Being a human person means that there are many times when we just have nowhere to go, except to God. Our finiteness, powerless, fear, and plain old tiredness have taken our “umph” away and we just have to say, “God help!”

Perhaps this little teaching will help inform and inspire you as you pray. There is never a week when this church doesn’t need your prayer. This week is especially one of those. Opportunities to trust God for His grace abound. Let’s boldly request His blessing upon each individual and family in our congregation—and the congregation as a whole.

He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’” LUKE 11:2-4

God made us and has redeemed us for fellowship with himself, and that is what prayer is. God speaks to us in and through the contents of the Bible, which the Holy Spirit opens up and applies to us and enables us to understand. We then speak to God about himself, and ourselves, and people in his world, shaping what we say as response to what he has said. This unique form of two-way conversation continues as long as life lasts.

The Bible teaches and exemplifies prayer as a fourfold activity, to be performed by God’s people individually both in private (Matt. 6:5-8) and in company with each other (Acts 1:14; 4:24). Adoration and praise are to be expressed; contrite confession of sin is to be made and forgiveness sought; thanks for benefits received are to be offered; and petitions and supplications for ourselves and others are to be voiced. The Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4) embodies adoration, petition, and confession; the Psalter consists of models of all four elements of prayer.

Petition, in which the persons praying humbly acknowledge their need and express themselves as trustfully depending on God to meet it out of his sovereign resources of wisdom and goodness, is the dimension of prayer that is most constantly highlighted in the Bible (e.g., Gen. 18:16-33; Exod. 32:31-33:17; Ezra 9:5-15; Neh. 1:5-11; 4:4-5, 9; 6:9, 14; Dan. 9:4-19; John 17; James 5:16-18; Matt. 7:7-11; John 16:23-24; Eph. 6:18-20; 1 John 5:14-16). Petition, along with the other modes of prayer, should ordinarily be directed to the Father, as the Lord’s Prayer shows, but Christ may be called on for salvation and healing, as in the days of his flesh (Rom. 10:8-13; 2 Cor. 12:7-9), and the Holy Spirit for grace and peace (Rev. 1:4). It cannot be wrong to present petitions to God as triune or to request any spiritual blessing from any one of the three Persons, but there is wisdom in following the New Testament pattern.

Jesus teaches that petition to the Father is to be made in his name (John 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:23-24). This means invoking his mediation, as the one who secures our access to the Father, and looking to him for support, as our intercessor in the Father’s presence. We can only, however, look to him for support when what we ask accords with God’s revealed will (1 John 5:14) and our own motives in asking are right (James 4:3).

Jesus teaches that we may properly press God hard with fervent persistence when we bring needs to him (Luke 11:5-13; 18:1-8), and that he will answer such prayer in positive terms. But we must remember that God, who knows what is best in a way that we do not, may deny our specific requests as to how the needs should be met. If he does, however, it is because he has something better to give than what we asked for, as was the case when Christ denied Paul healing for the thorn in his flesh (2 Cor. 12:7-9). To say “Your will be done,” surrendering one’s own expressed preference to the Father’s wisdom as Jesus did in Gethsemane (Matt. 26:39-44), is the most explicit way of expressing faith in the goodness of what God has planned.

There is no tension or inconsistency between the teaching of Scripture on God’s sovereign foreordination of all things and on the efficacy of prayer. God foreordains the means as well as the end, and our prayer is foreordained as the means whereby he brings his sovereign will to pass.

Christians who pray to God sincerely, with reverence and humility, with a sense of privilege and a pure (i.e., purified, penitent) heart, will find in themselves a Spirit-given filial instinct prompting prayer to and trust in their heavenly Father (Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:15), and a desire to pray that outruns their uncertainty as to what thoughts they should express (Rom. 8:26-27). The mysterious reality of the Holy Spirit’s help in prayer becomes known only to those who actually pray.

My old professor, Jerram Barrs, has written a fabulous book of reflections on Christianity, Literature and the Arts.

Barrs gives us the three key elements for evaluating great art. He then puts those qualifiers to the test by investigating five of the world’s most influential authors—empowering us to better understand the character of God and helping others to know him too.

“Echoes of Eden is the most accessible, readable, and yet theologically robust work on Christianity and the arts that you will be able to find. It is biblical, theologically sound, filled with examples, and edifying. It anticipates and answers well all the most common questions that evangelical people ask about the arts. I highly recommend it.”  –Tim Keller

Here is the table of contents:

1 God and Humans as Creative Artists
2 Imitation, the Heart of the Christian’s Approach to Creativity
3 Building a Christian Understanding of the Artist’s Calling
4 How Do We Judge the Arts?
5 Echoes of Eden: God’s Testimony to the Truth
6 The Conversion of C. S. Lewis and Echoes of Eden in His Life
7 Echoes of Eden in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings
8 Harry Potter and the Triumph of Self-Sacrificing Love
9 Shakespeare and a Christian Worldview
10 Jane Austen, Novelist of the Human Heart
Appendix: The “Outing” of Dumbledore

 

Read the first twenty pages? Yes please!

Gimme that book! 

 

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Yesterday I briefly touched on this passage and how it tells us to praise God for wherever we find beauty. One article that helps summarize my understanding of this principle contains this quote:

Misunderstanding Philippians 4:8
If holiness is so important, it seems reasonable to argue that we should withdraw from anything that fails to measure up to the standard Paul gives in this text. Anything that is not true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy is, therefore, out-of-bounds for the believer, and must be set aside. And, since precious little in Babylonian culture comes even close to passing this test, it is inappropriate (at best) and dishonoring to Christ (at worst) to get involved with it, regardless of the reason.

I believe this understanding of Philippians 4:8 is mistaken. Let me explain why.

We live in a fallen world. A world which, though created by God and declared to be good by him, is now abnormal and under his judgment because of our sin and rebellion. It’s not merely that human beings occasionally commit some sin, but that by nature we are sinners. It is not surprising, then, that the effects of the Fall permeate all that we are and do. Since we are created in God’s image we bear true significance, but we are also fallen which means that everything about us is tainted by sin. It’s not just non-Christians of whom this is true, but Christians as well. We are all sinners, and thus all fall short of God’s glory. Even if we are redeemed by God’s grace and deeply desire to honor our Lord above all, we realize that even our worship is incomplete, at best, and flawed, at worst. We seek as believers to live to God’s glory, but we are well aware that this can occur only by grace. Until our redemption is consummated, even our service to him is imperfect, affected by the inevitable ripples of the Fall.

This means that nothing anyone does or makes in this fallen world (except for Christ, of course) measures up fully to the list Paul gives in Philippians 4:8. Everything falls short in one way or another. As a result, trying to use this text as a measure by which to draw lines for our involvement in a non-Christian world ends up being a rather subjective affair. We don’t intend that, of course, but how could it be any different? If nothing in this bent world fully meets this standard, we end up drawing our lines arbitrarily. We rule out the things we tend to be uncomfortable with, and then conveniently, we tend to ignore the fact that what we have ruled “in” doesn’t meet the standard, either.     –Dennis Haack

Read the article
Read the collection of articles

Almighty God, we pray for the many pastors, elders, and deacons in churches throughout the world, that they may serve you, and their congregations, with wisdom and faithfulness.
(Please silently add your prayers)

We pray that you would comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind, or spirit, and help those who are oppressed or imprisoned.
(Please silently add your prayers)
We pray for all our enemies, and all who wish us harm, and for all whom we have injured or offended. Grant them your peace and enable us to be
peacemakers.
(Please silently add your prayers)

We bless your holy name for those in every generation in whom Christ has been honored; give us grace to follow their good examples, that with them we may be partakers of your heavenly kingdom.
(Please silently add your prayers)

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours—utterly dedicated to you. And then use us as you will, and always to your glory and the welfare of others, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The youth team are planning for the Jump Start Retreat August 24-25th. We will be going to Lake Swan Camp. We feel that this event is very important, because it is one that will provide an opportunity to create community among the youth while also preparing their hearts to be Christ focused as the start out the school year. We will be having organized talks from youth leaders who will be encouraging the youth in light of the gospel followed by break-out discussion periods where the students will be able to process though the information that is being taught. We will also be centering a bit of our time together around community and fellowshipping with each other. The facility provides many amenities that will aid in this including volleyball and basketball courts, swimming, canoes and more. We are really looking forward to and are encouraged by what this event will bring, and we would love your child to be a part of it!

So the details are as follows:
Where: Lake Swan Camp, Melrose FL
Who: All youth 6th-12th grade
How Much: $50.00
When: We will be meeting at the church at 7:00am on August 24th and returning no later than 4:00pm on August 25 (we will be calling you when we are about 30mins away on our return to give you a more accurate time.)
We know this is soon, but the deadline to sign up is this Friday, August 9th by 3:00 pm, due to booking deadlines for the camp.
Feel free to contact us with any concerns or questions you may have:
Tori Jacob –
904.477.five515
Victoria.e.jacob AT gmail DOT com
Angela White –
352.seven27.8831
acwhite1623 AT gmail DOT com

In Him,
The Youth Team
(Tori Jacob, Angela White, Anthony DeAugustino, Joey Roberts, Steven Eicholtz & Bethany Norman)