Health Care Debate Hits Faith Community. The White House launched the "40 Days for Health Reform" initiative this week. �The campaign includes the release of a national TV ad featuring local clergy and people of faith, health care related "prayer events", promotions for a nationwide health care sermon weekend, as well as meetings with government officials. The ads include a collection of clergy who support health care reform such as Rev. Stevie Wakes, Pastor of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Kansas City. The White House initiative is sparking a response from many in the faith community who see the reform as limiting freedoms. For example, the Family Research Council responded with a television ad with an elderly man and his wife sitting at their kitchen table talking about how the government won't pay for the man's surgery but forces them to pay for abortion services.
I really hate it when the "faith community" gets involved in politics...
What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks, to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
To announce your love each daybreak,
sing your faithful presence all through the night,
Accompanied by dulcimer and harp,
the full-bodied music of strings. (The Message)
"We need to be disentangled from all cares if we would seriously apply ourselves to the praises of God. The Psalmist then would teach us that the right observance of the Sabbath does not consist in idleness, as some absurdly imagine, but in the celebration of the Divine name."
(Commentary from Heart Aflame: Daily Readings from Calvin on the Psalms)
"Grace Alone"
Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (ESV)
The grace and faith that save us are both gifts from God. We bring nothing with us when we first meet with God.
Today, we are looking at sola gratia--"grace alone." This sola stresses "the initiative of God Himself in salvation as the one who must change our hearts and give us the ability to have faith." We are dead in sin, in our fallen state, unable to conform to anything the Lord would have us do. We want nothing to do with God. We hate God. We are justified by faith, but only because God gave it to us.
"Most Western Christians today believe they are sinful and that grace is necessary for salvation, but they do not believe evil has so corrupted the will as to make them morally unable to choose Jesus. It is up to us, they argue, to assent to grace and choose Christ for salvation, and we can decide either way. This makes our decision the ultimate arbiter of our redemption. Scripture agrees that we must decide to follow Jesus, but it also says that those to whom God gives saving grace will most certainly make the right decision; only God exercises His sovereign prerogative to give grace to some and not all (Rom. 9:14-18)."
If we consider two people, side by side, who hear the gospel, and one receives it and the other does not, what has happened? If both are equally able to make the right choice, then we must come to the conclusion that one is saved because he did something good. "But if sinners are unable to love God, faith must be a gift and not something we initiate to get God to love us. This is the importance of sola gratia.
"Nehemiah's Example"
Nehemiah 1:4
As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. (ESV)
Our prayer life should consist of two types of prayer. There should be planned periods of prayer, and their should be unplanned, spontaneous prayer. Nehemiah gives us a good example of this.
When he heard of the state of the wall in Jerusalem, he spent probably months in prolonged periods of prayer and fasting. This had to be planned around his duties as the king's cupbearer.
Then one day, the king noticed he was sad and asked him why. Suddenly, Nehemiah gave out a quick, spontaneous, silent prayer to God, to have wisdom and courage to speak to the king and make his request.
Nehemiah needed both types of prayer. Each reflected his dependence on God. We, too, are totally dependent on God and need both types of prayer in our lives.
I thank you that you chose to give me faith. I thank you for your grace in my life. And I thank you for showing me the truth of Scripture, that all of these things are a gift from you. Had you left me alone, I would still be dead in my sin. But you, by your grace, gave me faith so that I could believe in you. I praise you now, and I will praise you for all eternity for this gift, my God!
I also thank you that you have given me a heart to praise and worship you. I do believe that it is, indeed, a beautiful thing to give praise to you. To sing and praise you in worship is one of my favorite actions. I pray for a suitable place to be able to continue to do this.
Grace and peace, friends.