Praying Pint

And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7, NLT

That simple statement—or one like it—may be the single most effective tool for training our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It’s personal, conversational, Scripture-based, and meaningful. We’re to be personally committed to reading God’s Word, and as we uncover its great truths, we should share them with our children, at home or on the road, when getting up or going to bed.

This doesn’t require a Bible college education or a seminary degree. It’s not just for ministers and missionaries. It’s the great privilege of every parent and grandparent to share from the overflow of our hearts and minds.

To return to the Scriptures, we must all take responsibility for our family’s spiritual and emotional health and well-being. Decide today to strengthen your family through the study of God’s Word. (Jeremiah)

Romans 2:4    Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

Psa 78:49  He let loose on them his burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels.

2Ki 19:35  And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.

Act 12:23  Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

Mat 13:49-50  So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous  and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Rev 20:12-15  And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

2Pe 3:9-10  The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

Gen 16:7  The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.

The primary purpose of angels is to minister to believers. But angels also have a role in the lives of unbelievers. Let me share three ways angels minister to non-Christians.

First of all, angels are ministers of God’s goodness to unbelievers. We are not told that Hagar, the Egyptian handmaid who gave birth to Abraham’s son Ishmael, was a believer. Yet when she was thrown out of Abraham’s household and abandoned in the wilderness, God sent an angel to minister to Hagar (Genesis 16:7–12).

Maybe you’re not yet a Christian, and you question whether you need Jesus Christ in your life. You say, “Things are going pretty well for me. Why do I need God?” Or maybe you’re a Christian, and you wonder why the unbelievers around you seem to be doing so well. The apostle Paul wrote, “Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4). Sometimes God sends good things into people’s lives to remind them of their need for Him. Angels are ministers of God’s goodness to unbelievers.

Second, angels are ministers of judgment to unbelievers. Psalm 78:49 says it was angels who unleashed the ten plagues in Egypt. In 2 Kings 19:35, God used an angel to slaughter 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. In Acts 12:23, an angel struck Herod after he refused to give glory to God. God uses angels to deliver His judgment.

Third, angels are ministers of eternal death to unbelievers. In Matthew 13:49–50, Jesus said, “The angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” According to 2 Peter 3:9, God desires that everyone come to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. But those who reject God’s forgiveness are making a default decision to follow Satan, and they will be thrown along with Satan into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15).

Here is the horrific truth Jesus revealed: The angels are the ones who will dispatch every unbeliever to an eternity in the lake of fire. The last face every unbeliever sees before he is cast into hell will be the face of an angel. But everyone who accepts God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ will spend eternity alongside His holy angels, in the presence of God forever. (Jeffress)

Psalm 130:3   If You, LORD, should keep an account of our sins and treat us accordingly, O Lord, who could stand [before you in judgment and claim innocence]

 Psalms 143:2      Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.

 Job 9:2-3      “Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?

 Job 15:14     What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?

 Isaiah 53:6     All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

 Romans 3:20-24    For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.  But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—  the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

 Isaiah 1:18     “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

 Psa 103:10-12  He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;  as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Romans 5:8  but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1Ti 1:15-16  The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.  But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

Luk 15:10  Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Lamentations 3:40-41  Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD! Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:“We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.

Sin and its ugliness invade our hearts and minds from birth. It has many ugly attributes: pride, arrogance, boastfulness, fear, worry, anxiousness, greed, self-worth, self-reliance, selfishness, the lust of the flesh, lusting for worldly pleasure, lying, untruthful, ungrateful, hate, anger, unforgiving, evilness, envy, strife, unkindness, self-love, etc….. 

How can we honor and glorify Jesus if we are not obedient?

How can we repent of sin if we do not know?

How can we grow in our understanding and knowledge of God’s grace, mercy, and love?

If we truly want to honor and glorify Jesus Christ in all of our thoughts, words, and actions and desire the Holy Spirit to expose our blind spots to known and unknown sinfulness in our lives, and continually hunger for the Word of God, and seek understanding and wisdom and knowledge, the sinfulness of sin and the holiness of God will converge and we will just begin to scratch the surface of how great God’s grace, mercy, and love are.

One area in our lives in which we do not want to be lukewarm is in the knowledge and understanding of our sinfulness and sins. 

Lam 3:21-26  But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:  The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;  they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”  The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.  It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

 Psalms 77:7-11   “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?  Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time?  Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” 

 Psalms 119:81     My soul longs for your salvation; I hope in your word.

 Psalms 130:7    O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.

 Habakkuk 2:3     For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.

Lam 3:40-41  Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!   Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:

Hope: Desire, Expectation, Longing, Yearning, Craving, Trust, Assurance, Faith, Optimistic

In order to have hope for today and tomorrow we must have something to hope in. 

We can hope in:

Yourself –  your hard work, determination, knowledge, strength ……

Others – their benevolence, generosity, sympathy, strength, love, wealth, knowledge……..

God – His promises, wisdom, knowledge, understanding, strength, might, power, grace, mercy, love…….

Hope is very empty and untrustworthy apart from God, but what is that hope if it is not based on the Word of God, the whole Word of God? 

Seeking, desiring, and longing would indicate there is a basis for the hope we have. When our hope is rightly placed in God then our minds are forever at peace, rest, and secure.  Things will happen, trials will come, and doubts will jump into our heads but thanks be to God He is always our refuge. There are things that will make us sad, but god will lift us up. There are things that will confuse us, but God will overshadow it. There will be things that slap us in the face with fear and worry, but God’s ever-present Holy Spirit will remove it. How do we know this is true? God’s Word proclaims and declares it. If we are in His Word and His Word abides in us, then we will have firm ground on which our Hope will stand. If we lack time in His Word the things of this world will gut punch us hard and instead of it being a glancing blow it will take the wind right out of us. 

Do you want a life filled with Hope? Dig into His Word and learn of God’s promises, power, presence, and knowledge as the Holy Spirit opens this understanding up to you. 

When everything is falling apart and there seems to be no possible solution – GOD is our hope, strength, refuge, and ever-present heavenly Father. God is aware, able, and can do more than we ask and much more than we can imagine.

Good News –  Gospel –  Repentance –  Forgiveness –  Redemption –  Salvation –  Eternal life

Jhn 3:16-17   “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

  Condemn –  Perish –   Saved –  Eternal Life   

Jhn 3:19  And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

Loved Darkness –  Evil –  Judgment

Rom 1:20-22  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

Invisible Attributes –  Eternal Power –  Divine Nature –  Clearly Perceived – Creation

Without Excuse –  Did Not Honor God –  Did Not Give Thanks To God – Futile Thinking – Foolish – Darkened –  Fools

Rom 1:24  Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity

Rom 1:28-31  And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Lusts –  Impurity –  Debased Mind –  Unrighteousness –  Evil –  Covetousness –  Malice –  Envy –  Murder –  Strife –  Deceit

Gossips –  Sladerers –  Haters of God –  Insolent –  Haughty –  Boastful –  Inventors of Evil – Disobedient – Foolish – Faithless

Heartless –  Ruthless

Rom 1:32  Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Rom 3:18  “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Psalms 36:1   Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.

Proverbs 8:13    The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

Proverbs 23:17     Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day.

No Fear of God – Pride – Arrogance –  Evil – Perverted Speech –  Envy

Psalm 119:78. May the arrogant be ashamed, for they subvert me with a lie; But I shall meditate on Your precepts.

Isaiah 45:16   They will be put to shame and even humiliated, all of them

Jeremiah 17:13.  O Lord, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You will be put to shame.

Ezra 9:6  and I said, “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.

Job 8:22  “Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,

Daniel 12:2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.

Psalms 35:26   Let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether who rejoice at my calamity! Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me!

I firmly believe what I have written but I must admit I don’t think it is fully filled with all there is to say about it. 

How can the Gospel be preached, spoken, and offered without the proclamation of the need due to our sin? God’s grace, mercy, and love are truly blessings beyond our imagination. We do not fully understand their depth and width due to our limited understanding of the absolute Holiness of God, yet our need for them in light of our sin.

We begin to scratch the surface of it when we begin to understand Sin. Without a basic understanding of sin, there is no application for the Gospel in our lives. We can not understand the basis for God’s grace, mercy, and love. There is no reason to fear God. Without this basic understanding of sin being jointly proclaimed and declared with the Good News of Jesus Christ people will shallowly come to God seeking the benefit of eternal life, but not for the forgiveness of Sin. The need fo repentance will not be recognized. The brutality and cruelty of all the physical violence Jesus bore on His body will not be understood. The penalty He bore was OURS! It was due to our SINs! His agony and death to redeem us and give us eternal life. How can the need for the Gospel be presented without the declaration of Sin?  It can not.

A person should feel shame, guilt, hopelessness, despair, conviction, worry for their souls, helplessness, unworthy, fear, judgment, etc…. in light of the Holiness of God and hearing of the Gospel when the understanding of sin is exposed to their hearts and minds.  The fullness of God’s grace, mercy, and love is only understood in the light of His holiness and our sinfulness. Sanctification, growth, and maturing in a Christian’s life continue in this understanding of sin and holiness until their death.

I am amazed by how the Holy Spirit shows the need for salvation to worldly “good people”, who have lived their life on a good moral code. Their hearts and minds are not filled with fleshly and worldly lusts. They have seen the ugliness of the effects of sin in the world around them and humbly choose to not be a part of it. Their kindness, gentleness, and selflessness is witnessed. In their outward behavior you would think they are saved and believers. However, they are not and somehow the Holy Spirit moves on their hearts and minds and they are made aware of the need for redemption, salvation, and forgiveness. They understand the need a part from those outward visible and inward lusts of the world and flesh. 

What I fail to understand and explain is the young child who comes to Christ for salvation and believes with that child like faith. They have not seen the world of sin in all of its ugliness and depravitiy. The lusts of this world and flesh have not contaminated their hearts and minds. Certainly they sin, but the awareness in light of the due penalty of sin and the holiness of God, grace, mercy, redemption, forgiveness, salvation, etc…. is not anywhere close to being understood, yet alone seeing the need for forgiveness almost all young and older adults do who believe. And yet, the Holy Spirit moves on them in such a way that they understand, in a child like way, the need for Jesus Christ. 
There is only one way to eternal life, belief, trust, obedience, faith, and reliance in and through Jesus Christ. Don’t get me wrong on this. I don’t not think we should be going around and calling out every sin under the sun that mankind does. It is the Holy Spirit who does this work and reaches into the hearts and minds of every redeemed soul. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that is opened up to them and the need for it. 

I do not know how the Holy Spirit opens up the hearts and minds to the need of salvation in young hearts and minds, nor do I understand how a morally good person sees the need, but praise be to God, He can and does.

Much of my thoughts on lukewarm preaching and teaching come from not hearing much if any proclamation of the holiness of God in light of the sinfulness of sin. There are teachings, sermons, preaching and other wise proclamations about the blessings of God; love, joy, hope, peace, rest, grace, mercy, strength, courage, power, godliness, things of God, living without fear, security, eternal life, etc……..  but, without speaking about sin. 

What keeps us from the blessings of God? – SIN

I can remember as a new young Christian talking with my pastor.  (back then he was an old man of 55 years old  to me. I was 22) He said,  “I have many seen things throughout my life as a pastor, but “you know what bothers me Daryl?” I have seen things in the culture and world around us that the church and godly people flat out reject as unholy and ungodly, only to see it being tolerated and condoned 10 to 15 years later.” “Why is that?”

Many of the sermons are preached with some humor in them. I am at odds about this. Is there anything funny about God, Sin, Holiness, the Death of Jesus Christ? 

This is what I found on line for the benefits of using humor in (worldly) presentations;

Used properly, humor is a powerful tool that can benefit speakers in several ways:

• Humor creates a bond between the speaker and the audience.
• It energizes people and keeps them engaged.
• Humor can provide emotional relief.
• It helps the audience remember your points.
• Humor leaves the audience with a good impression of the speaker.

I listen to many sermons by many famous and well known pastors of mega-churches. Mostl use humor in their preching, teaching, sermons. Have we adopted this as a means to present the truth of the Gospel? Have we adopted a means to warm up the crowd so that people are comfortable? Are we using humor as a human effort to break the ice on a cold heart? Is this one of the adopted things that my old pastor was talking about?  Are Christian people looking for a church that gives them baby food through humor? Is humor the same as levity?
I am reaching out to the lost. I am helping lighten a persons burdens. I am removing stress. I am inviting them to engage in what I am going to say. The gospel is not all about fire and brimstone. It is proven people listen better when the message is presented with some humor. I sprinkle my sermon with humor to help anchor a point. Humor kills boredom. Humor gets everybody listening. Humor disarms skeptics. God gave us the emotion of laughter so we should use it. 

Spurgeon and Piper said there is a difference in humor and levity. It is possible to be earnest in the subject matter of what is being preached and have elements of humor but no levity. Humor can both polish preaching, sincerity, and excellence or tarnish them. Both Piper and Spurgeon used some humor. Both say it must be used with wisdom. 

Piper put it like this; “While self-discipline is necessary in all aspects of the sermon, it is most required with humor. John Piper warns, “There is a place for humor in our lives, but there is something deeply wrong that we feel compelled to use so much of it in teaching and preaching and even worshiping.”

Spurgeon said; “there is a great distinction between holy cheerfulness and general levity.” 

Humor is more often misused in preaching that it is well-used. You must be sure you aren’t “making light of something God takes seriously.” “While the audience laughed, the angels cried.”

Do we err on the side of humor? Do we approach levity? I am not sure. There are aspects of it that seem ok and many more that don’t. God can and does use our imperfections to open the hearts and minds of the lost. 

Sin is not a laughing matter and I fear the use of continued humor has diminished the sinfulness of it. I wonder if churches would have the same attendance if no humor was used? Probably not. So it may be good in that aspect to drawn and keep people in church. So there is the problem. How to use it and not create lukewarm babies who can not discern the Word of God.
I am not quite sure how I got to this point. I started out confessing my thoughts on preaching and the lack of seriousness in proclaiming the sinfulness of sin and how a person must see it to believe. Then having thoughts about how a young person who’s heart is moved to belief and is saved, and as well a morally good person. How the Holy Spirit moves in the hearts and minds of people is a mystery to me. So I would guess that what I see as lukewarmness has permeated out through these thoughts. Though we may change, grow, not grow, become more knowledgeable and understand, or not, is not up to the pastor, elder, or friend, though we are given the responsibility to encourage, love, and grow our brothers. No it comes down to an intentional choice on each Christian to desire and seek to grow in their walk and pursuit of God honoring and glorifying lives. If things are watered down then more than likely the hearer may hear but are they changed. By watered down I mean deeper things of God. As I say this I am perplexed at how a Pastor can preach to the lost in the simplicity of the Gospel and at the same time preach to the deeper things of God. Would you drive out the very people you are trying to bring in? I think yes. The deeper things of God must come from discussion, teaching, and fellowship with other Christians. Iron sharpens iron. Many times (wrongly) I think the pastor is weak but in reality their heart for the lost is so big and Holy Spirit filled that they mostly speak to bring the message of salvation to them in such a way that it will be used by the Holy Spirit to move a person to repentance and belief.   

Jeremiah 48:10  “Cursed is he who does the work of the LORD with slackness,

Ecclesiastes 9:10  Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

1Corintians 10:31  So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

The apostle concludes the subject by giving them a general rule, sufficient to regulate every man’s conscience and practice – that whether they eat, or drink, or whatsoever they do, to do it all with an habitual aim to the glory of God; by considering his precepts, and the propriety, expediency, appearance, and tendency of their actions.

The work of the Lord is so important, pressing, sublime and awebegetting that a curse rests upon anyone who does it negligently. The God who wants and deserves the best cannot bear with sloth, delays, halfheartedness, or slipshod methods. When we think of the tremendous issues involved, we are not surprised.

Recognize Jesus as the ultimate King over your life. Think about it—are we giving Him our best, or are we holding back? Honoring Jesus as King means letting Him lead, prioritizing His plans over our own, and offering Him of our time, talents, and resources. It’s about saying, “You’re in charge, Lord,” and trusting Him to guide us every step of the way.

The God-given purpose of your life is not neutrality toward Jesus. It is the wholehearted pursuit of Jesus Christ, very God of very God, who is present in us by the Holy Spirit. To know him, to enjoy his friendship, to follow in his ways, to gather his harvest with him. There is no neutrality toward Jesus. Verse 23: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

During the latter part of 1968 a young Christian in Prague, Czechoslovakia witnessed to another young Czech named Jan Palach. There seemed to be a genuine interest on Jan’s part, and so the Christian promised to deliver a New Testament to him. He was filled with good intentions but he let weeks pass before he even obtained the New Testament. Then he kept delaying its actual delivery.

On January 16, 1969, Jan Palach stood in St. Wencelas Square, poured gasoline over his body and set himself afire. He never lived to see the New Testament that had been promised to him.

Good intentions are not enough. It has been said that the streets of hell are paved with good intentions. But they don’t get the work done. They must be translated into action. And here are a few ways to do it.

First, never refuse when the Lord directs you to do some act of service for Him. If He is Lord, then it is ours to obey without question.

Second, don’t procrastinate. Delays are deadly. They rob others of needed help and blessing, and fill us with guilt and remorse.

Third, do it diligently. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). If it’s worth doing at all, it’s worth doing well.

Finally, do it for God’s glory. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God,” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

We should all have the spirit of Amy Carmichael, who wrote, “The vows of God are upon me. I may not stay to play with shadows or pluck earthly flowers till I my work have done and rendered up an account.”