How to Pray on Election Day

On this Election Day Eve, it is indeed profitable to lift up the election process and our nation in prayer.  I have read two great pieces about praying for the upcoming election and our country: one from John Piper at Desiring God, and a piece about how to pray for the election by Albert Mohler.  Above all else (like political involvement), those who call on the name of the Lord should do so at this time, and in the days to come.  And through this process, let us examine ourselves as we examine the state of our nation and those who lead it.

Unfortunately, our system of government has led Americans (including Christians) to believe that we are the masters of our own destiny - we elect whom we want, and if we don't like someone in power, we vote him out of power.  This gives us a sense of control when it comes to government.  We believe that we have the final say.  Also, there are many American Christians that separate their spiritual and political thoughts and opinions.  This ought not to be.  These two realities, however, have predisposed American Christians to, in large part, refrain from deep prayer when considering the political realm.  Again, this ought not to be.  As the two pieces linked above make clear, there is much to be prayed about when considering our country, our leaders, and even our own involvement in the political process.

How should we pray at this time?  Albert Mohler suggests the following.  And it should be noted that these prayer requests are appropriate for all times, not just during election cycles.

1. Pray that God will bless America with leaders who are better than we deserve.

2. Pray that Americans will be motivated to fulfill the responsibilities of citizenship, yet also that we will be stripped of an unhealthy and idolatrous confidence in the power of government to save us.

3. Pray that Americans will vote by conscience, not merely on the basis of celebrity or emotion.

4. Pray that Americans will vote to defend the least among us - and especially those who have not vote.

5. Pray that God will prick the conscience of the nation on issues of morality, righteousness, and respect for marriage as the central institution of human civilization.

6. Pray that God will protect the candidates and their families.

7. Pray that the election is conducted with honor, civility, respect, and justice.

8. Pray that Americans will be prepared to accept the results of the election with respect and kindness.

9. Pray that this election would lead to even greater opportunities to preach the gospel, and that the freedom of the church will be respected, honored, and protected.

10. Pray for the church - that she would be strengthened in the truth, grounded in the faith, and empowered for witness and ministry.

A (Worshipful) Comedy of Errors

It's been a week since my most recent sermon at Riverview.  Whenever I fill the pulpit I try to write a post about the content of the sermon I preached.  For whatever reason I haven't gotten around to writing that post yet.  Well, I just downloaded the podcast of my sermon from last week, so I thought this would be an opportune time to say a few words.

I need to start off by saying that it's a good thing that God doesn't accept our worship based upon the level of technical perfection it is conducted in, nor does he give demerits for uncontrollable technical glitches.  Thank goodness that Jesus' blood and righteousness are what make our worship acceptable, because if God's standard for acceptable worship were functional microphones and technical perfection, then Riverview Baptist Church would have been up a creek last week!

First of all, it was a crazy service.  There were several technical snafus, not to mention that it was a very full and detail oriented service.  Several things had to go a certain way in order to "work."  To begin with, the Pioneer Girls group was presenting a black light puppet show during the service for the children's story.  This meant that we had to try and black out as much natural light from the sanctuary as possible, which meant quite a bit of work beforehand, plus all of the platform furniture was either moved or removed, and there were plenty of black light decorations all over the stage.

Things went crazy during the service too.  Rich, our multi-media guy, came down right as the service was about to begin and told me the computer had frozen, and it was going to be a solid five minutes before it was back up and running.  This was a bit concerning, considering that a lot of our announcements are fueled by visuals on the screen.  Moreover, we were showing an Operation Christmas Child video during the announcements.  Rich told me I needed to kill some time during the announcements to allow time for the computer to reboot.  I did, but apparently it wasn't enough.  The computer was still hiccuping by the time we were ready to show the video.

After all that, our sound guy, Craig, signaled to me from the sound booth that my microphone wasn't on.  I signaled back that, in fact, it was turned on.  He then signaled back that I had it on "mute mode."  I signaled back again that no, I didn't.  This wouldn't be too much of an issue, had I not been responsible for the corporate prayer that morning, which I was.  This means I had to pray corporately for the church, which is somewhat hard to do without any voice amplification.  During a silent prayer time, Craig snuck down and gave me a new wireless mic, and told me to plug my mic cord into the new receiver.  I couldn't get my cord to plug into the mic!  So, out of desperation, I picked up one of the hand-held mics, which unbeknownst to me, was wrapped around the music stand I was standing in front of.  The mic cord had no slack, and as I drew it to my face, the taut cord pulled the mic from my hand and it bounced loudly off the music stand (did I mention this was during the silent prayer time?).  The foam wind protector on the mic fell off and rolled onto the floor (four feet below the platform).  It turned out that this particular microphone was having problems too, so I ended up just shouting out the corporate prayer for the morning.

After the prayer, I invited the congregation to stand and sing the doxology in preparation for the offering.  As the piano and organ played the introduction to the doxology, out of the corner of my eye, I could see someone ascending the stairs to the platform.  I looked, and was more than surprised to see my three year old daughter coming to greet me on the platform.  She had left her seat, gone and picked up the foam wind protector from the handheld microphone, and brought it to me on the platform.  According to my wife, she was very distressed when I dropped the mic earlier and the foam wind cover fell off, and she felt it was very important to return it to me.  The Mrs. told her to go get it and hand it to me after the prayer.  In the mind of my three year old, this meant to bring it to me on the platform, which she did.  Needless to say, I was quite surprised to see her up there!

After the doxology, and during the offertory, I slipped into the back room (because there was nowhere to sit on the platform.  Craig, the sound guy, was waiting for me, with yet a third wireless mic.  He explained that the cord from my original wireless mic had shorted out, and that's why it wasn't working with any mic he gave me.  But here he was, with a fresh and working mic and cord, which I quickly clipped to my tie.

Then, after coming up with a makeshift children's story to introduce the black light puppet show, the kids came on and did a fantastic job.  Take a look.

After each service, it's traditional for the preaching pastor to meet exiting worshipers at the door for a handshake, which I dutifully did (although I always get out of there as fast as possible - no offense to Riverview folks, but have you ever shook 200 hands in a row?  You tend to want to wash your hands as soon as you can).  This time, one person who was in the service and had heard my sermon simply came up to me and asked me where the book of 2nd Colossians was located in the Bible.  I didn't understand.  That's a strange question to ask.  After all, my sermon was from Colossians 2.

Uh oh.

He said that I had mentioned at the beginning of the sermon that we were "continuing our study of 2nd Colossians."  No.  Not possible, I thought.  I must've said something like, we're "continuing our study of the 2nd chapter of Colossians."  Surely I would never say something as stupid as referring to 2nd Colossians - a book that doesn't even exist.

Although, when I look back on it, it's not too surprising that I would say something like that in a sermon.  Whenever I preach, I tend to get in a zone where all I'm focusing on is the sermon, and what I am saying.  I find that if I don't pretty much know what I'm going to say during a sermon, then it's anybody's guess what is going to come out of my mouth.  Therefore, if you ever hear me preach, you can pretty much know that almost every word I say is prepared before hand.

This zone, however, can tend to tie me down and make me oblivious to what is happening around me, and even to what is coming out of my mouth.  Sometimes I think I can get so concerned about what I am going to say, that I don't realize what I've actually said.  It seemed possible to me  that something like this could have happened here, although I wasn't going to believe it until I heard the recording for myself.

Well, as I said earlier, I just downloaded the podcast.  Here's a transcript of the first 11 words of my sermon from this past week:

"We're continuing on, this morning, in our study of second Colossians..."

Oops.

Oh well.  Like I said: if nothing else, we can rejoice that the acceptable-ness of our worship is not dependent upon us doing it well.  Thank God for that!

Thus & Such, Vol. 6

1. "Sadly, far too many professing Christians seem to have both feet in each election - which is a profound failure of identity.  We are genuinely citizens here, yes, but those truly united to Jesus have a deeper and more durable belonging, the benefits of which will far outstrip any other citizenship we have."  Need help keeping an eternal perspective, and keeping the upcoming election in perspective?  Then read this article.

2. "Zombies are horrifying not simply because they're mean and aggressive.  They are horrifying because they represent what ought to repulse us: the rotting decay of death.  But they still walk.  And, beyond that, they still crave.  In their search for human brains, they are driven along by their appetites, though always under the sway of a slavemaster's will.  Here's an interesting comparison of the state of living as a zombie with the state of living as a lost sinner.  Yes, you read that correctly.  More surprisingly, the article is written by Russell Moore.  It's interesting.  Check it out.  

3. "Imagine if I said, 'Don't like slavery?  Then don't own a slave.'  Or, 'Don't like spousal abuse?  Then don't beat your wife!'"  This is part of Scott Klusendorf's response to the question, "Don't like abortion?  Then don't have one."  Scott has literally done more thinking about the abortion issue than probably anyone else in the country.  The guy is a genius, and his insight on how to approach the abortion argument is invaluable.  In this article, he attempts to explain why people are pro-choice.

4. "In some schools, it's the football players doing the bullying.  At Queen Creek, they're stopping it.  And not with fists - with straight-up love for a kid most teenage football players wouldn't even notice, much less hang out with."  This article wins the "Feel-Good Story of the Year" award.  Definitely worth the read.  I especially appreciate the little brother's comment at the end: "Mom, I got this."

5. "One of the greatest crimes of this generation of Christians is its neglect of the gospel, and it is from this neglect that all our other maladies spring forth."  This is taken from the back cover of Paul Washer's newest (first?) full-length book, The Gospel's Power and Message.  I bought it as soon as it was available, and am looking forward to reading it.  Not familiar with Paul Washer?  You should be.

My Politics

If you don't receive Grace Gems in your email, let me encourage you to sign up to receive them for free.  It's usually the best email I receive in a day.  What are Grace Gems?  They are mini-devotionals from puritans, preachers, and theologians of old (I think the litmus test for who is included in the devotionals is that you have to have been dead before 1900).  There are fantastic theological ruminations recorded in these little gold mines that every Christian should ingest on a regular basis.

Today's Grace Gem rocked my socks off.  It was penned by John Newton, of "Amazing Grace" notoriety.  Topic: "my politics."  According to the email, the following is taken from one of dozens of letters that Newton penned to various people.  Have a look:

The whole system of my politics is summed up in this one verse, "The Lord reigns!  Let the nations tremble!" (Psalm 99.1) 

The times look awfully dark indeed; and as the clouds grow thicker - the stupidity of the nation seems proportionally to increase.  If the Lord had not a remnant here, I would have very formidable apprehensions.  But he loves his children; some are sighing and mourning before him, and I am sure he hears their sighs, and sees their tears.  I trust there is mercy in store for us at the bottom; but I expect a shaking time before things get into a right channel - before we are humbled, and are taught to give him the glory. 

The state of the nation, the state of the churches - both are deplorable!  Those who should be praying - are disputing and fighting among themselves!  Alas!  Ho many professors are more concerned for the mistakes of government - than for their own sins!

O God, purify your church for the sake of your glory and our good, both as a church and as a nation.

A Year of (anything but) Biblical Womanhood

Rachel Held Evans is a self-proclaimed Christian blogger.  It's no secret that she tends to the left on just about every issue, and her writing tends to get conservative people like me all riled up.  A lot of my left-leaning Christian Facebook friends link to her articles frequently, and that's pretty much sums up my experience with her.  I don't read her often, nor do I regularly check what she writes, but I run across her every once in a while.

Several months ago, during one of my various times at her blog, I noticed that she was in the process of writing a book called "A Year of Biblical Womanhood," written in the same vein as this book that details the complexities of supposedly living completely biblically for one year.  Held Evans (or is it just evans?  I never know when it comes to people with three names) does everything she can to supposedly obey every command and requirement placed upon women by the Bible for one year.  According to Evans, this endeavor led her to do all kinds of crazy things, most of which she records in her book for comic relief, according to her.

Unfortunately (for Evans) a plethora of devastating reviews have been unleashed on her book, almost exclusively from the conservative side of the Christian camp.  I have taken the time to read these reviews, such as this one, and this one, and this one from the always funny and witty Doug Wilson.  If the content of the reviews and opinions of the reviewers are accurate (and I have no reason to believe otherwise), then it appears that Evans' book is one to stay away from.

To be fair to Evans, I haven't read the book, nor do I intend to (I have a limited amount of time, which means a limited amount of reading time, and her book is not at the top of my very select list)  But from what I can tell from the reviews, one of the major hermeneutical mistakes that Evans makes is that she fails to understand the purpose for those laws and commandments given to women, and especially their purpose under the specific covenant that they were given.  That is, any time we talk about Old Testament laws, we need to in the same breath affirm that Jesus fulfills all of those laws, and that they are no longer necessary.  Therefore, asserting that the Bible is oppressive to women based on Old Testament requirements for women is absolutely uneducated, and almost embarrassingly so.  This is Christianity 101 type stuff.  Of course we don't follow those laws (for women or men) because they are impossible to follow.  That's why we needed a Savior.  Now that we have a Savior, our obedience and righteousness rests in him, not in a hopeless endeavor to obey a myriad of laws.  Again, from what I hear from the reviews, this distinction is painfully lacking in Evans' work, and that's incredibly unfortunate, if for no other reason that it robs Jesus of the glory he is due for meeting those requirements, and secondarily for confusing modern day women and coercively convincing them that the Bible is oppressive toward women.

The key to understanding these issues, and several others that are reportedly in Evans' book is hermeneutics.  I just used this term in an email conversation with a friend yesterday, and he had no idea what it means, so let me define: hermeneutics is the art and science of interpretation - particularly biblical interpretation.  The way we interpret the Bible will color and influence the conclusions we make from the Bible.  Hermeneutics then, is an especially important thing to understand.  From what you will read in the reviews of Evans' book linked above, it appears that her grasp of hermeneutics leaves something to be desired.  Unfortunately, she has chosen a very sensitive issue to be very wrong about, as her writing will no doubt influence thousands of women to distrust the Bible, and distrust God.

It should be noted that I decided to write this post after reading Doug Wilson's review (the third review of the three linked to above).  As I did a little looking around, I meandered over to Evans' site and noticed that she just happened to be appearing on "The View" this morning, right around the time that I was writing the post.  This is important to note, since Evans and her supporters insist that her critics have gotten her wrong.  She does not attack the Bible, they say, but rather the notion that there is a "right" interpretation, and also the idea that there is such a thing as objective biblical interpretation.  This is an idea that I would carefully affirm.  I say "carefully affirm," because we also need to note that just because we all bring a certain set of suppositions to the text when we interpret, this does not mean that we should not make absolute statements about the Bible, or or truths we have interpreted from the Bible.  It does mean, however, that we need to recognize and admit those things we bring to the text (and even force upon the text) and be aware of them.  The more we are aware of them, the more we can fight against them as we interpret the Bible and conform our lives to what it says.  And the more open and honest we are about the things we bring to our study of scripture, the more we can hold each other accountable when we read and study it together.  In fact, even a realization of the fact that we each bring things to the text when we study it, will influence the way we study it.

Anyway, since Evans was appearing on The View around the time that I was writing the post, I decided to tune in (going against every fiber of my being).  I bring this up, because Evans was anything but open and honest about her own presuppositions that she brings to the text during this interview.  The segment was designed to make the Bible look stupid and irrelevant.  It focused on videos of her doing the things she describes in the book, which look absurd and outdated, as indeed they are (outdated at least).  This woman is not interested in openness and honesty about where we all lack when it comes to interpreting the Bible.  She wants to advance her feminist agenda by downgrading the authority of scripture.  This seems to me to be the height of hypocrisy.

For example, the tagline before the commercial break preceding Evans' appearance on the show said this: "You won't believe what she did to obey the strict laws the Bible has for women, for an entire year."  Yeah, that sounds like it's going to be an open and honest conversation about hermeneutics.  Ms. Evans, don't tell conservative reviewers that they're not getting to the heart of the issue represented in the book, when you yourself aren't getting to the heart of the issue of your book on a nationally televised program.  It's extremely hypocritical.  Moreover, the hosts of The View took this opportunity to laugh at the Bible and what it says.  Congratulations, Ms. Evans.  You've given unbelievers a reason to laugh at, condemn, and disbelieve the Bible (including the audience members of the day, as they were each given a copy of the book).  Well done.

For someone who reportedly wants an open dialogue about how we interpret the Bible, but seems to try to initiate that dialogue by spending her time belittling the Bible and ignoring context, she has a strange way of going about it.