Prayer Mentoring with D.A. Carson (#2)

Posted on by Shay Reyner

Here are a few lessons that Carson says he has learned from more mature believers: (pages 19-38)

1) Much praying is not done because we do not plan to pray…. Wise planning will ensure that we devote ourselves to prayer often, even if for brief periods: it is better to pray often with brevity than rarely but at length. But the worst option is simply not to pray – and that will be the controlling pattern unless we plan to pray. If we intend to change our habits, we must start he

2) Adopt practical ways to impede mental drift

– Vocalize your prayers. Articulate them. The energy devoted to expressing your thoughts in words and sentences will order and discipline your mind, and help deter meandering.

– Pray over the Scriptures.Tie your praying to your Bible reading.

– Journal your prayers.If you are writing your prayers you are not day dreaming.

3) Develop a system for your prayer lists... It is difficult to pray faithfully for a large spread of people and concerns without developing prayer lists that help you remember them.

4) Pray until you pray…That is Puritan advice. If we do this we eventually come to delight in God’s presence, to rest in His love, to cherish His will. In the Western world we urgently need this advice, for many of us in our praying are like nasty little boys who ring front door bells and run away before anyone answers.

My Comments: All of these are things that I need to pay attention to. But probably especially #4. Which one do you most need to incorporate into your prayer life?

Pondering Ephesians 4:25-28

Posted on by Shay Reyner

This Week’s Passage: 25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

The devil may be a lying snake but he is not stupid. He is smart enough to know better than to just barge in and try to wrestle control away from Jesus – who is dwelling in our hearts. He is crafty enough to patiently bide his time, waiting for the right opportunity to get a foot in the door. His strategy is not to tussle with Jesus, because he knows this would be a losing battle, but rather to entice us to relinquish control willingly. He does this with subtlety and cunning. He allows us to get used to the idea of him hanging around before he makes his major play. And then when he does make his move his postion is so entrenched that nothing short of a prolonged spiritual battle can get rid of him. In essence, when we give the devil a foothold to come in to our lives we are asking Jesus if He would leave.

Satan’s strategy has proven to be a very effective!

As I ponder this passage here are some of the questions that I am thinking about:

  • In what ways have I allowed the devil to gain a foothold in my life?
  • Have I grown so used to him being there so that I don’t even notice that he has infiltrated my life?
  • Do I want more of Jesus or do I want more of the devil and his playthings?
  • Am I willing to go to war in order to get rid of him?
  • Who are the people that I trust that know me well enough to help me identify satanic footholds?
Here is a quote you have probably heard:

“The only thing needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” (often attributed to Edmund Burke)

So it would seem that doing nothing is not an option unless we want evil to triumph in our lives. Don’t let the evil one gain a foothold – and if he already has one DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

I’m just sayin’!

Next Week’s Passage: Ephesians 4:29-32

Prayer Mentoring with D.A. Carson (Part 1)

Posted on by Shay Reyner

For the next # of weeks I will share some thoughts by D.A. Carson that come from his book A Call To Spiritual Reformation (subtitled: Priorities From Paul and His Prayers).

“The one thing we most urgently need in Western Christendom is a deeper knowledge of God. We need to know God better.

When it comes to knowing God, we are a culture of the spiritually stunted. So much of our religion is packaged to address our felt needs – and these are uniformly anchored in our pursuit of our own happiness and fulfillment.” (p. 15)

“One of the foundational steps in knowing God, and one of the basic demonstrations that we do not know God, is prayer – spiritual, persistent, biblically minded prayer. Writing a century and a half ago, Robert Murray M’Cheyne declared, “What a man is alone on his knees before God, that he is, and no more.” But we have ignored this truism.” (p.16)

“When was the last time we came away from a period of intercession feeling that, like Jacob or Moses, we had prevailed with God? How much of our praying is largely formulaic, liberally larded with cliches that remind us, uncomfortably, of the hypocrites Jesus excoriated?” (p.17)

“J.I.Packer writes “I believe that prayer is the measure of the man, spiritually, in a way that nothing else is, so that how we pray is as important a question as we can ever face”. Can we profitably meet the other challenges that confront the Western church if prayer is ignored as much as it has been?” (p.17)

Hmmmm!

I’m just sayin’!

Always A Mets Fan!

Posted on by Shay Reyner

So last night was a historic night  – especially if you are a long time Mets fan.

I adopted the Mets as my team back in 1967 when they were perennial cellar dwellers. I went to a ball game in Atlanta to see the Braves vs the Mets and came away a fan for life. Baseball was my sport. I played it whenever I could. I watched it whenever I could. Like many kids back in those days I knew champions and statistics of players who had died long before I was ever born. I WAS the kid on The Sandlot.

I struggled with the Mets through ’67 and ’68 and for a good part of ’69. And then the dog days of summer came along. The Mets were 9+ games out of first behind the Cubs  on August 14 and they got hot.  (This was the year of the infamous black cat at Wrigley Field during a game with the Mets). They roared to first place in their division, went on to sweep the Braves in the first ever League championship playoffs and then after losing game 1 of the World Series they won the next 4 to beat the powerful Baltimore Orioles (Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell, Jim Palmer, Dave McNally…)

Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Nolan Ryan, Ron Swoboda, Cleon Jones, Tommie Agee, Bud Harrelson, Tug McGraw, Jerry Grote, Art Shamsky, Donn Clendenon, Al Weis. managed by Gil Hodges. Heroes. They were dubbed The Amazing Mets. It was a magical year. We saw a man walk on the moon in July and we saw a team go from next to last place to first place (in 1968 they finished 24 games in back of the St Louis Cardinals) to win a World Series.

The last 40 years have been interesting. 3 more World Series appearances: Losing to the Oakland A’s in ’73. Winning in miracle fashion against the BoSox in ’86. Losing to the Yankees in 2000. Several heart breaking years when they had things wrapped up and then just folded down the stretch. But through it all – always a fan.

Back to last night. Historic. The Mets organization started back in 1962. That makes 50 years. And NEVER in all 8,019 games (prior to last night) had anyone thrown a no-hitter. A couple of guys had come close. A bunch of guys threw them for other teams after leaving the Mets (most notably would be Nolan Ryan) but never for the Mets.

And last night it finally happened. Johan Santana. You can read about it HERE if you like. So I figured today was as good a day as any to chronicle a bit of my love affair with the Amazin’s. Here is a picture of some my Mets memorabilia. I brought it out just to relive my childhood, to bask in the celebration of a no-hitter, and to get ready for a playoff run this year. The boys are playing good ball. We’ll see if it lasts. Always a fan!

Pondering Ephesians 4:20-24

Posted on by Shay Reyner

This Week’s Passage: 20 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

The gospel is good news.

But I’m afraid that that one of the reasons that the church of the 21st century is in many ways shallow and anemic is because we neglected to share the bad news – or at least we have down played it so that the cross has become not much more than an iconic religious symbol rather than the means of our salvation.

Whatever happened to genuine repentance and to weeping over sin? Whatever  happened to an awe inspiring understanding of the holiness of God? Our evangelism has focused so much on “God loves you” that we forget that “God hates sin.” And even when we do talk about God hating sin we dilute the whole notion by saying “God hates the sin but he loves the sinner.” This is not altogether true. God hates sinners!

  • Psalm 5:5, “The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity,”
  • Psalm 11:5, “The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence His soul hates.”
  • Lev. 20:23, “Moreover, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I shall drive out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I have abhorred them.”
  • Prov. 6:16-19, “There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: 17Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, 19 A false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers.”
  • Hosea 9:15, “All their evil is at Gilgal; indeed, I came to hate them there! Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of My house! I will love them no more; All their princes are rebels.”

God hates sinners enough to pour His wrath out upon them and to condemn them to hell. But the paradox is that yes God does indeed love sinners. Jared Moore put it this way:

“If you only tell people, “God hates sin, but loves sinners” or “God is not mad at you.  He is mad about you” then you necessarily diminish the gospel and the awfulness of the cross of Christ.  And thus, you indirectly diminish the wonder, grace, and love proven through the cross.  Through the cross God saved people that He formerly hated; through the cross God hated His Son so that He could love sinners.  God looked at Christ with all His hatred toward sin and sinners, so that He could look on sinners with all His love for His Son. The cross: what a horribly wonderful salvation!”

Is this what you were taught? When you understand this then repentance not only makes sense but becomes necessary. And then we can rightly understand Paul when he says, “to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Think on these things lest you believe a cheap gospel!

I’m just sayin’!

Next Week’s Passage: Ephesians 4:25-28

Prayer Mentoring (Random Quotes #7)

Posted on by Shay Reyner
Henry Drummond

“He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day.”  John Bunyan

“Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things ‘above all that we ask or think.'”  Andrew Murray

“Ten minutes spent in the presence of Christ every day, aye, two minutes, will make the whole day different.”  Henry Drummond

“A prayerless Christian is like a bus driver trying alone to push his bus out of a rut because he does not know Clark Kent is on board. ” John Piper

My Comments: I’m finding that it is one thing to shoot up arrow prayers throughout the day and another thing entirely to spend intentional time before the Father, bowing in His presence without the distractions of life to compete with my praying. As Drummond says, even 2 minutes can make a difference. If this is true then just imagine what 10 minutes can do. Perhaps immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.

Pondering Ephesians 4:17-19

Posted on by Shay Reyner

This Week’s Passage: 17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

Futility – lack of effectiveness or success; lack of purpose or meaning.

Doesn’t that definition characterize much of our thinking. Futile. Without purpose or meaning. We spend much of our time thinking about things that have no reason to take up space in our heads. Much of it is dangerous and leads us away from God rather than drawing us to God. We allow our minds to wander and then our bodies aren’t too far behind.

Listen to some of the things that this passage says about futile thinking – it ought to scare you away from doing us: darkened understanding, separated from God, hardened hearts, loss of sensitivity to the Spirit of God, indulging in impurity, lusting after sin.

This is why we have to be very careful what we choose to think about. This is also why I love the disciplines of pondering Scripture and memorizing Scripture – because they force us to think about stuff that is both meaningful and purposeful.

So a couple of questions to think about by way of application:

1) How is your pondering of Scripture going? Are you pondering or just reading? Pondering involves intentional thinking about the Word.

2) What passage of Scripture are you in the process of memorizing right now? Who is helping to hold you accountable  to this? Who are you doing it with?

If I can help with any of this just let me know. Be very careful what you think!

I’m just sayin’!

Next Week’s Passage: Ephesians 4:20-24

Prayer Mentoring (Random Quotes Part 6)

Posted on by Shay Reyner
Watchman Nee

“Our prayers lay the track down upon which God’s power can come. Like a mighty locomotive, his power is irresistible, but it cannot reach us without rails.”  Watchman Nee

“The trouble with nearly everybody who prays is that he says ‘Amen’ and runs away before God has a chance to reply. Listening to God is far more important than giving Him our ideas.” Frank Laubach

“Time spent in prayer will yield more than that given to work. Prayer alone gives work its worth and its success. Prayer opens the way for God Himself to do His work in us and through us. Let our chief work as God’s messengers be intercession; in it we secure the presence and power of God to go with us.” Andrew Murray

“Prayer is weakness leaning on omnipotence.”  W. S. Bowd

“I ought to pray before seeing any one…Christ arose before day and went into a solitary place. David says: ‘Early will I seek thee’…I feel it is far better to begin with God-to see His face first, to get my soul near Him before it is near another.” – Robert Murray M’Cheyne

My Comments: Several years ago I read the quote by Watchman Nee and I’ve always like it. It explains a lot. It explains why the church seems so impotent most of the time. It explains why I seem like a 90# spiritual weakling most of the time. It is certainly not that God is unwilling to fuel His people with power; it is that we are unwilling to “lay down the tracks.” This quote puts a picture in my head which helps me to visualize where the power stoppage is. Now to do something about it.

**If you did not see the Facebook post yesterday I am preaching this Sunday on Ephesians 3:14-21 – a powerful prayer passage. Would you take a minute and pray that God would lay the tracks down on my behalf so that the message will be delivered with unction and power and received with conviction and faith-filled determination.

Pondering Ephesians 4:14-16

Posted on by Shay Reyner

This Week’s Passage: 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

One of the ways that you can tell whether you are a religious person or a person in a relationship with Christ is whether you are growing to know Him better. Religious people go through the motions of doing religious stuff. Stuff like going to church, reading the Bible, praying, tithing their money. Those in a relationship with Jesus do all that stuff too. But it is with the intention of getting to know Him better –  not just to try to impress God or impress other people with how spiritual they can be.

Religious people are easily swayed by false teaching. They are tossed to and fro by teaching that is meant to tickle our ears but not provide any nourishment for our souls. As a pastor it is my job to make sure that I teach Truth; that I teach the Word of God; that I NOT teach what I think people want to hear. Here is a sampling of some things that people want to hear and that some pastor/teachers are more than willing to preach:

God wants you to be financially wealthy. This is your birthright as a child of God.

God wants you to be happy – so whatever you do that makes you happy is okay with God.

Good morals and good works are enough to get you into heaven – after all, God loves everyone.

Walking the aisle and saying the sinner’s prayer is all it takes to be saved. So get your “fire insurance” and then live any way that you want to.

Pay attention to the Word. Don’t take for granted that everything a pastor/teacher says is truth. Be like the Bereans of whom it was said, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was true.” Acts 17:11

Here are a few questions to think on from this passage:

  • Are you still an infant Christian or are you steadily growing as you are DAILY nourished by soul food? v.14
  • Are you being enticed to believe any of the false teachings I mentioned? v.14
  • Are you religiously trying to impress God or are you growing in a relationship with God? v.15
  • What are you doing to help somebody else grow up in their faith? v.16

Think on these things.

I’m just sayin’!

Next Week’s Passage: Ephesians 4:17-19

Prayer Mentoring – Random Quotes Part 5

Posted on by Shay Reyner

Make time to pray.  “The great freight and passenger trains are never too busy to stop for fuel. No matter how congested the yards may be, no matter how crowded the schedules are, no matter how many things demand the attention of the trainmen, those trains always stop for fuel.”  M.E. Andross

When prayer has become secondary, or incidental, it has lost its power. Those who are conspicuously men of prayer are those who use prayer as they use food, or air, or light, or money.”  M.E. Andross

“If the Christian does not allow prayer to drive sin out of his life, sin will drive prayer out of his life. Like light and darkness, the two cannot dwell together.”  M.E. Andross

“Those persons who know the deep peace of God, the unfathomable peace that passeth all understanding, are always men and women of much prayer.” R. A. Torrey

“Therefore, whether the desire for prayer is on you or not, get to your closet at the set time; shut yourself in with God; wait upon Him; seek His face; realize Him; pray.”  R. F. Horton

My Comments: Love the first quote by M. E. Andross – he was not someone that I was familiar with before I came across these. Is it no wonder that I, that we, that the church seems to so often be running on fumes? We get so busy that we forget to stop and refuel and then find ourselves out of gas. More and more I am realizing not just that I get to pray but that I must pray.

I’m just sayin’!