Prayer

We live in a “noisy” world. It seems that every waking hour is filled with an onslaught of clamoring sights and sounds that relentlessly bombard our eyes and ears. Around the clock, something is always vying for our attention. New Testament times weren’t as different as you might think, particularly for Jesus. Luke records that he had to “withdraw to desolate places” to engage in undistracted times of prayer (Luke 5:16; Luke 6:12; cf. Mark 1:35). If this was Christ’s necessary practice, we would be foolish to think that we could ever garner the spiritual strength and emboldened faith that we need without fighting for those guarded respites of secluded prayer. We cannot afford not to invest in these times of solitude, pouring out our hearts and petitions to God, especially when the world’s “noise” is often so hostile to our faith (1 John 2:16-17; Psalm 62:8). Prayer is the indispensible means by which we acquire and maintain our strength and spiritual vitality (Hebrews 4:15-16). So find a desolate place and extend your times of prayer this week. Make prayer a priority, knowing that those quiet moments of communion with God will reap the essential resources that you need to live for Christ in the 21st century.

The Correct View

To maintain a proper view of God we have to work to regularly affirm God’s sovereign and authoritative role as the King and Shepherd of our lives. We cannot think accurately of God without consciously adjusting our view of ourselves. If God is the exalted Director and Guide, then we must purpose to see ourselves as his followers and learners. The ancient worshippers of Israel regularly reinforced this essential perspective by singing lyrics like these from their inspired repertoire of worship songs: “Know that Yahweh is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture” (Psalm 100:3). Those may seem like obvious biblical affirmations, but how easily we are enticed to live as though this were not the case. So when you are tempted to see yourself as self-sufficient or self-directed, realize that your theology has instantly become heretical. For God to be God in our lives, we must rightly view ourselves as his obedient and responsive sheep, who are ready and willing to faithfully follow our Great Shepherd.

The Gospel

The Bible tells us that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Jesus came to solve both problems – sin and death! Sin was paid for at the cross on that dark Friday afternoon. Death was conquered at the empty tomb early on Sunday morning. The point of the gospel is to have the payment of the cross applied to your sin as you genuinely repent of your sin and wholeheartedly place your trust in Jesus Christ as the complete solution to the debt your sins have racked up against a holy God. Don’t fall to history’s most frequent religious error, thinking that being good, sincere, or better than the next guy will somehow be a sin-cancelling credit. We need to see our lives, including whatever perceived credits we might think we have, exchanged completely for the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Be sure your hope is in him and not yourself. Turn from sin and trust him today.

Christianity Attacked

It seems that almost daily we Christians have to endure a new barrage of attacks against the Christian faith. Tirades on websites, new books pitted against the Bible and angry dissenters continually grabbing microphones and keyboards to unleash their latest arguments against the Christian God. While their presentations are delivered in intellectual terms, it is important to notice how often their diatribes are predated by their own moral departure from the boundaries of Christian ethics. Remember Demas turned on Paul, Christ and Christianity after it was noted that he fell “in love with this present world” (2 Timothy 4:9). The academic attacks upon Peter’s preaching came from those who had already fallen “in love with the gain of wrongdoing” (2 Peter 2:15). The modern critics of Christianity may argue in intellectual terms, but God has often warned that the reasoning of our mind usually follows after the loves of our heart (1 Timothy 6:3-5). It’s not that we shouldn’t respond to their arguments in intellectual terms, it’s just that we must always be aware and at some point address the connection between the “lure and enticement” of unchristian morality and their antichristian arguments (2 Peter 2:1-3; James 1:14-15).

God's Justice

If God is not just, God is not good. If God does not respond justly to the unrighteous decisions of his creatures, then God cannot be holy, good or righteous. In the same way earthly judges cannot be good while perverting justice in their courtrooms, the perfect Judge cannot be perfect if he ignores sin. His perfect love does not negate, invalidate or nullify the perfection of his justice. Without justice there is an eternal imbalance, a nagging discrepancy, and a lack of divine equilibrium in the universe that cannot be disregarded. This reality is our predicament and the quandary of the human race. The gospel of course is the solution. But realize God’s love does not repeal God’s justice. Instead, God’s love provided a judicial solution. The whole point of Christ’s crucifixion was the exacting of rigorous justice motivated by extreme love. If love were enough to solve our problem and maintain divine perfection, there would have been no costly incarnation and no crushing crucifixion. But of course there was. The solution was extravagantly provided because God is love, and it was necessary because God is just.