Prayer

There are 4 types of prayers that the Lord asks us to pray if we would see God move and accomplish those things for which we are asking.

Level 1 We must ask for it ourself

James 4:2 "You do not have, because you do not ask God." This may seem simple, but Scripture is clear that there are many things that God would do if only we would ask Him. We are much more likely to try to accomplish things in our own strength first and only as a last resort pray. Our trust basically lies in ourselves and the resources that we have at our disposal. If we are to see God work we must ask Him ourselves.

Level 2 We must ask others to ask the Lord with us

"If two of you agree on anything on earth it will be done" MT 18:19 There is power in the petitions of people. It only takes you and one other person to invite someone into your burden, but may I say the more the merrier. One of the ways we bare one another's burdens is by carrying them to the Lord in prayer. Very plainly let me tell you there are some things that God won't do for you if you are the only one asking. God wants us to live in community. God wants us to humble ourselves and let others serve us. If we are to see many obstacles removed, doors opened, chains broken, pain healed and so on; then we will need to invite other people into our messy life by getting them to pray for us.

Level 3 We must ask God repeatedly over a period of time

Some answers to prayer will only come as we ask God over and over again across a period of time. The parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18) told by Jesus teaches us that God is not our genie in a bottle. He does not jump when we say so. Our prayers are request; not demands. The name it and claim it prosperity gospel teachers would tell you that if you don't get what you want you must not have faith. The Bible teaches that not getting what you want and continuing to ask God often requires greater faith than getting what you want immediately. Some things that God wants to do for you will only come as you ask Him repeatedly over a period of time.

Level 4 We must ask God along with others over a period of time

Some answers to prayer will only come by the faithful petitions of you and others over a period of time. These are the most difficult answers to prayer to receive because they require you to wait, to keep asking and not give up, and to humble yourself by asking others to ask too. The blows to your pride are almost too many to count with these types of prayers. You must be weak in the worlds eyes by acknowledging your powerlessness to God and to others. You must be faithful to trust that the unseen, unheard God who has remained silent all this time has not forgotten you. Few things in the Christ followers life will test you like waiting, praying, and asking others to pray day after day for the same thing. These prayers are the ones people give up on. Don't give up though! God is using your desire to refine you and purify you in a way that nothing else will. The answers to these prayers are so sweet!

For six years my wife Kari and I tried to have children. We prayed, cried, got others praying, but still we could not conceive. Kari is great with children. She believes one of the main reasons God put her on earth was to raise kids. This made the unanswered prayer even more hurtful. We continued praying, we prayed about going to doctors and we did so. We spent a lot of our money and others money, but still we could not conceive. This year we were advised by doctors that our best chance for conception was to do invetro fertilization. The cost was enormous. After praying and getting others to pray once again we moved forward with the procedure. We took out a loan for a portion of the cost. We believed and prayed back to God that children are a gift from Him. My wife is now almost 5 months pregnant. God did not answer when we wanted. He made us wait and ask others. We had to seek Him and petition Him again and again. I can tell you that the joy of this baby is now shared in a special way not only by us but by all who prayed. God will receive praise for His gifts. Many times the prayerful wait is what brings Him the praise that is due His name. I do not understand all Gods reasons; I do not need to understand. I do know that God has said ask, ask others to ask, ask and wait, and ask, wait, and ask others to do so as well. If we will do that and not give up; we will see God do amazing things. He is God and everything we ask is not good for us, but many things He wants to give us; we just have to have the faith to follow His ways.

In Jesus Name

Jarrett Jamieson

15 ways to take in the Word of God

15 ways to take in the Word of God

(This is a modified handout that was given to worshipers at the Journey Baptist worship service October 25, 2009. To hear the sermon that goes with it visit our website at www.journeybaptistchurch.com and listen to the sermon entitled "Yellow Belt", "The Sword of the Lord")

1) Read the Word devotionally. To be devoted to something is to be committed to it. Devotional reading of the Word of God is associated with the idea of reading the Word consistently and regularly. You will not always be able to study the Word deeply. It is okay to read the Bible to get a broad view of what it is saying. You learn and are inspired by the Bible when you study it and seek to understand every aspect of what is being said. You learn in a different way when you get the full story of the Bible. If you spend hours dissecting each word, gaining all of the history, context, and literature of the Bible; you may not ever read through the whole book! This would be a tragedy because the Bible is a gift in each word and phrase, but it is also a gift in the entirety of its message.

Reading devotionally is tough for people who are deep thinkers because they want to know the answer to everything they are reading at that moment. This is simply not possible! The scholars have studied the Scripture for their entire lives and the mysteries of God are still not all unraveled! Thank God He is bigger than our minds can comprehend. You will not understand everything. What sets this means of taking in the Word apart from the others is that you go to the Word out of your DEVOTION to God. You will not always feel like reading. You will not always come away with incredible insights that you didn’t have before. You will sometimes wonder if your reading mattered at all. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year your steady intake of the Word of God devotionally will change you, will armor you, will prepare you. The key to remember is devotion equals reading Gods word regularly!

2) Study the Word. Studying the Word of God is a means to take in the Word of God that is awesome. You will need to gather study helps so that you can properly understand the Word. It is appropriate to take advantage of men and women of God who have spent their lives taking in the Word of God and then giving their insights about it. Tools that will help you in this means include: A study Bible with notes, commentaries (scholars interpretation of the Scripture), different versions of the Bible, cross references (when the verses of similar text of Scripture are given so that you can see what the entire Bible has to say about a similar subject), Concordances (a tool that shows you the number of times a specific word is used in Scripture and the word in its original language). These are some basic tools. A good start is often just a study Bible and different versions of the Bible. Two internet sites that are helpful in Bible study and offer many of these tools are: www.biblegateway.com and www.crosswalk.com . These two websites alone will put more tools at your fingertips than what most people have ever had in the history of the church!

3) Listen to the Word of God. It is possible to listen to the Word of God audibly during the day. There are audio Bibles that can be purchased and listened to by cassette, cd, ipod, or you can listen at www.biblegateway.com. Listening is not the same as reading but it is another way to take in the Word that is helpful.

4) Listen to sermons and Bible teachers. It is important to listen to the Bible being taught by Christian leaders. This includes being at church on Sundays! You can also listen to other powerful Bible teachers and preachers in a variety of ways. The internet offers access to more preaching and teaching than at any other time in history. In our area 640 AM radio offers great Bible teachers all day long. Be careful that you listen to God honoring pastors and teachers because many teach in error. I would be very cautious about listening to TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network). There are more teachers in error on that network than there are who are truthful. For help in discerning truthful pastors and teachers I recommend the website www.equip.org with Bible teacher Hank Hanegraaph.

5) Meditate on the Word. This does not mean folding your legs and chanting HMMMMMMM. When the Bible speaks about meditating it means getting a Scripture on your heart and mind and thinking about it over and over again. This is why it is okay not to understand everything as soon as you read it. The questions that we come away with from the Scripture are often what prompt us to think about the Scripture throughout the day. If you know how to worry you know how to meditate! Worrying is when we think of a problem and then we begin to think of all the things that could go wrong and every possibility of every fearful thing that might happen. We then try to fix all those things and make a plan. Meditating on the Word is running the Scripture through your mind again and again. Wondering about what it means, what it would look like if it were obeyed in your life, how you can respond, what things you may need to give up, what things you may need to add, and so on.

6) Memorize the Word. Memorizing the Word of God is an awesome way to clothe yourself with the armor of God. The Scripture you commit to memory will be used by God’s Spirit to help you defeat temptation. God will use it to help you encourage others. God will use it to help you answer those who question God. God will use it in innumerable ways in your own life and in the lives of others. We must commit the Scripture to memory in times when we don’t need it so that when we do need it we will have it.

7) Read books on the Word. Christian books help you look at the Word of God in entirely new ways. To see the Word of God through someone else’s eyes; to benefit from another’s study is a powerful way to take in the Word of God. Again be careful of books that claim to be Christian books but are not or that mix error with the truth. See the above note about pastor/teachers in #4.

8) Believe the Word. Believe that the stories of God in the Bible are real. Believe that the message Jesus is giving you through the Bible will change your life. Believe that when the authors of Scripture tell you to do something that you should do it. Believe that regardless of short term consequences and pain that it will be better for you to practice the Word of God than to go your own way. What you believe will be proved by what you do. If you say you believe, but then live in a different manner consistently your just talking.

9) Obey the Word. The obedience of the Word of God is what opens the door to greater understanding of more of the Word of God. God will often not reveal to you new truth until you obey the truth that He has already revealed to you. If through any method of hearing the Word the Spirit of God convicts you that something needs to be added to your life or that something needs to be taken away, that something needs to be modified, or something needs to be waited upon, whatever God reveals to you He expects you to obey. You realize that the God of the universe has decided to speak to you! This is not a small thing. If you deliberately disobey God then what was the point of Him revealing any truth to you. Our obedience opens the door for greater sharing of Gods truth in our life!

10) Share the Word with others. The more of the truth of God’s Word you give away, the more you will have. This is just one of the mysteries of God. By talking with friends, family, Christ followers, non-Christ followers, and anyone else our own understanding of the truth of the Word is enhanced.

11) Desire the Word. You must want to know the truth of God’s Word. The Bible says we should crave the truth of the Word like infants crave milk when they are hungry. We must want to know what God says and what that means in our life. We should want to know the Word because it is our only defense against the error that Satan will surely lead us into. It produces in us life, faith, righteousness, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self- control and a host of other virtues. If you notice you are not hungry for the Word of God then it is a sure sign that you are filling yourself up with the counter fits of the enemy. You are eating the garbage of the world and that is why you have no desire for the truth of God’s Word. There is no substitute for wanting the truth of God’s Word. I have noticed that people become desperate when they have money problems. If someone is laid off work, if the bills pile up, if there are physical needs that aren’t being met, people become desperate. People will ask everyone they know about solutions. People think about it, dream about it, pray about it and act to resolve their money problems. People who lack money will do just about anything to get it. Oh that we would realize that the wealth of all of heaven is preserved for us in a book called the Bible! You must desire the Word and be desperate for it. Nothing else will satisfy you like it does!

12) Visualize the Word. When you read the stories of God in the Bible put yourself at the scene in your mind’s eye. Try to envision Jesus getting up from the table and putting on the servants robe. Try to see the expressions on the disciples face’s as He stoops and washes each foot with care. Hear the silence in the room that must have been deafening. Go with David into the battle against Goliath. Imagine the giant’s head that was higher than a basketball goal. Try to see him running at David who is winding up the sling to cast a stone at him. Imagine the shock to the armies of the enemy and to the armies of God when the giant falls dead. Put yourself on site. See it in your mind’s eye.

13) Personalize the Word. Proverbs 27 1 Do not boast about tomorrow,for you do not know what a day may bring forth. 2 Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;someone else, and not your own lips. 3 Stone is heavy and sand a burden,but provocation by a fool is heavier than both. 4 Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming,but who can stand before jealousy? 5 Better is open rebuke than hidden love. 6 Wounds from a friend can be trusted,but an enemy multiplies kisses.

This is how to personalize this text of Scripture. Jarrett shouldn’t boast about tomorrow, because I don’t know what today will bring forth. Jarrett shouldn’t boast about himself; if anyone does it let it be someone else. Jarrett may have heavy burdens now, but to be provoked by a fool would be heavier than these. Jarrett needs to understand that anger and fury are cruel even overwhelming but jealousy will take me down. Jarrett is better to tell people the harsh truth than to love people and not tell them the truth. Jarrett may be wounded by friends who tell him the harsh truth, but my enemies will always tell me good things I want to hear.

14) Pray the Word. Personalizing and praying the Word can often go together. Lord help me not boast about tomorrow; I don’t even know what will happen the rest of the day. Lord help me not to boast about myself, but to let others. Lord help me to be purged from jealousy. Lord help me to tell people I love the harsh truth instead of trying to keep the peace and playing it safe. Lord help me to invite and accept the harsh truth of others about my life, help me to avoid making my friends people who only tell me what I want to hear. There are also text that are appropriate to pray already because they are already prepared. Psalm 51 is great to pray to confess your sins. “Have mercy on me on God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin”…

15) Emphasize the Word. Read the word aloud and each time through emphasize a different word. Have mercy on me oh God, according to your unfailing love. Have mercy on me oh God, according to your unfailing love. Have mercy on me oh God, according to your unfailing love. Have mercy on me oh God, according to your unfailing love. Have mercy on me oh God, according to your unfailing love. Have mercy on me oh God, according to your unfailing love. Each time you move through the text by emphasizing a different word God will shed light on the text to you.

PS. We will teach more in depth on the subject of taking in the word of God in 2nd base. Next 2nd base will be taught Wednesday Oct. 28 and Nov. 4 from 6:00 – 7:30 P.M. at my home 7356 Lauren Lane Olive Branch. Childcare will be provided. You must have become a member of the church and gone through 1st base before you can take 2nd base.

In Jesus Name

Jarrett Jamieson

Hate what is evil and cling to what is good

(Excerpts from Sunday A.M. sermon, "what the world needs most from men" and Wednesday N The Word from Mark 7)

Psalm 97:10 NIV Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

We need to hate what is evil! Hate is a strong word. It is helpful to talk about hating what is evil because we are so apathetic. Why do we not see outrage at social issues that are clearly evil? We have accepted the evil that is within our hearts. We do not despise it. It does not grieve us or make us sick. Since we have accepted evil in our own hearts we rationalize it away as normal in our family, our city, our state, our nation, our world.

The problem with this tolerance of evil in ourselves and our culture is that evil never stays in a box. Evil always gives birth to even greater evil. This is what Jesus was teaching us in Matthew 5 when He teaches us that those who are angry with their brother have committed murder in their hearts.

The same motivation that makes us cheat on our taxes is what makes someone take a bribe so that someone gets murdered. The same motivation that makes us lose our temper with our spouse is what makes people fight and kill. The same motivation that makes us lust after another woman is what drives people to turn young children into sex slaves. It may seem like a big jump but Jesus taught us that evil never stays confined .... it grows like a cancer.

For this reason Godly men and women need to despise what is evil in themselves and in the world around them. Their disgust and passion against evil should be strong enough to move them to action that limits the evil that is tolerated. How much cancer would we tolerate if our doctor showed us a tumor? How much would we tolerate in our family?

Here are some social issues that I see Godly people too silent about.

Crime, violence, sodomy, and a general lawlessness that pervades the U.S. prison system.

The general impotence of anyone to come up with a lawful solution to the illegal immigration issue. It could be easily stopped if you fined and put in prison every company that dared to hire an illegal. Beyond that the immigrants are vilified when it is the politicians and U.S. companies that are just as big a problem.

Abortion - enough said.

I could go on, but there is a general lack of interest in confronting anything evil. Those that do are often stigmatized and labeled fanatics. Where is the hatred of what is evil and the passion to sacrifice to see that it is driven back into a corner instead of tolerated and rationalized?

In Jesus Name

Jarrett Jamieson

Becoming a Man/Woman of God

(Excerpts from a sermon preached at Journey Baptist 09/20/09. To hear that sermon go to www.journeybaptistchurch.com it is dated and titled, "Boys and Girls".)

It is interesting the degree of fear and timidness that I am struck with concerning this topic. The only way in which I have been able to approach it is through personal prayer and the prayer of others. I have also studied as hard for this sermon series as any I have ever preached. This is an incredibly difficult topic to teach on because of the incredible sensitivity about it. I also believe strongly that the enemy of Christ followers does not want to see us living out as men and women of God.

From the outset let me assure everyone that I do not believe that women should be "barefoot and pregnant". My mother was a working mom my entire life and I believe her to be one of the most Godly women I have ever been associated with. I also am not focusing in this series on the lines of authority in the church and home. I do believe that there are lines of authority within the Godhead (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) itself. I believe that the authority given us in life is meant for our good, is set up by God, and has the potential to be used for great good or great evil. These are not sermons about authority however.

The purpose of this sermon series, "Boys and Girls" is to teach us what the world, family, and church need most from women and from men.

2 truths we must believe to be Men/Women of God

1. Men and women reflect the glory of God in equally important ways; yet unique and differently!

Genesis 1:26&27 ²⁶ Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." ²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Both men and women reflect the image of God! This is critical to understand. When men are not living out the story that God is calling them too; then something of who God is goes untold. The absence of men living out His purposes means that their is a living sermon that is not preached, there is an awesome wonder that goes unseen, His fame and wonder is not known in the way that He wants it to be known.

Also, when women do not live out the purposes of God as He wants them too, living sermons go unpreached, awesome wonder goes unseen, and something of the image of God is unknown the way He desires it to be.

Men and women are different in physiology. That is obvious by simply opening your eyes. They are different in many other ways as well. We are different mentally, we are different emotionally, we are different relationally, we are different at the core of our being. Notice I said we are different; not better or worse. The reason we are different is because God made us differently to accomplish different aspects of the grand story He is telling in history (His story).

2. We need each other!

Genesis 2:18 ¹⁸ The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

Genesis 2:24 ²⁴ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

I Corinthians 1:11-12 ¹¹In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. ¹²For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.

I know that our culture has taught us that it is weakness to say we need anyone. If you really want to be weak then just say you need a woman as a man or you need a man as a woman. True strength according to our culture is to be John Wayne and just do everything by yourself, for yourself. This is the same culture that would tell us that dependence on God is also weakness! We know they are wrong about dependence on God being weakness. Paul said, "When I am weak then I am strong because God's strength is perfected in weakness". Many times until we realize we need God we will still try to do life without Him which leads to our weakness; not strength.

Somehow to say that you need somebody still seems weak to many Christ followers though. God is telling us through His word that despite what culture teaches us we do need one another. The unique strengths and weaknesses of men and women work best together in the home, the church, the government, and everywhere else. God has created men and women to need one another. Little boys need a momma and a daddy. Little girls need a momma and a daddy.

Unless you are given the gift of singleness then God wants you to be married. God said "it isn't good for man to be alone". We need men and women in the church, in the home, in government and everywhere else. Listen to the sermon for clarification here. I am not saying all single people should run out and get married. Use the common sense God gave you as well as His guidelines for marriage. What I am saying is this incredible push toward being independent in our culture is not from God. This is not the story God is wanting to tell. This is us trying to tell a different story.

So that is it in the way of preliminary truths for this series. This weeks sermon is titled, "Wounds and Curses". We will look at the barriers that keep us from living out Gods specific plans for our lives as men and women. The following 2 weeks will be, "What the world needs most from men" and "What the world needs most from women".

In Jesus Name

Jarrett Jamieson

Spiritual Warfare: Recognizing it and fighting back!

Ephesians 6:12 ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

The first step to recognizing and fighting spiritual warfare is believing the Bible when it says that spiritual warfare takes place! There really is more going on in this world than what you and I can see. See the blog post just before this one titled, "Are Satan and demons active in our day?" Most Christ followers are simply unaware that anything other than what they can see is going on. This is exactly Satan's plan.

Once we are willing to acknowledge the fact that the forces of all Hell are waged against Christ followers then we need to learn how to recognize Satan's schemes. We need to actually live as people at war. We need to do more than just say, "Okay Satan and demons exist". We need to realize that all Hell is gunning for us, our families, our friends, and those who are yet to be converted and changed by the power of Jesus.

Recognizing the schemes of Satan

Three different enemies attack us in our journey to follow Christ. The Bible identifies the three enemies as: The flesh, the world, and the devil. It is important to understand that these 3 enemies are working together against us in our attempt to be Christ followers. Although the enemies are working together they have different ways in which they work.

The Flesh

The flesh is called the old man and sinful nature in the Bible. These terms describe the old thoughts, habits, feelings, and desires that defined you before you became a Christ follower. These old ways do not leave when we become Christ followers. They are at war with the new thoughts, habits, feelings, and desires that the Spirit of God brings when He sets up residence in our life.

The World

The world refers to the world system that is set in direct opposition to the calling of God. If you simply float along in life the world system will take you directly through the gates of Hell. It takes a conscious decision followed by the power of Jesus to walk in the completely opposite direction than everyone else in culture. It is not just this culture that is walking the other direction. Every culture on earth is walking in the opposite direction from the Lord. If we are to follow Christ we must recognize we will be walking the wrong way to everyone else.

The Devil

The devil is a real person. He is incredibly powerful. He is not a beast with a pitch fork. He is probably quite beautiful in appearance if we were able to see him. He is also completely evil and his purpose is to kill, steal and destroy. He is served by an unknown number of fallen angels called demons. They are also incredibly powerful. There are different ranks of power and authority within his army just like any army. He uses these officers of evil as well as any skilled general who has ever fought a war to accomplish his will on this earth of killing, stealing, and destroying.

Identifying an attack

In general I know that I am being attacked by the enemy when I find that the nature of my problem is much larger than it should be. In other words, when I begin to have feelings of despair and depression that feel like a cloud being pressed down on me by an unseen hand. When those feelings are so powerful that I don't have the will to pray or even get up I begin to question, "Why these incredibly powerful feelings?" When my feelings seem out of my control and too big for me ...... they usually are!

Likewise when I find that I am having intrusive thoughts that seem out of my control. I think things that seem so evil. I can not seem to stop the thoughts of worry, lust, or violence. If my thoughts seem to big and powerful for me .... they may just be.

If my circumstances seem to pile up on me; if they are too big for me. If it is a flat tire, a sick baby, conflict at work, financial difficulty, the car breaks down, etc. If all this starts happening at once then maybe ....

When I begin to confront situations in my life that are overwhelming, seem too powerful for me, and are stealing my peace; I know that it is war! If you are a Christ follower; Satan can no longer steal your soul. He can steal the fruit of the Spirit from you though! So he wadges war on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and all the rest. I have noticed in particular that he will go after my peace. These fruits of the Spirit are much like domino's; if he can steal one of them the rest are usually quick to follow. It is difficult to have joy and not have peace!

Satan hates a Christ follower who is like a fruit tree to the world displaying these fruits of the Spirit. Within every piece of fruit you have ever had, unless it was altered, you have had to work around something ..... the seed. Fruit is made not for itself; it carries with it the fruits seed. The fruit of the Spirit carries with it the seed of the Holy Spirit. The most powerful witness to the world is a Christian full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and the rest when life is throwing all it has at them.

The weapons of the new war

Paul identifies the armor of God for us in Ephesians 6, which is to be prayed on, but I have also found it helpful to see how Jesus fought the war. Jesus life was driven by the purpose of God and not His own purpose. There is no strategy or substitute for being Spirit driven and not self driven. However, there are two bread and butter practices that we see Jesus use at the moment of attack. We should use these as well.

We see Jesus use the Scripture when He is tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Later, the night of His betrayal, we see Him praying with earnestness as He is attacked. His simple statement in prayer, "not my will but yours" is the most powerful act of the will that a Christ follower can employ. Not what I want God, but what you want is a weapon like no other against the attacks of the enemy. Trusting Gods love even when the circumstances seem horrible and telling Him so is powerful!

Sorry I have no new ideas on this, but it really is powerful to pray and read the Bible. Digesting the Bible in all its various ways: Study, reading, memorizing, meditating, and obeying. Praying in faith, persistently, out loud, with others, writing it out, asking others to pray. These are the basic weapons for warfare. These should be employed at the moment of attack, as well as, in preparation for the attack.

It is one thing to have the knowledge that this is what should be done and it is another to recognize the attack and go to the Word, or go to God in prayer, or go to other Christ followers who will pray for you. There is no substitute for actually fighting rather than just knowing about fighting!

II Corinthians 10:3-5 ³For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

In Jesus Name

Jarrett Jamieson

Are Satan and demons active in our day?

(These thoughts are excerpts from our discussion at our Wednesday N The Word meeting on 8/19/09)

In Mark 1 we see Jesus cast a demon out of a man in the synagogue at Capernaum. Where are demons and the demon possessed in modern day America? Was this something only for Jesus time?

Demons, Satan, and the demon possessed are just as active today as they ever were. The thing that is different is their direct approach. Demonic activity takes an indirect approach in the United States and the rest of the western world. However, demonic activity is still direct in other non-western nations (ie the nations in Africa, India, etc.)

The term direct or indirect approach means simply that in Jesus day Satan did not try to camouflage his activity at all. People in Jesus day knew those that were possessed. In the western world Satan seeks to work under the radar to accomplish his purposes. He is not direct and open with his activity.

Why are the activities of Satan indirect and disguised in the west?

The nations of the west are secular nations. By this I do not mean that these nations have no religion or are all atheist. It simply means that the cause and effect of everything is credited to the secular and not the spiritual. By contrast many of the nations of Africa, India, Central and South America are spiritual. This means that the cause and effect of everything in their culture is credited to the spiritual; even if the spiritual forces credited are not the Judeo-Christian God.

If you ask a person in the United States why it rains they will likely respond by talking to you about high and low pressure systems, barometric pressure, the evaporation of water, and so on. If you ask a person in Congo why it rains they will say because God made it rain. If you ask a person in any western country about illness they will talk to you about germs, viruses, the condition of the heart and lungs, blood pressure, medicine, etc. If you ask someone in a village in Honduras they will tell you that God is angry at them.

The point of this explanation is not about who is right or wrong. It is simply to show why Satan operates differently in different cultures. Most people in the United States would be scared closer to God if they ever saw demonic activity in an open and direct way. That is obviously not Satan's purpose. His purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10). In the United States the best way he can do that is to allow people to go on thinking that spiritual things are only important at church or philosophy class. Practical, everyday issues can not be helped by a discussion of the spiritual. Most in the west do not believe that spiritual forces influence their lives. It should be obvious then, why Satan would take a very indirect approach in this country. Satan does not want to scare us out of a belief that is clearly helping his cause.

How can we observe the work of Satan and demons in the United States?

A few months ago I saw a T.V. show that was about gang activity. There was a leader of the Mexican Mafia gang who was in solitary confinement because he was so dangerous. No one from the outside was allowed near him. His only contact was with prison guards who were closely monitored. He was allowed the privilege of sending and receiving mail as part of the rights offered every inmate. He was so intelligent that he would write letters containing codes giving orders to the gang on the inside of prison and outside. Expert code breakers had examined his letters and could not break the code. Each time a letter was sent out people would carry out his orders by killing people. Here is a man who is completely confined. He can not hurt anyone on the inside or out. If no one ever listens to him again he is powerless to do anything. Yet somehow he still holds great power and influence over many people. He is also using that influence to do great evil.

Whenever I see someone in any area of life who has a disproportional amount of power and influence that is also using it for evil; I believe it is often the result of demonic activity. I believe that there are men and women who are religious leaders, mob leaders, pimps, political leaders, and so on who are just as possessed as anyone in Jesus day.

Another way that Satan expresses demonic control and influence over people in the west is through drugs. The Greek word for witchcraft in the New Testament is pharimicia. This is where we get our word pharmacy. If you think about what a witch doctor would do in Jesus day it is similar to what is done with modern medicine. People went to the witch doctor for sickness, emotional problems, to conceive children, to fall in love, and a host of other things. In each case, the witch doctor would prescribe a regimen of things that should be ingested and stir up something in a black cauldron for them to take.

I am not against taking medicine. I take antibiotics, claritin for allergies, and just about anything else that the doctor tells me to take when I am sick. However, it is also clear that the west has an incredible drug problem. We take drugs for everything! The use of prescription and illegal drugs is rampant in the west. I believe that if someone in Jesus day saw someone in our day that was high, or addicted to drugs; they would immediately conclude they were possessed.

The activity of demons is not absent from our day and our country, but it does look different. Satan is still trying to accomplish the same things he was 2000 years ago; stealing, killing, and destroying. He uses an indirect approach in the west because it better suits his needs, but we would be foolish to ignore his work.

Stay tuned for further post in the future about spiritual warfare in the life of Christ followers.

In Jesus Name

Jarrett

Fasting ... the purpose and practice for Christ Followers.

(These thoughts were taken from our discussion on Wednesday 8/26 at our Wednesday N The Word meeting)

In Matthew 6 Jesus makes the statement, "when you fast ..." This is an implicit command. Jesus didn't say you need to fast, but what He did do was assume that Christ followers would fast. In Mark 2 Jesus is asked why the disciples of the Pharisee's and John the Baptist fast but His disciples do not. He responds that when He is taken from them they will fast. So it is clear that fasting is a discipline that Christ followers should be engaged in. However, there is no step by step process given in Scripture that tells us how to do it. There is not really one concise portion of Scripture that tells us the purpose for fasting.

The purpose of this blog is to share with you what I have learned about the purpose and practice of fasting through study of the Scripture, experience, and the teaching of others that I trust.

What's the purpose of fasting?

Benefits of fasting include:

1) Renewing your fire, passion, and zeal for God when you feel blah about the things of God!

2) Shaking loose the desires of the flesh so that you can clearly see what you want as a new creation in Jesus and what you think you want because you are being deceived by your old desires!

3) Freedom from active sins where we have the clear command of God and yet we keep breaking His commands. (worry, lust, pride, etc.)

Freedom from active sins:

There are 2 major categories of sin. There are sins of commission and sins of omission. Sins of omission are when we neglect to do things that we know that God wants us to do (James 4:17). Sins of commission are when we violate the commands of God. Jesus taught us not to worry. Jesus taught us not to lust. Jesus us taught us not to allow our anger to continue. Doing these things are sins of commission.

Generally speaking if you are omitting actions that you should be doing it is right to add disciplines to you life to help with this. One can practice the good they know they ought to do by tithing, going to church, giving to the poor, reading the Bible, etc.

Sins of commission are best dealt with by taking things away; not by adding more to your plate. This makes fasting an incredible discipline to help combat sins of commission. The reasons why are tied to the next benefit, clarifying the desires of the flesh and Spirit.

Clarifying the desires of the flesh and the Spirit:

We are all born with the desires of the flesh. It is natural for us to lust for power, pleasure, and stuff. It is natural to worry. It is natural to defend what is ours. It is natural to hold a grudge. The thing that makes walking with Jesus difficult is it is so un-natural. It is ... super natural.

For this reason God has given us His Spirit for those who have become Christ followers. By His Spirit He has given us a new set of desires (will or want to's). Before we were Christ followers we had no desire for the things of God. Our natural desires (flesh, old man, sinful nature) directed our every thought and action.

The difficulty with all of this is that when the Holy Spirit came with a new set of desires the old desires did not go away. The old set of desires are still very alive within us. These two sets of desires are at war within us (Romans 7:23).

Most of the time we never question what we want to do. When we want to do something we just do it. I want to go to sleep, I want to make more money, I want to eat, I want to watch T.V. We just do whatever we want to do most of the time. The problem is that sometimes the flesh is sending the desires through you and sometimes the Spirit is sending the desires. We have great difficulty distinguishing between the two. We usually never even question it. We believe that what we want is who we are. That is not true though!

Satan wants you to believe that you are who you are when you are at your worst. God knows different and wants to teach us that we are who He says we are and who we one day will become.

Fasting teaches us that every time we are hungry (have desire) we do not have to immediately obey whatever that desire may be. It teaches us that we can say like Jesus, "My food is to do the will of my Father". We can realize the statement Jesus made that "He is the bread of life". Saying no to our physical desire to eat teaches us that other desires that seem so natural to us can be re-examined in light of God's Spirit.

It is a discipline that clarifies our desires like nothing else I have ever practiced!

Renewing your fire, passion, and zeal for the things of God:

Americans and most Christians could well be described as lazy, apathetic, unconcerned, floating through life, unmoved, and blah.

Proverbs 27:7 Says, "He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet."

When we are full of food we have no desire even for what might taste sweet. When we are hungry there is a great desire even for what otherwise might be bitter. Our desires are connected strongly to fullness and emptiness. When we fast and empty ourselves of food physically it taps into not only our physical desire for food but all of our desires.

In the same way that getting on your knees when you pray affects your prayer time and singing, clapping your hands, raising your hands, affect your worship; fasting affects you at the heart level with all of your desires.

I have never come out of a time of prayer and fasting without being restored and excited even if I was discouraged and blah before!

How to practice the discipline of fasting:

• Don't start on a 40 day fast if you have never fasted for a meal:) It is better to start with 1 meal and then move up to 2 meals, then one day, etc.

• Fasting and prayer are almost always mentioned together in Scripture. Use the growling of your belly to be a reminder to pray.

• It is helpful to pray about 1 or 2 things that you would like to see God do instead of a huge list of things. You lose focus and energy when you first begin to fast and the point should be to focus your desire and your request. Narrow your focus by narrowing your list:)

• Be open to learning what God wants to teach you in your time with God while fasting.

In Jesus Name

Jarrett Jamieson

Thankfulness in the life of a Christ follower ...

In Luke 17 the story is told of Jesus coming upon 10 lepers who begged Him from a distance to heal them. Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priest. When they had done so they saw that they were healed. One of the men came back and threw himself at Jesus feet praising Jesus and thanking Him for restoring his health. Jesus asked, "Where are the other 9, weren't they healed?" It bothered Jesus that He blessed these men and only 1 returned to thank Him; only 1 praised Him, worshiped Him, or gave Him credit!

I am sure that the other 9 were excited. I bet they threw parties, cried, ran to tell everyone what had happened to them. What they didn't do was something so simple. They didn't thank Jesus.

In Romans 1 Paul tells us that one of the first steps toward having a mind completely distorted by sin is that people stop glorifying and thanking God. (Romans 1:21).

Why is Jesus concerned with our thankfulness? How can this be the first step toward a mind controlled by sin?

When we become un-thankful to God for all the things He gives us it shows that we have forgotten where are blessings come from. One man remembered that it was only by Jesus mercy that he was healed. The other 9 got so caught up in the blessing that they did what we do. They thought about themselves instead of God. It wouldn't have taken much time for them to stop and thank Jesus; just like it doesn't take us much time.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights (James 1:17)

Absolutely all we have that is good in this life and the one to come came from God to us as a gift. We do not deserve His goodness. We complain about all that is wrong with our life, but all of that is because of our sin, the sin of others, or the fact that we live in a sin sick creation. We fail to give God any credit for the good things that we do have in our life. If it is good; it came from Him!

It is 3:30 A.M. on Wednesday morning. I am sitting at the bedside of my nephew who is 14 months old. He has tubes coming out everywhere and is breathing on a ventilator, but he is alive. It looks as though he may make a full recovery. Honestly, I am ashamed to say I don't think I had ever thanked God for his life. I had played with him, laughed with and at him, and missed him when he was gone, but I never thanked God for him. Since his illness I have probably prayed for him a thousand times. I have begged God to heal him and restore his life to him. It is strange how when something is taken from us we appreciate it, but when we have it we do not to the fullest. I believe that this is part of the sickness of sin running through us. I desire to grow in thankfulness to God for everything He has given me. I want to be more and more aware that anything good I have or ever hope to have will come from His hand. I know that the practice of this knowledge is a key to Godliness. The lack of it is the first step toward a sin sick mind. Lord make us thankful for your many gifts, remind us of your goodness, and heal us from the constant taking for granted of things that are precious to us ... Amen

Stuff not to do when you travel ...

Here is some stuff I learned not to do from this last vacation we went on down to Mount Dora, FL. to see my brother.

Don't ever accept directions on the way out of town that are hurriedly given to you and pronounced as a short cut. We ended up making it out of town just fine but right before we were leaving my brother offers us a shortcut for our trip. Red flags should have went up, sirens went off, somebody should have tackled one of us, but since none of that happened I was like wow I could save a whole 5 minutes sure let me go the new way and take 15 turns.

Apparently in FL there are 7 or 8 480 west roads off of 448 or something like that. The really confusing thing is that all the 440 west turns do not exit the same direction ... some exit to the right and some to the left. You would think if they are all WEST then they would all go WEST. I know some of you are thinking Jarrett they probably exit the wrong way but loop around and end up going west .... oh no ... this is FL! They do whatever they want. I looked and they in fact do not loop around. There are roads in FL named 440 west that in fact go east. So maybe the overall lesson is don't take shortcuts in FL.

Lesson 2 .... Everything in Fl is different! I have been to the beach a few times in Florida and I even stayed in a hotel in Jacksonville once, but I have never lived for like a week in a normal Florida suburb ... let me just say it is crazy. I was having Mississippi culture shock by the time we got home. Kari and I thought about jumping out and kissing the ground when we saw the big Mississippi sign near Tupelo on 78. I met a lady at Thomas church and she said are you enjoying your stay and I said yes but everything is different down here. She said what do you mean. I said well where do I begin. The houses, the plants, the food, the red lights, the animals, the setup of shopping centers, walmart ... at some point she stopped me and agreed the plants were different. Kari and I looked for a walgreens that I had seen the night before for like 30 minutes while she had a headache because their walgreens stores don't look at all like ours here. They have tolls in FL on their roads. You have to pay to drive on the road! I know they have this many places but I am glad they don't have it around here. Missing the tolls was another reason we took the"shortcut". Everything is more expensive. Suffice it to say FL is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.

Lesson 3 don't purchase a massive fountain drink without tasting it first ... you could be stuck for the next 300 miles with a drink that taste like something out of a science lab.

Lesson 4 and the last lesson of the trip ... don't pull your car up so that the front reaches over the curb and rest on the ground. We did that at the hotel we stayed at on the way home. Unbeknownst to us the front of the car was resting in an ant hill. Fortunately it was not a fire ant hill but a black ant hill. Unfortunately the ants soon learned that we had left a sonic bag from the night before in the passenger side floorboard.

Please tell me what do you do when you come out of a hotel ready to begin a 7 hour trip and realize that the car is black with ants on the inside. Also the ants were not just inside the car but they were actually all under the hood as well because we had placed the nose of the car in their house so they decided to invade ours. I don't know what you do ... but here is what we did. I took the floor mats out and beat them like crazy. I smashed as many ants as I could with my hands. I put all of the stuff without ants on it in the trunk and threw all the garbage away. Then Kari and I took the most uncomfortable ride you can imagine a few miles down the road looking for a car wash and a vacuum.

We finally found one at a service station but not before everyone who saw us thought we were high. We were slapping and twitching and jerking our heads around like we had a bad trip or something. After a couple of hours at the gas station, 1 can of ant spray, 1 awesome interior vacuum, and 1 deluxe car wash we were on our way. We still found a few ants and we still were swatting and twitching for the first 200 miles even when stuff wasn't there. If that is the definition of high then I guess we were high on ant spray. Let ants invade your car and lets see if you don't do some slapping and jerking.

That's all the tips I got. I really wouldn't have known any of these before the trip. We did have an awesome time and my brother and his wife were awesome host. I took naps on consecutive days and to me that is a vacation:)

How do you gain instruction from the Bible for your life today?

To take a principal from the Bible and allow it to instruct you today is called application. Application is defined as putting something to use. To apply the Bible means to be a doer of the word and not just as hearer, as the book of James instructs us to do.

A few convictions help in this process. The Bible is a book unlike other books with the power to radically change your life! Nothing in the Bible was written by accident; it is all important. The Bible is not merely to be heard or understood, but lived and practiced.With these convictions in mind, perhaps the most important thing we will ever do is discover how to live out and practice what the Bible is teaching!Some passages are very straightforward and need little help with application. "Do not steal". Application could be made helping us to think of stealing in some different ways than we normally do, but all understand what stealing is. Do not steal makes for easy application because it is both specific and makes sense within our culture.

What about Jesus command to love your neighbor as yourself? This command is easy enough to understand within our culture, but how many ways can you say, "I love you" to someone? If this command is to be lived out daily we must make it more specific. How will I love people today? God's word fleshes this command out throughout Scripture. For example there are 52 "one another" commands in the New Testament that help flesh out specifically how to love our neighbors ... greet one another, serve one another, bare with one another, forgive one another, etc. To live out loving our neighbor we must make it specific.

Sometimes the Scripture will already be very specific, but it is speaking of things that are foreign to us culturally. An example of this is Paul’s instructions about eating meat sacrificed to idols in I cor. 8. In Paul’s day a debate arose about if it was wrong to eat meat that was sacrificed to an idol. The meat could be purchased by people at a discounted rate and many believers saw nothing wrong with eating it; since they did not participate in the pagan worship. Other believers thought it was wrong to eat this meat precisely because it was used in the worship of another god. Paul weighs in on the issue and teaches that if a believer whose conscience is offended by eating this meat sees another brother eating it then he may be tempted to eat also. If the weaker brother eats it and his conscious is offended then it is wrong for him. Because whatever we do we should do out of faith and not fear. So Paul’s instruction to those who have no problem eating the meat is: "Don't do it if it causes your weaker brother to stumble".

This passage was used during the 60's to condemn men for wearing their hair long. People would say you don't need to do anything that offends your brothers and the older folks are offended at your long hair. If you loved Jesus and your brothers you would cut your hair they would say. The problem with this application is that when you take a specific principal of Scripture and generalize it to fit life today you must take all of the teaching precisely as it was taught then. Paul’s concern was that weaker brothers might be tempted to engage in activities that their conscious told them was wrong. In this case they would eat out of fear instead of faith. There was no temptation for older people in the 60's to wear their hair longer. The passage was incorrectly applied because those using it only applied half the teaching ... the part about not doing stuff that offended people. In that case the teaching could have been used the other way to say, you who are older should get over people having long hair and not be offended because they are younger in age and possibly in the faith.

A more accurate application of this text in our day would deal with drinking alcohol. There is not a command that says, thou shalt not drink, but there are many warning passages that tell us it is unwise. Obviously it is a divisive issue just like eating idol meat was in Paul’s day. It could be said if a brother is offended in conscious, but sees you who are stronger drinking and is tempted themselves to drink then you have destroyed your weaker brother so that you could drink.So when a passage is general you must make it more specific to live it out and when it is specific and different from your culture you must generalize it, making sure you take all of its teaching into account.

What changes are you making in your life today because of the teaching of the Bible?

Why do we worship on Sunday instead of Saturday? (The Sabbath)

Colossians 2:16-17 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

Hebrews 4:8-11For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.

Romans 14:5-8One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

It is clear from these passages that the sabbath day that the Jews observed under the law was not something that Christ followers were intended to follow in the same way they did. The sabbath day had many purposes under the law but one of its primary purposes was to point the Jews toward the one who would come and give them true rest from all their work. Jesus work on the cross put an end to all the working to try to be good enough or make up for all the wrong we had done. Jesus would later look out into a crowd of people who understood the sabbath and the law and say, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28
Jesus was offering real rest to people; not just a day off from chores and your job, but a deep rest of the soul. Jesus was offering to walk with us in this life and the one to come and join Himself with us so we never have to do life alone again. This is one of my favorite Jesus promises!We as Christ followers now celebrate and worship on Sunday the day Jesus rose from the grave and made His offer for real rest valid. The Jews observed the sabbath on Saturday; the day before. Our celebration on the day Christ rose is part of the fulfillment of the promise which the 1st passage says was a shadow of things to come.

How well are you resting in Jesus?