Danny Panter – Page 13 – The Everyday Prayer

Opposition

Re:Verse passage – Acts 2:42-47 (day six)

…having favor with all the people. Acts 2:47

The church, in it is earliest days, experienced favor with all the people. Immediately there was a visibility to their faith and practice that was unavoidable; they gathered in the temple to talk about Jesus among themselves and with others in the temple courts. People from all walks of life couldn’t help but see the beauty in their convictions about Jesus, their unity of mind, and the fruit it produced. It was contagious.

The church experienced favor like this,… until it didn’t. Favor would soon be replaced with direct opposition. Opposition arose when the faith and practice of new Jewish Christians threatened the power and influence of the status quo.

And the new growing church (like wild fire) did not cower, but rose in response, not with worldly force, returning efforts in kind, but with truth put on full display with Holy Spirit led grace and extraordinary sacrificial love,…like Jesus.

The Bible is not a Rudder

Re:Verse passage – 2 Timothy 3:14-17(day six)

The Bible is not a rudder. A rudder is a marvelous tool that allows a captain to steer the vessel the direction he desires. It has no authority or command of its own.

There are many churches today that use the Bible like a rudder, twisting and turning it the direction they want to go. In their hands the Bible does not correct, teach, or guide; it only functions as a tool for blind guides.

The Bible is not a Rudder, it is rather the Captain’s commands. The Captain’s commands carry weight, authority, wisdom, and knowledge that steers the ship the direction it MUST go, simply because they come from the the Captain. Everyone on the vessel listens and obeys the Captain’s commands, and if they don’t the Captain’s own words corrects them.

That has been the legacy of the Bible in the First Baptist family. And I am thankful.

God’s Perspective

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:15-17, Ephesians 5:22-32 (day six)

“Father, may they be one, as we are one…”-Jesus, John 17:21

In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul introduced the human body as a metaphor for the church. In Romans 8 and Ephesians 5, although indirectly, Paul describes the church as a family, and as a bride respectively. These metaphors suggest that God perceives his church not only as a group of individuals, but as one. This requires we adjust our own perspective, learning to think about our own identity in the same way God does. We are so enamored with the self (reinforced by our culture with a steady gushing current of self-centering, self-exalting ideologies), that it is really challenging to see our interconnectedness, and what that means as the church.

That’s why we encourage you to really consider what it means to be Better Together. This is not just a noble catchphrase, but describes the core of our identity that we have together in Jesus. If we miss this; if we don’t pursue it, then we won’t fully experience the kind of fruitfulness and good work Jesus prayed for.

True Spirituality

Re:Verse passage – 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 (day six)

One of the biggest hangups in the life of the Corinthian church was an inaccurate picture of what it meant to be a spiritual person. Coming out of a culture of pagan worship where ecstatic personal experiences (like speaking in tongues) where elevated, it was no surprise that this became a superior value in their church. For them spirituality had little to do with daily Holy Spirit-led living, connecting with others, or fulfilling God’s mission, but rather, regularly experiencing the more charismatic gifts.

Sound familiar? There is a strong temptation in contemporary Christian church culture (and has been for some time) to define spirituality in similar ways. If we are not mindful, our “spiritual” lives can be totally disconnected from daily life, and yet we can still consider ourselves spiritual because we love singing those hymns, or we are moved to raise our hands when the band plays the right song.

Paul says, this ought not be so. True spirituality is when the Holy Spirit guides us through all of life; this can take shape with or without heightened “spiritual” experiences.

Danger, Danger

Re:Verse passage – Job 42:5-17 (day six)

A local pastor friend of mine warned, “If you read it [Job] wrong, it could hurt.”

We have been in Job for 13 weeks now. If our conclusion is some weird form of prosperity Gospel, that if we just endure suffering and slug it out, God will reward us (on this side of eternity) with even greater wealth and a healthy family, then we have read it all wrong.

God is never arbitrary, he always has a reason (although we may not be able to perceive it), but his giving is never tied to our faithful achievements, but to his grace. His giving is always a gift.

The greater reward of Job’s rough and tumble faithfulness was not new stuff, but a restored relationship with God; what he had truly longed for the entire time. So here is an insightful question to ponder, after reading through Job, do you long for more stuff or more of God? Do you desire more OF God, rather than more FROM God?

See the difference?

Magnificent and Dangerous

Re:Verse passage – Job 40:6-9, 15-19; 41:1-7, 10-11; 42:1-6 (day six).

I wouldn’t mess with a leviathan. Would you? It would probably take my arm clean off if I tried. And not because it is evil, or part of a “broken” world, but simply because it is a wild and magnificent and dangerous animal.

Here’s the kicker, God is super proud of this beast. Nothing on earth is its equal, no other creature so fearless. (41:33) He created it just like he created you and me.

We are always searching for reasons, but God seems to be saying, in part, there isn’t always a personal reason for suffering. Sometimes we run into something and it takes our arm clean off. He seems to be saying, in part, that his good, magnificent, created world wasn’t designed to cushion us when we fall; parts of it has sharp edges that requires wisdom and caution in its navigation. (It’s why we wear seatbelts, wash our hands, or avoid sticking our heads in lion’s mouths.)

While that isn’t all that comforting, it does reinforce one simple principle:

Live wisely. And be in awe of God’s good and magnificent and sometimes dangerous world.

BUT more importantly, be in awe of him.

God Hears

Re:Verse passage – Job 38:1-7; 40:6-9 (day 6)

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said,

I’m with Scott here, Job reminds us of our deepest need and God’s eagerness to meet it-his nearness. I think it is astounding that we have a God that draws near to us, especially after reading about his management of the universe in chapters 38-39. (God doesn’t have too much on his plate to draw near to us.)

One of the best ways the book of Job illustrates the nearness of God is not in God’s response to Job, but that he responded at all. Simply, God heard Job’s cries, his complaints, and accusations. He was not far off and aloof, but near; he heard Job and spoke to him in his nearness.

So, if you ever wander if God hears you; he does…AND he answers us when we call.

No Bad Questions

Re:Verse passage – Job 32:1-10; 33:2-4, 22-30; 35:9-10; 37:14-24 (day six)

There are no bad questions. Some may conclude that one of the purposes of Job is to illustrate the futility of asking hard questions; that we simply aren’t capable of understanding the complexities of God’s management of the universe as it involves human suffering. The latter is true of course, but it is a big leap to conclude we shouldn’t search for reasons for suffering.

In fact the book of Job points to a different conclusion, I think. We are privy to Job’s emotional journey as he attempts to make sense of his suffering. He argues with friends, questions God, wrestles with his will to press on, but ultimately longs for justice and restored fellowship with God. We can conclude that while we may not receive the answers we want, we may discover the meaning me need.

God is sympathetic to our frailty, and his shoulders are big enough to carry our fears, tough questions, and yes, even our anger. Elihu would advise we not forget who God is in all his wonder in the process.

I would advise something similar, it is okay to ask hard questions about suffering, as long as you don’t lose sight of the kind of person you ought to be in your suffering.

As For Me, Pt. 2

Re:Verse passage – Job 19:20-27 (six)

Pastor Scott is absolutely right! Undergirding Job’s proclamation is a worldview; a set of convictions that help him make sense of God and the world around him. Part of Job’s story is that experience of indiscriminate suffering threw some of what he had previously believed about God out the door, but other things remained.

One of the things that remained in Job’s worldview, we see echoed loudly here too, and that is-God cares. Job is convinced that God has NOT abandoned him, nor is he distant and aloof, unaware and unconcerned about his suffering and his words (Job 19:23).

In Job’s mind, God is more than knowledgeable about situation, he cares about him, his well being, and about justice; so much so, he can leave everything in God’s hands, and not take matters into his own.

Alone, Part 2

Re:Verse passage – Job 19:13-19 (day six)

I’m with Brian, there is a profoundness to Job’s soul-crushing loneliness. We quickly and easily see similarities to Jesus in the last hours of his life when he was totally abandoned. Perhaps loneliness is the full result of humanity’s brokenness, ultimately completed in death (could you be any more alone than in death?). When sin takes its full course it crumbles and destroys all relationships, leaving us totally alone.

Now interestingly enough, neither Job (a particular sin; he was still sinful) nor Jesus committed sin that led to their loneliness, but the sin of others. I think that similarity between Job and Jesus is on purpose. I think God the Holy Spirit wants to draw our attention from Job to Jesus.

What if another way to think about Jesus taking on the sin of the world is Jesus taking on crushing loneliness? What if the only way we could not be alone, is for Jesus to go through the full extent of our brokenness in his loneliness?

What if he became alone, so you never had to be alone?