(By David Giarrizzo)

Prayer comes easy when we are thinking about a relative who is in the hospital recovering from surgery; a friend who is addicted to drugs and needs salvation; a short-term mission trip to central Mexico; or a community that has just experienced a major natural disaster. When these things occur, it is a natural reaction of many believers to bow before God’s throne in prayer. Surely we all have on our church prayer lists the names of brothers and sisters that have recently lost their jobs and are in need of employment. We know of those within our flocks who are aching physically, hurting emotionally, or struggling spiritually. And when members of the congregation have urgent, time-sensitive concerns, maybe the elders will enact the church prayer chain.

But what about the “lesser needs”? I mean those things which don’t make it to our prayer meeting lists; the seemingly silly requests of you and me. Does God care about the little things too?

Of course He does; He’s our Father.

Like a dad lovingly cares for his children’s every need,—from the scraped knee to the broken arm; from the lost teddy bear to the departure of a loved one—so our Heavenly Father cares for every need of His children. Sometimes, though, I think we forget this important biblical fact. We forget to live out our own theology—God is sovereign; God is all-knowing; God is all-powerful; God is faithful; God answers prayers. And when we forget these important truths, we forget to ask of God and we keep our problems to ourselves. Thankfully, though, God knows our needs even before we do, and He is merciful to us even when we neglect praying.

“Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. …Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:13, 16).

When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He modeled by praying the words, “Give us this day our daily bread.” In doing so, Jesus was teaching His disciples to be dependent on God for every need, both physical and non-physical. In that same hillside discussion, Jesus reminds His disciples, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26). Just as there is no request too large to bring before our infinitely powerful God, there is neither any petition to small for Him to know and care. We need to remember that God can answer all our prayers at once if He saw fit to do so according to His perfect will. We can pray to God to soften the heart of a rebellious child and in the same breath ask the Lord to bless a lunch meeting at work tomorrow. God will answer both petitions in His time, according to His will, without partiality.

Having worked in the business world for a number of years, I have found myself praying to the Lord to provide for me so that I might meet my daily, weekly, and monthly goals. Recently I have witnessed God’s mercy upon the efforts of my hands. In examples such as these, our theology should dictate our methodology. Because of what I know about God from His Word, I am obligated to give Him all the glory for what He has done for me even at my work. We hold fast to the doctrine of God’s sovereignty in our salvation; let us hold fast to the sovereignty of God in all of life. Likewise, if we preach on the importance of prayer, may we always find ourselves praying to the God Who has numbered our hairs and cares for us. We should be humbled by His love.

It is important to note the direct connection between prayer and humility. First, prayer must be born out of a humble spirit that says, “I am powerless in this situation;” or, “But for the grace of God, I am unable;” or, “I can’t do this. Lord, please help!” When we pray, we show our dependence upon God. Spurgeon said it better:

“When thou art naked the Lord will clothe thee; when thou art hungry he will feed thee, when thou art nothing he will be thine all in all, for then it is that he will win glory to himself, and his mercies will not be perverted to feed thy pride. When our mercies magnify the Lord we shall have many of them, but when we use them for the magnifying of our own selves they will depart from us. See, then, dear friend, how necessary it is that we should approach the Lord in the attitude of humility.”

Secondly, prayer produces humility in us when we see God answering our prayers in ways that we would not have chosen. Again Spurgeon preaches to the point:

This exceeding kindness of the Lord all tends to promote humility, and at the same time to help us in prayer; for if the Lord be so greatly good, we may adopt the language of the Phoenecian woman when the Master said to her, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.” She answered, “Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” So we will go and ask our Lord to give us crumbs of mercy, and they will be enough for us poor dogs. God’s crumbs are bigger than man’s loaves, and if he gives us what to him may be a crumb, it shall be a meal to us. Oh, he is a great Giver! He is a glorious Giver! We are not equal to his least gift! We cannot estimate his least mercy, nor describe it folly, nor praise him for it sufficiently. His shallows are too deep for us; his mole-hill mercies overtop us; what shall we say of his mountain mercies?

Our prayers should lead us to praise God for those “mountain mercies.” Just stop to think about it: How many times have you been blown away by the way God chose to answer your prayers? As William Cowper penned, “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.” And remember the words of God through the prophet Isaiah: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). Praise God for His perfect will.

There is always a reason to pray and we have a constant audience with God. He hears our quickly-whispered requests, our every weepy plea. Day or night, wherever we are, God hears us. Even when we can’t quite form the words in our mouths, God knows our needs and He will answer them according to His sovereign will.

What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!
-Joseph M. Scriven

May we continue cultivating hearts of humility, attitudes of dependence, and lives of prayer to God our loving Father.

(By: John Miller)

In recent months the news media has been fixated on issues of health care, due in no small part to the proposal and passing of the new health care bill by the federal government. One of the driving motivations behind this bill for some is the desire for everyone in our country to be able to get the health care and coverage they need. It certainly is a travesty when someone who desperately needs to receive medical attention is unable to receive it for various reasons. Whether or not you think the new health care bill is the proper way to address this issue or not (that is not the subject of this blog), the issue of providing health care is very important.

Of even greater importance than the provision of health care is the kind of care given and received. We live in a day of the proliferation of specializations, and the medical field is especially prone to this trend. Doctors can specialize in any number of areas of medical care, such as pediatrics, geriatrics, cardiology, neurology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, psychiatry, toxicology, radiology, hematology, and surgery, to name but a few of the specialties. All of these specializations have brought great blessing to mankind by the grace of God, as we have delved deeper into the mysterious and wondrous workings of the human body. But one of the dangers that comes with specialization is a lack of focus on the whole person. In dealing with the particulars, it can be easy to get lost in the details, forgetting the big picture. That is why in recent years there has been a growing interest in “Holistic Health Care.” This kind of care is defined as follows: “Holistic medicine is a system of health care which fosters a cooperative relationship among all those involved, leading towards optimal attainment of the physical, mental emotional, social and spiritual aspects of health.It emphasizes the need to look at the whole person, including analysis of physical, nutritional, environmental, emotional, social, spiritual and lifestyle values. It encompasses all stated modalities of diagnosis and treatment including drugs and surgery if no safe alternative exists. Holistic medicine focuses on education and responsibility for personal efforts to achieve balance and well being.” (cf. Canadian Holistic Health Association). Overall, this is viewed as a positive trend in the medical community (although there are disagreements about the legitimacy and use of “alternative medicine”). Clearly, it is a good thing for a doctor to see how his specialized care for a patient fits into the total picture of caring for that person’s health.

Now to get to the point: What is true in the realm of physical care is also true in the realm of spiritual care. Those of us who are called to shepherd God’s flock must take a holistic and comprehensive view of our care for the flock if we are to reflect the heart and care of the Good Shepherd. This is part of the point that Dr. Witmer makes in chapter 1, page 13:

The Lord’s self-revelation as “shepherd” of his people is not merely a metaphor with which his people could clearly relate, but it is one that describes the comprehensive care that he provides for his people. Again, this is clearly seen in Psalm 23, where the Lord’s care for his people leads to the superlative expression of gratitude and praise form his people, “I shall not want.” Nothing is lacking in the care provded for the flock. Not only does he feed them, but he also leads them and protects them. [italics added]

Certainly as under-shepherds in Christ’s church we cannot provide comprehensive care for the flock to the same degree as the Good Shepherd, but we are to provide the same kind of care as the Good Shepherd, reflecting His love and care to the particular local congregation entrusted to our care. This means that comprehensive shepherding will at least include the following: knowing the sheep, feeding the sheep, leading the sheep, and protecting the sheep. These are themes that Dr. Witmer takes up in Part 2 of his book, which we will take up in the days ahead, Lord-willing.

May the Lord our Shepherd graciously and continually make all of His under-shepherds more like the Good Shepherd in His comprehensive care for His flock.

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I will be posting later this week, but, in lieu of my regular column, you might wish to know that the latest Theological Journal Library CD has been published electronically including the Reformed Baptist Theological Review 2007-2008.

(By David Giarrizzo)

When I was ten years old,
I remember thinkin’ how cool it would be,
When we were goin’ on an eight hour drive,
If I could just watch T.V.

And I’d have given anything
To have my own PacMan game at home.
I used to have to get a ride down to the arcade;
Now I’ve got it on my phone.

…So go the words of a silly song by Brad Paisely about the changes in technology over the past couple of decades. It is true that so much has changed about the way humans communicate in modern times just over the past one or two generations. As if a cordless telephone with PacMan on it wasn’t enough of an ingenious invention, it is almost mind-blowing to think about the infinitude of the World Wide Web.

Of course, as is often noted within the Christian community—and rightfully so, — with such a vast storage of information as the internet is, there are also many dangers. The sins of lust and adultery are commonly mentioned when discussing the dangers of the internet, and again, rightfully so. Additionally, the dangers that online communication and social networking pose to modern day believers have also been well documented. I agree with many of these identified problems that virtual communication presents. But while I understand that the use of modern technology presents potential concerns for Christians, I likewise believe that technology offers many wonderful opportunities. So I want to take a different approach in this post and briefly examine a few blessings that technology—especially communication technology such as cell phones, email, and the internet—provides for Christians today.

Consider for a moment the positive attributes of the internet with all of its wonderful means of communication and social networking: e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, blogs (like Ardent Cries), church and ministry websites, audio and video-recorded sermons, Christian book and music dealers, conference advertising, etc., etc. If you are reading this blog, you probably surf the web everyday and you already understand its many good uses. But allow me to illustrate a few simple examples of how communication technology can benefit believers.

• Formal and informal online education – Hundreds of thousands of people are now getting perfectly valid college educations via accredited online universities every year; in fact, more and more theological seminaries are beginning to look in the direction of the internet as a means reaching more people and increasing their student counts. The possibility for a lay-elder or church member to better his understanding of theology or the Bible languages is a wonderful prospect that our generation can hope to see more of through the increase in formal seminary classes offered via the web. Already we can observe the hunger of many Christians for the truths of Scripture as seen through the success and popularity of websites such as SermonAudio.com, Spurgeon.org, and the thousands of theological websites that comprise the Christian blogosphere.  So for those who are serious about gaining a better understanding of theology or nouthetic counseling skills or Greek and Hebrew, may more seminaries offer this form of distance learning via internet courses as they remain firmly planted on the truths of God’s Word.
• Email and Blackberries – Just today I was reminded of one of the blessings of technology when I received an email to my Blackberry. The email was from our church elders asking for prayer on behalf of some church members with urgent needs. I don’t get these kinds of emails often because, thankfully, medical emergencies of this kind aren’t common. But when I received this email today on my phone, I was able to stop what I was doing and lift up my brothers and sisters in prayer. Sure, our elders could have called everyone in the church to update them; but because of the technology of email, and in my case, the technology of email direct to my Blackberry phone, the elders were able to alert the congregation of these urgent prayer needs more efficiently. As silly as it may sound, I thank God for blessing me with the luxury (as opposed to necessity) of a cell phone with internet and email capabilities that allows me to pray specifically for the brethren on a moment’s notice.
• Facebook and Twitter – Every time I attend a conference I inevitably make new friends. Thanks to Facebook, I have been able to stay in contact with those brothers and sisters months and years after those conferences are over. Facebook was designed for the purpose of social networking. For the Christian, however, social networking includes more than making new friends; it is fellowship, mutual encouragement, and a visible representation of the unity of the saints. Christians are more than friends; they are family members in the household of God. This is one of the reasons I appreciate Facebook: while I sit here in Mesa, Arizona, I can stay in touch with brothers and sisters in Ontario, California or Bremen, Indiana or Jackson, Georgia or even in Toronto, Canada! Twitter, like Facebook, allows me similar opportunities. But even more so, as John Piper pointed out, these networking devices can actually be a means of evangelism, not narcissism. May we use Facebook, Twitter, and similar sites wisely, making the most of every opportunity to point others to Christ.
• Everything else – I am an avid news junkie. I was speaking to my grandpa about two weeks ago about the news. He asked me, “Do you get the newspaper at home?” to which I replied, “Yes. But we get it on the internet, not our front porch.” Just like my grandfather who reads his morning newspaper with a cup of coffee and toast and fruit, I check out the Drudge Report and my Christian blog lineup in Google Reader almost every morning with my cup of Joe. Again, this attachment to the outside world isn’t a need, it’s a blessing. Through the internet I can stay connected to far-away friends, register for an upcoming conference, watch James White contend for the Faith on YouTube, order Calvin’s complete commentary set, read Al Mohler’s insightful weekly postings, and stay in touch with current events on the other side of the world. These are some of the blessings God has given believers living in the 21^st century. May we seek to glorify Him as we utilize the gifts and tools with which He has graciously supplied us.

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” – 1 Cor. 10:31

(By: Chad Bennett)

Calvin’s Institutes – Part 3
In my previous post on the Institutes I discussed the necessity of contemplating God’s perfections if we are to rightly understand ourselves. While this kind of contemplation is effectual in humbling man and bringing us to a more accurate view of nature there is yet a greater and more effectual revelation of God in the scripture. Calvin explains that Christians in the Bible were commonly “stricken and overcome” with “dread and wonder…whenever they felt the presence of God. Thus it comes about that we see men who in his absence normally remained firm and constant, but who, when he manifests his glory, are so shaken and struck dumb as to be laid low by the dread of death—are in fact overwhelmed by it and almost annihilated. As a consequence, we must infer that man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God’s majesty” (38-39).

A few examples should suffice to make this point adequately clear. In Isaiah 6:1-5 we read of Isaiah’s encounter with God:
1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory! 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 And I said: Woe is me! For I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!
Isaiah’s response to encountering the thrice holy God is to realize that he is undone, literally vaporized or unmade before God. In comparison to God’s holiness he realizes that he is a sinner who lives in the midst of sinners. Even the seraphim who are without sin must veil their faces before God, how much more so sinful man. We see yet another example in the life of Job who questions God in light of his experiences. In chapters 38-41 God answers Job with a series of questions concerning His glory in comparison to Job’s finiteness.
1 Then Job answered the Lord and said: 2 I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3 Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4 Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me. 5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
Job seems pretty bold at first but when God appears in his majesty he quickly perceives that he is but dust and ashes before God. David Brainerd, while not seeing God, nonetheless beheld his majesty. For some extended time after that he feared the ground would open and swallow him because of his sin before such a holy God.

If this all sounds foreign to us I would speculate it is because we have yet to behold the majesty of God. One day all people will be brought to a proper understanding of humanity when we all behold the majesty of the Lord. May this drive us all the more to be men and women who strive to behold His majesty now.