09/26/2024
My personal devotional reading this morning was centered on prayer and the church, and was written by Pastor E.M. Bounds. He wrote "just as prayer generates a love for scriptures and causes people to begin to read the Bible, so does prayer also cause men and women to visit the house of God to hear scriptures explained." So often we think that believers are drawn to praying after having attended church, but that isn’t necessarily true. We are drawn to God, and prayer, in many ways by the Lord Himself, and our hearts are softened to Him as we come to know Him through His Son Jesus Christ… after having heard the gospel of Jesus by any number of ways.
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6 ESV
So how is it that we come to Christ? We come to Him in this way…
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 6:44 ESV
I think about some "churches" who meet to hear a non-biblical message of social inspiration; a locker room chat if you will, and I mourn for their souls. Pastors who are called should preach from God’s Word so that at the final "Amen" their congregations will better understand God and be saved. Having heard many self-serving Sunday messages in various churches over the course of my life... I mourn from my soul for those misguided lecturers who call themselves pastors, ministers, priests, and reverends, yet lay waste to their congregations by straying from God’s Word as they preach and teach worldly topics as if they are the Lord’s, and of divine importance.
“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
2 Timothy 4:1-5 ESV
We should pray in earnest that all Churches be filled with the teaching and preaching of God’s Word, so that those who were drawn, and whose prayers have lead them to gather at the sanctuary doors, will find truth, understanding, and forgiveness, through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We should also pray for these teachers and pastors, that their Sunday messages expound upon God’s Word and that their own desires be saved for the privacy of their personal prayer closets where they can personally seek, and ask for an understanding of the truth.
Pastor Bounds concluded his thought on this subject in this way:
"Praying people take delight in the preaching of the Word and the support of the church." – E. M. Bounds
Scripture encourages us to this end. So, to those He has called to preach His Word, to those who are the church’s teachers and lay people, and to those who are currently being drawn by the Father and are seekers, be encouraged to pray, and dwell in God’s Word of truth…
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”
2 Timothy 2:15 ESV
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
Philippians 1:6 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Holy Word, and draw us deep into it as we seek to know you better each day. Hear our prayers Lord as we call out to you and are guided by your Holy Spirit in our studies, remembrance, understanding, and especially our prayers. Hear us praying for belief and faith, but also hear our prayers of intercession for others. Hear us especially as we pray fervently for those who lead your sheep astray, because to those whom much has been given, much is expected, and woe be it to these shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of your pasture. Your Word says that they will be cut into pieces and put with the unfaithful. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who draws us to Jesus, bringing us thus to you, and calling us to live by your Word, while doing your will. Merciful and good are you Lord, who hears the prayers of the sinners, and through their sincere contrition and penitence forgives them, and returns them to your flock. Have mercy on us Father, drawing us to your Son Jesus, leading us through Him to you, and returning those who have wandered back to your Word, their belief, and a strength of faith. For this, your grace, we praise your name, love you with all our heart, and worship you forevermore.
Amen, Amen, Amen!
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John 1:1 ESV
“but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”
Matthew 18:6 ESV
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Hebrews 4:12 ESV
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14 ESV
Rich Forbes