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Showing posts from June, 2012
God our Heavenly Father One of the things that has struck me lately is the purpose of forgiveness.  In the Christian life, forgiveness is talked about a lot, but the end purpose of forgiveness is sometimes neglected.  The whole purpose of forgiveness is restored relationship.   When Jesus died at the cross, he made possible for a sinful man to be forgiven before a holy God.  Yet, forgiveness is not an end in itself. The purpose of forgiveness is that we might enjoy a restored relationship with our heavenly Father.    Through the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, I am adopted into God's family and therefore enjoy all the riches of Sonship.  As J.I. Packer writes, " Adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love...where God takes us into his family and establishes us as children and heirs.  Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship.   To be right with God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the father is greater.&
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One great books that has impacted my spiritual journey is "Knowing God" by J.I. Packer.  Packer writes that the chief end of our study of God is to know God better.  Not merely by understanding the doctrine of God's attributes, but to study to ultimately know the living God.  As one German theologian once remarked, the great travesty of theological study is that pastors and scholars often begin to talk about God in the third person, rather than the first person.  Meaning, its easy to talk about God like a specimen in a petri dish rather than talking to God in prayer.  Packer states that the great rule for increased knowledge of God is mediation.  It is the business of turning truth about God into a matter of mediation before God, leading to prayer and praise.  He continues, "meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promise

Praying Longer? Praying Better!

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Often our focus is on praying longer.  When we read the prayers that Paul wrote in the New Testament, we are reminded that God also wants us to pray better.  One of my favorite books on Paul's prayers is "Spiritual Reformation" by D.A. Carson.  Books like this one keep me encouraged, challenged and praying biblically.  As Carson writes in his book, there are many great problems in the world and many urgent needs.  "But there is a sense in which these urgent needs are merely symptomatic of a far more serious lack.  The one thing we most urgently need in Western Christiandom is a deeper knowledge of God.  We need to know God better."  As Carson continues, "one of the foundational steps in knowing God, and one of the basic demonstrations that we do know God, is prayer-spiritual, persistent, biblically minded prayer."  Dr. Carson's book has challenged me not merely to pray more but to pray more biblically.  This book has served to remind me that