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Prayer is at its core it is throwing down the gauntlet at what is, and asking God to intervene. The prophet Habakkuk refused to settle for just ok. He asked God to be mighty, to show His power. Isn't it time we prayed like this once again?
Recent Entries
God? Who Needs Him?May 31, 2013
Self-sufficient humanism. Paul saw it coming – “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”
Imago Dei
September 12, 2012
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Why Can't I Pray?
August 18, 2012
The bible gives us several reasons, but according to Jeremy Taylor, a deceitful heart is at the root of prayerlessness.
It's Not Rocket Science
July 23, 2012
To keep in step with the Spirit should be our daily quest. And if we are successful at that, all of life falls into place.
Theological Steak
April 10, 2012
These words by P. T. Forsythe on the magnificence of Christ's work are to theology what Ruth's Chris is to a good steak.
Describing the Indescribable
February 11, 2012
What we have in Christ will take all eternity to describe. But for one segment of one sermon, a great preacher made a mighty attempt.
Making Sense Of It All
January 30, 2012
Where are things headed? Is there rhyme and reason to the endless cycle of summer, fall, winter and spring? Is there a plan in place, or is randomness the explanation?
No More "Same Ol' Same Ol"
January 26, 2009
Boredom is tragic wherever it is found, but in the church it is a killer. A culture that can has so many channels from which to choose makes for a restless congregation!
Quickly we interject a new song, or perhaps get some new video software, or just change the message, assuming that whatever is ailing us will go away. The externals are what we most easily run to, and our hopes that the flat tire will be reinflated are soon dashed. Alas, the problem is much bigger.
At times in the past, God's people have sought him corporately, in prayer. Now there's a concept! And God has responded wonderfully, by reviving faith and hope.
Listen to Robert Murray M'cheyne from his journal...
Summer of 1837 – a prayer meeting was opened at the church. No visible or general movement among the people until August 1839......
You know what he just said? They prayed for two years straight, without seeing much visible change!! Let's continue.....
"when….the word of God came with such power to the hearts and consciences of the people here, and their thirst for hearing it became so intense, the evening classes in the schoolroom were changed into densely crowded congregations in the church, and for nearly four months it was found desirable to have public worship almost every night….”
Wow! Is that the power of prayer? John Wesley desribes a similar time when 'the people felt the weight of Divine truths." Only God through prayer can do that.
“…you who call on the Lord, (you who are the Lord’s remembrancers) give yourselves no rest till he…” (fill in the blanks!) Isaiah 62:6,7
You have not called upon me, O Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, O Israel. Isaiah 43:22
No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you…Isaiah 64:7
I lay prostrate before the Lord those 40 days and 40 nights…Deuteronomy 9:25
During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears….Hebrews 5:7
Martyn Lloyd-Jones warns against getting sleepy, when hope dies, and we spiritually doze off, and the status quo, the normal, the routine is what we settle for.
"Possibly one of the most devastating things that can happen to us as Christians is that we cease to expect anything to happen. I am not sure but that this is not one of our greatest troubles today.
We come to our services and they are orderly, they are nice we come, we go and sometimes they are timed almost to the minute, and there it is. But that is not Christianity, my friend. Where is the Lord of glory?
Where is the one sitting by the well? Are we expecting him? Do we anticipate this? Are we open to it? Are we aware that we are ever facing this glorious possibility of having the greatest surprise of our life.....when suddenly, in the midst of the drudgery and the routine and the sameness and the dullness and the drabness, unexpectedly, surprisingly, he meets with you and he says something to you that changes the whole of your life and your outlook and lifts you to a level that you had never conceived could be possible for you.
Spurgeon recalls in his autobiography, "when I first came to New Park Street Chapel, it was but a mere handful of people to whom I first preached, yet I can never forget how earnestly they prayed.
Sometimes they seemed to plead as though they could really see the Angel of the covenant present with them, and as if they must have a blessing from Him. More than once, we were all so awe-struck with the solemnity of the meeting, that we sat silent for some moments while the Lord’s power appeared to over-shadow us…..
M’Cheyne, in speaking of the revival in his church, speaks of seasons of remarkable solemnity when the house of God literally became ‘a Bochim, a place of weepers.’
Spurgeon continues….all I could do on such occasions was to pronounce the Benediction, and say, “Dear friends, we have had the Spirit of God here very manifestly tonight; let us go home, and take care not to lose his gracious influences.”
Then down came the blessing; the house was filled with hearers, and many souls were saved. I always give all the glory to God, but I do not forget that He gave me the privilege of ministering from the first to a praying people.
We had prayer meetings in New Park Street that moved our very souls. Every man seemed like a crusader besieging the New Jerusalem, each one appeared determined to storm the Celestial City by the might of intercession, and soon the blessing came upon us in such abundance that we had not room to receive it.
Lord, I have heard of your fame;I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known. Habakkuk 3:2,3
Quickly we interject a new song, or perhaps get some new video software, or just change the message, assuming that whatever is ailing us will go away. The externals are what we most easily run to, and our hopes that the flat tire will be reinflated are soon dashed. Alas, the problem is much bigger.
At times in the past, God's people have sought him corporately, in prayer. Now there's a concept! And God has responded wonderfully, by reviving faith and hope.
Listen to Robert Murray M'cheyne from his journal...
Summer of 1837 – a prayer meeting was opened at the church. No visible or general movement among the people until August 1839......
You know what he just said? They prayed for two years straight, without seeing much visible change!! Let's continue.....
"when….the word of God came with such power to the hearts and consciences of the people here, and their thirst for hearing it became so intense, the evening classes in the schoolroom were changed into densely crowded congregations in the church, and for nearly four months it was found desirable to have public worship almost every night….”
Wow! Is that the power of prayer? John Wesley desribes a similar time when 'the people felt the weight of Divine truths." Only God through prayer can do that.
“…you who call on the Lord, (you who are the Lord’s remembrancers) give yourselves no rest till he…” (fill in the blanks!) Isaiah 62:6,7
You have not called upon me, O Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, O Israel. Isaiah 43:22
No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you…Isaiah 64:7
I lay prostrate before the Lord those 40 days and 40 nights…Deuteronomy 9:25
During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears….Hebrews 5:7
Martyn Lloyd-Jones warns against getting sleepy, when hope dies, and we spiritually doze off, and the status quo, the normal, the routine is what we settle for.
"Possibly one of the most devastating things that can happen to us as Christians is that we cease to expect anything to happen. I am not sure but that this is not one of our greatest troubles today.
We come to our services and they are orderly, they are nice we come, we go and sometimes they are timed almost to the minute, and there it is. But that is not Christianity, my friend. Where is the Lord of glory?
Where is the one sitting by the well? Are we expecting him? Do we anticipate this? Are we open to it? Are we aware that we are ever facing this glorious possibility of having the greatest surprise of our life.....when suddenly, in the midst of the drudgery and the routine and the sameness and the dullness and the drabness, unexpectedly, surprisingly, he meets with you and he says something to you that changes the whole of your life and your outlook and lifts you to a level that you had never conceived could be possible for you.
Spurgeon recalls in his autobiography, "when I first came to New Park Street Chapel, it was but a mere handful of people to whom I first preached, yet I can never forget how earnestly they prayed.
Sometimes they seemed to plead as though they could really see the Angel of the covenant present with them, and as if they must have a blessing from Him. More than once, we were all so awe-struck with the solemnity of the meeting, that we sat silent for some moments while the Lord’s power appeared to over-shadow us…..
M’Cheyne, in speaking of the revival in his church, speaks of seasons of remarkable solemnity when the house of God literally became ‘a Bochim, a place of weepers.’
Spurgeon continues….all I could do on such occasions was to pronounce the Benediction, and say, “Dear friends, we have had the Spirit of God here very manifestly tonight; let us go home, and take care not to lose his gracious influences.”
Then down came the blessing; the house was filled with hearers, and many souls were saved. I always give all the glory to God, but I do not forget that He gave me the privilege of ministering from the first to a praying people.
We had prayer meetings in New Park Street that moved our very souls. Every man seemed like a crusader besieging the New Jerusalem, each one appeared determined to storm the Celestial City by the might of intercession, and soon the blessing came upon us in such abundance that we had not room to receive it.
Lord, I have heard of your fame;I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known. Habakkuk 3:2,3
