Hey, I'm back. Bet you thought I was gone for good! Had a great vacation but have been having a rough time getting back in the swing of daily routine -- maybe "back in the rut" would be more descriptive! But here I am at long last!
For years I've threatened to write a devotional book on "Pet Peeves" -- spiritual pet peeves, that is. I think this would be a good time to start that!
I've been thinking a lot lately about this thing called faith. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God. Then the question arises, "How do we get faith?" Romans 10:17 answers that for us: "(F)aith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
My pet peeve re faith is those people who proclaim it's useless to pray for faith -- that's not the way we get faith. We get faith by reading and searching and meditating upon the Word of God. Yes, that's true. We do get faith through searching and reading the Bible. No doubt about it. But is that the ONLY way to increase our faith?
What about the disciples in Luke 17:5 who prayed, "Lord, increase our faith." It doesn't say that Jesus rebuked them for praying thus. And can't we pray the same prayer? In all the Scriptures in John that tell us we can ask God for anything, wouldn't that "anything" include faith, too?
Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Jesus is "the author and finisher of our faith." Now what is an author? What does an author do? An author is someone who writes, who originates, who creates. So says Webster. An author may create a story, a poem, a song or what-have-you. So if God is an author, to me that suggests that He originates and creates faith which is exactly what Hebrews 12:2 is saying.
So let's not be so quick to say that we should not pray for faith or we have no need to pray for faith. God has promised to supply all our need; and if we have need of faith, let's look to the Lord to supply that need, while at the same time we do our part in obtaining faith by reading the Word of God.
I remember hearing someone once pray, "Lord, make us 'well-rounded' Christians." That's a good principle to follow in this matter of that thing called Faith.
The next time you hear someone say we shouldn't waste our time praying for faith, just remember: that's one of my Pet Peeves!
Preacher's Kid
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
TAKING A BREAK
My husband and I are going to the beach tomorrow for a week's get-a-way - just the two of us. It's doubtful if we will have internet connection so we'll take a break from blogging for a week or so. Check back after September 23rd!
God Bless.
Preacher's Kid
God Bless.
Preacher's Kid
Monday, September 14, 2009
THE DANGER OF SEEKING EXPERIENCES
Many of us who are Senior Citizens, can look back at our early religious training and recall how we were urged to seek an "experience" with God when we should have been instructed to seek a "relationship" with our Heavenly Father. As the old cliche says, "Hindsight is better than foresight." If only I had known years ago what I've learned later in life!
Have you ever heard someone say, "I know it is true because I experienced it?" And then your thought processes kicked in, "But I never experienced anything. Therefore I must not be a Christian!" Do I dare add a very unlady-like "Hogwash!" to that?
To those people who are "hep" on experiences, it doesn't matter whether the Word declares something or not. For them, it isn't what the Word of God says but what THEIR EXPERIENCE SAYS!
Faith in experiences isn't always faith in God's Word. Faith in what one has seen or heard isn't necessarily faith in what the Bible says. Many, if not most religious "experiences" are a product of the physical senses, that is, it is something felt, heard, or seen. Now, can you come up with one single Scripture that says if you "feel" thus and so, you are saved? Or if you "hear" such and such, that makes you a Christian? Or if you "see" a vision, you are a Child of God?
"Experiences" of the senses usually leave a person empty when that experience grows old. Seeking "experiences" is always dangerous because that is trusting in flesh instead of the Word, and because "experiences" are connected with the five senses.
Yes, I know there are exceptions, but they are few and far between. And the ones I know about have been visions from God rather than an "experience" someone was seeking. They've also been sent to people right at death's door as an assurance to them and a comfort to their loved ones. These individuals were not seeking an "experience" as knowledge of their salvation. In fact, they weren't seeking anything at all. It was an unsought and unexpected gift of God's love.
Sense "experiences" attract the curious, are fascinating to the spiritually hungry, and are usually in the realm where most people live. I recall one preacher telling about a time he was praying in his darkened bedroom when he saw a bright light. He could have kept his eyes closed and claimed that as a Divine "experience." However, he opened his eyes and lo and behold it was just the neighbor driving into his driveway with his bright lights on and shining through the window!
People who depend on "experiences" for their soul's salvation often seek to have the "experience" repeated. They never believe the Word and therefore are unstable in their faith. They have continual war with doubts and fears and discouragements. They believe much ABOUT the Word, but never believe the Word itself. They believe the word of man rather than the Word of God. To them, God's Word doesn't carry as much authority as the word of a person who has had an "experience."
As someone else said, most of these people have a "rented space" at the altar. They are perpetual seekers who long for experiences and power.
We need to know the sure Word, the unbroken Word, the living Word, the life-giving Word, the all-satisfying Word. We need to give up our quest for "experiences" and let the Word satisfy us.
Perhaps you are thinking of I John 8:16: "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." That witness is not an "experience," but the calm assurance of peace within our very soul, a certainty of our being right with God.
What about you? Are you more interested in an "experience" or a "relationship"?
Preacher's Kid
Have you ever heard someone say, "I know it is true because I experienced it?" And then your thought processes kicked in, "But I never experienced anything. Therefore I must not be a Christian!" Do I dare add a very unlady-like "Hogwash!" to that?
To those people who are "hep" on experiences, it doesn't matter whether the Word declares something or not. For them, it isn't what the Word of God says but what THEIR EXPERIENCE SAYS!
Faith in experiences isn't always faith in God's Word. Faith in what one has seen or heard isn't necessarily faith in what the Bible says. Many, if not most religious "experiences" are a product of the physical senses, that is, it is something felt, heard, or seen. Now, can you come up with one single Scripture that says if you "feel" thus and so, you are saved? Or if you "hear" such and such, that makes you a Christian? Or if you "see" a vision, you are a Child of God?
"Experiences" of the senses usually leave a person empty when that experience grows old. Seeking "experiences" is always dangerous because that is trusting in flesh instead of the Word, and because "experiences" are connected with the five senses.
Yes, I know there are exceptions, but they are few and far between. And the ones I know about have been visions from God rather than an "experience" someone was seeking. They've also been sent to people right at death's door as an assurance to them and a comfort to their loved ones. These individuals were not seeking an "experience" as knowledge of their salvation. In fact, they weren't seeking anything at all. It was an unsought and unexpected gift of God's love.
Sense "experiences" attract the curious, are fascinating to the spiritually hungry, and are usually in the realm where most people live. I recall one preacher telling about a time he was praying in his darkened bedroom when he saw a bright light. He could have kept his eyes closed and claimed that as a Divine "experience." However, he opened his eyes and lo and behold it was just the neighbor driving into his driveway with his bright lights on and shining through the window!
People who depend on "experiences" for their soul's salvation often seek to have the "experience" repeated. They never believe the Word and therefore are unstable in their faith. They have continual war with doubts and fears and discouragements. They believe much ABOUT the Word, but never believe the Word itself. They believe the word of man rather than the Word of God. To them, God's Word doesn't carry as much authority as the word of a person who has had an "experience."
As someone else said, most of these people have a "rented space" at the altar. They are perpetual seekers who long for experiences and power.
We need to know the sure Word, the unbroken Word, the living Word, the life-giving Word, the all-satisfying Word. We need to give up our quest for "experiences" and let the Word satisfy us.
Perhaps you are thinking of I John 8:16: "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." That witness is not an "experience," but the calm assurance of peace within our very soul, a certainty of our being right with God.
What about you? Are you more interested in an "experience" or a "relationship"?
Preacher's Kid
Thursday, September 10, 2009
PRAYER SIMPLIFIED
We've been discussing the use of Jesus' Name recently. We've also mentioned John 14:13 - "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name, that will I do.
That is a most wonderful statement - prayer simplified! "In other words," Jesus is saying, "You do the asking, and I will do the doing!" We know that Jesus' power is unlimited. Now He challenges us to do unlimited asking.
My very favorite Bible verse is Ephesians 3:20 - He "is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." We know that the power that is in us is the Holy Spirit, the greatest power in the world. Romans 8:9b says "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." So if you are God's child, you HAVE that power in you. The Word says you do! And who are you to argue with the Word?
So if we are filled with that power, God can "do exceedingly abundantly ABOVE ALL that we ask or think." Where, I ask you, is the limit on what you can think to ask God for? Let your thoughts go; let your imagination soar! I don't see that there's any limit! So shouldn't we be seeing great and mighty things done in the spiritual realm? What's holding us up? What's hindering us? It certainly isn't God, for He is big enough to do anything you ask Him to do! All authority, according to Scripture, is given Him under heaven and earth, and His authority is great enough to see that any request coming from you and me is honored! Can you grasp that?
You ask for salvation for an unsaved friend. He says, "You ask, and I will do it." You ask for a financial need to be met, and He says, "I will do it." You ask for a revival for a church that has grown cold, and He says, "I will do it." In other words, your business is to ask; His business is to do it! It's just that simple! Behind everything stand these words: "I will do it."
Your humble, simple prayer, made according to God's instructions, will move mountains! What power we have both on earth and in Heaven!
Rise to the challenge, friend, rise to the challenge!
Preacher's Kid
That is a most wonderful statement - prayer simplified! "In other words," Jesus is saying, "You do the asking, and I will do the doing!" We know that Jesus' power is unlimited. Now He challenges us to do unlimited asking.
My very favorite Bible verse is Ephesians 3:20 - He "is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." We know that the power that is in us is the Holy Spirit, the greatest power in the world. Romans 8:9b says "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." So if you are God's child, you HAVE that power in you. The Word says you do! And who are you to argue with the Word?
So if we are filled with that power, God can "do exceedingly abundantly ABOVE ALL that we ask or think." Where, I ask you, is the limit on what you can think to ask God for? Let your thoughts go; let your imagination soar! I don't see that there's any limit! So shouldn't we be seeing great and mighty things done in the spiritual realm? What's holding us up? What's hindering us? It certainly isn't God, for He is big enough to do anything you ask Him to do! All authority, according to Scripture, is given Him under heaven and earth, and His authority is great enough to see that any request coming from you and me is honored! Can you grasp that?
You ask for salvation for an unsaved friend. He says, "You ask, and I will do it." You ask for a financial need to be met, and He says, "I will do it." You ask for a revival for a church that has grown cold, and He says, "I will do it." In other words, your business is to ask; His business is to do it! It's just that simple! Behind everything stand these words: "I will do it."
Your humble, simple prayer, made according to God's instructions, will move mountains! What power we have both on earth and in Heaven!
Rise to the challenge, friend, rise to the challenge!
Preacher's Kid
Saturday, September 5, 2009
CAN YOU BELIEVE GOD?
If you and I lived in the same area, I could phone you and promise to meet you for lunch at Denny's tomorrow noon. But would you believe me? Of course you would! Even though I'm becoming more and more forgetful the older I get! Now, if you can believe me, a forgetful senior citizen who might forget to show up tomorrow noon, why can't you believe God Who NEVER forgets?
Numbers 23:19 says, "God is not a man that he should lie, or the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and will he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and will not make it good?"
The American Revision of Jeremiah 1:12 further says, "I watch over my Word to perform it."
God neither lies nor forgets.
Let's put a promise we talked about yesterday into the equation coupled with these two verses. "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name, he shall give it you." John 16:23. (Of course, I'm talking about asking for things in God's will. Don't get carried away and start asking for a new limousine to come into your possession or for a private airplane to be delivered to your front door free and clear!)
Now, what do we have? A never-failing formula for believing God!
Meditate on these Scriptures until they become firmly embedded in your heart and mind and spirit. Then stand back and watch God answer prayer!
Remember, if you can believe my word, HOW MUCH MORE you can dare to believe God's Word!
Preacher's Kid
Numbers 23:19 says, "God is not a man that he should lie, or the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and will he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and will not make it good?"
The American Revision of Jeremiah 1:12 further says, "I watch over my Word to perform it."
God neither lies nor forgets.
Let's put a promise we talked about yesterday into the equation coupled with these two verses. "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name, he shall give it you." John 16:23. (Of course, I'm talking about asking for things in God's will. Don't get carried away and start asking for a new limousine to come into your possession or for a private airplane to be delivered to your front door free and clear!)
Now, what do we have? A never-failing formula for believing God!
Meditate on these Scriptures until they become firmly embedded in your heart and mind and spirit. Then stand back and watch God answer prayer!
Remember, if you can believe my word, HOW MUCH MORE you can dare to believe God's Word!
Preacher's Kid
Friday, September 4, 2009
HOW TO USE THE NAME OF JESUS
The crying need of the church world today is to learn how to use the Name of Jesus according to the Word.
It goes without saying that one must be a child of God and obedient to the Word.
We must come to God, the Father, through Christ, His Son. This may surprise you, but DON'T pray to Jesus. Jesus told the disciples, "After this manner pray ye: 'Our Father'." So we don't pray to Jesus. Nor do we pray to the Holy Spirit. We can worship, magnify, and exalt Jesus and the Holy Spirit; but we do not pray to them.
We should be definite in our prayers, and not ramble. For example, instead of praying for peace around the world or peace in other countries or even in our own country, pray for peace in specific instances, in specific situations, in specific families or specific individuals. Be specific!
Then remember to approach the Father as a son or daughter, as a child, not as a slave or servant. Visualize the difference between the way your own child would approach you for something and the way an employee would approach you. "Come boldly." says Scripture. In other words, come with confidence as a child, or a son or daughter would do.
Remember, too, your main desire is that the Father may receive glory by answering your prayer. Too many times we pray for selfish reasons only. But God's glory should be our chief aim.
Then clinch your prayer by making your claim in the Name of God's Son, the Name of Jesus. Remind Him of the promise, "Whatsoever you ask the Father IN MY NAME, He will give it you." John 15:16. (Note - It says to ASK THE FATHER, not Jesus, but ask it in JESUS' NAME!)
Once you pray like this, the matter is out of your hands. It has been transferred from your hands to the hands of Jesus, your Advocate, Who sits at the right hand of the Father, and Who, in turn, pleads your case as He transfers your request to the Father.
John 16:24 assures us: "Whatsoever you ask the Father IN MY NAME, He will give it you."
Now, start taking your requests to the Father BOLDLY, and in THE NAME OF JESUS!
Preacher's Kid
It goes without saying that one must be a child of God and obedient to the Word.
We must come to God, the Father, through Christ, His Son. This may surprise you, but DON'T pray to Jesus. Jesus told the disciples, "After this manner pray ye: 'Our Father'." So we don't pray to Jesus. Nor do we pray to the Holy Spirit. We can worship, magnify, and exalt Jesus and the Holy Spirit; but we do not pray to them.
We should be definite in our prayers, and not ramble. For example, instead of praying for peace around the world or peace in other countries or even in our own country, pray for peace in specific instances, in specific situations, in specific families or specific individuals. Be specific!
Then remember to approach the Father as a son or daughter, as a child, not as a slave or servant. Visualize the difference between the way your own child would approach you for something and the way an employee would approach you. "Come boldly." says Scripture. In other words, come with confidence as a child, or a son or daughter would do.
Remember, too, your main desire is that the Father may receive glory by answering your prayer. Too many times we pray for selfish reasons only. But God's glory should be our chief aim.
Then clinch your prayer by making your claim in the Name of God's Son, the Name of Jesus. Remind Him of the promise, "Whatsoever you ask the Father IN MY NAME, He will give it you." John 15:16. (Note - It says to ASK THE FATHER, not Jesus, but ask it in JESUS' NAME!)
Once you pray like this, the matter is out of your hands. It has been transferred from your hands to the hands of Jesus, your Advocate, Who sits at the right hand of the Father, and Who, in turn, pleads your case as He transfers your request to the Father.
John 16:24 assures us: "Whatsoever you ask the Father IN MY NAME, He will give it you."
Now, start taking your requests to the Father BOLDLY, and in THE NAME OF JESUS!
Preacher's Kid
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
