A Simple Prayer

Father in Heaven,

May I speak each word as if my last word, and walk each step as my final one.If my life should end today, let this be my best day.

By your grace and for your glory, make it so. Amen.


Thanks for stopping by,
pj

Rest, Rest, Rest!

For the next week I will be enjoying some vacation time - this time with the entire family. I will be back to posting the week of August 1st. Until then, chew on these words of Kevin DeYoung from the opening words of the epilogue of his book, The Good News We Almost Forgot.

"Sadly, too many Christians are asked to choose between theology and experience, between head and heart, between having convictions and being kind. These are false dichotomies - choices that don't have to be made. We are to love the Lord Jesus with every part of us - all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind too (Luke 10:27). We ought to be hugging theologians - people marked by abiding grace and unchanging truth. Or to put it another way, if we are to be fruitful and godly Christians, we need to have a theological core without being theologically crusty."

Thanks for stopping by . . . 

pj

Thursday A La Carte

Thursday means "a la carte."  I choose items that I think will encourage you. So ... have fun!

1. Heaven Is for Real is a best-selling book about a four year old's trip to heaven and back. What should we as Christians make of such a book (and others like it)? Tim Challies offers up a book review (which I believe is well done) that you might want to read.

2. Here is a blog posting that hit me right in my spiritual gut: Rest - A Four Letter Word?  It is definitely worth your time to read it!

3. Phil Johnson shares about how he came to Christ. It many ways, his experience parallels mine (some day I will have to share my own testimony).

4. An insightful video (3:59) in answer to "I feel enslaved to the "escape" of the TV and Internet. What can I do?"

5. On a lighter note: Abbott and Costello was a comedy team that appeared in many movies I watched as a kid. Here is a skit (2:56) that is both clever and funny (at least I think so!).

Thanks for stopping by . . .

pj

Prayer 911

I wonder how many of you are really satisfied with your "prayer life?" You struggle to have any meaningful time with God in the practice of this vital spiritual practice. You have good intentions. You want to pray. You plan to pray ... but by the end of the day, you just haven't done much praying.

On Monday of this week as we were strapping Ella, our two year old granddaughter into her car seat she said to us, "Mommy has a boo-boo" (her mom has an injured ankle she is nursing along). So I suggested we pray for Mommy. Without hesitation, Ella folded her hands, bowed her head and said, "Dear Jesus. Thank you for the food. Amen."  Ella meant well .... but her prayer for her mom missed the mark.

That incident with Ella made me pause to ask myself if my prayers are also missing the mark? There are so many things to be praying about and for in my world ... am I truly praying in a way that Jesus would want me to pray?  Perhaps you are wondering the same thing. If so, I would encourage you to make every effort to be in attendance here at Grace on Sunday mornings in August. We will be taking an in depth look at the model prayer Jesus gave us in a four Sunday series of messages titled, "The Lord's Prayer: The Master's Handbook on Prayer." And if you are not able to join us, check out the slides and audio that you will find on my Deeper '11 blog.

Thanks for stopping by . . .
pj

The Heat is On!

I just took a glimpse at the weather forecast for the rest of this week. Ugh! The forecast highs are 92, 90, 96, 97, 97! Add in the high humidity and the "real feel" temps will be well into the 100's! With this bona fide heat wave coming our way .... I am so thankful for air conditioning!

Whenever a heat wave like this one strikes, the news media is always quick to remind the public of the risks related to high heat and humidity. And indeed there are risks. Such weather puts a lot of stress upon the human body. So when the heat and humidity go up .... so must our diligence to care for our bodies!

The same is true for our souls. When the heat is on and we begin to feel the stress, then we must become more diligent in the matters of our faith lest we succumb to the pressure and "crack!" So, what can you do when the Enemy jacks up the heat?

1. Remind yourself of God's promises. Over and over again, God reassures us that He will always be with us. He will never leave us. And He is present to give us all the help and strength we need to make it through whatever trial we may be facing (see Hebrews 13:5; Isaiah 41:13; Psalm 121:2; Philippians 4:13).

2. Remind yourself of God's character - that He is loving, wise, faithful and all-powerful. Therefore, He not only desires to give you the help you need, He knows just what you need, He has the power to deliver and He will never renege on a promise He has made!

3. Finally, remind yourself that God has a purpose in allowing this trial in your life. Romans 5:3-5, James 1:2-4 and Romans 8:28-29 all speak about the positive side of suffering.

So ... bottom line if you are to endure the heat that is sure to come your way - it all comes down to believing what the Bible has to say about God (His character and His promises) and about trials (that trials are the divine classrooms in which the Master does His greatest teaching!).

Thanks for stopping by . . .

pj

Another Monday . . . Another Week!

As you start out your week, here is a quote from A.W. Tozer, an Alliance pastor for some 44 years in the mid 1900's. Among his more than 40 books are the classics, The Pursuit of God and The Knowledge of the Holy. If you have never read these - you should!  Take a moment and reflect on Tozer's remarks:

"The basic trouble with the church today is her unworthy concept of God... Our religion is weak because our God is weak... Christianity at any given time is strong or weak depending on her concept of God."

Now if what Tozer said was really true about the church of his day (and I have no reason to doubt that) - I would suggest to you that it is even MORE true of the church of today. Oh how we need to get back a lofty view of God! 

Thanks for stopping by . . . 

pj 

Is God's Word Enough?

Recently, I read the following lines in a Christian best-seller:

"The following year, I began to wonder if I, too, could receive messages during my times of communing with God. I had been writing in prayer journals for years, but that was one-way communication: I did all the talking. I knew that God communicated with me through the Bible, but I yearned for more." 

The last line was what got me thinking. Hmm. This author was yearning for more than the Bible?  Now I have no doubt that this writer would affirm the inspiration (that the words of the human authors of the Bible are indeed God's), inerrancy (that the Bible as originally given was totally without error) and infallibility (the Bible is true) of Scripture. But when one "yearns for more" than the Bible ... that person is denying the sufficiency of the Bible. A number of years ago, James Montgomery Boice, prolific author and former pastor of Tenth Church in Philadelphia foretold that in our days the real battle would not be over the innerancy or the infallibility of the Bible but rather its sufficiency - are we going to rely on the revelation of Scripture or are we going to look for additional revelation.

I encourage all who are reading this posting to be careful in going down this path. When I read the Bible (Psalm 119 for example) - I don't see any author of Scripture telling us to look for "something more" than the Bible. I do repeatedly see commands to meditate on the Scripture. Paul summed up the sufficiency of Scripture when he wrote these words to Timothy:

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work"  (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  

For a more thorough explanation of this doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture, click here. 

Thanks for stopping by . . . 

pj