Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. - Psalm 136:1

Father, it would be so easy for me today to just give a list of the numerous evidences of grace I have experienced in my life and those that we have experienced in our church.  Truly we have so much to be thankful for.  Truly You are a gracious God.  But I feel like writing a list of the first 20 things that come to my mind would only cheapen each one, when each one has so much of You surrounding it.  Each and every evidence of grace that I would list is engulfed in Your sovereignty, Your mercy, Your love, Your holiness.  How could writing out a list ever convey the depth of Your goodness.  So let me just pick one.  And let me pick one that is personal.

Father, thank You for letting my daughter Ella have cancer.  It has been over two years now since she was diagnosed and her treatments completed, and she has never looked healthier, and You know that not a day goes by that I do not thank You for healing her and sustaining our family through that.  But rarely do I thank You for allowing her to experience cancer in the first place.  But when I look back on that day when I stood next to her in that ultrasound room and heard the radiologist tell me she had a large tumor in her belly, what I remember is Your merciful hand upon me and upon her.  That week was the single most painful week of my life.  But that pain drove me and my whole family closer to You than we have ever been.  My time of prayer that day and that week was so intensely real, that my affections for You were changed forever more.  I experienced You and Your tenderness in a way that I never would have experienced if You had not allowed us to go through that.  My times laying next to Ella in her hospital bed were so sweet, and so wonderful, my heart so filled with gratefulness to You for each step closer we got towards her healing, that I will never forget those moments.  I will cherish them forever.  I now understand with so much more clarity what it means to “rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produced hope, and hope does not put us to shame because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).

Thank you God for how Your gospel grounded us that week.  When we may have been tempted to question Your love for us, we were reminded through Your word, that You in fact loved us so much, that You did not spare Your only Son, Jesus Christ “who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).  When I look at the cross, how could I ever doubt or question Your love for me?

Thank you Father that Your Son has not only saved us, but now lives and intercedes for us (Hebrews 7:25).  And oh how I felt His presence and His intercession during that week.  How true are the words of Charles Spurgeon who said, “We little know what we owe our Savior’s prayers.  When we reach the hilltops of heaven, and look back upon all the way whereby the Lord our God hath led us, how we shall praise Him who, before the eternal throne, undid the mischief which Satan was doing upon the earth.  How shall we thank Him because He never held His peace, but day and night pointed to the wounds upon His hands, and carried our names upon His breastplate!”.

Thank you mighty, sovereign and merciful Father for the trials You have walked through with me, and with us all.  Let us never forget that our suffering is not without purpose, but that truly, truly, “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).  All things, even sickness, even cancer, even death.  And when we encounter trials of various kinds, strengthen and sharpen our faith, that we may “Count it all joy” (James 1:2), resting in the hope and security we now have through faith in Your Son, Jesus Christ, who loved us, and gave Himself up for us. and secured for us a salvation that we did not deserve, through a death He did not deserve.

Amen.

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgement. - Psalm 51:3-4  

Father, forgive me for my sins.  Today and everyday, let the words of the Psalmist be a reminder to me that it is against You, You only, that I have sinned.  As I consider the sins that I struggle with, it seems to me that they are all rooted in my lack of faith in the reality of Your Gospel.  How quick I am to lean on my own understanding, and my own abilities, and my own strength, when all of these have let me down time and time again.  But You have never let me down, and You have never forsaken me.  How slow I am to confess my sins, despite Your gracious promises, that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

Father forgive me for my half-hearted trust in You.  Against You, You only, have I sinned.  Forgive me for all the times I have put more hope in my bank account that in the eternal riches that You have offered to me.  Against You, You only, have I sinned.  Forgive me for all the times I have been angry or impatient with my children, when You have been infinitely patient with me.  Against You, You only, have I sinned.  Forgive me for all the times I have puffed myself up before my brothers and sisters, and my church, knowing full well that You are a God who looks with favor upon the humble and contrite in spirit.  Against You, You only, have I sinned.

Father, it is my prayer that Redeemer would be a place where we as blood-bought sinners can come as we are, confessing our sins to one another, and to You.  Lord, I know that the more we trust in the redemption bought by Your Son Jesus Christ, the more we will not hide our sins, but will be a church of confession, and repentance, and humility, and forgiveness, leaning upon Your great promise, that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.

Amen.

Please be in prayer for the following:

1. Pray that if it is God’s will that we should purchase the building we currently are meeting in that we would see the $50,000 raised to start the purchase process.
2. Pray that we would see God call out 6 people to be sent with our Boston team, and 6 people to be sent with another team to an unreached people group.
3. Pray for the families at Redeemer that are in the process of adopting children, that they would be loved, supported, encouraged and cared for throughout this journey.
4. Pray for revival to break forth in Bellingham, and beyond, all for the glory of God.
5. Pray that we would become a praying church.

A Time To Fight

When was the last time you asked God to crush your enemy? Have you ever prayed to God that He NOT cover someone's guilt, or NOT blot out someone's sin? For many of us the presence of this type of prayer in Scripture is difficult enough let alone the personal use of it in our prayer lives. In many ways, it is good that we are hesitant to pray like Nehemiah does in Neh 4.4-5. Nehemiah's petition for cursing on God's enemies is inspired by the Holy Spirit and isn't about personal revenge but the glory of God and the good of His people. Nehemiah was fighting and laboring for the rebuilding of a city and of the church, and all around enemies were actively laboring to crush, discourage, distract, and destroy the work and God's people. So Nehemiah prays that God would turn taunts back on the heads of their enemies. He prays to God that He would not cover their guilt or blot our their sin, and he does all of this because men like Tobiah and Sanaballat "have provoked you [God] to anger."

Nehemiah is actually standing in a long line of people offering imprecatory prayers (just read Psalms). Praying like this isn't unbiblical and is in fact grounded in God's promises found in places like Genesis 12. Thousands of years before Nehemiah God covenanted with Abraham that He would bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him. Among many things, this means God cares about what happens to His people and that He will protect, defend, avenge, repay, and judge those who are hostile to the restoration, mission and people of the church. This truth is meant to encourage and embolden. God sees, God cares, and God will act. Take a minute and allow that truth to set in. As you fight for the church, as you labor to see Her thrive, as you offer your very lives in the mission of making disciples of all tribes and tongues God takes notice of every insult, every blow, every drop of blood from every martyr.

Nehemiah's prayer goes even further than giving us personal confidence and hope that God cares about our opposition, it provides corporate fervor to keep laboring. The context for Nehemiah's prayer of imprecation is the coordinated effort of God's people to accomplish their God given task while facing a hostile environment littered with slandering, threatening, violent enemies. No doubt, God's people then, as now, are prone to discouragement and fear, and one of the ways God encourages us is to know that what we suffer He sees and what we endure He will do something about. This was true for Nehemiah and the church at that time, it is true in places like Revelation 6 where those killed for their faith are told that God will judge and avenge their blood, and it is true for the church today.

How To Fight

It would be a mistake at this point to encourage any of us to constant imprecation. In fact, we would do better to allow the Biblical prayers to teach us more about who God is and what He is doing, and will do, than how to pray for the dashing of our enemies. However, this doesn't mean that there is never a place to pray prayers loosely patterned and inspired after those seen in places like Nehemiah 4. We can rightly claim the promises that God will judge, God will avenge, God cares, God sees, God defends, God protects, and so on. Utilizing these truths in the context of our personal and corporate prayer lives gives glory to God as sovereign over all people and also strengthens His saints to keep fighting even as they face opposition at every step.

Here are a few ways you might incorporate 'imprecatory' type prayers:

"Soveriegn Lord, I know you see all things. You see our enemies and you see our  suffering. God we are facing fierce opponents. Would you save them and would you stop them. Do what you deem right for your glory. Let us know and believe that the blows and the blood of your saints matter to You. Let us with confidence and courage fight trusting that vengeance is Yours, and that you will repay."

"Papa, right now there are great and wicked obstacles against your people. There are legal, cultural, spiritual, physical assaults issued forth by real people who despise and hate us. Your church is insulted and ridiculed. Your church that is called by your name. For your glory would you turn the taunts of our culture back on their own heads. Would you show the foolishness of opposing You by opposing your people. Would you cause knees to bow, and if they don't bow, would you cause knees to break. However you choose to do it would you save and stop our enemies. Would you bring to an end their taunts. Would you remove their power over us. Would you vindicate your church that those who are now discouraged would be revived as our enemies are put to shame and your might is seen in the saving and stopping of those that currently curse You and hate us."

As you can see I am slow to pray specifically like Nehemiah that God wouldn't forgive sin or wouldn't cover guilt. As a sinful man, prone to ungodly self serving revenge, I want to pray that God changes, saves, restores, and forgives my enemies much more than I would ever pray that He would curse them. Even more than the tendency to sin, we have the words of Jesus in places like Matthew 5.44 that say, "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you." Or Paul's words in Romans 12.14; "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse." However, this doesn't mean we can't pray in more general terms Nehemiah 4 type prayers that God would save and stop our enemies according to His good pleasure. In fact, sometimes that's exactly what we need to pray, both for ourselves and for the people we are laboring with. Not so much prayers of cursing, but prayers of conquest.

The One Who Really Fights

Perhaps the biggest reason we should be slow to pray imprecation against others is that without Christ we are all enemies of God that deserve cursing. We must remember that before we were ever like Nehemiah, or the builders laboring, or even the people who's strength was fading, we were like Sanballat and Tobiah discouraging, oppressing, and opposing. For many of us our activity may not have been as outwardly overt as the enemies facing Nehemiah, but we were no less opposed to Jesus. And in our opposition, as enemies of God, Jesus prayed and Jesus died. Amazingly, instead of cursing us, God blesses us by cursing Christ. The reason we fight in prayer by asking that our opponents would be saved is because Jesus died for us that our guilt would be covered and our sin would blotted out. No doubt, we can still pray that God would stop enemies of the church but the Gospel compels us to pray He stops them first and foremost by saving them, just like He did for us. For those He doesn't save we know He will ultimately stop. He will bring justice. He will avenge the blood of His saints. He will defend His people and vindicate His name. With confidence in God we fight and we pray; 'God would you save and stop our enemies, for our good, their good, and most importantly, your glory.'

Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!  Sing to him; sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works!  Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!  Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!  Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgements he uttered, O offspring of Israel his servant, sons of Jacob, his chosen ones! - 1 Chronicles 16:8-13

Father, I have so much for which to be thankful to You.  I have more to be thankful for than I have words to speak.  Our church has so much for which we are thankful to You.  You have been so gracious to us.  When we stop to ponder the wondrous works that You have done, we are overwhelmed with Your kindness, and Your generosity towards us.  That kindness and that generosity which culminated on a cross over 2000 years ago, when You did not withhold Your Son, Jesus Christ, but gave Him up for us, that we may today be called Your “chosen ones!”.  That kindness and generosity that even today is at work, as we see Your gospel being proclaimed not just from the pulpit on Sunday mornings, but each and everyday by men and women who make up this church, who proclaim Your gospel in their homes, at their jobs, and all over the streets of Bellingham and beyond.  That kindness and that generosity that even today is transforming vessels of wrath into vessels of mercy.  That kindness and that generosity that has called us into adoption as Your sons and daughters.

Gracious Father, let us never cease to celebrate Your deeds among the peoples.  As we see people saved, let us celebrate, and drop to our knees and give thanks to You, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.  Let us never stop saying thank You.  Let those words be the first words to come out of my mouth as I rise in the morning, and my last words as I lay my head down to sleep at night.  Thank You, thank You, thank You.

Amen

These monthly blog posts were inspired by a daily prayer post that is written by Scotty Smith on the Gospel Coalition website at: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/scottysmith/.  I have found them to be an excellent daily reminder for me of the gift that time in prayer is for us, and I encourage you all to read these each and everyday.

I would also like to post some prayer requests for Redeemer Church, as we see God moving greatly in so many ways, and as we celebrate all the evidences of grace.  Please be in prayer for the following:

1. Our facility - we need prayer for wisdom, discernment, and unity as a church in making the decision whether or not to purchase the building we are meeting in.  If we decide to purchase it, we will need to raise around $50,000 for upfront costs.
2. Church planting team members - we are wanting to see at least 6 people for the Boston team and 6 more for an unreached people group to commit to between 1-2 years to planting the Gospel in these locations.
3. More conversion, more baptisms, more church planters raised up, and more multiplication of gospel communities.

John Owen’s The Glory of Christ is centered on one glorious foundational truth: “one of the greatest privileges the believer has, both in this world and for eternity, is to behold the glory of Christ” (2).

The Glory of Christ is, in essence, a devotional exposition of 2 Corinthians 3:18:

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

This text shows that by beholding (or reflecting on) the glory of Christ believers are gradually transformed into the image of Christ through the process of sanctification. Practically, this means the key to growth in the Christian life is not about focusing on us as much as it’s about focusing on Jesus and his life, death on the cross, resurrection, and coming return.

The Glory of Christ

Owen defines the glory of God as “both the holy properties of his natures and the things he has purposed to do,” noting that the only way we can know the glory of God is by faith in and through the person of Christ, who is the image of God and the radiance of His glory (2 Cor. 4:4; Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:15). We cannot behold the glory of Christ apart from faith in Christ.

Owen works through the various and endless aspects of Christ’s glory which the Christian is privileged to behold:

• Christ’s Glory as God’s Representative and Revelation (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:15; John 1:1;1:18;14:10; 1 John 4:10)
• The Glory of Christ in His Person as Fully God and Fully Man (Gen. 3:15; Ps. 2:7-9; John 1:1-3; Col. 2:9; Phil. 2:6-8)
• The Glory of Christ’s Humbling Himself  (Phil. 2:6-8; John 8:58; Heb. 2:14-17)
• The Glory of Christ’s Work as Mediator (1 Timothy 2:5-6; Romans 5:19-21)
• The Glory of Christ’s Exaltation (Luke 24:26; Heb. 1:3-4; Rev. 5:8-14)
• The Glory of Christ in the Old Testament (Gen. 3:15; Isa. 9:6-7; Isa. 50:5-9; John 5:39; 1 Peter 1:11-12; Hebrews 3:3-6)
• The Glory of Christ’s Union with the Church (1 Peter 2:24; Isa. 53:4-6; Eph. 5:25-32)
• The Glory of Christ in Restoring All Things (Eph. 1:18-20; Col. 1:18-20; Phil. 3:21; Rev. 21:1-5)

In this layout of his text, Owen gives us a great diverse list for mediating on the glory of Jesus.

The Benefits of Beholding the Glory of Christ

Why make the effort to behold the glory of Christ by faith? If you desire stronger faith, rest, peace, and joy in Christ, then beholding the glory of Christ is your answer.

Concerning the great benefits of beholding Christ, Owen declares:

It is by beholding the glory of Christ by faith that we are spiritually edified and built up in this world, for as we behold his glory, the life and power of faith grow stronger and stronger. It is by faith that we grow to love Christ. So if we desire strong faith and powerful love, which give us rest, peace and satisfaction, we must seek them by diligently beholding the glory of Christ by faith (7).

Beholding the glory of Christ in this life is preparation—small “dawnings of eternal glory”—for the joys of heaven, where we will see Christ in His glory fully.

How We Behold the Glory of Christ

How do we actually do the work of beholding Christ’s glory? Owen sheds much light on the “how-to” of this glorious duty and below are some of his most central insights.

1. Make Up Your Mind that to Behold the Glory of God by Beholding the Glory of Christ is the Greatest Privilege for Believers in This Life

Savoring the glory of Christ here and now is a taste of eternal blessedness!

Owen notes that this is a glorious but hard work in which we as believers are often “lazy and ignorant” and as a result “we do not experience more and more in our souls the visits of grace and the dawnings of eternal glory (10).” This is precisely why we need point number two, prayer.

2. Pray to God Asking for the Spirit’s Help to Behold the Glory of Christ

Because we are weak and frail, we need God’s help by His Spirit to behold the glory of His Son (John 16:13-14). The entire Godhead is at work in this and Jesus prays this for us (John 17:24). Amazing!

Christ’s glory cannot be seen or understood apart from faith fixed on divine revelation, the Word of God. Memorize and mediate on passages of Christ’s glory (see the chapter references above for some ideas).

3. Fill Your Mind with Scriptural Thoughts of Christ

Owen encourages believes to “learn how to behold the glory of Christ by remembering how you once set your mind on world things” (23). This means take the concentrated effort in which you once anticipated and imagined partaking of your past favorite sins and use an even greater focus to behold and mediate on the glory of Christ in God’s Word.

A Prayer to Behold Christ’s Glory

Blessed Jesus! We can add nothing to you, nothing to your glory. But it is a joy to us that you are what you are—that you are so gloriously exalted at the right hand of God. We long to behold that glory more and more according to your prayer and promise. Amen (68).

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips. Ps. 63:1-5

God, as I read these words, I am brought low.  I am humbled beneath your power and your glory.  I, like the psalmist, have looked upon you in the sanctuary, and truly there is nothing more beautiful, more captivating, and more awe-inspiring, than a vision of who You are.

God, I have been thinking a lot recently about Your steadfast love, and it astounds me.  I am astounded at the depth of Your love, a love so deep and so wide, that my puny feeble mind can only see a fraction of it.  I am astounded that You would love me with a steadfast love, when my love for You has been anything but steadfast.  I am astounded that YOU, the creator of the universe, would even consider loving ME!  I am astounded that even when my heart is far from You, and I fail You, and I disobey You, You still love me.  There is absolutely nothing more astonishing to me than this.  And then I remember how that love was made manifest ... by the death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, who is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:8).  God, today, I thank you with all my heart, for Your steadfast love.

Father, as I go through this day, and I am distracted by the cares and the busyness of this world, I ask that You would give me a thirst for You.  I ask that You would give me a hunger for Your presence.  I ask that you would remind me of Your presence, and that You would bring to my mind, a vision of who You are.  I long for this thirst that the psalmist speaks of.  I want to be so parched, that I will do ANYTHING to be near You, and to drink from the living water that flows from Your Son Jesus.  I want to feast upon You.  Let not a day go by when I do not remember Your steadfast love, and praise You in response to this love, with joyful lips.

Amen.

The bible is filled with descriptions of the attributes of God.  Last month I discussed the importance of using our prayer time to adore Him.  One way to do this is to pray through a list of the attributes of God, both the incommunicable attributes (those which God alone possesses), and the communicable attributes (those which God shares with us).  Although you can likely find slightly different lists in different theology textbooks, we at Redeemer often refer to the list in Systematic Theology, by Wayne Grudem.  I hope you will print this list out, have it next to your bible, and pray through some or all of these attributes of God, each and every day as you adore Him, who alone is perfect in all His ways (Matthew 5:48).

Incommunicable attributes

1. Independence - Acts 17:24-25
2. Unchangeableness - Psalm 102:25-27
3. Eternity - Psalm 90:2
4. Omnipresence - Jeremiah 23:23-24
5. Unity - Deuteronomy 6:4

Communicable attributes

Attributes describing God’s being

1. Spirituality - John 4:2
2.  Invisibility - John 1:18

Mental attributes

       1. Knowledge (Omniscience) - Job 37:16

2.  Wisdom - Job 12:13

3. Truthfulness (and Faithfulness) - John 17:3

Moral attributes

1. Love - 1 John 4:8
2. Mercy, Grace, Patience - Exodus 34:6
3. Holiness - Psalm 99:9
4. Peace (or order) - 1 Corinthians 14:33
5. Righteousness/Justice - Deuteronomy 32:4
6. Jealousy - Exodus 20:5
7. Wrath - Romans 1:18

Attributes of purpose

1. Will - Ephesians 1:11
2. Freedom - Psalm 115:3
3. Omnipotence (Power, Sovereignty) - Luke 1:37

Summary attributes

1. Perfection - Matthew 5:48
2. Blessedness - 1 Timothy 6:15
3. Beauty - Psalm 27:4