Spurgeon on prayer...

I never read a portion of this book without feeling convicted that it is rare that I truly pray.  I hope this post encourages you to seek our God with the earnestness that glorifies Him and that He's worthy of...

"To think that we puny people may speak with God and through God we may move all worlds.  Yet when your prayers are heard, creation will not be disturbed.  Though the greatest ends be answered, providence will not be altered for a single moment...all will go on the same, and yet your prayers will have affected everything.  They will speak to the decrees and purposes of God as they are being daily fulfilled; and the decrees will all shout to your prayer, "You are our brother; we are decrees, and you a prayer; but you are yourself a decree, as old, as sure, as ancient as we are."  Our prayers are God's decrees in another shape.  The prayers of God's people are but God's promises breathed out of living hearts, and those promises are the decrees, only put into another form and fashion.  Do not say, "How can my prayers affect the decrees of God?"  They cannot, except to the degree that your prayers are decrees, and that as they come out, every prayer that is inspired of the Holy Spirit in your soul is as omnipotent and as eternal as that decree which said, "Let there be light: and there was light." (Gen. 1:3)

Prayer is a real, actual thing...to be able to say, "I know He has heard me now.  I will look for my God, and hear what He will say to my soul."

I would that we came to speak to God just out of our hearts.  It would be a grand thing for our prayer meetings.  They would be better attended and more fruitful if every man would shake off that habit of formality and talk to God as a child talks to his father, asking Him for what we want and then sitting down and being done.  I say this with all Christian earnestness...[do not merely imitate former prayers of saints, for] God wants the new oil just distilled from the fresh olive of your own soul.  He wants spices and frankincense, incense and myrrh, brought from the ophir of your own soul's experience.  Do not learn the language of prayer but seek the spirit of prayer. 

Look upward, and let us weep.  O God, You have given us a mighty weapon, and we have permitted it to rust.  You have given us that which is mighty as Yourself, and we have let that power lie dormant.  Would it not be a crime if a man were given an eye that he would not open or a hand that he would not lift up?  And what must we say of ourselves when God has given us power in prayer-matchless power, full of blessedness to ourselves, and of unnumbered mercies to others- and yet that power lies still...Weep, believer.  We have been defeated and our banners trail in the dust because we have not prayed.  Go back to your God and confess before Him that you were armed and carried bows but turned your back in the day of battle.  Go to your God and tell Him that if souls are not saved, it is not because He has not power to save but because you have never travailed for perishing sinners.  Your spirit has not been moved.  Wake up, wake up, and be astonished: you have neglected prayer.  Wrestle and strive with your God, and the blessing shall come - the early and the latter rain of His mercy, and the earth shall bring forth plenteously, and all the nations shall call Him blessed.

Once more, look up and rejoice.  Behold, He cries to you still, "Seek my face."   Prayer is real power and real pleasure.  God waits, to be gracious, to YOU."

~excerpts from The Power of Prayer in a Believer's Life

Bittersweet thought: I just realized that a year ago today I was living in this country....

It's crazy how fast time seems to be going...I guess that means I'm getting old?  Looking at England pictures tonight made me really miss it and want to go back and visit dear friends there.

Somewhat sad thought: Even if i were to fall asleep this very second, I'm still gonna get less than 6 hours of sleep tonight.

Happy thoughts: Fun night playing "psycharatist" (haha sorry i'm way too tired to care about spelling) with my caregroup.  I love 'em~

Tomorrow night I get to play cards with this guy: 

And the Kauflins.  Some of my most favorite people in the world.

Amazing thought: When I wake up in the morning, the Lord is with me, is waiting for me to draw near to Him, and promises abundant grace for a new day. 

Will you be watching this Sunday night?  I think we should have a '24 returns' party.=)

Christmas thoughts from John Piper:

I read the transcript of the sermon John Piper gave for Christmas on Mark 10:45, and I wanted to post excerpts of it here because my heart was struck by the greatness of what Christ did for us when He came to earth.I have read these words of Jesus many times and have never seen the richness of the promise He extends here until I read this sermon.If you get the chance, it’s well worth reading the whole thing here.

Mark 10:45

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.

The Radical Call to Be Served By Jesus

Now in that context [of Mark 10, where Jesus is teaching the disciples that the true road to glory is the same one Jesus takes, serving others which includes suffering and dying], Jesus gives a powerful Christmas promise of future grace. As far as I know no other religious leader in the history of the world has done what Jesus promised here. He says in effect in verse 45 that this radical call to discipleship—this call to come and drink the cup of suffering and service—this is not a call to serve Jesus, but a call to be served by Jesus as we serve others and to be ransomed by him from death. Let me say this again, to be sure you hear it correctly: the good news ( the good news of Christmas) is that the radical call to Christian discipleship is NOT a call to serve Jesus, but to be served by Jesus as we serve others, and to be ransomed by him from death.

You see this in verse 45: "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." At first this only sounds like an example to follow, right? Don't lord it over your fellows, serve them.. Why: because the Son of Man set you an example: he serves. He gives his life. So at first the verse sounds like an example to follow.

But then you ponder for a few moments and it hits you. Wait a minute! This is not just an example, for me to follow. He is not just saying, "Serve the way I serve." This is the Son of Man serving me! Ransoming me from my sin and my death! Refusing to be served by me. Insisting on being the Servant and the Savior in my life.

This is not just another teacher with some rules about how to live, gathering some radical disciples to live the way he lives and stir up a revolution. This is a man (and more than a man!) telling his disciples that he has come into the world to serve them; he does not want them to serve him and he will lay down his life so that their lives can be ransomed from sin and death. This is unheard of... You need to feel how wild this is. No man ever spoke this way—except maybe in a mental hospital. No respected religious leader ever spoke this way. Either Jesus is above every ordinary teacher, with some supernatural power and dignity, or he is a lunatic.

When he calls for radical, self-sacrificing discipleship, he gives a reason in verse 45: "For (note the word!) even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom of many." Yes, this is a call to act the way he acted. But O so much more! The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve! Not to be served by whom? Whom does he not want to be served by? Answer: the very disciples that he is calling to drink his cup and endure his baptism and to be the slave of all.

He is saying: Yes, drink my cup. Yes, share my baptism. Yes, serve others. Yes, be the slave of all. This is what it means to be my disciple. But don't serve me! I have not come to be served. I will not be served like this. I will be the servant. I have not come to be served, but to serve. In your relationship with me, I will be the servant. I will serve you. I will work for you.

Do you think you can drink this cup without my help and service? Do you think you can endure the suffering of my baptism without my serving you and helping you? Do you think you can become the kind of person that renounces fame and human status to serve all other people without my serving you—day and night all the days of your life? No you can't.

Do you recall what Jesus said in John 15:5?

I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Apart from me you can do nothing. You cannot drink my cup. You cannot endure my baptism. You cannot serve each other. You cannot become the slave of all. To do any of this, you must "abide in me and I in you." You must trust me to serve you. Abiding in the vine and being served by Jesus are the same thing. And both are the same as living by faith in future grace.

Jesus is saying, "Christmas means that the Son of Man comes. And when he comes he demands something and he promises something. He demands your life. All of it. He demands that you take on a life-style that sacrifices everything for the sake of serving others (Luke 14:33). This is hard. In fact, it is impossible. That's what Jesus said to the disciples in Mark 10:27 when they said, "Who then can be saved?" He said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God." It is impossible to drink the cup of suffering. It is impossible to become everybody's servant. UNLESS . . .

That is what verse 45 is all about. The great UNLESS . . .Unless the Son of Man is serving you day and night.

Mark 10:45 is what turns Christianity into gospel. If Christianity were only a great and radical teacher calling for the sacrificial obedience of radical disciples, it would not be good news. It would be just another ideology. Another philosophy. Another moral improvement program. If Christmas only meant that a man appeared on the scene of history to call others to be servants, it would not be good news.

We know that already. We know intuitively that we are to love and serve and sacrifice, rather than boast and seek our own status and lord it over others. We don't need a Messiah to tell us that. What we need is salvation from guilt and death and hell. And we need power to drink the cup of suffering in the path of service. We don't need another religious leader to say "Follow me." We don't need another prophet, like Mohammed. We don't need another philosophical Buddha or Confucius, or another political organizer like Karl Marx or Mao Zedong. We don't need any more New Age mysticisms or psychological self-help strategies. What we need is Someone who can forgive our sins and ransom us from guilt and death and the wrath of God, and who can give us a new life with the power die for each other in the service of love.

That is what Christmas is all about. That is what Mark 10:45 is all about. Jesus does not merely come as another teacher or philosopher or politician or mystic. He comes to do two things. One: to give his life as a ransom for many. (We will dig into that great work next week.) And he comes, secondly, to serve his disciples—to serve all those who will stop trying to earn his approval by serving him, and will humble themselves like little children and let him serve them. This is the help we need and the power we need. He is our Redeemer from guilt and death and hell. He is our helper day in and day out as he serves us by the power of his Spirit.

I commend him to you for your trust. For your enjoyment this Christmas.

Currently Listening Upstairs By Shane & Shane see related