Does God listen to everyone's prayers or just really faithful people's prayers?  How faithful do you have to be for your prayer to be heard?  Do you get heard more often the more faithful you are?

Sincerely,
Wondering How It Works

Dear Wondering How It Works,

In short, who is praying and how they pray matters.  God says that a righteous man's prayers do a great deal of good (Jas 5:16).  That would by default mean that an unrighteous man's prayers wouldn't do much, if any, good at all.  God told Israel that their ungodly lifestyles meant that He wouldn't hear their prayers at all! (Isa 1:15)  There are other things that will stop your prayers from being heard:

• Treating your spouse badly (1 Pet 3:7)
• Praying for "show" (Lk 20:47)
• Praying selfishly (Jas 4:3)
• Praying without gratitude (Col 4:2)

There is no doubt that the Bible teaches that we should examine ourselves before approaching God in prayer.  A wrong attitude or lifestyle can seriously jeopardize our prayers effectiveness.  The flip is also true though!  Proper attitudes and behavior are rewarded:

• Asking for wisdom (Jas 1:5)
• Consistency (1 Thess 5:17)
• Godly living (Jas 5:16)
• Asking without doubt (Jas 1:6)

When we are constantly praying, trusting in God's strength to answer, humbly seeking his wisdom, and living lives that befit God's servants, we can expect powerful results!  Prayer is perhaps one of the greatest tools in a Christian's arsenal (perhaps also one of the least utilized).  The Bible is how God speaks to us; prayer is how we speak to Him.  Just like a child asking their parent for a privilege - how we approach God makes all the difference.

I am a born-again christian man, and I know all the risks involved in sin and have no excuse.  I know what not to do, and yet, I continuously crawl toward my fleshly lusts, namely pornography.  Why can't I stop?  I know and want the promises of God, and yet, I fall short time and time again.  I fear my sin will put me in my grave.  Please help me to put this evil behind me and move toward what's right and true.  Peace and blessings to you for all you do.

Sincerely,
Terrified

Dear Terrified,

We are told that a powerful tool in defeating sin is confessing our sins to one another (Jas 5:16).  Sin likes to be kept secret (Jhn 3:20), and bringing it to light by making it public goes a long way in defeating habitual sin.  A very popular way of getting this sort of accountability is by using accountability software that forwards your browsing history to a friend or trusted individual.  Companies like x3watch and CovenantEyes make accountability software, and many struggling pornography addicts have found it to make a huge difference.  If you want to defeat sin, you must expose it.  Confess your sin to others, and you will begin to see change.  It is time to get serious about removing this sin.  You know you are serious about defeating sin when you are willing to expose it at all costs.  That is the single most effective advice we could give you.  Some other details to consider:

1. Bad company corrupts good morals (1 Cor 15:33).  Don’t spend time around others who are okay with this behavior and remove all illicit materials from your home.  Throwing away the pornography or moving the computer to a more public space of the house is a good first step to saving yourself from it (Matt 5:29).
2. Don’t give up.  A righteous man falls, but he keeps getting back up (Pr 24:16).  A failure doesn’t become permanent until you let it.  Keep trying.
3. Get help from others.  Trying to do things alone, especially when we’ve failed before, is just too hard.  We are stronger when we enlist the help of friends and family (Eccl 4:9-12).
4. Replace the bad habit with a good habit.  It isn’t enough to simply stop something; that void must be filled with something else that is positive (Lk 11:24-26).
5. Pray.  God blesses us when we turn to Him (Jas 5:16) and ask for forgiveness and help (Jas 1:5).

Now is your chance to start a new life free from this addictive slavery to pornography.  We would be happy to help you find a congregation in your area that can help you through this struggle and prepare you for a better and complete life in Christ.  E-mail us at askyourpreacher@mvchurchofchrist.org if we can be of service.

How do some christians debate that the earth as a planet is merely 5,000 years old?

Sincerely,
Looking Later

Dear Looking Later,

There is quite a bit of scientific evidence that backs the Bible timeline for a young earth.  According to the Bible, the Earth is around 6,000 years old.  This was accepted by the scientific community until not long before Darwin came on the scene.  Darwinian evolution required the world to be billions of years old to prove his theory that species evolve slowly over time.  Since evolutionists dominate the public voice for the scientific community (even though many scientists do believe the Bible and do believe in a young earth), all you ever hear is that the world is billions of years old – we are never told about the evidence that supports a young Earth.

There are many evidences for a young earth.  One piece of evidence is the Cambrian explosion – a layer of rock that show an immense variety of fossils.  The Cambrian explosion in the fossil record shows that there was a point in history when millions of species exploded onto the scene – the exact opposite of evolution.  However, the Cambrian explosion can easily be explained by the worldwide flood of Noah’s day (Gen 7:11-12).  A worldwide flood explains why there was an explosion of dead things under tons of mud, silt, and rock.

Another example is the distance between the Earth and the moon.  The moon is slowly receding from the Earth at a measurable rate.  With some basic math, we can see that it is impossible for the Earth to be billions of years old – if it was, the moon would have been so close that it would have destroyed all life on the planet!

These are just two simple evidences, but there are thousands more that space doesn’t permit us to list.  Groups of scientists like the people at answersingenesis.org specialize in showcasing the evidences for a young Earth and the accuracy of the Bible account of the Creation.

How are creeds different than publications preachers write?

Sincerely,
Looking At Leaflets

Dear Looking At Leaflets,

Religious publications, commentaries, tracts, and other religious writings are not in and of themselves wrong until a church or denomination turns that document into an essential element of their faith – that is what a creed is.  A creed is someone’s commentary on Scripture that is given equal weight to the Scriptures.

It doesn’t matter whether it agrees with the Scriptures or not – the wording is man-made and, therefore, not exactly as God intended.  A creed draws the lines of fellowship around a human writing.  A creed is a statement of faith that superimposes itself over the Bible.  Now, instead of using the Word of God as the guide for what makes a congregation and a christian faithful – we use a creed to decide what verses and concepts are (and are not) important.  We have no right to do that!  God specifically said that we don’t get to decide what is or isn’t important from His Word; we must take the whole thing, no more, no less (Rev 22:18-19, Ps. 119:160).  If God wanted mankind to use creeds as measures of faith and fellowship – He would have given us one.

My husband was baptized at the age of sixteen by full immersion; however, it was done by the Mormon church where he had made several friends and had begun attending church with them as a youth.  My question is: does he need to be re-baptized?  Thank you!

Sincerely,
Do Over?

Dear Do Over?,

Yes, he does need to be re-baptized because he was baptized for the wrong reasons and by the wrong authority.  People are baptized all the time without being saved.  The word ‘baptism’ comes from the Greek word ‘baptizo’ which means ‘immersion’.  The word ‘baptism’ is the same word that Greeks used when a ship sank to the bottom of the ocean or when someone dove to the bottom of a swimming pool.  In the most technical sense, people are baptized when they take baths, go swimming, etc.  Taking a bath will baptize you, but it definitely won’t save you.

Baptism is only effective when it is done by faith (Col 2:12) and by the authority of Christ (Acts 2:38).  The Mormon church baptizes people based upon the teachings of the Book of Mormon and their prophet, Joseph Smith… not the Bible.  Now, any of our Mormon readers will immediately begin to yell and wail at that last sentence and tell you that it isn’t true.  They will tell you that they baptize people because the Bible says so, but we can guarantee you that if the Book of Mormon said “don’t be baptized” and the Bible said “do be baptized”… they would go with the Book of Mormon’s doctrine.  It is merely convenient for their argument that the Book of Mormon and the New Testament both teach baptism.  Mormons baptize people to put them in the Mormon church, and they do it because Joseph Smith said so.  The Bible teaches that we should be baptized to wash away our sins (Acts 22:16), to put us into the Lord’s church (Acts 2:41), and by Jesus’ authority (Matt 28:18-20).  Your husband definitely needs to be baptized for the right reasons.