Be An Annoying Pray-er

Luke
Chapter 18
Parable of the Importunate Widow

1 And [Jesus] spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; 2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. 7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
Luke 18:1-8 (KJV)

The woman from this parable is called IMPORTUNATE which means: 

persistent, demanding, unrelenting, annoying, forceful, avid, overeager

My favorite of these words is annoying! The woman is basically annoying the Lord with her persistent prayers and petitions. Jesus said: “…lest by her continual coming she weary me.” It reminds me of my kids continually calling out “Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Hey Mom! MOOOMMYYYY!!!!” But is this to be meant  in a bad way? I don’t think so. Verse 1 tells us Jesus spake this parable because He wants us to be just like the importunate woman; therefore, we ought always be praying and not grow faint. We are to be PERSISTENT, annoying, overeager, importuante, etc. as pray-ers. The elect cry [speak/pray] day and night to the Lord! (vs 7)

 

Other scripture defends this call to action:

“Continue in prayer”  Col 4:2 (KJV)   and the (NIV) says “Devote yourself to prayer”

“Pray without ceasing”  1 Thess 5:17 (KJV)

 

How affirming to know that God delights in our continual prayers!! He expects to hear the cry of our hearts continually; persistently; without ceasing or growing faint. He longs to bear with us! And verse 8 promises that our persistence will pay off: “I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.”

Agent of Change

When I was chatting with God this morning he placed the title “Agent of Change” on my heart. Curious and unfamiliar with this title I felt prompted to look it up in the dictionary. It’s not like I didn’t have a pretty good idea how to define the title myself but I could sense the importance of getting a specific definition and not just something I conjured up based on my own reason. Sure enough, it was in the dictionary! It is a business term, may also be referred to as a “change agent,” and carries this meaning:

somebody or something that brings about, or helps to bring about, change.

Okay, so now what??? I asked God a barrage of questions:

“Why have you put this on my heart?
“What is in need of change?”
“Why is there a need for change?”

The last and most frightening was…..

“God, are you calling me to be an Agent of Change?”

I don’t know why I even bothered asking God the last question because before it came all the way out of my mouth I somehow already knew the answer in my heart.

Yes.

That’s as much as I know right now. That’s as much as I NEED to know right now. God is preparing me for something where I am going to facilitate as an AGENT OF CHANGE. I don’t need to know all the details. Sure, I am curious.

Very curious

. Especially since just yesterday I read a part in Hosea 10:12 which says: “break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.”. The unplowed hearts in the world need to be broken up and softened in order to soak up the showers of righteousness from the Lord. I remember asking God yesterday to use me to make this happen. Is it possible God wants to use me to help do this job?! What an honor! What a privelage for God to consider insignificant me as an AGENT OF CHANGE!!

How does God want to use you??

Take Your Best Shot, a book review

It all started with one simple phrase: “God wants to use you.” Do you believe it? Nine-year-old Austin Gutwein believed God wanted to use him, and before he could get a driver’s license or even watch a PG-13 movie God used him to impact the lives of thousands of Africans afflicted with HIV/AIDS with love, empathy and millions of dollars.

Because of Autin’s leap of faithful obedience, he became the founder of Hoops of Hope, a non-profit organization that uses free-throw shooting events to raise money for children in Africa who have been orphaned and afflicted with HIV/AIDS.

All because he faithfully heard and believed, “Austin, God wants to use you.”

Also woven into the book are introspective quotes and questions sure to challenge the reader (of any age) to ponder the ways in which God wants to use them. It also encourages the reader to “take their best shot” in life. A few ways in accomplishes this is through helping the reader consider other people, understanding meaningful priorities, perserverance, and discovering their personal passion in life. It is never too young to begin thinking about these things either. The younger, the better, if you ask me!

Though Take Your Best Shot is written with a young reader audience between the ages of 9 and 17 in mind (because it is written by young Austin Gutwein himself), it is a story that will touch the hearts of readers of all ages. God truly wants to use you. He wouldn’t have created us if he didn’t. Give God your A-game today. Just as Austin discovered, you won’t regret it and your live will never be the same!

THE GIVE-AWAY!!!!!

I’m giving away one copy of this book to one lucky person!!! If you’d like a chance to be the lucky one, leave a comment telling me why you want to win Take Your Best Shot by Austin Gutwein. Is it for you? For your son/daughter? I can’t wait to hear from you!! I will announce the winner on Sunday, Nov. 1st.

An Anything But Ordinary Review

A Review By Shar Mohr

“Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark.”    — Henri Frederic Amiel

An Anything But Ordinary Journey follows Michael McCleary’s story as he pursues a dream of creating a TV series inspiring viewers to live their passion. McCleary succeeds at this task by taking viewers along for the unpredictable and inspiring ride pursuing his dream and through the incredible lives he intersects with along the way. Among these inspiring individuals are a former GM executive turned coach, the first blogger, a doctor with a serious illness, a famous actor seeking redemption, a man told by his doctors he wouldn’t live past the age of 30, a rock musician who finds peace at a monastery and many more. It will be extremely easy to find yourself emotionally invested in these extraordinary lives by the end of the film.

What makes these ordinary folks so extraordinary isn’t their circumstances. It isn’t their careers. It is their passion. Passion which became the catalyst in forming their extraordinary stories and lives. Though each person is passionate different things, the constant in each of their lives is the longing for their individual meaning, understanding, and purpose. During the interview process McCleary explores change, success, perseverance, and faith and tremendous impact these factors have when discovering one’s passion and purpose. An Anything But Ordinary Journey is sure to challenge audiences to take an inventory of their own ordinary life, hopefully leading them to pursue the extraordinary possibilities awaiting them.

To view clips, learn more about the film, find upcoming shows, and meet the filmmakers Mike McCleary and Casey Turner go to: http://anythingbutordinary.net/

To Write Love on Her Arms

http://www.mtv.com/ontv/woodieawards/2009/good-woodie/

or go to:   http://www.twloha.com/ to vote !!!!!

 

Why TO WRITE LOVE ON HER ARMS has a special place in my heart:

Depression/anxiety, Self-Injury, Addiction, and Suicide are very important issues that have affected me (and most of us if we’re honest). To Write Love On Her Arms strives to raises awarenes (and funding/support of suicide and addiction related organizations) of these very seriously, often untreated issues.

Despression and anxiety have been an issue for me for years and also haven’t discriminated against me since I became a Christian.  People think that becoming a Christian is a quick cure-all solution to all life’s pain. But the Bible is clear in explaining the world we live in isn’t any longer the way God intended it to be since the Fall. The Good News of the Bible is the promise God has to restore this depraved world and to restore and redeem those who choose to do His Will through Christ and His Holy Spirit. God’s love and promises are my hope and strength to help me endure my struggle with depression and anxiety, as well as, sharing my struggles and hopes with others dealing with the same battles.

Just remember. You’re not alone. And there is help from God and His Word (the Bible), therapists, suppport groups, etc.

Here’s a few quotes and information bits from the TO WRITE LOVE ON HER ARMS website (emphasis mine):

We live in a difficult world, a broken world.  My friend Byron is very smart – he says that life is hard for most people most of the time.  We believe that everyone can relate to pain, that all of us live with questions, and all of us get stuck in moments.  You need to know that you’re not alone in the places you feel stuck. 

We all wake to the human condition.  We wake to mystery and beauty but also to tragedy and loss.  Millions of people live with problems of pain.  Millions of homes are filled with questions – moments and seasons and cycles that come as thieves and aim to stay.  We know that pain is very real.  It is our privilege to suggest that hope is real, and that help is real. 

You need to know that rescue is possible, that freedom is possible, that God is still in the business of redemption.  We’re seeing it happen.  We’re seeing lives change as people get the help they need.  People sitting across from a counselor for the first time.  People stepping into treatment.  In desperate moments, people calling a suicide hotline.  We know that the first step to recovery is the hardest to take.  We want to say here that it’s worth it, that your life is worth fighting for, that it’s possible to change. 

Here’s a quotation from Renee’s story from their website:

“We often ask God to show up. We pray prayers of rescue. Perhaps God would ask us to be that rescue, to be His body, to move for things that matter. He is not invisible when we come alive. I might be simple but more and more, I believe God works in love, speaks in love, is revealed in our love. I have seen that this week and honestly, it has been simple: Take a broken girl, treat her like a famous princess, give her the best seats in the house. Buy her coffee and cigarettes for the coming down, books and bathroom things for the days ahead. Tell her something true when all she’s known are lies. Tell her God loves her. Tell her about forgiveness, the possibility of freedom, tell her she was made to dance in white dresses. All these things are true.”

The “Business” of Evangelism

People spend a lot of time shopping. I try to spend as little time possible shopping. (I am not your typical female shopper.) I go in then get out. Badda-bing! Badda-boom! Why even go into a store if there is nothing in it I want or need? This is why companies implement advertising and marketing strategies, doing everything possible to inform people of the necessity of their product, a surefire way to get people in the stores. It wouldn’t make sense for companies to just stock shelves of stores and simply hope and pray people come in.

 

Is that what Christians in Huron County are doing? Simply sitting around with shelves stocked with the knowledge of God, hoping and praying for people to come in? It seems that way. Some towns have as many as 4 churches to accommodate their small rural population. Local Christian organizations are buying up property left and right to house youth groups and other Christian activities. There are plenty of places in Huron County to get information about God and Christianity YET fewer and fewer people feel the necessity for God in their life. I doubt more buildings and facilities (even with the best intentions) are the key to reaching the lost in Huron County!!

 

What if the “business” of evangelism was approached more like the marketing strategy aforementioned? People, whether they choose to believe it or not, are “shopping” for God/religion/faith/etc. We must “advertise” the Christian life through our lives and by demonstrating our faith through relationships with others in our community. We must spend more time informing people about the necessity of reconciliation with God through Christ Jesus. Otherwise, there is no need for people to bother coming in to any of the local churches or other fancy buildings “selling” God if they don’t first see their need for Him in their life.

Faces In the Fire by T.L. Hines

 

 

 

T.L. Hines, FACES IN THE FIRE        

Book Review: Christian Noir Bizarre Fiction

…Four lost souls on a collision course with either disaster or redemption. A noir bizarre story with an extra helping of suspense, a hint of supernatural intrigue, and a story line as strange and beautiful as life itself…

I admit I was a bit reluctant to pick up and read T.L. Hines, Faces in the Fire since I normally prefer non-fiction reads. But every now and then it is nice to sit down and get lost in an extraordinary story and forget about reality for a while. Let me tell you that Hines’ Faces in the Fire is one of those kinds of extraordinary stories. I especially love this book for the fun journey following so-called random four main characters and the incredible way find themselves connecting with each other. I’ve never really been one to believe in plain or simple coincidences and this story, even though it fiction, is just another reason to prove that God has a purpose behind all the so-called random sequences and exchanges between people on this earth. I think Faces in the Fire would be a great way to get a reluctant older teen reader interested in reading too. This noir bizarre book is most appropriate for older teen to adult readers.

A Great Redemption: Divine Justice (Part 2)

2) “Now, secondly,” Spurgeon says, “we must measure the great redemption BY THE STERNNESS OF DIVINE JUSTICE.”

• These two points by Spurgeon helps me understand how the God is a God of love, as well as a God of justice, and that these two charcteristics are not in conflict with one another as some critics of God would like to believe:

“His love does not diminish His justice, nor does His justice, in the least degree, make warfare upon His love. The two things are sweetly linked together in the atonement of Christ. But, mark, we can never understand the fullness of the atonement till we have first grasped the Scriptural truth of God’s immense justice.”

“Christ [paid] it all, so that the man who believeth is entirely justified from all guilt, and set free from all punishment, through what Jesus hath done. Think ye, then, how great His atonement if He hath done all this.”

　THIS statement by Spurgeon, to me, sums up this entire second mesare of the greatness of the redemption. God is TRULY great and loving because he has provided Christ to satisfy his stern justice:

“You are the man for whom Jesus Christ has died; for you He has satisfied stern justice; and now all you have to do to obtain peace of conscience, is just to say to your adversary who pursues you, “Look you there! Christ died for me; my good works would not stop you, my tears would not appease you: look you there! There stands the cross; there hangs the bleeding God! Hark to His death-shriek! See Him die! Art thou not satisfied now?” And when thou hast done that, thou shalt have the peace of God which passeth all understanding, which shall keep thy heart and mind through Jesus Christ thy Lord; and then shalt thou know the greatness of His atonement.”

A Great Redemption: Of Infinate Value

Part One of A Great Redemption: An Ininiate Value

1) The infinite measure of our own sin required an atonment of infinite measure for redemption:

John Owen (1616-1683) ”It was then the purpose and intention of God that his Son should offer a sacrifice of infinite worth, value, and dignity, sufficient in itself for the redeeming of all and every man, if it had pleased the Lord to employ it to that purpose. . . Sufficient we say, then, was the sacrifice of Christ for the redemption of the whole world, and for the expiation of all the sins of all and every man in the world,” (Works, vol. 10, pp. 295, 296 emphasis’ added).

The following quotes are all from Spurgeon’s sermon Particular Redemption:

“One sin can ruin a soul for ever; it is not in the power of the human mind to grasp the infinity of evil that slumbereth in the bowels of one solitary sin. There is a very infinity of guilt crouched in one transgression against the majesty of Heaven. If, then, you and I had sinned but once,nothing but an atonement infinite in value could ever have washed away the sin and made satisfaction for it.”

“How great then, beloved, must be the ransom of Christ, when He saved us from all these sins!”

“Christ, the great redemption takes away the guilt of numerous years.”

“O ye that are groaning on account of sin! the great redemption now proclaimed to you is all-sufficient for your wants; and though your numerous sins exceed the stars that deck the sky, here is an atonement made for them all–a river which can overflow the whole of them, and carry them away from you for ever.

 

Scriptural references:

25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation [to appease or conciliate somebody or something] through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God…      —Romans 3:25 (KJV)

10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.  –Romans 5:10-11 (KJV)

2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.    –1 John 2:2 (KJV)

10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.   –1 John 4:10 (KJV)

4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.          –Isaiah 53:4-6 (KJV, emphasis added)

24 And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.   –Mark 14:24 (KJV, emphasis added)

Understanding Redemption

re·demp·tion    (r-dmpshn)

NOUN:

1. The act of redeeming or the condition of having been redeemed.
2. Recovery of something pawned or mortgaged.
3. The payment of an obligation, as a government’s payment of the value of its bonds.
4. Deliverance upon payment of ransom; rescue.
5. Christianity Salvation from sin through Jesus’s sacrifice.

 

Redemption:

Repayment of a debt security or preferred stock issue, at or before maturity, at par or at a premium price. (Financial Dictionary, Copyright © 2004, Campbell R. Harvey. All Rights Reserved.) 

 

In the sermon Particular Redemption*, Rev. C. H. Spurgeon discusses the Christian doctrine of Redemption because it is, as he says (with which I also agree), “one of the most important doctrines of the system of faith” because “a mistake on this point will inevitably lead to a mistake through the entire system of our belief.”

 

The theme verse for Spurgeon’s message:

“Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His ife a ransom for many.”–Matthew 20:28.

Spurgeon begins by defining and clarifiying a few points about the purpose of redemption:

“Christ Jesus “gave his life a ransom for many;” and by that ransom He wrought out for us a great redemption.”

“We [Christians] hold that Christ, when He died, had an object in view, and that object will most assuredly, and beyond a doubt, be accomplished.”

“We hold–we are not afraid to say that we believe–that Christ came into this world with the intention of saving “a multitude which no man can number;” and we believe that as the result of this, every person for whom He died must, beyond the shadow of a doubt, be cleansed from sin, and stand, washed in blood, before the Father’s throne.”

 

The blog posts to follow this post will individually discuss each of the five measures which Spurgeon uses ”to show the greatness of this redemption.”

 

 

* A Sermon (No. 181) Delivered on Sabbath Morning, February 28, 1858 by the at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.