Edition 3 of the NO ANSWER Study

Monday, November 7th

Edition 3 of the NO ANSWER Study

“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed,… nothing will be impossible for you.”

Questions that come to my mind are this:

• How long should I pray?

Answer #1: Continually

• How long should I fast?
• What accounts for a “mustard seed” of faith?

Answer #1: We have seen that a mustard seed is a very small thing. It takes very little faith to do the impossible.

(A bit of humor to start the day) Mr. Marlow was strolling through the country when he saw a stable with the most beautiful horse he ever laid eyes on. It was seventeen hands high and white, with rippling muscles and a fine, flowing mane. Mr. Marlow struck a deal to buy it from the owner who did, however, pass on one key piece of information.

"We are a religious family, Mr. Marlow, and we've instilled those values in our horse. To get him to gallop you must say 'Thanks God' to get him to stop you must say 'Our Father Who Art in Heaven."

Settling into the saddle, Marlow said " Thanks God," and the animal took off. They rode for miles; suddenly they were coming up to a cliff. Unfortunately, Marlow couldn't remember the phrase to make the animal stop and tried every Biblical passage he could think of until, just a few feet from the edge of the cliff, he shouted, "Our Father Who Art in Heaven!” The animal stopped instantly. Shaking and perspiring, Marlow reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. "Thanks God," he said as he mopped his brow.

(Taken from teleport.com) The mustard seed Jesus mentioned is the smallest they had that would get sown and then harvested, that all the people would have known about then. The mustard seed Jesus described is expected to be the black mustard, which does grow to about 12 feet tall in Israel.

Given the people Jesus was talking with, their knowledge of the day, and the crops they would harvest, Jesus had told them the truth. For them, the mustard seed is the smallest seed that they would've sown and later harvested.

There is no contradiction in what Jesus had told them. The parable that Jesus was giving out is an analogy, it's not meant to provide any sort of science education, but to convey a concept using common terms that they would have understood, common concepts being used to explain something they didn't understand.

Jesus' point was that the mustard seed starts out the smallest of that grouping of seeds: common seeds that all them would know about at that time, seeds that were sown to harvest as a crop, but that even though it's the smallest of all those seeds, it grows into something big enough to seem to be a tree to the birds that would rest on the branches of it.

Note: Now, going back to the mustard seed of faith, a little faith can go a long way. I suppose the faith is supposed to grow as you continue to pray. As it grows, the doubt is supposed to diminish. I would then think the length of prayer would then be praying to the point to where doubt is completely gone.

1 Thessalonians 5:12-24
12 Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14 And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

16 Be joyful always; 17 pray continually; 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

19 Do not put out the Spirit's fire; 20 do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21 Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22 Avoid every kind of evil.

23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

So, verse 17 says to pray continually.

Continual (adj.):

1. Recurring regularly or frequently.
2. Not interrupted; steady.

I would take it more as a regular prayer. Praying several times a day, but maybe when there is a major circumstance, should we pray for a period of time, hours on end, of un-interrupted prayer? I think so. And when our prayer goes unanswered, we should still give thanks (verse 18). But that still does not mean we do not search as to why. So when we search for the answers, it should be a joyful search (verse 16). We should put everything to the test.

Test (noun):

1. A procedure for critical evaluation; a means of determining the presence, quality, or truth of something; a trial.
2. A series of questions, problems, or physical responses designed to determine knowledge, intelligence, or ability.
3. A basis for evaluation or judgment.

It is biblical to search things out in the bible. To find answers about the bible and why some prayers are answered in how we prayed vs. other times our prayers are not answered as the bible says they would be, I need to ask a series of questions. This test is a trial, per se. I don’t see it as a bad thing. I see it joyfully, and I do not doubt the answer lies somewhere within the pages (800+), the test is: can I find it? This looks to be a fun study and a long one… Johnny Out.

International Sunday
DFW Church of Christ
November 13th
Sunday Service at 10AM
at the Wyndam Hotel (Ballroom)
1500 Convention Center Drive
Arlington, TX 76011
Next to the Ranger's Baseball Stadium
Children Classes Available