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Jack Wellman, 2013

Jesus was teaching us about the persistence of prayer I believe in Matthew 7:7-12 which says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” I see this as praying, but I also see that it is doing something after prayer and not just praying and sitting down on the couch and waiting. Here is why I say that as I will break down these verses into three different sections…which are three different actions…and see if you agree.

Ask

James said that we don’t have because we do not ask and when we do ask, we ask for the wrong motives. James writes, “you do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:2b-3). It is not wrong to ask but if we ask for the wrong reasons, such as not for the purpose of glorifying God, then we ask amiss! We should ask but for the right reasons. So the first thing Jesus tells us to do in prayer is ask…but we should ask with the right motives. FULL POST

U.S. Government, Public Domain

Sadly, many churches divide over non-essentials and surely this must grieve the heart of God. One church I heard of actually divided over the color of the carpet in the front lobby. Such divisions must surely grieve the heart of God. I had to nearly separate two Christians who were arguing over what type of worship music should be used and which type God accepts. They had quite a few “blow ups” in their heated argument and it was like World War III had started. When we divide over things that are not biblically black and white we are putting our own interests ahead of others which are contrary to living the Christian life. Paul said that we should “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” (Phil 2:3). In many cases, this is reversed to read “let each esteem themselves better than others.” We ought to “Be devoted to one another in love [and] Honor one another above yourselves” (Rom 12:10) and “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ“ (Eph 5:21). Likewise, these are often reversed to be “love yourselves and honor yourselves above others.” FULL POST

Jack Wellman, 2013

Father with daughter, some years ago.

Why would God say that He would strike the earth with a curse if the hearts of the fathers would not be turned toward their children? I am referring to Malachi 4:6 which declares “And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest [or otherwise] I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” This comes just before God’s thunderous warning, “I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes” (Mal 4:5). Clearly, this was speaking about John the Baptist which was said of him that “he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luke 1:16-17). Jesus affirms this in Matthew 11:12-15 “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” FULL POST

Jack Wellman, 2013

Red, white, and blue we do display

For patriots gave their best

No greater cost did they pay

Do many now lay at rest

Washington, York, and even Lee

Without a second thought

So you and I are this day free

With precious price they bought

Thank you all who have thus served

Put life and limb on line

In hell on earth did not lose nerve

With patriot acts sublime

We thank you God for their strong will

From ship to parachute

Old glory flies even still

To you we all salute

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Jack Wellman is Senior Writer at What Christians Want to Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible.

Artist: Briton Riviere (1840-1920)

Let Jesus Come into Your Heart

When a mother heard her young son rummaging through the kitchen drawer she came in and screamed. There was the young boy standing with a long knife pointed at his chest ready to plunge the knife into his heart. His mother screamed and he dropped the knife and started to cry. She said, “What are you doing?” The young boy said, “I wanted to let Jesus into my heart.” The young boy went into the kitchen after he asked his mother about Jesus and how to go to heaven. She had told him to “Just let Jesus come into your heart.”

That event was not just a story but it really happened. This unbiblical presentation of the gospel almost cost her son’ his life. Where in the Bible does it say that we must “Let Jesus into our heart?” Answer? Nowhere! Should we also let Him into our kidneys, our liver, or our appendix? Come on. This doesn’t work. FULL POST

Wikimedia Commons under Universal Public Domain

“What I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do“ (Rom 7:15). That Scripture is actually very comforting because sometimes it's really hard to forgive ourselves. I don’t know how many Christians that have told me that they just can not stop sinning. This really discourages them. Just as Paul said, the things that they do not want to do they end up doing but what they want to do, they do not do (Rom 7:19). Does this sound familiar?

All believers are in this same situation and we may find ourselves thinking these same thoughts. It’s a daily struggle. Walking with God on a daily basis is a battle because the old nature is still alive but there is actually good news in this. The very fact that we know that something is wrong, like when we sin, is evidence that the Holy Spirit is working in us. Those who are without Christ are without the Holy Spirit and those in the world have no such conviction. It’s business as usual. But for believers, the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. To be aware that we are sinning and acknowledge our struggle with sin is wonderful because at least you want to do what is good, even if you don’t always do it. FULL POST

Royalty Free Image Morgue File, 2011

The Italian proverb is true: After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box. I heard a true story about a young man that was trying to find a bar in Chicago. It was called The Gates of Hell. Yes, there was an actually a bar called The Gates of Hell. I am not sure if it is still there or not. This is certainly not a place you would want to visit but someone had asked a man on the street where it was at. The man happened to be a pastor. He simply told him where it was. He didn’t try to share the gospel with him, he didn’t try to tell him about Jesus even though he perceived that the young man was not saved. He simply told the man how to get to this bar called The Gates of Hell.

The young man may have not known that the man giving him directions was a pastor and it seems certain that the young man didn‘t realize that he was asking a pastor for directions. The young pastor simply told him how to get to The Gates of Hell. Here is how he described it. Listen to the irony of his directions to The Gates of Hell: FULL POST

The FDA has entered into a moral and ethical issue, not simply a medical issue, when they approved Plan B One-Step. The FDA seeks to make Plan B One-Step available for girls 15 and over and make it available over the counter…that is without a doctor’s prescription. In other words, minors would have access to birth control thanks to the FDA’s overstepping their authority. Are they not actually swapping birth control for parental control? By the way, whatever happened to abstinence? This is the most effective means of birth control there is. The public schools will teach sex education, educating our children about varying birth control methods but what they won’t teach is abstinence. Fortunately, the Justice Department has announced that it will appeal a recent court order, which brings up another issue: That courts are not designed to make laws but to enforce them…Congress’ job is to make laws, however that’s an issue for another day. FULL POST

Jack Wellman, 2013

When the Boston Red Sox finally won the World Series a few years ago, they said that the curse was reversed. The curse was supposedly imposed upon the Red Sox when they traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees early in the 20th Century. In a similar fashion, Jesus Christ reversed the curse on humanity by redeeming mankind and restoring us to a right relationship with God which had been severed in the Garden. Paul wrote about this when he said, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole” (Gal 3:13). By this voluntary act of Jesus Christ, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21) which was done “to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship” (Gal 4:5). That’s why the gospel is called good news. It was bad news for Christ on the cross but the best of news for us who were separated from God by our sin. FULL POST

Nationl Right to Life, 2013

Babies can routinely be saved at 21 to 22 weeks after fertilization, and sometimes they can be saved even younger.

Is the Bible silent on abortion? It appears that way because so many Protestant churches are and these protestant churches may be because the leadership has been. What a sin of omission. Years ago Dr. R. C. Sproul of Ligonier Ministries prepared a series of video lectures as educational materials for churches to instruct members about the serious ethical and moral implications of abortion. These materials tried to encourage churches to be more proactive in protesting abortion by engaging the culture in which they resided. The result was that the vast majority of pastors refused to teach this because of their fear of dividing the church. These pastors responded by saying that they would “divide their churches.” Dr. Sproul said “What could be a greater evil than such a division [than] remaining silent on the most ethical issue that the United States has ever faced?” (Tabletalk Magazine, April, 2013, p 26). At least the Catholic Church is stronger in their Pro-life stance and I thank God that at least they are. For more on what you can do as a pro-life advocate, visit the National Right to Life organization. FULL POST