Shall We Listen to Jesus or Man?

Is it not written of Jesus telling us he would send the Holy Spirit to guide us in all things? Is it also not written of Jesus claiming some put their trust in the scripture than the one revealed in scripture? In my heritage, I grew up being taught the Bible is the authority over our lives and if we wished to have the promise of eternal life given to us at judgment, all we needed was to be found in the Bible. Failure to follow the Bible accurately enough would result in the eternal torture of hell. Read, study, and memorize so that we would miss nothing and not be trapped into the deceit of Satan.

Actually, I now believe Satan has used and continues to use our Bible to place our trust, even today in scripture rather than the one revealed in scripture. I still hear religious leaders encouraging us to spend time daily with the Word of God (meaning the Bible) and while the Bible is a great place to begin, I would suggest the actual Word of God is much more than the Bible and actually the very embodiment of Jesus! Did John not say, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God?” Where is our trust or should we say, “Satan get behind me?”

I would encourage my readers not to read much “into” my statements as I claim now to place much more of an equal importance of the Bible and the writings of writers like my current favorite, All Maxey, who offers weekly reflections to thousands of readers. I don’t mind saying I believe he and others (I’ve told him as much) are inspired writers for God in every sense of the word as we use it when referring to the writers in the Bible like Paul and the apostles. As I’ve written before, I’m surprised my fellowship ever accepted the Bible as we have it today because it was compiled hundreds of years following the time when my fellowship claimed direct interaction by God ceased.

I’ve often been accused of having to be right and my present answer is yes, but different than you might think. I believe our elevation of the Bible to “supreme” authority comes from our human desire/nature to have control over our own salvation in a legal “right” sense. We can’t accept two people being right before God if they believe differently on any number of subjects. Human nature, the one controlled by Satan would have us believe salvation is only available to those accurately knowing, understanding, and following the Bible and it is always “my” understanding because the tow of us can’t possibly be right.

Looking outside of the text to the one revealed in the text, I now believe our “rightness” before God demands the identical application of forgiveness from Jesus rather than the identical identity of the one being forgiven. Yes, I believe the only way to the Father is through Jesus. What I refuse to believe (at least right now) is that I or any other man or woman has the power to do any more in the process than point others to the one revealed. They don’t need the accuracy of our message, but rather the accuracy of Jesus forgiveness through the cross and the decision of God to forgive with the blood of His son.

In conclusion and to focus back on the title of these thoughts, I believe the Bible is the work of inspired men to have written down the things revealed to them by the Holy Spirit. I believe other men and women throughout history have taken the time to reveal things via the Holy Spirit and if not for the “official” compiling of the Bible, we would look at all of them with the same weight of belief. We would allow the Holy Spirit to work through us and verify whether what we read is of God or the evil one. I am fully convinced the majority of us have kicked the presence of the Holy Spirit living right inside of us to a “back burner” with no real purpose in our lives and yet we can only find true enjoyment in our Christian lives by allowing the Holy Spirit complete control of our lives and putting the Bible secondary in our lives with the rest of religious writings.

Jesus used the phrase, “it is written,” and I now wonder if there was a greater reasoning for this than we give credit. We have been taught to ask, “Where exactly did you get that from?” We want to know the exact book, chapter and verse for your enlightenment or it is not valid. I happen to know it is written that King Ramses could not have died from Tuberculosis because it was not discovered until 1832. To make my point, what is written does not have to be accurate and the discernment me have through the spirit will easily make the wiles of Satan as ridiculous as this statement. The Holy Spirit is not going to let us be led away to the loss of salvation!

Why do we have the Bible and other religious writings? Answer: To reveal what the Holy Spirit is speaking to the inspired writer and hopefully open the eyes and hearts of someone needing Jesus revealed? Why do we have the Holy Spirit? Answer: We have the Holy Spirit to teach us all things and confirm the righteousness of God and our place in His eternal plan.

One short after word is that yes, I understand how my fellowship accepted the Bible compiled after so many years as the final word from God and the last interaction of God with man. It is all wrapped up in one scripture I was taught as a little boy. 1 Corinthians 13:10 “When that which is perfect is come, that which is in part…” Yes, I was taught the Bible was perfect with no errors. Of course, when we place our trust in something so perfect, there can’t possibly be anyone who will see even one statement different from the rest of “us who are now perfect in God’s eyes!” We must be identical to trust the Bible for our salvation.  Better yet, let’s all place our trust in the ONE REVEALED!

Losing The Desire To Study The Bible and Other Religious Works

Just in case there is any doubt, Satan is still working day and night to make the sacrifice offered by Jesus on the cross as ineffective as possible. While I would not even suggest knowing the complete goals of Satan anymore than I know the completeness of God, I can’t help but believe Satan is overjoyed when we speak against the character of God! Being so accomplished in this task, well-minded Christian men and women daily malign the character of God without so much as a glimpse of reality when speaking of Godly things. As a people, claiming to be people of God, something needs to happen so we are awakened from the secure feeling trance of Satan lulling us into a pattern of artificial study where no learning takes place.

In the past, I have spoken harshly of my fellowship the churches of Christ and yet, everything I see visiting other denominations shows me we are not alone in the attack Satan has for Christians everywhere. We have bible classes, sermons and Christian conferences every year and yet do we really learn much of anything we didn’t know previously? How often do Christians truly dissect their beliefs to determine if there is a true basis from God or rather an artificial belief based in long held traditions? If we teach or carry on our traditions without specifically claiming they are the will of men rather than God are we not in danger of misleading some people who might go on to teach mans will rather than the will of God?

While there are many areas, possibly more than I have even considered, I can’t help believe Satan has taken our greatest hope and turned it into the greatest weapon against God. We seem to have a firm grasp of the “end game” and holding on to the promise of God, it is not uncommon to hear men and women daily maligning the character of God! Hopefully, if I were to walk up to another Christian and exclaim how God is eager to see all of the wicked people punished in the cruelest manner, they would be offended by my portrayal of God’s character. Would it be any less offensive to say God delights in the punishment of the wicked? Was God overjoyed following the flood? When He rained down fire on Sodom, was He sitting back to enjoy the “wonderful” display of fireworks? As I’ve typed these past few comments, I am almost totally disgusted to believe anyone would believe this is a true characterization of God. Have we come to a point in our existence where we now believe God is not saddened by the wickedness in the world? Do we no longer believe our sin brings grief to the Holy Spirit? I believe God took no delight in the destruction of the world with the flood and the destruction of Sodom with fire. I also believe He will take no delight in the final destruction of the wicked at judgment!

I once heard someone say, “nothing in history was as destructive to Jews becoming Christians than the Crusades.”  While I’m not necessarily convinced this the greatest reason more people have not come to Christ, I can recognize how hard it would be to put my confidence into a God who sanctioned this type of activity.

I mentioned earlier how we seem to have a firm grasp of the “end game” and our knowledge rooted firmly in tradition and concepts created by man effectively transform us into a people, much like those of the Crusades, describing God contrary to what we can see in nature and learn about in the Bible. My grandfather did not know any better when he turned to me after lighting a “bonfire” of brush and dead trees and asking what I would think of being in the middle of the intense fire forever and ever having to endure the pain for all time with no release. He told me then how those not found in the Book of Life would experience exactly what he described! Later, I discovered the concept of what became the “Hell Fire and Damnation” sermons many still want to hear today.

I mentioned how my grandfather (Papa) did not know any better and I am speaking of a date some time in the mid 1960’s. I can make an excuse for him not knowing any better but I can’t excuse people still believing the same thing today considering all of the study accomplished and the wealth of information on this subject being available to those who want to discover what the Bible has to say on the subject instead of what men have taught throughout the centuries of our existence. Should we not be asking the leadership in every one of our churches to help guide us away from our ignorance? My question actually goes much deeper. Why are we afraid to tear away the many barriers to a meaningful relationship with God? Sadly, church leadership is not in the dark about these matters but simply chooses to look the other way!

One of the common stories told to encourage us to tell others of Jesus is the story where we find ourselves in line at judgment some day with someone we knew in this life and hearing him/her ask as they are thrown into the torture of hell for all time, “why did you never tell me about Jesus?” We even have a song in many of our songbooks, “You Never Mentioned Him To Me.”  Very common throughout our history, I’ll use the concept of teachers/leaders being held to a higher level of accountability than everyone else out of context. What would the picture look like at judgment with God asking, “why did you not teach the truth of what I gave you so people could present a truthful characterization of me before others?”

If Satan misses with this weapon, he has another equal and deadly one at his disposal where so many of us, eager to catch of glimpse of our final hope, jump quickly into faulty belief on the flip side of punishment. Movies like “God Is Real” easily become a “family affair” of refreshing Christian doctrine regardless of how many times what is being shown and described fly in the face of what we can read in our Bible. While I don’t/can’t deny what someone claims has happened in their lives, I can take the advice given in the first century to test all things to determine whether they are from God. How easy would it be for Satan to have us experience something working to his benefit and yet appearing as if “an angel of light” to be from God. We are a gullible people and wanting so desperately to get a peek into the future plans of God we will fall for anything, which seems reasonable and good.

All of this brings me full circle back to the idea of losing my desire to study the Bible and other religious works. Are we foolish to belief we can know nothing more of God? Even as I have briefly discussed two areas where we have failed in Christian circles to educate our family, I am considering how women are still held in bondage to our past as lower level Christians. I find it difficult to accept the emphasis of our Bible on serving when so many of our churches are still concerned with who takes a leadership role in serving. Yes, we find it difficult to emulate Jesus, taking the lowest possible position by choice. Just random thoughts, but to some people, I’m sure the concept is that Jesus was alright with taking the lowest position among men as long as He still positioned Himself in power above any women present.

It is a difficult thing to realize how wrong I’ve been in the past as I learn new things. It is even more difficult to consider other areas of my Christian heritage and study to see what I have missed in these other areas. I’m not yet consumed with the idea of study on prayer but I have discovered some potential problems with how we view prayer, wondering why we neglect the words of Jesus when asked about how to pray. Am I simply going to discover something no one cares to examine in light of what we already know? The most difficult part of learning is trying to quench the fire of God burning within because few desire to stretch into areas already settled in the past.

How Can We Be The Church God Wants?

The first obstacle to becoming the church God wants is to decide what God wants from His church and I’m not sure it would look the same organizationally from one location to another. I do believe the basic answer can be found in the first part of the “Lord’s Prayer,” “Thy will done on earth as it is in heaven.” Men and women with good intentions all across our planet simply confuse the issue by making/organizing church according to their personal belief patterns. When I was a child, I can’t remember how many times I was reminded of the church not being the building, but rather the people who met together in the building. These same people teaching me this concept failed in one aspect of training because they forgot to extend the analogy one step further and recognize for themselves how the church is also, not the organization of the people, but rather EACH individual.

We take on many denominational names to describe the organization of the people coming together and effectively create an artificial church. I believe the church God wants is reflected in Romans 14 and speaks to each individual answering to his Lord. While groups continue to wrestle with appropriate worship formats, I can’t help but believe we are frustrating the will of God. My niece just recently made the analogy of picturing Jesus sitting out on the steps of the church building desiring to be let inside. While I think it is wonderful to include others in our personal worship, I can’t believe, at least right now, that God ever intended for us to gather as a group and worship Him. While I’m sure He finds our outpouring of praise enjoyable, I’m also convinced He finds our acts of love toward others as a more fragrant form of worship.

When I think of our organized worship, I think we miss the point and should even characterize it with different terms void of worship concepts. I’m not sure we can ever move past the idea of a worship service even if we wanted to do so and without this being an attainable goal, we must choose to alter our worship if our desire is truly to be more like God would want to see from us.

I once dreamed of an opportunity to have complete control of a building so it could be used by the family of God to honor and glorify His name in the community. This building would be used by His people in any work of righteousness. It might be as simple as a free weddings since the people of God encourage men and women to marry. We might see an evening of Christian rock bands coming together to share the gospel of Jesus through their music. It could be a safe place for teens to meet, watch movies and enjoy the company of those in righteousness for free. Oh, the dream of organizing something to reach all people with anything good and wholesome. Instead of a church where we hear the words we can’t do that, will this cause a problem, will I get in trouble for this, etc.  It would be an organization of a never ending YES!

As I finish this short offering, my mind goes to the parables of Jesus. I can’t believe He would not approve of anything   being done to draw someone closer to a relationship with Him and the Father. An elder in one of the churches I once attended mentioned fearing to do something because it might put us on a slippery slope/slide and looking back, I can only recommend we jump on the slide with joy. Once we are on the slide in the Joy of the Lord, I can’t help but think others will want some of our joy for themselves. Since we are getting close to the end of another football season, I am reminded of something I hate to see from my team in a game. Whenever we go into a “prevent” defense, it always seems to have a negative effect. The church has been playing a careful, safe, and preventing approach to glorifying God all in the name of not offending anyone and it is time we play hard to honor God and move past any fouls or penalties we face as we enjoy the gift of joy from our Lord!

Church Hypocrisy Alive and Thriving!

 I have often given my opinion concerning the use of musical instruments and while I see nothing wrong with instruments being used, the hypocrisy of those keeping them from being used burns brightly within our heritage today. I use the term “burns brightly” because I believe the youth of our families have an incredible access to the reality of instruments not being an issue affecting the salvation of an individual. In my youth, access to biblical information was only through my local congregation and the specific book stores containing only material written by those of our faith heritage. With the vast resource of information available on the internet today, a simple search easily opens the eyes of those asking religious questions to the ridiculous traditions we hold fervently to in our services.

From as early as I can remember, I was reminded and told the addition of instruments was simply a “feel good’ addition speaking to the human nature and drawing people into an artificial worship ignoring the purity of our singing offered to God. While I won’t discuss it in these comments, we even went so far as to take the Bible out of context as we used the comments of the apostle Paul of “singing and making melody in our hearts.” While I definitely believe the purity of the human voice can be extremely beautiful, I do not believe it should be encouraged over any other form of musical offering. I also find it amusing to hear comments concerning the concept of “attending a concert,” and this is exactly where my use of the word hypocrisy comes from in the title. While it might be a serious mistake to rely on the English words we have in the Bible, I am not even basically familiar with the original language of the Bible. When I see Abel offer God the first/best of his labors and Cain offer “some” of his, God is pleased with the best offering.

Possibly, in my ignorance, I can’t accept God’s disapproval of Cain’s failure being the fact he did not offer a blood sacrifice, as many will say, but rather his failure to offer his best. In our hypocrisy, we preach and teach for everyone to not be satisfied with offering less than our best. We use the word sacrifice to emphasize the Christian concept of going beyond what is expected or normal. Yes, we are encouraged to go the extra mile. What can be wrong with this and how can it possibly be considered hypocrisy burning brightly? The answer is rather simple since those in our fellowship are only allowed to offer their best when the best can make it through the filter of “what is appropriate for our congregation!” There is a big difference between what is appropriate and what can be declared sinful.

Reading articles, blogs and discussions on this topic, I’ve often come across the word, “expedient,” which simply means “this addition to our worship is necessary or non-offensive to Christian principles.” The common additions listed often detail the use of song books, microphones, church buildings, located preachers, office staff, etc., and yet in reality, a person simply has to make it past the filter and they are “home free.”

In more recent times, we have seen the addition of praise teams and elaborate audio/visual presentations. Remembering those people who objected to the projection of simple sermon outlines on a screen is almost humorous when I consider the elaborate pictures, PowerPoints, and videos used in our services today. We even have objection to using song slides with music because beautiful motion videos can’t be used to “enhance” the worship experience. I almost fell out of my chair the first time I heard this expression because this is the “root of all evil” when it comes to instrumental worship! How many times have we been told throughout our history that enhancement is wrong? Is this not hypocrisy and is it not burning brightly? I almost sound like I am against this use of audio visual enhancement and yet it simply points to something having made its way through the filter and while I bet it is good for some people, I can remember singing a song recently with Christmas lights flashing off and on in the picture/video behind the words. I was distracted on two levels because I need the music notes in order to make sense of the song and at the end of the song, I could not even tell you the name of the song we had just finished. Was my worship experience enhanced? No, but it was not my Christian place to complain. We recently had a video played during our communion where the words and the instruments used took me to a feeling of really being in the presence of God and yet others were shocked or offended. It was not their Christian place to complain and yet some did, anyway. It was “filtered” out as a mistake of showing the wrong video of two and I believe it was the actual working of God to edify those like me during this service.

Hypocrisy does not rest entirely with the subject of music and the worship experience, but also in other areas of our church experiences with little notice. Even as the thoughts on this area of hypocrisy begin coming forward in my mind, I am excited that I can look forward to bible class each Sunday morning. For what seems like the first time in my adult life, I can go to class knowing that I will leave each week with more knowledge of God than I had before coming to class. My class on Sunday morning is not a “rehash” of the same thing I was taught back in the elementary years. This class, is, week to week, the only “non-milk” I’ve ever had.

While this is an incredible exception to the case, our bible classes are a prime example of what is hypocrisy in our fellowship. We encourage the study of God by our brothers and sisters and with tremendous access to information available we have people devoting time to understanding God in a variety of areas out of the main stream of class study. While they want to know more about God and encouraged to learn more about God, they continue to participate in classes where the same information, though often packaged differently is discussed with Amen! I would suggest we don’t grow in our love because we are in a perpetual state of re-runs when it comes to God. We are bored with Christian education because we never move past the milk.

While I don’t fancy myself as a teacher, I have volunteered to lead class discussions over material I have read and studied concerning the nature of man and final punishment. If it was not filtered out, this would have already taken place and yet, we still have people believing what I now consider to be the “lie of hell” because they have never considered what they have been taught or given an opportunity to openly discuss in a class something I believe has much to say about the character of our heavenly Father and how our portrayal of the character of God to other people DOES HAVE ETERNAL CONSEQUENCES! I have heard it said that the Crusades became the main deterrent to those who might otherwise accept Christianity and I believe our characterization of God does as much to keep people out today. I wish someone could explain to me why we allow our “work for God” to actually work against the will of God.

In closing these thoughts, I offer a simple solution to our problems in the church. We take the filters off and we use everything at our disposal to help us draw others toward God. This might mean I am distracted by some of the visuals I see, others might be distracted by the instruments in a video or actually used in service, people might be uncomfortable discussing topics outside the normal course of study because of the implications it might have on their held beliefs, and we might have others who feel they are being given a performance when someone does a solo for the larger group. The solution just might look a lot like Paul’s comment of being all things to all people and yes, we might actually reach all people rather than just the few who think like me. The question coming to mind as I consider these comments finished, is will I ever be part of a church family willing to leave the 99 to help the ONE? How far are we willing to go for that one person to have a meaningful relationship with God? Only our hypocrisy stands in our way.

Have We Allowed The Bible Too Much Authority In Our Lives?

This question almost seems like heresy when I write it down and I am pretty sure I’ve never heard the question asked by a man of God. I think this thought has been trying to break out in my mind for many years and I know I have come close to making this claim when I have written to encourage men of our faith heritage in the work they do for God. Not common in my writing, you don’t have to read any further for my answer, though I hope you will read on for my explanation. I fully believe the Bible has had way too much influence or authority over the lives of Christians.

Since I have answered the question, I hope you have realized, after the possible shock, how I did not use the phrase commonly associated with the Bible, “the Word of God.” In fact, I would hope most Christians would agree with me when I say we have not allowed the Word of God to have enough influence or authority in our lives. My early understanding of how things worked with God could be summed up with God creating everything, intervening in our past with prophets to direct us toward His offering of Jesus as a sacrifice. Following the resurrection of Jesus, God left us with a few empowered apostles to set His plan for our salvation into action and then after the last of the apostles died, all miracles and interaction between man and God ceased to exist as He would sit back and wait for us to “accept or deny” the gospel of Christ. It was all left up to us! The few capable of hearing, believing, confessing, repenting and being baptized would be saved and all of the masses, possibly not fortunate enough to be born in a Christian nation, would be condemned.

While I held this “indoctrination” for a long time, I can’t help but classify it now as simply ridiculous. In my reasoning, it comes down to whether we actually believe what we are told by the inspired writers of our past. No, I didn’t say Bible! Was Jesus going to send the Holy Spirit to guide and instruct us or not? Possibly, some might believe this promise was being made only to the apostles but, if so, I have to consider the promise of the Holy Spirit coming into my life when I am fully His baptized/announced believer in the plan of God, having joined with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. Do I believe the Holy Spirit is nothing more than a lapel pin worn in the name “Christian” without any Godly interaction?

The Holy Spirit is possibly a greater mystery to us than the people of the first century because we are not willing to accept being controlled by God. We make fun of the phrase, “the devil made me do it, and yet, I fully believe this is what Paul is referring to when he claims the trouble he has with resisting those things he does not want to do. When considering the sinful nature and the new man, are we not being told how we need to respond to the Holy Spirit, living and guiding within us? When doing this, are we not speaking and writing words of encouragement given to others to live according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit as men inspired of God? What causes the thoughts I am writing to run around my head giving me a headache and no rest until I sit down and express them in writing? Am I claiming to be inspired by God as I write these thoughts down? No, these are my words though it is funny to me that the apostle said much the same thing in his letter. No, you the reader are challenged to use the Spirit of God and test all things so you are not led in the wrong direction.

Thinking back to my initial comment and question concerning the Bible, I would suggest the writers felt a need to write those things written and many years later, men got together when they felt a need to share all that had been written and compiled a list of writings we have come to know as the Bible. I would even suggest these men did us a great service in preserving the history of our relationship with God. I would suggest they, also, did us a great disservice because this Bible soon became the authority to rule our relationship with God and effectively pushed the power of our gift, the Holy Spirit, from our lives. With the Holy Spirit eliminated from our reasoning, our thoughts are simply our thoughts. They are not the guidance of the sinful nature or the guidance of God through the Spirit, but simply OUR thoughts.

There is a great sadness in this if it is actually true in our lives and the reality is how it consumes any joy we might have knowing we are guided by the Holy Spirit. I fully believe we have all known people whose very presence is the embodiment of Christ and yet in their old age when they can no longer be as active and powerful a force for Christ, they feel unworthy and even sinful in their life instead of being able to say, “I’ve finished the race, and I’ve fought the good fight.” Rather than live in the joy of our promise, we only see our thoughts and path as ours instead of God’s.

While I could ramble on, my purpose in writing these thoughts is two-fold. First, I don’t think the Bible was finished and published for us with God sitting back with no interaction anymore than I believe the first scenario put forth. I believe the inspired Word of God is still coming to us today through many writers and we should read and consider their thoughts on par with those we have from the “ancient ones.” We need to give the Spirit of God rule in our lives and test what we read and hear through this spirit. Second, I want to encourage men and women I consider to be my mentors even if they would not want their name associated, in anyway with my thoughts. I think we have had thousands of inspired teachers and writers since the creation of the world and for the ones I have known in my life, I pray they will know the joy of having run the race and being inspired by God. If we were compiling the Bible today, I think we would have several books named after them. I can’t help but believe God has already acknowledged them as being after His own heart, much like David.

The Desire of My Heart Is To Be WRONG!

Christianity and the beliefs we hold have the capacity to become static and once learned, our beliefs have a tendency to remain constant rather than change. I have known those who claim to know all that may be known about God and in my reasoning, this belief is frightening. The question I think we should all be asking ourselves is whether we are growing or simply stagnant? I recently moved on from a study I have been considering for over five years and when contemplating the next area of concentration, I was in a state many of us discover when we are either in trouble or close to those facing trials and the concepts we hold about prayer began to consume my every thought. The title of these comments is not just something of a creative nature but the true reflection of my heart as I consider a dramatic change in the way I view prayer.

Much of what I have been considering comes from how I view God. Is there anything God needs revealed, is God a respecter of persons, does God still heal in a miraculous manner in present times, does God ever answer a prayer for physical healing, why do some seem to get “special” dispensations from God and why does God seem to answer the prayers of some and not others are just a few of the ideas bothering me as I consider the nature of prayer and how I believe it works. I do hope the conclusions I’ve been able to make so far are wrong and I hope to find something showing me the conclusions are simply ridiculous.

My current position on prayer of physical healing in the life of myself or someone I might love has taken on the characteristic of being a total waste of breath with no hope of having God intervene or even consider intervening on my request. The expression of a powerful statement of belief as this one, should leave no doubt as to the problem I have in getting someone to discuss the nature of prayer and yet why should this be the case? I think the answer has something to do with the choice of when most of us end up approaching God in prayer. Is it not common for people to fall to their knees in prayer most often when they are in need of God’s intervention due to some tragedy or illness? If I am to believe a larger percentage of our prayers are lifted up in reference to our wellness or the well-being of others, then my statement would seem to destroy the very essence of what many have come to believe in as their only “real” contact with the almighty.

The beginning of my thoughts on prayer go all the way back to the Garden of Eden and the action of God following the sin of Adam and Eve. They were told death was the penalty of eating the forbidden fruit and following their transgression, they were removed from the garden and the entire creation was affected with consequences of their sin. When considering mankind, he was going to suffer greatly and eventually face a physical death. Sickness was now in the world and can I believe the prayers of Adam and Eve were even considered by God for the return of the garden’s perfection in their lives? No, they were destined, with all of those to follow, to endure the aches, pains, sores and sickness leading to eventual physical death. There would be heart aches and suffering when a young child or baby would die. The same would be true of watching a parent or loved one suffer through the torment of bad hips, knees and other physical challenges. It is not hard to consider the prayers going up to God for healing and yet, year after year, He seemed to be distant from His people when asked to eliminate the effects of sin on creation.

As hard as all this is to realize, the real “kink” in all of this is knowing of healing and even the raising of the dead having taken place many times throughout the history of mankind. Prayers have been answered and people have been healed is the greatest challenge to my statement and yet, I have come drawn a conclusion many will find disturbing. This healing is not taking place because of a prayer offered requesting the healing, but rather because God in His divine wisdom and will provides the healing purely for His purpose and not because of the prayerful petitions offered up to Him! I have reached this conclusion because the intervention of God simply as a response to prayer for even one person and not another would cause me to view God as showing favoritism to one person over another. At this time in my life, I can’t accept this view of God.

Having apparently, at least in my own mind, dismissed a foundational concept of the prayer life I once held and currently held by many, I began considering the value of prayer and the purpose of prayer for the people of God. The examples of prayer in the Bible are numerous and even Jesus when asked, gave us direction in our prayers as He prayed what we all have come to know as “The Lord’s Prayer.” After reading through the examples of prayer, I fully believe the main focus or direction of our prayer should fall under the heading demonstrated by the words, “thy Kingdom come and Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” As I see it, our goal and prayers should be to realize God’s will here and now in our lives and our prayers should ask for those things necessary to help us in our chosen task to see God’s will done.

One thing most recently becoming a part of my thinking on prayer concerns the sinful nature of mankind and just what falls under this terminology. We all love and want to be loved by others and this seems to fit well within the context of learning to be like God and see His will done in our daily lives. I’ve also considered this desire might also fall under the scope of sinful nature! If I consider the desires I form each day in my life and the desires God has, it quickly becomes clear my desires are either the will of God or the will of Mike unless I grow closer in my walk where my will is controlled by His will. If I pray for and desire my life to model the goodness of God and the love of God towards others, I find myself fully within the will of God and believe there is not even the slightest chance the expectations of my prayer will not be granted! Are we not told how everything we ask for that is the will of God will be granted? Am I to believe, as some, prayers are weighed by God and the “will” in question is His decision on each prayer or is there real truth in the instruction guiding us to simply pray for those things we know are His will? As an example, do we really believe it is or is not God’s will for us to win a football game. We definitely know it is His will for us to play in way which brings glory to His name. Within the same structured scenario, is God looking to heal our bodies or looking to see our bodies do His will regardless of our health challenges?

Considering all things, if asked for what I would like others to pray for me, I would ask they lift me up to God asking not for my continued health, not for the renewal of strength that seems to be leaving as I get older and not that I lose the weight I’ve put on. Instead, I would ask for the prayers to make me more lovable to others, more caring towards those needing help, more focused on becoming more like Christ each day, more devoted to seeing God’s will done in all things and last of all that the way I live my life under all challenges will bring glory to God.

As I come to the close of this offering, I would have you know of other consideration of prayer on which I have formed or drawn conclusions, possibly for another time of writing. The few statements following are a few found right at the top of my thinking.

1.    I fully believe prayers for others in support of their struggles are GOOD and offer healing on some level. Regardless of whether I believe certain things are addressed by God under the concept of “sometimes He says yes and sometimes He says no, has nothing to do with the support felt by loved ones offering a prayer in their behalf.

2.    Prayer can and should be used as a shield against the desires of Satan to control our lives.

3.    Prayers of every nature concerning the condition of our heart should be offered up to God. (In other words if it is on your heart take it to God in prayer.)

4.    Prayers are either the will of the individual or the will of God and God does not answer yes or no but YES to all of those under “His” heading!

5.    God’s grace is good enough for you and you do not need the desires of your human nature. I believe God addressed this with the Apostle Paul and He did not need to bring about physical healing in Paul for what He needed from Paul.

Trying To Understand God

I'm not sure how long it has been since I read the words from a post in an online discussion group and yet the words, "I fully understand God" still come to my thinking whenI find myself in a reflective state. I still like to ask myself questions I am not sure have answers. Does God want us to understand Him? Is it even possible to understand God?

In my ability to reason, I am not one to believe God wants us to understand Him or expects us to understand. I currently have come to believe the plan of God is perfect in design. I do not believe we have the option of failing because failure is not part of the design. I often make seemingly crazy statements because these are the thoughts and ideas having deceived me for so long and caused me great aggravation. Having taught band for 34 years now, I believe I should have witnessed failure by now in learning.

Our society and educational system appear controlled by defining failure instead of correctly defining success. The same seems true in the church teaching of my youth. All focus was placed on being right before God so, "if I have been found faithful, I will be with God forever." I think I have mentioned before that our success and hearing the words, "well done" will not be the result of our abilities but rather the work of Jesus. I do not believe we have to fully understand the mind of God to fully understand what he wants from us. Simply stated, God desires a demonstration of His love in our lives. Having mentioned not seeing any failure while teaching band in 34 years, I have seen many who would be considered failures and a handful who never chose to put forth any effort. This also seems consistent with what I see in the religious world; no failure but only those with no attempts.

I mentioned my belief of God desiring a demonstration of His love in us and I do not believe He has a list of requirements laid out for us in the bible by which we will be saved when the task is complete. This demonstration of His love I believe to be an open ended opportunity to do good and put others before ourselves. I also believe we are given what I would call a miraculous number of opportunities to demonstrate love. It might be as simple as seeing a piece of paper on the floor and rather than leave it for someone else we choose to do a good thing and pick it up.

We have probably all seen the person we think of as having no goodness in their lives. Every choice seems to be one of selfishness and completely devoid of characteristics we might define as being good. When I think of God's perfect plan, I know a complete understanding of how things work out is not something I can probably ever comprehend and yet the major focus of my faith in God is of His plan being perfect and working out in the end regardless of my ability to comprehend. When I consider these ideas, I always think back to the first chapter in Romans and am reminded that all that may be known about God is clearly evident by his creation so that we are without excuse. Regardless of what one might call it, I am convinced everyone born has access to the will of God and makes the choice in their individual life as to whether they will pursue goodness (God) or a life contrary to God. My faith in the perfection of God and His plan does not allow for failure but only a choice of answering God with , "yes, I choose to be like you."

How many mistakes can I make is a foolish question when God's plan is not limited to the number of times I need forgiveness but rather His choice to forgive and my choice in my heart to be like Him. Being human leaves me with a myriad of opportunities for failure and yet the desire of my heart is to be like Him.

In band, I focus on what can be better and as each student accomplishes even the smallest of tasks, I am joyful for their success. While my mind might desire flawless precision and intonation, I am aware that some will get closer than others and none will achieve the perfection I desire. Every child I've seen choose to play has gotten better and it is my choice to view even the slightest improvement as success. I also believe God views us in much the same way. We are not all going to approach godliness at the same rate when choosing to do good and so making comparisons between ourselves and the "goodness" of another simply allows us to define failure in our lives. When thinking of the educational system, I have to laugh when I see proof demanded of a student mastering certain concepts.

We never master anything and mastering the life of a Christian is also beyond our abilities. We simply live the life of a Christian because we want to be like the Master. If Christianity were a game, we can't even produce a DRAW! The best thing about God's game is Him allowing you to pick the winning side. There is room for all!