Sep
4
Focused prayer for Muslim world
Filed Under Around the Church, Blogging, Culture, Current Events, Evangelism, Islam, Missions, Prayer | Leave a Comment
In our prayer meeting during September we will spend a portion of time praying for the power of the Gospel to reach mightily into the Muslim world. 30-Days International (www.30-days.net) produces the “30-Days of Prayer for the Muslim World” Christian prayer guide coinciding with Ramadan each year.
The origin of this international prayer network came about as a group of Christian leaders were praying during a meeting in the Middle East in April 1992. God put a burden on the hearts of these men and women to call as many Christians as possible to pray for the Muslim world. The annual, worldwide, 30-Days Muslim prayer focus gives Christians the opportunity to learn about Islam and pray for Muslims during Ramadan (Islam’s important annual month of fasting and religious observance). This year’s motto is: “Loving Muslims through Prayer.”
Each year a new prayer guide booklet is published in a number of languages and locations around the world. The booklet is illustrated and contains daily readings with prayer points and informative background articles focusing on the Muslim world. Printed copies of the prayer guide are sold out, but an online daily blog version is available here.
Aug
28
Review: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction
Filed Under Bible, Books, Christian History, Christian Living, Prayer, Psalms, Worship | Leave a Comment
Eugene Peterson’s books are either deeply loved or studiously avoided by Reformed folk. I’ve found him to be a thoughtful, literate writer who shares many of my concerns and passions about pastoral ministry. I read The Contemplative Pastor about three months after I finished seminary, and that book helped me avoid many snares and keep my wits about me. I don’t always agree with Peterson, but he is such a gracious and edifying author that I enjoy disagreeing with him more than I enjoy agreeing with many others. Someone once quipped, “I prefer Uriah drunk to David sober.”
I recently read one of Peterson’s first books, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society, first published in 1980 and the released in a revised and expanded version by IVP in 2000. The title is drawn from a surprising place: Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil (’The essential thing “in heaven and earth” is…that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living.’) Peterson takes us to the “Psalms of Ascent” (Psalms 120-134) as a guide and metaphor for following Christ over the long haul. He writes in the introduction:
I knew that following Jesus could never develop into a “long obedience” without a deepening life of prayer and that the Psalms had always been the primary means by which Christians learned to pray everything they lived, and live everything they prayed over the long haul…But the people I was around didn’t pray the Psalms. That puzzled me; Christians have always prayed the Psalms; why didn’t my friends and neighbors?
God has used Peterson’s teaching on Psalms 120-134 to knead them into my imagination again and into my vocabulary of prayer and conversation to speak in practical ways about joy, repentance, service, work, humility, obedience, community and blessing. Here are some samples of Peterson’s work that will give you a sense of the deep, biblical wisdom of A Long Obedience:
On worship: ‘We live in what one writer has called the “age of sensation.” We think that if we don’t feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different: that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling that is expressed in an act of worship. When we obey the command to praise God in worship, our deep, essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured.’ [54]
On the past: ‘The psalmist is not an antiquarian reveling in the past for its own sake but a traveler using what he knows of the past to get to where he is going–to God. For all its interest in history the Bible never refers to the past as “the good old times.” The past is not, for the person of faith, a restored historical site that we tour when we are on vacation; it is a field that we plow and harrow and plant and fertilize and work for a harvest.’ [168]
On joy: ‘A common but futile strategy for achieving joy is trying to eliminate things that hurt: get rid of pain by numbing the nerve ends, get rid of insecurity by eliminating risks, get rid of disappointment by depersonalizing your relationships. And then try to to lighten the boredom of such a life by buying joy in the form of vacations and entertainment. There isn’t a hint of that in Psalm 126.’ [100]
On security: ‘Discipleship is not a contract in which if we break our part of the agreement he is free to break his; it is a covenant in which he establishes the conditions and guarantees the results.’ [90]
On hope: ‘Hoping does not mean doing nothing…It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions…It is imagination put in the harness of faith. it is a willingness to let God to it his way and in his time. It is the opposite of making plans that we demand that God put into effect, telling him both how and when to do it.’ [144]
On repentance: ‘Repentance is not an emotion. It is not feeling sorry for your sins. It is a decision. It is deciding that you have been wrong in supposing that you could manage your own life and be your own god; it is deciding that you were wrong in thinking that you had, or could get, the strength, education and training to make it on your own; it is deciding that you have been told a pack of lies about yourself and your neighbors and your world. And it is deciding that God in Jesus Christ is telling you the truth. Repentance is a realization that what God wants from you and what you want from God are not going to be achieved by doing the same old things, thinking the same old thoughts. Repentance is a decision to follow Jesus Christ and become his pilgrim in the path of peace.’ [29-30]
Peterson includes in the revised edition the Psalms of Ascent in his translation/paraphrase, The Message. This is a plus in the eyes of author and publisher and many readers, but not in mine.
Nevertheless, if you are drawn toward instant, polished-smile, give-me-patience-now Christianity, be warned: there will be little in this book to soothe and cherish your desires. But Peterson’s aged wine is much better than the Zima of contemporary spirituality. Take, read, drink deeply.
Jul
26
The promise and the promiser
Filed Under Christian Living, Justification, Poetry, Prayer | Leave a Comment
In preparing to preach tomorrow on 2 Peter 1:3-4, I found this bit of verse in Octavius Winslow’s The Precious Things of God:
How oft have sin and Satan strove to rend my soul from Thee, my God!
But everlasting is Thy love, and Jesus seals it with His blood.
The oath and promise of the Lord join to confirm the wondrous grace;
Eternal power performs the word, and fills all heaven with endless praise.
Amidst temptations sharp and long, my soul to this dear refuge flies;
Hope is my anchor, firm and strong, while tempests blow and billows rise.
The gospel bears my spirit up; a faithful and unchanging God
Lays the foundation of my hope in oaths and promises and blood.
Jul
21
What a team of friends we have through Jesus
Filed Under Christian Living, Holiness, Prayer, Trinity | Leave a Comment
Here’s some profound insight from Dr. J.I. Packer from a recent interview in Modern Reformation:
J.I. Packer: “I’m a great believer in the importance of Trinitarian thinking in discipling. A lot of what has weakened discipling is the result of thinking of only one person of the godhead at any one time–think about the Holy Spirit and what he does; think about Jesus and his death on the cross for us; think of the Father and of his love and goodwill. But you’re not thinking, you see, of the three together: the divine team which works in the unity of a single program and plan, each person in the team fulfilling his part in our salvation, so that the gospel is much less ‘what a friend we have in Jesus,’ but ‘what a team of friends we have through Jesus’–it’s the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our discipling instruction will be infinitely strengthened if we present it that way. Sometimes people say, ‘I’ve never heard it put like that before.’ People will be deistic unless they are taught the Trinity.”
Jul
16
A word from our namesake
Filed Under Christian Living, Holiness, Holy Spirit, Prayer, Puritans | Leave a Comment
The Sweet Dropper is named for English Puritan Richard Sibbes (1577-1635). Read our tribute to Sibbes. These words come from Sibbes’ The Soul’s Conflict, and Victory over Itself by Faith:
It were an easy thing to be a Christian, if religion stood only in a few outward works and duties. But to take the soul to task, and to deal roundly with our own hearts, and to let conscience have its full work, and to bring the soul into spiritual subjection unto God, this is not so easy a matter, because the soul out of self-love is loath to enter into itself, lest it should have other thoughts of itself than it would have.
The words speak of the depravity of the heart and the deceitfulness of sin. It’s no easy or pleasant task to think rightly about our lives. Many of us may enjoy analyzing our problems, but are we doing so in the light of God’s Word? Perhaps we are analyzing our lives in a self-serving, self-justifying way. We replay the mental DVD of wrongs committed against us. We sooth ourselves with arguments that hide the truth and shift the blame to others. None of us wants to acknowledge things about ourselves that we would rather deny. How do you learn to see straight when something inside is bending in the wrong direction? My old campus minister, Hal Farnsworth, is fond of asking people, “If you were deceiving yourself, would you know it?”
Join me in asking God to overthrow self-righteousness–yours and mine. Ask the Spirit to help you have “other thoughts of yourself” and to see clearly the grace of Christ Jesus coming to you in your sin and misery. Face up, and find mercy.
Mar
25
Grace in dark places: FPC Bible Conference
Filed Under Around the Church, Bible, Nota Bene, Prayer | Leave a Comment
Thursday marks the beginning of FPC Kosciusko’s 2008 Bible Conference (click here for schedule and info). Dr. Derek Thomas will be coming to us from Jackson to preach on the topic Grace in Dark Places: Finding Hope in Depression and Suffering. We are praying that the Holy Spirit will use this conference to renew the ‘inner man’ of many people in midst of pain–pointing us to Christ as our hope in suffering, encouraging us in faith, and empowering us in our battle with sin.
Extra note: Derek Thomas will be the guest on WFCA’s morning call-in program, It’s Your Call, beginning at 7:30 am Wednesday, March 26. He will be talking about the conference and taking questions from callers. WFCA is on 107.9 FM or click here to find the link to listen over the internet from anywhere in the world.