Posted in theology

One of the most destructive dangers of all…

Posted on by elizabethprata

Post by *Pastor James Bell

James Bell wrote:

If we developed a list of the ‘top 10 destructive dangers’ facing Christian families and churches in 2022 and beyond— what would be on your list? Matthew 24 reveals a world of wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, persecution and the multiplication of wickedness and lawlessness. All of these ebb and flow. They rage in one part of the world while another is basically quiet. Increasingly, these seem to draw closer home to us in America.

However, these are all ‘outside dangers’ impacting and/or seeking entrance.

In addition, in Matthew 24 there are some ‘inside’ dangers which come from within homes and churches— such as deception, false prophets, losing heart/being offended at the price tag for following Jesus and love growing cold.

There is one more ‘inside job’ that really CUTS DEEP!

Not only shall many professing Christians lose heart/fall away from the faith; but they [even family members] shall BETRAY one another and hate one another! How utterly tragic! (Matthew 24:10; Luke 21:12-19)

One of the most common ways of betrayal and hate is by words of slander, gossip and/or discord sowing.

Our words are powerful for good or for evil. The Bible says that a root of bitterness will defile MANY! (Hebrews 12:15)

How can bitterness reach many? Gossip and slander are the vehicles!

The tongue can defile an entire family, neighborhood, nation and certainly a local church! (James 3:6-10) The tongue can be a restless evil and full of the deadly poison of slander.

Sin entered the Garden of Eden via the receiving of a satanic slander against God!

Today, one of satan’s strategies continues to be to get Christians to accuse one another, to be bitter one toward another, to slander one another. BEWARE!

*Pastor James Bell is Pastor of Southside Baptist Church in Gallatin TN since 1975.

Posted in theology

What are sufferings, trials, and afflictions?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I started this essay three times and abandoned it three times. Not because I suddenly became disinterested in the topic. It was because I was getting confused. My original approach was to take several of the words (trials, sufferings, afflictions, tribulation etc) and define them and look at their contextual use. I was going to explain in detail exactly what trials and sufferings were.

However I got confused because there are SO MANY words for a Christian’s distress, so many reasons, and so many contexts, I discovered that the approach I chose to writing it would be beyond my time limits and abilities. There is spiritual suffering, physical suffering, suffering from within, suffering from without…each with its own word describing it. I had to stop and re-think each time I sat in my chair and began to research the topic.

If you just think of one Bible person, Paul, and his one list of the things he went through (beatings, sufferings, shipwrecks, danger from robbers, danger from brethren, etc). It was a long list of suffering and trials. (2 Corinthians 11:22-28). And that’s just one spot in the New Testament.

Now, it’s pretty interesting in itself, don’t you think? Jesus promised suffering/trial/trouble/persecution/danger/affliction…see how many words are used to convey the idea that a Christian’s life on this earth will be punctuated with anguish.

We read often in the Bible of our forefathers’ trials, afflictions, and sufferings. Paul writes often about them in the New Testament. Look at Job, Joseph, David in the Old Testament. On the surface, we know and comprehend these words. We understand trials and sufferings and trouble and afflictions well enough. But do we?

A trial is not having difficulty finding a parking space when it’s raining. It’s not that your favorite item at the grocery store is out of stock. It’s not when Amazon fails to deliver in the promised 2 days.

Sufferings, trials, trouble, difficulty, burdens, weights, pressures, afflictions…there are many different words the Bible uses and they each have different nuances. But they all boil down to one thing: the difficulties of living on this earth and dealing with our and others’ sin. Every one of the words I was trying to define has a parent root issue: it’s because of sin.

Suffering is a product of the Fall. Immediately after Adam sinned, mankind fell into affliction. Guilt and blame began in the marriage, arguments and pettiness. In the world, the very ground would fail to yield easily, the animals became hostile, and the climate changed. Childbirth would cause a woman to suffer pain. Grief entered into human life at Abel’s murder. Perfection was no more and the humans on earth began suffering. No matter our location on earth, difficulty comes. No matter the length of time we endure it and no matter the reason, the origin of the human experience of suffering is all due to sin:

 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned— (Romans 5:12); and 1 Corinthians 15:21, For since by a man death came, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.

Continue reading “What are sufferings, trials, and afflictions?” →
Posted in theology

All things work together for the bad

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

My Sunday School is working through Romans. We are just finishing Romans 8. One of our teachers in the class has a deep connection with Romans 8:28, which says,

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

At age 17 his neck was broken in a high school football game, and he became a quadriplegic. He teaches High School Bible now in a Christian School and one of his courses is Romans. Between his deep personal connection with Romans 8:28 and his professional association with teaching it, you can imagine that we spent a good deal of time in Sunday School Class, discussing how and why all things work together for the good of those who love Him.

I was driving along this week and Adrian Rogers came on the radio with a sermon about Romans 8:28. Oh boy! I love Adrian Rogers. I love Romans 8:28. This will be good, I thought.

And it was. Because he came at it from the opposite point. Rogers said in part of his sermon, that if all things work together for the GOOD of those who love Him, then all things work together for the BAD for those who hate Him.

Wut?

Yes. For people who hate God, things work out to the bad for them. Now to be clear, God is not the author of sin and He doesn’t tempt people to sin. He is perfectly holy. But what people forget is the duality of the proposition. God is holy, sin is not. He is light, all else is dark. He can be found on the narrow way, others are on the broad way. Either a person is in the faith or not. There is heaven and there is hell. People are either good (based on Christ’s imputed righteousness) or they are bad (because, sin nature).

Haters of God cannot claim this promise. You can put Romans 8:28 in reverse. If all things work together for the good of those that love God, if a person does not love God, all things work together for the bad. A person might say ‘Well, I’m living high, wide, and handsome right now’. “But friends”, Rogers said, “it’s not working together for the good but for evil for those who don’t love God.” Even a good thing like preaching to those who who do not love God and reject the Gospel, Jesus said to go your way and shake the dust off your feet. That very dust will be used as a testimony against them at the day of Judgment. (Luke 9:5). So even a good thing like preaching will be used against them that die in their hatred of God.

“Good” preaching, even a “good” life will tend to make a person harden their conscience, become too self-suffucient, stiffen necks, and turn hearts to stone.

The wicked pluck death from the tree of life. ~Adrian Rogers

The Chemistry of the Cross

Cling to the promise of God that you, dear believer whom Jesus saved on no merit or activity of your own, that all things (in heaven) are working for your good, no matter the circumstances (on earth). But if a person hates God, then all things work to the bad. Does that make you want to share the GOOD NEWS with someone today that hates God? I hope so.

EPrata photo

Posted in theology

The Puritan Conference begins today!

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Our own nation was founded on principles the Puritans brought with them as they fled persecution to start afresh in the New World. As a native southern New Englander, I was surrounded in Massachusetts and Rhode Island with puritan history. Statues, plaques, history, tours, homes, ships…from the Puritan and colonial era abounded. As a child growing up and a teen and young adult, I used to wonder deeply at the impetus that brought these luminaries here, like John Winthrop, William Brewster, Roger Williams…in school we studied The Mayflower Compact, went on field trips to see The Mayflower…

I pondered and wondered and thought the nagging question in my young mind: WHY did these people leave the comforts of a known world, to drift across a wild ocean in a leaky, small boat, to land where Indians may kill them, or scarcity may famine them to death? All to pursue religion? Just for religion?? I thought it was a worthless endeavor, not being saved and not knowing God. Yet my young mind struggled with the question. After all, they upended their lives to do this thing, there must be something to it all…wasn’t there?

I wondered, until the moment arrived that God had set from the foundation of the world: I became saved and knew God and His worth. Pursuing Him across continents, oceans, and new worlds was worth it for the privilege of worshiping Him in freedom.

I owe a debt to those long-ago people who struck a blow against satan and committed to founding a ‘new world’ here on earth so they could preach and teach in freedom about the world to come. Their act ignited my young mind, which the Spirit kept aflame until the MOMENT when He designated my salvation would come to life.

Today beginning at 1:00 Eastern time (10:00 am Pacific time) is the anticipated Puritan Conference! Hosted at Grace Community Church, a slate of Puritan experts will be preaching/teaching about the Puritans and their theology, among other interesting topics. Today’s schedule begins with:

10:00 am General Session 1: The Theological and Historical Foundation of the Puritans • Steve Lawson
11:30 am General Session 2: The Puritans on Adoption • Joel Beeke

I am eagerly looking forward to this talk later today by Joel Beeke: “The Writing of the Puritans.” And on Friday, General Session 9 • Ian Hamilton “The Need for the Puritan Mindset Today.” And so on, check out the schedule at the link above.

The talks will be livestreamed for free! Watch at http://puritanconference.org or on the Grace Media app. (https://www.gracemedia.app/). Livestream is free.

FMI on the schedule over the next 3 days, speakers, etc, go here:
https://puritanconference.org/

I’m sure the livestreams will be recorded for later. I exhort you, if you have time, to tune in at some point and learn about these people who made such an impact on this world…and the next.

Posted in immutable, purpose, rick warren, spurgeon

Finding God’s will for your life

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I’m on vacation. What was I writing about 9 years ago today? About finding God’s will for your life, always a timely topic! Enjoy this essay from the past which in my opinion is still current!

True Christians are consumed with obeying God and serving Him, because we love Him so much. That’s why so many people say they want to “find God’s will for their life.” Finding God’s will is at the top of their list of ways we want to serve Him. Christians ache when they feel that they are missing out on doing service for God, and they fear. ‘What if I’m not finding it?’ they wonder. ‘What if He wants me to be a missionary in Burma and I haven’t read the signs correctly and I’m just here in Dayton, not doing much?’

Rugendas, c. 1820, “Village of Christianized Tapuyos indians”

The book Radical by David Platt touched on this invisible fear among many Christians. The book Radical is, according to Kevin DeYoung, “an all-out assault on cheap grace, easy-believism, consumer Christianity.”

And is against the Christian laziness that comes with it. I agree that those things should be avoided and denounced. But despite the softening language, Platt’s overall tone is that we should throw it all over, sell all our stuff, and run off to Burma as a missionary.

DeYoung admires Platt but has five concerns of the book, and mentions this fourth: “I worry that radical and crazy Christianity cannot be sustained. If the message of Jesus translates into “Give more away” or “Sacrifice for the gospel” or “Get more radical” we will end up with burned out evangelicals. Even when Jesus said his hard saying (and he said a lot of them) it was not his basic stump speech. His message was repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15). When Jesus challenged the crowds to count the cost or let the dead bury their dead it was to make clear that following him was not all about miracles and wonders, it was about giving him the preeminence. The emphasis was doxological first and foremost. Worship Christ. Believe in Christ. Walk with Christ. And therefore, before you follow Christ be prepared for opposition.”

“I don’t worry for David’s theology, but I worry that some young Christians reading his book might walk away wondering if a life spent working as a loan officer, tithing to their church, praying for their kids, learning to love Christ more, and serving in the Sunday school could possibly be pleasing to God. We need to find a way to attack the American dream while still allowing for differing vocations and that sort of ordinary Christian life that can plod along for fifty years. I imagine David wants this same thing. I’m just not sure this came through consistently in the book.“

Rick Warren, Source

The book was a catalyst for the lurking doubt that rests in many Christians that they aren’t doing enough. That they are missing their purpose. (thanks a bunch, Rick Warren). So what is the answer?

The Bible. God wrote down about Himself, what He wanted us to know about Him. He also put in there by the inspired Holy Spirit what He wants us to do and not do, and to take comfort in His promises. His purpose for us is in there.

He has several purposes for us all. ALL.

God wants us to believe. That is our primary purpose in life. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15. Also 2 Peter 3:9 & Acts 22:16).

After belief, we are to be a witness, teaching and making disciples. That is the Christian’s purpose in life. “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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

Our chief purpose in Christian life is to glorify God. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). This next part is from MacArthur’s outline from his essay “How to live for God’s glory”

  • Confess Your Sins. (1 John 1:9)
  • Bear Fruit. (John 15:8; Colossians 1:10)
  • Give Praise to God. (Psalm 50:23)
  • Be Content. (Philippians 4:11)
  • Pray According to God’s Will. (John 14:13)
  • Proclaim God’s Word. (2 Thessalonians 3:1)

In the past, God made it clear to those whom He chose as to what their purpose was. Moses was to be His prophet. Jeremiah was to preach repentance. David was to be King. He spoke through a burning bush, a cloud, a still small voice, and even a donkey. He said what He said clearly and definitively- and directly.

Just because he isn’t speaking like that any more does not mean He isn’t speaking. Or, rather, has not spoken. Hebrews 1:1-2 says that God’s final word is through His Son–

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

His Son is the Word and His word can be found in the Bible. That is where we find our purpose.

“But what if I am to be called as a missionary? Or a preacher? Or to do a certain work in a certain place as a layperson? How will I know if there is a specific purpose, then?”

Do we think that just because He doesn’t come down to us and speak directly through a burning bush, that we cannot understand that if He has a specific call for our lives that He can’t or won’t make it clear? He is powerful! As Spurgeon praises Him in His power so eloquently,

“He changes not in his attributes. Whatever the attributes of God were of old, that they are now; and of each of them we may sing “As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.” Was he powerful? Was he the mighty God when he spake the world out of the womb of nonexistence? Was he the Omnipotent when he piled the mountains and scooped out the hollow places for the rolling deep? Yes, he was powerful then, and his arm is unpalsied now, he is the same giant in his might; the sap of his nourishment is undried, and the strength of his soul stands the same for ever.”

He has the power to instill in you the burning desire to be a preacher. As He did Paul, 1 Corinthians 9:16, or Jeremiah in Jeremiah 20:9.

Has He given you the gift of teaching? Do people remark on your teaching or preaching, whether you have done it impromptu or in formal settings? (Ephesians 4:11).

Even if we have submitted to His obvious working of circumstances in our lives so that we are now beginning to understand the specific purpose, He will also still sovereignly work to guide you within it! See Paul in Acts 16:6-8,

Mosaic, ‘Man of Macedonia appearing to Paul’

“And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.”

In the next verse Paul received a vision of where He was in fact to go. Though we do not receive direct visions anymore like this, do we not think the Spirit isn’t still working and guiding us within our lives to HIS purpose? Of course He is.

Because that is what it is all about, God’s purpose, not our purpose. We believe, submit, and serve. He guides and organizes the rest. Do we believe that God is so timid that our busy lives can block Him out, and that it is even remotely possible for us to miss a specific purpose He has outlined for us?

No.

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” (Romans 8:28-30)

Queen Esther – Andrea del Castagno, c.1450

God had a purpose and He wanted Queen Esther to be a part of its fulfillment. Esther’s uncle Mordecai was talking to her about doing it. It seems that Esther already had an inkling about what she was to do. Mordecai cemented it. We usually focus on the last part of Mordecai’s answer, “for such a time as this” but what about the first part?

“Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14-15)

‘If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place’. So you see, God providentially works all things to the good, and we are not so powerful that we miss His call, and He is not so tenuous that it all falls apart if we refuse it.

God has a purpose. If you know what your purpose is- and you will, because God makes it clear, and you refuse the call to be a missionary or preacher or whatever, God will still fulfill what He wants to fulfill. His plans are immutable.

Our purpose is to believe, witness, make disciples, and glorify Him. We all have that purpose. In addition, He sent the Spirit to dispense Gifts as He wills, so that His purposes will be executed through us and by the fruits we bear by His Spirit’s power. If we are to have a specific call, He will make it known. Moses was 40 years old when we learned he killed a man, and he waited another 40 years until God used him for his last 40. Moses was used by God from age 80-120. So even one of the great patriarchs of the Bible was not called to a specific purpose until late in life. However, Moses’s entire life was used of God’s purpose! Moses just didn’t know it. It is the same with us.

Not everyone has a call to run off to Burma or to preach to the masses. Most of us, I dare say, are simply operating in our mundane spheres, planting seeds and bearing fruit. If we have a call to perform a specific purpose, we will understand it when it comes. Until then, rest secure in His providence and His power. It’s not our purpose in life that is the point, but His purposes.

Posted in theology

Fasting: The Daniel Fast, Jentezen Franklin, and true biblical fasting*

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

FASTING – In these days, a legitimate spiritual endeavor twisted by marketers

Source: https://nassagaweya.com/fasting/

There are many churches who participated in the fad known as The Daniel Fast authored by Mr Franklin or the Daniel Plan authored by Rick Warren. These are man-made so-called spiritual activities that are supposed to automatically draw you closer to God by eating things that are on a list and not eating things that are not on a list. If you partake of this fast, other benefits touted are: winning the battle over the flesh (hard to do when we are still flesh when the fast is done), losing weight, and healings from diabetes, allergies, arthritis and cancer. Another benefit from doing the Jentezen Franklin fast is said to be putting our spirit in charge of the other two parts of us, the soul and the body. It must be news to the Holy Spirit that we can put Him in charge of things. (source and source)

Fasting is in the Bible, but the way it is being taught in the Daniel Fasting plan and in Franklin’s book is off center. That is the genius of false teaching, take a true biblical doctrine or activity and twist it.

About fasting: it is good. I fast. Fasting is biblical. However the only New Testament explicit direction we are given is from Jesus’ sermon on the Mount, and in that, the only specifics we are given about fasting is as a voluntary activity and urged to do it in secret to reduce the risk of prideful boasting. Jentezen Franklin’s model calls for the opposite. Otherwise, Jesus said, the temptation to lean toward pride and hypocrisy is too great. We are told in Romans 14 that the kingdom of God is not what we eat or drink, but the Daniel Plan contains a long list of what we may eat or drink.

If a person engages in it for the wrong motivations, such as a weight loss plan, or as a healthy lifestyle, then it is not Godly but a fad of no worth!

So what IS fasting? Lexham Bible Dictionary says,

A ritual of abstaining from food and/or drink for a predetermined period; practiced in the Bible primarily as a means of mourning. Fasting frequently occurs in the Old Testament in response to suffering or disaster, in conjunction with other mourning rituals.

It is a spiritual practice, but the only required fast in the Old Testament required by Moses was for the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:26–32). It is called simply “the fast” in Acts 27:9 since the Jews would have known what is being referred to. Though Jesus urged fasting privately there are legitimate times when public fasting was called for, as in the Ninevites’ fast from the King on down, or corporate fasting as per Ezra. Thus, public national fasts on account of sin or to supplicate divine favor were sometimes held. 1 Samuel 7:6; 2 Chronicles 20:3; Jeremiah 36:6–10; Nehemiah 9:1, says the Easton Illustrated Bible Dictionary.

Sometimes in the Bible great emotion caused a natural loss of appetite. Hannah’s distress over being barren which was constantly made worse via Penninah’s provoking, caused Hannah to ‘weep and not eat’. (1 Samuel 1:7). Ahab’s sulking caused him to lose his appetite and not eat. (1 Kings 21:4). These were not true fasts, though, because they were not a deliberate abstention from food for a spiritual purpose.

A true fast is a deliberate setting aside of a legitimate pleasure of food in order to engage in a spiritual endeavor, such as a demonstration of grief over a death, a spiritual grief over sin, or a supplication to God, for example.

“In the Bible, fasting was also practiced to show the seriousness of one’s religious endeavors and to remind each other that people do not live by bread alone (Deuteronomy 8:4)“. (In Holman treasury of key Bible words)

For example, in Acts 13:2-3, as the believers prepared to send Paul off on his first missionary journey, they fasted. Fasting for medical reasons or dietary reasons or health reasons might be fine, but it is not the same as a biblical spiritual fast.

“Fasting in and of itself is unknown in Scripture as an end in itself. All of the benefits of fasting in the Scripture are indirect, not direct. Fasting is never isolated to create some virtue in and of itself. You don’t just say well, I’m going to be spiritual, I will not eat. You are no more spiritual because you don’t eat than because you do eat.” (source John MacArthur)

“Fasting is to deny self, but it is not done in a vacuum. You don’t just say well, I’m going to deny myself. I’m going to say no to myself and stop eating for no good reason. There is a reason to humble yourself in that manner. There is a reason to deny yourself in that manner. There is a reason to inflict yourself in that manner and the reason is a consuming one. [F]asting never occurs in a vacuum. It never occurs biblically without a corollary. So, fasting is almost not something you choose to do, but something you cannot avoid.” (source)

What is the reason people would go on a Daniel Fast? Is it just to do it? Because it will make you grow spiritually? It won’t, if that is your sole reason. It’s not an activity that causes growth, it is an outward expression of an interior spiritual need or circumstance. Fasting combined with prayer is a mark of a personal commitment to God for a specific reason (missionary journey, selecting leaders, salvations, repentance for sin, grief…). It’s not a diet, a fad, or a prideful show unto others.

Faddish fasting gurus promote fasting for the wrong reasons, twisting a legitimate spiritual discipline into a money-making endeavor- for themselves. There is no spiritual benefit to the people in these plans. (e.g. The Daniel Plan by Rick Warren, the Daniel Fast by Jentezen Franklin etc)

Here is an excerpt on the Daniel Fast and fasting in the New Testament from Don Green:

“What’s sad is the effect these self-appointed authorities have on those who follow them. They bind consciences with false guilt. Setting themselves up as judges of what goes into your mouth, they oppose our Lord Jesus Christ, who declared all foods clean and said that nothing should be rejected if it is received with gratitude (Mark 7:19; 1 Timothy 4:1-5). The New Testament leaves the details of fasting to the discretion of the believer and even de-emphasizes fasting in the progress of revelation. When Jesus taught against hypocrisy in Matthew 6:1-18, he taught us to give, pray, and fast privately. If you do, your Father who sees in secret will reward you.“

Jesus taught explicitly to “pray this way”, but He did not say “fast this way”. The specifics are left to the believer as to when or why or how. Jesus doesn’t advise how often to fast, but only cautions “when you fast” to do it in secret.

Fasting is a private activity usually and traditionally associated with grief, repentance, or for a specific purpose that Jesus Himself relegates to a private matter between a believer and God, vertically. The Daniel Fast promoters and Franklin have made it an activity on some name it-claim it spiritual check-off list, a horizontal display of public piety laden with potentials for hypocrisy and pride, exactly what Jesus said not to do.

Be careful not to fall into a snare of the devil as fads come and go. A merchandizing worthless shepherd will take a good sounding biblical activity and twist it just enough to make it man-centered and not God-centered. If there is a lot of merchandise associated with the activity, it’s a clue that at root it’s probably not edifying for your soul. (2 Peter 2:3)

A short series of essays on the proper approach to fasting can be found below. There are other resources on proper fasting below as well. I recommend fasting when you feel it’s necessary. It’s a fruitful activity and yields benefits spiritually to the faster, as well as likely kingdom benefits we will see on the Day!

The Heart of Christian Fasting, Part 1. The Old Testament.
The Heart of Christian Fasting, Part 2: Sermon on the Mount
The Heart of Christian Fasting, Part 3: The New Testament (it is this part he deals with the Daniel Fast)
The Heart of Christian Fasting, Part 4: Fasting Today

If someone wants to listen to or read a good sermon series on fasting, again I direct them to the Grace to You website and the series entitled Fasting Without Hypocrisy, Part 1

The Doctrine of Fasting and Prayer, and Humiliation for Sin by Arthur Hildersham (Author). Reformation Heritage Books (2017), 168 pages. Hildersham was an English Reformer, born as a Royal, raised as a zealous Papist, educated at Cambridge, converted to Protestantism. His father yanked him from college and prepared to send him to Rome to be ‘reclaimed’. Arthur refused, and was disinherited. He remained a Protestant all his life and was dearly beloved by his people.

Understanding the Discipline of Fasting (Biblical Foundations for the Christian… by Paul David Washer. The book blurb says, “The oft-forgotten discipline of fasting is a devotion of great usefulness that unfortunately has had a severe lack of information written about it and has garnered an abundance of misunderstandings and misinformation regarding it. In “Understanding the Discipline of Fasting,” the fourth of his Biblical Foundations for the Christian Faith series, Paul Washer repeatedly points the student to the Scriptures to expose these erroneous ideas and to help the people of God understand the proper place of fasting in the Christian life. Also included in these pages is an abridged and modernized work from the Scottish theologian Thomas Boston on fasting and humiliation”.

A Memorial Concerning Personal and Family Fasting and Humiliation, by Thomas Boston, a scanned online pdf.

*Author’s Note: This blog was updated from a blog written in 2013.

Posted in theology

Attributes of God: Righteousness, Spirituality, Truth

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Sundays are a good time to ponder who God is. He is worthy of service and worship. We have been taking a look at God’s attributes each Sunday. Links to previous weeks are below. Most definitions are taken from Tim Challies’ visual theology chart of the attributes of God.

Remember, God’s attributes are not parts that make up a whole. Everything good that there is, is 100% contained in God. He is 100% beauty, 100% aseity, 100% omniscient, etc. He is complete in Himself.

Tim Challies explained: “To study God’s attributes is to study his character, to answer questions like, Who is God? and What is God like? A typical classification of God’s attributes divides them into those that are incommunicable (those that he does not share or “communicate” to anyone or anything else) and communicable (those that he shares with other beings). Like most theological classifications, this one is imperfect but still helpful as we seek to understand what is so far beyond ourselves. God’s communicable attributes can be further categorized into: attributes of God’s being, mental attributes, moral attributes, attributes of purpose, and “summary” attributes (attributes that, in a more particular way, modify each of the others).”

RIGHTEOUSNESS (Moral Attributes) “God is the final standard of what is right and he always acts in accordance with what is right. (This is also known as God’s justice).”

God does not intend good towards wicked men, but only the glory of his justice. ~Thomas Valentine, The Church’s Need of Jesus Christ

SPIRITUALITY (Attributes describing God’s Being) “God is a being who is not made up of matter and who cannot be perceived by our bodily senses.”

(This is extremely important in light of worship). “God being a Spirit declares what he is; his other perfections declare what “kind” of Spirit he is.” ~Stephen Charnock, A Christian’s True Spiritual Worship to Jesus Christ.

TRUTHFULNESS (Mental Attributes) “God is the true God whose knowledge and words are both true and the final standard of truth.”

Truth came out of God’s heart, and is the manifestation of his life and glory, and it will turn the heart suitable to that life. ~Cuthbert Sydenham (1622–1654) The Greatness of the Mystery of Godliness

Previous entries of the Attributes of God-

1. Attributes of God: Aseity, Beauty, Blessedness
2. Eternity, Freedom, Glory
3. Goodness, Holiness, Immutability
4. Invisibility, Jealousy, Knowledge
5. Love
6. Mercy, Omnipotence, Omnipresence
7. Peace, Righteousness, Perfection

Posted in theology

Prata Potpourri: When routines get boring, how to approach discernment, and THAT Twitter fight (plus more)

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Fall. EPrata photo

If you can imagine the scene here at my apartment…It’s early hours, pre-dawn. I’ve got some hymns on Pandora playing and the coffeepot is hissing and sputtering. The fall weather has finally arrived here in Georgia, always an eagerly anticipated event after the brutal heat of a southern summer.

I am gathering links that I think will edify, sip some coffee, pause to look out the dark windows and just let mind mind free to think its thoughts and ramble over mountains of memories and hills of remembrance.

After a few moments, I turn back to the screen and place another link into the list, and write a summary to attach that explains it. And so it goes, my delight in writing the day’s blog. It’s never a chore and for the past almost 14 years the Holy Spirit has given me the strength and energy to complete the task.

Here is today’s blog, a roundup of links I think you may enjoy:

I don’t know Andrew Tate but I saw this clip on a trusted friend’s Twitter and I listened to the 56 second clip. I thought it was a fantastic summary of the future grief that feminists will feel at the end of their lives when they mull over the devastating choices they’ve made. It all goes back to contentment in our individual roles that God has outlined for us. Please take a listen-

In this next video, 7 minutes of scorching Christianity, Pastor-Teacher Dr. John MacArthur addresses his congregation about California Governor Gavin Newsom’s national campaign for abortion. Gov. Newsom has funded and promoted billboards that offer to perform abortions for any women in the US if they come to California. The billboards were erected nationally, not just in CA. Worse, the Governor used actual Bible scripture to support his position to make it seem as if Jesus Himself were saying that child murder is loving.

This was over the top for Dr. MacArthur, a California resident. MacArthur composed an Open Letter to the Governor, reminding the Governor of his God-given responsibilities as a public leader, warning of his judgment to come, and pleading with Newsom to repent.

I post this because I was both convicted and encouraged by MacArthur’s quiet earnestness. MacArthur has always been quiet when preaching, believing the words should issue forth and his personality retreat to the background. So no podium pounding, no screeching, just quietly letting the TRUTH of God’s word do the work.

After listening, I felt sorrow for the times I failed to pray for my leaders, and when I tut-tutted their probable eternal torment with a quick drive-by and nary a tear of grief. Friends, eternity matters. And no one is beyond salvation. Pray, pray, pray.

Here is the link to read the actual letter. It echoes John the Baptist’s preaching in tone and strength. Letter HERE.

DebbieLynne Kespert wrote about The Confusing Aspects of Contending for the Faith. She compares the positions of two good podcasts that suggest an approach to discernment, adds a third to the mix, then sorts them out into a balanced middle ground. How should a church or a ministry approach the teaching of discernment? Read her essay to find a measured consideration of the question.

Have you ever done a “Spiritual Gifts test?” I have, when I was a new believer and anxious about how and where to serve. But do they work? Here is Justin Jackson at For the Church on why The Local Church is Your Spiritual Gifts Test.

Barbara Lee Harper posted about what to do When Your Spiritual Routines Get Boring. Have you had this happen to you? I have. I think her suggestions are good.

This was a rough week on Twitter. A dear brother whom I respect made a stance against another brother whom I do not respect as much and in fact I have deep concerns about, but who is hugely popular. The twitter mob either-

  1. Bullied the brother into repentance, or
  2. Pressured him consistently enough so that he saw his sin and repented, or
  3. None of the above

I stayed out of it. I chose not to delve into the nuts and bolts of the fight, and it was a fight, a big one. So I make no statement on who was right or wrong, or both. The brother was spoken to by elders, his own and others. Subsequent to being addressed by elders, the brother put out a statement of repentance which seemed to me to be clear and honest. I read it and was encouraged by the humility displayed in it. I’m speaking of Costi Hinn and his statements about Doug Wilson and G3 Ministries.

I bring this up not just to refer to “the big fight,” but because as I was reading Costi’s letter of repentance, I was reminded of another hugely popular brother, a pastor, who recently was taken to task for a sin, (Matt Chandler). He seemingly came clean publicly in an emotional video taped before his congregation in a Sunday Service. His oral statement was not as clear or as humble- in my opinion. As I read Costi’s letter, I mentally compared it to Chandler’s, which was also issued recently. I believe it is a good comparison of two leaders of the faith being reined in by elders and the individual’s response to their sin being brought to light.

When you repent, it has to be ‘bare naked’, with no dissembling, precious clichés, or false humility. Costi’s was. Chandler’s wasn’t.

G3 Ministries and Statement Costi’s letter of repentance here.

I thought this gentleman’s parsing of Chandler’s ‘coming clean video’ in successive tweets in a thread was spot on. Twitter thread below or thread reader unroll here.

After another week of leaders publicly sinning, fights, twitter mobs, betrayals, evil abounding, government leaders wielding abusive power…how does one not become cynical? This was asked of a pastor with over 50 years in ministry, John MacArthur. His reply was encouraging! He always puts the center in the center and never drifts from it. Praise God for raising up men like MacArthur (and many others who are under the radar, like my friend James Bell, Allen Nelson, Darryl Dash, my own elders, and so many others). If you want 8 minutes of faith-filled encouragement, listen here

So that’s it for this week. I hope you enjoy the weekend, and the week ahead. The Lord is always in control, always loves His own, and will come again to bring us to eternity, where no sin will ever be present. What a day that will be.

Posted in theology

Short Shots: Mint/dill/cumin

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

‎This photo of a nineteenth-century German engraving shows a peppermint stalk and leaves with close-up views of flower components. Peppermint (Mentha x piperita) has been prized since ancient times for its flavor and for medicinal qualities. Experiments show that peppermint oil inhibits the growth of many pathogenic microbes. The plant was widely cultivated in first-century Galilee and Judea. In his dispute with his opponents over tithing, this was one of the mint species Jesus had in mind.
‎Matt 23:23, Luke 11:42
‎Image by Franz Eugen Köhler, botanist and illustrator, from Wikimedia Commons. License: Public Domain

Jesus pronounced woe upon the Pharisees, saying

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the Law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.” (Matthew 23:23).

Becuase I like the natural history of the Bible plants and animals, today just take a quick let’s look at what herbs Jesus is speaking of rather than the spiritual import of his pronouncement.

Holman Bible Publishers explains MINT AND CUMIN: Mint is a sweet-smelling herb used to season food. Cumin is a carawaylike herb Judaism also used in seasonings and in medicine. Jesus named mint, dill, and cumin as He criticized the Pharisees for requiring the tithe of the herbs while ignoring more important matters of the Law (Matt. 23:23). Mint and Cumin. In Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (p. 1135). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Image from Faithlife

Isaiah 28:23-27 gives insight on how each of these herbs were harvested:

Listen and hear my voice, Pay attention and hear my words. 24Does the farmer plow continually to plant seed? Does he continually turn and break up his ground? 25Does he not level its surface And sow dill and scatter cumin And plant wheat in rows, Barley in its place and rye within its area? 26For his God instructs and teaches him properly. 27For dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, Nor is the cartwheel driven over cumin; But dill is beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a club.

The spiritual explanation Isaiah is trying to get across to the stiff-necked people is that the farmer doesn’t do nothing but plow. Farers use a variety of methods to yield their crop. And so would not God do the same, but perfectly and in higher ways? But for the point here today, we see that Isaiah helps us city-dwellers understand the ancient ways of harvesting the spices that Jesus mentions 700 years later in his speech about the Pharisees.

MINT: The Greek word heduosmon, or heduosmos, which means “having a sweet smell,” occurs in two passages of the New Testament, Matthew 23:23, and Luke 11:42, and has been translated “mint.” It corresponds with the Latin mentha. The species of mint most common in Syria is that represented in the figure, and called by botanists Mentha sylvestris. It is often cultivated in gardens, and it is generally distributed over Europe, and reaches even to Kashmir. It is likewise found in Britain. The plant belongs to the natural order Labiatæ. It is an erect plant, with opposite, nearly sessile, ovate, lanceolate, and downy leaves, which are whitish below. The spikes of flowers are dense, and have a conically-cylindrical form. Another species is also common in Palestine, and is called field-mint (Mentha arvensis). The species of mint have all carminative qualities. (i.e. it relieves flatulence!) They grow usually in damp places, and have reddish flowers arranged in spikes or whorls. Mint was much used as a condiment. Source: Balfour, J. H. (1885). The Plants of the Bible (pp. 173–174). London; Edinburgh; New York: T. Nelson and Sons.

So often, people who deride the Bible as simply ‘an ancient document written by shepherds’ would do well to study the ingenious methods the ancients used to yield product from the land and from their animals. The ancients built the pyramids, after all. The farming methods of the ancients, their crops, and their animals are fascinating to me. Below are some other essays I’ve written about plants and animals of the Bible days.

Donkey milk? Yes, Donkey Milk

What is an Almug tree?

Short Shots: fish, barley, mustard seed, sycamore tree

The beauty of the almond tree

Acacia wood

Consider the sparrow

Four Hundred pomegranates!

Posted in theology

It’s war

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Here is an excerpt from a sermon by Charles H. Spurgeon, Delivered On Lord’s-Day Morning, June 26, 1870, By C. H. Spurgeon,  At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.  

We have become used to the ‘you’re enough God is love, no judgments, flowers and rainbows’ kind of Christianity that once in a while I feel it’s important to push back against that by reminding us that Christians are at war until the day we die. We war against our sin, we war against temptation of sinning with others, we war against the principalities and powers of the dark prince of the air. War. Here’s Spurgeon, then I’ll have a comment at the end.

CHARLES SPURGEON-

“A good soldier of Jesus Christ.” 2 Timothy 2:2,3.

“Paul does not appear to have pictured true Believers as sluggards sound asleep upon the downiest beds. His description of a Christian in the text is that of a soldier. And that means something far different either from a religious fop, whose best delight is music and millinery, or a theological critic who makes a man an offender for a word. Or a spiritual glutton who cares for nothing but a lifelong enjoyment of the fat things full of marrow. Or an ecclesiastical slumberer who longs only for peace for himself. Paul represents him as a soldier and that, I say, is quite another thing.

For what is a soldier? A soldier is a practical man, a man who has work to do, and hard, stern work. He may sometimes, when he is at his ease, wear the fineries of war, but when he comes to real warfare he cares little enough for them. The dust and the smoke, and the garments rolled in blood—these are for those who go soldiering. And swords all hacked, and dented armor, and bruised shields—these are the things that mark the good, the practical, soldier. Truly to serve God, really to exhibit Christian graces, fully to achieve a lifework for Christ, actually to win souls—this is to bear fruit worthy of a Christian

A soldier is a man of deeds, and not of words. He has to contend and fight. In war times his life knows little of luxurious ease. In the dead of night, perhaps, the trumpet sounds to boot and saddle—just at the time when he is most weary—and he must hurry to the attack just when he would best prefer to take his rest in sleep. The Christian is a soldier in an enemy’s country always needing to stand on his watchtower, constantly to be contending, though not with flesh and blood—with far worse foes—namely, with spiritual wickedness in high places.

The Christian is a self-sacrificing man as the soldier must be. To protect his country, the soldier must expose his own bosom. To serve his King, he must be ready to lay down his life. Surely he is no Christian who never felt the spirit of self-sacrifice. If I live unto myself I am living unto the flesh, and of the flesh I shall reap corruption. Only he who lives to his God, to Christ, to the Truth of God, to the Church, and to the good old cause—only he is the man who can reckon himself at all to be a soldier of Jesus Christ.

A soldier is a serving man. He does not follow his own pleasure. He is under law and rule. Each hour of the day has its prescribed duty. And he must be obedient to the word of another and not to his own will and whim. Such is the Christian. We serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Though no longer the slaves of man so as to dread his frown, we are servants of Christ who has loosed our bonds.

The soldier is full often a suffering man. There are wounds, there are toils, there are frequent stays in the hospitals— there may be ghastly cuts which let the soul out with the blood. Such the Christian soldier must be ready to suffer, enduring hardship, not looking for pleasure of a worldly kind in this life, but counting it his pleasure to renounce his pleasure for Christ’s sake. Once again, the true soldier is an ambitious being. He pants for honor, seeks for glory. On the field of strife he gathers his laurels, and amidst a thousand dangers he reaps renown.

Paul does not exhort Timothy to be a common, or ordinary soldier, but to be a “good soldier of Jesus Christ.” For all soldiers, and all true soldiers may not be good soldiers. There are men who are but just soldiers and nothing more. They only need sufficient temptation and they readily become cowardly, idle, useless and worthless. But he is the good soldier who is bravest of the brave, courageous at all times. He is zealous, does his duty with heart and earnestness. He is the good soldier of Jesus Christ who, through Divine Grace, aims to make himself as able to serve his Lord as shall be possible.

Before I proceed fully to open up this metaphor, let me say that though we shall use military terms this morning, and stirring speech, it should ever be remembered that we have no war against persons, and that the weapons which we use are not such as are forged for the deadly conflicts of mankind. The wars of a Christian are against principles, against sins, against the miseries of mankind, against that Evil One who has led man astray from his Maker. Our wars are against the iniquity which keeps man an enemy to himself. The weapons that we use are holy arguments and consecrated lives, devotion and prayer to God, teaching and example among the sons of men.

——————————end Spurgeon————————–

Spurgeon then goes on for 12 pages, lol, and he begins his conclusion this way;

“A crown is prepared for that head though it is now made to ache with care for the cause. There is a palm branch for that hand which now toils in the fight. There are silver sandals for those feet which have now to march over weary miles for Christ’s sake. Honor and immortality not to be imagined till they are enjoyed await every faithful soldier of the Cross!”

“No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” 2 Timothy 2:4

My dear sisters who are reading this or listening to this, we are not civilians anyway, we’re not like unbelieving humanity. We are a peculiar people, dressed in battle gear, wielding the sword of the spirit and enacting the weapon of prayer. We are holy islands fighting to maintain the ground on which we stand- salvation, This blood-soaked ground on which Jesus died.

Now, I love flowers as much as anybody, but when it comes to women’s ministries, the flower covered Bibles, journals, bookmarks, etc are fine, but what about a sword, or a shield, or depictions of the struggle with sin, or armor? We are in a war: war against sin, war against principalities and demons, war against encroaching world views trying to capture us. It does us good to be reminded of that once in a while. Hence, today’s blog.

Photo by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash