Got the T-Shirt...and Moving On

Fresh Hope For Pathetic Prayers

Stephen Altrogge at "The Blazing Center" wrote something this week that really encouraged me this week about Fresh Hope For Pathetic Prayers

....There’s a serious disconnect between what we’re praying about and how I feel (or don’t feel) about it.

And to be honest, I hate it when this happens. I hate it when the intensity of my heart doesn’t match the weightiness of the prayer. It’s discouraging to say the least.

But recently I heard Mike Bullmore give some very simple and encouraging advice regarding pathetic prayers like mine. He said that he often asks God to help him feel the weight of what someone is praying. He asks God to stir his affections so that he too would desire what is being prayed.

That’s it. Nothing mystical. No magical amulets or prayer labryinths involved. Just a simple prayer to God that acknowledges weakness and asks for grace. God loves to answer prayers like this.

So rather than giving myself a spiritual beatdown every time my heart feels cold, I offer up this simple request to God: “Lord, please help me also desire what is being prayed.”

It’s given me fresh hope for my pathetic prayers.

Maybe there is hope for my pathetic praying also.

Recent Reads & Good Books

What I've been reading the past few weeks:

The Prodigal God by Tim Keller: Best book I've read in many years. There are more deep insights per page in this book than there are M&M's in a jumbo bag. I highly recommend this book and intend to read it over and over.

Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free by F.F. Bruce- A classic work which I've never gotten around to reading until now. There is a reason why it's a classic.

Mad Church Disease by Anne Jackson - New book on recognizing and overcoming ministry burnout. Good stuff! She has a good website / blog also.

Everyone Gets to Play by John Wimber - A collection of essays and articles by the late John Wimber on ministry and his philosophy that every Christian gets to play - no one left on the bench. Good reminder for me of the foundational principles of why we do what we do.

Love Jesus, Love People, Love Life

Blogger Tim Chester boils evangelism down to its center - Effective evangelism: love Jesus, love people, love life

I’ve been thinking about evangelism. I think three things are key to effective evangelism: loving Jesus, loving people and living life. Perhaps ‘delight’ or ‘relish’ would be better words: relish Jesus, relish people, relish life....

...Enthusiasm for evangelism doesn’t begin with evangelism at all. Exhortations to evangelize just leave us feeling useless. Driven by guilt we try ‘turning’ the conversation at work round to spiritual things with horrible crunching gear changes or we knock on a few doors to little effect. And so we give up. Again. And feel guilty. Again.

Enthusiasm for evangelism begins with an enthusiasm for Jesus. My willingness to speak of Jesus arises from my delight in Jesus. People love talking about the thing they’re into. Man United. Knitting. Vintage cars. A new boyfriend. Whatever it is, they love talking about. It bubbles out of them with an infectious passion. When we’re ‘into’ Jesus an infectious passion for Jesus bubbles out of us. To get going on evangelism we need to rewind to some of our earlier principles - back to God and his glory, back to the God’s work of change in our lives, back to the welcome and grace of cross, back to future glory. We need to get excited all over again with Jesus. We need to excite one another with the gospel day by day.

Update: here's part 2 on Loving People. Here's part 3 on Loving Life.

Free Calfskin Version of the ESV Study Bible!

Found this site -A Boomer in the Pew: Win a Calfskin Version of the ESV Study Bible! - via Rick Ianniello. They are giving away free ESV Study Bible in celebration of their one year blog birthday.

Yeah, I posted this for the chance to win the free ESV Study Bible (which I have been craving after with a "holy" lust). But it looks like they have an interesting blog also.

Thanks guys!

The Gospel is the Antidote to Everything

This post by Jared Wilson at The Gospel-Driven Church: The Gospel is the Antidote to Everything is so good, and so well said, that I can only quote it in its entirety with a hearty AMEN! Thanks Jared!

Once there were two brothers. You know their story, more than likely. One was wasteful, exploitative, wanton, licentious. One was rigid, moralistic, uptight, legalistic. Two brothers with two personalities and two sets of attendant sins. But their father loved them both and all that he had belonged to both of them equally.

This is how staggeringly awesome the gospel of Jesus is.

Two sisters. One is a busybody, the other kinda poky. One rarely Sabbaths; the other makes every day a Sabbath. The prescription for both is focus on Jesus.

Two Americans. One is a practicing homosexual and proud of it. The other is a practicing Baptist and proud of it. One trusts his feelings, the other trusts his actions. Both are in desperate need of Jesus for pretty much the same reason.

This is how wonderful the gospel of Jesus. It's the skeleton key for all of humanity.

Medicine doesn't work this way. You don't treat spina bifida with drugs for leukemia. (At least, I don't think you do.) You don't give a decongestant to a kid with athlete's foot. For every condition, there is a specific treatment. Different symptoms, different fixes.

But the gospel isn't like that. It fixes everything.

We all exhibit a multitude of symptoms for our conditions, running the gamut from self-indulgent immorality to self-satisfying morality. Opposite ends of the spectrum and everywhere in between. Whatever your symptoms, the gospel is the answer.

There is no problem, pain, or perniciousness outside the universe-spanning scope of the gospel.The gospel carries with it resurrection power.So Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, rich or poor, smart or dumb, well or sick, bad or good . . . the gospel is the power to save for all who believe.

The gospel is the antidote to everything.

Bibliophile Alert! - Driscoll Giveaway

Alert for all you Bibliophiles -

Bible Study Magazine is giving away copies of Mark Driscoll's newest book Vintage Church at Driscoll Giveaway

Living in a Fornication Nation

You don't have to compromise with our sex-saturated culture. By God's grace you can stay in the sexual safety zone.

So says J. Lee Grady in an article at his "Fire in the Bones" blog entitled Staying Pure in a Fornication Nation. The article summarizes a speech he made to a group of college students. His four points of advice are:

1. Don't redefine your morality
2. Don't sell your birthright
3. Get ruthless with your weaknesses.
4. Live a transparent life.

Good advice for all of us.

Alternative Baptism

"… Besides, the Word is the principal part of baptism. If in an emergency there’s no water at hand, it doesn’t matter whether water or beer is used.”
- Martin Luther

Now there's an interesting concept - Baptism in Beer. I think I know a few people who have tried to do that - from the inside out.

Hat Tip: Boar's Head Tavern

Wisdom of The Proverbs 31 "Woman"

A friend was discussing the famous Proverbs 31 Woman as the ideal for Christian femininity, and I was reminded of something I read at NETBible last year regarding Proverbs 31

The book of Proverbs comes to a close with this poem about the noble wife. A careful reading of the poem will show that it is extolling godly wisdom that is beneficial to the family and the society. Traditionally it has been interpreted as a paradigm for godly women. And while that is valid in part, there is much more here. The poem captures all the themes of wisdom that have been presented in the book and arranges them in this portrait of the ideal woman (Claudia V. Camp, Wisdom and the Feminine in the Book of Proverbs, 92-93). Any careful reading of the passage would have to conclude that if it were merely a paradigm for women what it portrays may well be out of reach – she is a wealthy aristocrat who runs an estate with servants and conducts business affairs of real estate, vineyards, and merchandising, and also takes care of domestic matters and is involved with charity. Moreover, it says nothing about the woman’s personal relationship with her husband, her intellectual and emotional strengths, or her religious activities (E. Jacob, “Sagesse et Alphabet: Pr. 31:10-31,” Hommages à A. Dont-Sommer, 287-95). In general, it appears that the “woman” of Proverbs 31 is a symbol of all that wisdom represents. The poem, then, plays an important part in the personification of wisdom so common in the ancient Near East. But rather than deify Wisdom as the other ANE cultures did, Proverbs simply describes wisdom as a woman.

This argument makes a lot of sense to me. If wisdom can be personalized in Proverbs 8:1-36, why not in Proverbs 31:10-31. This interpretation makes the passage apply to both men and woman equally. Plus this takes some guilt of the ladies who may feel guilty for not perfectly living up to this standard.

What do you think?