peace to live by

What We Truly Believe About Prayer, Part 4 (TMF:2515)

Friday, December 27, 2024
Peace to Live By: What We Truly Believe About Prayer, Part 4 (TMF:2515) - Daniel Litton
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       The man prays for his current relationship with his girlfriend Sarah because he believes that the prayers could affect the future quality and outcome of the relationship. This person believes that prayer isn’t just merely a command stated at various places in the Scriptures, but that prayer actually does have positive impact on persons and events. This is living prayer versus ceremonial prayer. There are great numbers of Christians on both sides of this, and specifically, in the evangelical world, the first view, the predetermined view, is probably more prevalent. It seems befitting to actually present prayer as something that can provide cause for change, though, as just stated, not everyone sees things this way. Many are not comfortable in believing that God is open to the thoughts, ideas, wishes, and desires of humans. They may say, “Humans are too evil to desire anything good” or “God would not be persuaded by humans because humans are often driven by the flesh.”

What We Truly Believe About Prayer, Part 3 (TMF:2514)

Thursday, December 26, 2024
Peace to Live By: What We Truly Believe About Prayer, Part 3 (TMF:2514) - Daniel Litton
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       So, under this model, the one who prays does so because he or she is commanded to do so by the Scriptures. The belief is present, however, that the prayer really, at the end of the day, doesn’t produce any effects on the world because, after all, God has already decided all matters. To provide some specific examples, we could say, “Why pray for the salvation of Joe, if God has already determined whether Joe will be saved or not?” That’s a very common one. Or, we could say, “Why pray for success in dating Sarah, if God has already predetermined if the relationship will lead to marriage or not.” And the common response obviously is, “We pray because we are commanded to pray.” For the one who views prayer as effectual, as potentially changing things, the belief (or hope) is real and different. This person prays for the salvation of Joe because he or she believes that the prayers make a real difference on whether or not Joe will end up accepting the Gospel message.

What We Truly Believe About Prayer, Part 2 (TMF:2513)

Wednesday, December 25, 2024
Peace to Live By: What We Truly Believe About Prayer, Part 2 (TMF:2513) - Daniel Litton
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       Without getting into technical terminology, we could note first there are those who view the future in a predetermined way. That is, all events in the future are predetermined. Then, a second view, or middle view, might be held by those who believe some events are predetermined, while others are open to contingencies. And still a third view could be that nothing is predetermined, that everything is open. The last view seems to be the hardest to line up with the Scriptures. But for the one who views everything as predetermined, the issue with that view is that prayer then becomes a ritual, a ceremony, that in reality, doesn’t in point of fact produce any real, tangible results. How could it, if everything has already been decided? So, under this model, the one who prays does so because he or she is commanded to do so by the Scriptures. The belief is present, however, that the prayer really, at the end of the day, doesn’t produce any effects on the world because, after all, God has already decided all matters.

What We Truly Believe About Prayer, Part 1 (TMF:2512)

Tuesday, December 24, 2024
Peace to Live By: What We Truly Believe About Prayer, Part 1 (TMF:2512) - Daniel Litton
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       “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you” (Colossians 1:9, ESV). It seems good for us to spend some time considering what we really, internally, believe about prayer before discussing the laid out prescription as to what is actually to be prayed for. When thinking about the use of prayer, one might ask themselves inside the mind what they truly believe about prayer. And one will likely find that that they do not believe in it as much as they might wish to. Perhaps some noble souls do believe in it, believe that it works. But it seems that many, though they practice the art of prayer, the going through the motions, do not in actuality believe it produces much fruit. For one who does not believe prayer works all that much, and that it bears little fruit, it seems that the core of the issue lies in one’s view of God in answering prayer (with a positive answer). By view of God, it is meant how God actually views praying from an individual. And really, down the line, this all ties into one’s view of the future, believe it or not.

Church Size & Relationships (TMF:2511)

Monday, December 23, 2024
Peace to Live By: Church Size & Relationships (TMF:2511) - Daniel Litton
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       But a study was done in which it was determined that the perfect size for a community is about 150 people. After that, it appears the group becomes too large for everyone to effectively interact with each other. We know a lot of churches make use of small groups, and one reason for that is because of this fact. Especially for a larger church, small groups are almost critical. Otherwise, relationships only remain at a surface level, cultivated by the people who are communicated to before, during, and after Sunday morning services. Church events might help, but the relationships, unless continued outside of church on a more personal level, remain surface. Small groups, however, work to take care of this issue and break down a church into more manageable size groups. But the true rule of thumb really, if one was to have the best experience in knowing everyone, would be a church size that is no greater than 150 people.

Epaphras - The Faithful Minister, Part 2 (TMF:2510)

Friday, December 20, 2024
Peace to Live By: Epaphras - The Faithful Minister, Part 2 (TMF:2510) - Daniel Litton
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       Just as Christ modeled, he worked to help build up that fruit we are talking about a moment ago in each member. Really, it’s that simple for the leader of the church. It’s not complicated. Though, that’s not to say it hasn’t become complicated with the intricacies and big meeting places in the modern church world. But he must have been doing a good job since he was able to report back to Paul and Timothy the love the church has for one another. Let us pause for a moment and consider the subject of church growth, and how the growth relates, or correlates, with the size of the church. The understanding is, and unfortunately the mind does not recall where it learned this, but a study was done in which it was determined that the perfect size for a community is about 150 people. After that, it appears the group becomes too large for everyone to effectively interact with each other. We know a lot of churches make use of small groups, and one reason for that is because of this fact. Especially for a larger church, small groups are almost critical.

Epaphras - The Faithful Minister, Part 1 (TMF:2509)

Thursday, December 19, 2024
Peace to Live By: Epaphras - The Faithful Minister, Part 1 (TMF:2509) - Daniel Litton
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       In verse 7, Paul says, “…it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit” (Colossians 1:6-8, ESV). Now we come to understand by whom the truth came. Sure, it originally came from Paul to the Gentile world. Recollect, it is with the Gentile world that he is dealing with in this letter. This message somehow made it to the hands on one named Epaphras, who is called “a faithful minister.” So he is the head of the that church in Colossae, presumably, the primary pastor if you will. And we really don’t know much about this man. Nevertheless, he is said to be Paul and Timothy’s “beloved fellow servant.” We note he was viewed with high respect by them. We can also note about his character that he was “a faithful minister of Christ on [their] behalf.”

Understanding God's Grace in Truth, Part 2 (TMF:2508)

Wednesday, December 18, 2024
Peace to Live By: Understanding God's Grace in Truth, Part 2 (TMF:2508) - Daniel Litton
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       The problem is, none of these statements are “in truth.” They might be an attempt to describe the grace of God, but they violate the truth. The truth comes from the Scriptures, though, even there, people have varying perspectives of what the Scriptures are actually saying. The fair way to tell, though, what the truth is behind the truth is to simply remember that the truth is found is simplicity. The truth is found in simplicity. That then tells us that the easy explanation is usually the correct explanation. The more elaborate and the more explaining it takes to describe something, or the further reasoning involved, generally means were are moving away from the truth. For instance, if one were to make the statement “Fornication is bad,” that lines right up with what the Scriptures say. But if one were to say, “Well, you know, the Scriptures were referring to an unreasonable fornication that was present in that culture at the time.” Now, through complexity, we are moving away from the truth. We are moving to a non-truth.

Understanding God's Grace in Truth, Part 1 (TMF:2507)

Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Peace to Live By: Understanding God's Grace in Truth, Part 1 (TMF:2507) - Daniel Litton
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       If we take peace, we understand, again, that as Christians we can truly have peace because we are now in personal relationship with the God of the Universe. So, the understanding “of the grace of God” comes “in truth,” as Paul said. There are lots of understandings of the grace of God that we could come up with. We could say that the grace of God saves all. Or, we could say that the grace of God includes all. We could even say that within the grace of God comes no judgment toward anybody. The problem is, none of these statements are “in truth.” They might be an attempt to describe the grace of God, but they violate the truth. The truth comes from the Scriptures, though, even there, people have varying perspectives of what the Scriptures are actually saying. The fair way to tell, though, what the truth is behind the truth is to simply remember that the truth is found is simplicity. The truth is found in simplicity.

Growing & Abounding as Individuals (TMF:2506)

Monday, December 16, 2024
Peace to Live By: Growing & Abounding as Individuals (TMF:2506) - Daniel Litton
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       Notice that the character of the individual person is said to be “bearing fruit and increasing” as well. It isn’t just the message, but it is also the individual who is growing or abounding. For anyone looking at a lot of churches in our general day, it might be presumed that the mature character of the Christian is one who is good at evangelizing others, wherever that person be. That’s a common theme among evangelical circles. It’s almost as if one’s maturity is defined by how well one can share the Gospel with others. Obviously, though, if we are honest with ourselves, the true focus of Christian character development was what Paul listed elsewhere, namely the Fruit of the Spirit. That fruit that the Spirit begets in us. Each of the fruits is fused in the Gospel message. If you go through each fruit, you can see that the Gospel brings each of those out in the Christian. We start with love. God so loved us that we are given the perfect example of what love really is, versus what the world might say it is.