This week the church I go to, Immersion in Des Moines, is starting a series on prayer. Prayer has always been one of my weaknesses. I’m good at reading, and sometimes even serving, because those are very tangible things. I’ve always seen prayer though as being the most vague and ambiguous spiritual discipline. It frustrates me. I always tell myself I’m going to get better at it, but I never know how.

I co-lead a small group for InterVarsity here on Drake’s Campus called 101. It’s like a Christian basics group. This last week we talked about prayer, and a lot of great questions came up that I thought should be re-posted here. I think we often do something blindly because we’re Christian without even thinking about what it means. Some of the questions:

• Why do we pray? Is there Biblical justification for asking God favors? Does our prayer change things?
• “Ask and you will receive” – really? What does that mean? Are there limits on that?
• How do we make it two-way communication instead of me just talking to God?
• How on Earth can I pray for everything I need to pray for?
• Why do I have a right to ask for things with all the suffering around me?

Aren’t these great questions? I’m wont even attempt to answer them, because I’m not even sure there are clear answers. Nonetheless, I think the questions need to be asked. It’s good to question. It’s good to ask. It’s good to be confused and searching.

Maybe this series on prayer will clear things up for me. And maybe it wont. Hopefully either way I’ll learn a little something about what it means to be someone who prays to a living and active God.

Think about it.

I’m hearing this repeatedly in blogs I’m reading, sermons I’m listening to, the passages of Scripture I’m reading…

How big is your God?

We have this problem in today’s world [and more specifically today's Christianity] of intellectualizing God. We try to explain God’s miracles using science and history. I’ve seen many a show on the History channel talking about natural disasters that might coincide with the Ten Plagues, therefor rationally explaining them. Or shows about the resurrection, saying maybe Jesus wasn’t dead, but just in a coma for three days. We want to have concrete answers for our faith. And by doing this, we lose the supernatural characteristics of God.

This also means our world that we tend to ignore and run away from high-risk situations. It seems absolutely foolish to do something when the odds are stacked against you. What if it’s an opportunity though for God to do something amazing? What if it’s a chance for one of God’s miracles that we seem to have lost our faith in?

God is so much bigger than our rationality. He’s so much bigger than the restraints of our minds. What if we chased odds-defying circumstances as an opportunity to see God work? Mark Batterson has an incredible sermon series and book called Chase the Lion. He talks about fear and overcoming odds, and I dont wanna rip him off too much without giving him credit.

Will you let God work in your life in miraculous ways, or will you intellectualize your faith and make God as small as your rational mind?

Think about it.

P.S. There are some changes coming to the blog this week! It’ll be mostly content changes, but I’m excited nonetheless. As I mentioned in the last post, there’s sooo many blogs out there that it’s hard to find a spot in the world and have something people will want to read that is fresh and unique. More details will come, but I’ll have a regular blogging schedule [3+ times a week minimum] and I’m also adding a few permanent pages. Get excited!

There’s been a recurring theme in my life the last few weeks. 

In my reading, the teaching I’m listening to, the conversations I’m having with people, etc. 

This is when God is trying to get my attention. 

“Then Saul gave David his own armor – a bronze helmet and a coat of mail. David put it on, strapped the sword over it, and took a step or two to see what it was like, for he had never worn such things before. ‘I cant go in these,’ he protested. ‘I’m not used to them.’ So he took them off again. He picked up five smooth stones from a stream and put them in his shepherd’s bag. Then, armed only with his shepherd’s staff and sling, he started across to fight Goliath.” 1 Sam 17: 38-40 

Saul tried to make David something he wasn’t. He tried to make David fight with weapons that weren’t his to begin with. 

People ask us to do this all the time. They try to put us in armor that isn’t specially designed for us. Most of the time though, we go ahead and put on that clunky gear and march right into battle without even thinking. Sometimes, we even volunteer to put on Saul’s gear because we think it will make us look better. Or more prepared. Or more like the person we’re seeking approval from. 

God gave David great aim. Plain and simple. To kill Goliath with one rock, I’m guessing it would have had to hit him right in the temple. David wasn’t gifted with sword-fighting. He was gifted with throwing rocks. Have you ever thought about that in simple terms. He was good at throwing rocks. That’s what God gave him to do. Doesn’t that seem kind of ridiculous? 

Had David fought Goliath with the wrong weapons, the ones that weren’t his own, he would have failed. I’m sure of it. But he bravely took the stones and the sling. They weren’t flashy by any means, but it’s what worked. It’s what slayed the giant. 

Dont try to put on someone else’s armor. It’s a recipe for failure. Use the weapons that God has already given in to further His Kingdom. What are good at? What do you love doing? If you think your gifts can’t be used in a church setting, think about David. He had good aim with rocks. And God used it to create one of the greatest stories of courage in the Bible. You dont have to be something you’re not. That is not what God intended. 

God has been pounding it into my heart that I need to take time to reflect and discover what my true gifts and talents are. I dont entirely know yet, but I’m getting there. I hope that you can too. 

Think about it.

This topic could be a book in itself, so there’s a lot to choose from as far as a discussion goes. I’m gonna focus though on just one small aspect and make this a relatively short post. 

The theology of Light has always been something very interesting to me. It runs throughout the entire Bible, being mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis and last chapter of Revelation. God created light. Jesus is the light of the world. God’s light will conquer darkness. There are so many sub-themes within this broad topic. 

In the beginning, God created light. He saw it was good, and then He separated it from the darkness [paraphrase of Gen. 1:3]. One of the first things God did was separate light and dark. There is no interaction. Heaven is total light and hell is total night. Earth though is interesting because we experience both every single day, literally and figuratively. It’s like God is giving us a choice. We see both with the hope that we’ll choose light over darkness.  

We don’t though, do we? We love our darkness. For so many reasons we love our darkness: 

• It’s easier to live in dark. It’s easier to hide and do what we want to do without the fear of being caught. Being in light makes us more cognizant of our failure, and makes us change in some way. We don’t want to change though, because it can be hard. 
• Light exposes us and our sin. Similar to the first one, we can’t hide in the light. It creeps into every corner of our lives. 
• It’s fun. Let’s be honest, being in the dark is sometimes more fun. Why do people have random sex all the time? Because it’s fun [not that I know from experience, I'm kinda assuming]! People think that living in light will take away their fun. This is literal too, how often have your worst moral decisions come in the middle of the afternoon? 
• We’re afraid. We are scared of God judging us if he sees our crap, so we try to hide in the corner in our darkness. We’re also afraid of being judged by other people. So we wallow in our filth.  
• Ignorance. Sometimes we don’t even realize the darkness in our lives. Sometimes it takes a smack in the face from God to get us to pay attention to our actions and thoughts. 

There are many more, but those, in my opinion, are the most common reasons we avoid the light of God. So the question then is how do we stay in His light? 

“When Jesus spoke to the people he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” [John 8:12]

Jesus promises us that if we follow him, we will never be in darkness. What does it mean to follow him then? [See how loaded this is, everything just leads to more questions. It's fun though, and what studying is all about!] 

Following Jesus means knowing what he did. What he lived for and preached and practiced in his everyday life. And how do we do that? By reading his word. It’s pretty simple [seemingly, at least]. Read, pray, discuss. The key though then is action. 

“Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” [James 1:22] 

Walk in the light of Jesus Christ. It is a choice. A hard one, mind you, but a choice nonetheless. 

Think about it.

It’s so easy to put Jesus in a box and carry him around with us. It’s so easy to just take him out when we need him, and put him back when we don’t. Sure, he was a sweet guy and said some cool stuff, but he’s not my King, right? I don’t actually have to be his servant, do I? 

That’s a question I’ve been asking myself recently. I am going through the Gospel of John, and to put it mildly, I’m blown away by the things that Jesus does and says, and I realize that recently I’ve kind of put Jesus off to the side in my life. So, I’m coming back to the question, who do I say Jesus was? 

“‘Who do people say I am?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He [Jesus] said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the son of the living God.’”    [Matthew 16:13-16, slight paraphrase] 

In our culture everyone has a different idea about Jesus. Some people flat out don’t believe he ever existed, [even though there is historical evidence that he did as human at least]. Some people see him as a political revolutionary [this view was generally held by Jews at the time]. Others see him as a cool guy with some fun teachings. Some view Jesus as a radical hippie who walked around “healing” people. Christians though, they hold another view altogether. Jesus is the very Son of God. The Messiah and Savior of the people of the world. He is the King. 

Do I really believe this? Do I hold this to be true in my life? Most of the time, no. I’m beginning to understand though that Jesus is more than a friend and a buddy. He is the Lord of my life. He has authority in my life. Absolute authority. 

Here is what the Bible says about who Jesus is:

• He has been given all authority in Heaven and Earth [Matt. 28:18] 
• He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins [1 John 2:2] 
• The Sovereign King of Kings [1 Tim 6:15] 
• Jesus is God himself [Romans 9:5] 
• The head over the entire Church of believers [Eph. 1:22] 
• He is the Eternal King [1 Tim 1:17] 
• He is the Mighty God [Isaiah 9:6] 
• The Power and Wisdom of God [1 Corinth 1:24] 
• The Ruler of God’s creation [Rev. 3:14] 
• Savior [Eph. 5:23, Titus 1:4, 2 Peter 2:20] 
• The Way, the Truth, the Life [John 14:6] 

Jesus is so much more than just a friend. He is the one who has saved us from Hell. He has saved us from a life of sin and condemnation on this earth and in this present life. If we truly understood the weight of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we would jump to him and bow before him in trembling. Hopefully I can begin to learn what this means in my life. 

Who do you say Jesus is? 

Think about it.

Found pretty much smack dab in the middle of your Bible, this book was written by the wisest man [Solomon] to ever walk the Earth outside of Jesus. It is also, by his own accord, his greatest collection of writing. The name, Song of Songs, states that this is the best stuff he’s got. And it’s all about relationship. Isn’t that great? King Solomon says in the Old Testament that relationships are the most important thing in life. Five hundred years later in the New Testament Jesus says that relationships are the most important thing in life [Matt. 22:34-40].

Many Christians have studied this book from the perspective of a metaphor about our relationship with God. Most Biblical scholars will agree however that although that can absolutely be taken from this book, it’s primary purpose is describing a love relationship between a husband and a wife. If we are going to be with one person for the rest of our lives, wouldn’t it be nice to have some instruction in that area? Luckily, Solomon did just that. 

There is SO much to be taken from this book, that there’s no way I can do it by myself within one post, so my suggestion is to go here for an excellent sermon series by Mark Driscoll. It is well worth your time. I promise. 

Some of the highlights: 

1. The entire book is a conversation between Solomon and his wife. Communication is something that will make or break any relationship you have, and these two do a great job of portraying that. They are very open with each other about their sex lives and what they like and don’t like. The women talks way more than Solomon and she even talks first in the book. Men, pay attention to that. 
2. Men are visual by nature and women are verbal by nature. This couple is very good at satisfying those needs. Solomon throughout the entire book is verbally complimenting his wife and her beauty. That satisfies her need to talk and hear she’s loved. In return, she is visually generous to her husband, and at one point even does a striptease for him. Scandalous! See ch. 6, verse 13. The footnote says the “Dance of Mahaneim” which is an ancient striptease. Crazy huh? This stuff is in the Bible! Now, this is not to say that all wives need to do this for their husbands, it’s simply one way that she remains visually generous in order to fulfill his needs. 
3. The big question in marriage, and in making it successful, is “How do we deal with sin?” That’s really the only difference between Christian relationships and non-Christian relationships. We have a way of dealing with each other’s problems. It is very easy to keep secrets and to hold grudges when we’re not happy with our spouse [or in ANY relationship]. The key though to maintaining love is grace. Putting two very sinful people together forever isn’t actually a very good idea. Unless we have a way of reconciling that sin. Grace is one of the keys to any relationship, so it especially applies to your marriage. 
4. Within marriage, there is total sexual freedom. This may be slightly inappropriate, but I don’t think it is. In this book Solomon and his wife do the following: oral sex [2:3], heavy petting [all over the place, but especially 4:5ish], sex outdoors [7:12], and also the striptease I mentioned earlier. Again, this is in the Bible! Within marriage, sex does not have to be something we’re scared of or something we see as kind of dirty. Have fun! 

I sincerely hope this post isn’t thought of as too explicit or inappropriate. Too often in the church the topic of sex is just ignored until wedding day. For two people who have potentially remained virgins, this can be a very awkward and strange thing to all of a sudden have total freedom in. It needs to be talked about in my very humble opinion. Now, we certainly shouldn’t obsess over this, or be the only thing we study, but to just ignore it is setting ourselves up for failure. 

Think about it.

[Disclaimer: these are thoughts I took from a sermon by Mike Householder in Des Moines.]

Why is this such a sticky topic? 

Is it Biblical? Or is it created by our society? 

“A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” 1 Timothy 2:11-12

“Women should remain silent in churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.” 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 

Seems kinda clear doesn’t it? Or maybe, just play along, these are two singular passages in which Paul is addressing a specific church in which women [new Christians to be specific] were acting up in Church. We use that passage in Corinthians as an example of women not being in leadership, but then if we’re going to take it literally for today, why do we allow women to even speak during church? Isn’t that clear too?

There are examples of women in leadership positions throughout the entire Bible. In the Old Testament Miriam and Debra are prophets. To clarify, a prophet simply means somebody who speaks the Word of God. Isn’t that exactly what a pastor does? Paul writes that Phoebe was a deacon at the end of Romans. There are countless examples that I’m sure you guys aren’t interested in, but take my word for it that there are many, many more examples of women in leadership. [If you dont want to take my word for it, that's perfectly okay, and please let me know. I'll show you.] 

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ.” Galatians 3:28 

Are we seriously going to exclude 50% of the population [many times in churches it's more than that] from being in a spot of leadership? 

Think about it.

Pastor Mike Householder spoke this morning at Lutheran Church of Hope here in Des Moines about the true Church, and what that actually means. It was awesome, and here my thoughts on what he said. 

“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” ”But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Peter, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it.”               [Matthew 16:13-19] 

The Church, the family of Jesus Christ, is built on the rock of Peter’s faith. Peter himself is not the rock necessarily, but it’s his faith. The other disciples are afraid to admit that Jesus is the Messiah, but Peter steps out and tells Jesus he is indeed the One. It is on that display of faith that Jesus constructs his family. This passage also tells us that Hell and Satan cannot overcome the church. The Bible tells us that Satan has dominion over the Earth, and it’s my belief that any one person on their own will cannot defeat him and his temptation, but as the church, with God on our side, he cannot enter our gates.

Now, it needs to be clarified that the Church is not just a building. It’s so much more than that. The church is all the people in the world who share Christ in their hearts. This means that wherever you go, the church goes. We are always representing our Savior, no matter where we are or what we’re doing. Who we serve, the church is serving. On the flip side of that, and more powerfully in my opinion, who we ignore, the church is ignoring.

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” [2 Corinthians 5:20] 

The church is God’s vessel for reaching the world. For reaching the hurting. We can’t do it on our own as individuals. As a group of servants though, as a family, we can reach the whole world. Do you really believe that? 

Do you see church as someplace you go on Sunday mornings, or do you see it as a lifestyle? A lifestyle of servanthood. A lifestyle of learning and growing. Be the church. 

Think about it. 

P.S. See Acts 2 for more detail about what church is, and I may do on a post on that in the future.

Theology: The study of God. That’s it. It’s not as complex and wordy as many people [yes, even Christians] seem to believe. The church today, sadly in my opinion, has seemed to get away from studying the fundamentals of Christianity before diving in to the harder topics. People shy away from the word theology because it supposedly carries a lot of weight and sounds really academic. Well, I’ll give ya that much. How about the word doctrine? Yeah, that has the same connotation. What do we call it then to make people not so scared of it? Can we just say studying the Bible? Because that’s all it is. It’s studying the Word of God to answer all of life’s questions. 

Part of the reason we’ve gotten away from it here in the 21st Century is because of the rise of liberalism [not in a political sense, but in more of a free-spirited/thinking sense]. People are more into feelings and emotional things than, ya know, theology. That however constitutes Christian ethics. The difference between theology and ethics is that theology studies what Christians should think whereas ethics is the study of what Christians should do in particular situations. If you think about it though, you can’t know what to do unless you know what to think. The problem then is that too many people in Christianity are doing, without actually knowing what they believe in. And that is why I believe all Christians should have at least a basic understanding of fundamental doctrine. 

All it means is to study God, and His Word, and then eventually how to live that out on a daily basis. It doesn’t have to be as complicated and academic as we make it. To quote theologian Wayne Grudem, “It is not that Christians lack the ability to understand doctrine; it is just that they must have access to it in an understandable form. Once that happens, I think that many Christians will find that understanding and living the doctrines of Scripture is one of their greatest joys.” 

There is also Scriptural basis for studying doctrine though, it’s not just the opinions of a couple of humans. 

“You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.” Titus 2:1 

Jesus speaking: “You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know.” John 4:22 

We need to know what we’re worshipping! 

If you have questions about this, or want to know how to start, please let me know!