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By R.A. Torrey (1886-1928)

Quoted from Chapter One: The Importance Of Prayer

• "10. The tenth reason for constant, persistent, sleepless, overcoming prayer is that PRAYER IS THE MEANS THAT CHRIST HAS APPOINTED WHEREBY OUR HEARTS SHALL NOT BECOME OVERCHARGED WITH SURFEITING AND DRUNKENNESS AND CARES OF THIS LIFE, AND SO THE DAY OF CHRIST'S RETURN COME UPON US SUDDENLY AS A SNARE.

One of the most interesting and solemn passages upon prayer in the Bible is along this line. (Luke 21:34-36) "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell in the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and PRAY ALWAYS, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." According to this passage there is only one way in which we can be prepared for the coming of the Lord when He appears, that is, through much prayer.

The coming again of Jesus Christ is a subject that is awakening much interest and much discussion in our day; but it is one thing to be interested in the Lord's return, and to talk about it, and quite another thing to be prepared for it. We live in an atmosphere that has a constant tendency to unfit us for Christ's coming. The world tends to draw us down by its gratifications and by its cares. There is only one way by which we can rise triumphant above these things--by constant watching unto prayer, that is, by sleeplessness unto prayer. "Watch" in this passage is the same strong word used in Eph. 6:18, and "always" the same strong phrase "in every season." The man who spends little time in prayer, who is not steadfast and constant in prayer, will not be ready for the Lord when He comes. But we may be ready. How? Pray! Pray! Pray!

• 11. There is one more reason for constant, persistent, sleepless, overcoming prayer, and it is a mighty one: BECAUSE OF WHAT PRAYER ACCOMPLISHES. Much has really been said upon that already, but there is much also that should be added.

   

• (1) Prayer promotes our spiritual growth as almost nothing else, indeed as nothing else but Bible study; and true prayer and true Bible study go hand in hand.

It is through prayer that my sin is brought to light, my most hidden sin. As I kneel before God and pray, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me," (Ps.139:23,24), God shoots the penetrating rays of His light into the innermost recesses of my heart, and the sins I never suspected are brought to view. In answer to prayer, God washes me from mine iniquity and cleanses me from my sin (Ps. 51:2). In answer to prayer my eyes are opened to behold wondrous things out of God's Word (Ps. 119:18). In answer to prayer I get wisdom to know God's way (Jas. 1:5) and strength to walk in it. As I meet God in prayer and gaze into His face, I am changed into His own image from glory to glory ( 2_Cor. 3:18). Each day of true prayer life finds me liker to my glorious Lord."

Quoted from Chapter Five: Praying In The Spirit

• "(2) But there is still another way in which we may know the will of God, that is, by the teaching of His Holy Spirit. There are many things that we need from God which are not covered by any specific promise, but we are not left in ignorance of the will of God even then. In Rom. 8:26,27 we are told, "And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD." (R.V.) Here we are distinctly told that the Spirit of God prays in us, draws out our prayer, in the line of God's will. When we are thus led out by the Holy Spirit in any direction, to pray for any given object, we may do it in all confidence that it is God's will, and that we are to get the very thing we ask of Him, even though there is no specific promise to cover the case. Often God by His Spirit lays upon us a heavy burden of prayer for some given individual. We cannot rest, we pray for him with groanings which cannot be uttered. Perhaps the man is entirely beyond our reach, but God hears the prayer, and in many a case it is not long before we hear of his definite conversion.

The passage 1_John 5:14,15 is one of the most abused passages in the Bible: "This is THE CONFIDENCE that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us; and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." The Holy Spirit beyond a doubt put it into the Bible to encourage our faith. It begins with "This is THE CONFIDENCE that we have in Him," and closes with "WE KNOW that we have the petitions that we desired of Him;" but one of the most frequent usages of this passage, which was so manifestly given to beget confidence, is to introduce an element of uncertainty into our prayers."

There was more at http://whatsaiththescripture.com

"Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest..."  Exodus 23:12

 

Keep The Sabbath

Sabbath - a day to rest

from the hurry-scurry rush

of everyday life.

 

Sabbath - a day to reflect,

to stop and think about

where you're going

and where you've been.

 

Sabbath - a day to celebrate

God's glorious work of creation,

to commemorate

His day of rest.

 

Sabbath - a day to rejoice,

to sing His praises -

to feel God's Love!

 

Discovering the Psalms during Holy Week

by Nathan Bierma

We tend to focus on the gospels during Holy Week, and appropriately so. But I never realized how meaningful the Psalms are for remembering Christ’s suffering until I reflected on two resources we developed at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship: a series of worship services called Psalms for a Lenten Journey, and a new book by John Witvliet called The Biblical Psalms in Christian Worship.

I was surprised by how many echoes of the Psalms there are in the week before Christ’s death. And I was struck that part of the failure of the travelers on the road to Emmaus to recognize Jesus is their failure to recognize him in the Psalms: “Everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms,” Jesus tells them, “must be fulfilled.”  With this theme in mind, and these materials in hand, I’ve been reflecting on the Psalms this season of Lent, and preparing to hear their echoes during Holy Week.


 

Palm Sunday: Psalm 118

"Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!"

One of the most puzzling days on the church calendar to me is Palm Sunday. It's a day of paradox and self-parody: a confusing, illusory moment of triumph before defeat, jubilation before agony, embrace before rejection. On the lips of the people as Jesus rides into Jerusalem are these famous words from Psalm 118: "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." They are said on Jesus' own cue; he says in Luke 13 that Jerusalem "will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'" The words from the psalm were, by that time, well established as a psalm for liturgical procession, according to Carl Bosma, but the crowd was thinking politics, not worship. They were thinking Psalm 118, not Psalm 22.

Jesus wants to give us some cues that this victory parade is not what it looks like. He asks for a colt, not a stallion, so that as he rides, he looks, in Scott Hoezee's words, "a tad ridiculous with his feet nearly scraping the ground as the colt lumbered along." And he enters Holy Week not with "hosannas" echoing in his ears, but tears welling up in his eyes. "As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it.” Is he weeping for the city, for the misguided hurrahs that lined his path into it, for his own suffering that is now less than a week away? It's one of the many questions we have on Palm Sunday. But maybe the tears—those Palm Sunday tears—say enough.

 

Monday: Psalm 1

"The Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish."

Psalms is one of the most self-contradicting books of the Bible. It starts off with Psalm 1, with its tidy moral worldview--the righteous prosper, the wicked wither. By Psalms 3 and 10, the psalmist is saying that it’s the wicked who seem to be prospering and the righteous who are in danger of blowing away. He accuses God of failing to enforce Psalm 1’s moral rulebook.

Holy Week gives us the greatest contradiction of all: Jesus, the righteous one, the only human being who never did "take the path that sinners tread"—the only one who ever perfectly kept his part of the bargain of Psalm 1—this righteous one ends up condemned. Psalm 1 talks about a tree, but the only tree we see this week is running with innocent blood.

Of course, a closer look at Psalm 1 shows that the prosperity promised to the righteous is not constant, but seasonal. Righteousness "yields its fruit in season." Wickedness—so weightless that it blows away—is short-term. After a Holy Week of barrenness, which by Saturday has even the disciples wondering if they bet on the wrong team, Sunday will bring us a harvest like no other.

 

Tuesday: Psalm 32

"Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered."

I didn't like this verse at first. Forgiveness is a cover-up? Forgiveness is like the rug in our upstairs office that strategically conceals the stains of our last owners' pet? Shouldn't the forgiveness we claim in the cross be more like a carpet cleaner?

The key is who ends up doing the covering, and who doesn't. At first the psalmist tries to cover his tracks, but the guilt lodges in his gut: "while I kept silence, my body wasted away." Only when he abandons the pretense, and "did not hide my iniquity," can he get anywhere. Oddly enough, the word for "hide" is the same Hebrew root, ksy, used for "cover" in verse one. It's the same action, but a different agent—not the deceptive hand of the stubborn, but the hand of mercy, the hand with nail holes in it.  "Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered," Jesus says in Matthew 10. It's a threat to the delusional, but a comfort to the honest: "steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord."

 

Wednesday: Psalm 91

"For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone."

Will Psalm 91 be on Jesus' mind in Gethsemane tomorrow? It was this psalm that Satan, who does some of his best tempting when he's quoting Scripture, quoted to Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew 4. Jesus rebuked Satan, but tomorrow night, when his disciples are snoring and it's just Jesus and the Father, Jesus will long to curl up under the soothing promises of Psalm 91: "For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; he will cover you with his [feathers], and under his wings you will find refuge." It may sound a little audacious or paranoid for Jesus to ask God for an exit strategy, but the truth is that it looks downright biblical when you read Psalm 91: "Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. ... I will rescue them."

Neal Plantinga points out that, as with so much poetic hyperbole, Psalm 91 is prone to abuse and misunderstanding. God, a forcefield around us, making us impervious to suffering? As Plantinga says, Psalm 91 is hardly a magic bullet. The promise doesn't serve our interests, but God's, and Jesus knows that when he ultimately yields, "yet not my will, but yours be done." Because Jesus walks into "the snare of the fowler, the deadly pestilence," we have our refuge.


 

Maundy Thursday: Psalm 116

"The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: ‘O Lord, I pray, save my life!’"



If there's one word I would use to describe the mood, the feel, of Maundy Thursday, at least to me, it would be somber.  We grimly listen to the narration of Jesus being hauled from trial to trial, then betrayed and denied, then led away to be killed. We listen to it all with a knowing dread, like watching a horror movie for the second time and knowing who's at the door. This aura of mournfulness provides a healthy balance to the cheeriness of Easter; maybe we need the contrast to give that bright morning some emotional depth.

But Psalm 116 also calls us to jubilant gratitude as we line the road to Golgotha. Tonight, as we see Jesus stumble under the weight of the cross on the path to death, we say more fervently, “For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.”

It is a night for sorrow, not shouts, to be sure. But it is a night to bow in quiet, humble gratitude, and murmur in awe, "What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.”



 

Good Friday: Psalm 22

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? ... He did not hide his face from me." 



I used to think of Psalm 22 as a sad psalm and Psalm 23 as a happy one. The truth is, both psalms go back and forth between the terror of the valley of the shadow of death, and the fierce assurance of God's presence.

Laura Smit points out (MP3) that in the biblically literate culture of Jesus' time, you only had to say the starting line of a psalm to invoke it in its entirety (the way, perhaps, I can say "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound ..." and your mind promptly completes the rest of the hymn). Smit argues that Jesus wasn't sound-biting Psalm 22 on the cross. He was invoking the opening line and the lines that followed, including the some exact prophecies of crucifixion details: "my tongue sticks to my jaws" and "for my clothing they cast lots." 

But more importantly, Smit says, Jesus was also invoking the yet’s: "yet you are holy"; "yet it was you who took me from the womb"; "for he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him."

Smit says Christ was invoking the praises as well as the terror of Psalm 22. The theologians will have to duke it out over this point, but maybe, just maybe, when we take Psalm 22 in its entirety, Jesus is giving us a different message from the cross than we tend to hear: not that he was abandoned by God, but that even though he felt abandoned by God, God never did, and never would, actually hide his face from him. 


Today, when Jesus gasps, "It is finished!" we feel speechless, but maybe we can finish the psalm Christ started, and say in quiet awe, "Future generations will be told about the Lord, and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it."

 

Easter: Psalm 2

"‘You are my son; today I have begotten you. ... I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession."



Easter comes as a relief to us, after the grim reflection of the past few days. The tomb bursts open, and so do our souls. 

Easter comes as a relief to us, but it comes as a kingdom to Jesus. In Acts 13, Paul identifies Psalm 2 as an Easter psalm, and this psalm is all about royalty.

"‘I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.’” That’s the outcome of Easter, the outcome of the “nations conspiring,” the “peoples plotting”; it is all “in vain.” The God who wept over his mutilated Son on Friday now laughs, not only out of joy, but out of triumphal scorn, the reversal of the soldiers mocking Jesus just a few nights ago: “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision."


Christ is not only resurrected today, but coronated. From tomb to throne. From corpse to crown.

 

JEHOVAH:  LORD in our English Bibles (all capitals). Yahweh is the covenant name of God. Occurs 6823 times in the OT First use Gen. 2:4 (Jehovah Elohim). From the verb "to be", havah, similar to chavah (to live), "The Self-Existent One," "I AM WHO I AM" or 'I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE" as revealed to Moses at the burning bush, Ex.3. The name of God, too sacred to be uttered, abbreviated ( . . . . ) or written "YHWH" without vowel points. The tetragrammaton. Josh., Judges, Sam., and Kings use Jehovah almost exclusively. The love of God is conditioned upon His moral and spiritual attributes. (Dan. 9:14; Ps. 11:7; Lev. 19:2; Hab. 1:12). Note Deut. 6:4, 5 known to Jews as the Sh'ma uses both Jehovah and Elohim to indicate one God with a plurality of persons.

JEHOVAH-JIREH:  "The Lord will Provide." Gen. 22:14. From "jireh" ("to see" or "to provide," or to "foresee" as a prophet.) God always provides, adequate when the times come.

JEHOVAH-ROPHE:  "The Lord Who Heals" Ex. 15:22-26. From "rophe" ("to heal"); implies spiritual, emotional as well as physical healing. (Jer. 30:17, 3:22; Isa. 61:1) God heals body, soul and spirit; all levels of man's being.

JEHOVAH-NISSI:  "The Lord Our Banner." Ex. 17:15. God on the battlefield, from word which means "to glisten," "to lift up," See Psalm 4:6.

JEHOVAH-M'KADDESH:  "The Lord Who Sanctifies" Lev. 20:8. "To make whole, set apart for holiness."

JEHOVAH-SHALOM:   "The Lord Our Peace" Judges 6:24. "Shalom" translated "peace" 170 times means "whole," "finished," "fulfilled," "perfected." Related to "well," welfare." Deut. 27:6; Dan. 5:26; I Kings 9:25 8:61; Gen. 15:16; Ex. 21:34, 22:5, 6; Lev. 7:11-21. Shalom means that kind of peace that results from being a whole person in right relationship to God and to one's fellow man.

SHEPHERD:  Psa. 23, 79:13, 95:7, 80:1, 100:3; Gen. 49:24; Isa. 40:11.

JUDGE:  Psa. 7:8, 96:13.

JEHOVAH ELOHIM:  "LORD God" Gen. 2:4; Judges 5:3; Isa. 17:6; Zeph. 2:9; Psa. 59:5, etc.

JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU:  "The Lord Our Righteousness" Jer. 23:5, 6, 33:16. From "tsidek" (straight, stiff, balanced - as on scales - full weight, justice, right, righteous, declared innocent.) God our Righteousness.

JEHOVAH-ROHI:  "The Lord Our Shepherd" Psa. 23, from "ro'eh" (to pasture).

JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH:   "The Lord is There" (Ezek. 48:35).

JEHOVAH-SABAOTH:   "The Lord of Hosts" The commander of the angelic host and the armies of God. Isa. 1:24; Psa. 46:7, 11; 2 Kings 3:9-12; Jer. 11:20 (NT: Rom. 9:29; James 5:4, Rev. 19: 11-16).

 

 Who Is God?

By Ray C. Stedman

God consists of three persons: Father, Son and Spirit. We cannot experience him in any other way. But though we usually list him as Father, Son and Spirit, the actual experience of God is different. We first meet the Son, by means of the Spirit, and then the Father.

The Father is the source. The Father is unseen, unknown, except as he continually embodies himself (makes himself visible) in the Son. The Son is who we see and hear and know. He is ceaselessly embodying the Father, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. He is perpetually revealing the Father, hitherto invisible.

The Father is logically first, but not chronologically. For the Son exists as long as the Father exists, and is coexistent with the Father. The Father acts through and in the Son. He makes himself visible only in the Son. It is in the Son that the Father becomes a part of human life, and so is born and lives and dies in human life.

The Spirit, in turn, comes from the Son . He does not embody the Son. On the contrary, God, in issuing from the Son into the Spirit becomes invisible again. The Spirit proceeds silently, endlessly, invisibly from the Son.

But the Son is not the source of the Spirit which proceeds from him. The Father is the source of both the Son and the Spirit. Back of the Son is the Father out of which the Son comes. The Spirit issues and proceeds from the Father, through the Son.

The Son therefore comes out from the invisible Father and perpetually and ever-newly embodies the Father in visible, audible, livable form, and returns again into invisible God in the Spirit.

The Spirit acts invisibly. He continually influences us with regard to the Son. He casts light upon the Son. That is his great function. He helps us to live in the Son which we know, and with reference to the Father whom we expect to see. (Ray C. Stedman, http://raystedman.org/gems.html)

 

Waiting on the Lord

Developing an appetite for God