Jesus I My Cross Have Taken

By Bryan McKaig
Guest Blogger

The first time I heard the hymn “Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken” was at a Reformed University Fellowship service on the campus the University of Tennessee. I had been attending these week night meetings for several months, coming back every week for the unvarnished and practical Bible teaching and stripped-down, simple worship music. In a large college auditorium class room, I stood in front of a squeaky, wooden, fold-down seat and sang as I read these lyrics from an overhead transparency projector:

Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow thee. Destitute, despised, forsaken, thou from hence my all shalt be.

As the song went on, led by a young woman with an acoustic guitar and a fuzzy headed college guy with an upright bass, I began to be overwhelmed by the unyielding joy found in the lyrics. The song absolutely slayed me. It still does.

What moved me to tears about the hymn that night in college was the absolutely thorough way in which it expresses it’s central theme: that to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Without directly quoting Paul’s famous line from Philippians 1:21, this song spends six glorious verses joyfully embracing Jesus’ call to take up our cross and follow him. 

Fast forward from sometime in 2002 to March, 2018. At Providence, we’re in the middle of a four-week deep dive into Jesus’ final day before his crucifixion. It’s Sunday, March 11, and Anthony Burton is preaching on Luke 23:26-31. Simon of Cyrene is compelled to carry Jesus’ cross for him, presumably because Jesus was too badly injured from his previous beatings to haul a large wooden beam very far. And as a crowd follows them down a Jerusalem road, weeping for him, Jesus tells them that they really should be weeping for themselves, because there’s a worse day coming to the Jews of Jerusalem in a few decades.

All of this brought to mind one of Jesus' most shocking teachings: that if you want to be Jesus’ disciple, you have to deny yourself, take up your own cross daily, and follow him. 

Every week, as we plan our services at Providence, we consider what songs would best prepare people to receive what God has for us in the scripture we’ll be studying. We choose songs that we think will help tie together the themes from God’s word with the realities of our lives, and help us take his word into ourselves with the help of his Spirit. And in light of this part of Jesus’ story, this incredible hymn was one of the first things that entered my mind. We sang it Sunday, and revisited a couple of verses at the end of the service. I heard people singing loudly, which is always the sound I hope to hear in a worship service. A few folks asked me about the song afterward, and I heard through others that it really got some folks thinking. Still others said they wanted to understand the song better, becuase some parts had been a little tough to follow.

So I want to take a minute and walk you through these lyrics. There are a few things to keep in mind:

1. These words are old. Henry F. Lyte published them in 1824, and they sound like it. There are words like “thee” and “thou,” which people didn’t normally use, even back then. The rest of the language is pretty standard poetic stuff for the 19th century. Just for reference: thee/thou = you,  thy = your. And did you know that “thou," “thee," and “thy” were actually the more personal, intimate words to use. You would call a superior “you,” but your family member would be “thou.” Point is, old words can be confusing.

2. Old words are worth the work, in this case. You might ask why we should bother preserving old songs like this in worship. Aren’t there plenty of great worship songs being written today that you don’t need a degree to understand? Well, yes, there are. And no, that doesn’t mean we don’t need to dig into the old stuff. There’s a connection to the past in older music that can remind us that we are one with all the followers of Christ throughout history. They sang this song in church two hundred years ago! There are also sometimes old songs that just express something that nobody has quite managed to match since. I think this is one of those songs.

3. There’s a strong stream in early 21st century American culture that doesn’t like thinking, that encourages us to only process short sound bytes of information, in quick bursts. That influence can make it hard to focus on complex thoughts, like the ones in some old hymns, or even the ones in the Bible. It’s more valuable than ever to practice using the minds God gave us as a means of loving and worshiping him, when binge watching yet another season of some nostalgic 90’s show or soaking up sensational news headlines can be so appealing to our information-saturated brains.

That being said, here are a few key verses of this song, broken down and elaborated.

The first verse is a simple statement of commitment: 

Jesus, I my cross have taken

All to leave and follow thee

Destitute, despised, forsaken

Thou from hence my all shalt be.
 
Even through the syntax sounds like something Yoda might say to Luke, it’s really quite simple: 

• Jesus, I’ve taken my cross, I’m leaving everything, I’m following you. Even if I end up poor, friendless, and alone, from now on, you will be everything to me.

Verse 3 has one of my favorite lines in the hymn:

Oh, ’tis not in grief to harm me

while thy love is left to me

Oh, ‘twere not in joy to charm me

were that joy unmixed with thee.

Did you get that? No? Here’s what it means:  

• Sadness cannot hurt me while I have your love. Happiness cannot attract me if you’re not involved. 

Verse 4 contains maybe the hardest line in the song to say:
Go then, earthy fame and treasure

come, disaster, scorn, and pain.

In thy service pain is pleasure

with thy favor, loss is gain.

How difficult is that to say? It’s so difficult:

• As far as the good life goes: it can leave me. As far as terrible experiences go: bring ‘em on. When I am serving you, Jesus, whatever hurts reminds me of your pleasure with me, and if you are pleased with me, I’m better off without the good things in life. 

Verse 5 does something that we see a lot in the Psalms; it addresses our own soul. This is a powerful poetic device for prayerful worship link this - you are speaking to your own soul within yourself, reminding yourself to remember what is true: 

Soul, then know thy full salvation

rise o’er sin or fear or care

Joy to find in every station

something still to do or bear

Think what Spirit dwells within thee! 

Think what Father’s smiles are thine!

Think that Jesus died to win thee!

Child of heaven, cans’t thou repine?

Ok, so: “station” means “stage or situation in life.” “Repine” means “mourn or be sad.”  So the verse says: 

• Hey! Self! Get a grip on what your salvation really means! Rise above sin, fear, and worry, as you find joy in whatever situation you find yourself! There’s something in it for you to do, or some burden for you to bear. JUST THINK!!! God’s Spirit is in you! God is your Father, and his smiles are yours! Jesus died for you! Child of heaven, can you really mourn hopelessly?

The last verse takes us into eternity, when all of the suffering will give way to unmitigated joy and unpolluted fulfillment.

Haste thee on from grace to glory

armed by faith and winged by prayer!

Heaven’s eternal days before thee,

God’s own hand shall guide us there!

Soon shall close thy earthly mission,

Swift shall pass thy pilgrim days!

Hope shall change to glad fruition, 

faith to sight, and prayer to praise!

This is the good stuff! We finish the song with our eyes on the true motivation for enduring suffering in this life: There will be fruition. There will be fruit. There will be a brilliant, perfect, worth-it-all result. Here’s a paraphrase of this final verse: 

• Go! Speed on through a life sustained by God’s grace to the presence of his glory! Your weapon is faith, and your wings are prayer, and God has his hand on you, guiding you into his presence. Your mission here will be over soon, and your days as a weary traveler will end. What you hoped for, you will have. What you prayed for, you will see. What you trusted God for, you will praise him for.

What’s the point then? Gain. Being a disciple is all about what you get: and what you get is not your best life now. What you get is God. And that will either seem like the greatest gift in the world to you, or it will seem like nothing. If you see God as the greatest thing you can ever have, then your suffering, what you give up to follow him, the pleasures you don’t take part in - those will seem like nothing, and he will be everything.

Teach us to Pray

The following is from a sermon given on November 20, 2016

God has given us an incredible tool and privilege: prayer. Prayer is most basically communicating with God. That’s right, the God of the universe (not the president), who has unlimited power has given us mere humans the privilege of calling on him and telling him what’s on our minds: expressing thanks, making requests, confessing sin, interceding for others, sharing our fears & frustrations and even just engaging in common small talk. It is an amazing gift! Right off the bat, I’m going to confess that I don’t understand all the hows and whys of prayer. Like, how does a sovereign God who has a plan take our prayers into consideration? Do our prayers really change things? (Truth is, I’m comfortable with the fact that God has already taken our prayer—or lack of it—into consideration before we ever pray). But these questions really aren’t important, all we really need to know is that God has asked us to pray, and told us that our prayers matter and really do change things. 

You know what’s really amazing? So few people take advantage of it. I’m one of them. I struggle to pray regularly, effectively, deliberately, passionately. I get busy and it’s one of those things like flossing and exercising that I know I should do, and do sometimes, and when I do I’m always glad I did—but I don’t do enough. Truth is praying is more important than anything else we can spend time doing. We believers have a relationship with God. We are his children. I don’t know about you but all my relationships require communication. Without it there IS no relationship. Think of your relationships: If you have issues with your spouse, your kids, your parents…I can tell you for sure that a fundamental truth is that communication can make so much difference! Think: when you were dating you would write notes, talk all night on phone, text little sweet nothings throughout the day, sit and talk for hours. Now perhaps it’s completely reduced to necessary information only. Perhaps even worse, it’s laced with a prickly or sarcastic edge. With our kids: there was a time when they were babies when only gentle, smiling, affirmative words were the norm as they were learning to talk. Now they’re teens and the little you do say can be negative barking. Is there any wonder why these relationships are strained?  Teenagers, you should especially take this to heart! You want to have your life go well with you? Speak often & respectful with your folks. If every sentence you speak to your parents could be ended with the words, “you idiot,” just know that you’re playing your cards poorly—and it’s only hurting you! 1. You’re less likely to get what you want, 2.God is not pleased. “Honor your father & mother…that it may be well with you.” Let’s all try something: more positive communication. I will promise you it will make a difference! 

Now hear: God wants you to communicate with him. That’s prayer. It’s powerful. It’s under-utilized. And it’s the thing the devil wants to keep you from doing. He knows that when we pray God’s power is unleashed. So he’ll do anything to stop us. It’s that important. Important enough that Jesus wanted us to see it as a habit in his life.  

Luke 11;

¹Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 

Jesus’ disciples saw this in his life. After making it clear that he and his word were the main things, his disciples wanted to know how to pray. This should be OUR desire! We have a relationship with him. He has spoken to us in his Word. I challenged you to do this. Sit at his feet & hear (absorb) his word. If you did, you received blessed, one-way communication. It makes perfect sense that Jesus would next teach them how to communicate with God. How are we to pray? That’s the question the disciples asked, & Jesus was eager to answer. Think about it: Jesus didn’t teach them how to sing, preach, take up offering, or even share their faith (all important things). He taught them to pray.

²And he said to them, “When you pray, say... 

Now, this isn’t a prayer to be said as a vain repetition, as if it’s a formula. No, it’s a model prayer. We are to pray like this.

“Father,

hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come. 
³Give us each day our daily bread,
⁴and forgive us our sins,
    for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.” 

Please note that Luke’s version of this prayer is a little bit shorter than Matthew's, which is the basis of the familiar “Lord’s Prayer" our version of which was canonized in Anglican Book of Common Prayer. All the versions are essentially the same. Here Jesus is giving us a guide to remember the essential aspects of an effective prayer. 

For the past 20 years, I’ve been using this method. Why? It’s the one Jesus gave us!

Father, 

1. Acknowledge your privileged position. 

This was radical! You’re his child! He loves you & wants to hear from you. You’re never interrupting! You have his ear. 

hallowed be your name. 

2. Affirm his “Awesomeness.” 

Tell him of your love and awe for him. This is a great time to both praise him for who he is and thank him for what he has done.

your kingdom come (your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven).

3. Align your priorities with his: his Kingdom is first. 

The heart of Christ’s outline is that we pray that God’s rule and reign be realized and that his will and way be accomplished. Don’t miss this. This takes some thought and meditation. Think about what’s important to HIM—not you. This is where we ask him to make himself known and loved in this world. This is where we pray for God to revive his church and awaken people to be born again. This is where we pray that God will pour out his Spirit and transform our culture! Imagine in your mind what God’s “will be[ing] done on earth as it is in heaven” might look like! Long for this in your heart! Ask him to do it!

This central point is the climax. Everything else we pray should be “according to his will” with the advancement of his Kingdom in mind. Jesus said (John 5:14-15), “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him”. That’s the kind of prayer God WILL answer!

Give us each day our daily bread. 

4. Ask him to provide for needs. 

This is where you pray for God to provide for our physical needs: food, shelter, clothing, health, etc. Christ came to this physical earth and knows that we have these needs. He cares for us and will provide! Also pray for others you know who have needs.

5. Address sin. 

Now, Jesus didn't sin. But he told us to spend a good portion of our prayer (over half!) dealing with our daily struggle with sin. Notice, however, it’s the last part of Jesus’ model prayer. My tendency is to start with this.  But we’ve already been forgiven! Now we’re dealing with sin’s effect on our relationships. 

Forgive us our sins, 

Confess your sins to God. (trespasses= Ignoring the law and going somewhere you don’t belong.)

for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to (sins against) us. 

Forgive others’ sins.

And lead us not into temptation. 

Ask God to guide you away from sin. He will!

That’s how to pray. 

OH, but there’s more! Because praying is more than just checking all the boxes. Praying effectively means having the right passion and heart.

⁵And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, ⁶for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; ⁷and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? ⁸I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. ⁹And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ¹¹What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; ¹²or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

So how should we pray? With determination. Undaunted. Relentless. Persistently.

Not worrying about inconveniencing God, but urgently coming to the One who never sleeps, who cares about us and our concerns, who LOVES us more than we love our own kids. Who’s default answer is YES! We should pray expecting that God wants to give us more than we ask! Even up to the Holy Spirit himself! And he wants us to ask!

NOW: Let’s Pray! 

Sin in the Camp

A few days ago the people of Knoxville were shocked to hear of arrests that were made in a sting operation. It was conducted by various law enforcement entities and had been given the codename: "Operation Someone Like Me." In it 32 people were caught and charged with various sexual crimes. Among them were two “pastors.” One was a volunteer “creative pastor” who led worship at Lifehouse Church in Oak Ridge (associated with the Assemblies of God) and the other was the Children’s Pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Karns. Of course the media focused almost exclusively on the two ministers. When the news broke, my phone almost melted, first from those who were making sure I had heard, and then from other leaders determining how to respond and from people wanting to ask my thoughts.

I feel I need to comment (and perhaps “vent”) a bit. There’s a cycle I find I experience when I hear this kind of news:

Anger 

Sadness

Fear

Worship

Determination

Let me explain (and hopefully encourage you who are struggling as well).

Anger:

Like the water of a creek in a flash flood, my emotions tend to rise and jump the banks whenever something like this happens. Honestly, my first response is outrage. Words like “stupid,” “hypocrite,” and “jerk” come out of my mouth. I start thinking in ways I should not think, like imagining having two minutes alone in a room with the offender. I’m a dad. I’m increasingly sickened by the drift in our culture and the church. How can someone waging the battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil—yea, leading God’s people in battle—be so reckless and depraved. I'm mad enough at the world over issues like the sex trade industry, but this is the church! My blood pressure rises when I think of how these things hurt the gospel and I take it personally. However, I quickly realize that this initial reaction is wrong. If I am going to be mad, I should be angry at sin. Sin that I too commit in different ways.

Sadness:

Next I experience sorrow and heaviness of heart. Of course I think about the accused offenders’ wives and kids. How devastating. They must feel utterly betrayed. According to rumor, the Grace Baptist guy’s wife didn’t have a clue. I grieve for her. What’s worse (if possible)? Every kid thinks his or her dad is the best. He apparently has three kids ranging from kindergarten to teenager. The proverbial rug is pulled out from under them profoundly when this kind of sin is exposed, and it forms a wound that may never heal. I also think of the churches these men have served. They are right now reeling. A staff member at Grace told me everyone is quiet and numb, as if someone unexpectedly died. I also think of the setback we as the Church Proper in Knoxville will face because of this. I have already had conversations with unbelievers who promptly brought this up to me upon learning I was a pastor. Just when I feel that we are making some baby steps in becoming the humble, sincere, loving body of Christ that offers a clear alternative to the world—this happens. Already I have seen snarky comments online highlighting this as yet another example of Christians’ arrogance, corruption, hypocrisy, etc. This is indeed a setback and it saddens me.

Then, after I think of all the people these men have hurt around them, I think of them. They have essentially destroyed their own lives. They will bear the shame of perversion and corruption and self-serving immorality. They will never again work in ministry. Period. Which makes any education or experience they have gained utterly useless. All that money and sacrifice is for nothing, except to serve as a mockery. They will live with the guilt of being the ungrateful swine before whom many pearls have been cast as they have been surrounded by things of God and godly people. Their lives are also about to radically change. Prison is not a friendly place for child-sex predators or soft men in general. I’ve been there (not as an inmate). Pedophiles and child abusers hide in fear and stay in the chapel and anywhere there is supervision. They are routinely beaten and raped. Even the prisoners have an understanding of hierarchy regarding sin, and they’re considered the lowest of the low, especially among those who were abused as children themselves. They essentially exist as dead-men walking around with targets on their backs, friendless and terrified. They are to be pitied. It is sad.

Fear:

This next emotion comes unexpectedly to me. I begin to reflect on our church and our staff and our volunteers and our processes. Are we doing everything humanly possible to insure this does not happen at Providence? There are three basic aspects of this. 

1. We must properly vet people before they are placed in positions of leadership. We do this in a number of ways, including background checks, looking at applicants' social media, proper interviewing, checking references (both those given by the applicant and those we dig up ourselves), and spending enough time with them to give the Holy Spirit opportunity to let us gain a sense of their spiritual health and sincerity.

2. We must shepherd them while they are leaders. This includes accountability, encouraging spiritual growth, giving reminders, and encouraging opportunities for confession of sin and grace. Yes there are some ways we can police our staff’s internet usage and computers, set policies for male/female and adult/child interactions, etc, but we should be more about the positive aspects of spiritual growth and healthy community that will allow us to see “red flags” before sin takes root.

3. We must have a plan to deal with a revelation of secret sin should it happen to us.

Of course when I think through these things I second-guess everything. I feel the worry that we are not doing enough. 

That always leads me to pray that God would spare us—starting with me—from such things. I have said this before and say it again now: I would rather God kill me than allow me to hurt the church, my family, myself, and God by some sinful scandal. I know my weaknesses and my greatest fear is that I would fall prey to some scheme of Satan to ruin my reputation and shame the name of Christ. Again, I pray that God will kill me first. And I pray that by his mercy God will spare our church from this kind of crippling scandal—be it through me or someone else. I’ve been at churches rocked by leadership scandals. They sometimes never recover. 

The scary thing is that we can do everything humanly possible to prevent these things, but human beings are sinful. And Satan is a great deceiver who has millennia of experience. So we are wise to fear. This might keep us humble and reliant on God who alone is able to preserve us and grow us and even conquer through us. This is why we should pray fervently and constantly to this end. Fear is good if fear drives me to pray.

Worship:

It is when I realize my frailty and God’s might that my heavy heart is relieved and my soul rejoices in his greatness and wisdom and glory. He is able. He is undefeated. Our God is completely in control and even uses these instances of human failure to bring about his will. He always has and he always will. My mind is right now flooding with historical examples of this! God used the scandal of Achan after Jericho (Joshua 7) to humble and focus Israel in order to conquer the Promised Land. God used the scandal of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) to purify the church in the early stages of its growth and cause “the people [to hold] them in high esteem” (Acts 5:13). God used the scandals of European popes and the church’s corruption to bring about the Protestant Reformation that saved the church and the gospel. I could go on.

The word “worship” conveys the attribution of worthiness toward someone. It literally means “to kiss toward” in homage and humility, as a lowly subject would bow before a great king and kiss his feet. I understand worship as an act of complete surrender to God who alone is worthy. Brokenness is the beginning of true worship. The fact that I am so unworthy leads me to the glorious truth that he is infinitely worthy of my awe and my all. Rejoicing springs forth from that soil. I find my worth in him who is and find my purpose in his. I find my joy in pleasing him. This is a satisfaction with which the world and Satan can not compete!

Determination:

Therefore, we can not be discouraged by news of human scandal. Angry? Hurt? Disappointed? Perhaps. But never discouraged or defeated. We are to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). The church, with all her flaws, is still Christ’s bride; and hell’s defenses cannot overcome her or her mission. We must lovingly, wisely, and aggressively denounce sin, treat the wounds of others, demand justice while offering forgiveness for the repentant offender, and positively hold up Christ as the answer.

What cannot happen? Satan can't be allowed to use his victory in the personal life of an Achan or an Ananias or a Leo X of our day to discourage and defeat the rest of us. No. The rest of us must rise up to clearly provide an alternative (accurate) picture of Christianity to the world—a Christ-picture. With measured words, we must acknowledge anger, sadness, and fear; with humility we must worship; and with determination we must carry on in our mission—his mission.

New Year's Eve...parting thoughts

New Year's Eve is a holiday that's puzzling for me. Don't get me wrong, we had a great time tonight—as we usually do—but after the proverbial ball was dropped and everyone started heading to bed, I was left pondering.

Banjo's BBQ was in Spring City, but has since moved 
to Dayton, TN. Great food and folks.

Our night was really fun. We were invited to Banjo's BBQ in Spring City to hear some live music and eat BBQ cooked by David, the owner. Great guy, great place, fun times. I was chuckling to myself the whole time because virtually the whole crowd consisted of baby-boomers listening to baby-boomer music (Beach Boys, Jimmy Buffet, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, stuff like that), and being, well, baby-boomers. So funny (at least to me—a buster who grew up in the shadow of the generation that sucked all the air out of every room before our arrival)! I would probably offend some people if I gave specific examples of what I mean. But everyone was very nice and made us (Darla, Drew, Dara, and I) "a part of the family." The BBQ everything (turkey, chicken, ham, butt, ribs, and more by Dave) and trimmings (brought by the attenders) was fabulous!

We left Banjo's around 8:30 and headed back to Knoxvegas where we were invited (along with the rest of our elders & families) to the home of one of our elders over for a New Year's Eve gathering. Good times. This really was like being with family. We came in fashionably late. The wives and daughters were all in the living room, the sons were all eating in the dining room, and the dads were all outside around the fire ring. So appropriately segregated! Of course, after greeting everyone, I went outside to hang with the guys. We talked about politics, business, cutting wood, and told stories of when we were younger. SO quintessential—all of it! And so great. I really did relax and enjoy our time together.

We stayed until about 11:30 and came home. We turned on the TV to watch the obligatory ball drop. But first, we were summarily treated by the network we were watching to a parade of cultural rot, beginning with a long commercial celebrating how far we've come as a country together—by making gay marriage legal, by protesting various police wrong-doing, by showing symbolic sympathy to Paris terror victims without becoming judgmental towards Muslims, etc.—all pictures given to us while hearing a man's voice making a speech. The voice turned out to be that of Bruce Kaitlyn Jenner, whose videoed image was revealed at the climatic end of the ad, showing that he/she had been the one speaking all along. Applause. Next was an advertisement for a sitcom glorifying more degradation. Next (or so) a mock "public service announcement" urging people who may have had one too many...to drink one more. Then the ball drops. Auld Lang Syne. Followed by Ray Charles' rendition of America the Beautiful. Then a rock band singing about more depravation. And I'm caught in a contemplative whirlpool.

I know, call me an old fogey. I'd like to think that I'm one who wants people to really experience joy and happiness to the fullest! To engage in and/or celebrate what God calls sin is joy-robbing self-destruction. God will be glorified. According to the Bible, we can share in his glory or bring him glory as he makes examples of us (like Pharaoh and many once-enviable-now-pitiable others).

Yes, it has been quite a year. We've got a presidential race heating up and a nation in a mess. We're watching our culture change at a stunning pace. What will 2016 bring? God knows. And God actually controls it. That's why we must pray.

So, before going off to bed myself, I prayed for the new year.

• That God will have mercy on us and give us revival. That he will overcome evil with good.

• That he will cause Christians to be uncompromisingly distinct and loving (rather than hypocritical, judgmental, and entitled).

• That he will bless Providence Church by helping us pay our facility debt this year so that we can do ministry and missions like never before and that he will raise up leaders at Providence.

• That he will help me to crave him more, spend more time in private prayer and communion with him, be a more effective disciple-maker and teacher of his word, and be a better husband and dad.

God, I ask that you do all this in 2016.

Packing for the Unknown

As I wrote on the previous post, I am going on a trip to the Himalayan region.
Before big events the adrenaline flows. I'm always nervous as I pack. This time there are so so many questions and variables. And we're going to stay wet. Packing is not easy, because I need to travel light.

Besides the usual stuff, I need plenty of protein bars and beef jerky (don't know what we'll be eating), underwear and socks (I'm fine being wet and nasty everywhere else but not there), water filter, sleeping stuff (including measures to keep bedbugs at bay), all in a waterproof pack.
The most important way to prepare is spiritually. That's something that you can't do last minute.
Thanks to all for your prayers on our behalf.

It’s All About Surrender

(From the blog of journey2012.com)

by Chad Sparks on June 3, 2012 in Bible, Community, Giving, Missions, Prayer

“It’s all about surrender.”

I was raised in a home where those four words were spoken often. As an adult I find them to be true almost every day. When I have surrendered to God—truly surrendered—my perspective about everything else is different. Priorities are clearer; I live with more purpose; I find more joy in what I do; and problems are handled much better. My life is not as difficult because petty worries are seen by me as, well, petty. It really is about surrender.

I’m not specifically talking about receiving Christ and being saved. I’m assuming this has already happened to you. If not, of course that must happen first. Becoming a Christian is to be born again. If you have not yet done so, you can respond to God’s call and believe and trust Christ, asking him to forgive you of your sins. When you sincerely ask God to save you and be your Lord, it is an act of surrender. And he will answer and save! You become his child. This is a one-time and forever thing. Although no fireworks happen, you are regenerated by God. Now justified and made righteous by his grace, his work of sanctification—the process of becoming holy—begins.

Which brings me back to surrender. I have found that I need to mentally surrender to Christ each day. When my alarm sounds and I’m dragging my groggy body to the bathroom, I frequently breathe, “God, I surrender.” As I start the day, I’m relying on his grace and I say to him, “I surrender.” Sometimes when I’m really not feeling it I pray, “God, help me to surrender.” It works (and I’m not a morning person)! God’s grace and work on us doesn’t cease after we believe. This daily exercise is not original to me. Paul said, “I die every day—I mean that, brothers—just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord” (1 Cor. 15:31). Dying to self is surrendering.

When I surrender this way, it changes much more than my attitude and mood. Like Paul might say, “When I’ve already died, even death isn’t so big a deal. I’m able to face persecution with courage.” Or as he actually wrote, “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). When I have surrendered to Christ, obedience and trust in other matters come much easier. I’ve already fought and won the main battle—who’s in control. The rest are just minor skirmishes that amount to little more than academic exercises. Now temptation to lust or covet has been rendered much less powerful. Making decisions is easier because I respond according to what brings God glory. I’m not trying to please people or myself. Now I don’t get angry as easy over trivial things.

Like generosity. If I’ve already given God my self, giving away money and time for his glory is not a chore. It’s a joy.

All of the different aspects of The Journey reflect biblical Christianity. To “unsurrendered” people, they can sound overwhelming! But all of them flow naturally and joyfully from a surrendered heart. These aspects—reading and knowing God’s Word, belonging and serving in community, praying, going away on mission, and giving to kingdom causes—they are not the main point. The battle is not whether or not to do any of those things. The battle is whether to surrender.

If you haven’t, you should try it. Really.

Powerful Prayer

 by Chad Sparks on May 4, 2012 in Community, Prayer

From the Journey Blog (http://blog.journey2012.com/)

When asked, Christ gave his disciples an outline for praying powerfully. We call it the Lord’s Prayer. I learned it at an early age, surprisingly enough, while playing sports. Several different coaches I had would end practice or pre-game speeches by calling everyone in close to recite the Lord’s Prayer. In Matthew, Jesus warned us not to “heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do” in the verses just preceding the prayer, showing us that it is to serve as an outline, not a vain repetition, as if there is some mystic power in the very word combinations themselves.

There are a lot of good devices to help us pray. One that is very well known is the A.C.T.S. method (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication). But the one that has served me very well for the last 15 to 20 years is Christ’s model prayer. Here it is in five steps:

Father,

1. Acknowledge your privileged position. He is your Father! He loves you and wants to hear from you. You are never interrupting him! You have his ear.

hallowed be your name,

2. Affirm his “Awesomeness.” Tell him of your love and awe for him. This is a great time to both praise him for who he is and thank him for what he has done.

your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

3. Align your priorities with his: his Kingdom is first. The heart of Christ’s outline is that we pray that God’s rule and reign be realized and that his will and way be accomplished. Don’t miss this. This is where we pray for God to revive his church and awaken people to be born again. This is where we pray that God will pour out his Spirit and transform our culture! Imagine in your mind what God’s “will be[ing] done on earth as it is in heaven” might look like! Long for this in your heart! Ask him to do it!

Everything else we pray should be “according to his will” with the advancement of his Kingdom in mind. Jesus said, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (John 5:14-15). That’s the kind of prayer God WILL answer!

Give us each day our daily bread.

4. Ask him to provide for needs. This is where you pray for God to provide for our physical needs: food, shelter, clothing, health, etc. Christ came to this physical earth and knows that we have these needs. He cares for us and will provide! Also pray for others you know who have needs.

5. Address sin. Even though Jesus lived without sin, he told us to spend a good portion of our prayer dealing with our daily struggles with it.

Forgive us our sins, Confess your sins to God.

for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. Forgive others’ sins.

And lead us not into temptation. Ask God to guide you away from sin.

We’re going to make some cards available for you to pick up at church with this outline. But if you know the Lord’s Prayer, you already have it in your heart! Take your time and walk through these five steps with your Father. I can hardly do it in 30 minutes—in fact, it usually takes me a full hour! Try it and see for yourself. God moves when his people pray.

Chad Sparks

Passionate Prayer

 by Chad Sparks on May 3, 2012 in Community, Prayer

From the Journey Blog (http://blog.journey2012.com/)

Today is the National Day of Prayer. I started the day (as I do each Thursday) by going to the church to pray. I’m convinced that we will not see a great movement of God in our time until Christians pray for God to pour out his Spirit.

As I write this morning, there is a group of women gathering in the church to pray. I thank God for them. Last night at our elders meeting we began (as we always do) by praying for our church and people in our church who have needs. Each week dozens of small groups pray together. A group of people have met for the past five weeks to learn about prayer in a workshop put together by our Journey Prayer Team. Are we a praying church? Yes. Do we need to pray more? Yes. More specifically, passionately, and persistently.

Start today. Just take some time and get alone or get with another Christian to pray. Pray for God to pour out his Spirit to revive his people, awaken unbelievers to faith in him, and change the culture of our region and nation and world.

God wants you to do this. He waits to answer.

It occurred to me several years ago that I tend to pray too little, too small, and too weak.

We pray too little: 

We simply don’t pray enough. William P. Wilson, M.D., 
Professor Emeritus at Duke Medical Center and Director of the Institute of Christian Growth found that “the average churchgoer in the US prays one minute a day. The average pastor prays three minutes a day.” That’s really sad and really telling. Perhaps that’s why sermons are so weak and so few people respond. Perhaps that’s why so many pastors succumb to temptation and become a public scandal, shaming the name of Christ. Perhaps that’s a reason our churches are so empty and powerless. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell the difference between Christians and their unbelieving neighbors.

When we don’t pray intentionally and consistently we are, in effect, displaying one or more of the following attitudes: I don’t need God, God doesn’t listen, or God can’t change things. All of these are lies! When I take time to pray, I spend time with the One who loves me and happens to run the entire universe. He has asked me to pray. I need him. By praying, if nothing else, I acknowledge my dependence on him and prove my belief that he hears me. If that were all my prayers accomplished, it would be enough. But of course, that is not all. My prayers move God to action.

We pray too small:

We tend to pray for less significant things. “Let me have a good day.” “Keep my kids safe.” “Let me get a raise.” “Let me have a new car.” “Help me to feel better.” “Let the food we are about to eat go to the nourishment of our bodies.” “Give me a good night’s sleep.” Come on folks! It’s not that these things are not important, but can’t we do better than that?

I have been around many Christians, some of them were people I would call exceptionally godly (of course, these are people who would never call themselves that!). These people tend to pray for BIG things. They ask for God to awaken thousands to the truth of the Gospel and for God to change our culture. They pray for God to use their time, bodies, resources, intellect, etc. for the sake of his glory in this world. They ask for God to raise up godly men and women with passion for his church and his Word. They pray for God to change the hearts of people in government. They pray that their kids will love Christ with all their hearts, souls, minds and strength; bring their friends to Christ; and impact their schools for Christ’s sake. They pray for God to bless them financially so that they can give generously to their church and people in need. They pray for God to stop the advancement of Islam and other false religions through the power of Christ and set ablaze the church against whom “the gates of hell cannot prevail.” They pray that God will let them suffer any negative thing (sickness, sorrow, persecution, poverty) as one joyfully sharing in the sufferings of Christ for their own growth and the sake of his glory. That’s praying BIG. God is big. He likes for us to pray for big things.

We pray too weak:

Our prayers sometimes lack assurance and passion. We can come across like this: “Lord, thank you for this day. If it is according to your will, please be with John Doe while he is feeling bad, and please help our church do what you’ve called us to do. And I pray that I will not face difficulties today.” When we pray weakly, not with conviction expecting results, we waste our time and a great opportunity! We are told to “boldly approach the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16) and to pray expectantly. Jesus made this crystal clear in Luke 11:5-8:

And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.

It is the urgency of the friend wanting the loaves that moves the groggy sleeper to action. Christ (who is not a groggy sleeper, by the way) is telling the story so that we will show urgency in our prayers! He follows his parable with this (Luke 11:9-13):

And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

We have a Father who wants us to have…not just good gifts…but the Holy Spirit when we ask! An outpouring of God’s Spirit is what we need more than anything. That’s when we will see revival.

Therefore, a strong prayer will be bold and will “remind” God (or, more accurately, remind the one praying) of the promises he has made in his Word to revive his people, that his will will be done and his kingdom will come! It will be desperate. It will be expectant.

I want to pray often. I want to pray big. I want to pray strong.

Chad Sparks

Praying for Revival

 by Chad Sparks on May 2, 2012 in Community, Prayer

From the Journey Blog (http://blog.journey2012.com/)

Oh, how my heart longs for God to do something big. There have been a few times that I have seen him move unusually. I know that there are places in the world where he is at work mightily even now. But here? For the most part it can seem our nation is, in the words of Robert Bork, “slouching toward Gomorrah.”

So many Scriptural references could be seen as speaking to our time. Are we experiencing a great “falling away” and is our love growing cold (2 Thes. 2:3, Matt. 24:10-12, 1 Tim. 4:1)? Are we being “given over” by God “in the lusts of [our] hearts to impurity,” “dishonorable passions,” and “debased mind[s]” only to “receive the due penalty for [our] errors” (Romans 1:18-28)?

Truly our culture resembles the last verses of Romans 1, as people are “filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (vv.29-32). We also look a lot like what’s described in 2 Timothy 3:1-5:

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.

Wow. It’s easy to be doomy and gloomy, isn’t it? I know some Christians who seem to relish the decline or at least see it as an excuse for attempting little to change the downward drift. “After all,” they opine, “We’re in the last days.” But I refuse to acquiesce. See, we don’t know when Jesus is coming back. He could come tomorrow…but he could wait. And until he comes, the four horsemen in Revelation 6 (the expanding church, war, famine, and death) continue to ride through human history. Don’t forget, Christ has given us a commission: “Go make disciples of all nations…I am with you always, even to the end.” He promises, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail.” We should look at the world like Christ did: aware of the evil (and incensed about it), yet determined to bring light. Our job is to advance God’s kingdom.

Sure, we’re in a downward drift. But I choose to believe, as did Jonathan Edwards, that revival was just around the corner. He wrote:

That infidelity, heresy, and vice do so prevail, and that corruption and wickedness are risen to such an extreme height, is exceeding deplorable: but yet, I think, considering God’s promises to his church, and the ordinary method of his dispensations, hope may justly be gathered from it, that the present state of things will not last long, but that a happy change is nigh. We know that God never will desert the cause of truth and holiness, nor suffer the gates of hell to prevail against the church; and that usually, from the beginning of the world, the state of the church has appeared most dark, just before some remarkable deliverance and advancement.[1]

So either way, our decline should drive us to our knees. That alone would be huge! I remember hearing Pastor Tom Nelson say, “Prayer doesn’t just bring revival. Prayer IS revival. When God stirs Christians’ hearts to pray, you’ve got revival, because Christians generally don’t pray.”

The more I think about it, the more I think he’s right. I’ve had my own battle with making time to pray consistently and fervently. But as I continue to study and teach God’s Word in a culture that is running as hard as possible toward depravity, as I grow older and watch the church grow less effective, as I see so many people deceived and miserable when they buy the enemy’s lies, I realize my inability. I realize that God is our only hope. I realize the only alternative to awakening is judgment. That scares me. It drives me to pray. Boldly, desperately, and expectantly.

Dr. J. Edwin Orr was the professor of the history of awakenings at Fuller Theological Seminary. Billy Graham said that he was one of the greatest authorities on religious revivals. At the end of his life he said, “After studying prayer and spiritual awakenings for 60 years I’ve reached this conclusion…whenever God is ready to do something new with His people, He always sets them praying.”

Oh, how I long for this! So I find myself praying not only for awakening, but for God to incite his people to pray for awakening. Renowned commentator Matthew Henry said the following:

When God is about to give His people the expected good, He pours out a Spirit of prayer, and it is a good sign that He is coming toward them in mercy. Then when you see the expected end approaching, ‘then you shall call upon Me’ (Jer. 29:11-12). Note: Promises are given not to supersede, but to quicken and encourage prayer; and when deliverance is coming we must by prayer go forth to meet it. When Daniel understood the 70 years were near expiring, then he set his face with more fervency than ever to seek the Lord (Dan. 9:2-3).

Therefore, my most important job as a pastor could be to beckon people to pray that God will send sweeping revival. R.A. Torrey said, “There have been revivals without much preaching, but there has never been a mighty revival without mighty prayer.”

So I will pray. And again I plead with you to pray, too. Will you? You can anytime and anywhere. Every Thursday morning I open the church auditorium to pray from 6 to 8 am. I spend most of that time praying for revival. You’re invited to come.

Chad Sparks

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[1] The Works of Jonathan Edwards, p. 294.