Executed for Distributing the Bible

Foxnews.com has a story about a North Korean woman who was publicly executed last month for distributing the Bible. We ought to pray that God would protect those who face similar threats, be grateful for the courage that she and others show in the face of persecution, and have the courage to use our freedom to spread the same Good News to those around us.

Our Need of Prayer

I was just reading a chapter about prayer in a book for pastors. I was preparing to discuss that chapter tomorrow morning with a small group of other pastors. I'm used to talking about prayer and hearing about the importance of praying - even if I'm not as good a pray-er as I ought to be. There were sections on private prayer for ourselves, praying for those in our churches, praying as part of pastoral visitation or counseling, and public prayer. But it was the final section of the chapter (just two paragraphs) that really caught my attention. The section was titled "Our Own Need of the Prayers of Others."

Quite often, the apostle Paul asked others to pray for him. Here is a sampling:

Romans 15:30-32 - "Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints; so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company."

Ephesians 6:19 - "Pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak."

Colossians 4:3 - "...praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned."

If Paul needed people to pray for him, then we need the prayers of other at least as much. We are pretty good at asking others to pray for others who are in need. And we aren't to bad at asking them to pray for us when we are in a crisis - financial, health, marital, etc. But most of the time, are we seeking to have others pray for us? Do others know how we would like them to pray for us? Sure, when we ask others to pray for us, we can no longer hide the fact that we are not self-sufficient. We reveal our need in general, which is humbling enough, and we may be further humbled by particular needs that we reveal. But wouldn't we rather have people praying for the needs that we actually have, rather than keeping those needs to ourselves?

The closing line in this chapter on prayer is this: "No Christian knows how much he owes to God for the prayers of others, and not least shepherds (meaning pastors) and teachers." So...how do you want people to pray for you? And who are you going to ask to pray for you?

Why does God make us pray?

One question that might have come to mind this Sunday as we talked about how disciples pray and what they pray for, taken from the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:7-15), is this: If God knows what we need even before we ask Him (Matthew 6:8), then what is the point of praying? Why does God wait for us to ask Him instead of just giving us what He knows we need?

That's a good question. And here is my attempt at a brief answer. The most important thing for us is not to simply have the things that we need, but to know and trust and love God. What could happen if God constantly gave us the things that we need without us ever having to pray for them? The Bible suggests some answers.

Deuteronomy 6:10-12 - “Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build, and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied, then watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

Proverbs 30:8-9 - “Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, that I not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or that I not be in want and steal, And profane the name of my God.”

What do these scriptures seem to suggest? When things are going well for us, we are prone to forget God, which is about the worst thing that we could ever do. When things go well, we can begin to think that we are the reason that things are going well, or that there is just some law in the universe that makes things go well. But what does prayer do? It keeps us from forgetting God by reminding us that whatever good things we receive are given to us by God.

When God knows what we need before we ask him, but he often waits to give what we need until we ask him, he helps to keep us from forgetting him. At first, making us pray may seem stingy. But when we realize why God makes us pray, we realize that making us pray is one of the kindest things that God could do because it keeps us form one of the biggest mistakes we could ever make - forgetting God.

Why I'm Proud of My Son

This weekend, my eight year-old son played in his first All-Star baseball tournament. Now, it's a lot of fun to watch him and his friends play ball. They're pretty good too. They played nine games in two days and, after losing their very first game, played all the way back through the loser's bracket to win the tournament. What made it more fun is that my son was hitting the ball better than he has all year. Because I want him to have fun, I was pretty happy that he was playing so well.

But there was something else I wanted him to know made me really proud of him. It's that he only played eight games instead of nine - because he was in church with us during the first game on Sunday. You see, we've tried to teach our kids that following Jesus is more important than baseball or school or anything else. We felt strongly that missing baseball to be in church would allow us reinforce, rather than undermine, what we've tried to teach them.

But I wondered how my son would react. And do you know what? He never once complained. And he never once asked if he could go to the game instead of to church. He did ask if he could leave his class early that day - to return to the main service to celebrate the Lord's Supper with the rest of the church. My son has a long way to go as he grows up. But I am really proud of him because he seems to "get" what really matters - something that a lot of adults (even his dad, sometimes) don't get. And if he continues to "get" this, I pretty sure that the other things he needs to learn won't be nearly so hard for him to learn.

On Modesty (from the "Boundless" blog)

On of the blogs that I read directed my attention to another blog post, where the author reflects on her reaction to seeing a young lady at an amusement park in a pink, tight-fitting shirt that said, "Virginity Rocks." You can read the post here. Does what we wear support, or contradict, what we say?