Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Can you identify this picture?


[Update: Thank you, it's been identified in the comments] I found this in my iPhone "camera roll" stuck in my photos from yesterday. I'd anyone can identify, please help me. It's text doesn't appear anywhere online according to google.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Pray up the kiddos

Recently I was talking about baptizing your babies with a friend. The point came up, "What about the baptized babies who don't grow up to become Christians?"

My thesis: I am confident that God will give us our children to be saved if we are annoyingly, repetitively bold in our offering that desire to him in prayer.

Our kids becoming believers should be the norm, and not the other way around. Pray for those kids to become Christians. God may be pleased to save them through decades of persistent prayer.

I don't hear about Christians today persistently grabbing hold of God in prayers that they won't give up on. But Jesus says there's special power in going back to God over-and-over-and-over again until he grants your request.

The persistent widow
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
The exact topic of persistent prayer here is justice. I believe it applies to more than justice, including praying for loved one's salvation. My non-biblical argument is "How did such an undying, persistent plea get into the believer's heart, but the Lord put it there to magnify his glory when he grants the request.

The bold requester


After teaching the Lord's Prayer in Luke, Jesus taught praying to God with crazy boldness:

And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence* he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
*offensively bold behavior

Now in context Jesus closes that the Father will eagerly and freely give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him, but I believe this passage is relevant for praying for kids.

Jonathan Edwards

The puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards raised 11 believing children! I guess no one can really know if they were true Christians, but nor can we even know if Edwards was a true Christian. I think a little more research is needed for me to be confident in the 11-believing-children fact, but this google search does pretty well in establishing the point for me.

Conclusion

Fr
om these two passages, I believe that God will grant salvation to our kids if we are un-ashamed and unfailing in our unending boldness for our kids to be saved. The fact that a parent would be unfailing in prayer for their children is already an amazing sign that God is working!

But what if I'm a big failure about praying for my kids?

Go right now and ask him for what you lack--the desire to even pray!

Who doesn't feel really bad about their prayer life? Even the great praying men started out lame as prayers. But we can ask God for help where we are--to become praying parents! Ask now!

What might God do regarding parents who stayed up past midnight, wrestling with God to save their children?

Still interested, I would go to Gregg Harris's article. He and Sono have raised 7 kids with a multi-generational vision that they be lovers of the Lord. (His kids include Josh Harris of "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" and pastor of Covenant Life Church in Maryland; and Alex and Brett Harris, authors of Do Hard Things.)

Saturday, July 26, 2008

A first-century Hebrew walks alone on a hot afternoon, staff in hand. His shoulders are stooped, sandals covered with dirt, tunic stained with sweat. But he doesn't stop to rest. He has pressing business in the city.

He veers off the road into a field, seeking a shortcut. The owner won't mind-travelers are permitted this courtesy. The field is uneven. To keep his balance he thrusts his staff into the dirt.

Thunk. The staff strikes something hard.

He stops, wipes his brow, and pokes again.

Thunk. Something's under there, and it's not a rock.

The weary traveler tells himself that he can't afford to linger. But his curiosity won't let him go. He jabs at the ground. Something reflects a sliver of sunlight. He drops to his knees and starts digging.

Five minutes later, he's uncovered it-a case fringed in gold. By the looks of it, it's been there for decades. Heart racing, he pries off the rusty lock and opens the lid.

Gold coins! Jewelry! Precious stones of every color! A treasure more valuable than anything he's ever imagined.

Hands shaking, the travelerinspects the coins, issued in Rome over seventy years ago. Some wealthy man must have buried the case and died suddenly, the secret of the treasure's location dying with him. There is no homestead nearby. Surely the current landowner has no clue that the treasure's here.

The traveler closes the lid, buries the chest, and marks the spot. He turns around, heading home-only now he's not plodding. He's skipping like a little boy, smiling broadly.

What a find! Unbelievable! I've got to have that treasure! But I can't just take it-that would be stealing. Whoever owns the field owns what's in it. But how can I afford to buy it? I'll sell my farm ... and crops ... all my tools ... my prize oxen. Yes, if I sell everything, that should be enough!

From the moment of his discovery, the traveler's life changes. The treasure captures his imagination, becomes the stuff of his dreams. It's his reference point, his new center of gravity. The traveler takes every new step with this treasure in mind. He experiences a radical paradigm shift.

This story is captured by Jesus in a single verse: "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field" (Matthew 13:44).

-From Randy Alcorn's, The Treasure Principle

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Owensboro Mission Conference

We attended the Heritage Baptist Church Missions Conference in Owensboro, Kentucky. If you prayed for us, know that our lives and love for God have been impacted strongly. Pray even now that the impact wouldn't be a blip; but an extended blessing over our whole life.

If you would like to share in our benefit, listen to this session from the conference:

Session 9: Paul Washer, July 15 2008

It has sent me back to my first love, Jesus; when I prayed just to talk to Him; when I opened the Bible just to hear from Him. This love, this knowing God again, has quieted all my worries and untangled most of my major "issues".

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

What I want to hear when you raise support for missions at church

Your message! I want to hear the message that I'm being asked to send to another land. What truth do you have for them? What is the good news you have gone to such trouble to deliver to them.

Make sure to insert this line into your talks before churches:

"I think it's important for you to know the good news that I'm asking you to partner in sending to the ______ people of ______. [Tell me your good news hear]*

Tell me your message, and I can know whether to support you.

That's almost the only thing I need to know. And conversely, if I know everything else about your story, your team, your strategy; but I don't know your message, I can't decide.


*and really preach it! maybe someone will get saved while you are raising support

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

NYTimes: Findings - Deep Down, We Can’t Fool Even Ourselves - NYTimes.com

Findings - Deep Down, We Can’t Fool Even Ourselves - NYTimes.com

Psychologists running experiments to identify hypocrisy--that I will declare something to be "wrong" and then excuse myself from my own standard.

At the end of the article, they tried testing their hypothesis: can we be less hypocritical by distracting our brains. They tested "yes"--do mental math when tempted to by a hypocrite and your "gut" will have a stronger say in Right and Wrong.

One of my personal hypocrisies has been cellphones while driving. I condemn others, but still practice it myself.