Praying the Unselfish Prayer

As you can see, God has me thinking alot about prayer lately. I want so desparately to see God do great things! I want to see Him shake the doorpost at our church and the doorposts of the hearts of the people. I find myself praying the strangest requests. I will not go into what some of them are, but mostly, I am beginning to realize that they are somewhat selfish. I was reading about pray today and saw this quote from Alan Redpath:

Before we can pray, "Lord, Thy Kingdom come," we must be willing to pray, "My Kingdom go."

If I really want to see God do great things in my life I must realize that my kingdom has to fall. When I pray the unselfish prayer God's kingdom will come. God will be glorified. God will be praised because it is that kind of prayer that God honors the most.

I wonder what would happen in the church if everyone took that quote seriously and prayed -- "not my will, but, your will, oh God!" I suspect that God would shake the doorposts of a bunch of hearts and even the doorposts of the church!

I wonder what God is going to teach me next about prayer. Keep checking back and find out! By the way, I am not sure if this is a selfish prayer or not -- but please join Debbie and I in asking God to sell our house in Georiga. We really need to sell it!

Where There is Smoke -- There is Fire!

I have been reading some of the complete works of E. M. Bounds on prayer. Consider the following quote I found:

No erudition, no purity of diction, no width of mental outlook, no flowers of eloquence, no grace of person can atone for lack of fire. Prayer ascends by fire. Flame gives prayer access as well as wings, acceptance as well as energy. There is no incense without fire; no prayer without flame.

Did you catch the last part of that quote. "No prayer without flame." I have noticed that the times I pray with the greatest "earnest" is when I am going through the flames about something. You know -- a spiritual wilderness, a hard time, a struggle or something of that nature. It is during those times that I believe God loves our prayers the most. The reason: we are realizing that we are totally dependant on God and we are calling out to THE source. He is our supply -- in every aspect of our lives. Our prayers are an incense to the Lord.

There is an old saying, "where there is smoke, there is fire." I guess what I am trying to say is that where there is sincere, heart wrenching, earnest prayer -- there must be the flame of the Holy Spirit driving us to the point of surrender......and God says, "Ummmmmm -- that smells good!

God loves it when we pray! Sometimes He allows the flames to get pretty hot. The hotter the flame the hotter the passion for finding God's will in any situation. God allows the flame but always remember -- He is the refiiner sitting by the fire always controling the heat. Even though the fire is hot -- it does not consume us! (Malachi 3:3)

An Amazing Revelation

I realize that it has been quite a while since I posted to my blog. To be honest, I usually posted late at night after everything was done for the day. It was a good time because I was usually up late and there was not much on TV that I wanted to watch. Lately, I have not even had that time to write and again, to be honest, it has been kind of hard to focus on somthing that I have been taking so seriously. However today has been different.

Have you ever had God speak to you so clearly that you just know that it is Him? God gave me an AMAZING REVELATION this morning as I drove into Sylacauga.

I had been praying for Debbie just about the whole way to the office this morning! As I was praying for her, God began to remind me of what He has given me "in her." I began to realize just how much I depend on her and God clearly told me something.

Here is what God helped me to understand:

Clearly, I do not deserve to have such a wonderful wife. She is constantly encouraging me, praying for me and standing with me through this transition time in our lives. By transition, I mean the adjustment we are making to the new ministry in Sylacauga. It has been quite a change. We miss our kids and grandkids more than words can say. We still have a house for sell in Georgia which is becoming a major burdon. This has just been a huge adjustment for us both.

Debbie has kept her promises to me. When I went into the ministry she said that she would go anywhere that God leads us. She has. He has lead us through good times, bad times, wilderness times, exciting times and every step of the way she has been there. She has given up so much so that I could follow the call of God. She gave up on college, career and so much more. God said, "look at what I gave you -- I have blessed you!" He was right. My wife is a treasure and I am not sure I have done a good job expressing that to her. As Proverbs 31 says -- her worth is far above rubies!

Prayer for My Mother

Hey Folks,
This afternoon just before dinner my sister called and told me that I needed to go to my mother's house. She was asking for me and was very sick. It seems that she came down with the flu this week. She will be 91 on June 19th. When I got there she was very weak but got up to eat some supper. Please pray for her. The flu is bad enough if you are young and healthy but when you are 91 -- it's pretty tough. She is very sick!

Her name is Hazel. Thanks for praying!

Tim

By grace.....

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace....
In his letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul makes it very clear that there is something very special about the grace of God. Grace is a gift. The act of grace is a gift. God "graces" us with salvation. We receive the gift of salvation "by grace" and "through faith." It is through faith that we receive the gift of God. It is through the "act of believing" that God bestows the wonderful gift of salvation. There is nothing that we do to earn it or deserve it. Romans 5 teaches very clearly that God saw our sin and still sent Jesus to die for us. Romans 8:1 and following also teaches us that because of God's grace, we who believe, are free from condemnation. Now here is where it gets good! You see...we deserve death and hell, but because of God's grace we are not condemned. Some people say that a great way to remember the definition of grace is: God's Riches At Christ's Expense. It's true -- Jesus paid the price and then "graced" us with His lIFE. Amazing, huh?

God

Amazing Grace!

For those of you who know my testimony you know that God brought me to a place of brokenness in 1999. I had come to a place of frustration in my walk with God. It was an exciting time in my ministry because the church I was pastoring at the time was exploding with growth in every way. However, I was empty. It was not the kind of emptiness I esperienced before I knew Christ. It was more of a frustration with my walk with God. It was during that time that I experienced what it really meant to know God's amazing grace. It was during that time that I realized that it was not about, but all about Jesus.

It will be my goal during the next few days to share the truth concerning the grace of God.

There are many definitions of God's grace. During my next blog entry I will try to convey the true definition of God's grace. Consider what Paul said in Romans:

"But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. " Romans 11:6

For me to understand God's grace meant that I had to accept this truth: My acceptance, my worth, my relationship is God is not based on anything I do. God is much more interested in "who" I am and 'WHOSE' I am!

Be sure to check back to read more about this great journey. I can't wait to share it with you!

I'm Back!!!!!

A very special thank you to all of you who are so faithful to read my blog. I apologize for being gone for over a week. I have been very busy with the many duties of pastoring our church -- First Baptist Church of Sylacauga, Alabama.

I am very excited to report that our new youth pastor, Kenny Norris has arrived and is already reaching some new students with the gospel of Christ. Please pray for him as he and his family adjust and reach the students of our region!

GOD IS MOVING!
God is doing some amazing things in our church. I have had several meetings with people over the past two weeks. All of these meetings have been about salvation. Some have been saved and others want to make sure they are saved! How exciting is that???

Over the next few blog entries I plan to write about a theme that is very near and dear to my heart! GOD'S AMAZING GRACE! Be suret to check back every day to see what God is teaching us!