Monday, January 8, 2018

IS IT TRUE THAT GOD ANSWERS PRAYER?

By Ada Brownell

Following is an article on truth that I wrote a while back, but it's important now because my new book's greatest asset is the true stories that appear in WHAT PRAYER CAN DO.

Here's the short summary: 


What prayer can do
By Ada Nicholson Brownell
Released Dec. 17, 2017
E-BOOK AND PAPERBACK AVAILABLE.

Pray. God answers.


True testimonies of events where God intervened.
Ennis Surratt, known as the “meanest man in town,” changed in a moment. John Feliciano, blinded in an industrial accident, sees instantly. Marjorie Eager’s family escapes death when God stops a forest fire. A mother prays on her deathbed for her sons to meet her in heaven, and years later God grabs Gary Hilgers out of sin and turns him around. More amazing chapters originally published in The Pentecostal Evangel, enough for every week of the year, with three bonuses.


HOW IMPORTANT IS TRUTH?

                                                          By Ada Brownell

Christian writers wary of preachiness often avoid a gospel message in their writing. Many, however, don’t know what “preachy” is. When I first noticed editors’ guidelines advising against it, I feared they didn’t even want to publish anything with a scripture in it.

Then a secular writer, Frank Luntz, author of Words that Work, explained how to avoid being preachy: “Tell the truth,” he said, “but don’t do it in a condescending manner.”[i]

How important is truth? Should we “spin” it so it will be accepted? “Spin,” used so often these days by politicians and others is actually “twisting the truth” or avoiding it.

 Sometimes telling the truth is difficult, in our writing and in life. We need to be dedicated to truth, even in the family.

I can’t imagine how Mary felt when she had to tell Joseph she was pregnant with the Messiah. She excitedly told her aunt Elizabeth, and rejoiced so much her words became the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). But Joseph considered breaking their engagement privately. Nice the angel also visited Joseph with the news of the Messiah, so he believed his virgin and quickly married her (Matthew 1:18-25).

The Apostle Paul usually offset hard truths by wonderful revelation: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

John, the disciple, who spoke continuously about love and penned John 3:16, didn’t hesitate to write hard truths: “If we say we have fellowship with him (Jesus), and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth (1John 1:6). But he adds, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Jesus certainly didn’t stumble at the truth, either. For example, “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels’” (Matthew 25:41). But went on to add the contrast of hope, “And these shall go away to everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal (Matthew 25:46).

It might sound preachy, but it’s really not condescending. Truth is a light that can save a sinner from falling into the dark chasm of sin and eternal death.  Truth is water to the soul wandering in a dry desert of wickedness and unbelief.

The belt of truth is part of the armor God provides if we ask.

What is truth? Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6).

The scriptures were “God breathed” and are the only effective pattern for living. The Word also is an example for our witness. So for me, I’ll write the truth and hope I don’t do it in a condescending manner.

©Ada Brownell October 2013







[i] Hyperion, New York, 2007

No comments:

Post a Comment