always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.
In this part of his introductory address to the church at Rome, Paul expresses is great desire to come to meet them; however, he recognizes the limitation of his own desire to God's will. Previously he had wanted to preach and evangelize Asia. I am fairly certain that is referring to Asia-Minor (modern day Turkey). However according to Acts 16:6-7, "Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to." However Jesus prevented Paul from going to Asia-Minor is entirely a matter of speculation but it also serves to suggest an example of God saying no to an earnest prayer request. When Paul had a rather bothersome "thorn in his side because he may have gotten a sneak-peak at heaven, "Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me -to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that might leave me. And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'" (2nd Corinthians 16:7-9a emphasis mine). You can just imagine how hard Paul's life mush have been: stoned, beaten, shipwrecked, always afraid of danger in the city and in the wilderness; and he has to contend with a tormenting messenger from Satan? I think you or I would have begged God more than three times to get rid of that mess. Yet Paul went on to say, "Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." (2nd Corinthians 9b). Once again, even though Paul may have greatly desired to visit the church at Rome, God had thoroughly trained him to wait on His timing; like James 4:14a,15 says "Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow...Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.'" In the present day, we should carefully look for God's timing before we set out in any task if we want to be successful.
Now I would always try to avoid as much eisegesis (the practice of putting your own meaning on the text) as possible the main reason being conformation bias. With too much eisegesis, you can make the Bible say anything you want it to. That is one of the chief aims of this blog: to use as much exegesis (drawing out meaning from the text as opposed to putting meaning on the text) in the hermeneutics (interpretation of the Bible) as possible. I hope we all learned something this week and I will see everyone next week.
Not to us, O LORD, not to us,
But to Your name give glory.
Because of your lovingkindness,
Because of your truth.
Friday, May 18, 2018
Friday, May 11, 2018
Romans 1:9
For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you.
In this part of the letter, Paul alludes to how frequently he prays for them. Even though this assembly of believers were famous for how well they were expressing Jesus Christ to their community and consequently the Roman world they still need the support of prayer; as it is written, "therefore let him who thinks that he stands take heed that he does not fall," (1st Corinthians 10:12). The more effective that anyone is in their Christian walk and witness the more careful they need to be without blame. Any sinful behavior in Christians damages their reputation and taints the message that we preach as is written, "As dead files give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly out weights wisdom and honor." (Ecclesiastes 10:1 NIV). Additionally there has always been many who would resort to ad hominem (Latin for to the man or person) assaults. So as to discount the message or to justify themselves, some naysayers will just revile the person. The Gospels are full of examples of Jesus' opponents berating Him (e.g. calling him a Samaritan [a hated group of half-Jews], has a demon, was the result of fornication, performed miracles through Beelzebub, etc.) because they could not contend with His preaching. In a similar fashion, adversaries will malign Christians by saying that they are just hypocrites. Of course no one is perfect, "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us," (1st John 1:8) but prayerful support of fellow believers can be of great assistance as it written "Therefore, confess your sings to one another, and pray for one another...The effective prayer [lit. supplication] of a righteous man can accomplish much." (James 5:16).
In his adjuration on prayer, Paul frequently makes mention of the importance of prayer: "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people." (Ephesians 6:18 emphasis mine) and again "pray continually," (Thessalonians 5:17). He consistently set aside specific times every day to prayer not just for all Christians but from them specifically; this leads to Paul's next maxim of prayer. Prayer must not only be constant but also specific. That is not to say that we need to keep an omniscient [all-knowing] God informed. Even as Jesus said "...your Father knows what you need before you ask him." (Mathew 6:8b). One of the ways I like to think about is that our heavenly Father is like a parent to us; He knows what we need and what is best for us; so He wants to give us what we ask for. However, He is not a genie who is obliged to grant our every whim. Imagine if God were to give you everything you want. In our finite minds we literally cannot always know what is best for us.
As an example of of the wrong use of prayer The movie Bruce Almighty presents a hypothetical scenario where a mortal man is imbued with the power and authority of God Himself. In the story Bruce first answers as many petitions as he can by typing yes until he is overwhelmed with the sheer enormity of the requests. After that he utilizes the select all function of his email/prayer program to broadly say yes to everything. Chaos ensues; because Bruce acting as God granted every one's wishes practically everyone suffers. As on example: apparently multiple people prayed to win the lottery, because the all won they each received approximately $17 dollars. Notwithstanding the various other problems with that movie (like what happens when Bruce stops answering prayers after the yes to everything debacle) it does give us an example of why God (who always answers prayer) will sometimes say no or not yet to our requests.
I apologize that it took so long to develop this posting. I will try to get a new input every week to week-and a half.
Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us,
But to Your name give glory,
Because of your mercy,
Because of your truth. (Psalm 115 NKJV)
In this part of the letter, Paul alludes to how frequently he prays for them. Even though this assembly of believers were famous for how well they were expressing Jesus Christ to their community and consequently the Roman world they still need the support of prayer; as it is written, "therefore let him who thinks that he stands take heed that he does not fall," (1st Corinthians 10:12). The more effective that anyone is in their Christian walk and witness the more careful they need to be without blame. Any sinful behavior in Christians damages their reputation and taints the message that we preach as is written, "As dead files give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly out weights wisdom and honor." (Ecclesiastes 10:1 NIV). Additionally there has always been many who would resort to ad hominem (Latin for to the man or person) assaults. So as to discount the message or to justify themselves, some naysayers will just revile the person. The Gospels are full of examples of Jesus' opponents berating Him (e.g. calling him a Samaritan [a hated group of half-Jews], has a demon, was the result of fornication, performed miracles through Beelzebub, etc.) because they could not contend with His preaching. In a similar fashion, adversaries will malign Christians by saying that they are just hypocrites. Of course no one is perfect, "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us," (1st John 1:8) but prayerful support of fellow believers can be of great assistance as it written "Therefore, confess your sings to one another, and pray for one another...The effective prayer [lit. supplication] of a righteous man can accomplish much." (James 5:16).
In his adjuration on prayer, Paul frequently makes mention of the importance of prayer: "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people." (Ephesians 6:18 emphasis mine) and again "pray continually," (Thessalonians 5:17). He consistently set aside specific times every day to prayer not just for all Christians but from them specifically; this leads to Paul's next maxim of prayer. Prayer must not only be constant but also specific. That is not to say that we need to keep an omniscient [all-knowing] God informed. Even as Jesus said "...your Father knows what you need before you ask him." (Mathew 6:8b). One of the ways I like to think about is that our heavenly Father is like a parent to us; He knows what we need and what is best for us; so He wants to give us what we ask for. However, He is not a genie who is obliged to grant our every whim. Imagine if God were to give you everything you want. In our finite minds we literally cannot always know what is best for us.
As an example of of the wrong use of prayer The movie Bruce Almighty presents a hypothetical scenario where a mortal man is imbued with the power and authority of God Himself. In the story Bruce first answers as many petitions as he can by typing yes until he is overwhelmed with the sheer enormity of the requests. After that he utilizes the select all function of his email/prayer program to broadly say yes to everything. Chaos ensues; because Bruce acting as God granted every one's wishes practically everyone suffers. As on example: apparently multiple people prayed to win the lottery, because the all won they each received approximately $17 dollars. Notwithstanding the various other problems with that movie (like what happens when Bruce stops answering prayers after the yes to everything debacle) it does give us an example of why God (who always answers prayer) will sometimes say no or not yet to our requests.
I apologize that it took so long to develop this posting. I will try to get a new input every week to week-and a half.
Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us,
But to Your name give glory,
Because of your mercy,
Because of your truth. (Psalm 115 NKJV)
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