pray – Page 3 – John Markum

“I don’t believe in church”

Posted on March 27, 2011 by johnmarkum

I’ve heard lots of people – some of which claim to be Christ followers – excuse themselves from being connected to a church. Given, many churches are off the mark, and every church is full of people who are full of problems, and you going there only makes one more. But it is not right to claim to follow God, but be divorced from His bride. Saying “I believe in God, I just don’t believe in going to church,” makes about as much sense as saying “I believe in eating, I just don’t believe in food.” Believing in an idea, but not in the tangible expression of it is vain and empty. Besides, for all the faults of so many churches, the church still belongs to Jesus. I don’t know about you, but I cringe when I hear people berate another church.

I’m pretty thick-skinned. You will be hard pressed to get a rise out of me by calling me names, criticizing me, making fun, or otherwise putting me down. But you say one thing about my family, and… let’s just not go there. You got something to say about my wife and I’m likely to end up running a prison ministry… from the inside! If you’re married, I’m sure you can relate. The Bible refers to the church as “the bride of Christ.” Jesus died for the church. Jesus loves the church. Before you make a cut-down against a church, remember whose bride you’re picking on! I wouldn’t want to answer for throwing mud on His bride. Instead, live within that community. Make it better. Add your gifts and talents to the work of God within the church, and allow the gifts and talents of others to make you a better follower of Christ as well.

Blessings,

John

“Love Wins” Controversy

Posted on March 10, 2011 by johnmarkum

“I can’t believe in a God that would send someone to a place like Hell.”

“What kind of loving God would send people to Hell?”

“Who gets to decide who gets into Heaven and who has to go to Hell?”

Rob Bell addresses these common questions in his upcoming book, Love Wins, which has already stirred massive controversy by his implications that no one will go to Hell. Below is the video trailer that he himself has released, which is largely responsible for the widespread controversy. I’ll attempt to address the questions he raises as concisely as possible…

“Gandhi’s in Hell? He is?!? And someone knows this for sure?” My Answer: I don’t know. And no human could possibly know for sure.
“Will only a few select people make it to Heaven?” My Answer: As far as the Bible is concerned, yes. Matthew 7:13,14
“And will billions, and billions of people burn forever in Hell?” My Answer: I have no idea how many it will be, but yes, many, many people will go to a real place called Hell. Romans 6:23, Revelation 20:15
“And if that is the case, how do you become one of the few?” My Answer: Turn away from your man-made attempts at pleasing God and pleasing yourself, and give your life to God by placing your faith in Jesus, who lived a sinless life, died as a substitution for humanity, and rose again on the third day proving to be God. John 3:16-19, Romans 3:23-28, Romans 10:9-13
“And then there is the question behind the question. Like: What is God like?” My Answer: This a great question. A loaded question, but a great one. I’ll answer this in a separate blog post this week.
“So what gets subtly caught and taught is that Jesus rescues you from God.” My Answer: Jesus is God. Jesus dying for humanity is God taking upon Himself His own righteous judgment for man’s rebellion. His holiness demands that wickedness be eliminated. His love demands that mankind be pardoned. The cross is the greatest evidence of God’s holiness and love.
“How can that God ever be good?” My Answer: Bell is defining “good” based on getting what we want (Heaven) without the consequences (Hell). The real question would be, “How could a pure, perfect and holy God allow wicked humanity into His heaven?” But to answer the question, God is good in every sense by virtue of His willingness to die for sinful man, allowing us the opportunity to experience both His love and holiness. Romans 5:6-11, 1 John 4:7-12

I sense that we are no where near done talking about this, and that I a likely to hear from many of you in emails and through the comments. I welcome your interaction, but let’s keep it civil, please. More posts WILL follow about these issues…

Blessings,

John

Proactive Prayer

Posted on March 5, 2011 by johnmarkum

In the Christian sub-culture, there is one phrase that seems to have become a stagnant cliche : “I’m praying about it.” What’s discouraging is that it is often a false statement also. “Ok, I didn’t really pray about it, I just thought about it, but God knows what I meant.” Yeah, God understands it: we’re lazy.

But what if there were something different about our prayers? What if we really believed that God was going to show up and respond to our situations because we asked Him to? What if we started living and acting with such certainty in God’s ability to come through for us that our choices after praying reflected an expectation for God to show up? What if we made bold – even risky – decisions for the kingdom of God because we genuinely believed God would be in it? Well that would be proactive prayer, which is not content to just pray about it, but to make plans to see God do it.

There was once a small country church in a rural, farm community where most of the folks’ livelihood came from their crops. The area was going through a drought, and crops were being lost as a result. The situation was looking pretty serious, so the pastor of the country church called for the whole church to pray and fast and ask God to send the rain and sustain them, calling on His promises to be a Provider to His people. They were to fast and pray until the following Sunday, when they would pray together as a church for the rain. But as people were showing up, the pastor was scolding them for their lack of faith in God to provide. They argued back, “But preacher! We do believe God will bring the rain. We’ve fasted and prayed all week expecting God to send the rain. Honest!” But the pastor snapped back, “Then where is your umbrella!?!”

Where do you get that kind of confidence that not only asks God to provide, but then takes action in expectation of Him to answer? How can you be that sure? You pray according to God’s will. How do you know God’s will? Simple: His word. God’s will is in God’s Word. Claim the promises of God’s Word in your life and walk in confidence that God is going to do what He promised He would. The difference between faith and hope is that hope says, “God I’m asking for this, and I want You to do it.” Faith says, “God, I’m asking for this, and You said You would do it.”

What are some things from the Word of God that You can claim as promises? I’ll share some of those thoughts later. In the meantime, look in His Word for yourself and discover what God has promised for His people.

Blessings,

John