Teacher Devotions: The Power of Prayer

How does prayer work? Prayer allows us to step back from our problems and let God step in to help us.

Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

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There’s a lot of anxiety going around these days. People are afraid of catching the flu; communities are dreading the closure of businesses; and even churches are seeing their resources diminishing. With no political, economic, or even spiritual stability, now is the time to seek God in prayer. It’s worked in the past, when things were a lot worse. So, instead of being fearful and anxious, let’s try to become more faithful and prayerful.

Presenting our requests to God gives us an opportunity to voice our concerns and externalize our anxieties. If we bottle up our fears inside us, we will experience undue internal pressure and a lot of stress. Prayer gives us the chance to release the tension and place our anxieties before God. Remember the old saying: a burden shared is a burden halved.

Realizing that we cannot control things around us enables us to ask God for help. We are not spiritual supermen or superwomen. We don’t have the capacity to be able to do everything ourselves. Recognizing God’s sovereignty over our lives can release us from trying to solve the world’s problems. We can only handle what God has potentially given us to handle. Everything else is in His domain.

Asking God for help in prayer is a great act of faith. When we pray, we actually respect God and His power. We understand that we are finite creatures in need of an infinite God. By praying, we give God His place in our lives and put Him at the center of all things.

Yielding to God’s will in prayer frees us from our fears. We have faith that God will work out everything for the common good. God may say “no” or “not now” to us, but at least He will have answered our prayers. Surrendering ourselves to His wisdom and will is a sincere act of faith, service, and love. It also calms our spirits, for we know that whatever transpires, it is God’s will.

Encouraging others to pray with and for us has a communal blessing that strengthens our spirits. Yesterday, a friend sent me an email with the following quote from C. S. Lewis, ‘prayer does not change things, it changes me.’ When we solicit other people’s prayers, we are changing inside. Instead of isolating ourselves and internalizing our troubles, we allow other people to know of our concerns and to seek their prayerful support. This is one of the greatest benefits of belonging to a Christian community.

Requesting God’s help, recognizing our frailty, and realizing that prayer is a powerful way to change our circumstances releases us from being overwhelmed by our fears, worries, and cares. It’s a spiritual way of stepping back from the problem and letting God step in to help us. We allow God to be God and we permit ourselves to be His children.

Prayer: Lord God, we thank You that we can freely come to You in prayer at any time, with any problem, and in any situation. We know that You hear our cries for help from our hearts and souls. Ease our anxieties and calm our fears. Listen to our petitions and allow us to hear Your answers. In Christ’s Holy Name, we thankfully pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Teacher Devotions: Faith for Hard Times

In these uncertain economic times, how can our Christian faith help us?

1 John 5: 4 …for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

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Because of the economic uncertainty, a lot of people are unsure about their future and feel insecure about themselves. These are tough times to be living in, but not as harsh as the past. A key element in surviving turbulent times lies in how much investment we make to our faith. Past generations of Christians have come through much worse, so there must be something special about our belief in Christ that enables us to persevere, endure, and overcome our troubles.

Faith helps us to overcome our fears. We are not alone because Christ is always with us and His Church seeks to support us. People who have a faith community usually do better than those who go it alone. They find that their Christian connections build up their esteem, their confidence, and their strength. For instance, to have others in prayer for us during critical times is like having a small army of resourceful people on our side.

Attending church and worshipping regularly during tough times gives us both discipline and focus. Our spirits are strengthened by the teachings we receive. Our confidence is boosted by belonging to a group of people who share similar beliefs. And the friendship, fellowship, and love of true Christians are powerful aids that enable us to overcome trying moments in our lives.

Inspiration can also be acquired by focusing on our faith. The Bible is not just a history book; it’s a guidance manual for getting through tough times. It’s a spiritual survival course that relates to just about every incident or event that we can ever experience. The richness of the psalms, the wisdom of proverbs, and the hopefulness contained in the Gospels grants us all some wonderful information and insights, letting us know that God is in control and that we are very important to Him.

The teaching of the Bible in both Old and New testaments has stood the test of Time. For thousands of years people have been moved and motivated, spurred on and encouraged by God’s holy words. There’s always something that we can glean from a familiar Bible story or a Gospel passage that will give us the guidance we need. It’s also amazing how often a Sunday School lesson or a pastor’s sermon will speak to us at the right time, giving us assurance, advice, and assistance.

Hope, faith, and love help us through bad times, as well as the good. By taking the time to focus on our faith in the midst of our present circumstances, we will discover several useful gifts - strength and determination, character and perseverance, endurance for the present and hopefulness for the future. In Christ, we live an abundant life at all times. In His word, we find our way. Through His love, we rediscover our lives.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for bringing us to faith and helping us to believe in Your words, Your ways, and Your works. In these uncertain times, assure us that Your promises are powerful, Your guidance is always good, and Your salvation is our strength. In Your Holy Name, we gladly and confidently pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Teacher Devotions: Idiot of the Day

One of our local radio stations has a talk show host who devotes a section of his program to what he calls “Idiot of the Day.” In the last 24 hours, I’ve come across several people who would easily win that title.

Last night, when I was driving home from church, I got stopped at the traffic lights at a busy intersection, right next to the interstate. I happened to glance over at the car on my left side and was totally shocked at what I saw. A middle aged couple was in the front of the car with no seat belts and laughing carelessly.

Shocking? Surely not, John, I hear you say. But it gets worse. In between the couple was a small ten year old boy. His right hand was on the steering wheel whilst his “Dad’s” left hand held on to it, too. When the traffic lights turned to green, the young boy was actually steering the car! No seat belts, no signals, and no common sense. These idiots were all over the road and all three of them were laughing away. If I could have spotted their license plate, I would have called the police.

But just when I thought I had never seen a more idiotic trio of idiots in Tennessee, this morning I saw someone who topped them all. I was driving to church along the busy five lane interstate, when all of a sudden all the vehicles in the five lanes of traffic had to apply their brakes. A guy was running across the five lanes of traffic to get to the median where he would have to run across another five lanes in order to get to the other side. Totally unbelievable!

John 14:15 If you love me, you will obey what I command.

You know there are some scary people out there folks, and their stupidity endangers the rest of the community. And that’s also the message for this morning. Jesus says that those who love Him will obey His commands. But we’re living in a society where church members believe that it’s okay to love Jesus, but we don’t have to follow His commands. And the trouble is this: those who stupidly and sometimes brazenly discard Christ’s commands are endangering the souls of the whole Church community. Instead of sticking to the rules, teachings, and words of God through Christ, foolish theologians, prideful pastors, and completely misguided church members are heading down a dead end path that leads to oblivion, instead of heaven. It may be alright for these careless individuals to follow their own ways and end up separated from God, but the Biblical ignorance and Christian superficiality of some in Christ’s flock is causing them to stray away.

I think that’s why Christ’s emphasizes this in His teaching: “If you love me, obey my commands.” This is not unconditional love, as some misguided preachers and teachers would have us believe. This is a love that has responsibilities placed upon it. We cannot say that we love Jesus and then go and do what we want. It may not be popular to preach or make people happy about their faith, but then again we have to ask ourselves these questions: does our faith shape us or do we shape our faith? Do we love Jesus freely without His conditions, or are we willing to love Him faithfully and serve Him responsibly?

Personally, I think if the Church has any future in the World, then it has to rediscover its backbone of Christ’s commands and teachings.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, it’s getting harder to be a Christian in the world. We’ve let things slide and we each have failed to live up to Your commands. We want to love You truly, but we are afraid to love You conditionally. Forgive our foolish ways and help us to reclaim our spiritual strength through Your ways, words, and works. In Your Holy Name, we contritely pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Teacher Devotions: Effective Preaching

Hebrews 10:35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

I’ve been preaching for more than thirty years and throughout that time, some people have asked me how can I stand up before other people and preach the Word. They often tell me that they are terrified of speaking in public, so they wonder how I do it week after week.

The secret is twofold: firstly, preaching is not public speaking. Making a speech before your business associates or presenting a project to a group of peers is entirely different. That’s part of a marketing transaction or a management structure. You present what you know and hope that everyone buys into the product. The success of the presentation is based upon how effectively you manage to persuade potential customers or team members. It’s a sales pitch and although some Christian writers would have us believe that preaching is the same, it isn’t.

And that brings me to secret number two: effective preaching depends upon the presence of the Holy Spirit, not the oratory of the preacher, nor the content of the sermon. I’ve heard some life changing sermons given by the meekest of preachers. They have not been dynamic or extroverted, but their words have been endowed by the Holy Spirit. True preachers do not believe in themselves; instead they have confidence in God and present their sermon through the power of Christ living in them.

So this Sunday, when your pastor steps into the pulpit, or stands behind a lectern, or walks across the sanctuary floor to present his or her sermon, open your hearts and minds to this important question: what is the Holy Spirit communicating to me through this sermon? I guarantee that if you have confidence in seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance at that time, you will be richly rewarded through what the preacher offers with the sermon.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we thank You for the power of preaching through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Open our hearts and minds this coming Sunday to what You want us to hear. Help our preachers to seek Your favorable and guiding presence as they set out to preach God’s Word to God’s people. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor at Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Teacher Devotions: Prisoner for Christ

Our government is concerned about torturing terrorists over here, but what about human rights abuses taking place against Christians in China?

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Deuteronomy 26:6 But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor.

Before last summer’s Olympics, I wrote to you about a Chinese Christian, Alimujiang Yimiti, who had been arrested in January 2007 for preaching the Gospel. He was one of the reasons that I boycotted the Games in China. I couldn’t stomach the fact that whilst the whole world was marveling at the Olympics, a Christian brother was languishing in a Chinese jail just because he was a preacher like me.

A couple of days ago, word came out that Yimiti was still in prison and is very, very sick. On March 31, Alimujiang was seen with his hands bound being roughly escorted by police and a prison doctor. He shouted, "I'm sick. Tell my lawyer to come quickly to see me."

I personally think that it is both despicable and deplorable that a fellow Christian is being maltreated in this way. In recent weeks, our own government has deplored the use of torture on terrorists. I wonder when the same leaders and politicians will make a similar stand against the human rights abuses that are going on in China today. It’s one thing to pose for the cameras and take a posture against human rights violations over here; it seems to me that because China holds a lot of our national debt, our government is afraid to speak out and do something about those atrocities over there.

I pray that Alimujiang gets better and that one day he is released back to his distraught family and Christian friends. It is important that we Western Christians, who tend to have a much easier life and greater freedom of religion, should never forget that our brothers and sisters in Christ are being harassed and hunted down, persecuted and imprisoned, tortured and even executed for the same beliefs that we often take for granted.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, today we pray for Alimujiang Yimiti and his family. We ask that You will heal him of his sickness and rescue him from his persecutors. We pray for his release back into his community and church. May we continually remind ourselves that if not for the grace of God and the land of our birth, we could have faced the same mistreatment for having the same faith. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Teacher Devotions: Faithbook

2 John 1:12 I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

Recently, I joined Facebook. I really enjoy reading what other people are up to each day and sending them words of encouragement and laughter in the comments section. It’s a wonderful way of keeping in contact with friends, both near and far.

For instance, many years ago in Maybole, Scotland my best friend Dave was killed in a car accident. I was absolutely devastated and my heart was broken for his wife and three young children. A couple of years later, the family emigrated to South Africa. I wondered what would ever become of them, and with me moving to America, I thought I would never know.

Then along comes Facebook and within a matter of weeks, I’m “friends” with all of Dave’s children. I now get to see and read what they’re doing and how they’re feeling. It’s remarkable. I now feel as though the world is a much smaller place and I love the sharing that takes place on Facebook. It’s like being part of a cosmopolitan village.

When John was writing his letters, he valued his contacts immensely. He was a busy man, but he wanted to see, greet, and meet people face to face. I think if he was alive today, John would be reaching out to folk across the world using Facebook. I think he would love the personal daily contacts.

That’s what I like about our faith, too. Christ can be so personal to each one of us when we let Him into our hearts. His deep and intimate friendship allows us to be guided by God and embraced by the Holy Spirit. Christ’s personal and abiding interest in our individual lives can be a great source of encouragement, assurance, and comfort. With Him deeply connected to our lives, our joy on earth, as John writes, can be complete.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for allowing us to freely come to You, so that we may be completely reconnected and restored to God. May our lives become faith-books that can be read by other people, so that they may also seek to reconnect their lives to You. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Teacher Devotions: Prison Wall

Isaiah 61:1b He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners…

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I didn’t know it at the time, but my name and telephone number were etched on to a wall inside a cell of the local police station. At some point, I must have helped someone in the Scottish town I was serving, and he or she had marked it on the wall. Perhaps they had been drunk and disorderly, or had been caught stealing lead from the church roof or shoplifting. Whatever the circumstances were, I may never know, but years later, when I returned to Maybole, someone told me that my name was still etched on the prison wall.

I can remember a time when I received several calls from a few shady characters in the town. I helped them as best as I could, but I didn’t realize that the manse telephone was being circulated throughout Maybole’s underworld. It was just a small town of 6000 people, but we did have a few frightening families and unsavory personalities. I guess they latched on to me because of my own alcoholic background.

I love the fact that Christ can be our Deliverer when we are prisoners to sin, addiction, and darkness. He has the capacity and power to set us free from the shackles of our problems and the chains of fear that we all experience from time to time. Isaiah’s prophecy reveals to us a Savior, who is very much in control of the world and in whose justice, mercy, and grace we can all rely.

We don’t need a number etched on our self-imposed prison walls to liberate us. All we require is Christ in our hearts and He will see to the freeing of our souls.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we all commit crimes against God which we call sins. Sometimes those past mistakes depressingly imprison us, shackle our souls, and shatter our dreams. Come to us, Lord, and free us from our fears, release us from our anxieties, and cleanse us of our sins. In Your Holy and Liberating Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Teacher Devotions: God's Global Warming

Acts 21: 24 But the word of God continued to increase and spread.

Despite the recent surveys telling us that the demise of Christianity is imminent, the word of God continues to increase and be spread. Did you know, for instance, that there are presently more Christians on this planet than at any other time in the history of the world? Did you know that Christianity is the biggest religion on earth – it outnumbers its nearest rival Islam by 2 to 1. Did you know that Christianity is the fastest growing religion in Africa?

Perhaps not, because we tend to think about Christianity in Western or American terms. American Christianity only makes up about 5-7% of the world’s Christians. We are so parochial and narrow sighted. We think that our ways are God’s ways when in fact Africa, Asia, and South America have more worshippers, church members, and followers of Christ in each of their regions of the world.

I guess that means that when God looks on earth and Christ sees His followers, American Christians are at the back of the crowd. That’s kind of humbling and yet it’s also wonderfully reassuring. I wouldn’t like to think that our consumerist Christianity was the best that our faith has to offer.

Maybe it’s time to learn from other Christians in different parts of the world who constantly face hunger, famine, disease, and persecution. In the West, we tend to be restless and unsettled, unsure of our faith and treat it like a commodity. Perhaps if we went to bed hungry at night or faced the horrors of sickness with scarce resources our faith would be substantially different.

I suppose this devotion is a wake up call for me as well as for you. Despite our weak and watered down Western Christianity, the word of God in other parts of the world continues to increase and be spread. So let’s get with the program, people!

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we tend to look at our own faith through our own blinkered eyes. Instead of seeing a vast world of Christian people, we focus on dwindling denominations and a diminishing influence on Western society. One day in the future, missionaries will come back to this land from Africa, Asia, and South America to reintroduce our society to Your ways, Your words, and Your works. Thank You, Lord, for ever increasing and spreading the word of God throughout the world. In Your Holy Name, we pray, Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.