Prayer for the Unconverted

 Buried deep in an old, mostly-forgotten anthology of poetry, I found this little gem from Newman Hall—a poem that expresses in rhyme and meter the longing of many a Christian heart. May it give you words to pray for “those who do not pray, who waste away salvation’s day.”

We pray for those who do not pray!

Who waste away salvation’s day;

For those we love who love not Thee—

Our grief, their danger, pitying see.

Those for whom many tears are shed

And blessings breathed upon their head,

The children of thy people save

From godless life and hopeless grave.

Hear fathers, mothers, as they pray

For sons, for daughters, far away—

Brother for brother, friend for friend—

Hear all our prayers that upward blend.

We pray for those who long have heard

But still neglect Thy gracious Word;

Soften the hearts obdurate made

By calls unheeded; vows delayed.

Release the drunkard from his chain,

Bare those beguiled by pleasure vain,

Set free the slaves of lust, and bring

Back to their home the wandering.

The hopeless cheer; guide those who doubt;

Restore the lost; cast no one out;

For all that are far off we pray,

Since we were once far off as they.

Reflection on Death - Part 5

           Each of us, as we come into this world and continue along our path, unless OUR SPIRIT has been quickened and renewed by HIS SPIRIT, are in some such condition as one of these three. There are some who are young and tender; they are still in their mother’s home; their faces are fair and their cheeks are flushed; they are the adorable objects of their parent’s love; the world is before them and yet they are dead. They are dead in trespasses and in sins; dead to God, dead to truth; dead to reality; for this is how they have been born into this world. Though physically, intellectually, and emotionally alive, they are dead spiritually. They are unconscious of, and unresponsive to, the spiritual life and the spiritual world of reality. They have not had time for sin to run its course and to effect its devastating changes. Like Jarius’ daughter, they still look alive — why she looks as though she sleepeth! Her eyes are simply closed in sleep. And yet she is dead!

             And there are those like the son of the widow of Nain who have left their father’s home and are now out in public. Some years have passed and already the flush has left the cheek and the results of sin are beginning to make themselves seen. Our land is filled with these today! Unlike Jarius’ daughter, their sins are no more secret, a matter kept at home, but now they are out in public and known to many. Without shame they expose their sins willfully, flaunting them before all the world to see; they call it “coming out of their closets;” they have no sense of guilt or shame because their sin and death has proceeded thus far. And yet they are still accepted by society. They are glorified by the media. Some are even active in the churches. They are not like Lazarus, who has been put away, where death has come to such a state that the corruption has progressed to such a degree that now he stinketh and none can bear to be in his presence. And so there comes a time in some men’s lives when even their loved ones can say, “Put away my beloved from out of my sight. Bury him in some jail or in some hospital or in some gutter of depravity.”

            The corruption of sin and death can reach to such a marked degree that it is seen in the person, in his acts, in his words, his dress, his face, and he becomes an outcast, the dregs of society. There are more, I am sure, like the widow’s son. The revelation of the death in them is only beginning to show. There are still many like Jarius’ daughter where it is not seen at all, except by those with spiritual eyes and discernment. They are so lovely. “Isn’t she sweet?” “Isn’t he handsome?” “Oh, he is such a nice person.” “They are such good neighbors, they would do anything for you.” And yet, each and every one of them — the girl on the bed, the young man on the bier, and Lazarus in his tomb — were equally dead! Dead one, dead all!

            This is the description of the land of the dead in which the whole world lives by nature. The land of trespasses and sins in which there walk the dead. “Wherein,” Paul says to the quickened ones, “in time past ye walked” (Eph. 2:2). Is that not amazing? We were dead and yet we walked; we were the walking dead, a land filled with spiritual zombies, walking, as though they live, yet dead! Did you ever stop to think that when Jesus Christ, the firstborn Son of God, came into this world HE WAS THE ONLY LIVING MAN IN A WORLD OF DEAD PEOPLE? The whole world lies in the hands of the wicked one and death reigns over all the earth realm, the world of carnal-minded men! “To be carnally minded is death” (Rom. 8:6). No wonder the scripture says that men are a stench in the nostrils of God because spiritual death sends forth its reek and stench. How the pure soul of Jesus must have recoiled at the state of death that was rampant over the earth. We, the walking dead, walked according to the course of THIS WORLD, we are told (Eph. 2:2).

            When Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, came into this world to reveal the LIFE OF GOD, which is true spiritual life, He came outside the existing religious system. He spoke the words of God and did the works of God and manifested the nature of God. What an appalling shock to the established religious order to have this strange man speaking as one with authority suddenly appear in their midst not as a Pharisee, Sadducee, or a priest of the order of Aaron, but in the power of the Spirit of God. What a bolt out of heaven it must have been to the hypocritical priests of Levi, so accustomed to strutting about in long robes and broad phylacteries, wearing their miters, loving to be called Rabbi and teacher as they received the homage of the people about them, binding burdens that they would not touch with the tips of their fingers on others, robbing widow’s houses and for a pretense making long prayers as they increased condemnation upon their own unforgiven sins. What a stunning dismay it must have been for these lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God to hear this mighty Son of God proclaiming to publicans and sinners, soldiers and priests alike, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

Reflection on Death - Part 4

            Jesus raised three people from the dead during His years of ministry, and each of these stands as a picture of the condition of those who are raised out of the death of the carnal mind into the life of the Son of God. First, there was Jarius’ daughter. Do you remember the story? Jesus came into the house and she was still upon her bed. She had just died. She still wore the garments of sleep. Her mother was still holding her hand and moistening her brow with kisses. Her father looked upon her lovingly but she was dead. And Jesus raised her with these simple words, “Talitha cumi.” Her eyes opened! She sat up and was alive again!

            Then there was the funeral procession that took place in the town of Nain where a widow of Nain had lost her only son. He was no longer in the home; he no longer wore the clothes of sleep but was wrapped in the cerements of the cemetery. He was already laid out upon his bier and was being conveyed to his tomb. Jesus did what He always did. He stopped the funeral — because that is why He came — and He said, “Young man, I say unto thee, arise!” He sat up and Christ returned him to his mother.

            Then there was that notable instance of Lazarus of Bethany. When Jesus arrived, Lazarus was no longer in his home; he was no longer in procession; he was already in his tomb. Neither the bed nor the bier but the tomb now contained him and Jesus said, “Roll away the stone.” Martha said, “Lord, he has been dead four days and now he stinketh.” Jesus said to her, “Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” And so they rolled away the stone. No doubt there issued forth from that open cavern those noxious smells of the grave. Jesus having lifted up His eyes to God in prayer, cried, “Lazarus, come forth!” and life pulsated through his body again. Still wrapped in the grave clothes he shuffled out of the darkness into the light. Jesus said, “Loose him, and let him go.”

Reflection on Death - Part 3

            I know many people who are quite intelligent, some highly educated, accomplished in their fields, civil, polite, personable, courteous, and caring in an earthly kind of way; and yet, when the subject of spiritual life, spiritual realities, and heavenly things is introduced into the conversation, suddenly the true nature emerges and the true antipathy the person has toward the living God and His Christ will come forth. They are dead to God, and in truth an enemy of God! The condition of a man outside of God is a condition of complete and utter helplessness, and, insofar as his ability to help himself or lift himself out of the world of darkness he dwells in is concerned, his condition is also one of utter hopelessness. That which is dead is both helpless and hopeless! Such a one stupidly stumbles through this mortal existence working, playing, sleeping, without ever knowing or caring what life is really about, why he is here, or where he is going.

            The portrait of spiritual death is physical death. God gave us physical death merely as a type to convey something of the awfulness of the true death of which all men have been made partakers. Speaking of physical death, Charles Spurgeon once said, “The time will come, ere long, when these shining orbs by which I look out upon you and through which you look into my very soul, will become a carnival for worms; that this body of mine will be inhabited by loathsome things, the brother of corruption, the sister of decay. These cheeks now flushed with life will soon be sunken in death. Beneath the skin there will be going on such activity that, could we look upon it, we too would recoil in horror. The same death of the body is the condition of our soul and our spiritual life as we come into this world.”

Reflection on Death - Part 2

            Imagine this headline in today’s newspaper: Cure Found for Death! Newspapers would soon be sold out. Every television and computer would be tuned to the news channels. Everyone would be scrambling to find out what this fantastic announcement had to say. But suppose the article or news report under the headline reported that a traveling teacher has announced that he personally is the cure for death — he has not made a scientific discovery, nor a new medical breakthrough, nor found some secret fountain of youth — but by revelation he has proclaimed himself as the source of life and immortality! We might begin to suspect that he’s just another religious teacher who has gotten carried away with delusions of self-importance, even if he has raised a few dead people back to life. And when we read about his claim that the only way to escape death is to believe in him, we’d say, “How preposterous!” Perhaps its not surprising that relatively few people take Jesus’ bold statement seriously — “He who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (Jn. 11:25-26). After all, it’s probably the most startling claim that anyone has ever made! Why should anyone believe it? We should believe it, not because Jesus raised Lazarus after he had been dead for four days, but because Jesus Himself arose after He died for us — and because He still lives today! The Lamb that was slain is in the midst of the throne, and He has sent forth from the throne the very spirit of His life into us by the power of the Holy Ghost! It is a glorious fact, for we have received it! Christ alone has the credentials to claim that He can give life and immortality to men!

            Death takes in this whole dreadful realm of sin, weakness, fear, sorrow, pain, heartache, rebellion, strife, war, sickness, sadness, torment, and trouble in which men walk without the peace and joy and transforming power of God in their lives. Men need to know that they are dead even while they walk about in a body that appears to be alive; a Christless death in which they are dead to God, dead to Christ, dead to virtue, dead to truth, dead to purity, dead to righteousness, dead to peace, dead to joy, dead to reality, dead to promise, dead to hope, dead to the bright world of the spirit. A man abides in this death throughout all the decades, centuries, or millenniums of his existence until he is awakened by the voice of the Son of God. It was this very truth that Jesus was making clear to us when He said, “He that hath the Son hath life, but he that hath not the Son of God hath not life…” Though such a one should live in the extreme fullness of earth’s pleasures, yet HE IS DEAD while he lives, a stranger to Christ, a stranger to the realm of eternal realities, a stranger to that higher world of spiritual things, and an enemy of God.

Reflection on Death - Part 1

             “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful” (Rev. 21:4-5).

            Even though we sometimes speak casually about mortality, we are never ready to meet death face to face. Death is a cold thief. A preacher may say that a young boy now sings in heaven’s choir, but his parents are grief stricken, angry, and perplexed, and they feel cheated. All their joy has been stripped from them. An elderly woman may be tired of her husband’s nagging and quirks, but she’d rather have that than the lonely life of a widow. Death takes us to the moment of greatest struggle. Like Job, we are torn up inside and tempted to point an accusing finger at God: “Why have you made me your target” (Job. 7:20)? No matter how we try to dress it up and stress the positive side of it, we sense somehow that death is not normal. We know that we were created to enjoy life! Just as Job did, we turn our hearts and thoughts to heaven, demanding an adequate answer.

            Death and tears and crying are all inextricably related. Human hands are poor at drying tears. Neighbors may help, friends may sympathize, and ministers may seek to console with words of comfort and wisdom, but in the end only God can heal the heart and stop the fount of tears. And God will not trust this task to either men or angels, for God Himself “shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” And then, “…no more death.” What words are these! What blessed anticipation! Death has had a fearful reign. Almost every home has its vacant chair; every village has its cemetery; every small newspaper carries its obituary list; while countless tons of earth’s bronze and marble are fashioned into gravestones. Death has blasted hopes and broken hearts; turned loving wives into weeping widows, and helpless children into homeless orphans. Death is harsh and cold and heartless. But death has met defeat; a tomb has been opened from the inside, and death itself in that first victorious life has ceased to exist. The last enemy to be destroyed is death! And the Christ Himself is the guarantee!

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Through Death