Grace, Salvation and Prayer

Three Assists from Easthampstead Baptist Church

1. Taste The Grace

I first heard the phrase "Taste The Grace" by a lady called Philippa, from my Church. It is a good term and captures how powerful God's Grace is. So strong that you can taste it.

The transforming power of Grace is not meant to weaken you, in the sense of "God will take care of everything" No, it should be received under the spirit of empowerment, to overcome difficulties. Remember that ultimately, the only way to negotiate the difficult route to the Wonders of Heaven and the Almighty, is through the assistance of God's Grace.

In the here and now, during difficult or demanding times, or in the most devastating and horrifying moments that may occur, it is only through Grace where we have the hope of some kind of answer. God has Said that all wrongs will be eradicated through an Act of His Will. This Purity Rinsing will wipe away every heartbreak. And all our teardrops, which he has counted by the way, will be dried. Although I guess we will then cry again, but in joy.

Jesus came to Earth on behalf of the sinners, not the righteous, for the sick not the healthy, for the poor not the rich, for the sorrowful not the happy and so on. Yet Grace is available to all, whatever station in life, read Ephesians 1 7-20. God's Grace is inexhaustible. In fact this incredible Holy Grace gives us what we don't deserve. You are not here by accident, you were hand-picked by God. Try not to mess things up too much!

Taste The Grace

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2. Relationship

What is prayer?

What God wants from us beyond all else is relationship. In relationship we speak to one another.  In a relationship with God, we call such communication, prayer. In a close relationship with someone you don’t even have to speak, you can just give that look. As you get to know one another you get to know what they are like, their body gestures, their thoughts and sometimes you might even know what they are going to say before they do. Relationship brings oneness.

Yet speaking to God can be quite difficult as is starting up any new relationship. Sometimes it can feel like a long-distance relationship or a one-way relationship and it takes effort. Yet God not only loves to speak to us but needs to speak to us. The problems found in trying to obtain a good contact with God; is ours. Generally, we have no problem audibly speaking to one another but when it comes to our Creator God we cannot see or hear Him so it feels a little awkward. It means we must trust He is there and trust that He hears us.

The fall of mankind led to our spiritual antennas becoming not only dulled, but out of tune with God and therefore we pick up all sorts of interference.

God speaks in numerous ways using all our senses. He knows you and the best way to communicate with you, which may change at different times. We communicate mostly verbally and in that we also use intonation of voice and body and facial gestures. Which is why emails and messaging can be easily misinterpreted.  In the Garden of Eden God walked and talked with man. I wonder what the conversations were like before the fall.

God not only hears us but speaks to us. For He says, “My sheep hear my voice”. We are not only connected with God when we become a Christian, we are also given authority. Our mouth is now a vessel for God's use, so be careful what you say. God has given us authority to bring the Kingdom of Heaven down to earth. He desires to use our mouth to bring His purposes into fulfilment. He says to ask, and it will be given you, He says persevere, do not give up.

Prayer carries authority which is why Satan does his best to discredit it. One way the devil does this is to increase the interference on your spiritual antenna. It started in the garden with the ‘Did God really say’ planting of doubt.  We quickly become disappointed, disillusioned when we do not get answers to our prayers and we do not know why. We cannot fathom God out.  Why do some prayers get answered and some do not? We try to understand God. But that is not the purpose of prayer. We are to pray, full stop.

Prayer brings God’s purposes about. It might not be in answering a prayer as we want but each time we communicate with Him, it is precious, we are plugged in and in that connection His Holy Spirit is at work in us.  God speaks to us in numerous ways. It can be through reading His Word, or a picture, feeling, dream, taste, an audible word or even silence.

The more you talk to God the deeper the relationship until such a time happens that you automatically walk and talk with God. For He says, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you’.

Initially it is like dating God. A little awkward at first but you are keen to get to know each other.  God wants you to pour out your heart to him, to be honest with him. Nothing about you will shock him, he has already accepted you and paid the price for you.  He has no regrets.  But he needs you to give you to Him. There are numerous books on prayer and how to pray and we each have our own styles. But we must never give up or discard prayer. Beware of the interloper whose aim is to stop you doing that and ruining your relationship with God.

Jacqueline Childs

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3. What Is The Most Important Question

Have you ever wondered what might be the most important question in the whole of the Bible? It is an interesting poser and many might have a preference.

Having deliberated this myself, I would personally come down on the side of a matter asked in the Book of Matthew. I am particularly fond of this as an answer to the above due to the fact it was highlighted and preached in my own home town Church by one Rob Lea, although I am sure my vote is not biased because of this!

My choice then is that the greatest in the whole of the Bible is the one asked by Jesus Himself. He posed a powerful question to his disciples whilst chatting to them, asking of them about who people thought He was. Their replies varied. Some they said, thought Jesus was either Elijah or Jeremiah or maybe one of the other great prophets who had been allowed to return to Earth. Some thought He was actually John The Baptist.

But this was not the main thrust of the question.

Jesus said to them "What about you?"

And it is here that we come to the Greatest Question.

Jesus asked "Who do you say I am"

The answer, from Simon Peter, is fantastic.

The answer, like the question, is the essence of the Bible.

Matthew 16: 13-17

How To Pray When You Don't Hear God Speak

What God wants from us beyond all else, is communication. Yet prayer can be quite difficult sometimes because it tends to always be a one-way conversation. If there was a physical telephone line to God, He would not answer and likewise not text or e-mail. God seeks only prayer, simple prayer, which is for sure a type of communication available to anyone anywhere in the world, in any time period and in any circumstances.

When you pray how can you be sure of what you are doing. Are you talking to God or fresh air? There are many different ways to pray and often it is best to pray in your own style, as long as you take on-board how Jesus instructed us to pray.

In a personal tip, I find that as God is not going to chat (generally) then talk for him.

Sit down somewhere quiet and start to pray in a soft voice. It is important to actually speak and not pray in the mind, at least at times when you are deliberately seeking communication. You wouldn't talk to anyone else without actually using your vocals, unless of course you have a speech impediment that restricts this route, but here God will enhance your mind I am sure. God wants to 'connect'.

Have the Bible open and speak God's own Words from selected chapters. Usually I 'chat' for about 30 minutes, asking, wondering and answering all out loud, never in my head, often answering my own prayers by reading Scripture. However, mostly I will moan to God that the Scripture I have felt compelled to read has nothing to do with my prayer requests or questions!

Invariably though, meaning is eventually gained much to my astonishment and sometimes I learn things more important than what I was initially praying about. It is important I believe, when seeking dialogue, not to start by just listing out a series of requests, after all this is about having a conversation. And a conversation with God no less! To know God's thoughts, reading God's written word out loud in prayer is, possibly, a good way to create a chat with our Creator, in my view I think this is a good option.

When prayer appears unanswered, understand that God answers your prayer in full. If you prayer for a giant pizza and then don't receive one, it's probably because God answered the stronger prayer from your body that cried out "No, just a salad".

Who Does God Look Up To?

The headline here poses an interesting question. Who does God look up to? We would all probably shout out that God looks up to nobody, yet this is not what God Himself says.

God is The Original. God upholds all things. God was and is. He is The Image of existence before there was any existence. God should look up to nothing. However, due to God being absolutely wonderful, there is a circle of perfection that He has made that creates a situation that enables Him to look up. We know this because He has told us. Is God amazing or what!

Let us remind ourselves first of what God is. God is Perfect and within Him He has ‘Three Perfect Rules’

Rule One - God Could

God could do anything He likes but at the same time he also will not do anything He likes because of His own rule. He allows randomness

Rule Two - God Can

God can do anything but also cannot because of His own rule. He allows free will

Rule Three - God Can’t

God can’t do anything but he also could and can because of His own rule. He does not allow programmability

In Rule One we can see that God could do anything yet if He did, He would upset His Own Imperative that allows for randomness, arbitrariness within the order of the Universe. Without this rule you could pray to God to give you the next winning lottery numbers, buy a ticket and expect to win.

That is not going to happen. But it could happen if God broke His own rule, God could do anything, they are His Rules after all. God is not going to dictate the direction of every splash from a running river, the splashes are random. If He controlled these things specifically, He would just have a computer game. We would all be like Pac-Man, going in whatever direction God played us.

For example, if you prayed that you could dodge every raindrop in a storm then for sure your prayer is going to be unsuccessful, yet what about Jesus, He calmed a storm. So He dodged the rain. Here God is at least bending His rule, however it should be noted how difficult it is to stop a storm. We should remember that even Jesus only calmed one or two storms.

In Rule Two because of God giving us free will, He has limited Himself over what He can do. Many will shrug and say that God can do anything regardless of free will, that say if you decided to kill someone of your own free will that God can stop you doing such a horrible thing. Yes God can do anything but He also, paradoxically, cannot.

The only thing that would stop you carrying out an act to kill someone of your own free will would be your own free will (you could for example pray to God before the act and realise how wrong it would be to continue in your evil plans). It is also wrong when atheists infer that a Christian has no free-will as we have to obey God. True freedom is to obey Christ yes, not to disobey Him. The only way to have a free mind is to come under the Authority of Truth. Believing lies for example is not a freedom, it is a bondage. When our hearts are tuned and receptive to Jesus then we are completely free, not free to do as we want no, free to do as we ought.

If you are unsure about the fact that God is limited in what He can do then ask yourself the following question.

If God can do anything why did He not stop Jesus from being killed so terribly? Or even ask this, if God can do anything why doesn’t He go back in time and undo that black day? The answer to both questions is simple. Although God can do either, He cannot. He cannot remove the redemptive work of Jesus Christ from our history.

The final Rule brings the first two together. God could do anything, God can do anything but at the same time He can’t do anything if it disturbs the regulation of non-programmability. Without this final ruling we would all just be robots or at best artificial intelligent beings or even as Richard Dawkins might say, towers of selfish genes just walking around with the sole motive of survival.

If God had wanted a planet of dummies He could have made one, it would be a design format giving God no problems at all. Of course this is not what God wanted or had in mind, he wanted independent living breathing spiritual human beings.

If you ever ask yourself the question “What does God want”, the answer again, as with all things relating to God, is simple. God wants this one thing, our prayers. God does not want worship. He does not want our love. He does not want religion. He does not want us to try and please Him. He does not want our charity, our money or our fasting. He does not want our goodness or some kind of a sacrifice.

In my humble opinion God does not want His intelligent creation scratching around in a hope that He will be pleased with them, or see humanity excess in kindness just because of wanting to make Him happy. It is ridiculous. Why would God want our money. Our worship? He already has a Heavenly Choir that sings better than us.

All the noble attributes listed are important, but they are not essential to God, they are (apart from worship) essential to each other. The local Church may need some money, but God does not. So give from a desire to help, not as a wish to look good to God.

The Word Of God declares that He prefers simplicity to complication, so God wants His Word to be easily understood by anyone, which is why the Bible is written as it is. Only humans complicate it. From Scripture the one thing God wants from us is clearly revealed, it is communication.

Naturally communication with our Maker will generate the attributes of worship, love, faith, hope and charity, it goes hand-in-hand. We will want to sing to God; it is natural from our spirits. Generosity, goodness and kindness, sacrifice and the rest will all come about as a relationship with God develops.

Then after the relationship (if allowed to) develops a strong bond, God Himself, The Creator, The Maker of the Universe, will not so much look down upon a person but will start to look up…that is look up in joy…as the communication becomes a delight in the sight of the Lord.

There is something else that comes about when real communication is invoked, which is above and beyond all the categories listed above. It is wisdom. And the first tenant of wisdom is a fear of God Almighty (Proverbs 9:10).

Once a healthy trepidation of God is established within the soul, much of the fine kinds of living as already noted will fall into a good order. There is no question that within such a fear of God the individual soul will become lined with avenues of brokenness as regret, maybe even shame, bothers the mind at how short of the Glory Of God one can be.

How do we communicate? God has told us how it is by prayer. It is best, always, to seek out personal guidance from God whilst reading His Holy Book, prayer will help, and prayer is what God desires. Read for yourself.

Isaiah 66:2. This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My Word. (New International Version)

To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and have a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My Word (King James Version)

And unto this one I look attentively, unto the humble and bruised in spirit, and who is trembling at My Word (Young’s Literal Translation)

Wrong Statements In The Bible

We must always be very careful when quoting from the Bible because we could take stuff completely out of context. It is really important to be mindful that Scripture was written without chapter and verse, it was written book by book.

For instance the Bible clearly states things as true in sections of the Book of Job. Yet if we quote these things as the truths of the Bible we would be in error. Later in the very same Book we are told that the advice and words that are given to Job are all wrong in content. Therefore, if we read Job in its entirety, we would not fall into the trap of quoting passages out of their perspectives, as some do in order to make points to back themselves up.

So never quote a passage from the Bible as a personal back-up to your dialogue; unless you have read the particular Book fully, ignoring our modern formats of chapters.

Then you may have a handle on the context and be able to speak with better authority. We are meant to remember what we read, not memorise it. There is a difference.

Grinding Wheels Of Doubt

In this modern world we are subject to the grinding out of more and more propaganda over the issue that there is no God. Yet the most famous book we have to hand, the Bible, gives us not only accurate historical accounts but also prophecy. The point is, the Bible has never been wrong, ever, in anything, so it is probably right about the here and now and right about what will happen in the future.

Often the Bible is tested, like recently as a team set out to discover if four anchors were in a bay in Malta from a shipwreck described in Acts 27-28. Sure enough, they were there and were recovered from a seabed of 90 feet in depth on a dangerous sandbar, just as declared in the Bible. As investigator Bob Cornuke said when he saw the anchors "My heart skipped a beat and I realised that I could be standing in the presence of Bible history".

24% of verses in the Bible have a prediction about the future and there are a total of 735 different prophecies. 596 have already come literally true exactly as predicted (81%), so there is a good chance the remaining 19% will come to pass. And by the way, twenty more things have still to happen before Jesus returns.

It is impossible for the Bible to have been written without there being a God. The Bible is THE ONLY book that has been written that tells real history and forecasts real future events. It is the only book that when you are reading it, it will read you back!

But If Not

Daniel 3: 16-18

The power, faith and strength of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the face of the brutal intolerence of King Nebuchadnezzar is quite extraordinary. Even though they were sure God could save them they had no idea whether He would save them.

Yet their faith never wavered, even though death in a terrible manner lay before them. The men had a simple yet powerful faith, it yielded to the position that they would remain perfectly confident of God, even if He did not save them

How many Leaders preach on this topic?

But If Not. What then of your faith in God?

Many times you may pray that God will save you from an ordeal, yet what if He doesn't. God does not pull strings, He is not a puppeteer. So if God does not divert you from a trial, if He does not protect you from a nightmare if He does not release you from suffering, what then?

God is not subject to our ways, our demands, our wants, our timescales. He will deliver you from all nightmares, suffering and trials. But He will do so along His Holy Pathways only.

You need healing, you need protection, you need money, you need security, you need love, you need forgiveness, you need strength, you need answers..and you need it now!

But If Not

The Bible

The Bible is incredible, truly a Book meant for Holiness, a Book written by humans but above humans. It covers a period probably spanning around 1600-1700 years, containing detached and separate writings (on the whole) sixty-six accounts, which all mould together to reveal a pattern and a purpose that the individual writers could not have comprehended, enlightening society from a comprehensive perspective undetected by any one author from a list of forty.

The Bible is completely without contradiction. Atheists dream up and point out many inconsistencies but they all flounder under examination. Remember that this inspired Book was also written by authors over three different continents.

The main hope for anyone reading Scripture is that any study would be taken on only under the Guidance of the Spirit of God. Without a prayer request for the Holy Spirit to be with the reader then the enormity of what is being made known will not be made clear.

Scripture is a God-Breathed cohesive revelation to not only help us with our understanding of this Universe or to realise where our origins stem or to understand Grace in its Pure form; it is to grasp real history from God's Perspective.

HisStory