With Christ in the school of prayer, by Andrew Murray, excerpt 115

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. In this excerpt, Murray continues a discussion about prayer and the Trinity. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24.  

This may help us somewhat to understand how the prayer of man, coming through the Son, can have effect upon God. The decrees of God are not decisions made by Him without reference to the Son, or His petition, or the petition to be sent up through Him. By no means. The Lord Jesus is the first-begotten, the Head and Heir of all things: all things were created through Him and unto Him, and all things consist in Him. In the counsels of the Father, the Son, as Representative of all creation, had always a voice; in the decrees of the eternal purpose there was always room left for the liberty of the Son as Mediator and Intercessor, and so for the petitions of all who draw nigh to the Father in the Son.

And if the thought come that this liberty and power of the Son to act upon the Father is at variance with the immutability of the Divine decrees, let us not forget that there is not with God as with man, a past by which He is irrevocably bound. God does not live in time  with its past and future; the distinctions of time have no reference to Him who inhabits Eternity. And Eternity is an ever-present Now, in which the past is never past, and the future always present. To meet our human weakness, Scripture must speak of past decrees, and a coming future. In reality, the immutability of God’s counsel is ever still in perfect harmony with His liberty to do whatsoever He will. Not so were the prayers of the Son and His people taken up into the eternal decrees that their effect should only be an apparent one; but so, that the Father-heart holds itself open and free to listen to every prayer that rises through the Son, and that God does indeed allow Himself to be decided by prayer to do what He otherwise would not have done.

Sunspots 872

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*:

The Arts: The Federalist claims, with evidence, that Amazon's production of early times, in Tolkien's vision, will be a disaster, at least in the sense of adhering to Tolkien's ideas.

Food: Senegalese farmers are learning to encourage growth of a plant formerly treated as a weed.

Health: The Scientist says that COVID is transmitted by tiny particles in the air, not by large drops.

NPR says that Neil Cavuto, a Fox News host, thanks vaccination, without which he says that he wouldn't be alive. Cavuto earlier received some death threats for advocating vaccination.

Science: Gizmodo reports on a study of DNA found in ocean depths. Most of it is from previously unknown species. Such organisms play an important part in the Carbon cycle of the earth.

Gizmodo also reports that the Webb telescope is working perfectly, so far.

NPR reports on a pack of killer whales who successfully (for them) killed a blue whale.

Gizmodo reports that we may not be prepared for accidental contamination of earth, or some other planet.

The Scientist reports that mosquitoes can remember the smells of insecticides.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight gives us an in-depth look at NBA refereeing.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view.

Thanks for reading.

With Christ in the school of prayer, by Andrew Murray, excerpt 114

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. In this excerpt, Murray continues a discussion about persevering prayer. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. 

One of the secret difficulties with regard to prayer,—one which, though not expressed, does often really hinder prayer,—is derived from the perfection of God, in His absolute independence of all that is outside of Himself. Is He not the Infinite Being, who owes what He is to Himself alone, who determines Himself, and whose wise and holy will has determined all that is to be? How can prayer influence Him, or He be moved by prayer to do what otherwise would not be done? Is not the promise of an answer to prayer simply a condescension to our weakness? Is what is said of the power—the much-availing power—of prayer anything more than an accommodation to our mode of thought, because the Deity never can be dependent on any action from without for its doings? And is not the blessing of prayer simply the influence it exercises upon ourselves?
In seeking an answer to such questions, we find the key in the very being of God, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. If God was only one Person, shut up within Himself, there could be no thought of nearness to Him or influence on Him. But in God there are three Persons. In God we have Father and Son, who have in the Holy Spirit their living bond of unity and fellowship. When eternal Love begat the Son, and the Father gave the Son as the Second Person a place next Himself as His Equal and His Counsellor, there was a way opened for prayer and its influence in the very inmost life of Deity itself. Just as on earth, so in heaven the whole relation between Father and Son is that of giving and taking. And if that taking is to be as voluntary and self-determined as the giving, there must be on the part of the Son an asking and receiving. In the holy fellowship of the Divine Persons, this asking of the Son was one of the great operations of the Thrice Blessed Life of God. Hence we have it in Psalm ii.: ‘This day I have begotten Thee: ask of me and I will give Thee.’ The Father gave the Son the place and the power to act upon Him. The asking of the Son was no mere show or shadow, but one of those life-movements in which the love of the Father and the Son met and completed each other. The Father had determined that He should not be alone in His counsels: there was a Son on whose asking and accepting their fulfilment should depend. And so there was in the very Being and Life of God an asking of which prayer on earth was to be the reflection and the outflow. It was not without including this that Jesus said, “I knew that Thou always hearest me.’ Just as the Sonship of Jesus on earth may not be separated from His Sonship in heaven, even so with His prayer on earth, it is the continuation and the counterpart of His asking in heaven. The prayer of the man Christ Jesus is the link between the eternal asking of the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father and the prayer of men upon earth. Prayer has its rise and its deepest source in the very Being of God. In the bosom of Deity nothing is ever done without prayer—the asking of the Son and the giving of the Father.

Sunspots 871

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*:

Education: Grammarphobia discusses watching "on the TV," vs. watching "on TV."

Environment:  Gizmodo reports that the number of serious earthquakes in Texas increased markedly recently. Fracking is probably the main cause.

Gizmodo also reports that Florida utility companies are fighting solar panel installation in the state.

Gizmodo also reports that about 25% of wild large cats in Zambia had been injured by traps or guns before death.

Gizmodo reports on "rogue waves," waves twice as tall, or more, as those surrounding them.

Finances: Gizmodo discusses the causes of inflation. It's not simple.

Health: NPR shows us a graphic history of the connections between the variations of the SARS-COVID comples of viruses. There are some surprises.

Politics: Gizmodo reports that a majority of donations to the supposedly Canadian "Freedom Convoy" are from the US. Canada has taken action to require reporting of large donations to such groups.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view.

Thanks for reading.

Wirh Christ in the school of prayer, by Andrew Murray, excerpt 113

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. In this excerpt, Murray continues a discussion about persevering prayer. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. 

‘I know that Thou hearest me always;’
Or Prayer in Harmony with the Being of God.
‘Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest me. And I knew that Thou hearest me always.’—John xi. 41, 42.
‘Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of me, and I shall give Thee.’—Ps.
ii. 7, 8.

IN the New Testament we find a distinction made between faith and knowledge. ‘To one is given, through the Spirit, the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; to another faith, in the same Spirit.’ In a child or a simpleminded Christian there may be much faith with little knowledge. Childlike simplicity accepts the truth without difficulty, and often cares little to give itself or others any reason for itsmfaith but this: God has said. But it is the will of God that we should love and serve Him, not only with all the heart but also with all the mind; that we should grow up into an insight into the Divine wisdom and beauty of all His ways and words and works. It is only thus that the believer will be able fully to approach and rightly to adore the glory of God’s grace;  d only thus that our heart can intelligently apprehend the treasures of wisdom and knowledge there are in redemption, and be prepared to enter fully into the highest note of the song that rises before the throne: ‘O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!’
In our prayer life this truth has its full application. While prayer and faith are so simple that the new-born convert can pray with power, true Christian science finds in the doctrine of prayer some of its deepest problems. In how far is the power of prayer a reality? If so,
how God can grant to prayer such mighty power? How can the action of prayer be harmonized with the will and the decrees of God? How can God’s sovereignty and our will, God’s liberty and ours, be reconciled?—these and other like questions are fit subjects for Christian meditation and inquiry. The more earnestly and reverently we approach such mysteries, the more shall we in adoring wonder fall down to praise Him who hath in prayer given such power to man.

Sunspots 870

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*:

Computing: NPR reports that, in Belgium, some workers are not required to answer communications related to their job, at all hours of the day and night.

Politics: Relevant discusses the matter of white evangelicals being the only significant religious group that is strongly against allowing immigration, and a path to citizenship.

Pornography (There are no photos of pornography in the article(s) linked here): A Christianity Today article on what's wrong with pornography -- it's not about relationships.

Science: The Scientist reports that plants in the UK are blooming about a month earlier than they did a few decades ago.

Gizmodo reports on chimpanzees applying insects to a wound, probably as a treatment of some sort. 

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view.

Thanks for reading.

With Christ in the school of prayer, by Andrew Murray, excerpt 112

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. In this excerpt, Murray continues a discussion about persevering prayer. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. 

The need of persevering importunate prayer appears to some to be at variance with the faith which knows that it has received what it asks (Mark xi. 24). One of the mysteries of the Divine life is the harmony between the gradual and the sudden, immediate full possession, and slow imperfect appropriation. And so here persevering prayer appears to be the school in which the soul is strengthened for the boldness of faith. And with the diversity of operations of the Spirit there may be some in whom faith takes more the form of persistent waiting; while to others, triumphant thanksgiving appears the only proper expressions of the assurance of having been heard.

Sunspots 869

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*:

Christianity:  (sort of) Christianity Today on Jerry Falwell, Jr.'s, hypocrisy, and sin.

A church in Oregon has filed a lawsuit, complaining that feeding the hungry and homeless is a right under freedom of religion. (They have been doing that for years.)

Environment:  Gizmodo reports that QAnon followers have attacked a butterfly sanctuary.

ListVerse shows us videos of 10 areas that are, scenically, on a par with the National Parks.

Health: NPR reports that Malawi, and perhaps some other poor countries in Africa, have mostly beaten COVID, and how this has happened.

Politics: Christianity Today reports that Florida's governor DeSantis is taking action to present charitable groups from helping care for migrant children, which action is legal in the US (including Florida).

Science: The Scientist reports that mutation rates of especially important genes are lower than for genes in general.

Gizmodo reports that peat bogs in the UK, which are a source of archaeological material, are being lost to global climate change.

Gizmodo also reports on all-female termite colonies.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view.

Thanks for reading.