Over the last three months, our small group has been working through a book called When God’s People Pray by Jim Cymbala.  It is excellent curriculum including DVD clips of Cymbala’s teaching and several powerful Faith Stories which illustrate the principles of each chapter.

“Praying for another person is like touching God with one hand and touching the person with the other.” – Jim Cymbala

Last week’s lesson was about intercessory prayer and gave several examples in Scripture of praying for others.  I realized that I often stop short at asking for God “to help” someone or “be with them.”  Or I may just stop short at asking God to provide for physical needs which I know my friend needs, rather than delving into spiritual needs. 

As I began compiling a list of the biblical examples given in the text, I realized what rich and deep content is here and how praying this way for others could take my prayer life to a deeper level.

Here’s the list I have so far:

· Receive the Holy Spirit – Acts 8:14-15

· Be delivered from unbelievers who oppose Truth – Rom 15:31

· Have acceptable service to God– Rom 15:31

· Receive the Spirit of wisdom and revelation – Eph 1:17-19

· Know/ experience Him – Eph 1:17-10

· Know the Hope to which He’s called us – Eph 1:17-19

· Know our inheritance – Eph 1:17-19

· Know His power (same power which raised Christ from the dead) – Eph 1:17-19

· Have strength through His Spirit – Eph 3:16-19

· Be rooted and grounded in love – Eph 3:16-19

· Help us to understand “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that [we] may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” – Eph 3:16-19

· Have Christ dwell in our hearts through faith – Eph 3:16-19

· Have boldness in evangelism – 2 Thess 1:11

· Be worthy of His calling; effectiveness – Eph 3:16-19

· Practice Effective Evangelism – Philemon 1:6

· Allow those who oppose us to receive forgiveness – Lk 22:32-34

· Keep/ guard us from the Evil One – John 17:15

· Sanctify us in Your Truth/ Word – John 17:17

· Give us unity with other Believers – John 17:20-21

· Deepen our knowledge and experience of God – John 17:3,25-26

· Experience God’s love and that God Himself may be in us – John 17:26

· Keep our faith from failing – Lk 22:31-32

If you’ve been praying for someone you love, don’t give up.  I hope these verses will give you ideas for how you can continue to reach out to God for them!

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Ephesians 3:20-21

Our church, Harvest Bible Chapel, does impromptu baptism services a couple of times a year.  At the end of these services, Pastor James invites people who have given their life to Christ to come be baptized.  Baptism is a step of obedience which they can take to publically tell others that they have put their trust in Jesus Christ. 

Two weeks ago, we had one of these services.  It is incredibly beautiful and powerful to hear people tell about how God has changed their lives. 

Here, take a look for yourself…

Harvest Bible Chapel Spontaneous Baptisms, December 2008 from Harvest Bible Chapel on Vimeo.

Becoming convinced that there is a Creator God was not a problem for me intellectually.  It makes more sense and takes less faith than believing the universe came from some sort of cosmic chance.

However, I needed to question and search more to become convinced about Jesus.  I went through a time of doubt during my college years where I asked, “How do I know that Jesus really is God?”  Here is some of the convincing evidence I found…

• He very clearly claimed to be God.  As I read through the book of John, I saw how clear this is. For starters, He claimed to be “one with the Father,” the “I AM,” “the resurrection and the life,” “the only way to the Father,” and able to forgive sin and give eternal life (which are things which only God can do)… I have a more detailed list with Bible references if you’re interested in seeing it…

The Jewish audience who heard these claims fully understood that He was claiming to be God.  The public flooded to Him in large numbers — especially those seeking forgiveness and healing.  He did not disappoint.

However, His claims to deity infuriated many of the religious leaders.  They thought of themselves as already righteous and didn’t see their great need for forgiveness and healing.  They hated that Jesus confronted them about all the additional “religious” laws they had created… and that He called their authority into question.  He also criticized their empty religious lives and hearts, calling them hypocrites (see Matthew 23).  They didn’t like that… so each time He claimed to be God, they sought, and eventually did, kill Him.

Because Jesus claimed to be God, I realized I was left with believing one of three options.  He is either (1) an outright liar who set out to deceive others with His claims, or (2) a deluded, crazy man who really believed He was God even though He was not, or (3) actually God.  Also, I had to wonder, would He have been willing to die for a lie?

• His miracles give evidence of His power as God – For example, creating something out of nothing (there is nothing you can add to water to make it wine. He created it.), healing a lame man’s atrophied legs, healing eyes blind from birth, and restoring life to the dead.

• He rose from the dead. For me, this was indispensable. He died in front of many eyewitnesses. The soldier even stuck a spear in His side to make sure He was dead. He was buried, and extra measures were taken to keep His disciples from stealing His body — the guards around his grave and the large stone. And then 3 days later the stone rolled away when He rose from the dead.  He was seen again by many, many eyewitnesses. That’s historical, and really not debatable. No other “god” has even claimed to do this.

• Changed Lives.   I saw this in the lives of Jesus’ disciples – especially Peter since so much is written about Him. He was fearful and wavering. But then at Pentecost (Acts 2) when the Spirit came as Jesus promised, he became incredibly bold in his preaching and in his stand against Jewish leaders and Roman officials – even when his life was at stake.   He, like many other followers of Jesus, eventually did give up his life for his belief in Christ.

And of course, the message of Jesus has continued to change lives throughout all of history. It still does today in those who truly believe!

Coming Soon: Convinced that the Bible is True.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect… (1 Peter 3:14)

Someone asked me recently why I believe in God, Jesus, and the Bible.  Great questions!  Faith, by definition, means believing without seeing.  However, having faith does not imply leaving intellect behind.  Some of us will have questions which need to be answered.  I know I did.  Here are some of the reasons I am now convinced.

1.  Convinced that there is a God 

·       Choose any part of the Human Body.  Spend a little time researching the way it works, and without doubt, you’ll see great detail and design beyond any human intelligence. 

·       Design, almost like a fingerprint, characterizes all of creation – from the smallest thing we know to the largest.  Consider the way electrons revolve around the nucleus of an atom in the same way that planets revolve around the sun.  From what I can tell, Scientists don’t really even understand what holds the atom together.  They just call it the “strong force.”  And gravity, of course, holds the solar system together.  We have names for what holds it together, but it’s not something which human intelligence or cosmic chance could create or do. 

God holds both together.    “… all things were created by Him and for Him.  He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Col 1:16-17 

·       Another amazing aspect of Creation is how it shows the character of God.  Just look around and you’ll be able to deduce so much about the Creator – powerful, creative, beautiful, enormous, has a sense of humor (flamingo, hippo… lol!), sustaining, faithful… and on and on.  It all points back to Him, and the fact that He wants to reveal Himself to us.  He is relational and loving.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.   Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.”  Psalm 19:1-3

 Coming soon:  Convinced that Jesus is God

“What’s milk made of?”  Ella asked me recently.

“Hhmm… Well, I’m pretty sure that milk is made of… milk.”

After saying that, I started thinking about how unusual it is to see single ingredient foods these days.  I guess that’s why the words organic, natural, and whole are appearing more and more frequently on our produce and labels.   In attempt to be healthy, we seek to avoid processed food, even though they are more convenient, more transportable, and have a longer shelf life. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m no purist when it comes to eating.  At least not yet.  It was only recently that I learned what “trans fats” and “hydrogenated oils” are, and why I should avoid them.  Truth is, I still occasionally indulge in movie theatre popcorn.  And let’s just face it…  that “butter” is probably 110% trans hydrogenated saturated fat! 

But this concept fascinates me, because I realize that it parallels the frustration I feel toward processed versions of other things in life, like truth.  In fact, as I searched online for a good definition of this virtue, I realized that there is “no agreed upon definition” of it.  Processed truth has come to mean whatever each person believes.  Talk about convenient and transportable! 

So if truth really is subjective, then I have decided that “truth for me” is that eating fatty, processed, and hydrogenated foods is GOOD for me!  Doesn’t that make it true?  So no more guilt.  In fact, I think I’ll go have some more milk… and a whole bag of Oreos to go with it.

 “Purify them with your Truth.  Your Word is Truth.”  Jesus, John 17:17