Is it a Story or Was it a Dream?

 I shall tell you a story, or was it a dream? 

Whether a dream or my imagination I do not know… But I shall tell you about two men and how their lives intersected with Grace Fellowship Church.

Let’s call them BEN and AMIR.

BEN is a member of Grace Fellowship Church. 33, married, with a couple of kids. 

AMIR is a 23 year old atheist that just joined the same engineering firm BEN works at. 

Over a few months, BEN has several meaningful conversations with AMIR, that lead to them reading the Bible together every week. 

One evening while he is watching the hockey game, AMIR suddenly feels the weight of his sin before God. The verses he read last week about being under the wrath of God are plaguing him. But the verses about Jesus' death are holding out hope. 

Before he knows it, AMIR falls to his knees while the game blares on. He prays and asks God to forgive him of his sins and puts all his confidence in Jesus Christ to save him. 

The next morning, AMIR cannot wait to see BEN at work!

BEN is thrilled at the news and invites AMIR to come to church with him on Sunday. AMIR is glad to go. He loves singing praise to God, hearing God’s Word read and preached and building new friendships with all these new people who all follow Jesus. 

After a very short time, AMIR asks BEN about baptism. They read about it in their Bible Study and AMIR heard about a class. So, BEN and AMIR attend the Baptism Class together. There, AMIR is convinced of a couple of things. First, that he really is trusting on Christ. And second, that he would like to obey Jesus and get baptized. 

So, AMIR writes out his story of how God saved him and sends that to Pastor Pat. 

Pastor Pat sets a time to meet with AMIR and invites BEN to join them. He asks AMIR to explain his understanding of the Gospel and to describe how God saved him from his sins. 

AMIR’s ways of expressing things is a little different, but it is clear he is professing faith in Jesus and confessing the Biblical Gospel. Not only that, his entire life is different from what it was. He loves the things of God and people of God…. He loves God!

So, Pastor Pat sends out AMIR’s testimony of how God saved him to all the members. 

• The members that have not met AMIR find him and meet him on Sunday. 
• Some other members have him over for lunch and rejoice in hearing his testimony. 

At the next Members’ Meeting, the elders recommend to the members that they accept AMIR as a new member, and that he be baptized. BEN and a few others speak at the Members’ Meeting about the evidences of God’s grace that they have observed in AMIR’s life. 

The members vote in favour of accepting AMIR as a new member, once he gets baptized. They have read what he believes and how his life is being shaped to Christ, and they all affirm this appears to be a genuine work of God. 

So, shortly after that meeting, AMIR is baptized during a Sunday service and, since his membership hinged on that baptism, he now becomes a member of Grace Fellowship Church. 

Later in the service, he participates in the Lord’s Supper for the very first time. Identifying himself not only with His crucified, risen, reigning, returning Lord, but with all of His Lord’s people in this place, too. 

In fact, every time he takes the Lord’s Supper He actively ponders what Christ did, where Christ is and how Christ will return… as he looks around the room and considers how that is true for everyone joining him at the Table. “These are my people.” he thinks. And he fellowships together with them with Jesus. 

And not only them! AMIR is learning that there are many churches that preach Jesus and, since his church is in a big city, he delights when baptized members of other evangelical churches from places like Dubai, Dublin and the Dominican show up on Lord’s Supper Sundays and the church extends hospitality to these fellow Christians to join with them. 

He particularly enjoys reading the Membership Covenant out loud. He thinks about all the Bible verses he is promising to obey and loves the sound of all those fellow members around him doing the same. It is always humbling to think of where he needs to grow, yet comforting to think he is on the same path with so many others. 

Soon, AMIR is caught up in the warp and woof of church life. He is greeting people on Sunday mornings, praying along with his fellow members on Sunday nights, and in a Member Group at BEN’s house on Fridays. He also jumps in to a Foundations Class and spends lots of his social time with other young adults. 

He is loving life. 

Then his company downsizes.

AMIR gets the boot and starts looking for work. But, it's not going well. His industry is changing and he was not prepared. Weeks turn into months of rejection letters and increasing debt. He is discouraged. Where is the Lord? Why is this happening?

He gets angry at life. Even though he has more time on his hands, he is spending less and less of it with his fellow church members. He is not returning BEN’s texts. He keeps “being tired” on Member Group night. 

Soon, he is missing a lot of church. Friends from church are calling and chasing him down, but he never seems to make it out to anything. 

Once he finally gets a new job, AMIR fills his life with work. He has bills to pay and he needs to impress the new boss. There is no time for church stuff. Anyway, he’s all good with God. He was baptized after all!

After several months of this, BEN sets up a breakfast with AMIR. After catching up on the new job, BEN reminds AMIR of what he promised in the Membership Covenant. BEN makes it clear that he is calling on AMIR to come back to church. 

AMIR hangs his head in shame and tells BEN he will back on Sunday. But when Sunday morning comes he panics… and watches some random church service online telling himself that is good enough.

A few more months of this go by until BEN tells AMIR they need to meet again. And this time, he is going to bring Rocky along. Rocky is one of the young adults AMIR had really connected with. 

AMIR invites them to his place and, after praying, BEN and Rocky read some of Mathew 18 to him and tell AMIR that they are now at stage two of church discipline with him. 

They make it clear that AMIR is in sin by not meeting regularly together with the Lord’s people. They plead with him that this is not good for his soul. 

AMIR listens carefully to his two friends…. and it is like a fog is lifted from his eyes. He tears up and admits he has been avoiding church. He confesses to his friends his sins and they pray for him. He promises to come back on Sunday and, sure enough, he does.

It is a Lord’s Supper Sunday and AMIR is so glad to admit his failings and be restored with the Lord’s people as he meets with Christ at His table. The bread and wine never tasted so sweet. 

This little episode of wandering has changed AMIR. He is a man on a mission now and soon he is right back into church life and running hard after the Lord with the Lord’s people. 

One of those people interests him more than others. Her name is SHERI and she seems to be quite interested in him, too! Before you know it, they are married with a daughter of their own. 

Many years go by and AMIR’s godliness and character distinguish him in the church. His daughter respects him, his wife loves him, he serves. He teaches sometimes and it is really good. People in the Member Group he leads speak of how much he helps them with his wise counsel from the Word. He seems to have a special place in his heart for new believers and always has some little group of guys he is meeting with and praying for. 

The elders have noticed all of this as well, so when a survey goes out at the Annual Business Meeting to all the members asking them who might serve well as a new elder, AMIR’s name is at the top of the list. 

Soon, AMIR is being formally evaluated for the office. The other elders look deeply at his life and agree the members should consider him as a potential future elder. So, the members evaluate AMIR’s life on the survey provided by the elders. 

With excellent results from both, eventually, AMIR is formally presented to the members as a candidate to become an elder. At the next Members’ Meeting a vote is held and the church votes overwhelmingly in favour of calling AMIR to be one of her elders. He is installed as a new elder the following week and steps seamlessly into the role, helping to lead the only church he has ever known. 

One of AMIR’s greatest joys in being an elder is watching BEN flourish as a deacon. Even though BEN was a huge success in their field and the first one to share the Gospel with AMIR and to disciple AMIR, he never looked down on AMIR. That was just BEN. A model servant in the church. BEN was like an elder cheerleader! 

In fact, BEN was always looking for ways to take some of the more practical needs off the plate of elders like AMIR, so they could carry on with leading the church. BEN loved to serve like this. 

Many more years go by and AMIR reaches a point where he thinks it is time to stop serving as an elder. Although still greatly respected in the church, age and health have caught up with him so that he can no longer fulfill the demands of that role.

He does, however, love to teach GraceKids III. And the kids in the church love Grandpa AMIR, too. He prays for them all, every day, and is frequently telling them of Jesus. He has also been known to distribute the odd candy. 

One autumn morning the church wakes up to sad news. 

During the night, AMIR’s bad heart finally failed. He went to bed that night and woke up in the presence of His Saviour. 

The entire church gathered that evening. There were tears of sadness mixed with tears of joy. Even the ones that had only known Grandpa AMIR a few years loved him. How they will miss him! 

But, to think that AMIR was now holding another cup and looking at Jesus. It was too much to take in! What a thought! Forever with His Lord. And to think that a Day was coming when all of them would all be together again… forever. What a thought!

After the funeral, the deacons went and met with SHERI. She was sad at the loss of her husband AMIR, but not despairing. Not only that, she has thrilled she was in a church with deacons. 

Her own health was not that great and AMIR had always insisted on doing the mowing and shovelling and keeping the budget. She was a bit lost. Especially since their daughter, their only child, had tragically died in a car accident some 15 years earlier and there were no other relatives to speak of. She was a widow indeed.

Soon the deacons had everything figured out. 

• One was helping SHERI get up to speed on keeping the budget. 
• Another put together a little team to mow, plant, water and shovel. 
• One of the female deacons tapped the shoulder of a few of her sisters and they started a monthly fellowship time at SHERI’s house that met right up until SHERI’s last day on earth. 

And so Grace Fellowship Church kept plugging along for many decades…

• Bringing in members, sending some out to other churches or the mission field. 
• Preaching God’s Word and celebrating the ordinances. 
• Shepherding the flock of God among them at any given time. 
• Raising up elders and deacons. 
• Planting churches. 
• Occasionally having to discipline some out of membership. 
• Enjoying days of prosperity and peace, and struggling through days of difficulty and potential disunity and strife. 

Once they even had a rogue elder start to preach a false Gospel. It took a while to see, but eventually the other elders had to ask the members to remove him. It was so sad. But, once it was done, all kinds of other sins in that man’s life were unearthed and the church was so glad she was spared from being led astray. A deep seriousness came over all the members in those days… everyone was taking stock of themselves. 

Then, one day, while they were in the middle of their Sunday morning worship service, Jesus returned! 

And of what followed that I cannot speak. 

For I beheld things far too wonderful for words. 

M’Cheyne on Answers to Prayer - Pastoral Letter, February 1839

 M’Cheyne on Answers to Prayer  - Pastoral Letter, February 1839

From Memoirs and Remains, page 229-232.

I do not now remember all the points I was led to speak upon to you, but one, I think, was entirely omitted —I mean the subject of answers to prayer.

God left it for us to meditate on now. Oh, there is nothing that I would have you to be more sure of than this, that "God hears and answers prayer." There never was, and never will be, a believing prayer left unanswered. Meditate on this, and you will say: "I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplication" (Ps. 116. 1).

First, God often gives the very thing His children ask at the very time they ask it. You remember Hannah (1 Sam. 1. 10): she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. "Give unto thine handmaid a man-child." This was her request. And so she went in peace, and the God of Israel heard and granted her the petition that she had asked of Him; and she called the child's name Samuel, that is, "Asked of God." Oh, that you could write the same name upon all your gifts! you would have more joy in them, and far larger blessings along with them. 

You remember David, in Ps. 138:3 "In the day that I cried Thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul" 

You remember Elijah (1 Kings 17. 21): "O Lord my God! I pray Thee let this child's soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived." 

You remember Daniel (9. 20, 21): "While I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin, and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation." Oh, what encouragement is here for those among you who, like Daniel, are greatly beloved, who study much in the books of God's word, and who set your face unto the Lord to seek by prayer gifts for the Church of God !

Expect answers while you are speaking in prayer. Sometimes the vapours that ascend in the morning come down in copious showers in the evening. So may it be with your prayers. Take up the words of David (Ps. 5. 3): "My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up." 

You remember, in Acts 12.5, Peter was cast into prison, "but prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him."And, behold, the same night the answer

surprised them at the door. Oh, what surprises of goodnes and grace God has in store for you and me, if only we pray without ceasing! 

If you will pray in union to Jesus, having childlike confidence towards God, having the Spirit of adoption, crying Abba within you,— seeking the glory of God more than all personal benefits, I believe that in all such cases you will get the very thing you ask, at the very time you ask it. Before you call, God will hear; and while you are speaking, He will answer.

Oh, if there were twenty among you who would pray thus, and persevere therein like wrestling Jacob, you would get whatever you ask! yea, the case of Daniel shows that the effectual fervent prayer of one such believer among you will avail much. "Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thy heart" (Ps. 38. 4).

Second, God often delays the answer to prayer for wise reasons.

The case of the Syrophenician woman will occur to you all (Matt. 15. 21-28). How anxiously she cried, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou son of David! But Jesus answered her not a word." Again and again she prayed, and got no gracious answer. Her faith grows stronger by every refusal. She cried, she followed, she kneeled to Him, till Jesus could refuse no longer. "O woman, great is thy faith! Be it unto thee even as thou wilt." Dear praying people, "continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgivings." Do not be silenced by one refusal. Jesus invites importunity by delaying to answer.

Ask, seek, knock. "The promise may be long delayed, but cannot come too late." You remember, in the parable of the importunate widow, it is said, "Shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily" (Luke 18. 1-8). This shows how you, who are God's children, should pray. You should cry day and night unto God. This shows how God hears every one of your cries, in the busy hour of the day-time, and in the lonely watches of the night. He treasures them up from day to day; soon the full answer will come down: "He will answer speedily." The praying souls beneath the altar, in Rev. 6. 9-11, seem to show the same truth, that the answer to a believer's prayers may, in the adorable wisdom of God, be delayed for a little season, and that many of them may not be fully answered till after he is dead. Again, read that wonderful passage, Rev. 8. 3, where it is said that the Lord Jesus, the great Intercessor with the Father, offers to God the incense of His merits, with the prayers of all saints, upon the golden altar which is before the throne. Christ never loses one believing prayer. The prayers of every believer, from Abel to the present day, He heaps upon the altar, from which they are continually ascending before his Father and our Father; and when the altar can hold no more, the full, the eternal answer will come down. Do not be discouraged, dearly beloved, because God bears long with you— because He does not seem to answer your prayers. Your prayers are not lost. When the merchant sends his ships to distant shores, he does not expect them to come back richly laden in a single day: he has long patience. "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord." Perhaps your prayers will come back, like the ships of the merchant, all the more heavily laden with blessings, because of the delay.

Third, God often answers prayer by terrible things. So David says in Ps. 65.5: "By terrible things in righteousness wilt Thou answer us, O God of our salvation." And all of you who are God's children have found it true. Some of you have experienced what John Newton did when he wrote that beautiful hymn, "I asked the Lord that I might grow.” 

You prayed with all your heart, "Lord, increase my faith." In answer to this, God has shown you the misery of your connection with Adam. He has revealed the hell that is in your heart. You are amazed, confounded, abashed. You cry, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" You cleave to a Saviour God with a thousand times greater anxiety. Your faith is increased. Your prayer is answered by terrible things.

Some of us prayed for a praying spirit: “Lord, teach us to pray." God has laid affliction upon us. Waves and billows go over us. We cry out of the depths. Being afflicted, we pray. He has granted our heart's desire. Our prayer is answered by terrible things.

Fourth, God sometimes answers prayer by giving something better than we ask. An affectionate father on earth often does this. The child says, Father, give me this fruit. No, my child, the father replies; but here is bread, which is better for you.

So the Lord Jesus dealt with his beloved Paul (2 Cor. 12. 7-9). There was given to Paul a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him. In bitterness of heart he cried, " Lord, let this depart from me."

No answer came. Again he prayed the same words. No answer still. A third time he knelt, and now the answer came, not as he expected. The thorn is not plucked away-the messenger of Satan is not driven back to hell; but Jesus opens wide His loving breast, and says, "My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength, is made perfect in weakness."

Oh, this is something exceeding abundant above all that he asked, and all that he thought. Ah, this is something better than he asked, and better than he thought! Surely God is able to do "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Eph. 3. 20). Dear praying believers, be of good cheer. God will either give you what you ask, or something far better.

Are you not quite willing that He should choose for you and me? You remember that even Jesus prayed, "O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me!" That desire was not granted, but there appeared unto Him an angel from heaven strengthening Him (Luke 22. 43). He received what was far better — strength to drink the cup of vengeance. Some of you, my dear believing flock, have been praying that, if it be God's will, I might be speedily restored to you, that God's name might be glorified; and I have been praying the same. Do not be surprised if He should answer our prayers by giving us something above what we imagined. Perhaps He may glorify Himself by us in another way than we thought. "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen."

These things I have written, that you may come boldly to the throne of grace. The Lord make you a praying people.

"Strive together with me in your prayers to God for me." "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request with joy." Now, the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another, according to Christ Jesus

“The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing; and the God of peace be with you all, Amen."