“Tan!” “I like it on the hook by the door!” “I'm going to Kalamazoo for 32 days!” These are some tame samples of some of the nonsensical things you might have seen on Facebook over the past few years, all coming back to breast cancer awareness. Other diseases have their specific “awareness” advocates as well.
I mused on someone else's status that I wish I needed a game to make me aware of cancer. In the past few years, I have known people who have had to fight breast, liver, kidney, prostate, lung, and bladder cancer; some have won, some did not, and others are still fighting. There are two big reasons that I'm so aware of cancer at this point. The first is that some of these have hit close to home, striking friends and co-workers. The second is through praying for those who have these terrible diseases. While I don't recommend the first, the second is where we'll focus today. Let's start in Philippians.
6...do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Here, Paul sets us up with a negative and a positive instruction. The negative instruction, “do not be anxious about anything,” is a necessary reminder. When we humans are dealing with troubling times among friends and family, we tend to worry for them, on their behalf; when we deal with troubling times in the world at large, our anxiety tends to be more focused on ourselves. Neither of these are acceptable, and Paul continues by giving a solution that works in both cases - tell God about it. However, this is not a heavenly-directed spleen-venting session. Paul uses “prayer and supplication” to describe how we are to take everything to God. Prayer is a reverent request, not a vent and not a demand; supplication carries the idea of a fervent, urgent request. We are to reverently, but fervently, bring our requests to God.
However, there's another piece - “with thanksgiving.” Even in the most dire of circumstances, there are things for which we can be thankful. We can be thankful that we have the ability to pray. We can be thankful for our knowledge of the people for whom we are praying, and for the benefits we have seen in our lives from them. We can be thankful for things that God has done in the past, and the opportunity to see what He will do this time. Being thankful has two benefits. First, it lets God know that we remember His blessings. Second, it helps us; it's very difficult to be worried or angry over something for which we are giving thanks.
This brings us to one of the most curious things about prayer that I've learned over the past few years. Yes, prayer is important, and can lead to big changes in circumstances. But, more than changing God's mind, prayer changes the one who prays. God, though prayer, can reveal His will, and give peace when His will is not the result we are expecting. I think that the best example of this type of prayer was Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane. (emphasis mine)
39And going a little farther He fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."
My suggestion, given the above, is two-fold. First, if you are not aware of anyone with cancer, or whatever disease has your attention, remedy that; find someone (at least one, but more if the Lord leads) and start praying for them, and see if you don't see the difference. Then, instead of playing games that can be zany at best, and offensive at worst, post the details of the people for whom you are praying. You'll raise awareness, and you'll be encouraging others to pray as well. That sounds like win-win to me.
My wife and I are currently reading the book Family Driven Faith by Dr. Voddie Baucham, Jr. Some friends of ours are fans of Dr. Baucham, and the book has, so far, been outstanding. (We've made it to chapter 4.)
In doing research on Dr. Baucham and his ministry, I learned that he is the current pastor of Grace Family Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, and I also found the church's sermon feed on SermonAudio.com. I've been listening for the past several weeks, as he and Elder Stephen Bratton have been preaching a series on Romans. (That alone is cool to me; I've never seen two people share a series before.) When they arrived to Romans 13:1-7, they started a 4-sermon mini-series within their larger Romans series. Let's look at these seven verses.
1Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
One of the things that blew me away is that, reading this, realizing that this was written about the Roman empire under Nero. Wow.
Other highlights from this series:
Christians should not be so quick to skip past the “submit” part.
If we choose to defy authority because we believe they are asking us to do something contrary to God, we must be willing to deal with the consequences of defying authority.
Government should not be used to push theology.
All laws are moral laws; the only question is whose morality will be enforced.
We must support our government, and we must be involved.
There is much, much more in these sermons, and nearly 4 hours of listening. I'd recommend loading these up on your mobile music player and walking while listening; shape up physically while you shape up spiritually. With the elections coming up next year, I would categorize this as required listening; we as Christians must know what is expected of us, and must make decisions based on our ultimate citizenship.
A note - Dr. Baucham, in his three sermons in this series, made some pretty bold statements, but he backs them up; don't hear him say something and cut off the message.
This has been an interesting year. I have been sticking with the 1-year reading plan (for the most part, but catching up when I fall behind). It's been very enjoyable, but I almost feel like the pace is too fast to really let things sink in. As I read, I've been making notes of certain verses that stand out, places to which I want to return and dig deeper. Additionally, the Lord has provided some paid work (hallelujah!), which has taken up some of the time I would have used to formulate coherent devotionals. Don't take the lack of posts as a sign that this site has been abandoned; there's a lot kicking around in my mind that I hope to unpack and explore in the next few years here.
As an aside - if you follow either my personal blog or my tech blog, you've already read the “We're back on WordPress” posts. This blog is included; it's now back to running WordPress after a year on BlogEngine.NET. All the old links should redirect to new ones, and the goal is that you wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't said anything. :)
I leave you with a quick word of encouragement from yesterday's sermon.
10If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love.
On the suggestion of a friend, I subscribed to the Daily Audio Bible (DAB) podcast. In this podcast, Brian Hardin reads the Bible through each year - 2010 is the fifth year. It's been a blessing to me to listen to God's Word, as well as enjoy some of his comments as well. (I'll have to own up to skipping a good bit of the commentary, especially when I was trying to catch up a few days.) It was great to be able to listen while I did other things; however, this was a mixed blessing. I found that I would sometimes get distracted with the “other” thing that I was doing, and would mentally check out of the podcast. During one of these distracted times, I felt the Lord telling me that it was time to take the next step.
For this reason, beginning 2 Jan 10, I'll be beginning a 52-week Bible reading plan, reading it the old-fashioned way, off words printed on paper. My main Christmas gift this year was an ESV Study Bible, and this will help put that to good use. One of the aspects of DAB that I liked was the community; I knew that, although I might be the only one listening to my computer, there were thousands others that were listening to Brian. Although my participation in that community could be described, at best, as a lurker, it encouraged me to have it there. To help encourage others, I've created a group on Facebook called Read the Bible in 2011. This group will function as a community where we'll encourage each other along this journey. I'd like to invite you, my reader, to join me in this journey. The group is closed, but if you request access, just send me a separate message so I'll know who you are.
While the goal is to read through the Bible in a year, we don't want to go so quickly that we don't have time to stop and listen to what God is trying to tell us in the passage of the day. So, the stated goal of reading through the Bible in 2011 is not really the goal; it is merely the means to the greater goal of allowing God to speak to us. I'm looking forward to it - won't you join me?
I've been thinking a good bit about where this blog is headed, and I thought I'd share these thoughts with you.
When I started this, I had what turned out to be very lofty goals for it - a devotional week-in, week-out, well-thought-out and based on what I was currently studying in the Bible. With other responsibilities and activities that I have, I simply have not been able to meet that goal. This isn't to say that the goal isn't a good one; I just have fallen short of it. Weekly devotions will remain the goal (and the name), but there will be a change. While Wednesday at 7am will remain the unofficial schedule, each devotion will appear when I have completed it; if I complete it early, it'll be on time, but it may be late. The best way to keep up with this is via the RSS feed. I also will post links via my Twitter account, and the NetworkedBlogs application automatically posts entries to my Facebook profile.
I've also been doing some research regarding versions of the Bible. I still like the Holman Christian Standard Bible, but over the summer, I was introduced to the English Standard Version. While the HCSB's goal is a more contemporary English sentence structure, word-for-word for the most part but thought-for-thought where the word order may be confusing, the ESV is a literal word-for-word translation, similar to the way the King James Version was translated. Far from confusing, I have found it to speak to me in a way the HCSB has not. Beginning in 2011, I will switch to using the ESV as the default version for my devotionals.
I am grateful to have seen God use these devotionals to bless people that I have never met. I will post what I feel He is leading me to post, when He enables me by providing the thoughts about which to write and the time to pull it together into a coherent post. I pray that, as we head into 2011 and beyond, that God will use this site to bring others to Him, and encourage His own to a deeper relationship with Him.
Today, our series “The 3:16s of the New Testament” reaches its other bookend (the end if you've been reading along, the start if you're looking at it once it's done), as we look at Matthew 3:16, presented here in context with verse 17.
16After Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on Him. 17And there came a voice from heaven:
This story is also covered in Luke 3:16, which we covered two weeks ago. This week, though, I'd like to focus on the One who was baptized - Jesus. After He was baptized, the sky opened up, and God the Father was heard confirming Jesus' identity as His Son; He also expressed his pleasure with Him. This happened before Jesus was tempted (Matthew 4:1-11), and before the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). By allowing Himself to be baptized by John, He confirmed that John had been doing the right thing; He did the same thing that John had been telling the people they needed to do. So how do we find out who Jesus is? One of the best ways is to simply look at what He said about Himself, and what others said about Him.
First, Jesus said why He was here.
17"Don't assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18For I assure you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all things are accomplished."
This was one of the first things Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, following the Beatitudes. This qualification was important for several reasons. First, Jesus said it - that's a given, but it is a good reason nonetheless. Second, He was about to issue some pretty big clarifications to the law, and contradict some other teachings of the church of that day. He was letting His hearers know that what was about to come wasn't meant to tear down the law, but to fulfill it. Third, this is early in His ministry. People may have only heard rumors about Him up to this point, and He wanted to make sure that these seekers and followers knew what He was about. Fourth, the current religious leaders were very strict legalists; they would react negatively to someone saying that the law was invalid. (They reacted negatively anyway, but that's another story.) Finally, this lets us know, 2,000 years later, that everything we've read in our Bibles up to this point, the whole of the Old Testament through Matthew 4, is not null and void. Rather, He was the One who had been foretold. The law pointed to Him.
Jumping ahead, Jesus asked His disciples who they thought He was.
13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"
14And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15"But you," He asked them, "who do you say that I am?"
16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!”
At this point, Jesus had been at His ministry for a good long time; and, although He was very popular, it's almost like they weren't really hearing what He was saying. John the Baptist had been jailed and beheaded; Elijah had been gone for thousands of years; Jeremiah had been gone for hundreds of years. Yet people seemed to think that Jesus was one of these men, other than the Messiah, as He claimed to be. Of course, we can't be too hard on the casual observers - even Jesus' own disciples didn't believe Him when He said He was going to die. However, the disciples were sure of His identity. Simon Peter makes what is one of the most famous declarations of Jesus' identity in response to His question. Peter had the right answer, and the term Messiah was key in his response. Jesus was the One who had been promised ever since man fell, just a few days after the creation of the earth. All of the sacrifices were simply pictures of the Sacrifice to come; and, God could have made the sacrifices last longer than they did, but He wanted them to be continually reminded of what was to come. It's a shame that, by the time He did arrive, the Jewish religion had become more ritual than heartfelt. (Is our religion today any different? If it's not, whose fault is it?)
We'll finish this with one final statement from Jesus, which he said after arriving in Bethany and finding Lazarus had died.
25Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live."
Fulfilling the law is good, and being the Messiah is great, but this is the awesome result of that! I've written in depth on this wonderful news when we looked at John 3:16 and Romans 3:16, so I won't write a whole lot here. I will point out, though, the center of the verse, where Jesus very succinctly says who may obtain this eternal life - anyone who believes in Him! That's it - it's no more complicated than that. If you have not accepted this free gift of His, and would like to know more details about how you can accept this gift, please read God's Simple Plan of Salvation - it explains, in detail, our need for a savior, and how Jesus fills that. If you have accepted Christ, rejoice in Who has claimed you for His own. He gave His life so that we could live with Him forever - praise God!
Author
Daniel is a man who wants to be used of God however He sees fit.