Why Pray?

Partial Excerpt from an article from Christianity Today

Why Pray?

True to his character, God appears inclined to heal and bless as many as possible. It is as if he can barely restrain himself—though he often does—from supernaturally intervening and disrupting the nature of the universe to care for those he loves, whether they acknowledge it or not. Did God answer the prayers of the study's official prayer teams? Yes. But more than that, he answered the prayers of the patients, of their friends and relatives, and perhaps even of those who may not have known they were praying.

If this is true about our God, then a nagging question arises: "Why put so much effort into praying if God is already so generous?" This is another way of asking the real but unspoken question: "What is the minimum required of me to get my prayers answered?" Such questions expose the weakness of our modernist desire to know if prayer "works." In finding that God is in fact constantly answering prayers, we stumble upon the deeper and more disturbing reality that his answers often don't give us the where, when, or how that we originally sought.

Scripture attests to this reality. God, for example, answered Israel's prayers for release from Pharaoh's hand, but his answer—when it finally came—was unexpected, unpredictable, and anything but tame (as a generation left in the desert could attest). His answer to Israel's prayers for release from Caesar's grip proved even more unanticipated and, for many, simply unacceptable. Thus, it is no surprise that Jesus taught us to pray "thy will be done," as he himself prayed all the way through Gethsemane. In all this, we discover that our obsession with whether prayer works is the wrong question. We know prayer works. The real question is, are we prepared for God's answer?

Not surprisingly, those who were prepared for God's answer to Israel's cry for the Messiah were people who prayed. Anna the Prophetess, who spent the bulk of her life worshiping in the temple, was one of the first to recognize him. Lydia, who saw the truth of the gospel and opened the door to Philippi, was in the right place at the right time because she was praying. Thus, we pray not only because God answers our prayers. We also pray so that we might recognize and receive God's answer, know how to respond, and perhaps see God himself.

Most physicians believe in miracles, and in the cause-and-effect reality of their jobs. Miracles happen, but they happen to all because we are loved by God, whether we are in rebellion or not. What is left to physicians, and to us, is how we will respond. We would be wise to avoid magical or mechanical claims about the gospel. STEP encourages us to believe that God is eager to answer our prayers with seemingly little regard for our competence in prayer or, at times, even our orthodoxy. This ought to give us confidence to act, believe, and work alongside the good and generous King, who calls us to advance his kingdom, bring healing to the world, and pray.

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I firmly believe God is telling me something today as I have been challenged far so many times that I keep praying to God 'WHY!" And then today...

First is the challenge about the reality of rapture and then the article on prayer.

God is reminding me very simply...God is loving me, as his beloved...I am Wilson beloved! And His answer to my prayer (and I have to emphasize that He did answer) is not the answer that I am hoping for.

Then Jeremiah 29:11 pops in again.

His plans is for my prosperity and for my future. To give me an expectation of good (the definition of hope). To give me shalom peace (prosperity, health, wholeness and all things good).

Thank You!

The reality of Rapture...

I don't think I want to base my faith in Abba by the the words of mere men especially if it is presented in quote form without the witness of the context from that which is taken from. A text taken out of the context, will just leave a con for others.

There are basically 2 types of tribulations. The tribulation of the daily kind and the tribulation that heralds the coming of the Lord. So which tribulation are we in now?

Now, I will use just ONE verse to disperse the notion that we are doomed for THE Great Tribulation. The context of this bible verse is to tell us, on whose grace are we rely on, for our salvation.

because God has not appointed us to wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
(1Th 5:9)

This verse, though simple has shown two things.

a) The love of God
b) The completeness of our Lord's sacrifice on the cross

The sacrifice is so complete that we are now called sons and daughters of God through the belief that Christ is THE way to God.

for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
(Gal 3:26)

A lot of people do not understand sonship. And because they do not understand sonship, they would not understand fathership. How so?

Would you feel like a son unless you are not treated like a son?

Then this verse will come into play.

Then if you being evil know to give good gifts to your children, how much more the Father out of Heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those asking Him.
(Luk 11:13)

So. My question to readers now. Is the Holy Spirit a treasure? Is Jesus a treasure of God?

My friend...God has given two things. ONE: the SON on the cross and TWO: The Holy Spirit in US!

TWO most precious things in the whole known world is given to US mere sinners, forgiven through the cross. It is UNMERITED, UNEARNED and definitely a GIFT of FAVOUR to give us the power AND the title of SONSHIP!

Ladies and gentlemen: WE ARE NOT WORTHY! But we ARE sons and daughters of God now through faith in Christ Jesus!

So if the earthly father, who is sinful, do know how to give good things to his sons and daughters. HOW MUCH MORE would the Father in heaven?!?!

So wouldn't it be strange that a LOVING Father, who has given EVERYTHING for the sinful sons and daughters on earth, would be evil enough to let us suffer the effects of the 7 bowls and 7 trumpets of judgment and on top of that, the evil acts of the anti Christ?

That's why for people who do not know God, will scoff at the possibility of believers being saved before THE great tribulation. It is a simple fact that they assume God is still pitting us against the LAW and therefore we are not worth saving.

It is true...we are NOT worth saving. But we are saved, Praise be to Jesus, our heavenly brother, saviour and high priest.

We are saved, that's why it is the NEW testament...and that's why it is THE good news, the Gospel.

What help would the good news be IF the power of Jesus cannot even save us during the great tribulation?

So...is your salvation based on your works or your belief in the complete works of Christ?

There is not ifs and buts. Believe on the finished work on the cross, you are saved. You are saved from the most cataclysmic and evil events for those who do not believe.

So if you think you are to go through the tribulation, it just meant one thing: You have not believed your place as a son or daughter of Abba. You have not known the true nature of God, our Abba.

May you really question yourself as a father and as a mother. Are you so evil to allow your child from a known disaster or are you loving enough to prevent them from harming themselves? If you are the later, how much more is God the Father!!

To say that Abba allow us to suffer the Great Tribulation, I think it is worse than unfair. It is a stab into His heart to accuse Him of being evil!

Live Long and prosper!

Wilson

AWARE: A Post by Pastor Peter Youngren...

My thoughts on AWARE saga has struck a very similar gong in the post of Pastor Peter Youngren. I would venture to say that Jesus' is in both of us saying the same stuff. Praise be the Lord!

The post in question:

Easily Offended Christians

Written by Peter Youngren on April 8, 2009

There are a lot of offended Christians these days. Some of the things which seem to cause outrage and offense are; profanity on television, open display of homosexuality in movies and on television, humor that degrades Christian values. Well, that’s just for starters. When Christians express outrage, shock and offense, it is as if that expression in itself is a badge of spirituality. “Look at me; how shocked I am at the sin and worldliness around me. Shouldn’t you react in a similar way? Aren’t you equally shocked? Well, maybe your spiritual sensitivities aren’t as fine-tuned as mine”.

There is only one problem with all of this. Can you think of a single time in scripture when Jesus was offended by the sins of unbelievers? The only time you could find something akin to offense in Jesus was when he spoke forthrightly to the self-righteous, hypocritical religious leaders. In fact, Jesus forewarned us that if we are persecuted for our beliefs we should not be surprised or offended. “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”, (John 16:33).

Here is the catch. If we are easily offended or shocked, we become either isolationists or attackers of the very society, which we are supposed to reach. Isolationists live in a cloistered environment with little or no influence on those on the outside. Attackers are resisted, much like we would react on a lovely summer night when hornets start buzzing around our picnic table. We find no example in scripture that Philip was offended at the witchcraft in Samaria. What about Paul’s reaction in godless, sinful, Corinth or idolatrous Athens? In neither instance do we find offense or rebuke of pagan behavior, but rather a focused pointing towards Jesus Christ as the only hope.

Everyone of the individuals who carry out what you and I may deem as offensive acts, are included in the reconciliation that Jesus provided by His death on the cross. Easter reminds us that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. The message of the Cross is the only power able to transform human behavior. Let’s not be shocked by the world around us, but let’s look for opportunities to get to know people, to share their lives and to tell them what Jesus has done for us. Happy Easter!

Peter

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My thoughts after reading the post:

There will always be this dilemma whether we are to work out our faith or not to do anything that, as Pastor Youngren has put it, using our indignation as a badge of righteousness. This is really a fine line to walk on but grace message has saved us all. It is not in our doing for the sake of doing, it is God's love being shown through us that is most important. And the basis of our 'doing' has to be established on the fact of 'done deal' that the blood shed for us on the cross is enough to bring us to heaven.

So about James letter to get us to work out our faith? My view is that once we get the correct perspective on how grace has worked in the Christian life, then anything that we do, we did it based on gratitude that we have for Jesus who died for us. To me, it would be second nature akin to Paul saying how we can be trapped by sin again if we are in a position of righteousness.

'Right believing begets right living'

We just have a very bad episode of secular values versus Christian values in a women's group in Singapore and it really reflect badly the society as a whole and Christianity in particular. I can't fault anyone as everyone has good starting points and good intentions. But intention is not enough in the Court of God, and the Court of God have to rely on some sort of standard and that standard by far the best for the unsaved, is the one handed down by Moses.

If we are more in tuned to God's plan for us to be salt of the world as described in this post, I think we will be in a better position to engage and convinced the unsaved.