I heard from CBN and also The Gospel Coalition recently that one of the fastest growing churches in the world is found, in all places, the country of Iran! Nothing displays more the grace and glory of Christ than the contrast in this! While in America, we enjoy seven or more Bible translations at our fingertips and the power bible software like Logos, we have plenty of churches to choose from (though hard too), we struggle to see the growth of Christian population anywhere. Why?

To start with: I posted this video from Baghdad, Iraq about two brothers abandoned by their father, experienced and witnessed the cruelty and grossness of their society even within their own family, the story of which moved me to tears. How they from a Muslim upbringings, where shame reigns supreme in their society, found Christ and gave their lives to Jesus.

The apologetics that we need. The moving shattering lives of Baghdad and the power of kindness and love 💕 because of Jesus. Musika found Jesus.

The moving story of two Muslim young men, Ahmed & Mohr, from their shattered lives in Baghdad found Christ as they were almost killed by their own family and society. How they were begging for food bare footed on a boiling hot day, were met by amazingly, General Petraeus, one day on the street of Baghdad. His compassion moved him to get drinks and food for them; met their mum, and helped the devastated shattered mum running away from her husband and society, he offered her a job in the US army work. From there, they were nourished and recovered physically, mentally. Up to a point when the Iraqi society were threatening to kill the mum because she was working for the US army. She was then told by US army that she can’t work there anymore because of the threats coming in. But the General kindly again offered to help her refugee status to US, and of course, they took it, and were flown to the US. In the US, they looked for Arabic community, and these people brought them to church without pushing the gospel, but just showed them kindness.

Growing up in the streets of Baghdad abandoned by their abusing father, these boys began to fund God as their father, the love of the community shown to them. They saw the joy and peace among these people in the church, and they said “whatever that’s in them, I want” ! Before long, they gave their lives to Jesus. A truly movingly powerful testimony life story, that speaks volume to us.

The power of compassion and love for the downtrodden, bringing justice and help and love for those victimized, is a powerful story that many would be glad to embrace the God of such. The compassion story by Christians is really driven by the compassion and love of Christ for us, and our story is not humanistic, it is absolutely divine. There is nothing more powerful and sustaining and refreshing and hope giving than the story of the love and faithfulness and truth in Jesus Christ.

Jesus said in Luke 10:

³⁰ Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he encountered robbers, and they stripped him and ^[q]beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. ³¹ And by coincidence a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³² Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, ³⁴ and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ On the next day he took out two ^[r]denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you.’ ³⁶ Which of these three do you think ^[s]proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” ³⁷ And he said, “The one who showed compassion to him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do ^[t]the same.”

This is the powerful Apologetics that we need to see more.

The last few days have been crazy, as I just experienced a rather traumatic flight boarding and how the Lord saw me through. Then today I had another rather mind boggling experience, less traumatic, but more impactful in the long haul for me.

Not only has the Lord opened the door for me to regain my preaching to the flock, but I am also nearing the end of my Seminary for MA Biblical Studies. As most who knows about seminary or Bible school in some countries, we do MDiv for preparation for full time pastoral ministry. And in RTS it will take 106 credit hours to complete that, on top of that you would need to 400 hours of ministry in church certified, and answer verbatim 3×15 questions from Westminster Confession. And that also requires Greek Language & Exegesis, and Hebrew Language & Exegesis. Many seminaries in the US have dropped these biblical languages, but we wanted to have them for academic competency and biblical research and exegesis. I have to say, the two hardest classes are Greek & Hebrew. It’s pretty much hard core memory. But I love writing research papers. I have really loved writing since I get acquainted with writing for academic papers, and started blogging.

Where MABS is only 66 hours, MDiv requires 106 hours. You can see that it almost doubled. What’s mostly added to the MA degree is really the Applied Theology and the Pastoral Theology: like Discipleship & Leadership, Devotion, Worship, Church Polity, Communication, Preaching, Counseling, most of the good stuff that get to be used immediately in church. As a matter of fact, if you want to be ordained in America, generally you would need a MDiv, not just an MA degree.

So I started applying for a hybrid MDiv degree from RTS Orlando, transferring my almost finished MABS from RTS NYC. However, the tricky part of it is that they require 32 residential hours. Just to give you a sense of these “hours” or “credit hours”, a class of 3 credit hours will take 3 months of weekly class of 2 hours a week, and hence 4 hours self-work from home per week for 3 months. And that’s only for 3 hours! Or even 2 hours. Because I have done like 56 hours MABS, I have done most of the core subjects in the MDiv, and what’s left are really the Applied theology and pastoral theology. But by paper, they would still require me to attend 32 hours of residential in campus in Orlando. For that I will need to fly from NYC to Orlando, book hotel for 2 weeks a year. And because I have done most of the residential hour’s subjects, I would find myself sitting there taking like 2 hours in a one week intensive hybrid week, which normally would cover 9 credit hours. So I bailed out and dropped the ball and suggest they accept the hours we have already done in other RTS seminary campuses.

Then I got an email from the professor in charge, who told me that will accept me taking 20 hours in campus in view of the fact that I have completed most core subjects! Bingo! I am fired up and I am back on MDiv program.

I just want to conclude here that, the Lord watches over us, coming in and going out. I have been pondering over Proverb’s in asking the Lord for prudence and insight in life. So much wisdom in that. I know that I will some major decisions to decide and the Lord is making all these happen now. I am also invited by two churches to preach regularly now and the Lord is good. Amen!

Was on my way back from Maine in Bangor Airport two days ago to New York city. I was late to the airport due to returning our rental car, and waiting for shuttle to bring me to airport. And that’s after I dropped my wife at airport first and then went to pump gas before returning the car. Guess what? By the time I got to airport, it was 12 noon, and the flight departs at 12:18 pm, literally 18 min to rush. However, as I went through the security system, even with my TSA pass, I was expedited until they detected my coffee powder in the bag, and I was detained until they thoroughly ‘scanned’ the coffee powder. By then I had like 12 min left, and the door of plane to close 10 min before departure. Finally I got through the system, and ran with all my might to gate 53 and by the time I got there, I was greeted by a few lady officers there telling me that the door to the plane had closed. I looked outside the plane was sitting right there and I looked with frustration and sadness. I appealed to them, saying the plane is still here, and my wife is in the plane. They won’t budge because it’s the captain’s call. I pleaded with them to just open the door, and in 2 minutes I will be in the plane, and they would get a happy passenger, and news of their service will spread. But they refused to budge. They did call the captain, who said and also told my wife in the plane that it’s the  procedure they follow.

I prayed to the Lord for help, and if I don’t board then, I will have to spend overnight in hotel waiting for the next available flight at  6 am the next day. The extra dollars and anguish is just crazy. Then I decided to wave my both hands at the plane by the huge glass panel overlooking at the plane, hoping the captain will see me.

Then all of a sudden, the phone at the counter rang, and they told me that captain has opened the door to let me in. I thanked them and ran with all my might towards the plane. When I got in the plane, some passengers clapped for me. It was so encouraging, and then I blurted out how they refused to open the door and argued with me for more than 5 minutes when I could have been in and taken off . One woman kindly reminded me to cover my face with mask.

After I sat down, I asked Doreen, my wife, how did it happen? She told me that, the captain made an announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, I see that there is a passenger staring at me from the airport. I see that we are still early, and I decided to open the door to let him in.” That’s the story.

As we all disembarked after landing in NYC, on the way out, I met the captain who’s saying goodbye to all, I told him, “You saved my day! You are the one who had compassion and empathy when all doors closed per procedure. We need more people like you, and thank you!” He responded “Absolutely!”. We need courage to break the procedure even a little bit, because we have common sense, and  more importantly, we have empathy.

I loved how the Lord moved for me. You should see the women even warning me that by reopening the door again, the pilot risk losing his parking spot in JFK airport. Here I was so annoyed and upset, that even a 2 minute delay will cause a plane landing to lose its spot?

Regardless, I flew, and I got home safely and promptly. After a great vacation in Maine, the Lord is good. Amen.

This is true wherever you go. God would never demand your faith in him merely or mainly through intellectual arguments. Though excellent and profound, it is not enough. You really need both to experience him personally and understand the intellectual teachings. However you can’t expect people to cook up their faith when nothing is happening even in the background. Of course, sometimes God takes a long time to respond. However He will respond, and looking at the world how broken it is today, politically economically or spiritually, we cry out to the Lord. He knows.

I spoke on a short video on God will give you a basis for you to build your faith. https://youtu.be/gWdPBnJGfy8

When Jesus walked on water in the dark hours in a stormy evening , the disciples’ boat was about to sink. They saw Jesus’ walking towards them and they were afraid thinking it was a ghost. But Jesus called on them and assured them and Peter even asked to walk on water too and he did! The first and ever man walking on water in history till today! No one has attempted that feat! When Jesus stepped into the boat, immediately the storm died down, and the disciples looked in amazement and awe and even asked “ Who is this man that even the storm obeyed him?” Ha-ha! That’s faith building right there . I bet the discipleship’s faith jumped a hundred fold that night! What’s Jesus doing to them? Do you think he was just being late and decided to walk on water? That storm was no accident. Jesus wanted to send a message to them that He is above the storm! He is above the natural forces! You and I can be assured he will come through for us! Jesus will never let us down.

Sometimes the answer to prayer has taken a long time, but it’s coming. Though it may not look like what we have asked but God knows better. You just have to trust him for that.

Similarly it will be unrealistic and unreasonable for the Lord to demand our faith when we don’t see anything happening. There are times like that we are going through, and we just have to wait upon the Lord.

Isaiah 40:28–31 (NASB95)

28 Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth
Does not become weary or tired.
His understanding is inscrutable.
29 He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who lacks might He increases power.
30 Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,
31 Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

God gives strength to the weary. Are you weary? Hang in there with the Lord, He will give you strength.

Those who wait for the Lord, will soar or mount up with wings like eagles!! Waiting upon the Lord purifies us, purifies our motives.

If you are weary, and we do from time to time, you should wait upon the Lord. Waiting means hoping in the Lord. Without hope, no one can wait. It’s hope of the result from God’s help, that keeps us going. Wait for him!

I want to say that, once you have seen the Lord working in your lives, your heart will begin to settle down in peace. Without seeing the Lord’s working in your lives despite your many prayers and years of waiting, you will get restless. Restlessness due to prayers request not answered, can wear down a person. We need to see God working in some ways. From the testimonies of millions of Christians, God will come through. Look at David, the Lord is my strength, my shield.

Ps 5:11-12. 11 But let all who take refuge in You be glad,Let them ever sing for joy;
And may You shelter them,
That those who love Your name may exult in You.
12 For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O LORD,
You surround him with favor as with a shield.

May God shelter us, so that we may sing for joy, let all who take refuge in God be glad! Once people feel how the Lord shelters them, they will love His Name and will exult in him as a result. Exult means with loud celebration and shouts of triumph! Exult–feel or show triumphant elation or jubilation.

How do you exult in God if you don’t experience Him?? Experience of God must come before us shouting in praise unto the Lord. The reason many Christians feel dry because they hardly experience the Lord’s goodness. Experiential theology is completely valid and embedded in the whole book of Psalms, championed by the greatest King of all times of Israel—David.

Come let us taste that the Lord is good.

Psalm 34:8–10 (NASB95)

O taste and see that the LORD is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
9 O fear the LORD, you His saints;
For to those who fear Him there is no want.
10 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger;
But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.

Have you tasted that the Lord is GOOD?

The suffering messiah
It took me a while to realize the emphasis of the Gospel in Romans 1, it says it’s about the suffering Mesaiah. People usually connect with messiah with someone with power and might and not someone with suffering. It’s amazing that God used that theme to define the gospel. There are others that define gospel like grace, redemption , etc, but it’s the suffering messiah .

This is counter culture and counter initiative. That’s how God wins the world , not by what he used to do in the OT where he would send an angel and slain 200,000 Assyrian soldiers over night, or slain all the forst born of Egypt over night on Passover. That mighty power of God in the physical sense is gone, but the way God saves the world now as the messiah is through suffering.

The story of God Man suffering is well known for Christ died on the cross and resurrected after 3 days. That’s how he redeemed the world or whoever believes in him.

So why why did God do that? It’s a very dehumanizing and demeaning humiliating and painful suffering Kesus went though. The question should rather be how much does God love us for doing that.

It’s shocking that the path to glory , the path to redemption is suffering. There is really no choice because that’s the law of God that those who sin against him must die and forgiveness is only found in the shedding of blood as life is in the blood. That should hopefully wake us up from the laze affair laid back Christinaity where comfort and goodness and blessings reign supreme. This is be hard to sell as it’s so contrary to the path our Lord and Savior took. Therefore I would suggest we look at the call of God for discipleship in Christ.

If Christians today grasp the concept of sufferings to glory as led by the Lord Jesus, there will be a huge turn around from the lethargic indifference by so many nominal Christians. Or the materialistic Christians who look rather for material comfort blessings of God like in Deut 28, hence we lack the fire of God. What the early church folks went through was electrifying and that’s what we can learn. We need electrifying power of God that will help us rise above our lethargy and material seeking so to seek the Kingdom of God first.

In Israel, kings dictate and determine the destiny of the nation, either blessings and prosperous by obeying God and serving Him, or cursing’s and exile by turning away from the Lord to serve idols. In Chronicles we read the detestable practices of some of the kings of Israel like Ahab with his witch wife Jezebel, and many others.

If I were Israel and Judah, I would have been disillusioned by their kings for their continual downfall, and exiles. They were exiled three times in the Babylonian times, and conquered by Assyria before that all due to turning away from the Lord.

However, Ezra and Nehemiah began the restoration and rebuilding of the Temple. Temple is the most sacred object in the times of Israel, where the presence of God dwells. Though they had temples rebuilt, however, they were still far off from the real King who will truly defend them, protect them, and lead them to true blessings and honor and peace and prosperity. That King is finally Jesus Christ, Son of David in the flesh, but Son of the Living God through the Spirit of Holiness (Romans 1).

The true King came into the world when Christ inaugurated the Kingdom of God, and He continued the Kingdom and finally He will return to bring about the Consummation of the Kingdom when God and men and women will dwell together, the temple of God is the heavenly Jerusalem which will come down on earth.

Revelation 21:1–2 A New Heaven and a New Earth

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”  for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

That will happen in the Consummation, and God fully established His Kingdom on earth, and we will be blessed forever and ever, to the glory of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you long for your Eternal Righteous all Powerful King?

If you are disillusioned with life in this world, fear not, the renewal of all things has begun, and Jesus is in the business of cleaning up this world, and eventually completely renewed this world when He comes again the second time. For now the process has begun, and we will meet our King for eternal security, safety, protection, and joy for ever and ever. Amen.

Matt 19 ²⁸ Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Do not store up treasures on earth, but store up in heaven

Matthew 6: ¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

You can see here that the focus of Jesus is not on our external material blessings, but rather it’s the heart, as from v21, “…for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Christ is after our hearts, for that will determine the real blessings, temporal, and eternal. Lange/Schaff writes, “In general, it exhibits the vanity of all earthly possessions, and the unsatisfactory character of the enjoyments which they yield. Irrespective of their use, these possessions are dead, exposed to the moth, to consumption, and to thieves, —to the organs of physical and moral annihilation.^[1] The key words that are captured well” … the vanity of all earthly possessions.”

Lange puts it “…if our treasure is on earth, our heart will also be there, our inclinations and desires will be earthly; and, since this is contrary to our heavenly destiny, the consequence must be eternal sorrow and shame.^[2] This is why it’s so important to know why Christ shifted the entire narrative of blessings from the OT to the NT. It has to do with our hearts. It is really very gospel centered, and for our eternity’s sake, Jesus has wisely remolded us, redirected us to what really matters. The point is he doesn’t want us to set our hearts on material worldly possessions, blessings, because they are temporal. He redirected us to the eschatological eternity blessings. Our affection is controlled by where the treasures are. And as Lange said, if our affections are earthly, the consequences will be eternal sorrow and shame.

Col 3 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Paul writes it here very powerfully why we should set our minds on things above, because we died, sand our life is hidden with Christ in God.

We have Left Everything to Follow Christ”

Mark 10: ²⁸ Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”  ²⁹ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel ³⁰ will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.

Becoming a Christian may mean sacrificing ties that are very dear, but anyone who does so becomes a member of a family as wide as earth and heaven.^[3]

This probably sums up the blessings of God for those who obey God in the NT. Jesus promised those how has left home or brothers or sisters or mother …. for Him and the gospel, will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age. Like what? Homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields. Essentially you would get back everything you have left because of Jesus and the gospel, and one hundred times more! That’s a lot more. Brothers and sisters, we can easily see that in a community of church folks, they become your brothers and sisters in Christ, Mothers, children, you can even stretch that in the church family, like Jesus said in Matt 12:46-50.

But there is another thing that comes with it, “Persecutions” in this present age. This contrasts the idea of material reward for material sacrifice, and Jesus made it clear to be a Christian is a costly thing. [4] Everything Jesus aims for in earth is for the blessings for eternity, and that’s the thesis of this paper. Jesus set his face in earning the eternity for men and women who put their faith in him, and not for them to be materially prosperous in this present age per se. However He continues to be the one who leads us, protects us, like a shepherd over his sheep, and watches our coming in and going out, for sure.

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^[1] Lange, J. P., & Schaff, P. (2008). A commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Matthew (p. 132). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

^[2] Ibid

^[3] Barclay, W. (2001). The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Mark (p. 290). Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press.

[4] Ibid p 290

Christians can be misled into a form of it.

Prayers for personal blessing aren’t inherently wrong, of course, but the prosperity gospel’s overemphasis on man turning prayer into a tool for blessings, desiring God to grant their desires, can easily turn into idolatry because one’s desire is no more pleasing and loving God, but rather obeying for the sake of getting blessings. Worse still, if some pastors actually teach that to the congregation, as we do see them around, especially in the pentecostal circles. This is what Augustine calls as “disordered love”. Within prosperity theology, man—not God—becomes the focal point of prayer.

Curiously, prosperity preachers often ignore the second half of James’s teaching on prayer: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James. 4:3). God does not answer selfish requests that do not honor his name.

Certainly all our requests should be made known to God (e.g., Phil. 4:6), but the prosperity gospel focuses so much on man’s desires that it may lead people to pray selfish, shallow, superficial prayers that don’t bring God glory. Further, when coupled with the prosperity doctrine of faith, this teaching may lead people to attempt to manipulate God to get what they want—a futile task. This is far removed from praying “Your will be done.”

False Gospel 

Joe Carter writes, “In light of Scripture, the prosperity gospel is fundamentally flawed. At bottom, it is a false gospel because of its faulty view of the relationship between God and man. Simply put, if the prosperity gospel is true, grace is obsolete, God is irrelevant, and man is the measure of all things. Whether they’re talking about the Abrahamic covenant, the atonement, giving, faith, or prayer, prosperity teachers turn the relationship between God and man into a quid pro quo transaction. As James Goff noted in a 1990 Christianity Today article, God is “reduced to a kind of ‘cosmic bellhop’ attending to the needs and desires of his creation.” “ [1]

This is a wholly inadequate and unbiblical view of the relationship between God and man.

How can we identify a prosperity gospel preacher? [2]

In a 2014 sermon, John Piper outlined six keys to detecting the prosperity gospel:

1. The absence of a serious doctrine of the biblical necessity and normalcy of suffering, the absence of a doctrine of suffering.
2. The absence of a clear and prominent doctrine of self-denial is a tip off that something is amiss.
3. The absence of serious exposition of Scripture.
4. The absence of dealing with tensions in Scripture.
5. Church leaders who have exorbitant lifestyles.
6. A prominence of self and a marginalization of the greatness of God.

Real Connection between the Charismatics & Pentecostal Churches with Prosperity Doctrines

This problem is aggravated in the poorer third world countries, as you can see why they can be appealing. Because of the economic hardship, many in the 3^rd world, flock to church pulpits, where there is a strong sense of preaching on how God can bless your business, your jobs, your careers, if you come to worship him and follow him. There is a grain of truth in it because they quote Abraham was wealthy because God blessed him. David was wealthy because God was with him. Job, though tested severely by God, eventually became the wealthiest guy in town. I studied and the OT and the NT on the blessings of being prosperous in the OT, which is obviously there, like:

Jeremiah 29″1 (NIV)

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NASB95)
11 ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
The word “prosper” is better translated as “welfare “ or “peace”.

3 John 2 (NASB95)
2 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.
εὐοδώθην—Prosper
–have things turn out well, prosper, succeed
So the original Greek word is “Enodothen”—which means turns out well, prosper, succeed.
I would lean on more succeed, and turn out well, prosper in the sense of being successful, there might be some monetary sense, but the main gist is success.

Conclusion: Jesus focuses on the Kingdom and the eschatological blessings instead of the earthly material possessions

Jesus focuses on the Kingdom of God and the new creation. The prosperity is never mentioned or taught by him at all! He in fact extolled the value of fixing our eyes on the eternal values and not the temporal worldly success. For him, the eventual consummation of his Kingdom will usher in the absolute new creation that will enjoy God’s presence for all eternity. There will be a big feast of the wedding of the Lamb which is he himself. He said blessed are the poor, he means those who recognize they are poor spiritually and they can’t make it to heaven and will therefore humble themselves to come to Christ. Blessed are those who mourn, those who weep, etc all those counter cultural values. Don’t even begin with Jesus. He being the richest man in the entire cosmos, universes, had no where to lay his head. He was born in a manger. He borrowed everything including the last supper space. He sacrificed all his riches and glory to come humbled into this world for the sake of saving the world. Enough said a d don’t even look for prosperity doctrine in the gospels. Jesus looks to the eternal eschatological blessings. Look at below:

John 6 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

Jesus told us not to labor for the things of the world, they don’t last! But labor for the food that will last!

Mark 8 ³⁶ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? ³⁷ For what can a man give in return for his soul? 

References:

Prosperity Gospel Born in the USA

Prosperity Gospel Born in the USA

What You Should Know About the Prosperity Gospel

What You Should Know About the Prosperity Gospel

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[1] Joe Carter, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-you-should-know-about-the-prosperity-gospel/

[2] John Piper, https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/six-keys-to-detecting-the-prosperity-gospel

^[3] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 410). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Some theologians argued whether the book of Esther should be included in the Canon because of three things:

• No mention of God
• No mention of Temple
• No mention of Prophet

And some points against Esther & the hero of the entire book, and together with her cousin, the Master mind for all these, who together became the joint heroes who saved the whole nation of Israel.

The idea that Esther and Mordecai may be questionable characters in the book of Esther, is picking the minor and neglecting the major, which is the narrative that they together saved the entire nation of Israel. They may not be Moses, but definitely in a smaller way, like Moses, because Esther called for a fast, and risked her life to approach the most powerful King on earth at that time, King Xerxes of Persia, to press case and plead with the King about the plight of her people the Jews who were about to be annihilated by an evil high power official in the kingdom of Persia, Haman. This may not be exodus, but a smaller scale, it is!

Esther hid her identity as Jewish as instructed by her mentor, uncle, Mordecai. She rose up to the occasion when Haman was breathing down the throats of the Jews. Haman by the way is an Agagite, a descendent of the Amalekite, who was forever the enemy of Israel. God instructed Saul to kill all the Amalekites, but Saul disobeyed and left a remnant behind, and Haman is a product of that, much to the snare of Israel.

There was not much mention about Mordecai’s life at all, all we hear is that he loved the nation of Israel. I would definitely agree that even God was not explicitly mentioned in the book of Esther, implicitly God’s hands were all over the incidents and the plot of the whole book. I mean the whole starting point of this turnaround from the pit of eminent destruction of the nation of Israel under the Persian King, was incidentally Mordecai overheard some plots of some guards who plotted to assassinate the King. And Mordecai reported that to Esther, who was a concubine/wife to King Xerxes. And because of that the plotters were arrested and killed; the king’s life was saved by Mordecai. And in the years later, the King couldn’t sleep one night and asked the officials to open up the record book and read to him this history, and he found out about this man Mordechai who saved his life but forgotten. With that, he went ahead to honor Mordecai publicly and essentially made him the second man, overtaking Haman.

Now my question is how on earth did that plot happen, and how did Mordecai get to know that? If you don’t think there is a hidden hand of God working silently, you are wrong! That can’t be a coincidence. The supernatural transcendent hand of God is working powerfully to save his people. God is faithful to his covenant with Israel, and he won’t let the enemies wipe them out.

Then Esther approached King Xerxes uninvited, and by Persian palace rules, anyone who does that without heads-up or being invited, he or she can be killed by the Kings command, but as it turns out, of course, King Xerxes reached out his hands and was pleased with Esther and offered her even half of the kingdom . That reaching out of hands by King Xerxes is a miracle of God in itself. Things began to turn. And eventually, the King hung Haman, the evil man, and exalted Mordecai to the highest official in the nation.

And Mordecai and Esther together reversed all the evil plots to kill the people of Jews in Persia at that time, an in fact, Jews were strengthened by the new decree from the King for self-defense and even killing their enemies etc. Do you think thats all human work & luck??? If you do, think again! And the occasion that turned the tide is called Purim, which is still celebrated to these days. In the same way, do you think God is silent in your life now? If so, think again!

The Providence of God is obvious in the book of Esther, and His faithfulness is amazing. To God be the glory.

Finally today that we live in an age also like Esther because God seems to be silent but working powerfully behind the scenes. I would agree but also disagree. The bible says “In the last days, I will pour out my Spirit, and all men shall see visions and dream dreams:

Acts 2 “‘In the last days, God says,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
    your old men will dream dreams….

And everyone who calls
    on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

God is anything but quiet in our end time. God is actively speaking through our dreams, visions, and mostly importantly is the Bible, the word of God being preached, the word of God in our time of meditation.

Luke 4 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”^[f]

²⁰ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus has come into this world to proclaim good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for the prisoners (emotional, spiritual, physical), recovery sight for the blind (physical, spiritual), to set the oppressed free, who said God is quiet in our days?

Our God is zealous, and He will be glorified in our lives.

Amen.

Prayer through the creedal prayers is much more enriching theologically, historically , and also spiritually too. Spontaneous prayers from our hearts are awesome directly from our hearts.  Charismatic prayers  have been usually spontaneous from the hearts type. The problem of that is it runs dry and out of words after a while. The best solution is to pray the book of psalms, which Tim Keller has written a good book on Prayer.

Anglican church has produced some good prayer books: Compline—a night prayer based on Psalms. They have of course produced the famous comprehensive Book of Common Prayer.

My point is many Christians have lacked the resources to pray deeply, and with charismatics, this is especially lacking. Spontaneous heart prayer is great, but there must be also times of book prayer from our hearts. The thing about it is that, when we read those rich words, essentially mostly from Psalms, we begin to realign our minds to the wonderful, blessed words from Psalms. In fact, I would suggest we pray through the book of psalms daily.

Tim Keller writes: “I believe daily prayer should be more biblical, that is, more grounded in systematic Bible reading and study and in disciplined meditation on passages.”[1] This is combining prayer & daily reading of the Bible together with meditation. Too often we put prayers into the category of “requesting for things from God”, but that will become a shallow way of communicating to God over the long haul. We must pray the word of God on top of our request’s prayers.

Cranmer’s Bible reading plan for the year is no longer in most current Common Prayer books used around the world, but it can be found in reprints of the 1549 and 1552 books. M’Cheyne’s Bible reading calendar, is an example:  In any case, systematic, consecutive reading of the Bible should precede or accompany prayer.[2] We need a systematic reading of the Bible and prayers that go with it. Prayers will come alive with prayers through the book of Psalms and also some of these prayer books.

It is right and necessary that we learn to pray not merely from reading the Psalms and the rest of the Bible but by hearing and reading the prayers of the church. [3] Now this is an important point. Prayers of the church historically which have been laid down by thoughtful theologians and church pastors of the past, are very useful, and many Christians have not even heard of them. It’s time to pick them up. Example: Common book of Prayers.

Keller writers, “Many churches today, especially those with what is called contemporary worship, give congregants almost no help with prayer at all in this way. The only prayers congregants hear are “spontaneous” expressions of worship leaders, or the final prayer of the preacher at the end of the sermon. Time-tested and carefully considered prayers are not provided as they were in times past.” This is definitely very true, coming from a charismatic background myself, I used to find those prayers rigid, mechanical, but now I realize that they are rich spiritually, and theologically, and far more on the line with the Bible, it is definitely something we charismatics have missed out. Only spontaneous prayers worship leaders or final prayer after preaching will not be enough.

Having said that, we must also give room for spontaneous expressions of prayers, and I say, combine the prayers of the books and heart prayers. In fact our heart prayers will be richer spiritually after using more of those common books of prayers.

A Time of Prayer Going through Hard Times

This is a good article Spiritual Formation for Faltering Faith by Wendy Alsup on the power of praying through creeds that help a person going through hard times. The reality is riding on the wisdom and richness of theology written and laid down by the early fathers can really help us especially going through a time of lament and struggle. Christianity is a walk with God of rejoicing and lament. We need to learn to connect with the Lord of Hosts on both!

She writes, “During that same year, Anglican priest Tish Harrison Warren suffered the deaths of two babies in pregnancy, along with her beloved father. She lost her ability to see her way through to God as well, overwhelmed by questions of theodicy, God’s providence in it all. As she lost her second baby late in pregnancy, her spiritual formation as an Anglican priest led her to cry out a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer’s service of compline.[4]  

This prayer forms the structure of her second book, Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep:

How beautiful: Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen. (ACNA BCP 2019)

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[1] Tim Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe & Intimacy, p 247

[2] Ibid

[3] Ibid

[4] Wendy Alsup, Spiritual Formation for Faltering Faith,  https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/reviews/prayer-in-night-tish-harrison-warren/