Would Jesus Lend Me His Credit Card?

Many wise Christians counsel care when undertaking a self-examination of one’s spiritual life – the dual temptations of condemnation and flattery are too great; so it was with some trepidation that I recently examined my prayer life… not the frequency… not the consistency… not the conviction… but the results. It wasn’t pretty.

Perhaps too often, I have judged prayer by worldly standards, but if there is one thing that should never be judged by worldly standards it must surely be prayer because the audience of prayer should never be the world. How does God judge prayer? With due reverence, I think that He doesn’t judge prayer, rather he hears true prayer and does not hear false prayer.

…and whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:13)

…and the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? (Acts 19:15)

God has ordained that whatever we ask in his name, he will do it. Even the demons seem to know this. But what then does it mean to ask in his name? Earthly kings of old had signet rings that would attest the authority of its bearer. If a king gave his ring to someone, that person could perform actions “in the name” of the king. Today’s equivalent might be the credit card. If you give your credit card to someone they may purchase goods in your name. But if someone tries to use a forged signet ring or credit card, then the results are not so good. The rest of the story from Acts 19 says “Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them, and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and battered.”

Our heavenly king has willingly agreed to loan us his signet ring – his credit card. In so doing; however, he has trusted us to use it for his will. At the last supper, Jesus explained to his disciples that he and the father were one, that he only did that which the father had willed. His prayers were effective, because he prayed the will of the father. Later that night, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ prayed to his father again. Christ wanted not to have to drink from the cup, but even more he desired that his father’s will be done. He prayed for God’s will… his prayer was answered.

When the efficacy of our prayers is in question… the question to ask is not whether we will win the God lottery, but rather if we are in God’s will and whether what we are asking for is God’s will. If not, we are not asking in his name and should not expect an answer. God desires that all of us join with his son and become one with him... to become his son so that he can give us his name, that we may ask in his name and that he will be glorified in us.

The Parable of Maps

I've been taking a break from blogging for about seven months, but I think it may be time to get back. My thought was that I would select key lessons that I've read in various books, etc. and try to turn them into parables. You'll have to be the judges as to whether it works at all. My first attempt will be based on my reading this morning from Proverbs 20:5...

The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.

As I read this passage this morning, it struck me that the depths of the ocean remain more of a mystery to us today than even space. Imagine then how much more of mystery they were to the ancient Jews. This, then, is the mystery of our purpose in life... of the meaning of life itself. Through Solomon, God assures us that we can know these things, story but that we must earnestly seek them. So when I ran across the following vignette in Os Guinness' Long Journey Home, I knew I had the makings of a modern parable. He tells the story of E. F. Schumacher's visit to Russia during the cold war.

Despite having a map in his hand, which he followed painstakingly, Schumacher realized he was lost. What he saw on paper didn't fit what was right before his eyes -- several huge Russian Orthodox churches, unmistakable with their golden onion domes. They weren't on the map, yet he was certain what street he was on.

"Ah," said the Intourist guide, trying to be helpful. "That's simple. We don't show churches on our maps."

"It then occurred to me," Schumacher said "that this is not the first time I had been given a map which failed to show many things I could see right in front of my eyes. All through school and university I had been given maps of life and knowledge on which there was hardly a trace of [faith].

Then to top it all off, I read the following article in the LA Times... Science and religion: God didn't make man; man made gods

The Parable of the Maps

A man started out on a journey to find the meaning of life. He came upon a scholar who informed him that true meaning can be rationally derived through math and science, so the man set about to experimentally find meaning. As he was creating an algorithm to derive meaning, he sought to include faith in the equation, but the scholar quickly told him that since man made God, there was no room for God in the equation. The man went back to the drawing board, but couldn't find any combination of attributes that resulted in meaning. Frustrated, he threw down his books and sought further help. He came upon a white-haired gentleman who told him "The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out." Perplexed, yet intrigued, the man pondered how he might draw out the path, when a young child suggested that he draw a map. Lacking any other ideas, the man began to draw a map, but left God out. The child, knowing nothing of math or science immediately saw the problem and suggested that the man draw God into the picture. With all of the information clearly before him, the man could finally see the true path, for God fills in all of the gaps and bridges all of the spans.

Slave by John MacArthur

We've been duped... duped into thinking that Jesus called us to be servants when all along he called us slave. John MacArthur presents a compelling argument about our true status in Christ. A position that doesn't allow us to call the shots... that doesn't give us the choice to obey or disobey, at least not without paying a terrible price. One can't help but be convinced of how we've been led down the wrong path by generations of well-meaning translators and Bible teachers.

So it surprised me to find that John MacArthur seems to fall into much the same trap even after alerting us its existence. In this case, his affinity for Calvinism seems to color his every thought. For example, he explains how our subsequent adoption by Christ proves "preservation of the saints" since it is a permanent condition, but he is evidently blinded by the obvious fact that if the biological parent can be superseded by the adoptive parent, then adoption can be no more permanent. Similar attempts to prove other of his strongly held beliefs detract from what could have been an excellent discourse on our standing before God. 

Although I recommended this book to my pastor as a useful reference, I can not recommend it to someone more interested in reading for pleasure or to someone young in faith. In fact, this was the first of John MacArthur's books that I have read and based on this experience, I probably won't read another for some time.

Disclosure of Material Connection: As a blogger, I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The End... And Yet Not The End

Psalms 90-92

Just finished the last reading of my 2010 Read Through the Bible in a Year Plan... except that it was a reading from week 31 that I missed while we were on the Zambia trip. The last words of Psalm 92 were the  final verses for the reading plan this year.

Even in old age they [the godly] will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green. They will declare, “The Lord is just! He is my rock! There is no evil in him!

While half of a century isn't that old, age has certainly caught up with me this year, but scripture says that there is still fruit to produce. Next year, I won't be blogging on my daily readings, but I do intend to blog on some devotional readings that I've been meaning to get to for a while. My intent for 2011 is to undertake the Radical Experiment. If you've read David Platt's book Radical, then I'd invite you to join me and thousands of others. During the Radical Experiment we are committing to five specific challenges:

1. To pray for the entire world
2. To read through the entire Word
3. To commit our lives to multiplying community
4. To sacrifice our money for a specific purpose
5. To give our time in another context

What's the Purpose?

2 John

When you put 2 John up against Romans, you have to think that either the early church fathers were totally off their rockers when they put the canon together, or that there was a spirit directing their every move. Not saying anything bad about 2 John, just that it is not the same as Romans, but God has his purposes. What's the purpose for 2 John... a purpose that isn't met by any other of the 65 books of scripture?

... I don't know, but what if it is in those words that John doesn't actually write in the letter, but is going to tell to the chosen lady face to face. Maybe that foreshadows our own meeting with the Lord face to face when he will tell us those words meant only for us.

What's a Leader to Do?

Nehemiah 10-13

After having led the effort to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and rededicate the people to the Law of Moses, Nehemiah returns to King Artaxerxes as he had promised. But when he returned later he found that the people had already reverted to their old ways... marrying Moabites and Ammonites, failing to pay the tithes to the Temple, despoiling the new Temple... what's a good leader to do?

About the same time I realized that some of the men of Judah had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. Furthermore, half their children spoke the language of Ashdod or of some other people and could not speak the language of Judah at all. So I confronted them and called down curses on them. I beat some of them and pulled out their hair [...] One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest had married a daughter of Sanballat the Horonite, so I banished him from my presence.

A good leader pulls the kids hair out... or the parents... hmmm! We are an ungrateful people, prone to wander and sin.

A Right View of Self

Psalms 143-145

One of the things that has always impressed me about David was his right view of self. While others honored him as King, David understood that God sees things differently... God doesn't just see the king, he also sees the man. David knows this well as he petitions God... "Don’t put your servant on trial, for no one is innocent before you." Regardless of how well others might think of him, David knows in his heart, that his sin will find him out before the throne of God.

Found, Missing Ark

Revelation 7-11

For centuries, explorers have searched the globe to find the Ark of the Covenant, but they were looking in the wrong place all along. Right there at the end of Revelation 11 it tells us exactly where it is... Then, in heaven, the Temple of God was opened and the Ark of his covenant could be seen inside the Temple. If we want to find the Ark... we just have to look where God put it.

Your Eyes Are Like Doves

Song of Solomon 1-2

There is a lot of scripture that I don't get, but I really don't understand "your eyes are like doves." What is that supposed to mean? How are eyes like doves? Is that good? I don't know.

Perfect?

1 John 4-5

For some time I've been thinking that the church has sold itself short in the area of Christian perfection. Too often I hear teachers of the Word say that we cannot reach perfection this side of heaven, but the underlying insinuation is that we will always sin until we die. I don't think that was the message that John was teaching...

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

If we are children of God, then we will not continue to sin. There should be an end to our sin, not just a lessening... we should be seeking hard after the Kingdom rather than the World.

One More Reason For Diversity

Nehemiah 5-9

I tire of the seemingly ceaseless fights among some Biblical scholars over which translations are the most anointed or most liberal etc.. I have little room in my faith for their legalistic wrangling partly because each time I read through the Bible, God opens new verses to me that I did not see before, or seeing didn't understand, or even understanding didn't trust. I seriously doubt that a well-intentioned, suitably educated translator of the Word can do harm to the Word... for the Lord directs our ways even now.

I read through today's reading during a break at work today in a compact NIV version I have at work. In that version, Nehemiah 6:15 reads as follows:

So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.

It is interesting that it took such a short time span for Nehemiah to rally the troops to repair the breaches in the wall, given how long it had been down and it makes one wonder why anyone else did not have the same success previously, but we can see that the Lord's hand was on Nehemiah and that it was the Lord who got it done, etc., but the verse isn't as readable or personal as it could be, partly because the "25th of Elul" means absolutely nothing to me.

In the New Living Translation, which I presently prefer for general reading, the verse is rendered slightly differently. It goes like this...

So on October 2 the wall was finished—just fifty-two days after we had begun.

Now that makes all the difference in the world to me, because October 2nd is my birthday. Logically I know that I share that same birthday with approximately 1/365th of the world's population, but emotionally it means something that the previous rendering left out. Vive la différence!

His or Their

Deuteronomy 23-25

In general, I'm neither friend or foe of gender neutral translations of the Bible. My tendency is to interpret gender-specific terminology as gender neutral based on the context anyway, so editorial decisions have little real impact on my reading in this regard. However, there are times when the general context would seem to allow for a gender neutral translation, but upon closer examination... I'm not so sure it makes sense. Deuteronomy 23:3 is just such a verse.

The New Living Translation renders the following:

No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants for ten generations may be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.

While the New International Version (1984) provides the following rendering:

 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation.

I do not know how the Hebrew should be translated. In general, however, I would think that a gender neutral rendering would not present any problem with a verse like this. But when I think about Ruth and her great-grandson David, it suddenly makes a big difference. If none of the descendants of male Moabites are allowed in the assembly of the Lord, there is no trespass for David, but if no descendants of any Moabites are allowed, then David, the man after God's own heart, should not have been allowed in the assembly according to a strict legal interpreatation of the law.

Radical Belief

Acts 21-22

When Paul came back to Jerusalem to meet with the traditional believers at First Church of Jerusalem, he met some resistance. He had just given his report on the number of Gentiles being saved, when the leaders of the church at Jerusalem reminded Paul that many Jews had come to believe in Jesus, but they also followed the laws of Moses and would be offended by Paul's teachings. They weren't so much concerned whether Paul was preaching the truth, but rather that he was not preaching the old ways. Thus began the ending of Paul's ministry. However right Paul was... he was too radical for the old church. The establishment church doesn't beat radical preachers anymore, mostly it just hopes they will go away. I wonder how today's radical preachers will fare?

An Honest Prayer

Psalms 140-142

I like the honesty of David's prayer in Psalm 141...

Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips. Don’t let me drift toward evil or take part in acts of wickedness. Don’t let me share in the delicacies of those who do wrong.

There is no trace of arrogance here, just a desire to do right... to stay on the narrow path... to avoid anything that would even remotely carry him in the wrong direction.

The End is Near

Revelation 1-6

There is comfort in Revelation, even if there is also sometimes confusion.

God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near.

 He is faithful to those who are faithful. May he find us faithful in the last days.

In Conclusion

Ecclesiastes 11-12

Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.

After living a profligate, hedonistic life, Solomon comes to the conclusion that everything is vanity and that we must simply fear and obey God. Too bad he failed to do the same and teach his children likewise, for it was during their reign that Israel first split. Is a lesson learned too late actually learned?

Didn't Just Hear About Him

1 John 1-3

I love the way John's first letter begins... John wants us to know that he didn't just hear about Jesus... he saw Jesus, touched Jesus, heard Jesus, was in his presence... and found him real. Modern believers don't have the same opportunity that the apostles had, but we can choose to either lean on their experiences or reject them. In the end, that gives us much the same choice since many of their peers evaluated Jesus and his teaching and walked away. We will join John in proclaiming that he is the one that brings eternal life, or will we scoff and walk away?

Good Grief

Nehemiah 1-4

When we grieve over the things that grieve God we have good grief... grief that has a purpose and a value. Nehemiah had good grief. He grieved over the state of his father's homeland and went to God in prayer. The result was that God blessed his efforts to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and return a faithful remnant.

Do Not Be Afraid

Deuteronomy 20-22

After 40 years of close fellowship with God, Moses knew that God could be trusted and that there was no need to fear or be afraid of anything that stood in the way... as long as God's commands were followed. He tries to pass on that knowledge to the Israelites, but they don't really get it. They, like we, think that he is simply espousing a righteous way of life, but he really is telling them to trust in the Lord. It is sooooo hard to really convey to others a heartfelt belief that does not conform to the ways of the world in a way that others will truly believe. Most people march to the beat of the world's drum and are incapable of comprehending a different beat.

Is That Good?

Acts 19-20

A group of Jews was traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits in the name of the Jesus that Paul preached. The spirits were not impressed. They responded that they knew Jesus and that they knew Paul, but they didn't know these Jews. So my questions is... Is it good or bad if the evil spirits don't know you? It would seem that they know and fear their enemies, so if they don't know you, they don't fear you and thus don't worry about you... they can attack and destroy at will, but don't care to expend the energy unless you bother them.