7-05-09 am 1 Corinthian 14 – Seward from FBC Lindale media on Vimeo.

 

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“Not many people are old enough to write with authority on Old Age.” Ken Taylor wrote those words at the age of 87. Dr. Taylor was one of the more godly men I have ever known. Though he “wrote” (paraphrased) the Living Bible and founded Tyndale House Publishers, he was one of the most humble men I have known. Here is what he had to say about growing old:

“When I am laid to rest in the next two or three years (or will it be weeks?), not many people will give it more than a passing thought other than to say, ‘Sorry to hear it.’ This is a reminder to me that we do not live for praise but to help others, so whatever needs doing must be done now.

“What, then, remains for me to do? That is what God must tell me. My remaining time, brief as it may or may not be, is as always in God’s hands. I will be His servant to the end, and then suddenly be transformed from a servant into a son! Then I can serve Him even better, and please Him even more. Meanwhile I want to love Him more, and feel the warmth of His love for me as well as know that His love surrounds me. I want to see my stumbling prayer life grow strong. I want to fill my life with prayer and daily readings of the Scriptures – from Genesis to Revelation – just as I have so often preached to others to do.

“So here I am, just past my 87th birthday, anxious beyond all things to enjoy Christ’s love for me, to express my love to Him, and His love to others. I hope this is your desire, too. Glory to God. See you ‘up there.’”

To the many elderly saints of First Baptist, I hope Ken’s words are an encouragement to you. And to the many younger believers who read this article despite the title, may we be encouraged to be servants to the end who do not live for the praise of men.

With love,

James Seward

5-03-09 pm Seward – Psalm 103 from FBC Lindale media on Vimeo.

 

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“That’s just your interpretation.” Those four words are becoming pretty popular. They are popular among people who like to dodge what the Bible is saying. You think homosexuality is a sin? “That’s just your interpretation.” But they’ve also become a popular explanation for why two Christians can come to the same passage and reach two different conclusions. God speaks to Bobby one way and to Billy another way, both from the same passage. They have different “interpretations” and both are equally valid.

But there’s a problem with this approach. Imagine if your words meant whatever somebody interpreted them to mean. When you say, “I love to go fishing,” that means whatever someone wants it to mean. If somebody thinks you mean: “I’m lazy and would prefer to sit on a lake and relax,” and someone else thinks you mean: “I am the greatest fisherman in East Texas,” and a third thinks you mean: “Fishing is a sport I enjoy a lot” – are they all equally valid? Clearly not! Yet that’s how we treat God’s Word.

Instead of focusing on “our” interpretation, we should seek to know what God intended His words to mean. What is it that God is trying to say through this passage? If our interpretation accurately reflects what God meant, it is valid. But if our interpretation doesn’t reflect what God intended, it isn’t valid. With that in mind, here are two questions to ask of a Bible passage to help you see what God intended:

1) What is the context? How does your passage fit into the flow of what comes before it and what comes after it? Your interpretation must make sense of what comes before and after your passage.

2) What did it mean to them? Ask yourself what the passage meant to the people to whom it was originally written. Once you understand what it meant to them, you have a better sense of what it actually means because what it meant to them is what it means to us.

I hope these two questions move us beyond those four popular words to these four words: “What is God’s interpretation?”

With love,

James Seward

“That’s just your interpretation.” Those four words are becoming pretty popular. They are popular among people who like to dodge what the Bible is saying. You think homosexuality is a sin? “That’s just your interpretation.” But they’ve also become a popular explanation for why two Christians can come to the same passage and reach two different conclusions. God speaks to Bobby one way and to Billy another way, both from the same passage. They have different “interpretations” and both are equally valid.

But there’s a problem with this approach. Imagine if your words meant whatever somebody interpreted them to mean. When you say, “I love to go fishing,” that means whatever someone wants it to mean. If somebody thinks you mean: “I’m lazy and would prefer to sit on a lake and relax,” and someone else thinks you mean: “I am the greatest fisherman in East Texas,” and a third thinks you mean: “Fishing is a sport I enjoy a lot” – are they all equally valid? Clearly not! Yet that’s how we treat God’s Word.

Instead of focusing on “our” interpretation, we should seek to know what God intended His words to mean. What is it that God is trying to say through this passage? If our interpretation accurately reflects what God meant, it is valid. But if our interpretation doesn’t reflect what God intended, it isn’t valid. With that in mind, here are two questions to ask of a Bible passage to help you see what God intended:

1) What is the context? How does your passage fit into the flow of what comes before it and what comes after it? Your interpretation must make sense of what comes before and after your passage.

2) What did it mean to them? Ask yourself what the passage meant to the people to whom it was originally written. Once you understand what it meant to them, you have a better sense of what it actually means because what it meant to them is what it means to us.

I hope these two questions move us beyond those four popular words to these four words: “What is God’s interpretation?”

With love,

James Seward

MISUNDERSTANDING PRAYER
by Pastor James Seward

Most Christians I know, myself included, are frustrated by their anemic prayer habits. This drives many to seek the “deeper” prayer life offered by Christian mysticism and the new spirituality. Ironically, the greatest help to my prayer life has come as I’ve wrestled with the Bible’s “simple” teachings on prayer. Over the past few years, the Scriptures have helped correct several misconceptions I had about prayer. Here are three of the lessons I’ve learned so far.

“LISTENING" IN PRAYER
Early in my Christian life, it was pointed out to me that if others don’t like it when we do all the talking and no listening, neither would God. So I was taught to spend a portion of my prayer time in silence, listening for the “still, small voice” of God.

While this logic was compelling, I began to question it when I noticed the absence of this pattern in the Scriptures. In my daily Bible reading, I came across many biblical prayers, but none describe or encourage a time of silent listening. Instead, the prayers often begin by telling God truths about Him, His purpose and His character that He had already revealed. For instance:

1. Solomon’s Prayer for the Temple (1 Kings 8:22-53) – Solomon’s prayer reminds God of the covenant He made with David. In light of this, Solomon asks, “Let Your word be confirmed” (8:26).
2. Daniel’s Prayer for Israel (Daniel 9:1-19) – Based on God’s word to Jeremiah that the desolations of Jerusalem would last only seventy years, Daniel prays and asks God to deliver Israel since the seventy years are almost complete. Throughout the prayer, Daniel appeals to Israel’s history in which God in His justice would punish but in His mercy forgive the rebellious Israelites.
3. Elijah’s Prayers for Rain (1 Kings 18:41-42; James 5:17-18) – After God had already told Elijah that He would end the drought and send rain (1 Kings 18:1), Elijah prays that rain would come, and it does. The book of James holds this prayer up as an example for us to imitate.

Each of these prayers is overtly informed by what God had already revealed, and as I saw this pattern repeated in the Psalms, Paul’s prayers, the Lord’s Prayer, and other prayers in Scripture, a realization struck me. Listening is an important part of prayer but not silent listening. Rather, we are to listen to what God has said in His Word, and let that inform our prayers.

Thus, when we go to prayer for any person or situation, we should first consider what the Bible says about God, God’s purposes, and God’s character that would inform how we should think and pray. When I incorporated this concept into my prayers, it helped me pray with faith knowing that I was asking for something in line with God’s purposes.

Tip
In your daily Bible reading, look for one or two phrases that will help you pray for the people or situations on your prayer list. Use these phrases to pray simple but earnest prayers for the concerns on yours list. Not only will your prayers be “listening” prayers, but your prayers will have variety so you won’t fall into the rut of vainly repeating the same requests for someone.

UNCEASING PRAYER
“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) is a well-known verse on prayer. For much of my life, I’ve thought that this verse called us to go through our day with an “attitude of prayer,” constantly communing with Jesus. My goal was to imagine that Jesus was standing next to me throughout my day and to talk with Him about everything that came up.

While God’s abiding presence and the importance of bringing everything before God in prayer are taught in the Bible (Philippians 4:6), I started to become skeptical that this constant “attitude of prayer” was what was meant in 1 Thessalonians. After all, it said “Pray without ceasing,” not “Have an unceasing attitude of prayer.” So I began to look into what Paul meant by “without ceasing.” I was surprised to find that Paul began 1 Thessalonians by saying, “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers” (1:2). In Greek, the word for “constantly” is the same word used for “without ceasing” in 5:17. So Paul calls the Thessalonians to do something that he is already doing for them.

But what is more interesting is that the word for “always” is the same word used in Luke 18:1—“[Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” The parable is of a widow who constantly asks an unrighteous judge for justice. Because of her persistence, he gives her justice. The point of the parable is to encourage persistence in prayer. Based on this, I concluded that unceasing prayer does not refer to an ongoing mystical connection with God. Rather, unceasing prayer is prayer that is doggedly persistent.

The command in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 is a call to abandon one-and-done prayers. It is a call to keep at it, to keep asking. It is a call to persistence in our prayers.

Tip
If you lack the discipline to set aside a regular time in your day for persistent prayer, tie certain prayer requests to activities that happen regularly. My wife and I pray for a missionary every time we eat dinner. For many years, I prayed for self-control every time I noticed that the time was 11:11. You could tie prayer requests to turning on your computer, changing a diaper, the traffic report, bedtime, your shower, walking to class, brushing your teeth, etc.

YES, NO, WAIT
From a young age I was taught that God always answers our prayers in one of three ways: yes, no, and wait (or maybe). Given that I often didn’t receive what I requested of God, this explanation was satisfying.

But passages in the gospels like Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given to you,” have always left me a bit uneasy. These passages suggest that God answers our prayers by giving us what we request—they don’t teach that God sometimes says no. This was very difficult for me. The Bible seemed to be teaching something that blatantly contradicted my experience.

As I wrestled with this, I noticed Jesus’ explanation of this promise in Matthew 7:9-11 (cf. Luke 11:5-13). Jesus says, “Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him.” In other words, God is eager to give good gifts to His children when they ask. That’s the framework behind the promise “ask and it will be given to you” in verse 7. When we “ask wrongly” (James 4:3) or not according to God’s will (1 John 5:14), we should not expect to receive what we requested because we’re not asking for something good.

To push this principle a little further, sometimes we might ask for something that is good but is not best. Because God is a good Father, He must give us what is best, even if what we’re asking for is good. When my grandmother was dying, we prayed for God to heal her. Our request was for something good, but she died. However, her death led to my grandfather coming to faith, a prayer we had been praying for a long time. God didn’t give us what was good; He gave us what was best.

God does not tell us to pray for whatever we want and then await a yes, no, or maybe. He tells us that He is eager to give good gifts to His children when they ask. So we should seek to align our prayers with what is good and ask with confidence knowing He will give us what is best (see Jesus’ example in Matthew 26:39-43). Knowing that God is eager to give us good gifts when we ask is great motivation to pray.

Tip
When praying, consciously have a position of humility and trust. Share your heart and concerns with God, but realize that you have a limited perspective and that “Father knows best.” Articulate this attitude by verbally and earnestly submitting your requests to God. I often end my prayers saying something like, “I submit my requests to Your will. Use them to accomplish Your good purposes. I trust You to do what’s best.”
—–

I still have much to learn about prayer. But as I’ve studied God’s Word, I’ve learned that my prayers should be:
• in line with and informed by God’s Word,
• doggedly persistent, and
• offered with an expectant faith that God will give what is best.
These three lessons are not magical, and they won’t make you feel a deeper mystical connection with God. But they are right from the Bible, and they have enhanced my prayer life. I hope they bolster your prayers, too.