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How Now Shall We Pray?

Much has been said, written and debated about last Friday’s Supreme Court decision: blurred lines about right and wrong, confusing ideas about how love wins, and foreboding realities about a court of nine whose decision mandates a country of millions. Fears abound regarding potential threats to religious freedom. Regardless of what comes next, you can do one thing: pray. That freedom can never be revoked. You can pray in a courthouse, the White House and your house. No one will hear you but God…and He’s the one who matters.

How now shall we pray?

  1. Pray for informed children. A 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation study revealed that kids spend 7 1/2 hours a day “consuming media — watching TV, listening to music, surfing the Web, social networking, and playing video games.” Apple, Yahoo, Facebook, Youtube and Google promulgated much of the errant message regarding right and wrong in the recent gay marriage campaign. Pay attention to what your children are hearing, watching and reading…and pray.
  2. Pray for faithful marriages. Inattention to a biblical definition of marriage among heterosexual couples gave way to a widespread redefinition of marriage among everyone. When one lesbian couple was asked in a CNN interview what the rings meant on their fingers they responded, “Nothing. Nothing at all. It’s just a ring.” Sadly, their view of marriage is no different than many heterosexuals’ view of marriage.
  3. Pray for Gospel clarity. Paul asked believers in Ephesus to pray for him. “Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel...” (Ephesians 6:19, NIV) The good news that Jesus died for sinners, whatever their sin, and rose from the dead is inherently powerful. The proclamation of the Gospel is the hope of our country.
  4. Pray for gracious truth-telling. The new intolerance suggests that disagreement equals discrimination, that principled thinking is prejudiced thinking.  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. (Ephesians 4:15 ESV) Grownups speak truth to one another. A sign of maturity is gracious truth-telling.
  5. Pray for a genuine turnaround. Though written to a people in different circumstances, God’s message in 2 Chronicles 7:14 still resonates today: “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV)

Billy Graham said, “To get nations back on their feet, we must first get down on our knees.”

It’s time to get on our knees.

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God Will Have His Way

Eli, Israel’s priest was aged and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas were worthless rebels. Rather than assist in the temple worship they gorged themselves on the sacrifices. They mocked worship and blasphemed God. Eli, who knew better, only helped them. Israel’s future depended on a gluttonous priest and his two spoiled brat sons. And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision. (1 Samuel 3:1 ESV) Even God had gone quiet.

But God will have his way.

What Israel didn’t know was who God had waiting in the wings. He wasn’t a decorated general or a celebrated politician. He didn’t run a Fortune 500 company or lead a major non-profit organization. He was a boy–his name Samuel. Born from the former barren womb of the anguished Hannah, she gave him to God. Little did she know that her boy would step up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with two outs. God called little Samuel to a big task.  And the LORD came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.” (1 Samuel 3:10 ESV)

God will have his way.

Within a short time of Samuel’s call, Israel fell to the Philistines. In a day 30,000 Israelites died, including Hophni and Phinehas. When Eli heard the news, he collapsed and died of a broken neck. Why did God judge Israel? Because Eli refused to discipline his sons. Why? Because he refused to heed God’s warnings. Phinehas’s wife was pregnant. When she heard the news of the defeat of the Israelites and the death of her husband, she went into labor. She aptly (and sadly) named her baby boy Ichabod saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!”

But God will have his way.

God called Samuel. Samuel answered God’s call. Though God’s glory had departed from Israel, his love for Israel had not waned.

And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the LORD. And the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD. (1 Samuel 3:19-21 ESV)

I am convinced that the answer for our country’s woes will not come from a politician. It definitely won’t come from media moguls or dot.com executives.  Somewhere in the shadows is a Samuel.

Because God will always have his way.

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Why Marriage Matters

“So what’s the big deal?” you may be thinking. Why does it matter that the Supreme Court presumably “redefined” marriage? Consider the following realities about marriage:

  1. Marriage predates civilization. God invented marriage. It is astounding to think that God deemed all of creation good until the sixth day. Then, with Adam in the middle of paradise and even with no hint of sin, God said it “is not good” for man to be alone. So he put Adam to sleep, removed a rib and created Eve. Marriage was God’s design before government ever regulated it.
  2. Marriage replenishes civilization. Once God created Adam and subsequently Eve he gave clear instructions: Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28, ESV) Every boy or girl since Adam came from the womb of a woman and the seed of a man.
  3. Marriage prefigures Christ and the church. Jesus refers to the church as his “bride.” It is interesting that Scripture begins with a wedding (between Adam and Eve) and ends with a wedding (the marriage supper of the Lamb). The story of redemption is one large unfolding romance between a God who is crazy about us, the Son he sends to rescue us, and the bride he makes us to be.
  4. Marriage is the ultimate love relationship. Ravi Zacharias aptly says, “Love is given one word in English but there are four words in Greek. Agape is God’s love. Phileo is friendship love. Storge is protective love. Eros is romantic love. Marriage is the only relationship that pulls all four of these together. When you say “I do” to the one you’re saying “I don’t” to all the others. When you say “I will” to the one you’re saying “I won’t” to all the others. Any departure from that beauty and sacredness of the full confluences of love is not the biblical notion of what it means it to be married.”

The Supreme Court may misconstrue marriage but they cannot redefine it.  God made his opening statement in Genesis 2 and his closing argument in Revelation 19.

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. (Revelation 19:6-8 ESV)

That wedding day will come. God has never lost a case.

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How Now Shall We Act?

In light of Friday’s Supreme Court decision Christians find ourselves in a predicament. The new reality in America today suggests that, if you do not agree with the Supreme Court’s decision, you are intolerant, prejudiced or even bigoted. Is it possible to disagree without disrespecting, to love without compromising? I say “yes” if we practice the following five principles:

  1. Stay anchored in God’s Word. Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32 ESV)  Right is still right and wrong is still wrong–and right and wrong are found in God’s Word.
  2. Speak the truth in love.  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:15-16 ESV) The church has always swam upstream, gone against the flow, spoken into the ills of its day. This time is no different.
  3. Remember love is always right.  So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV) While those outside Christianity struggle to understand this paradigm, it is possible and necessary to love sinners while speaking out against sin.
  4. Don’t confuse people with politics. Friday’s decision was more politically motivated than people oriented. As Christians we must never confuse the two. Paul said, “To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22 ESV)
  5. Remember who you are. While the church has become the whipping boy for many problems in the world, the church has been and still is the source of feeding the poor, clothing the naked, starting hospitals, ministering to the desperately sick in developing countries, responding to natural disasters all over the world, defending freedom, fighting sex slavery, loving orphans…you get my point.  Jesus, the hero and object of our faith, had this to say. Let his words resonate in your mind and hearts today: Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. (John 15:20-22 ESV)

Martin Luther said, “Anyone who is to find Christ must first find the church. How could anyone know where Christ is and what faith is in him unless he knew where his believers are?” Let’s be the church.