Grace piled upon Grace!

Let's be clear about one thing: God has piles of grace available. Piles of it. Make no mistake -- there's no risk of Him running short of it. The Apostle John wrote, "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace" (John 1:16). That last phrase could be translated literally as, we have received "grace piled upon grace"!

This thread runs throughout the New Testament -- a great theme emphasizing a great gift of which we are all utterly undeserving, but which God lavishes on His children without calculation! 

Paul wrote that "where sin abounded, grace abounded much more" (Romans 5:20)! 

Paul wrote of receiving an "abundance of grace" (Rom. 5:17), of redemption "according to the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7), and of being granted "the glory of His grace" (Ephesians 1:6)! 

We are "justified by His grace" (Titus 3:7), given "good hope by grace" (2 Thess. 2:16) and can "come boldly to the throne of grace" to "find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16)!

Abounding and abundant riches of grace revealing God's glory and justifying sinners, and providing hope and help to us all! Grace piled upon grace for all of us to enjoy!

But may we never become so enamoured with the warm sunshine of God's grace that we fail to marvel at the glorious Star of Heaven that is its source. Those piles and piles of grace were poured out from the absolute fullness of Jesus, of which John reminds us we have all received and can enjoy -- each and every day, no matter what our circumstances!

So if grace is all about God's favour being available to us regardless of our merits, and it's available to us in such extravagant abundance -- literally piled into our laps and lives -- why would we ever again doubt the love of Jesus, the infinite source of infinite grace? 

© 2014 by Ken Peters

No Other Option

What do you do when a big-time need gets worse and worse as you pray for years and years? Is there ever a time to stop asking God about it? Is it possible that God wants the fact that He hasn't answered "Yes" to such prayers to be understood as a "No" and that we should should stop asking Him further about it?

My short answer to that is: there sometimes are such times, but each person needs the Holy Spirit to make that very clear to them.

My longer answer is: the only verses in the Bible that I can think of in which someone is told to stop praying is God telling Jeremiah not to pray for a people whom God had already decided to judge for their sins (Jeremiah 7:16; 11:14). In those cases, God knew that His fatherly discipline was what was clearly needed in the situation and there was no point praying for an alternative approach. God made that very clear to Jeremiah (see short answer above).

But it's a big Bible, and I can't see that happening anywhere else in Scripture. What I see more of is God's call to keep on praying and to not give up!

I see Samuel saying, "As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you" (1 Samuel 12:23).

I see David saying, "As for me, I will call upon God... Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice" (Psalm 55:16-17).

I see Jesus saying, "Keep on asking for something to be given and it shall be given to you" (Matthew 7:7, Kenneth Wuest's "Expanded Translation").

I see Paul saying, "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). And I see Paul giving us a wonderful glimpse in Colossians of his convictions regarding persistent prayer.

The overwhelming message of the Bible is that we must not give up asking, even if an answer is slow in coming. In fact, Jesus went out of His way to make sure that we knew what to do when answers didn't come quickly. Luke tells us that "He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart" (Luke 18:1) and then proceeded to tell them a story about a widow who had to persist in prayer because an answer was slow in coming. Jesus was basically warning us, as if to say, "This happens sometimes, so don't give up when it does."

So until I get a clear word from God telling me otherwise, I've got to persist! No matter how I feel about the delays or the circumstances, I've got no other option except to pray and keep on praying when answers don't come. Giving up is not an option.

"And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him?" (Luke 18:7). That's something we can count on.

© 2014 by Ken Peters

Learning When to Look

You've probably heard of the silly portrayal of how dogs are so easily distracted by things they see -- a portrayal often imitated when people are making fun of someone who can't focus?

I can be like that. And sometimes it's not so funny. Like when I see things that aren't wholesome to look at, or that cause my heart to covet, or that cause me to lose heart because I end up focused on something sad.

There are two instances about two inches apart on a page in my Bible in which people lift their eyes and look at something. And in one case it's a good thing, and in the other case it turns out not so good. And only today did I appreciate a lesson to be learned from the contrast.

In Genesis 13:10 it says, "And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar." Then four verses later, it says, "And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: 'Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are -- northward, southward, eastward, and westward'" (13:14). 

I'm intrigued by the fact that Lot may have looked at things prematurely -- before looking to the LORD -- to identify what would be best for him from his own limited perspective. But Abraham seems to have waited until the Lord spoke to him before he looked closely at what was around him.

F.B. Meyer writes, "Abraham lifted up his eyes, not to discern what would best make for his material interests, but to behold what God had prepared for him. How much better it is to keep the eye steadfastly fastened on God till He says to us! -- 'Lift up now thine eyes, and look...'"

I'm so easily distracted from the great big God I love to follow, that I'm like that dog, except that I'm more likely to suddenly say "Trouble!" instead of "Squirrel!" But now I hear God telling me to look at Him before I look at things around me. He wants me to first gaze at Him, waiting until He tells me to lift my eyes and look, because He knows I'll find it difficult seeing some of the things around me without His help.

And then when I lift my eyes and look, I'll see with the eyes of faith that come when one has been given divine perspective. I'll see things with hope and trust, because what I see will be combined with what God has spoken to me when my gaze was fixed on Him.

© 2014 by Ken Peters

Walking blind. It's good for me.

When we get out of bed each day, we really don't have a clue, do we? We may think we do, but when we really think about it, how sure can we be of what's going to happen each day? Yeah, we've got plans, but do we really know all that's going to come our way between waking up and hitting the hay? But even though certainty in circumstances is an illusion, we can walk each day with confidence when we know that God is leading the way. I think of this as walking blind. I don't know what's coming, but God does, and He has me by the hand.

Abraham understood this when God told him to get up and go to an unknown land that God would show him (Genesis 12:1). I love F.B. Meyer's almost poetic description of Abraham's response: "Whither he went, he knew not; it was enough for him to know that he went with God. He leant not so much upon the promise as upon the Promiser: he looked not on the difficulties of his lot -- but on the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God; who had deigned to appoint his course, and would certainly vindicate Himself."

Every morning, God calls us to get up and enter an unknown day. Where today will take me I don't know for sure, but it's enough to know that God is with me, that He loves me and has everything under control. It's enough to know that God is good and wants to guide me through each day. I just need to let Him as I pay attention to Him in every room I enter and on every road I travel. 

Walking blind takes faith, but if we choose to do so, God will lead us to yet unknown destinations we will only reach by trusting Him; exciting God-destinations that we will only get to with God leading the way. "Ah, glorious faith!" writes F.B. Meyer, "this is thy work, these are thy possibilities! – contentment to sail with sealed orders, because of unwavering confidence in the love and wisdom of the Lord High Admiral"!

© 2014 by Ken Peters

Blessed Assurance!

There is a little verse in Colossians that I have found to be one of the most reassuring verses in the entire Bible -- partly because of what Paul wrote and partly because of the order in which he wrote it. It's a verse that provides me with immense hope regarding my unchangeable standing before a loving God.

Paul wrote, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience" (Colossians 3:12, NIV).

The first reason I'm so encouraged by this verse is because of what it doesn't say. It does NOT say, "Therefore, so that you may be God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with..." We weren't "chosen" because we met some heavenly criteria. We're not called "holy" because we lived sinlessly for some kind of test-period. We're not "dearly loved" by God because we somehow impressed Him with our sanctity. We are all those things Paul mentions before we've done a single thing for God (other than turning to Him, which we needed His help to do anyway)!

This verse makes it abundantly clear that chosen, holy and dearly loved are not our goals, but are the starting point in our life with God -- and for each and every day we live for God.

Then it gets even more encouraging when we realize that every one of the things God asks us to clothe ourselves with -- "compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience" -- describe who God is. That not only makes it clear how wonderful God is, but it means that as we stumble inconsistently along on our journey of growing in these virtues, God graciously treats us in the very same ways He calls us to live.

But there's more! We know that because Jesus is the embodiment of each of these qualities, that it's Him we're to seek, rather than the traits themselves, in order to grow in them. We grow in compassion by seeking Jesus who is Compassion, and likewise for each. By seeing it this way, we put nothing before Christ and seek nothing more than Him. After all, isn't Jesus all we need?

Our life with God couldn't be described more wonderfully. As we begin with God, and as we begin each day we live for Him, He declares us chosen, holy and loved. Then as we continue living for Him, He simply asks us to seek Jesus, and only Jesus, that we may grow to be more and more like Him!

© 2014 by Ken Peters

When weak prayers are strong

You pray and pray and pray, and then what? People encourage you to persevere. Knock and keep on knocking, they say. You wonder if they could possibly know how weak your prayers feel after all these years? But you keep praying, though the passion in your prayers feels a shadow of what it once was. You wonder if God is even listening as your prayers seem to have lost their potency, and you're no longer even sure what to pray.

And then God speaks: "...the Spirit helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words" (Romans 8:26).

What a relief that God sent a Helper to come alongside us (John 14:16)! My prayers may be weak, but He can make them strong. However weak you may feel your prayers have become as they dribble off your lips after uncounted repetitions, be encouraged that the Spirit has been sent to lift our feeble prayers to greater heights, ensuring that they reach God's ears with groanings that echo our anguish and with a clarity that contradicts our confusion.

That word "helps" is a big word with even bigger implications. The Greek word originally used is sunantilambano, and literally "speaks of the action of a person coming to another's aid by taking hold over against that person, of the load he is carrying. The person helping does not take the entire load, but helps the person in his endeavor" (source, vol. 1). 

In fact, I would dare to suggest that such Spirit-assisted prayers are potentially more effective than the lofty prayers of some who may be so confident that they utter their prayers without relying on the Spirit for His help. That is why God has no difficulty hearing what we consider "weak" prayers. Because by the time they reach His ears through His Spirit's intercession, there is nothing weak about them!

© 2014 by Ken Peters

A Multitude of Pauses

What's your view on waiting? Do you enjoy it? Do you look forward to it? Yesiree, I can't wait to wait! Not. People generally don't like waiting. Just the idea of having to wait can prevent us from going somewhere good. We don't want to wait in line, we don't want to waste our time. 

Yet waiting is a core piece of the Christian life, and always leads to something good when God is who we're waiting for. And though He knows we get tired of waiting for Him, His antidote for tiredness is to wait! "Those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31).

This practice of waiting for God is meant to be an encouraging constant in our lives. The word "wait" in the Hebrew language means more than our anemic North American idea of waiting. It means to look forward to something eagerly and expectantly. It means "enduring patiently in confident hope that God will decisively act" on behalf of His people (source).

But what makes waiting so unattractive is when it goes on and on and on! And that's often the kind of waiting the Bible speaks about as His people waited decades for deliverance from Babylon, or for centuries for deliverance from Egypt, or even for millenia for the Messiah to come. Like Abraham, I've waited 25 years for a promise to be fulfilled.

And it's because waiting so long can just feel impossible that I make it my aim to wait for God in smaller doses. I can do this by stopping regularly - repeatedly - in the midst of my routines to wait, and to lean in and listen, all with a focus on a gracious God who loves me. All I need to do is to pause...  ...pause in my pursuits and look up, asking God for wisdom, patience or strength. The more I learn to practice such pauses, the more strength I gain, the more wisdom I glean and the more I sense God's presence.

All these minor pauses add up to a lifestyle of waiting for God that makes a long wait seem less wearisome as we repeatedly draw on the strength God supplies every time we stop to lean on Him. So if waiting for God is growing tiring, break it up a bit, and do it many times a day. You'll gain "new strength" every time.

© 2014 by Ken Peters

Go ahead. Take it easy.

What would you say to a weary saint who simply longed for life to be easy? It almost seems like that's a bad word among serious Christians! After all, Jesus worked so hard, and the apostle Paul worked so hard. There must be something wrong with the idea of "easy." And with phrases like "count the cost" and "carry your cross," we obviously don't associate the Christian life with the word "easy." We speak of endurance amidst warfare and of labourers in the harvest fields. Easy?! No Christian should settle for easy!

And yet, Jesus said that "My yoke is easy" and to "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me" (Matthew 11:28-30). Did Jesus actually use the word "easy"? Yes, and He also called Himself "the Good Shepherd" (John 10:11) knowing that King David had already declared that "The LORD is my shepherd" and that "He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul" (Psalm 23:1-3a).

You want easy? Come to Jesus. (There's something you don't hear too often!) And Jesus tells us that the key to the yoke that's "easy" is that it is only possible as we "learn from" Him. This means being in the yoke with Him, spending time with Him, and I suggest that it also means that Jesus is inviting us to have a seat with Him where He is seated! Jesus is saying to each of us, "C'mon up here and sit and stay awhile! Have a seat with Me."

When Paul wrote that God "raised us up with Him [Jesus], and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6), he fully expected us to embrace the posture of one who is personally seated together with Jesus in heaven. And from that posture, we learn from Jesus how to "walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called" (Eph. 4:1) and how to "stand firm against the schemes of the devil" (Eph. 6:11). But it all begins with the wondrous ease of being seated with Jesus. 

Watchman Nee, in his wonderful book "Sit, Walk, Stand", wrote that "There is no limit to the grace God is willing to bestow upon us. He will give us everything, but we can receive none of it except as we rest in Him. 'Sitting' is an attitude of rest." Nee marvels at the paradox that the only way to advance as a Christian is to sit down!

In other words, the Kingdom of God is such that we don't work hard so that we can sit and rest, but we are seated so that we can accomplish more. "For Christianity begins not with a big DO, but with a big DONE... we are invited at the very outset to sit down and enjoy what God has done for us" (Nee).

So in answer to my initial question above, I'd be inclined to say, "No problem! There's a beautiful comfy chair waiting for you right here beside Jesus. Please: sit down with Him, and take it easy."

© 2014 by Ken Peters

Stay there. You are surrounded.

Once you know how good God is, you want His presence in your life more than anything. And there are loads of verses in the Bible that promise that God is "in" those who follow Jesus and that He is always "with" us. But I came across a word that tells me that He's also got us surrounded!

There's a word in Titus 2:14 that's translated "peculiar" in the King James Version: "who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people" (Greek: periousios). We might think at first glance that that means we must be a bit strange or unusual or odd (and perhaps some of us are). But modern translations don't mention that. The NASB translates the same word as "a people for His own possession" and the NIV translates it as "a people that are his very own". That's because the word periousios is derived from two other words that mean "around" (as in, a circle), and "to be." As Kenneth Wuest points out in his wonderful book, Golden Nuggets from his Word Studies from the Greek New Testament, this word can be visualized as a dot within a circle.

We are the dot, Jesus is the circle, and Jesus has encircled us. We are completely surrounded by an infinitely loving and all-powerful God, because we are much more than simply a dot to Him! That's why the NASB and NIV choose to translate Titus 2:14 as they do: God has His people all to Himself just as "the circle monopolizes the dot" (Wuest). God brings us in close, surrounds us and protects us, and only allows anything outside that circle to come in if it's His will for it to do so. And then He keeps us surrounded to help us to deal with the tests or trials He allows in. 

That's right. So stay there. He's got you surrounded.

© 2014 by Ken Peters

Reading List 2011

     For the past two years, I've tracked what I've been reading here on my blog. If it's served no other purpose, I get the feeling that it has encouraged me to keep reading the books that I get started on. And just like I posted my 2010 reading list at the end of last December, below is a list of all the books that I read in 2011 (in the order I completed them).
     For some reason, 2011 seemed to end up being the Year of the Biography for me. Eight of the 15 books below are either biographical or auto-biographical (and there's a ninth if I include Kendall's devotional book on the life of Joseph). I guess that's because when I'm not reading something devotional or theological, I tend to gravitate toward historical books, which are often about people rather than about events.
     Apart from all the books listed here, I also read the Bible through each year. I believe the Bible is God's inspired Word to us, and of all the things I read, I see the Bible as what is most essential for me to be feeding on.
Perhaps there's a book listed here that you'd enjoy reading. And please feel free to leave a comment if there's a book you'd like to recommend that I read in 2012. Just please be patient with me, as I've already got a few books on my shelf that are waiting to be read!

1. Filling up the Afflictions of Christ by John Piper. This book was given to me as a gift, and I'm glad it was. It tells the stories of William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson and John Paton, and of the price they paid to bring the Gospel to the nations. Their stories put life in a right perspective. The introduction alone has been enough to get my attention and to challenge any self-pity that's slinking around in my heart!
2. Release the Power of Jesus by Bill Johnson. I read this during a week of prayer and fasting at my church. Whatever you might think of Bill Johnson, I find my faith increases as I consider the insights he shares in his books. This particular book addresses the power in recalling and recounting the works of God in our lives, which build faith for God to do even more.
3. The Roots Of Endurance by John Piper. Having really enjoyed and having been greatly challenged by another biographical book, Filling up the Afflictions of Christ (see above), I chose this book to be the next book I read while walking the treadmill. That way I get changed in more ways than one while doing my exercise! Piper has done an amazing job in this series, The Swans are not Silent, of summarizing the stories of godly saints that have faithfully gone before us and of making the themes of their lives so applicable to our own.
4. Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda. I received this book as an unexpected birthday gift due to a fascination I've long had with T.E. Lawrence's experiences in Arabia. Though I certainly don't personally consider T.E. Lawrence a "hero" (as he seemed a very strange man in many respects), I have appreciated how thoroughly he became enculturated into Arab culture out of a somewhat distorted desire to help them to make a unified nation of themselves. The book was as much about WWI and the formation of the Middle East after WWI as about Lawrence, and I found it very readable and informative.
5. Thanking God by R.T. Kendall. My pastor recommended this book to me -- and when your pastor recommends a book to you, well, I figure I'd better read it! In actual fact though, I really wanted to read it. Gratitude has not been a strong suit in my life and I believe I need to grow in it. And in the same way that this book has been a wonderful inspiration to many in this regard, God has used the lessons it contains to stir me to becoming more consistently and deliberately thankful!
6. The Cross of Christ by John R.W. Stott. This book has been described as "a great achievement" and "the work of a lifetime" as it digs deep into the truths of a pivotal moment in history that I'm sure anyone would benefit from understanding more fully. But what excited me most about this book was that John Stott does far more than simply explain doctrine. As he unpacks what was accomplished by Christ's death on the cross, he emphasizes "the heart of the cross" and all it achieved, and what all that can and should mean, right now, in my heart and in my everyday Christian life.
7. Mugged by a Moose, edited by Matt Jackson. I was looking in a used bookstore for something light to read during a summer holiday and found this -- 23 short stories written about other people's holidays and travels. Some were funny, some inspiring, and others just made me shrug. But it was interesting to read of some of the crazy adventures some people ended up in.
8. Design Basics Index by Jim Krause. My wife Fiona took a chance and bought this for me as a Father's Day gift, and I really liked it! It's written for graphic designers to help with designing compositions and with selecting and appropriately placing components for their projects. Problem is, I'm just a wanna-be graphic designer, and even that's probably an overstatement. But I do like playing with desktop publishing projects and this gave me lots of input on how to do that better.
9. Lost Victories: The Military Genius of Stonewall Jackson by Bevin Alexander. I picked this up in a used bookstore while I was on summer holidays. I'm fascinated by American Civil War history, and have long admired Stonewall Jackson as an exceptional general who fought in that war. Though this book may give him a little too much credit with a whole lot of would'a, could'a, should'a kind of talk, it still provides a valuable glimpse of a great general.
10. The Story of John G. Paton: Thirty Years among South Sea Cannibals by James Paton. John Paton was a nineteenth century missionary to the New Hebrides islands in the South Pacific. His deep trust in God as he repeatedly risked his life, losing loved ones to illness and enduring tremendous hardships for many years in order to bring the hope of the Gospel to a needy people is a highly inspirational read in this comfort-oriented day and age. I found myself getting a bit choked up at parts to do with the eagerness with which some of those island people eventually received the Gospel.
11. Six months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a war-torn Village by James Maskalyk. How often does one discover a book in a used bookstore about a Canadian man who recently spent six months serving with an NGO in a dangerous border town between north and south Sudan? I couldn't resist buying it, and found myself quickly drawn into the narrative of his time there. It was quite an intense book. At times painful to read, but always drawing you closer to the people who lived and died in that tiny place so far away. It's not the first book about Sudan that I've read, and I know it won't be the last.
12. A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World by Paul Miller. I first discovered this book as I was considering going to a conference on prayer at John Piper's church in Minneapolis, and when it turned out that I couldn't attend, I decided to simply buy the book that one of the conference speakers had written. Not only was it recommended on the blog of Desiring God Ministries, but both my wife Fiona and I have found it to be one of the most honest and helpful books we've read on the topic of prayer.
13. God Meant it for Good: A Fresh Look at the Life of Joseph by R.T. Kendall. This book really puts life in the right perspective! I think this is R.T. Kendall's best book! The title of this book is what Joseph said to his brothers once they caught up with him in Egypt; a quote I always find it helpful to be reminded of. It's a statement that clearly puts God in charge of what we go through in this life. It expresses the fact that God doesn't just cause everything to work together for good in our lives (Romans 8:28), but that He causes things to happen and then uses them for good! In other words, God didn't just use what happened to Joseph for good, but "meant it" to happen for his good and the good of many others. I believe that's true in all our lives as Christians, and this book truly helped me to find encouragement in that perspective.
14. Poverty of Spirit by Johannes Metz. A man who went to be with the Lord some time ago once highly recommended this little book to me. So I bought it, quickly read it, underlining nothing, and then tucked it away on a shelf wondering what the big deal was. Then quite recently, in the midst of sorting through some personal issues, I suddenly remembered this book, found it on my shelf just where I'd left it over 15 years ago, and began to read. I guess I wasn't ready for this book all those years ago, because I felt very challenged by it this time, and I'm grateful God brought me back to it!
15. God Grew Tired of Us: A Memoir by John Bul Dau. I felt really touched by the DVD of the same title, so when I saw that an auto-biography had been written by the young man who did most of the narrating in that DVD, I was very interested in learning more about what he went through as a Lost Boy. The publisher describes the book as "The Heartbreaking, Inspiring Journey of a Lost Boy of Sudan", and it certainly was! Knowing something of what those Lost Boys went through (from another book about one of them that I've previously read), and knowing that I was living in northern Sudan when John Bul Dau was running for his life in South Sudan, I really appreciated hearing him tell his story.

© 2011 by Ken Peters