"Pray without ceasing."

                    -I Thess. 5:17 

Prayer is a vital part of every Christian's spiritual growth. If we fail to spend time with God in prayer, we ought not be surprised if we find ourselves with a lack of joy and peace in our lives, for prayer is what supplies us with those things. Just as neglecting to feed our physical body leaves us weak and tired, forgetting to feed our souls through prayer and Bible study will leave us weary and rundown spiritually.

When Paul admonished the Thessalonians to "pray without ceasing", he wasn't just trying to make a point by using figurative language. He was being very literal. In fact, he was merely echoing the words of Christ Himself, who taught "...that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;" (Luke 18:1) The Psalmist David also spoke of the importance of praying constantly:

"Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and He shall hear my voice."

                            -Psalm 55:17

 While none of us is able to spend every waking moment on our knees before the Lord, we are all able to always have a prayer in our heart as we go about our daily lives.

"Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;"

                            -Ephesians 5:19

Frank Laubach once wrote, "Oh, this thing of keeping in constant touch with God, of making Him the object of my thought and the companion of my conversations, is the most amazing thing I ever ran across...Now I like the Lord's presence so much that when for a half hour or so He slips out of mind - as He does many times a day - I feel as though I had deserted Him, and as though I had lost something very precious in my life."* Let us all come to this frame of mind. Let us make Christ the object of our every thought and conversation, knowing that we are the object of His!



*Practicing His Presence - Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach (NOTE: I would highly recommend this book to anybody who wants to "practice the presence of the Lord" in their lives.)

"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word;"

                            -John 17:20 

Robert McCheyne once said, "If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me." To know that Christ is constantly before the throne of God, intercessing on our behalf, is one of the greatest consolations that a Christian will ever know. That is why I love this passage in John 17:20. I remember the first time that I read this verse thinking to myself, "Wow! Jesus was praying for me!" Realizing that Christ is pleading my case before our heavenly Father gives me a greater confidence to live my life from day to day.

In Old Testament times (and even now on Yom Kippur), the high priest was allowed to enter the holy of holies only once per year to, in essence, make intercession for the children of Israel. This was the only time God's people had a "representative" to go directly into the presence of the Lord on their behalf. But now, for all New Testament saints, Christ "...ever liveth to make intercession..." (Hebrews 7:25) No longer do we have to wait for that one day out of the year when the high priest would make intercession, but we have One Who is in God's presence unceasingly entreating the Lord to grant us mercy, grace, and forgiveness when we fall.

Praise the Lord for Jesus Christ - our Great Intercessor!

"Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us."

                            -Romans 8:34

"Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
"For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh."

                            -II Corinthians 4:10-11

We've all heard the old saying, "What Would Jesus Do?" We ask ourselves that question for two reasons, the first being that we should all be seeking to be conformed to the image of God's Son (see Romans 8:29) in order to please our heavenly Father; but the second reason is that we are the only Bible some people will ever read, and the only light they will ever see. With that said, we've got to makes sure we are doing what Christ would have us to do. After all, people's eternities are at stake.

That is what Paul is talking about here in II Corinthians chapter 4. Twice in these two verses he speaks of the life of Christ being "made manifest in our mortal flesh." What does this mean? It means that we must allow Christ to live through us so that we can reach the world for Him! It means being able to say, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20) It means crucifying the flesh [i.e. carnal nature] with the affections and lusts as It says in Galatians 5:24. In other words, Christ living through us requires us dying to self and living wholeheartedly for Christ.

This coming week, let's make every effort to allow Christ to have His perfect will in our lives, without restriction (example: "Lord, I'll follow you anywhere except...") Let's present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service (Romans 12:1).

"He made the lame walk, and the dumb talk,
He opened blinded eyes to see
That the sun rises on His time,
Yet He knows our deepest desperate need,
And the world waits while His heart aches to realize the dream,
I wonder what life would be like if we let Jesus live through you and me."*

* Big Daddy Weave - What Life Would be Like     

"In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay."

                            -Matthew 28:1-6 

As we all know, Easter is a day to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Sadly though, for many people, Easter is the only day in which the resurrection of Christ is even considered, let alone celebrated.

The apostle Paul plainly stated, "...if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." (I Corinthians 15:14) Why? Because if Christ is not risen, then we are serving a dead god - and a dead god is really no god at all. The resurrection of our Lord not only gives us hope for future victory over death personally when the dead in Christ shall rise (I Thessalonians 4:16), but it also affirmed His sinlessness, for "...the wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23) The Lord's power over death proved that He did indeed live a perfect life on earth (II Corinthians 5:21).

Jesus Christ raising from the dead effects more than just one day out of the year, so we should therefore celebrate it more than just one day out of the year. Without the resurrection, the Gospel is of none effect. Praise God that the story didn't end with the crucifixion!

I was thinking to myself this morning that it would be cool to have a series of posts about controversial issues in the Bible. So, every Saturday throughout the entire month of April, I'm going to be publishing a new post along those lines. Since I'm just starting today, I have chosen the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil as today's topic. However, the rest of the posts in this series will be topics chosen by the readers of this blog! So send me your comments, emails, or vote on the poll (to your right) and give me your input!

"And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

                            -Genesis 2:9, 16-17

I have heard the question asked time and time again of why God placed the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. Was God tempting man? No, for "...God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:" (James 1:13) The fact is, God has instituted a "whosoever will" program (Revelation 22:17), and He does not force anybody into serving Him. Think about it. If there was no Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, then man would have had no option but to serve God.

One of the ways that we are "created in the image [i.e. likeness] of God" (Genesis 1:26), is that we have a freewill just as He does. Had God created man with no choice but to serve Him, then man would have been little more than a drone, serving God because He had to. That's not love, is it? No, and that's not what God wanted either, because He desires that we love Him with all of our heart, soul, and mind (Mark 12:30).

The Lord wants us to serve Him out of our own freewill, not out of obligation. It's a choice that nobody, not even God, is going to make for us; we've got to decide for ourselves.

"And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

                            -Genesis 1:4 

Only four verses into the book of Genesis and we see that it has always been God's will for there to be a distinction between the light and the darkness. Two things so very different cannot coexist, and thus God separated them by creating day and night.

"Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness."

                            -I Thessalonians 5:5

"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:"

                    -Ephesians 5:8

"While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light..." 

                            -John 12:36

Verses such as these clearly convey a similarity  between the things of God, and His children, to light; namely because light exposes what was hidden, just as God's children reveal Christ to the world. However, many people who love to call themselves "the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14), forget the fact that light and darkness must remain separate. They cannot have fellowship one with the other.


No, I'm not trying to say that we should live in a box and hide away from the world. In fact, sometimes we must go into that darkness in order to shine the light where it needs to be shone (it wouldn't do much good to shine a flashlight in lighted room, would it?). But we must remember that we are in the world, not of it. We may not be able to avoid the darkness completely, but we can avoid it's influence if we stay true to God.

"Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils."

                            -I Corinthians 10:21

We cannot associate with darkness unnecessarily and expect not to be impacted by it negatively. God desires a holy people, set apart unto Him!

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,"

                            -II Corinthians 6:14-17

"Nevertheless the LORD thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the LORD thy God loved thee."

                            -Deuteronomy 23:5

Many times in my life, I have found myself in situations where it seemed that nothing good could ever come out of what I was going through. To my left was heartache, to my right was suffering. Behind me was pain, and before me was uncertainty. The sun showed no sign of ever rising again, and I felt as if a heart full of grief was the only thing I would benefit from the entire experience. 

I wonder if Joseph felt the same way when his brothers sold him to the Ishmeelites in Genesis 37? Or if Mary and Martha still had any hope left after Lazarus had been in the grave for four days? Though both or these situations seemed hopeless, God used Joseph to save the entire land of Egypt in time of famine, and he used the death of Lazarus to show forth His awesome power as well as give us one of the most encouraging stories in the Bible.

Just as Christ turned to water into wine (i.e. grape juice), the Lord can take a curse and turn it into a blessing, as it says in today's verse. God's greatness is not limited by our circumstance, and oftentimes our darkest nights simply give Him the opportunity to shine a little bit brighter.

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

                            -Romans 8:28