The Unbusy Necessity of Prayer

  I’m in the middle of Paul Miller’s A Praying Life.  I really like most aspects of it (i.e. his emphasis on the gospel), but there are a few things I’m not  so wild about (i.e. he was almost too ‘contemporary’ in some of his theological language, which ended up sounding messy).  To summarize a long review, I think it is well worth getting, but should be read with some discernment (as with all books!).  Here are a few quotes.

“American culture is probably the hardest place in the world to learn to pray.  We are so busy that when we slow down to pray, we find it uncomfortable.  We prize accomplishments, production.  But prayer is nothing but talking to God.  It feels useless, as if we are wasting time.  Every bone in our bodies scream, ‘Get to work.’”

“If we try to be quiet, we are assaulted by what C. S. Lewis called ’the Kingdom of Noise.’  Everywhere we go we hear background noise.  If the noise isn’t provided for us, we can bring our own via iPod.  Even our church services have that same restless energy.  There is little space to be still before God.  We want our money’s worth, so something should always happen.  We are uncomfortable with prayer.”

One of the subtlest hindrances to prayer is probably the most pervasive.  In the broader culture and in our churches, we prize intellect, competency, and wealth.  Because we can do life without God, praying seems nice but unnecessary.  Money can do what prayer does, and it is quicker and less time-consuming.  Our trust in ourselves and in our talents makes us structurally independent of God.  And as a result, exhortations to pray don’t stick.”

“Learning to pray doesn’t offer us a less busy life; it offers us a less busy heart.”

“What does heavy laden feel like? … You have so many problems you don’t even know where to start.  You can’t do life on your own anymore.  Jesus wants you to come to him that way!  Your weariness drives you to him.”

“If we think we can do life on our own, we will not take prayer seriously.”

Quotes taken from Paul Miller’s A Praying Life (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2009). 

shane lems

Thomas Murphy on Brotherly Kindness in Ecclesiastical Assemblies

In honor of the work being done at our federation’s Synod this week , I thought I’d post a little blurb by Thomas Murphy.  Though Murphy has this worded exhortationally, perhaps we can utilize it as a reminder of how we can pray for our brothers who are delegates in London right now:

It is, then, the duty of each member [of Synod/Classis/Etc.] to exercise a spirit of forbearance, of courtesy and of kindness in public deliberations and in all his intercourse with the bretheren.  If each one keeps a watch over his own spirit, an air of Christian friendliness will soon be felt pervading the whole assembly.  Each one, as he has opportunity, should strive to banish angry strifes.  he should pour oil on the troubled waters when from any causes they are aroused.  The evil effects of contention should always be dreaded, and the blessings which flow from brotherly love should be earnestly sought.  “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

Every servant of God should learn to endure contradiction, even when it comes in the form of wounds inflicted in the house of friends.  Offenses will come as long as there are so many human infirmities adhering to us, as Christians are only partially sanctified.  It is like men to resent opposition, but it is like Christ to bear it.  In this, as in everything else, it is our blessed privilege to imitate his glorious example  To do so will require self-restraint; but with such an exalted aim, who would not rejoice even in that?

Thomas Murphy, Pastoral Theology: The Pastor in the Various Duties of His Office, 486.  (Order from the publisher here, or from Amazon here.)

A tall order indeed.  While sometimes conflict is necessary in church assemblies – e.g., when the gospel is at stake – my prayer for the brothers is that Christ will richly bless their business and that they will be able to enjoy time spent attending to the business of Christ’s church for the glory of his name!

Hang in there, brothers!  Keep up the great work!

_____________
Andrew

The Chief Object of Your Study

Here is an outstanding devotional note from Octavius Winslow, found in Go and Tell Jesus (page 9 in the edition I’m reading).

Dear reader, let the chief object of your study be to know the Lord Jesus. It may be in the region of your sinfulness, emptiness, weakness, and foolishness that you learn Him — nevertheless, however humiliating the school, slow the progress, and limited the attainment, count every fresh step you make in a personal acquaintance with the Lord Jesus as a nobler triumph, and as bringing you into the possession of more real wealth than were the whole arena of human knowledge and science mastered, and its untold treasures poured at your feet. When adversity comes, when death approaches, when eternity unveils — oh! how indescribably valuable, how inconceivably precious will then be one faith’s touch, one faith’s glimpse of a crucified and risen Saviour! All other attainments then vanish, and the only knowledge that abides, soothes, and comforts, is a heart-felt acquaintance with the sublimest fact of the Gospel, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

shane lems

Overcoming Evil

 

“For Christians who believe that Jesus is [the] kinsman redeemer and [the] Messiah, their faith centers on a scandal that no time can rub smooth and no triumphs ever soften: A tortured criminal spread-eagled and naked on the instrument of his execution – for our sake.  The God whom Jesus shows on the cross is one who defeats evil by letting it do its very worst to him and then overcoming it.”

“It was this cross that took Dostoevsky to faith through ‘the hellfire of doubt.’  Gazing at the suffering Jesus as he stood in front of Hans Holbein’s Descent from the Cross, he realized the painted scene was more than graphic realism.  It was a window into the reality of the universe.  If God’s Son suffered like this, there could be redemption in the world.  As Alyosha says in The Brothers Karamazov, ‘I do not know the answer to the problem of evil, but I do know love.’”

Taken from page 106 of Os Guinness’ The Long Journey Home (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook Press, 2001).

shane

Reports from URCNA Synod 2010!

A member of Christ Reformed Church (Anaheim, CA) is observing Synod London this week and is posting updates of all the goings-on!

Check out the blog and subscribe to the feed to keep track of the Synodical Business:

URCNA Synod Reports

http://urcnasynodreports.wordpress.com/

__________________

Andrew