I want to answer a question:
1. Does God breathe more Scripture into people in the present? (present day)
I think the question is does God still communicate to people in a way that is equal to the Scripture?
Start by reading the following about the power of Scripture.

The Bible can change not only a life but an entire lifestyle. Most of us have heard the story of the Mutiny on the Bounty, but few of us have heard how the Bible played a very vital part in that historical event. The Bounty was a British ship which set sail from England in 1787, bound for the South Seas. The idea was that those on board would spend some time among the islands, transplanting fruit-bearing and food-bearing trees, and doing other things to make some of the islands more habitable. After ten months of voyage, the Bounty arrived safely at its destination and for six months the officers and crew gave themselves to the duties placed upon them by their government.
When the special task was completed, however, and the order came to embark again, the sailors rebelled. They had formed strong attachments for the native girls, and the climate and the ease of the South Sea island life was much to their liking. The result was mutiny on the Bounty, and the sailors placed Captain Bligh and a few loyal men adrift on an open boat. Captain Bligh, in an almost miraculous fashion, survived the ordeal, was rescued, and eventually arrived home in London to tell his story. An expedition was launched to punish the mutineers, and in due time fourteen of them were captured and paid the penalty under British law.
But nine of the men had gone to another distant island. There they formed a colony. Perhaps there has never been a more degraded and debauched social life than that of that colony. They learned to distill whiskey from a native plant, and the whiskey as usual, along with other habits led to their ruin. Disease and murder took the lives of all the native men and all but one of the white men named Alexander Smith. He found himself the only man on the island, surrounded by a crowd of women and children. Alexander Smith found a Bible among the possessions of a dead sailor. The Bible was new to him. He had never read it before. He sat down and read it through. He believed it and he began to appropriate it. He wanted others to share in the benefits of the book, so he taught classes to the women and children, as he read to them and taught them the Scriptures.
It was twenty years before a ship ever found that island, and when it did, a miniature Utopia was discovered. The people were living in decency, prosperity, harmony, and peace. There was nothing of crime, disease, immorality, and sanity, or illiteracy. How was it accomplished? By the reading, the believing, and the appropriating of the truth of God!

Okay, the short answer is “no.” God doesn’t communicate to us in that way anymore. Most would say that God developed the New Testament Canon throughout the first century of the church. By the second century we have quotes from the church fathers regarding what letters or books are acceptable for the New Testament Canon.
One source says:
Paul J. Achtemeier, Publishers Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature, Harper’s Bible Dictionary, Includes index., 1st ed., 700 (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985). He also writes: By the middle of the second century, a collection of the four Gospels was made. At this time, Luke was separated from Acts so that thereafter Acts had a life of its own. If one takes seriously the claim of Tertullian, some type of Christian canon existed before Marcion—a canon that the heretic cut down to his own canon of an expurgated version of Luke and ten ‘corrected’ Letters of Paul. If one does not accept Tertullian’s claim, then by the end of the second century, partially in reaction to Marcion, a NT canon of some sort existed. This canon was a collection of collections (the four-fold Gospel, the Pauline Letters, and Revelation, which was itself a collection of seven letters and seven visions), with the Pauline Letters introduced by Acts and supplemented by several general Letters to counter Marcion’s exclusive focus on Paul. The Christian writings that were produced within a period of seventy-five to one hundred years, in contrast to the period of nearly one thousand years for the production of the OT documents, were now on the road toward acceptance in a twenty-seven-book NT canon normally used by Western Christians today.

Okay, so the question still remains, “WHY?” “Why no more Scripture?”
Okay, about the Spiritual gifts Paul writes that they are given for the up-building of the church.
Ephesians 4:11-13:
11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
In the same way that the Spiritual gifts were given for the up-building of the church, God used the Apostles to communicate His Word for the upbuilding of the church. So, when the early church Fathers compiles the 27 books of the New Testament they had a strict standard to go by.
1) The book or letter had to have been written by an apostle or based off of the testimony of an apostle. To be an apostle they would have had to have been a disciple or had been picked by Jesus. See what Paul writes below:
1 Corinthians 9:1:
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord?
Paul says that as an apostle he saw the Lord. Jesus chose Paul.
This means that all the apostles were dead by AD 100 and so no others can write Scripture.
2) The New Testament books also cannot contradict the rest of the Bible.

But the main point is number 1. No, though God still speaks He does not communicate in the same way that He did to Peter and Paul and James and John.

Please comment with any questions.

thanks, Steve

I have started reading a book by Gary McIntosh titled: There’s Hope for Your Church. 

Gary is the speaker at our American Baptist Churches of Ohio spring church leadership conference. Gary writes about revitalization for churches. Here are some interesting excerpts:

“At its root, revitalization is a spiritual issue. In a study reported in Your Church, the number one change made in churches that turned around was spiritual, such as added prayer initiatives. Seventy-five percent of the revitalized churches reported starting such initiatives.[19] Pastors and other church leaders regularly overlook this key point, preferring to focus on organizational or facility or program issues. This is not surprising, since dealing with spiritual issues, such as confrontation of known sin, is a challenging part of ministry. It is a mistake, however, to ignore the spiritual dynamic of revitalization.
As you begin the process of revitalizing a church, establish high morals, ethics, and credibility and stick to them. Show your people daily that these principles are more than words—that they live and thrive in you. Leaders who lack such principles are doomed to fail. Consider the following principles of revitalization and begin using them today.

another one:

“When the average age of people in a church is ten years or more above that of the average age in the community, the church finds it is no longer able to relate to the community. Few visitors walk through the doors of the church, and even fewer come back a second time.”

Excerpt From: Gary L. McIntosh. “Thereís Hope for Your Church.” Baker Publishing Group. iBooks. 

This material may be protected by copyright.

any thoughts? please share. 

blessings, Steve

I am now reading a book titled: “The Post Church Christian.”

This book is written by Paul and Carson Nyquist. Carson is a pastor and he is part of the millennial generation (born between 1982 and 2000). Paul was a pastor and is now the president of Moody Bible Institute. Paul is a baby boomer and they both are writing about generational differences. Both have theological degrees.

On page 25 of my Kindle edition Carson writes:

“Contrary to common thinking, a shallow version of Christianity is not compelling, relevant, or attractive to us. In fact, it’s the thing that often drives us away from the church.”   

That is an interesting quote. I have heard Barna statistics that show when the unchurched come to church they expect a sermon. My own analysis shows that when the younger generation comes to church they want something. They want depth and challenged or they don’t come. They no longer attend out of expectations. 

Carson also writes: 

“When you’re drowning in a culture of Christianity [Bible belt] that approves of everyone, people will look for more. Why? Because cheap Christianity, with low expectations, is virtually meaningless. I would argue our generation desires a significant faith. We want a Sunday morning message to challenge us to something deeper than tutoring a student or cleaning up a neighborhood.” He continues to say that those are good things but we need  connected to God.

He also writes: “Hearing a message on the nature, character, and power of God inspires us. We want to be challenged to love the unlovely, share our possessions with the poor, or give our lives to something that matters. This is what inspires our generation. We don’t want a watered-down version of God’s Word. We don’t accept a three-point  checklist to complete this week. Token Christianity has nothing to do with following Jesus.”  

As I personally read and listen to people like Francis Chan, Mark Driscoll and others this seems to be confirmed. Francis Chan challenges Christians to go deeper trusting the Holy Spirit and loving God and people in a crazy way. When challenged, this generation rises to the occasion, when not challenged they see no reason to commit to nothing. (meaning there is nothing of importance to commit to. 

When writing about the way things are done because they are always done this way, Carson writes:

      Ken and Deborah Lord, pastors and authors, elaborate on this issue: ‘

      “What if we older, more established church leaders who hold the authority, property, money, and other church resources were to hunt down eclectic, somewhat ragtag, young women and men, and give our power and stuff to them with the instruction, ‘We choose you because you are not like us. Here is your charge: Go after those who are seeking God. Do not copy our ways. Do not do what we have done. Innovate. Try. Fail. Succeed. Forge a new path. Build new kinds of churches and communities.'”

That is what we must do as we have lost this generation. 

Watch this video:

Andy Stanley’s church’s website under leaders on the right:

http://northpoint.org/

Two other great books: “Deep and Wide” by Andy Stanley and Visioneering by Andy Stanley.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_11?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=deep+and+wide+andy+stanley&sprefix=deep+and+wi%2Cstripbooks%2C227

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=visioneering&sprefix=visionee%2Caps%2C198&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Avisioneering

have a blessed week!

I read the following on the Vertical Church blog:

Prioritize the Word of Truth

I love this: “accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). When I was a kid, I memorized this verse in the King James Version as “rightly dividing the word of truth.” Actually, in the original Greek there’s just one word. It’s a compound word that means cut it straight. Don’t you love that picture? We are supposed to be cutting it straight, rightly dividing, accurately handling the Word of Truth.

We need to cut it straight in our families. When your daughter wants to date an unbeliever—but the Word of Truth says in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers”—you go to her and cut it straight. When your son wants to listen to ungodly music in your house—but the Word of Truth says in Philippians 4:8, “Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely . . . dwell on these things”—go to him and cut it straight.

Maybe you’re thinking, Hey, to be honest with you, my marriage is not doing very well right now. It’s more work than wow, for sure! I have to be honest and tell you that some days, in my darkest moments, I wonder if I can make it. I’m just not sure I can stick it out for the rest of my life. But the Word of Truth says in Matthew 19:6, “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” So put that thinking out of your mind, and cut it straight.

Maybe you’ve been having a hard time at work, and the finances aren’t what they used to be. This hasn’t been a good year; sales are down, and you’ve been tempted to cut some corners. Maybe you’ve thought about withholding your giving to your church because you think, God, I have to provide for my family and cover certain obligations. You’ve been tempted to compromise the Word of Truth. But then you remember Matthew 6:33, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” No longer will you allow yourself the luxury of wandering from what the Word of God says. You are “cutting it straight”; you are accurately handling the Word of Truth. And you are making the Word of God a priority.

A number of years ago, we had some major rainstorms in our area. Many people had their basements completely flooded. The morning after the storm, two sweet sisters who live next door to us came by and said, “We were calling you on the phone in the middle of the night. We wanted to make sure your basement didn’t flood.”

“Well, we only have cordless phones,” I said. “When the power went out, our phones didn’t ring.”

“Only a couple of cordless phones for a family your size?” the sisters answered. “We have six phones in our house: three cordless phones, and three regular phones.”

I couldn’t believe it. “Wow, you have six phones? For what?” They answered, “Well, we work for the phone company. What do you expect? Isn’t your house full of Bibles?”

I laughed out loud, “Well, yes, as a matter of fact, it is!” I walked away smiling to myself, because that’s what I want our family and our church family to be known for—full of the truth of God’s Word.

That’s almost a decade ago now. Thankfully, those sisters gave their lives to Christ—in fact I saw them in church last weekend.

Check out this sound bite:

If that doesn’t work out go to

http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/breakpoint-commentaries-archive/entry/13/21660

This is a radio commentary about pornography in Iceland. It turns out they are recognizing the great dangers with an “anything is okay” society. This could be an interesting discussion. Jesus talked about lust and even if a man looks at a woman lustfully he commits adultery in his heart. (Matthew 5:28)

Thought you may be interested. Have a great week!

It has been unfortunate that we put the Holy Spirit in a box. In Acts 1:8 Jesus said that “‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”’ So why don’t we live that way? Again I refer you to “Forgotten God” by Frrancis Chan and John’s Gospel chapters 14-17. But I have also typed up something below.
Let me write, I do not come from a Spirit-filled background. I have never spoken in tongues nor interpreted. Meagan can interpret tongues but that is resent. I come from a college that would for the most part be considered cessationalist which means they believe the sign gifts of the Spirit do not exist any more. But my seminary was not that way at all and I am not. I was part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance and the Missionary Church USA which both recognize the Spirit in mighty ways, but that doesn’t mean I have.
But as I read about great revivals or renewals or evangelism movements I see the Spirit at work. People get over their tendency to be Spiritual introverts and let their emotions flow. They are so excited and overcome to know Christ and so that is expressed in awesome ways. We need this in our church and our churches. We need this if we ever expect to see another “Great Awakening.” We need this if we want to see many come to know Christ. I want to see this. I want to see masses come to know Christ. I pray that I mean this with pure motives. So first we must be opened to the Holy Spirit. Please read below. I read this in the end notes of Vertical church:

James MacDonald. Vertical Church: What Every Heart Longs For. What Every Church Can Be.
David C. Cook / 2011 / Hardcover
http://www.christianbook.com/vertical-church-what-every-heart-longs/james-macdonald/9781434703729/pd/703729?en=google-pla&kw=church-and-pastoral-0-20&p=1167941&gclid=CLWChLqp1rUCFc9AMgodB0EAlA

Pages 315-316 in end notes number 25 for chapter 5: Unashamed Adoration:
John Wesley (1703-1791) was one of the founding members of the Methodist movement, and his journals are filled with descriptions of unusual physical manifestations that accompanied revival. For example, when describing the effects of a sermon on Saturday, July 14, 1759, he wrote, “Several fell to the ground, some of whom seemed dead, others in the agonies of death, the violence of their bodily convulsions exceeding all description. There was also great crying and agonizing in prayer, mixed with deep and deadly groans on every side.” (“Journals of John Wesley,” The Wesley Center Online, accessed January 3, 2011, http://wesley.nnu.edujohn-wesley/the-journal-of-john-wesley-vol-4/the-eleventh-part-section-two/.)
George Whitefield (1714-1770) was a contemporary of Wesley in England. When he heard reports of people responding boldly in Wesley’s meetings, Whitefield confronted his fellow preacher in a letter dated June 25, 1739: “I cannot think it right in you to give so much encouragement to these convulsions which people have been thrown in your ministry.” But a very short time later, Whitefield had to reverse his judgment when people began, without any prompting, to respond outwardly during his meetings. Henry Venn, a contemporary of Whitefield, wrote of the crowds listening to the great preacher: “Under Mr. Whitefield’s sermon, many among the immense crowd that filled every part of the burial ground were overcome with fainting. Some sobbed deeply; others wept silently; and a solemn concern appeared on the countenance of almost the whole assembly.” (Cited in J.C. Ryle Christian Leaders of the 18th Century [London: Banner of Truth, 1997], 253-53).
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) also described the sometimes-unusual events that would accompany a revival. Writing of those who find God’s grace for the first time, Edwards said, “It was very wonderful to see how persons’ affections were sometimes moved— when God as it were suddenly opened their eyes…. Their joyful surprise has caused their hearts as it were to leap, so that they have been ready to break forth into laughter, tears often at the same time issuing like a flood, and intermingling a loud weeping.” (“A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God,” in The Works of Jonathan Edwards [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998], 1:354.)
In his description of the Great Awakening, Edwards wrote, “Many of the young people and children that were professors appeared to be overcome with a sense of the greatness and glory of Divine things, and with admiration, love, joy and praise, and compassion to others that looked upon themselves as in a state of nature; and many others at the same time were overcome with distress about their sinful and miserable state and condition; so that the whole room was full of nothing but outcries, faintings, and such like…. It was a very frequent thing to see a house full of outcries, faintings, convulsions and such like, both with distress, and also with admiration and joy.” (Jonathan Edwards, The Great Awakening: A Faithful Narrative [New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1972], 4:546-47.)
When considering the physical and emotional manifestations of revival, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) wrote that “these phenomena are not essential to revival yet it is true to say that, on the whole, they do tend to be present when there is a revival. (Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Revival [Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1987].)

Recently I began listening to the book “Forgotten God.” This is a book written by Francis Chan and I am listening to an audio version while I run. I am now on chapter 5. It is a very good book with the basic idea that we forget the Holy Spirit. What do you think? Do you think we forget the Holy Spirit? I have to agree.
The audio version begins with an interview with Francis Chan and he points out that so many times we talk about knowing God’s will but are we willing to follow? For example, what if God’s will is for you to talk with your neighbor? In one of the first few chapters Chan gives the illustration of speaking with a close friend about God’s will and the Holy Spirit. His friend said that he is honestly afraid to know God’s will. Yet, we have the Holy Spirit and Chan laments that, though we have the Holy Spirit with us, why are we no different than those who do not have the Holy Spirit. He gives an illustration of basketball. What if we had a great basketball player with us and in us? Wouldn’t we play better?
I am enjoying this book. You can find it here:
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=forgotten+god&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=4644125067&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8248215081865792886&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&ref=pd_sl_26evt91xuj_e
I was able to download the audio version for two weeks from the library.
I have to admit that my church background has neglected the Holy Spirit. Others would say we have to have balance. Chan points out, “I have never met someone with too much of the Holy Spirit.” We must avoid the mistakes of “balance” in the Christian life. I think community and the Holy Spirit are struggling in our American Christianity. Over the last year, my belief of tongues as a spiritual gift has been challenged, challenged by God. This is because I experienced it in several prayer meetings. Someone spoke in tongues and Meagan interpreted. The Spirit is active and we must not put Him in a box. He is God, not an “it.” God is with us. (John 14-17)

On another note:
This past week I have dealt with a sick child. Mercedes Grace has graced us with her vomit, repeatedly. It all started on Wednesday night and it was a long night. (I am getting to an application.) Mercedes went to sleep at about midnight after vomiting all her drinks and food. We went to sleep soon after. But just after 3 she woke up screaming. She went back to sleep for a minute, but soon woke up again screaming and screaming and screaming. We got her out of her crib and she went for the refrigerator. The poor child was so thirsty as she had nothing in her. We gave her three ounces of pedialyte. She drank it up and guess what? Within a few minutes Meagan was wearing it. Mercedes went back to sleep until just after 7 AM. She woke up thirsty. This time Meagan gave her a tablespoon of pedialyte and we waited for 10 minutes and then gave her another tablespoon and then an ounce and then more. But in between those small doses she screamed and screamed. She wanted more. Poor Mercedes didn’t know, nor could she know why we couldn’t give her more. Here is the point: How big is your view of God? Do you really believe that He alone knows what is best? We knew that we couldn’t give Mercedes that much at once, but she couldn’t understand. God knows what is best for us, even when we cannot understand. Do you trust God? Mercedes has to trust us, and hopefully we will trust God. This past week I read something very interesting: (This is from James MacDonald)
John Piper’s book, Let the Nations Be Glad, says, “Charles Misner, a scientific specialist in general relativity theory, expressed Albert Einstein’s skepticism over the church with words that should awaken all of us to the shallowness of our worship of God. The design of the universe is very magnificent and shouldn’t be taken for granted. In fact, I believe that is why Einstein had so little use for organized religion, although he strikes me as basically a very religious man. He must have looked at what the preachers said about God and felt that they were blaspheming. He had seen so much more majesty than they had ever imagined and they were just not talking about the real thing. My guess is that he simply felt that religion he’d run across did not have proper respect for the author of the universe.” He goes on and gives some details. “Scientists . . . know that the galaxy of which our solar system is a part is 100,000 light years across, about 587,000 trillion miles. It’s one of about a million such galaxies in the optical range of our most powerful telescopes.” And every time they get a more powerful telescope they go, “Oooh! There’s more?”
We who believe the Bible know this even better than scientists. If there is a personal God who spoke this universe into being, then there is a certain respect, reverence, wonder, and dread that we should have when we come together to talk about Him and to worship Him. But the tragic fact is that we have been deifying man and humanizing God for so long that we see worship as just kind of a step up. We’re worshiping a God who’s just slightly more exalted than us. And that is such a painful and small way to live our lives. It’s time for the people of God to rise up and recognize the foolishness of living for our own exalted nonsense. Instead, we can live for God’s agenda, which is the exaltation of Jesus Christ. There are only two kinds of people in this world: those who are seeking to exalt themselves, and those who are living for God’s agenda. We are most alive when we live for God’s agenda and most miserable when we do not.
—James MacDonald
Have a blessed week!

This is the video I played on Saturday night at worship. 

I recently received an email question:

In James 5:15. It says–the prayer of faith will save the sick [with anointing and prayers by the elders] but noticed it doesn’t say “healed”. Do you think it may mean salvation rather than healing?  Food for thought! 

I thought my best way to respond was to pull out the sermon I preached on that passage. It is below:

Intro:

A minister said to a child: “So your mother says your prayers for you each night. What does she say?” The youngster replied, “Thank God he’s in bed.”[1]

Prayer is very important in our Christian life.  A man named William R. Newell said this about prayer: “kneeling is a good way to pray because it is uncomfortable. Daniel prayed on his knees.” Jim Elliot [who was killed as a missionary in Ecuador] said, “God is still on His throne, we’re still His footstool, and there’s only a knee’s distance between!” He also said, “That saint who advances on his knees never retreats.”[2

Many others have written on prayer. Why? I think that is obvious, prayer is our connection with God. I believe people write on prayer because prayer is so difficult for us, all of us, including pastors.  One reason I believe prayer is difficult is because it takes faith. We are having faith that our prayer is heard. Another thing about prayer is humility. It is humbling to ask for help and confess our sins to God. Of course another reason is time.

In James 5:13-18 we see James wrapping up his epistle. Here James writes about prayer. As we discuss this passage I hope you will be encouraged by James instructions on the power of prayer.

Read James 5:13-18

1. In verse 13 James instructs us to pray in our troubles.
   1. Prayer is the subject of the next several verses
   2. Prayer is also the better use of our tongues. If you recall James has written about the tongue in several verses. Some of this is review, but allow me to remind you: 
      1.                                                    i.      in James 1:19: be slow to speak; James 1:26: anyone who thinks of himself as religious must keep a tight rein on his tongue. James 3:1-12 are about not using our words to curse people. In chapter  4:11-12 it says not to slander one another, then in verses 13-17 he writes about boasting and bragging. So, now James gives us some good instructions for the tongue; prayer and he will also mention praise.
   3. Now, what type of trouble is James talking about? It is easy to think that the trouble has something to do with illness. In fact, at first glance I thought the trouble had something to do with illness.  I thought that because in verse 14 James writes about sickness. But I am going to share a different thought on that verb translated “sickness” in a moment.
      1.                                                    i.      For now, trouble could likely mean persecution. Recall that in James 2:6 the rich were dragging the people into courts. We also know that James was the pastor of the Jerusalem church and we know there was persecution in Jerusalem. James himself was stoned to death in AD 62. Stephen was stoned prior to this letters writing. In Hebrews, which I think was written in or around Jerusalem; in chapter 13:3 there is a hint about persecution there. So, I think the trouble James is referring to is persecution.
   4. James says to pray.
      1.                                                    i.      What are you doing in your trouble? I urge you to pray. This is a topic which I have covered before, but it always needs repeating, pray.
      2.                                                  ii.      Francois Fenelon, a seventeenth-century Roman Catholic Frenchman, said this about prayer:
         1. Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you to conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability, Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself and others.

If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want for subject of conversation. They do not weight their words, for there is nothing to be held back; neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration they say just what they think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God. [3]

1. Now, still in this verse James writes about the opposite of trouble, happiness. If you are happy, sing songs of praise. Col 3: 16-17:
2. Col 3:16-17: 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
3. Now, in verse 14 and 15 James tells us about communal prayer for illness.
   1. I said communal prayer because now you are to get more people involved in your prayer.
   2. James says, is anyone of you sick? You should call the elders of the church to pray over you and anoint you with oil in the name of the Lord. And in verse 15, the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well.
   3. This is a somewhat difficult passage for me to talk about. It is difficult because it would be easy to say if you have done this and you are not well, your faith is not strong enough. Look again: James says, the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The text continues to say: The Lord will raise you up; if you have sinned you will be forgiven.
   4. Now, what does sin have to do with the sickness?
      1.                                                    i.      We can now say that if you are not better after being prayed over and anointed by the elders, your faith is weak and your sickness may be because of sin.
   5. I know that I have opened a can of worms and I am going to get rid of the worms now. I am going to try to get those worms to catch fish or something productive.
   6. The dear man, who was my youth pastor in high school and a spiritual advisor now, lost his daughter to leukemia when she was around 16 or 17 years of age. He is and was a very godly man who spent lots of time in prayer and had great faith. But he was told by some that he had unconfessed sin and that is why his daughter was not healed.
      1.                                                    i.      I don’t believe that for a second. At least not in that case.
         1. Though I will talk about confession in a minute.
   7. The Greek verb translated “sick” can mean weak. It is quite likely that James is not writing about a physical ailment but a spiritual weakness and/or some physical weakness from the persecution. Think about it for a moment. These people are facing persecution. They are drained. It has been difficult to maintain the faith. Their faith has been challenged and maybe weakened.
   8. Now, James says call the elders. Now, “elders” does not mean “old people.” The term can mean elderly people. But elders are spiritual leaders in the church. In 1Tim 3 Paul wrote about elders. I encourage you to read that later on. Many churches and denominations still have elders today. The Christian and Missionary Alliance was the fastest growing denomination as of a few years ago and they have elders. What you need to know are the elders are the spiritual advisors, they are the spiritually mature. This could be an older person and many times it is; however, there are many older people who are not spiritually mature.
   9. The elders are to pray over the person and anoint him/her with oil. The verb translated “to anoint” literally means “to rub” or “smear” with oil. This could carry the idea of putting oil on wounds from persecution. At the same time this anointing could simply be symbolic as it was in the Old Testament.
      1.                                                    i.      Either way, it is quite likely that the sickness is not a literal physical illness but a weakened faith.
   10. The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. God will honor your request. This is especially true if we believe this is talking about a weakened faith from persecution.
   11. The text goes on to say that his sins will be forgiven. What is the sin? Where does this come from?
       1.                                                    i.      It is possible that the sin is a weakened faith.
       2.                                                  ii.      It is also possible that the sin is just an unnamed sin. Why is it forgiven? Do the elders forgive the sin? I don’t think so. I think we can know the sin is forgiven because the individual has come to the elders. Since he has come to the elders, that implies a contrite heart willing to confess sin.
          1. Suppose the person has an actual physical ailment? This passage says they will be healed in faith. You may be questioning your faith because you have not been healed. Remember that our prayers must always be about God’s will. We pray in Jesus’ name because we are praying in Jesus’ character or manner. Look at verse 14. At the end of the verse it says that the prayer and anointing are in the name of the Lord.
          2. In the Bible times, name meant character. Our prayers need to be in the character or person of Jesus. This must include Jesus’ will and desires. Our prayers must be a submission to His will.
             1. So, the prayer in faith will bring healing if that is in God’s will. The question is whether James is referring to spiritual healing or physical healing.
                1.                                                                                                                            i.      It seems to me to be about a spiritual weakness which needs a spiritual healing.
   12. Also, about elders: notice the idea of calling upon the spiritual advisors for support. The New Testament gives this type of instruction often. It was important for the church to be a community. You need to, I need to, we all need to be able to call for help spiritually; and that is what the next verse is about.  
4. In verse 16 James shows that communal confession goes along with prayer.
   1. In Psalm 66:18 the Psalmist writes that if he had cherished sin in his heart the Lord would not hear his prayer.
   2. I don’t think you must always be concerned about some unconfessed sin that you don’t know about.
   3. What you must be careful of is repetitive sin. This is sin that you are going through and you cannot conquer. This is sin which you have given into time and time again. We should always confess our sins to God, but we must also confess them to each other.
      1.                                                    i.      This doesn’t mean giving your dirty laundry to the whole church. Who wants to be first we can have an open mic right now. No!
      2.                                                  ii.      This does mean having a prayer partner or a group of Christian friends that you can share your struggles with at a specific time and place. There is a time for public confession as well. Don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think that is what James is writing about.
   4. We need to confess because in confession we clear our minds and hearts.
   5. We need to confess because in confession we can hear the person we confess to say that we are forgiven, or God forgives you. We need to hear that.
   6. We need to confess to everyone we have offended in our sin (as far as possible). In some cases that may be a large group of people.
   7. We need to confess so that we can be held accountable not to continue in that sin.
      1.                                                    i.      This means the person we confess to, or at least one of the people, should say, “You are forgiven, now how do we prevent you from falling into this sin again?”
      2.                                                  ii.      We are not meant to live the Christian life alone. Unchecked sin corrupts absolutely. Our sin is contagious, always. It is not secret. If you don’t believe me look how divorce affects children. Be sure your sin will find you out and it does hurt other people. (Numbers 32:23)
   8. This verse about confession and sin implies that the sickness may be actually weakened faith in the previous verse.
      1.                                                    i.      I know that some of you need to confess and I urge you to do that. Make it a point to confess the sin today.
      2.                                                  ii.       You may have to confess to your spouse that you have looked at pornography.
      3.                                                 iii.      You may have to confess to your children that you have treated them badly.
      4.                                                iv.      You may have to confess to your boss that you did something wrong.
      5.                                                  v.      You may have to confess to someone else.
         1. Don’t ignore the Spirit’s nudging about this. In Matthew 5:23-24 Jesus told the people that if they are about to worship God and they realize they have an unresolved issue with someone else, they must resolve that and then come back to worship.
         2. In confessing our sin we can truly be spiritually healed and fulfilled.
5. In verses 17-18 James gives an example of the power of prayer:
   1. James 5:17-18: 17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

Recall that James was the half brother of Jesus and he was called James the just. It is said that he spent hours on his knees in prayer so much so that his knees were callous like a camel’s flesh. So it is only fitting that as he closes his epistle he writes on prayer.

God is right there ready and waiting on your prayers

I want you all to know that whether you are battling a physical ailment or a spiritual problem I am here to help you. More than that, I am willing and ready to have our church leaders pray over you. That could be in a special service or in our worship service.

E. Stanley Jones said of prayer: Prayer is surrender—- surrender to the will of God and cooperation with that will. If I throw out a boat hook from a boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God.[4]

Let’s pray now

This discussion came up in Bethel:

In the Old Testament, the Israelites are God’s chosen people to carry out His purpose of redemption through Christ and to be a blessing to all.  Abraham was credited for his faith.   “If God is a loving God and loves everyone, what happens to those people in the Old Testament who are not His chosen ones?  If they just happen to be born into a foreign family and not a descendant of Abraham are they just doomed?  Is there no hope for them?”  This is perplexing because the New Testament teaches that all can come into the family of God through Christ, but the Old Testament paints a different picture.

I have a few thoughts on this, but first let me affirm that this is a very difficult question. This is quite perplexing and near impossible to understand. So, that leads to my first answer which relates to the sovereignty of God. God is in control of all things. People may wander and ask, “Is God in control of who has eternal life in Him?” This question could lead to that answer. Certainly, if the Israelites were God’s chosen people and one is raised and not an Israelite then how can they be saved? Below is a section of Romans 9:

⁶ It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. ⁷ Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”^[b] 8 In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. ⁹ For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”^[c]

¹⁰ Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. ¹¹ Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: ¹² not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”^[d] 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”^[e]

¹⁴ What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! ¹⁵ For he says to Moses,