Prayer Part II

Persons who have decided to become followers of Jesus begin to think immediately of individuals they love, friends they value and relatives who have not yet made that decision or are not seriously following through on it. Sometimes they are the only person in an entire network or community who has made the commitment to be a follower of Christ. This large group comes to their mind right away. It is only natural (and spiritual) to have a deep yearning to share faith with the people that are important in their life. The first step is to begin to pray for these individuals.

God invites us to communicate with Him. God created humans like Himself intending to communicate with them. “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.’” (Gen. 1:26, NASB) The Contemporary English version reads, “God said, “Now we will make humans, and they will be like us. We will let them rule the fish, the birds, and all other living creatures.” In the Garden of Eden, God came in the evening to walk and talk with the people He had made. They looked forward to their time with God. However, when they believed the serpent’s lies and did what the Serpent wanted instead of what God had asked them to do, the relationship was broken. Adam and Eve became afraid and hid from God. Sin divided.

God came and found them. He helped them by making clothes for them. He escorted them out of the garden away from the tree that would make them live forever in sin. And most importantly, He promised salvation and a reunion. Humans could no longer speak face to face with God, but God provided a way they could still communicate with Him. Through prayer they—and we—could still talk and walk with God. His promise of Jesus would make a relationship still possible.

John called Jesus “the Word,” meaning the same creative power that spoke the world into existence. “In the beginning was the one who is called the Word. The Word was with God and was truly God. From the beginning the Word was with God. And with this Word, God created all things.” (John 1:1-3, CEV) “The Word was in the world, but no one knew him, though God had made the world with his Word.” (John 1:10, CEV)

God’s Word, Jesus, has power—creative power. By speaking, God created the world. God’s words, God’s thoughts still have power. God still creates good in the world. Positively changed lives demonstrate God’s creative power. We can partner with God, joining in His creative work through communicating with Him in prayer.

Although Jesus went back to heaven physically, God wants to live with us. “…If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him. (John 14:23-24 NASB) God wants to be with us through prayer. Even though we can’t see God now, prayer brings God into our lives.

Come and Eat

“Come and eat.” It’s possible to respond to words like this by only noticing our own appetite and the food on the table. We can “come and eat” without responding to the speaker’s tone of voice, atmosphere, or heart. But if we do that, we can miss a lot about ourselves as well as the speaker. The way “Come and eat” is said may be alerting us to thoughtfulness, or thoughtlessness, that needs or deserves attention. By tuning in to the heart of the speaker we can begin to hear the extraordinary in the ordinary—“Come and eat” may be expressing nurturing love that is as life-giving as it is routine!

The Bible is a collection of God’s words to us through prophets, priests, and poets. We choose whether or not to tune into the heart of God through these words. Some people choose not to enter the mind and heart of God. These people seem to think it’s better to just quote the words God said, or the Bible writer said, and then discuss those words. Apparently they don’t think it’s possible, right, or safe to approach and enter the mind and heart of God.

Others are downright relaxed about entering the heart of God. It’s as if some are trying to defend holiness by staying away; others seem quite sure holy ground was meant for picnics.

Somewhere between those two extremes, or perhaps by accepting them together as a necessary paradox, we can and must approach and enter the mind and heart of God. It’s not enough to multiply words about the Word. The Author engages us, and awaits our response. It’s unthinkable that God is a defenseless Child awaiting a parent’s profound love; a passionate Lover awaiting union with a spouse; a wise Parent awaiting a child’s adoration; a faithful Friend awaiting the joys of communication with a friend. But God is that Child, Lover, Parent, and Friend. And prayer is love’s response. Prayer is love’s response to Love. And we can hardly respond to Love if we don’t enter the heart of the Lover.

We can’t fully know the mind and heart of God. What we can know of the mind and heart of God is not transferable to others. But we can know that the mind and heart of God are laid bare for each of us, and we are drawn, allured, enticed, even begged to respond. Divine love made vulnerable—it’s unthinkable and true.

In order to approach and enter what God thinks and feels about prayer, we need to see again, hear again—to some degree know again in our minds and hearts—this vulnerability of Divine Love.

Another way to say it is: God started it. When kids are fighting and called to account, each is likely to point to the other and say, “She started it.” “He started it.” In the case of Divine Love, which includes wrestling if not fighting, there is no question. God started it. Being really clear about this is an important foundation for all that prayer is and all it can become for us.

The Prayer to End All Prayers

In Revelation 4 we are given an awesome and awe-inspiring vision of worship as it is in heaven. Artists have tried (and failed) to give any conception of what John saw. His words, too, fail. We

can’t imagine it. But there are some words there that we do understand.

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”(vs. 11)

This is the greatest prayer there is. It’s a Thank You, but it includes at its heart the recognition that we are unworthy and often fail (I’m Sorry), that we need Help, and that all we Will or can do will come from Him who sits at the control center of the universe, seen and unseen. It’s completely unbelievable that this Being could possibly want to talk with you and me. But He does! He said so.

“Come, let us reason together,” He said. (Is. 1:18)

“If you lack wisdom, ask,” He said. (James 1:5)

And, believe it or not, just a few chapters later, in Revelation 19, we’re invited to that great heavenly worship, and to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. But only if we know Him. The way we get to know Him is by responding to His invitation now, here, today.

Prayer from the Heart

The prayers from the Bible, which we’ve been looking at, show us the attitude that God loves to see. Hannah may have had anger and petty feelings towards Peninnah, irritation or anger with Elkanah, and perhaps guilt and shame as well. She was human, so she probably did. But, while she told God the truth, those were not the central emotions in her heart when she came to Him for help. She was looking out of her situation by faith, and reaching up to grasp God’s hand. She was praying for what she wanted, not for what she didn’t want.

Jesus was definitely grappling with fear and desperation none of us will ever taste. What if he couldn’t come back? The second death was permanent. What if this was truly the end? He showed his emotions honestly to his Father, but the central ingredient, the vital one, was faith. “Your will be done.” He came out of the garden with the battle won. The rest was just getting it over with. In fact, after that, his attention appears to have been more on Pilate, the women in the road, his disciples, his mother, the dying thief, and even the centurion than on himself or his feelings.

And Habakkuk? First he takes his stand. He waits on God, watching for the answer he knows will come. And God does answer. All of chapter 2 is his answer, and it ends with a call to silence. “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

Silence could be a category all its own, but any of the four can be prayed in contemplative silence, even “Help.” Habakkuk’s silence must have been productive, because all of chapter 3 is a song, “To the choirmaster, with stringed instruments.” And the climax is in verses 17-19. If you read attentively, you will recognize these fig trees, vines, flocks and fields as reminders of the great Covenant Promises in Deuteronomy 28. Habakkuk is saying, “Even if the very covenant of God appears to fail, “yet I will rejoice!” That’s amazing. That only comes from the heart.

Bible Examples of Prayer

We’ll study some examples of prayers in the Bible and see which of the four categories they fit into.

Hannah—Samuel is one of the most famous Old Testament prophets. Two fairly long books tell the story of his life, and of the first kings of Israel and Judah,—kings that Samuel anointed before God for their positions. Yet, humanly speaking, Samuel wasn’t supposed to exist.

The first book, 1 Samuel, begins with the familiar story of Hannah, the beloved but childless wife, who begs God for a son. To her eyes, her situation seems impossible. She is without honor in her society, in the eyes of the rival second wife, and in her own eyes. It is important to note that Hannah is not without honor in the eyes of her husband, who loves her. Still, he wanted children enough to take a second wife. So Hannah has taken her desperate case to the God of hosts, to the tabernacle at Shiloh.  Her prayer is recorded in verses 11-16.

“O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”

In which category is this prayer? There are two, actually. It’s obviously a heartfelt Help prayer, but it also includes “I will.” We humans do this frequently: “If only you will [fill in the blank], I promise to [fill in some unrealistic promise, often including “I’ll never ask for your help again.”] Silly! If God believed you, he certainly wouldn’t say yes, because He wants you to come back and ask for help again!

But Hannah, we know, was praying from the bottom of her heart, and she did follow through. And so we have two books of the Old Testament named after her son, and filled with stories of the mighty deeds of the Lord of hosts he and his mother served. She also prayed a Thank You so beautiful that it’s been preserved for millennia, (2:1-10) and was imitated in some ways by Mary, the mother of Jesus, in her song of thanks and praise.

What if God’s answer had not been yes? Obviously, the Old Testament, not to mention Hebrew history, would have been drastically different, but what do you think Hannah’s response would have been? Would she have given up her faith? Would you?

Jesus—Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22 all record Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. This is the greatest and most important “Help!” and “I Will” of all time. It certainly took more time and probably included a lot more words than we have recorded, but it had basically only two pieces:

“Help! Save me!”

“Your will, not mine.” Which means, “I Will.”

And he did.

And he didn’t have to.

What if he hadn’t?

This time we’re looking at infinitely more than a change in history. Human history wouldn’t have even continued. Wouldn’t have begun, in fact, if God had not been a God of love, a God with a Plan. Without that prayer on the bloody, sweaty ground of Gethsemane, we wouldn’t be having this discussion of prayer.

Habakkuk—Habakkuk’s complaints (Hab. 1:2-4 and 1:12-2:1) and the Lord’s answers (Hab 1:5-11 and 2:2-19) get into deep and far-reaching issues. Individual happiness, national welfare, the honor and glory of God are all involved. Which of our four categories can we find here? They are all here, in some form. It’s certainly a cry for Help, it includes praise and recognition of God’s greatness, which comes under the Thank You category, recognition of the sinfulness of the people, though it doesn’t specifically state an apology, and ends with an “I Will.”

“I will take my stand to watch,” Habakkuk says, “and station myself on the tower, and look forth to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.” (2:1) This brings us to the most important factor of prayer that we need to consider: attitude.

Kinds of Prayer

It was once said that if you only ever said one prayer in your life—“Thank you”—it would be enough. The person who said this was making a point about how incalculably, incredibly much we owe God, just for creating us, creating this world, blessing us in numberless ways daily. Of course there are some other helpful kinds of prayers, but it’s surprising how few categories they can fit into.  Here are four that include most prayers, from Bible times until today.

“Thank You!”—It’s true that this should be prayer number one, and the one we use the most, yet it often is neglected in favor of “Gimme,” which isn’t even a valid category. Praise, which is actually different from thanksgiving, can still be included in this category. Praise is recognition of God’s innate greatness and goodness and the favor God shows us, though we don’t merit it. Thanksgiving is recognition of the specific acts that show God’s greatness. Neither receives nearly the acknowledgement it ought to from us.

“I’m Sorry!”—This should probably be number two on our prayer lists, used nearly as often as Thank You. In fact, it can be closely followed by a Thank You—for forgiveness and grace. It’s a daily necessity in most fumbling human lives.

“Yes, I will.”—This is a prayer of obedience, a prayer of willingness and consecration. It sometimes comes in the form of “Send Me,” but may not be a sending away; in fact it probably isn’t. It’s usually a sending into your ordinary day, your ordinary life, your ordinary family, your ordinary job. “Yes, Lord, I will. Send me.” But the minute after this prayer, you’ll likely need the fourth and last category . . .

“Help!!”—This is, in fact, by far the most-used of all prayers, and in one sense, that’s OK. We’re frail and faulty, and we get confused a lot. God is happy to come to our rescue, and we couldn’t begin to count the times He has, most of them completely unknown to us. The problem is, we get it confused with that false “Gimme” category above, as in “Help me get this job, house, car, mink coat, winning score …” and it goes downhill from there.

Valid uses of help prayers are in any kind of difficult or desperate situation, small or large, and right after saying “I will,” and discovering the shocking limitations of your ability to do whatever it was God asked you to do and you so blithely promised.

Prayer

“Everybody knows that.” Ever talk or think that way? When we do, it’s a way to acknowledge a “given.” Baseball, apple pie and motherhood are “givens” in America, just like hockey night in Canada.

In Christianity, prayer is a given. Everybody knows that prayer … How would you finish that sentence? What is it every Christian knows about prayer? More specifically, what do you know, and therefore think and feel about prayer?

What you think and feel about prayer makes a mighty big difference. It’s the difference between a doctrine and a dynamic, a belief and being. It’s the difference between a given and grace. A doctrine, a belief, or a “given” is not enough. There must also be a dynamic. It takes being; it takes grace.

Baseball, apple pie, and motherhood aren’t necessarily great just because they’re given. Neither is prayer. But when prayer becomes a dynamic that involves your being and gets you actively involved in the grace of God—then it’s great.

How might you discover whether prayer is great for you? Where would you look to discover what you feel about prayer? In the Bible? In your heart? In your being? Would you sort through your thoughts? If so, how would you do that? The mention of prayer sends some people back—often back quite a few years—to a time when they were in a life-threatening situation, and they prayed and their life was spared. Some people recall a time when they prayed for someone else, and it came out just as they hoped and prayed it would.

For years I had heard and read about an outstandingly courageous and decorated veteran. Finally, there came a day when I got to hear him in person. As I listened I heard about his past. It was glory retold. But the fire was gone—the fire that lights the life of people of any age—but especially the youngest and the oldest. Neither the glory nor the decorated veteran seemed very present at all. It was depressing.

Hearing prayer stories can be like hearing that decorated veteran. Once upon a time we may have experienced a wonder-filled, dramatic answer to prayer. But if the fire is out, there’s no point in retelling yesterday’s glory. In order to discover what you think and feel about prayer, come into the present. Be present to yourself, to others, and most of all to God. When you are present in the present, then you can let the past and the future add fuel to the brightly burning present. What you actually think and feel about prayer begins right here, right now, with today’s hope, fear, grief and joy; and most of all with today’s God, the One who is always I Am. What do you think, what do you feel when you hear the word prayer?

Mission - Summary

Life needs to have purpose for it to feel truly worth living.  No one wants the epitaph on their tombstone merely to read: “Used up oxygen, took up space.” The longer we live, the more we sense a need to live a life beyond ourselves. Perhaps Horace Mann, the brilliant politician and

noted educator, captured this yearning best when he said, “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”

Human beings were created with a divine hankering for a mission greater than themselves, a calling that helps broken people traverse this life through the good news of salvation and gives them hope for the future. In fulfilling this mission, we find a deep inner peace with God and ourselves.

Your Role in Christ’s Mission

Probably the most important thing to understand about mission is that God is the one who does the calling, and calls different people to different tasks. That’s why the Spirit has to come first.

If you want to know what it is that God is calling you to do, the first task, and by far the most important, is to be certain of your own saving relationship. If work needs to be done in your own heart, do it first. Have you completely turned yourself over to Jesus? Do you know for certain that He has accepted you? This question is not meant to imply that He sometimes doesn’t. He promises to accept all who come to Him. It is meant to emphasize that those who are uncertain of their own safety with God already have trust issues and may not be the best ones to be offering comfort on the front lines, though it is also true that in attempting to strengthen the faith of others, we will strengthen our own, and it is a mistake to wait until we are “strong enough, good enough, or perfect enough.”

Have you recognized the presence of the Spirit in your life, even though you still find that astonishing, given what you know about your inmost soul?

If these things are in good order, and if you are feeling a call on your life, something that is starting to take hold of you, a person or people group, even in your own neighborhood or workplace whom you love and are drawn to and long to somehow help to see God clearly, then your next task is to find a mentor or partner or group with whom to work. Different missions require different workers, and yours may be a group mission (most likely) or it may be solitary, but if that’s the case, it’s even more essential that you have backup. Especially if you’re going deep into enemy territory!

Which brings up an often-ignored or overlooked, but vital, mission—to be a backup person for someone else on the front lines. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, may simply be to stay in the background with rations of heavenly manna, canteens of living water, the biggest arsenals of prayer you can stockpile, and lots of bandages!

Spiritual Gifts: The trend in recent years has been to take inventory of the spiritual gifts within a church family and to use those gifts in specific ways to implement a mission strategy. This can be far more effective than simply using the latest Power Point seminar to train everybody to

“do evangelism” and then sending them all out shotgun style. Jesus did the same by giving His disciples tasks that complemented their abilities and furthered the gospel commission. Of course, He often had a better idea of their hidden gifts than they did, and still tends to ask people to do things they are certain they could never do.

But it’s also possible to make a spiritual gifts test of some kind the latest How To Do Evangelism method and get so caught up in making precise definitions and lists of each one’s gifts (and arguing over whether a gift should really be on the list or not) that still, no real outreach gets done. Worse yet, people are discouraged and less likely to try again. It’s simpler than we like to admit. Ask God. He knows what He wants you to do, and yes, He will tell you.

The Need for Local and Global Missions

Global: From childhood, at least for those growing up in a church culture, the word “mission” conjures up long voyages to dark jungles and living with people drastically different from those among whom the missionary has grown up. Those who were most successful in these endeavors (measured by the people’s response to and love of the missionaries) were those who went with an attitude of love and humility, who lived with the people in the way the people lived, learned new ways of eating and dressing, learned new languages, and adapted their teaching to that new language. Books abound that tell stories of people groups who were resistant until a missionary who was paying attention enough to their belief systems began to talk about the Everlasting Gospel through the stories of the people themselves. Most often, the missionaries gained new insights into God’s love and grace, as well.

A term that has become very familiar in recent years is the “10/40 Window,” the designation for that area of the world in which the majority of people have not heard about Jesus. This is the area between ten degrees and forty degrees north of the equator and stretches from North Africa to China. It is not only an area that is underserved by Christian outreach, it is also an area of heavy population density, and of great need. If missionaries arrive whose only goal is to tell these people “how to get to heaven,” they will not have as much impact as those who also help them live healthfully and safely today, where they are, and without trying to erase their own cultures.

We need to pay much more attention to Jesus’ missionary methods. He arrived with humility, lived with little fanfare among the people for three decades, which seems a shocking waste of time to us, wore their clothes, ate their food, spoke their language, and showed by His every word and action that they were deeply important to Him and to His Father. Then, when He spoke, they listened.

Local Mission: As important as that 10/40 window is, it is equally imperative that Jesus is known to all in our own communities. In many ways, this means an even deeper preparation in learning the languages and customs of the people group to which one is called. Just because we speak English, and even perhaps go to church, it does not follow that we think the same or understand our neighbors when they speak. We have a good track record in speaking to people from similar, Bible-based, church-going cultures to our own. If someone believes the Bible is the Word of God, we know how to show them what it says about various topics they may have questions about, or how it speaks to a need or crisis they may be facing.

But what if my neighbors are completely secular, perhaps never having seen the inside of a church? What if they aren’t even sure there is a God, let alone that Jesus was His (or Her or Its) Son? What if they are Neopagan, or New Age, or spiritualist or Buddhist? What if every word I am used to saying about God is like so much gibberish to them? Then I have a few choices.

I can try to talk to them in the missionary language of my childhood and then give up, assuming that “they don’t care.” This is, quite simply, not a godly choice. It’s a judgment we are not equipped to make.

I can wait for someone else to reach them. This may be a valid choice. I may not be called by God to evangelize them, but only to love them openly, pray for them fervently, and wait for God to move.

I can learn their language and try to enter their world with the hope of inviting them into mine. This is a dangerous choice, because in “entering their world” we don’t mean living in a way that denies or compromises our faith, we mean trying to learn to see things through their eyes, to “walk in their moccasins” for awhile. So I’d better not do it unless I am certain that God is calling me, personally, to this mission field, and unless I have close, supportive, strong Christian backup. 

Adapting to Different Needs

In the preaching of the gospel, many specious beliefs are added by well-meaning, and not-so-well-intentioned, people. This is nothing new. It is these unclean, human-made doctrines that Jesus denounced as “rules taught by men” (Matt. 15:9, NIV). There have been plenty more added since His time on earth! How, then, can we avoid being seen as yet another group of people who think their way is the only way, in competition with every other faith group out there?

Paul faced this sort of cynicism even in the early days of the church. He determined to anchor his preaching in Jesus alone. “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” (1 Cor. 2:1-5) This kind of humble yet steadfast attitude can help to disarm many, though not all critics. Jesus said that He, if He were lifted up, would draw all. We don’t have to draw them. We just have to lift Him up.

Yet Paul also adapted his message depending on his audience. Note the similarities and differences in his messages to the Corinthian church (here in 1 Cor. 2) and to the pagan thinkers at Mars’ Hill in Athens. (Acts 17:16-31) To the Corinthians he used such phrases as “we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began” (Verse 7) and “words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words” (Verse 14) and quotes the Bible twice. To the Athenians, he spoke of “the unknown God,” an inscription on their own statuary, (v. 23) said this God could not live in a temple built by human hands, (Verse 24), which was something Plato would have said, and quoted from one of their own poets (Verse 28). How could he have done this unless he had read their poets?

If we are serious about reaching all the world for Christ, we must let go of our notions of our own superiority (or worse yet, the superiority of our methods) and meet all kinds of people on their own ground, being humble enough to assume that we may have something to learn from them as well. This means different people are sent to different people groups (unsurprisingly), and that one person’s mission field may be another’s territory to be avoided.

The Central Importance of Mission

Jesus made it clear throughout His life that He was here for one purpose only; to show a dying race what God was really like. His preaching, His teaching, His storytelling, His miracles, and almost more than anything else, His healing, all proclaimed unequivocally that God loved them. It had come to be popular, as it does periodically in human history, to believe that God was either distant and uncaring or angrily watching closely for every transgression, just daring each person to give Him an excuse to curse them. People who were sick, poor, or otherwise afflicted were assumed to have displeased God—or perhaps their parents had done so even before they were born! Now, along came this pretentious Rabbi, (who didn’t even have proper rabbinical training) not only being very careless of some of the rituals, but claiming that the Most High, unnameable Holy One was His Abba! “Abba,” insisted Jesus, “loves you!”

So when He left, He made it equally clear that His followers were to take on the same mission. Beginning in Jerusalem and moving outward like some mighty vortex of love and joy, they were to pass on the Good News. The Best News, in fact, that the human race had ever heard. John the Beloved reports that when Jesus appeared among the disciples in the upper room some days after His resurrection, He “said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’” (John 20:21) Just as Jesus had come with one agenda, one mission, and had stuck to it no matter what through the years of His time here, now His followers were being sent with the same mission.

But first, they must be prepared. Aside from the three years and more of hands-on training they had received, they needed the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This seems to have come in two phases. John continues, “And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (Vs. 22)

Then He told them, as recorded in Acts 1:4-5, that the Spirit was to come in even more power, and that they were not to leave Jerusalem until this happened. “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Do you suppose they wondered how they would know when it happened? Today, Christians sometimes argue about what it means to be “baptized with the Holy Spirit,” but there was no doubt on Pentecost!

All the “Great Commission” passages, in the four Gospels and in the book of Acts, show us the picture of a God who, like a commanding general, prepares His troops for battle. In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus bestows power on the disciples (Verse 20); Jesus authorizes the use of His power in clearly defined ways (Versus 19-20); Jesus promises to back up His disciples in times of need (Verse 19); Jesus prepares them before He sends them out (Verse 20).

Now, they were ready. They were to go. And go they did. They turned the known world upside down in a generation.

Nothing has changed. The Great Commission is still a priority for the Christian. The salvation of many depends on our ability to spread the news of God’s grace (vs. 16). The Bible establishes an unambiguous route to salvation. “No one comes to the Father,” but through Christ (John 14:6, NIV); salvation is found in “no other name” (Acts 4:12, NIV); and we can know whether or not we have eternal life, because it is “in his Son” and “he who has the Son has life” (1 John 5:11, 12, NIV).

Notice in 1 John 5:11, 12 that God does not ask us to earn eternal life. As if we could! God has given it to all who have placed their trust in Jesus as their personal Savior. God has one Way to eternal life, and He has not only given it to us, He has provided the means to get there. Hence, the choice to accept Jesus as Savior and Lord is the most important decision we make in life.

Yet it is also true that the Bible explains that God has “winked at” (KJV) or “overlooked” (NIV) times of ignorance, when people honestly did not know how to serve Him. There will be uncounted multitudes in heaven who never heard of Jesus or only heard lies about Him, but followed in the honesty of their hearts the Creator they instinctively knew existed. According to clear Bible truth, whether they knew Him or not, they are there only and entirely by the blood of Jesus.

Therefore, we must take care how we present the Gospel. Not all well-meaning missionaries have made it sound like good news. The apostle Paul explained to the fledgling Timothy that the law of God addresses those who behave contrary to “sound doctrine” (1 Tim. 1:10). The Greek word for sound, as used here by Paul means “to be healthy.” It is the word from which we get the term hygiene. “Salvation,” for that matter, means wholeness and health. The early people had a much more complete vision of these matters than many today who are only concerned with the future state of souls, and not with the present and future state of the whole being.

Seventh-day Adventism has built-in safeguards against errors on both sides of this road, believing as we do that health is “the right arm” of the gospel. In many, many countries, in both hemispheres, once people have learned that we care about their well-being here and now, whether physical, mental, emotional, or social, they become interested to learn about our understanding of the everlasting gospel.

Mission

In God’s marvelous master plan to spread the gospel, He has devised a strategy that is both corporate and personal (1 Cor. 12:11-28). There is one body, but that body is constructed of many members working harmoniously to achieve the end of sharing the good news of salvation with a dying world.

When the body is working for the salvation of others, something wonderful happens to its individual parts. “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Eph. 4:14-16, NIV).

If the church is truly the body of Christ, it will have loving arms that reach out to others, especially those who are suffering and careworn. It just can’t help it, because that’s what Jesus does, and He is the one and only head of this body.

Is There a True Church?

We have seen that there are many different churches with varied beliefs, worship styles and structures. Christianity has a long, sorry history of splintering, infighting, debate and disagreement. On many occasions Christians have killed one another in large numbers over theological disagreements. (See Constantine’s Sword by James Carroll.)

Is there one true religion which you must belong to in order to make sure that you will be saved?

Most North Americans reject this idea, even most Christians of all kinds. In a survey conducted in 2008 by the Pew Research Center seven in ten Americans who are members of some religion agreed that “many religions can lead to eternal life” and “there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of my religion.” Among Protestants two thirds agreed. A majority of the most conservative Protestants agreed. Nearly two thirds of Seventh-day Adventists agreed. Only Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses among faiths of any significant size disagreed. In other words the concept of one true church is not an effective way to reach all but a handful of people today in the U.S. Canada is generally more secular than the U.S. and even has a law against making defaming comments about other religions.

Those religions that are interested in evangelism generally no longer make the claim that they are the one true faith that has a monopoly on God’s truth. The Adventist Church has never claimed that only Adventists will be saved, although some individual church members and even preachers have made claims that seem to be very close to this.

What the Adventist Church does teach is that it has a unique role in the history of Christianity which is highlighted in Revelation 12:17: “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” However, we are not the only church to claim the “remnant” label. If you search “Remnant Church” on the Internet, you come up with The Remnant Fellowship Church, the Remnant Presbyterian Church, the Remnant Westside Church, the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and many others.

So in the Bible, there seems to be a group of people that follows God’s commandments and has the “testimony of Jesus.” In the New International Reader’s Version, this verse is translated as follows: “They obey God’s commands and hold firmly to what Jesus has said.” So who does that? Who obeys the commandments? Everyone, you might be tempted to say, but there is one commandment that seems to have slipped away from the vast majority of today’s Christians. That is the fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day.” (Exodus 20:8) Most of Christendom worships on Sunday despite the fact that the first Christians—the ones you read about in the New Testament—celebrated the Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday as remembered by the Jews from the beginning of time. There is no place in the Bible that says that God changed the Sabbath. That is an idea that came along later and evidently for the basest of reasons; anti-Semitism.

So if we find a church that retains the Sabbath, does that make it the remnant church? Being part of the remnant church is more of an individual experience than an institutional one. The remnant, or the people who are left over near the end of the full sweep of the Bible story, keep God’s commandments and hold to what Jesus taught. If you would like to find an authentic Christian experience then you need to find a group of believers that strives to do just that. A church or fellowship that (1) takes the Bible seriously, (2) tries to follow all ten of God’s commandments and (3) hold onto what Jesus taught. And that brings us back to our topic: finding a church.

God is infinitely larger than we are. He is deeper, kinder, more mysterious than we could ever imagine. The realms of the universes, the extent of God’s kingdom is so much larger than we can fathom, and so much more intricate than we can ever understand. In our simple, human thinking, we do our best to follow God’s way and to keep His commandments. Is it possible for one church on our planet to have all of the truth? And in essence, is there one true church? Does such a thing exist?

That depends on what you are looking for in a “true church.” If you are looking for a perfect organization that has no problems, no sinners or broken people, then the answer is no. However, our responsibility is not to find perfection, because that doesn’t exist on this sinful world anymore. Instead, our responsibility is to find a church that strives to be what Jesus taught the church should be. Our responsibility is to find a church that tries to follow all God’s commandments, take the Bible seriously and have a true relationship with Jesus.

I believe in my search for the “right church for me,” I have found the church that comes closest to this standard. I have found a church that follows the Bible and takes it seriously from Genesis through Revelation. I have not found any other church that follows the Bible as closely as this church does. Other people and churches have noted the Adventists’ pure adherence to the Bible. For example, a Roman Catholic document states the following:

Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the Church ever did, happened in the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday. “The Day of the Lord” (dies Dominica) was chosen, not from any directions noted in the Scriptures, but from the Church’s sense of its own power. The day of resurrection, the day of Pentecost, fifty days later, came on the first day of the week. So this would be the new Sabbath. People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically become 7th Day Adventists, and keep Saturday holy.” (Sentinel)

The Catholic Universal Bulletin states: “The Church changed the observance of the Sabbath to Sunday by right of the divine, infallible authority given to her by her founder, Jesus Christ. The Protestant claiming the Bible to be the only guide of faith, has no warrant for observing Sunday. In this matter the Seventh-day Adventist is the only consistent Protestant.”

I want to be a part of a “consistent Protestant” church. I want to be a part of an organization that follows the Bible as closely as it can. This church is not perfect because it is made up of imperfect people, but I think that it is the closest church to the truth that we have available in this day and age. Search for yourself and find out if you agree.

*http://biblelight.net/st-cath.htm

Room for Interpretation

Almost all Christian churches base their beliefs on the Bible to a greater or lesser extent. No one says, “Oh, we just do that because it seems appropriate. It’s not Biblical, at all.” So all churches believe that what they do is based on Bible principles. They simply interpret the Bible differently than do others. How much room is there for different interpretations?

There are many differing doctrines between denominations, and all of them, even the opposing ones, are based on the Bible. So how are you supposed to sift through all of these? And does it matter which ones you choose? If they are all based on the Bible, what does it matter anyway? Is it possible for all of them to be right? There are many contradictory doctrines held by various denominations, far too many to list here and now.

Logically, two doctrines that contradict each other cannot both be right. Jesus cannot come with trumpets and shouts that wake the dead and also come silently and sneak His people o! the earth. We cannot go immediately to heaven or hell when we die and also rest in our graves until the resurrection. It is not possible for both to be true. Therefore one doctrine must be mistaken. But how is that possible when both are based on the Bible? How can you tell which is right and which is wrong? How can you tell if they are both wrong?

It is possible to misinterpret a verse in the Bible. Many people have done it in the past. It can happen with the best intentions. How can we, being fallible human beings, know which interpretations are right, which are wrong, and which hold some truth but confuse the total picture?

The only way to find the truth is by study. It is easy to jump to a conclusion based on one text, but when you take all of the texts that pertain to a topic, lay them all out and examine them, only then can you discern the pattern of God’s truth. Two or three texts might seem to point in one direction, but when you gather all of the texts a more detailed picture is revealed.

So how much wiggle room do we have for different interpretations? Well, we are all human and therefore fallible. We would be hypocritical indeed if we looked down on other Christians who also base their beliefs on the Bible, but have not studied all the texts for ourselves. The Bible warns us, “Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings.” (Hebrews 13:9) You will undoubtedly be introduced to all kinds of exciting ideas with new appeal, but there is only one truth. We are closest to that truth when we carefully study all of Scripture on the topic. However, it is only by grace alone that we are saved, and it is only by His grace that we have the luxury and ability to study His Word. We must never forget that and get cocky and aloof with other people who believe differently. Nor should we be easily swayed by new teachings. We must demand proof, test that proof and think seriously about our beliefs.

In finding a church, does it not make sense to find a church that does the same? To move ahead clearly in your walk with Jesus it is important to find a church that carefully studies the Bible and does not easily accept either traditional positions or new views on important topics.

The Bible: A Safe Bet

As followers of Jesus the Bible is our primary communication from God. However, not all Christians and churches take the Bible literally. Some say it is highly symbolic, with broad ideals and parables, but not to be taken as a straight-forward document. For our purposes here it is important to note that if a church takes a high view of Scripture it will encourage its members to study the Bible themselves and use the Bible in making practical decisions in their own lives and in the life of the congregation.

It is a mistake for a church to make Bible study so mysterious that it is of no use to the believer. For example, if the Ten Commandments were not meant to be taken literally, but are simply social codes that helped to smooth the living conditions of a large number of people living together, then are Christians to conclude that stealing is not wrong?

If Jesus was simply a “good man” as many people claim, then what difference does He make to humanity? Why should we even consider being Christians? Such an approach to the story of Jesus in the Bible leaves us with only two options and both of them suggest an existence that is pointless. If Jesus claimed to be the Son of God when, in fact, He was not, then either He was deluded or He was lying. What kind of universe is it that has a God who is delusional or one who lies to us on such basic matters? What sense does it make to be part of a Christian church and then cut the foundation out from under that faith by an approach to the Bible that nullifies it as the Word of God?

If Jesus did not die for our sins, then the hope that pervades the entire Bible is a hoax and we can have no confidence that there will be anything beyond this life at all. If the claim that Jesus died for our sins is a lie and we claim to believe that Jesus existed and that there is a God, then we have no proof that God is good in any way, because we have already been lied to on a very large count!

The Christian life does not guarantee us “the most” out of life on earth. It involves sacrificing, putting others ahead of ourselves and fighting our baser desires. If we are simply on this earth to live once; if God doesn’t really love us like His children, but instead has a distant interest in us (like a person with an ant farm); then there is no reason to live by principles of compassion and justice. We might as well take whatever we can for ourselves before we die. Why not just look out for Number One and make the most for ourselves? In fact, with ground cut out from under us, why bother with life? Suicide or slow self-destruction both become logical alternatives.

The Bible must be taken as the Word of God or else all hope is gone, all humanity disappears. As Christians who have experienced God, who know that God exists and cares for us, how can we set aside the Bible and only take the parts to our liking? If this is God’s Word, then we must take it seriously and do our best to follow “all that I have taught you.” (Matthew 28:20)

If we are going to take the Bible seriously and believe it to be the straight-forward Word of God and not some kind of fantasy, then we must find a church that does the same thing! Basing our faith just on our own ideas ignores the will of God. But when we base our beliefs on the Bible as the Word of God, we are allowing God to speak to us and to shape our lives.

Therefore, in our search for a church, finding a church that follows the Bible, studies the Bible, respects the Bible and accepts it as the true Word of God is of utmost importance. Nothing can be more fundamental than finding a church that brings us closer to God by helping us to hear Him through Scripture.

Emotion vs. Doctrine: Where is the Spirit?

So you’ve been doing some church shopping, looking around and attending some services. You picked up brochures for visitors. You’ve asked a few questions of the greeting teams. You’ve seen some congregations you think you like. How do you know when you’ve arrived?

“I will feel it,” you might say. “I will know when I see it.” But what is it that you feel, exactly? Is it a feeling of comfort around socially compatible people? Is it a feeling of companionship around friendly people? Is it a feeling of contentment in an atmosphere that is appropriate to your tastes regarding music or the level of formality or the order of service? Or, is the Holy Spirit actually speaking to you?

Feelings can be an important “gut reaction.” Baseball provides an illustration. The distance from home plate to the pitcher’s box is 60 feet and six inches. The bases are 15 inches square and are spaced out 90 feet apart. The baseball weighs five ounces and is nine inches in circumference. The bat is a solid wooden piece, not more than 2.75 inches in diameter at the thickest part, and not longer than 42 inches. If the pitcher can throw the ball at 90 miles per hour it takes half a second to reach the plate. The normal human reaction time is two-tenths of a second. So when the major league batter eyes the pitcher, sees him wind up, and then must choose to swing, step back, bunt or let it go, he makes a decision almost instantaneously. However, that instinctive decision is made based on many measurements and known facts. The batter does not tell you that he logically thought the process through, did some math in his head, pondered his options then made a solid decision. No, the batter reacts in a split second and works entirely on instinct. (See infoplease.com and exploratorium.edu on the Web for the source of the technical details above.)

So a “feeling” about a church could be the subconscious accumulation of facts and  observations that by-passed the logical decision making part of the brain and went straight to that instinctive feeling. Or, from a more spiritual perspective, that “feeling” about a church could be the whisper of the Holy Spirit, speaking in that still, small voice. God created our amazing brains that absorb and respond to information faster than we are consciously aware, and He uses it to speak to us if we let Him. But are feelings always reliable? Is it possible to have some red herrings?

There may be times when your feelings delude you. For example, when you know that

you should do something, but don’t feel like it. Or, when it is more comfortable to stay where you are than to step out in faith. I am not suggesting that when we get that “this is wrong” feeling that we should ever go against it. However, we might get a “this is right” feeling, and be entirely wrong! Part of it might be right, but we might be missing a major piece of the puzzle if we aren’t able to look at things objectively before making a solid decision.

Decisions cannot always be made emotionally. Recent research has shown that the human brain uses conflicting areas of the brain to make decisions: the logical part and the emotional part. (National Institutes of Health) A logical decision might be to save for the future. An emotional decision might be to buy something now for immediate gratification. Emotions might not always be steered by the Holy Spirit, and they might steer us wrong. If a church tends to be filled with people in our age bracket or socioeconomic level, we might feel more comfortable. But is this enough to choose a church on? Is uniformity that is aligned to our preferences the same as the presence of the Holy Spirit?

The Bible says to search God’s Word “precept upon precept, line upon line.” (Isaiah 28:10) This text suggests that searching for a church should be just as methodical. Acts tells us about a group of people who used a responsible mix of emotion and logic: “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:11) They were excited about the message, so their emotions were definitely engaged. However, they didn’t stop there. They investigated the very thing that excited them before accepting it.

If we agree that emotions can deceive us, then what should we base our decision on? Emotion, of course, should not be ignored. Our emotions tell us a lot about certain aspects of life. However, our emotional experience must be backed up by our logical experience. And what logical foundation is necessary?

Many people believe that the logical, doctrinal platform of an organized church does not matter so much as “the Spirit moving” within the congregation. This sets them up for dangerous disappointment. Waves of emotion do not necessarily denote the presence of God. In fact, Christian evangelists have used the emotions of their audience to send in money, then misused the funds for their own affluent lifestyles. (Belle) When the foundation of a church is based on one idea from the Bible (such as the “prosperity gospel”) but not founded on the entire Word of God, the positive emotional experience of the parishioners could be misleading.

So how important is doctrine when looking for a church? Doctrines define a church’s approach to Scripture and its belief structure. If a church believes that the parishioners

should be lining the pockets of the minister in order for God to hear their prayers, then

you should be highly suspicious! But when the church’s belief system can be logically laid out for examination and when the doctrines reflect the Bible honestly, then your decision is based on something more substantial than a feeling. It is based on a foundation that was built “line upon line, precept upon precept” from the Word of God.