Agreeing To Disagree

This is almost a cliché now but it cannot be stressed enough in the body of Christ:  "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace"  (Eph. 4:3). We don't want to be contentious, disagreeable, nor divisive, that is to say.   It has been well said by Chuck Swindoll that if you drink of only one fountain, you will lose your discernment.  What that means is to keep an open mind and don't think you or your group have monopolized the truth and get a Bible-club mentality.  We all need each other and are all part of the story, as it were--the Spirit of truth will lead us into all truth.  The church is to be semper reformanda, which means "always reforming" and we never will complete arriving at truth until Christ perfects His Bride.

 In a marriage, it is good to have an agreement, but disagreement can serve a purpose also:  It challenges our wits and brings to light issues that would otherwise go unnoticed.  If they agree all the time, one of them is unnecessary!  In a church body we want to strive for unity in the Spirit, of course, but leave room for disagreement or dissension in the body.  Aurelius Augustine of Hippo said, "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity."  There are certain doctrines that we cannot compromise on like the Trinity and salvation by faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone.   We have to agree to disagree even in the body and not "muzzle the ox that treads out the grain," [hinder or restrain someone from proclaiming the truth] so to speak.  We need healthy dialog and debate in the body to grow in the faith--that's why Jude says to "contend for the faith."

The whole idea behind the Protestant Reformation was what Martin Luther proclaimed:  "I dissent, I disagree, I protest!"  We are not at the mercy of church dogma any longer and realize our God-given right to interpret Scripture on our own and form our own beliefs and convictions; however, we are not free to fabricate our own truths and are responsible for our doctrines.  Roman Catholic churches do not allow this liberty and laypeople are at the mercy of the clergy and the Pope to interpret for them.

We need more healthy dialog in our churches and believers who aren't too timid or intimidated to speak up for the truth as they see it.  Most churches today have come full circle:  "What do you believe, Sir?"  "I believe what my church believes."  "What does your church believe?" "What I believe!" "What do you both believe?"  "We believe the same thing!"  We might as well be Catholics as blindly follow a teacher without question, no matter how good he is.  No one is apostolic today, despite the Pope claiming apostolic succession, and is inerrant or infallible.  To err is human!  Augustine said, that he had learned to hold only the Scriptures as inerrant and infallible.

The condition for arriving at the truth is to realize that you don't know all of it yet and have an open mind, that is willing to admit it could be wrong.  The truth is not arrived at by vote or majority rule, but by the conviction of the Holy Spirit that is called the illuminating ministry and God can convict us of the truth--"If any man will to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine..." (John 7:17).  Soli Deo Gloria!

What Kind Of Soil Are You?

In the parable of the sower, in Matthew 13, Christ depicts four types of individuals who hear the gospel and how they respond.  There is the soil along the path, the rocky soil, the thorny soil, and the good soil. It is important to evaluate the condition of our own soil because we can go through phases in life where it may vary--we are not always apparently good soil, even if we are saved.   We may identify with these kinds of soils at some time in our spiritual journey, but to enter the kingdom of God we have to be good soil--we may just backslide or revert to our old nature at seasons of our life though.  But it is erroneous to conclude that there is a whole new category of a believer called a believer with a thorny soil;  he must have been good soil at one time or he never would've been saved in the first place.

It has been shown that the average person rejects the gospel 7.6 times before accepting it--that is an average and one person may reject it 8 times and another 7 times, and so forth.  That is proof that we are not always receptive to the message of truth and aren't usually ready for it as given or sown the first time.  But God prepares our hearts over time and when we are prepared soil we do respond affirmatively. "Salvation is of the Lord," says Jonah 2:9 and we do not cooperate in it as Rome teaches but simply accept it by faith with God doing all the work, even giving us faith as a gift--it is not something we conjure up by our efforts.   All of us can relate to once being thorny soil that had other things on our mind or even rocky soil that doesn't want to pay the price of persecution or tribulation and hasn't counted the cost--Jesus warned His followers to "count the cost."

In this parable, the sower is the same, the seed is the same, and the soil is the same; what is different is the condition of the soil and this is the responsibility of the recipient.  The sower sows wherever he has the opportunity or sees an open door.  Only in so-called  "good soil" does the seed germinate and take root to go on and bear fruit.  Why is fruit important?  John the Baptist said, "Bear fruits in keeping with repentance..." (Luke 3:8).   "By their fruits, you shall know them."  Jesus "appointed [us] that [we] should go and bear fruit and that [our] fruit should abide..." (John 15:16).  We should "bear much fruit and prove to be [His] disciples." (This fruit is the outcome of our lives for Christ, doing good deeds foreordained for us and not the fruit of the Spirit since the listeners of Jesus knew nothing of this and the Spirit was not yet given!)

I am of the persuasion that faith without works is dead and without fruit, there is no faith--true faith produces fruit and this fruit is good works (though converts is a good work, it is not the only one); we are not saved by good works, but we are not saved without them either-without works our faith is suspect.  There may be Christians who don't amount to much and may end up with no reward according to 1 Cor. 3:15 where they are saved, as if by fire, but they do produce some fruit and end up losing or forfeiting their reward.   The condition of the soil is up to us and we are culpable for soil that is unresponsive to the gospel and has no place for the Word in our lives.

Lots of people are superficial and initially believe the Word of Christ, but don't have genuine saving faith, having good intentions, but poor follow-through.  The purpose of this parable is to show three types of recipients to the general call of the gospel when we preach or evangelize and why they don't accept our message.  It is meant to encourage us to sow a seed and that some will inevitably fall on good or tilled soil.   Hearing the Word is not sufficient, one must be obedient to the gospel and go on to follow the Lord as His disciple.  Soli Deo Gloria!

What Is A Significant Prayer?

The most perfect and ideal prayer we can make is to commend ourselves unto God's care, let His will be done in a prayer of relinquishment, and have the faith to mean it when we say, "Amen!"  We must dismiss the notion that we can change God, but let successful prayer change us.

Jesus rebuked the vain repetitions of the Pharisees and the meaningless long-winded prayers they were wont to do, then He formulated the Lord's Prayer because the disciples asked Him "Lord, teach us to pray," of all things to want to learn.   This prayer was never meant to be a recital or vain repetition, but the answer to the question, "How shall we pray?" (not "What shall we pray?).  It is never wrong to go through the petitions and pray them as long as one comprehends it and meditates on it while doing it.  Therefore, everything we need to know about prayer is in this paradigm or framework Jesus gave us if we understand and apply it rightly.  The vital link is, "How big is our God?" because this affects our prayer life and our faith in the answers--that is why it is said, "Be it done unto you according to your faith."

God's name or reputation is holy and worthy of praise; for He exalts above all things His name and His Word (Psalm 138:2).   Prayer, by definition, is communion or communication with the Almighty and that means it is two-way--not just us doing all the talking.  We have to learn to listen like Samuel who prayed, "Speak LORD, for your servant hears." The more we listen, the more we hear; we must practice this fervently because hearing God, as well as a prayer to Him are like muscles one must exercise to be fit--we don't want to become unfit or turn a deaf ear to God by negligence or because we are remiss or derelict doing our part.  

The book of Job says that God speaks to man, but he doesn't hear.  God always speaks to me when I read the Scriptures because I have trained myself in this discipline.   Sometimes God has much to say and we do all the talking.  One way God speaks to us is by verses we have committed to memory, something a believer told us in edification, or some circumstance.  Being cognizant of His control or providence shows our faith and how we will interpret the answers.

Psalm 100:4 says to "Enter His gates with thanksgiving, enter His courts with praise."  For the LORD "inhabits the praises of His people" according to Psalm 22:3.  The essence of prayer is communication and to change us, not change the unchangeable one!  The purpose of prayer is prayer--we should love to touch base with God and stay in fellowship with Him by keeping short accounts of our sins and confessing them ("If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the LORD would not have listened," says Psalm 66:18)  and we should "pray without ceasing," which means that we keep the conversation going (our attitude and fellowship) as Brother Lawrence, the humble cook in a monastery, did in the 16th century when he wrote The Practice of the Presence of God, which is a classic on the continuity of daily fellowship  in our labors.

When we do corporate or public prayer one goal is to be a witness to others and teach them how to pray and be an example; and, if possible, to convert any unbeliever by our witness.  All prayer should be in the power of the Spirit, as it says in Jude 21:  "Pray in the Spirit."  We should strive to put our hearts into our prayers, but sincerity is not everything if we ask amiss or are wrong.  Just because we can put a lot of emotion into it is no guarantee that God will answer affirmatively.  Prayer is, in summation, acknowledging God for who He is and what He has done; thanking Him for what He has done, and praising Him for who He is.  The better we know God, the better our prayers.

 When we pray we should think of putting on Christ and assuming our role and position as a son of God and having the authorization to use Christ's name and permission to call the Most High our Father--the angels don't have this authority and power to influence God--remember prayer is the ordained means that God uses to accomplish His will and we are acting as vessels of honor, being used for His glory.   This implies intimacy and the more we pray, the closer we get to God--if we don't pray much, it is because we probably don't believe God is listening or answering our prayers.

Finally, our prayers are in the power enabling the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who puts our feeble words and baby talk or lisping into groans too deep for words to the Father. "For we know not how to pray as we ought, but the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us."   We go to the top in our prayer, the Most High, who is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He has an open-door policy, which means we are always welcome and God is never inconvenienced.

We should think of the attributes of God when we pray:  His greatness or awesomeness (nothing is too great, nor too small for God--they are all small); His sovereignty (we can be assured that He is in control and we are on the winning side); God is omnipotent or almighty (nothing too big for God--"Is anything too hard for Me?" says the LORD in Jeremiah 32:17);  God is eternal and everlasting (He has all the time in the world to answer our prayer and time is no object, because He is not bound, defined, limited, nor in the time/space continuum that we are slaves to--this means God knows the future from the past and can forgive our sins past, present, and future as an example.   God is worthy of praise, worship is essentially "worth-ship" because only God is worthy to be worshiped--we can't praise God too much, in fact, there is power in praise!

Prayer is where the action is and is the acid test or the so-called litmus test of our spiritual relationship. Many people have weak prayer life because they take themselves too seriously; we should pray as we can and not as we can't.  It is a trick in prayer to learn to pray the Word and claim its promises.   It is not to be seen as a duty but as a glorious calling and honor. Learn to be sensitive to the inner voice of the Holy Spirit and the promptings He will give.  God does speak; it's just that man doesn't listen.  "Indeed God speaks once, Or twice, yet no one notices it"  (Job 33:14).   In sum, the greatest prayer is one of relinquishment, uttering in the manner of Jesus, "Thy will be done!  Soli Deo Gloria!

Answering the Mystics

In reference to believers who claim an inside track or hear God's voice: I suggest this disclaimer, I do not doubt the validity of these episodes nor the veracity of the witnesses to God's audible voice, but what I question is, is their motives and spiritual maturity.  Mystics are those who interpret God's Word or His will by their experiences rather than their experiences by the Word of God.  There are flaky Christians out there and many seem to get into the act--I have seen many in mental hospitals who hear voices and end up "cured."  We test our experience by the Word, not the Word by our experience.

I used to be in a church where believers  commonly said that "God told them, this or that."  I don't see any precedent in the Scripture that warrants a special class of believer that doesn't need to read the Bible to have God speak to him--and I don't mean having an existential experience like goosebumps, chills down the spine, or a burning in the bosom.  God spoke to Samuel the prophet through the Word as it says in 1 Sam.3:21 as follows:  "...and there He revealed Himself to Samuel through His Word." It seems that the way it works is that we must accept God's Word first and not expect special messages or a special pipeline, as it were, to God, that others don't have.  I am not precluding God's prerogative to speak to us any way He chooses--He can use the air vent if He wills--but He has ordained His Word to be His focus.

The trouble with people speaking to individuals is that they get puffed up as being an elite Christian or a special class of privileged ones.  If we have an experience with God, it is meant to be between us and God and not to brag about as to promote ourselves or seem like we are "closer" to God.  What pleases God is faith, according to Hebrews 11:6:  "For without faith it is impossible to please God."

Now Paul experienced more than any other Christian and had bragging rights you might say, even having been caught up to the third heaven--but he didn't willingly admit this, but was forced to.  God didn't answer his prayer to remove his "thorn in the flesh" to keep him humble and said, "My grace is sufficient for you..."  My conclusion is that some of us have been given great minds and God expects us to use them and we should not compare ourselves with other believers according to 2 Cor. 10:12, nor commend ourselves and feel inferior; we are all individual works of God for His purposes.

I would rather have great faith and a great mind than just have some existential experience or hear "voices" from above--which, by the way, can be duplicated by Satan and some people are really fooled by the voices of spirits and mislead into heresy. It's not wrong to hear from God audibly, but that is not normative, We shouldn't depend upon it nor expect it.  If one hears from God he should be able to quote Him word-for-word and not have any doubts that it is God--does it line up squarely with the Word?

God always confirms His Word--He's not going to tell you some personal message that isn't verified by other witnesses, the Word, or circumstances (cf. Isa. 44:26; Jer. 1:12).  That's the litmus test! Also, Isaiah 8:20 says that if they speak not according to the Word, it is because they have no light in them.  The problem is that they may very well be convinced God spoke to them, but how do we know that?  Soli Deo Gloria!