You Can Not

“This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5).

Mark Twain said these words, “You can’t pray a lie. I found that out.” Have we realized that God is looking for men and women who live a life that is pure and holy before Him? Do we not understand that the way the Lord communicates to us is a life that is filled with the aroma of Christ?

Our salvation and prayer life is not dependent upon us. Our lives are not dependent upon our living it out. Our goals are not His nor are our ways. God began a new work in us when we were redeemed by the blood of Christ. He cleansed us and claimed us for His own. Now until we understand that we don’t know how to pray.
 
Our fellowship with God and what we have in Him, and our lives being constantly cleansed, which is abiding in Him and our allowing the Spirit of God to work in us, how?–through the Word of God, the church of God, the sufferings of life–all of which God will use to speak to us. This is how we pray. Not with a lie but with truth. Too many say they pray but their lives are no where ready to receive God’s prayer request.

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  • Serving a Friend for God

    “Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah” (2 Kings 3:11).

    Everyone needs a friend who is true. But what we need more is to be a friend who is true. Elijah had a friend in Elisha. Elisha was chosen by God to become a friend of Elijah. Though Elijah found Elisha and threw his mantle over him for the purpose that he might train him, prepare him, and lift him to the office of a prophet, Elijah’s training led to a deep friendship.

    Are you a true friend? Do you serve your friend in the Lord with compassion, prayer, and love? Will you miss this friend when he or she is gone from earth? Today in our society many people are “thankful for us” but are you “thankful for a friend.” Elisha poured his life into his aging friend. Why did he pour water into the hands of Elijah? Is this symbolism for serving Elijah? Did Elijah’s hands carry arthritis? Did the warm water help?
     
    The Master’s yoke is to led  and taught by God to become a true friend to others.     God needs you and wants you to surrender to Him so that you may encourage and build others up. We all need a friend but we need to become a friend first of all.

  • What is Happening in Our Country?

    “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:24).

    How do we explain…

    1.   The massacre in a Florida High School.
    2.   A barrage of sex scandals from Hollywood to Congress to our Seminaries.
    3.   Continued attacks on Christianity.
    4.   The willing slaughter of our nation’s unborn children.
    5.   Growing distrust.  Violence.  Confusion.  Turmoil.

    Nothing that is happening in our world today — not one act of perversion or evil — is an anomaly or an accident. What we see today are symptoms of an accelerating moral and spiritual unraveling of our country and world — the natural result of a nation that has turned away from the absolute truths found in the Bible.

    The only way for change in the direction of America is the change that happens through hearts of human beings, and that catalyst is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  That change must first happen to God’s people.  W.A. Criswell said it this way, “The nation cannot turn to God if I do not turn to God.  The nation cannot repent, if I do not repent.  God doesn’t win nations or companies or crowds or throngs.   He wins souls one by one.  And the only way we can lift our nation Godward is if I am moved Godward.”

    The true church can never rest and a faithful pastor’s work is never done.  We need to constantly preach to the world and to ourselves the true gospel, and strive for greater clarity and precision — not less.  By so doing, we cultivate our own spiritual growth, we protect the health of the church, and we strengthen our witness.  Salt and light is what we are to be and that is what will retard the leaven of sin.

  • The Third Day

    “Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off” (Genesis 22:4).

     

    Abraham’s son, Isaac, was the child of promise. All the hopes and desires of nations rested upon this son. Out of Isaac comes Jacob and out of Jacob the twelve tribes, and out of the tribe of Judah King Jesus. And still God told Abraham to take his son and sacrifice him. Would Abraham hold too tightly or would he loosen his grip on his son? Would he trust God or hold tightly?

     

    Corrie Ten Boom said, “Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open.” Do we trust God in all things? Is He all we need? Will God fail us? Has He really promised that if we bow to Him He will honor us?

     

    Abraham traveled three days with his son knowing the time of sacrifice was ahead. Look at Abraham’s fingers for they were not clutching to Isaac. Every step his fingers were opened. On the third day Abraham’s eyes saw the place far off and said to the others to stay behind for he and his son were going to worship and come again to them (Gen. 22.4).

     

    The power of the third day is this: When we walk with our hands open and hold to things and people loosely we can worship God. And what we give back, God takes, and what God takes, He cleanses, and what He cleanses He will use. And what He will use He gives back in a more powerful, pure, and purposeful manner.

  • The Path of Prayer

    “I beseech You, O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God” (Nehemiah 1:5a).

    Prayer that gets past the living room ceiling is prayer that recognizes first and foremost that God is Sovereign Creator and man is the servant. Proper prayer places God above all and man at His feet. Prayer recognizes that God is seated and He cannot be unseated. He is not a genie that we get three wishes if we rub hard enough on the prayer lamp.

    When we learn that God desires holiness then we will seek Him. Prayer is not about our having our way with God–it is God having His way with us. Prayer is God guiding us to do His will. Again, God is not a doting grandfather who has lollipops in His pockets for spoiled children.

    We do not pressure God to do anything in our praying. We allow God to pressure us and to press us into His will. God cannot be bribed, cajoled, convinced, or impressed to change. God is unchangeable. Prayer changes nothing of God but everything of us. Therefore, if we do not want to be changed, we will not be praying prayers that effect change.

    What is it about our praying that matters? God controls all and yet if He cannot control our actions and attitudes then our praying will be in vain. God moves us to surrender but if we continue to live in our own weather pattern then the storms of life will continue to pour out upon us because of our own lack of reverence and order. God is merciful but we must recognize His sovereignty over our lives. True praying brings us to God!

  • Why Pray?

    “Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

     

    1.  There is a devil.
    2. Prayer is what God has given to obtain what we need from Him.
    3. Prayer was the most important thing to the early apostles.
    4. Our Lord prayed.

     

    5. Our Lord is even now interceding for us.
    6. Prayer moves God to obtain grace and receive mercy from Him.

     

    7. Prayer gives to us God’s fullness of His joy.

     

    8. Prayer along with thanksgiving frees us from anxiety.

     

    9. Prayer is the means in which we keep watchful.

     

    10. Prayer promotes our spiritual growth, brings power into the work, leads   others to Christ and gives power and blessings to the church.
    We cannot afford not to pray. Prayer should be the most vital part of a believer’s life. Prayer is how we talk to God and how the Word speaks to us. Prayer draws us nigh to God.
    Prayer is not the last thing we should do — it’s the best thing. It’s the only thing that matters until we pray.

     

  • Either Change Your Message or Change Your Address

    “But first must he [Jesus] suffer many things, and be rejected by this generation” (Luke 17:25).

    The prophets of the Old Testament met great opposition. Ministry is nice when it’s a suburb and, manicured, quiet, well-kept place to come and wash feet. It’s nice when there’s fruit. When there’s encouragement. When there’s hope. When there’s appreciation. When there’s spiritual hunger. When there’s a readiness to change. When there’s a passion for Christ. When it’s yours and God blesses and blesses and blesses. It’s nice, isn’t it?

    Jeremiah was told by Jehovah God, “Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee; thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee” (Jeremiah 7:27). Jeremiah was told by the people to either change your message or change your address. They would not hear or listen to his warning.

    This was Main Street in Dodge City at high noon. This was the greatest of all fights. But Jeremiah stood his ground. Most people don’t. They run. They hide. They say, “I never signed up for this course.” There is a great gulf between heaven and hell. When people choose to serve themselves, their self, and refuse God’s glory then there is hell on earth. And Jeremiah felt the heat of it!

    What about us? Do we yearn to quit? How far will we walk away before we turn back? Many serve God with strings attached. Jeremiah was disappointed but He did not get tangled in the strings. He was committed to God’s calling upon his life. People want to go where it is easy, while the thrust of ministry is not easy. Jesus promised it! If it was not simple and easy for the Lord Jesus then why do we think it would be for us?