Category: Do I have to?

I woke up thinking about Haiti…

I woke up thinking about Haiti this morning. It has been almost twelve years since I went there for a mission trip. I remember vividly the night sky and staring up at the stars from the roof of the mission I was staying at. I remember the sound of the voodoo drums resonating across the mountains and valleys as we traveled to a “mountain church”. I remember the signs of spirituality everywhere… spirituality with great darkness.

I have seen several posts or comments related to the tragedy in Haiti, as well as other tragedies, typically they are from atheists, that say things like, “a single penny to help the cause is better than all the prayers in the world”. I hate that saying. It is a lie.

I am well aware that there are people who hide behind words and “saying a prayer” so that they do not actually have to give or move. I am well aware that the heart that is truly moved by the love of God will manifest itself with deeds of love. I am well aware that faith without works is dead.

Don’t think for a second that money given to relief is worth more than your prayers. James 5:17 says, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.” God ordained and used Elijah’s prayer to shut up rain on the land of Israel for 3 1/2 years. God can ordain and use your prayer to awaken the hearts of Haitians to the light of the glorious good news of Jesus Christ.

I keep going back to read in Luke 18:1 when it says the reason Jesus spoke the parable to them was to teach them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Men always ought to pray and not lose heart. It’s easy to lose heart. Pray.

If you cannot give abundantly physically, you can give abundantly through prayer. Not through a flippant prayer, but through earnest and fervent prayers. The “effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”. God honors fervent praying. Praying that shows a broken and contrite spirit.

There are times that you may be moved to pray and that prayer comes easily. There also may be times that you have to labor and wrestle not only in prayer but just to start praying. Regardless of how easy or hard it is we must continue earnestly in prayer, pray without ceasing, and pray always and not lose heart. God hears our prayers, God uses our prayers, God ordains our prayers as the means to carry out His will in the world, and who knows what other great things are happening which we cannot see?

God is good.

That mortality may be swallowed up by life!

For my quiet time I am reading in Corinthians. I just finished 1 Corinthians and have started 2 Corinthians. Like always, there are so many things that hit me and prick my heart, but I want to share one of them from 2 Corinthians 5:1-8.

In verse two it talks about groaning with earnest desire to be clothed with our heavenly habitation (dwelling). It is speaking of being in this current ‘tent of the body’ and longing to be further clothed. Just like 1 Corinthians 15:35-49 talks about how corruption will put on incorruption so here in 2 Cor 5:4 Paul says, “…that mortality may be swallowed up by life.”

Then it blows me away that in verse 5 when it talks about God preparing us for this very thing (being clothed with our heavenly body and habitation) it says that He has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. A deposit. A down payment. Like earnest money.

How great is it that God who is supreme and cannot lie and cannot be moved puts a down payment on us? He secures us with Himself so that nothing can annul it. He prepares us to receive that for which He has prepared for us.

Now. What REALLY hit me was the next 3 verses. Verse 6 starts like this “So we are always confident”. Love that. Always confident huh. About what? Sorry, let me finish the verse, “So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”

The point is that we know, by faith, that when we are in the current ‘tent of this body’ that we are absent from the Lord and when we are absent from the body that we will be present with the Lord. I like how then Paul says, “well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord”.

It seems like a lot of people do not groan for their heavenly habitation. It seems like a lot of people would not be well pleased to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. We are consumed far too much with our desires (which are weak desires) so that we think if only we had this or that before we die or if only we accomplished such and such. Everything good and perfect comes from God so to go to His presence is far better than anything we could ever think or imagine. We should be well pleased to say “To live is Christ and to die is gain”.

There is confidence in living that way. For who or what can separate you from the love of Christ which passes knowledge?

Verse 9 starts with “therefore”. So because of everything we just said, “we make it our aim whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.”

Can I get an amen. Sure. Amen.

The enjoyment of God

“The enjoyment of [God] is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean.” — Jonathan Edwards