When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit (John 19:30). The phrase Jesus uses here on the cross expressed a business transaction completed: “paid in full.” At the heart of trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation is the confidence that nothing else needs to be added to the price he paid, in his death, for our salvation. Do you live in the reality of a fully-paid salvation each day?
Prayer
Lead Us Not Into Temptation
Lead us not into temptation (Luke 11:4). (Today’s is the last in a brief series of meditations on the Lord’s Prayer.) James says no one can say God has tempted him; this request, then, is for God to keep us from situations where we might fall. It is a recognition of the dangerous, bait-riddled, sin-inducing nature of this world. If love of money doesn’t get us, perhaps the temptation to fit in with the crowd will.
Forgive Our Sins
Forgive us our sins (Luke 11:4). (We are continuing in our brief series of meditations on the Lord’s Prayer.) Jesus teaches us to pray daily (see previous post) for the forgiveness of our sins, assuming (as we ought to) that we have strayed from the mark each day. Sins are sins — they are not merely mistakes, flaws, personality, or “my truth versus your truth.” And every sin is against God ultimately, and so must be dealt with before God (Psalm 51:4)
Give Us Our Daily Bread
Give us each day our daily bread (Luke 11:3). (We continue today in our brief series on the Lord’s Prayer.) The opening requests that Jesus models for us are about God — so like God they are majestic, huge, and inspiring. A lesson Jesus clearly means for us to learn in this prayer is that God comes first, and only when God is first does everything else matter or fall into place. However, the following pleas that Jesus himself places in our mouth are about us — and like us they are daily, mundane, unspectacular.
Your Kingdom Come
Your kingdom come (Luke 11:2). In my last post I began a series of brief meditations on the Lord’s Prayer. The prayer begins with the request for God’s name to be hallowed, followed immediately with the prayer for his kingdom to come. When we ask for God’s kingdom to come, we are reminded that not only is God’s name and glory to come first — but also God’s desires, his will, his purposes, and his authority.
Hallowed Be Your Name
When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name” (Luke 11:2). It is doubtless true that the Lord’s Prayer is routinely abused around the globe every day, mouthed by people who neither think about its meaning, nor would mean it even if they did. This is why Martin Luther referred to the Lord’s Prayer as “the greatest martyr on earth.” It is, as it were, butchered by thoughtless, soulless prayer on a daily basis. However, the other extreme, into which many evangelicals today have fallen (and it’s just as bad) is this: we have largely neglected it!
That God May Be Known To Be God
A friend who has recently been reading through David Brainerd’s biography shared with me a stirring passage from Brainerd’s journal. What motivated this man — who spent years in sacrifice and service of the gospel, and eventually died an early death for the spread of it — to continue laboring in the face of excruciating pain and disappointment? The overarching, undergirding concern “that God might be known to be God in the whole earth” and that “God have the glory forever.”
The Dangers and Benefits of Revival
Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? (Psalm 85:6). We are in desperate need of revival. Our marriages, our families, our churches, our nation (no matter what nation we hail from)—in every arena of life and society and religion we need the omnipotent, renewing visitation of the Holy Spirit. Yet many of us as Christians do not know what “revival” even means precisely.
Does Prayer Really Change Anything?
Every Christian knows we are supposed to pray. In fact, most of us would probably rate prayer as one of the top five things we are supposed to be doing as a believer. Yet many of us have doubt that haunts the back of our minds: “Does this really make any difference?” Why should we pray? What difference, if any, does prayer make? No question, or answer, could be more important.
Pray For All People
Text: 1 Timothy 2:1-7 The Big Idea: The prayers of the Church should be as big hearted as the God we claim to worship, and as global and expansive as his purposes and activities on earth.
Nothing But Jesus
Paul writes to the church at Corinth and says, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Really? Nothing but Jesus? In this letter, Paul is going to address sin issues, life issues, church issues, and interpersonal issues. Yet, Paul insists at the outset that he will only be talking about Jesus! How can this be? All these issues have their center and solution in the gospel. And we must learn, then, to center our thinking and living and faith-fighting in the gospel like Paul consciously did. Paul, in this passage, shares with us at
How Can I Finish Well?
Having begun the Christian race, how can I finish well? Can I be assured of God’s continued work in and through me, as I seek to follow and honor him? Or will I peter out, fall spectacularly, or fail in the end? Thankfully, the Bible does promise us that God will continue and complete his saving work in us. Yet, God does use certain means to establish and strengthen us to that end.
What About When God Doesn’t Answer Prayer?
While, as believers in Jesus Christ, we all have known marvelous periods of grace, deliverance, and unspeakable joy – most of us probably have also known moments (perhaps very long periods) of utter discouragement, grief, and unspeakable pain. In times such as these, we can sometimes feel as though God is not answering our prayers. In fact, He may not be granting the precise thing for which we are asking. Join us, then, as we consider this experience in the light of God’s perfect and reliable Word.
7 Ways That We Worship God
Considering that the first command is that we love and worship God, it is important for us to ask, “How do we worship God?” God of course does not leave us to guess about the answer. And as we might expect, in worshiping such a good and gracious God we not only glorify him but find satisfaction and eternal joy ourselves!
“Open My Eyes”: a Meditation on God’s Word
Here’s a brief meditation I wrote down from Psalm 119, a great text for Bible reading. You might find it encouraging as you continue looking for wonderful things in God’s law this year: “Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18).