Little has Changed…or Has it?

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A Weekday Service

Hippolytus, (170-235) who was said to be a disciple of Polycarp- a disciple of the Apostle John, gave these instructions for a weekday morning service to the early church.

Let every faithful man and woman, when they have risen from sleep in the morning, before they touch any work at all, wash their hands and pray to God, and so go to their work. But if instruction in the Word of God is given, each one should choose to go to that place, reckoning in his heart that it is God whom he hears in the instructor.

For he who prays in the church will be able to pass by the wickedness of the day. He who is pious should think it a great evil if he does not go to the place where instruction is given and especially if he can read, or if a teacher comes.

Let none of you be late in the church, the place where teaching is given. Then it shall be given to the speaker to say what is useful to each one; you will hear things which you do not think of, and profit from things which the Holy Spirit will give you through the instructor. In this way your faith will be strengthened about the things you will have heard. You will also be told in that place what you ought to do at home. Therefore let each one be diligent in coming to the church, the place where the Holy Spirit flourishes. If there is a day when there is no instruction, let each one, when he is at home, take up a holy book and read in it sufficiently what seems to him to bring profit.

Notice….

Start of every day symbolically clean before God first… then If there is instruction offered- TAKE IT!

(And PLEASE DON’T BE COMING IN LATE!… and think it great EVIL to miss? whaaaa!- Hippolytus you so crazy!)

But don’t let Church be the only place you grow spiritually. Read at home, BUT read sufficiently to bring profit. That might mean more to some than others. Don’t do your Bible study like a fortune cookie, pick a verse, nod your head….. and go away unchanged.

For you to Pray to God, in the Word of God, for you to prosper in each other. What joy to miss out on. Since the Church began, not much has changed. Hebrews 10:25

John Donne / on a funeral

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Or Rather John Donne at a funeral……. this was preached by Donne at the funeral of Sir William Cockayne, a well known merchant/ knight . It was December, 1626.

So many things ring out from this; Donne on Prayer……..”But when we consider with religious seriousness the manifold weakness of the strongest devotions in times of prayers, it is a sad consideration. I throw myself down in my chamber, and I call in and invite God and his angels thither; and when they are there, I ignore God and his angels for the noise of a fly, for the rattling of a coach, for the whining of a door; I talk on…sometimes I find that I forgot what I was about, but when I began to forget it, I cannot tell. A memory of yesterday’s pleasures, a fear of tomorrow’s dangers, a straw under my knee, a noise in mine ear, a light in mine eye, an any thing, a nothing, a fancy a chimera in my brain, troubles me in my prayer.”

I could go on about how meaningful that is, but it was what Donne said about faith that prompted me to remember this particular writing of his. The “Law of Faith”. “When the Son of Man commeth, shall he find faith upon earth? Any faith in any man? He develops this so well from a faith heard and believed to a faith lived…. that is the “Law”; the show me kind of faith. A faith not seen is no faith at all…. attached is a pdf of the funeral service for your pleasure
john donne funeral

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Abandonment

Right after the conversation with the rich young ruler in Mark 10:17-23, that left the disciples in such a quandary about riches and heaven, Peter with his typical engage mouth before brain mentality

fork in the road

two roads

blurted out in verse 28 “look here, we have left everything and followed you!” to which Jesus replied, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life” and then added, “But many who are first will be last, and the last, first.”
There is a conflict here, two roads, Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem; to the cross. His total abandonment to the will of God. Peter is on his way to rule over the kingdom with the new messiah without the cross. Peter hadn’t left everything. We find him still fishing after the crucifixion with the family boats. We find him bringing his wife along on mission trips as spoken of by Paul in I Corinthians 9:5. Peter had just taken a leave of absence, a tour of duty so to speak. Big difference. When God told Abram to leave Ur, I bet he didn’t keep a PO Box there.
Peter, with the Holy Spirit’s help traveled on the “Jesus” road”. The apostle to the Jews, was eventually crucified at Rome for the sake of the gospel. That is the way of abandonment.

reminded me of a devotional…………..

Our Lord replies, in effect, that abandonment is for Himself, and not for what the disciples themselves will get from it. Beware of an abandonment which has the commercial spirit in it—‘I am going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy.’ All that is the result of being right with God, but that spirit is not of the essential nature of Christianity. Abandonment is not for anything at all. We have got so commercialized that we only go to God for something from Him, and not for Himself. It is like saying—‘No, Lord, I don’t want Thee, I want myself; but I want myself clean and filled with the Holy Ghost; I want to be put in Thy showroom and be able to say—“This is what God has done for me.” ‘If we only give up something to God because we want more back, there is nothing of the Holy Spirit in our abandonment; it is miserable commercial self-interest. That we gain heaven, that we are delivered from sin, that we are made useful to God—these things never enter as considerations into real abandonment, which is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.
When we come up against the barriers of natural relationship, where is Jesus Christ? Most of us desert Him—‘Yes, Lord, I did hear Thy call; but my mother is in the road, my wife, my self-interest, and I can go no further.’ ‘Then,’ Jesus says, ‘you cannot be My disciple.’
The test of abandonment is always over the neck of natural devotion. Go over it, and God’s own abandonment will embrace all those you had to hurt in abandoning. Beware of stopping short of abandonment to God. Most of us know abandonment in vision only.
Chambers, O. (1993). My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year (NIV edition.). Westwood, NJ: Barbour and Co.

Robert Murray McCheyne died at age 29 in 1843

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Isabella Dickson, who became Andrew Bonar’s (McCheyne’s friend and biographer) wife, heard McCheyne preach when she was still an unbeliever and wrote,robert murray mccheyne

” There was something singularly attractive about Mr. McCheyne’s holiness. . . . It was not his matter nor his manner either that struck me; it was just the living epistle of Christ—a picture so lovely, I felt I would have given all the world to be as he was, but knew all the time I was dead in sins.”

here is an excerpt from the book “Memoir of the Reverend Robert MurrayMcCheyne” a good read………

FOURTH PASTORAL LETTER
God the answerer of prayer
EDINBURGH, February 20, 1839.
To all of you, my dear flock, who are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blame before Him in love, your pastor again wishes grace and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are many sweet providences happening to us every day, if we would but notice them. In the texts which ministers choose, what remarkable providences God often brings about! I have often felt this, and never more than now. Some of you may remember that the last chapter of the Bible which I read to you in the church was 1st Kings 19, where we are told of Elijah going away into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights to the mount of God, where he was taught that it is not by the wind, nor the earthquake, nor the fire, that God converts souls, but by the still small voice of the gospel. May not this have been graciously intended to prepare as for what has happened? Another providence some of you may have noticed. For several Thursday evenings before I left you I was engaged in explaining and enforcing the sweet duty of believing prayer. Has not God since taught us the use of these things? “Trials make the promise sweet”—“Trials give new life to prayer.” Perhaps some of us were only receiving the information into the head; is not God now impressing it on our hearts, and driving us to practise the things which we learned? I do not now remember all the points I was led to speak upon to you, but one, I think, was entirely omitted—I mean the subject of answers to prayer. God left it for us to meditate on now. Oh, there is nothing that I would have you to be more sure of than this, that “God hears and answers prayer.” There never was, and never will be, a believing prayer left unanswered. Meditate on this, and you will say, “I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplication.”—Ps. 116:1.
First, God often gives the very thing his children ask at the very time they ask it. You remember Hannah, 1 Sam. 1:10: she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. “Give unto thine handmaid a man-child.” This was her request. And so she went in peace, and the God of Israel heard and granted her her petition that she had asked of Him; and she called the child’s name Samuel, that is, “Asked of God.” Oh that you could write the same name upon all your gifts! you would have more joy in them, and far larger blessings along with them. You remember David, in Ps. 138: “In the day that I cried Thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.” You remember Elijah, 1 Kings 17:21: “O Lord my God! I pray Thee let this child’s soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.” You remember Daniel, 9:20, 21: “While I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin, and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.” Oh what encouragement is here for those among you who, like Daniel, are greatly beloved,—who study much in the books of God’s word, and who set your face unto the Lord to seek by prayer gifts for the church of God! Expect answers while you are speaking in prayer. Sometimes the vapours that ascend in the morning come down in copious showers in the evening. So may it be with your prayers. Take up the words of David, Psalm 5:3: “My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up.” You remember, in Acts 12, Peter was cast into prison, “but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.” And, behold, the same night the answer surprised them at the door. Oh! what surprises of goodness and grace God has in store for you and me, if only we pray without ceasing! If you will pray in union to Jesus, having childlike confidence towards God,—having the spirit of adoption, crying Abba within you,—seeking the glory of God more than all personal benefits, I believe that in all such cases you will get the very thing you ask, at the very time you ask it. Before you call, God will hear; and while you are speaking, He will answer. Oh, if there were twenty among you who would pray thus, and persevere therein like wrestling Jacob, you would get whatever you ask! yea, the case of Daniel shows that the effectual fervent prayer of one such believer among you will avail much. “Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thy heart,” Ps. 37:4.
Second, God often delays the answer to prayer for wise reasons. The case of the Syrophenician woman will occur to you all, Matt. 15:21–28. How anxiously she cried, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou son of David! But Jesus answered her not a word.” Again and again she prayed, and got no gracious answer. Her faith grows stronger by every refusal. She cried, she followed, she kneeled to Him, till Jesus could refuse no longer. “O woman, great is thy faith! Be it unto thee even as thou wilt.” Dear praying people, “continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgivings.” Do not be silenced by one refusal. Jesus invites importunity by delaying to answer. Ask, seek, knock. “The promise may be long delayed, but cannot come too late.” You remember, in the parable of the importunate widow, it is said, “Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.” Luke 18:1–8. This shows how you, who are God’s children, should pray. You should cry day and night unto God. This shows how God hears every one of your cries, in the busy hour of the day-time, and in the lonely watches of the night. He treasures them up from day to day; soon the full answer will come down: “He will answer speedily.” The praying souls beneath the altar, in Rev. 6:9–11, seem to show the same truth, that the answer to a believer’s prayers may, in the adorable wisdom of God, be delayed for a little season, and that many of them may not be folly answered till after he is dead. Again, read that wonderful passage, Rev. 8:3, where it is said that the Lord Jesus, the great Intercessor with the Father, offers to God the incense of his merits, with the prayers of all saints, upon the golden altar which is before the throne. Christ never loses one believing prayer. The prayers of every believer, from Abel to the present day, He heaps upon the altar, from which they are continually ascending before his Father and our Father; and when the altar can hold no more, the full, the eternal answer will come down. Do not be discouraged, dearly beloved, because God bears long with you—because He does not seem to answer your prayers. Your prayers are not lost. When the merchant sends his ships to distant shores, he does not expect them to come back richly laden in a single day: he has long patience. “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” Perhaps your prayers will come back, like the ships of the merchant, all the more heavily laden with blessings, because of the delay.
Third, God often answers prayer by terrible things. So David says in Ps. 65: “By terrible things in righteousness wilt Thou answer us, O God of our salvation.” And all of you who are God’s children have found it true. Some of you have experienced what John Newton did when he wrote that beautiful hymn, “I asked the Lord that I might grow.” You prayed with all your heart, “Lord, increase my faith.” In answer to this, God has shown you the misery of your connection with Adam. He has revealed the hell that is in your heart. You are amazed, confounded, abashed. You cry, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” You cleave to a Saviour God with a thousand times greater anxiety. Your faith is increased. Your prayer is answered by terrible things. Some of us prayed for a praying spirit, “Lord, teach us to pray.” God has laid affliction upon us. Waves and billows go over us. We cry out of the depths. Being afflicted, we pray. He has granted our heart’s desire. Our prayer is answered by terrible things.
Fourth, God sometimes answers prayer by giving something better than we ask. An affectionate father on earth often does this. The child says, Father, give me this fruit. No, my child, the father replies; but here is bread, which is better for you. So the Lord Jesus dealt with his beloved Paul, 2 Cor. 12:7–9. There was given to Paul a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him. In bitterness of heart he cried, “Lord, let this depart from me.” No answer came. Again he prayed the same words. No answer still. A third time he knelt, and now the answer came, not as he expected. The thorn is not plucked away—the messenger of Satan is not driven back to hell; but Jesus opens wide his more loving breast, and says, “My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Oh! this is something exceeding abundant above all that he asked, and all that he thought. Ah! this is something better than he asked, and better than he thought. Surely God is able to do “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,” Eph. 3:20. Dear praying believers, be of good cheer. God will either give you what you ask, or something far better. Are you not quite willing that He should choose for you and me? You remember that even Jesus prayed, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me!” That desire was not granted, but there appeared unto Him an angel from heaven strengthening Him, Luke 22:43. He received what was far better—strength to drink the cup of vengeance. Some of you, my dear believing flock, have been praying that, if it be God’s will, I might be speedily restored to you, that God’s name might be glorified; and I have been praying the same. Do not be surprised if He should answer our prayers by giving us something above what we imagined. Perhaps He may glorify himself by us in another way than we thought. “Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”
These things I have written, that you may come boldly to the throne of grace. The Lord make you a praying people. “Strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request with joy.”
Now, the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one towards another, according to Christ Jesus. “The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing; and the God of peace be with you all. Amen.”

McCheyne, R. M., & Bonar, A. A. (1894). Memoir and Remains of the Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne (191–195). Edinburgh; London: Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier.

Can Prayer Change Things?

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A reflection on prayer by John Cooper, professor of theological philosophy at Calvin Theological Seminary.
Can prayer change things? Does talking to God have any effect whatsoever on what happens? If we are sick, does asking God to heal us make a difference in whether we get better? If a friend has rejected the Lord, is there any point in pleading for his salvation? These are not just theological questions. Our trust in God is at stake. On one hand, the Bible assures us that the Lord answers prayer. On the other, it teaches that God is the sovereign Lord who knows and rules all things according to his perfect will.

So we ask again: Can prayer really change God’s will? Does it really affect what happens in our lives and in the world? Or does it only affect us spiritually as we express our gratitude and dependence on God? Thoughtful Christians wrestle with this issue. Sometimes we conclude that prayer strengthens our souls but doesn’t change the world. What’s going to happen will happen whether we pray or not. Que sera sera.

Does prayer change things?
At first glance this is either a silly question or theological quicksand that could swallow our faith. Of course prayer is effective. The Bible says so repeatedly and gives plenty of examples. “The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well…. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:15-16). Jesus himself says, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:14). He assures us that our Father in heaven will give good gifts to those who ask him (Matt. 7:11). In Exodus 32 it seems the prayer of Moses even got God to change his mind (v. 14): God threatened to wipe out the Israelites, and Moses asked him not to. The Bible indisputably teaches that prayer can make a difference. So why do we still wonder?

Only if prayer is good enough.
One reason might be the conditions and qualities of prayer that Scripture lists. Apparently God doesn’t answer just any prayer. It has to be the right kind of prayer—prayer in Jesus’ name, or prayer according to God’s will, or the prayer of a righteous person, or prayer that is offered in true faith. If faith can move mountains and my prayers don’t even move the air, then perhaps I don’t really have faith. If the prayers of the righteous are effective and mine aren’t, then maybe I’m not righteous. Maybe I’m totally out of tune with God’s will. We fear that our prayers don’t matter because they aren’t good enough.
But Scripture assures us that God hears our prayers according to his grace and not our merit. Romans 8:26-27 is wonderfully comforting: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit intercedes for us… in accordance with God’s will.” God’s love in Jesus Christ is so wonderful that it not only takes away our sins, it also infuses our feeble and fallible prayers with quality and content that please God. Our prayers are perfectly acceptable to the Father through Christ and the Spirit. It does take the right kind of prayers to get through to God, and by his grace we regularly pray them. So self-doubt should not make us wonder whether prayer can change things.

But God’s will is sovereign.
A more profound reason to wonder whether our prayers make a difference is the biblical emphasis on God’s greatness and the power of his will. Reverence for God’s sovereignty in creation and redemption is a deep and pervasive characteristic of the (Reformed) Christian faith. God’s will ultimately ordains everything, including our eternal destiny. Ephesians 1 and Romans 8 teach that God has predestined and providentially governs “all things,” from before the foundation of the world to their final destiny in Jesus Christ. Theologians call this God’s eternal counsel. How can prayer possibly change what God has willed “from before the foundations of the earth” (Eph. 1)?

What’s more, Scripture emphasizes prayer according to God’s will. Paul repeatedly asked that his “thorn in the flesh” be removed, but God did not remove it (2 Cor. 12:7). Jesus himself, the night before he was crucified, prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Apparently God does not answer our prayers if they are not according to his will. But even if they conform to his will, do they make any difference? If God’s will is fixed, how can anything change his mind or alter his plans? And if nothing can alter God’s plan, then prayer can’t alter God’s plan. So we might conclude: “No. Prayer does not change things. Talking to God has no effect on how things turn out.”

See the bigger picture.
Is this where Reformed theology brings us? Does it force us to deny one teaching of Scripture (that prayer is effective) to affirm another (that God is sovereign)? Does our doctrine undercut assurance that the Lord hears and answers us? Can we trust that prayer is real communication and not just a pointless ritual? Or must we disbelieve that God would change things because we ask him to?

No human theology can capture, harmonize, and fully explain everything that Scripture teaches. But sound and tenable theology strives to get as close as humanly possible. The best of Reformed theology does provide a way to affirm both God’s sovereign will and the genuine communication and effectiveness of his children’s prayers. But in joyful reverence we acknowledge we can’t explain how: “God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.”

God’s plan for history includes everything that happens from the beginning to the end of the world. He knows and providentially sustains the sequences, connections, causes, and consequences of all things and all events. God wills them in the sense that these are the things that happen in the world he has chosen in Christ to create, redeem, and fulfill. So “not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my heavenly Father,” as the Heidelberg Catechism teaches. (God does not will all things in the sense of approving of sin and evil, however; rather, he permits them.) Our prayers and the things about which we pray are part of this history.

But does God really hear and answer prayer? Do we really connect with him? God’s providence does not make him a distant impartial observer. In fact, just the opposite is true. God is eternal and omnipresent—”present everywhere.” Every creature and every event at all times and places are fully present to God. He is “nearer than hands and feet” throughout our lives, including when we pray. God does not listen merely as an empathetic human would—first learning our needs and then deciding how to help. His knowledge, love, understanding, and response are real long before we whisper our prayers, real while we pray, and real long after we’ve forgotten them.

But does prayer make a difference—affect outcomes? Of course. If God knows and wills all things, then he knows and wills the prayers of his people and the circumstances in which we pray them. In God’s plan, our prayers can be crucial links in the chain of events. If I get sick, pray for healing, and then get better—this sequence is part of God’s plan. Why can’t it be his plan to heal me because I pray? God can decide that my prayer is the reason he heals me just as God can will that medical treatment is the cause he uses. God could have healed me if I didn’t pray or not healed me if I did. But it is God’s eternal will that I become sick, that I pray, and that I am healed because I prayed. My prayer did not heal me; God did—a real answer to prayer. God’s will and effective prayer are not contradictory. They go together. Our prayers really do matter!

But do they change anything? Can we change God’s mind? Not in one sense, but yes in another. God’s eternal counsel—his providential plan for history—is not altered. If God’s plan does not include my healing, then he will not heal me. If Christ’s return is scheduled for 2020, no amount of prayer will make it sooner. But from our human point of view, things can take unexpected turns because we pray. If my doctor says my illness is terminal, I might not expect healing. But God might heal me miraculously because of prayer. God told Moses that he intended to destroy the Israelites, Moses interceded, and the Lord did not punish them. The interaction was real. Moses’ plea is the reason God relented. But the Lord always knew and willed that this would happen. God is not a human we can talk into improving his strategy.

Our prayers and deeds can make a difference! We can even pray for the salvation of someone who does not love the Lord. God might answer by giving that person a new heart—spiritual rebirth. He might even use our words and deeds as means of change! Salvation is due to God’s sovereign grace alone, not our prayers, words, or deeds. But surely God wills to use them to build his church and bring his kingdom. Predestination does not render our prayers and actions pointless. If God wills the end, he also wills the means.

Our prayers and our deeds do make a difference! May the Lord teach us to pray effectively, according to his will.

THE LEAVERS

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The Leavers: Young Doubters Exit the Church

More than in previous generations, 20- and 30- somethings are abandoning the faith. Why?
Drew Dyck

Some striking mile markers appear on the road through young adulthood: leaving for college, getting the first job and apartment, starting a career, getting married—and, for many people today, walking away from the Christian faith.
A few years ago, shortly after college, I was in my studio apartment with a friend and fellow pastor’s kid. After some small talk over dinner, he announced, “I’m not a Christian anymore. I don’t know what happened. I just left it.”

An image flashed into my mind from the last time I had seen him. It was at a Promise Keepers rally. I remembered watching him worship, eyes pinched shut with one slender arm skyward.
How did his family react to his decision? I asked. His eyes turned to the ground. “Growing up I had an uncle who wasn’t a Christian, and we prayed for him all the time,” he said wistfully. “I’m sure they pray for me like that.”

About that time, I began encountering many other “leavers”: a basketball buddy, a soft-spoken young woman from my church’s worship team, a friend from youth group. In addition to the more vocal ex-Christians were a slew of others who had simply drifted away. Now that I’m in my early 30s, the stories of apostasy have slowed, but only slightly. Recently I learned that a former colleague in Christian publishing started a blog to share his “post-faith musings.”
These anecdotes may be part of a larger trend. Among young adults in the U.S., sociologists are seeing a major shift taking place away from Christianity. A faithful response requires that we examine the exodus and ask ourselves some honest questions about why.

Sons of ‘None’

Recent studies have brought the trend to light. Among the findings released in 2009 from the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), one stood out. The percentage of Americans claiming “no religion” almost doubled in about two decades, climbing from 8.1 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008. The trend wasn’t confined to one region. Those marking “no religion,” called the “Nones,” made up the only group to have grown in every state, from the secular Northeast to the conservative Bible Belt. The Nones were most numerous among the young: a whopping 22 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds claimed no religion, up from 11 percent in 1990. The study also found that 73 percent of Nones came from religious homes; 66 percent were described by the study as “de-converts.”

Other survey results have been grimmer. At the May 2009 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, top political scientists Robert Putnam and David Campbell presented research from their book American Grace, released last month. They reported that “young Americans are dropping out of religion at an alarming rate of five to six times the historic rate (30 to 40 percent have no religion today, versus 5 to 10 percent a generation ago).”

There has been a corresponding drop in church involvement. According to Rainer Research, approximately 70 percent of American youth drop out of church between the age of 18 and 22. The Barna Group estimates that 80 percent of those reared in the church will be “disengaged” by the time they are 29. Barna Group president David Kinnaman described the reality in stark terms:
“Imagine a group photo of all the students who come to your church (or live within your community of believers) in a typical year. Take a big fat marker and cross out three out of every four faces. That’s the probable toll of spiritual disengagement as students navigate through their faith during the next two decades.”
In his book unChristian, Kinnaman relayed his findings from thousands of interviews with young adults. Among his many conclusions was this: “The vast majority of outsiders [to the Christian faith] in this country, particularly among young generations, are actually dechurched individuals.” He reports that 65 percent of all American young people report having made a commitment to Jesus Christ at some point. In other words, most unbelieving outsiders are old friends, yesterday’s worshipers, children who once prayed to Jesus.
To tweak Kinnaman’s language, the problem today isn’t those who are unchristian, but that so many are ex-Christian. Strictly speaking, they are not an “unreached people group.” They are our brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, and friends. They have dwelt among us.

Won’t They Just Come Back?
A handful of researchers insists that the dramatic drop-off in 20-something spirituality is not cause for alarm. They view the exodus from the church as a hiatus, a matter of many post-collegiate Americans “slapping the snooze” on Sunday mornings.
In his recent book Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites … and Other Lies You’ve Been Told, sociologist Bradley Wright says the trend of young people leaving the faith in record numbers is “one of the myths” of contemporary Christianity. Wright, a shrewd contrarian, says members of every generation are regarded with suspicion by their older counterparts. He describes himself as a youth sporting “longish hair and a disco-print shirt,” and asks readers, “Do you think the adults of that generation had any faith in the future based on teens like us?” Though he acknowledges that “we can’t know for sure what will happen,” Wright believes the best bet is that history will repeat itself: “… young people commonly leave organized religion as they separate from their families, but then rejoin when they start families of their own.”

Rodney Stark also calls for calm. The Baylor University sociologist concedes that data from his school’s research mirror that of the above studies, but Stark isn’t shaken. “Young people have always been less likely to attend [church] than are older people,” he writes. Stark is confident that the youngsters will return. “A bit later in life when they have married, and especially after children arrive, they become more regular [church] attendees. This happens in every generation.”
There is something to these arguments. Scholars like Wright and Stark expose the folly of breathless predictions of Christianity’s imminent demise. The North American church does not teeter on the brink of extinction. But, in my view, the crisis of people leaving the faith has taken on new gravity.
First, young adults today are dropping religion at a greater rate than young adults of yesteryear—”five to six times the historic rate,” say Putnam and Campbell.
Second, the life-phase argument may no longer pertain. Young adulthood is not what it used to be. For one, it’s much longer. Marriage, career, children—the primary sociological forces that drive adults back to religious commitment—are now delayed until the late 20s, even into the 30s. Returning to the fold after a two- or three-year hiatus is one thing. Coming back after more than a decade is considerably more unlikely.
Third, a tectonic shift has occurred in the broader culture. Past generations may have rebelled for a season, but they still inhabited a predominantly Judeo-Christian culture. For those reared in pluralistic, post-Christian America, the cultural gravity that has pulled previous generations back to the faith has weakened or dissipated altogether.
So 20- and 30-somethings are leaving—but why? When I ask church people, I receive some variation of this answer: moral compromise. A teenage girl goes off to college and starts to party. A young man moves in with his girlfriend. Soon the conflict between belief and behavior becomes unbearable. Tired of dealing with a guilty conscience and unwilling to abandon their sinful lifestyles, they drop their Christian commitment. They may cite intellectual skepticism or disappointments with the church, but these are smokescreens designed to hide the reason. “They change their creed to match their deeds,” as my parents would say.

you can continue this article at Christianity Today….. http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/2010/november/27.40.html


Christ by any Name?

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Christ by any Name?

Recently, I took a beating from a post to a friend about the Glenn Beck “Christian” values rally held in Washington, D.C. recently. I merely stated that Beck is a Mormon, not a Christian, sorry. Not that I opposed Christian values or anything crazy like that, I just said that Beck was a Mormon not a Christian

I got comments like, “ we are all God’s children, all we need to have is faith” along with, “ nobody is wrong, everybody is entitled to their beliefs”, and finally, the coup de gras from my friend “ I’ll take a Mormon any day if he is standing up and preaching Christ. As Paul said long ago, many preach Christ for many different reasons. He simply rejoiced because the name of Jesus Christ was preached. You should also!”

So just to be clear, if an angel of light comes and tells me about another gospel, another Jesus, not the one of the Christian faith, the one who is actually the brother of Satan (in the sense that they were both created by the Mormon god); that Jesus, I should rejoice that his name is proclaimed over our country and embraced by others. No thanks; I think I’ll pass on the Kool-Aid thank you.

Beck has every right to follow his Jesus. But his Jesus offers no salvation, and can clear no condemnation like the Christ of my scriptures can. As Acts 4:12 reads… and there is salvation in NO ONE else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

That verse has no outs…. Both the name and the person of Christ: no one and no other name can provide what He did. Another person with the same name will not cut it, you are still left in your sins. And the sad thing is most Christians don’t know or don’t care. Like the Israelites at the foot of the mountain waiting for Moses to return, “we will worship our God just like the Egyptians worshiped theirs, it will be all right” Well it wasn’t all right for them then, and it certainly isn’t right for us today to substitute anything or anybody for our Savior and his finished work on the cross.

No, I will not take a Mormon proclaiming his Jesus and rejoice knowing it is NOT my Jesus or my gospel. In the battle of ideas, there is right and wrong, heaven and hell. They are real, and worth standing up for, and yes, even being persecuted for. If we are all children of God, some are children of adoption to glory and some are children of wrath destined for destruction. It does make a difference who and what you believe in; an eternal difference.

How do you treat the Poor?

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How Do You Treat the Poor? by Dr. J. Vernon McGee (photos by JDI)john

Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail. (Amos 8:4)

God is speaking of the exploitation of the poor. I feel it is important for us to realize how God feels about the poor of this world. I have experienced being poor. My dad died when I was fourteen, and it was up to me to support my mother and sister. I had to secure a special permit to get a job. Then, after I was converted and felt called to the ministry, some folk took an interest in me and helped me get through school.

In the days of Amos, God accuses them of even making “the poor of the land to fail.” That is, the poor were brought down to such a low poverty level that they never could escape from it. The poor always suffer more acutely in a godless nation—I don’t think that statement can be successfully contradicted.

Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? (v. 5)

God knew what was in their hearts. “The new moon” and “the sabbath” were holy days on which business was not transacted. God is saying that even when the rich went to the temple to praise God, they were so greedy and covetous that they were thinking about business the next day and how they could make more money by cheating their customers. They not only practiced their sin during the week, but they carried it into the temple. What a picture this gives us of Israel in that day—and of modern man as well.

That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat? (v. 6)

The poor even had to sell themselves into slavery. That was permitted in that land under the Mosaic system. They would buy the needy for a pair of shoes—that’s how cheap they were! And they would sell the poor the refuse of the wheat. That means they got the “seconds,” the leftovers which an honest dealer throws away. I have never felt right about giving old clothes to help the poor in the church. I have never felt they should be given the leftovers of anything. Remember how David said, “… neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing …” (2 Samuel 24:24).

It is no accident that the Lord Jesus, when He was here on earth, sat and watched how the people gave in the temple. Was that His business? Yes. And He is interested in how much we give to Him and how much we keep for ourselves.

Maybe the reason I love this man Amos so much is that he talks my language. He was a poor man himself, and he says the thing that I understand. You see, Amos is explaining why Israel was like a basket of summer fruit. The goodness of Israel was just as perishable and just as soon deteriorated as summer fruit. One evidence of this was the way they treated the poor.hallcover

Will man rob God?

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RIGHT NOW COUNTS FOREVERPicture 13
Will Man Rob God?
by R.C. Sproul
In the last book of the Old Testament, God spoke through the prophet Malachi. He raised a provocative question: “Will man rob God?” This is somewhat startling because it suggests something that on the surface would appear to be impossible. How could anybody rob God of anything? Does it mean that we storm the ramparts of heaven and break into the inner sanctum of the divine treasury and help ourselves to things that God alone possesses? Such a thing is manifestly impossible. The strongest robber in the world could never scale the heights of heaven and defile the possessions of an omnipotent God, and so the very idea of robbing God seems absurd. Yet God gives answer to this question immediately dispelling any absurdity connected with it. He explains pointedly how indeed it is possible for human creatures to be guilty of theft against God. He answers his question, “Will man rob God?” saying, “Yet you are robbing me.” The Israelite response is: “How have we robbed you?” To which God replies, “In your tithes and contributions” (3:8). God announces that to withhold the full measure of the tithe that He requires from His people is to be guilty of robbing God Himself. Because of this, He pronounces a curse upon the whole nation and commands them afresh to bring to Him all of the tithe.

When we think of tithing in Old Testament categories, we understand that the requirement involves returning to God the first fruits of one’s prosperity. We are required to give ten percent of our gross annual income or gain. If a shepherd’s flock produced ten new lambs, the requirement was that one of those lambs be offered to God. This offering is from the top. It is not an offering that is given after other expenses are met or after other taxes have been paid.

Recently, I read an article that gave an astonishing statistic that I find difficult to believe is accurate. It declared that of all of the people in America who identify themselves as evangelical Christians, only four percent of them return a tithe to God. If that statistic is accurate, it means that ninety-six percent of professing evangelical Christians regularly, systematically, habitually, and impenitently rob God of what belongs to Him. It also means that ninety-six percent of us are for this reason exposing ourselves to a divine curse upon our lives. Whether this percentage is accurate, one thing is certain — it is clear that the overwhelming majority of professing evangelical Christians do not tithe.

This immediately raises the question: “Why?” How is it possible that somebody who has given his life to Christ can withhold their financial gifts from Him? I have heard many excuses or explanations for this. The most common is the assertion that the tithe is part of the Old Testament law that has passed away with the coming of the New Testament. This statement is made routinely in spite of the complete lack of New Testament evidence for it. Nowhere in the New Testament does it teach us that the principle of the tithe has been abrogated. The New Testament does teach us, however, that the new covenant is superior to the old covenant. It is a covenant that gives more blessings to us than the old covenant did. It is a covenant that with its manifold blessings imposes greater responsibilities than the Old Testament did. If anything, the structure of the new covenant requires a greater commitment to financial stewardship before God than that which was required in the old covenant. That is to say, the starting point of Christian giving is the tithe. The tithe is not an ideal that only a few people reach but rather should be the base minimum from which we progress.

Church history also bears witness that many in the early church did not consider the tithe as having been abrogated in the new covenant. One of the earliest (turn of the second century) extrabiblical documents that survives to this day is the book of the Didache. The Didache gives practical instruction for Christian living. In the Didache, the principle of the giving of the first fruits or the tithe is mentioned as a basic responsibility for every Christian.

A second argument that people give to avoid the tithe is that they “cannot afford it.” What that statement really means is that they cannot pay their tithe and pay all the other expenses they have incurred. Again, in their minds the tithe is the last resort in the budget. Their giving to God is something that is at the bottom of their list of priorities. It’s a weak argument before God to say, “Lord, I didn’t tithe because I couldn’t afford it” — especially when we consider that the poorest among us has a higher standard of living than ninety-nine percent of the people who have ever walked on the face of the earth.

There are many more excuses that people give to avoid this responsibility, yet the New Testament tells us: “Let the thief no longer steal” (Eph. 2:28a). If we have been guilty of stealing from God in the past by withholding our tithe from Him, that behavior must cease immediately and give way to a resolution to begin tithing at once, no matter what it costs. It’s an interesting phenomenon in the life of the church, that people who in 1960 gave a dollar to the offering plate every week, still give that same dollar today. Everything else in their living costs has been adjusted to inflation except their giving. We also have to remind ourselves that if we give gifts to God, we cannot call them tithes if these gifts fall beneath the level of ten percent.

One of the sad realities of failure to tithe is that in so doing we not only are guilty of robbing God, but we also rob ourselves of the joy of giving and of the blessings that follow from it. I have yet to meet a person who tithes who has expressed to me regret for being one who tithes. On the contrary, I hear from them not a sense of judgment towards those who don’t give but rather a sense of compassion toward them. Frequently, I hear tithers saying, “People who don’t tithe just don’t know what they’re missing.” It is a cliché and a truism that you can’t out-give God. That statement has become a cliché because it is so true. In the text in Malachi, we find something exceedingly rare coming from the lips of God. Here God challenges His people to put Him to a test: “Put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need” (3:10). Have you put God to that test? Have you tried Him to see if He will not open heaven itself and empty His own treasuries upon you? We need to stop robbing Him and thus receive from Him the blessing that He promises.
Dr. R.C. Sproul is founder and president of Ligonier Ministries and senior minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s in Sanford, Florida, and he is author of the book Faith Alone.  For more than thirty years, Dr. R.C. Sproul has thoroughly and concisely analyzed weighty theological, philosophical, and biblical topics in Right Now Counts Forever, drawing out practical applications for the Christian in his own engaging style.
© Tabletalk magazine

From Ligonier Ministries and R.C. Sproul. © Tabletalk magazine.
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