Read: Acts 15:22-41

Sometime later Paul said to Barnabas, Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing. Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Acts 15:36-39a

Here is a quarrel between Barnabas and Paul which has fascinated many. They could not agree whether or not to take young John Mark with them again. Barnabas was his cousin and wanted to give the young man another chance. But Paul did not want to take the chance because the work was both important and dangerous, and he did not think it wise to take someone they could not count on.

So we read the sad note: there arose a sharp disagreement between them. Many have said, Which of these men was right? There have been a lot of disagreements over that, so that many people have had sharp disagreement over whether Paul or Barnabas was right! But that is really not the point. Both of these men were right. One was looking at the work and the other at the person. As Paul looked at the work he was perfectly right to say, We don’t want somebody who is apt to cop out on us. That is exactly what he said. And he probably quoted the words of Jesus, No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62) That is right. Christian service is demanding, and those who undertake it should be prepared to go through with it and stick with it to the end, for God’s cause is injured by those who quit in the middle.

On the other hand, Barnabas, though I am sure he would have agreed as to the importance of the work, was looking at the young man. He knew Mark was gifted. Sure, he had failed, but who doesn’t? Who of us does not need a second chance, does not need to have a forgiving spirit exercised toward us, and the opportunity to try again? So Barnabas was willing to give Mark a second chance.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – A Sharp Disagreement →

Read: Acts 15:1-21

Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved. Acts 15:1

In the fifteenth chapter of Acts is the story of a betrayal of the gospel. Here we learn of the clear emergence of what we can only call false Christianity. You will never understand Christianity until you understand that there are always present, in any so-called Christian gathering, manifestations and representatives of both true and false Christianity. Unfortunately, false Christianity is believed by millions who think they have understood the true, and have rejected the false. Therefore their minds are closed to the truth when it comes. Here we see the first emergence of that kind of false Christianity which is unthinkingly accepted by millions of people today.

It all began with the introduction of a very plausible and attractive heresy which came disguised as Christianity. Luke says that certain Jewish brethren, who ostensibly were Christians, came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. They came among the Gentile believers there, who had just come out of raw paganism, who had been idolaters, had been devotees of the licentious and sexually immoral practices of the pagan temples. These Gentiles had been hopeless in their outlook toward the future beyond this life and were sunken in despair and darkness, but then God had saved them. They were now rejoicing in Christ.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – Betraying the Gospel →

Read: Acts 14:1-10

In Lystra there sat a man who was lame. He had been that way from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, Stand up on your feet! At that, the man jumped up and began to walk. Acts 14:8-10

Notice the amazing way God began to open up this city. Paul and Barnabas had no idea what they were going to do. They did not form a committee and say, Well, let’s see if we can get the Chamber of Commerce report on the city’s population distribution. Then we could divide it into squares and evangelize in a systematic way. They had no plans other than to be there and to do what God sent them to do — to preach. So they walked right into the market place and began, trusting the Lord to have prepared certain people, to have people of his choosing ready to open the door to the city.

As they proclaimed the gospel that is what happened. As Paul was preaching — probably for several days in a row — sitting in the marketplace was a man who had been lame from his birth, who had never walked. He was evidently well-known throughout the city, having been there all his life. He heard what Paul said, and believed what Paul declared about the power of Jesus, the mighty Son of God. Paul looked at him and saw in that man’s eyes the faith to believe. Suddenly, unquestionably led of the Spirit, he said to him, Stand up on your feet. And the lame man, though he had never walked in his life, made the effort to obey. He had faith enough to try, and the moment he began to obey, the power to obey was given.

That is exactly the way the Christian life works. It does not make any difference whether the problem is physical, emotional, or spiritual; you are going to be held in its bondage until you begin to obey the Word of God about it. When you make the effort to obey, God will set you free. But he will never move until you obey. That is the way faith works. Most people are kept from seeing God at work in their lives because they keep waiting for God to do something, in order for them to believe. No, he has already done all that he is going to do in advance. When you believe what he says, then he will give you the power to be free. This miracle is a mighty parable of the many who have been spiritually lame, unable to take a step toward God, but who have been set free to do so by the gospel. It cracked the city wide open. The whole populace immediately took note of Paul and Barnabas in their midst.

Father, like the apostles, help me to trust in a living God who is changing people’s hearts and delivering their minds from the grip and power of the evil one. Help me to rejoice as I, too, see the power of obedience to the Word of God in my own life.

Life Application

Which comes first, faith or obedience? What is the significance of the order? Obedience to what? Faith in what–or whom? Does the union of obedience and trust describe our daily walk with God?

http://www.raystedman.org/

Read: Colossians 1:9-14

…so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work… Col. 1:10

As Paul continues this prayer for the Colossians, he mentions activities that believers can deliberately choose to do. This is very instructive not only for how to pray for others, but also for how to live our own lives. First, Paul prays that you may live a life worthy of the Lord. When you understand what God has made you to be, that you are his child, cherished by him, your guilt and sin taken care of, and that God is your loving Father who protects you, guides and guards you, and when you see him in all his majesty and beauty then you will become concerned about whether your behavior reflects his beauty, and what others will think of your God when they are watching you. That is a life worthy of the Lord. In others of his letters the apostle urges Christians to walk worthy of their calling. We are to be concerned about our impact upon others, how our lives are impacting theirs, and what our actions make them think about our God.

The second activity that Paul prays for is that they might seek to please him in every way. The chief aim of every believer ought to be that he is pleasing to God; that he seeks to live in a way that delights God. What quality of life is pleasing to God? The Scripture probably puts it most effectively in a negative way. In the book of Hebrews we are told, Without faith it is impossible to please God! Faith is what pleases him. Every time Jesus approved or commended people it was because of their faith. You have great faith, he said to the woman who pled with him to heal her flow of blood. Your faith is great, he said to a centurion who asked him to heal his servant. Whenever our Lord commends people for anything it is because they believe him and act on what he says. They don’t conform to the customs of people around. Rather, they swim against the stream of life and stand firmly upon what he says, trusting him. That is what pleases God.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – What To Pray For →

Read: Colossians 1:9-14

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. Col. 1:9a

Paul knows that the Colossian Christians are living in a dangerous world. A seething volcano of false teaching has begun to erupt and engulf them, threatening to destroy the simplicity of the faith that is producing such beauty and liberty in their lives. Paul is in Rome, a prisoner in chains, and unable to travel to Colossae, a thousand miles east, to help them. There is nothing he can do physically for them. But spiritually, he is a powerful prayer warrior who can create in their midst a tremendous opportunity to know truth that will free them and enable them to withstand the assault of false teaching. That, then, is what he is doing: he is praying for them.

The striking thing about this prayer is the very first sentence of it: For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you… This was a continuing prayer. As far as we know, Paul had never been to Colossae. Apart from one or two among them, he did not personally know these believers. And yet he prays continually for them. When we come to statements like this in Scripture it is quite fair to ask, when did he do this? Day and night he is chained to a Roman guard, he never has a moment to himself. Awake or asleep, he is bound to his jailer. Furthermore, when he is awake, his friends are dropping by to see him to seek his counsel and instruction. He even ministers to the Roman guards, many of whom came to Christ, as we learn in the letter to the Philippians. He is busy writing letters, too, so when did he find time to pray for the Colossians?

Continue reading Ray Stedman – Unceasing Prayer →

Read: Habakkuk 1:1-3:19

I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. Hab. 2:1

When you face a problem in your life where you do not understand what God is doing, do not do what so many do, and say, Oh, I’ve tried faith and it doesn’t work, or, I’ve tried God but that doesn’t work, or, I’ve tried prayer and it doesn’t work. People who say those things really don’t understand what they are saying, because what they are saying is, God is a liar. There is no real God. What they are saying is, The Word of God is not true, the Bible is a fraud. They are declaring that God is faithless to his own promises. But God cannot ever be faithless to his word. The problem is not God, the problem is us. We are so ignorant, we see so little, we understand such a minute fraction of the scope of any problem. We ought to do as Habakkuk did — get out on the watchtower and wait to see what God is going to say. If we ask him, God will help us to understand something of what we are going through. That is what Habakkuk did, because he expected an answer.

Habakkuk says he is going to wait. God usually answers in one of three ways: Most commonly, he answers us through his Word. This is what is so valuable about reading the Word of God, especially when you are confused or troubled about how he is acting. Often light will come suddenly out of a verse which seemed obscure; you will see a new aspect of what you are facing. Perhaps an answer will come when you are listening to a message, or a verse will come to your mind, and it will deal with your situation. God has given us his Word so that we might understand how he acts.

Then sometimes God answers directly in our spirit. We sense a kind of pressure within which drives us in a certain direction; some conviction comes and settles and we cannot shake it off. We have to be careful here, because at this point the enemy can counterfeit the voice and mind of God. But the voice of the enemy is always nagging (to make you feel guilty) while God’s Spirit speaks quietly but persistently. If this leading is in line with what the Word of God says, then that is the Spirit of God leading us. Paul says that those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God (Romans 8:14). We can expect to be led along that line.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – Prayer’s Delays →

Read: 2 Chronicles 14:2-16:12

Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. Lord, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you. 2 Chron 14:11

Have you ever felt like King Asa felt? Have you ever thought you were secure, with plenty of money in the bank, with good health and a future that looked bright and rosy, and then suddenly, Wham! Bam! — disaster looms? You realize you are outnumbered, outgunned and outclassed, up against a circumstance too big for you to handle. I’m sure there are some facing that very kind of thing.

Notice that the very first thing Asa does is to recognize the unique ability of God to give help — unique ability — because nobody helps like God does. The reason there is none like God to help, of course, is that God knows so much more about us than anyone else and there are a thousand and one things God can do to set us free. King Asa recognizes also that part of the uniqueness of God is that it does not make any difference whether you are mighty or weak. This phrase, to help the powerless against the mighty, reveals that human contribution to the victory is insignificant in God’s eyes. He can use armies if he wants to, or he can use a single individual.

The second thing King Asa did was to request specific aid for the present emergency. He prayed, Help us, Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. When you are confronted with a situation like that, you do not have time to pray around the world. I once heard of a man who was invited to pray for someone who was dying in a hospital. As he stood beside the bed, this man began his prayer, Bless the missionaries in China and India and Africa, etc. He continued in that vein until someone stopped him and said, I’m sorry. While you were in India the patient died. It is important to come to the point in our prayers, to deal with the specific situation, as King Asa did here. Do not tell God what to do. That is the mistake so many of us make. We have our prayer all outlined, written down even. We say, Lord, first do this. Then when that happens, do this. God’s best and most frequent answer to such a prayer is to check the square that says, None of the above. He has his own way of working. He will not give way to us. That is what makes us get so angry at God.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – Prayer’s Resources →

Read: Daniel 9:1-23

…we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land. Dan 9:5-6

Daniel’s prayer begins with the confession of sin. But the remarkable thing is that this man, according to the record, has no sin charged against him. Never once in Scripture are we told that Daniel did anything wrong. Now, I am sure he did wrong things. Certainly, sin must have appeared in his life, because Scripture tells us that no man is without sin, but the record does not give us any account of it. But in specific ways Daniel confesses his own sin and the sin of his people: He says, We have sinned; we have been wicked; we have turned away; we have not listened.

This is pointing to something that is often missing from our own prayers. How many times do we include in them a heartfelt, honest confession of sin? There is nothing harder for us to do than to admit we were wrong, yet to do so is an honest and realistic thing. God does not ask us to confess our sins because he is trying to humiliate us or punish us. Rather, he asks us to do so because we kid ourselves, we are dishonest about ourselves, we are unrealistic about our own lives, and he is an ultimate realist. God always deals with things exactly the way they really are, and he says there is no way we can be helped unless we begin to do the same thing. He asks us, therefore, to start by acknowledging the areas where we have done wrong.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – Prayer’s Humility →

Read: 2 Chronicles 6:12-40

Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. 2 Chron 6:12

1 Chronicles 6:12-40 records the great prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem. This is a unique prayer from the Old Testament. It is, perhaps, the only passage in the Old Testament that is a report of a formal prayer uttered on a great state occasion. The whole nation — or at least a great portion of it — had gathered in the courts of the temple to dedicate the new building that Solomon had erected according to the plans that his father David had drawn.

The nearest thing we would have to this scene in America today would be the Inauguration of a President. Like our Inauguration, on this occasion a special platform had been built for the king in the great courtyard of the temple, in front of the brazen altar, where the sacrifices for sin were offered. On that platform King Solomon began this prayer with a recognition of God’s promise to David, his father, that there would never lack a man to sit upon the throne of Israel.

Solomon’s prayer consists of eight wide-ranging requests which concern the temple and the place of prayer in the life of the people of Israel. Though these requests had specific applications to the people of Israel, they have specific application in our own lives as well. For instance, the Jews were to face the temple when they prayed, no matter where they were in the land. This has a specific application to us. In the New Testament we are told that our bodies are the temple of God. This is a truth that is often missed today. It is very hurtful when Christians refer to buildings as the house of God. The New Testament never calls any building the house of God. Church buildings are not the houses of God — we are. Everywhere in the New Testament the answer to the temple of the old regime is the human body and our personal lives. We are the habitation of God, by the Spirit. When we gather, the whole place becomes the temple of the living God; God dwelling among his people by the Spirit.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – Praying in the True Temple →

Read: 1 Samuel 1:1-2:11

In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head. 1 Sam. 1:10-11

At first glance it would appear that this is a kind of bargaining prayer of Hannah’s — that she is offering to give the boy back to the Lord only if the Lord will give him to her first so she can enjoy him. It is possible to read this account that way, but, if we look closely at it, we can see what is really happening here, for I am sure this is not the first time that Hannah has prayed at Shiloh for a son. All along she dreamed of having a son of her own, a little boy to love and cuddle, to teach him to walk, to read stories to, to watch him grow to manhood to become a strong, clean, fine young man, the pride of her life. She wanted him for herself, and she prayed often for that, but her prayer was not answered.

On this occasion, however, her prayer was different. Having worked through years of barrenness and having thought deeply about the problems, she realized for the first time something she had never known before. She realized that children are not just for parents — they are for the Lord. They are given to parents, loaned for a while, but the reason they are given is for the Lord to use. Certainly this account indicates that this little boy who was ultimately born (Samuel) was God’s man to meet the need of a nation. Undoubtedly God had taught Hannah deeply through these hours of struggle over her barrenness, so in great distress and with intense earnestness she prays that God would have what he wanted, a man for his glory and his purposes, and that he would let her be the instrument of that blessing.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – Prayer and Peace →

Read: 1 Chronicles 4:9-10

Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. And God granted his request. 1 Chronicles 4:10

At first glance that looks like a self-centered prayer. It sounds like the man who prayed, Bless me and my wife, my son John and his wife, us four and no more. But Jabez is really not being selfish. He is praying for something God wanted him to have. That is the difference between being personal and being selfish. Selfish prayers are prayers which ask God for something he does not want us to have, at least not then, demanding prayers that are interested only in our own immediate welfare, for our own satisfaction. But God promises great and mighty things to us personally that we may lay hold of, so to pray in this way is not selfish, but personal.

Look more closely at these four requests. First he asks, Oh, that you would bless me. What do you mean when you pray to be blessed? This is a request for an inner sense of relationship with God. Blessing is drawing near to God, finding him, knowing him personally. He is praying, Lord, first, above all else, let there be this consciousness that you are my God, that I belong to you and you belong to me.

Second, Jabez prays, Enlarge my territory. This is a prayer for opportunity, for the restoration, in his case, of his lost inheritance, for a place to stand in the midst of the culture of his day in which he might gain some sense of status and respect. For us it means to find a way to break out of whatever may be limiting us, hemming us in and enslaving us. You may feel that you are in a situation in which you have no opportunity to grow, to advance, to be fulfilled and satisfied. If that is the case, this is the proper kind of prayer to pray, Lord, give me that opportunity.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – Prayer’s Practicality →

Read: Genesis 18:22-33

Then Abraham approached him and said: Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Gen. 18:23

Abraham has been informed that the hour of judgment for Sodom has come. He is appalled by this, but it is very important for us to see what is really troubling him. If you ask, Is Abraham really trying to save these cities? the answer has to be, No, that is not really his concern. Abraham knows that God’s hour of judgment has struck, that there has been long record of his patience up to this point. He knows that it is only unrighteousness that will ultimately be judged, so he is not trying to save the cities. He expresses his concern in these words: Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Are you going to treat righteous people the same way you treat wicked people? That is what is troubling him.

There is a cold fist of fear gripping the heart of Abraham. He fears he is going to find that God is not quite who he thought he was. Perhaps he understood that righteous people have a way of salting the world, preserving it from corruption and from judgment. Perhaps he is troubled that if God destroys a whole city full of wicked people, with some righteous among them, the word will go out that righteousness is of no effect and a wrong impression will be left. Abraham has a troubled heart, questioning whether God really is the kind of God he has thought him to be.

Have you ever felt that way? In your prayers, or in your confrontation with life, have you suddenly seen God moving in ways you did not anticipate, allowing things to happen that you did not think he ought to allow? Have you thought, Lord, can you really do this? Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? This is not right. We are getting very close to how Abraham felt at this point, when we sense that sudden horror that God is not going to act as we expected him to. Abraham is really raising the question here, Does righteousness make any difference? If God wipes out these cities filled with both wicked and righteous people, if they are all treated alike, isn’t it telling us that righteousness really does not make any difference?

Continue reading Ray Stedman – Prayer’s Anchor →

Read: John 17:9-19

Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. John 17:11b RSV

This is the great prayer Jesus prayed before he went to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus is leaving these disciples by means of the garden, the betrayal, the judgment seat of Pilate, and the cross, and to them it appeared that he was abandoning them. They felt frightened, helpless, alone, and unable to understand what was taking place. They could not see that our Lord was merely introducing a higher and a better relationship to them.

Do we not feel this way? God leads us to a place of change and we are frightened by it. We wonder if we are not losing everything we held dear in the past. We scarcely realize that God is but leading us to a higher, a newer, and greater relationship. Like these disciples, we are frightened and fearful.

My concern is how to convey something of the gripping reality of these requests of Jesus, something of the intense practicality of what he is saying. I am so afraid that we will fail to realize that Jesus here is actually praying for us — for what he prays for his disciples he prays for us. Notice the plea that Jesus utters for his disciples. Holy Father, he says, Keep them, (John 17:11b RSV). Later he said, I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one. (John 17:15a RSV). This is the theme of his prayer: That they might be protected and kept.

Why? There are so many things that I would pray for if I were in his place. They are the usual things we pray for one another. Why didn’t Jesus pray, Use them, or strengthen them, or teach them, or guide them? This is what we would pray for each other. But when he comes to this place where he is leaving them and he wants to put into one brief phrase all that is his heart’s urging and desire for them, he sums it up in those two little words: keep them.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – Christ Prays for You →

Read: John 17:1-3

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: Father, the hour has come. John 17:1a

The hour has come. With these words Jesus looks forward with obvious anticipation to a time of boundless opportunity that lies before him. Surely these words, the hour has come, mean a good deal more than the phrase we employ when we face the end of life, My time has come. By that we mean we have come to the end of our rope, the end of life. Dr. J. Vernon McGee once told of a man who had been studying through the doctrine of predestination and had become so entranced by the idea of God’s sovereign protection of the believer under any and every circumstance that he said to Dr. McGee, You know, I am so convinced that God is keeping me no matter what I do, that I think that I could step right out into the midst of the busiest traffic at noontime and, if my time had not come, I would be perfectly safe. Dr. McGee said, very characteristically, Well, if you go down and stand in the middle of traffic at noontime, brother, your time has come!

To use a phrase like, my time has come is resignation, but this is not what Jesus does. What he is speaking of here is realization. He is speaking of the time he had been looking forward to all his life. Throughout His ministry, Jesus continually refers to this hour. In the beginning of John we have the story of the first miracle in Cana of Galilee when he turned the water into wine. There his mother came to him and said, Son, they have no wine, and his answer was, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come, (John 2:3-4 KJV). He meant that, though he would perform what his mother had suggested, it would not have the results that she anticipated, for the hour had not yet come, the time had not struck. Repeatedly he said to the disciples, My hour is not yet, (John 7:30, 8:20). He was awaiting a time when opportunity would abound, and now, as he comes to the cross, he lifts his eyes unto the heavens and says, Father, the hour has come. By that he meant the hour had come in which all that he had lived for would begin to be fulfilled.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – The Hour Has Come →

Read: John 14:12-17

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14:13-14

Whatever … anything … I will do it. We sense immediately that this is too wide. If we take this as absolutely unlimited, a sort of magical Aladdin’s lamp that we can rub and ask for any possible thing in the world, certainly we have missed the true point of this passage. It is too wide to take unreservedly. We sense also that it is too contradictory if taken without limit. We can see problems arising. What if a Christian athlete is praying for clear weather and a Christian farmer is praying for rain? Which one wins?

No, this promise cannot be limitless. There is a condition here. Our Lord means exactly what he says but we must understand what he says. This is a magnificent promise of vast scope, of tremendous encompassment, but what he says is if you ask in my name. This is the condition.

That certainly means a great deal more than a magical formula to tack on to the end of our prayers. There is nothing quite as pagan, or silly, as this meaningless phrase, this we ask in Jesus’ name, added to our prayers without any understanding if the prayer is actually being asked in Jesus’ name. We do this because it is traditionally acceptable, and we do not understand what in his name means. In Christ’s name means in his authority and on the basis of his character.

All of us are familiar with the phrase, In the name of the law. Policemen do their business in the name of the law. Suppose a policeman goes into a cheap slum area of the city at three o’clock in the afternoon. He is called there because of some murderous activity that is going on, and he comes up to the address that has been given him, and knocks at the door, and says, Open in the name of the law. No one opens the door, so after he knocks again and requests that it be opened in the name of the law and there still is no answer, he breaks it down and goes in. But what if that same policeman is drunk? He is out in a residential area and for some reason on his own, in his drunken stupor, he stumbles up the steps of a house, and knocks on the door, and says, Open in the name of the law. Those within hear the thick voice and recognize that it is a drunk and refuse to open. So the policeman breaks down the door, and when he does, he is arrested and taken to jail himself.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – In My name →