Friday, January 29

In the last year or so of Paul's life, when he was imprisoned in Rome, he wrote a letter to his son in the faith, Timothy. And, looking back across the years of his ministry, he spoke of the coming of our Savior Christ Jesus, "who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." (2 Tim. 1:10). That is the great and central fact in the good news about Jesus Christ: He has done what no other can ever do - he has abolished death. That is what is unique about the gospel!

Death has many forms. We actually begin to die long before we take our last breath. Death seizes us in many areas of our life other than the physical. There are many forms of death. Boredom is death. Sickness, of course, is death, but despair is also death. Fear and worry are forms of death. Mental illness is death, but so is bitterness of spirit. Death can seize our life while we live, and rule over great areas of our life long before we ever die. We know that from experience. But the great good news of Jesus Christ is that he has come to abolish death, death in every form, whatever it may be.

Last year when we studied the book of Acts, we ran across two stories of healing from two different kinds of death (see Acts 9).  We will see how in each case the power of Jesus Christ abolishes death. The first incident is a picture of death's power to paralyze.

Acts 9:32-34

 Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he rose. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

If you have ever been to Israel, you have probably been to Lydda. If you fly into Israel that is where you land. The airport outside Tel Aviv is at the ancient town of Lydda.  It was to this village that Peter came on his way down from Jerusalem, visiting among the new churches of Judea and Samaria. The church had been thrust out from Jerusalem and pockets of Christianity had begun in all the villages in Judea and Samaria. In Lydda he finds a man who had been paralyzed for eight years.

Now Peter was no faith healer. He was not like the TV faith healers in America today who make grandiose claims of possessing powers to heal people. Peter never said that he had any power to heal anyone. "Jesus Christ heals you," he says. Peter was but the instrument and channel of his healing power.  This man was made well instantaneously. As we have seen before in Acts, these physical miracles are a picture of the spiritual miracle that God wants to perform in every human spirit. God heals physically. He still does, and there are numerous perfectly valid instances of modern healings. But one thing is true of those today, just as in New Testament days: God heals physically only selectively. He never heals everybody that is sick. Jesus did not even when He walked the earth.  He healed selectively, because it is intended to picture the healing of the soul. That is what God really wants. Any healing of the body is, at best, temporary. 

Everyone who was ever healed in New Testament days died later on. The healing of their bodies was just temporary because it was designed to be a picture.  It is God's wonderful way of illustrating the healing of the sinful heart which would be eternal and which is really what God wants!  

Pastor Jeff Frazier

Thursday, January 28

Luke 17:11-19

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him – and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go, your faith has made you well.”             

  

Matthew Henry was an 18^th century English preacher and Biblical scholar who one day was assaulted and robbed by petty street thugs. He later wrote in his personal prayer journal:

            “Let me be thankful; first, because I was never robbed before;

            second, because although they took my wallet they did not take

            my life; third,   because although they took my all, it was not much;

            and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed.”

I think we would agree that this is a deeper kind of gratitude. Most often I feel thankful when I am abundantly blessed; that is, when my children are healthy, my bills are paid and the refrigerator is full of food. While certainly appropriate, this kind of thankfulness is relatively easy – and superficial. It is quite another thing to remain in some way thankful when my child is sick, when my job was terminated, or when my house is in foreclosure!

As I think about this story – it dawns on me that this one Samaritan man has many reasons to remain somewhat skeptical and bitter. After all, who knows how long he had been a leper – and whether or not his family and community would have him back.  Would his former employer offer him a job – or would his past be a liability for the company? Would his wife have him back – maybe she had grieved and moved on in her life. And why should he trust this healing to last? Maybe it was just a cruel temporary remission. And after all, while he may have been cured of leprosy – he was still a Samaritan!

Yet, despite all the reasons he could have used to feed his own self-pity, this man threw himself at Jesus’ feet in humility and gratitude. Jesus’ response is very interesting. He says, “Rise and go, your faith has made you well.” Many scholars have pointed out that the word “well” indicates a sense of wholeness – that is, inner as well as outer healing.

Could it be that God’s work in this man’s life was not complete until he opened his heart in praise and thanksgiving to Jesus? Could it be that the healing from the external symptoms of leprosy was not the main work Jesus wanted to accomplish? Could it be that the most important thing in this man’s life was NOT being healed from a dreaded disease – but in coming to know the love and grace of Jesus?

The purest form of praise and gratitude is not in response to our abundance, but in response to who Jesus is and what he has done in and for us. Take some time in prayer to throw yourself at his feet in thanksgiving and praise!

Pastor Brian Coffey

Wednesday, January 27

Luke 17:11-19

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

A number of years ago I received a call from a ministry volunteer at FBCG who told me that a man had come to the East Campus during our Wednesday evening children’s ministry program and was behaving in a very agitated way. I drove to the church as quickly as I could and found the man pacing back and forth in the lobby – obvious very distraught. I convinced him to follow me back into my office so we could talk and so that he would not frighten the children or others who were in the building. I discovered that he was the estranged father of one of the children in the ministry and was going through a difficult divorce. As I asked him questions, I also discovered he was a Vietnam veteran who struggled at times with post-traumatic stress disorder. Eventually, after more than an hour, he calmed down and began to talk about his life. He told me that, at age 19, he had done and seen things in Vietnam that still haunted him today. When I talked about the love, forgiveness and healing of Christ, he said, “But you don’t know what I’ve done, man. You just don’t know what I’ve done.”

To be a leper in Jesus’ day meant to be beyond the reach of God’s grace, healing and presence. Leprosy was seen as both incurable and as a kind of divine curse. Lepers were forced to live apart from the community and prohibited from worshiping in the Temple. Once diagnosed by the priests, lepers were doomed to live the remainder of their lives as outcasts, separated from both loved ones and God.

I think in some way we all know what it is like to be a leper. While few of us suffer that kind of physical disease or social ostracism, we do know what it is to feel shame, to fear rejection, and to feel a separation from God due to our own sinfulness. Deep down, we all have a need for forgiveness and grace than we can provide for ourselves. 

None other than the Apostle Paul himself, one of the greatest followers of Christ the world has ever known, wrote this of himself:

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature…For what I do is not the good that I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing…What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (Romans 7:18-24, selected)

Can you identify with the cry of Paul’s heart? I think all of us, if we are honest, know what it is to wrestle with sin and selfishness at the very heart of who we are. And therefore, with Paul, we can echo his cry of gratitude:

Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:25)

Just as Jesus was the one who cleansed the ten lepers from their disease, he is the one who cleanses us from our sin and shame. May we give him thanks and praise!

Pastor Brian Coffey

Tuesday, January 26

John 5:8-15

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”  At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”  But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’  So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?  The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”  The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

One of the most remarkable things about this passage is in verse 14, the text says that Jesus found this man (again) after he had been healed.  Why did Jesus go looking for him a second time?  He found him the first time at the pool of Bethesda and healed him and sent him on his way, shouldn’t that be the end of the story?  What else does Jesus want with this man?  John indicates that Jesus actually went looking for this man again. Jesus knew exactly where to find him, the Jewish law required a person that had been healed to go to the Temple and make a thank offering to God.  Apparently, Jesus was not through with this guy just yet.  When Jesus catches up with him, He says a very curious thing, “See, you are well again.  Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

There are some who interpret this passage to mean that this man’s condition was the direct result of his personal sin, and that God had actually afflicted him for 38 years until Jesus showed up and healed him.  Now there are some sins and behaviors that can and do lead to serious physical consequences, even death.  However, what we don’t want to do is assume that anytime something’s wrong it must be your lack of faith, trust or lack of belief. That’s a very dangerous thing to say. Jesus in fact balances this out because He makes it very clear that sometimes things happen and it’s no one’s fault.  In John 9, Jesus heals a man who had been born blind. “His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” 

Let’s be clear, Jesus is NOT threatening this man.  He is NOT saying that if this man steps out of line again, God is going to strike him down even worse than before, He is NOT saying that!

So what is Jesus saying?  First he reminds the man that he has been healed, “See you are well again.”  The word translated well actually means whole (in fact many modern translations translate it as such).  Jesus is telling this man that he has been restored, made completely whole physically, and spiritually. The second thing Jesus is does is to give a rather strange warning to this guy, “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”  I can’t help but ask the question – what is worse than 38 years as an invalid?  I can’t think of too many things from a human point of view to be honest.  However, an eternity apart from God is infinitely worse than any fate you can imagine for any length of time on earth.  What is worse?  To be separated from God for all eternity, that is worse!

Finally, Jesus is telling this man WHY he has been made whole.  Jesus has not just healed his body so that the man will have a few years of relative physical comfort.  Think about this for a minute, if Jesus had showed up at the pool that day and said to the man, “I forgive you”, but done nothing at all about his desperate physical condition, most people would think that pretty insensitive of Him.  But how much more tragic would it have been if Jesus only healed the man’s physical body, but done nothing at all for his soul?  So what if the man walks around for a few years, if he is headed for an eternity apart from God!?

This is never Jesus’ primary agenda!  Jesus is after a much deeper healing than whatever physical disease or disability this man had suffered from, He is after a healing of his soul.  Jesus is showing this man (and us) that the physical miracle is really a gateway to the greater miracle – a transformed heart!  This is the real miracle, because this is the real disease (sin) that disables us all.  This man has been made whole so that his life may be lived for the glory of God.

Pastor Jeff Frazier

Monday, January 25

John 5:1-9

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The setting for this encounter is a place called the pool of Bethesda (the word means house of Mercy).  For many years skeptics and scholars used this story as evidence that the New Testament accounts were not always historically accurate or reliable.  However, in the late 19th century, biblical archaeologists discovered and excavated this exact place.  The pool is located to the north part of the Temple Mount, near what is now called St. Stephen's Gate, which is, in fact, the site of the Sheep Gate mentioned here.

If you have any Bible other than the King James Version you will probably notice that Verse 4 is missing (see above).  Many versions include this verse in a footnote, which explains why all of these people were there at the pool. They believed in a superstition that from time to time when the water was troubled - when it would rise rapidly and then sink again - that this was caused by an angel who visited the pool, and the first man who got into it when it was stirred would be healed.

The facts, of course, are that the pool of Bethesda, like many similar pools in the Jerusalem area, is an intermittent spring. At times water is released in surges from hidden reservoirs in the hills around the city, causing these springs to rise and fall suddenly. This is what gave rise to the superstition about an angel troubling the pool.

So here was a great crowd of people - paralyzed, blind, lame, sick - all waiting for the water to be stirred. It is really a sad and pitiful scene when you think about it. All of these poor creatures waiting day after day, hoping for a miracle, scrambling and clawing their way to be the first into the water.  Out of that crowd Jesus picked one lone man. He did not empty the five porches, healing everybody. He did not invite them all to come down to line up for their free miracle. He went to only one man. The value of a story like this, and the reason it is in the Gospels, is to reveal to us who Jesus is, and to show us how God deals with human helplessness and weakness.

Undoubtedly it was the helplessness of this man that drew Jesus to him, and it was the compassion of Jesus that caused Him to seek this poor fellow out.

We all can see ourselves in a similar condition to this man (or at least we should be able to).  In a sense, this man is picture of the human condition apart from God; disabled, desperate, disappointed and defeated.  We all have problems we can’t fix on our own.  We all need help.  We all find ourselves disabled or paralyzed at times, unable to do the thing we want or ought to do. We sometimes feel desperate and defeated by our circumstances.  We feel alone in a crowd, with no one to help us.

This story is included in the gospels in order that we might understand how God desires to help and to heal us through the ministry of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Pastor Jeff Frazier

Friday, January 22

James 5:13-16

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Years ago I led a Bible Study for high school students that met on Wednesday nights. I would always end the meeting by asking the students for any prayer requests they might have – then I would pray and close the meeting. On one particular night a student who was very new to the group raised his hand. When I asked him what he would like me to pray for, he said, “Pray that I won’t get grounded.”

That sounded like a bigger story to me so I followed up, “Do you mind me asking why you are worried about being grounded?”

He went on to describe how he had gone out to a movie the night before and that one thing had led to another and that he never went home. In fact, he had not been home yet and he feared that when he finally arrived home after Bible Study his parents would be upset and would ground him for punishment.

As gently as I could I told him that I couldn’t pray for him not to be grounded because, frankly, that was his parent’s job! But I said I could pray that he would have the courage to be honest with his parents; to apologize to them for staying out all night; and to accept any punishment that they saw fit.

While that young man struggled to understand the concept of accountability, he did get one thing right! James says,

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray.

The “prayer of trouble” is probably the most common form of prayer. This is the “fox hole” prayer. It seems to be human instinct to pray when we find ourselves in trouble. I have read that something like 80% of people who call themselves atheists pray from time to time. My guess is that people who don’t even believe in God tend to pray to the God they don’t believe in when they are in trouble! 

It seems to me there are at least three ways to pray when we face trouble.

The first is to ask God to get us out of trouble! We see this kind of prayer in the Psalms:

Psalm 59:1

Deliver me from my enemies, O God…

Psalm 70:1

Hasten, O God, to save me; O Lord come quickly to help me.

These are the prayers we cry out when we lose a job or when a loved one is struggling with addiction. We need God’s intervention and we ask for it. James is inviting us to pray this kind of prayer.

The second way to pray when in trouble is to ask God to teach us something important through the troublesome experience or situation. This is actually how James begins his letter to young believers who were facing persecution.

James 1:2

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

This kind of prayer both requires and produces spiritual maturity. This kind of prayer recognizes God’s presence and purpose transcend our pain and can work through our troubles to produce maturity in our lives.

The third way to pray when in trouble is to ask God to use us to bear witness to him in the situation. I think we can see this kind of prayer reflected in the Apostle Paul’s words written from a prison cell in Rome:

Philippians 1:12-13

Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear to the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.

Paul could have asked for God to deliver him from his circumstances, and he may have indeed done so in his private moments, but here he recognizes that God has chosen to use his imprisonment to advance the gospel.

I have sometimes seen this kind of prayer when I have visited people in the hospital. There have been occasions when I have offered to pray for a person struggling with a very grave illness, but instead, the sick person asks me to pray that he or she might be an encouraging witness for Christ to the doctors and nurses.

Jesus said,

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. John 16:33

I think James remembered those words. I think he wanted his readers to know that God is greater than our trouble and that through prayer we have access to the power, presence and help of God.

Pastor Brian Coffey

Thursday, January 21

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

   9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! - Matthew 7.7-11

Several years ago a friend of mine was seeking some advice regarding financial issues he and his family were going through.  Some would say his first problem is that he was asking me for financial advice.  As I thought through my own experiences and any Scriptures that came to mind the best thing I could come up with to tell him was that God always provides.  But that just sounded so cliche…then I got it!  How could I tell him the same truth but make it more emphatic?  I looked at him and told him “God has never not provided for my needs.” 

Yes, that’s right, I used the dreaded double negative. 

But there was something about the double negative that clicked for him, he told me he had never thought of it that way.  He then began to think back on his life and realized that though he and his family often worried, God had never not provided for their needs. 

There’s something about looking at a classic truth from the other direction that helps us to grab it in a new way.  This is what I want to share with you today. God has never not provided.  Think back on your life, have you ever not had your needs met?  Not your wants, your needs.  I’d be willing to venture a guess that each of you have some need right now that you’re wondering how it will be met.  Maybe right now you’re thinking: “What about me? I’ve got this long list of needs that are unmet.”

I have another friend who for the last 4 months has been out of work.  Every time I saw him I would ask him, “How’s the job search?” and he would respond the same way, “nothing yet.”  About 3 and a half months into it, I finally asked him a different question, “Have you been praying about this?” His response surprised me, “No, I just don’t know if I really believe that God would pull through.”  I looked at him and told him, “just try, pray about it and see what God does.”  The next time I saw him, I asked, “How’s the job search?”  His response, “I got a job!”  I said “Have you been praying about this?”  And he looked back at me with such a sense of joy in his eyes and said, “You were right, I’ve been praying about it and asking people to pray and God provided!”

Now, I’m NOT saying that God will miraculously provide your needs the second after you pray, but I think often times we don’t have because we don’t ask.  We attempt to meet our needs through our own strength, yet God wants to meet our needs, we only need to ask.

 As Jesus is teaching the crowds on the Mount of Olives he tells them "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?” (Mt. 6.26-27)  Friends, God has never not provided.  If you have a need, ask the God who provides.

I want to bring this back around now to genuine, heartfelt thanksgiving.  Read what Paul wrote to the church in Philipi.

6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. - Phil. 4.6-7

I think that Paul is encouraging them to pray with thanksgiving implies that they take time to reflect on what GOD has already provided as they ask him to provide the next thing.  Today, before you pray for your list of needs, take a few moments and reflect on all the things God has already provided.

I’ll get you started: Father, thank you for my salvation through your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for being near to me when I pray--that I have access to you any time of the day or night. Thank you for the roof over my head last night...

Wednesday, January 20

James 5:13-16

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Several years ago I agreed to meet with a woman who had never attended FBCG but called me on the recommendation of a friend. As I recall, the woman was Jewish although she was not active in her faith.

I no longer remember the details of what led her to seek my counsel but I do remember how the conversation ended. I offered to pray for her as I almost always do in pastoral conversations. She looked a bit surprised but indicated that would be fine. So I bowed my head and prayed for her and for whatever her difficult situation happened to be. When I said, “Amen” and looked up she was staring at me with her eyes wide open. I realized that she had not bowed her head or closed her eyes and it suddenly occurred to me that she had never seen someone do that before; that she had never had anyone pray for her. 

I remember feeling both stunned and saddened that someone could live into adulthood without knowing or experiencing the blessing of prayer!

Throughout this letter written to some of the earliest followers of Christ, James has been applying the gospel to everyday life and here he turns his attention to what might be called the “gospel of prayer.”

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Remember that the “gospel” is the good news that God saves sinners through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The gospel tells us that through Christ, God has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves. The gospel tells us that by faith we who are sinful, selfish and hopeless can become children of God, secure in the knowledge that we are loved, forgiven and granted the great hope of eternal life in Christ! 

James is telling us that prayer is also part of the gospel because God makes himself available to us in every dimension of our lives.

Are you in trouble? Pray for God’s help.

Are you happy? Sing songs of praise (certainly a form of prayer).

Are you sick? Pray for healing.

Are you struggling with sin? Pray for forgiveness!

James wants us to know the good news that God not only created us, loves us and saves us, but that he is available to us every moment of every day through prayer!

When I was about 11 years old our family lived in a wing of the small church building where my father was pastor. One day I was playing with my brother and I burst through the door that led to my Dad’s church office thinking no one was there. I charged right into the middle of a pastoral counseling session that my father was having with a member of the congregation.

I stopped dead in my tracks but before I could exit the room my father said, “Come here,” and motioned for me to come to his side of the desk. I was expecting to be reprimanded for interrupting an important conversation. But, instead, he simply turned me around to face his guest and said, “This is Brian, my oldest son.” Then he turned to me and said, “What do you need son?”

I realized that not only was I not in “trouble” (he probably reminded me later to knock before coming into his office!), but I had a special relationship to my father. He not only allowed me to come to him; he wanted me to come to him! I had access!

Do you know God feels that way about you? Do you know that you can come to him when you are in trouble? When you are happy? When you are sick? When you have failed?

James wants us to know the door to God’s office is always open!

Pastor Brian Coffey

Tuesday, January 19

Philippians 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

A while back late on a stormy spring afternoon, I was driving in my car and heard a “severe weather” warning on the radio. The announcement indicated that a tornado had been spotted just a few miles from where we live and was headed in our general direction. The announcer even encouraged everyone living in our portion of the county to head to the basement - or to the most secure spot - in their homes. I was still 30 minutes or so from home and didn’t know if my wife, who was at home with three of our sons, would have heard the warning. So I called her on my cell phone and told her what I had heard on the radio and we agreed that she should probably take the boys into the basement until the storm lifted.

When I arrived home half an hour later, they were all in the basement – playing ping-pong and having fun – while listening to the weather reports. Shortly thereafter, the warning was lifted and we went about our normal evening routines. The boys joked about being disappointed they didn’t get to see a real, live tornado.

I’m sure that at dinner or bed-time we probably thanked God for the blessing of a home that provides shelter from bad weather. I know that I prayed a prayer of thanksgiving that the tornado didn’t turn in our direction. But, deep down, I always wonder how I would pray if the tornado did, in fact, come our way – or destroy our home?

We all want peace and security. We all pray that the storm will go in another direction. We all want our children to be safe. And we typically think of peace, security and safety in physical and material terms.

But notice the promise tucked away in this teaching on prayer!

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your mindsin Christ Jesus.

Paul encourages us to pray in and about everything. He is teaching us to pray with thanksgiving. He is reminding us that, as God’s children, we can ask him for anything. And then he gives us this remarkable promise: “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

The promise of prayer is not that we will get everything we ask for! The promise is peace. And notice as well what parts of our lives God promises to guard – our “hearts and minds.” Not our homes. Not our stuff. Not even our physical health – but our hearts and our minds.

What does it mean to have the peace of God guarding our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus?

It means that God chooses to protect the most important part of us first! The only part of me that was created to last forever – my soul – is what Paul here calls “heart and mind.” This is the part of me that Jesus died to forgive and save. This is the part of me that receives the great gift of eternal life – and that will live with him forever in heaven.

And this is the part of you that the peace of God protects – fills and sustains – when you pray. So why “Prayer @ Home?” Because God wants to bring peace to that part of your home that is most precious, the hearts and minds of the people who live there; Moms and Dads and babies and children and adolescents and young adults and even grandparents. If your personal situation is living alone, then he wants to bring his peace to your heart and mind as much as he does the family with five kids!

Make a renewed commitment today to the heart and mind transforming gift called prayer!

Pastor Brian Coffey

Monday, January 18

In his book Prayer: Does it Make Any Difference, Philip Yancey begins a chapter with the following quote from R.S. Thomas:

"Prayer like gravel flung at the sky's window, hoping to attract the loved one's attention..."

I wonder if you sometimes experience prayer like that -- because I do. Yes, there are times when I sense the presence of God so fiercely that I can almost feel his breath on the back of my neck. But far more often prayer feels like tossing handfuls of gravel toward heaven hoping for a response. I have long wondered why this is so -- and if others experience prayer in this way -- and, perhaps, if something is wrong with the way I pray.

After more than four decades as a follower of Christ; forty some odd years of praying -- from the simple bedtime prayers of a child, to the self-serving prayers of a young man, to the practical prayers of an adult, to the wordless prayers of a grieving brother, to the pleading prayers of a parent, to the public prayers of a pastor - -I have learned one great truth. And that is that prayer is a mystery.

To think that I can communicate with the creator and sustainer of the universe is both absurd on the one hand and an irresistible urge on the other. To think that God hears my feeble words amidst the great cacophony of this noisy and broken world is equally absurd - and just as irresistible.

Do I understand prayer fully? No, I do not. Do I pray? Absolutely. Do I know how and why God chooses to act on some of my prayers while others seem to go unanswered -- at least from my perspective? No, I do not. Do I continue to ask? Absolutely.

I guess if you push me up against the wall of true confessions and ask me to explain prayer the best I can I would say something like this: "Prayer is wrestling with God in the dark until you feel him wrestling back." That image came to me while reading the story of Jacob wrestling with the divine stranger in Genesis 32 and has stayed with me ever since. Prayer as wrestling with God.

Yancey begins yet another chapter in his book with this quote from Walter Wink:

"Biblical prayer is impertinent, persistent, shameless, indecorous. It is more like haggling in an outdoor bazaar than the polite monologues of the church."

Prayer as throwing gravel at heaven. Prayer as wrestling in the dark. Prayer as haggling at a flea market. Maybe these images help you as they help me - -I hope so. But whatever your experience of prayer has been and is today -- keep praying! Keep tossing gravel. Keep wrestling. Keep haggling. For the God you seek knows what it is to toss handfuls of gravel at us to get our attention -- and what it is to wrestle with us for ownership of our hearts -- and to haggle over the sin that we so readily cling to. But be prepared -- for when God enters the arena of our prayers -- he wrestles and haggles to win. Always.

Pastor Brian Coffey

Friday, January 15

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.  - John 17:20-23

Let’s not forget that Jesus prayed this prayer on the last night of his life before his death. This prayer stands as a citadel for all Christians to live unified and in harmony with one another.

How precious are Jesus’ words? Knowing the end was near, Jesus prayed one final time for his followers. Striking, isn’t it? With death breathing down his neck, Jesus prayed not for our success, our safety, or our happiness. He prayed for our unity, as we would fulfill his purpose. He prayed that we would love each other, as we went forward to love the world to him. He prayed for his disciples and for all those who would come to faith in Jesus Christ, becoming his followers. That means you and me. In his last prayer Jesus prayed that you and I be one.

The same unity personified in the Godhead (vv. 11, 21, 22). The unity that God desires for the body of Christ is based on a unity that already exists in heaven between the three persons of the Trinity. God does not have to manufacture unity between himself, his Son, and the Holy Spirit— they’re already unified. The Godhead is the evidence of unity.

In one sense, Christians are already unified because we are a part of the same spiritual family. We enjoy an essential unity on that basis alone. Christian unity is not based on externals of the flesh but the internal working of the Spirit in our hearts, lives, and communities. God is giver of unity. The Puritan preacher, George Newton, wrote, “There is no possibility of having peace, unless God himself bestow it; unless he bow the heavens and come down, and work it in the hearts of his people. It is beyond the power of any creature to keep the saints themselves in unity and peace, unless God himself do it.”

From this reality of unity, Jesus prays for unity among believers (vv. 11, 21, 22, 23). The English Standard Version translates verse 23 as “. . . that they may become perfectly one.” When Jesus prays for something four times he is making a major plea. Jesus does not take unity lightly? It is of a major concern for him. It should be for us as well.

How do we become the answer to Jesus’ prayer for unity?

1.       Pray with integrity for unity. We want our unity to be real, genuine, in other words, not fake or pretentious. It is easy to pray for unity and be self-righteous. If we pray for unity and are at war with another believer, we are hypocritical.

2.       Pray within the family, both our physical and spiritual families, for unity. Often individual families are at odds with each other. Before we pray for the church family to be unified we need to pray for unity in our family. Then, we are to pray for the church family that we will reflect the unity as demonstrated in the Godhead.

3.       Pray in practice for unity. Pray together with other Christians for unity. It would be incongruous to pray for unity among God’s people and do it alone. Praying together recognizes our deep need for one another.

Unity matters to God. Twice Jesus says that the reason we are to unite as believers is as a witness to a watching world. Jesus prays, “. . . so the world may believe You sent Me. . . so the world may know You have sent Me” (vv. 21, 23). The reputation of God is at stake. When Christians stand together in unity, they bear living proof of the truth of the gospel. A unified church will convince people that there is a God in heaven. Unity creates belief.

If unity creates belief, then disunity fosters disbelief. How can the world come to believe the gospel if those who already believe it are battling among themselves? When the world sees denominational leaders fighting over control, or young and old members of the same congregation dueling over worship styles, or a church splitting over the color of the new carpet, it says, “Thanks, but no thanks.” When Christians splinter over frivolous and nonessential issues, observers have reason to doubt the validity of the gospel. Is it fair to say that one of the hindrances of people being drawn into evangelical churches today is the way we treat one another?

Pastor Jeff Frazier