PRAYER: IT'S ALL ABOUT GOD

Prayer is about the glory of our God and his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus made this statement: Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son (John 14:13). The focus of our praying must be the glory of God and of Christ. Many believers treat prayer as if they were a child requesting things from Santa. Prayer means that God gives me whatever I want. For others, it’s a form of self-help. Prayer helps me feel better about my problems. This creates a lot of confusion. People wonder why God hasn’t “answered their prayers.”

Idolatry takes over my heart when my focus becomes my glory, my personal fulfillment, my desires, my comfort, deliverance from mt problems. When I worship Christ, everything else pales in comparison. When I desire the glory of God my focus changes; my prayer life changes. I long for and pray that his name would be exalted and honored in my life, in his church, and among the nations.

As we enter a new year, may our focus in prayer be upon Christ and his glory, rather than our own pleasures.

GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST

Some of the most familiar words of the Christmas story are those the angels spoke to the shepherds, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is well pleased. How do we define "glory?" Is it one of those words that we communicate often without a real sense of its true meaning? The New World Dictionary defines "glory" as "worshipful, adoration, praise, splendor, beauty" and "glorify" by the words "exalt and honor God." The Dictionary of New Testament Theology defines glory as "God’s power, honor, and majesty."

Scripture tells us that Christ is the glory of God (John 1:14), creation reveals the glory of God (Psalm 19:1), and Christ would be glorified in his death (John 17:1). We are admonished in I Corinthians 10:31 to glorify God in our eating or drinking or whatever we do. God is glorified in his Son, in his creation, in the redemption of sinners, and in the activities of his children when they live out the normalcy of life with a focus upon him. To glorify God means that my life is God-centered, God-focused, and God-exalting. John Piper states it this way: "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him."

God is glorified in his Son as well as in the death of his Son and the redemption of sinners. Nothing is more important than Christ being at the very center of our lives. Paul was so consumed with the glory of Christ that he said, "Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14).

Celebrate Christmas by making Christ the center of your life.

SUCCESS FROM GOD'S PERSPECTIVE

Genesis 39:2, 23 tell us of the success that God gave to Joseph both in the house of Potiphar and in prison after being falsely accused by Potiphar's wife. The word in the OT language speaks of “accomplishing satisfactorily what is intended” (Theological Workbook of the Old Testament, Volume 2, page 766). In other words, God was fulfilling His purpose in Joseph's life. Whatever definition one may use for the word "success," God defines success as His purpose being fulfilled in our lives. Scripture uses the same word in Joshua 1:8 where God promises Joshua "success" if he obeys the Scriptures. It is also the word used in Isaiah 55:11 where God says that His word shall not return to Him "empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it."

The temptation Joseph faced was an attempt by Satan to thwart the plan of God, just as Satan attempted to thwart God's plan for Christ in tempting Him. Every temptation requires a response. Do I choose success, “accomplishing satisfactorily what is intended” by God, or do I choose to hinder His intended purpose?

INCARNATION AND TRANSFORMATION

The incarnation of Christ may be one of the best examples of what it means to be involved in people's lives for the sake of the Gospel and to be the salt of the earth. Jesus entered into the messiness of humanity. He did not observe us from a distance but he came to us. Too many of us in the modern church have done just the opposite. We have tried to influence from a distance. We have sent our missionaries around the world but we have not walked across the street. We have mistakenly believed that God has called us to separation rather than incarnation. We live in a believer’s bubble, isolated and unengaged with the people who need Christ. Too often the Christian community lives in isolation. We falsely conclude that “not of the world” means no interaction, no relationships with the people of the world. This is hardly what John meant. Jesus spent the bulk of his ministry with sinners, those with whom the self-righteous religious leaders refused to associate. If we practice such isolationism, how will we demonstrate truth and transformation before the lives of those who need Christ? Salt accomplishes nothing when left in its container.

SEWING THE SEED WITH CARE

One of the things that interest me about the sermons in the book of Acts is their historical context. They do not begin with the crucifixion of Christ or even the life of Christ as he entered humanity through the virgin birth. These sermons or gospel presentations begin with the prophecies related to Christ given throughout the Old Testament. Peter refers to the prophecy of David, given in Psalm 16:8-11, concerning Christ’s resurrection. Stephen’s sermon began with God’s calling of Abraham and alluded to Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua and Solomon and ended with his condemnation of his listeners for killing Jesus Christ (Acts 7). Phillip explained Isaiah 53 to the Ethiopian eunuch and its relation to the good news of Jesus Christ (Acts 8:34-35). Paul, on his first missionary journey with Barnabas, began his first sermon with reference to God’s choosing of Abraham and how he worked through the people of Israel before speaking to them about Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection (Acts 13:16ff).

When I was ordained I was asked the question, "What is the least a person needs to know in order to be come to faith?" This is not an uncommon question at ordinations or in theological discussions, yet I find it disturbing. The apostles spent three years with Jesus, watched his life and listened to his words. If these men, who heard the final command of Jesus to take the gospel into all the world, went to such lengths to explain the redemptive story, why do we attempt to minimize the information we share with others about Christ?

The gospel is the greatest news ever given to humanity. We must be careful that we clearly and fully communicate its message to those with whom we share. Great care must be taken that we do not attempt to manipulate a person's response.

Paul explained to the Corinthian church that he had planted the seed of truth, Apollos had watered the seed, but God gave the growth. We may plant or we may water. It is God who creates the fruit.

THE GIFT OF SALVATION

God created us to manifest his glory and to give us eternal life in fellowship with himself, but our disobedience intervened and brought us under condemnation. As members of the fallen human race, we come into the world estranged from God and in a state of rebellion. This original sin is compounded by our personal acts of sinfulness. The catastrophic consequences of sin are such that we are powerless to restore the ruptured bonds of union with God. Only in the light of what God has done to restore our fellowship with him do we see the full enormity of our loss. The gravity of our plight and the greatness of God's love are brought home to us by the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. "God so loved the world that her gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

God the Creator is also God the Redeemer, offering salvation to the world. "God desires all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth" (I Timothy 2:4). The restoration of communion with God is absolutely dependent upon Jesus Christ, true God and true man, for he is "the one mediator between God and men" (I Timothy 2:5). and "there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Jesus said, "No one comes to the Father but by me (John 14:6). He is the holy and righteous one who was put to death for our sins, "the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God' (I Peter 3:18).

R.C. Sproul, Getting the Gospel Right, pages 49-50.

MONEY AND AN ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE

Contentment is the result of having our perspectives determined by Scripture and that to which God has called us. Contentment means that the greatest gain in life is to come to the place where Christ is more important than anything: more than things, more than money, and more than accumulation. Christ satisfies me most. Paul says, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils (I Timothy 6:10). If we are controlled by our desire for things and money, what are we willing to do to obtain those things, and what does that do to our spiritual lives? Our love for Christ and our focus upon him is replaced by greed and covetousness. This is why covetousness is a form of idolatry. We love things more than we love Christ. We worship the temporary things we crave, things which will not bring contentment, while ignoring the one who can bring the greatest contentment, the one who is eternal. A Roman Proverb said, “wealth is like sea water, so far from quenching a man’s thirst, it intensifies it.” The more he gets the more he wants and more he is willing to do whatever it takes to obtain it. He becomes more and more willing to compromise his principles.

PREACHING WITH PASSION

This past week I took a continuing education class with a well-known theologian and seminary professor. He spoke of the Scripture's reference to that which is of "first importance" - the gospel (I Corinthians 15:3). He made this observation which he had learned in forty years of preaching and teaching. Those who come to hear him preach and teach will not remember everything he preaches and teaches. What they will remember is the passion of his heart which will come through in his preaching and teaching. What is most important to the preacher? Where is the heart of the preacher? The gospel is central in all of Scripture. May the gospel capture our hearts and be the passion of our lives.

SERVING WITH AN ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE

Yesterday I preached from I Timothy 6:1-2 on the subject, "Work as Worship and Witness." In his commentary on the pastoral epistles, Gordon Fee makes what I consider to be a very significant statement, that applies to much more of life than just our work: “The instruction that they ‘should consider their masters worthy of full respect’ tends to strike a discordant note to twentieth century ears, especially if such masters were pagans and unworthy of ‘all honor’…Paul’s instruction is quite in keeping with the entire New Testament understanding of Christian behavior as essentially reflecting servanthood (cf. Mark 10:43-45; I Corinthians 9:19; Galatians 5:13) and of Christian existence as basically eschatological – the form of this world is passing away; as an eschatological people, our present status is irrelevant (I Corinthians 7:17-24, 29-31). Therefore, precisely because it is essentially irrelevant, one may live one’s present status in loving obedience”

Gordon Fee, NEW INTERNATIONAL BIBLICAL COMMENTARY, I AND 2 TIMOTHY,TITUS, pages 137-138.

CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY

"Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. Whether it be a brief, single encounter or the daily fellowship of years, Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ.

In this wise does one, whom God has placed in common life with other Christians, learn what it means to have brothers. 'Brethren in the Lord,' Paul calls his congregation (Philippians 1:14). I am a brother to another person through what Jesus Christ did for me and to me; the other person has become a brother to me through what Jesus Christ did for him.

The fact that we are brethren only through Jesus Christ is of immeasurable significance.

Not what a man is in himself as a Christian, his spirituality and piety, constitutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood is what the man is by reason of Christ. Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us.

The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes, the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us. We have one another only through Christ, but through Christ we do have one another, wholly, and for all eternity. "

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

THE MERCY OF A HOLY GOD

Now contemplate the blistering holiness of our God, the Holy One of Israel, the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity. His eyes are too pure to look on evil; his voice shakes the heavens; at his sight the angels in glory hide their faces. Who can dwell with this consuming fire, with this everlasting burning? Who can ascend the hill of the Lord? Who can stand in his holy place? Yet this God took pity on us, this God stooped down to us and lifted us up to enjoy the blessing of restored relationship with him, that we may gaze upon his face for all eternity.

Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey, Andrew Sach, PIERCED FOR OUR TRANSGRESSIONS, page 152

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Kathy,

Happy Anniversary. Thirty years! Is it really possible? I still remember well that summer afternoon when we each said, "I do!" At that time we could hardly imagine thirty years together. We weren't even thirty years old.

You are a gift from God. I treasure the fact that you are my wife and feel completely unworthy to be called your husband. I can only wonder why I have been so blessed. Words fail me as I try to express my gratitude to God and my love for you.

Reflecting back over thirty years reminds me of so many experiences we have shared. From the human perspective there are so many things I would change. Then I am reminded of the sovereignty of God in our lives. Our journey has been one of his choices for us together. We have experienced the mountain tops and the valleys, incredible joys and deep sorrows. I am thankful that we have been at each other's sides for each of these experiences.

My prayer is that my love for you will continue to grow and become more and more like Christ's love for his church. I love you and cherish our time together. And as strange as these words may seem, I look forward to growing old together with you.

All my love,

Joe

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

The most influential person in my life is my father, Joseph Godwin, Sr. I have the honor of sharing his name and passed that honor to my oldest son as well. I was very pleased recently when my son indicated that, should God give him a son, he would give serious consideration to passing the name on as well. Naming my son was more about honoring my father than naming him after myself.

My father served as a pastor for over forty years. His life and ministry have been a great example to me. My first pastorate was twelve miles away from the church he pastored so he was my constant mentor and counselor during those formative years of ministry. Later, I was called to pastor a church that he had once pastored, a tribute to his leadership. That stands out as one of the great honors of my life.

My father was not an absentee dad, as is the case with many pastors. He clearly understood his first responsibility as a father (if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?). I recall fondly the ice skating rink he put in our back yard in Michigan, the fishing trips before us boys even knew how to hook our worms, the family outings to Findley State Park, vacations at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. He provided us memorable experiences for which I am grateful. My father’s greatest pleasure today is still time with his children, their spouses and his grandchildren.

On Mother’s Day I wrote of my parent’s deep commitment to each other. I will repeat that their commitment to each other has been a great example to us children. My father is a husband who loves his wife as Christ loves his church. This has been a lasting legacy for me personally.

Thank you Dad, for the example you have been to us children and our families. Happy Father’s Day!

GRADUATION

Joseph,

On this occasion of your high school graduation, we want you to know how grateful we are to God that he shared your life with us. We are humbled that God has entrusted to us the privilege of being your parents.

You came into our lives after we had been married for eleven years. As you know, God took two previous unborn babies and the problems associated with pregnancy caused us to wonder if we would ever have children. Your arrival was amazing. We were overwhelmed at God’s grace in bringing you into our lives.

As we look back over these nineteen years, we have shared together so many experiences that we will always treasure: vacations with our extended family, traveling to Italy, hiking to the top of Yosemite Falls, biking across the Golden Gate Bridge. More meaningful than those extraordinary experiences is the fact that we are a family and we have shared life. You have shared in our mountain top experiences as well as in some deep valleys through which we have walked. We trust that God has and is using those experiences to prepare you for life.

In light of this milestone in your life, we want to share with you the advice that Paul gave Timothy, his son in the faith: Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen (I Timothy 6:11-16).

We have prayed that God would accomplish his purposes and plan in your life, that you would treasure him above all things. Our desire is that you would clearly discern the eternal from the temporary and embrace the eternal. Treasure what God treasures. Pursue him with all your heart. We hope great things for you – good health, a fulfilling career, a godly wife, and children that will bring you the same incredible joy you have given us. But our greatest desire for you is that you will have a deep and abiding passion for Christ and his word, that you will live a life of intimacy with him.

God will be most glorified in your life if you live out this statement: Above all, Christ.

All our love,

Dad and Mom

CHRIST DIED FOR US

There is a captivating beauty in the sacrificial love of a God who gave himself for his people. It is this that first draws many believers to the Lord Jesus Christ, and this that will draw us to him when he returns on the last day to vindicate his name and welcome his people into his eternal kingdom. That the Lord Jesus Christ died for us - a shameful death, bearing our curse, enduring our pain, suffering the wrath of his own Father in our place – has been the wellspring of the hope of countless Christians throughout the ages.

Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey. Andrew Sach, Pierced for our Transgressions, page 21

A GREAT SINNER AND A GREAT SAVIOR

Sociologist Marsha Witten analyzed forty-seven taped sermons on the prodigal son (see Luke 15:11-32) preached by Baptist and Presbyterian ministers. In her book, All Is Forgiven, she wrote, How does the idea of sin fare in the sermons under study here? We should not be surprised to find that communicating notions of sin poses difficulties for many of the pastors…As we have seen here, a closer examination of the sermons suggests that many ways in which the concept of “sin” has been accommodated to fit secular sensibilities. For while some traditional images are retained in this speech, the language frequently cushions the listeners from their impact, as it employs a variety of softening rhetorical devises.

John Newton, who wrote the much loved hymn Amazing Grace, said the following to a friend at the end of his life: My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.

Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins, pages 18, 31

PRAYER ACCORDING TO JESUS

And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (Luke 11:9-13)!

Are we so hard of heart that these words of Jesus do not move us to pray with confidence, joyfully and gladly? So many of our prayers must be reformed if we are to pray according to these words. To be sure, all of the churches across the land are filled with people praying and singing, but why is it that there is so little improvement, so few results from so many prayers? The reason is none other than the one which James speaks of when he says, You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions (James 4:3). For where this faith and confidence is not in the prayer, the prayer is dead.

Martin Luther

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

The mother, more than any other, affects the moral and spiritual part of the children’s character. She is their constant companion and teacher in formative years. The child is ever imitating and assimilating the mother’s nature. It is only in after life that men can gaze backward and behold how a mother’s hand and heart of love molded their young lives and shaped their destiny (E. W. Caswell).

Caswell’s words are certainly true about our mother, Shirley Godwin. She shaped the lives of her children. As parents of two each, we can’t even begin to imagine the work and sacrifice required to raise five. Yet her life was never about herself. She invested her life in the children she loved and served. We can all look back and she how she impacted each of us. Her relationship to our father is perhaps her greatest investment in our lives. Their love and commitment to each other, after fifty-three years of marriage, continues to be a great example to us.

In addition to being a mother, our mom faithfully served alongside our father as a pastor’s wife for over forty years. Yet we never felt like we were second place to the church. She was a mother first.

Today we give thanks to God for our mom and for the godly life she lives and the great example she has been to us.

Happy Mother’s Day mom!

Love,

Joe, Susan, Tim, John, Nancy

OUR ONLY LEGITIMATE GOAL

If we are not our own, but the Lord's, it is clear to what purpose all our deeds must be directed. We are not our own, therefore neither our reason nor our will should guide us in our thoughts and actions. We are not our own, therefore we should not seek what is only expedient to the flesh. We are not our own, therefore let us forget ourselves and our own interests as far as possible.

We are God's own; to him, therefore, let us live and die. We are God's own; therefore let his wisdom and will dominate all our actions. We are God's own; therefore let every part of our existence be directed towards him as our only legitimate goal.

John Calvin, Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life

PRAYER AND POLITICS

Paul told Timothy that a priority of the church is to pray for kings and all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way (I Timothy 2:1-2). As is often the case, we fail to grasp the important while embracing the unimportant. I am constantly amazed at how often the modern-day church fails to make this distinction. We become very emotional about politics and candidates, as if our future depends upon the success of our preferred candidates, while ignoring our responsibility to pray for those in authority, whether we agree with their political positions or not.

It seems to me that the church has elevated political positions almost to the status of essential, foundational doctrines. Christians speak today more passionately about politics than they do the critical issues of Scripture. Remember, the church does not take its lead from the democratic process, but from the living and eternal word of God. Regardless of what happens on November 4, God still sovereignly reigns over all things.

For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up,
but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another (Psalm 75:6-7).

RADICAL GOD-DEPENDENCE

Humility is entering into the life of Christ through a radical God-dependence. It is an inner orientation of actively receiving from God and acknowledging our need. The humble Christian is the Christian who takes literally Christ's words: Apart from me you can do nothing. Andrew Murray nails humility when he calls it the displacement of self by the enthronement of God.

Calvin and Augustine both agreed that humility is evidenced when one feels that he has no refuge except in humility. They mean that the Christian has shifted from a human-centered faith to a God-centered faith; that the root, fruit, and maintenance of his walk is dependent on God's work, favor, and God's strength. He not only knows this, he acknowledges this and lives by this in a practical way.

Humility is the disposition that makes us available to be blessed by God. The Psalms seem obsessed with God's eagerness to reach out to the humble: God saves the humble, guides the humble, sustains the humble, and even crowns the humble. Notice that everything flows from God to the humble servant.

Pride seeks to reverse this. Pride is self-reliance and self-dependence. Arrogance seeks to obligate God instead of receive from Him.

Gary Thomas, The Glorious Pursuit, pages 49-50.

Essentials and Non-Essentials

When I think of orthodox Christianity, I think of those historic doctrines of the Christian faith for which our predecessors were willing to die. By God’s grace, I trust that if the time ever came, I would be willing to do the same for preaching these glorious truths of the Gospel: the Scriptures are the inspired words of God; God exists in three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Christ was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit and born to the virgin Mary; Christ died, was buried and rose again for our justification; the only way to be reconciled to God is by grace through faith in the Person and work of Jesus Christ; Christ ascended to heaven and will return to earth one day.

The historic creeds of the Christian faith such as the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed state these doctrines without ambiguity.

The statements of faith of many churches raise the level of some non-foundational theological positions to equality with the doctrines mentioned above. Many wise and godly men and women throughout the history of the church have held differing positions on those issues. It is imperative that we communicate that which we believe to be essential and critical to our faith. If one is not willing to take the sword for a position, why do we imply that it is such a critical issue?

The church should be committed to the spirit of the this statement: In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity. Our early church fathers understood the difference between the essentials and the non-essentials.

Thomas Bilney

In his commentary on I Timothy, John Stott gives us the story of Thomas Bilney's conversion after reading the words of Paul in I Timothy 1:15. Bilney searched for peace but could not find it. "But at last, I heard speak of Jesus, even then when the New Testament was first set forth by Erasmus...And at the first reading (as I well remember) I chanced upon the sentence of St. Paul (O most sweet and comfortable sentence to my soul!) in I Timothy 1. "It is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be embraced, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am the chief and principal." This one sentence, through God's instruction and inward working, which I did not then perceive, did so exhilarate my heart, being before wounded with the guilt of my sins, and being almost in despair, that even immediately I seemed unto myself inwardly to feel a marvelous comfort and quietness, insomuch that "my bruised bones leaped for joy" (Psalm 51). After this, the Scripture began to be more pleasant than the honey or the honeycomb.

Bilney went to the stake for his faith.