Matthew 6:10 - February 7, 2011

This, then, is how you should pay: “Our Father in heaven…”
Matthew 6:10

When one of Jesus’ disciples asked him to “teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1),
Jesus began to teach, saying, “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our
Father in heaven…” Think about that for a minute. Jesus says, first, that
our prayer is directed to our Father and, second, that our Father is the
God of the universe (he resides in heaven). We are God’s children. We can
approach him as children approach their father. Have you ever seen a
father and his young daughter talking and goofing off? The daughter has
her father’s full attention, and he looks at her with gentleness, love and
grace. The young girl is embraced in the warmth of her father’s smile and
encouraged by the serenity and safety of her father’s tenderness. She
makes herself vulnerable, and that vulnerability is an incredible thing.
So it is with God and us. The great blessing of prayer is that we can come
to our Father in his grace and mercy extended to us in our Lord Jesus
Christ. Our great Father smiles upon his children. We can be vulnerable
with him, for he is a safe refuge. Our relationship with him makes us sing
along with Paul,

“Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us
in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Eph.
1:3).

Take time to contemplate just what it means to be called a child of God.
Think about the great love that the Father has for you to make you his
child, the sacrifice that it took in Jesus. “Behold, what manner of love
the Father has given unto us that we should be called the children of God”
(1 John 3:1). Thank God for this wonderful identity. Approach him early
and often. Come to your Father in heaven as often as you can. And, come
with vulnerability, pouring your heart out to him.

CHD

Relevant Bible Passages:

John 1:1-18
John 15:1-17
Romans 8:1-17
Ephesians 1:3-14

Matthew 6:9,12,14 - February 4, 2011

This, then is how you should pray... Forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive their sins, your Father will not forgive our sins. Matthew 6:9,12,14

In all of his teaching on prayer, Jesus gives nine general requirements of acceptable and right prayer. The first is a forgiving spirit. Christians must be willing to forgive. In teaching us to pray, he says that our own forgiveness from God depends upon our forgiveness of others. This makes perfect sense. How can we expect to approach the throne of God requesting forgiveness of our sins while harboring bitterness toward someone within our own hearts? We can’t. The Father cannot wholly forgive us if we are not willing to give him all of us that there is. To hold back our forgiveness of others means to hold back some of ourselves from God. But, to be fully forgiven means to fully forgive by giving our whole selves to glory of God. Martin Lloyd-Jones says it best, “The man who is truly forgiven and knows it, is a man who forgives.”

Think to yourself today as you pray about those, perhaps, whom you haven’t forgiven. Maybe it is a brother, or a father, mother or sister. Maybe it is someone who hurt you while you were still a child. Maybe its a co-worker or an estranged friend, or just maybe it is you. Confess your struggle to forgive to God and seek the grace of his Spirit to forgive those who have hurt you, and even to forgive yourself. “It is idle for us to say that we know God has forgiven us if we are not loving and forgiving ourselves” (Lloyd-Jones). Ask the Father to show you how greatly he has forgiven you. And then work to forgive. “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).

Helpful Bible Passages:

Proverbs 17:9

Matthew 18:21-35

Colossians 3:1-17

CHD

Psalm 66:16-19, February 2, 2011

Come and hear, all you who fear God,

and I will tell what he has done for my soul.

I cried to him with my mouth,

and high praise was on my tongue.

If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,

the LORD would not have listened.

But truly God has listened;

he has attended to the voice of my prayer.

Psalm 66:16-19

WOW! What a great day it was to simply adore God. I pray that your mind was as captured as mine was as I contemplated the awesome greatness of God. His love, His mercy, His grace, His power, His glory, His eternality and His righteousness are simply incomprehensible, but incredibly joyful to get lost in.

As we contemplate and worship the great God who is, we are (or, at least I am) all the more aware of the necessity of a pure heart as I approach His glorious throne of righteousness. The seat of effective prayer is a pure heart. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).

A pure heart is granted to us by God’s grace on the virtue of the Lord Jesus’ substitutionary sacrifice. Our response to this gift of grace is faith and repentance. The Psalmist cried out to God in faith (v. 17) and repented of his sins (v. 18). He did not cherish iniquity in his heart. His inward heart matched his outward cry. Anything less is hypocrisy. And, God does not hear the prayers of hypocrites. The child of God puts away the sins of the flesh and seeks the glory of God and his gracious gifts, all of which are obtained by prayer. God will answer the prayers of his penitent children.

Examine your heart as you pray today. Ask God to reveal his character to you and to shine light of his righteousness into the dark recesses of your heart. As your sins become known, confess them, claim the sacrifice of Christ in place of them and turn from them. Pray for God’s help so that you may give him thanks for his grace and serve him more.

CHD

Scripture Readings:

Psalm 51

James 4:1-12

Romans 6-8:1

John 1:29-35

Psalm 24

Colossians 3:1-17

Daniel 4:34-35, February 1, 2011

Then I (King Nebuchadnezzar) praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever.

His dominion is an eternal dominion;

His kingdom endures from generation to generation.

All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing.

He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven

And the peoples of the earth.

No one can hold back his hand

Or say to him: “What have you done?”

Daniel 4:34-35 (NIV)

“To adore” means to love and respect someone deeply. But, when it comes to God, “to adore” takes on its highest meaning, “to worship.” Consider the following explanation. We might admire someone who walks a tightrope between two skyscrapers, idolize a rock star (American Idol), adore our mothers, revere a person like George Washington, but we worship the Lord Almighty.

• Admire suggests a feeling of delight and enthusiastic appreciation.
• Adore implies the tenderness and warmth of unquestioning love.
• Idolize is an extreme form of adoration, suggesting a slavish, helpless love.
• We revere individuals that command our respect for their accomplishments or attributes.
• Worship connotes an excessive and uncritical respect.

The Bible is full of prayers of adoration, prayers of worship., prayers of an excessive and uncritical respect and devotion to God. Here, Nebuchadnezzar praises God for his eternal dominion, his glorious accomplishments and power, and his endless attributes. As we begin February, a month devoted to prayer, let’s spend some time adoring God. Take time today to worship him in your heart, to utter his praises, to sing of his glory with the lips of your heart. Use some of the following biblical passages to get you started, and then let the Holy Spirit move your soul.

Daniel 4:34-35

Revelation 4-5

Psalm 103

Psalm 19

2 Samuel 22

2 Chronicles 6:14-15

We are back!

We are still assembling our team, but we are now back up and running thanks to the help of Rev. Clint Davis from the Chester ARP Church. He is allowing us to piggyback on a blog he is using for his church in February.

Kyle

1 Peter 1:10-12

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (1 Peter 1:10-12 ESV)

Peter is here talking about the Old Testament prophets who long to understand what God was doing in bringing His grace. They only had bits and pieces of God’s plan. Even thought they did prophesy about Christ, even his suffering and death, there was still a veil over the fullness of what God was doing.

One of the points of our passage is that we now have the good news preached to us. We see clearly from the scriptures how God has saved us in Christ. We should seek to understand this because it has been reveled to us clearly now in Jesus Christ.

Application: Realize how blessed you are that you have the good news of Christ. You live in the light of Christ, whereas the Old Testament saints only had a dim light. These saints longed to know Christ, now that we have Christ we should long to know our salvation! We should long to understand who Christ is and what he has done for us, knowing that this will change our lives!

January 6, 2011 - 1 Peter 1:8-9

“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” - (1 Peter 1:8-9 ESV)

What does it mean to believe? Many people will tell me, “I believe in God!” What are they saying? It depends on their head and their heart.

I believe that it is good to brush my teeth. My mind considers that to be a true fact. Yet, if I do not brush my teeth regularly, in my heart do I really believe that it is a good thing? If I really believed it, then my life would be changed.

If you really believe on Jesus Christ as your savior and Lord, then your life will be changed! Anyone can believe that there is a God. Hell will sadly be full of people who believed in a higher power, a god, even in Jesus. Consider what James says here:

“You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?” (James 2:19-20 ESV)

We are not to give a mental assent to God; that He is up there somewhere, doing something. We are to know God and his salvation even now, even though we cannot see Christ or touch Christ. This is a great hope for Peter’s readers and for us today too!

This is because we believe not in a mental proposition, but in the real relationship that we have with God who is active by His Spirit in our lives. We taste a bit of heaven now in our souls. We are re-made as a new creation, our hearts are changed, our attitudes are changed. Sin starts to die in us and holiness begins to live in us.

Do we see in ourselves the desire to grow in grace? The Holy Spirit dealing with us is an inward evidence that we have not only a mental assent, but a true trust and relationship with Christ. This should bring us great joy! For we are God’s people forever and ever. He will bring us to his heaven where the work begun in our souls will be completed and even our bodies will be redeemed and made anew.

Application:

Simple - Does your belief in Christ change you and direct you in life?

Do you have a desire to worship God, study the Bible, be with his people or is church something you do if there is nothing better to do?

Do you have a better taste of heaven as you go through this life or is God very distant from you?

What do you mean when you say, “I believe in Christ”?