 | Pastor Dave grew up in northern New Jersey in a very diverse cultural area. He attended Central College in Pella, Iowa received a BA in sociology and psychology. He was an offensive guard for their NCAA Div III National Championship team in 1974. In speaking for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, he sensed a call to full time ministry. Meeting is future wife Sandy at Central, went to Michigan to finish her college while Dave started Western Seminary in Holland, Michigan. Dave married Sandy in 77 and completed his Masters of Divinity degree in 78. Pastor Dave’s first church was in Fort Lee, New Jersey, home of the George Washington Bridge. Their three children were born there and he also served as a Police and Fire Chaplain for the city. In February 1991, they came to Wichita to start Harvest Community Church. In 2006, he received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Covenant Theological (Presbyterian) Seminary in St Louis. During that year he gained a daughter-in-law with now 2 grandsons of 3 years and 6 months old. Besides Pastoring at HCC for the past 20 years, he has been Director of the SCSD & WPD Police Chaplains for 11.
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Religion
2011-02-01 14:24:00
To whom should we pray?
Question: Who should one pray to…God? Jesus? The Holy Spirit? Angels? Saints?
Answer: The danger with answering a question like this is for someone to get the mistaken idea that if we use the right combination of words or formula, it will be the magical incantation for getting what I need or want from God. Kind of like a Harry Potter chant. I hope our readers don’t think that. To be honest, the sincere call to God in desperate times can be an appropriate prayer with one word looking to Him saying, “Help!” God knows the heart. In fact, scripture even says in some of our difficulties, we can’t even put those feelings into words, we just groan. The Bible assures us that God hears those prayers because the Spirit intercedes for us in deeper tones than our words could ever say. (Romans 8:26) The promise is that God hears those deep sighs of pain and grief!
But now that I have said all that, scripture gives us great insights in addressing God in our prayers. One of the ways that is important we see all throughout the Bible is having faith in the One true living God who is the source of all blessings. (James 1:17) He is addressed most frequently in the prayers of the OT as “God,” “My God,” “Lord” Or “Lord God.” In the New Testament, we see more intimacy as Jesus teaches His disciples to pray by starting with “Our Father” reminding us that we are calling on a very loving and personally intimate God in Matthew 6:9. Jesus consistently does so in His prayers (John 17:1; Luke 22:42) and we also see this in Paul (Ephesians 5:20). Stephen as he is being stoned in Acts 7:59-60 appeals to “God,” “Lord Jesus,” and Lord.
Also in the New Testament, we see the Christian prayer taking on an even fuller understanding of God in His Trinitarian elegance. Jesus tells His disciples to ask “in my name” (John 14:13) and we see that as Paul reminds us that we go in the “name of the Lord Jesus Christ to God” (Ephesians 5:20). Because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, we have “bold access and confidence” (Ephesians 3:12). That bold confidence to go to God with all our requests (Philippians 4:6) to the Holy throne of God comes through the “blood of Jesus.” (Hebrews 10:19) Further still, at conversion, we receive by grace Jesus Christ in our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; 1 Corinthians 12:3). The Holy Spirit gives us assurance that we are God’s children through Christ (Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:15-16) but also He helps us in our prayer life (Romans 8:26-28). He even cleans up our prayers and contours them to the will of God. Our access is through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:18). That’s why many choose to end their prayers with “all this we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.” This acknowledges approaching God in prayer is a gift of God’s grace through Jesus Christ.
In addressing the issue of praying to or with Angels, saints or Mary, there are major disagreements with the different Christian traditions. Many in Protestantism have historically called it idolatry. That it doesn’t square with scripture because, prayer is worship. In the book of Revelation, John goes to bow down to an angel and is stopped from doing it (Revelation 19:10; 22:8-9). That is only for God. When it comes to the saints or Mary, the Catholic Church’s official position is that they do not pray to the saints or Mary, but ask for them to pray for you just as you would ask a friend on earth to pray for you. This is due to the belief that the phrase “communion of the saints” in the Apostles Creed is speaking of both those Christians living on earth and those in heaven. However, some Protestants have struggled with this because prayers written and said to Mary or the saints sound as if they are prayed to God Himself only with the name of the saint. Even further, there is no mention of their advocacy in scripture. In The New Catholic Encyclopedia, there is an indirect admission with the phrase “explicitly mentioned” that the intercession by “saints” has no Biblical support. In the Bible, it tells us in 1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” and that “He is always interceding” (Hebrew 7:25). I read a quote of St Bernard that spoke of the greatness of Jesus and the reason for the need of the second advocate Mary. It made me sad that he felt that Jesus was so far beyond and difficult to reach that he needed a second advocate when scripture says just the opposite.
Beyond our differences, which will be all cleared up when we get to heaven, let us look at what scripture calls all Christians to do. It calls us all to “pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:8) That our prayers be humble and sincere (Matthew 6:6-7), trusting by faith that God hears all our prayers (Psalm 34:17) and answers them according to His will (1 John 5:14-15). How can we not feel that we are greatly loved and blessed? We have this wonderful conduit of communication with God called prayer and His promise is that He hears all our prayers. My prayer is that we take time everyday to enjoy such sweet communion with Him.
