Enjoy Jesus!

If you can't tell by looking at the amount of time that has passed between my most recent posts, my life is pretty much taken over by ministry. I serve as the Associational Prayer Coordinator of my local Southern Baptist association, overseeing the prayer ministry to over 100 churches in my area. I serve as the chair of the school board for my church's K4-12 Christian school. My husband is the minister of music at our church, so I sing on, and help him coordinate, the praise team, and handle most of the music secretary stuff. I just received word that a women's Bible study I wrote a couple of years ago is going to be published. And then, of course, there's home schooling my 3 youngest children and ministering to my family.

Everywhere I turn, there's another ministry that needs my attention. And guess what has suffered? Over the past few weeks, it's been my personal time with the Lord. To say it has been hit and miss would be generous. When I finally did set aside the time I needed for prayer, God showed me that I have been so wrapped up in serving Him and working for Him that I haven't taken the time to spend time with Him and enjoy Him.

What would my relationship with my husband and children be like if all I did was cook their meals, do their laundry, and meet all their other needs, but never sat down and talked with them or spent time having fun with them? I think, like my family, while God desires that I serve Him, He just wants me. Not what I can do for Him, not how hard I can work for Him. Me.

So, it's my prayer for you and for me that we will never get so wrapped up in working for the Lord that we lose sight of our first priority, which is to spend time with the Lord. It's our chief end to glorify Him, but also to enjoy Him forever. And forever starts now.

Pray for Revival

Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; Acts 3:19

Prostrate yourself before the Lord in humility and prayer:
But He gives a greater grace, therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” James 4:6

Repent of known sin.
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. Rev. 3:19

Ask God to reveal any hidden areas of sin in your life.
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Ps. 139:23-24

Yearn for a deeper level of relationship with God.
O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water. Ps. 63:1


Forsake complacency about your spiritual life.
You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Jer. 29:13

Obey everything God commands, even when it is hard, humbling, inconvenient, or costly.
Samuel said, "Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. I Sam. 15:22

Request that God will unleash His Holy Spirit, empowering your life, and sweeping through your church.
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Luke 11:13


Return to your First Love.
Therefore say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Return to Me," declares the LORD of hosts, that I may return to you," says the LORD of hosts. Zech. 1:3

Expect God to work mightily.
But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; My God will hear me. Micah 7:7

View prayer as a high priority, just as Jesus did.
But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. Luke 5:16

Invite others to pray with you for revival.
They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:42

Voraciously desire that God be glorified.
Be exalted above the heavens, O God; Let Your glory be above all the earth. Ps. 57:5

Agree with God about His desires for your life and your church.
Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the LORD and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, "All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!" Ex. 24:3

Lift up the name of Jesus.
And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself. John 12:32

Revive Us Again

Thirty three per cent of clergy and thirty six per cent of laymen
report having visited a sexually explicit web site.
Christianity Today survey, August 2000


The divorce rate of born-again Christians (32%)
is higher than that of atheists and agnostics (30%).
Barna Research Group 2008

Twenty per cent of women who have abortions are born-again or Evangelical Christians.
The Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1996

We rarely find substantial differences between
the moral behavior of Christians and non-Christians.
George Barna, Founder, Barna Research Group


You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless,

how can it be made salty again?
It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out
and trampled under foot by men.
Jesus, Matthew 5:13

Once upon a time, when I was a little girl, my parents took my sister and me to visit some of our elder relatives. For the evening meal, the lady of the house set a beautiful, formal table, complete with lovely crystal salt cellars at each place.

Having attended approximately zero formal dinners in my decade-long, paper plate existence, I had never seen a salt cellar. Since it happened to be sitting next to my goblet of unsweetened iced tea, I presumed it was my own personal sugar bowl.

I was puzzled as to why the spoon was so tiny, but forged ahead in an attempt to sweeten my tea with spoonful after spoonful…of salt. After one swig, I realized my mistake, but to maintain decorum, I did my best to eat my meal while taking an occasional small sip of the tea-flavored salt water. It was a long dinner.

I have never been so thirsty for a fresh drink of water before—or since—that moment.

We, the body of Christ, are supposed to be salt. Look around. How are we doing? By and large, instead of the church making the world thirsty for the Living Water, we have become so worldly ourselves that we are in danger of losing our savor altogether.

The Western church, the American church, the local church, maybe even your church—is in desperate need of revival. Not a revival meeting. Revival.

Revival is not a special event to win the lost. It is a time when God’s people, both individually and corporately, humble themselves, cry out to God in repentance and return to a fresh, empowered, obedient love relationship with Him.

Aren’t you tired of seeing statistics like the ones at the beginning of this article? Tired of the church having so little impact on a lost and dying world? Tired of simply going through the motions in your spiritual life and at church? Have you ever, as I have, taken a step back, looked at your walk and your worship, and said, “There’s got to be more to the Christian life than this”?

There is more. Much more. God desires that we have a full, exciting, vibrant, dynamic relationship with Him. But it’s going to cost us. It will cost our pride, our time, our repentance, our obedience, and our priority. It will require that we become dissatisfied and uncomfortable with the status quo of complacency.

I think we’re up for the challenge.

Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, and revive me in Your ways.
Psalm 119:37

Want Revival? Pray for Your Pastor

Pastoring a church is like joining the Peace Corps: It's not just a job, it's an adventure. The natives can be restless and shooting fiery darts at them, the air conditioning unit keeps breaking and the plumbing backs up, sometimes clans are at war with each other, there's a jungle of paperwork to navigate, and meeting after meeting after meeting to attend. And they've got to do it all without offending anyone, somehow squeezing in time to prepare a couple of sermons and Bible studies every week, visit people in the hospital, and still spend time with their wives and children. But they do it because they love our Lord, and wouldn't do anything else.

Our pastors need our prayer and encouragement. But what does praying for our pastors have to do with revival?

Praying for our pastors is one of the most important keys to revival. Most of the time, when churches experience revival, it is because the pastor has experienced revival in his own life and then leads his church to begin repenting, praying, and returning to a right relationship with God. Usually, revival begins with the pastor.

Additionally, when churches experience revival, the pastor's job is made exponentially easier. He is no longer discouraged by preaching to hearts of stone, but exhilarated by preaching to those who seek to worship God in spirit and in truth and who hunger and thirst for righteousness. His congregation witnesses to the lost, reaches out to those in need, beats down his office door wanting to know how they can serve. They allow him to ditch his extraneous busy work in favor of studying God's word and spending time in prayer. Revival makes pastoring a joy.

So pray for your pastor. Get everybody else in your church praying for your pastor. And, hey, throw in the minister of music, youth, education, etc., too. You might just find that the more the sheep pray for the shepherd, the better the flock becomes.

And that's not a baa-aaa-aaa-d thing. :0)

The "Word of Faith" Movement is Nigh Thee

Are you familiar with the Word of Faith movement? Perhaps you don't know it by name, but have heard of some of its adherants, such as Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Benny Hinn, or Creflo Dollar.

I have been doing some studying on this doctrine lately, but didn't realize just how heretical it was until I delved into it. If you are a fan of any of these speakers, please be aware that many of their teachings are actually in opposition to Scripture.

Among other things, this doctrine teaches that human beings are gods, that we can speak things into existence, that it is always God's will for us to be healthy and financially prosperous, and that if we are not wealthy or have not been healed, it is either because we don't have enough faith or because we aren't really saved.

I thought this video on the subject, by Justin Peters, was a good, informative overview.

National Day of Prayer

Don't forget that today, May 7, is National Day of Prayer. Please set aside some time today to pray for our government, media, military, educational system, businesses, churches and families.If you'd like to attend a NDP event, there is probably one near you. See the NDP website for more details.

Whet your appetite for Bread and Water!

I've installed a new widget at the bottom of the blog that enables you to become a "Follower" of Bread and Water if you'd like. Come on out of the woodwork and show your support! All the cool kids are doing it! :0)

It'll Grow on You...

A friend of mine recently asked for some advice on church growth, and I thought I would share here what I shared with her:

Before a church starts thinking about publicity, programs, attention getters, etc., it should take some things into consideration:1. Is this a Bible-believing, Bible-preaching/teaching church? Do we stick to Scripture and preach the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth even if it makes people uncomfortable or (in a Biblically appropriate way) offends them?

Since the Bible is God's Word, it would make no sense for Him to want to grow a church that either doesn't believe what He has said, or twists what He has said to fit what the people want to hear. A few of the many Scriptures which I believe back this up are: John 4:23, Matthew 15:14, Matthew 23:13 and I John 1:6-10.

2. How do we know God wants us to focus on growth right now? The church belongs to God, and we are to be in obedience to Him in all things. Have we as a congregation spent time in intense prayer and fasting both individually and corporately to seek His direction for the church? There could be any number of things God wants to do in the church before bringing a whole slew of new people in. He may want to do some pruning of the membership or the doctrine being taught, He may want to root out some corporate sin that needs to be dealt with, He may want to concentrate on building unity for some period of time, etc. Consider Matthew 7:3-5, I Corinthians 3:3 and Revelation 3:15-16

3. People can grow an organization, club, colloquy or group, but only God can grow a church. If you have a group of people that is growing strictly by man’s efforts and/or in violation of Scriptural principles, it is one of the former, not the latter. The question is, do we want to grow an organization here, or do we want God to grow a church? I Corinthians 3:5-7, Psalm 127:1, Acts 2:47, Ephesians 5:23

4. How did Jesus grow a church? After all, we’re to be about the business of following and imitating Him, right? If we take a look at how Jesus’ own following developed while He was on Earth as well as how the first century church grew, we don’t find that they had to go out and drag people in. They didn’t send out fliers, have space walks, barbecues, concerts and all that kind of stuff that so many churches do today just to try to draw people in. That’s a “top down” approach. Jesus and the first century church took a “bottom up” approach. They studied the Scripture, prayed, ministered to people as they had needs, and preached and taught the Word, and the people came out in droves.

Now, there’s certainly nothing wrong with barbecues and space walks. Indeed, if a church is following Christ rightly and while they’re praying, God says to them, “Go rent a space walk as a way of ministering to the community,” (He has certainly told people to do stranger things than that before!) somebody in that church had best get him/herself to a space walk rental place, pronto. What I’m trying to say is that the thrust of drawing people in should be the lifting up of Jesus in the church. Space walks are lagniappe. Mark 1:21-22, 28, Matthew 8:1, Acts 2:37-47


So, that would be my advice: a) Make sure the church is completely in line with what the Bible teaches, b) Seek God’s direction for the church through corporate and individual prayer and fasting, c) Recognize that He is the only one who can cause a church to grow, and that growth is a natural by-product of an obedient, prayerful, true to Scripture church. If your church does all that, God will reveal the specific things He wants y'all to do, and your church will find itself growing whether it wants to or not (and if it doesn't want to, RUN! :0)

The Garden of Weedin'

It's that time again. Spring. Time to survey the damage winter did to the yard and get it back in shape. Sandwiched in between last week's several days of rain and the multiple days of thunderstorms predicted for this week, were a few beautiful days that were just perfect for tackling the jungle that once was my back yard. Yikes. I could have lost a kid in all that grass.

Much to my dismay, when I got up close and personal with the overgrowth, I discovered that, once again, the army of weeds I spend every spring and summer fighting off had made significant advances into the yard. It also seemed to have secured the perimeter of my fencerow with a tall and nearly impregnable line of defense.

Heaving a sigh, I remembered what one gardener friend told me last year. The best way to fight off weeds is to get the grass really healthy and growing so it will choke out the weeds and reclaim the yard. Sounded reasonable to me. And familiar, too. Where had I heard something similar to that before? The idea tickled my brain as I hauled out the mower.

As I began shoving my trusty mower through that mess, it hit me. Weeds....choking something out. There was something about that in the Bible.

Ever notice how many of Jesus' parables and illustrations inlude references to farming, plants, and other aspects of agriculture? The "Lord of the Harvest" gave us wheat and tares, fig trees, mustard seeds, vineyards, and of course, the parable of the sower scattering his seed.

Ah, that's what it was. The parable of the sower (Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23). Remember him? He went out to seed his land, and the seed ended up finding its way not only to the good soil he had prepared, but also to some rocky soil, the roadside, and a patch of thorns (which NCV {New Century Version} translates as "weeds"):

Some other seed fell among thorny weeds, which grew and choked the good plants.

Matthew 13:7 (NCV)

That's exactly what was going on in my yard! The grass wasn't yet strong enough to choke out all the weeds, the weeds were choking out my good crop of grass. They were also making my fencerow look awful, so I finished up the mowing, and, mentally assessing our temperamental edger, decided to clean off the fencerow by hand.

As I began yanking at those pesky plants, God reminded me that we all have weeds in our lives that need to be pulled up. So just what constitutes a "weed" in our spiritual lives? Well, Jesus was kind enough to explain that in Matthew 13:22:

And what is the seed that fell among the thorny weeds? That seed is like the person who hears the teaching but lets worries about this life and the temptation of wealth stop that teaching from growing. So the teaching does not produce fruit in that person's life. (NCV)

Jesus compares the weeds to two things: "the worries about this life" and "the temptation of wealth".

"The worries about this life" could cover just about anything. It could be a financial struggle, a wayward child, a difficult marriage, a hostile work environment, or even a painful past that we're striving to put behind us. Any situation we deal with that looms so large, it blocks out our view of Christ and prevents us from trusting Him to handle it. Anything that takes our eyes off Him, tempts us to focus only on our circumstances, and derails the teaching God is trying to manifest in our lives.

"The temptation of wealth" could also cover a lot of areas in our lives. I Timothy 6:10 tells us that "the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil...". Evil. In other words, sin.

"A root". Hmmm...interesting.

Well, I was certainly dealing with plenty of roots. When it comes to weeds, it doesn't do much good to simply pull the leaves off or snap the stem in half. For some reason, weeds-- at least the ones in my yard --seem to take this as a challenge to grow back. You have to pull weeds up by the roots in order to get rid of them.

Likewise, if there is something in our lives which "stops {God's} teachings from growing" or prevents God's teachings from producing fruit in our lives (see Matthew 13:22 above) we need to have the Master Gardener root out the instigating problem rather than plucking at its leaves ourselves.

For example, if you're struggling with being a workaholic, you can break off part of the stem of that problem by cutting back on work a few hours a week, but the root of the problem may be that you have made work an idol in place of God, that you don't trust Him to provide for your needs, or that you are loving yourself and your work more than your family. If those root problems aren't dealt with you will likely fail in your efforts to cut back on work, or something else, such as a hobby, may spring up to take the place of those hours you would have spent at work.

As I continued to work, I noticed that some weeds were very easy to pull up and some were quite difficult. The easiest to pull seemed to be the weeds that had taken root in the decaying leaf matter on top of the soil rather than in the soil itself. The difficult ones were the ones that had been growing for a long period of time. Some of their roots were over a foot long. These roots had made their way far from the visible plant and into another part of the yard, which meant they were affecting much more than just the immediate area around the plant itself.

And so it is with our spiritual weeds. The best time to deal with sin or turn a troubling situation over to God is early, before it has a chance to take root, because once it does, it's going to be much harder to deal with and it's going to begin to affect more and more areas of our lives.

Dealing with sin or difficult situations pre-emptively is even better. Flee temptation before you have a chance to give in to it (I Timothy 6:11, II Timothy 2:22). Determine to commit your works to the Lord (Proverbs 16:3) and acknowledge Him in all your ways (Proverbs 3:5-6) and you will avoid some of the heartbreaking circumstances that might otherwise come your way.

As I struggled with one particularly stubborn weed, I noticed that its roots were intertwined with those of a couple of other totally different weeds. As I pulled at the one I was working on, the others were coming up as well.

When God pulls up those really difficult weeds in our lives, we will often find that He is simultaneously uprooting other sins and situations that have become enmeshed with the primary one. Sometimes when this happens to me, I feels like God is "piling on" and wish He would just work on one thing at a time in my life!

By the time I reached the end of the fencerow, I was sweating, my back was killing me, and I had broken two nails, despite the gardening gloves I was wearing. Pulling weeds is not a day at Disney World. It's tough work!

But as I stood back and surveyed the results of my efforts, I saw that the fencerow no longer looked trashy. It looked clean and neat. Something any gardener would be pleased with. And, something else had happened that I hadn't even noticed until that moment. As the roots of those weeds came up, they naturally tilled the soil.

It was moist,

loose,

rich;

the perfect condition for good seed to be sown by a Master Gardener.

Quoth "the Raven"...

The following are quotes from 20th century evangelist Leonard Ravenhill. I enjoyed them and thought you might too.

• "If weak in prayer, we are weak everywhere."
• "Men give advice; God gives guidance."
• "Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?"
• "A sinning man stops praying, a praying man stops sinning"
• "The only reason we don't have revival is because we are willing to live without it!"
• "God pity us that after years of writing, using mountains of paper and rivers of ink, exhausting flashy terminology about the biggest revival meetings in history, we are still faced with gross corruption in every nation, as well as with the most prayerless church age since Pentecost."
• "The Church used to be a lifeboat rescuing the perishing. Now she is a cruise ship recruiting the promising."
• "The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized within the lifetime of the opportunity."
• "My main ambition in life is to be on the devil's most wanted list."
• "If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified."
• "Entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy"

There's No Such Thing as an Atheist~ The Final Chapter

So, if our minds know God exists, and our hearts know God exists, where does that leave the so-called atheist or agnostic?

Well, like I said before, there's no such thing as an atheist, only a rebellious human being.

If a person knows God exists, as we all do, and yet refuses to acknowledge Him or submit to His authority, he is by definition, rebelling against God. The Bible describes it this way:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.......For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.......For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Romans 1:18, 21, 25

This refusal to acknowledge the truth about God will not last forever, though. As my husband puts it, everyone is either a member of the "Believers club" or the "future believers club".

so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:10-11

The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God " Psalm 14:1a

Considering the facts that we know God exists and that we will all have to acknowledge that one day anyway, atheism and agnosticism aren't the smart way to go.

There's No Such Thing as an Atheist~ Part II: The Tell Tale Heart

Another way that we instinctively know God exists is the pre-programming of our hearts. Just as some computers are sold with certain software already installed, we come with the software of God's law already installed in our hearts:

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, Romans 2:14-15

It's called a conscience, and we're all born with one, whether we're raised in any particular religion or not. We know when we've messed up. How do we know? We feel guilty or ashamed.


Somehow, guilt has gotten a bad rap these days. Don't believe the hype. Guilt is good; a gift of God, even. Not long ago, I heard a popular television preacher telling the thousands of people in his church that, "God doesn't want us to feel guilty." While it's true that a Christian need not be plagued by feelings of guilt over things for which he has already asked and received God's forgiveness, initially, when we do wrong, we most certainly should feel guilty.


God has lovingly designed us with a sense of guilt and shame in order to draw us to Him. Guilt is to our relationship with Christ what a toothache is to our relationship with the dentist. The toothache tells us something is wrong with a tooth, it needs to be fixed, and we'd better get to the person that is qualified to fix it right now. If no one ever felt guilty, no one would ever see his need for salvation and turn to Christ in repentance, without which, salvation does not take place.


So, how do we make the connection between our conscience and the God who created it? How does our having a conscience prove that God exists? Well, it does require some introspection, but for anyone who will take a few minutes to sit down and think about why he feels guilty over his wrongdoing, the answer will become apparent.

We know that feelings of guilt and shame do not stem only from participating in criminal activities. Most of us are law abiding citizens, and yet we have still felt guilt over wrongdoing which may have been perfectly legal. Ironically, by the time someone commits an actual crime, he may have suppressed his conscience so many times that it has become seared and he does not experience feelings of guilt for what he has done.

Alright, if we're not breaking the law and still feel guilty over some particular behavior, could it be that we feel guilty because we're hurting someone? Well, generally speaking, we certainly should feel guilty if we hurt someone's feelings or reputation, or if we disappoint or betray them. But, how would that explain our feelings of guilt over things that have no apparent effect on others, or that no one knows about? What about that piece of gum you stole from the store as a kid? How about that test you cheated on in college?

"Wait," you may say, "the kid stealing the candy and the student cheating on the test aren't feeling guilty, they're feeling afraid that they'll be caught and will have to suffer the consequences." True, guilt and fear of being caught usually go hand in hand, but they are definitely two separate feelings. We know this because we can feel fearful of consequences for performing actions we know to be right. Ask any good samaritan who helps someone despite the fact he knows he might be sued later, or a missionary who knows he may be harmed if he shares the Gospel, or a German who hid Jews from the Nazis during World War II. Fear of getting caught and guilt over wrongdoing are two different things.

So what other explanation could there be for the guilt we feel over our wrongdoing which is not breaking the law, not hurting anyone, and which no one else will ever know about?

because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. Romans 1:19

Our hearts know, even if we don't want it to be true, that there is a God.

There's No Such Thing as an Atheist~ Part I: The Battlefield of the Mind

There's no such thing as an atheist. Or even an agnostic, for that matter.


An atheist is someone who says there is no God. An agnostic is someone who says we don't or can't know whether or not there is a God.


I recently heard someone say that there are no atheists, only rebellious people. The more I think about that statement, the truer it rings. Why? Because it is impossible not to know there is a God.


It first enters our consciousness that there is a God when we simply look around at our surroundings. The Bible says:

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. Romans 1:20

All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. John 1:3

It's as simple as looking around and saying, "Wow. Look at all this stuff. How'd it all get here?"

The other day, I was involved in a discussion with a non-Christian who was wondering how anyone could possibly disbelieve evolution. Laying aside all the details, I believe the thing that most bothers many Christians about the philosophy behind the theory of evolution as well as the Big Bang theory is that, in many cases, these theories are not an attempt to describe how God might have created the universe, but how the universe might have come into being without God.

It couldn't have. There's no way.

We know this not only through the attributes of the things we're observing --that the botany, biology, chemistry, astronomy, physics, etc., of Earth work too well together and are too intricate and complex to have happened by mere accident or coincidence-- but also in the way we think about the things we're observing.

Have you ever looked at anything --your car, your dishwasher, your computer, your favorite painting-- wondered about its origins, and come to the conclusion that it simply materialized of its own volition out of thin air? Of course, you haven't. We don't think that way because that goes against every iota of life experience we've ever had. If we see an object, we know someone made it. Our experience feeds the logical way we think about this relationship between an object and its maker.

In addition to the overwhelming scientific evidence and intricacies and our life experience which God has provided to show us that He made this place, Romans 1:20 (above) tells us that the design of our brains is pre-programmed to make the connection between creation and Creator. We could not be "without excuse" if we were intellectually incapable of comprehending the relationship between the two, nor if we had not been created to think logically and rationally, deducing conclusions from the evidence available to us.

Our minds bear witness to the existence of God, in that:

• since there is such an intricately detailed, well designed creation, it must have been made by an intelligent, powerful Being.
• all of our life experiences lead us to the conclusion that if something exists, someone made it.
• our minds think logically and deduce conclusions from the evidence we observe.
• we have intelligence and are able to comprehend the relationship between a creation and its creator.

Playing Go Fish

Not long ago, I stumbled across a fabulous vocal band called Go Fish. They bill themselves as "great music for kids that won't drive parents bonkers!" and they certainly live up to that declaration. I would classify them as a Christian version of "The Wiggles" except that The Wiggles drive me somewhat bonkers. They have released a number of songs that will appeal to adults as well, particularly their Christmas music. Here are a few of my favorites:

The Mom Song

It's About the Cross

Bible Book Bop

Their Vacation Bible School curriculum also looks great!

Go Fish's music is available for purchase (MP3 downloads as well as CDs) on their web site (link above), walmart.com, CBD, and Amazon.com.

Priming Your Prayer Wall

A friend of mine recently remarked that sometimes when he begins his prayer time, he has trouble with his mind wandering to the various tasks of his day instead of being able to concentrate on doing business with God. I've had that problem too.

It's easy to get distracted no matter what you're doing, but since Satan isn't particularly wild about our praying, he frequently uses distraction as a tool to either keep us from praying altogether, or to keep us from entering into deep, focused communion with God.

Have you ever painted a wall? My husband frequently paints as part of his business, and there have been a few times when he was so hard up for an assistant, he had to settle for me. Painting is definitely not my forte. It's tedious and boring and I hate it. I hate it so much I even made up a little song to sing --under my breath, of course-- while I'm doing it, about how much I hate it. (I know, I know, "do all things without grumbling", but for me painting is more of a Psalm 55:17 proposition.)

But, thanks to my husband's good teaching, at least now I know how to do it right.

When he paints a wall, he doesn't just go in, throw some paint on the wall and leave (like I would, because I hate painting so much). He prepares before he paints. He makes sure the floor near the wall won't get spattered with paint. He protects the baseboards, chair rails, and mouldings. He removes the switch plates and outlet covers. Often, he will prime the wall with a base coat of a neat product called "Kilz", which covers up stains and marks and leaves a nice, clean surface on which to roll on the new paint. Only after all of that preparation does he begin painting.

I've found that that kind of preparation can be helpful before praying as well. So what can you do to prime your prayer wall?

• Get as far away as possible from physical distractions. Get into a quiet room away from other people. (For me, that sometimes means I have to leave the house and walk the neighborhood or sit in the car while I pray!) Turn off the music, the phone, the computer, and anything else that might make noise. Sometimes a white noise machine can be helpful as well.

• Keep a piece of paper and a pen handy. Before you pray, take a few moments to take a mental inventory of the rest of your day. Jot down any reminders to yourself or lists of things you need to get or do. Then, set it aside, both mentally and literally, but within arm's reach. Later, when you're praying, if something that's absolutely crucial comes to mind, just take a second and write yourself a very brief note about it and get back to prayer. I usually ask God to please help me to remember or accomplish whatever it is I've just had to write down.

• Resist the devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7). There's nothing wrong with doing this verbally, in fact, if you hear yourself saying the words, it will reinforce your resolve to resist. If I sense that Satan is lurking around, tempting me to give in to distraction, I tell him, out loud, in the name of Jesus, to go away and leave me alone. He has no business making a nuisance of himself during your prayer time, and if you are a Believer, you are well within your rights to tell him to get lost.

• Prime the wall. My "primer prayer" usually goes something like this: "Lord, thank you for drawing me to this time of prayer. Please keep my heart, mind, and will focused completely on You and prevent me from being distracted. If I do get distracted, please help me realize this right away and give me the discipline to re-focus on you. Direct this prayer time and bring to my mind all the things You want me to pray about." This gives me that "nice, clean surface" so I can start praying.

• Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (II Corinthians 10:5). Once I have prayed my "primer prayer", if a thought comes to mind, I pray about it, even if it's something as simple as, "Lord, please help me remember to stop at the store and get bread on the way home." It's important to be discerning, though, about whether a thought is a distraction, or God is impressing on you that you really need to pray about this thing that you thought was trivial. If it's a genuine distraction, I usually employ the Scarlett O'Hara principle and say to myself, "I'm not going to think about that right now, I'll think about that later." Then I make a conscious decision to re-focus on the prayer issues before me.

• Practice. Keep at it. Prayer is like anything else-- the more you practice it, the easier it generally becomes. Practice preparing for prayer. Practice asking for God's help to focus. Practice re-directing your thoughts when they go astray. The more often you do it, the less often you'll find yourself distracted.

Now go prime that wall and pray, pray, pray! It's a lot more fun than painting!

Book Report

I just finished an excellent book on prayer entitled Praying Backwards: Transform Your Prayer Life by Beginning in Jesus' Name, by Bryan Chapell.

When we pray, we most often "sign off" by saying "in Jesus' name, Amen". But is this just Christianese for "over and out" or "yours truly"? Are we using the phrase as though these are the magic words that will make God hear and answer our prayer? Is tacking this phrase on at the end of our prayers really what Jesus meant in John 14:13-14?

Bryan Chapell shows us that praying in Jesus' name means learning to let the Holy Spirit mold our prayers to conform to God's desires. A quote by William Temple, included in the book, summarizes Praying Backwards well:

We do not pray in order to change His will, but in order to bring our will in harmony with His.

For those who live in my area, Praying Backwards is available through the local library, but this is one you're going to want to buy, along with a new highlighter. It's that good.

Praying Backwards is available through CBD, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

I Beg Your Pardon? I Never Promised you a Rose Garden.

I once heard a pastor say that a Gospel that doesn't work everywhere is a Gospel that doesn't work anywhere. He was referring to the so-called "prosperity gospel" that seems to be gaining momentum in the U.S.



If you're not familiar with this movement, the basic idea is that, if you just have enough faith and/or sow enough seed (i.e. send money to a certain "ministry") God will bless you with wealth, new cars, new houses, etc. It must work, right? The pastors who push this "name it and claim it" (or as someone I know puts it: "blab it and grab it") crack "gospel" certainly seem to be doing well financially.



The problem is, it doesn't work for everyone. How did it work for Paul? What about John? Stephen? Peter and the other apostles? Certainly, they were faithful and gave everything for the cause of Christ, and what did it get them while they were here? What about Christians in India, China, parts of Africa, parts of the Middle East, and many other places today? They are being tortured, imprisoned and even killed for following Christ. Where is their health, wealth, and prosperity?


The fact is, God has not called us to a life of ease. He has not called us to life at all, but to death. Death to self, death to pride, death to greed:

And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me." Luke 9:23

So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh--
for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8:12-13

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Matthew 6:24

God never promised us a rose garden. He promised us that if we follow Christ, we will be persecuted and hated. Wow, just when you thought witnessing couldn't get any harder! What a selling point for Christianity! But this is what our brothers and sisters across the globe face every day. Many of them, when they make a commitment to follow Christ, are signing their own death warrants.


What God has promised is so much better than material wealth. He has promised that when we delight ourselves in Him, He will give us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4). When we truly do delight ourselves in the Lord, the desires of our hearts will mirror the desires of His heart. We won't crave fleshly things like wealth, but holiness, compassion, justice, and a closer relationship with Him. He hasn't promised us material rewards here, but hereafter.


John Piper puts it so much more eloquently than I can. Take a look at what he has to say:
John Piper Prosperity Gospel Video

Gloriful

"Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.'" Isaiah 6:2-3

I don't know about you, but when I look around, I am saddened and dismayed by what this world has turned into. I don't see God's glory, I see sin, pain, divisiveness, and degradation.



But, the earth is full of God's glory.



Every time we see the beauty of His creation, experience the joy of walking closely with Him, obey Him even when we don't feel like it, or trust Him even when there's no logical reason to do so, He is glorified.



Every time God proves Himself true to His word by intervening, providing, protecting or healing, He is glorified.


Every time someone serves, helps, gives, comforts, strengthens, works, or encourages in Jesus' name, He is glorified.


May we, in our darkest hours, look for God's glory. And in our brightest hours, may we seek to bring glory to Him by being His hands and feet to others.

A Prayer for the President

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men,
for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. I Timothy 2:1-4

Today, we, the people of the United States, will inaugurate a new President. As President Obama begins his tenure in the White House, God desires that we pray for him.

Pray for the President's salvation- No one knows our hearts except God alone, but knowing how narrow the way is that leads to salvation (Matthew 7:13-14) and taking into consideration the President's words and actions, it seems likely that he is not saved. Our burden for his salvation should be two-fold, first, for his own soul and the salvation of his family, and second, that his salvation will enable him to be a Godly leader.

Pray for the President's, and his family's, safety and protection- His wife needs her husband, those two little girls need their daddy, and our nation needs a leader.

Pray that God will help the President to be a Godly husband and father- The presidency is a job that leaves little time for anything or anyone else. Pray that the President will have the time to spend with his family, leading them to Godliness.

Pray that God will surround the President with wise and Godly counsel- Proverbs 1:5 says: "A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel".

Pray that God will direct the President's decisions- Proverbs 21:1 tells us: "The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes."

Pray that, whatever the actions of the President, we will become a Godly nation- "Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance." Psalm 33:12

May God bless our new President, and may God bless the United States of America.

It's ONLY Natural?

I admit it. I can be pretty nerdy when it comes to watching TV. While I occasionally enjoy a show whose plot is merely entertaining, most of the time I like to watch things that challenge me intellectually. Such was recently the case when I watched a very interesting program on the Discovery Channel.


The program was an attempt to give a naturalistic explanation for several of the miracles cited in the book of Exodus, mainly the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-5), the plagues (Exodus 7:14 - 11:10), and the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:10-31).


The Nile river turning to blood, for example, could have been an algal bloom (of red algae). This would have killed all the fish, but, according to the scientists' theories, created an environment ideal for the proliferation of frogs in plague #2. The flies in plague #4, they believe to have been biting flies whose bites left open sores, which, when infected by a bacteria which had been carried by the gnats from plague #3, could have killed livestock in plague #5 and caused the boils in plague #6.


Personally, while there were several holes in some of their theories, I found this all quite fascinating. There's no reason God couldn't have done things the way these theories suggested. We do, after all, have to remember that these events took place a few thousand years ago when people didn't know the things we now know about algae, bacteria, epidemiology, and so on. They had to record and describe things in the best way they knew how.


We also have to remember that whether, to take one example, the Nile turned to literal blood or was overtaken by algae, the end result was the same: all the fish died and the water was undrinkable.


At one point, the narrator interjected a comment which has been rolling around in my mind ever since. He said that many atheists don't like to find physical evidence that supports Biblical accounts because this evidence shows that there is a God. Conversely, many Jews and Christians don't like to hear theories of naturalistic explanations of how miracles could have occurred because they are afraid this takes God out of the equation.


While the former is undoubtedly true, I firmly believe that Christians and Jews have nothing to fear from naturalistic theories which attempt to explain the way God may have acted in certain circumstances. Certainly, some scientists have tried to explain everything naturally in order to remove the need for God, but at some point there is a hole in each one of those theories which only God can fill, precisely because

...all things have been created through Him and for Him.
He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Colossians 1:16-17

If we think about it, could not God's working through the natural order of things which He had already set up show Him to be even more powerful and knowledgeable? Is it possible He set up the laws of biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, etc., in certain ways as He was creating the universe because He foreknew every single circumstance that would ever happen on earth and the way in which He would work through those laws rather than around them in order to bring about His desired result? Is not the logic and order we see in His creation evidence that He might work in a logical and orderly way within the framework that He Himself had already set up? Couldn't God's working through natural law be eve further evidence that nothing is a surprise to God? That nothing backs Him into a corner in such a way that He has no choice but to perform a "magic trick" in order to direct things? Certainly, in some circumstances God does suspend the laws of nature for His own purposes, but He doesn't have to. He's God. He can do whatever He wants in whatever way He wants.

It's within the realm of possibility that there will someday be plausible scientific theories (which don't conflict with Biblical principles or what we know to be true of God's character) for every single miracle and mystery in the Bible. If that happens, will God cease to be God?

Hundreds of years ago, it was believed that the earth was the center of the universe. When Copernicus, and later Galileo, began to circulate their research on heliocentrism (that the sun was the center of our solar system and the earth revolved around it), the church branded them as heretics. Who turned out to be wrong? The church.

Did God cease to be God when it was discovered that the earth was not the center of the universe? Of course not. In our modern world, we would be wise to take a lesson that the church in the 16th and 17th centuries should have learned: God is God. He does as He pleases for His own glory and not to fit into the box our finite minds have created for Him. He has ways of doing things that we have never even dreamed of.

At the same time, the scientific community would be wise to catch up to the faith community and surrender to the fact that no matter how the world came into being, how all the miracles in the Bible happened, or what scientific explanation might be behind any phenomenon in the universe, when you distill everything down as far as you can go, you're going to run into the least common denominator of every particle of matter or unit of energy in existence: God.

To go back to the plagues for a moment, even if there is a reasonable scientific explanation for each and every one of them, that only explains the how, not the why. Why is it that each plague started when Pharoah refused to let the Israealites leave? Why did the plague of frogs stop on the specific day Pharoah requested (Exodus 8:9-13)? Why did the plague of hail start at the precise time Moses stretched out his arms toward the sky (Exodus 9:23)? And finally, why did the plagues stop as soon as Pharoah let the Israelites go? To believe that any of the dozens of "why" questions that could be asked about the plagues alone (never mind all the zillions of other things God has done throughout history) could be answered by the comically flimsy explanation of "coincidence" would require infinitely more faith than believing the simple fact that God's hand was behind it all.


Science and faith do not need to be at odds with each other. In fact, many of the earliest scientists began their studies as a way to bring glory to God by discovering more about His creation. This paradigm continues today in the studies of scientists who are Christians, as well as in the many scientists who have come to know Christ as a result of their studies.


Whether God chooses to work within the confines of natural law or to supersede it, His goal for us is the same as it was for Pharoah:

"...that {we} may know that there is no one like the Lord our God."

(Exodus 8:10b)