Prayer

"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." Karl Barth

Stormin' the gates...

We are going to emphasize prayer this year at Emmanuel. God wants his children to be in close fellowship with him and to communicate intimately and often in prayer. Our desire is to instill a passion for prayer in the personal and corporate life of the believer, and to provide opportunities to learn and practice principles of effective prayer. The Bible says that “..the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church..” Our first line of preparation, defense, and assault against the power of evil in this world is the power of prayer.

Are you ready? Ready to stand strong......on your knees?

The love of God

Frederick M. Lehman penned these marvelous words
about the love of God in Pasedena, CA, in 1917.


The Love of God

The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled, and pardoned from his sin.

When years of time shall pass away, and earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men, who here refuse to pray, on rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure, all measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race— the saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above, would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.

Refrain

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.

For the Love of God.........

Question: Why did Jesus come to earth?
A: Fast answer, well because He loved us.
Question: Why did Jesus love us?
A: He just does.
Question: But why, why does he love us?
A: Hmmmmm..... good question. Because we are cute? No. Because he was lonely? No. Because he had to? No. Because we can offer him something? No. Because we have anything to offer at all? No.......... I know, because he wants to show up Satan, by winning us back from the devil's clutches. No...... God has nothing to prove to Satan. Satan is a whooped bully, and he knows it....he is just going to go down, all the way down, kicking and screaming and taking as many blind men and women with him as he can.

Question: So, why does God love us?
A: Because he decided to. No more, no less. God decided to love mankind and offer Jesus as a payment for our sin which demands and justly deserves God's eternal anger. He just decided to. God expressed his love to us by letting us live if we turn to him and trust him. That is the simple message of John 3:16.

Question: Why is this important?
A: Because, we are to love the way God loves. By choice, by decision, by our will and not our willy nilly feelings. This is hard for me. I don't like to love others all the time. More often than not, honestly now, I am too busy loving myself to love anybody else. When I love the way God loves, I look at others and say, How can I love you in a way that is not merely loving myself? Do I love my church so I can keep my job? Or do I love them because I choose to be godly, and long for them to taste and see true, pure, unselfish love? Do I love my children so they will obey me and not embarrass me? Or do I love them to model the kind, committed, and yet firm and disciplining love of God? Do I love my wife so she will meet my perceived needs, or do I love her because it is right, and godly, and models what it looks like for Christ to love the Church....warts and all. (My wife doesn't have warts, but she could, and if she did, well....you get it...)

Friends, to be loved by God is to learn to love like God. I want that. I need that. And I have a long way to go. I want to love my family, my church, my friends, and my neighbors the way Gos loves...by choice....for their good...for His glory....for the love of God.

Year's End

From time to time I like to dedicate a little space to post a prayer from the compilation of Puritan prayers called "The Valley of Vision." These are some of the greatest prayers I have read and encourage me to pray for more than health and travel safety, but for things of eternal value.

O LOVE BEYOND COMPARE,

Thou art good when thou givest,
        when thou takest away,
        when the sun shines upon me,
        when night gathers over me.
Thou hast loved me before the foundation of the world,
         and in love didst redeem my soul;
Thou dost love me still,
         in spite of my hard heart, ingratitude, distrust.
Thy goodness has been with me during another year,
         leading me through a twisting wilderness,
         in retreat helping me to advance,
         when beaten back making sure headway.
Thy goodness will be with me in the year ahead;
I hoist sail and draw up anchor,
With thee as the blessed Pilot of my future as of my past.
I bless thee that thou hast veiled my eyes to the waters ahead.
If thou hast appointed storms of tribulation,
         thou wilt be with me in them;
If I have to pass through tempests of persecution and temptation,
         I shall not drown;
If I am to die,
         I shall see thy face the sooner;
If a painful end is to be my lot,
         grant me grace that my faith fail not;
If I am to be cast aside from the service I love,
         I can make no stipulation;
Only glorify thyself in me whether in comfort or trial,
         as a chosen vessel meet always for thy use.

Wordworthy

Not being able to sleep early this morning, I began to read a historical fiction account of none other than 'ol Abe Lincoln. Very good writing; made for an interesting read. In fact, I found myself rather swept away into an idyllic Illinois town, circa 1850. Though still nestled away in the sheets of my bed, I seemed far removed, my mind flitting easily away to the events of Abe's rise to the Presidency.

It occurred to me, then, that the written word may certainly be the most powerful medium we currently enjoy. It has been said, of course, the "the pen is mightier than the sword." There is merit to this observation.

It is no wonder, then, that the Johannine gospel account puts such a primacy on the Word (John 1). 2 Timothy 3:15 speaks to its worth as well. The Bible throughout attests to the value of Scripture (Deuteronomy 6). How dare we neglect its reading and application in our daily lives?!

Do you find yourselves bored with the words of Scripture? Do they seem rigid, stodgy, archaic? Consider the source before you discount them entirely, and consider the era in which you live, that largely discounts the value of the written word, anyway. Don't buy into that; there is immeasurable worth in reading, and all the more so when reading the very words of God Himself.



The written word still lives, and will outlive any electronic medium we now enjoy (including this one). It is where we began, it will prevail even over our apocalyptic end, and it is richly imbued with God's stamp of approval. I pray you find afresh and anew an insatiable desire to drink deeply of the Word. It will not return void, He assures you. Happy Reading!

Christmas Truth or Tradition

Last night in our Bible study we read through the Christmas stories in the gospels of Matthew and Luke then had a discussion using this quiz on what parts of the traditional Christmas story are based in the biblical story. Take a look at the quiz and see how much of your Christmas understanding is based on popular music or on the Bible.

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Also for your viewing pleasure, check out this video clip from "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

The Good, the Right, and the Difference

As I knelt to pray this morning, I found myself praying, "Not Your will, Father, but mine be done." Of course, I wasn't that overt, and had the Spirit not chided me otherwise, I would have felt perfectly justified in my prayer. You see, I wasn't praying for anything consummately selfish, or self-satisfying. Rather, I was praying "good" things, and therein lies the rub, as they say.

So often, we pray for, hope for, desire, and effect the "good" that we presume must be God's will. How many of us would have prayed for young Joseph to have gone through all that he did (Genesis 37-40), only to have it later undermined by his own statement, "you (my brothers) meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Gen. 50:20). How true it is that "the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express" (Romans 8:26).

Are your groanings your own? I fear mine often are. How can I pray anything less than the Lord's will as expressed in Scripture, and think that my desires and my good intentions are somehow superlative to His?

I would challenge you, then, to check yourself as you pray, and not to be so hasty to pray for the easing of pain, the eradication of tragedy, or the erasure of all that seems uncomfortable and inconvenient. Think about it: While you and I may enjoy a certain discernment between what is right and wrong, can we honestly say, in our sinful depravity, that we best know what should be done in such situations? Can we presume upon God's omni-everything, and pray assuredly for all to be well? I dare say not!

I leave you with two quotes from men brighter than I:
"Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by
unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected
things, ‘above all that we ask or think'" (Andrew Murray).

"We are urgent about the body; He is about the soul. We call for present
comforts; He considers our everlasting rest. And therefore when He sends not
the very things we ask, He hears us by sending greater than we can ask or think" (Richard Cecil).

A Practice, Not a Program

Below is a great article from sfpulpit.com (the "Magazine" of the Shepherds Fellowship) on how evangelism should work in the church. As one of the "evangelists" of our church, I think this is one of the most important emphases I could make on evangelism at Emmanuel. We are all called to rely on God to share the gospel with everyone we meet. Some are more gifted than others, but they are to teach and encourage the rest. Sometimes I find it frustrating when people are apathetic towards evangelism. They see the team doing the work through various events and programs and feel they don't need to participate or step out in their own lives. The most effective "method" of evangelism is when individuals in the church get involved in the lives of non-Christians and share the message of God's judgment on sin, repentance, and faith in Christ who died in our place and now reigns in Heaven. Our team is only here to support, encourage, and celebrate the individual efforts of everyone in the church. May we all be less complacent about the lost souls in our lives.

---

(By Jesse Johnson)

The following is an article Jesse wrote for our church’s weekly bulletin, Grace Today. “What does your church do for evangelism?”

I was meeting with a group of outreach pastors from other large churches in our nation. The topic was what our churches do to transform our communities. When the question about what we “do for evangelism” came my way, I knew the expected answer would look like a list of programs. People around the table—many of them from some of the most program-driven, seeker-sensitive churches in the country—turned to me. They were curious about what Pastor MacArthur’s church does to impact our community.

The man repeated, “What does your church do for evangelism?”

“We evangelize,” I answered. As the group laughed, thinking I was joking, it occurred to me that my answer was more profound that I had intended.

At Grace Church, our philosophy of evangelism hinges on the idea that evangelism is not a program. A church does not transform a community through activities and events. In fact, church-sponsored evangelism programs generally do not produce results. Rather, a church impacts its community through the lives of its members. The kingdom is expanded as believers are faithful in evangelism in their individual lives.

All believers are to be active in evangelism. In fact, all four Gospels end with Jesus commanding believers to bring salvation to the lost (Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47; John 20:21). Jesus’ last earthly words were another repetition of this same command, to bear witness to the gospel (Acts 1:8). It is not an overstatement to say that all Christians should be driven by a love for evangelism. After all, it is our mission in life.

But while all Christians are called to be active in evangelism, not all Christians are equally gifted at this particular calling. Acts 21:8 and Ephesians 4:11 both imply that some have the gift of evangelism and some do not. But God in His wisdom has still called all Christians to evangelize.

Thus, one of the marks of a Christian is a love for evangelism. If you are fearful, evangelism gives you the opportunity to trust God for courage. If you are timid, evangelism gives you an opportunity to trust God for confidence. Christians are slaves to Christ, soldiers in His service, and sons of God. Our master, our general, and our Father has given us our orders: to reach the lost with the hope of the gospel.

As Christians, we love what God loves, and God loves the lost. As we become more and more sanctified, we become more and more like Christ. This growth causes us to grow in our love for those who are still God’s enemies.

Grace Church impacts our community because our members love those in our community. This love results in us reaching out to the lost, presenting the gospel to them, and seeing some of them saved. As we do this, our church grows, and our evangelism results in changed lives. In fact, 2 Corinthians 4:15 says “that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.” In other words, the more we evangelize, the more God’s grace extends to our community. And the more His grace extends, the more He is glorified.
Don’t get me wrong—we do have evangelistic programs and outreaches, and we do have structured events. But what has consistently produced more fruit than any program is the faithfulness of individuals who express their love for their neighbors through evangelism.

So the next time someone asks you what our church does for evangelism, the answer is simple. We evangelize.