Bible

A Prayer of Confession for 2024

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I found this prayer penned by Scotty Smith on Facebook and thought it was worth sharing. I think more than anything the Church in America needs to posture itself for the new year in a position of repentance and seeking forgiveness for not living up to biblical standards.

I think on one hand we’ve been too legalistic and self-righteous, looking down on others who sin differently than we do. I also think at times we’ve tried to look too much like the culture we’re called to reach out to and have compromised the message of salvation in the process.

So here’s my prayer for 2024:

“Abba Is Changing Us. Let’s Cooperate.

‘If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness’ (1Jn.1:8-9).

Heavenly Father, for your steadfast love, we bless you. For your patience and kindness, we praise you. For your daily mercies, we trust you. Hallelujah… you’ve already declared us righteous in Christ, and now you’re at work to make us as beautiful as Jesus. Here are some of the areas of heart and life for which we need grace and the Spirit’s work—clear manifestations we’re not as Christ-like as you intend.

•We confess thinking of ourselves too much and marveling at Jesus too little.

•We confess it’s easier for us to rush to judgment than linger in your presence.

•We confess over-believing our fears and under-resting in the Gospel.

•We confess scheduling ourselves into bad attitudes and diminishing health.

•We confess indulging a critical spirit more than we seek your Spirit’s filling.

•We confess being more upset by the news than at peace through your Word.

•We confess making more of other’s sins and weaknesses than our own.

Father, thank you for the full forgiveness we already have in Christ, and the sure hope of being like Jesus one Day. We look to you for strength to repent quicker when you convict us of these and other sins. Humble us. Change us. Heal us. Free us. Thank you… and So Very Amen (Scotty Smith).”

True Faith Prevails

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“Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave” (G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man).

It seems that in every generation, people have tried to modify Christianity to make it more culturally acceptable and more palatable to modern ears. The Bible even promises that people won’t want to hear the truth but will follow after those who tell them what they want to believe and want to hear.

But true faith has a way of outliving all those who want to change it. True orthodox Christianity will always exist because it alone has the power to transform people and truly set them free. There is only one gospel with the power to save.

I don’t claim to be smart enough to understand how true faith has managed to stay alive all these centuries, even when it was just about dead in the world and hardly any recognizable form of the gospel could be found.

But I believe that just as God promised Elijah that there was a remnant in Israel who remained faithful, so God again promises that there will always be a true remnant who will hold fast to the teachings of the Bible and of the true Jesus of the gospels. And it won’t be because of any of us who are super faithful and super spiritual, but because it is God’s truth and God will preserve His truth.

My prayer for those who have fallen into false teaching and a pseudo-faith is that they will come to THE truth — not my truth, not their truth, but God’s unchanging and unwavering truth as found in Scripture. I pray they will embrace true faith and find the true joy of salvation.

And I will trust that God is able to keep that which He has created and committed to us, the real and true gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Books I’m Reading

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Normally, I’m not a multi-tasker when it comes to reading books. I’m strictly a one book at a time kind of dude. But lately, I’ve been reading three at the same time.

Two of them are books that easily break down into daily readings. The Winter Fire book is really an Advent devotional based off the writings of G. K. Chesterton, and Every Moment Holy III: The Work of the People is a series of liturgies that can each be read as devotionals.

The Boxen book is one that I’ve been reading off and on as time allows. I have a feeling that if the weather delivers all the cold and snow I’ve been hearing about, I may have a bit more time in the next few days to catch up on my reading.

But that’s where I am. I’m also in a Bible reading plan with all the Brentwood Baptist regional campuses, so that’s something new as well. I mean I’ve read through the Bible before, but never as part of a large group.

I recommend each and every one of these books if you’re looking for new reads. The Bible I’m using is a Day by Day Chronological Bible that breaks down into easy daily reads with some helpful commentary from Dr. George Guthrie.

Now it’s time to catch up on some of my reading.

A Faith Like Betty Elliott’s

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‘Lord, I give up my own plans and purposes, all my own desires, hopes and ambitions, and I accept Thy will for my life. I give up myself, my life, my all, utterly to Thee, to be Thine forever. I hand over to Thy keeping all of my friendships; all the people whom I love are to take second place in my heart. Fill me now and seal me with Thy Spirit. Work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost, for to me to live is Christ. Amen” (Betty Scott Stam).

I want the kind of faith that Betty Elliott had. And before I go on, I do realize that she was a flawed, sometimes insecure, follower of Christ. I also realize that the only one we’re truly called to be like is Jesus, but I think it’s helpful to have worthy examples to inspire us.

After listening to most of the biography Becoming Elisabeth Elliott, I see a faith that definitely is inspiring to me. This woman of God waited for marriage for a long time. She had wait while Jim wrestled with whether God was calling him to marriage in addition to a call to the mission field. After that, their marriage lasted all of two years before he was martyred.

Then she was willing to go to the very people who had murdered her husband and take them the gospel. It’s only through the power of the gospel of Christ that she was even able to forgive them, much less reach out to them in love. It’s that same amazing grace that later saw a majority of that tribe come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.

That’s the kind of faith I want. Not so much the dramatic, in your face part, but the quiet and steady confidence in a God whose ways I may not always understand. I want the faith that can say at any moment, whatever the circumstances, “Thy will be done, even if it means that my will be undone.”

Her legacy lives on in the books she wrote, particularly Through Gates of Splendor and its account of Jim Elliott and four other missionaries’ attempts to reach the Huaorani people of Ecuador, an unreached people group, with the gospel and how it cost them their very lives.

I love this prayer of hers from when she was 21:

“My life is on Thy Alter, Lord – for Thee to consume. Set the fire, Father! Bind me with cords of love to the Alter. Hold me there. Let me remember the Cross.”

The Bread of Life

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I ate dinner at The Cheesecake Factory with the family today. Yes, that place that has a menu the size of War and Peace. But they also have bread.

One of my favorite pleasures has to be freshly baked bread right out of the oven, covered in just the right amount of butter. The taste, the texture, and the way it melts in my mouth all make for happiness. I could live without a lot of things, but I seriously doubt I could live without bread.

And think about it. Bread is such a staple for so many parts of the world. Back in Jesus’ day, bread was a daily part of their lives and integral to every meal. So when Jesus said that He was the Bread of Life, he was saying more than He was one of the four food groups, spiritually speaking. He was saying that the more we know and love Jesus, the more we find Him completely satisfying on every level.

If I had let myself, I could have eaten basket after basket of bread and not had any room left for the entree. That would have been foolish. But when Jesus is the bread of life, we find that there’s no such thing as too much. The more we learn and the more we see, the more we want and the more our desire grows to know and love and serve Jesus. The more we want to share this Bread with others.

May the love of Jesus never grow old for any of us, but may we always savor Jesus and carry His aroma wherever we go to those around us in all the places we go.

New Year’s Day 2024

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This is my favorite quote for the new year. It was written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer while he was in a concentration camp after a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. He penned these words, knowing they might be some of his very last and that he probably would not live to see the next new year.

These words are timeless and just as needed in 2024 as they were in 1945:

“With every power for good to stay and guide me,
comforted and inspired beyond all fear,
I’ll live these days with you in thought beside me,
and pass, with you, into the coming year.

While all the powers of Good aid and attend us,
boldly we’ll face the future, be it what may.
At even, and at morn, God will befriend us,
and oh, most surely on each new year’s day

The old year still torments our hearts, unhastening:
the long days of our sorrow still endure.
Father, grant to the soul thou hast been chastening
that Thou hast promised—the healing and the cure.

Should it be ours to drain the cup of grieving
even to the dregs of pain, at thy command,
we will not falter, thankfully receiving
all that is given by thy loving hand.

But, should it be thy will once more to release us
to life’s enjoyment and its good sunshine,
that we’ve learned from sorrow shall increase us
and all our life be dedicate as thine.

To-day, let candles shed their radiant greeting:
lo, on our darkness are they not thy light,
leading us haply to our longed-for meeting?
Thou canst illumine e’en our darkest night.

When now the silence deepens for our harkening,
grant we may hear thy children’s voices raise
from all the unseen world around us darkening
their universal paean, in thy praise.

While all the powers of Good aid and attend us,
boldy we’ll face the future, be it what way.
At even, and at morn, God will befriend us,
And oh, most surely on each new year’s day!” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

White Stones

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“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it” (Revelation 2:17, NIV).

I learned something interesting recently. When the Romans were building their roads, sometimes they used small white stones known as either tiger eyes or cat’s eyes in between the larger stones. The purpose was for those smaller white stones to reflect the moonlight at night to help people see where they were walking at night.

I don’t ever want to be guilty of reading too much into any biblical text or seeing something that isn’t there, but I wonder if there’s a connection. If the white stones were guideposts along the road, then someone with a white stone would be able to help others find their way to God.

I remember that Jesus told us that we were the light of the world and a city on a hill that can’t be hidden. When we live out of the overflow of God’s provision and in accordance to His will, we reflect God to those around us and help those who are lost find their bearings and their way.

Just as the moon doesn’t generate its own light but only reflects the light of the sun, so we don’t in our own strength or wisdom lead people but only so far as the image and light of God is reflected in us and through us. That only comes through surrender and obedience.

When the people of God truly live out their calling, they don’t point people to themselves or to their impressive churches or activities but to the awesome power of God who meets us where we are but doesn’t leave us that way.

Fix Your Eyes

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“Fix your eyes on the rising Morning Star. Don’t be disappointed at anything or over elate, either. Live every day as if the Son of Man were at your door, and gear your thinking to the fleeting moment. Just how can it be redeemed? Walk as if the next step would carry you across the threshold of Heaven. Pray. That saint who advances on his knees never retreats.”

Those were words quoted by Jim Elliott to his 15-year old sister Jane. These words still ring true in this day and age, long after Jim was martyred for his faith by the people he was trying to reach for Christ.

These words seem like a real Christianity as opposed to the emasculated form of niceness that passes for faith these days. If you read the words of the saints of old, you realize just how far the bar has fallen for the American churches.

But ultimately it’s not about us now versus us then. It has always been about fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Morning Star and the Author and Finisher of our faith. That’s always been the true litmus test of faith — following Jesus and obeying His words, no matter what.

May that be true of those of us who claim the name of Christians.

Why Church?

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Church is not about worship. I mean that anybody can worship at anytime in any place. You can worship God by yourself.

What church is about is worshipping corporately. It’s about gathering together in community because we are better together than we are apart. We are stronger together than we are apart. The old saying is true that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

I believe that in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit came upon the early believers, He empowered and indwelled the collective church. That means that where two or more or gathered, Jesus is there and there is power — more power than if we each prayed or worshipped or read the Bible separately.

I also still believe that it’s more about being the church rather than going to church. Church isn’t a place or a time or an event that we participate in but it is us. We together are the church who meet together regularly because we need each other and we need God most of all.

The Bible never gives a reason for any of us to neglect the assembling together of believers. At least, I can’t find any good reason. When we isolate ourselves from the body, we open ourselves to falling into temptation and wrong beliefs. We are more easily prone to wander away from the Church and the truth.

I love the old joke that if you ever find the perfect church, don’t go there because you will mess it up. There are no perfect churches because there are no perfect people. There is only a perfect God who meets us where we are and leads us daily closer to being more like Jesus.

Broken Crayons

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Have you heard the saying that broken crayons still color? It’s true.

It’s also true that God uses broken people to bring out the colors in the world. Those, and not the perfectly whole people, are the ones God favors to work in and to work through.

God uses wounded healers because He is a wounded healer. He still bears the scars from His wounds by which we were healed.

Those marks on His hands and feet are to remind us that we weren’t healed and saved to bask in our deliverance, but to turn around and help others find healing. We have been reconciled through shed blood in order to facilitate a ministry of reconciliation based on the Prince of Peace.