Answered Prayers +2

Last week at the man alive group Pastor Skip covered the first part of Philippians 4, which contains this gem in verses 6-7:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Then on Sunday a friend of mine, who is attending graduate school to obtain a Doctor of Pharmacy, mentions that he has a big pharmacotherapy exam coming up and he's convinced he's going to fail. Well, look what I just covered two days ago. What a coincidence...or not. I shared these verses with him, and started praying. Not that he would pass the exam, but I prayed for calmness and recall, and asked God that when my friend knew the answers that God would show it to him and reward the work he put in learning the material. Every time I thought of him, every time I saw a facebook update from him, I sent that prayer up fresh.

On Wednesday I see an update that he scored 93 on the exam. Yup, the one he was convinced he would fail. And for once I had the right reaction as the first thought I had was to thank God for helping him.

Then today I went to my doctor to get a prescription. After the nurse took my vitals and sat me down in the exam room, she told me the doctor was going to order blood work before giving me the prescription. I don't like blood work, mostly because I don't like getting up early to trudge off to the lab before work, and because the results always come back normal. So as I was waiting I simply asked that we could do this without having to get lab work done. And as soon as I said that I heard the little voice in my head say "OK." The doctor comes in, we have a five minute conversation, and he writes the prescription for me. Afterward the nurse said "No blood work? Wow, aren't you lucky?" Actually, no, there was no luck involved in that. As an added bonus, they gave me a coupon to cover my copay. Heh...Ephesians 3:20-21.

So that's two, just this week. I think I'm on a bit of a roll...dear God, the Powerball is $48 million this week...

The Next Step in the Journey - My Very Own Life Group!

A few weeks ago I received a card from my church inviting me to a "special event" at the pastor's house where he would share his vision for the future. When I discovered it was invitation only and not an open house I had to resist a small swell of pride - Pastor Dale likes me! He likes me better than some other people! You know, juvenile crap like that.

Turns out it was less of a sharing session and a little closer to an ambush. Pastor Dale, Pastor Jim, and Pastor Dustin explained that the church was going to put a major focus on creating new small groups (and changing the name to life groups) for midweek meetings, and that everyone there had been invited because they would like each of us to create and lead, or at least host, one of these groups.

Being publicity shy and having the mild phobia of public speaking that comes with being an introvert/geek, I surprised even myself by immediately turning to Heather and saying we need to do this. My only explanation is the leading of the Holy Spirit. I had been thinking that I needed to find a place to give of my time to the church, not just of my money, and now this opportunity is just dropped in my lap. As if I needed more convincing that there are no coincidences.

So now here we are, about to do a recruiting open house at church and a month away from our first meeting. We're going to go through Grace to You's Fundamentals of the Faith series for starters, because 1) I love John MacArthur, and 2) they left me in charge of picking the curriculum.

You don't have to go to my church to come to the group, or go to church at all. A simple desire to want to know God better is all you need. I even started a fancy facebook fan page to keep everyone updated. Feel free to like the page, or contact me by any of the usual means if you want more details.

It's time to earn that "choice and mighty" name I gave myself here.

John 6, part II

Part I available here.

So, what took so long to get this part up? Well, one answer is I'm a little lazy, another answer can be found in verse 60, which we'll get to shortly.

Picking up where we left off, Jesus was just beginning what has come to be known as the Bread of Life Discourse. Verse 36 indicates that the crowd still just isn't getting it.

But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. 

How is this even possible? How could anyone have been in the physical presence of Jesus, seen His miracles, and not believed? He expands further on His mission in verses 38 and 39:

For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent me. This is the will of Him who sent me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.

This brings us to the difficult part of the chapter, where one of the longest-lasting controversies of Christianity still rages. Call it election, predestination, or just the dreaded U in Calvinism's TULIP. There are thousands of pages for and against, Augustinian vs. prescient view, enough to make your head spin if you let it. If you're at all familiar with the debate you've most likely already chosen a side. But verse 44 seems to come down in Calvin's favor: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent me draws him" - note that it's can, not may or will or shall. It's a matter of ability, not permission. If God didn't choose you out of death and into life before time began (cf. Eph. 1:4) you will be unable to draw yourself out. Salvation truly is of the Lord.

A very touchy subject and I haven't even scratched the surface of the centuries-old debate. Or, you'll notice, explained any opposing viewpoints. My blog, my rules.

Jesus continues with the bread of life theme through verse 59, and people continued to take Him literally when  He said in verse 51 "The bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh." So He has to explain again. And again. The thickheadedness and willful ignorance of these people continues to astonish me. But they did capture the sentiment perfectly in verse 60, and I think the NKJV translation totally nails it: "This is a hard saying, who can understand it?" I hope you now understand a little of the difficulty I'm having with this post.

And indeed, by verse 66 the difficulty was sinking in with a lot of people:

As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.

To the point it may have been down to just the twelve that Jesus chose as His inside group. And Peter, who always fluctuates between knucklehead and genius, thankfully brought his A game in verses 67-69:

So Jesus said to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?" Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God."

Wow. No need to ask if that's his final answer, is there?