Too Much Pie and Milkshakes

Hiiiiiiiiiiii internet world. It's been like, forever since I have posted something. I wanted to quickly praise Jesus for the very near completion of my debut EP. I expect it to be available online within the next couple of weeks. I'm so excited for what my friends/partners/producers Trevar and Branden and myself have put together for the glory of God. 

Okay so today I ate like I was dying. I had two zebra cakes, a large chocolate milkshake from Steak N' Shake, and then a piece of pie from O'Charley's. (That is just the list of desserts I had today). So I am grateful for gluten and for desserts in general. Okay so now that the rambling for today's post is done, time to talk about Jesus and our relationship with Him. God put it on my heart to talk about prayer.

John MacArthur gave a very powerful sermon on prayer a while back and said the following: 

"And not only that, prayer lines you up properly with God. When we're told to pray, we are told to pray in the Spirit. Now what it means to pray in the Spirit is to pray consistently with the Spirit of God. So prayer not only moves God to act but prayer is to align us with the will and purpose of God. When we pray in the will of God or in accord with God's will we are lining up with His purposes. And so prayer has a definite effect of lining us up with God's purposes, as well as causing God to act."

I want to specifically talk about prayer and how to do it for praying is like breathing. Reading the bible is eating and praying is like breathing. Prayer really is important. We talk a lot about prayer and we throw the word around but prayer is a tremendous power. Someone once said, "Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscles of omnipotence." And prayer activates the power of God. That's putting the same thing in a simple term. Prayer activates the power of God. God moves in response to the prayers of His people. Some would say that prayer is simply talking to God. Isn't that the first thing we try to do as newborns? Communicate? Well, communication takes two to tango. When you pray to God, why are you praying? 

When in prayer we have to remember to be intentional with what we are saying. But what is more important is to be intentional when listening to God. If we knew what we were doing with our lives and what was going on and knew absolutely everything about everything then we wouldn't need to pray now would we? God's will and God's will alone is what is perfect. Not ours. When we read the Bible, God talks to us. When we pray, we talk to Him. And you've got to have both sides or you don't have conversation. Nobody likes a one-sided conversation. Now all Christians pray. We all talk to God sometimes. We don't all pray right. We don't all pray the way we ought to. A lot of Christians pray wrong. In the first place, we spend a lot of time asking for stuff we don't need. Did you ever know that? "Lord, give me this, give me that, give me that," and the Lord knows if He gave it to us it would only mess us up so He doesn't.

So is there only one kind of prayer? Absolutely not. There are manifold different prayers. It isn't to be sophisticated, it isn't to be formal or informal, it's just anything. Paul says in Ephesian 6:18 "Praying always with all kinds of prayer." Any kind of prayer. You could be crying out, "O God," you know, in a terrible time of stress. Or you could be saying, "Lord, this is a terrific day, I'm really happy, I just want You to know I'm checking in." You know, that's prayer. Any kind of communion with God at any point, at any level, on any subject-communion with God is prayer. Now I know this seems simple, but you can physically pray in many different ways as well. 

You can pray kneeling, standing, head down, eyes closed, eyes open, hands up, eyes on the heavens and open, WHATEVER! The bible says that all of these things are okay. Now that doesn't mean that prayer is lackluster and to be done in a manner that isn't fully committed. Prayer prepares us. Prayer gets us ready for the temptation that we will face daily. We sometimes want to sleep more than we are praying. You know, Peter had a problem, he was always falling asleep in prayer meeting and Jesus said to him, "You know, if you stayed awake and prayed you wouldn't be in the mess you're in. Watch and pray unless you enter into temptation." You see, Peter didn't pray so he didn't have himself girded really for the temptation. If you pray more than you'd sleep, you be better off.

Sometimes prayer is immediate. "It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear."

Sometimes it is delayed and sometimes it is different than what we thought it would be. 

Sometimes we may pray for something and we have to wait because God knows a lot more than we know and He knows it's better to come later than to come now. Luke 18:7:"And shall not God avenge His own elect who cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them?" In other words, sometimes it's painful and you have to go through a lot of things and sometimes God's chosen people have had to suffer and suffer and suffer and suffer and it seems like it goes on and on and on but God will answer even though it takes him a long time to get his answer. And that's because He has a purpose.

I think one of the most important things to remember is to remember that God isn't deaf. Prayer is not vain repetition. "GOD PLEASE OH PLEASE DO THIS FOR ME PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!" Yo homie, He heard you the first time and you don't need to beg. You don't have to say 48 Hail Marys in a row to get God's attention. "When you are praying do not use meaningless repetition as the gentiles do..." Matthew 6:7. It's not that kind of thing, although there is petition and there is earnestness in it. Prayer is simply conversation. And sometimes in your life you may say, "God, it's sure a nice day and I hope You're enjoying it like I am and I just want to thank You for it." 

"Repetitive prayer is as significant a prayer as if you stood up in a pulpit and said a bunch of theology because all you're doing is communing with God." - John MacArthur again.

So these are just some of me just rambling and some thoughts and notes I have gathered over time on prayer and I hope maybe some of this helped. Love you all. Gonna go eat ice cream now.

Salvation

A friend of mine recently asked me if one could lose their salvation. I won't mention his/her name but let me say that this person is a wonderful person. I don't know where he/she is at with the Lord but I know that he/she is searching and that is fantastic. I love to see when people are searching for God and asking really deep questions like this one. "Can you lose your salvation."

First I want to use Peter. Peter’s life is proof that a true believer’s spiritual experience is often filled with ups and downs, but Peter illustrates another biblical truth, a more significant one: the keeping power of God. On the night Jesus was betrayed, He gave Peter an insight into the behind-the-scenes spiritual battle over Peter’s soul: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:31–32) Peter was confident of his willingness to stand with Jesus, whatever the cost. He told the Lord, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death” (Luke 22:33). Yet Jesus knew the truth and sadly told Peter, “The cock will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me” (Luke 22:34).

Did Peter fail? Yes, miserably. Do I fail? Yes. HORRIBLY. I'm ratchet. Jesus came for the ratchet. Was his faith overthrown? Never. Jesus Himself was interceding on Peter’s behalf, and His prayers did not go unanswered. The Lord intercedes for all genuine believers that way. John 17:11 gives a glimpse of how He prays for them: “I am no more in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou has given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.”

John Murray in Redemption Accomplished and Applied wrote the following:

In order to place the doctrine of perseverance in proper light we need to know what it is not. It does not mean that every one who professes faith in Christ and who is accepted as a believer in the fellowship of the saints is secure for eternity and may entertain the assurance of eternal salvation. Our Lord himself warned his followers in the days of his flesh when he said to those Jews who believed on him, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye truly my disciples, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31, 32). He set up a criterion by which true disciples might be distinguished, and that criterion is continuance in Jesus’ Word. 

The above explanation by Murray of the doctrine of perseverance is an elaboration of what Peter meant by his words “protected by the power of God” when he wrote his first epistle (1 Pet 1:5). If any biblical character was ever prone to failure, it was Simon Peter. Judging from the biblical record, none of the Lord’s disciples—excluding Judas the betrayer—stumbled more often or more miserably than he. Peter was the disciple with the foot-shaped mouth. He seemed to have a knack for saying the worst possible thing at the most inappropriate time. He was impetuous, erratic, vacillating—sometimes cowardly, sometimes weak, sometimes hotheaded. On several occasions he merited strong rebukes from the Lord, none more severe than that recorded in Matt 16:23: “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” That occurred almost immediately after the high point in Peter’s experience with Christ, when Peter confessed, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt 16:16).

He continues:

I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in the truth. I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. And the glory which Thou has given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me (John 17:15–23).

Notice what the Lord was praying for: that believers would be kept from the power of evil; that they would be sanctified by the Word; that they would share His sanctification and glory; and that they would be perfected in their union with Christ and one another. He was praying that they would persevere in the faith.

Was the Lord praying for the eleven faithful disciples only? No. He explicitly includes every believer in all succeeding generations: “I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word” (v. 20). That includes all true Christians, even in the present day!

Moreover, the Lord Himself is continuing His intercessory ministry for believers right now. “He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25). The King James Version translates Heb 7:25 thus: “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

I want to now share with you some wisdom from the great theologian John MacArthur. This is from his website under the questions and answers portion. 

Does Hebrews 6:4-6 teach that a true believer can lose his salvation?

No. In that passage, the writer of Hebrews is speaking to the unsaved who have heard the truth and acknowledged it, but who have hesitated to embrace Christ. The Holy Spirit warns them, “You had better come to Christ now, for if you fall away it will be impossible for you to come again to the point of repentance.” They were at the best point for repentance–full knowledge. To fall back from that would be fatal.

Because they believe the warning is addressed to Christians, many interpreters hold that the passage teaches that salvation can be lost. If this interpretation were true, however, the passage would also teach that, once lost, salvation could never be regained. There would be no going back and forth, in and out of grace. But Christians are not being addressed, and it is the opportunity for receiving salvation, not salvation itself, that can be lost.

The believer need never fear he will lose his salvation. He cannot. The Bible is absolutely clear about that. Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:27-29; see also Rom. 8:35-39; Phil. 1:6; and 1 Pet. 1:4-5). 

If you are in Christ, rejoice. Your salvation is secure forever. 

Wow. Can we just think about that last line? "Rejoice. Your salvation is secure forever." That is so amazing and just so good. "Though we remain faithless, He remains faithful." 2 Timothy 2:13

So yeah, thats all I have to share. My hands are cramping and I want peanut butter. I love you all!!