January 15, 2002
During a television interview, Billy Graham’s daughter Ann was asked how God could let the September 11th terrorist attacks happen.
She responded, “I believe that God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, get out of our government and get out of our lives. And being the gentleman that He is, I believe that He calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand that He leave us alone?”
While this rightly points at the guilt of those who reject God, does God protect and bless only those who invite Him into their lives?
In one sense, no. He blesses everyone. The Bible says God “causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” One does not have to invite God into their lives to enjoy many of His blessings. They are simply part of our life. That being said, those who welcome God do enjoy special blessings. However, they are not what most people would guess or expect.
The confusion lies with His promises. In contradiction to some television preachers, God does NOT promise financial overflows, total health and well-being, or a life free of pain and trouble. Let’s not forget that Christians also died in those terrorist attacks. However, God does promise major blessings to His people. For instance, He promises His presence. He says, “I will never leave you or forsake you” and “I am with you always.”
He also offers the fruit of His Holy Spirit to those who live obediently in His presence. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.”
A third blessing is deep fellowship with others who know Him: “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.” God living in me is able to commune with God living in other believers. The unity of that communion bridges all ages, races, cultures and denominations. When we enjoy fellowship, it is as if we have “always known” each other.
Another huge blessing is answered prayer. While God may say “no” or “wait,” He also says “yes” and does it in ways that we have no doubt He heard our requests. Imagine the sovereign God of the universe listens to our cries for help!
By far the greatest blessing is the assurance of eternal life. “Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about His Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
This is not the life that can be snuffed out by terrorists. It is a life that begins here with God through a simple invitation, then gives us what we need to go through whatever sorrow, pain or suffering this life might dish out. It then takes us beyond the grave and on into eternity to spend forever with Him.
Showing posts with label answered prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label answered prayer. Show all posts
Monday, May 14, 2018
Monday, March 5, 2018
God’s amazing surprises! ............. Parables 710
April 3, 2001
A local bookstore hosted two evenings of poetry readings. While looking for a parking space, I breathed a prayer. How nice it would be to see an old friend, someone I had not seen for a long time and who would jump up, run over and give me a hug.
Why that prayer? I’m not sure. Even as it came to me, it seemed odd. I was seeing friends who would read their work and could not imagine anyone else who might be there, let alone someone who fit my request.
As I walked into the store, someone jumped to her feet, ran up to me and gave me a hug. It was my best friend from Bible college ten years ago. I was overcome and amazed. My request had not only been granted but the answer was put in place before I even prayed it.
This surprise prayer/answer combination happens now and then. One Sunday morning on the way to the church, I prayed that a new couple would start attending and gave specific criteria for this couple. At the church a few minutes later, two people fitting my description arrived at the door and spent the first of many Sundays with us.
In that case also, I wondered about my prayer. Where did the idea come from? At the bookstore, I had not thought about old friends or even that I needed to see one. I did not expect anyone to travel some distance to be there either. Was my prayer intuitive? Did I know what would happen rather than ask God to make something happen?
At the church, new faces were not on my mind. Did the idea come from my unconscious mind or some unknown desire? Where did the specifics fit in? How did I know to pray them?
However these thoughts emerged, they did. And as soon as they did, they were sent up to God as a prayer. In retrospect, both left me wondering if they had came down from God too. That is, did God reveal these two events to me just before they happened? If so, why? Did He want me to understand His power? His ability to reveal His will?
Who would turn down insight into the will of God? Not many. His moral will is easy to find — the Bible is clear about those issues — but what about the future? The Bible reveals only a general plan (which can be best summed up by ‘Jesus wins’) but the specifics are a mystery. As God’s people pray, we might get a glimpse of His plan but only a glimpse, and for reasons unknown, we are always surprised when these glimpses become reality.
For instance, chapter twelve in Acts describes how the Apostle Peter was jailed for preaching the Gospel. The church was in distress. One of their number had already lost his life for the same thing. Would Peter be next? They gathered to pray for him.
In the meantime, Peter was miraculously released from prison by an angel. He went directly to the place they were praying and knocked at the door. The girl who answered was so overjoyed she ran to tell the others without opening the door. All were astonished.
Think about this: they were praying to Almighty God who can do anything and who says He hears and answers our prayers. Why then were they surprised? Did they think their request was too difficult? Did I think my requests were too insignificant? Or unreasonable? I think they were amazed for the same reason I was amazed. God heard and set up the answer to their prayers before they even prayed them. That is astounding. Isaiah 65:24 says, “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.”
Lord, my requests are often like thoughts that I breathe, not like the earnest praying done by the early church for Peter. Yet You answer, even before they are uttered. You make us who pray realize that we are in partnership with You. What wonderful assurance to be encouraged by Your surprises. Thank You.
A local bookstore hosted two evenings of poetry readings. While looking for a parking space, I breathed a prayer. How nice it would be to see an old friend, someone I had not seen for a long time and who would jump up, run over and give me a hug.
Why that prayer? I’m not sure. Even as it came to me, it seemed odd. I was seeing friends who would read their work and could not imagine anyone else who might be there, let alone someone who fit my request.
As I walked into the store, someone jumped to her feet, ran up to me and gave me a hug. It was my best friend from Bible college ten years ago. I was overcome and amazed. My request had not only been granted but the answer was put in place before I even prayed it.
This surprise prayer/answer combination happens now and then. One Sunday morning on the way to the church, I prayed that a new couple would start attending and gave specific criteria for this couple. At the church a few minutes later, two people fitting my description arrived at the door and spent the first of many Sundays with us.
In that case also, I wondered about my prayer. Where did the idea come from? At the bookstore, I had not thought about old friends or even that I needed to see one. I did not expect anyone to travel some distance to be there either. Was my prayer intuitive? Did I know what would happen rather than ask God to make something happen?
At the church, new faces were not on my mind. Did the idea come from my unconscious mind or some unknown desire? Where did the specifics fit in? How did I know to pray them?
However these thoughts emerged, they did. And as soon as they did, they were sent up to God as a prayer. In retrospect, both left me wondering if they had came down from God too. That is, did God reveal these two events to me just before they happened? If so, why? Did He want me to understand His power? His ability to reveal His will?
Who would turn down insight into the will of God? Not many. His moral will is easy to find — the Bible is clear about those issues — but what about the future? The Bible reveals only a general plan (which can be best summed up by ‘Jesus wins’) but the specifics are a mystery. As God’s people pray, we might get a glimpse of His plan but only a glimpse, and for reasons unknown, we are always surprised when these glimpses become reality.
For instance, chapter twelve in Acts describes how the Apostle Peter was jailed for preaching the Gospel. The church was in distress. One of their number had already lost his life for the same thing. Would Peter be next? They gathered to pray for him.
In the meantime, Peter was miraculously released from prison by an angel. He went directly to the place they were praying and knocked at the door. The girl who answered was so overjoyed she ran to tell the others without opening the door. All were astonished.
Think about this: they were praying to Almighty God who can do anything and who says He hears and answers our prayers. Why then were they surprised? Did they think their request was too difficult? Did I think my requests were too insignificant? Or unreasonable? I think they were amazed for the same reason I was amazed. God heard and set up the answer to their prayers before they even prayed them. That is astounding. Isaiah 65:24 says, “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.”
Lord, my requests are often like thoughts that I breathe, not like the earnest praying done by the early church for Peter. Yet You answer, even before they are uttered. You make us who pray realize that we are in partnership with You. What wonderful assurance to be encouraged by Your surprises. Thank You.
Friday, March 3, 2017
As if rejection were not bad enough . . . ................ Parables 557
May 27, 1997
Book stores feature a novel that alleges to be the memoirs of Jesus. It is written in first person format, just as if Jesus Himself wrote it. However, author Norman Mailer debunks or diminishes most of the Bible stories about Him. Instead, he treats his own opinions as if they belong to the Lord and claims readers should look upon this book as a “small miracle” compared to the biblical miracles. He “hopes to remain closer to the truth . . . . “ than the Bible does.
In speaking for Jesus, Mailer says His death on the cross was a “debacle and disaster” and that Christianity was invented to disguise or cover up that failure. Remember, this is not a writer merely disagreeing with the Bible but a writer claiming his thoughts are God’s thoughts, then publishing them with the hope people will buy it.
What’s new? It sounds like the same old denial of Christ and His work, dressed up for profit in an genre no one ever used before now. Mailer simply fails to realize the impact of what God has said (through the prophet Isaiah): “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts”?
We have no more idea what God thinks than we can accurately guess the thoughts of other people. Unless we are told, or in God’s case, unless He reveals them, His thoughts are largely beyond the scope of our senses. In fact, God’s thoughts are beyond even our imagination.
For instance, a young pastor preparing to relocate went to a certain city near Calgary was looking for rental property. He was surprised to find none, and even more shocked that housing was at Calgary prices he could not afford. We prayed that God would solve his seemingly unsolvable problem.
A few days later, he called to tell us that the church he is going to work with had been bidding on some property but had given up when a land developer also began bidding. They assumed the developer had more funds to work with. However, the church was awarded the bid. Included with the property, was a house, a place where he could live at a price he can afford.
No one thought of that as a possibility. We saw again how God answers prayer. It is always “exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think.” No matter how great our imaginations, no one successfully second-guesses God.
As for Mailer, Jesus also said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” even if they claim they “prophesy in (His) name, and in (His) name drive out demons and perform many miracles.” He says, “I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers!’”
The point is, if people are rejected by God because they did not know Christ, even though they use His name and do what appears to be godly deeds, what then will happen to a man who claims to speak for Christ yet blatantly denies that He is who He claimed to be? What happens when anyone denies the written revelation God gave to help us know and believe in Him?
Besides that, God has another way of giving people understanding into His thinking. In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul, who had great faith, says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him—but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit . . . For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”
Truth about God is revealed, not imagined. To grasp that revelation, we need the mind of Christ, given freely to those who trust in Him. But the revelation is withheld from anyone who “has not received His Spirit” because they have denied and rejected God’s Word.
Book stores feature a novel that alleges to be the memoirs of Jesus. It is written in first person format, just as if Jesus Himself wrote it. However, author Norman Mailer debunks or diminishes most of the Bible stories about Him. Instead, he treats his own opinions as if they belong to the Lord and claims readers should look upon this book as a “small miracle” compared to the biblical miracles. He “hopes to remain closer to the truth . . . . “ than the Bible does.
In speaking for Jesus, Mailer says His death on the cross was a “debacle and disaster” and that Christianity was invented to disguise or cover up that failure. Remember, this is not a writer merely disagreeing with the Bible but a writer claiming his thoughts are God’s thoughts, then publishing them with the hope people will buy it.
What’s new? It sounds like the same old denial of Christ and His work, dressed up for profit in an genre no one ever used before now. Mailer simply fails to realize the impact of what God has said (through the prophet Isaiah): “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts”?
We have no more idea what God thinks than we can accurately guess the thoughts of other people. Unless we are told, or in God’s case, unless He reveals them, His thoughts are largely beyond the scope of our senses. In fact, God’s thoughts are beyond even our imagination.
For instance, a young pastor preparing to relocate went to a certain city near Calgary was looking for rental property. He was surprised to find none, and even more shocked that housing was at Calgary prices he could not afford. We prayed that God would solve his seemingly unsolvable problem.
A few days later, he called to tell us that the church he is going to work with had been bidding on some property but had given up when a land developer also began bidding. They assumed the developer had more funds to work with. However, the church was awarded the bid. Included with the property, was a house, a place where he could live at a price he can afford.
No one thought of that as a possibility. We saw again how God answers prayer. It is always “exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think.” No matter how great our imaginations, no one successfully second-guesses God.
As for Mailer, Jesus also said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” even if they claim they “prophesy in (His) name, and in (His) name drive out demons and perform many miracles.” He says, “I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers!’”
The point is, if people are rejected by God because they did not know Christ, even though they use His name and do what appears to be godly deeds, what then will happen to a man who claims to speak for Christ yet blatantly denies that He is who He claimed to be? What happens when anyone denies the written revelation God gave to help us know and believe in Him?
Besides that, God has another way of giving people understanding into His thinking. In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul, who had great faith, says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him—but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit . . . For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”
Truth about God is revealed, not imagined. To grasp that revelation, we need the mind of Christ, given freely to those who trust in Him. But the revelation is withheld from anyone who “has not received His Spirit” because they have denied and rejected God’s Word.
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