Category: Articles

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Greetings to you in the name of God the Father who chose us, God the Son who redeemed us, and God the Holy Spirit who sealed us!

Several years ago a colleague from work recounted an experience he had on an aircraft where significant turbulence had him scared for his life. During this experience he said he prayed to every god he could think of, and, sadly, he could think of more gods than the only living and true God, Jesus Christ. In crying out to all the gods he had heard of he thought one would hear and answer him.

In Psalm 121, the psalmist is also looking for help. He lifts up his eyes to the hills from where his help comes. And as his eyes are looking up, the psalmist declares, “My help cometh from the Lord, which made Heaven and Earth.” As the Psalm continues, the psalmist expounds on the help of the Lord. He speaks of the Lord as our foundation, our keeper, and our protector, and the Psalm concludes with, “The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and forevermore.”

The Lord is the only help of His people forever. For this reason, when the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, he says to begin with, “Our Father, which art in Heaven…” How can this be that sinful creatures may approach the Holy God in such familiar language? God has done something for us. He has adopted us as His children. He has made us joint heirs with Christ and on the basis of Christ and His priestly work we may come directly to the Lord God in prayer and call Him, “Our Father.” And we must come to Him in prayer for there is help from no other; for there is no other God, save the LORD.

This title of familiarity in our approach to God is a recognition of who God is and what He has done to draw us to Himself. It is a title that does not first appear in the New Testament but actually begins in the Old Testament. We find in Isaiah 63:16 where the prophet writing the Word of God says, “Doubtless thou art our Father…thou, O LORD, art our Father, our Redeemer, they name is from everlasting.” In Isaiah 4:8, we read, “But now, O LORD, thou art our Father, we are the clay…” In Jeremiah’s prophecy of pleading for God’s people to repent in Jeremiah 3, the Lord says in verse 4, “Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?” And in 3:9, “Thou shalt call me, My Father, and shalt not turn away from me.”

The tenderness, mercy, grace, and longsuffering of our God is so clearly on display in these passages. The context, especially in Jeremiah, is God the Lord pleading with His people to turn away from their sin and repent of their sinful deeds. It is like a faithful father mourning over the sin of his children and pleading with them to repent and come back into fellowship with the family. The father pleads with his children reminding them how he guided them in their youth and they ought not forsake him now. In their youth he protected them and cared for them and does so now. So our Heavenly Father is doing the same. He is pleading: Remember your Father, call out to me and I will deliver you; repent, and I will forgive, for I am your Father and Redeemer.

We see also that our Father, God the Lord, has redeemed us with great price so that we may be His people and He our God. He has adopted us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. Is it not a wonder too great for us that the creator of the world, the One who holds back the mighty oceans from overcoming the sands of the shore, this God, would call us to approach unto Him in such a manner? Because God is who He is, as we come before Him as our Father it is incumbent upon Christians to come before Him with reverence and awe. The infinite, eternal, unchangeable Triune God has shown great love and tender mercies to His creation through His Son Jesus Christ; so when we pray to our Father, let us confess His glory, lift high His praise, and honor Him in our prayer.

Secondly, because He is our Father and He is our God, when we pray to Him, we may and should come before Him with boldness and confidence. If, as a child, you had an angry father or perhaps no father at home at all, the thought of approaching your father is a thing of bitterness and perhaps great grief. If you could approach him, you would approach him with great fear and worry and only when you absolutely had to for fear he would lash out at you in anger and rage. If you had a kind father as I trust many, by God’s grace, do have in this life, you can approach your father with boldness and confidence because you know your father loves you and cares for you. If earthly fathers can be approached in such a manner, how much more our Heavenly Father who loved us so much that He spared not His Son, His only Son from death, even the painful and shameful death of the cross so that He might be our life, righteousness, and salvation?

Finally, it is interesting to note that Jesus does not tell His disciples to pray, “My Father,” but rather, “Our Father.” Why? Well, whose Father is He? He is the Father of the elect. The Father of believers. He is the Father of Christians. Many times when we pray and almost always when we pray in public, we are praying with other believers. Even in private we are often praying for other believers. In this preface to the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus is teaching us to acknowledge that we are praying with other children of God and for other children of God, by calling out to Him as “Our Father.”

So, how does the preface to the Lord’s Prayer provide guidance and instruction for us in all our prayers, even when not using the script of the Lord’s Prayer? It reminds us of the love that God has for His people, despite our sin. It reminds us in prayer to adore God for who He is; to adore Him for His marvelous glory and for His attributes; to give reverence to Him; and to humble ourselves before Him in prayer. It also reminds us to come to our Father through the Son Jesus Christ (more to come on this in future letters) and to come with boldness and confidence. Praying with faith the Lord’s Prayer to God who taught it to us is an excellent way to come before God with boldness and confidence.

Using God’s Word in our prayers is a proper practice and benefits us in our meditation on the Word of God. It also assures us that our prayers are agreeable to God’s holy will. May this encourage us to come before God in prayer calling upon Him as our Father and adoring Him who made us and saved us. Lord willing in future letters we will see how the balance of the Lord’s Prayer continues to lead us in the whole of our prayer life.

Following is an example of an introduction to personal, family, or corporate prayer that applies the preface of the Lord’s Prayer to our prayer life. Your prayers in no way need be so long, this merely gives an example of prayer to our Father incorporating God’s own Word in His praise, adoration, and reverent thanksgiving!

Our Father which art in heaven,

We praise Your great and glorious name.

For You are our strength and shield, Our ever present help in times of trouble.

Though the earth be removed and the mountains be carried into the sea,

We shall not fear, for the Lord of Hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.

The Earth is Yours and You made it; The Heavens also are Yours and You have stretched them out.

Who is a God like our God? How glorious are Your mercies toward Your people!

You are the guide of our youth and faithful.

We beseech You in the name of Your Son Jesus Christ to preserve us in Your ways.

Even as we advance from glory into glory.

Ben Stahl, Elder

Greetings to you in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord who gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever!

If you are like me at all, you have considered this month how it is that we already wrapped up the first 12th of the New Year and are nearing the end of the first 6th. It seems only yesterday we were celebrating Christmas and New Years with our family and friends. If you grew up south of Atlanta, you may have wondered at Christmas if winter would ever end; if you grew up north of Atlanta, you may have wondered if winter would ever begin. Now, spring is next month and weed killer soon needs to be applied.

So  many constant changes in the life of a Christian, it is often difficult for us to focus on our spiritual needs and, primarily, communion with the Triune God. The disciples were very concerned    with their fellowship with God, specifically their communication with Him in prayer, so they asked Jesus Christ to teach them how to pray. And Jesus, of course, answers them by giving what we commonly call today the Lord’s Prayer.

From personal experience, it can be very easy to neglect the means of grace and communion with God we have been given in prayer. As we go through the months of this year, the focus of these pastoral letters will revolve around prayer; how to pray; how not to pray; how to apply the Lord’s Prayer in our daily prayer life. The goal is that we would grow in our knowledge, love, devotion, and fellowship with our Savior Jesus Christ who tells us in Colossians 4:2, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful,” and in I Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing.”

Sometimes Christians do not feel like praying. Sometimes Christians do not know what to pray or how to pray. Sometimes Christians are afraid their prayers will not be good enough. Sometimes Christians just don’t know what the purpose of prayer is and have heard all manner of poor explanations for prayer.

Just the other day on the radio, a minister from a church in California was telling a large church that the way we know that God is true is when He does miraculous things after we pray. This man gave the example of a minister who as a young boy asked the Lord to show His power to him and went over to his little sister with a broken arm, touched her, and his little sister’s arm was healed. This is how God works through prayer, the preacher explained, and this is how you know that God is who He says He is. In the charismatic movement around the world, this is common teaching on prayer.

But in the Word of God, the only infallible rule for faith and life, we find God teaching us something different about prayer. We find that prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God (Phil 4:6) for things agreeable to His revealed will (I John 5:14) in the name of Jesus Christ (John 14:13) with confession of our sins (Psalm 51) and thankful acknowledgment of God’s mercies (Hebrews 4:16, Psalm 136).

This description of prayer, taken from our shorter catechism, describes the primary components of a Christian’s prayer. Christians are to praise God in our prayers; repent to God;  adore God; and
yearn for things agreeable to God’s will. My father always taught me the acronym PRAY as a young child: Praise, Repent, Adore, and Yearn.

Sometimes, as we pray privately during our time of personal devotion, we are able to cover all of these areas of prayer. Perhaps we are able to do so also during our times of family worship as we make a concerted effort to praise and adore God, repent of our sins, and make petitions, requests, and supplications of Him. In I Kings 8:22-­?61 Solomon offers such a prayer.He praises the name of the Lord, “There is no God like thee…(vs. 23)”; he proclaims and adores the power of the Lord, “thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand…”(vs. 24). He confesses sins of the present and of the future in verses 28, 30, 34, 36, 39, 50. He makes supplication throughout the prayer. Much of his supplication is for safety and Solomon yearns for the Lord to hear the cry and repentance of the people.

Sometimes as we pray, we do not have this full structure before us. The prayer is less planned and thought through, but we have a need and bring it before the Lord. Such was the case in Hezekiah’s day as the Assyrians threatened the destruction of Jerusalem in 2 Kings 19:15-­?19. Yet, in this desperation, Hezekiah calls out to the Lord God of Israel and praises His holy name, “You are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth” (vs. 15). Hezekiah makes supplication, he yearns for the Lord’s deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Assyrians and he does so for the cause that God alone may be glorified. “Save us…that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone” (vs. 19).

Sometimes, we cry out to the Lord in faith for deliverance in a moment of trial. Peter did so as he began to sink while walking on the water in Mark 14:30: “Lord, save me!” Sometimes we focus on  the praise of God, such as in the invocation of the worship service. Sometimes we focus on the requests, the supplications. Other times we adore and give thanks to God for who He is and what He has done. And yet other times, we focus on repentance, even as we prepare for the Lord’s Supper.

God has told us much about prayer in His Word, He has ordained much for us to pray, He has taught us how to pray, and He prays and intercedes for us. With these broad categories in mind, in the months ahead, if God is willing, we shall examine how God teaches us to praise His name, repent, adore Him, and make supplication even in the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer which cover in some manner the whole of our prayer lives.

May God see fit to strengthen and encourage us in prayer, to increase our faith in Him, to build us up in love for Him and His church, to take encouragement in prayer from God only, to ascribe all kingdom, power, and glory to Him, and in testimony of our desire and assurance to be heard, to heartily confess, Amen!

Ben Stahl, Elder

Dear Reader,

If you really consider yourself as a true believer in Christ Jesus and that you have been enrolled in the army of God to fight against your three powerful enemies Satan, the flesh, and the world, I have a very timely and urgent message for you.

Do you know that the main reason why many Christians fail in their Christian life today is due to the fact that deep in their hearts they don’t believe or realize that in every moment of their life in this world they are engaged in a spiritual warfare against Satan and the forces of darkness which are very active in our world today?  The Apostle Paul makes this very clear for us in the letter that he wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 6: 12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”  According to Paul, what you really need to know and understand is that the moment you became a believer and the follower of Jesus Christ, you were marked by Satan and all his agencies in this evil and perverse world for spiritual attack and assault.  Remember, Satan, the world, and the desires of your sinful nature hate Christ and you his follower.  Our blessed Lord himself has told us in his Word that if the world hated and persecuted him it will revile and persecute us on the account of us being identified with him.

Let me refresh your mind with what our Lord told us in that portion of the Scripture: ”Remember the Word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.”

You see, if you are a true believer and follower of Jesus Christ, you are and will be under a constant attack of the devil. Your great and powerful enemy cannot take away your salvation or destroy your eternal inheritance in Christ Jesus in heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ has already given you that sure and unwavering assurance in His Word when he said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and who-ever comes to me I will never cast out,” John 6:37.

Yes, your salvation is eternally secured not by your own righteousness or any kind of ability of your own but by the blood of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, the devil can still attack you to make you a miserable and unhappy Christian so that you become useless and unproductive with your Christian life. If you as a soldier of Christ would not resist the devil by the strength and power that God gives you, Satan can manage to make you forfeit the joy of your salvation.

And it was for that very reason that the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:27 exhorts you with these words: “And give no opportunity or room to the Devil” which means if you do, then he will exploit the situation and deceive you to fall in to sin or act contrary to what is the will of God for you. The clear and alarming warning that the Bible gives about this real spiritual warfare is found in 1 Peter 5:8, and it says, ”Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around you like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

You see my friend, Satan and our spiritual warfare against him are real. Do not be deceived by any voice or notion that tells you that Satan is not real (does not exist), and there is no such thing as a spiritual warfare between a Christian and the devil.  To prove that, you only need to remember your Lord Jesus Christ and all his spiritual battles against the devil. Jesus had to meet this enemy. So did the Apostles and our Church Fathers in the history of Christ’s Church. If all these people including our Lord Jesus Christ encountered the devil and all his schemes, you are not exempted from this spiritual warfare. In fact, it was for that main reason that Paul in Ephesians 6:10 calls you to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

And how do you do that? Well, according to the inspired apostle, you do that by putting on the whole armor of God. And what is this Whole Armor of God that you should put on upon you to enable you to stand against the schemes of the Devil? I will start sharing the whole armor of God–piece by piece with you as of next week.

With you in the army of Christ,

Zecharias Weldeyesus ( Pastor)

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” II Timothy 3:16-17

All Scripture is profitable. How often do we consider this portion of II Timothy 3:16? It seems often and for good reason we think more of the first eight words of this verse. The authority, authorship, reliability, and trustworthiness of Scripture is regularly under attack. Men like Bishop Spong and Bart Ehrman are constantly calling all people, especially Christians, to reject the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture. So the church rightly defends the eternal truth of the Word of God knowing with full confidence that as it stands firm in the truth it does so with the promise of God that though the grass withers and the flower fades, the Word of the Lord shall stand forever. The church also knows that many scoffers and deceivers will come deceiving, if they could, even the elect. So when they come, though they hate the thought, their words and deeds are declaring the Scripture they reject to be in fact true, for Jesus warned us of such people some 2,000 years ago. He did not tell us they “might” come but rather that they would come. They are here and the church must stand firm so that God’s people do not fall away from the truth. As we consider this truth that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God let us also remember how that verse continues, “…and is profitable.”

Several weeks ago I was having breakfast with a friend and the topic of church and Scripture came up. The gentlemen I was speaking with explained how he did not understand the point of much of Scripture and so he and his church focused on the “profitable” parts, particularly the gospels. Many who are new to the faith come to the church and describe their understanding from various popular preachers or books that the Old Testament is not beneficial for us today and we should focus on the New Testament. There is, of course, a measure of truth in these two popular ideas. The gospels and the New Testament are indeed beneficial and profitable. However, there is also a serious flaw: The New Testament that many tell us to focus on exclusively teaches us that not only is some Scripture profitable but that all Scripture is profitable. What does this mean? How can we consider the bears killing the children in II Kings 2 to be profitable? What about the imprecatory psalms? Surely the endless rituals described in Leviticus cannot be deemed profitable, can they?

In an age of skepticism and the worship of personal experience, such questions are very common in the church and thankfully can be answered. The answer to these questions takes us back to the beginning of verse 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. All Scripture, as some translations will say, is breathed out by God. God is the author of Scripture. It is all His Word. As God is truth, His Word is also truth (John 17:17). The God of Scripture does not waste His breath as you and I might do. When He breathes out His Word it is for a purpose; it is all profitable. If the eternal triune God’s Word were not all profitable, He would not be holy and perfect in all His ways. Praise be to our holy and righteous God that all His Word is true and profitable as He has said! This leaves us then with some work. When we accept God’s Word to be true and profitable but cannot see the profitability of certain portions, we must work harder to understand those portions. The Ethiopian eunuch did not understand God’s Word from Isaiah 53 and God sent Phillip to teach him. God has provided means for His people to understand His Word and the ordinary means is the reading, but especially the preaching of it (Romans 10). So God has appointed ministers for this important and essential task of preaching so that God’s people may be built up in the knowledge of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and may glorify and enjoy Him accordingly.

There is a further importance to the Christian in embracing the truth that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. We are told (verse 16) that it is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness (verse 17) that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto good works. All of Scripture is profitable for the perfecting of God’s people and furnishing them for good works. When men reject portions of Scripture they are rejecting the means God has provided for their perfection, their sanctification, and furnishing unto good works. In many places today, Jesus is viewed merely as a loving God and His other attributes are ignored. As a result those who follow such teaching do not know the true God in the true way. They quickly fall into foolishness as they embrace sin under the pretense of “loving like Jesus loved” and reject the call to repentance and freedom from sin by the grace of God received through faith in Jesus Christ.
When we see the Scripture for all it is, profitable, for doctrine, correction, reproof, and instruction in righteousness we embrace the whole Bible and can better know our God, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. And as we embrace the perfect Scripture we are built up in the perfection of the truth and are equipped unto good works. This is the will of God, even our sanctification.
We could spend pages and pages discussing hard to understand portions of Scripture or portions that seem difficult to embrace. Explaining those passages and books is not the purpose of this article. Rather, the urgency and exhortation of this letter is for us and all men to embrace the profitability of all of Scripture. When we embrace the truth of God’s Word the Lord will bring us to an understanding of just how each passage is profitable for His purposes. How will the Lord do this? He has given us pastors. Let us talk to the pastors and elders that God has ordained to watch over and teach His people. He has given us prayer. Let us pray to the Lord and ask Him for understanding. He has given us the Holy Spirit to teach us. Let us ask God for understanding from the Holy Spirit.
Scripture teaches us doctrine. It corrects us from error. It reproves us of sin. It instructs us in righteousness. All of this is from God so that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto good works. Praise be to God who has breathed out all of Scripture, all of which is profitable!