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Saturday, February 25, 2023

Borrowing from Bonhoeffer… Again! – Prayer & Work – Purity 976

Borrowing from Bonhoeffer… Again! – Prayer & Work – Purity 976    

Purity 976 02/24/2023 Purity 976 Podcast

Purity 976 on YouTube: 



Looks like things went "sideways" again with the thumbnail on You Tube....

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a cluster of trees, trimmed shrubbery, and manicure lawn beneath blue skies comes to us from yours truly as decide to document my stay at the Embassy Suites in North Baltimore by capturing the view from my suite’s balcony shortly after checking in. It’s nice for a view of a parking lot but we are a long way from the ocean front view we had in Myrtle Beach! Here's a video of Sunrise from the beach.... 



Well, It’s Saturday and my family and I will be completing the final leg of our two part journey home later today as our vacation road trip will come to a close.   It’s a 6 hour drive home so I intended to depart sometime after the complimentary breakfast which will be served at 7 a.m. And because it is yet another travel day, I am going to enlist the help of Biblegateway dot com and Dietrich Bonhoeffer to provided the content of today’s message.  

As I stated yesterday, I am doing the 40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer for Lent and for yesterday’s post we shared from Day 3 of the 40 Day Journey with Bonhoeffer, so naturally today we will be sharing Day 4 which is on Work and Prayer.

I won’t be sharing this resource again after today, so I invite you to join me on the journey by signing up for the 40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Biblegateway dot com by going to the link I am sharing on the blog again today.  (https://www.biblegateway.com/devotionals/40-day-journey-dietrich-bonhoeffer/2023/02/27).

Hey, I know this is sort of mailing it in but I figured that even though I am a little road weary at least I am attempting to encourage Christians in their faith walk, and besides today’s entry not only keeps me faithful to the blog and podcast, it keeps me on track for my intention for Lent!

SO without further ado, we present Day 4 from the 40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

From – 40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer https://www.biblegateway.com/devotionals/40-day-journey-dietrich-bonhoeffer/2023/02/27 - go to Biblegateway dot com to sign up.

Day 4

Bonhoeffer writes:

"After the first morning hour [of prayer], the Christian’s day until evening belongs to work. 

“People go out to their work and to their labor until the evening” (Ps. 104:23).

In most cases a community of Christians living together will separate for the duration of the working hours. Praying and working are two different things. Prayer should not be hindered by work, but neither should work be hindered by prayer.

Just as it was God’s will that human beings should work six days and rest and celebrate before the face of God on the seventh, so it is also God’s will that every day should be marked for the Christian both by prayer and work.

Prayer also requires its own time. But the longest part of the day belongs to work.

The inseparable unity of both will become clear when work and prayer each receives its own undivided due."

Biblical Wisdom

Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters, since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23

Questions to Ponder

  • In what ways might prayer be hindered by work?

M.T. Clark: Prayer can be hindered by work in the following ways:

We may decide we need our rest for work and decide not to pray at all, skip prayer when work is demanding, or we could have a shallow prayer practice because we are preoccupied and distracted with thoughts of work.  

  • In what ways might work be hindered by prayer?

M.T. Clark: Likewise, while I think this would be rare – prayer could hinder our work. We could be so preoccupied with our prayer life , we could neglect our work responsibilities or do shoddy work because we don’t consider it worthy of our attention to detail or best efforts because it isn’t “spiritual” work. 

  • How are prayer and work related to each other?

M.T. Clark: As Bonhoeffer points out, work and prayer make up the content of the Christian’s life. If we are able, Christians are expected to work and pray, remembering that whatever we do, as representatives of God’s kingdom, we do for the glory of the Lord.    

Psalm Fragment

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
   and prosper for us the work of our hands

   O prosper the work of our hands! Psalm 90:17

Journal Reflections

  • Reflect on the work you do. Is it satisfying and meaningful? Is it work that reflects your values? Is it work that reflects your faith? Explain.

M.T. Clark: My day job is as a telecommunications field technician – a telephone repair man.  Is it satisfying and meaningful?  I suppose it is, I enjoy fixing people’s problems and when I can do that I am satisfied, it’s meaningful because I help people and receive compensation that provides for my family.   Does it reflect my values?  Yes, I perform the work to the best of my abilities and am honest and forthcoming with the people I serve.  Does it reflect my faith? The job itself? No, anyone from any faith background could do the work I do with honesty and integrity.

  • In what ways does prayer support you in your work? In what ways does prayer help to shape your work and the way you do it?

M.T. Clark: I begin each day with prayers for the Lord to go before me and guide me through the day. During the day at work I am in semi continuous conversation with the Lord, and it helps me to do the best job I can , by the book, because I represent God’s kingdom. I will also prayer for protection, guidance, courage, and strength when I need it.   I believe that my prayer life makes me a better worker.

  • Besides the work you do for income, what other kinds of meaningful work do you do at home or in the community? How does prayer relate to that work?

M.T. Clark: Besides my day job, I do volunteer work for Freedom in Christ ministries as an online discipleship leader. I am also on the prayer team at my local church. Both of these activities are based in prayer and the word of God, so prayer is directly related to the work I do in these areas and I have seen some amazing victories and transformations happen through prayer.

Intercessions

Pray for your co-workers, that they might find real satisfaction and meaning in their work. Pray for your workplace relationships, particularly those where there may be conflict and tension. Pray that you and your co-workers would be mutually supportive and encouraging.

M.T. Clark:

Lord God heavenly father,

I pray for my coworkers that they might find real satisfaction and meaning in their work.  I also pray for my workplace relationships, that I would be obedient and responsive to my manager’s directives and that I would be supportive and helpful to the other technicians in the garage.  I pray that my coworkers and I would be mutually supportive and encouraging of one another and that I would bold enough to use every opportunity I have to represent you as a Christian where ever possible at work.  

In Jesus’ Name, I pray.  Amen.

Prayer for Today

Lord, when I go out to work may I go joyfully and with enthusiasm for the tasks at hand. May my work be good for me and good for others.

M.T. Clark: IN Jesus’ Name Amen!

 

Okay, well now you have yet another demonstration of how to go through a morning devotional for Lent! I would like to thank the Lord, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and the folks at BibleGateway dot com for providing this resource.  If you would like to join the 40 Day Journey with Dietrcih Bonhoeffer for Lent go to the link for Day 1 and sign up: (https://www.biblegateway.com/devotionals/40-day-journey-dietrich-bonhoeffer/2023/02/23) 

Well, the devo provided us with some food for thought, some encouragement, and some Bible verses so because of that and because I am traveling today, I will skip the Bible verse of the Day, but should resume sharing verses from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men” when I resume the blog on Monday.  

Until then I ask for your prayers for safe travels today and I pray that anyone reading or hearing this message will use this season of Lent to grow closer to the Lord. 

I also pray you have a good weekend and use Sunday to worship the One who gave us life and who welcomes us into His eternal kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ.      

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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.

Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink’s “The Sovereignty of God.”

As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own private study and to support his work.  This resource is available on many websites for less than $20.00.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD

By  ARTHUR W. PINK

CHAPTER EIGHT

SOVEREIGNTY AND HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY

“So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Rom. 14:12).

In our last chapter we considered at some length the much debated and difficult question of the human will. We have shown that the will of the natural man is neither sovereign nor free but, instead, a servant and slave. We have argued that a right conception of the sinner’s will—its servitude—is essential to a just estimate of his depravity and ruin. The utter corruption and degradation of human nature is something which man hates to acknowledge, and which he will hotly and insistently deny until he is “taught of God.” Much, very much, of the unsound doctrine which we now hear on every hand is the direct and logical outcome of man’s repudiation of God’s expressed estimate of human depravity. Men are claiming that they are “increased with goods, and have need of nothing,” and know not that they are “wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17). They prate about the ‘Ascent of Man,’ and deny his Fall. They put darkness for light and light for darkness. They boast of the ‘free moral agency’ of man when, in fact, he is in bondage to sin and enslaved by Satan—“taken captive by him at his will” (2 Tim. 2:26). But if the natural man is not a ‘free moral agent,’ does it also follow that he is not accountable?

‘Free moral agency’ is an expression of human invention and, as we have said before, to talk of the freedom of the natural man is flatly to repudiate his spiritual ruin. Nowhere does Scripture speak of the freedom or moral ability of the sinner, on the contrary, it insists on his moral and spiritual inability.

This is, admittedly, the most difficult branch of our subject. Those who have ever devoted much study to this theme have uniformly recognized that the harmonizing of God’s Sovereignty with Man’s Responsibility is the gordian knot of theology.

The main difficulty encountered is to define the relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. Many have summarily disposed of the difficulty by denying its existence. A certain class of theologians, in their anxiety to maintain man’s responsibility, have magnified it beyond all due proportions until God’s sovereignty has been lost sight of, and in not a few instances flatly denied. Others have acknowledged that the Scriptures present both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man but affirm that in our present finite condition and with our limited knowledge it is impossible to reconcile the two truths, though it is the bounden duty of the believer to receive both. The present writer believes that it has been too readily assumed that the Scriptures themselves do not reveal the several points which show the conciliation of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. While perhaps the Word of God does not clear up all the mystery (and this is said with reserve), it does throw much light upon the problem, and it seems to us more honoring to God and His Word to prayerfully search the Scriptures for the completer solution of the difficulty, and even though others have thus far searched in vain that ought only to drive us more and more to our knees. God has been pleased to reveal many things out of His Word during the last century which were hidden from earlier students. Who then dare affirm that there is not much to be learned yet respecting our inquiry!

As we have said above, our chief difficulty is to determine the meeting-point of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. To many it has seemed that for God to assert His sovereignty, for Him to put forth His power and exert a direct influence upon man, for Him to do anything more than warn or invite, would be to interfere with man’s freedom, destroy his responsibility, and reduce him to a machine. It is sad indeed to find one like the late Dr. Pierson—whose writings are generally so scriptural and helpful—saying, “It is a tremendous thought that even God Himself cannot control my moral frame, or constrain my moral choice. He cannot prevent me defying and denying Him, and would not exercise His power in such directions if He could, and could not if He would” (“A Spiritual Clinique”). It is sadder still to discover that many other respected and loved brethren are giving expression to the same sentiments. Sad, because directly at variance with the Holy Scriptures.

It is our desire to face honestly the difficulties involved, and to examine them carefully in what light God has been pleased to grant us. The chief difficulties might be expressed thus: first, How is it possible for God to so bring His power to bear upon men that they are prevented from doing what they desire to do, and impelled to do other things they do not desire to do, and yet to preserve their responsibility? Second, How can the sinner be held responsible for the doing of what he is unable to do? And how can he be justly condemned for not doing what he could not do? Third, How is it possible for God to decree that men shall commit certain sins, hold them responsible in the committal of them, and adjudge them guilty because they committed them? Fourth, How can the sinner be held responsible to receive Christ, and be damned for rejecting Him, when God had foreordained him to condemnation? We shall now deal with these several problems in the above order. May the Holy Spirit Himself be our Teacher so that in His light we may see light.[1]

---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com. 

These teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MT4Christ247

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ),  her Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”

Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship

 



[1] Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God (Swengel, PA: Bible Truth Depot, 1949), 153–155.


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