? One look at the world we are giving to them spells horror. All over the globe, the statistics of war are staggering, so much so as to be nearly incomprehensible. The statistics in America may be different because we are not engaged in civil war. Yet we are certainly involved in a moral war that is even more insidious, for it ravages the souls of our children. What are we doing to our children when we tell them there are no boundaries—when we say, in the words of our Supreme Court in its famous Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling, that it is up to them to decide "their own concept of existence"? What about when we ridicule sacred things? When we leave them vulnerable to any philosophy of life that comes around? When we walk out on marital commitments and leave them defenseless in a predatory world? What have we done? We have prepared them for a life of individualized meaning, which means anything goes. Children want to be valued, but they also want to know the reason for that value, and there is no surer way to instill it than to impart to them that they are a gift from God, entrusted to us by Him. Only then will we be able to offer these precious lives the wisdom and guidance they so desperately need. Then we can pass the test of civility.

Ravi Zacharias

Re-Post "Chick Flick Christianity in a Feminized Church"

Sometime ago I came across this article written by Scott Hill at the "Fide-O" blog site and thought it appropriate to problems in the family (church and filial).

I never really understood the draw of romance novels or movies, until I was old enough to understand just how different women think than men. I am not saying I understand how women think; I just now understand they don't think like me.

However, I believe there are three kinds of Chick Flicks. In one you have to two lifelong friends who go through a series of trials that draws them closer until one day through accident or sickness one of them dies. This type of movie usually involves flashbacks and narration. The second type of chick flick involves a good looking witty guy who is constantly outsmarted and put down by the heroine and her friends until she discovers he is not that bad "for a man" and they shack up happily ever after. The third and most common of the chick flicks are the one where the high school sweetheart husband through some character flaw major or minor drives the heroine into the arms of the charming, rich, young man who really, really, really understands her. He has ESP, and went to 'how to understand women' school, and she of course could not ask for anything better. In the end she leaves her husband for Mr. Rich Charming.

Now the draw of this is not that it reminds us of memories about our own romances, but just the opposite. These movies and books, appeal to a fantasy. The perfect marriage, the perfect kids, the perfect house, job, neighborhood, etc all of which require no work, no heartache, no communication, no discipline and least of all no temptation. These movies provide the fantasy. Who wants to pay $10 dollars to see real life? Right?

I am sure you are wondering by now if I have a point, and yes I do. I believe you can see this type of Christianity in the church. It is a fantasy fueled by a poor understanding of love, the same poor understanding that causes people to watch one of these movies and actually get mad at their spouse because they don't meet the fantasy standard. Nevertheless, don't misunderstand me. I am not just picking on women. In our feminized society, men are just as easily influenced by this misrepresentation as women. Men now try to live up to the fantasy. The biggest problem is this fantasy is in direct opposition to the teaching of scripture on what love actually is.

In 1st Corinthians 13 Paul wrote, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."

Paul establishes the importance of love here and in numerous other scriptures, and then gives us the characteristics of love. We know that love is not selfish, but that is exactly what the romance novel or chick flick promotes. The love in these dramas consists of a one sided emotion that compares more with narcissism than love. Yet, this is what people expect to see in their relationships even in church, a love that is selfish and self absorbed. A love that carries with it expectations and records wrongs. A love that believes it is arrogant and prideful to hold someone accountable. A love that confuses encouragement for rebuke. A love that actually gets jealous of a friends good fortune. A love that believes discipline is unloving. Yet the greatest thing a parent can do to show love for a child is to discipline them.

We see the importance of love but, what does this love look like? How is this love carried out? Does it have the characteristics of the romance novel? Does someone know they are loved by mere words? The same man who will beat his wife, will then immediately turn around and say he loves her. The same mom who leaves their 4 year old to fend for themselves while they go club hopping told them they loved them the moment before they walked out the door. The same husband who left his mistresses apartment before he took his wife on the romantic night on the town looked longingly in the eyes of both and told them they loved them. I believe this chick flick love has deluded us into believing that love is a sappy, emotional laden, romanticism that is so far removed from actual love that they are polar opposites.

This has only gotten worse as we read bible studies on falling in love with Jesus, and worship songs that purport this same Hollywood driven unbiblical love. Real love is not an emotion. Real love is a choice. However, no one believes this anymore. That is why people now believe you can "make love", fall in love, fall out of love, etc. It is this same belief driven by our consumer mindset that makes us Americans, shop around for the car, biscuit, spouse, restaurant, church, pastor, kids, that they really FEEL they love. I am not sure at which point love became a feeling, but it was after 1 John chapter 3 was written.

1 John 3:16 "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth."

How do my kids no I love them. I pray for them, I provide a place for them to live, clothes to wear, food to eat, an education to succeed, accountability and discipline for training in life and use the wisdom God has given me be strong when need be and gentle when need be. Yet, doing so with a God given authority as a parent. Do I hug my kids and tell them I love them. Sure I do. Did my parents hug me? Sure they did, but as I grew older and more mature I realized that I didn't need the hugs as much. If I fell and scraped a knee or got my feelings hurt as a small child they were there to hug me and tell me it was better. After I got older I still scraped my knee, but I had been taught how to take care of that myself, and also how to comfort others who needed comfort. When I look back on my childhood I don't reminisce about the hugs or the times I was told I love you. I remember the times when I was rebellious or disobedient and my parents punished me. I did not like it at the time but now I know it was out of love. I remember when my parents would give up something they wanted so that I could have something I wanted. I know that was love. I remember always being provided for and protected and corrected. I know that was love. I remember when my parents made decisions for me and "put their foot down" because they loved me and were doing what they thought was best for me.

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

http://fide-o.blogspot.com/2008/06/chick-flick-christianity-in-feminized.html

Interpretation of the Scriptures

Man is notoriously a creature of extremes, and nowhere is that fact more evident than in the attitude taken by different ones to this subject. Whereas some have affirmed the Bible is written in such simple language that it calls for no explaining, a far greater number have suffered the papists to persuade them that its contents are so far above the grasp of the natural intellect, its subjects so profound and exalted, its language so abstruse and ambiguous that the common man is quite incapable of understanding it by his own efforts, and therefore that it is the part of wisdom for him to submit his judgment to "holy mother church," who brazenly claims to be the only Divinely authorized and qualified interpreter of God's oracles. Thus does the Papacy withhold God's Word from the laity, and impose her own dogmas and superstitions upon them. For the most part the laity are quite content to have it so, for thereby they are relieved of searching the Scriptures for themselves. Nor is it much better with many Protestants, for in most cases they are too indolent (lazy) to study the Bible for themselves, and believe only what they hear from the pulpits.

......there is a real need for interpretation. First, in order to explain seeming contradictions. Thus, "God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him . . . Take now thy son . . . and offer him there for a burnt offering" (Gen. 22:1, 2). Now place by the side of that statement the testimony of James 1:13, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man." Those verses appear to conflict openly with each other, yet the believer knows that such is not the case, though he may be at a loss to demonstrate that there is no inconsistency in them. It is therefore the meaning of those verses which has to be ascertained. Nor is that very difficult. Manifestly the word "tempt" is not used in the same sense in those sentences. The word "tempt" has both a primary and a secondary meaning. Primarily, it signifies to make trial of, to prove, to test. Secondarily, it signifies to allure, seduce, or solicit to evil. Without a shadow of doubt the term is used in Genesis 22:1, in its primary sense, for even though there had been no Divine intervention at the eleventh hour, Abraham had committed no sin in slaying Isaac, since God had bidden him do so.

Second, interpretation is necessary to prevent our being misled by the mere sound of words. How many have formed wrong conceptions from the language used in different verses through their failure to understand its sense. To many it appears impious to place a different meaning upon a term than what appears to be its obvious signification; yet a sufficient warning against this should be found in the case of those who have so fanatically and stubbornly adhered to Christ's words, "this [unleavened bread] is My body," refusing to allow that it must mean "this represents My body" — as "the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are [i.e. symbolize] the seven churches" (Rev. 1:20). The error of Universalism, based upon indefinite terms being given an unlimited meaning, points further warning. Arminianism errs in the same direction. "That He by the grace of God should taste death for every man" (Heb. 2:9) no more included Cain, Pharaoh and Judas than "every man" is to be understood absolutely in Luke 16:16; Romans 12:3; 1 Corinthians 4:5; and "all men" in 1 Timothy 2:4, 6, is no more to be taken as meaning all without exception than it is in Luke 3:15; John 3:26; Acts 22:15.

Third, interpretation is needed for the inserting of an explanatory word in some passages. Thus in "Thou art of purer eyes than to [approvingly] behold evil, and canst not [condoningly] look on iniquity" (Hab. 1:13). Some such qualifying terms as these are required, otherwise we should make them contradict such a verse as "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good" (Prov. 15:3). God never beholds evil with complacency, but He does to requite (avenge) it. Once more. "For who hath resisted His [secret or decretive] will?" (Rom. 9:19); "neither did according to His [revealed or preceptive] will" (Luke 12:47)—unless those distinctions be made Scripture would contradict itself. Again, "Blessed are they that [evangelically, i.e., with genuine desire and effort] keep His testimonies" (Ps. 119:2)—for none do so according to the strict rigor of His Law.

For our concluding example of the need for interpretation let us take a very familiar and simple verse: "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8). Does that "say what it means"? Certainly, says the reader; and the writer heartily agrees. But are you sure that you understand the meaning of what it says? Has Christ undergone no change since the days of His flesh? Is He the same absolutely today as He was yesterday? Does He still experience bodily hunger, thirst, and weariness? Is He still in "the form of a servant," in a state of humiliation, "the Man of sorrows"? Interpretation is here obviously needed, for there must be a sense in which He is still "the same." He is unchanged in His essential Person, in the exercise of His mediatorial office, in His relation unto and attitude toward His Church—loving them with an everlasting love. But He has altered in His humanity, for that has been glorified; and in the position which He now occupies (Matthew 28:18; Acts 2:36). Thus the best known and most elementary verses call for careful examination and prayerful meditation in order to arrive at the meaning of their terms.

Exerpts from Interpretation of the Scriptures by A.W.Pink. www.pbministries.org/books/pink/pinks_archive.

Mutter, Mutter, Mutter

So here's the deal. I know people who talk out loud, presumably to themselves, and it can be very distracting. I don't as a rule do so and I'm beginning to wonder if I'm doing the internet equivalent of blogging to myself. As you may know, some of the requirements of communication is a "sender" a "receiver" and "feedback" or the knowledge that the message was received. I think I have one of the three. Without the other two I become a mutterer - merely talking to myself.

The point of this - is anyone viewing this blogsite? If so, can you provide some feedback? Good, bad, or indifferent just to let me know I'm not being a distraction on the blogsphere. (There are some that think I'm enough of an irritant without putting it into writing.) If what you read here is interesting - let me know. If it's bunk - let me know that too (although please do it gently - crow can be distasteful unless properly seasoned).

I'll let you know in a week or so how this is going......now where did I put that.... mutter, mutter, mutter........

Cute Ditty

A cute ditty I found on a slip of paper in my den.

Blnd and pg, that spells "blind pig" don't you see?
Teacher said, with some surprise, "Oh, my, you left out both the i's."
And so I whispered, "Teacher dear, won't you kindly listen here?
A blind pig has no eyes, you see."
"You're right!", the Teacher said to me.

Enjoy your day!

The Prodigal Son - in the Key of F

Sometime back my wife had recalled this adaptation from the story in Luke 15 regarding the prodigal son. To my knowledge the author is unknown. Enjoy.

Feeling footloose and frisky, a featherbrained fellow forced his father to fork over his farthings. Fast he flew to foreign fields and frittered his family's fortune, feasting fabulously with floozies and faithless friends. Flooded with flattery he financed a full-fledged fling of "funny foam" and fast food.

Fleeced by his fellows in folly, facing famine, and feeling faintly fuzzy, he found himself a feed-flinger in a filthy foreign farmyard. Feeling frail and fairly famished, he fain would have filled his frame with foraged food from the fodder fragments.

"Fooey," he figured, "my father's flunkies fare far fancier," the frazzled fugitive fumed feverishly, facing the facts. Finally, frustrated from failure and filled with foreboding (but following his feelings) he fled from the filthy foreign farmyard.

Faraway, the father focused on the fretful familiar form in the field and flew to him and fondly flung his forearms around the fatigued fugitive. Falling at his father's feet, the fugitive floundered forlornly, "Father, I have flunked and fruitlessly forfeited family favor."

Finally, the faithful Father, forbidding and forestalling further flinching, frantically flagged the flunkies to fetch forth the finest fatling and fix a feast.

Faithfully, the father's first-born was in a fertile field fixing fences while father and fugitive were feeling festive. The foreman felt fantastic as he flashed the fortunate news of a familiar family face that had forsaken fatal foolishness. Forty-four feet from the farmhouse the first-born found a farmhand fixing a fatling.

Frowning and finding fault, he found father and fumed, "Floozies and foam from frittered family funds and you fix a feast following the fugitive's folderol?" The first-born's fury flashed, but fussing was futile. The frugal first-born felt it was fitting to feel "favored" for his faithfulness and fidelity to family, father, and farm. In foolhardy fashion, he faulted the father for failing to furnish a fatling and feast for his friends. His folly was not in feeling fit for feast and fatling for friends; rather his flaw was in his feeling about the fairness of the festival for the found fugitive.

His fundamental fallacy was a fixation on favoritism, not forgiveness. Any focus on feeling "favored" will fester and friction will force the faded facade to fall. Frankly, the father felt the frigid first-born's frugality of forgiveness was formidable and frightful. But the father's former faithful fortitude and fearless forbearance to forgive both fugitive and first-born flourishes.

The farsighted father figured, "Such fidelity is fine, but what forbids fervent festivity for the fugitive that is found? Unfurl the flags and finery, let fun and frolic freely flow. Former failure is forgotten, folly is forsaken. Forgiveness forms the foundation for future fortune."

Four facets of the father's fathomless fondness for faltering fugitives are:

1) Forgiveness
2) Forever faithful friendship
3) Fadeless love, and
4) A facility for forgetting flaws

The Need of Grace

"I find it extremely difficult in this age to minister to people, especially when you get in a more social setting. The more social it gets and the farther from this local assembly I get, the more I try to hide behind the "X-Mass" tree and make sure they can't find me, when it comes time to say the blessing. Really, to tell you the truth, I just don't go anymore. I really don't hide behind the Christmas tree, I just stay home and don't go anymore. Why? Because at no other time of the year do people want somebody religious around them speak of (how) holy they are, to speak (of how) blessed are they, and say everybody's all right. Well, everybody is not all right! Grace is not to everybody, and peace is not to everybody. As bad as I hate it, friend, it isn't even to those that I have a tenderness in my heart for that may be related to me physically but have no understanding of Christ and the gospel. And there's not a thing I can do about it. I'm going to tell you something about your kids, and I'm gonna talk about mine. I'll tell you about my family. There is not a one of them that is going to heaven and every last one of them is going to go to hell if they don't bow to King Jesus and repent of their sin. I'm still going to give them a Christmas present. If they need food, I'll give it to them. If they need a place to sleep, I'll give it to them. I'll take care of them and do all I can for them, but I have no idea at all in my head that a single one of us shall see heaven except by grace, and that by faith. Dear soul, my kids and yours too may wind up as alcoholics in an insane asylum having wasted their lives, and become wretches, if God doesn't do something about it. If they don't do something about their sin, everyone I know is a candidate for hell, and a candidate for the nut house, and will not have a moment's peace in their life. They will drive you crazy with them, if they can, except they have the peace of God that passes understanding and that by grace through faith. That's the gospel. That's the gospel."

From a sermon preached by Pastor Gene Breed of the Grace Baptist Church, Jonesboro, Ga. Titled, "The Grace of Christ - A Gospel Message - Galatians 1:1-5".

The Church Prayer Meeting, Its Decline and Revival, Part 2

This is the conclusion of the notes of G. Chewter of an address at a meeting for ministers and printed in the splendid Gospel Tidings edited by P.M. Rowell, Chapel House, Forest Fold, Crowborough, UK.

2. IMPROVING THE PRAYER MEETING.

1. First and foremost we must recognise our continual need of the gracious influence and utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit. To quote again Rom. 8.5, the Spirit helpeth our infirmities. How much we need that help! The Apostle Paul says: What is it then? I will pray, with the Spirit and with the understanding also, 1 Cor.14.15. In Eph. 6.18 Paul exhorts us to praying with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Again and again we need to be anointed with fresh oil (Psalm 92.10).

2. From time to time we must emphasize to our people the importance of meeting together to pray. It may be a rather hackneyed expression but there is truth in it: 'Those who pray together, stay together'. Spurgeon called the prayer meeting: 'the powerhouse of the church'. If the engine room is out of action then the whole mill will grind to a halt. We cannot expect blessing if we do not ask. It may seem a rather simple diagnosis but it may apply in some cases: Ye have not, because ye ask not, James 4.2.

3. The need for unity - After the resurrection we read of the disciples in the upper room: These all continued with one accord in prayer and in supplication, with the women, Acts 1.14. The words of John Newton's hymn are appropriate here: 'The force of their united cries, no power could long withstand, for Jesus helps them from the skies with his almighty hand'. Some of the best prayer meetings are those where there is one heart and one desire for the blessing of God to accompany the preaching of the Gospel and for the extension of the kingdom of Christ. It is an abuse of the prayer meeting for a member to deliberately contradict or try to 'correct' another's prayer when they themselves are called on to pray.

4. The need for focus - In Acts 1.14 they were not only united in prayer but their meetings had a focal point - the fulfillment of the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. That focus can also be ours. We urgently need the Lord to come again in power to His people in a way of revival and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 4 the disciples under threat from the authorities gathered to pray, v23 states that they lifted up their voice with one accord. And when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together, v31, the focal point being a desire for strength not to buckle under the pressure, but, Grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, v29. Acts 12 records for us that the central purpose of the prayer meeting in the home of Mary at Jerusalem was for the well-being and deliverance of Peter. I believe it is far better, if possible, to pray for people by name in their particular circumstances rather than petitions couched in vague and general terms such as: 'we pray for the afflicted', 'we pray for the aged', 'we pray for the missionaries'. Who have we actually prayed for? While we need to be sensitive to people's feelings especially relating to personal problems, yet I believe the more specific we can be the better.

On a practical note, a regular church prayer meeting consisting of members only can prove to be a useful opportunity for individuals to share in confidence their concerns, enabling those who pray to do so in an intelligent and informed way. This brings the added benefit of mutual understanding, sympathy and support. A very moving account of a prayer meeting at Tyre is given in Acts 21 where after seven days' fellowship, men with their wives and children knelt down on the shore and prayed, the central focus being concern for Paul's welfare and safety, as he was determined to preach at Jerusalem. The previous chapter records a similarly moving account of Paul praying with the elders of Ephesus at Miletus, resulting in the people being moved to tears at the thought of his departure. By the way, though emotion should not be deliberately encouraged, yet I do not think tears should be despised or discouraged. Prayer meetings are moving where there is a longing desire and yearning for answers from heaven. So, in all these cases the meetings for prayer had a focal point. To this end it may be helpful to regularly bring to the meeting items of particular concern, which need to be prayed for.

5. Careful thought as to the location - If the prayer meeting attendance is usually small it may be helpful to meet in a vestry or some other suitable room where a sense of 'togetherness' will be created, enabling those more hard of hearing to follow, rather than six or seven people dotted about in a chapel designed to seat 150 or more people.

6. Brevity (again!) - If there are few who publicly participate it may be argued that if each prayed for only 3-4 minutes then the prayer meeting would soon be over! To this I would reply by suggesting that each are encouraged to be brief and given the opportunity to pray more than once during the meeting. This concept may sound rather foreign to some, but it can work well.

7. Take it home! - Maybe we have all been at fault at times, in praying for certain matters publicly and neglecting to do so privately. How good if the members of the church take up the burden of the church, continuing to carry the church affairs to the Lord when alone on their knees. A truly praying church will be made up of members who pray much at home. C. H. Spurgeon claimed that: 'Neglect of private prayer is the locust that devours the strength of the church'.

CONCLUSION

We have a powerful adversary who would love to exploit all our weaknesses and infirmities in prayer, but we have an almighty and merciful God, who waits to be gracious and has promised for the sake of His Son to hear the cries of His people.

'The one concern of the devil is to keep the saint from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray' (Samuel Chadwick).

Whether as churches or individuals we need to hear again the exhortation of the Apostle that we might be encouraged afresh: Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need, Heb. 4.16.