Observations on Prayer from Book of Daniel
Written by Kyle E. Sims |
Saturday, October 2, 2021
We also learn from Daniel that God answers prayers. You see this in Daniel 9:23 and 10:12, where God hears our prayers from the beginning. Is this not enough encouragement to pray. My friends, God hears you when you start to pray. You are heard! Why are we not praying?
Preaching through the book of Daniel has been a tremendous joy as it speaks to God’s power, His purposes, and His faithfulness. It shows us the Lord’s love and help to his people even in hard times. It is relevant to our world and needs today.
When most Christians think about the book of Daniel, two stories come to mind. The obvious one is Daniel and the Lion’s Den, a classic staple of Sunday School and Children’s Bibles. The other story is that of the Hebrew children and the fiery furnace. These three men refuse to bow down to the Babylonian idol and are thrown into the superheated furnace.
One thing that has struck me in preaching through Daniel is his prayers. There are a few observations I want to bring out of the book. I hope they will encourage and guide you in your own prayer life.
In Daniel 6, the king is lead by wicked and jealous men to make a prideful decree that only he could be prayed to for 30 days. What do we see Daniel do? He does what he had always done. The prophet opened his window and prayed three times a day. This regular prayer time is what he previously had done, and he kept doing it. Are we this regular in prayer?
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Greenville Seminary Appoints William Vandoodewaard As Professor Of Church History
Dr. Jonathan L. Master commented, “Dr. VanDoodewaard is an outstanding teacher and scholar with the heart of a pastor. I have known him for fifteen years, and, while I have always admired his scholarly work, I have been even more grateful for his Christian friendship and his example of personal godliness.”
Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (GPTS) has announced the appointment of William VanDoodewaard (PhD, University of Aberdeen) as Professor of Church History and Academic Dean, beginning fall 2022.
Dr. William VanDoodewaard is currently serving as Professor of Church History at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary (PRTS) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has held appointments as Visiting Research Fellow in the School of History and Anthropology at Queen’s University Belfast and Visiting Scholar at Princeton Theological Seminary, and he has served as a Visiting Professor at Mukhanyo Theological College in Pretoria, South Africa, and Reformed Theological Seminary (Houston). Prior to PRTS, Dr. VanDoodewaard taught at Patrick Henry College, near Washington, D.C., and at Huntington University in Indiana.
Seminary President, Dr. Jonathan L. Master commented, “Dr. VanDoodewaard is an outstanding teacher and scholar with the heart of a pastor. I have known him for fifteen years, and, while I have always admired his scholarly work, I have been even more grateful for his Christian friendship and his example of personal godliness. The Search Committee, Board of Trustees, and Faculty were all unanimous in recommending Bill for this position. The Faculty also voted to appoint Bill as Academic Dean when he begins in the fall. I couldn’t be happier about having Bill join us, and I look forward to working closely with and alongside him for years to come.”
Dr. VanDoodewaard has written for Books & Culture, The Journal of British Studies, Themelios, Puritan Reformed Journal, Westminster Theological Journal, Tabletalk Magazine and online at The Gospel Coalition and Reformation21. He is also the author of three books: 1 & 2 Peter: Feed My Sheep (Welwyn Commentary Series), The Quest for the Historical Adam, and The Marrow Controversy and Seceder Tradition, and he has recently introduced and edited Charles Hodge’s Exegetical Lectures and Sermons on Hebrews (Banner of Truth).
Dr. VanDoodewaard is an ordained minister in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP). -
God’s Love for the Believer is as. . .
Written by Nicholas T. Batzig |
Friday, September 24, 2021
When we consider the enormity of our sins, and our hearts begin to sink under the weight of a sense of the guilt that we have incurred, we must remember the eternal purposes of God in the everlasting covenant of redemption. When we begin to have hard thoughts of God, we must fix our eyes on the cross and see the infinitely beloved Son of God hanging on the tree out of the divine love of the triune God for sinners.One of the most challenging trials for believers during our pilgrimage through this dark and fallen world is to truly believe and rest in the love that God has for us. Sinclair Ferguson once noted that the experience of so many believers is the internalizing of the thought, “He loves me, He loves me not.” Many believers lack the assurance of their salvation precisely because they focus on the enormity of their sin to the exclusion of the enormity of the love of God for sinners. God’s love superabounds to the salvation of sinners. So how should we think about the love of God toward us who believe, while we acknowledge the reality of sin in our lives?
Much can be said about the love of God toward His people. Distinctions and categories must be drawn. God has a general love for His creation, a covenantal love for the visible church, and a eternal redeeming love for the elect. Scripture distinguishes between God’s love of complacency and His love of benevolence. Then, there are marks of God’s love. For instance, the author of the Proverbs and the book of Hebrews tells us that God disciplines those He loves (Heb. 12:3–11). Spiritual discipline is a mark of the love of God for His children–not of His just punishment which He reserves for unbelievers. That being said, here are a few of the foundational, biblical truths about the love that God has for His people:
The Bible places the love of God for His people at the foundation of every blessing that God freely bestows on us in Christ. Scripture tells us that the triune God has loved us with an everlasting love (Jer. 31:3), that His love “has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:5), that He demonstrated his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8), and that “greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). The love of God leads Him to adopt believers into His divine family, making us sons and daughters of God (1 John 3:1). The Apostle John (the Apostle of love) summarized the principle of the love of God toward His sinful people, when he wrote, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
The love of God is something upon which we can never meditate too often. It is the bedrock of our Christian continuance in the faith. If we forget the love that God has for us, we will sink under the weight of the guilt of our consciences and our own desire for legal performance. If we lose sight of the love of God, we will live in servile fear of Him, seeking to gain His approval on the basis of our works. So, what are some ways that we can rightly apprehend the security of the love of God for us, sinful though we be?
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Amos, A Laity Model and Prophet for Our Times
Unfortunately, there are some who have succumbed to the lure of secular culture and promote those values as if biblical. And gladly in the midst of this, many lay elders, deacons, and congregational members remain faithful and speak to the current issues. They need to be heard, heeded, and respected. Their “prophesying,” like Amos, on behalf of God’s Word and Christ’s commands deserves careful attention.
Amos is considered a minor prophet in the canon of Scripture. However, Amos asserted he is not a prophet: “I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock and the Lord said to me, ‘Go prophesy to the people of Israel” (Amos 7: 14-15).
Amos had been accused by Amaziah, the priest of Bethel to King Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel . . . Then Amaziah said to Amos, ‘Go, you seer, flee away to the land of Judah and there eat bread and there do your prophesying! But no longer prophesy at Bethel, for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal residence.”
Then Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of a sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock and the Lord said to me, ‘Go prophesy to My people Israel.”
In today’s language here is a layman addressing a warning to the people of God, and he is then rebuked by a cleric. Does that not speak to some similar situations in the church today? Many clerics are coming out of what are considered conservative, orthodox seminaries, yet with cultural ideologies that are counter to biblical principles and truth. And so it is left to lay leaders to stand up for maintaining biblical principles and truths.
The book of Amos is applicable to today and a reminder that God is sovereign and will choose whom he wills to address serious issues confronting his covenant people both in the Old Testament and in the universal Church today.
The Church in every generation is confronted with false teachings of every type. The present time is no exception where specific issues like race and sexual identity are front and center. By whom are these issues usually framed? Sadly, mostly by those who are clergy and the seminaries that influenced them. As a result, it falls to lay leaders lay church members to resist these incursions into the church. They desire to remain steadfast to the divine revelation of God regarding human depravity, that all, regardless of race or sexual identities, “…have fallen short of the glory of God.” And further, that God created male and female and instituted marriage by which they would express sexual relationships.
There is no intent here to discount the importance of clergy in the life of the church; many are faithful to God’s divine revelation and historic, orthodox Christianity. Unfortunately, there are some who have succumbed to the lure of secular culture and promote those values as if biblical. And gladly in the midst of this, many lay elders, deacons, and congregational members remain faithful and speak to the current issues. They need to be heard, heeded, and respected. Their “prophesying,” like Amos, on behalf of God’s Word and Christ’s commands deserves careful attention.
Here is my plea to church leaders: recognize the voices of the laity, don’t silence them; listen to them. They too are God’s instruments and servants to keep Christ’s Bride faithful to her Groom.
The message for us today is listen to Amos, a simple herdsman and grower of sycamore figs, not to Amaziah, the priest and the cleric; Amos is a forerunner and model for today’s Church. And to lay leaders: be faithful as Amos to your churches today.
Helen Louise Herndon is a member of Central Presbyterian Church (EPC) in St. Louis, Missouri. She is freelance writer and served as a missionary to the Arab/Muslim world in France and North Africa.
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