You can learn more about George Right to Life on their Web site at http://www.grtl.org.

Looking ahead…even among the most optimistic, 2009 is not looking good. There appears to be a looming credit card crisis which will lead to bankruptcies on a massive scale, continued and increasing job layoffs, thousands of companies closing their doors and the continued disturbing surprises that keep popping up in the headlines.

The hope for the Christian in all of this is the sovereignty of God. If God were not working all things ‘according to the counsel of his own will’ (Ephesians 1:11), then 2009 is likely to be a really bad year. Come what may, if you are in Christ, 2009 will be a great year! Yes, you may lose your job, your home, your savings and other earthly possessions, but you will not and cannot lose Christ.

His kingdom is the pearl of great price for which we have already ‘sold all’ to have obtained (Matthew 13:45&46). If you have received such a treasure, what can you possibly lose this year that can compare to that which you cannot lose? 

For the Christian I am praying that God would use these times to wean us off of our materialism and purify the church. May our idols be taken away that we might give ourselves to the work of the ministry and to the service of the saints. 

In conclusion, while 2009 is likely to bring further devastating blows to our economy, I am optimistic that it could bring even more devastating blows against the Kingdom of Satan. This could be a year of unprecedented ministry opportunity to a lost and dying culture. Let us resolve to take advantage of the times for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, whatever the cost.

It’s that time of year when most of the Western World reflects on the birth of Christ. While the ‘radical anti-Christians’ would seek to remove Christ from Christmas, I am not as concerned with them as I am the ‘semi-religious’. 

The ‘semi-religious’ are those people who only go to church around Christmas and Easter who also profess to be Christians. Throughout the rest of the year they appear to demonstrate very little interest in spiritual matters. They consider it a small matter to forsake their spiritual duties; not that they admit it, but it is what they live.

I was thinking about this when I read Ecclesiastes 5:1 during family devotions the other night. What a little view most professing Christians in our culture have of God. God fits somewhere in between all of the other things in their lives, but is not at the primary core of their life’s calling. When Christmas rolls around they do their religious ‘duty’ and go to the church they have forsaken for the rest of the year. 

This is no more than the ‘sacrifice of fools’ spoken of in our verse. What generally draws such people is tradition (because that is what a good moral person does at Christmas), not a passionate love for God. They think they go to worship but what they need is repentance and a life changing, saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then all but the greatest hindrances could possibly keep them away from God’s people every Lord’s Day for the worship of God. Then they will want to carefully ‘listen’ and learn ever more about our great God and king. Then God will be the reason not only for the season, but the reason for their lives.

Final thought…I have been writing about ‘them’…could it be that I have written about ‘you’? Do not be deceived, Christ desires all of you or none of you (Luke 14:26,27 & 33, Revelation 3:16).

This led to examining two additional aspects of prayer from the scriptures that I had never studied before. 

1. For what did the apostle Paul pray as he interceeded for the churches to which he ministered?
2. For what did Paul request prayer from the churches?

Praying for the Churches

We examined the following scriptures.  Note:  I’ve highlighted some, but not all, of the things for which Paul prayed.  And notice the end or result to which he prays is often designated with “that” or “so that”:

Eph. 1:16-19 – 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might

Eph. 3:14-19 – 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Phil. 1:9-11 – 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Col. 1:9-10 – 9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

1 Thes. 3:10 – 10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?

2 Thes. 1:11-12 – 11 To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philemon 1:6 – 6 and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.

These verses were extremely instructive to Robert and I as we consider “how” we pray for our congregation.  Too often we find ourselves praying superficially.  But in these words, we see Paul praying to the heart of the issue for those whom he loved. 

For example, he prayed that they might be filled with all “spiritual wisdom and understanding,” that their “love may abound” and be characterized by “knowledge and discernment” so that they may “approve what God sees as excellent” and so be “pure and blameless.”  Often we are tempted to pray, “Lord, keep them pure,” without praying, “God grant them spiritual wisdom and discernment” to the end that they might be pure.

Prayer Requests of Paul

We finished this short series considering the Prayer Requests of Paul and how our congregation can pray for their pastors.  And we saw that Paul knew the importance of prayer.  Repeatedly when writing to the churches we see words like, “Brothers, pray for us” (1 Thes. 5:25) or “pray for all saints, and also for me…” (Eph. 6:19).  We need the prayers of God’s people! Consider the following scriptures:

Romans 15:30 – 30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, 31 that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.
 
2 Cor. 1:11 – 11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

Eph. 6:18-19 – 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Col. 4:3-4 -  3 At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

2 Thes. 3:1-3 – 3 Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, 2 and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith.

Finally, we concluded with this thought:  that every command in scripture is a request for which we can pray.  And especially as we consider how the church can pray for their pastors, we looked at the qualifications listed in the scripture (1 Tim. 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9) and saw that each of these qualifications is something for which the church can pray!

“Finally, brothers, pray for us!”

This is not to say that there is no value in orderly church functions, socials, counseling, visitation, etc. but if the foundation of the Word of God is not benefiting the sheep so that they are growing under the ministry, then all the rest is just spinning the wheels in the mud and getting nowhere.

How many pastors are working themselves to a frazzle and seeing no real spiritual growth in their churches because the whole counsel of God is concealed due to fear that someone may get upset if they released the Word of God onto the people? How sad that the very thing the sheep need (the Spirit filled Word consistently and unapologetically preached) is being withheld in many of our pulpits.

I immediately went to the website and registered – thinking it would be a “stimulating” time hearing preaching related to genuine revival.  But I have to confess that in my heart I had no expectation of encountering God in a life changing way.  And secretly in my heart I held back the possibility of actually experiencing “personal revival” in my own life.  It was simply a “conference.”

What an unexpected shock when God showed up!  I cannot express in words the work the Lord has done in my own heart.  Our time began Tuesday morning with a concert of prayer that lasted for 2 1/2 hours.  No talking, no looking around, simply praying and listening for the voice of God.  And like an onion the Lord began to peel away and expose things in my own heart that were not right with Him.  During this time different men, mainly the speakers at the conference, would come and pray at the microphone as the congregation, in groups, continued to pray.  And the Lord would use each man, one by one, in his praying, to expose more of the hypocrisy and sin in my own life.  It was a time of searching and then confessing – again and again.

There were 12 men who spoke over the 3 days of the conference.  It was unlike any preaching I have ever heard – not because of the eloquence of the men, but because of the deep heart work that God did through the messages.  I left at 11PM the first night and was back at 8AM on Wednesday morning for prayer.  The Lord introduced me to several men from different backgrounds – Baptist, Mennonite, Non-denominational and others who had such a deep love the Lord Jesus and a communion with Christ that seemed otherworldly.  It was infectious.  About half way through the 2nd day during a time of prayer, I felt as if the Lord had loosed my tongue and I understood what it meant to walk “before his face,” to live in the “awareness of the presence of God.”  God broke through to my soul in a new and powerful way.  It was as if there was a thin veil between where I was in my walk with Christ and a deep intimacy with the Savior.   On the other side was the power, sensible presence and joy of God.  And my Christian life had been lived, for the most part, on the far side of the veil – looking through, knowing about it, living in proximity to it, but never experiencing what it meant to be immersed in the presence of God.  After the evening closed several of us met for prayer until after midnight.  It was during these hours of prayer that the spirit of God would ransack my heart.  God brought me to the place of transparency before Him – to a realization in my heart that my life and thoughts are an open book before Him.  And I confessed sins that to my knowledge I had never been aware of before. 

One of the things the Lord exposed and crushed during the first 2 days was my critical spirit.  Numerous times during the conference I would find myself standing during worship with a critical spirit because of the perceived “showmanship” of the worship leader or some other thing where I judged the motives of those around me.  And God freed me from this through confession and repentance – so that I had a freedom in worship that I have never experienced.  The Lord also showed me how much I desired the praises of men and how filthy my pride was before Him.

The last day of the conference was no different.  We began with prayer and a time of worship.  The speaker in the afternoon breakout session was Alan Martin.  During this session things began to “click” in my understanding as he went from verse to verse looking at the “Christ life.”  So many of the truths I had heard the last few days began to gel – the reason my life was not characterized by “joy unspeakable and full of glory” was because it is only in God’s presence we find fullness of joy.  And God’s presence to me was not this deep, abiding, walking before the face of God in my daily life, but something “out there.”  It is the difference between “walking in God’s statutes” and “walking before His face” in our relationship with God. That’s the only way I know to describe it. 

I learned that to abide in Him, to walk humbly with our God who is our life, is to be crucified with Christ – laid out as a sacrifice – filled with His Spirit to know his manifest presence.  My understanding of God has been much too “academic.”  As dear brother Leonard Ravenhill would put it, “too much paper puts out the fire.”

But it does cost something to be a real Christian, according to the standard of the Bible. There are enemies to be overcome, battles to be fought, sacrifices to be made, an Egypt to be forsaken, a wilderness to be passed through, a cross to be carried, a race to be run. Conversion is not putting a man in an armchair and taking him easily to heaven. It is the beginning of a mighty conflict, in which it costs much to win the victory. Hence arises the unspeakable importance of “counting the cost.”

Ryle goes on to outline what it will cost a man to “win the victory:”

1. Self-righteousness – “He must cast away all pride and high thoughts and conceit of his own goodness. He must be content to go to heaven as a poor sinner saved only by free grace and owing all to the merit and righteousness of another.”
2. His Sins – “Our sins are often as dear to us as our children: we love them, hug them, cleave to them and delight in them. To part with them is as hard as cutting off a right hand or plucking out a right eye. But it must be done. The parting must come.”
3. The Love of Ease – “He must take pains and trouble if he means to run a successful race toward heaven. He must daily watch and stand on his guard, like a soldier on enemy’s ground. He must take heed to his behavior every hour of the day, in every company and in every place, in public as well as in private, among strangers as well as at home. “
4. Favor with the World – “He must be content to be thought ill of by man if he pleases God. He must count it no strange thing to be mocked, ridiculed, slandered, persecuted and even hated. He must not be surprised to find his opinions and practices in religion despised and held up to scorn. He must submit to be thought by many a fool, an enthusiast and a fanatic, to have his words perverted and his actions misrepresented. In fact, he must not marvel if some call him mad. “

If you’ve never read the book, you can get a copy here.