In Luke 18, as Jesus teaches on prayer, He uses an interesting metaphor. In fact, it is an objectionable metaphor. A widow in his story comes before the judge. This is irregular, since, in that day only men had standing in the court. A wife accessed the court through her husband, and an unmarried woman…
Details“Ask the former generations and find out what their fathers learned” – Job 8:8 When a man led his family in prayer, the very act of prayer and reading the Bible to them, those in this era believed, promoted righteousness in his own life. In leading the experience of prayer and worship the father “submits…
DetailsBlessing and behavior are tied together, “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD” (Psa. 119:1). No one could be or would be truly blessed, if they abandoned the boundaries of the law! “Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart” (119:2). Notice,…
DetailsThe death of God is everywhere. He is consistently squeezed from the public forum. Chesterton noted, such a social stage, empty of God, becomes far too small rather quickly, and so other gods are loaded onto the stage – Allah, Buddha, Krishna, yes a hundred other deities, pagan and demonic icons are included. Witchcraft is…
DetailsOn Good Friday, April 8, 1966, an issue of Time magazine shook the nation. The cover was black with bold red letters as if written in blood, asking “Is God Dead?” In the next six months, almost thirty additional periodicals weighed in on the issue – the nation was abuzz in a discussion about the…
DetailsWorship cannot be reduced to the pragmatic – nor can prayer. Leander Keck reminds us that, “making worship useful destroys it.” Why? Keck explains, it “introduces an ulterior motive for praise. And ulterior motives mean manipulation, taking charge of the relationship, thereby turning the relation between the Creator and the creature upside down.”[1] To be…
DetailsOne Sunday afternoon in London, five college students went to the Tabernacle to hear the famed Charles Spurgeon preach. They waited outside the locked doors of the church, and a man asked if they wanted a tour. “Gentlemen, let me show you around. Would you like to see the heating plant of this church?” It…
DetailsWe have been discussing the importance of a disciplined personal prayer life. Yet, there are four prayer streams in the life of the people of God that are critical. The congregation gathered in and for prayer. Not preaching. Not teaching or training, but in prayer. Smaller prayer groups. Not the entire congregation gathered, but slices…
DetailsAs we move through life, we flow with predictable patterns of interaction with others. Sadly, so often the emotions, the cognitive content exchanged, the decisions and the delights of the world with which we interact are not in unity with God. On the contrary, they are adverse to Him. Consciously, sometimes unconsciously, we are pressured…
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