On This Day: When the ‘If Onlys’ Meet the Good Shepherd

   Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. (John 11:17-21)

   Four years ago, we lost our four granddaughters to what my wife and I came to call “relational suicide”. She had been helping a hospice client through the loss of a loved one by suicide, and we suddenly realized that we were going through the same thing!

   There’s never a day goes by that I do not have some kind of “if only” thought about how things could have been handled differently. To know they were convinced to make such a decision haunts us. To know they are still alive to come home but won’t mocks us. It’s our story. It’s of the “nothing new under the sun” category. I get it.

   But that’s my stage. I am not in Bethany with the grieving sisters. I am not at Lazarus’s tomb with Jesus showing up. I’m not feeling what Martha felt to have come to know Jesus Christ in person as “Lord” and have to accept that he wasn’t there when I needed him most. I can easily relate to it all, but it’s not my stage!

   My stage is mine. Your stage is yours. We can join hands with Martha and face our losses together. We can “weep with those who weep” as taught by God’s word. We can go around the circle telling our own stories and listening to theirs. We can feel the bubble of pain that won’t come to the surface. We can feel the tsunami of grief that won’t stop pouring out our pain. It doesn’t matter how we would describe it, we have a stage with Jesus as much as Martha did.

   That’s why I am going no further than this today. My experience with church folk is that we have a hard time stopping and feeling. We miss out on so many facets of getting to know God because we won’t admit how we are doing. We won’t pray like Martha did. We won’t talk to Jesus like our IF-Onlys matter to him. We read these accounts like a grief brochure that tells us, “It ends with a resurrection!”, but do not stop and make the journey to the promised destination.

   But there is no immediate promise in this. A future one, yes. Absolutely. But this is a historical event. It happened then and there. It does not promise us that Jesus will always show up to raise a loved one from the dead, or to even change people’s minds about dying to us. That is not the promise.

   The absolute and unshakable promise in this is that there is a future resurrection for all who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord. Jesus came into the world to save sinners into the gracious gift of eternal life. ALL who believe in him will not perish but live with our Savior forever.

    However, there is another promise of our Savior that is illustrated in this death-and-life scene. As David said, there will still be our seasons of “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death”. But the “You are with me” part is in effect for us even more profoundly than what David had experienced. That, “your rod and your staff, they comfort me” is still true and real, but more so in the person of the Holy Spirit who is Jesus’ “behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

   That’s why we talk to him in prayer the way Martha did in person. We pray about our If-Onlys like the one who could have healed those relationships cares about our grief, even while we lament that he chose not to do so.

    And when we will pour out our hearts to the Good Shepherd like Martha did, and admit whatever is going on in there the way David did, there is a promise. Not for a physical resurrection of a deceased loved one now. Not for a relational resurrection of loved ones who disowned us. But the opportunity to get to know our Savior today, in our grief, better than we have ever known him before. Yes, THAT is a promise!

    Paul expressed it like this,

   “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (II Corinthians 1:3-4).

   Yes, I have many times been comforted by God in my grief. I have accepted that, if he taught his children to “weep with those who weep”, it is what he is like as well (we will soon see that “Jesus wept” at Lazarus’s tomb even just minutes before raising him from the dead!).

   And so, I trust that sharing my stage in personal application of the stage John is describing to us will be an added wave of comfort to others on whatever stages we are living on. Martha invites us to remain steadfast in the faith we had in Jesus before any loss shattered our souls. And if we will keep relating to him about everything we go through, we will continue getting to know him in the real and personal ways that are shouting out to us from the pages of Scripture.

 

© 2026 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

On This Day: Stephen’s Prayer for Saul’s Forgiveness

   Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul approved of his execution. (Acts 7:58-8:1)

   Sometime in the past couple of weeks, someone posted another stereotypical post about Christians only having two options in dealing with how we relate to those who wrong us. One option is always presented as forgiveness (even if the person hasn’t repented), the other option is always presented as anger or bitterness. Since we all know we shouldn’t give room for sinful anger or bitterness, we are tricked into thinking we must then choose to forgive people who have never repented of what they have done.

   When I ask people who believe this where in the Bible do we have an example of God, the prophets, Jesus, or the apostles forgiving someone who is clearly unrepentant, I am never given a text where this is shown. I can show multiple examples of unrepentant people not being forgiven, but there isn’t one example where a person is unrepentant about their sin but is forgiven anyway.

   However, there are two Scriptures that are claimed as proof that we are to forgive unrepentant people. One is when Jesus from the cross prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The other is when Stephen was dying and he prayed, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” I am told that this was them forgiving their enemies. And, because I just came to Stephen’s prayer this morning, it seems timely to once again share some very liberating insights.

   My response to the claim that Jesus and Stephen were forgiving their enemies is always something to the effect of, “Read it again.” If the texts were telling us that Jesus and Stephen were forgiving their persecutors, the wording would need to be from Jesus, “Father, I forgive them…”, and from Stephen, “Lord, I do not hold this sin against them.”

   The wording by both Jesus and Stephen is prayer. They are both talking to “our Father in heaven”, and they are both praying for their persecutors. When we realize Jesus DID instruct us to pray for our persecutors, and we see that this is what Jesus was doing, we can back up a bit and ask ourselves what it would look like for us to pray for our enemies like that.

   Back in 1993, I was introduced to the concept of “freedom in Christ”. I was on the verge of heading through one of the most painful valleys of my life as childhood trauma and abuse came leaking out of my people. I began to see how many Scriptures spoke of God doing things for us that I had not seen him doing in me or others, and I felt a longing to experience God the way I was learning in his word.

   In the 3+ decades since then, it has become clear to me why it is so important to show people the difference between praying that God would forgive someone (like Jesus and Stephen did) and just forgiving them even if they haven’t repented (which can’t be found in Scripture). When we know that God never forgives people until they repent, then our prayer for their forgiveness is with the understanding that people “presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance”.

   Why do we need God’s kindness leading us to repentance if we are forgiven without repenting? If all our sins are cancelled without repenting, why did Jesus say that “repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:7)? There is no forgiveness anywhere in the Bible without repentance.

   It is very liberating for abused and traumatized people to understand that no one is forgiven until they repent. Their abusers, their persecutors, their enemies, will not be forgiven unless they repent. If we pray for God to bless them, he won’t answer that prayer without humbling them to repentance first.

   So, instead of these victims cringing at the feeling of injustice with the “just forgive” mantra that can’t be found in the Bible, they can let God lead them into his grace where they truly want God to reach those people with his love and mercy because they have no hope until they repent and are forgiven.

   And when we can truly pray for these people that God would forgive them, and we know this can only happen if they repent, we are able to accept God’s will in this because we can allow ourselves to want these people to experience God’s kindness leading them to repentance just as we experienced for ourselves.

   I know I am in the minority when I show these things from God’s word. If you’re not convinced, I’m still waiting for someone to show me a scene in Scripture where someone is clearly unrepentant and either Yahweh or his prophets in the Old Testament, or Jesus and his apostles in the New Testament, forgave the unrepentant person who was continuing in sin. In all my times through the Bible, I have not come across one instance of this.

   To encourage me in this viewpoint of Stephen’s prayer for his persecutors (not him forgiving his enemies), I found this comment from William Hendriksen in his commentary on Acts 7. He wrote,

Reflecting on the death of Stephen and Paul’s consent, Augustine made this penetrating comment:
    “If Stephen had not prayed,
    the church would not have had Paul.”[1]

Augustine (and William Hendriksen with him) saw that Stephen’s prayer, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them,” is linked to our introduction to sinful Saul, who became the beloved apostle Paul. When we continue down the road and see how God’s kindness brought Paul to repentance, we can see how Stephen’s prayer was answered in God’s gift to Paul of repentance and faith.

   For me, this hit the bull’s eye of my heart today, not as a way to win a debate on the topic of “to forgive or not to forgive”, but to realize that I have “Sauls” in my life who need me to pray for their forgiveness. I know God will only answer that prayer by leading them to repentance (I have lots of Beatitudinal Valley illustrations to go along with this), and I know I want them to experience that mercy from God as I have on so many occasions.

  Ultimately, we do not pray to make God do something our way. Our praying is to line us up with God’s will. God leading me to pray this way is his will, and it is up to him if I ever see the answer. Stephen did not see his prayer answered that day because he died just seconds later. But seeing Paul’s arrival in eternity some decades later (whatever that feels like in the spiritual realm) would have been an experience of joy filled with praise to God.

   Today, I will pray in hope and praise in confidence. God will work it for good, and I might live long enough to see some of my Sauls reconcile with both God and his people. In the meantime, praying the way Jesus and Stephen did keeps my heart free, and that’s what the people in my life need from me each day. 

 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

---

[1] Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Acts of the Apostles (Vol. 17, pp. 281–282). Baker Book House.

On This Day: Praying In a Series of Parallels

   And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” (Acts 4:29-30)

   When we read the history recorded in God’s word, our application of the word must be careful not to assume that what happened back then must happen now. A favorite illustration of this is Moses’ burning bush experience. That was history. It was not teaching us we need to go out in the wilderness and have our own burning-bush experiences.

   When I consider how the early church prayed about their first episode of persecution, I am immediately free to let myself pray and expect that God will give us boldness to continue making Jesus known in our increasingly hostile world.

   But when it comes to signs and wonders, there is such a mix of claims and fears about this that it requires some honest praying about our own hearts in relation to God’s word. This is because we usually hear the fights between the two extremes on the matter of signs and wonders and spiritual gifts. One side of the pendulum-extreme claims that God doesn’t work that way in our day. The other pendulum-extreme claims that God’s miraculous activity in the church is a three-ring circus where even the devil is welcome to make things happen.

   My concern is to find the parallel between what God was doing in the early church through his apostles and what it is supposed to look like now when God is doing his work through all the members of the body of Christ.

   In other words, the book of Acts revolves around how Jesus laid the foundation for the church through the apostles. You can read all about this in Ephesians 2 where Paul describes the apostles as the foundation of the church, Jesus as the cornerstone, and the rest of us as the blocks that make up the structure of the spiritual temple that is “a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

    So, the parallel to the boldness the early church prayed for is that we would be just as bold in continuing to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God in our day.

   However, the parallel to the early church seeing signs and wonders being done through the apostles is that we want God to work in our churches using all the spiritual gifts described in the New Testament (on God’s terms) so that the church Jesus is building on “the foundation of the apostles and prophets” is showing the same evidence of Jesus’ presence through the Holy Spirit that people will “declare that God is really among you” (I Cor 14:25).

   And with that, it should be obvious why this must be a matter of PRAYER!!!

   The opportunity for Satan to use such a glorious prayer to divide Christians is well-documented. The experiences of losing fellowship with people because of their rules about what the Holy Spirit is allowed or not allowed to do in our churches are painful memories reminding us of our weaknesses. Self-protection rules some who cannot bear the thought of God doing something they can’t control. Self-glorification rules others who must be in the spotlight even if they need to fabricate mirages of signs and wonders when God is not the least bit impressed with their pride.

   As I receive God’s word this morning, it is with a sense that I must let God lead me into his will about this, and I must pray with all my heart for God’s activity in his church to be just as evident now as it was in the early days of the church. Jesus is still building his church. The gates of hell still cannot prevail against what Jesus is building. Satan is fulfilling what Scripture warned about him that he would steal, kill, and destroy God’s work wherever people will let him.

   With all that in mind, Jesus’ church prays for the Triune God to be glorified in us, among us, and through us, so people know that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. And, when Jesus saves sinners, he saves them into the fullness of life, a life that must be pursued in prayer so our hearts are ready to attach to God in whatever he shows us he is doing.

 

 

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

On This Day: Love in the Absence of Forgiveness

   “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. (Luke 6:29-31)

   One of the most significant facets of being one “who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:5) is loving the words God chose to breathe out into the Scriptures (II Timothy 3:16-17). However, on the flip side, this includes loving the absence of words that people read into God’s word so that it corrupts what our Father in heaven has told us. 

   As I came to the above text, it stood out again that Jesus did not tell us to forgive our enemies, forgive our haters, forgive our cursers, or forgive our abusers. And since adding “forgive them” to such texts subtracts something from the full meaning of Jesus’ words, we must consider what these things look like without forgiving people. 

   This stands out so clearly in Paul’s rebuke, “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4). People were “presuming” that God was okay with their sin because he was kind, forbearing, and patient in his dealings with them. Paul turns the picture around to show that his perceived blessings while we are sinning are not approval of our sin, but him loving us “to repentance”. 

   The next sentence makes it clear that without repentance there is no forgiveness, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5). 

   So, when we know that no one can possibly be forgiven without repentance, we don’t say, “I forgive them” and move on. Instead, knowing that our enemies, our haters, our cursers, our abusers, and our persecutors cannot be forgiven without repentance, we keep loving them towards repentance. We keep doing good to them in the hope they will repent. We keep blessing them with our prayers for their repentance. 

   Now here’s an example of this. People often claim that the best example of God forgiving unrepentant people is what Jesus said from the cross. His words were, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). People say that was Jesus forgiving his enemies, haters, cursers, abusers, and persecutors. 

   HOWEVER!!!

   Jesus did NOT say, “Father, I forgive them…” He said, “Father, forgive them…” What is that called? It is called PRAYER. Jesus was praying for his enemies. What did he tell us to do? He said, “…pray for those who abuse you.” 

   What happens when we pray for our enemies to be forgiven? Answer: we’re not done until they repent. 

   I have learned by personal experience that it is far more loving and liberating to pray for God’s kindness to lead someone to repentance so he can forgive them than to do the “I forgive them, and I’m done” routine. Not only does it call for greater love than forgiving and moving on, but it is what is WRITTEN.

   The bottom line is that, if we are going to “live by every word that comes from the mouth of God” as Jesus taught, let’s not mess it up by trying to live by words that did NOT come from the mouth of God!

   And with all that said, God has brought some people to mind who fit the description of who to love, do good, bless, and pray for, so it is time for me to go downstairs and pray! And yes, I do hope he answers by letting me show love to them, do good to them, bless them, and let them know I am praying for their forgiveness.

© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: The Pendulum and the Plumbline on Prayer

   And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” (Mark 10:35-37)

   But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:43-45)

   It really stood out to me today how comfortable Jesus’ disciples were with him. For James and John to be able to ask such a self-centered request not only exposed their immaturity, but it also demonstrated something of what it was like to spend so much time with our Savior. They felt safe to ask him such a thing even though they had no clue what they needed to learn.

   Because this is the most “real and personal” picture of prayer (talking to Jesus in person), it calls us to clarify the difference between pendulum prayers that swing from one extreme to another and plumbline prayers that are always expressing “truth in love” from the heart of “spirit and truth” worshipers. 

   The way Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane is the most amazing demonstration of how we can pray earnestly about personal experiences we are going through while also submitting our thoughts and feelings to God’s will. 

   In fact, what hit me the most in James and John’s request was that it had the sense of a teenager who imagines they know better than their parents what they need and so they are quite adamant that it needs to be done their way (it also sounds like toddlers who think everything is about them, but I’m giving the brothers the benefit of the doubt).

   I have found the Psalms to be a very good source of prayer-examples about how to pour out our hearts to God about everything we are going through, telling him everything we need to get out about what we think and feel, but then submitting it all to the will of God and praising him for whatever he chooses to do with us. 

    In Psalm 73, Asaph gives his testimony of how close he came to stumbling because he fell into the trap of envying the wicked for how much better their lives seem to go than for those who pursue righteousness. He even admitted that “When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you” (Psalm 73:21-22). 

   But after pouring out his heart in “the sanctuary of God” (vs 17), Asaph remembered what was ahead for the wicked and reminded himself what was ahead for him on the path of truth and righteousness. And so he praised God, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (vss 25-26).

   Today’s word from God is to bring all our requests to him, not in a “would you do things my way” kind of praying, but in a humble expression of our needs with humble submission to his will. 

   After all, Father knows best, and we can only be like our Savior if we want “not my will, but yours be done”. 

   

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: When Prayer is the Only Answer

   And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” (Mark 9:28-29)

   This is one of those hit-the-bull’s-eye arrows of God’s word that left my cringing and smiling at the same time. 

   The cringe part is the conviction that prayer is one of the most heart-exposing callings of our walk with God. 

   The smile part is to realize that this is why I was so blessed with the realization that God telling his disciples to “listen” to Jesus meant with an intention of obeying what he said. That he said there is a kind of demon that can only come out by prayer means he expects his church to pray for people’s freedom in Christ until they are free.

   My biggest difficulty with a “pray without ceasing” kind of everyday living is the nagging influence of discouragement. Sometimes that comes because a prayer has not been answered my way. Other times it comes because other believers have lost the heart for prayer so persevering becomes more difficult. 

   I often find myself recognizing that I am on a “this time through” a passage of scripture. I can’t camp in how God spoke to me last time I visited that text. My quest is to know what he is speaking to me about this time, and how he wants this to apply to anything I am going through.

   So, this time through this account of the disciples’ failure to drive out a demon, with the “listen to him” now filtering my understanding, I see this as God addressing that I must repent of any ways I give up too easily in prayer, or in praying for certain people and their needs. Discouragement is sometimes just self-centered childishness that thinks I am the center of the universe and if things aren’t going my way, I don’t have to do what I’m told. 

   But this is also the “correcting” side of Scripture that shows me what God is calling me to put into practice. It isn’t something that only applied to those apostles. It is a lesson to us when the things we are doing in ministry aren’t working but the needs are still staring us in the face. Some things can only be done through prayer because that is how God tests us to make sure we are trusting him and not ourselves. 

   The universal application to all believers is that we are told to address everything in prayer. That includes every need, but it also includes every ministry opportunity, no matter how impossible they appear to us. The instruction of our Savior (through Paul) we all must listen to in “the obedience of faith” is:

   Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4-7)

   Let’s not say we didn’t just “hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches”. Instead, let’s admit we heard our Savior’s voice, and follow him where he leads in applying this to our lives and anyone who needs our ministry. 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

The Harmonies of God’s Coming Kingdom

THE MORE I meditate on what it means to pray, “your kingdom come,” the more layers of meaning come to the surface of my mind. And just now, at this moment, I heard them in harmony. 

WHAT I MEAN is that there are so many different thoughts about God’s kingdom coming, and so many ways it affects everything about life, and for a moment (in my early morning brain fog) I was struggling to try to hold on to all the thoughts. But suddenly I was hearing them all at the same time without any discord in my mind. They were in harmony. They blended into one beautiful expression of God’s rule and reign over the universe and filled my heart with hope about how to pray for God’s kingdom to come, and how to live in light of this coming. 

SO, WHAT harmonies of the kingdom do I hear this morning? 

I HEAR the “good news of great joy” that God has given us his Son to be the Savior of the world. I hear the “gospel of the kingdom”, that “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand,” so we must “repent and believe in the gospel”, or, “repent and believe the good news” of the kingdom of God’s beloved Son!  

I HEAR the wonderful good news that the blessings of God are seen in the poor in spirit, and those who mourn, and the meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and the merciful, and the pure in heart, and the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for the sake of the righteousness of Jesus’ kingdom. 

I HEAR that the righteousness of Jesus’ kingdom makes his brothers the salt of the earth and the light of the world. I hear Jesus singing out how the righteousness in his kingdom exceeds the righteousness of the religious elite, the religious hypocrites who do all their good deeds for show. The righteousness of Jesus’ kingdom is a real, genuine experience of the activity of God in our hearts. God gives us the new hearts he promised to the prophets. We can now be righteous by faith in Jesus Christ in ways that could never happen by keeping laws and rules, even the very best system of laws and rules the world has ever known, what is now the old covenant. 

I HEAR how the stanza of the song of the kingdom is now playing out the glorious harmonies of how to pray according to the righteousness of faith so that we are filled with the knowledge that our heavenly Father knows everything we need before we ask him for a thing, and so we are not going to babble on in prayer hoping our many words will get us what we want, but we attach to “our Father in heaven,” and then ask that his name would be hallowed, honored, and revered in our lives, that his kingdom would come both now and at the end of the age, and that his will would be done here on earth in the same ways it is done in heaven. 

AND BECAUSE we are those who are always seeking first the kingdom and righteousness of God instead of the things of the world, we ask him to “give us this day our daily bread” knowing that he will give us what we need, sometimes through our own employment, and sometimes through the sharing of the body of Christ. We pray that the church would be a place where we are always confessing our sins to one another (however it is needed where we have wronged someone or they have wronged us) so that we keep being forgiven as we keep on forgiving. And we are always seeking God to “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”, or from the evil one and his evil ways. 

I ALSO HEAR the harmony of how Jesus concludes his Sermon on Mount where he gives the illustration of the wise and foolish builders. I hear the beautiful sound of the wise builder who hears Jesus’ words and puts them into practice, and I hear the mournful sounds of the foolish builder who hears Jesus’ words but does not      put them into practice, and so I know how to pray that God’s kingdom would come to us in power and glory so we would be known as those who love to do God’s will just like Jesus. 

AND I HEAR the realities of the new covenant that tell me that there is also a future aspect to the coming of God’s kingdom. I know that God has already “made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father,” and that we are to live accordingly right now in every aspect of our lives. But I also know that we are always waiting for Jesus’ “appearing and his kingdom”. We are looking forward to when we will have our “entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” in a way that can only happen at Jesus’ return when he comes to judge the lost and gather the elect to himself. 

I HEAR how Jesus could say as with one set of instruments in the orchestra, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age”, and with another set promise, “Surely I am coming soon”! to which the rest of us harmonize with our brother John, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”

MY POINT is that God’s kingdom is always coming. It is coming near to people all the time through the presence of the church Jesus is building, and through the ongoing proclamation of the “good news of great joy” that God has given us his Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. 

BUT GOD’S KINGDOM is still to come. It is coming. It is on its way. It has not yet arrived. The final consummation of all God’s work in the coming of Jesus Christ is yet to happen, and we are constantly asking Father, “your kingdom come!” “Come, Lord Jesus!” 

OH, AND one more thing: you and I are adding our own harmonies to Jesus’ teaching on prayer. If we are in Christ, we are equipped with new hearts and new minds and new life that is fully able to pray as Jesus instructed. We can pray from our new hearts with the righteousness of faith that wants everything Jesus taught in his model prayer. When we pray it, it is our prayer. It is our harmony to the “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” 

AND EVEN if we all were to pray the exact words of Jesus’ model prayer all at the same time, guess what: it would sound like the most beautiful harmony in the world to hear the voices of “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”

AND SO, we pray as Jesus taught. We pray this model prayer in our own words, describing our own situations and circumstances, praying each request for the people in our lives, and the things we are going through, so that all our thoughts and prayers rise up to the Father in harmony with one another so that our Father in heaven is always hearing us praying together that his name would be hallowed, and his kingdom would come, and his will would be done on earth as it is done in heaven, and that he would provide the daily bread for all his children throughout the whole world, and that he would forgive us our sins as we confess them to him just as we forgive everyone who confesses their sins to us, and that he would lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil and the evil one, because, after all, HIS is the kingdom, and HIS is the power, and HIS is the glory for ever and ever, Amen! 

SO, LET’S raise our crescendo of prayer like we believe and know that everything Jesus taught us is TRUE!

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

The Delightful Newness of Level Ground Faith

I first knew about God 58 years ago. I have been growing to know him better ever since. 

One of the advantages of age is that it humbles a guy with the awareness that things I once thought I had all figured out in my younger years were saturated with childish immaturity that didn’t even know how much I didn’t even know! 

In my knowing-God-much-better-than-I-used-to stage of life I can now appreciate and marvel at things I am still learning in a genuine getting-to-know-God kind of way. 

For example, just in the last couple of weeks I came to realize that picturing God’s children coming to the level ground in front of the throne of grace is vastly superior to what I had thought for decades about the level ground at the foot of the cross. 

Fact is that people only come to the level ground at the foot of the cross once. That is when they understand the good news of great joy that God sent his Son to be their Savior, they feel God’s kindness bringing them to repentance, and they know that Jesus Christ died for them, was buried, and was raised from the dead to be their Lord and Savior forever. 

At that place at the foot of the cross they are “delivered… from the domain of darkness and transferred… to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” The cross became the door by which they enter the kingdom, and they never need to go back to the cross for anything because it has already given them EVERYTHING! 

Instead of coming to the level ground at the foot of the cross, I now see that we come to the level ground at the throne of grace. Every child of God comes here. All believers have the same “great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God”. All Jesus’ disciples have the same level-ground calling to “hold fast our confession.” And the reason for the level-ground at the throne of grace is that, in the negative, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,” and, in the positive, we have “one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” 

And so, as the level-ground continues, God invites all his children to, “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” 

The “throne of grace” is level ground because God is pure holiness. It is his throne. It is his grace. He relates to each of his children based on the cross, but the cross that has brought us to his throne. 

God’s “mercy” is level ground because it is MERCY!!! He always shows mercy to all his children all the time. The cross has already told us that every child of God has already experienced the mercy of God pouring out his wrath against our sin on his Son. Because of this, God can freely and fully show mercy to every one of his children in a level-ground kind of way since we are all forgiven, cleansed, and adopted in the exact same salvation. We all entered the kingdom through the same door, which is faith in Jesus Christ crucified. 

And all God’s children will “find grace to help in time of need” because with our Father in heaven there is no favoritism, no injustice, no partiality, no bribery, no blindness, no busyness that can’t see what is going on. 

Instead, God’s grace is the grace of the holy God who knows all, sees all, loves all his children, knows the most intimate realities of our secret hearts, and has both the wisdom and knowledge to do what is absolutely best for each of his children, always working everything in each of us for the greatest good of making us more like Jesus Christ his Son. 

I share this because I had another dream about a third person who needs to reconcile with me. As I was praying through Psalm 51 for them, particularly asking God to lead them to pray this prayer of repentance for themselves, I was again reminded that the level-ground I long for with them is at the foot of the throne of grace where we will all receive the grace, and mercy, and help we need to walk in the “obedience of faith” in reconciliation. 

It wasn’t just the reminder that this level-ground that we once found at the foot of the cross already led us to the level-ground at the throne of grace, but also the awareness of a humble maturing within me that has only happened through meeting with God in his word and prayer almost every day for over thirty years. 

I simply found myself smiling with the knowledge that I now know something that hadn’t occurred to me until just a couple of weeks ago, and now it has transformed the way I think of Christians reconciling in the level-ground of the kingdom of God, the level-ground that welcomes every child of God to the throne of grace where we all will always receive the mercy, grace, and help that God deems the perfect fit with whatever we are going through each day, including whoever we need to reconcile with to the glory of “our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 

Is there any fellow believer you need to reconcile with, perhaps someone who has been unwilling to even consider their need to repent to you for what they have done? I highly recommend going to the throne of grace in intercession, and using David’s prayer of repentance in Psalm 51 to ask God to do for them what David prayed for himself, and even to lead them to pray this prayer of repentance for themselves so they will meet you at the level-ground before the throne of grace where all believers are helped to reconcile with God and each other to the glory of the Savior who died on the cross to make such things possible.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

Morning Sharing: To Pray God’s Word with Longing

I’ve reached a point of saturation in the whole supplementing my faith with self-control focus (II Peter 1:3-15) and have way too much to share on Sunday! So, I went instead to my focus on Jeremiah 1 from my prayer time yesterday morning.

My prayer-chapel:

At my prayer-chapel yesterday, praying through Jeremiah 1 was such a heart wrenching mixture of grief and comfort. The grief was because of wounds and heartaches from people, and the comfort was in the invitation to know God as so different from humans! I was so aware of the longing to hear God say to me the same things he said to Jeremiah, and so I spent some time focusing on that this morning.

Here’s just the first thing that stood out: 

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

(Jeremiah 1:5)

The first line (“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you”) I can affirm as true for me as much as for Jeremiah. When Paul spoke of “those God foreknew”, it means those God personally knew and loved before creation. Every believer in Jesus Christ can affirm that before we were even conceived, God already knew us for real.

The second line (“and before you were born I consecrated you”) also seems applicable to all believers in the sense that our place in the body of Christ would have been determined by God before we were born. It emphasizes that each of us is given the place in the body of Christ God has chosen for us, therefore we must live it out as people set apart to do what we are gifted to do.

And, the third line (“I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”) is more of a fill-in-the-blanks statement where we can replace “prophet” with whatever we know of our gifting and our place in the body of Christ and let ourselves feel the significance that our Father in heaven appointed us to this place for the good of people around us. This carries with it the weight of responsibility that, to fully be ourselves, we must be what we have been appointed to be.

When I prayed this through out at my prayer spot yesterday, there was a lot more emotion pouring out than this morning. Part of that was the way just praying through God’s word surprises us with whatever God says next.

At the same time, I am glad to meditate on this again today and see how it will encourage you as well. It is a wonderful encouragement to live out who and what we are in the body of Christ today as faithfully as Jeremiah and the other prophets fulfilled their assignments in the kingdom of God in their day. And God will speak to us through his word about what he is doing with us as surely as he did for them.

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

Morning Sharing: A Prayer for an Empty Spirit

I love Sunday mornings (yes, I know it is Monday morning when I am sharing this) because being in a home church means I have extra time to go for a prayer walk, listen to our “church prep” sermon,[1] and arrive out at my outdoor prayer chapel for some time of praying through God’s word. 

For weeks I have been praying my way through Isaiah as a way to increase my understanding of the context of chapter 49, the one I am prayer-journaling (meditating) through. This is the verse I shared in church yesterday from Isaiah that captivated me as I prayed it back to God: 

“and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,”[2] 

This brought to mind a number of people who have led the way in churches regarding the idolatry of self-protection. I was warned about this idol of self-protection over thirty years ago, and three decades has proven the warning valid! 

The above scripture makes it easy to understand how to pray about such things. The “spirit of the Egyptians” is the enemy spirit, the spirit of rebellion against God. Egypt represents both the quintessential enemy of God that had once held his people captive, but also one of the lovers his people kept turning to for help and refuge instead of to him as their God. 

This is the issue with self-protection in the church: it holds God’s people captive, and it is their favorite idol of refuge when they are afraid. The promise of God regarding the Egyptian spirit is definitely valid for today! 

My meditation on this brought to mind people who have had such a spirit of idolatry (including sacrificing others on the altar of their self-protection), that it was not difficult to understand how to ask God to confound the fellowship of these idolaters and cause such fighting among them that they will completely lose the courage of this spirit of rebellion in them.[3] 

But then I found myself praying about this through the Beatitudes Jesus used to introduce his Sermon on the Mount[4]. I prayed that God would: 

·         “Bless them with poverty of spirit so they would open their hearts to you,

·         “And bless them with mourning over their sinful idolatries and cruelties so they would feel your comfort soothing the wounds that have driven them to desperation,

·         “And bless them with the meekness that is so aware that nothing inside them can protect them and help them, and no idol they worship of matter, or man, or demon, can deliver and save them, and bring them to rest in the sovereignty and authority of Jesus Christ our Lord so they are able to seek to know and do your will,

·         “And bless them with such a hunger and thirst for righteousness, O God, that they would know they are emptied of their Egyptian spirit, and void of the righteousness of God they have forsaken, and that they see in Jesus Christ such grace and glory and goodness that they believe the good news that there is a righteousness that is by grace through faith, that you made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us in order that your people could become the righteousness of God in Christ,

·         “And bless them with such an experience of this grace and mercy of God that they would be transformed from mean to merciful, and from cruel to compassionate, and from rebellious to reconciliatory,

·         “And bless them with such a profound experience of the righteousness of God that is by grace through faith, and such an amazement and wonder at how good and loving and gracious you are, that their hearts would be purified with first love so they would be all about the kingdom and righteousness of God in everything they do,

·         “And bless them with such an experience of the peace of God in their salvation that they become the most loving and relentless peacemakers who want everyone in their lives to have peace with God instead of the praise of man, and would unite with other believers to make the Prince of peace known through the Gospel of peace so others will come to experience being ‘justified by faith’ so they ‘have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ along with us all,

·         “And bless them with the grace of persecution for their righteousness in Christ that is so strong, and pure, and wonderful, that Satan aims his attacks against its unstoppable power and glory so that they would come to rejoice with us in the persecution we all share in Jesus’ name where they were once Satan’s pawns in that persecution!” 

I hope that helps and encourages you to see how praying scripture back to God gives us confidence that we are praying things that are God’s will, but also that we are praying in context of the life of the kingdom of God that is always seeking God’s best for others in the agapè-love (divine love) that wants God’s glory and people’s good to magnify God’s grace, love, mercy, forgiveness, restoration, and reconciliation in every answer to our prayers.

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

---

[1] For a number of years, we have helped our church families set our minds on spiritual things prior to arriving at our church fellowship by viewing in our own homes a sermon video by a variety of pastors. This not only helps us prepare ourselves spiritually for fellowship and worship, but it also gives us input and counsel from far more pastoral voices than we have in close contact.

[2] Isaiah 19:3

[3] This is the context of Isaiah 19, that God was describing how he would get the Egyptian territories fighting one another in confusing resulting in the Egyptian spirit being brought to nothing.

[4] Matthew 5:1-12

For Men Only: Men Unashamed of Their Shame

SHAME IS a healthy emotion. It is there to tell us when we have screwed up. It calls us to apologize and reconcile with people we have wronged. And it always calls us to make things right with God in both repentance and faith.

HOWEVER, shame is a horribly debilitating emotion because we hate feeling that way. We learn early on in life that shame can feel like the worst attachment-pain ever because it is often partnered with rejection and demoralizing criticism.[1]

THIS MORNING, God got me up early, so I asked him what he wanted me to pray about and who he wanted me to pray for. It wasn’t long before I found myself praying for all kinds of men in my life, some close and some distant, that God would deal with our shame so we would be healed and free to fully join his work as beloved sons of the Almighty.

IN A BOOK I recently started reading, I was confronted with this quote: “Boys and men need to know that the foundation of life is to be able to receive what we have not earned without shame."[2] I am one of the many men who have never been given such a foundation, so what do we do?

THAT’S WHERE prayer comes in. I was led to begin praying through this verse again, not only for me, but especially for all the men who were coming to mind: “Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.”[3]

YES, I KNOW that the imagery is a simile of God as a husband relating to his sinful people as an abandoned wife, a widow who has shamed herself. But we can just as much make this a real-life picture of God as Father speaking to his boys who have screwed up in life and left a trail of shameful sins and relationships. The promises definitely apply in the New Covenant we have with Jesus Christ our Lord.

SO HOW do we pray this comforting expression from God our Father (and, yes, this easily applies to any women who carry a shame-based reaction to God as Father)?

FIRST, we ask that God would speak his “fear not” into the hearts of every shame-filled heart we are praying for. We pray that God would speak an end to fear into our storms of shame as obviously as he spoke his peace into the storm that had stirred his disciples to hopeless despair.

SECOND, we pray that God would fulfill in all these men we are praying for (and more) his promise that we “will not be ashamed” after all. We are not asking God to make it so we haven’t done shameful things. It is far too late for that! In Isaiah’s time, God was not saying that the people would not do anything shameful. Rather, he was promising that after their horribly shameful sin and rebellion, the end of the matter was that they would not be ashamed. They would be so restored to him that their shame would be gone.

AND THAT is what so many men need, not Good-Boy Christianity that says we can only be free of shame if we act like good Christians and don’t do anything wrong, but Good-God Christianity that says that every instance of shameful sin in our lives will be cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ so that, when we repent and return to God, we will not be ashamed any longer because all our sins are forgiven in Jesus Christ.

THIRD, we ask God to proclaim over all these men his, “be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced.” Some men have abused their children and need to be called to Jesus with this promise of cleansing that, even if they must bear the disgrace of what they have done in one way, they will not be disgraced before the throne of grace where they will receive the help they need to walk through reconciliation and healing with those they have wronged.

BUT WE ALSO have men who are simply carrying so many shame-wounds, perhaps because of what was done to them instead of what they have done, and they need to know that if they open their hearts to Jesus about it, and surrender the cesspools of secret-hearted shame to him, they will not be left in a state of confoundedness, and nor will they live a life of disgrace with God and his Spirit-filled boys.

FOURTH, we pray that God would speak into the hearts of all these men his promise, “you will forget the shame of your youth”. In fact, David gives us help in how to pray about this with a ready-made prayer request when he says, “Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!”[4] We join him by praying that God would assure men that their repentance and faith and reconciliation will result in everyone forgetting the sins of our youth, or whatever sins are in focus, because they are forgiven and covered by the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.

FIFTH, while the last phrase speaks of “widowhood” as a simile of what things were like for the disciplined people of God, we can pray it specifically for men something like, “Father, assure all these men that the reproach of their disconnect from you will be remembered no more.” We are asking God to do such a work on attachment-pain, abandonment issues, hidden worlds of self-protection, even the painful self-justifying of narcissism, so that men will face their reproach, the sins they have committed against others, and bring them so honestly before God and whoever they have wronged that the reproach of anything shameful at all would be forgiven and cleansed and washed away into the sea of God’s forgetfulness, as they say.[5]

I KNOW it would be easy to expand this verse into even more in-depth prayer for specific situations, for both men and women, based on the real-life stories of what has happened in our lives. I share this as an example of how God ministered it to me this morning, even getting me up quite early to direct me into this kind of prayer. And when I go out on my prayer walk in a bit, I will pour my heart out all the more for all the men (and women) God brings to mind.

AND YES, for any women who have read this far, men need you praying for them like this as well. And pray for women who have been shamed by men to experience all these things so they can forgive the men who repent of their shameful acts and seek to reconcile with the people of God.

THE BOTTOM LINE is that God has revealed his heart in his word with scriptures like this one from Isaiah, and we can pray his word back to him in confidence that he will guide us into his will as we do so, and then will answer the prayers we pray.

FOR ME, this has been a morning of prayer that almost demanded that I share this to try and get others to join me, or to join with others where you are, so the horrible wounds of shame would be healed, and all the ground we have surrendered to the evil one by hiding our shame from God would be restored to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and life-after-life, and generation-after-generation, would experience the powerful and wonderful work of Jesus setting the prisoners free.

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

---

[1] No, I don’t believe little boys are as resilient as the experts claim.

[2] Jim Wilder, the Stages of a Man’s Life

[3] Isaiah 54:8

[4] Psalm 25:7

[5] https://www.gotquestions.org/sea-of-forgetfulness.html