Posts Tagged ‘prayer’

What C.T. Studd calls “Despicable Pharisaism”

Posted on Thursday September 29th, 2011 at 5:50 am by

The Evidence Bible is a resource put together by Living Waters, a ministry headed up by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron. You can learn more about the Evidence Bible here, and Living Waters here. Over the coming weeks I’ll be writing more on the Living Waters ministry, but for today I wanted to steal copy their post from the “Daily Evidence” website.

This hits hard and I’ll admit it hits me between the eyes as much as anyone. I’ve always struggled to be a fervent pray-er. That’s not to say I don’t pray, but I certainly don’t pray enough and don’t have a fire in my belly for prayer. It’s a topic I have to revisit often to rekindle the flames, and today’s post stoked and poked me considerably. I hope you find it encouraging too.


Matt. 21:22 “And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.

Robert Speer said, “The evangelization of the world depends first of all upon a revival of prayer. Deeper than the need for workers; deeper far, than the need for money; deep down at the bottom of our spiritual lives is the need for the forgotten secret of prevailing, worldwide prayer. Missions have progressed slowly abroad because piety and prayer have been slow at home.”

Robert Speer is right; prayer is evidence of our utter dependence on God. Without Him we can do nothing. However, never forget that Jesus said there was a lack of laborers in His time, and there is a lack of laborers in our time (see Matthew 9:37). It is easier to pray for this world than to preach the gospel to them. So make sure that you don’t substitute the sacrifice of prayer for the obedience of evangelism; to do so is to play the hypocrite.

“We Christians too often substitute prayer for playing the game. Prayer is good; but when used as a substitute for obedience, it is nothing but a blatant hypocrisy, a despicable Pharisaism…To your knees, man! And to your Bible! Decide at once! Don’t hedge! Time flies! Cease your insults to God. Quit consulting flesh and blood. Stop your lame, lying, and cowardly excuses. Enlist!” C. T. Studd

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Ponder Your Destiny

Posted on Friday August 6th, 2010 at 12:00 pm by

John Piper's book Don't Waste Your LifeThis is the seventh in a series of eight short posts. They are direct quotes from the last few pages of John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life and I have found them to be informative, stirring, challenging, and/or motivating and so wanted to share them with you.

The final post will appear next Friday. If you enjoyed reading them as much as I did you can download a free copy of this book here (link sourced from this page).


No, you don’t have to be a missionary to admire and advance the great purposes of God to be known and praised and enjoyed among all peoples. But if you want to be most fully satisfied with God as he triumphs in the history of redemption, you can’t go on with business as usual—doing your work, making your money, giving your tithe, eating, sleeping, playing, and going to church. Instead you need to stop and go away for a few days with a Bible and notepad; and pray and think about how your particular time and place in life fits into the great purpose of God to make the nations glad in him. How will you join the great global purpose of God expressed in Psalm 67:4, “Let the nations be glad and sing for joy”?1

 

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1 – John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life, (Wheaton, Illinois: 2003), 177.

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The Day of Missions is Not Over

Posted on Friday July 23rd, 2010 at 12:00 pm by

John Piper's book Don't Waste Your LifeThis is the fifth in a series of eight short posts. They are direct quotes from the last few pages of John Piper’s book Don’t Waste Your Life and I have found them to be informative, stirring, challenging, and/or motivating and so wanted to share them with you.

The remaining posts will appear each Friday for the next 3 weeks. If you enjoy reading them as much as I did you can download a free copy of this book here (link sourced from this page).


So “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:38), and ask him if you should be one. Expect this prayer to change you. When Jesus told his disciples to pray it, the next thing that happened was that he appointed twelve to be his apostles and sent them out. Pray for harvesters, and you may become one. God often wakens desire, and gives gifts, and opens doors when we are praying and pondering real possibilities and real needs.1

 

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1 – John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life, (Wheaton, Illinois: 2003), 176.

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Prayer calendar

Posted on Sunday January 25th, 2009 at 1:08 pm by

On behalf of those in Myanmar, and from me, thanks for your support and prayers. I know the Lord is working through your faithfulness.

If you’d like my 29-day prayer calendar you can download a PDF version here [196kb]. Print both pages on one sheet, back and front (i.e. double-sided), and then fold it in half and in half again so there are 4 sections.

If you’d like a stack of these then please order some from me – they’re FREE. Just use the Contact Martin page and they’ll be in the mail next-day.

[ If you need a PDF reader I suggest Foxit or Acrobat ]

Some great places to put your new calendar:

  • Inside your Bible – but remember it’s there
  • On your corkboard or whiteboard
  • On your bathroom mirror – pray while you brush, shave, wash, etc.
  • On the back of your toilet door – it’s a great place to pray
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