David N. Walker's Blog, page 16

This Is Our Fault

A conversation yesterday about a relative I dearly love reminded me once again of one of the major mistakes we make in educating our youth. We rob our society of a lot of potential and punish many young people through this.

The young man I’m speaking of has an I.Q. well above average, but he always struggled in school. He made decent grades through high school, but he had to work so hard in his subjects it was never enjoyable to him.

Trying to live up to what he perceived to be expected of him, he enrolled in college after he graduated, but his first semester showed him he didn’t really belong there. He tried to transfer to a different college, but some bureaucratic snag kept his transcript from getting to the second college, and he ended up missing the semester.

Back home and out of school for the first time since he was five years old, he had time on his hands and wanted something to do. After considering several possibilities, he found a job with a plumbing company as an apprentice.

Although his intention was to work at this company to bring in an income while he figured out what he wanted to do next, he made a some important discoveries. He found that he enjoyed what he was doing and that he was good at it. More importantly, he discovered that doing this job made him feel good about himself, a feeling college didn’t give him at all.

Almost from the first day, his employer was impressed with his work. It’s a large enough company that there are several difference crews which work different projects, and the leaders of all the crews ask the owner to assign this young man to them, because he is such a good worker and does his job so well. And the owner is paying his tuition to attend school to become a journeyman, and ultimately a master plumber.

He will earn the journeyman designation in a year and the master three years later. While he’s working on these designations, he can earn anywhere from $20 to $27 an hours, depending on the job—while a lot of people who graduate from college with BA degrees end up working at McDonald’s or Wal-Mart starting at minimum wage.

He has learned something else about himself in the process. He struggled and made mediocre grades in school because a learning deficiency keeps him from being able to grasp intangible things. Whether it’s the Pythagorean Theorem or the War of 1812, it wasn’t something he could see, and he just couldn’t quite get his mind around it.

Plumbing pipes, on the other hand, are very tangible. When an instructor at his school discusses them, his mind’s eye sees a clear picture of what’s being discussed. It makes sense to him, and the results are there. He has had one exam so far, and he made 97 on it—a score he never achieved going to school.

Our society places a high level of importance on a college degree, in the process placing a tremendous pressure on a lot of kids who would be better served pursuing something else. I’ve thought for a long time we hurt both our kids and our economy by pushing so many to undertake college, where they end up either in failure or frustration, when we have a desperate need for skilled craftsmen.

Wouldn’t we better serve the needs of our youth, as well as those of our society by identifying these potential craftsmen in junior high or high school and encouraging them to pursue trade schools to prepare them for successful careers instead of pushing so many of them into college experiences where they will likely fail? What do you think about this? I’d love to hear your ideas.

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We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Advice, Apprentice plumber, Authorship, Caring, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, friends, Heaven Sent, Journeyman plumber, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, Master plumber, People, Personal development, Self-help, Trade schools

Turning Away

Our Sunday School class this week was from the first chapter of the book of Galatians. As you probably know, Paul established the church at Galatia, but after he left, the Galatians began to adopt practices from Judaism to “add” to Christianity.

In this letter, he blasts the people for turning away from the gospel he had presented to them. He tells them, as he told them originally, that they don’t need to add anything to the finished work of Jesus Christ.

In verse 6, Paul says, “I’m amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him . . . for a different gospel.” By adding circumcision or any other requirement to the grace that saved them, they were turning away from grace itself.

It’s easy for us to pile on these people and pass judgment on their stupidity in doing this, but I think if Paul were to return today and see what’s going on in the church, he would have much stronger words of rebuke for us than he did for the Galatians. So many Christians have drifted away from the pure gospel of grace to preach and listen to sermons about prosperity, “feeling good,” and all sorts of things that tickle our ears, and we have much less excuse than did the Galatians.

The only thing the Galatians had to go by was their memory of Paul’s preaching. How much do you remember from the last sermon you heard, much less one you heard three months ago or a year ago. It’s easy for me to understand some drifting by these people.

We, on the other hand, have the written, canonized New Testament. We don’t begin to have the excuse the Galatians had. When we hear a perversion of the gospel, or even a slightly questionable statement, we can refer to God’s word for the truth. We have no excuses to offer when we fail to do that.

When a preacher delivers a sermon without even referring to the scriptures, we need to be careful. When he preaches that God wants us all to be wealthy instead of telling us how to be saved, when the size of the church and the offering become more important than sharing the gospel and tending to the members’ growth in their relationships with God, when physical healing is preached before spiritual healing, it is time to get out our Bibles and seriously question the motives as well as the message of that preacher.

God does want us to be healthy and prosperous, but He doesn’t want preachers to amass great wealth by harping on that one message. He wants us to be well, both physically and financially, but that’s not His first priority for us.

His number one priority for us is to reconcile us to Himself. He wants that so badly that He sent His own Son to die on a cross in order to make it possible. That is so far ahead of His desire for our physical and financial comfort it can’t even be compared.

Once we are reconciled to Him through the salvation He offers by His grace, He wants us to be conformed to the image of His Son. We will never be perfect in this life, but He wants us to become more and more perfect by submitting ourselves to Him so that he can work His changes within us. This is infinitely more important to Him than how much money we have or the state of our health—and it should be to us, too.

God is able to do more than we can even imagine. He can give us health and wealth while He’s in the process of perfecting us, but that should be a byproduct of our growth and our trust in Him, not something we preach sermons and hold seminars about.

Paul himself had an affliction that caused him to be nearly blind, but he didn’t go around asking people to lay hands on him for healing. He said he had lived with plenty and he had lived with little, and it didn’t mean a thing to him either way compared to the riches of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Which is more important to you—a level of comfort and pleasure in this brief stay on earth, or submitting yourself to the God who created it all and letting Him prepare you for a richer life in eternity?

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If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Christian Thoughts Tagged: Bible, Christian, Christian Fellowship, Christianity, Circumcision, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Faith, Fancy Series, Forgiveness, Galatians, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Grace, Heaven Sent, inspiration, Jesus, New Testament, Prosperity, Sins, Works

Announcement Party

Tuesday, when I announced the publication of my new book, Christianity 101: The Simplified Christian Life, I forgot to throw a party, so I’m doing that today instead. I brought cake and ice cream, and I always have coffee for my friends, so take all you want, and enjoy. Also, at the end of today’s post, I’m offering you a bonus, so be sure to read all the way to the bottom.

   

Feel free to come back for seconds, too.

Back to the book, this is what it looks like:

You can order a copy from Amazon for your Kindle here. To order for any e-reader from Smashwords, click here. Either way, it’s only $3.99. For the paperback from CreateSpace, priced at $9.99, click here.

Okay, I promised you a bonus. Here’s a chance for you to promote one of your own books. Just leave a comment with the name of your book and a link to your webpage so we can see how to purchase it. Say a few words about it to whet our interest. Only one book per person, please. After you post your comment, click on some of the other comments to see their books.

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We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

——————————————

For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Advice, Amazon, Authorship, Caring, Christianity 101, CreateSpace, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, friends, Heaven Sent, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, People, Personal development, Self-help, Simplified Christian Life, Smashwords

New Publication

It’s been nearly a year since I started my blog series on the fundamentals of Christianity. Those of you who follow me closely may remember that as that series drew to a close I decided to use those blogs as the basis for a book. I’m happy to announce today that the book is on the market.

Christianity 101: The Simplified Christian Life cuts through the clutter some would strew in the way between you, the individual Christian, and Jesus—or that some would throw in front of a non-Christian who is honestly seeking a relationship with the King. It is my fervent hope book will both bring those seeking salvation into a saving relationship with Him and bring those who are already Christians but are mired in the muck into proper relationships with our blessed Savior.

One of the things I’ve always found strange about Christians in general is that we so often speak grace to get people saved and then immediately began to point them back under the law. We tell them that Jesus paid the price for our salvation and that His grace is sufficient. Then, as soon as they accept Him as their Savior, we begin telling them they can’t do this and they have to do that if they want to be Christians.

How do we expect a new Christian to find his way through the confusion of such paradoxical teaching? How do we expect a lost person to come to Jesus for salvation when we speak out of both sides of our mouths?

This book gives new believer and salvation seeker alike a basic knowledge of the Word. It begins by exploring some of the covenants God made with His people Israel and then moves into the New Covenant. It teaches grace—that we need Jesus plus nothing.

Whether you are still seeking the salvation Jesus offers—or a new Christian trying to learn what grace means without all the garbage thrown in the way—or a more seasoned Christian seeking to understand grace better so you can explain it to others, this book has something for you. To order a Kindle version from Amazon, click here. To order a copy for Nook or Kindle from Smashwords, click here. Either way, it’s only $3.99.

It’s also available in paperback, but CreateSpace’s website seems to be a little slow in getting it posted. I’ll mention the link in Friday’s blog.

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If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Christian Thoughts Tagged: Christian, Christian Fellowship, Christian life, Christianity, Christianity 101, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Faith, Fancy Series, Forgiveness, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Grace, Heaven Sent, inspiration, Jesus, Sins, Works

Remembering 9-11

Yesterday was the thirteenth anniversary of the cowardly acts of Muslim terrorists in bombing the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Probably no American made it through the day yesterday without thinking about the thousands of innocent Americans who lost their lives in those attacks and about the daring heroes on United Airlines Flight 93 who resisted their gutless attackers and prevented that flight from being used to crash into the White House.

These ruthless attacks against so many innocent citizens caused this nation to draw together in a level of unity rarely seen. When our President addressed a joint session of Congress a few days later to declare war on those who perpetrate such acts and those who direct and support them, public opinion was overwhelmingly behind him.

In the days and years since then, although there has been no successful attack on American soil, we’ve seen one cowardly attack after another by Muslim terrorists who seemingly have no conscience whatsoever regarding others. They attack our embassy in Libya. They kidnap schoolgirls in Africa. They attack peacekeeping troops from the United Nations as well as from the United States. They attack their own people in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sometimes these butchers go by the name al Queda, at other times Hamas, and still other times the Islamic State. There are other names that don’t come to mind at the moment, but they all have one thing in common. They are all Muslim, and almost all of them are male.

Political correctness says we can’t profile these people. If we run security checks in our airports, we have to treat little old ladies traveling to see their great grandchildren the same way we treat Muslim men, subjecting them to the indignities of pawing and even sometimes strip-searching. We can’t use good sense. We must obey the dictates of political correctness.

Certainly, not all Muslim men are terrorists. No one would argue that. But all the people who perpetrate the atrocities I’ve mentioned were Muslims, and almost all men.

We need to remember what happened on 9-11. What happened to our embassy in Libya. What happens almost daily in Israel, where these horrible people are intent on annihilating all Jews. We need to regain the spirit of unity we had in those first days after the 9-11 attacks.

We need to quit treating these terrorists like common criminals and according them the same rights our courts have given to criminal defendants. These people didn’t rob a 7-11 store. They are mass murderers with no remnant of conscience. They need to be tried by military courts when they are caught and then be quickly administered the death penalty.

How did you feel yesterday when you saw flags flying and thought about the events being commemorated by those flags?

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It’s been nearly a year since I announced the publication of a new book. Watch this space next week for news about my latest one.

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We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

——————————————

For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Advice, al Queda, Authorship, Caring, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, friends, Hamas, Heaven Sent, Islamic State, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, Muslim terrorists, Pentagon, People, Personal development, Self-help, White House, World Trade Center

Church Growth

A lot of Christians eat breakfast in the same restaurant where I do. Sitting alone at a booth with no one to talk to, it’s almost impossible not to hear the conversation in the next booth.

The two men sitting there were familiar faces, although I don’t know them. I see them both in there from time to time, and they almost always talk about their church. One of them is apparently seeking a job as a pastor, and they often discuss churches where he has applied.

Today, the subject of their discussion was church growth. They were talking about how to grow a small church into a medium-size church, a medium-sized church into a large one, and a large one into a mega-church.

While they talked I wondered, as I frequently do, what God thinks about such things. Does God really care which church is the biggest? Which church has the biggest offerings? Which pastor makes the most money? I think not.

I read a statement some time ago that God doesn’t care about the growth of the number of people in the church—He cares about the growth of the people in the church. To me, this statement nails it.

If there are only a dozen people in the church but they are growing in their faith, their relationships with God, their knowledge and understanding of His word, I think God receives more glory from that than from a church that grows astronomically but doesn’t have the time to tend to the growth of the individual members. I believe that’s what church should be about.

We live in a culture that loves to brag about size and growth. My city is bigger than yours. My house is bigger than yours. My ego is bigger than yours. Oops, we don’t say that last one, but that’s what we’re really saying when we put all this emphasis of size and growth.

My church is actually a Sunday School class. We only have 15 to 20 people in attendance on a typical Sunday, but we all love one another, and we have good solid teaching, and we all know God. Not just know about Him, but know Him. He’s real to us. Our relationships with Jesus Christ are real. The Holy Spirit in us is real.

The church our class is a part of, on the other hand, has several thousand members. I’m not sure of the exact definition of a mega-church, but I imagine ours would qualify. Most of the members sit in the sanctuary—which looks more like a rock venue than a sanctuary, so we can attract more young people to the church—and listen to the sermon and then go home. There’s a small core of people who know one another and truly fellowship, but most duck out to avoid having to establish personal relationships. I don’t think that’s what God wants in a church, and that’s why my church is the Sunday School class.

Whether it’s the two men I overheard in the restaurant or the staff and elders of my church—or those of your church either—we need to direct our attention and efforts to the care and feeding and growth of the souls of the people within our churches rather than how to get more members. Let’s leave our egos at home. Let’s quit measuring ourselves by the world’s standards. Let’s be the body of Christ that God wants us to be. Let’s build mega-Christians instead of mega-churches.

Where’s the emphasis in your church? Is the primary emphasis feeding the sheep, or is it feeding the growth of the size of the church?

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If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Christian Thoughts Tagged: Christian, Christian Fellowship, Christianity, Church growth, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Faith, Fancy Series, Forgiveness, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Grace, Heaven Sent, inspiration, Jesus, Sins, Works

Dealing with Sudden Loss

We tell one another that we have no guarantees for the future. We don’t know who will live to be 100, who will die before retirement, and who may die tomorrow. Life is filled with uncertainty.

This was brought home to me rather graphically this week. My wife Sharon has a number of friends she’s stayed in touch with ever since childhood, and she naturally cherishes her relationships with these people.

Monday, she received a terse email from one of these friends she’s known since they were in the fifth grade—close to 60 years ago. All the email said was, “My daughter died.”

Such a cryptic message with no explanation included seemed strange enough to us we thought it was probably a hoax. The daughter in question was in her early forties and, so far as anyone knew, in excellent health. She wasn’t a drug user or a clinically depressed suicide candidate. My first thought was to ignore the message, but Sharon called her friend and asked if she’d just sent an email.

Turns out her daughter actually had died Monday morning. It was a complete shock to everyone, including the lady’s daughter, who found her. The girl called her grandmother first, then her grandfather and finally 911.

An event such as this makes you stop and think about your own loved ones. I cannot possibly imagine what it would do to me to receive such news about my own daughter, but I know I’d be devastated. Even though this young lady, like my daughter, is a Christian and is now in heaven with Jesus, the thought of having something like this happen to my daughter—or to her husband or kids or my stepson or his wife—is beyond my ability to consider.

As I thought about the family of this young lady, I remembered how my older sister lost her oldest child some 20 years ago and how my mother lost my younger sister 18 years ago and my little brother 10 years ago. Yes, we’ve had sad occasions like this in my family, but it’s still unthinkable, the grief unimaginable.

An autopsy showed this woman had an unknown and undiagnosed heart condition which, presumably, was the cause of her death. That’s certainly better than learning she was an addict who had overdosed or that she was so depressed she committed suicide. But it’s still a horrific loss to her family.

She leaves behind a husband and two children. I don’t know their ages, but they’re both in school. Her loss also deprives the family of her income as a school teacher. Her widower must now face raising his children by himself with about half the income he’s accustomed to having.

An event such as this makes me want to drive 200 miles to hug my daughter—and my son-in-law and my grandsons, along with my stepson and daughter-in-law. I need them to know I love them. I know they all realize that, but it still makes me want to go reassure them and to see their faces and hear their voices.

Don’t take your loved ones for granted. Thank God for every day you have them to share in your life.

What traumatic losses have you suffered? How have you dealt with them?

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We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Advice, Authorship, Autopsy, Caring, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, friends, Heaven Sent, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, People, Personal development, Self-help

New Thoughts on a Familiar Passage

It always fascinates me when I learn something brand new from a familiar passage of scripture. We’ve probably all heard Matthew 19:13-22 since we were little kids, yet in Sunday School the other day I realized some things about these verses I’d never thought about before. Read through them with me:

     13     Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them.

     14     But Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

     15     After laying His hands on them, He departed from there.

     16     And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?”

     17     And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

     18     Then he said to Him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness;

     19     Honor your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

     20     The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?”

     21     Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

     22     But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.

In the past, I’d always heard the first three verses above as one lesson and the rest as a completely unrelated lesson, but I realized for the first time that they are definitely related. In verse 14, Jesus doesn’t say the kingdom of heaven belongs to children. He says it belongs to such as these.

Little children don’t complicate life with a lot of doubts. They tend to accept what they are told on faith. He’s saying the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who trust Him and follow in blind faith. In Matthew 5:3 He says it belongs to “the poor in spirit,” i.e. those who aren’t puffed up with pride but are teachable—willing to hear and believe.

Then He’s confronted by this rich man who asks what he needs to do to obtain eternal life. Filled with pride and claiming to have kept all the commandments, he wants to know how to buy his way into heaven.

Knowing this man is not such as these, Jesus gives him something to do which He knows the man will not do, and the man goes away grieving. This story was placed next to the incident with the children to illustrate the difference between the two. The children, simple in their wants and willing to believe in Him are blessed, but the man of pride is sent away with nothing. We can learn a lot by meditating on the difference in Jesus’s attitude in these two situations.

One other thing struck me during the discussion. I’d never given any thought to the man’s question, “What am I still lacking?” He either believed or convinced himself that he had kept all the law, but he realized he was lacking something. He was lacking the same thing we have all found ourselves lacking throughout history.

We were born with a vacuum inside us. Some of us try to fill it with drugs, others with alcohol, others with wealth or sex or other things. But the vacuum can only be filled by the Holy Spirit through our accepting Jesus as our Savior. That’s the peace this man was missing and that we all miss until we come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

What thoughts have you had about this passage of scripture?

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If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

 

Filed under: Christian Thoughts Tagged: Christian, Christian Fellowship, Christianity, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Faith, Fancy Series, Forgiveness, God is in control, Godly Wisdom, Grace, Heaven Sent, inspiration, Jesus, Matthew, Sins, Works

Bullet Trains

For years there’s been talk in our area of building “bullet trains”—trains that run in excess of 200 miles per hour. Talk centers around three different routes: Downtown Fort Worth to Downtown Dallas, Dallas to Houston, and the I-35 corridor from Fort Worth to Austin and San Antonio.

Some of the talk involves private financing with the revenues from passengers paying the cost of building and operations. Others talk of taxpayer financing, with a heavy contribution sought from our bankrupt federal government.

A Fort Worth Star-Telegram article put the cost of the Fort Worth-Dallas line at $4.4 billion and the Dallas-Houston line at $10 billion. No estimates were given for the I-35 corridor train.

Surprisingly, private financing appears to be a real possibility for the Dallas-Houston route, but the Fort Worth-Dallas route, costing less than half as much and in all likelihood producing much more traffic, seems to hinge on federal grants and local taxpayers.

This makes no sense to me. If a $10 billion project can line up private financing, why can a $4.4 billion project which would draw much more revenue per mile do the same?

An even more basic question in my mind is why would we build something that there’s not enough demand to pay for? Whether it’s mass transit, Amtrak or whatever—if enough people are willing to pay to use it for it to be self-supporting, then go for it. On the other hand, if demand is insufficient to carry the load, why should a bunch of already overloaded taxpayers shell out the money for it?

Lest I be misunderstood, let me hasten to say that I love railroads. I grew up in an era in which passenger trains were THE mode of transportation, and I started riding trains to visit kinfolk before I started to school. I miss the days of passenger train service and wish we still had it. But I also understand the railroads suffered financial losses providing the service, and I don’t blame them for dropping it.

As much as I’d love to get on a train and be in San Antonio in less than two hours, avoiding the parking lot they call I-35, I don’t believe in boondoggles at taxpayer expense. Build the lines if projected revenue makes sense to private financing sources, but don’t blow taxpayers’ money on uneconomical ventures.

What do you think about taxing our citizens to pay for ventures that are not economically feasible? Why do you think so?

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We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Advice, Authorship, Bullet trains, Caring, David N. Walker Christian Author, David N. Walker Historical Fiction Author, Fancy Series, friends, Heaven Sent, Life, Life experience, Life lessons, Life truths, Life values, People, Personal development, Railroads, Self-help

Ask in My Name

Our Sunday School class the other day was based on the first 26 verses of John 14. We had a lively discussion on the Trinity, which, of course, no one among us understands fully. We talked about how we have one God but that He is actually three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

We all understand that He is one, but that He is also three distinct persons, but none of us could explain exactly how that works. I’d be quite leery of anyone claiming to understand this fully and clearly. This is one of those things Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians 13, when he said in verse 12: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” This is simply one of those things none of us can fully understand in this life.

As interesting as this discussion was, my eyes kept wandering back to verses 13 and 14, which read as follows:

Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

This is one of those scriptures which many take out of context and misinterpret. I’ve heard many followers of the prosperity gospel take this as license to ask for better jobs, Cadillacs, yachts, and other things. Then they become disillusioned when they are not given what they ask for. After all, they concluded their prayers with “In the name of Jesus,” or “In Christ’s name,” thinking that bound Jesus to fulfill their wishes.

Many of these people who follow the teachings of those who proclaim God will make them all rich actually claim what they pray for. I’m claiming a brand-new Lincoln Town Car in the name of Jesus. I claim a new job at double my current salary in the name of Jesus.

This perversion of the gospel is based upon a misinterpretation—or wrong teaching—of the word name. When Jesus says “ask in My name . . .” He’s not simply saying to attach his name to the end of your request.

In Jesus’s time, a name went far beyond just an appellation by which to call someone. It included the whole person, and more particularly, his character. When Jesus says to pray in His name—and by the way, Christ is not His name; it’s His title—He is saying to pray in His character. Did Jesus live a life of wealth and prestige? Not only is the answer to that question a resounding “no,” but He didn’t even concern Himself with such things.

Does this mean Jesus doesn’t want you to prosper financially? Not at all. He may give you millions of dollars—but not necessarily. His first priority in your life and mine is to conform us to His image. To perfect us so His Father can present Him with a spotless bride. This is the goal of His character, and all the naming and claiming in the world will not change it. He loves us far too much to allow the desires of our flesh to stop Him from achieving His goal of perfecting us.

What is your understanding of “ask in My name?”

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If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tab above.

For more information about his books, click on “Books” above.

Contact him at dnwalkertx (at) gmail (dot) com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx.

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