Northwest Pastor

This is from Darrell L. Guder's Bible study called "Ambassadors for Christ;"it's kind of a long and weighty quote, but definitely worth chewing on a bit:

Seen through the lenses of the gospel, the world is desperately in need of reconciliation. Certainly we would confirm that diagnosis-the news reported in any daily paper would document humanity's need to be reconciled. But the human diagnosis will not identify the problem as our need to be reconciled with God. We focus upon the brutal divisions that make nations, tribes, religions, and cultures into each other's deadly enemies. We struggle to find human resources to bring about the reconciliation for which we all long. The gospel defines creation's distress as the result of our separation from God. It is not merely a matter of human resources but of divine intervention. So, the gospel announces that God has intervened. Our separation from God and each other has been overcome, the chasm bridged, the opposing factions brought together. Our message starts with the assurance that in Christ there already is a new creation. The work of reconciliation was accomplished at Calvary, Easter, and Ascension Day. Thus, our calling to the role of ambassadors is a consequence of what God has already done. As ambassadors, we are called into royal service, to bear this wonderful message to the world: your distress has been resolved, your rebellion overcome, your separation ended. Nothing more needs to be done before the reconciliation can take place-except that we should accept and receive the gift of forgiveness and healing that seal our reconciliation. The unlikely ambassadors who make up the church of Jesus Christ are sent out to the world to make plain that God has transformed our plight on the cross of Jesus. We are to invite the world to receive what is already available and to claim what is already true. Of course, this means that the church itself must live out this wonderful reconciliation in every dimension of its life. So the call to be reconciled is still addressed to the church as well, so that we can embark upon the embassy to the world that is our calling: "Be reconciled to God" (5:20).

(Link was from Sets-n-Service)

“The gospel, God’s free gift of grace in Jesus, only works when we realize we don’t have it all together. The same is true for prayer. The very thing we are allergic to—our helplessness—is what makes prayer work. It works because are helpless. We can’t do life on our own.

Prayer mirrors the gospel. In the gospel, the Father takes us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of salvation. In prayer, the Father receives us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of help. We look at the inadequacy of our praying and give up, thinking something is wrong with us. God looks as the adequacy of his Son and delights in our sloppy, meandering prayers.”

—Paul Miller, A Praying Life

“Are you relying on your own righteousness? Or on ‘the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ’? Do you know the grounds of your standing at this moment? Have you got this solid rock beneath you? Are you relying utterly upon the Son of God and His perfect work on your behalf? If not, you have not got the breastplate of righteousness, and that means that you are already defeated by the devil. This is the only righteousness that avails, not only when we go to God in prayer, but when we are confronted by the wiles of the devil, and as we wrestle against the principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, the spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Martin Lloyd-Jones, The Christian Soldier

“It is always the Holy Spirit’s work to turn our eyes away from self to Jesus; but Satan’s work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us pay attention to ourselves instead of to Christ. He insinuates, ‘Your sins are too great for pardon; you have no faith; you do not repent enough; you will never be able to continue to the end; you do not have the joy of His children; you have such a weak hold of Jesus.’ All these are thoughts about self, and we will never find comfort or assurance by looking within. But the Holy Spirit turns our eyes entirely away from self. He tells us that we are nothing, but that Christ is all in all.’”

- Charles Spurgeon, Morning by Morning