Should I Pray for Others to Be Forgiven?

I love my children but they are certainly far from perfect. Each one of them has proclaimed Christ publicly by baptism and stated they know Jesus as their savior. Each one has said that "sinners' prayer" that both establishes and declares their faith in Him. Each one has been forgiven by the blood of Jesus for all of their sins. Their forgiveness is not determined by their actions. They are forgiven because of the Cross.

Should I ask God to continue to forgive them? Their sins are unknown to me. However, I know that they are human and humans continue to sin even though they know better. Should I go to God and ask for His forgiveness on them? What would that mean to my children?

Moses asked that God forgive the Hebrews after they rebelled against Him by not taking the Promised Land when called upon. God was ready to start all over and make a new people. He had been working on these people for centuries and they were just not getting it. They were acting as if God would not keep His word or He was unable to carry them through what He had commanded them to do or that He did not know what was best for them. They were rejecting the very nature of who God is. These things are the roots of our sins too. Moses asked God to forgive and continue to work with them. And God did.

God's forgiveness still had consequences. These people who rebelled would not see the promised land. They would wander until their generation died. God would take the next generation into His promised covenant. They would see what He had planned for them.

Sin is missing the mark. The mark is God's glory. Forgiveness is avoiding the condemnation that sin brings. Eternal damnation is only one of the consequences of sin. Those who know Jesus as Savior have escaped this. Yet, a remaining consequence is being captured by sin so that it controls you. Sin can bring you into some very dark places. It can take you further into sin. It can keep you from walking in God's light. It can squeeze all the joy out of your life while promising greater joys than God could ever provide.

Yes I pray for the forgiveness of my children. I do not try to pray them into heaven. This is something that is assured because of their faith in Christ. I pray that their sins will not capture them. They will have forgiveness of these sins. Forgiveness also means turning from the sin and I pray that sin will become repulsive to them. I pray that their hearts will become new each day for sin has a way of hardening the heart. I pray they will come home each night to their God rather than remain prodigals who haven't yet discovered their despair.

Pray for those you love today. Pray that they will be released from any sin which is plaguing them. Pray for that forgiveness which is divinely given and releases them from the power that sin has had over them. 

Numbers 14:20 (NIV)
²⁰ The LORD replied, "I have forgiven them, as you asked.

What Gives the Christian Life Meaning?

I didn't really start understanding TaeKwonDo until I became a blackbelt. I had heard that this would happen from others who had attained this rank but I was so busy learning that I didn't realize what I was learning. I was so busy trying to become a blackbelt that I didn't know what it was to become one. I found that I had just begun when I became a blackbelt. I started to focus differently. I finally found out what I didn't know.

At some point in your Christian life you realize that you have just begun becoming like Christ. You realize that you haven't attained it no matter how long you have been working on it. You realize that all that you have done, all that you have been, must be left behind. You must look forward and see Christ to become like Him. You cannot look back and say, "Here, look what I have done. These things have made me a very good Christian. These things prove I have become like Christ."

Looking backwards is meaningless. It stagnates the growth. It sits down and rests when there is much to be done. It counts what has been done and says, "This is enough." It negates the whole journey.

Let's say I wanted to make a trip west by foot. I run, jog and walk for some days. It is easy to see where I have come from. Yet, if I have no focus on where I am going, why not be happy with the journey alone? Why not stop where I am now? Why not stay where I am for a while, then, go farther when I feel like it? The journey is meaningless because it has no goal. While many may extol the journey, someone has to ask why. 

Forest Gump (in the movie) started running. He ran from coast to coast. Many people followed him but he had no purpose. It was amazing to watch those who would try to understand why he was running. They gave lofty reasons for his journey but he was running from his pain. They couldn't understand this. It was meaningless to everyone, maybe even to Forest Gump (though I believe he was running from his pain). I see Christians doing this.

Many Christians go to church without any understanding why they have gone. They attend Bible studies. They attempt to have times of prayer and quiet times with God. They struggle with their faith. They fail to understand that neither the time nor the resources they have given are of great significance. They should see that it is all about becoming like Jesus. 

No Christian can stand on what he has done in the past. It only takes one day to negate all of what has happened. You can have a quiet time with the Lord every day for twenty years and stop with just one day. You can be faithful to your spouse and with one act become unfaithful. You can be honest every day and lose that honesty with one lie. Your past is meaningless without a focus on where you are going.

Sure, we can look back and see where we came from but we cannot let this consume us. Looking backward will never get us where we need to go. As the country singer said, "There's no future in the past."

So, today I look at my calling. I see that I have been called to become like Jesus. I note that I haven't gotten there yet. I put all of my past, both failures and successes behind me, and strain forward into my future of becoming like Jesus today. This is what gives the Christian life meaning.

For those who have ears to hear . . . .

Philippians 3:13-15 (NIV) 
¹³  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,¹⁴  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.¹⁵  All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.

Apathy and the Death of a Church

Lots of people go to church when the urge strikes them. They give when they feel like it. They serve when it is convenient. They come to worship but never really worship. They are glad when the service is over. They are glad when they can resume their lives. They can miss church next week and it won't make any difference in their spiritual lives. Apathy is their lord; not Jesus.

Churches die with apathetic members. These members think they have all that they will ever need. They think they already have served all they need to serve. Their place in heaven is assured. Their relationship with the Lord is never more than an acquaintance. They cannot be depended upon.

Sure they will run to the church when someone they love gets sick. They espouse the value of prayer when they are in great need. They act as if they pray all the time. Their prayer life is really dismal but they think it is fine. They believe prayer is something you do when you have a desperate need.

Some of these people may tell their neighbors that they are active members of the church. Meanwhile, they talk about all their neighbors behind their backs. The neighbors don't want to go to their church. The neighbors assume that everyone there is just like them.

Apathetic members act as if they are great givers to the church. They see their gifts as significant but their actual giving is less than they spend each week when they go out to eat. Even their donations at "love offering" meals is less than the cost of the meal. They drop in their dollar and act like that is enough to pay for what they will take.

Apathetic members are a drain on the church. They are bad witnesses to the community. They receive services but never give any. They draw away those who working hard. They badmouth those inside the church. 

It is amazing but apathetic members actually think that they are fine but everyone else is messed up. They believe they have everything they need but fail to realize they are the ones in the greatest need. They believe they have arrived and don't know they haven't even left on the journey.

Apathy will kill a church. It is like a disease that comes in gently with very few side effects but becomes life threatening. It is like cancer in that it starts without anyone knowing it exists but slowly eats away at life. Apathy begets apathy. Apathy exists in a comfortable place. Apathy is at its best in death. Dead people are very apathetic. A dead church is the same.

Revelation 3:15-18 (NIV)
¹⁵ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!
¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth.¹⁷  You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.¹⁸  I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

Afraid to Try

I have had lots of failures. These all came because I tried to do something and was not successful. Many of these things weren't for me. Others became successes because I continued to work at them. I would have had no successes without the failures. 

It is ridiculous to think I will succeed with every endeavor. It is just as ridiculous to think that God expects me to always succeed. He would not have sent His Son so that I could be saved if I could have become perfect. Therefore, I continue to try and sometimes I succeed.

Failure is not something I should be scared of. I have seen plenty of it. Often it has moved me closer to my goals. Often it has stopped me from doing something worse. I should embrace failure if I am ever going to succeed.

Several years ago I wanted to significantly improve my skiing. I set a goal to ski beyond my current abilities so that I would fall thirty times during the day. I didn't try to fall but my abilities would not allow me to ski at the level I was trying to achieve. I fell a lot. Some of the falls were spectacular. I would come back from the slopes very tired. Many might have said I lost the battle with the mountains.  I believe I learned to ski at a much more accelerated rate because I tried and failed.

I entered the Doctor of Ministry program at Golden Gate Seminary knowing that I was not nearly as smart as the others in the program. I must admit there was some trepidation in failing. I stuck with it and graduated almost twenty years ago. This came, not because I was so smart, but because I tried.

Now, I come to a stage in my life that I would like to play it safe. I would like to sit back and let others take risks. I would like to go from trying to win to trying not to lose. Yet, have you ever watched a team go from trying to win to the "prevent defense." The only thing it ever prevents them from doing is winning! I cannot expect that I will have any more success.

God had a promised land for His people but they looked at the circumstances. They saw the "giants in the land." They were so afraid of failure that they failed to realize their calling. They were so afraid that decided it was better to forget God's calling than to risk failure. Of course, we know how that turned out. God didn't let those fearful, faithless people into the Promised Land. They wandered in the wilderness until they all died off.

Is that not true for all of us? Playing it safe should be the most fearful thing we will ever do. Playing it safe leaves us in the wilderness. Playing it safe separates us from God. Playing it safe prevents us from winning.

Do you want to know what my real problem is? I know all this and still want to play it safe. I want to play "prevent defense." It doesn't have to be this way. I could be like Caleb who in his old age demanded that he have a mountain where the "giants" had been seen. He didn't seek that which was guaranteed but that which was risky. 

So, I can get in line with those who are waiting for things to happen without taking any risks at all or I can go to the head of the line and say, "Give me this mountain!"

You know, there is only one right answer.

Numbers 13:30-33 (NIV)
³⁰ Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."
³¹  But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are."³²  And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.³³  We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

Have You Prayed for Success Today?

Success is the greatest job security. Your job is very secure if your place of business and you are successful. Yet, many people think that their success depends upon Karma of fate. They fail to recognize that God is working in the world. They fail to see that He will participate with them in success. 

So, let's look at what praying for success will mean.

Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for his son, Isaac. That servant could clearly define success. He was shooting at a bullseye and would know if he hit the center. Many people fail to know what success will be for them on any given day. They have no todo list. They flow with the crowd. They let circumstances determine whether or not they have had a good day. They can't pray for success because they wouldn't know what it looked like.

You must be able to define success in order to pray for it. God may change your definition but let Him show you that He has rather than merely claiming anything that happens is His success. A few years ago people were praying "the prayer of Jabez." They shared their testimonies online of how God had blessed them. They attributed it to their prayer but I don't see how. It is easy to hit the bullseye when you draw the target after the arrow has landed. They were defining their blessings based on whatever happened. Abraham's servant was defining his success before it happened.

Success requires that you do your part. Abraham's servant went to the right place. He looked for the right things. He did not take credit for the success later but he was certainly doing what he could to ensure that success.

You may think that you can do nothing to establish success. You do what you are expected. Your time is not discretionary. You have to answer the phone, assemble something, place packets of materials on desks for "successful" people to look at. Yet, you can. You can make sure that you answer the phone in such a way that people want to call again. You can assemble things quickly and better than others. You can put your packets out and ask if there is anything else that is needed. You will be in the right place for success when you are doing what you should be doing. God blesses faithful people. Successful people never merely do the minimum. Minimum people are always the first to go in an economic downturn. Do your part in your success.

Success must be recognized. Abraham's servant prays, gives God the sign he needs to know he has found the right woman and, yet, wonders if she is the one. I suppose success can come so quickly that we don't want to call is success. God has a way of bringing that success to fruition rather quickly. However, don't be tempted to call something success when it isn't.

True success depends on your faithfulness to God. Abraham's servant could have stood in this area where he found Isaac's wife and declared, "My master is very rich and is looking for a wife for his son. Are there any of you who want to marry a rich man's son?" I am sure he would have received some takers. In fact, he would have cheated in the process. It may have looked like success for a short time but ultimately it would have been a failure. Honesty is a virtue which also makes us faithful to God.

So, have you prayed for success today?

May God grant you this success.

Genesis 24:12 (NIV)
¹² Then he prayed, "O LORD, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.
 

What Is the Christian Life?

Did Jesus come so that we would go to church for the rest of our lives? Did He die on the cross so that we would wait until our own deaths to be with Him? Should the Christian life be boring?

Not a chance!

Jesus came to give us life here and now. He didn't sacrifice Himself just so that our own lives would be longer or that we would go to church. He came to give us life and that life has the characteristics of all life.

Life has a metabolism. It takes in oxygen to burn fuel. It changes the fuel into usable energy for the body. It eliminates that which it cannot use. The Christian life is no different. We live in the world but we are not of the world. The world may take in many of the things around us but we do not have to become a part of all of those things. We eliminate the bad and use the good. We breathe in with our prayers and exhale out the exhaust of our energy. We have a metabolism as Christians. We get spiritually sick when that metabolism isn't working right. The lack of prayer will choke us to death. The lack of the elimination of the bad will poison us.

Life has growth. We are born and grow fairly rapidly. New cells are formed. New muscle and bones make us stronger and taller. We really have little to do except eat and exercise so that growth can be expected. The Christian takes in the Word of God. The Bible calls it milk in one place and meat in another. It is our food that gives us growth. Our growth stops when we stop taking in this Word. Our growth will be stunted. Many Christians stand on boxes to look taller when they haven't grown in their spiritual life. Our growth, however, isn't to get taller but to look more like Jesus.

Life has movement. Even plants move. I love watching time lapse photography which shows flowers blooming in a matter of seconds. It is so easy to see how these plants move. Often plants turn toward sunlight in their movement. The Christian has to move. God has given each of us spiritual gifts so that we can do His will. Our action in those gifts is the movement we need to prove we are alive. The exercise of these gifts is exciting. We see a union of God and us working together. We participate and we see more than we could ever have done without Him. Of course, the lack of movement results in atrophy. Many non-moving Christians give the example of being called the "frozen chosen."

Life has reproduction. Reproduction is wired into life. It is natural for all living things to want to reproduce. It is natural that Christians want that too. God called us to share our faith so that others will become Christians. He did not call us to adopt. He did not expect us to call on our preachers or Sunday School teachers to reproduce for us. He expects us to have our own. There is nothing quite like producing a physical baby. The whole process is a miracle. The birth of our own children captures us. The birth of spiritual children is no different. It takes a lot of miracle and a little of us to see people come to know Christ.

Life has adaptation. Plants and animals adapt to the environment they are in. They respond by going where water is. They migrate, get planted in favorable places and further adapt by growing longer coats in the winter or even sleeping through those cold months. Christians have to adapt to truly have life. Each and every one of us is different. We are all God's children but He treats each of us differently. We respond to our environments differently. We are special in our adaptation. It makes us unique. 

The Christian life has the characteristics of the physical life. You are either metabolizing, growing, moving, reproducing and adapting or you are dying. In fact, some people may think you are already dead. 

Life is exciting. 

1 John 5:12 (NASB)

He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

How Do You Trust in the Lord But Prepare for Tomorrow

Some people think that you either trust in the Lord or prepare for tomorrow. I believe that you trust in the Lord by preparing for tomorrow.

For example, I believed that God wanted me to be a pastor. I knew that I needed more education and experiences preaching to do the job. I went back to seminary to get a doctor of ministry degree and preached everywhere people would permit. I trusted that God would call me to a church but prepared myself for the day I would serve in this capacity.

God gives us opportunities to prepare for the future He has planned for us. He gives us the opportunity to get more education and experience. He molds those events in our lives to prepare us for our futures. 

Let's say a person wanted to get into the music business as a performer. Let's add that this is something he believes God wants for him. Should this person sit at home and hope that God will have a music producer walk by their house while the potential performer sings in the shower? Should this future superstar hope that he or she will be discovered without auditions, a fan base or any experience?

No, the performer performs in every place he can. He makes CD's for sale and for distribution. He writes songs and performs his own. He studies music, takes voice lessons and accepts critiques of his performances. He works hard at developing a fan base locally which will get the attention of a producer regionally or nationally. It doesn't make it any less God's action or will when we participate with God.

Now let's say you were in the typewriter repair business twenty years ago. It wasn't a bad business but word processing was beginning to take the place of the typewriter.  More offices had less typewriters. Should you say, "I'm not worried. God will take care of me. I don't need to prepare for my future. It's all in His hands?" This sounds very spiritual to some. I think it is foolish.

The Bible uses the example of the ant which stores its provisions in the summer and gathers its food at the harvest. The ant prepares for the future when there is an opportunity to prepare. It saves when the times are good so that there will be provisions when the times are bad. We should understand what this means.

God provides all that we have. It is His work that makes the good times good. However, He doesn't expect us to take His provision for granted. He uses the lean times for His people to be a testimony to others. He gave Joseph dreams so that he would understand what to do when he was in Egypt. He told Pharoah that there would be seven great years to prepare for seven years of famine. Joseph's entire family was saved because of his preparation for the future.

Today, we find ourselves in bad economy. Should we have prepared for this time? Were we living on the edge of our income so that losing our jobs would leave nothing to live on? Did we take opportunities to get education or experience when the times were good so that we could transition to another job once the one we had no longer existed? Did we make excuses why we can't do these things so that we never do them even when the times are good? Did we say, "We'll just have to trust in the Lord," when we should have been preparing for the future?

I believe God gives us the good times to prepare for our tomorrows. I don't think He wants us to simply live off the good times. I believe that we are trusting in Him when we prepare for tomorrow. 

Remember these two scriptures:

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
⁵  Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;⁶  in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 6:6-8 (NIV)
⁶  Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!⁷  It has no commander, no overseer or ruler,⁸  yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.