Portrait of a Powerful Prayer

 

Portrait of Powerful Prayer Daniel 9:1-19

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the prophet Daniel paints a compelling portrait of a prayer that has “great power” (James 5:16).

 As I read through the prayer, there are at least 6 things that stand out to me, 6 things that are regularly seen in powerful prayer.

1. Rooted in Scripture: To begin with we see his prayer is rooted in the never changing truths of God’s Word “according to the Word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet” (Vs. 2). Additionally, we see God’s Word referenced in Vss. 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, & 13. 

2. Resigned before the Lord: “Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking Him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.” (Vs. 3) All these things listed in verse 3 give evidence of Daniel approaching God with a heart of deep humility. 

3. Replete with Adoration: Throughout the entirety this prayer, he brings praise and adoration to the Lord; “O Lord the great an awesome God” (Vs. 4); “To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness” (Vs. 7; “To You, O Lord, belong mercy and forgiveness” (Vs. 9) “… for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that He has done” (Vs. 14)          

4. Recalls God‘s Goodness and Power: “Who keeps covenant and steadfast love” (Vs. 3); “He has confirmed His Word” (Vs. 12);  “…the Lord our God is righteous in all the work that He has done” (vs. 14); “And now, O Lord our God, Who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty Hand” (Vs. 15); Additionally in these verses we see that He is a God of mercy, a God Who hears, and a God Who forgives.

5. Repents and Confesses: “… we have sinned and done wrong” (Vs. 5); “We have not listened to Your servants” (Vs. 6); “…because of the treachery... committed against You” (Vs. 7); “… we have sinned against You” (Vs. 11); “… we have sinned, we have done wickedly” (Vs. 15). 

6. Relishes in God's Glory: Continually seeks to bring glory, not to the ones confessing and repenting but to the Name of the Lord. “O Lord, according to all Your righteous acts” (Vs. 16); “Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant... for Your Own sake, O Lord” (Vs. 17); “… and the city that is called by Your Name” (Vs. 18); “Delay not, for Your Own Sake, O my God, because Your city and Your people are called by Your Name”  (Vs. 19).

Interestingly enough, while this isn't the case for all powerful prayers, in this instance, we see in verses 20-23 that even before Daniel said "Amen", God was already providing a visible answer to the prayer.

Worshipping God in Spirit and in truth...

Jeremiah 17:12

“A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary…”

 

 

For 7 years the nation of Israel had worked tirelessly on Solomon’s temple, employing 30,000 split up in 3 groups working 2 months, then having 1 month off. When it was completed, it was a wonder to be seen. God was most definitely pleased with this magnificent temple. There was a unity of worship and allegiance to God so significant it brought about the blessing of God’s hand on the nation. 

 

Unfortunately, something happened between the days of Solomon and the time of the Prophet Jeremiah. While the temple remained, while sacrifices continued, the worship that was taking place was half-hearted at best. A religious checking off the boxes, while at the same time worshipping the false gods of the land God had given them.  As a result, the days of the magnificent temple in Jerusalem were coming to an end. In a short time, King Nebuchadnezzar and his army would descend upon Jerusalem and completely destroy the city as well as the temple. The physical sanctuary was soon to be gone.  For people with a half-hearted allegiance to and worship of God this was devastating.  For them much of their worship revolved around the building rather than on the Most High God.

 

 

Perhaps that is what was in the mind of God when He inspired Jeremiah to pen, “a glorious throne on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary”. The worship of God never was, is not, and never will be dependent on any building.  God is omnipresent, abiding everywhere and, as Jesus made it clear to the woman at the well in John 4, “true worshippers worship the Father in Spirit and in truth”.

 

In Jeremiah 17:13 we read

“LORD, the hope of Israel, all who abandon You will be put to shame.  All who turn away from Me will be written in the dirt, for they have abandoned the LORD, the fountain of living water.”

  

Jeremiah is prophesying and speaking to the nation of Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel, God’s chosen people, as a result when He writes, “…all who abandon You will be put to shame.”, He is writing to a people who at one time had a relationship with God.  The word “abandon” in the original Hebrew is a very strong word, used frequently in Jeremiah, starting in 1:16 where God says the nation of Judah, they “abandoned Me to burn incense to other gods and to worship the works of their own hands”.

 

 

The picture here is that the people of Judah have turned their backs, abandoned, forsaken, the God who had literally formed them with His own hands. Don’t forget, throughout the creation account God spoke virtually everything into existence except when it came to man, with His own hands, He reached down and formed him out of the dust of the ground, then breathed in him the breath of life.  Now here man is abandoning God and declaring as god, something they formed with their own hands, except they were unable to beath the breath of life into these idols. They were worshipping dead things, capable of doing nothing, instead of the living God who was and is all powerful and perfect in every way.

 

 

Jeremiah goes on to write, “all who turn away from me will be written in the dirt.” In reading this, my mind quickly was drawn to John 8:2-11 and the biblical account of the woman caught in adultery. In this passage, the scribes and Pharisees bring to Jesus a woman caught in the act of adultery.  I’m not sure where the man was, but that is a topic for another time. They were testing Jesus, to trap Him into saying or doing something they could use against Him.  Jesus initially says nothing, He simply bends over and begins to write something on the ground. Scripture does not tell us what He wrote, but I am guessing he writes some very specific sins.  Ignoring what He was writing, they persisted at questioning Him, then He stood up and said to them, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then, Jesus bent over and again began to write on the ground. As before, Scripture does not give any indication what Jesus wrote.  In my mind I wonder, did He begin to write names of men next to the specific sins He had written earlier?  What we do know is that as He wrote, one by one, each man left, until He was there alone with the woman.

 

This fits well with Jeremiah 17:13, because as these men were leaving while Jesus wrote on the ground, they were turning away from Jesus. In the end, the only one who didn’t turn away was the woman. She was the only one who was able to drink from “the fountain of living water” to experience the incredible freedom one obtains from the “Lord, the hope of Israel.”  He was her only hope, and He is our only hope.  Our freedom comes when we abandon our sin and turn to Him with repentant hearts, drinking from the living water.

 

Father in heaven, O that my heart would be wholly and completely devoted to You. May I never move into a position of merely checking all the religious boxes. May my worship never revolve around places, things, or people, but on You, the one true God. My hope is in You and You alone. May I, day by day and moment by moment, abandon the sin that can become so prevalent in my life, and turn to You with a repentant heart, that I might drink from the Living Water that is Jesus my Savior.

This I pray, in His Holy Name, Amen

Moving From The Natural to The Unnatural-Developing a Healthy Spiritual Appetite

 

“Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your earnings for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, Let your soul delight in abundance.” Isaiah 55: 2

• The natural appetite of my heart 

  • The natural tendencies of my soul 

  • The natural yearnings of my spirit 

 

All put me on the path of the worldly table, and a cuisine that ultimately does not satisfy. In Isaiah 55: 2, the prophet is calling me to do that which is not natural. However, while at the outset it may not be natural, the more this becomes the pattern of my life, the more natural it becomes. 

Towards the end of my second year of college basketball, I was upset at how little I made it off of the bench and onto the court. When I approached my coach, he challenged me to work hard on going against my natural tendency to the right hand, and instead spend time working on my left hand. That summer I worked almost exclusively on shooting with my left, as a result, the last two seasons I started almost every game.

What works in the physical, also works in the spiritual. The more we develop spiritual habits that draw us closer to the incredible spiritual feast our God has laid before us, the more natural the unnatural becomes to us. Our gracious God has laid before us an incredible feast, the choicest of spiritual foods, yet far too often when we turn from his table to the leaks and onions of Egypt.

Here are 2 books that have been instrumental in my development of Spiritual Habits, I recommend these for anyone interested in feasting on the incredible spiritual feast God has prepared for us.

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney

Disciplines of A Godly Man by R. Kent Hughes

Bowing To The Hand Made Rather than The God of the Universe

Bowing To The Hand Made Rather than The God of the Universe

 

 

 

Hear the word that the Lord has spoken to you, house of Israel. ² This is what the Lord says:

"Do not learn the way of the nations

or be terrified by signs in the heavens,

although the nations are terrified by them,

³ for the customs of the peoples are worthless.

Someone cuts down a tree from the forest;

it is worked by the hands of a craftsman with a chisel.

⁴ He decorates it with silver and gold.

It is fastened with hammer and nails,

so it won’t totter.

⁵ Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch,

their idols cannot speak.

They must be carried because they cannot walk.

Do not fear them for they can do no harm—

and they cannot do any good."

 

In some ways the poetic declaration of the prophet Jeremiah, in the opening verses of chapter 10, remind me of the prophet Elijah’s confrontation with the 450 prophets of the false god Baal & the 400 prophets of the false god Asherah in 1 Kings 18:20-38. In a sense, there is a note of sarcasm, even a hint of taunting, from Jeremiah, aimed at the fake gods the Nation of Judah was worshipping. “…Someone cuts down a tree from the forest; it is worked by the hands of a craftsman… He decorates it with silver and gold. It is fastened with a hammer and nail, so it will not totter (Perhaps they learned a lesson from the Philistines in 1 Samuel 5:1-12). Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak… can do no harm… cannot do any good.” Jeremiah surely marveled that God’s chosen people would bow down and worship, even sacrifice their own children, to something they had paid someone to carve out of a piece of wood. Instead of worshipping the God that formed them by His own Hands and breathed into them the very breath of life. 

 

Most who read this breathe a sigh of relief here. This is certainly not something we struggle with in our day and age! Certainly not in America! Why I’ve never bowed to any idol! In the words of the famous theologian Lee Corso “Not so fast my friend!” I would suggest that if we think deeply on this, our tune may change. To bow is a picture of surrender. While we may not physically bow, if we are not careful, we can daily surrender to that which God never intended for us to worship. The list is endless;

·      A home

·      A job

·      A business

·      My spouse or family

·      Girlfriend or boyfriend

·      Car

·      Game

·      Sport(s)

·      A Sports Team

·      A ministry or church

·      Bicycle….

My fingers could wear out before I finished this list, and these are just the things I personally have struggled with in my own life. What’s on your list?

 

My prayer, as we enter this New Year, is that my heart would be fully devote to the sovereign God. That I would reserve all my worship for Him, and Him alone. That as I am unswervingly devoted to Him and dive deeply into the unchanging, eternal truths of His Word, that He would transform me, from the inside out. That He would accomplish the unexplainable in me and through me, to the glory of His great Name. 

 

Would you join me in this prayer?

 

Pastor Jim

Song of Surrender

Do Bible Believing Churches Play a Role in School Shootings like Robb Elementary in Uvalde TX?

 

Who is Really to Blame for Uvalde, TX?

It has been a little more than a week since the tragic events at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX. Hard to imagine the mind of an individual who would walk into an elementary school and brutally murder 19 students as well as 2 teachers. All this after he attempted to kill his grandmother. As you would expect, this has been a huge topic on the news ever since. It has also been the top topic on social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. Everyone is trying to make sense of the senseless, but you know what? That can’t be done, you can’t make sense of a senseless act and any attempt to do so would be futile.

Another thing we have seen a lot of this week, is a search for where we place the blame. Many have pointed their fingers at an American society that puts very few limits on guns. Their feeling is that if we put tougher restrictions on gun ownership, these things will not happen. Others, on the opposite end of the spectrum, believe that had some of the schoolteachers been armed, it could have ended right there. There are some religious leaders who point a finger at a society that has systematically removed God from the schools, from the workplace, from anywhere that is considered a public place but is not a place of worship. And yes, there are many who place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the politicians. They believe that politicians no longer seem to have any desire to work together on any front, have led our country down the tubes. Nothing gets done because partisan politics in this country has died and drug this country down to the grave with it. The moral compass of our politicians on every side of the political spectrum has so decayed that the citizenship they have been charged with leading has followed their lead and thus the country, as a whole, has no moral compass. There are fingers pointing in other directions as well. It seems each side has passionate arguments, and to a certain degree there appear to be valid points for each consideration.

Like much of the rest of this country, I have struggled greatly with what took place on Tuesday, May 24th, 2022. I have also struggled with who to blame. As I stated earlier, I suppose that to a certain degree, each of the areas discussed above have some merit when it comes to blame. But could it be that the lion’s share of the blame lies somewhere else entirely? As I have thought about it over the past several days, and honestly, my thoughts have been heading in this direction for the past 10 years, all the way back to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT in Dec. 2012. My mind keeps going to the same area for who is ultimately to blame. Please understand that it really pains me to say this, but I believe that in many ways the church is to blame. That’s right, the church. By the church, I want to clarify exactly what I am talking about. I am not talking about any specific church, nor any specific denomination. That being said, I do want to be a little more specific. The church I am referring to is the evangelic church in America as a whole. That group of individuals, nationwide, that profess to be Bible believing Jesus followers. We have put our faith and trust in Jesus, rarely miss a Sunday and are even in the habit of serving in some capacity.

Perhaps as you read this you are thinking to yourself, “The church? How could the church be to blame?” Allow me to answer your question with a question. What are we, as Bible believing Jesus followers called by God to do that has the potential to make such an impact that it may even stop our own Uvalde, TX experience? To see this, let’s look at Luke 10:25-37. I’m pretty sure you will be very familiar with this story. It is The Parable of the Good Samaritan.

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

While the lawyer asked Jesus “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus’ answer was to give him a vivid picture of what a real neighbor looks like. After giving him that picture Jesus simply asked; “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”

So what does this parable have to do with Uvalde, TX? As I am in the habit of doing, let me follow that question with another question. A pretty telling question, and in my own case a pretty convicting question. Actually, the question has already been asked, it was asked by the lawyer who was addressing Jesus in Luke 10:25-37. And who is my (your) neighbor? Ask that same question of yourself this morning. Who are your neighbors? What do they do enjoy doing with their free time? What are they like? What are the chances they would knock on your door if they really needed someone to talk to? Ok, I get it; this wasn’t 1 question but several questions. The point is, if the majority of us were to answer this question honestly, we don’t really know the answers to most of those questions. When we arrive home from work, or shuttling the kids around, or from our errands or……. or from church. We push the button to open the garage and before we are out of the vehicle the garage door is on its way down. We relax on our back deck rather than a front porch. Sure, most of us may not have a front porch, but to be truthful, chances are even if we had a front porch we would still go to the back deck. We like our privacy. But there is a problem with this. God has not called us to be saved into seclusion. He has called us to be saved into the mission field. The “Jerusalem” Jesus is referring to in Acts 1:8 for us, is right where we live. Not just our neighborhoods, it where we work, where we go to school, the places we go for recreation. It’s where we live out our lives on a day-to-day basis.

Let’s go back to Uvalde, TX. What do you suppose are the chances that Salvador Ramos had people in his neighborhood that were Bible believing Christians? Let’s not limit this to just his neighborhood. Really, shouldn’t we include others he came in contact with on a regular basis? Now let’s go back to you and me, our “neighborhood”. Could there be a Salvador Ramos living near us? I would imagine that if each of us really put some thought into it, we could come up with someone who is similar in a lot of ways; quiet, a loner, sort of strange, maybe a little backward. We have seen them walk by our house a few times, usually we kind of turn the other way, or go back inside the house or garage, pretend to be busy doing something, anything, anything but smile and say “Hi” or “How’s it going?” They kind of scare us, perhaps rightly so. But is that how God has called us to react? Much of the time Jesus seemed more at home with the sinners than He did the religious. It also seemed the sinners gravitated towards Him, but not because He did what they did, not at all. It was because He accepted them, He loved them. He didn’t look down His nose at them, didn’t mumble under His breath about them or think to Himself, “What a loser!”

The Gospel of John tells the account of another Samaritan, this one a woman. In New Testament times, you can’t be much more of a loser that The Woman At The Well we read about in John 4. She was a half breed who had lost count of how many men she had slept with. She was filth through and through, but before Jesus was done with her, she was clothed in His righteousness. Shouldn’t that be our desire for the Salvador Ramos’s God brings us into contact with? I know, we may not be able to reach them no matter how hard we try, but shouldn’t we at least try? What a fool David was to go to battle against a giant who was covered in body armor, had a sword, shield and spear as well as an armor bearer with him, when David had nothing more than a sling and 5 stones…… But you know what? David knew that the God whom he served could direct his stone to the perfect spot. He didn’t approach Goliath in fear and trembling, he ran towards him like a man possessed. Guess what, he was a man possessed. The Bible tells us that David was a man filled with the Spirit of God…. he was a man possessed. Don’t we serve the exact same God? So since we do, let’s start serving Him fully and making a difference in our “neighborhoods”.

We have got to get to the point where we stop searching for who to blame when things happen like what took place at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, and start, as individual believers, taking responsibility to do whatever it takes so that when Jesus looks our direction He can say of us that we have proven to be a neighbor. Who knows what God may do through our willing and available hearts? We could very well be an important tool in the hands of the Master Craftsman that changes a life destined for utter destruction into a life of eternal significance. We may be the one used of God to stop a potential Salvador Ramos, not with a gun, or our religion, or our political stance, but with the unconditional love of Jesus Christ that is flowing through us.

Jim Canady

Perhaps you don’t struggle in the areas I addressed below. To be honest, this was written as much to me as it was to anyone else. However, if what I wrote struck a chord with you. Let’s do some brainstorming now. What can we do to do better? What are some steps we can take? I know for me and my family, we need to purpose in our hearts to make a difference in our “Jerusalem”. That place where God has placed us. What about you, I would love to hear your thoughts. Jim

(Please note, this is largely a reprint of a blog post I wrote in Dec. 2012 after the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown CT. I made a few changes to match what recently took place.)

Seasons Greetings.....or Maybe not! My thoughts on The 2020 Political Season.

I don’t know about you, but I love the seasons! I do have my favorite, which is spring, but there are things about the other seasons I also love. The chills of winter bring the beautiful purity of the new fallen snow, which remind me of what believers have in Christ. That the forgiveness we have as a result of His sacrifice on the cross, washes us whiter than snow. The heat of summer brings growth. We currently live in the midst of the corn and soybean fields of Indiana. Corn and soybeans grow best with the summer heat, accompanied by some summer rains. I am reminded that oftentimes we as believers also grow best during the heat and rain. Heat, to me, represents the trials and tribulations of life. Whereas the summer rains represent refreshment, refreshment from the heat. Oftentimes the trials and tribulations of life seem overwhelming and just when I reach the point of despair, my eyes turn to the God of the universe and He moves in like a refreshing summer rain and I experience refreshment and relief. Fall, well fall brings with it colorful leafs which have their own rustic beauty. Similar in many ways to believers in the church. Honestly, it would be pretty boring if all believers were like me, and you too, by the way! Spring brings with it new life. Flowers start to bloom, trees start to bud, and in some instances have their own blooms. I picture, in my mind, and individual bowing for the first time to the Savior Who gave His life a ransom for them on the cross and the new life that sprouts in the heart of that individual. 

There is one season I don’t care for. We have recently entered into that season. Perhaps you may be thinking, “Wait, didn’t fall just start? And you already said you enjoy fall, what gives?” Actually, I am not referring to any of the 4 seasons with which we are most familiar. The season I don’t care for is one that generally happens only once every four years. It is the Presidential Election Season. The season that makes enemies of close friends, enemies of family members, enemies of those you sit next to on Sunday mornings. Comments in social media turn into anything but…well social. I have noticed that over the last couple decades this ugly season has gotten even uglier. Chances are this will be the worse one in my lifetime. We are in the midst of a pandemic, which has greatly divided our Nation, and there is a racial tension that seemingly has set us back by 50 years. These things lead me to believe we are in for the ugliest election season ever! With that in mind, I wanted to give some of my thoughts on how, I believe, we as believers should approach our social media posts during this election season. 

To begin with, I’d like to start with a question. What is the chief goal of every believer? According to the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:31, as he writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the chief goal of every believer is to glorify God in everything we do. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” What this means is that before we hit the send or post button when we are on social media, we have to look back over the post to identify whether or not our post will bring glory to God. If it doesn’t, hit delete, don’t post. 

Now there may be times you are unsure if what you are posting brings glory to God. I look at what I post as if what I am posting was literally words proceeding from my mouth. With that in mind, let’s look at another statement from the Apostle Paul. This one comes from his letter the the believers in Ephesus. We find this in Ephesians 4:29 where we read; “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” I love the picture Eugene Peterson gives us in his paraphrase of this verse; “Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.” Did you notice his last phrase? “Each word a gift.” In other words, each word that comes out of my mouth, or in the case of social media posts, each word that comes from my fingertips, should be something I can wrap like a gift and give to someone and that the gift of my word would bring great pleasure to them. So, similar to how the last paragraph ended, if what I am about to post, isn’t gift worthy, then the key I should hit is the delete key, not post. By the way, I want you to notice something from Ephesians 4:29. Paul ends with the phrase; “that it may give grace to those who hear.”  What I want you to notice is, Paul isn’t specific with who he is referring to as “those who hear”. In other words, the listeners could be anyone, not just those who share the same political point of view as we do. What we post should give grace to virtually everyone. For some of us this may have a significant impact on what we post, in fact it may eliminate much of what we plan to post. At least when it comes to political posts. 

One more question. What was the first corporate command the resurrected Jesus gave to us? We find it in Matthew 28:19 where Jesus directs us to; “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...” At Liberty Chapel, we are currently on a journey through The Gospel According to Mark. The last message I delivered was from Mark 4:21-34. There are 3 lessons in these verses, The Lamp Under The Basket, The Parable of the Seed Growing and The Parable of the Mustard Seed. Each of these lessons addresses our obligation to be a light, to plant seeds of the Gospel. As I have done throughout this post, I want to equate this to what we post on social media. This means that our social media posts should shine the light of God’s love, should be planting seeds of the Gospel to those who read through them. Again, the question we need to ask before hitting the send or post button is, Will what I am about to post shine the light of Gods love, plant the seeds of the Gospel to those who read it? If the answer is not “Yes”. Then hit the delete button, not the post button. 

You know what I have noticed over the years I have been reading and posting on social media? So far, I have not seen a single individual who read a post that came from a different political viewpoint than theirs, who at the conclusion of reading the post left the comment, “Wow, I never thought of that before! I’m going to change my political party. Thanks, so much for enlightening me!” What I have witnessed countless times is threads deteriorating with each new comment. I have seen good friends become enemies. I have seen families torn apart. I have seen people that shared the same pew one Sunday, flat out ignore that former pew mate the following week, and every week that followed. I’m not sure that matches very well with what Jesus said in John 13:35; “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

To summarize this post. What we as believers post on social media should first:

1. Bring glory to God.

2. Give grace to those who read it. 

3. Shine the light of God, planting the seeds of the Gospel.

4. Give evidence that we as believers have a deep and abiding love for one another.

With these thoughts in mind, post away……after you bathe your post in prayer. And do me a favor, would you hold me accountable to these same guidelines? 

Thanks, Jim Canady

By the way, I welcome your comments and any discussion. I am not the end all authority on these things.

A Heritage Worth Having Pride In.

Romans 3:21–22 “²¹ But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— ²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction”

The apostle Paul, from Romans 1:18-3:20, has clearly and decisively established the utter hopelessness of all mankind, whether Jew or Gentile, to uphold the Law of God well enough to be declared righteous before Him. Paul established that we are completely hopeless based solely on the Law. If Romans ended at this point all, and especially his Jewish readers, would have no choice but to hang their heads in despair. The way to stand righteous before God, based on the law was hidden from their view because it was an impossibility.

Put on the sandals of Paul’s Jewish readers for a moment. From their days as children through their current day, all their hope had rested on their standing as Jews and their observance of the Law of God. Then Paul unleashes a barrage of attacks on everything they held dear as Jews. In some ways, his attacks remind me of today’s precision warfare. We have all seen some of the attacks the United States has had on Al-Qaeda strongholds in Iraq. We would see a loan truck on a dirt road filled with soldiers and weapons quietly moving in the dark of the night, and all of the sudden a missile appears out of nowhere and the truck disappears in an explosion followed by a cloud of smoke. That is what Paul had just done to the pride of the Jews. Look at verse nine; “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No not at all.” This was a precision hit on the Jewish pride in being God’s chosen people. But at least they still had the Law of God. Some of which was Hand delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai. They could certainly have confidence in the law! Then comes verses 19 and 20; “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” Another precision hit on the confidence of the Jews. Thankfully Paul didn’t end with 3:19-20!

Verse 21 and 22 would have been a huge source of encouragement to Paul’s readers. Up until this point their eyes had been hidden from any idea of how to have a right standing before God. It was as if they had blinders over their eyes. In verse 21, Paul removes their blinders when he wrote; “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law”. I imagine that some may have read these words and thought “Wait, you mean we can be righteous apart from the law?” Then Paul begins to remove the blinders from their eyes.

The word Paul uses for “manifested” in verse 21 is a key word. It means “to make visible or known what has been hidden or unknown whether by words, or deeds, or any other way.” Something very important taking place here. Paul is reassuring his readers that there is a way to stand before God as righteous apart from the law. This may have been confusing to his readers, especially the Jewish ones, because up until this time they thought their righteous standing came through their careful observance and obedience to the Law of God. But Paul just blew that theory to pieces. His Jewish readers, who also had a great deal of personal pride in their national heritage and their pious observance of the law, must have hung their heads in despair. Paul understood exactly what they were going through because he had experienced the same thing on the road to Damascus and Acts 9. Now that he had their full attention, he goes on to remove their blinders, but before he removes their blinders he lets them know that even though they had not seen it before, the answer had been in plain sight all along, “The Law and the Prophets bear witness to it.” With this statement he is letting them know that the answer was there all along. He goes on in the next few chapters to bring clarity to their spiritual vision.

There were a couple of important things taking place here, particularly in the hearts of his Jewish readers. First, Paul was letting the air out of their bubbles of pride. He let them know that they had done nothing at all to bring God to the point of choosing them as his people. As a result, they had no righteous standing before God based on their nationality. Second, their possession of the Law and limited and flawed observance of the Law, did nothing more than reveal how utterly lost they really were in their standing before God based on the law.

Please don’t miss the lesson here for us. God wants to completely strip us of any pride we may have in who we are in this life. He also wants to strip us of any pride we may have and what we obtain personally and spiritually. Paul understood this far better than his readers or us today, because none of them or any of us can come close to climbing the ladder of national heritage or strict observance of the law than he did. Yet he wrote in another epistle that all those things were garbage compared to what he now knew. What he now knew is that righteousness is placed on us by grace through faith in Christ and Christ alone, not based on who we are or what we have done. Our pride is humbly placed in God Who willingly sent His Son to die on a cross of shame, that His righteousness could be placed on all who would by grace through faith fully surrender to Him.

May we willingly accept what He accomplished on our behalf and may this be the heritage in which we take pride!

God’s Word Entrusted to Us Is Meant to Be Shared

God’s Word Entrusted to Us Is Meant to Be Shared

Romans 3 “¹Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? ²Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. ³What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? ⁴By no means! Let God be true though everyone were a liar, as it is written,

‘That you may be justified in your words,
    and prevail when you are judged.’

⁵But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) ⁶By no means! For then how could God judge the world? ⁷But if through my lie God's truth abounds to His glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?⁸And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.”

In Romans 3:1 – 8 Paul continues his dialogue specifically directed to his Jewish readers. He begins by pointing out that one of the big advantages of being a Jew is that they were “entrusted with the very Words of God” (NIV 1984). In looking at Paul’s statement, please don’t miss the keyword in that statement. I underlined it for emphasis. The word is “entrusted” the K JV uses the word “committed”. These word uses are important. Paul didn’t say that the Word had been given to them. Givengenerally gives the impression that the gift is given with no strings attached. Paul’s use of the word “entrusted” or “committed” indicates that with this great gift comes great responsibilities. God’s Word is given that it might be re-given over and over again. Interestingly, we can give this gift away yet still maintain possession of it ourselves. 

I’m not sure you noticed, but I transitioned from the Jews to us as believers. Just as the Jews were entrusted with the gift of the Old Testament, we have been entrusted with the completed Word of God. Just like the Jews, this gift brings with it a responsibility to re-gift and at the same time maintain possession of it ourselves. We re-gift through living transformed lives, through teaching and preaching, through quoting, through reading aloud, through sharing… really there are many, many ways we can re-gift the Word of God. The main thing to understand is that God’s Word is not given with no strings attached, but entrusted, which means it comes with important responsibilities.

In this life there may be times that we are entrusted with the responsibility of gifts that exceed our capabilities to fulfill the trust. That is not the case with God, God never misjudges our capabilities! If the ball is dropped on what God entrusts into our care, that is completely on us. We are fully worthy of God’s trust because His gifts to us bring with them His power through the Holy Spirit who indwells us. We are worthy of His trust because the Worthy One empowers us. Therefore, walk in a manner worthy of His gift entrusted into our care.