Seedplots

Sounds selfish, I know.   But consider the Lord’s pattern for prayer (Lk 11).  We begin by praying for his name to be honored and his kingdom to come, then we focus on our own daily needs (”our daily bread“).

Yes, as a spiritual leader, I am to pray for others, but first, I pray for myself. I know from experience that I need help doing that.

That’s why the suggestions I ran across recently on “Praying for your Pastor” seemed so helpful, not just to use in praying for my pastor, but also for helping me know how to pray for myself, day after day.

Great stuff in that list; 17 suggestions – all insightful.  I printed them off and pasted them in my prayer journal.  Check it out – here’s the link.

A confusing word it is, discipleship.  It means different things to different people.

To some people discipleship means “being a disciple” of Jesus.

To others it means “making disciples of Jesus.”  Which is right?

The New Testament data doesn’t help us decide how to use the word because the actual term discipleship because is not in the New Testament.

The closest New Testament word is matheteuo – a word which can mean either “making disciples” or “being a disciple.”  This word only occurs 4x in the New Testament.

Making disciples?
Twice the term (matheteuo) refers to “making disciples” – in Jesus’ Great Commission given to the 11 disciples (Matthew 28:19) and in a description of Paul’s missionary work (Acts 14:21).

In these two verses matheteuo refers to both what we usually call “evangelism” and the teaching that followed after a person responded to the Gospel in a positive way.

Being a disciple?
Twice the term matheteuo occurs as a passive verb that means “being” or “becoming” a disciple.  In Matthew 13:52 it refers to a scribe “who has become a disciple of the kingdom” (NASV) or has been been “trained for the kingdom of heaven (ESV).

In Matthew 27:5 matheteuo occurs in a description of Joseph of Arimathea, noting that he had become a disciple of Jesus

Both / and ?
Probably the way New Testament uses the term matheteuo is the way we should use the term “discipleship” – i.e. in a broad way to refer both to making disciples and to being disciples.

We would also do well to use the term in a comprehensive way to refers both to the process of evangelism, and to the process of instruction that follows a positive response to the gospel – as this is how the term is used in the New Testament

For most of us, using the term discipleship in this way requires a shift in our thinking, a “paradigm” shift.  We are not used to using the term “discipleship” like this.  The danger is, however, if we use the term differently that the way it is used in the New Testament,  that we will end up reading a different meaning in New Testament verses that refer to “disciples.”

More about this in a later posting…

Do you write notes to yourself about things that strike you and you want to remember? 

Here’s one a Pastor (Joe Thorn) wrote to himself and then posted on his blog.   Take a look – it’s short and right to the point.

Then he goes on to explain,

It’s not that your theology itself drifts, but that sometimes you so focus on one aspect of Jesus that you tend to forget the rest. The result is a shrinking Jesus (in your faith).

And as your shrinking Jesus becomes small Jesus he is easily eclipsed by idols. This is why you sometimes lack passion and earnestness for the kingdom and the glory of God… A small Jesus does not inspire awe, command respect, lead to worship, nor compel us to talk of him (much less suffer for him). And small Jesus is too little to arrest the attention of the world.

So, please remember – Jesus is bigger than you tend to think. He is the perfect revelation of God, the radiance of his glory, the exact imprint of his nature; he is the Creator and Sustainer of all that exists. Everything belongs to him and exists for him. He is the author of your salvation, the perfecter of your faith, and the only one in whom you can find life.

(Original link)

In earlier postings I’ve writing about the phrase “walking with God.”  A similar phrase that is extremely important in Scripture is the challenge of living to “please God”  (see for example, Colossians 1:10).  Both of these ideas are present in the Latin phrase Coram Deo, a term that some Christian writers are fond of using.

Here’s a post by R.C. Sproul that explains in more detail this term:

What does “Coram Deo” Mean?

I remember Mama standing in front of me, her hands poised on her hips, her eyes glaring with hot coals of fire and saying in stentorian tones, “Just what is the big idea, young man?”

Instinctively I knew my mother was not asking me an abstract question about theory. Her question was not a question at all–it was a thinly veiled accusation. Her words were easily translated to mean, “Why are you doing what you are doing?” She was challenging me to justify my behavior with a valid idea. I had none.

Recently a friend asked me in all earnestness the same question. He asked, “What’s the big idea of the Christian life?” He was interested in the overarching, ultimate goal of the Christian life. To answer his question, I fell back on the theologian’s prerogative and gave him a Latin term. I said,

“The big idea of the Christian life is coram Deo. Coram Deo captures the essence of the Christian life.”  This phrase literally refers to something that takes place in the presence of, or before the face of, God.

To live coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.

To live in the presence of God is to understand that whatever we are doing and wherever we are doing it, we are acting under the gaze of God. God is omnipresent. There is no place so remote that we can escape His penetrating gaze.

To be aware of the presence of God is also to be acutely aware of His sovereignty. The uniform experience of the saints is to recognize that if God is God, then He is indeed sovereign. When Saul was confronted by the refulgent glory of the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, his immediate question was, “Who is it, Lord?” He wasn’t sure who was speaking to him, but he knew that whomever it was, was certainly sovereign over him.

Living under divine sovereignty involves more than a reluctant submission to sheer sovereignty that is motivated out of a fear of punishment. It involves recognizing that there is no higher goal than offering honor to God. Our lives are to be living sacrifices, oblations offered in a spirit of adoration and gratitude.

To live all of life coram Deo is to live a life of integrity. It is a life of wholeness that finds its unity and coherency in the majesty of God. A fragmented life is a life of disintegration. It is marked by inconsistency, disharmony, confusion, conflict, contradiction, and chaos.

The Christian who compartmentalizes his or her life into two sections of the religious and the nonreligious has failed to grasp the big idea. The big idea is that all of life is religious or none of life is religious. To divide life between the religious and the nonreligious is itself a sacrilege.

This means that if a person fulfills his or her vocation as a steelmaker, attorney, or homemaker coram Deo, then that person is acting every bit as religiously as a soul-winning evangelist who fulfills his vocation. It means that David was as religious when he obeyed God’s call to be a shepherd as he was when he was anointed with the special grace of kingship. It means that Jesus was every bit as religious when He worked in His father’s carpenter shop as He was in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Integrity is found where men and women live their lives in a pattern of consistency. It is a pattern that functions the same basic way in church and out of church. It is a life that is open before God. It is a life in which all that is done is done as to the Lord. It is a life lived by principle, not expediency; by humility before God, not defiance. It is a life lived under the tutelage of conscience that is held captive by the Word of God.

Coram Deo . . . before the face of God. That’s the big idea.

Next to this idea our other goals and ambitions become mere trifles.

(Original Link)

Here’s a helpful posting on the cross by Pastor DeYoung,

The Cross of Christ
Several years ago I started the habit of beginning my devotional time each morning by reading from a spiritual classic for 10-20 minutes. This has been a great way to read through longer, denser books. With this method, I’ve managed to learn from men like Athanasius, Gregory the Great, Calvin, Edwards, Bavinck, Lloyd-Jones, Sibbes, Owen, Baxter, Chesterton, and Machen.

And in learning from them I’ve been better prepared each morning for the word of God and prayer.  Currently, I’m reading through a more recent book, John Stott’s The Cross of Christ. It is truly a modern day classic. How anyone could read this book and not be convinced, from the Scriptures, of the validity, centrality, and glory of penal substitution as the heart of the gospel is beyond me.

Here are two of the best paragraphs you’ll ever read on the atonement. Meditate on them. Pray through them. And don’t go to a church that doesn’t preach them.

We strongly reject, therefore, every explanation of the death of Christ that does not have at its center the principle of “satisfaction through substitution,” indeed divine self-satisfaction through divine self-substitution. The cross was not

• a commercial bargain with the devil, let alone one that tricked and trapped him: nor an exact equivalent,
• a quid pro quo to satisfy a code of honor or technical point of law; nor
• a compulsory submission by God to some moral authority above him from which he could not otherwise escape; nor
• a punishment of a meek Christ by a harsh and punitive Father; nor
• a procurement of salvation by a loving Christ from a mean and reluctant Father; nor
• an action of the Father which bypassed Christ as Mediator.

Instead, the righteous, loving Father humbled himself to become in and through his only Son flesh, sin and a curse for us, in order to redeem us without compromising his own character.

The theological words satisfaction and substitution need to be carefully defined and safeguarded, but they cannot in any circumstance be given up. The biblical gospel of atonement is of God satisfying himself by substituting himself for us.

The concept of substitution may be said, then,
to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation.

For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives that belong to God alone; God accepts penalties that belong to man alone (158-59). (Original posting)

In previous postings we’ve looked at the pattern for daily prayer that Jesus taught his disciples.

This posting “puts it all together” by suggesting a how we can put Jesus’ pattern for prayer into practice daily.

Adoration and Praise
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name . . .

Pray for an open, obedient heart as you fellowship with the Father. Greet him, enjoy being in his presence, sing to him, worship him, praise and adore him. He is your Father; He is Almighty God; You belong to His people!

Submission to God’s Will
Your kingdom come, your will be done . . .

Lord, may your kingdom come. May the knowledge of the Lord, the knowledge of how glorious you are, cover the earth. Lord, I give myself to you today, wanting your will to be done in my life, just as it is in heaven. Fill me with your Spirit. Equip and enable me to do your will – in your way, in your order, and in your strength. Help me love you with all my heart, and serve others in your strength.

Colossians 1:9-10
Lord, today please . . .
. . . Fill me with the knowledge of your will
. . . Help me live worthy of you and please you in every way
. . . Enable me to bear fruit in every good work
. . . I want to increase in the knowledge of the Lord today
. . . Strengthen me with your power; give me great endurance and patience

Petition
Give us this day our daily bread . . .

Pray boldly and base your prayers on God’s promises. Lord, here are the worries and concerns I carry into today. I know fear and worry hinder fellowship with you. They reflect my self-centeredness. I give my worries and concerns to you. Help me move from fear to faith. Enable me to trust you for each need. Bless me with your favor and “establish the work of my hands.”

Confession and Forgiveness
Forgive us our sins as we also forgive. . .

Lord, I confess to you . . .

Spiritual Warfare
Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from the evil one

Lord, protect me and my family from the evil one today. Help me to keep in place the “belt of truth,” the “breastplate of righteousness,” and the “shoes of preparedness” that come from the gospel of peace. Help me to use the “shield of faith” and the “helmet of salvation” when Satan tempts me to doubt you and trust instead in my own resources. Help me use the “Sword of the Spirit” to honor you and help others today.
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Here’s a practical article by Tim Chester with suggestions on how to encourage “cross-centered” living in the community of God’s people that you lead,

Someone recently asked me this question: ‘Do you have any suggestions for practical, tangible first-steps that churches or missional communities can take to implement a cross-centred practice’.  Here are some thoughts …

1. Model cross-centred living and make it explicit what you’re modeling
Tell people you are doing something because it is the way of the cross. We were looking at Philippians 3 recently in church and it’s interesting how 3:17 in which Paul invites people to follow his example follows on from 3:10-16 in which Paul talks of wanting to know the power of the resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in Christ’s sufferings, becoming like him in his death. I.e. when Paul tells people to follow his example he also tells them what that the framework that shapes that pattern – resurrection power to follow the weakness of the cross – and striving for this as something not yet fully attained.

2. What’s the loving thing to do in this situation?
In all sorts of decision-making situations or pastoral occasions, ask people, ‘What would it mean for you to follow the way of the cross in this situation?’ ‘What’s the loving thing to do?’ ‘What would it mean for you to serve, sacrifice, deny yourself, submit or suffer in this situation?’

I’ve found the question, ‘What would be the loving thing for you to do?’ a great question to ask because it immediately gets beyond what is just, right and fair, what I deserve and what they deserve. So, for example, someone is wronged by someone. They come to you with their complaint. They want justice. They demand condemnation. Talking about what is right or ethical just circles people back to what they deserve. But ‘what is loving?’ what is gracious?’ ‘how has God treated you?’ breaks beyond this self-centeredness.

3.Extol Christ
Above all exhort people to treasure Christ. Extol Christ to them so that service, sacrifice, self-denial, submission and suffering seem worth it. Matthew 13:44 and Philippians 3:8 are so helpful.

(Original article)

“and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil” Matt 6:13

Finally, Jesus tells us to pray for spiritual victory.

The word “evil” in this verse occurs a definite article.  Probably the idea is not evil as an abstract form, but “the evil one.”

Jesus is instructing us to pray for Spiritual victory.  “Father,”  he is praying,  “don’t allow me into a situation where I will be overcome with temptation and fall into sin.”   “Lord, instead of this, deliver me from the evil one.”

A similar thought is present in 1 Cor 10:13,

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Conclusion

In this series on the Lord’s Prayer, we’ve considered 5 areas we are to pray for in our daily practice of prayer.

Each of these areas is based on our concept of God.  We pray properly when we have an accurate understanding of who our God is.  As we know God better our prayer life deepens. Jesus has given us a pattern for daily fellowship with the Father in prayer.  Meeting God daily in prayer helps us know the Father better, and that in turn enrichens prayer.
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The following posting is adopted from an article by Jerry Bridges.  The original article, posted in Modern Reformation magazine, is here.

Bridges argues that evangelicals commonly think that the gospel is only for unbelievers. Once someone believes the gospel, they then need to focus on discipleship, i.e. on living the Christian life.  This leads to a mentality of “performance-based discipleship.”

His article is pretty searching.  Take a look at the following chart and see if you don’t agree.

Performance-Based Discipleship

“As evangelicals, we tend to live performance-based lives. The more deeply committed we are to following Jesus, the more deeply ingrained the performance mindset is. We think we earn or forfeit God’s blessing by how well we live the Christian life.  Take a look at the following chart – do you see yourself in one of these three groups?”

The Gospel and Believers

Bridges writes, “[These three groups need the gospel too], but they don’t realize it is for them. I know, because I was in the [third] group.  Gradually over time, and from a deep sense of need, I came to realize that the gospel is for believers, too.”

“Eventually I learned not to look to my “own performance but to Christ’s ‘performance’ as the sole basis of his acceptance with God.”

I learned that Christians need to hear the gospel all of their lives because it is the gospel that continues to remind us that our day-to-day acceptance with the Father is not based on what we do for God but upon what Christ did for us in his sinless life and sin-bearing death.

I began to see that we stand before God today as righteous as we ever will be, even in heaven, because he has clothed us with the righteousness of his Son. Therefore, I don’t have to perform to be accepted by God. Now I am free to obey him and serve him because I am already accepted in Christ (see Rom. 8:1).

“Even when we understand that our acceptance with God is based on Christ’s work we still naturally tend to drift back into a performance mindset. Consequently, we must continually return to the gospel.

To use an expression of the late Jack Miller, we must “preach the gospel to ourselves every day.” For me that means I keep going back to Scriptures such as Isaiah 53:6, Galatians 2:20, and Romans 8:1. It means I frequently repeat the words from an old hymn, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”

Take a look at the article to see how Bridges then deals with the need for growth in holiness.

“and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us” Luke 11:4

Jesus, in the “Lord’s prayer,” gave His disciples a pattern for daily fellowship with God in prayer.

We learn from this prayer that daily repentance and confession of sin is God’s will for us and needs to be an integral part of our daily prayer life.  A good way to think of this spiritual habit is to compare it with washing our hands before a meal.

Repentance and Confession

When we repent our our sins and confess them, God has promised forgives us and washes us clean from sin’s defilement (1 John 1:9).  He does this on the basis of Jesus death on the cross for our sin.

Forgiveness of those who Sin against us

As part of our daily fellowship with God, we are instructed to consider who has has offended us and then forgive them.

This is especially important for those who are married. 1 Peter 3:7 commands married couples to live in harmony…“so that your prayers may not be hindered.”

If we’re having trouble praying, it is helpful to ask “Is there someone I’m not willing to forgive or am bitter against?”  If that is the case, we are to first go to them and be reconciled with them.  Then we are in a position to continue praying (Matt 5:23).
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I read a challenging article on Sanctification (the term means the process by which God changes us to make us holy, or more like Christ).

The author described a problem we face as believers – the problem of “time.” At first, when we become followers of Christ, especially if our life has been ungodly, we have a pretty accurate view of ourselves and our sin. We don’t “look down on other people” because we’re so aware of our sin and how God, in grace, has rescued us. We find it natural to look up to Jesus and focus on him.

Then, the article went on to say, something happens – time. The memory of our sin fades, and with it the memory of the cross. We sing about it, but it loses its centrality in our daily lives.  We become more “mature” believers and our “knowledge” of Christian things increases, but we stop looking up at Jesus and the cross, and start looking “down” at other people and their failures. When this happens, the article concluded,

Real sanctification ceases. This doesn’t mean that we stop being moral or that we quit gaining in theological knowledge. What it means is that we begin to equate our morality and our theological knowledge with sanctification.

Instead of becoming like Jesus, we become proud. I think the author hit the nail on the head. The article ended with a challenge to contemplate God’s holiness. It is there we see again our own sinfulness and wickedness. And that brings us back to the cross. Thankfully, the author concludes, when our awareness of the greatness of the chasm between us and God increases, “the cross becomes larger,”  large enough to fill the chasm and provides us not only a place of justification, but also place of sanctification and glorification. “The key to our sanctification is the gospel. If we are going to become more like Jesus, we will do so at the foot of the cross as grace flows down.”

Thanks be to God for the cross.

“Give us this day our daily bread” Matt. 6:11

Jesus, in the “Lord’s prayer,” gave His disciples a pattern for daily fellowship with God in prayer.

Once we’ve given up our plans and rights and have submitted ourselves to God’s rule in our lives we have the right to look to God for His provision of our needs.

Jesus promises that in Matthew 6:33 that we “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness all these things (i.e. our daily needs) will be given as well.”

We pray and ask God for our “daily needs,” i.e. “for this day,” or “for the coming day.” Life as a follower of Jesus is a life of dependence on God.  As an expression of that dependence, God calls us to live one day at a time. We pray to our Father in heaven and say, “God, here is what I need today…”

I often hear people say, “God helps those who help themselves.” But the Bible teaches just the opposite. God helps those who can’t help themselves—the weak, the powerless, the helpless.

Growing in the knowledge of God means becoming more and more dependent on Him. A simple test we can use to see how much we are depending on him is to ask ourselves, “What am I worrying about?”  Our answer to that question reveals those areas where we are having trouble trusting God.

Those areas are what we pray about, the “daily bread” we are instructed to ask God for.  Pray, make your requests and wait for God’s answers.
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Whose kingdom are they advancing, mine or Gods?   Sobering, isn’t it.  We who lead God’s people will be judged more strictly — for our words.  Words are the powerful tool we use to minister to others.  Those words have the power to either build others up or tear them down.

This challenging question is from author Paul Trip’s in the forthcoming book, The Power of Words and the Wonder of God. Read the quote and ponder:

I would ask you again to be humbly honest with yourself as you are reading. If I sat with you and I listened to recording of the last month of your words, whose kingdom, what kingdom, would I conclude those words are spoken to serve? Would it be the kingdom of self with its self-focused demandingness, expectancy, and entitlement? Would I hear a person who is quick to criticize, quick to judge, quick to slam, and quick to condemn, because people are always violating the laws of your kingdom? Is the greatest moral offense in your life an offense that someone makes against the laws of your kingdom? When this happens do you use words as a punishment or as a weapon? Do you use words to rein this person back into loyal service of the purposes of your kingdom of one?

Or would I hear you using words of love, honestly, encouragement, and service because your heart is taken up with the big-sky purposes of the kingdom of God. The entire law is summarized by a single command. If you had written that, what would you have written next? I probably would have written, “Love God above all else.” But that is clearly not what Paul writes. He writes, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Why is that an adequate summary of all that God calls me to? Oh, it is important to get this truth. It is only when I love God above all else that I will ever love my neighbor as myself. It’s only when God is in the rightful place in my life that I will treat you with the love that I have received from him. Brothers and sisters, hear this. You don’t fix language problems, you don’t fix communication problems, and you don’t fix word problems horizontally first; you first fix them vertically.  From www.theologica.blogspot.com

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” Matt. 6:10

Jesus, in the “Lord’s prayer,” gave His disciples a pattern for daily fellowship with God in prayer.

Our tendency is to be preoccupied with our needs and concerns instead of God and his plans. Jesus turns this around and begins with God and his concerns:

• Hallowed by your name.
• Your kingdom come
• Your will be done

After praying for God’s glory, i.e. for His name to be hallowed, we turn our attention to God’s kingdom.  May it come, O Lord! we pray.

This prayer has a two-fold sense.  It is, of course, a prayer for Jesus’ return and the establishment of God’s kingdom in all its glory.  When that happens, the Father’s will actually will be “done on earth as it is in heaven.”

But the prayer also has a present dimension.  It is a prayer of submission to God and His will. Jesus is my king. His kingdom or rule is present in my life. Lord, we pray, Let your will be done in my life today. This requires a giving up my will and submitting to God’s will for us.

Each day, when we meet with God, we begin with Worship and Praise.  Then we submit our will to His.

“Heavenly Father,” we can say, “in my life, in what happens today, I want you to be praised. I want people to see who you are and how great you are.” “In my life today, and in the lives of people I come into contact with today, I want your reign to come, to be made manifest.” “In my life, in all I do today, I want your will to be done, not mine. Whatever you wish, let it happen, just as it happens in heaven.”

Day after day come to God in submission, lay down your will and submit yourself to Him.  “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…” (Matthew 6:33)

Last week I wrote a short post on Jesus’ teaching us to pray “Hallowed by your name.” It ended with a challenge to make this prayer an important part of our own daily prayer life.

Today I noticed a great posting on the same verse by John Piper.  I reproduce it here…
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“The most important prayer is that the most important person in the universe do the most important act in the universe.  That’s why Jesus put this request at the beginning of the Lord’s prayer: “Hallowed be your name.”

God is the most important person in the universe. More important than all others put together.

All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness” (Isaiah 40:17).

The whole-souled act of hallowing God’s name is the most important act in the universe.

To “hallow” means to “sanctify” which in God’s case means to set apart in your mind and heart as supremely great and beautiful and valuable. “Hallowed be your name” means,

“See to it that your name is hallowed. Use your infinite power and wisdom and love to stir up billions of hearts and minds to admire you and prize you above all things.”

We ask him to fulfill this promise:

I will sanctify [hallow] my great name, which was profaned among the nations…. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord…when I shall be sanctified [hallowed] in you before their eyes.” (Ezekiel 36:23)

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.” (Isaiah 48:11)

Ask the Lord to help you make the most important prayer your most common prayer.  And the one you desire most to see answered.”

(Here’s the link: The Most Important Prayer Request in the World)

“… hallowed be your name” Matt. 6:9

Jesus, in the “Lord’s prayer,” gave his disciples a pattern for daily fellowship with God in prayer.

This pattern, as I understand it, includes five types of prayer:

1) Worship and Praise
2) Submission to God and His will
3) Petition, i.e. requests for our daily needs
4) Repentance and forgiveness
5) Prayer for spiritual victory.

Notice that Daily Prayer begins with a Godward focus.  Even though He is my loving Father, even though he cares about meeting my needs – my initial focus is not be on me, but Him.

We begin our daily prayer, Jesus teaches us, by focusing on God’s interests. What God is most concerned about is that He receives glory from his creation, i.e. that His name be hallowed. Hallowed means to be regarded as special, separate from all else, exalted.  Are you praying for this daily?

We begin our time of daily fellowship with God in prayer by “Hallowing His name” ourselves.  We tell Him how great, awesome and majestic He is. We praise Him for who He is and for what he has done. Then we pray that others would come to see Him for who He really is; that others would praise and worship Him too.
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