Praying: Is that all?

People want to do something that matters. I understand that. We all want to do something that makes a difference. But when someone says that they will pray for you when you need help, it is natural for the recipient to be a little disappointed. It reminds me of the day that Peter and John met the beggar at the gate called Beautiful.

Acts 3:1Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. 3Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. 4And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” 7And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9And all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

I can imagine the lame beggar going from glad to sad when Peter told him he had no silver or gold.  But he was over the moon with what the disciple of Jesus had given him: a miracle of healing.

Of course, this is an easy call. Obviously, this was better than doing a simple bit of charitable giving. But what about the prayers of the saints that are for something less flashy, or something that is deferred. We probably roll our eyes and say, "Thanks for nothin," under our breath.


Doing good works is important. So are miracles. And I wonder how much of either takes place without the anonymous intercessor doing battle with the forces of wickedness in the heavenly realms, or those prayers that have been stored up in heaven like the great bowls in Revelation 5:8.

"And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints."

God does want us to act. But I want God to act even more.

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. Psalm 127:1

So, is God really pleased with a bunch of praying do-nothings?

 John 6:28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

People who desire to know God and follow Jesus are always wondering what sort of deed will please the Father. It is so hard to understand that God already loves us, just as we are. And it's even harder to grasp that He wants to provide for us even the things we want to give to Him as an offering.

I must confess to you that I have been a feeble prayer practitioner for many years. I have spent a lot of time trying to glorify God with my own goodness and cleverness and sincerity. And now He has my attention. I get it. I can do nothing without Him. I can produce nothing outside of Him. Everything I do is vanity. I must humble myself and ask Him to pour out His Spirit and then simply declare how amazing He is.


And so, it is hard to get people to pray and seek God because it means that we really don't have anything better to do. Of course, when He tells us to do something, like when He told Ananias to pray for Saul that he might receive his sight, you jump right on it. But I will bet you that God spoke to Ananias because they were in the habit of communicating.

Acts 9:10Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 12and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” 15But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 17So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; 19and taking food, he was strengthened.

You be the judge. Ananias was a praying man.

The Leap of Faith

I got this video from another Vineyard church in another city because I was trying to get up to speed with what my own church is doing. Even though my wife and I have a small group, and our church is doing the Leap of Faith through its small groups, I was still sort of distracted and not quite grasping what this was all about.

Well, it seems to me like it's similar to Operation Rolling Thunder in that it's a plan for creating revival in your city through prayer and outreach, except in the Leap of Faith, the outreach seems a little better defined. Therefore, I am for it!

For a look at what it is we are doing here at the Vineyard in Gainesville, FL, go to our website and give the user manual a quick read!

Pray for Dads, and the people who need them

Last week I watched the movie, Courageous, with people from my small group, and we were all impressed. Although it was a clarion call for dads to step up and be Godly fathers, it also makes us aware that good dads are in short supply.

Over the years I have been involved in children's ministry, and we always had a few kids with absent fathers. Although I know I was probably a good role model for those kids, I really don't think I gave enough of myself to them. They needed me more than a couple of hours per week on Sunday.

Of course, I was still raising my own kids. Isn't that more important? Am I really the dead-beat dad's child's keeper? Well, now my kids are raised, they need me a little bit less (maybe). And as I walk my dog around the block every day I have to pass a house with a bunch of kids, a mom, and a revolving cast of men. It looks complicated, and like a lot of work. I am praying about this.

Anyway, we all see these situations and just walk by. Is this what we are called to do? By all means, get your own house in order. But then what? Let us pray for these broken families that are leaving wounded children behind. We all know some.

The state of our souls

A few weeks ago, when the President gave the State of the Union address I did not watch it. I follow the news pretty closely and did not anticipate learning anything new. And, I must confess, I thought it would only make me mad.

I really struggle with my attitude toward our national leaders, and our local leaders. The Bible tells us, "First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2:1-4)

So, when my wife and I were in our car, listening to the local Christian radio station, I was quite arrested by the radio announcer praying for our country and its leaders, with all sincerity. In spite of my dissatisfaction with our local and national state of governing affairs, I was struck with the idea of how much worse things might be without those who are praying. Who knows what evils are being held back by the relative few who are carrying this burden of prayer?

According to Paul's letter to Timothy, the goal of those prayers is, "that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity." Our godliness and dignity are particularly tested because we, as citizens of a democratic republic, share the burden of governing through our own Constitutionally protected participation. After all, Ephesus and Palestine were not "red states" that voted for Caesar. You couldn't harbor ill will toward your neighbor for voting for a particular bloody dictator.

For this reason, we are not just praying for our leaders here in America. We are also praying for our neighbors, who we want to be saved. We must keep our own souls from becoming soiled with a bad attitude toward people with offensive bumper stickers. On the bright side, at least our fellow citizens are wearing labels that may help us to pray for them while they are in traffic!

Let us be able to report that it is well with our souls, regardless of what is going on around us. It makes us able and likely to pray in our nation's time of need.

Praying and speaking out

In this past week, an organization that raises money to fight breast cancer was publicly ridiculed for withdrawing funding from Planned Parenthood, and called "bullies" for doing so. In other words, they were bullied into putting that money back.

Right on the heels of this story, it came out that Catholic hospitals will be forced to offer abortions as part of their employees' health care coverage. The Catholic Church, however, is digging in and promising to fight this to the end.

Let us pray for out Catholic brothers and sisters, that they will remain steadfast. And let us also consider doing what we can do to help in a tangible way. We should also speak out against this government hostility to our values and against the lives of the innocent.

If any of you are ambivalent about this issue, please take the time to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help you clarify the difference between right and wrong, good and evil.

If you think that someone should help pay for abortions for "poor" women as a part of "contraception" or "family planning," ask yourself a question. Would you give money in an offering taken up to pay for Sister Lulabell's abortion?

As horrible a thought as that is, keep in mind that when the government decides to do these things, it does so without your permission. Nobody is "asking" you to do this. But the politicians who run this grisly machine will be asking for your vote in November.

Law and Grace

This past Tuesday was election day for our city commissioners, and it was another depressing low turnout. The newspaper touted it as the third highest turnout since 2004, but when you consider how bad it usually is, this is nothing to brag about. Out of 71,961 registered voters in the City of Gainesville, only 12,172 bothered to vote for a city commissioner in the At-large race. Another 947 voted in the Republican Primary and/or the District 1 race but opted out of voting for an At-large candidate.

In spite of my disappointment in my fellow citizens, people do have the right to opt out and let a small minority choose for them. It may be wrong, or it may be ignorance, but God makes us free to make bad choices. We will have to answer to Him for them someday, but for now we have the Grace to make that call.

What if we weren't free to do that? What if not voting were a punishable crime? Then your obedience would be under the law. There would be no virtue in it.

What about any other act that we deem to be a good and moral thing to do? What about charity? Many Christians practice tithing, although most don't. There is no penalty under the law for not tithing. Should the church be given the power to tax? If it were, it would no longer be the church. It would be a man-made kingdom that was masquerading as the Kingdom of God.

This is what I thought about when I heard the President say that it was his faith in Jesus that compelled him to want to raise taxes on the rich. I shuddered. It was not only that I thought it was a bastardization of Biblical principles that made me cringe. It was the lack of Christians calling him out on it. Yes, there were comparisons like, "George Bush caught grief for letting his faith guide him in matters of state." But that is mere hypocrisy. What the President is declaring is heresy.

God does not force us to be moral. But He does define morality. The President is trying to do both when he defines morality as taking even more of a few people's money to spend it on a giant, onerous, bankrupt bureaucracy, he forces them to do so, AND tells us that Jesus says so.

In many of our workplaces, we are not allowed to talk about Jesus. But if you are the President and you are trying to get re-elected, you can use His Name like a club. There is truly no hope in our system of government apart from prayer.

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Ephesians 6:12

Greed and envy

Before I begin, I just want to thank Countryside Baptist and Oak Park Baptist for covering this city with 24 hour prayer.

My recent labor of love is reading St. Augustine's "City of God," which was written after the sack of Rome by the Visigoths. I am still under the 200 page mark. The early part is Augustine's defense of the church against the charge that Rome was sacked as a punishment for leaving pagan idolatry.

Perhaps 100 years from now, this time will be remembered as the sack of America: spiraling debt, public and private, leading to economic collapse. At this time, some of us have sense enough to know it is coming. Wherever we end up, our current leaders are arguing over who is to blame for it. No one wants to accept responsibility for the possible collapse of civilization.

This is an excellent time to repent. The vast majority of Americans are to blame for what has happened. Rampant borrowing and demand for more and more goods and services at less cost came while we were less and less inclined to invest in prosperity by teaching and disciplining the young. The next generation will be less prepared to repair our country than we are willing to do it.

Instead of being angry because someone else has more than we do, or hoping that simply making more money will fix things, it is time to look within and accept that we are all a part of the lust for things that has caused our dissatisfaction and despair.

It is time for us to find our joy in God, because before long, it may be all we have.