Whats the Point in Praying?

Sometimes I wonder about the power of prayer, and then I read Acts 12.

Herod has just killed James, the brother of John. Noticing how pleased the Jews seem with his actions, he goes ahead and arrests Peter in preparation for killing him too. Because its Passover, Herod thinks it will be better to wait until after the weekend to carry out his plan, and so he locks Peter up for the time being.

What comes next in Acts 12 is almost hyperbolic. Peter is put in prison, he is delivered over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, he sleeps between two of the soldiers, he is bound with chains, and sentries guard the prison door. The amount of precautions Herod takes to prevent Peter’s escape or attack seems like something out of a cartoon. Its just feels so over the top. Nevertheless, you know as the reader that there is no way anyone is getting in to grab Peter and there is no way that Peter is getting out.

The Great Escape

But then it begins. An angel of the Lord shows up and a light shines into the cell. The angel strikes Peter on the side and tells him to get up. Peter gets up from between the two soldiers without waking them and the chains around his hands miraculously fall to the ground. He quietly gets dressed, gets some sandals on, and starts following the angel out of the cell. They sneak past the first guard successfully, and then they sneak past the second. Finally, they arrive at the iron gate leading into the city, and to quote Luke, the gate opens for them “of its own accord” (Acts 12.10). And with that, like a scene out of Shawshank Redemption, Peter is free! He heads to Mary’s house and the story continues on from there.

What an incredible scene! All those barriers to keep Peter securely inside of his cell, and somehow, with the help of an angel, he overcomes all of them. Of course, the ‘somehow’ is not really a ‘somehow.’ God is how. If you made it this far in the book of Acts, you know that God has been doing miracle after miracle in and through this early church. It is not all that surprising that now He springs Peter from prison. And yet, there is something else at work in this scene, that can easily go unnoticed.

The Praying Church

Back it up to verse 5. Luke is telling the reader about all about Peter’s arrest, and he includes this little, but substantial detail, “But earnest prayer for him was made to God by the Church” (Acts 12.5).

Now, why include a detail about prayer in a story about God’s wonder working, prison escaping power? Well, maybe because the two are connected. Maybe because this story is about something more than simply a display of God’s power. Maybe it is a story about the power of a praying church and God powerfully acting in response to those prayers.

I say maybe, but I don’t mean maybe. This is a story about the power of prayer. Peter is imprisoned, chained, guarded, and then the Church prays, and all of the walls between him and the outside world fall down. That is the order of events. Would Peter have been released if the church wasn’t praying? Who knows. All we know is that that were praying and God did something miraculous in response to their prayers. And what else does the church need to know then that?

The Power of Earnest Prayer

The reality put forth by Acts 12 is that when the church prays and prays earnestly, she can be confident that God both hears those prayers and will answer those prayers. Of course sometimes He may answer in ways we were not necessarily wanting, but other times He may answer in ways far beyond what we were expecting.

Remember Church, you are praying to an all-powerful God. So don’t underestimate the power of earnest prayer.

What Does Jesus Know About Self-Denial?

What is self-denial?

We might know that Jesus calls us to it, but what exactly is He is calling us to?

In the Gospel of Mark, as Jesus moves toward the cross, it becomes clear that He both knows what is coming and that He has a choice in the matter. When He eventually arrives in the garden of Gethsemane, His prayer to God is simply this: “Not what I want but what you want” (Mark 14.36). Those don’t sound like the words of someone being coerced; those sound like the words of someone being obedient.

As the passion scene unfolds Jesus’ resolve to the Father’s will remains, even though He has full knowledge of what it entails. When the mob shows up to arrest Him, He welcomes them (14.43-50); When He is accused by the chief priests before Pilate, He stays silent. All of this occurs with Jesus knowing not only the suffering that awaits Him, but also knowing that He is perfectly innocent and undeserving of it all.

Execution by cross was not akin to getting lethal injection. There was no more degrading way to die in the ancient world than by crucifixion. New Testament Professor Helen Bond describes it in detail in her article, “A Fitting End? Self-Denial and a Slave’s Death in Mark’s Life of Jesus.” She writes:

“Stripped naked, the victim was humiliated and shamed as he suffered extreme agony, perhaps for several days, until, overcome by suffocation and exhaustion, he met his merciful end. So offensive was the cross that civilized people preferred not to talk about it, and few Roman writers ever dwelt on any of the details. Cicero described crucifixion as ‘the greatest punishment of slavery,’ while Josephus labelled it ‘the most pitiable of deaths.’”

Becoming a Slave

Several chapters before the passion narrative, in Mark 9, Jesus sits his disciples down and He tells them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9.35). Perplexing words to hear. I have to imagine that the disciples were left wondering in that moment what Jesus meant and what a servant of all really looked like. Thankfully, they would not have to wonder for long.

Remember Cicero’s words, quoted by Bond, “The greatest punishment of slavery.” What happened on the cross was not Jesus simply dying the death of a citizen. He was dying the death of a slave, and that for the sake of others. He was innocent of all charges and unworthy of the death he was being served, and yet in obedience to the Father’s will He embraces all of it.

In other words, Jesus doesn’t just teach the disciples, on the cross He fully embodies for them what He’s been teaching. He becomes His teaching. He teaches the disciples that to follow them they must become a least of all, and then on the cross He becomes the least of all. He teaches them that to be his disciples they must be a slave to all, and than on the cross He becomes a slave to all.

Becoming Like Jesus

If we ever wonder what self denial looks like, here it is. It is to become a servant to all.

If we ever wonder what it is to be a servant to all, here it is. It is to choose obedience to the father, over and above obedience to ourselves.

And if we ever wonder where we look to see the servant-of-all-self-denial, here it is. Not only is Jesus our Savior, who denied Himself for us. He is our model now for what it looks like to deny ourselves for Him.

Book Review: “Come and See"

“Come and See: A History of Theology of Mission”

By Glen Scrivener and Justin Schell

Published by Union Publishing, 2022.

The aim of “Come and See” is laid out on page one: “to help you grasp what God is after in the world.” What a beautiful purpose with which to write. And what an amazing purpose to be on the receiving end of, because what Christian does not want or need a biblical reminder of what God is up to in the world?

After a brief introduction Scrivener and Schell set out to meet that purpose. Over the course of twelve chapters and one-hundred-twenty-three pages, they cover an incredible number of topics, all serving that one goal. They examine the doctrine of God and mission, the Old Testament and mission, the New Testament and mission, a history of mission, the influence of the reformation on mission, the church and mission and much more.

Now, if that sounds like a lot of different aspects of mission to cover in one book, it is. Through the years I have found a lot of reward in studying the mission of God and the missionary movements. By my own slow reader standards, I have read a lot of books on mission. Books about the history of mission, books about the Bible and mission and books about the different philosophies of mission. But I have rarely found a book like this one, that puts so many aspects of mission into the same book binding.

Of course, Scrivener and Shell are not able to go into the same kind detail that many of those single aspect books do. For example, they don’t have the space to examine the history of mission in the same detail as Stephen Neill does in a book like, “A History of Christian Missions.” Still, the detail that they are able to go into is beyond impressive, making for an exceptionally well-rounded book.

On top of that, they write in ways that exude experience, knowledge and white-hot passion for the subject at hand, and furthermore for the author of that subject. You cannot read what they write without catching their excitement on every page, for God and His mission.

Whatever you end up paying for “Come and See,” its worth it. You will get your money’s worth simply because of how much solid biblical content on such a variety of aspects of mission is packed into a short book. You will also get your money’s worth because they really do accomplish what they set out to accomplish. When I finally put this book down, I did so with a fresh, overflowing excitement for exactly what God is after in the world.

Another book I recommend to… every Christian (and non).

Book Review: “The God of the Mundane"

“The God of the Mundane: Reflections on Ordinary Life for Ordinary People”

By Matthew B. Redmond

Re-Published by Cruciform Press, 2021.

Equally convicting and encouraging.

I will be honest, I did not go into this book expecting too much. I am generally drawn to titles like “Radical,” “Crazy Love,” “Don’t Waste Your Life,” etc. Books that I expect are going to call me to some new and gnarly heights. Not ones that sound like they are aimed at comforting me in my normality. Well, 1) the aim of this book was definitely not to comfort me in my normality, and 2) this was truly the most radical book I have read in a long time.

I can’t remember the last time I finished a book and felt so laid bare, and yet so stoked at the same time. “The God of the Mundane” exposed so much of the unhealthy and ungodly ambition that has lived in me for so long. It also stirred up in me a new excitement for all that God has done and can do through the ordinary activities of my life and through all of the mundanity of my days.

The book is quite perfectly titled. Redmond’s mission in this book is, as the title suggests, is to talk about the God of the Mundane; to talk about how God is concerned with, involved with, and working in the things that take up most of our time on earth. He is not only involved with extraordinary accomplishments, as our ambitions often suggest, but He is also the God of the the diaper changes, the lawn mowings, the friend hangouts, the meal preps and the long drives. He is present and active in the big stuff, and He is right there in the little stuff.

This simple truth was so unbelievably reassuring to me. My sights are most often set on the crazy and the radical. So much so, that at times I forget that God even cares of about the quieter parts of my life, much less is active in them!

All this to say, I loved this book. I will repeatedly read this book. And I highly recommend this book.

My guess is that most of us get to focused at times on the radical and forget how much God cares about the mundane. Because of that, I think this this book will resonate will almost every Christian. And since its only 130 pages, it is accessible to almost every Christian too.

I seem to keep recommending every book I review lately, but I just keep reading books that are worth recommending. This is another one.

Book Review: “Weakness Our Strength"

BOOK REVIEW

“Weakness Our Strength: Learning from Christ Crucified”

By John Hindley

Published by Union Press, 2024

I started this book during a six-week sabbatical from my role as Pastor. I went into both the sabbatical and the book a little tired, a little worn out, and longing for some rejuvenation. As I sit today in my office typing, I am three days away from the end of my sabbatical, and honestly, I don’t feel too different than I did six weeks ago. Still tired, still worn out. And yet, I am excited to return to the pulpit. I am ready to go, like a horse in the starting gate. Not because my weakness has been suddenly turned into strength, but because I have been reminded through these six weeks that my weakness is a chance to witness and experience HIS strength.

That may seem like an obvious truth, especially for a pastor, but somewhere along the way I forgot it. Thankfully God is in the business of reminding us of the important things that we too often forget, and thankfully there are people like John Hindley writing honest and Christ-centred books that become tools in God’s hands.

All that to say, I have found “Weakness Our Strength” to be a tremendous book for several reasons. Right from the beginning John writes in such a transparent and relatable way that every paragraph feels like a coffee with a friend, and with a friend who is going through what I am going through. He also writes about biblical truths in such a simple, straightforward and Gospel saturated way that every chapter feels like its own devotional experience. It is not a long book, but it took a six-week sabbatical for me to read, having to keep setting it down in order to pray and open up the Scriptures.

I came away from “Weakness Our Strength” with one simple revelation. One that is all over the pages of the Scripture, and yet one that I forget so quickly. One that has made my sabbatical everything I prayed it would be. Simply this, that God is my strength.

Weakness proves to be a beautiful thing when it brings us to, “rely not on ourselves but on God” (2 Corinthians 1.9). Because then and only then can we know true strength. God’s strength. As the apostle Paul so perfectly wrote, “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12.10).