Tag: [By Elizabeth Prata]

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

What does ‘disciples’ mean?

Posted on by elizabethprata

In listening to Martyn Lloyd Jones today I was struck by how he brought out nuances to the word ‘disciple.’ All that the word disciple really means is learner. More on Lloyd-Jones below in a moment.

I’ve thought a lot about education over my lifetime. My foremost profession has been an educator in various capacities. I’ve attained a post-graduate degree, a Master’s in Education with a 4.0 average. However my family is one of high achievers, and a Master’s in my family is the low end of the educational totem pole. Many of my family have Doctorate degrees. They’re Professors or Deans in universities, or are doctors or are highly educated in other professions. They all worked very hard for their education and they are all very smart.

I am second and third generation immigrant, so the family emphasis on education was great and for that I’m grateful.

So often, I ponder my family’s well-earned achievements in the secular world (for none are saved that I know of, except perhaps one). Their brilliance, thirst for learning, and great intellectual capacity will become as nothing on The Day. Their wisdom which is of the world and which the world admires, will be as dung on Judgment Day. It’s an upside down notion that takes getting used to.

Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. (1 Corinthians 1:20-21).

And in an even more upside down twist, the uneducated, the simple, the ignorant, have the mind of Christ.

Finally, after three days they found Him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers... (Luke 2:46-47).

This is because Jesus had no sin. His mind was pure, undefiled, and divine, and therefore the top mind in the universe.

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13, KJV).

No doubt Paul had a great intellect, and had been trained in the only secondary school there existed for Jews at the time: the Sanhedrin. However most of the apostles were as the verse says, uneducated and ignorant men. They were simple men, fishermen and craftsmen, jailers and soldiers. The Holy Spirit dispenses the mind of Christ to His followers, and with it, the thirst to learn His word. The men went from being fishermen to being disciples. What are disciples? Learners. Here is Martyn Lloyd Jones on disciples and learning:

The Holy Spirit can make any man new, it doesn’t matter who he is. The Holy Spirit can regenerate an ignoramus quite as easily as He can a great philosopher. Perhaps even more so! He does the same thing in both cases. And when He does, He does the same thing to both of them. He creates a desire and an appetite in them for the truth.”

And they [the 3000 souls just converted at Pentecost] devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (Acts 2:42).

The thing that is put first [in the verse] is the teaching, the doctrine. These people, suddenly converted from ignorance and darkness, from the vileness of their lives…what do they want? They want more teaching. They’ve suddenly got an appetite and a desire for teaching! Have you ever heard of such a thing? People who have never read, who’d never thought. People who had lived for gambling and for sex and for drunkenness … people who hadn’t seemed to have brains at all, suddenly they want teaching! They wanted it daily. They continued steadfastly. … This is the miracle of redemption, and it is proof of the fact that they have become a Christian.

Many people are “making decisions” but they don’t want to be taught. They don’t like teaching. They grumble at it. They say sermons are too long. They want something nice and simple, bright and breezy. When a man is born again, he wants teaching. He’s a disciple. ~Martyn Lloyd Jones, Acts 6:1-7, The Church and Her Message

Disciples are learners. Anyone and everyone can learn, when the Spirit puts the thirst for the word of God into you. The most formerly foolish and ignorant drunken gambler now seeks the highest wisdom that exists, and is given access to it by the Holy Spirit Himself.

Before I was saved, all my accumulated learned wisdom from University stood me no closer to understanding Jesus and gave me no advantage or wisdom that counts with God. I was equally as ignorant as the most ignorant person on earth. Yet when He gives us the new man inside is, comes with is a capacity for unfolding the wisdom of heaven, direct from the mind of Christ. We’re disciples, praise God.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever! (Psalm 111:10).
bible with glasses

Posted in prophecy, Uncategorized

Revelation 101

Posted on by elizabethprata

So often I hear that people are scared to, or worried about, reading the Book of Revelation. It’s this monolith at the end of the Bible that people stay away from because it’s too hard, too mysterious, too difficult to understand. Yet the book itself says otherwise.

Believers cannot afford to ignore the immense truth this book contains. In fact, we’re commanded not to; Revelation 22:10 says, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.” ~John MacArthur

It’s actually one of the easiest books to understand.

By the way, the book is called “Revelation” singular. It’s not “Revelations.”

Daniel is dense. Pound for pound, Zechariah has twice as much prophecy than Revelation. Some of the minor prophets are hard to understand because of the time frames and the history. Romans is heavily philosophical. If I was to pick a book that is hard to understand, I’d choose any of those over and above Revelation. Revelation is actually one of the easiest book in the Bible to understand.

How can I say this?

Two reasons.

1. It is the ONLY book in the Bible in which the reader is promised a blessing if he or she reads it. The. Only. Book. That’s something worth paying attention to. The promise is stated at the beginning and at the end of the book.

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. (Revelation 1:3).

How can we keep what is written in it, if we do not read it?

“And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” (Revelation 22:7).

Clipboard04Did Jesus promise a blessing, and in a cosmic ‘gotcha’, then make it intellectually or spiritually too difficult to understand? Or is it because it’s one book that proclaims Jesus in His full glory, promises a great ending for His people, and wants us to look ahead for the encouragement?

2. It has its own built-in study guide. Despite the chaos it reveals, it is actually a very orderly book. I’m not kidding.

The first three chapters are greetings and letters to churches, which we would do well to study. To each church, Jesus identifies himself in a different way, revealing a certain aspect of Himself that matches the warning or commendation He gives to the church. It also shows how intimately He is involved with His church as its Head and its Priest.

In Chapter 4 the scene shifts to heaven. In Chapter 5 we’re still in heaven, but now heaven is readying for the “things to come”, meaning, the global judgment.

Chapter 6-18 are those judgments. Again, it’s orderly. A series of three (perhaps four, if the Seven Thunders are judgments) each containing 7 judgments are unleashed, one after the other. The time frame is fairly chronological. It’s also rapid. The events take place mostly within three and a half years (7 total) so reading this main portion of Revelation can be compared to reading the Gospel of Mark. Mark reports quickly, covers a great time frame in short order, and uses muscular language and a rapid pace. It’s the same with this portion of Revelation.

The judgments, in addition to being judgments, are also working to UNcreate the world. Compare Genesis 1-2 with Revelation 6. Genesis shows the creation, Revelation is the UNcreation. As the LORD deals with sin, He is also preparing the world for its upcoming regeneration (“The New Earth.”). Mainly the story proceeds chronologically with an occasional glimpse back to heaven or a parenthetical comment.

Chapter 19-22 is the wrap-up- the new heavens and new earth, New Jerusalem, the Marriage Supper, the final strings to tie up, the last encouragement.

Voila!Clipboard05

As for the symbolism, scripture interprets scripture. The symbols are not a lot harder to interpret than other analogies and symbols in the Bible. Jesus being the vine (we know He is not ACTUALLY a vine). Or when the angels pour out the bowls of wrath, we are reminded of Jesus drinking the cup of wrath. The dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads is a similar kind of symbol to the ram with long horns of Daniel 8, which is interpreted for Daniel right in the same chapter.

 

I’m not saying everything about Revelation is easy. It still takes study. What I’m saying is that is is not harder than any other book of the Bible and in some ways it is easier. Please do not be intimidated by it.

On sale now at Grace To You through June 25 is a booklet for $1.50 called A Jet Tour Through Revelation. It is adapted from a sermon MacArthur gave a while ago. Even when the sale is done the booklet only costs $2.00. Of course, you can listen to the sermon for free at any time. The booklet-

-helps take the mystery out of a portion of Scripture many people consider too difficult to understand. Yet, the book of Revelation promises blessing to those who read its words and heed them. This Jet Tour booklet will help you make sense of the symbols, imagery, and significance of this amazing prewritten history. It will increase your appetite for heaven—or give you a needed dose of concern about your eternal future and point you to Christ, who alone can save you from the wrath He will one day bring.

One of my favorite books on Revelation is another of MacArthur’s -“Because the Time is Near”. This book is also on sale now for $8.25. I found it not only to be clear, non-academic and useful in laymen’s terms, so encouraging. Yes, the Book of Revelation is encouraging. Seeing all that wrath poured out is hard on the heart, but it is also encouraging knowing Jesus took that same wrath for His people. This in turn inspires a profound relief and love for His work on the cross. It’s one thing to know about the cup of wrath He endured, it is another to understand it. Revelation helps you understand sin and wrath, and by contrast, grace. In this way, reading Revelation helps you love Jesus even more.

Far from being a dense, mysterious, non-understandable book, I have always found it to be encouraging, amazing, and inspiring. It shows Jesus as He is now, in full glory, power, and beauty. It is one of my favorite books of the Bible, Genesis being the other!

Please don’t be intimidated by Revelation, just start reading it. You will be blessed. That is a promise from Jesus.

Posted in discernment, Uncategorized

Discernment review: The mystical practice of Lectio Divina

Posted on by elizabethprata

lectio

Several mystical practices have been making their way into the more conservative quarters of the faith. One has been contemplative prayer, or centering prayer. Another practice that crept in from the mystical religions was Lectio Divina.

First, what do we mean by ‘mysticism’? GotQuestions looks at the blending of the faith with mystical practices, called Christian Mysticism:

The term “Christian mystic” is an oxymoron. Mysticism is not the experience of a Christian. Whereas Christian doctrine maintains that God dwells in all Christians and that they can experience God directly through belief in Jesus, Christian mysticism aspires to apprehend spiritual truths inaccessible through intellectual means

Any practice that urges the adherent to avoid the intellect is not to be trusted. Christianity is a religion of the mind. I can’t stress this fact strongly enough. It is a thinking religion.

Paul said in Romans 12:2, Be transformed by the renewing of your mind,  not by ‘the subjective impulses of the heart’.

Paul also said in 1 Corinthians 2:16, ‘we have the mind of Christ’, not that ‘some have the mind of Christ and if you adopt their mystical practices you, too, can know truth‘.

We read in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6,

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

See? We destroy mind-strongholds, we take thoughts captive, destroy base opinions, and seek knowledge. This is all about the mind.

So the first thing mystical, anti-Christian practices will do is the opposite of what the Bible tells us. The teachers of such practices will tell you to clear you mind, empty your mind, or not to rely on the mind.

A second thought to introduce this review. I am doing a follow-up on the not-new-news of Lectio Divina because of the way satan works. He will creep in, and introduce extra-biblical practices antithetical to our growth. These will be discovered sooner or later, and there will be an outcry. Then the outcry will die down. What the outcry does is two-fold, only one of which is actually helpful to us.

First, an outcry against anti-biblical practices raises the alarm and lets the faithful know an intrusion is underway. Such an outcry occurred at the 2012 Passion Conference when several leading members of the faith taught 60,000 youths a version of Lectio Divina and called on them to stand still, be quiet, and listen actively for a response. That rightly caused an outcry. More on that in a moment.

But secondly and sadly, not everyone is as vigilant a Christian soldier as they should be. The outcry serves to allow the terms of the false practices become familiar to us. We actually get used to the terms, like ‘contemplative prayer,’ or ‘Lectio divina’ or ‘impression on my heart’ and once used to the terms, without vigilance and knowledge, we accept them. We become inured to them, which means, “to accustom to accept something undesirable.” We’ve heard the terms, but without constant reminder and instruction against them, a new person to the fray might think they are acceptable practices, simply on the basis of their familiarity with the terms but not the content.

Lectio Divina is a Catholic practice. It is supposedly something innocuous-sounding, it’s just ‘praying with scripture.’ Lectio Divina actually teaches you to listen with your heart, not your mind. It teaches you to experience the text, not to understand the text.

In researching this essay I’d gone back to ground zero of Lectio Divina in its original intrusion into the evangelical faith. In 2012, three of then-Christendom’s most popular leaders taught and practiced Lectio Divina at the Passion conference with 60,000 youths in attendance. John Piper, Beth Moore, Francis Chan, and one or two others on stage led the youths in attendance through a lectio practice.

Subsequently, there was an outcry. What were these respected teachers doing at an evangelical conference showing youths how to do a Catholic mystical practice? Todd Friel of Wretched Radio did a spot answering these and other questions the incident raised, and thoroughly explained the pitfalls of Lectio Divina.

Essentially, the difference between proper study and the Lectio mystical way of study is that the evangelical student studies the text using proper cognitive methods, the Lectio student attempts to experience the text. Here’s John MacArthur on Lectio Divina and other mystical practices, When Study Isn’t Study

For many leaders in the spiritual formation movement, Bible study doesn’t really involve study at all. Instead, it’s an attempt to experience the text.

Many spiritual formation gurus advocate various meditative Bible-reading methods, most of them adapted from a Catholic Church practice called lectio divina. Regardless of the name they apply to it, the pattern is usually the same—slow, methodical, repetitive reading, with an eye toward words and phrases that pop out to the individual reader. It’s through those individual words and phrases, we’re told, that the Lord speaks directly to us.

Bible study, then, is not a question of digging deep into God’s Word but letting your imagination and intuition guide your own personal understanding of the text.

Dear sisters, avoid Lectio Divina and other mystical practices. As was said earlier today on Twitter,

Scripture never commands us to tune into any inner voice. We’re commanded to study and meditate on Scripture.

~~~~~~~~FURTHER READING~~~~~~~~

 

A teacher or leader may be teaching you Lectio Divina without calling it that. Here’s GotQuestions explaining it, so you’ll know if it appears in your lessons, Sunday School, book you’re reading, conference, etc.

Heroes of the faith that sadly allowed themselves to be led by subjective promptings AKA ‘woeful delusions’ and fancies:
When Fancy Is Mistaken for Faith

So how are we to determine God’s will, since indeed the Spirit does lead us?
Subjectivity and the Will of God

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

Two or more good things about having a disability

Posted on by elizabethprata

I like to write about Jesus, His Word, and the things of the Word. But today I’ll write a bit about me, and then turn it to Jesus.

I have a disability.

I can’t smell.

I agree this is not a crippling disability, not one that hinders me in daily life as much as someone in a wheelchair, or a blind person for example. But not being able to smell does have its detriments.

As a teenager, my mother would not let me babysit because I could not smell danger- a fire, food burning, gas, et cetera. I also can’t smell when a baby’s diaper has to be changed! I never knew that farts smelled bad until I was a senior in High School. No one told me. I also never knew that cooking cabbage emitted a heavy, permeating smell, either. And so on.

As an adult, certain professions were denied me due to lacking this sense. Perfumer, chef, detective, chemist…

Even now, the lack of olfactory senses impacts me. When I cook I cannot detect when the food burns. I can’t tell if a food has gone bad, like milk or the fish I buy. I have gas heat and the lack of being able to smell if there’s a leak scares me constantly. I can’t smell smoke or electrical burning which was a problem when the electrical wires in my car got on fire and is otherwise a general safety issue. I can’t tell if my own clothes smell or not so I just wear them once and wash them to be safe. My trash can and the cats’ litter box…I never know if they’re stinking up the apartment and I worry when people come over.

Sometimes I get sad if I think about it, the pleasant things I’ve not been able to smell. A baby sweet smelling out of the tub. Mown grass. Bread baking The air after a rain. Flowers. So I don’t think about it.

I can’t complain too much. My day-to-day life isn’t impacted tremendously, as it would be if I suddenly was confined to a wheelchair or was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or was born deaf or blind. I’ve never been able to smell so in one sense I do not know what I’m missing. But I am missing something and that perturbs me once in a while.

The Lord knew ahead of time very person He was going to create. The Lord knits every person in the womb. He fashions us to His specifications and plan. So He made me this way. He is good and perfect. I have to see the good in it. Here’s the good:

1. He is protecting me. How? I’m autistic and I’m extremely sensitive to my environment. Light, noise, colors, and even my own clothes hanging on me, ply me with heightened sensations. They impact me through every molecule of my body. Not to mention the mental anguish I’d likely be feeling all the time. I understand that smell is often the trigger for memory recall which in turn raises strong emotions. If I could smell too? I’d keel over from overload much more often.

So I have to thank the Lord for protecting me and shielding me from what I know would be an overwhelming overload every moment of the day. If I could smell no doubt I’d also be undergoing an continuous scroll of memory playing on the screen in my mind, a roiling of emotions I wouldn’t know how to handle, and there’s enough of that already. So again, thank you, Lord.

2. It is a gift from the Lord, to me. How? The first thing I’ll smell will be heaven. What a gift.  I’ll go from zero to a billion quadrillion in one moment, a blink of an eye (or in this case, a twitch of the nose). I’ll be able to smell whatever the Lord has designed for us and I’ll never have to smell sewage, vomit, fecal matter, the trash can, body odor, or any other terrible smell. I’ll be made whole in an instant, demonstrating His power and soon enough, the lack will be wiped from my mind and forevermore, my glorified body will be perfect. I can wait. What’s a few decades of living with a disability when that great truth is on the horizon?

For those who love Him, He does good all the time, our whole lives from womb to grave. If you have endured a disability, and again, I know mine is minor compared to many other peoples’, just know that the Lord made it this way for divine purposes. Since He is perfect, your part in it as is mine, is divinely ordained for our good and His glory. Look for the good in your situation and try not to dwell on the bad, the worrisome, or the frustrating. Dwell on the positive of your situation here and now and think of the good things that will come. Most importantly, see how you can glorify the Lord in it.

Finally, 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. (Philippians 4:8).

As a lost person, it used to infuriate me when I saw on the news or something, a Christian praising the Lord for their cancer diagnosis, or forgiving the murderer, or thanking Him for some devastating thing most normal people rage over. I never could understand it. But that’s the point. We are a people set apart, not of this world. We don’t act like the world because we have the Light, and the world comprehends us not.

But Christians think of the things that are pure, and honorable, and just, and lovely. That means we think of Jesus. He gives the eternal perspective. He is worthy of praise, even in and through the disability.

Think about it.
tiger lily

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

The Practical Grace of Alana L.

Posted on by elizabethprata

Alana L. is a Christian, a wife, a mom, an entrepreneur, and a Youtuber. She has been making videos about her life as a mom in Christ for five years, which are published nearly every day. In her first couple of videos, Alana articulates the Gospel and her beliefs. The remaining videos are simply how these beliefs play out during a regular old day, a kind of practical grace.

One video I liked of hers was just over 1 minute long. It showed an empty glass on the floor next to a rocking chair. Her husband had left it there after getting up from eating his sandwich. You know how the Mexican standoff begins, you sinfully say to yourself, ‘Well if he couldn’t bring the glass to the sink, I won’t.’ Or passive-aggressively waving the glass around while asking “Are you done with this glass? I’ll put it in the sink for you.‘ Or just ignore the glass and leave it for him to pick up eventually, when he gets the hint. [They never get the hint]. Or…how to handle this issue lovingly, and what thoughts Jesus would want us to have as Alana muses (while taking the glass to the sink). Practical grace.

Sunny Shell at Abandoned to Christ has some thoughts on motherhood, fatherhood, and family-hood titled The Hands That Rock The Cradle, Heals or Hurts The World

Please read her piece for an encouraging thought for the day. Then enjoy Alana L.’s take on living it out. She covers submission, wife-hood, spanking, discipline, homeschooling, working from home, raising boys, cleaning, marital irritations, lovemaking and attractiveness, bitterness, and more. All the things. Her videos run from 1 minute to 20 minutes. Enjoy.

Alana Lagares Youtube Channel

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

The Sifting Hour

Posted on by elizabethprata

My pastor is preaching slowly through Jonah. I love Jonah. What’s not to be intrigued by? The book has everything. A disobedient prophet, action, sovereignty of God, grace, patience, repentance, revival, and miracles- ten of them! (Jonah 1:4, 1:7, 1:15, 1:17, 1:17, 2:10, 3:10, 4:6, 4:7, 4:8).

I think it is amazing that the Spirit inspired Jonah to write his deeds down –  all of them, from the petulant, to the racist, to the rebellious, to the glorious. The Bible doesn’t hide our foibles, sins, and rebellions. The Bible is not a sanitized record of perfect human behavior. Far from it. It’s an honest record of our relationship with God.

Anyway, there’s danger, action, and supernatural miracles, ten of them, in just four short chapters. So naturally I bought the book Moby Dick at Amazon and started reading it. LOL, of course I’m following the pastor and reading the actual Bible. I also listen to other sermons on the topic, as well as give a repeat listen to his sermon later in the week, thanks to podcasts.

But it’s summer, and I’m tired of reading badly written modern books, and the trusty classics never fail me. I had never read Moby Dick, though I’ve read some of author Herman Melville’s short stories. I started reading it and I’m in love with the story.

I got to chapter 9 and Father Mapple’s sermon. It’s a good one, and it’s on Jonah, of course. In the book, Mapple is preaching to New Bedford seamen, including whalers. They’d click with the topic. In Moby Dick, Mapple illustrated the supposed scene as Jonah was ushered to his bunk in the bowels of the ship,

The air is close, and Jonah gasps. Then, in that contracted hole, sunk, too, beneath the ship’s water-line, Jonah feels the heralding presentiment of that stifling hour, when the whale shall hold him in the smallest of his bowels’ wards.

I read that stifling hour as “that sifting hour.”

I like “that sifting hour” better. Not to re-write Melville. But the phrase stuck in my mind. It brought me to Peter. The Lord told Peter,

Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. (Luke 22:31-32).

This one verse clues us in to so many things. The spiritual war. Satan’s activity. Satan’s targets. God’s sovereignty that satan needed to ask permission. Our cluelessness about whom satan has asked to sift like wheat today. The fact that Jesus prayed for Peter.

It wasn’t more than a few hours that Peter encountered his sifting hour when he denied Jesus three times.

Thoughts of ‘the sifting hour’ brought me to Job.

And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” (Job 1:8).

Satan’s answer certainly reveals that satan had considered Job, more than once.

Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.” (Job 1:9-10).

Satan had in fact been carefully watching Job for a long time. He’d noted the hedge, the increase of possessions, the blessings (plural) and all the sides of Job’s life that satan had tried to access, unsuccessfully thus far. Yes indeed. Satan had considered Job.

The sifting hour did come to Job soon after. Absolutely everything was taken away from Job. Except his wife, who told him he should die.

Our own sifting hour might come soon enough. Satan does have a lot of power in this world, being the god of it. (2 Corinthians 4:4. Ephesians 2:2). He messes with God’s people, he has power to bring winds/tornadoes, to draw fire from heaven, to incite armies to raid your home, and to attack your health. Those are just a few of the things satan did to Job. Satan has much power, and is allowed to operate within that power fully as long as it is within God’s will and permission.

Our trials do not always come from satan. Sometimes God Himself brings about chastisement and we endure a sifting hour. He appointed the storm in Jonah’s case, appointed a big fish to swallow him, appointed the hot wind to scour Jonah, and appointed the worm to eat the shade sheltering him. All to bring about obedience and repentance so God’s will and plan would proceed.

Your and my sifting hour might be coming tomorrow or today or next week. Either because we are devout, like Job, or because we are rebellious, like Jonah, or somewhere in the middle like Peter to strengthen our faith. If we stand for Jesus in this world we will have troubles. (John 16:33). When we rebel and are not repentant, we can expect discipline. (Hebrews 12:6, Proverbs 3:12). Trials strengthen us, James says.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4).

The sifting hour is something I dread emotionally but spiritually I know that it will be good for me in the best possible way- my faith will be strengthened and Jesus’ glory will be gotten.

Let’s go back to Peter’s sifting hour and focus on the wonderful part of the scripture. Satan has asked to sift you like wheat and Jesus said,

but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.

Our Mediator and interceder prays for us! John 17:20-23 shows once again that He prays for His sheep. Has ‘the sifting hour’ come upon you? Rest assured that Jesus ordained it, appointed it, and is praying for you and is interceding for you and intends the best for you. And when it happens to me, I’ll repeat those comforts to my own mind and heart as well. Jesus said in His high priestly prayer, this is-

-so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:23b)

What is sifted out of the chaff is love and glory. And this is the best of all.

fear not verse

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

How is incense like prayer?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Yesterday I wrote about incense, and how the LORD told Jeremiah to tell the people that their sacrifices of incense were not going to be received, because of their sin. He was going to send judgment instead. I’d said that there is a connection between incense and prayer, to be explored today.

First, let’s look at the Temple and the altar of incense, called the golden altar. (Exodus 39:38).

for the altar of incense made of refined gold, and its weight; also his plan for the golden chariot of the cherubim that spread their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the LORD. (1 Chronicles 28:18–19).

The Lexham Bible Dictionary explains that pure incense was manufactured from equal parts of the following substances:

•      stacte—oil of myrrh
•      onycha—an extract from a Red Sea mollusk
•      galbanum—thought to come from the gum of an umbelliferous plant
•      frankincense

This mixture was seasoned with salt (Exodus 30:34–38). The LORD raised up perfumers whose job it was to produce the incense. (Exodus 30:34-38). One of the responsibilities of the priest was to keep incense burning on the altar daily. (2 Chronicles 13:11). Not to burn it was disobedience. (2 Chronicles 29:7-8).

There’s much more to the actual incense ingredients, blending, burning, and spiritual uses, but for now, let’s turn to the main idea for today- the connection between incense and prayers.

Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. (Zechariah, in Luke 1:8-11)

John Owen in his commentary on Hebrews makes a distinction between the two times incense is used in the temple.

Whereas, therefore, there was a twofold use of the altar of incense; the one of the ordinary priests, to burn incense in the sanctuary every day; and the other of the high priest, to take incense from it when he entered into the most holy place, to fill it with a cloud of its smoke; the apostle intending a comparison peculiarly between the Lord Christ and the high priest only in this place, and not the other priests in the daily. discharge of their office

Incense both accompanies and symbolizes prayer. ( Psalm 141:2; Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:3-4). The burning of incense as a sweet smelling offering before the Lord, indicated the worshiper’s duty to present prayers or offerings that were pleasing to God (1 Samuel 2:28).

When the New Covenant came, the new way of praying came. (Matthew 6:9, HebrewsNo longer needing a priest to intercede,no longer needing incense to symbolize types and shadows, we now have the Spirit in us to intercede, and resurrected Jesus next to the right hand of the Father to intercede. We can ourselves go boldly before the throne of grace.

John Owen in his commentary on Hebrews lays out four ways incense is like prayer.

1.) In that it was beaten and pounded before it was used. So doth acceptable prayer proceed from “a broken and contrite heart,” Isaiah 51:17.

(2.) It was of no use until fire was put under it, and that taken from the altar. Nor is that prayer of any virtue or efficacy which is not kindled by the fire from above, the Holy Spirit of God; which we have from our altar, Christ Jesus.

(3.) It naturally ascended upwards towards heaven, as all offerings in the Hebrew are called “ascensions,” risings up. And this is the design of prayer, to ascend unto the throne of God: “I will direct unto thee, and will look up;” that is, pray, Psalms 5:3.

(4.) It yielded a sweet savor: which was one end of it in temple services, wherein there was so much burning of flesh and blood. So doth prayer yield a sweet savor unto God; a savor of rest, wherein he is well pleased.

Owen further observes:

We are always to reckon that the efficacy and prevalency of all our prayers depends on the incense which is in the hand of our merciful high priest. — It is offered with the prayers of the saints, Revelation 8:4. In themselves our prayers are weak and imperfect; it is hard to conceive how they should find acceptance with God. But the invaluable incense of the intercession of Christ gives them acceptance and prevalency.

What an inexpressible privilege it is to pray. The curtain is parted, we may boldly approach the throne of God. He not only hears our prayer, he Himself intercedes for us when we utter groanings too weak to understand. (Romans 8:26).

Do not neglect prayer, a sweet smell of our sacrifice of praise to our Lord who hears.

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Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

Feeling weak and weary? It’s OK. Even Timothy needed urging

Posted on by elizabethprata

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:6-7).

Has your zeal waned? I’m not talking about the normal subsiding of a fervency that first ignites in the heart upon salvation but then matures to a steady fire. I’m talking about the day to day, month to months or year to year faith that, if left untended or un-nurtured, diminishes to an ember, with cold ashes all around. Or the faith that is timid and retiring, waiting for igniting or just fearful.

It happens.

As we see in the verse above, Paul was urging Timothy to fan into flame his gift (of faith). One who already has a flame doesn’t need someone to urge him to fan it. Only someone who is dimming needs such encouragement. Paul knew this was true of Timothy, so Paul wrote to encourage Timothy to nurture his faith.

Barnes’ Notes:

The idea is, that Timothy was to use all proper means to keep the flame of pure religion in the soul burning, and more particularly his zeal in the great cause to which he had been set apart. The agency of man himself is needful to keep the religion of the heart warm and glowing. However rich the gifts which God has bestowed upon us, they do not grow of their own accord, but need to be cultivated by our own personal care.

We all need that exhortation. Fan into flame the gift of God.

OK. How? What are the actions we should take when we sense our spiritual walk is slowing?

In the Spurgeon sermon Our Gifts and How to Use Them, we note that to stir up one’s faith requires action.  Spurgeon here has some ideas. The following are excerpts from the above link ‘Our Gifts and How to Use Them.’

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And this brings us, secondly, to the consideration of HOW WE ARE TO STIR UP OUR GIFTS.

EXAMINE YOUR GIFTS
First, we should do it by examination to see what gifts we really have. There should be an overhauling of all our stores to see what we have of capital entrusted to our stewardship.

STIR UP YOUR GIFTS
The next mode of stirring up our gift is to consider to what use we could put the talents we possess. To what use could I put my talents in my family? Am I doing all I could for the children? Have I labored all I ought for my wife’s conversion; my husband’s conversion? Then about the neighborhood: is there nothing more that I could do for the salvation of my poor godless neighbors?

… Are you doing all you can for Jesus? Come, answer like an honest man! Having done so, I have more for your self-inspection! Will you examine yourself in every relation in which you stand? As an employer, stir up your gift in reference to those you employ; as a servant, stir up the gift towards your fellow servants; as a trader, and stir up your gift in reference to those with whom you come in contact… If our churches were in a right state of spiritual health, men would not first say, “What can I do to make money?” but, “What can I do to serve Christ, for I will take up a trade subserviently to that.”

ACT IN AND THROUGH YOUR GIFTS
But, next, stir it up not merely by consideration and examination, but by actually using it. We talk much of working, but working is better than talking about working. To get really at it, and to do something for soul-winning and spreading abroad the glory of God is infinitely better than planning and holding committees. Away with windbags! Let us get to acts and deeds! … Work, work, and the tool that is blunt will get an edge by being used! Shine and the light you have shall grow in the very act of shining! He who has done one thing will find himself capable of doing two, and doing two will be able to accomplish four; and having achieved the four will soon go on to twelve, and from 12 to fifty! And so, by growing multiples, he will enlarge his power to serve God by using the ability he has.

IMPROVE YOUR GIFT
We have for years endeavored to stir up the young Christians of this congregation to educate themselves. … I think every man ought to feel, “I have been Christ’s man with a talent; I will be Christ’s man with 10 if I can; if now I do not thoroughly understand the doctrines of His gospel, I will try to understand them; I will read, and search, and learn.” We need an intelligent race of Christians, not an affected race of boasters of culture—mental fops who pretend to know a great deal, and know nothing! We need students of the word, adept in theology like the Puritans of old!

PRAY OVER YOUR GIFTS
—that is a blessed way of stirring them up, to go before God and spread out your responsibilities before Him. … It stirs one up to preach with all his might when he has laid before God in prayer, his weakness; and the ability which God has given him, and asked that the weakness may be consecrated to God’s glory, and the ability accepted to the Lord’s praise. Should we not do just the same, whatever our calling is—take it to the Lord and say, “Assist me, great God, to live for You; …

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End Spurgeon. Don’t you love his bluntness? ‘Don’t just talk about working, actually work. Away with windbags!’ Lol.

Does the flame of faith in your bosom need fanning? It is not sin, not yet. Fainting youths and weary soldiers give opportunity for stronger brothers to come alongside and exhort and encourage. Perhaps that strong soldier will need fanning one day, and you can return the favor. In addition, we are pitiful human creatures, stained with a sin-drenched mind always attempting to get the better of the Mind of Christ that is given to us. Or, our timid hearts stray to the back of the crowd. Or, our spotted souls seek to grow the spots instead of slay them.

The battle is long and the fight is tiring. It was for Timothy. What a blessing the Bible includes the weaknesses and flaws of our fainting brethren who came before us. See? You’re weak. I’m weak. It happens.

If you need fanning, no matter. Stir up your gifts, the basis is which is the gift of God of faith and repentance, the gift of knowledge of our own sin, and so seek to revive that flame to a burning love giving light and warmth to fellow soldiers and to the cold and wandering lost.

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