Tag: jesus

Posted in theology

Is God speaking to you? Part 1

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

The biggest topic I used to receive pushback on was naming a false teacher. People got angry when their favorite pet teacher was outed as false, thus, out flowed their invective. But lately the most pushback I receive is when I say that God is not speaking to us audibly or personally in these days. People are REALLY defending that one!

It’s sad how embedded the notion of God still speaking directly and audibly to people has become in such a short time. It’s particularly crushing to see that Celebrity women with large platforms are promoting this, and have been for years. Almost an entire generation now.

Is He whispering? Sending signs or omens? Should we seek intuitions, feelings, nudgings, whispers, small voices, and promptings that we might sense inside of our brain? Or even hear audibly?

Does God give new revelation today? Did He tell Beth Moore to go to a zoo and watch a napping baby koala together or build a snowman with Him? Did He respond to Sarah Young’s yearning “for more” than scripture by giving her so many personal devotions? Did He awaken IF:Gathering’s founder Jennie Allen one night and tell her to gather and equip this generation? Did He walk with HGTV’s Fixer Upper Joanna Gaines in her garden and tell her that He has a calling for her and that one day she will have a platform taking Magnolia further than she ever dreamed? Did Priscilla Shirer write an entire Bible study to teach us how we can prepare to “hear God’s voice and receive wisdom from Him”? These women have all claimed to have heard from God, AND put His alleged words in quotes.

A short history of “God told me”

I mention these particular women because they are (or were) not fringe, not in a cult, and not outside the bounds of orthodoxy when they first began claiming direct revelation. Oh, for years false prophets had been claiming God spoke to them, but they were never taken seriously. From around 90 AD when the canon was completed in the Book of Revelation to the 20th century, it was a given that the mainline church believed God’s new revelations were concluded. His final word was THE Word.

So why is it so rampant now?

top row l-r: Jennie Allen, Priscilla Shirer. Bottom row, Beth Moore, Sarah Young of Jesus Calling

Justin Peters addressed this issue at the Truth Matters conference in 2019 (one of many tmes he has addressed the problem). The title of his talk was “Hearing from Heaven: How to Know the Voice of God” He said-

I would submit to you that the resource, the book that is singularly most responsible for introducing charismatic theology into at least theoretically non-charismatic churches is Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby that came out in 1991. If you go back before 1991, at least in non-charismatic churches, almost everyone would have understood that God speaks to us through the Bible, we speak to Him in prayer. Today hardly anybody understands that; and I believe experiencing God is singularly most responsible for introducing these notions into non-charismatic churches.

I agree with this perspective. I remember when the book came to my former church. There was a huge buzz about it and immediately groups were formed to go through the study. We were told that it was going to change our life, make a huge difference in our walk, and so on.

Southern Baptist Convention member Beth Moore soon latched onto this notion that God speaks to us directly and from her earliest days promoted the idea through constant sharing of anecdotes of what He was supposedly telling her. Her very first “Bible study” called A Woman’s Heart: God’s Dwelling Place was published in 1995. Every page of the 200 page workbook (!) Moore asked the student to write on the blanks the answer to the following 2 questions: [underline mine]-

“At the conclusion of each lesson you will find two questions: 1) How did God speak directly to you today? 2) What is your response to Him?”

“By the conclusion of  each lesson you should be able to identify something in particular that you believe He was saying directly to you.”

Due to Moore’s large platform and general respect (back then) for the Southern Baptist Convention’s orthodoxy, her idea grew tentacles among women’s ministries and went everywhere from there.

In 2004 Sarah Young’s book Jesus Calling was published, where young outright said she heard from God. This book also made a huge impact and picking up the baton from Moore, the notion began forging new trails into the heart and mind of conservative women. It was no longer a fringe notion, since Blackaby and Moore were in conservative churches, not Charismatic nor Pentecostal…nor were either of them being chastised for their presumption that Jesus chooses special people to whom he gives special revelation directly and apart from the Bible. Sarah Young’s book became a brand and a cottage industry.

in 2014 Jennie Allen held her first IF:Gathering, in which she related to her audience that God woke her up one night to tell her, or whisper, or both, she couldn’t decide exactly, to gather and equip this generation, something not even Paul was charged with.

And now it’s 2024 and everyone and their sister seems to say, “God told me”. Luke Smallbone of the Christian musical group For King and Country said this month,

From Smallbone’s Instagram reel

It was actually a sweet moment. He was saying he had felt far from God, hadn’t dived into the Word in a while, and was repenting of that. Great. But he continued, “I felt God say to me, ‘Luke’, and I listened, and I felt him say, “I’ve missed you”.

While the sentiment is true, God does love us and wants us close to Him, it is unhelpful for Luke to claim that he heard God personally deliver the comfort. It is just plain wrong to put it in quotes. Even though Luke said ‘I felt God was saying’ it is still wrong. Luke didn’t say “I went to the scripture and the Holy Spirit, through the word, comforted me”. No he alleges he had a conversation. Tellingly, he did not turn to scripture for comfort nor did he advise his followers to do so. He just said “When life gets a little hectic, listen to what God is saying.”

A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. (Galatians 5:9).

And “God told me” IS leaven.

In the next part, what direct revelation is (leaven) and isn’t (happening now), and how to respond to people who claim to have heard from Jesus.

Further Resources

G3 is hosting the Cessationist Conference Oct 3-5, 2024. “Join us in October of 2024 as we carefully consider key biblical arguments for the cessation of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit.”

Ligonier: Does the Holy Spirit tell people things in their thoughts?

G3: Beware of lowercase r- revelation

Posted in theology

Billy Graham rule may not be a good idea for some (a different reason why)

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

A very famous married elderly Reformed preacher was forced to confess he had been having a five-year-long affair with a woman almost 50 years younger than he. He was fired from his preaching position, ejected from the ministry he founded, and rejected in his many other ministry positions of authority and prestige.

The shock went around the world. Literally. The ensuing shock is still reverberating. Some insiders have said, “No one saw this coming.” Not that they disbelieved that anyone can sin into adultery, but no one saw it coming from this man in particular.

Al Mohler spoke about this situation, answering a question he’d been asked as to whether pastors falling due to adultery are happening more frequently these days. It seemed so to the questioner.

Moher said that he “doesn’t sense an increase in number but an increase in public damage to the church of Jesus Christ. The effect of the issue upon the church and the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is so grievous“

Mohler also quoted advice given him by an elder honorable Christian man,

You will never have sex with a woman not your wife, if you are never alone with a woman not your wife.”

In the aftermath of this news, people have been discussing the background of Mohler’s quip, the Billy Graham Rule. (BGR)

The BGR is a rule that 20th century evangelist Bill Graham instituted for himself never to be alone with a woman not his wife. As a traveling evangelist, he was subject to gossip and speculation, particularly in the wake of traveling religious men before him who had been charlatans.

“Graham tells the story of when he was walking along a quiet street with his 18-year-old daughter: the next day, the local paper printed the story that Graham was “again” seen with a beautiful, young woman, insinuating that Graham’s sexual exploits were beginning to be a problem,” explains Kurt Edwards in his dissertation “Billy Graham, Elmer Gantry, and the Performance Of A New American Revivalism“

.

In this June 27, 1954 file photo, Evangelist Billy Graham speaks to over 100,000 people at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany (AP)

Graham himself had said of the issue, “There is always the chance of misunderstanding. I remember walking down the street in New York with my beautiful blond daughter, Bunny. I was holding her hand. I heard somebody behind us say, ‘There goes Billy Graham with one of those blond girls.'” (Source).

These rumors bothered Graham, who wanted to maintain a pure reputation. He had recently read the devastating book Elmer Gantry, about the perseverance, rise, and ultimate success of a corrupt preacher who was in fact a false convert. This book spooked Graham. He was concerned enough with his reputation in light of the Gantry book and subsequent movie, that in 1948 “while in Modesto, California, he [Graham] gathered close advisers, including Grady and T.W. Wilson, Cliff Barrows, and Bev Shea” wrote Edwards, to discuss how to handle this kind of attention.

The issues they were concerned about were money, sexual
immorality, discord with local churches, and telling journalists the true numbers of attendees (not inflating the truth when speaking of publicity) – these “rules” were to help squash any issues with these 4 problems and became known as “The Modesto Manifesto”.

The rule Graham had about maintaining sexual purity was that he would never travel alone, nor would he meet with or eat alone with any woman other than his wife. But there is an interesting twist to that Rule many people do not know. More on that below.

It was a purposeful strategy to ignore the Elmer Gantry-ish excesses of the famous American evangelists who’d come before him. And it worked like magic. When scandals destroyed some of his imitators in the 1980s, like Jim and Tammy Bakker, Graham’s operation looked even more like a model of rectitude in comparison. (Rolling Stone, The Soul Crushing Legacy of Billy Graham).

BGR or BGR-ish Can Be Good

I have an issue with the Billy Graham Rule, and it is not what you think. I believe the wisdom behind the Rule is good. It is NOT wise for a man, clergy, pastor, counselor to meet alone with a woman. Not professionally and certainly not personally. Not even in public, as in a restaurant, mall, or park. I also believe it is not a good idea to frequently text or email or phone call a woman who is not his wife, an added caveat since new technology has been invented since Billy Graham was around.

It was not holiness that prompted Graham and his cohorts to formulate this rule. It was not to establish guardrails for the purpose of maintaining discipline so God gets the glory.

It was performance. It was to create an external appearance in order to glorify self.

Some may take issue with what I’m saying here. But I’ve done a lot of thinking about Billy Graham and even more study on his life and ministry. Much. I don’t say these things lightly or without reason or substantiation. I know some won’t like it because some idolize him. That’s fine. Their opinion. I have mine.

As a side note, I’ve read Stephen King’s The Mist, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Lovecraft…and Elmer Gantry. Let me say that Elmer Gantry out-horrored them all and was the most chilling, horrific book I ever read. It definitely leaves an impression.

Throughout Billy Graham’s career, the evangelist sought performative manners to ensure that he would not be perceived as another “Elmer Gantry”, or huckster preacher out to win money, fame, and favor. Graham’s intent was to grow a ministry that would form a new performance paradigm for American revivalism. Graham prepared as an actor to use his gifts, train his voice and body, to write a different style of script, to capitalize on celebrity, and to embrace new media forms that would bring his message around the world thus creating a “New” revivalism while at the same time distancing himself from being seen as the character in Sinclair Lewis’ novel Elmer Gantry…” ~Dr. Ronald E. Shields, Bowling Green State University.

Why I am suspicious about the BGR

Graham decided not to sup alone, be seen with, or in any way be tainted by the notion that he was alone with a woman not his wife in public, and this included his daughters.

This is my issue and it’s why I deem it performance, a whitewashed tomb rather than a God-glorifying pursuit of purity.

He sacrificed his girls on the altar of personal reputation. It wasn’t for the glory of God. It was so people would think he was a highly moral person. We see this conceptually in the Modesto discussions, and we see in reality at the abandonment of his daughters for the sake of being well thought of.

“From that point on, Graham would not to travel, meet, or dine alone with any woman other than his wife Ruth — even his very own daughters when they came of age.” ~Edwards

Evangelists were often separated from their families during long periods of time and could be tempted with immorality (at least to do things that were disparate with what they were preaching for or against). The team pledged to avoid even the appearance of compromise. From that day forward, Graham never traveled alone, nor did he meet or eat alone with any woman other than his wife (including his teenage daughters). ~paraphrasing William Martin’s book, “A Prophet with Honor: The Billy Graham Story.

So: the entire point about me cautioning with regard to the Billy Graham Rule is —

MOTIVE

You ask and do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you may spend what you request on your pleasures.
(James 4:3)

All the ways of a person are clean in his own sight, But the LORD examines the motives. (Proverbs 16:2)

The Pharisees were ALL ABOUT performance. Jesus called them out on it. He said they stand on corners (busy location) so they would be seen They didn’t wash, so they would be seen. They pulled long faces at fasting, so they would be seen. When they tithed they sounded trumpets. They sought the chief seats at banquets. All so they would be praised and glorified.

Then the Lord said, “Because this people approaches Me with their words And honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me, (Isaiah 29:13).

Practicing righteousness to heap glory onto one’s self is a worthless endeavor.

Take care not to practice your righteousness in the sight of people, to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 6:1)

CAUTION

As you think about the BGR, ponder your motives. And sin being what it is, even if you’ve instituted such a rule for yourself at the start based on wanting to give glory to God through a holy lifestyle, over time it can become hardened and rigid, and become one of many rules that are void of worship and instead by now are just a performance. A rule for the sake of a rule.

For am I now seeking the favor of people, or of God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. (Galatians 1:10).

That question should always be utmost in our minds. WHY do we do the things we do? Is what I am doing out of love and submission to the Savior? Am I pursuing holiness for the sake of God getting glory, or for myself so as to be well thought of? Has it become rote, and devoid of meaning and worship?

but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not intending to please people, but to please God, who examines our hearts. (1 Thessalonians 2:4)

Posted in gethsemane, mighty, sword

The Mighty Jesus, Our Savior

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Weariness, concern, anxiety, frustration…all feelings we may be feeling in these difficult times. Financial hardship to emotional stress, to outright persecution, there is no doubt that many are stumbling, suffering, or staggering.

Look to Jesus.

The scene in Gethsemane usually focused on is the sweet scene where Jesus is praying, alone. It touches the heart to see the beginning of the emotional and physical travail our Savior endured for our sakes. But John’s Gospel alone has the scene where Judas arrives with the soldiers and the soldiers approach Jesus. Jesus asks the soldiers whom they seek:

Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground. (John 18:4-6)

This is a picture of what will happen in Armageddon. Both the Old and the New Testaments are replete with passages that at once depict live events, events that are partial fulfillments of the near future, and are complete fulfillments of things that will happen in the far future. One example comes to mind, the destruction of Sodom for sin, and how Peter advised us that what happened at Sodom is an example of what will happen to the ungodly in the future.

As Jesus spoke, his very words (almost) slew the soldiers, and they fell onto their backs. This is a picture of Rev 19:15, 21,

The Coming of Christ
From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.

And to confirm, Isaiah 11:4;

But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.

THIS is the mighty God we serve! He speaks, and the wicked fall. He speaks and worlds are made. He speaks, and angels fly. He speaks, and billions are redeemed. He is mighty and wonderful! No matter what comes upon us in this world, He will see us through it, and then soon, so we shall be with Him always!

Posted in encouragement, rapture

When our anchor becomes sight

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

We sang Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor at church yesterday. I love the marine references in the Bible, and as I sang I thought about anchors.

I lived by the water growing up and most of my adult life, mainly the ocean. Some years were spent on a lake. I loved it.

The ocean has moods, a personality, mystery, and power. Who doesn’t love a day at the beach? Even better, who doesn’t love a day ON the water? When we got a chance, we got on a boat. After a while, we had a boat. LOL, back in the day, a bunch of teenagers zooming around the bay on a 20 foot Boston Whaler wasn’t unusual.

We grew up knowing how to use our knees to ride the waves, could look at the rocks to spot the state of the tide, knew how to anchor, dock or throttle up to reach plane. We kept a weather eye on the clouds, watched the whitecaps, and had a grand time.

Despite having such familiarity with the water, and were so comfortable on it, we knew its dangers. On Narragansett Bay there was a navigational hazard called “boiler awash”.

It is a shallow patch of water near Hope Island near Prudence Island. A Navy tug sank there and its boiler, being tall, presented a hazard to the keels of boats passing over it. To make the shallow water issue worse, its boilers came to just under the surface of the water at low tide. It was a hazard all right. We always gave it a wide berth.

As an adult, I lived on a sailing yacht for two years and we sailed from Maine to Florida, crossed the Gulf Stream, and went on to the central Bahamas. We returned with the weather following the same route. Our route took us on almost every coastal river, sound, bay, and canal along the entire eastern seaboard as well as the Atlantic ocean waters off it.

Because we lived on the boat and were no longer teenagers messing around near shore, we well knew the hazards. Our VHF radio was full of calls from mariners in distress, the squawk of the marine weather station, and calls from the Coast Guard to alert to hazards (container awash, drifting and disabled boat, etc). Sailing in New England meant having intimate knowledge of reefs, shoals and rocks, and sailing in Florida meant having intimate knowledge of drunken fools, wannabe mariners and rich guy weekend warriors. In between, we learned to respect the fishermen, shrimpers, oystermen, and all the others trying to make a living.

We quickly acclimated to the water living and became respectful of the hazards. When you are underway, you are always on guard, even if it’s familiar water. Always, every second. Because any second, anything could happen, and since your boat was both your home and your transportation as well as your life, well, if it required being vigilant, that is what you did.

That is why, when the anchor was set and the engine turned off, you breathed a special sigh of relief. Oh, anything could still happen, but the ratcheting down of the vigilance was considerable. As long as the anchor held, you were all set. We just had to trust that it would hold.

I remember feeling a wonderful sense of relief when the day’s run was ended and we anchored. The engine turned off and all we could hear were the sounds of the birds and the waves. We were still, secure, and finished for the day.

When we’d traveled a thousand nautical miles were under our keel over the dark and murky waters, wondering ‘what’s down there?’ when we got to The Bahamas, the waters were clear to the bottom! We could SEE the anchor! We could determine if it was set or not, It was such a comfort after all those miles of trusting but not seeing the anchor, now to SEE it with our eyes. Our faith had become sight.

Our anchor 20 feet below, we could see it even at night! EPrata photo

In Bible days there were only three ways to travel. You got there by walking, riding an animal, or boat. Paul traveled a lot and because of that, he was on a boat a lot. He used many marine references in his letters, examples that the people of the era would know well and understand immediately. Here are a few examples Paul and the other Apostles used:

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. (James 1:6)

…tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14)

These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds (Jude 1:12)

holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, (1 Timothy 1:19)

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. (Hebrews 2:1)

The interesting thing about that last one is that the drifting away in the Greek literally means from God’s anchor.

Strong’s explains, to “drift away from,”pararrhyéō, only occurs in Hebrews 2:1 where it refers to going spiritually adrift – “sinning by slipping away (from God’s anchor)”. It means to “lapse” into spiritual defeat, describing how we slowly move away from our moorings in Christ.”

Friends, stay moored to Christ. He is our anchor. One day, ourfaith will become sight and we will see Him as He is.

Though our journey is tense, and long, imagine the sweet relief we will feel when we get there! When all storms are over, and there are no more hidden reefs. The empty clouds deceive us no more, and our friends and family’s spiritual shipwrecks (so hard to watch!) are but a distant memory gentle Christ wipes from our mind. The sweetness and rest awaiting us beside the glassy sea is unimaginably wondrous. Rest in that assurance 🙂

Here is “Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor” performed by Matt Papa, Matt Boswell, Keith & Kristyn Getty-

Posted in abide, encouragement, vine

Can we abide apart from Christ?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

We’ve been having the usual summer storms- thunder, lightning, rain, and wind. In some of these, people were without power. Many tree limbs came down.

There was a branch in my yard that came down. It was a biggish limb, torn right off from a large tree in the back yard. I’d planned to take a photo of it to illustrate the verse, but the yard was cleaned up before I came home from work. So I found this branch in the pasture instead.

Look at it. The limb is dead, that kind of dead, rusty brown that pine trees turn when they are good and dead. It is no longer connected to the tree. That limb can stay on the ground there as long as it wants but it will never do anything except lay there and get dead-er. It will not grow longer. It will not spring pine needles, It will not bear pine cones. It will not house birds. It will not shade worms. It will only lie there, dead.

It is apart from the tree.

Do not be apart from the vine. Jesus is the vine, providing life-flowing sustenance, strength, power. We can do nothing apart from Jesus. In Him is our only salvation, our only way toward holiness, our only blessing. Stay connected to the Vine. Let prayer, obedience, the Word of God rule your life. Abide in Him. If you do, you will flourish.

 

Posted in theology

Emotions Jesus never displayed

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Photo by Nik on Unsplash

Everyone is a victim these days. ‘Someone did this to me,’ or ‘Someone did that to me’. People use victimhood as a reason or cover for their poor actions. You would not believe how many Youtube police action videos where the person stopped for traffic violations uses PTSD as a reason they were speeding/weaving/eluding.

If someone is easily offended or had something minor happen to them, again the victimhood comes out. ‘You would not believe who cut in front of me at the grocery store!’ “I can’t get over that text she sent me!’ They milk their pity to anyone who would listen. I know people like that. I’m sure you do too.

Even if someone had a violent crime done to them or a legitimate complaint, some people tend to milk it and point to their emotional or physical wounds for far too long after or use it as a justification for things they shouldn’t.

You know who never pitied Himself? Jesus. We cannot imagine Him saying anything like, ‘When I was in the desert 40 days, all alone, that ole devil harassed me to no end! It was so aggravating!’

He never complained about the thousands of people who only followed Him for the freebies but quit Him when the freebies dried up.

He never pouted to the disciples that ‘After all I did for Judas, he betrayed me!’

I recently wrote about emotions that Jesus experienced. As the God-Man, He felt and displayed emotions. “Jesus wept” (John 11:35), is the shortest verse in the Bible but packs a punch. For example, in that scene, He is looking at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. He wept visibly.

Our Lord’s weeping reveals the humanity of the Saviour. He has entered into all of our experiences and knows how we feel. In fact, being the perfect God-Man, Jesus experienced these things in a deeper way than we do. His tears also assure us of His sympathy; He is indeed “a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary.

Today we look at emotions Jesus never displayed.

Jesus was empathetic toward others, ministering to the physical and spiritual pain they experienced.

Jesus suffered more than any person born on this earth then or now. His suffering on the cross was monumental and incomprehensible, yet He ministered to His own mother by ensuring she had a place to live and would be taken care of by John.

But none of Jesus’ emotions were never sinful. Evoking pity from others is a self-centered act, designed to bring attention and favor upon one’s self. Jesus is our model. He only sought the good and uplifting of the frail sheep. He sympathized with us in our weakness, ministered to physical and spiritual needs.

Self-pity is oft-putting. Sure, we can mourn for a bit, we can grieve for the wrong done to us, briefly. But don’t camp on it. And certainly don’t make it a lifestyle or a constant topic of conversation.

I learned this lesson in reverse when I lived on a sailboat for 2 years. We sailed from Maine to Florida, crossed the Gulf Stream, and continued down to the Tropics. Then came back up. We thought ourselves pretty good sailors, navigating without incident and arriving at Georgetown Bahamas. But you know what? Along the way we saw people in smaller boats doing the same thing. We saw a grandmother rowing! Then we saw a a couple in their kayaks! So, we dispensed with the smugness and private boasting, because firstly, people were accomplishing the same thing as us except in a more challenging way, and secondly, we are all enjoying the same sunset.

So in reverse-reverse, if I decide to pity myself, I know there are people out there who have experienced things that are worse, more chronic, more evil. Who am I to try and garner pity? My wounds feel bad to me, but are much lighter than others’. Let me minister to them.

Jesus Himself endured all, for us. Let me hand my wounds over to Him and go on with life with joy. Then I am better able to help others. I pray you are able to do the same.

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

Fathers and their effect

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

My father died in 2014. He was 81. He had never said “I love you” to his daughter.

Now he never will.

It’s a truth that doesn’t get any easier the older one gets. It’s actually harder to get used to the longer one drifts in time away from his death date, not easier.

He was a hard working man. He was a gifted raconteur. He was a wealthy man. He was a lot of things. But a father? Not so much. His ignoring of his kids as they grew, his intermittent but frequent abandonment of them as adults, his final, legal disownment of them as he aged all were stunning betrayals in the lives of three children, with untold consequences.

Every daughter can tell a different story about her father. Some stories are good, some are bad. Some are neutral. Some are bitter and some are sweet. Fathers, dear reader, have an effect.

There is a short film called The Father Effect. It is good.

The producer of this movie lost his own father to suicide when he was a boy. As he stated in the movie’s Mission page, the resulting film is his attempt

to educate, equip, & encourage men to be the dads God created them to be

Many of the people with whom I am connected through media and in real life have great parents who they honor and feel blessed to have grown up under. Others have disappointing stories they share, either freely or privately. Whatever the case with you, you know fathers have an effect on you for life. I worry for the fatherless who don’t have the solace of Jesus. For those among you who have had a less than blessed childhood, but are now safely home under Jesus’ wings, you know you have a REAL father. Jesus will love you forever, never abandon you, and is in fact, perfect. What a blessing this is. He is not only as Prophet, Priest, and King, but friend, brother, and Father.

The Father Effect movie also has an EncouragingDads project.

The Encouraging Dads Project was an idea that came out of John’s experience in making The Father Effect Movie.  As John talked to dads from all walks of life, he heard heartbreaking stories about how dads feel beat up, discouraged, and frustrated with their lives as dads. John was moved to do something to help encourage and inspire dads and The Encouraging Dads Project was born.

Take some time to encourage your Dad. Encourage a dad. Encourage a man who was a dad to you. Encouragement is free, and only takes a few moments. Send a letter, make a phone call, send a text, make a date to take him out for coffee. Tell him how special he is to you.

Dads, do the same for your daughters. If some time has gone by since you talked to her, take a moment to let her know how much she means to you, how proud of her you are, that you love her. My dad in all probability never confessed and repented and probably died outside of Christ. It was a sudden hit in a car crash. Boom. Gone.

He and I will not meet again, and I’m sorrowful for that. Eternity will go on and I will be loved perfectly by many fathers, and THE Father. I will forget the former troubling things, including Dad. He will remember everything, forever. If there is sorrow over your relationship with your dad, if you are on opposite sides of the salvation fence, let that fact weigh on you, and as the men in The Father Effect say, forgive.


Caption: “Our purpose in making this film is to create an awareness in fathers about the significant impact their words and actions have on their children and to help them become better fathers.”

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. (Matthew 19:29).

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

The truth about grace

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Grace is a concept. But it’s not just a concept. Grace is a gift, but it’s not just a gift. Grace is a force. Think about how powerful grace is. Think about its power as it exists in Jesus, as it is delivered to the saints, its common state as it covers the world, and its special state as it enlivens the saints to do our work.

Here is an excerpt about grace from a sermon from John MacArthur called, Strength Perfected in Weakness, looking at this verse: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

In speaking of the linchpin part of the passage, ‘my grace is sufficient for you’, MacArthur said,

But grace is not just an inert sort of concept; it is a force, it is a power. It is a power that transforms us. It is a power that awakens us from sleep. It is a power that gives us life in the midst of death. It is a power that is dynamic enough to transform us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God’s dear Son. It is the power that saves us. It is the power that keeps us, the power that enables us, the power that sanctifies us, and the power that one day will glorify us. You have to look at grace as a force, a divine force that God pours out into the lives of His people at all points to grant them all that they need to be all that He desires.

Grace is a gift.
Grace is a state.
and…
Grace is a POWER.

Posted in theology

In the presence of God with great joy?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy. (Jude 1:24).

How will we be presented? We shall be presented blameless.

Matthew Henry commentary, Now, our faults fill us with fears, doubts, and sorrows; but the Redeemer has undertaken for his people, that they shall be presented faultless. Where there is no sin, there will be no sorrow; where there is the perfection of holiness, there will be the perfection of joy.

We will not only experience great joy when we are finally glorified and presented to God, but also God will have great joy-

Then shall our hearts know a joy beyond what earth can afford; then shall God also rejoice over us, and the joy of our compassionate Saviour be completed. (MHenry)

We read in Hebrews 12:2a that Jesus is the “originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross”. And what is His joy? To receive a Bride to Himself given by the Father.

Isn’t it astonishing to think the God on high will be joyous over us? Not that we have any internal merit to warrant His joy, but that He redeemed us through His Son, kept us from stumbling, persevered us to the end, and now has a blameless humanity with which to present His Son. His joy is joy for His Son through us.

God promises to present His people to Himself blameless and joyful. Left to ourselves none of us is blameless. Only those who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb will be made to stand blameless on the day of judgment. Though Adam and Eve lost the joy of living in the presence of God when they sinned, Christ has taken away the guilt of our sin and removed the fear of judgment. We will rejoice in that day because we stand clothed in His righteousness and will have been fully set free from sin. Additionally, God personally rejoices to bring us to Himself in glory. The writer of Hebrews tells us that “for the joy that was set before Him” Jesus died to bring us to glory. (12:2). ~HB Charles, Jr. “Blessing and Praise: Benedictions and Doxologies in Scripture” Study Guide

“Robe of Righteousness” by Lars Justinen
Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

An encouragement on fixing our eyes on Jesus

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

If you want to look like Jesus, look at Jesus.

I focused on the phrase “fix your eyes upon Jesus” from Hebrews 12:2. I looked up the word “fix” and the Strong’s says

872 aphoráō (from 575 /apó, “away from” and 3708 /horáō, “see”) – properly, “looking away from all else, to fix one’s gaze upon” (Abbott-Smith).

How helpful. I should not glance, not peek, not glimpse, but FIX my GAZE upon him, looking away from all else and steadily drinking in all that He is.

Looking away from all else…what does that mean? It means not being attached to the things of this world. Your country, your job, your family, your spouse, your car, your ‘stuff’, your health, is not more important than Jesus. He is the source and the giver of those things. Fix your eyes on Him.

We need to spend more time with Jesus to look more like Him. Moses only got to see God’s ‘back’ and His face after being with God was so bright it had to be veiled. We have the privilege of looking at Jesus’ “face” as it were, through His word. I want my face to be shining, to have my being conformed to Him, to have my mind transformed. But it won’t happen unless I read the Bible. I must look away from all other distractions and FIX my GAZE on Jesus. A Bible skim won’t even do.

We become like what we behold.