Book Study

The Vitalness of Prayer

September 20, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

In Matthew 7:7-11 we read: 7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Through prayer, God answers our needs and requests. If we don’t pray, then how do we gain the riches of God? I don’t mean that in a monetary sense. I mean, that without prayer, how can we expect God to move? God needs us, wants us to talk to him. That’s all prayer is you know?!

It’s talking, you can do it in a formalized manner with praise and thankfulness followed by supplication. You can pour out your heart to him with tears and on bended knee. You can use thee-s and thou-s or just common language. God doesn’t mind the language we use, he just wants us to talk to him as a child talks to their parent. Regardless, if on bended knee or walking down the street or over a phone, prayer is vital. It’s how we tell God our needs and desires, and it’s how we learn to listen back. It’s a two-way street prayer is. It’s a real conversation.

Even so, I have to admit I struggle sometimes with prayer. WHY?

Exhaustion. I know.. How can I forget to pray when I’m tired? Well.. my brain shuts down and it’s hard even for me to hold a conversation with my hubby. Perhaps you have the same thing? When you get tired it’s easier to just not, because sometimes we want to but we just can’t.
Distraction. Satan doesn’t want us talking to God so he’s done an excellent job of providing a whirlwind of distraction for us. TV, books, people, bills, jobs, selfishness, and more. Satan tosses it all in our direction and a lot of it catches doesn’t it?
Lack of appreciation. Do we truly appreciate all that God does for us? I say Thanks to my hubby when he holds the door, thanks to our student for helping carry in groceries, thanks for my boy when helps with the laundry, thanks to a random person when do something kind. Small conversations. Do I thank God for the muffin I just ate? Or the clothes on my back, or the roof over my head? Do I say thanks for the KIND people buying things from the church?

God is so wonderful to us. We should be astonished and ashamed I think at our reluctance to pray, to carry out conversation with the Lord God. Through it we gain insight into our actions, are enabled to dig deeper into His Word, and have a chance to just talk things out with someone who will ALWAYS listen, always. Suss our the vitalness of prayer. You’ll be amazed at the bounty to be discovered the more you engage in it. I know I always am! 🙂

Where Do We Look?

September 13, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. Hebrews 2:1-4

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. Hebrews 3:1-3

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. Hebrews 12:1-3

Where is Jesus in our lives? That’s the question that Ian Hamilton puts to us in The Faith-Shaped Life.

The author to Hebrews was writing to a group of believers who had gotten side-tracked. They put other things before the Lord, becoming dull of hearing (heb 5:11), they were starting to submit to the pressure of giving up Christianity and returning to Judaism, (heb 10), and were no longer putting Christ first in all things. The author wanted to put a stop to such things so he urged them to remember their first love… CHRIST. They had stopped considering our Lord and Saviour and needed to remember where they should first look.

Make a resolution?

Shouldn’t this be a resolution that we make? To be more deliberate about looking to Christ? To consider what he would want before we consider our ownselves?

Yesterday in our Heidelberg reading the lad and I were going over how Jesus is our perfect high priest, King and Prophet. If that’s what he is, shouldn’t we think of him as we live our daily lives? Shouldn’t it matter greatly to us what he thinks, or might have to say about the matters at hand? Shouldn’t we then make him our first priority?

Not an easy thing you know, to refocus one’s thoughts. It’s so easy to just get about the daily task of living, to forget something that isn’t right in front of our faces. AH, I feel convicted as I write these words, I need to seek after the Lord, to talk to him before I start out on my daily events. Let him in on the details and plans and see where he would take me in my journeys. This I then resolve, consider the Lord in my daily life all the more. Make him matter.

Join me yes?

Want to follow along in The Faith Shaped Life? Here’s where to find it:

Love One Another

September 6, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Augustine once said “Remember, we are washed in the same blood.” Doesn’t that comment just make you think? Doesn’t it just highlight to you how we are all part of one family. ALL believers in Christ have been cleansed by the same blood, the blood of Christ. We are all part therefore of one big family. It’s good that eh?

Sometimes, oh sometimes, we are so caught up in being doctrinally correct that we lose sight of the fact that we are family, and forget to treat each other like it.

love one another — Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

We need to love each other like family. And just like families do, we can call each other out when we act inappropriately, or have faulty thinking, but we do so from the vantage point of love. We don’t want our loved one going places, or thinking places, or acting in ways that aren’t suitable.

So when we talk with other believers, even if their faith is divergent from our own (for instance believers baptism vs covenant baptism), we don’t have to act like, or treat them like they are horrible for having a different standard. The question always comes down to this… do these other believers love God, do they see that Christ’s death is the only answer to the sin in our lives, do they embrace God’s word as God’s word and believe in it wholly? If they do, they are brothers and sisters in Christ, they are family. Shouldn’t we treat them as such?

These are my people; we have been washed in the same blood, sanctified by the same Spirit, and loved by the same Father. (Ian Hamilton, The faith-shaped life) Click To Tweet

Doesn’t mean it’s easy, in fact loving family can be downright messy, but let love be the first guide. Let love draw us into unity with each other instead of letting our differences drive us apart.

…….

Do you want to follow along? Faith Shaped Life is available on amazon.

Humble Wisdom of Faith

August 30, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

I read this chapter the Humble Wisdom of Faith from Ian Hamilton’s Book The Faith Shaped Life and I find myself wanting to rear my head back and say “NOT!”. But I find myself checked in spirit, needing to ask myself, are his words true and clear?

Does the nation we live in have scars? Does it engage in activities that cause the heart of God to mourn, and ergo cause him to become angry with us?

If so, can I see that God can and will deal with my country?

GAH.. this is hard. I have a fair amount of Canada is a wonderful place to live. We totally rock!

But, if I stop and think, like Mr. Hamilton calls us to, can I see my nation as one that needs to begs God’s forgiveness? Can I see that as a people we need to say “Sorry Lord, we’ve abandoned our roots in our pursuit of being welcoming to all”. So much so that we’ve actually forgotten whose we are? Can I truly see the need for it?

Caught off guard

And I have to admit, a huge part of me is fighting that idea, and I’m caught off guard by it.

Am I so in love with my country that I cannot see her faults? How she’s turning away from the Lord?

Then I remember how we are fighting against the introduction of Sharia law, the help we try to give the First Nations people, and how the government has apologized for how we’ve treated the Japanese and Germans during the wars.

And then I also remember our Prime Minister and how he is SO millenial in his thinking and has a hard time being the leader he is called to be. I see the divisions in the churches and in families and within co-op groups. I see the hunger and the need for a roof over your head. I see how I mock people driving down our construction laden street in a heavy rainstorm and almost getting stuck. I see these things and I go … Oh God, bring us back to you and your ways. Help us to see you more and our ownselves less.

What’s the answer?

We should humble ourselves under God's almighty hand, in order that he might lift us up in due time. Ian Hamilton, the Faith Shaped life. Click To Tweet

Help us God as a nation to turn back to you, person by person, people by people, church by church, group by group, have us humble ourselves before you in faith so you will turn your wrath away from us.

The Sorrow of Faith

August 16, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Do you understand God’s sorrow at our sin?

That’s the question Mr. Hamilton asks in today’s chapter. Do we know the truth of this statement: The ultimate tragedy of sin is not that it spoils my life, disrupts my relationships, scars my world, but that it dishonours, defies, and disgraces my God. Do we understand David, when confessing his sin to God says, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.”

Too often we are only taught about what sin does in relation to us. How it hurts us, hurts our relationship with God, and so forth. Centering it all around ourselves.

But that’s not the sorrow of faith is it?

The sorrow of faith is what sin does to God. How it grieves his heart, makes him angry, and causes him to turn his face away from us. God HATES sin. HE does. Do we truly understand this? Do w

An old term in talking about sin is Deicidium… which means God Murder. Do we see sin as being that kind of horror against our living God? Do we truly see God?

The ultimate tragedy of sin is not that it spoils my life, disrupts my relationships, scars my world, but that it dishonours, defies, and disgraces my God. Ian Hamilton Click To Tweet

That’s what it comes down to you know? The more we see and know God the more we see and understand just what sin is in relation to him. It’s a horror, a darkness trying to cover up the light, a disruptor of all that is right, true, honourable and good. It’s an abomination against God. See that.

Understand God all the more so you can see that. As we do that, we are better enabled to understand the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, and the magnitude of the love and grace he bestows up on us.

Understand God more, see him more clearly and you will understand Jesus’ sacrifice more dearly.

Want to follow along? I’m currently on chapter 16 and working through one chapter a week.

Fragrance of Faith

August 9, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

When I started reading this 15th chapter in Faith-shaped life it didn’t make any sense to me. Talking about Jesus being the Rose of Sharon (referencing the Song of Solomon) and how often Christians get lost in the exactitude of faith and belief that they lose their fragrance of faith. This made ZERO sense to me. So I talked with hubby and he immediately asked me… does he reference 2 Corinthians at all? He referred me to this passage:

14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

Then this chapter began to make sense… because I can read scripture and make sense it of (usually, not always). 🙂

Fragrance of Knowledge

What is this fragrance of knowledge and do we show it well?

When I think of fragrance I think of two things.

STINK – you know like a skunk has a fragrance all it’s own
PERFUME – a sweet or nice smell that one can appreciate as it’s pleasant to the nose.

So when we think of the fragrance of knowledge, of being the aroma of Christ, what are we conveying? Does the smell we convey lead to life?

Does our union with Christ show as we proclaim the knowledge of Christ? Have we allowed the two to become separate? When we proclaim Christ do people see our relationship with him?

People need not only to know the truth of Christ’s redemptive work, of the forgiveness we find in him, of the connection to God that he once again gives us… but they need to see the results of that lived out. Our relationship with God needs to be apparent as that is what shows the good aroma of the Lord.

The Believer’s Joy

July 12, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice. Phil 4:4

This is an injunction from Paul, reminding us of the importance of rejoicing in the life of a believer.

Part of a larger passage

The whole passage reads as follows

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. ⁵Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Just as:

So just as we are not to be anxious about anything, and JUST as we are let God, with an attitude of thankfulness, make our requests known to him through prayer and supplication. And JUST AS we are supposed to think about the true, the honourable, the just, the pure, the lovely and so on and forth… Just as we do all those things we are to rejoice ALWAYS.

It is so important that Paul repeats himself. Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say rejoice. It starts off his list of things a believer should be doing. Rejoicing is the first mentioned, and it’s mentioned twice. Means it rather important eh? To rejoice in the Lord.

Now it’s not always easy to do so I find. It’s hard when things are tough to remember that God’s got our back and we can rejoice even in those hard times. It could always be worse right? But whether it could be worse or not, the reason we rejoice is not because of our circumstances. We rejoice because of who the Lord is. It’s a good thing to remember that The Lord is God and he has done so much for us.

Saving us from our sins, calling us sons and daughters, his constance love of us, the refusal to be separated from us and how he watches over us so much. THIS THIS is the one we rejoice in.

Creator, sustainer, protector, saviour, redeemer, Lord of lords, King of kings, Father, the I Am, THIS is the God, the God that we rejoice in.

Let us then take this injunction to heart, just as we do with everything else in this list, considering what is pure, honourable, true and the like.

Not recommended

I was recently reading a “not recommended” book list, and some of the books were strongly recommended against and I was surprised at a lot of them. Some of them were books that I have enjoyed over the years, it had me thinking, am I just oblivious? Do I just not see the things in these books that this individual is seeing? It brought to mind this same passage in Phillippians. I was trying to formulate my words to a friend tonight and I think started to answer myself. One of the frequent comments by the author of this list was “the hero isn’t a good person” or “the hero does things a person of good moral character wouldn’t do”. And I suppose it’s just that, that attracts me sometimes to the books I read and enjoy. I see this broken person who has their faults (we all do since we aren’t God) who despite their faults does good. Despite their faults there are redemptive qualities about those heroes who don’t always exhibit good character.

What to keep in mind:

Do we need to keep in mind that we shouldn’t be engaging in things that aren’t honouring of God, that aren’t true , just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, or worthy of praise. We shouldn’t be. And it’s a hard field to navigate you know? I like watching cop shows… seeing bad guys come to justice, I don’t like watching shows were the bad guys get away, and sometimes the shows have bad guys as the stars who end up being good guys by the end of the show. Not perfect good guys, not guys I’d want my son being best friends with, but guys (or gals) with redeeming qualities. The question that faces me is this: Which qualities do I look at? Do I look at the redeeming qualities and say…this makes the show worth watching, or do I only see the death and mayhem or potential bad language, and say “nope, can’t watch this”. I don’t know.

I can remember to not be anxious about anything, and to prayer with an attitude of thankfulness and I can put my mind to rejoice always. I get that. I can be about the recalling to mind the goodness of the Lord. Can you?

Book Study

The Vitalness of Prayer