Nick, thanks for the comment: this merely a comment back to you. (My comment-maker-button-back-to-you is not working.)
Go ahead and read Acts 2. Then read Acts 2:42. Then go ahead and re-read Acts 2:42-47, as it relates to, not just fellowship but the Fellowship. That's a starting point; maybe it will only brush the dust off of a hidden door, but at least its a beginning. I will post more on each of the four topics I mentioned in some way or other, perhaps the fellowship is a good place to start.
Thanks Nick. More soon. Have a great weekend.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
A short intro.
Let me begin, shortly, by thanking Caleb for setting the sails of this rig, and heading out onto some uncharted waters. More to come from our story. Caleb, you rule. I do apologize for the delay.
Ok; I was talking to my brother last night; not my younger brother, from my mother, but a brother in Christ: a fellow Christian. We shared dinner last night, and conversation that lasted long into the night. This was the first time I had been to his house, and we were there almost seven hours! Yes, it was after midnight. I havn't been out past midnight in a while.
Here is the bottom line, and hopefully this will lay a groundwork for me. This is all information we know, or should know...I think; I hope.
Alright, now lets get the party started.
Ok; I was talking to my brother last night; not my younger brother, from my mother, but a brother in Christ: a fellow Christian. We shared dinner last night, and conversation that lasted long into the night. This was the first time I had been to his house, and we were there almost seven hours! Yes, it was after midnight. I havn't been out past midnight in a while.
Here is the bottom line, and hopefully this will lay a groundwork for me. This is all information we know, or should know...I think; I hope.
The Church is not a location or building.
The Pastor does not mean preacher or pope.
Sunday school, small group, etc. does not equal discipleship.
Fellowship is not food & football.
The Pastor does not mean preacher or pope.
Sunday school, small group, etc. does not equal discipleship.
Fellowship is not food & football.
Alright, now lets get the party started.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
20 Questions? (Plus 2)
John Wesley’s Methodists started as a regular meeting of students at Oxford University called The Holy Club. These are 22 questions the members of this group asked themselves every day in their private devotions over 200 years ago. These questions convicted me, so I thought I would share them.
- Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
- Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
- Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence?
- Can I be trusted?
- Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?
- Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
- Did the Bible live in me today?
- Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?
- Am I enjoying prayer?
- When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?
- Do I pray about the money I spend?
- Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
- Do I disobey God in anything?
- Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
- Am I defeated in any part of my life?
- Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?
- How do I spend my spare time?
- Am I proud?
- Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?
- Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it?
- Do I grumble or complain constantly?
- Is Christ real to me?
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Multiplication Tables
This is awesome to me! And so challenging. I am excited to write about this.
What are the things that you really own (I do not mean material things but rather things that you own deep within your person, mind, heart, psyche, whatever you want to call it.)? Drop the spiritual things that you are supposed to know. That is not even a spiritual question. What things do you own? I own my multiplication tables. We'll come back to this.
Who is God? What is His' character? Who are you? What kind of relationship do you have with God? What are the intimate, fine qualities of this relationship? These questions to me are basic and foundational. If God is real - and He is, and if I am real - and I am fairly certain I am, then how should that cause me to live? This has tremendous implications. The scary thing is that most often we settle for not really digging deeply into these basic questions. So answer them. Who is God really? And what is His' character? - I mean really. My answers: God is love (1 Jn 4.8 - see I even have a reference for this one), God is good, He is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. If I am really honest that is just about where my list stops - or at least where it used to stop. The issue is not a lack of knowledge. See in fact I could go on and I could talk about the balance of love and justice that God shows or we could talk about the sovereignty of God or the problem of evil and an ever-loving God. I am equipped with the knowledge, but what's the point? Go back to that list. After I say love, goodness, and all the omni- qualities why go on? What is the point in just compiling a list. And here brings me to the point of this post: For most (it might even be all of you who will read this) of us all we have is a list. That's it. We have a list of who God is, of His' qualities and character. Now that is not a terribly bad thing. But I think it's less than ideal. In fact, in a lot of ways it is actually a very good thing. We ought to know and be able to tell someone who God is. It is important to know that He is those things, but we can do better. We must do better.
So why is this important? It is important because we have failed to sufficiently question what we have been told to believe. Now listen clearly to me, not everyone should question theology because most people are not really equipped to do that. But if no one questions, ever, how do we guard against poor teaching. If no one ever says "Hey I'm not sure that is biblical or correct" then we are surely setting up a system where unbiblical principles will be taught. Paul calls Timothy to "guard" the treasure that Paul had given him. He was to guard "the standard of sound words...in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus." (2 Tim 1.14-15 [see also 1 Tim 6.20]) Surely this is important today just as it was important then. Again, this is not for everyone. But if those who are serious about their faith, for those who are serious minded about the things of God, we must guard our doctrine and faith carefully for ourselves and for those who follow us. I fundamentally believe that this is not just for pastors, neither is every pastor ready for the fight unfortunately. This is for those who are actually following Jesus - who are daily picking up their cross, who are really leading others and helping others to Christ.
Here is a very poignant example: What do you believe about the Holy Spirit?
Even this question causes discomfort and awkwardness. This is mainly because of the abuses that we have seen by some who go too far. And surely, some have abused the real work of the Spirit, but can we just allow ourselves to ignore 1/3 of who God has revealed Himself to be? I do not think we can afford to do that. So let us return to the Word! Let us dig deeply into the Bible to see what the role of the Holy Spirit is. Let us see how He works, what He does, and who He is. This is a perfect example because we have allowed ourselves to believe things about the Spirit because someone else basically told us what we should believe. And whether they used words or just simply communicated through the medium of their life, they told you to ignore the Spirit. They told you that was for crazy, radical people. And we listen. I listen. And that is a shame. And I will not do that anymore. We must go back to the Word for understanding. And not just for what we should know about and how we should live with the Holy Spirit. We should go back to the Word for understanding of everything: the character of God, for understanding myself, for understanding how a perfect God interacts with someone who is so imperfect, for meaning, for purpose, for biblical theology, and whatever else we are seeking.
Now let me clarify one thing. I have written a good bit and I think it would be really easy to close your computer and maybe feel a slight nudge to study harder or to take and make your faith your own just a little bit more. And that is great! Please do that. But what I really want to challenge you to do is to memorize. And here I will return to the promise I made at the top of the post. We own things like multiplication tables. We own particular skills that let us play frisbee or an instrument. We own the ability to read and speak well. We own the plot of tv shows, movies, or dramas and the intricacies of their characters. We do not own who God is. Now I am not suggesting we can own God in a way that lets us wrap our heads completely around who He is, but we have not dedicated ourselves to knowing him like we have dedicated ourselves to knowing a ton of other crap. I can throw a frisbee eleven different ways. Anyone who knows me at all knows how I love to play ultimate. I own that game. I understand it inside and out. I know skills and strategies. I know cuts and throws. I can even hold a frisbee in my hands and tell you if it is a good disc or not. I own frisbee. I have dedicated myself to it. Far, far too often I have not dedicated myself to my relationship with God. I have not owned the Word. I have not even come close to taking the same effort I put into frisbee and putting it into my relationship with Jesus. So here is my specific challenge: MEMORIZE. Dedicate yourself to this. Hard. Long. Impossible. Effort. Worth It. Life-Changing. Apply yourself to memorization. Yes it is difficult, but you take time to memorize all those things above: music, instruments, tv shows, poems, songs, sports, rosters of college football teams, the lives of pop culture icons, even movie scripts. See we just have this aversion to sitting in a bare room with just the Word of God and trying to cram it into our head. We are not actually opposed to memorization. And I think most of us could actually sit in that room if we put our minds to it, but the point is, we memorize things all the time, they just don't change us. So let's own the things of God.
What is 6x7? How about 12x5? Those answers come from somewhere deep inside of me. I put them in my heart and they have kept me from bad math. Now I am desperately trying to put God's word in the same place that my multiplication tables reside because it is only in that place that they will keep me from sin. I am done with knowing a handful of verses that kind of sort of support things I have been told to believe. I am going to memorize. And after those things are inside of me, I will own who God is. They will not just be right answers. I have no more lists. I will have deep knowledge of His character. I can do better. We can do better. There is more to be had. We have not even touched or scratched the surface. What a shame to spend the moments we have been given with things that do not change us. I want to throw myself into things that matter.
I do not know how to wrap this up in a neat and clean way...so go do it.
What are the things that you really own (I do not mean material things but rather things that you own deep within your person, mind, heart, psyche, whatever you want to call it.)? Drop the spiritual things that you are supposed to know. That is not even a spiritual question. What things do you own? I own my multiplication tables. We'll come back to this.
Who is God? What is His' character? Who are you? What kind of relationship do you have with God? What are the intimate, fine qualities of this relationship? These questions to me are basic and foundational. If God is real - and He is, and if I am real - and I am fairly certain I am, then how should that cause me to live? This has tremendous implications. The scary thing is that most often we settle for not really digging deeply into these basic questions. So answer them. Who is God really? And what is His' character? - I mean really. My answers: God is love (1 Jn 4.8 - see I even have a reference for this one), God is good, He is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. If I am really honest that is just about where my list stops - or at least where it used to stop. The issue is not a lack of knowledge. See in fact I could go on and I could talk about the balance of love and justice that God shows or we could talk about the sovereignty of God or the problem of evil and an ever-loving God. I am equipped with the knowledge, but what's the point? Go back to that list. After I say love, goodness, and all the omni- qualities why go on? What is the point in just compiling a list. And here brings me to the point of this post: For most (it might even be all of you who will read this) of us all we have is a list. That's it. We have a list of who God is, of His' qualities and character. Now that is not a terribly bad thing. But I think it's less than ideal. In fact, in a lot of ways it is actually a very good thing. We ought to know and be able to tell someone who God is. It is important to know that He is those things, but we can do better. We must do better.
So why is this important? It is important because we have failed to sufficiently question what we have been told to believe. Now listen clearly to me, not everyone should question theology because most people are not really equipped to do that. But if no one questions, ever, how do we guard against poor teaching. If no one ever says "Hey I'm not sure that is biblical or correct" then we are surely setting up a system where unbiblical principles will be taught. Paul calls Timothy to "guard" the treasure that Paul had given him. He was to guard "the standard of sound words...in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus." (2 Tim 1.14-15 [see also 1 Tim 6.20]) Surely this is important today just as it was important then. Again, this is not for everyone. But if those who are serious about their faith, for those who are serious minded about the things of God, we must guard our doctrine and faith carefully for ourselves and for those who follow us. I fundamentally believe that this is not just for pastors, neither is every pastor ready for the fight unfortunately. This is for those who are actually following Jesus - who are daily picking up their cross, who are really leading others and helping others to Christ.
Here is a very poignant example: What do you believe about the Holy Spirit?
Even this question causes discomfort and awkwardness. This is mainly because of the abuses that we have seen by some who go too far. And surely, some have abused the real work of the Spirit, but can we just allow ourselves to ignore 1/3 of who God has revealed Himself to be? I do not think we can afford to do that. So let us return to the Word! Let us dig deeply into the Bible to see what the role of the Holy Spirit is. Let us see how He works, what He does, and who He is. This is a perfect example because we have allowed ourselves to believe things about the Spirit because someone else basically told us what we should believe. And whether they used words or just simply communicated through the medium of their life, they told you to ignore the Spirit. They told you that was for crazy, radical people. And we listen. I listen. And that is a shame. And I will not do that anymore. We must go back to the Word for understanding. And not just for what we should know about and how we should live with the Holy Spirit. We should go back to the Word for understanding of everything: the character of God, for understanding myself, for understanding how a perfect God interacts with someone who is so imperfect, for meaning, for purpose, for biblical theology, and whatever else we are seeking.
Now let me clarify one thing. I have written a good bit and I think it would be really easy to close your computer and maybe feel a slight nudge to study harder or to take and make your faith your own just a little bit more. And that is great! Please do that. But what I really want to challenge you to do is to memorize. And here I will return to the promise I made at the top of the post. We own things like multiplication tables. We own particular skills that let us play frisbee or an instrument. We own the ability to read and speak well. We own the plot of tv shows, movies, or dramas and the intricacies of their characters. We do not own who God is. Now I am not suggesting we can own God in a way that lets us wrap our heads completely around who He is, but we have not dedicated ourselves to knowing him like we have dedicated ourselves to knowing a ton of other crap. I can throw a frisbee eleven different ways. Anyone who knows me at all knows how I love to play ultimate. I own that game. I understand it inside and out. I know skills and strategies. I know cuts and throws. I can even hold a frisbee in my hands and tell you if it is a good disc or not. I own frisbee. I have dedicated myself to it. Far, far too often I have not dedicated myself to my relationship with God. I have not owned the Word. I have not even come close to taking the same effort I put into frisbee and putting it into my relationship with Jesus. So here is my specific challenge: MEMORIZE. Dedicate yourself to this. Hard. Long. Impossible. Effort. Worth It. Life-Changing. Apply yourself to memorization. Yes it is difficult, but you take time to memorize all those things above: music, instruments, tv shows, poems, songs, sports, rosters of college football teams, the lives of pop culture icons, even movie scripts. See we just have this aversion to sitting in a bare room with just the Word of God and trying to cram it into our head. We are not actually opposed to memorization. And I think most of us could actually sit in that room if we put our minds to it, but the point is, we memorize things all the time, they just don't change us. So let's own the things of God.
What is 6x7? How about 12x5? Those answers come from somewhere deep inside of me. I put them in my heart and they have kept me from bad math. Now I am desperately trying to put God's word in the same place that my multiplication tables reside because it is only in that place that they will keep me from sin. I am done with knowing a handful of verses that kind of sort of support things I have been told to believe. I am going to memorize. And after those things are inside of me, I will own who God is. They will not just be right answers. I have no more lists. I will have deep knowledge of His character. I can do better. We can do better. There is more to be had. We have not even touched or scratched the surface. What a shame to spend the moments we have been given with things that do not change us. I want to throw myself into things that matter.
I do not know how to wrap this up in a neat and clean way...so go do it.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
How did Jesus tell us (believers) to pray for the lost?
Today I was sitting in church history with Dr. Diemer. We always take prayer requests and start class with prayer. That is something that I take for granted far too often, but not today. One of the guys in our class asked that we pray for a nephew that was in a Virginia court hearing to determine his caretakers. The guy in my class asked that we pray for this young boys salvation as well. Dr. Diemer posed an interesting question and something that has stirred my heart for some time. Diemer asked: "How did Jesus tell us to pray with regards to the salvation of others?"
There was a time where I would have been confused by this question. There was a time when that question would have even puzzled me. I would not have understood just what he (Diemer) was asking. I mean the simple answer is: "Pray for them?" (said with a bit of reservation and questioning). Aren't we supposed to pray for lost people? I know God does the work of salvation but doesn't He respond to our requests when we ask him for the salvation of friends and families? Sometimes that takes a long time, but our prayers work that way...don't they?
Let me start by saying that praying for lost people is fine, and I even think that we should. But I struggle to think of anywhere in Scripture where any person prayed for the salvation of anyone else. Now I won't make an argument from silence, but let's see what the Bible does say. Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." (Matt 9.37-38) Wow. That's solid. Shocking. Simple. Clearcut. So what are we to do? This isn't complicated. The answer is this: pray to God and ask Him to send out workers. Ask Him to send out believers who will share the Gospel. Now Jesus doesn't say "Do not pray for lost people" but don't miss the importance in what He does say. I think there are two major things we should take away from these two verses. First, success in witnessing means doing it God way. So if we really want to see lost people getting saved, why are we not praying the way Jesus told us to? If we really want to see lost people around us turning to Christ, ask God to send people to them that will faithfully and fully share the story of what Jesus has done. Then we will be praying the way Jesus told us to, and I believe we will see God responding by actually sending workers out. In fact, we might find that we are the ones who are sent out. Second, I think we need to understand just what is on the line. We find within this passage a principle that Paul understood as foundational to his own personal boldness and success in witnessing. (Success in witnessing = sharing the Gospel, not someone getting saved. That's God's work not ours) Here is the principle: Our success in witnessing is directly supported by the prayers of other Christians. And this hits home when we feel the burden of praying for others. When we fail - yes fail - to pray for our Christian brothers, sisters, family, and friends to specifically be filled we the Spirit and for God to give them boldness to share, even to send them out into the harvest field (the world), how can they possibly have success. If we fail to pray, they must fail to share. See, I live at this place where I want to share with lost people. I desperately want to have those conversations with close friends who do not know Jesus. And I feel like if I can just man-up, or just will myself hard enough then I'll be able to share with them. Now I do think that witnessing is a discipline that I have never found to be easy. Actually I think it's always hard and will always be hard. I constantly find myself speaking rapidly in these spiritual conversations because I'm nervous and unsettled. Witnessing is hard. But just because it's hard doesn't mean we have to push even harder. We just need to do it right. And doing it right means starting from the right place. And where is the right place - in prayer. I already wrote that Paul understood this. Look at Ephesians 6.19-20 - "Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." This is such a phenomenal passage and has been life changing for me. I love where it falls in Scripture, right after "The Armor of God" because it's like a hidden jewel that has gotten lost underneath a high profile passage of Scripture. People miss it because they just think it's the closing of this section and Paul is just saying goodbye. But Paul shows us something critical. As we put on our armor, let's not forget about the others who are in battle with us. Paul begs the Ephesians in these two verses to pray for him. And what does he specifically ask them to pray for? "That words may be given me" Paul understood that he needed to be given the words. He needed God to grant them to him. If that happened, then and only then, could he "fearlessly make known the gospel." And verse 20 is awesome. Paul knew he should do this. But he also recognized that it wasn't something he was capable of. He needed God to do this. Now Paul had God. He was a believer and clearly had a relationship. He was indwelt by the Holy Spirit as believer are. But here is something different. This seems to me to be a daily kind of work. Every day, Paul needed a direct touch from God to succeed. If he was going to share the Gospel with boldness, as he should, then Paul had to be given the words. And this happened as Christians prayed for him. Things are not different for us. This is huge!!! We are failing our Christian brothers and sisters if we are not praying for God to send them out and to give them the words to say and to grant them boldness to share.
One more passage and I'm done. Acts 4.29-31 - "'Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.' After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly." The principle is at work again. Peter and John had just been released from arrest for preaching the Gospel. They returned to their community of believers and prayed. And the interesting thing thing is that in their whole prayer they never once pray for safety. They do not pray that the ones who arrested them would be taken away. They ask for two things. First, they ask God to enable them to speak His word with boldness, and second, they ask for God to do miraculous signs and wonders. They pray for each other. And then I love the last verse. God grants their request. "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly." Oh yea, and God moved so much among them that the actual building where they were praying was shaken!
So to answer our question, "How did Jesus tell us to pray for the lost?" We are to pray for the workers. Pray for God to send believes with His word and with His boldness. Prayer is the foundation of effective witnessing. We have no hope of effective witnessing without it. And we fail each other when we don't pray.
There was a time where I would have been confused by this question. There was a time when that question would have even puzzled me. I would not have understood just what he (Diemer) was asking. I mean the simple answer is: "Pray for them?" (said with a bit of reservation and questioning). Aren't we supposed to pray for lost people? I know God does the work of salvation but doesn't He respond to our requests when we ask him for the salvation of friends and families? Sometimes that takes a long time, but our prayers work that way...don't they?
Let me start by saying that praying for lost people is fine, and I even think that we should. But I struggle to think of anywhere in Scripture where any person prayed for the salvation of anyone else. Now I won't make an argument from silence, but let's see what the Bible does say. Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." (Matt 9.37-38) Wow. That's solid. Shocking. Simple. Clearcut. So what are we to do? This isn't complicated. The answer is this: pray to God and ask Him to send out workers. Ask Him to send out believers who will share the Gospel. Now Jesus doesn't say "Do not pray for lost people" but don't miss the importance in what He does say. I think there are two major things we should take away from these two verses. First, success in witnessing means doing it God way. So if we really want to see lost people getting saved, why are we not praying the way Jesus told us to? If we really want to see lost people around us turning to Christ, ask God to send people to them that will faithfully and fully share the story of what Jesus has done. Then we will be praying the way Jesus told us to, and I believe we will see God responding by actually sending workers out. In fact, we might find that we are the ones who are sent out. Second, I think we need to understand just what is on the line. We find within this passage a principle that Paul understood as foundational to his own personal boldness and success in witnessing. (Success in witnessing = sharing the Gospel, not someone getting saved. That's God's work not ours) Here is the principle: Our success in witnessing is directly supported by the prayers of other Christians. And this hits home when we feel the burden of praying for others. When we fail - yes fail - to pray for our Christian brothers, sisters, family, and friends to specifically be filled we the Spirit and for God to give them boldness to share, even to send them out into the harvest field (the world), how can they possibly have success. If we fail to pray, they must fail to share. See, I live at this place where I want to share with lost people. I desperately want to have those conversations with close friends who do not know Jesus. And I feel like if I can just man-up, or just will myself hard enough then I'll be able to share with them. Now I do think that witnessing is a discipline that I have never found to be easy. Actually I think it's always hard and will always be hard. I constantly find myself speaking rapidly in these spiritual conversations because I'm nervous and unsettled. Witnessing is hard. But just because it's hard doesn't mean we have to push even harder. We just need to do it right. And doing it right means starting from the right place. And where is the right place - in prayer. I already wrote that Paul understood this. Look at Ephesians 6.19-20 - "Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." This is such a phenomenal passage and has been life changing for me. I love where it falls in Scripture, right after "The Armor of God" because it's like a hidden jewel that has gotten lost underneath a high profile passage of Scripture. People miss it because they just think it's the closing of this section and Paul is just saying goodbye. But Paul shows us something critical. As we put on our armor, let's not forget about the others who are in battle with us. Paul begs the Ephesians in these two verses to pray for him. And what does he specifically ask them to pray for? "That words may be given me" Paul understood that he needed to be given the words. He needed God to grant them to him. If that happened, then and only then, could he "fearlessly make known the gospel." And verse 20 is awesome. Paul knew he should do this. But he also recognized that it wasn't something he was capable of. He needed God to do this. Now Paul had God. He was a believer and clearly had a relationship. He was indwelt by the Holy Spirit as believer are. But here is something different. This seems to me to be a daily kind of work. Every day, Paul needed a direct touch from God to succeed. If he was going to share the Gospel with boldness, as he should, then Paul had to be given the words. And this happened as Christians prayed for him. Things are not different for us. This is huge!!! We are failing our Christian brothers and sisters if we are not praying for God to send them out and to give them the words to say and to grant them boldness to share.
One more passage and I'm done. Acts 4.29-31 - "'Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.' After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly." The principle is at work again. Peter and John had just been released from arrest for preaching the Gospel. They returned to their community of believers and prayed. And the interesting thing thing is that in their whole prayer they never once pray for safety. They do not pray that the ones who arrested them would be taken away. They ask for two things. First, they ask God to enable them to speak His word with boldness, and second, they ask for God to do miraculous signs and wonders. They pray for each other. And then I love the last verse. God grants their request. "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly." Oh yea, and God moved so much among them that the actual building where they were praying was shaken!
So to answer our question, "How did Jesus tell us to pray for the lost?" We are to pray for the workers. Pray for God to send believes with His word and with His boldness. Prayer is the foundation of effective witnessing. We have no hope of effective witnessing without it. And we fail each other when we don't pray.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
What it is...
Pete and I had an idea to write a blog about what we're learning - from life, reading, and experience. I write from the perspective of a student. I am in my second year of seminary. Pete can label himself later.
What we want this to be is a helpful discussion about life and real issues. We want to ask hard questions that people might be afraid to ask. We want to seek out answers. We want to find truth. We want to exalt Jesus Christ.
Those are kind of the goals. If yall have questions or cool things to share with us, we welcome that. Please share! And for all of you who touch our lives and whom God has blessed us with, thank you for your influence in our lives.
-Caleb
What we want this to be is a helpful discussion about life and real issues. We want to ask hard questions that people might be afraid to ask. We want to seek out answers. We want to find truth. We want to exalt Jesus Christ.
Those are kind of the goals. If yall have questions or cool things to share with us, we welcome that. Please share! And for all of you who touch our lives and whom God has blessed us with, thank you for your influence in our lives.
-Caleb
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