A Cry for Deliverance

Heavenly Father, save me entirely from sin.

I know I am righteous through the righteousness of another, but I groan and long to properly image You. I am a child and should bear Your image.

Enable me to recognize that I am dead to sin. When it tempts me, may I be deaf toward its voice. Deliver me from both the invasion and the dominion of sin.

Let me walk as Christ walked: to live in newness of His life…the life of love, faith and holiness.

Forgive my rebellion, envy, cruelty and pride. Kill these vices. Have mercy on my unbelief–on my corrupt and wandering heart.

When Your blessings come, I idolize them and set my affection on some beloved object: friends, wealth, family, honor, or money. Cleanse this spiritual adultery and give me a chaste heart: close my heart to all but You.

Sin is my greatest curse. Let Your victory be apparent to me and be displayed in my life. Help me to be devoted, confident, obedient, and childlike in my trust of You.

Let me love You with soul, body, mind and strength. Let me love my neighbor as I love myself. Save me from my unregenerate temper, harsh thoughts toward others, slander, cruelty, and unkind manners. Teach me to master my tongue and keep guard the door of my lips.

Fill me with grace daily, that my life would be a fountain of sweet water. Amen.

The Valley of Vision, ed. by Arthur Bennett. “A Cry for Deliverance,” alt.

I have been thinking a great deal about prayer the last couple of days. Many times when I’m in the midst of being tempted by my own thoughts, for example, I simply hold my breath and wait out whatever sin is crouching at my door.

But that’s not what Scripture says I should do.

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Folks, I’m still around and doing a lot of thinking.  I haven’t been posting because I found out I did indeed pass Greek, so I’m on to step 2…translating 1 John.  It’s an uphill climb…but nothing about my life seems to be terribly easy.  I’ve been pretty tired lately and sort of down.

The good news is that Christ has still paid for my sin…and that I still want to read His Word and grow in His wisdom through it.

Off to study for my Greek midterm exam tomorrow. In the next 15 hours, it’ll be all over and I’ll be ready for week 2 of Greek.  I can hardly contain my excitement at present.

A good friend sent me a link to this, so I figured I’d repost it. I laughed a lot, as anyone who knows me would guess.

The Semi-Pelagian Narrower Catechism

1. Q: What is the chief end of each individual Christian?
A: Each individual Christian’s chief end is to get saved. This is the first and great commandment.

2. Q: And what is the second great commandment?
A: The second, which is like unto it, is to get as many others saved as he can.

3. Q: What one work is required of thee for thy salvation?
A: It is required of me for my salvation that I make a Decision for Christ, which meaneth to accept Him into my heart to be my personal lord and saviour

4. Q: At what time must thou perform this work?
A: I must perform this work at such time as I have reached the Age of Accountability.

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So a guy I follow on Twitter (who will probably want to remain nameless after he reads this, hence my preemptive honoring of that desire) who sent me this article by Justin Davis who is a site pastor at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN, according to this page.

After a story about his son failing at something (a legitimate problem all of us have, so no problems with the illustration), we read this quote:

Maybe today this picture [striking out] is a picture of your life and your relationship with God right now. You have struck out. You have messed up. God was writing His story with your life. He was using you and you had purpose and you had dreams and you had a vision for what your life could be…but you struck out.

This is problematic.  First…”maybe”?  Romans chapters 1-3 says that all of us have “messed up;” in fact, the bible calls this sin.  Second, “He WAS using you…but you struck out.”  I’m at a loss, really.  The idea that a sovereign God is some how derailed by my disobedience…well…that doesn’t make him a very good king, does it?  In fact, it makes Him impotent.

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Recently, I saw a stack of papers in a youth room.  I won’t tell you where, but when stuff like this is lying around, I tend to grab it and fold it and put it in my pocket.  This is terrible.

The passage is, first of all, identified incorrectly on the paper which was given to the students.  The questions only make sense if it’s applied to FIRST John 2:3-14.  But whatever.

The title of the study is “Something Old, Something New.”  Let’s look at these:

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