New Year prayer by Billy Graham

"Our Father and our God, as we stand at the beginning of this new year we confess our need of Your presence and Your guidance as we face the future.

We each have our hopes and expectations for the year that is ahead of us—but You alone know what it holds for us, and only You can give us the strength and the wisdom we will need to meet its challenges. So help us to humbly put our hands into Your hand, and to trust You and to seek Your will for our lives during this coming year.

In the midst of life’s uncertainties in the days ahead, assure us of the certainty of Your unchanging love.

In the midst of life’s inevitable disappointments and heartaches, help us to turn to You for the stability and comfort we will need.

In the midst of life’s temptations and the pull of our stubborn self-will, help us not to lose our way but to have the courage to do what is right in Your sight, regardless of the cost.

And in the midst of our daily preoccupations and pursuits, open our eyes to the sorrows and injustices of our hurting world, and help us to respond with compassion and sacrifice to those who are friendless and in need. May our constant prayer be that of the ancient Psalmist: “Teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end” (Psalm 119:33).

We pray for our nation and its leaders during these difficult times, and for all those who are seeking to bring peace and justice to our dangerous and troubled world. We pray especially for Your protection on all those who serve in our armed forces, and we thank You for their commitment to defend our freedoms, even at the cost of their own lives. Be with their families also, and assure them of Your love and concern for them.

Bring our divided nation together, and give us a greater vision of what You would have us to be. Your Word reminds us that “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12).

As we look back over this past year we thank You for Your goodness to us—far beyond what we have deserved. May we never presume on Your past goodness or forget all Your mercies to us, but may they instead lead us to repentance, and to a new commitment to make You the foundation and center of our lives this year.

And so, our Father, we thank You for the promise and hope of this new year, and we look forward to it with expectancy and faith. This I ask in the name of our Lord and Savior, who by His death and resurrection has given us hope both for this world and the world to come."

Amen

Christmas and the invisibility of God

"Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen." (1 Timothy 1:17 NIV)

"No one has ever actually seen God, but, of course, his only Son has, for he is the companion of the Father and has told us all about him." (John 1:18 TLB)

"Christ is the visible image of the invisible God..." (Colossians 1:15 NLT) "God is love..." (1 John 4:16)

"No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love has been brought to full expression through us. (1 John 4:12 NLT)

Did you notice the sequence of those scriptures?

I love what Pastor and theologian John Stott says about the invisibility of God. It is very applicable for us as we celebrate Christmas this year:

"It is a fact that God is invisible. No one has ever seen him and the very invisibility of God has always contributed a major problem to faith. In Old Testament days, the Jews were ridiculed by their heathen neighbours - 'Where is now your God? We can't see him. Come to our temples and we'll show you our gods. They are visible, they have ears, and eyes and mouths. But where is your God?' The people of God were embarrassed by these heathen taunts and would reply, 'True, your gods have eyes - but they can't see, they have mouths, but they can't speak. Our God, however, has neither eyes nor mouth but he can both see and speak.' Psalm 115:2-8. The same problem confronts scientific secularists today. Trained to use the empirical method, they are sceptical of anything which is not amenable to investigation by the five senses. They refuse to believe in what they cannot see. How then has God solved the problem of his own invisibility? The first answer is given in John 1:18 (RSV) 'No one has ever seen God: there is only the Son - he has made him known'. Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). As he himself said, 'he who has seen me, has seen the Father' (John 14:7). That's wonderful, people may respond - but it was also two millennia ago. Is there no way in which the invisible God makes himself visible today? Yes there is. 1 John 4:12 begins with exactly the same words, 'Nobody has ever seen God' - but instead of continuing that only the Son has made him known, it goes on - 'If we love one another, God dwells in us…' It is surely one of the most breathtaking sentences in the New Testament. It declares that the same invisible God, who once made himself visible in Christ, now makes himself visible in Christians - if we love one another. There is no more convincing evidence of the reality of the living God, than the love which animates the Christian community."
(This first appeared in a publication from the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity.)

May God bless each of us this Christmas with a richer understanding of His love so we in turn bless this world. When we love one another we literally manifest the presence of God! What a profound thought. As Jesus prayed, let us also pray:

"...I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23 NIV)

Diving in

I am thankful for kid movies. I think I like them as much as they do! One of my favorites is "Finding Nemo." Before that movie I had never heard of the East Australian Current. The EAC is an ocean current that moves warm water in a counter-clockwise manor down the eastern coast of Australia.

There is a scene in the movie where Sea turtles use the EAC as a super highway to travel down the eastern coast of Australia. Like vehicles merging onto the freeway the turtles merge into the current and let it take them where they want to go.

With that in mind let me tell you what happened the other day.

I have been a pastor for a long time. Ministry is a truly privilege. However, it is not always as glamorous as you may think. There are mundane days and irritating situations. The other day felt like one of those days when it started.

I had a call to meet with a with a man who "needed to talk to pastor." In my experience that can mean many things. Little did I know that this time would be a sovereign move of God.

The man did not tell me he needed money or that he had some crisis in his life that he needed rescued from, he simply told me he was empty and was looking for direction and purpose.

It was a "God" experience. I felt a deep impression in my heart that I was going to have the privilege of leading this man to Christ, the One he was longing for.

There are times when you are talking to someone about the truths of the Gospel and it feels as if your words are bouncing off the person's forehead. This was not one of those times. He was a sponge to all that I was talking to him about. It made me think of all the other people that had spoke into his life at some point or another. Someone somewhere planted a seed, someone else watered, God made it grow and I was about to harvest.

I wonder if doctors who deliver babies ever grow tired of seeing newborns come into this world? I know when my kids were born I was always aware that there was Creator, life giving, God, and that at each birth I was witnessing a miracle.

Putting faith in Jesus is a birth, it is the New birth Jesus talks about in John 3. So spiritually I was about to deliver a newborn into this world. The person who delivers the baby can't take credit for anything in the process of life but serving and being available to help the mom and the family. The same is true when we lead someone to Christ. We do not get any credit, we just get the privilege of seeing the work of God before our very eyes.

So, back in my office I asked the man if he wanted to put his faith in Jesus and be a follower of Him. He said he did. So he prayed his first prayer to God and asked Jesus to be his Savior and Lord.

"For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved." (Romans 10:9-11 NLT)

It was pretty awesome to witness. I truly had to repent to God for not always having the best attitude going into situations. I have had the privilege of leading others to Christ before, but it had been awhile since I this had happened. I think being a pastor gets in the way of doing real ministry sometimes!

What does all this have to do with the East Australian Current? Well, The picture God gave me after praying with the man was that of God's current. God's current, spiritually speaking, is always flowing. We like the sea turtles of Australia are not moving toward God but moving about in the vast ocean of life doing our own thing, going our own direction, when suddenly God in His amazing love draws us into His current. We then learn to flow with Him, letting Him lead, and ultimately Him leading us into Eternal life with Him. That is the destination of His current. It does not matter how old we are when we dive into His current, it does not matter where we have been, what matters is that we dive in.

I am so thankful God drew me into His current. I can feel my selfish nature fighting against it sometimes, but God in His love always reminds me of His grace and ultimately where we are headed and I stop fighting and let Him lead again.

Lets Dive in...