Prayer is the Christian's vital breath

I preached on prayer this morning from Colossians 4:2 "devote yourslves to prayer." Confessing that I was preaching to myself. This old hymn reminds us (amongst other things) that Jesus was our great example in prayer.

Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, expressed in thought or word;
the burning of a hidden fire, a longing for the Lord.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh, the falling of a tear,
the upward glancing of an eye, when none but God is near.

Prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try;
prayer the sublimest strains that reach the Majesty on high.

Prayer is the contrite sinners' voice, returning from their way,
while angels in their songs rejoice and cry, "Behold, they pray!"

Prayer is the secret battleground where victories are won;
by prayer the will of God is found and work for Him begun.

Prayer is the Christians' vital breath, the Christians' native air;
their watchword at the gates of death; they enter heaven with prayer.

Jesus, by whom we come to God, the Life, the Truth, the Way:
the path of prayer thyself hast trod; Lord, teach us how to pray!

May we learn from him and also remember that we are praying to the sovereign Lord.

God is....

I am grateful to Tim Chester for this gem of an insight:

1. God is great – so we don’t have to be in control
2. God is glorious – so we don’t have to fear others
3. God is good – so we don’t have to look elsewhere
4. God is gracious – so we don’t have to prove ourselves

Our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongues with songs of joy

Since I woke up this morning I have been trying to convince myself that I didn't dream last night that England won the Ashes....it has actually happened (and with a day to spare). After the tears and despair of Headingly, there was resounding joy at The Oval.

Psalm 126 tells of the joy of the people returning from Babylon to Jerusalem - tears of despair had turned to tears of joy. They were beside themselves with happiness and laughter. They felt like they were in a dream - the impossible had happened. They rejoiced and sang "The Lord has done great things for us."

A timely reminder to look back and rejoice at what God has done in our lives.

Think of all the blessings of knowing Jesus....and it's not a dream - it's real!

The Gospel Coalition

In case you have missed this.
Check out: www.thegospelcoalition.org/
Adrian Warnock has quite a bit of info on his site: www.adrianwarnock.com

Developing a passion for the beauty of God

Sam Storms

One of today’s readings in ‘Cover to Cover’ was Psalm 25 and number of things stood out to me as I read.

It starts: “To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God”
and it continues: “you are God my Saviour, and my hope is in you all day long.”
It states: “you are good, O Lord”
and ends: “My eyes are ever on the Lord” and “my hope is in you.”

It was a reminder to me, that whatever my circumstances, my eyes should be on the Lord.

I then went on to read a page or two in Sam Storm’s book “One thing – Developing a passion for the Beauty of God.”

He writes that we were made to be:
Enchanted…enamoured…engrossed with God
Enthralled…enraptured…entranced with God
Enravished…excited…enticed with God
Astonished…amazed…awed with God
Astounded…absorbed…agog with God
Beguiled and bedazzled
Startled and staggered
Smitten and stunned
Stupefied and spellbound
Charmed and consumed
Thrilled and thunderstruck
Obsessed and preoccupied
Intrigued and impassioned
Overwhelmed and overwrought
Gripped and rapt
Enthused and electrified
Tantalized, mesmerised and monopolised
Fascinated, captivated, intoxicated, infatuated and exhilarated…with God!

He goes on to say this:
“I often try to envision what my life would be like if this were an accurate description of my relationship with God. I suspect I would find it much more difficult to sin than I now do. I imagine that reading the Bible would never be remotely boring. I trust that I would display an uncommon boldness and courage in sharing Christ with my unsaved neighbours. I believe I would be less enamoured with the glamour of Hollywood and the allure of Wall Street and find that generosity for those in need would come far more easily than it does today. And I am certain that my worship would be theologically precise, physically expressive, emotionally intense, and filled with passion, intimacy, and an extravagance like that of Mary’s when she poured the alabaster vial of expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus.”

Too often we focus our attention on ourselves and our activities – on what we are doing for God and trying harder to do things for God, when really we should focus our attention on our relationship with God, on keeping the first commandment, of lifting up our soul to God, of keeping our eyes upon Him, of developing a passion for the beauty of God.

I am who I am because....

This is my wife’s first photograph with her new camera. It is yours truly at Gatwick airport waiting ‘patiently’ for our flight to go on holiday. I was actually making a note of a large advertisement for a mobile phone company. It read “I am who I am because of everyone.”

The meaning of this as an advertisement for a mobile phone was lost on me, but I was intrigued by this message. Am I am who I am because of everyone? I don’t think so!

Certainly the apostle Paul would not have said: “I am who I am because of everyone.”

Paul never forgot his past and in 1 Corinthians 15 wrote: For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

This applies to all of us who know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour – well we have probably not worked as hard as Paul and maybe we didn’t persecute the church, but we can say “by the grace of God I am what I am.”

Question is: do we? Or do we think of our own efforts with a certain pride?

Loving the gift or the giver?

I love the Lake District. I like to go there and admire the splendour, the majesty the beauty of the fells, the mountains, the lakes and rivers.

When we go there, my wife and I are moved by the fact that we know the creator of this magnificence - because he has revealed himself to us. He is our Father and he loves us. We take time to worship and praise him and to draw near to him and bring to him our cares. We are conscious however that whilst many thousands of people share our feelings about the area, they do not know the God who made it. However, things I have read and heard over the last few days have arrested my mind and caused me to take stock.

I have been reading Calvin’s Institutes and he writes this:
“Bright, however, as is the manifestation which God gives both of himself and his immortal kingdom in the mirror of his works, so great is our stupidity, so dull are we in regard to these bright manifestations, that we derive no benefit from them. For in regard to the fabric and admiral arrangement of the universe, how few of us are there who, in lifting our eyes to the heavens, or looking abroad on the various regions of the earth, ever think of the Creator? Do we not rather overlook him and sluggishly content ourselves with a view of his works? And then in regard to supernatural events, though these are occurring every day, how few are there who ascribe them to the ruling providence of God – how many who imagine that they are the casual results produced by the blind evolutions of the wheel of chance?”

He goes on:
“We are thus led to form some impressions of Deity, we immediately fly off to carnal dreams and depraved fictions and so by our vanity corrupt heavenly truth. This far, indeed, we differ from each other, in that everyone appropriates to himself some peculiar error; but we are all alike in this, that we substitute monstrous fictions for the living and true God – a disease not confined to obtuse and vulgar minds, but affecting the noblest and those who, in other respects, are singularly acute.”

In these days when we are being bombarded by the thoughts of Darwin’s devotees, we tend to think that only people who are not Christians would think this way, but I think Calvin is saying that even Christians fall into the trap of just seeing the works rather than the creator. Or maybe even forming a false impression of the living God by not seeing how great he is.

Yesterday I listened to a John Piper message from a 2008 conference and he made reference to human depravity – which impacts how we think of God. Even believers. He pointed out that it is possible for us to prefer the nature and the glory of the creation over the nature and glory of the Creator. That we prefer his gifts over Him. Think about it!

This may not reveal itself in our love of the beauty of creation rather than our love for the Creator, but there are other things we may prefer. I am preaching tomorrow on Hebrews 13:5+6 “Keep your lives free from the love of money……” Perhaps it is more likely that we will prefer the nature and glory of money to the Creator. That it is money that has pride of place in our heart. Or perhaps we would have another human being as the centre of our affections, rather than the Creator.

We need God, through the Spirit, to continually do his work of grace in our lives so that He is the centre of our affections. That love for him guides our thoughts and determines our actions.

Be courageous, Mr President

I am posting this video in case you have not seen it on the Desiring God website. It is a plea to the new President of the USA to think again about the issue of abortion.

John Piper has campaigned about this for many years and we should pray for him as he seeks to make a stand and bring a biblical perspective to the debate on abortion.

We should also join with him in praying for the President - and for those in authority in the UK.

"There is no truer characteristic of believers than that they should promote the glory of the Lord, with which their whole happiness is connected."

Most people know that 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin (12th February), but fewer people are aware that Abraham Lincoln was born on the same day, or that 2009 also marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin (10th July).

I have only recently come across a website that is commemorating the anniversary of the birth of John Calvin by posting a quote from him each day. I have started to have a look each day and am enjoying them. The site is: www.against-heresies.blogspot.com/

Another blog is featuring a daily dose Calvin’s Institutes: www.reformation21.org I have ordered a copy of “The Institutes” from Amazon and will be following that as well.

Why not include a little bit of Calvin in your daily devotions?