What I must pray for every day without fail… part 3

Posted on October 25, 2020 by PastorDave

Spiritual Exercises

Lesson #4 / part 3

(Please see Lesson #4 / parts 1 & 2 for preceding Lesson content…)

The 10 ‘Prayer Prompters’

Here is a summary of the 10 prayer prompters – then we will begin to address them in a little more detail as they apply to our own personal particular prayers concerns:

  1. I must pray every day…without fail to delight in God
  2. I must pray every day…without fail with confession of my sins
  3. I must pray every day…without fail for the grace of God to forgive those who have offended and violated me in any way
  4. I must pray every day…without fail for the salvation of those who are lost
  5. I must pray every day…without fail for my church’s ministry – for the pastors, elders, and leaders of my church
  6. I must pray every day…without fail interceding for pressing needs I know of that are afflicting those I know
  7. I must pray every day…without fail for my personal growth in grace and in knowing Jesus Christ – Christlikeness
  8. I must pray every day…without fail for God’s will to be fulfilled and accomplished in my day’s activities 
  9. I must pray every day…without fail that God will improve my preaching, teaching, and witnessing to make me more effective in ministering His Word [this is for me – you will need to adapt it to your personal prayer needs…]
  10. I must pray every day…without fail that God’s Word will run throughout the whole earth and that Christ will be proclaimed and glorified…here, there, and everywhere

NOW, LET’S TALK ABOUT EACH ONE AND HOW TO PRAY THEM…

2. I must pray every day…without fail with confession of my sins

Prayer Prompter Words: “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”

I’m bringing in this prayer prompter second because it just kind of naturally flows from and follows after the first one. It doesn’t come immediately after our addressing and approaching God as “Our Father in Heaven…” in The Disciples’ Model Prayer, but it does follow logically in our frame of thinking…

I cannot address God and call Him “Father” without simultaneously recognizing that I am the sinner He loves and has saved! When I call God “our Father in Heaven” and recognize how holy, hallowed, perfect, and sinless He is, then I must immediately also recognize that I am the exact opposite!

Luke 18.9-14: “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!”

I must pray every day…without fail with confession of my sins and for Christ’s mind, life, and power to be dynamic in my thinking and will to turn away from and forsake my sins.

And so, Jesus teaches us, His disciples, to pray daily and continuously “…forgive us our debts/sins…” The forgiveness of our debts/sins against God is the only grounds on which we stand and the only means by which we come into the Presence of the Holy God and our Heavenly Father.

Our sins are called ‘debts’ because our sins or transgressions are violations against the very Holiness, character, and Name of this God we are calling “our Father in Heaven.”

When we sin, we are robbing God of the glory and the honor and the praise that He deserves. God deserves to be loved, to be worshiped, to be served by every one of His creatures. But, we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” [Romans 3.23]. When we break God’s holy law, we become debtors to His justice and Holiness. “O, to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!”

And, not only do we transgress and violate God’s holy law and character, but we also violate His love for us.

Still, though, God forgives us! And so, we pray “Forgive us our debts… forgive us our trespasses… forgive us our sins…” and the Father does forgive our sins!

1 John 1.8-9, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

1 John 2.1, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

And so, I must pray with self-examination of my heart’s desires, my conduct, my temptations that I know about, and my actual transgressions. I must make a full, open, and honest confession of every sin that God convicts me of … and He will convict me of my sins that need to be confessed and repented of!

This is something else we need to emphasize and focus on in our praying: our praying is one of the simple, common, daily means of grace that God has given us to deal with our sins. And, our sins are daily. And, they must be dealt with. We all are way too negligent of dealing with our sins. We think way too highly of ourselves.

Far too often, we just get into the rut and the habit of tacking on the obligatory and perfunctory cliché at the end of our prayers: “…and forgive us of our sins and all the ways we have failed You…” Sometimes it’s almost as if we are saying, “Oh, and please forgive me if and when I’ve sinned … though none come to mind right now…”

But, Jesus means to teach us that everyone of us struggles with sin on a daily basis … continuously all throughout the day. Every thought we think, every word we say, every act we perform, every choice and decision we make – in all these activities we are subject to sin … and we often do. Probably every one of us struggles with particular sins that dog us, plague us, stick to us, harass us. It may not be the same sin for every one of us, but every one of us has to fight that fight continuously every day. I know what mine are; you know what yours are. Deal with it when you pray. That’s one of the prayer prompters Jesus gave us to pray.

And so, when we pray, we open up our lives and our consciences to our Father in Heaven. We openly and honestly confess to Him what He already knows much better than we ourselves do: that we have sinned. We confess it, repent of it, forsake it, and ask for forgiveness.

Here is God’s faithful promise … I’m going to repeat it again: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1.8-9.

And I must also pray that God will search my heart for hidden sins and blind spots that I am too willing to either accept, excuse, or self-justify. I must diligently seek a pure heart, clean hands, and an ever-growing and increasing love for Christ which purify my heart and conduct.

Pray that God will make your conscience just as sensitive to your sin as your sin is to the heart of our Father in Heaven.

And, you must do this every day – all day long of every day. John Flavel, the 16th-century Puritan has said, “The careless heart is an easy prey to Satan in the hour of temptation; his principal batteries are raised against the heart; if he wins that he wins all, for it commands the whole man: and alas! how easy a conquest is a neglected heart! … It is the watchful heart that discovers and suppresses the temptation before it comes to its strength.”

I must pray every day…without fail with confession of my sins.

3. I must pray every day…without fail for the grace of God to forgive those who have offended and violated me in any way – – and do this without self-pity or self-defense.

Prayer Prompter Words: “…as we also have forgiven our debtors…”

OK, so hold on for this next one … let’s read again this prayer request that Jesus taught us to pray: I must pray every day…without fail for the grace of God to forgive those who have offended and violated me in any way – and do this without self-pity or self-defense.

These are Jesus’ own words: read the verses immediately following this Disciples’ Model Prayer – Matthew 6.14-15: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Jesus’ words are serious, sobering, convicting!

Mark 11.24-25: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

Now, what I want every one of us to do right now is this: think of that person or those persons in your heart right now who have violated you, hurt you, or offended you the worst. You know who they are. We all bleed from those persons and those experiences.

Those painful experiences will mark us for life, and if we’re not careful, and if we don’t deal with them the way Jesus is teaching us to deal with them – they will destroy us.

One of the most resilient of our sins, one of the most stubborn of our sins, one of the most resistant of our sins to all our efforts to eradicate it is the sin of unforgiveness … resentment … bitterness … grudge-bearing. And, we may as well confess it and recognize it, that one of the reasons why it is so stubborn and resistant to being eradicated is because – we nurse it and coddle it. Too many times, we don’t want to let it go, we don’t want to deal with it because we are still secretly holding out and wishing that at some time the score may be evened.

We may not be so brash and bold as to seek revenge, but we are just waiting for God to mete it out. And, we want to see it and know about it when He does.

Why, if I forgive him/her/them, then I can’t hold out hope for the satisfaction of seeing them get theirs at some future time!

But, Jesus requires us to forgive our debtors of their moral debts against us just like our Father in Heaven has forgiven us of our debts against Him!

Listen to these words from Ephesians 4.30-32:

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

And the same words again in Colossians 3.12-14:

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

This is another one of those prayers you will need to pray every single day. These are among the sins you will need to confess over and over again. You will have to deal with it daily – because it simmers and stews and smolders all the time.

You need to cultivate what I have learned to call “the love, do good, bless, & pray rule.” I get it from Jesus’ teachings in Luke 6.27-28: “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”

You will have to come to the place where you are willing to pray something like this: “Our Father in Heaven, you know and I know what so-and-so has done to me – but that is nothing compared to all I have done against you … and you have forgiven me. So, Father, I release them from being accountable to me, and I’m turning them over to you. And, if you choose to bless them with your love, grace, and favor – then I’m willing and happy for you to do that.” Love like you have been loved, do good to them as God has done good to you, bless them as God has blessed you, pray for them as you have been prayed for.

You have to do this.

I must pray every day…without fail for the grace of God to forgive those who have offended me and violated me in any way – and do this without self-pity or self-defense.

Here is the pdf version of these lesson notes:

Spiritual Exercises.Lesson 4-part 3 / What I must pray for every dayDownload

Here is the link to the YouTube video lesson:

Episode 7 – Spiritual Exercises / Matthew 6.5-15 / What I Must Pray For Every Day Without Fail, part 2

https://youtu.be/G4_CtVuTxUs  /  Length 29:19

Posted in Discipleship, I've been thinking, Prayer, Spiritual Exercises, Sunday School lessons | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

What I must pray for every day without fail / part 2

Posted on October 25, 2020 by PastorDave

Spiritual Exercises

Lesson #4 / part 2

(Please see Lesson #4 / part 1 for the preceding Lesson content…)

The 10 ‘Prayer Prompters’

Here is a summary of the 10 prayer prompters – then we will begin to address them in a little more detail as they apply to our own personal particular prayers concerns:

  1. I must pray every day…without fail to delight in God
  2. I must pray every day…without fail with confession of my sins
  3. I must pray every day…without fail for the grace of God to forgive those who have offended and violated me in any way
  4. I must pray every day…without fail for the salvation of those who are lost
  5. I must pray every day…without fail for my church’s ministry – for the pastors, elders, and leaders of my church
  6. I must pray every day…without fail interceding for pressing needs I know of that are afflicting those I know
  7. I must pray every day…without fail for my personal growth in grace and in knowing Jesus Christ – Christlikeness
  8. I must pray every day…without fail for God’s will to be fulfilled and accomplished in my day’s activities 
  9. I must pray every day…without fail that God will improve my preaching, teaching, and witnessing to make me more effective in ministering His Word [this is for me – you will need to adapt it to your personal prayer needs…]
  10. I must pray every day…without fail that God’s Word will run throughout the whole earth and that Christ will be proclaimed and glorified…here, there, and everywhere

NOW, LET’S TALK ABOUT EACH ONE AND HOW TO PRAY THEM…

1. I must pray every day…without fail to delight in God

Prayer Prompter Words: “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your Name”

Jesus teaches us to begin our praying by addressing God and approaching Him as “Our Father in Heaven…”

Now, before you go any farther … stop and listen to yourself. I know you’re repeating those words that Jesus taught you to pray – but what did you just pray? Pray it again: “Our Father in Heaven”!

Q: Who are you praying to? Who are you addressing?

A: Of course, you’re praying to GOD! You are addressing GOD!

And, the truth that He is “in Heaven” means that He rules over everything. He runs everything. It is a recognition of His supreme Deity, majesty, and sovereignty.

Psalm 135.5-6, “For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the LORD pleases, He does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.”

Psalm 103.19, “The LORD has established His Throne in the Heavens, and His Kingdom rules over all!”

THAT is the God we are addressing – to whom we are praying!

Q: And, what did you just call Him? What did Jesus teach us to call GOD?

A: “Our Father in Heaven”!

Jesus is teaching us to come boldly to God, to the Throne of Grace in Heaven, and address this God who owns, and is ruling and reigning over all the universe – to address Him as “our Father in Heaven”!

How did God come to be “Our Father in Heaven”?

And, of course also, just in the act of calling God our “Father,” we have to ask ourselves: “How did I come to have the relationship and the authority to call this God “our Father”?

So, that leads us to recognize and confess that the only way God is our Father, and the only way we can call God our Father in truth is through personal faith in Jesus Christ … and “in the Name of” Jesus Christ – and by the merits, deserts, and authority that are granted to us by our faith relationship with Jesus Christ!

Jesus taught us in John 14.6, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life … no one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Ephesians 2.18, “For through Him [i.e., Christ] we both [i.e., Jews and Gentiles – all peoples] have access to the Father.”

John 1.12, “But to all who did receive Him [i.e., Jesus Christ], who believed in His Name, He [i.e., God the Father] gave the right to become children of God.”

And, in 1 John 2.1, “…we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.”

And, Jesus means for us to understand that when we call God “our Father in Heaven,” we must pray to Him with the assurance and confidence that He is our perfect Father in every sense of that word.

Just like He is “God” in every perfect sense of that word, He is also our “Father” in every perfect sense of that name. Jesus has already told us in verse 8, the verse immediately preceding these words “…for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

In the next chapter, chapter 7, Jesus will commend our Heavenly Father’s love, grace, and generosity toward us, and His willingness to give us all the good gifts we need and ask for … with these words: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him?” ~Matthew 7.11

But, why am I also saying that when we approach and address God as “our Father in Heaven,” we are also to delight in Him?

Because, if we are calling God “our Father in Heaven,” and truly recognizing the awesome privilege and liberty we are exercising to have personal acceptance and a personal audience in the Holy Presence of God – then we cannot but delight in Him!

In the very exercise and expression of calling God our “Father,” and calling on God as our “Father,” … you can’t really, sincerely approach and address God and call Him “Father” without delighting in His grace, mercy, and love with which He makes you his child!

God didn’t become your Father by virtue of your own merits or deserts. God is your Father because He chose you to be His child, and because He accepts you and graces you to be His beloved child because of the worthiness and merits of His Son, Jesus Christ! According to the apostle Paul in Ephesians 1.6, “…He has made us accepted in the Beloved,” meaning Jesus Christ. This is why we pray to the Father and call God our “Father” ‘in the Name of Jesus Christ.’ Because God is our Father only because we have received His Son, Jesus Christ, by faith, and we are in Him!

And, as a further exercise and expression of delighting in God, think about those next words that Jesus taught us to pray to “our Father in Heaven” – Jesus taught us to pray with this request: “Hallowed be Your Name.”

“Hallowed be Your Name” is actually the first prayer prompter and request that Jesus taught us to pray for – ask for … because we are praying that God will do this, give this, grant this. When we pray “Hallowed be Your Name,” we are asking God “may Your Name be kept Holy, treated as Holy … may we speak to You and speak of You only with the utmost Holiness that Your Name deserves; Let Your Name be treated with utmost respect and reverence … by everyone in the whole universal world.”

It is simply another way of praying “May everyone in the world delight in Your Name!”

Actually, even the English form of the word for “hallowed” is another form for the word “holy” – so we are praying that God’s Name will be “holied” every time God is named or spoken of. This is in keeping with the third commandment, “You shall not take the Name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His Name in vain.”

And, we are praying that God will “hallow” or “holy” His Name by every person in the world. We are praying that God will receive worship, praise, and adoration by every mention and every expression that names God. That every mention of God and His Name will be an expression of delighting in Him!

And, this must begin in our own personal thinking of God our Father, and in every conversation in which we name the Name of God, and in all the ways we address Him in our personal praying to Him. 

Now, God’s ‘Name’ is not just the moniker by which we call Him, but God’s ‘Name’ includes His character, His reputation – everything God says and does – every way by which God is known. God’s Name is who He is in the fullness of all the ways in which He reveals Himself and all the ways of our knowing Him.

And so, you must do this in conjunction with your reading of God’s Word. God reveals Himself and His Name to us through His Word. As you learn more about God’s perfections, Glory, excellencies, attributes, etc., you must reiterate, repeat, and, if possible, voice them back to God in adoration, praise and thanksgivings.

Keep in mind that the first “takeaway” from what we are reading in the Word in our Daily Time With God is “What does this Scripture say about the God I must know … and delight in?” (See the Lesson notes for Spiritual Exercises, Lesson 3, “Six Takeaways From Your Daily Time With God”)

We should learn and train ourselves to pray to God by voicing back to Him what He says and reveals to us about Himself in His own Word. Learn to “pray back” His own words back to Him!

Also, as you read about God either expressing or demonstrating His own perfections in His interactions in our human conditions, experiences, and situations, you must recognize His greatness – and DELIGHT IN HIM!

I must pray every day…without fail to delight in God!

I simply can’t let this go without reinforcing this essential truth: delighting in God is first and purest reason why we pray to begin with … and delighting in God is the first and purest reason why Jesus Himself prayed to His Father!

I think I can show you this truth from this very Disciples’ Model Prayer. Let me take you again to Luke’s account where Jesus taught His disciples to pray like this … using this prayer as a model.

Luke 11.1-2

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your Name…’”

Now, what you need to notice is that Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray immediately after coming upon Him as He was praying – they were eavesdropping on Him as He prays to His Father, listening in on Him … and when He finished, they asked Him to teach them to pray like they had just heard Him pray. Then, He taught them to pray using this Model Prayer. Now, don’t you think that the Model Prayer He teaches us to pray will be modeled after the same way He Himself prays?!

What do you suppose Jesus prayed more than anything else? Do you actually think that He spent most of His prayer time with His Father asking for things? I’m sure He did ask for many things during His prayer times.

But, I am convinced that the vast bulk of the times that Jesus prayed to His Father was just to delight in Him! To express His love for His Father. To rejoice in and revel in His Father’s love for Him!

We do know that in His ‘High-Priestly Prayer’ that He prayed in John 17, in Gethsemane that night before going to the cross the next day, Jesus prayed in verse 5, “And now, Father, glorify me in your own Presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” My point is that all during the days of His earthly ministry here among us, when He prayed to His Father, He was reveling and rejoicing from here in that same loving fellowship and communion with His Father that He had enjoyed from eternity, before the creation of the world, and to which He was returning. But, when He prayed while He was here among us, He was delighting in that same fellowship with His Father.

And He teaches us to do the same thing when we pray.

I must pray every day…without fail to delight in God!

Here is a pdf copy of this portion of the lesson notes:

Spiritual Exercises.Lesson 4-part 2 / What I must pray for every day…Download

Here is the YouTube link to the video lesson…

Episode 6 – Spiritual Exercises / Matthew 6.5-15 / What I Must Pray For Every Day Without Fail, part 1

https://youtu.be/ixIuo4pQCGU  /  Length 31:25

Posted in Discipleship, I've been thinking, Prayer, Spiritual Exercises, Sunday School lessons | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

What I must pray for every day without fail… part 1

Posted on October 25, 2020 by PastorDave

Spiritual Exercises

Lesson #4 / part 1

WHAT MUST I PRAY FOR EVERY DAY – WITHOUT FAIL?

Read Matthew 6.5-15

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 

6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 

8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 

9 Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 

15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

One of the great difficulties I struggle with in praying is just the vast immensity of what I can pray for – and what I think I should pray for. I mean – there is a whole world out there to pray for! There is so much going on in our own lives, in our immediate community, and in the whole world. There are so many concerns, so many cares, so many needs, so many issues and events that interest us and impact us.

How much of it should I pray for daily?

We know that our Lord Jesus gave us a model to follow in what we call “The Lord’s Prayer,” or “The Disciple’s Prayer,” or “The Model Prayer.”

So, let’s talk for just a moment here at the beginning about what we are going to call this prayer…

The Lord’s Prayer

Of course, this prayer is most often called “The Lord’s Prayer.” If you say “The Lord’s Prayer,” everybody is going to think of this prayer. And, if you quote these words, everybody is going to say “The Lord’s Prayer.” And so, it is “The Lord’s Prayer” in that Jesus, our Lord, teaches us to pray it. But, I’m going to go farther than that and say that it can also be called “The Lord’s Prayer” because when Jesus gave this prayer to His disciples to model their own prayers after it, He also modeled this very prayer after His own praying.

Let’s go to Luke 11.1-4 where Luke records another occasion when Jesus gave these very same words to His disciples and told them “When you pray, say:…” But, on this occasion that Luke records, Jesus Himself was praying to His Father. “Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ And He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:…’” and then He proceeded to teach them to pray by these same words.

Now, the point is that Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray just like they had just overheard Him praying to His Father. So, if He gives them (and us) this model, it’s going to be modeled after His own praying.

I know that we have balked at calling this “The Lord’s Prayer” because Jesus would never pray or have to pray “Forgive us our debts…” since He had no sin to be forgiven. But, He did Himself pray in much the same ways He is teaching us to pray. So, in that sense, we can rightfully call it “The Lord’s Prayer.”

The Disciples’ Prayer

It is “The Disciples’ Prayer” in that Jesus is teaching us to pray this prayer as His disciples, His learners, His followers. In the Luke account I just quoted, Luke writes that Jesus taught this prayer to His ‘disciples.’ So, this is His Disciples’ Prayer.

The Model Prayer

It is also “The Model Prayer” in that Jesus teaches us to “pray then like this…” using these words as a model by which to prompt and guide our own praying.

Jesus actually said: “Pray then like this:” … and then He proceeded to give us words to pray by. How much better a model could He have given us?

So, the pressing question is: “What does Jesus mean when He says, ‘Pray then like this’”?

Not a verbatim ritual or formality

This prayer is not so much a verbatim ritual that we must or should repeat. Because just before giving these model words, Jesus had warned them “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray then like this…” ~Matthew 6.7-9a. So, Jesus obviously doesn’t mean for us to just repeat these words by rote and ritual.

‘Prayer Prompters’

Rather, I think it is an outline, or a template of what I like to call ‘prayer prompters’ that Jesus is teaching us to think about, and ask for, and act on as the subject matter of what we must be praying for to be His disciples.  

For example, in that prayer, Jesus taught us to pray to the Father, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven.”  But, in that single request or “prayer prompter,” Jesus taught us to ask comprehensively that God’s will shall be fulfilled on earth as it is done in Heaven … and that applies to every single detail of interest and experience, not only in our own personal lives, but in every single activity that goes on in the whole world!

So, what I’m going to do is take every phrase that Jesus gave us in this Model Prayer and use them as prayer prompters to teach us and motivate us to pray for what Jesus teaches us to pray for. They’re not necessarily in the same order in which Jesus spoke them, but we’ll cover them all. 

While we may not be able to express every one of these requests every day, there are some essential requests I must make every day without fail. And, by the way, when I say “every day,” I’m going on what Jesus taught us to pray about giving us day by day our “daily bread,” assuming that these are needs that we have and need to pray about every day.

Here are 10 of them.

I’m going to format this lesson by making these points:

  1. I will list 10 ‘prayer prompters’ or subjects of prayer that I believe we should at least address every day.
  2. Next, I will go back to the Disciple’s Prayer and make a note of the “Prayer Prompter Words” that Jesus taught us to prompt us to pray for that request.
  3. Finally, I will make just a few comments to explain the significance of that prayer request and how we can and should adapt it and personalize it for ourselves.

The 10 ‘Prayer Prompters’

Here is a summary of the 10 prayer prompters – then we will begin to address them in a little more detail as they apply to our own personal particular prayers concerns:

  1. I must pray every day…without fail to delight in God
  2. I must pray every day…without fail with confession of my sins
  3. I must pray every day…without fail for the grace of God to forgive those who have offended and violated me in any way
  4. I must pray every day…without fail for the salvation of those who are lost
  5. I must pray every day…without fail for my church’s ministry – for the pastors, elders, and leaders of my church
  6. I must pray every day…without fail interceding for pressing needs I know of that are afflicting those I know
  7. I must pray every day…without fail for my personal growth in grace and in knowing Jesus Christ – Christlikeness
  8. I must pray every day…without fail for God’s will to be fulfilled and accomplished in my day’s activities 
  9. I must pray every day…without fail that God will improve my preaching, teaching, and witnessing to make me more effective in ministering His Word [this is for me – you will need to adapt it to your personal prayer needs…]
  10. I must pray every day…without fail that God’s Word will run throughout the whole earth and that Christ will be proclaimed and glorified…here, there, and everywhere

Now, let’s talk about each one and how to pray them… (to be continued)

Here is a pdf copy of this portion of the lesson notes:

Spiritual Exercises.Lesson 4-part 1 copy.What I must pray for every day…Download

Here is the YouTube link to the video lesson…

Episode 6 – Spiritual Exercises / Matthew 6.5-15 / What I Must Pray For Every Day Without Fail, part 1

https://youtu.be/ixIuo4pQCGU  /  Length 31:25

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Words Matter: What is The Gospel? a book review

Posted on October 16, 2020 by PastorDave

Words Matter: What is the Gospel?

by Mark H. Ballard with Timothy K. Christian

Over the course of my life and ministry, I have looked for books that focus on explaining and expressing The Gospel in simple, clear language that speaks to popular audiences. I have found a few along the way:

  • Right With God by John Blanchard
  • Basic Christianity by John Stott
  • Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
  • and now this one – Words Matter: What is The Gospel? by Mark Ballard

This book is actually more like an extended tract or booklet than a full-length book. It is well within the range of readers with either time or attention limitations. The text of the book is only 75 pages. It is written in thoroughly-Scriptural, simple, straightforward, conversational language. In fact, the four short chapters are:

  • The Gospel is Crucial
  • The Gospel is Clear
  • The Gospel is Certain
  • The Gospel is Serious

If you are looking for a short read to reboot your own understanding and passion for The Gospel, refresh your ability to explain and express what The Gospel is, or for a book you can easily and confidently place in a friend’s hands to reinforce your Gospel witness, this is it.

>>>>>>>>>> † <<<<<<<<<<

Words! Words! Words!

We are having numerous, multiple conversations among ourselves these days … intense conversations, passionate conversations, oftentimes contentious conversations. We are using words. We express our beliefs and convictions with those words … because words matter, words mean things.

The only problem is, sometimes we use the same word or words, but they mean different things to different speakers and hearers. The speaker is encoding his/her own nuanced thinking into the words, but the hearer is decoding the very same words through his/her mental filters with totally different nuanced thinking. Or, the hearer uses the same word/words, but means something different.

“Gospel-issue”?

This is especially true in our contemporary context when we talk about the hot-button, hot-collar issues among us. When we want to add urgency to an issue, we say that it is a “Gospel-issue.” By adding “Gospel-” to it, we not only give it immediate urgency, but we also give it the weight of authority.

So, we have learned that if we want to add authority and urgency to the issues of, say:

  • abortion
  • adoption
  • civil/political citizenship
  • immigration
  • race relations
  • same-sex marriage
  • social justice/injustice
  • social reconciliation
  • social work
  • (insert yours here…)
  • and the list of agenda goes on ad infinitum…

…then, we just add the hyphenated “Gospel-issue” to it, and that throws the conversation into another strata of importance.

But, when we do that, we run the risk creating an equivalency between The Gospel and whatever issue we’re trying to promote or advance by linking it with The Gospel. What we end up doing is creating the impression that “The Gospel is the same thing as believing in and practicing this issue the same ways I do. And, if you don’t use the same words I do the same ways I do when I talk about this other issue in relationship with the Gospel … and if you don’t act it out the same ways I do … then you don’t believe the Gospel.”

It has even become trendy and fashionable to question the salvation of notable and prominent Christian leaders, both contemporary and historical, just because they either held to doctrinal interpretations or practiced cultural and social conducts that are judged to be contrary and antithetical to the Gospel.

What is “The Gospel”?

However, we must distinguish what is essential to The Gospel from those issues, practices, and conducts that are effects of correct belief and application of The Gospel. We must distinguish what is core to The Gospel from what is only a consequence of The Gospel.

The Gospel is separate and distinct from all the effects, consequences, and fruits of true Gospel faith and obedience.

It is very possible to believe and confess The Gospel perfectly – that is, through true and genuine faith in Jesus Christ – and, at the same time, imperfectly practice every conduct that The Gospel commands us to live out. It is very possible to be perfectly justified by believing The Gospel and at the same time be imperfectly sanctified in living every aspect of your life in strict conformity to The Gospel’s teachings and standards. Our progressive sanctification may be in various stages and degrees of still yet progressing.  

Yes – a true belief in The Gospel must dictate, govern, and control every single expression and activity of our lives. But, we all have our inconsistencies, imbalances, and blind spots when it comes to our living out the full and complete implications and applications of The Gospel in our daily lives.

So, that brings us back to Words Matter: What is The Gospel? After everything I have said here to set it up, this book is actually not a polemic. It isn’t exactly an apologetic work. The author addresses everything I have said here only with a glancing reference in his Introduction. But, he does so to set the contents of his little book squarely in the middle of the context of these contemporary conversations I have just been describing.

Words Matter: What is The Gospel?, though, is just a thoroughly-Scriptural, simple, straightforward, clear, concise explanation and expression of The Gospel.

The Gospel is one thing, and one thing only: how Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, how He was buried, and how He rose again from the dead according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15.1-4). The Gospel is The Message from God in Jesus Christ that saves us from our sins. That is it. And that is all it is. Because that is all that God has said it is.

And so, that is why “Words Matter: What is The Gospel?” – because when we begin to add more words and issues to The Gospel words that God has given us by which we are saved, then we have confused The Gospel and diluted it. We have counterfeited The Gospel (Galatians 1.6-9). More and worse than that, we have neutered and nullified The Gospel (Galatians 2.21).

The Gospel, as God has given it to us in Jesus Christ, is the power that God Himself uses to save all those who believe in Him (Romans 1.13-17). And, it is the only message/words that God will so use.

“What is The Gospel?” matters most because it matters to God!

When we attempt to add any other words or issues to The Gospel, then we render it void, ineffective, and useless. Because God is the only One who can make it work to give eternal life to all who believe. And The Gospel is the only words He will use.

That is why Words Matter.

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Common Evangelist – Un-Common Gospel

Posted on October 12, 2020 by PastorDave

Common Evangelist – Un-Common Gospel

Mark 1.1-15

Preached at New Life Baptist Church, Lexington KY | Steve Wainright, Pastor

11 October 2020

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Six Takeaways From Your Daily Time With God

Posted on September 19, 2020 by PastorDave

Spiritual Exercises | Lesson #3

These lesson notes were prepared and presented to our church’s Sunday School class, so they may contain references that are personal or specific to our group – but I pray and hope they are general enough to prove helpful and beneficial to others also … maybe even you!

I’m going to read these familiar words from James 1.22-25 in order to introduce and set up this lesson:

James 1.22-25

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

I guess I could give this lesson at least these four titles and themes:

  • QUESTIONS TO ASK THE TEXT – which I will explain as we go along
  • WHAT TO “LOOK” FOR IN WHAT YOU ARE READING TODAY – because James keep repeating and emphasizing at least three times that when we read the Bible we are “looking” into it
  • HOW TO “DO” THE WORDS YOU READ IN THE BIBLE – because that is the most primary point that James is making here: that we must be “doers” of the words we are reading … and not just read it, hear it, or know it
  • SIX TAKEAWAYS FROM YOUR DAILY TIME WITH GOD – I’m going to go with this one because we are all familiar with what a “takeaway” is from something you have heard or read … you don’t just hear a message or a lesson, and you don’t just read the Word of God, and then get up and walk away and leave it all behind. James warns us we can do that – and we often do, to our shame and harm. But a ‘takeaway’ is a lasting impression that you ‘take away’ from what you have heard or read. You don’t forget it. You can’t shake it, and you oughtn’t to. You ‘take it away’ and you act on it. It changes the way you live the rest of your day and your life.

So, I want this lesson to be SIX TAKEAWAYS FROM YOUR DAILY TIME WITH GOD.

It isn’t my purpose here to even attempt to do an exposition of these words. All I want to do at this time is to emphasize the main point that James is making: and that is, it isn’t enough just to read the Word of God, or ‘hear’ the Word of God [as in learning it], but we must ‘do’ the Word of God! “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” By that, James means that you are deceiving yourself if you think it is enough just to know what the words in the Bible say – if you are not doing them. If you are not putting them into practice.

So, I hope and pray that you have committed yourself to reading the Bible regularly, systematically, and thoroughly. But you must also focus on “doing” what you are reading. You must be sure you are acting on the responsibilities the words of the Scripture are requiring from you, and that you are responding with obedience.

  • WHAT TO ‘LOOK FOR’ IN WHAT YOU ARE READING TODAY

James uses here the illustration of a man [or a woman] looking into a mirror. He uses the word “look” three times in this brief illustration:

  • …he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror [verse 23]
  • For he looks at himself and goes away… [verse 24]
  • But the one who looks into the perfect law… [verse 25]

Exactly what are you looking for? What are you supposed to be looking for?

Well, why do you look into a mirror? You look into a mirror so you can see and learn from what you look like – the way you are right now. Why do you need to know what you look like? So you can know if you look OK, if you are presentable … or if something is out of order and needs to be changed and fixed.

But, James says that all your looking into the mirror and seeing your reflection will do you no good if you put the mirror down and walk away with that gravy drip still all down the front of your shirt … or with your lipstick smeared up one corner of your mouth. James says, “For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like…” [verse 24]. You walk away from your reading with no ‘takeaway’!

You looked into the mirror to see what you look like – so now go and fix what needs to be fixed so your looking into the mirror will be worth the time you took to do it. That is your ‘takeaway’ – go and change it!

It does you no good at all to know everything there is to know in the Bible merely in a factual way if you do not act on it! On the other hand, if you are NOT a forgetful hearer of what you have learned – but if you are a diligent DOER of the word you have read – “…he will be blessed in his doing.”

OK – so you are reading, you are learning, you are adding to your store of knowledge about the Bible and what the Bible says – now, what are you going to do with it? How are you going to respond with your actions? How are you going to put it into practice? How are going to change the ways you live throughout your days because you just read what you read?

  • QUESTIONS TO ASK THE TEXT YOU ARE READING TODAY

That’s what this lesson is going to be about. I’m going to give you a set of questions to be asking the Word of God as you read it. Better yet: I’m going to give you a set of questions to be asking God as you read His Word. God is the One who “breathed out” or inspired the Bible. God is the One who is speaking with His own Voice in all the words of the Word of God.

So we’re going to be asking Him to show us wondrous things out of His Law. And then, when He shows us what He intends for us to learn from His Word, then we’ll commit ourselves and set out to do it. We’re going to take our “takeaways” and make the changes that we have read about.

Psalm 119.105 ~ “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

Psalm 119.59 ~ “When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to Your testimonies.”

So, we’re going to read His Word, and think on our ways, and respond accordingly to what God says in those words.

  • HOW TO ‘DO’ THE WORDS YOU ARE READING IN THE BIBLE TODAY
  • SIX ‘TAKEAWAYS’ FROM YOUR DAILY TIME WITH GOD

So, I’m going to give you a Bible-reading “To Do” list – here are six “takeaways” – that we need to be asking for and looking for so we can go and do them:

  1. The GOD I must know … and delight in
  2. An EXAMPLE I must follow … or not follow
  3. An ERROR that I must avoid
  4. A SIN that I must confess, repent from, and forsake
  5. A COMMAND that I must obey
  6. A PROMISE that I must claim or keep

Now, if you want to – you can turn these into questions: “What does this Scripture say about THE GOD that I must know … and delight in?” And so on, ask the same question about the other five: “What does this Scripture say about…?” I’ll give you some questions you can ask the Scripture you are reading to help you find your takeaways.

So, these will be prompters for meditation, for prayer, for self-examination, and especially for application to your life.

And, these six that I will highlight are certainly not the only takeaways and  lessons we can and must learn from reading the Bible. If you can think of others – and I’m sure you can – then go for it! But these six are the most prominent six lessons that I have developed to read the Bible for and learn from. 

What I want to do with each one of these prompters is just to show us how each one can be used in any and every Scripture where you reading. All of these life-lessons are universal in all the Scripture, and they are woven into the warp and woof of the fabric of the whole Bible. So, they will be anywhere and everywhere you are reading. Just think about them, and look for them … with the intention of doing them!

Takeaway #1: What does this Scripture say about THE GOD that I must know … and delight in?

Just remember this: the God who inspired the Bible did so for the primary purpose to reveal Himself to us through His words so that we may know Him! Every page, every narrative, every event, every lesson, every story, every instruction is God telling us something about Himself.

I have described in another article how I began years ago to read the Bible with this first and primary quest in my soul – to seek to discover and know this God who inspired and gave us this book, the Bible, so we may know Him and enjoy a personal, spiritual relationship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ. You can read that article here: https://daveparksblog.wordpress.com/2020/09/01/i-am-just-a-plain-man-seeking-god/

Everything that is written in the Bible is God’s personal way of declaring “I AM THE LORD … THIS IS WHO I AM!”  God reveals His character, attributes, and nature in every interaction He has with His creation and with us, His creatures … and in His every response to those interactions.

Of course, since everything in the Bible is God’s revealing Himself, if we wanted to be thorough and complete illustrating how to read to know God and delight in Him, we would have to reference everything that is in the Bible. Obviously, we can’t do that. So, what I want to do is show you how this works where we all are reading together right now – in the Book of Genesis.

As you open chapter 1 of Genesis, you discover and delight in God’s creative power. You discover and delight in God as a God of order and beauty. You discover and delight in God being a Person Himself, and how He created us to be in a personal, loving relationship with Him.

As you continue reading through the account of Adam and Eve disobeying God and falling into sin, you discover and delight in God’s grace, forgiveness, and mercy in providing a sin sacrifice and covering for their sin – and you begin to discover and delight in how God will send His own Lamb of God in some distant future time to perfectly save us from our sins.

As you continue reading into the account of God’s judgment against the rampant sin of humankind in the Flood, you discover that God is a God of Holiness and wrath against sin – and He cannot and will not permit sin to go unchecked and unpunished.

As you continue reading on into the accounts of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you discover and delight in God as a God who makes covenants with Himself on our behalf – and then shares those covenants and the blessings of those covenants with us, His people, whom He is choosing and adopting to Himself to belong to Him and be with Him forever!

And, on and on … you get the idea. This is the first and foremost, and most important truth and lesson you are reading for: to discover who God is, what kind of God He is – and then to know Him and delight in Him!

Everything God does, He does it consistently with who He is. So, study His words, His attitudes, His evaluations, His judgments, His responses to everything we humans do, His actions and works – all with the end in view of discovering and learning more about Him – and delight in everything you discover about Him!

Psalm 1.2 says, “…but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.” Why do we delight in the law of the LORD? Because – we delight in the LORD whose law it is. God’s law [or instruction] is the written expression of who God Himself is. It is the written record of His will, His desires, what pleases Him, what He wants from us.

And so, when we delight in Him, we delight is what He says – and we delight in what He says because we delight in Him. So, ask the Scripture you are reading, “What does this Scripture say about THE GOD that I must know … and delight in?”

Takeaway #2: What does this Scripture say about AN EXAMPLE that I must follow … or not follow?

With every historical account, story, and narrative, you need to be asking yourself:

  • What kind of example is being set and presented here?
  • What kind of example is being acted out here?
  • Is this a good example – or a bad one?
  • Is God drawing out this story for me to emulate and follow – or to avoid at all costs?

Let’s fast forward to the New Testament as the writers of the New Testament refer back to these examples and exhort us to pay close attention – make note of the examples we are reading about – and respond according to the character of that example.

I can’t give you the background and context of these New Testament quotations, but I will give you the references, and encourage you to look them up and see what kinds of examples each of them is referring to:

  • Romans 15.4 – For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
  • 1 Corinthians 10.11- Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
  • And, then, especially lest we forget also the examples of Sodom and Gomorrah … 2 Peter 2.6 – …if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes He condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly…

Of course, there are good, godly, noble examples also – also too numerous to mention them all or describe their examples in detail:

  • Abel
  • Enoch
  • Noah
  • Abraham
  • Sarah
  • Joseph

So, as you read all their stories, ask yourself: “What does this Scripture say about an example that I must follow … or not follow?” And then, write it down – make a note of it … and do it!

Takeaway #3: What does this Scripture say about AN ERROR that I must avoid?

This kind of goes back to the last question about examples we must avoid. Except that when I ask “What does this Scripture say about AN ERROR that I must avoid?”, I’m emphasizing here some kind of practice or lifestyle that we can fall into – or slide into more gradually. An error to avoid is a mindset or belief system … a way of thinking and acting.

For example, when Eve was deceived by the serpent [who was, in turn, taken over to serve as the mouthpiece for the fallen Satan], the error that Eve was committing was that she had become distrusting of God’s absolute truthfulness. Satan deceived her into doubting God. That had become, at least for that occasion, an error, a way of thinking and believing that she had fallen into. So that Paul writes to the Corinthian church and warns them against falling into this error of not being fully, whole-heartedly, passionately in love with Jesus Christ and committed to Him.

Listen to his warning in 2 Corinthians 11.2-4:

For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one Husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

Or, how about the error that Cain fell into, and even embraced and cultivated. His error was not loving his brother as we have always been commanded to do from the beginning. His error was allowing bitterness and hatred against his brother to grow and thrive in his heart – until he acted on it and murdered his brother.

Which prompted the apostle John to pull us up short and stand face-to-face with us and call us away from falling or sliding into this error.

1 John 3.11-15 ~ For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

Jude follows up by warning us about those who practice this sinful error and lifestyle: “For they walked in the way of Cain” [Jude, verse 11].

How about the error of those who disregarded the ways of God in their lives and rejected Noah’s warnings to repent from their sins and seek their refuge in God and the ark He was providing? But, they just continued eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage until the floodwaters of God’s judgment was poured out on them and destroyed them. Jesus warned against those errors: “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man” [Luke 17.26].

Just one more: how about the error of Lot’s wife? She was so in love with what God had abominated and marked for destruction, and she was so loathe to leave it behind, she disobeyed the instruction of the angels not to look back – and instead did look back with a lingering longing to have it, and God turned her into a pillar of salt. “Remember Lot’s wife!” [Luke 17.32] … which is another way of saying “What does this Scripture say about AN ERROR I must avoid?”

So, as you are reading, pay attention to the text and study your own heart. Read, and look, and pray over what you are reading and ask God to keep you from the errors that have ruined so many others and destroyed their lives and happiness.

Takeaway #4: What does this Scripture say about A SIN that I must confess, repent from, and forsake?

Well, again, we have pretty much already plowed this furrow, but here’s the focal point of this question: we can become so used to our own personal history and experience of walking with the Lord, our traditions we have practiced for decades, the service we have been engaged in for years, and especially our long-time familiarity with the Scriptures – that we, especially, run the risk of becoming blind, jaded, and numb to our own sins.

Keep this question before you, and ask this question of the text and passage you are reading: “What does this Scripture say about A SIN that I must confess, repent from, and forsake?”

That is a very grave error we want to avoid – going back to the previous question #3. We can become so practiced in knowing what the Scripture says that we fail to really read what the very Scriptures we are reading are saying to us – and saying about us. We can so easily read about the sins of others that we fail to see those same sins in ourselves.

I read a statement by Pastor Burk Parsons the other day: “I want to hate my sins more than I hate the sins of others who sin differently than I do.”

We are so often like David was when he was visited by the prophet Nathan. Nathan began to tell David the story about the man in his kingdom who stole his neighbor’s one pet lamb to slaughter and serve to some friends of his when he had plenty of other lambs that already belonged to him. David became so enraged at the sin of this fictitious character that he was ready to haul him in and have him executed – until Nathan confronted him and said, “You are that man!” To which David responded with conviction and grief, “I have sinned against the LORD” [2 Samuel 12.1-14].

So, here’s what I’m challenging us all to do: as you read the Word of God, pray to God to keep your own heart open to the conviction of your own sins. Pray to the Holy Spirit to keep your conscience sensitive to your sins – to remove the blinders that prevent us from seeing our own blind-spots about our own sins.

Read the Bible – not just with your eyes or even just with your mind – but read the Bible with your conscience. And, when God reveals your sins to you, then let’s do what we’re supposed to do: not just feel bad about it, or try to make atonement by wallowing in your guilt and self-loathing – but confess it immediately, honestly, and sincerely, and then repent from it. Not just repent for having done it, but repent from it. And forsake it.

Either the Bible will keep you from sin; or sin will keep you from the Bible.

Psalm 119.11, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

Takeaway #5: What does this Scripture say about A COMMAND that I must obey?

Well – there are a LOT of commands in the Bible, wouldn’t you agree? And, God means for us to know them … and know them all … and do them all. I know that’s a tall order, but God has made it clear from the very beginning that it is our responsibility to obey Him in every respect, to obey His every command.

If only Adam and Eve had done that in the beginning! But, of course, they didn’t. And that’s why we’re in the sin-mess we’re in. I made the point earlier that one of the errors we must avoid is the error Eve was deceived into believing: that she could pick and choose which of God’s commands she had to obey, or the error of believing she could second-guess God’s authority or the seriousness of God’s commands, or even adjust God’s commands to her own preferences or liking.

Genesis 2.16 ~ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

But, no! Eve chose to believe the serpent’s lie about God’s truthfulness and the consequences God had promised – because it better suited what she wanted to believe and what she wanted to do:

Genesis 3.1-7 ~ Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘Youshall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Just remember: all the grief, suffering, and death we are suffering from now came from that one act of disobedience. So, keep asking the text: “What does this Scripture say about A COMMAND I must obey?”

Takeaway #6: What does this Scripture say about A PROMISE that I must claim or keep?

God has been giving us promises from the very beginning of the Bible. In fact, Paul told Titus that God has been giving us promises even “before the ages began” [Titus 1.2], and He has recorded those promises in His Word.

Immediately after Adam and Eve fell into their sin, God began promising that He would send the offspring of the woman [meaning, He would send His own Son, Jesus Christ], and that He would destroy the cursed effects that sin had brought into our world and upon us through the work of the serpent. We even call this promise the “protoevangelium,” or “the first good news,” the first promise of Christ and His Gospel.

When God destroyed the world with the Flood, He gave us the sign of the rainbow, and He promised that He would never again destroy the earth with water [Genesis 9.8-17].

That same promise is linked up with Jesus’ promise to come again at the end of this age. “But according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” [2 Peter 3.13].

When God gives us promises, He will keep them. We can believe that and count on Him to do as He has promised. God wants us to believe His promises and trust Him to be good on His Word. In the Bible, that assurance and confidence that God will keep every one of His promises is called ‘hope.’

And so, as you read everything you read in God’s Word, just remember that Jesus Christ is God’s Promise. The Gospel is God’s promise. Grace is God’s promise. His covenant is His promise. Heaven is His promise.

2 Corinthians 1.20 ~ “For all the promises of God find their ‘Yes!’ in Him [Christ]. That is why it is through Him that we utter our ‘Amen’ to God for His glory.”

Anything and everything you will ever need to live in the grace relationship God has promised us in Jesus Christ – whatever you will ever need, and more than you can ever desire that is good, God has promised it to us and given it to us in Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1.3-4 – His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us toHis own glory and excellence, 4 by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

Every one of these “His precious and very great promises” is contained in His Word. And, He means for you to have and enjoy every single one of them according to your every need.

So, as you read the Word, ask the text … ask the passage … ask God who is speaking His own Word, “What does this Scripture say about A PROMISE that I must claim or keep?”

And then, when He shows it to you, make a note of it.

Write it down.

Claim it and keep it.

He will be good for it.

He promises!

Here are a couple worksheets I have developed to help you look for and take notes on these Six Takeaways from Your Daily Time With God…

Takeaways from Daily Time With God

This one is a slightly re-formatted version of the first one:

Takeaways From Daily Time With God-by number

If you are interested in viewing the YouTube presentations of this lesson, here are the links … I divided it into two video lessons: parts 1 & 2

Episode 4 – Spiritual Exercises.Lesson 3.James 1.22-25.Six Takeaways From Your Daily Time With God, part 1

https://youtu.be/1VYZ1G2wb6s  /  Length 27:20

Episode 5 – Spiritual Exercises.Lesson 3.James 1.22-25.Six Takeaways From Your Daily Time With God, part 2

https://youtu.be/DdkgceMc1do  /  Length 32:30

Posted in Bible Reading, Daily Time With God, Delighting in God, I've been thinking, Spiritual Exercises, Sunday School lessons | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Essential 100 Bible Reading Plan – a schedule

Posted on September 7, 2020 by PastorDave

Here is the printed schedule for the 100 days of Bible readings:

E100.The Essential 100 Bible Reading Plan copy

It isn’t too late to join us and get started on the Essential 100 Bible-reading plan that will take you on a quick scan survey of the Bible narrative. As I have told you in a previous post, this is not a complete and comprehensive reading of the Bible – just a 100-day, 100-passages reading of 100 of the most significant highlights of the Big Picture of the Bible. It is a bird’s-eye, panoramic view of the Bible.

You can view that previous descriptive post here…The Berean Fellowship – come and join us!

NOTE: this particular schedule is dated from September 1, 2020, when our church’s Sunday School began this 100-day reading [along with some other fellow church members and friends]. But, you can begin anytime, any day of the year. Just disregard the 2 columns on the left with the day of the week and the date. You can just start with the description of the reading and the passage to be read.

So, whether you start today … or another day … the Word of God will still be there – unchanged, just as alive and powerful as it’s always been – it lives and abides forever!

Posted in Bible Reading, Daily Time With God, Discipleship, I've been thinking, Spiritual Exercises, Sunday School lessons | Leave a comment

The Berean Fellowship – come and join us!

Posted on September 6, 2020 by PastorDave
These lesson notes were written and prepared for our church’s Sunday School class, so they will contain references that will be personal and specific for our group – but I pray and hope they are general enough to be helpful to others also … maybe even you!
Spiritual Exercises / Lesson #1

 

 

THE BEREAN FELLOWSHIP – come and join us!

Acts 17.10-17 | Paul and Silas in Berea

10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. 14 Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

WHAT IS “THE BEREAN FELLOWSHIP”?

I am inviting you to come and join us in this joint challenge and Bible-reading venture we are calling “THE BEREAN FELLOWSHIP.” I’m naming it that after the Jews whom Paul found in the synagogue in Berea, who were “more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the Word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”

The Jews in the synagogue in Thessalonica had rejected Paul’s teaching them from the Scriptures [the Old Testament Scriptures] that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and Savior that God had been promising in all the OT Scriptures. [see verses 2-3 … we’ll come back to this later…]

The Bereans, however, DID NOT REJECT the Word of God and Paul’s teachings concerning Christ from them. To the contrary, they responded with a four-fold response:

1.      “They RECEIVED the Word with all eagerness” Or, another way to put it would be: “they were all in – all for it!” “they were eating it up!” “They couldn’t get enough!” “They couldn’t wait for the next Sabbath service!” [and that’s precisely where this is going… because they couldn’t wait for the next service – they had to be looking for themselves, on their own, like, every day…]

2.      They examined the Scriptures [KJV, ‘searched’]. They were poring over it. They were reading, pondering, meditating, studying, looking into the meaning of what they were reading. They were comparing what they were reading with other Scriptures [see verse 3 – like Paul did when he preached]. They would talk about it among themselves. They would ask each other questions – and share the insights and input that each of them had to contribute. And, then, the next time they had a synagogue service with Paul, they would compare their notes and ask him to talk about what the Scriptures meant. [And, we need to keep in mind, that “the Scriptures” they had was the Old Testament – the New Testament books had not been written yet…]

3.      They were loving, looking for, and learning more and more about Jesus Christ. When Luke writes ‘to see if these things were so,’ he is referring to what Paul had been talking about in their synagogue services. So, what had Paul been pointing out and talking about? Well, go back a few verses to see what it was that those in Thessalonica had rejected and that the Bereans had received, looked into, and learned with such eagerness and enthusiasm. You’ll find it in verses 2-3:

2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

That’s what they were searching for and finding – and so happy about! They were discovering Jesus Christ and His Gospel in all the OT Scriptures!

4.      THEY DID THIS EVERY DAY! It was not just a ‘Sabbath Day’ thing. They were not like so many – just occasional ‘auditors’ of the Word of God. It became their daily practice … “examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so!”

So, there you have it – that is ‘The Berean Fellowship’!

THE CHALLENGE

So, my challenge to you is this: Will you join us, and let’s do this together:

  • to receive God’s Word [Old Testament and New Testament alike] with a voracious love, eager excitement and anticipation…
  • to read it, examining, seeking, searching, looking for, and finding Jesus Christ in all the writings, on all the pages…
  • and to do it every day!?

DO YOU READ THE SCRIPTURES DAILY?

  • Do you read the Scriptures daily?
  • Have you developed the practice, the discipline, the daily ‘habit’ [if you will] of reading God’s Word, the Scriptures every day?
  • Do you read the Word of God regularly – not as just a rote, mindless repetition – but as a regular, consistent spiritual exercise and practice?
  • Do you have an orderly plan or systematic schedule of reading portions to help you keep yourself on task and on target?

If you DO NOT, now is the perfect time and a perfect way to start developing the exercise and discipline of daily reading the Word of God!

If you DO, I’m asking you for the sake of group unity, comradery, and encouragement to do what I plan to do myself – and that is, suspend and interrupt your already-scheduled reading plan and let’s all join together for this 100-day Essential 100 Bible Reading Plan.

THE ESSENTIAL 100 BIBLE READING PLAN

http://store.scriptureunionresources.com/e100/

This is a simple, easy to follow, plan for reading 100 carefully selected passages from the Bible that will highlight many of the key events and teachings that make up the Bible timeline.

Obviously, this plan is not a complete and comprehensive reading of the Bible. Much of the Bible will be left out. But it will give us a panoramic scan of the Bible … the big picture and the brightest highlights of the Bible’s storyline.

50 of these readings are from the Old Testament; the other 50 are from the New Testament. So, in the reading of these 100 passages, you will have completed a scan of the whole Bible – from Genesis to Revelation!

Plus, in doing so, you will also have begun [if you aren’t already], to cultivate and develop the practice of daily reading of the Scriptures – which we all ought to be doing.

I have given you three formats to help you follow this Essential 100 Bible Reading Plan:

  1. I have prepared for you the 4-page paper schedule of the Bible readings
  2. I have also sent you who are here at BRBC the printed card of the Bible reading schedule
  3. And, to those of you who use your electronic devices [computer, tablet, phone], you can either just go to the YouVersion Bible website, and you will find this same The Essential 100 Bible Reading Plan in their “Plans” page [do a search for Essential 100], or you can download the YouVersion app to your device and set up the plan for yourself.

https://my.bible.com/reading-plans/25-the-essential-100

We are looking forward to sharing these next 100 days together in The Word of God!

  • “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day!” ~Psalm 119.97
  • “…but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.” ~Psalm 1.2
  • “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” ~Luke 24.27“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness of Me…!” ~John 5.39

Posted in Bible Reading, Daily Time With God, Discipleship, I've been thinking, Spiritual Exercises, Sunday School lessons | Leave a comment

How to Establish and Practice A Daily Time With God

Posted on September 5, 2020 by PastorDave

These lesson notes were prepared and presented to our church’s Sunday School class, so they may contain personal references to our group – but I pray and hope they are general enough to prove helpful and beneficial to others also … maybe even you!

Spiritual Exercises / Lesson #2

HOW TO ESTABLISH AND PRACTICE A DAILY TIME WITH GOD

Deuteronomy 6.4-9

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

From the beginning, when God first began to speak His words to Moses to be written down, God was insistent that His people passionately love Him and His words. He commanded them to not just expose themselves to His words, but they were to be intentional to make every effort to keep His words in their hearts to love them, and in every aspect of their lives to do them.

They were to highly value and treasure His words in their hearts: “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart…”

They were to make every effort and take every measure to keep His words in their hearts and in their physical surroundings: “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” In other words, they were to surround and saturate themselves with written reminders of His words.

They were to conduct every single activity of their lives and relationships according to and in agreement with His words: “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.”

This is what I’m encouraging every one of us to do … daily, regularly, consistently … with the Word of God.  

Whatever you choose to call it: ‘Daily Devotions,’ ‘Quiet Time,’ ‘Bible-Reading,’ – you need to be intentional about establishing it and practicing it. For myself, I prefer to call it “My Daily Time With God,” and I have called it that for years now.

Because, that is what it is: it is your time in the very Presence of God. This is not some mindless rote repetition; it is not an empty religious routine you need to fulfill; it is not just an obligation to be checked off. It is a personal spiritual encounter with the Living God. So, we should give it the attention and priority that God deserves to receive from us.

Hebrews 10.19-22 ~ 19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let me share with you some guidelines to help us establish and maintain this Daily Time With God.

1 – Want to do it

Don’t let this be just something you feel like you have to do, or that you are expected to do this to be a good Christian. Don’t have even an inkling of a thought that you are under any kind of coercion to have this Daily Time With God … other than the compulsion of your love for God and your desire to be with Him in His Presence through His Word.

 “…but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night” ~Psalm 1.2

“Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your Name, O LORD, God of hosts” ~Jeremiah 15.16

“I have not departed from the commandments of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my portion of food” ~Job 23.12

I am assuming that everyone of us eats every day – several times a day, in fact. I also doubt that any one of us approaches the table or responds when we are called to a meal or moans before going out to your favorite restaurant with, “Oh, man – not again! Do I have to? I just ate a few hours ago.” NO! We’re glad to eat again! Why? Because we have an appetite for it. It pleases our tastes and satisfies our desires.

Look forward to your Daily Time With God with that same appetite, desire, and expectation.

“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk of the Word, that by it you may grow up into salvation – if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good!” ~1 Peter 2-3.

“But [Jesus] answered, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”’” ~Matthew 4.4

Listen to how Jesus draws the inseparable connection between loving Him and loving the words He brought us from the Father.

John 14.21-24 ~ Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

The next time you sit down to open your Bible to read it, think about the sweet and personal promises Jesus is making here to those who love Him and love His words.

OK – so now you have sharpened and whetted your appetite for God’s Word… next…

2 – Commit to do it

I mean, make an intentional decision on purpose that you are going to seek the Lord and spend time with Him every day in His Word and prayer.

One of the most prominent lessons we learn from studying the Book of Proverbs is that we must give every ounce of our resolve to seeking God in His Word. Listen again to Proverbs 2.1-7 [emphases added]:

“My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding; He stores up wisdom for the upright…”

Listen to all those strong verbs that describe the laser-like focus of our intentions and the passion of our will that won’t be deterred. This is what true commitment acts like!

We need to make that kind of commitment … and tell the LORD whom you are seeking that you are making this commitment. Yes! Go ahead and talk to Him … out loud! He is speaking personally to you with these words. Answer Him! According to what we just read, He will respect, honor, and reward your commitment by showing Himself to you and speaking with you in His Word!

OK – so you have whetted your desire and made your intentional commitment … next, you need to…

3 – Choose a Bible-reading plan

You need to know ahead of time what you plan to be reading. You can’t just pick up your Bible and then start looking for something that you can read. That kind of experience may happen a few times in a lifetime with helpful results, but it’s no way to conduct a beneficial Bible-reading practice.

So, you’re going to try to find a random ‘verse of the day’? Do you know how many verses there are in the Bible? 23,214 verses! Do you want to read your random ‘chapter of the day’? There are 1,189 chapters in the Bible. Do you hope to find your ‘word for the day’? There are approximately 622,700 words.

So, if you don’t have a plan, you’re just going to be immediately swamped, intimidated, and defeated from engaging in any meaningful interaction with the Word of God if you don’t have a plan you are following. If you don’t have a plan, you’ll give up in frustration.

Some of you are old enough to remember driving somewhere or taking a trip before GPS. How did we get to where we were going? We had an old-fashioned map. We would draw a circle around where we were starting from and draw another circle around where we were going. In between here and there, there is a maze of tangled roads and highways you can choose from. So, you survey your options, and then highlight the specific one route that you want to follow from here to there.

And then, that entire route would be broken up by the stops we planned to make along the way.

And even then, sometimes we’d get lost in spite of ourselves. But, we never would have arrived anywhere if we had just pulled out of our driveway and taken the first road or highway we came to and then made random turns as we continued to drive.

Your Bible-reading plan is like your map to guide you through your reading of God’s Word. It’s like the proverbial “how do you eat a whole elephant?” – the answer is: one bite at a time. So, your goal is to read the Bible. “Man shall live by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” You choose a plan, you get started with it, and you keep with it until you do the whole thing. And, as they say, “The joy is in the journey, the struggle is part of the joy and the final destination is not an end but another beginning of another journey.” ~ Kathy Boyd Fellure

4 – Schedule the best time of your day to do it – and strive to keep it

Again, what you will want to do is schedule a time and portion of your day and designate it, consecrate it, and keep it as best you can as that portion of your day when you have your Daily Time With God. Try to keep it like an appointment. You don’t have to be legalistic about it – you don’t have to beat yourself up with guilt when it doesn’t work out every now and then … and it will be unavoidably interrupted from time to time. None of our lives have neat, clean, predictable schedules. And, this is especially true for those who are parents with young children or those of us who are caregivers to our seniors. You are ‘on call’ literally every moment of your day.  

But, do your best to set apart a portion of your day when you can be at your freshest, at your sharpest in your attention.

Everybody is not the same on the time of day that is best for them. Some of us are morning people. Some of us are more attentive and alert in the evening, or maybe late at night. But, regardless of when you can give God a significant few minutes of your best undivided attention, I don’t think anyone would argue with or disagree that at least you need to have some time in the morning to fix your mind and attention on God – and to give Him back the day He has given you.

There is an old poem that speaks to this:

I met God in the morning, When my day was at its best;

And His Presence came like sunrise, Like a glory in my breast.

All day long the Presence lingered; All day long He stayed with me;

And we sailed in perfect calmness O’er a very troubled sea.

Other ships were blown and battered, Other ships were sore distressed,

But the winds that seemed to drive them Brought to us a peace and rest.

Then I thought of other mornings With a keen remorse of mind,

When I too had loosed the moorings With the Presence left behind.

So, I think I know the secret Learned from many a troubled way;

You must seek Him in the morning If you want Him through the day.

~Ralph Spaulding Cushman

5 – Remember that you are in the Presence of God

Here’s a prayer to pray to God even as you reach for your Bible … before you open it to read it … you’re already praying to God to speak to you through His words. Psalm 119.18, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”

Be attentive to His Presence. Be sensitive to His voice in His own words. Deliberately, intentionally, even verbally pray to God, and open up your heart and soul to enjoy being with Him and in His Presence. How many times are we commanded in His Word to ‘seek the LORD’ … and if we seek Him, He will be found by us.

And, another thing: I know that we have all said and heard that “reading the Bible is God talking to us; and praying is us talking to God” – and I’m not going to argue with the truth that is in that statement. But, neither exercise is one-sided. Neither reading the Bible nor praying is a monologue. Because when God is talking to us through His Word by the witness of the Holy Spirit, we need to be talking back to Him in response … while we are reading!

Learn to pray to God, converse with God, talk with God – even as you are reading His Word. Learn to pray back to God in the words you are reading from Him. Donald Whitney, in his book Praying the Bible, says “So basically what you are doing is taking words that originated in the heart and mind of God and circulating them through your heart and mind back to God. By this means His words become the wings of your prayers.” Pray for yourself, pray for others, and worship God according to what you are reading about Him. Delight in Him, confess your sins, believe and trust His promises, resolve and decide to obey what He is commanding us in His Word.

In other words, read God’s Word in His own Presence. Justin Peters has famously said, “If you want to hear God speak to you, read the Bible. If you want to hear God speak audibly to you, then read the Bible out loud.” We ought to read the Bible out loud more anyway … even when you’re by yourself. If you’ll read the Bible out loud, you will not only be reading it with your eyes, but you’ll be hearing it with your ears … and, hopefully, with your heart also.  

6 – Prepare for war

What I mean by this is that when you sit down to read and meditate in the Word of God, it is not just you and your Bible there. It isn’t even just you, your Bible, and God there. There are other spiritual beings in the spirit world who will be there, too. When you commit yourself to be serious with God and “live by every word that comes from the mouth of God,” then you can be sure that all the available forces of the kingdom of darkness will be marshalled and dispatched to war against you.

We would like to think that if we will commit ourselves to God and His Word, then our Bible-reading experiences will be times of peace, tranquility, and stillness. And, to be sure, oftentimes they are. But, getting serious about knowing God, and spending time with Him, and surrendering to Him to be in sync with His will puts a huge target on you for the Evil One to shoot at.

Just think about Jesus and His temptations from the Devil. What did Jesus use to victoriously defeat and triumph over his own temptations? It was the Word of God. Jesus Himself had grown up reading and meditating in the Scriptures … He had discipled and disciplined His own life by living by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Every time He was tempted by Satan, He responded by quoting words from “It has been written…” Satan knows that the Word of God will equip and arm you the same way. So, he will assault you, harass you, distract you, deter and hinder you, and tempt you with every weapon available to him. And, he will do this, more often than not, while you are in the very exercise of reading the Word of God!

That’s why Paul warned and exhorted us to fully arm and equip ourselves against Satan’s attacks by putting on the whole armor of God [Ephesians 6.10-20]. And, it shouldn’t be lost on us that all the other pieces of armor are defensive weapons against Satan’s frontal attacks: belt, breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet. The only offensive weapon is the sword that the Holy Spirit wields to engage our own personal offensive assault against the Evil One … and that sword of the Holy Spirit is the Word of God. [Along with prayer also … verses 18 and following]

And so, prepare for war against your mind, soul, and spirit even as you are in the act and exercise of reading the Word and spending time with God. And, the Devil will get up with you, and follow you, and attack you as you get on with your day’s activities after you have spent time with God. You will be tempted and spiritually assaulted in the very vein of what you had just been thinking about and meditating on and learning from God in your Daily Time With God. He will test you most fiercely with what you have just learned and received from the Word of God.

So, be prepared to face those attacks and keep the sword of the Word ready to arm and strengthen yourself in the power of the Holy Spirit.

7 – Continue to persevere and follow through consistently even during the dry seasons

Just a needed word about this … because there will be dry seasons. There will be times when God will thrill your soul with unexpected joys. God will flash His Glory to your spiritual vision with epiphanies of His Majesty, Greatness, and Grace. Other times, He may crush you with revelations of His Holiness and your own sinfulness. Sometimes, you will laugh out loud – sometimes, you will break down in tears and weeping – hey, sometimes, you might even lift your hands and shout when you are sure no one is looking!

But there will be also seasons of time and experience when you don’t feel anything. Your emotions are unstirred – your sensitivities are numb – your feelings are flat. There will be times when you feel so aware and full of your own sinfulness that you can doubt whether a person can even be saved and feel as carnal as you think you are.

But that just means that you have to keep reading His Word. Keep seeking the LORD. Even those times of spiritual dryness and famine should minister to us by stoking our desire to personally encounter God in His Word all the more.

I quit a long time ago trying to figure out what God is up to in the ways He deals with me, either through His providences in my circumstances or in my spiritual emotions and affections. But I am pretty sure that sometimes He may just choose to step around the corner and hide Himself for a brief season just to give me an opportunity to discover just how needy I am of His Presence.  

You know that Scripture from Jeremiah 29.11 that we’re always quoting about God’s knowing the plans He has for us – to give us a future and a hope? Well, God gave this word to Judah through Jeremiah even while they were still in Babylon in exile from their homeland. Their temple had been desecrated and desolated. Their worship had been disrupted. Their city had been burned to the ground. And on and on … I would say that the place they were in would qualify to be called a ‘dry season’ – wouldn’t you?

And yet, even in those times, what was God’s word to them? He told them to keep on seeking Him – with all their heart.

Jeremiah 29.10-14 ~ For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfareand not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

So, yes – continue to follow through consistently in your Daily Time With God … even through the dry seasons.

8 – Don’t hold yourself to unreasonable expectations

The main reason I’m saying this is because if you are super-conscientious, and if you are really serious about your Daily Time With God as your time of encounter and communion with God in His Word – then, if you default on it or if you don’t maintain it perfectly, then you’ll be the kind who will beat up on yourself, and be wracked with guilt, and be ready to declare yourself disqualified (adokimos). So, don’t do that! You will default from time to time!

Sometimes, we say about the life we live: “You know, the main problem with life is that it is so daily! ” Meaning, that some days are going to start falling apart early on. Your daily routines will be interrupted. Your agenda for that day will be derailed. You’ll hear the blaring in-your-face bulletin: “We now interrupt your regularly-scheduled day to bring you this meltdown – deal with it!” And, you’ll have to deal with it.

Or, you’ll get physically sick – maybe for days at a time. Or, you’ll have appointments and errands that will tie you up all day long – or whatever. Many of your days will take on a haywire life of their own.

There will be times when you feel like you are ‘behind’ in your commitments. And, let’s be honest, there may be times when you just feel spiritually raunchy and you have lost interest and the passion of your desire.

Just be sure you don’t give it up. Don’t require yourself to be perfect … because, if you haven’t learned this by now – you’re not perfect!

And, if the default is your fault, or if you’ve been negligent, or if you’ve backslidden, or if you’ve taken your own hike into a far country, or if you’ve been wandering or disobedient – you just need to repent, and come back, and pick up again where you left off. God’s Word will heal you. God will restore you. God will receive you back.

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in steadfast love. 19 He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all oursins into the depths of the sea. 20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old. ~Micah 7.18-20

You have His Word on that!

9 – Write it down

Get yourself some kind of system for writing notes as you read God’s Word. It may be a pretty notebook, but it doesn’t have to be. It may be one of these contemporary journaling notebooks that a lot of people are carrying around these days, but it doesn’t have to be. I like to use a cheap little spiral-bound 8×5 inches notebook with 80 lined pages. I buy them in bulk and keep them on hand to take all kinds of notes on different things. I keep one of them with me as I read through the Bible in my Daily Time With God. Nobody but you will ever see it anyway.

Write the date. Write the Scripture you’re reading. Then, just jot down notes to yourself as the Holy Spirit makes impressions on you.

You may want to make a note of

  • some word or some phrase that interests you, and you want to remember where it is…
  • a cross-reference, connection, and comparison with another Scripture…
  • some attribute, characteristic, or description of God for you to know and delight in…
  • an example that you must follow (or not follow)…
  • an error that you must avoid…
  • a sin that you must confess, repent from, and forsake…
  • a command you must obey…
  • a promise you must claim or act on…

Whatever it is that impresses you – whatever jumps out at you – just write it down! Remember, it’s not just words on a page. It’s not just our ancient history, or writings, or documents.

It is the Word of God that lives and abides forever!

It is God speaking to you with His own Voice and in His own words!

Make a note of it, and keep your notes to refer back to, refresh your memory later on, or just keep a journaling record of where you and God spent time together in His Word on that day!

“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success!” ~Joshua 1.8

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I am just a plain man seeking God!

Posted on September 1, 2020 by PastorDave

I AM JUST A PLAIN MAN SEEKING GOD … Have you ever wondered what it would be like to read the Bible for the first time? Without knowing what you already know about God and the Bible? Just to open it up and begin reading to discover for the first time what the Bible reveals about God, about human history, about you?

I have. I wouldn’t trade what I have learned, gathered, and accrued over the years of continuously and consistently reading the Word of God – but I have also yearned at times to return to the sheer delight of making that first fresh discovery of God and His glory from reading something that comes to life in such a powerful way that it’s like I’m seeing this for the very first time!

I remember one season in my life in particular when this thought and desire first possessed me – or at least in this way I’m going to describe to you. I would like to share it with you in the hopes that it might inspire you to read the Word of God with this same fresh perspective and insight.

“I am just a plain man seeking God!”

I just know that I was deeply depressed during this particular season. I was questioning everything about the significance and effectiveness of my life for any good that I had contributed to the Kingdom of God or to other people. I was doubting the worth of everything about me: my meaning, my purpose, the direction I was heading in, the wake I had left behind me, the prospects of whatever was in front of me … everything!

I can’t pinpoint the year exactly, but I remember well where we were living, so it was sometime around 1984-85. I’ll run across the notes that I wrote to myself some day and pin down the precise time, but that’s not the important thing for here.

I know that I just needed to hear from God – from the Living God. I was beginning a new reading-through of the Word of God like I have done repeatedly for over 50 years. I was in a pastoral role, again just like I had been for the past 12 years previous to that time. I had been a Christian, a believer for 20 years at that time. I had been reared in the pastor’s home and in church all my life.

But, none of that background, experience, or familiarity with God and the Bible was feeding my soul. I needed something fresh from God! I wanted to know God and to hear from God in a personal way, in a soul-quickening and reviving correspondence with the Living God!

None of my background or past experience qualified me for any sort of special effects or encouragement to my soul. In other words, none of those long-practiced activities could speak life into my depressed and downcast spirit.

It’s not that reading the Bible ever becomes “old hat,” or that we become jaded to it – but sometimes we go through seasons when we have lost the passion, the verve, the thrill of life that we long to enjoy when we commune with God in His Word.

I am, after all, in my core being, just a plain man who is seeking God!

I want to know God! I want to hear from God! I must hear from God Himself! And, I knew that God speaks through His Word by the life and power of the Holy Spirit. And, I knew that God has given us His Word for the specific purpose of “outing” Himself to us – revealing Himself to us, telling us who He is, who we are, and what His will and purpose is to have a loving relationship with us.

So, the thought hit my mind one day: what if I didn’t have all this background and familiarity with God and the Bible? What if I didn’t already know everything I know about God and the Bible? What if I was opening up the Bible for the first time – with the desperate desire and hunger to discover who this God is and know Him? What if I didn’t know what to expect, didn’t already know what was going to come next – but just had the confidence that if I read this Book, the Bible, I would find God, meet God, and discover who God is? And, perchance have a personal encounter with Him?

What would I discover about God just from reading the Bible from this perspective and with this intention: I am just a plain man/woman who is seeking God!

So, I remember beginning to read where the Bible begins … in Genesis 1 and following. Here are the kinds of thought I began having as I started reading … and as I kept saying to myself: “I am just a plain man who is seeking God!”

God is a creating God! God makes matter and stuff out of nothing! “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” There was nothing there before God made it, but God created everything there is! So, He is an eternally-existing God, and He is a powerful God! Powerful enough to create everything that exists out of stuff that did not exist before! And, He is the Creator of everything that is in the world. I mean, that’s what that sentence says about God!

God’s Spirit and Presence in in His created world! “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” I suppose His Spirit and His Presence is still ever-present everywhere in His physical creation. Like, right here with and around me!

God is a talking, speaking God! “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light…” and there was everything else that God just spoke and said “Let it be!” This God is not only a talking, speaking God, but He is doing His talking and speaking from His superior intelligence and intellect. He is talking and speaking as a Person – He is a Person-God and a personal God! And, I am convinced that just as this Bible that I am reading is telling me about this God talking and speaking like this … is also God speaking and talking with me! This is becoming more and more awesome – the more I read and the more I find out about this God!

God is a God who performs other activities of personal intelligence – and He also makes value judgments according to His own Personal values! “And God saw that the light was good…” So, this God is good, and He determines when other things are good, and He values good. “God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.” God calls things what He wants them to be – and what He is pleased for them to be. God is a God of superior and ultimate authority. This God “makes the call” about everything. God assigns the definition, the purpose, and the evaluation of all things. Things are distinguished and differentiated according to His desires and pleasure – they serve His good purposes.

God creates all life – and all life comes from Him! “And God said, ‘Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures … God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves…” He continues creating all living creatures on the land, in the air, in the waters. All life is created by God! This God is not only alive and living Himself, but He is the One who makes everything live that is alive!

God created human beings! God blessed human beings to live in loving relationship with Himself! God created us … God created me … to know Him, to live in communion with Him, to enjoy sharing a loving relationship with Him! “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…’” And then, after creating this first man and woman, God continued to converse with them, to bless them with His company and Presence, and allow them to serve Him under His direction and pleasure! He continued to explain and demonstrate how He and they would have this loving and gracious relationship together under His sovereignty, Lordship, and provision!

Are you getting the idea? Bear down, bore down on the words to read them with as fresh a mind as you can muster – and open up your understanding to the Holy Spirit to reveal God to you in all His holiness, majesty, greatness, and glory!

And, then, you just keep reading on through the rest of the Bible with this thirst and quest in mind: “I am just a plain man/woman seeking God!”

If one of the first and primary reasons we read the Word of God to begin with is to know God and find our joy and delight in Him, then make that your goal and quest – and He promises to “out” Himself to you and say, “Here I am!” [Isaiah 58.9]

“When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you” [Proverbs 6.22] … because it is, after all, the Word. of. God!

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