Pray Without Ceasing

I so often need to be reminded with these words that C. H. Spurgeon once wrote:

Never give up praying, not even though Satan should suggest to you that it is in vain for you to cry unto God. Pray in his teeth; “pray without ceasing.” If for awhile the heavens are as brass and your prayer only echoes in thunder above your head, pray on; if month after month your prayer appears to have miscarried, and no reply has been vouchsafed to you, yet still continue to draw nigh unto the Lord. Do not abandon the mercy-seat for any reason whatever. If it be a good thing that you have been asking for, and you are sure it is according to the divine will, if the vision tarry wait for it, pray, weep, entreat, wrestle, agonise till you get that which you are praying for. If your heart be cold in prayer, do not restrain prayer until your heart warms, but pray your soul unto heat by the help of the everblessed Spirit who helpeth our infirmities. If the iron be hot then hammer it, and if it be cold hammer it till you heat it.

Conceived in Sin

Deployments are a great opportunity for me to get out the whetstone and sharpen my sword that I use to deal with pop-culture.  When I'm home I don't have a TV and I don't really listen to any music that isn't something that's not already in my library.  That's a bit of a different story when I'm surrounded by individuals who are not only in the world but of it, too.  That means I get to have an exposure to enough Lady Gaga, Ke$ha, and myriad other pop-artists just by sitting in the bus that takes us into our squadron.  The song that inspired this post was Lady Gaga's newest hit "Born This Way" and it has caused me to consider the lyrics in light of what I know to be true as presented in the Word.  The particular phrase that really caught my attention reads as follows:

I'm beautiful in my way,
'Cause God makes no mistakes
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born this way

Don't hide yourself in regret,
Just love yourself and you're set
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born this way  

Take a second to read that again, pay particular attention to the lines that say "I was born this way."  She really is on the right track, we're all born that way.  You and I are children of Adam, and we have inherited sin as our natural birthright as a result of the fall.  I had to laugh a little when I heard that line, wondering to myself if she really understood that she was confessing what Scripture has hailed to be true since before the foundation of the Law.  (Romans 5:13-14)  Indeed, God doesn't make any mistakes, in fact He is perfectly clear to point out how we measure up in light of his perfect and righteous standard.  Just take a look at what Scripture has to say about our earthly condition: 

"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" Psalm 51:5

"For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person." Mark 7:21-23

"The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net.  Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together.  The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge..." Micah 7:2-4

I think the most targeted passage, as it pertains to this song can be found in Romans:

"Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.  For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error." Romans 1:24-27

All told that's pretty convicting, to know that "our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately sick" as it says in Jeremiah.   If we're on the right track of self love, as Lady Gaga points out, it begs the question, how are we to respond to this?  

For Christians it should cause us to look to Christ and rejoice.  Romans 5:9 says it pretty succinctly.  "Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God." [Emphasis added.] Revelation 1:5-6 captures it rather well also.  "... to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood ... to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." We have been saved from the wrath of God by the blood of Christ, the implications of that are huge.  

For the Christian our natural condition is no longer about self love, but worship.  We should be seeking to pour out that love of the Father on others and preaching Christ crucified to anyone who will hear.  Were we "born this way?" You bet.  Are we not also being conformed daily to the image of Christ because of God's gracious provision of mercy?  Absolutely.  I hope and pray that songs like this will give Christians like you and me new motivation to go out and share the gospel with our friends, co-workers and neighbors.  After all, we're all born into sin, but it's the infinite mercy of God's grace that provides us with real hope and lasting joy.

My Mission Field

If you're a Christian the concept of missions shouldn't be far from your mind.  Truthfully, you should already think of yourself as a missionary and if you don't you might need to revisit Matthew 28 for a refresher course on your duties as a believer.

I used to have the attitude that being sent away from the Body, and subsequently being sent out into to my mission field, some 7000 miles away, was some sort of divine punishment or chastisement.  Nothing could be more wrong.  In fact, I find that I am afforded more concentrated time for the pursuit and study of God's word while I'm sitting in some barren desert surrounded by those who are still in open hostility toward Him.  I'll admit it sounds pretty counter intuitive but I have found that during the times that I am separated from the Church is when I truly come to a point of absolute dependence.  Its so easy to become lackadaisical about scripture reading and prayer while I'm home because there are a million and one things that grab for my attention here in the States.  That's not to say there aren't difficulties associated with the times that I'm away.  Indeed its just as difficult to discipline one's self in order to take the time to really feast upon the meat and potatoes in God's word.  Its sort of like cooking for one.  It tends gets old, quickly, but it gives me a new appreciation for all the "cooking" my pastors and teachers do back home.  There is a hungry body of believers that gathers together several times each week to be fed and while its certainly more fun to cook for large groups, practically speaking, it sure does require a lot of time and preparation. 

Thus, I can now look at these times that I'm sent away not as curses, but as real blessings, that not only help me to grow closer to God, but as opportunities to really appreciate the work that he has sent aside for His people and the desire He has to see us grow in all wisdom and maturity as they pertain to spiritual things.