Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Quotes on Prayer

I taught on prayer this past Sunday during the Sunday school hour. Here are the quotes I used from Paul Miller's book A Praying Life. 
Oddly enough, many people struggle to learn how to pray because they are focusing on praying, not on God. Making prayer the center is like making conversation the center of family mealtime. In prayer, focusing on the conversation is like to trying to drive while looking at the windshield instead of through it (pg 20). 
Because we can do life without God, praying seems nice but unnecessary. Money can do what prayer does, and it is quicker and less time-consuming. Our trust in ourselves and in our talents makes us structurally independent of God. As a result exhortations to pray don’t stick (pg. 16). 
If we think we can do life on our own, we will not take prayer seriously. Our failure to pray will always feel like something else- a lack of discipline or too many obligations (pg. 59). 
American culture is probably the hardest place in the world to learn to pray. We are so busy that when we slow down to pray, we find it uncomfortable. We prize accomplishments, production. But prayer is nothing but talking to God. It feels useless, as if we are wasting time. Every bone in our bodies screams, “Get to work.” When we aren’t working, we are used to being entertained. Television, the Internet, video games, and cell phones make free time as busy as work (pg. 15).

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

'Tis the Season for Envy: Fighting Envy During the Holidays

Thanksgiving and Christmas provide us opportunities to slow down, think, and give thanks. They also can provide temptations. As we slow down and have some time to think, we might find ourselves tempted towards envy.

Envy, that ability to look at others blessings or trials and wish they were your own, has a horrible, internal effect on us. Proverbs 14:30 says, “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.” It eats us up from the inside. During the holidays, we are often tempted to envy the perceived blessings or even trials (which seem preferable to our own) of others. 

Matthew Sims has an article called "Jesus is Better Than Season Envy." After pointing out that marriage and singleness both have certain blessings and trials, he notes that the solution to the problem of "season envy" is to find contentment in Christ. He writes, 
Married men aren’t envying single friends because their life is so much better or so much easier—but because we’re not satisfied with Jesus. Single men aren’t envying their married friends because marriage makes life easy—but because we’re not satisfied with Jesus. If you feed season envy, you will carry that season envy into your next season of life regardless if it’s marriage or singleness.

As we have been learning in Ecclesiastes, God has ordained the seasons of our lives, and we ought to ask him for strength to enjoy our life and toil. 

To combat envy, spend time gaining a "tranquil heart" (Prov. 14:30) by thanking God for your blessings and trials. Maybe write out a "thankful list" in which you note the spiritual and physical blessings and trials you can thank God for giving you (You might benefit from this article by Stacy Reoach at Desiring God). Where you find it hard to lay aside envy, ask God to give you "the power to enjoy" your lot in life (Ecc. 5:19).  Finally, remember that the Lord is your shepherd, and you will not be left destitute of what you need (Ps. 23:1). Know for certain his goodness and never-giving-up love will chase you all the days of your life (Ps. 23:6). 

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

What the Church Should Do Post-Election

Here are a few good quotes, about what we ought to do after the election, from Russell Moore's article "President Trump: Now What for the Church?"

  1. "The first thing, of course, is to pray for our soon-to-be President Trump. The Bible commands us to pray for “all who are in high positions” (1 Tim. 2:1-2). Moreover, the Scripture tells us to give “honor to whom honor is due” (Rom. 13:7). Many of us have deep differences with our new president, and would have no matter which candidate had been elected, but we must pray that he will succeed in leading our country with wisdom and justice." 
  2. "maintain a prophetic clarity that is willing to call to repentance everything that is unjust and anti-Christ, whether that is the abortion culture, the divorce culture, or the racism/nativism culture. We can be the people who tell the truth, whether it helps or hurts our so-called “allies” or our so-called “enemies.”"
  3. "Moreover, no matter what the racial and ethnic divisions in America, we can be churches that demonstrate and embody the reconciliation of the kingdom of God. After all, we are not just part of a coalition but part of a Body—a Body that is white and black and Latino and Asian, male and female, rich and poor. We are part of a Body joined to a Head who is an Aramaic-speaking Middle-easterner."
  4. "The most important lesson we should learn is that the church must stand against the way politics has become a religion, and religion has become politics. We can hear this idolatrous pull even in the apocalyptic language used by many in this election—as we have seen in every election in recent years—that this election is our “last chance.”...Such talk is not worthy of a church that is already triumphant in heaven, and is marching on earth toward the ultimate victory of Jesus Christ."
  5. "We should be ready to pray and preach, to promote the common good and to resist injustice. We will pledge allegiance to the flag, but we will pledge a higher allegiance to the cross." 

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

"Christian Unity and the 2016 Presidential Election"

This is certainly a tumultuous election cycle. I really appreciated this podcast from Heath Lambert (~13 minutes): "Christian Unity and the 2016 Presidential Election." I hope you can benefit from it as we take seriously Jesus' words "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”