Author: ChristianHolinessDaily

The Prayer of a Righteous Person…

April 12, 2019 by ChristianHolinessDaily

In our last Blog, we spoke briefly of depressed Christians and how those in the ministry should treat them. My point was this: depression is an illness and should be treated like any other illness. In my studies of depression, I kept coming back to the 5th chapter of James.

James 5:15 is rarely the topic of Sunday morning services. It is a bold statement:

And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.

When I read this verse I must wonder why, then, we do not see more people healed. Here are a few thoughts.

First, we cannot center our beliefs around any one verse. Months ago, I reminded my readers that the phrase “by his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5), which so many (including me) quote when praying for healing, is a single phrase in verse within a larger context that deals with our iniquities and transgressions. Taken in context, the word “healed” could be referring to healing from injurious sin as much as physical health.

So, here in James, let’s look at the context, James 5:13-18 (ESV):

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

The first thing that I notice is that there are three types of prayer mentioned in this paragraph.

Personal Prayer: is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.
Corporate Prayer: is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
Intercessory Prayer, or Praying for each other: pray for one another, that you may be healed.

I have heard Christians state that they get as much (or more) spiritual growth from staying home and enjoying family activities or watching sports as they do from going to church. That is because few of our churches provide an environment conducive to spiritual growth. Few exhibit the love and power of God, and one reason for that is because they do not follow the prayer guidelines presented in James 5. Instead of heart-felt, faith-driven prayer, most churches have “pastoral prayer.” What is pastoral prayer? It is a well-rehearsed pattern of platitudes and florid speech designed to teach or lead the body of Christ to the altar of God. In most cases, it doesn’t teach at all. What it really accomplishes is to extinguish conviction in the hearts of those who need to fall on their face and repent. Pastoral prayer also keeps our services orderly so that we can get to the dinner buffet before the Baptists. A church seeking spiritual growth and healing would do well to follow the guidelines in these verses and rediscover true prayer. An individual seeking to join a church that is a true spiritual body of believers, would search for a church like that understands prayer as outlined in James.

The second thing I notice is that James implicitly tells us that not everyone’s prayer will be answered. Those whose prayers are answered are those who pray fervently from a position of absolute surrender (which may be gained through suffering), bathe themselves with the prayers of faith-filled mature Christians, demonstrate a measure of their own faith, and confess their sins to their brothers and sisters in Christ.

1st, Is anyone suffering? Let him pray. The first condition we see is that one must be suffering. If we dig a little deeper, we see that the word suffering means “suffering from evil.” James wrote this epistle to the twelve tribes that had been scattered around the world. Most of the Jews around the world suffered persecution, and it is with persecution in mind that he wrote this letter. Persecution leads to absolute surrender to the power and love of God. It is when we are surrendered – at our weakest – that He exhibits His strength and rescues us.
2nd, Call for the elders of the church who will pray over the sick and anoint with oil. Surround the sick and suffering with men and women of faith, mature Christians who have learned to trust in Jesus at all cost. Anointing with oil is symbolic of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, who works with the authority of the Father. Hebrews 1:9 expresses the understanding of the 1st Century Church as it pertained to the anointing oil, there was a relationship between the anointed and the degree in which they loved the righteousness of God (Hebrews 1:9 ESV):

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

3rd, the prayers must be made in faith. We must believe that God is able and willing to rescue us and to heal us physically, spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, and financially. Remember, God wants the best for His children, just as we want the best for our children.
4th, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. This requirement is the reason that most churches do not exhibit spiritual growth and power. People will not confess to one another. I don’t see anywhere in the Bible where Jesus or an apostle asked the multitude to raise their hand it they had an unspoken request. Sure the Bible says that God knows what you need before you ask, and the Bible says that the Spirit prays when you don’t know how, but that is a far cry for saying you don’t have to ask, or you don’t have to share.

Prayer must be fervent and the pray-er, righteous. The KJV used the word fervent, which is perfect here. The NIV misses the implication all together, and even the ESV, misses the point. The image I chose for this blog is that of a long-abandoned hospital because it implies that all hope is gone. It is that attitude – one of hopelessness – that God wants us to take. It is human nature, that only when we have lost faith in ourselves that we will trust in God and others who are devoted to God. That is what the KJV means by fervent.

Who is righteous enough to have their prayers answered? I trust only in Christ. It is only His righteousness that God honors.

There is a definite correlation between sin and answered prayer. We will look at that next.

Fading Away

April 11, 2019 by ChristianHolinessDaily

Martin Luther, it seems, so suffered from depression that he instructed his wife to be sure that he never retreated into a place too quiet or dark, and that his mind be continuously stimulated by people who lived and laughed. Luther felt that God had singled him out to suffer. He felt abandoned and alone, even when in the presence of company. He lost faith.

Once, when his wife noticed Luther in the midst of a bout of depression, she put on her finest mourning garb. Dressed in black, face veiled, she presented herself to him.

“Who died?” Luther asked.

She lifted her veil and replied, “It seems as if God must have, by the way you’re acting.”

Like Luther, I suffer depression. I often feel like I am fading away, or like there is a veil that prevents me from looking within, or like I simply want to stay in bed forever. Like Luther, I have learned to cope most of the time. He seems to have figured out how his wife could help lift him from the depths. His wife, it appears, had a few tricks of her own to help him cope. I think most people who suffer fron depression develop some coping skills, even if they do not seek professional help.

Too often, though, pastors and others in Christian ministry dismiss the idea of Christians suffering from depression. One pastor I spoke to in preparation for this blog represents the attitude of many. When asked how he counsels parishioners with depression, he responded with, “… I also tell them that they have no need to be depressed because there is an inner joy that we as Christians possess.”

While what he says is true so far as it goes (Christians are blessed with an inner joy), he is misinformed. Depression is an illness not an attitude. Like any illness, the attitude of the patient can affect the sickness, but it does not cause or cure it. To tell that someone suffering from clinical depression is akin to telling a man who just suffered a heart attack that there is no need for bypass surgery because he has Jesus in his heart.

While pastoral education about depression and other mental illness is becoming more common, it is not yet common enough. Today, more Christian pastors are trained as counselors than ever before. The science of psychology has grown by leaps and bounds, just like all the sciences.

Personally, I have no doubt that, had my sarcoma been diagnosed in 1915 instead of 2015, I would have died a slow and miserable death. Had it been diagnosed in 2005 instead of 2015, I would have likely lost my leg. There have been so many miraculous medical advances in the last 100 years that practically no pastor would counsel a sick parishioner to change their attitude so that all will be well.

It is time to start viewing mental and emotional diseases like we do cancer and heart disease. Sure better attitudes help, but better attitudes don’t heal us. God heals us and He usually – but not always – does so through the hands of medical professionals.

Just as a pastor would advise someone with acute chest pains to go to the ER, a pastor should advise someone with chronic depression to seek medical attention. Besides that, though, what can pastors – or anyone – do for those in depression? Here are a few ideas:

Do not be dismissive of their problems.
Ask them how you may help.
Sit with them without speaking if necessary.
Let them know they can talk to you without judgment.
Let them know you will support them emotionally and prayerful through the entire journey (do not say this if you don’t think you can handle it).
Let them know you are their friend and would love to hang out whenever they are ready.
Without condemnation and without cliche platitudes, help them look at the positive things in life.

Pray for them. Pray for them daily or even more often. If they will not allow you to pray with them, let them know you are continually praying for them. Pray for healing. Pray that they have strength. Pray for their loved ones and those who care for them. Pray just as you would for anyone who is sick.

We should remember, though, with every illness – physical or psychological – that though He usually works through the hands of doctors, it is God alone that heals. Every illness should be taken to God in prayer.

Gospel of the Kingdom

April 10, 2019 by ChristianHolinessDaily

Consider yourself blessed if you truly understand the cost of Christianity. You see, the cost of following Jesus is not often preached on Sunday mornings. I could list countless red-letter verses where Jesus warned those who would follow Him of the cost. In fact, I have already done so in previous blogs. For the purpose of this blog, I will quote but one such verse (MT 16:24 NIV):

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

In our last blog, we discussed that Jesus fully understood the cost of our salvation. Fully God yet fully man, he chose to endure a gruesome beating and tortuous death to pay the price for our sin, but He was tempted to turn away. What man wouldn’t be fearful? How could the thought of running away not occur to Him?

No, it is not sacreligious to speak of the temptation of Jesus during His Passion. Too often we emphasize only His godly perfection and relegate the temptation to His wilderness experience. The point of His birth as a man was to overcome the sinful nature inherent in man. He came to redeem mankind, to conquer sin and death, to restore us to the image of God, and to make us worthy to rule with Him in Glory (Daniel 7:27). Only One who bore both the nature and frailties of man and the nature and power of God could be found worthy serve as sacrifice of the cumulative sins of mankind.

As Christians we are told to deny ourselves and take up our own cross and follow Him. The clause “to take up your cross” explicitly implies that we should suffer the death of our carnal, sinful, nature. It implies also that we should consider Christ of such great value (and ourselves of such little value) that we are ready to die physically for Him if asked.

The Apostle Paul understood just that. While we learn theology through Paul’s letters, we learn his bio in the work of Luke that we know as the Acts of the Apostles. The wonderful thing about Luke is that he wrote two works, one of which is a sequel to the other. We learn about the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. We learn about the birth, growth, persecution, and scattering of the Church in Acts.

There are many other parallels in the literary styles of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, but only one that we will note here. In Luke, we view six trials of Jesus before His crucifixion. The writer makes clear in his narrative that Jesus is innocent in all six trials*. The powers that be – the governors of Judea and Galilee – find that Jesus had broken no laws. Nonetheless, Christ is punished unto death.

In Acts, we see that Paul also endured six trials. In each, he too was found to have broken no laws. He was brought before Porcius Festus and Marcus Antonius Felix, governors of Judea. Like Pontius Pilate before them, both men allowed the sentiment of the ruling class Jews and the public to sway them. Festus sends Paul to Rome where the apostle would – tradition tells – face the Emporer Nero who eventually condemns the apostle to death**.

Is Luke making out Paul to be a replacement for Christ, a new messiah? Not at all. He is emphasizing that, like Paul, we must bear our cross and be willing to follow Christ to our deaths. Paul says in Acts 20:20-24 (NIV), Paul declares,

“You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me —the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

A few paragraphs later, he reiterates the same sentiment:

Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” – Acts 21:13 NIV

Paul’s eyes were open wide and he knew exactly what awaited him in Jerusalem,

And, he went anyway.

Would you? Would I? I would like to think so. It is that kind of faith – the kind that says, “Lead me to the cross” – that Christ expects of us.

* Six may significant in that it represents man in the Bible.

** Many scholars believe that Paul won his appeal to Nero and, afterward, ministered in Spain, a journey that was not recorded in Acts. Later, he was again arrested and condemned to death in Rome.