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How to Pray When You’ve Blown It

Avid notetakers told me Sunday was a note-taking frenzy. I hear you. Here are highlights from Sunday’s sermon. Take whatever you want, cut and paste it, and hopefully God will imprint it on your hearts. I love seeing pens and journals in hand–love it! You guys preach me to death!

  • Has it ever occurred to you that, when we sin, we hurt the people we love the most.
  • Sin will take you farther than you intended to go, keep you longer than you intended to stay, and cost you more than you intended to pay.
  1. Own your sin
    • Transgression—going beyond a limit that has been set
    • Sin—missing the mark because you deliberately aim at a wrong one
    • Iniquity—lack of integrity; failure to fulfill the standard of righteousness
    • God will not forgive what you will not forsake.
    • Have you ever owned the fact that you are a sinner by nature?
    • Are you intentionally aiming at the wrong mark—living in rebellion?
    • Are you right now going beyond a limit that has been set?
  2. Be real about your temptations.
    • Godly sinners pray.
    • No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13, ESV)
    • And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6:13, ESV)
    • Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:41, ESV)
    • And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! (Luke 17:1, ESV)
    • God will not redeem what you will not renounce.
    • Be real with God and others.
  3. Follow God’s counsel.
    • Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8, ESV)
    • 3 principles of sowing and reaping: You reap what you sow.  You reap after you sow.  You reap more than you sow.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!  (Psalm 32:1-2; 10-11)

How can David call himself righteous after everything he had done? Was it his righteous deeds? Not all all! He is only righteous, because God, through his forgiveness, has made him righteous. So it is with you. If you have trusted Jesus, if you’ve ever owned your sin, you must take it to the cross. There you will see Jesus hanging, bleeding, dying for you.  If you will renounce your sin, receive Jesus as your Savior, he will come immediately into your life. He will be your Savior and your Lord. He will declare you righteous. Only then will be you extremely happy (blessed).

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Regifting: 3 Gifts Worth Giving Again

Let’s face it. Every Christmas we get that gift we know we won’t use. Before we completely rip off the paper, we know who’s going to get it next. Thestreet.com lists the following as the top ten gifts most likely to be regifted: candles, picture frames, gift baskets, perfume, fruit cake, wine, cookbooks, bath soaps, books and (drumroll please), pajamas (really?).

If you know Jesus, he has given you 3 gifts you should regift. As a matter of fact, you may need to wrap them up today and give them away. Christmas isn’t the only time to do that. You can give these again and again all year long.

Grace

John, writing about his best friend and the Messiah, said, “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” (John 1:16 ESV) Charles Spurgeon said: “Nothing but the infinite can ever satisfy me; I am such a great sinner that I must have infinite merit to wash my sin away; but we have had our sin removed, and found that there was merit to spare; we have had our hunger relieved at the feast of sacred love.” The grace that found you in your sin, drew you in, washed you clean, and put you in God’s trophy case is worth regifting.

Forgiveness

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13-14 ESV) Toward the end of his life, John Newton, former slave trader and ultimate author of that old hymn, Amazing Grace, said: “Although my memory’s fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.” Who has hurt you, wounded you, slighted you? Will you give them the forgiveness that was freely, at a very high cost, given to you?

Patience

Maybe this one surprised you. Patience is not on most people’s short list. Thankfully, it’s on God’s. Peter, who knew very well the patience of the God who once called him Satan, wrote:  The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2 Peter 3:9 ESV) Who grates on your nerves, pushes your buttons, stretches you to your limit–almost every time. Ask God for the grace to be patient.

Regift. Today. Don’t wait. Seriously.

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Will You Choose to Hear the Bells?

Last night after an amazing First Wednesday worship service, Greg and Jackie Stewart sent this to me from their devotional (Glimpses of God’s Grace, Donahue):

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was no stranger to the sufferings of war. During the Civil War near the Christmas of 1863, he found out that his son had been injured in battle. How could he bear being so far away from his son on Christmas Day when he desperately wanted to be at his side to help and comfort him?

In spite of his despair, Christmas bells penetrated his sorrow and made him aware of God’s gracious love–a love that could be with him and his son at the same time. As he listened to the chimes, he penned the words to “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

Till, ringing singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

No matter how many wars are fought, no matter how many battles are lost or won, God is near, helping, comforting and guiding those who trust Him. There is no limit to His powerful healing and grace. There is no measure to his love. Perhaps the greatest lesson to be learned during such troubled times is that Jesus truly is our Lord of lords, our Prince of Peace.

So I have a new tradition (started it about 5 years ago actually). Every Christmas I google this Youtube video. Yesterday, in the middle of a hectic day, I stopped to listen to the bells. Since 2010, almost 49 million others have done the same! Maybe it will bring peace in the midst of your chaos.

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From a Byword to a Blessing

And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Zechariah 8:13

Dictionary.com defines “byword” as an object of general reproach, derision or scorn. Babylon succeeded in making sure Israel became that. Storming in the from the east, they ransacked the temple, destroyed the palace and pillaged cities and villages. Jerusalem, that city on a hill, became nothing more than a pile of rubbish. The walls broken down, the temple torn apart, this once great nation became a byword. The last thing burned into Judah’s mind was their king, Zedekiah, marched before the firing squad of his day, where he saw all of his sons executed, and then his own eyes gouged out so that his last visual memory would be the death of his own sons. Judah was a byword.

70 years later they returned. They sat among the rubble of the temple, unprotected by their broken city walls. Everywhere they looked they saw reminders of their sinful past…and the devastating consequences.

Somehow God looked amidst the rubble and saw restoration. Buried beneath layers of the past, God saw a future. He describes it in 8:4:

Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.

I must confess this completely caught me off guard. I thought surely God would picture a military power, a burgeoning economic giant, an international powerhouse. No! Here, God’s idea of greatness is not power, but peace.

His words to them:

Fear not, but let your hands be strong.

Fear not. Though your last national memory was the execution of your king’s sons. Fear not. Though your grand temple lies in ruins. Fear not. Though your once grand palace is inhabited by rodents. Fear not. Though your city walls no longer protect you.

 

How can they not fear? God speaks.

As I purposed to bring disaster to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, so again have I purposed in these days to bring good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

Whatever your most recent memory in the rearview mirror of your life, God’s word to you today is fear not. When panic strikes, fear not. When guilt assails, fear not. When bills mount, fear not. One final word from God–it’s the last verse of chapter 8.

Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’ (8:23)

Though you were once a byword (and we all were…that’s the Gospel), you’ll be a blessing. Fear not. God is with you.

 

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The God of Again

Jerusalem had seen 70 years of devastation. The Assyrian army came with a vengeance, destroyed the palace, ransacked the temple, and confiscated the articles used to worship God, carrying them back to their own pagan temples. The walls in shambles, the city in ruins, God speaks through Zechariah his prophet:

“The LORD was very angry with your fathers. Therefore say to them, Thus declares the LORD of hosts: Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. (Zechariah 1:2-3 ESV)

Repeated words are repeated for a reason. God is referenced as the LORD of hosts three times in this passage. The LORD of hosts is the God of angel armies, the God who fights for Israel. When God chose to speak to his people after their rebellion, he spoke as the LORD (all capitals refers to God’s personal name, Jehovah), and specifically the LORD of armies–God’s ready to fight for his own wandering children.

Why? After all they’ve done, why would he desire to defend them?

So the angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. (Zechariah 1:14 ESV)

God is jealous for his children. He loves them (and you). Then the word again shows up–4 times in one sentence. Don’t miss it.

Cry out again, Thus says the LORD of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.’” (Zechariah 1:17 ESV, emphasis mine)

God is the God of again. Cry out again. My cities shall again. and the LORD will again. And again choose. Dictionary.com defines again as “once more, another time, anew.”

Going through a divorce? You can love again. Death of a loved one? You’ll see them again. Fired from your job? You’ll work again. Breakup with the person you thought was the one? You’ll date again. Committed that same sin? God forgives again. Bank account exhausted? God will provide again.

“How can you be sure?” you ask.

For thus said the LORD of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye: (Zechariah 2:8 ESV)

You are the apple of his eye, the pulse of his heart, the thought on his mind, the object of his jealousy, the joy of Jesus on the cross, the bride of Christ. Anybody who touches you, touches the apple of God’s eye.

And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory in her midst.’” (Zechariah 2:5 ESV)

God’s got you. He’s around you and in you.

The God of again.

 

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Sinning Against Christ

earthIn 1 Corinthians 8 Paul addressed a very specific problem in the Corinthian church: eating meat offered to idols. Some possessed a special knowledge:

Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” (1 Corinthians 8:4 ESV)

There was nothing wrong with this knowledge: as a matter of fact, there was everything right with it! Idols have no real existence. Their power is not inherent–it lies in the illusions of peoples’ minds who worship them. There is no God but one.  God, the Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer of the universe stands alone as God. He is unequaled in power and position. In 1867, Walter Smith wrote these words:

Immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible hid from our eyes, most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days, almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light, nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might: thy justice, like mountains high soaring above, thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

Some, knowing how great God was and how foolish idols were, had no problem eating meat offered to idols. “There’s nothing wrong with that meat,” they thought! “God is greater than those idols.” What they didn’t realize was that, sitting in their midst, were weak-minded new Christians. Their faith wasn’t sure–their understanding shallow. They were spooked by the meat and for them to eat it meant they had returned to their old way of life. Paul made it clear: when you notice such a brother, put the meat aside. Don’t offend him. How far did he go in giving this instruction:

Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. (1 Corinthians 8:12 ESV)

From Paul’s statement we learn that Christ lives in his people–weak and strong. The strong are to bear the burdens of the weak. Rather than wounding their conscience, build their faith. This takes the focus off of meat and puts it on the Message.

Smith finishes his great hymn:

To all, life thou givest, to both great and small; in all life thou livest, the true life of all; we blossom and flourish like leaves on the tree, then wither and perish, but naught changeth thee.

Thou reignest in glory, thou dwellest in light, thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight; all praise we would render; O help us to see, ’tis only the splendor of light hideth thee!

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Please Don’t Trip Me Up

However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.  Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. (1 Corinthians 8:7-9 ESV)

oo_stumblesIf newborn Christians could articulate it, I think this is what they would say:

I’m a newbie, green behind the ears, just a few days old. I still have flashbacks from my old way of life. Sometimes I’m up–other times I’m down. When I come to a worship service, I feel so close to God. By Tuesday I feel vulnerable, even afraid.

Please don’t trip me up.

My old friends are gone. I can’t hang out with them anymore–and they think I’m weird anyway. They don’t understand why what I once did is so wrong to me, and what I want to do seems so weird to them. I use phrases like “brother” for someone not even related to me. And sometimes I talk about loving someone I’ve barely known.

Please don’t trip me up.

I have questions and I feel dumb asking them. When the preacher says to turn somewhere in the Bible, I’m thankful for my smart phone. I have no idea where a book is, let alone chapter and verse. Everybody around me seems so smart–I have so much to learn.

Please don’t trip me up.

I don’t understand the Trinity–and I actually think other people do! I thought it would be interesting to read the book of Revelation…and then someone told me that wasn’t the best idea. So I started in Genesis. I actually made it to Leviticus. What was I thinking?

Please don’t trip me up.

I have this nagging fear. What if I mess up? Blow it? Fall into the same sin that plagued me before I trusted Christ. What if I fail.

Please don’t trip me up.

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God All Sufficient

From The Valley of Vision (a book of Puritan prayers):godisable

O Lord of grace,

The world is before me this day, and I am weak and fearful, but I look to you for strength;

If I venture forth alone I stumble and fall, but on the Beloved’s arms I am firm as the eternal hills;

If left to the treachery of my heart I shall shame your name, but if enlightened, guided, upheld by your Spirit, I shall bring you glory.

Be thou my arm to support, my strength to stand, my light to see, my feet to run, my shield to protect, my sword to repel, my sun to warm.

To enrich me will not diminish your fullness; all your lovingkindness is in your Son. I bring him to you in the arms of faith. I urge his saving Name as the One who died for me. I plead his blood to pay my debts of wrong.

Accept his worthiness for my unworthiness, his sinlessness for my transgressions, his purity for my uncleanness, his sincerity for my guile, his truth for my deceits, his meekness for my pride, his constancy for my backslidings, his love for my enmity, his fullness for my emptiness, his faithfulness for my treachery, his obedience for my lawlessness, his glory for my shame, his devotedness for my waywardness, his holy life for my unchaste ways, his righteousness for my dead works, his death for my life.

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Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall

rainy_daysNo one in his right mind wants to suffer. Sometimes suffering comes quickly: the stroke that robs your mom of her dignity; the heart attack that takes your dad’s life. Other times suffering comes slowly: the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s; the slow, painful divorce.

Suffering is unavoidable. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said it this way:

The Rainy Day

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

Peter, writing to suffering saints in the first century, put it this way:

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. (1 Peter 5:10 ESV)

Peter agreed with Longfellow: suffering is inevitable. Into each life some rain must fall. Suffering is the common plot of every human being. Life languishes. Problems persist. Grief grips. The difference between Peter’s words and Longfellow’s dirge is this: Longfellow depends on the sun shining behind the clouds. Peter points to the God who shines through the clouds. He is the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ.

Your suffering is not wasted. God himself shapes you through suffering. When suffering has reared its ugly head and left you mangled and marred by the pain of life, God himself shows up and restores, confirms, strengthens and establishes you. Take heart. God has not forgotten you. He sees you, not as you are, but as you will be.

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Debt Free Living

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV)

opraiseOnce Wendy and I were having dinner in a nice restaurant, enjoying the meal, enjoying one another’s company. We got ready to leave and there was no bill to pay. The waitress told us someone had paid it. “Wait a minute,” I contested, “who did that?” I wanted to thank them. Part of me wanted to try to pay them back. There was nothing I could do. The bill was paid…in full.

When I was 15 years old I attended a revival service. That night, for the first time, I realized I had a massive sin debt that only Jesus could handle. I had broken God’s law, broken Jesus’s heart, and acted a fool in my pride. As soon as the pastor finished preaching I went forward and received Jesus’s payment in full for my sins. What a sinner I was…what a Savior he is!

In 1865 Elvina Hall penned the words that say, better than I ever could, how I feel about what Jesus has done for me. Sing them as you read them:

I hear the Savior say,
Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Lord, now indeed I find
Thy power and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
and melt the heart of stone.

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
Jesus died my soul to save,
my lips shall still repeat

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow

O praise the one who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead!