Posts Tagged ‘Jim Cymbala’
EMPOWERED – A BOOK REVIEW
Monday, April 15th, 2019
EMPOWERED – WHY WE NEED SPIRIT-FILLED CHURCHES, by Dr. Kie Bowman, Senior Pastor of Hyde Park Baptist Church (and the QUARRIES) of Austin, Texas is the best primer on the Holy Spirit, that I can remember reading. It comes in at 135 pages and I was able to read it through in just one night, it is such an interesting book. Dr. Bowman does as masterful job in weaving a narrative direct from Scripture, in full context, while keeping the reader engaged through both some little known historical facts, as well as some personal humorous anecdotes. Without giving away anything, all I can say is I have, myself, forgotten to put in a blank video tape in my camcorder one time, when I went to record one of my daughter’s ballet dance recitals! Fortunately, there was a professional crew there too, and I was able to buy a copy. There I was recording all the angles, only to get home and find out I had not tape in the camcorder!EMPOWERED will empower the Christian man or woman, of any stage of spiritual maturity, to be lifted to the next plateau of intimacy with the Savior, if we can just grasp the historical background of the Holy Spirit and how we can truly come into an effective prayer life, which will then enable that graduation to a higher plane. There are both practical steps, sometimes paralleled by the examples of the Early Church and how they prayed in tougher circumstances, than we experience today.
WHY MEN DON’T PRAY
Tuesday, March 20th, 2018
Then, fast forward to the night of the final Passover with Jesus at the helm, on the way to willingly give His life on the Cross. He ( Jesus) asks them to pray and stay with Him awhile…..and they promptly fall asleep. Let us read Matthew 26:40-42 a “And He *came to the disciples and *found them sleeping, and *said to Peter, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away again a second time and prayed.”
This is a perfect picture of men, as far back as we can remember, who not just do not pray, but do not see the value and absolute necessity of prayer…..except when they fall sick or need divine intervention on some family matter. But it is indeed worse than it appears. We (men) will take the great mountaintop experiences with Jesus, like an exciting conference or seminar, but would drop the ball once we get back to the valleys and fields, where the actual real work of the Christian life is lived.
I have seen places, in sound bible-teaching churches, where prayer is limited to the pastoral 3-minute prayer at the beginning and the prayer requests in some of the Sunday school classes where the teacher is more tuned into the Holy Spirit. The official policies of too many churches are more program than prayer-oriented, regardless of the small groups that actually exist in most bible-teaching churches who pray to keep the spiritual fires burning. So, this trend with non-praying men is not happening in a vacuum. During the first year, when after I was born-again (1988-89), the passion to know the Lord Who saved me by His Grace so dramatically, so overwhelmed me that I would sit for hours by a freezing lake in the fall and winter and pray for hours.