He Touched Me - My Pilgrimage of Prayer

Greetings All,

     After sending out my "thought"  last week from John Powell's book, "He Touched Me - My Pilgrimage of Prayer,"  and receiving the positive response I got back as a result, I thought I would send out one more from the same book.  This selection has to do with honest "self-disclosure" with God in our times of prayer.  I have found what he says to be true to my own experience and have recommended it to others. Therefore, I also commend it to you.  Enjoy. 

     "I hear Jesus say, "Without me you can do nothing. You can bear no fruit. I am the Vine and you are the branches. Cut off from me you are dead."  I hear St. John say that only he who knows God can know the meaning of love.  I hear St. Paul describe love as the highest and greatest gift of the Spirit.  Wherever I have found love I have felt the presence of God; God at work in the minds and hearts and muscles of people.

     My experience of God has been working this transformation in me, too. Oh, I am still a very selfish person. God is not finished with me yet. Others may not think of me as a very effective lover, but they do not know the before and after; they cannot read the motives of the heart. The process of divinization, in which God makes us more and more into his image and likeness, is a slow and gradual process.  I am still a pilgrim.  But I have been touched and I am partially transformed. This is the basis of my hope. The God who has touched me in the past will act again and again in my life. Over and over again I will feel his finger and find him.

     Where has all this led me? Where has God, through all this, been leading me? I now understand and approach prayer as communication in a relationship of love, a speaking and listening in truth and in trust. Speaking to God honestly is the beginning of prayer.  It locates a person before God.  I believe that the primary "giving" of love is the giving of one's self through self-disclosure. Without such self-disclosure there is not real giving, for it is only in that moment when we are willing to put our true selves on the line, to be taken for better or for worse, to be accepted or rejected, that true interpersonal encounter begins.  We do not begin to offer ourselves to others until we offer ourselves in this way, for love demands presence, not presents. All my "gifts" (presents) are a mere motion until I have given my true self (presence) in honest self-revelation.

     As in all interpersonal relationships, so in the relationship with God. I do not put myself into his hands or confront his freedom of choice to accept or reject me, to love or loathe me, until I have told him who I really am. Only then can I ask him: Will you have me?  Will you let me be yours? Will you be mine? Martin Luther's first law of success in prayer was: "Don't lie to God!"  In speaking to God in the dialogue of prayer, we must reveal our true and naked selves. We must tell him the truth of our thoughts, desires, and feelings, whatever they may be.  They may not be what I would like them to be, but they are not right or wrong, true or false. They are me.

     I am sure that this has benefited me in many other ways, but certainly it has enabled to speak more honestly to my God. It has freed me from the lie of those prefabricated pious cliches that are death to true conversational prayer.  I have told him where I really live -- in belief and unbelief. I have told him of my weariness in answering his call.  Of the emotional resentment I feel at being a public utility, a servant to be used and taken for granted. I have ventilated all my neurotic, throbbing emotions... I have been like Job of the Old Testament, cursing the day he made me, and like the prophet Jeremiah, accusing God of making not a prophet, but a fool of me. I have been a King David singing of his mercy and forgiveness, which I have always needed along the way of my pilgrimage.

     There is something so healing about "letting it all out" with God. The psychiatrist Karl Jung defined neurosis in terms of an inner cleavage, a war within, the existence of fraction-hood or inward division. With Paul we all know that there is, "another law warring in my members."  The real problem is confronted when we come to the question of our willingness to accept ourselves in this human condition of weakness. Will we be comfortable as a fraction, a creature of ambiguity whose evil is always mixed somehow with good and whose good is always somehow tainted with evil?

     I am sure that my comfort in this human condition depends for me on whether God will accept me this way or not.  I am worth only what I am worth in his eyes.  All the rest is charade. So, I have to put myself on the line the way I am. Charades with God is wasted time. I have to place myself in the posture of trusting his greatness and understanding. This is the essential beginning of prayer."

     Self-disclosure with God requires two things:

     1st) It requires the assurance we will not be rejected for what we share. That is, we need to be assured of the Gospel doctrine of justification; that our acceptance is secured through another on our behalf. That God accepts us fully for Jesus sake, through faith in Him.  Or to put it in theological terms, we must believe the message of the Gospel -- that our justification is not dependent upon our sanctification or performance, but just the opposite!  If we do not believe this, then complete honesty with God and others is nearly impossible.

     2nd) To be searingly honest with God I must believe the biblical declaration that the God  who loves and accepts me in Jesus is all-knowing (Psalm 139:1-4). We must believe that there is nothing hidden from Him, not even the secret things we alone know about ourselves (Ecclesiastes 12:14).  If we think we can hide something from God, we will.  It's not until we know He knows all that we are, that we are  freed to share what we truly feel and struggle with - that mishmash of conflicting desires and compulsions Paul speaks of in Romans 7.  In fact, believing that God knows all, even the secret things, makes anything but complete openness and honesty and transparency and truthfulness with God seem so utterly childish and foolish -- like the child who naively thinks he's not fully exposed to the sight of others simply because he covers his own eyes with his hands! 

     God's omniscience actually beckons me to be completely truthful with him, because it assures me he already knows everything I'm thinking, feeling, and even repressing.  It helps me realize that in prayer he simply wants to hear me tell him what he already knows about me!  It's part of healing that neurotic cleavage and fraction-hood and bringing me (and you) to wholeness. And Powell is right, it does open the door to become the true beginning of real prayer.  Then honest communication replaces the pious cliches we often use to mask the truth of who we are and experience God loving even the darkest parts of us.

In the Bonds of the Transforming Truth of the Gospel,  Pastor Jeff

Our True Identity in Christ Jesus

Greetings All!

     This week's thought has to do with who we are in Christ.  It underscores our true identity in Christ Jesus and can help us when we "feel" otherwise. We often have a heavy (even sad) sense of who we feel we are, or how we "think" God must view us, so it's good every so often to be reminded what God says about us, and how He views us in Jesus.

     The list below itemizes in "first-person language" who you really are and what you enjoy in Christ.  You can’t earn these qualities. They are a gift of God's grace to you as His blood-purchased and Spirit-born child. These traits are yours simply because you were born again into life with Christ. There is nothing you can do to make these characteristics more true of you, though you can make them more meaningful and productive in your life by simply choosing to believe they are true of you (After all, to believe them is to believe the Gospel).

     One of the best ways to grow and mature as a believer is to continually remind yourself who you are in Christ and what things are yours by virtue of being His child.  The more you understand and affirm who you are in Christ, the more your life and behavior will reflect the reality of your true identity in Him.  So, believer, take a moment to see if how you view you lines up with how God views you!  Enjoy!

I am a child of God (John 1:12).

I am a branch of the true Vine through whom the life of Jesus flows (John 15:1, 5).

I am a friend of Jesus (John 15:15).

I am justified (pardoned and counted totally righteous in God sight) because of Christ (Romans 3:24)

I am no longer a slave to sin, God has broken it's dominion or oppressive rule over my life (Romans 6:6, Galatians 5:1).

 I am free from any and all divine condemnation (Romans 8:1).

I am a fellow heir with Christ, loved as fully by God as Jesus Himself (Romans 8:17).

I am entirely accepted and acceptable in God’s sight because of all Jesus did for me (Romans 15:7, Ephesians 1:6).

I am a saint, washed and set apart for God (1 Corinthians 1:2, Ephesians 1:1, Philippians 1:1, and Colossians 1:2.)

I am righteous, sanctified and redeemed, because Christ Himself has become for me my righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30).

I am a temple of the Holy Spirit who has come to dwell in me (1 Corinthians 6:19).

I am joined to the Lord Jesus and one with Him in spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17).

 I am a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

I am the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).

I am one with all who are in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).

I am no longer a slave, but a child and an heir who's soul cries out, "Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6-7).

I am blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 1:3)

I am one chosen before the creation of the world to be holy, and blameless before God (Ephesians 1:4).

I am redeemed and forgiven for all my sins by the grace of Jesus (Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 2:13).

I am one who God predestined in love to be a grace-adopted child in His family (Ephesians 1:11).

I am sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 1:13).

I am alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5, Colossians 2:13).

I am God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works (Ephesians 2:10).

I am a member of Christ’s body and a partaker of His promise of love, care, provision and salvation (Ephesians 3:6, Ephesians 5:30.)

I am a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20).

I am complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10).

 I am chosen of God, holy and dearly beloved (Colossians 3:12, 1 Thessalonians 1:4).

     Should you struggle to accept these things are true of you, pause and remember: These are not earned rights, privileges, or positions, they are yours as a gracious and free gift through Jesus.  Read and re-read them if you must, and if you struggle, pray that God might so impress and imprint them upon your soul that they become a given and accepted part of your self-awareness and identity in Jesus.

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

Touched by an Angel

Greetings All,

     This week's "thought" comes to you from Eric Metaxas and is found in his lesser know book entitled, "Miracles - What They Are, Why They Happen, and How They Can Change Your Life."  Metaxas  graduated from Yale with a degree in English and is much better known for his lengthy and best-selling book, Bonhoeffer - Pastor, Martyr, Propet, Spy  or his other more popular book Amazing Grace, about William Wilberforce and his heroic campaign to end slavery in the British Empire.

















In this book, "Miracles," Mataxas deals only with those miracles cited in Scripture, or told to him by friends and associates whose integrity he trusts implicitly, so as to avoid sharing stories from people whose character and credibility he cannot personally vouch for. (He even records for us the dream which he himself had, that led him to write the book on Bonhoeffer.) The stories come from personal friends who either witnessed or experienced phenomena that apart from a miraculous explanation is otherwise inexplicable. Phenomena whose veracity he might even have questioned if he did not personally know the various individuals. For any interested in this topic of the miraculous, this book is well worth the price. Most of the stories are too long to quote, so I share one of the shorter ones. Enjoy.

Touched by an Angel

     "My friend Eva Meyer was thirteen and a freshman at Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut.  In the first few days of school (this was in the 1980's) she made some new friends and one invited her to a sleepover one Friday night in early September. Eva soon realized these girls were rather different from the ones she had been used to spending time with. For one thing, they were all interested in the occult. In fact, they decided they wanted to have a seance that night. One of the girls was heavily into the music of "The Doors," and said she wanted to invoke the spirit of Jim Morrison (who had died July 3, 1971). But Eva did not wish to "break on through to the other side."  She knew far too much about the dark side of the spirit realm to think it was a good way to spend the evening. She simply could not go through with it and said so to her new friends.

     So the girls decided they would all take a walk to the beach instead. The girl whose house the sleepover was at, lived within walking distance of Compo Beach. The quickest route there was straight down Hillspoint Road and over the Hillspoint Road Bridge, which crosses over I-95, the heavily trafficked interstate highway that runs from Maine to Florida. When the girls got to the bridge, Eva saw that there was a six-foot-tall wooden stockade fence blocking the road. Evidently there was "roadwork" being done on the bridge, although they could not see past the tall fence to see exactly what was being done. But the girl whose house they they were staying at told them she climbed the fence all the time and just walked across the bridge. She insisted that she had done it many times and explained that they just didn't want cars driving across it, but it was absolutely fine to walk across it.

     Eva explains that for "some strange reason" they insisted that she go first. They would boost her up and help her get over the fence. To this day Eva cannot figure out why she agreed to go first, but she did. She says that at the time she was a "five-foot-two, maybe one hundred forty pounds, somewhat chubby, very weak thirteen-year-old girl," who had never done a single pull-up in her life. Maybe this is why she agreed to letting the three of them help her up and over first, or why they suggested it.  So the three girls boosted her up with their hands and essentially heaved her over the six-foot fence.

     It was in the next split second that Eva saw the trouble. To put it in her own words, precisely as she typed them to me: "THERE WAS NO BRIDGE THERE!!!  NOTHING!!!"  It was an unspeakable horror, the sort of thing about which one has reoccurring nightmares. Eva remembers in that briefest of moments seeing a huge semi-truck roaring right beneath her flailing legs, which were kicking in midair, and she remembers the feel of the rough top of the stockade fence which she desperately tried to grasp with her hand as her body went over.

     Instinctively she screamed, "Jesus!!!"  Then, just as she lost her grip and began to plummet to what she knew would be her death on the highway below, with the endless speeding trucks and cars, she felt herself being lifted up.  She saw nothing, but in the blink of an eye she felt herself being scooped up in midair and carried back over the fence and placed on solid ground -- but a full ten feet away from where the three girls had tossed her over.  She says that she remembers landing -- "my arms stretched out wide, as though a parachute had brought me to a soft landing." And then she remembers the unhinged looks on the faces of the three other girls. She remembers that they were "utterly horrified, scared witless." Eva says they were, "white as sheets, with mouths agape, and eyes wide in terror."  All three of them shrieked and instantly bolted from the scene, running as fast as they could. 

     She remembers the feeling of those moments. She felt strangely calm, but confused too. She knew without a doubt that in that moment Jesus had miraculously saved her life. She simply walked home not telling a soul what happened, but remembers clearly that not one of those three girls ever spoke to her again. They wouldn't even glance in her direction or come near her. [Twenty-some-odd years later, around the time of her high school reunion, Eva discovered through Facebook that the girl whose house they had been at was a full-fledged Satanist -- her page filled with pentagrams and other dark, occult symbols]."

     If you read the book you will find one other amazing story about Eva later in her life.  One which may explain why she was so miraculously spared.

Just some food for thought!

In the Service of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

Ulster Revival

Greetings All,

     This week's "thought" has to do with an amazing move of God in Ireland between 1857 and 1860.  It's a true account of what led to the "Ulster Revival" in 1859.  I have taken the majority from a devotional book I use, entitled: "The One Year Book of Christian History," by E. Michael Rusten and Sharon Rusten, but I have also woven in facts from two other sources reformationsa.org and banneroftruth.org). I send it along to encourage you to speak the truth and persist in praying for the church. Enjoy!

     "In the spring of 1856 an English lady by the name of Mrs. Colville came to Ulster, Ireland from Gateshead, England.  She began a program of house to house visitation with a view to winning souls for Christ. In November she returned to England in low spirits thinking that God had not acknowledged her labors and feeling that her work had been unfruitful. She was wrong." 

     The following account tells us why....

     "In 1856 in Ulster, Ireland, a young man named James McQuilkin was invited to tea with three ladies (a Miss Brown and two others). They were there to hear a visiting woman named Mrs. Colville who skirted the civilities of discussing the weather and spoke openly on a subject McQuilkin found uncomfortable: the condition of the soul (ie: did each have a personal interest in the Lord Jesus and had they received the new birth).  After one guest at the tea party described the nature of her Christian experience, Mrs. Colville said: "My dear, I don't believe you have ever known the Lord Jesus."  Though not addressed directly to McQuilkin, he would later write: "I knew that she spoke what was true of me.  I felt as if the ground were about to open beneath me and let me sink into hell. As soon as I could, I left their company. For two weeks I had no peace day or night. At the end of that time I found peace by trusting the Lord Jesus." 

     The following year McQuilkin felt burdened to pray for his neighbors. He asked three friends to join him. Once a week the four men gathered at the village schoolhouse to pray for each person in their community by name. The town was Ahogill, County Antrim, Ulster, Ireland. The date: September 1857.  They studied the Word and prayed for three months before there were any visible results. Two more men joined their group, and then on New Year's Day, 1858, the first conversion took place as a result of the prayer meeting. By the end of 1858, about 50 young men were taking part in the weekly prayer meeting.  Many people ridiculed these young men praying for Revival. Others criticized their determination not to allow women in their prayer meeting. The young men responded that they did not believe it advisable to allow women in their prayer meeting, as the world would have said that the meetings were being held only for the purposes of flirtation. As it happened, young women started their own prayers meeting, which were also greatly blessed.

     Meanwhile, unbeknownst to them, God was laying the same burden on many hearts, and similar prayer groups started throughout northern Ireland. Pastors began to preach about revival. In December of 1857 McQuilkin's group rejoiced to see the first conversion in Ahogill. But widespread revival did not come. Still, God's people prayed -- for nineteen more months they prayed. Then in March of 1859,  in the city of Ballymena, just six miles from Ahogill, a thirty-year-old man fell prostrate one morning in the crowded marketplace and called out, "Unclean! Unclean! God be merciful to me a sinner!"  There was an overpowering conviction that a great Revival had come at last. The night of March 14, 1859, the McQuilkin group responded by inviting Christians to a prayer meeting at Ahogill Presbyterian Church. The church was so crowded that they moved the meeting out into the street. There hundreds of people knelt in the mud and rain, confessing their sins and praising God. They were the first of 100,000 people God called to himself in 1859 in what became known as the Ulster Revival. Men who had been previously unaffected bowed in earnestness and sobbed like children. Churches were crowded. Family worship became almost universal. There was joy unutterable.

     In Coleraine, in Antrim County, at the local school, a school teacher seeing one young boy clearly under the conviction of sin, advised him to go home and call upon the Lord in private. He sent with him an older boy who had found peace the day before. After these two boys had travailed in prayer for some time, the young boy was blessed with sacred peace and rejoicing he returned to the school, and with beaming face, reported to his teacher; "Oh Sir, I am so happy, I have the Lord Jesus in my heart!"  The attention of the whole class was arrested.  One boy after another silently slipped out of the classroom and after a while the schoolteacher looked out to see boys on their knees throughout the playground, each one in earnest prayer. He turned to the two boys and asked them; "Do you think you can go and pray with these boys?" They did so and kneeling down with one after another, they began to implore the Lord to forgive their sins for the sake of Him who had borne them all upon the Cross.  There was a great spiritual movement among young people. It was not uncommon for teenage boys to hold street meetings to reach their peers for Christ. At one such meeting an Irish clergyman counted forty children and eighty adults listening to the preaching of twelve-year-old boys.

     The results were remarkable. In 1860 in County Antrim the police had an empty jail and no crimes to investigate. Judges often had no cases to hear. With their owners converted, pubs closed and alcohol consumption fell so drastically that whiskey distilleries were sold. Gambling at horse races fell of by 95%. A visitor to Ulster reported: Thronged church services, abundant prayer meetings, increased family prayers, unmatched Scripture reading, increased giving, converts remaining steadfast."  The Ulster movement touched off similar revivals in England, Scotland and Wales. Edwin Orr wrote of the 1859 Revival: "This Revival which originated in a prayer meeting of four young men in the village school house of Kells made a greater impact spiritually on Ireland, than anything else known since the days of St. Patrick."  Or to take it back a step further, God drew hundreds of thousands of people to himself through a movement which all began with a woman unafraid to speak spiritual truth over tea." 

     Don't ever give up praying or speaking Gospel truth.

     God's richest blessings on you and your churches, Pastor Jeff

The Gospel of Self-Esteem

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" comes to you from Prof. Archibald Hart, PhD.  He is professor of psychology at the Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary.  Hart is the the author 24 books, including: "Thrilled to Death: How the Endless Pursuit of Pleasure is Leaving Us Numb."

     This particular thought deals with the American obsession with self-esteem and offers us some balanced and helpful insights. Many of the things he points out will not come as a surprise to you, since both experience and common sense would affirm the statements and findings he cites. As with many widely embraced cultural trends, they can tend to go to unwise and even counter-intuitive excesses and extremes before people realize the claims of their wonder-working power were grossly exaggerated.

     This article comes from "Faith and Culture," a book that offers a collection of articles on hundreds of topics relating faith to culture.  It is by Kelly Monroe Kullberg and Lael Arrington. If you are looking for a book with short and interesting articles across a span of topics, this is a book you may consider purchasing. This particular article is entitled: "The Gospel of Self-Esteem."

The Gospel of Self-Esteem

     "Is high self-esteem all its cracked up to be?  If you suffer from low self-esteem are you doomed to failure?  What new picture of self-esteem is emerging from the science of psychology, and how does it agree with God's Word on the subject?  In the upheaval of the late 60's and early 70's, the concept of self-esteem took off. "If only we can help people to feel better about themselves, we will solve many social problems and mental illnesses" became the driving force that sent teachers, parents, and even the states of California and New York in the 1980's scurrying to set up commissions and task forces on self-esteem. It became a national preoccupation that has now ended as a hopeless quest.  Research now conclusively shows that such efforts do little to improve social problems, academic performance, success in the workplace, or even to enhance our happiness.

     The bottom line is that while everyone intuitively recognizes the reality of "self-esteem," there is no evidence that by boosting these self-feelings one can accomplish more in life.  Research psychologists have now clearly demonstrated that self-esteem is the CONSEQUENCE of accomplishing something significant in life, not the CAUSE of accomplishments or failures.  In his 1994 presidential address to the American Psychological Association, Martin Seligman, a significant leader in the new "positive psychology" movement, denounced several "sacred cows" of psychotherapy, one being that in order to reduce mental illness we should try to increase the self-esteem of our children.  He stated: "undeniably, depressed people have low self-esteem. But bolstering self-esteem without changing hopelessness... accomplishes nothing."  He received a standing ovation!  His research shows that teens from the ghettos have the highest self-esteem ratings of any group, not the lowest!  The problem is that their self-esteem is "unwarranted."  As we teach and counsel others, we must caution one another to identify and address the myths that have penetrated the whole concept of self-esteem. Sermons abound on how one is to "love oneself," but we need to carefully interpret Matthew 19:19. We must be mindful that our participation in newly emerging worship styles is radically God-centered and not unduly influenced by the self-esteem movements emphasis on my needs and my feelings.

     Perhaps we need to pay more attention to the wisdom that Paul expresses in Romans 12:3 which tells us all we need to know about the self-esteem problem even though its focus is not on low self-esteem, but rather on an inflated and distorted sense of self.

"For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you."  Romans 12:3

     Paul outlines the essential ingredients for building a Christian understanding of what I call "authentic self-esteem," an understanding and acceptance of yourself for who you really are. There is nothing wrong with being imperfect. Sometimes feeling bad acts as a stimulus to do better or try something different.  It can prompt confession, change, and courage.  One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a parent is to always protect your children from pain or failure. By cushioning them from feeling bad, the self-esteem movement has made it harder for us to feel good. It has encouraged cheap success. From the words of Paul I deduce that the essence of a healthy self-attitude must be based, first, on an honest and truthful self-understanding and image ("Think... with sober [honest] judgment); then, second, on a willingness to accept that you are who you are, created in God's image ("in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you"). All other self-feelings lead to self-hate. Your attitude to yourself (which is what self-esteem is really all about) must be based plainly and simply on thinking about yourself with complete honesty. You must own your flaws and your strengths.  It must never be dishonest (Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought"), not exaggerated or distorted.

     Many psychologists have pointed out that the struggle often is with an "internal filter system" we develop early in life that tends to deny our successes and hoards the memories of failures. Self-honesty requires one to be diligent in challenging these denials. After all, in God's kingdom there is always forgiveness and restoration.  No matter how inadequate you may feel about yourself, or how insignificant your life may appear to be on the outside, you should always remember that the grace of God covers every shortcoming.  You will always be precious to him, however you feel about yourself.  One can never go beyond the reach of his grace and forgiveness. Here lies the key to how you should feel about yourself: Your self needs to become more and more transparent to itself as you become less and less self-conscious. This is authentic self-esteem. You need to know who you are, how you have been redeemed, and how precious you are to God -- NOT because you are wonderful, but because he has made you his child."

     As I mentioned, experience and common sense would lead us to many of the same conclusions.  I once had a foster daughter who did not do well in school.  All of a sudden, in one marking period, she went from failing to straight A's. She came home ecstatic!  But we wondered how it had happened, since she hadn't studied any harder nor done any more work then she ever had?  It did boost her feelings about herself for a short three or four weeks, but she soon began to realize she got an "A" pretty much no matter what she did, and was allowed to re-take tests as many times as she needed to get it. She even came to feel somewhat betrayed and foolish and resent their manipulative attempt to play with her mind and "boost her self-esteem" by giving her grades she did nothing to deserve. In essence, it back-fired, since like most kids she knew it was all a game.  She knew, and we knew, that despite what studies at that time were saying, there is no evidence that by boosting these self-feelings one can accomplish more in life...  self-esteem is the CONSEQUENCE of accomplishing something significant in life, not the CAUSE of accomplishments or failures."

     Just some wise, insightful, and much needed food for thought, Pastor Jeff

Prayer, Finding the Heart's True Home

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" is about prayer - simple, awkward, unrehearsed, and often bumbling prayer.  The stage of prayer we must all go through. The stage of prayer we can even feel guilty or embarrassed about (simple and self-centered as we realize our prayers sound after the words have come out of our mouths)!  Yet, as Richard Foster will assure us in this selection, taken from his book, "Prayer, Finding the Heart's True Home," it is a stage that cannot be avoided. And to our surprise, one we may need to return to.  So, whether you are one who has rarely rayed and would like to learn how to pray, or consider yourself to be a seasoned "prayer warrior," this book is helpful, instructive and practical.  This thought comes to you from the very first chapter on, "Simple Prayer" or "Beginning Prayer."  Enjoy.

"Pray as you can, not as you can't."

Dom Chapman

     "We yearn for prayer and hide from prayer... We believe prayer is something we should do, even something we want to do, but it seems like a chasm stands between us and actually praying... We are not quite sure what holds us back. Of course, we are busy with work and family obligations, but that is only a smoke screen. Our busyness seldom keeps us from eating or sleeping or making love. No, there is something deeper and more profound keeping us in check... It is the notion -- almost universal among us modern high-level achievers -- that we have to do everything "just right" in order to pray. That is, before we can really pray, our lives need some fine tuning, or we need to know more about how to pray, or we need to study the philosophical questions surrounding pray, or we need to have a better grasp of the great traditions of prayer. And on and on it goes.  It isn't that these are wrong concerns, or there is never a time to deal with them. But our problem is that we assume prayer is something to master the way we master algebra or auto mechanics. Something that puts us in the "on-top" position, where we are competent and in control...

     I used to think that I needed to get all my motives straightened out before I could pray. I would examine what I had just prayed and think to myself, "How utterly foolish and self-centered; I can't pray this way!" And so I would determine never to pray again until my motives were pure... But the practical effect of all this internal soul-searching was to completely paralyze my ability to pray. The truth of the matter is we all come to prayer with a tangled mess of motives -- altruistic and selfish, merciful and hateful, loving and bitter. Frankly, this side of eternity we will never unravel the good from the bad, the pure from the impure. But what I have come to see is that God is big enough to receive us with all our mixture. We do not have to be bright, or pure, or filled with faith, or anything. That is what grace means, and not only are we saved by grace, we live in it as well. And we pray by it (Ephesians 2:1-10, Romans 5:2, Romans 8:26-27).

     Jesus [in the Lord's Prayer] reminds us that prayer is a little like children coming to their parents. Our children come to us with the craziest requests at times!  Often we are grieved by the meanness and selfishness in their requests, but we would be all the more grieved if they never came to us at all.  We are simply glad they do come -- mixed motives and all. This is precisely how it is with prayer. We will never have pure enough motives, or be good enough, or know enough in order to pray rightly.  We must simply set all these concerns aside and begin praying. In fact, it is in the very act of prayer itself -- the intimate, ongoing interaction with God -- that these matters are cared for in due time. 

     What I am trying to say is that God receives us just as we are and accepts our prayers just as they are. In the same way that a small child cannot draw a bad picture, so a child of God cannot offer a bad prayer.  So we are brought to the most basic, the most primary form of prayer -- Simple Prayer -- where we bring ourselves before God just as we are, warts and all. Like children before a loving father, we open our hearts and make our requests. We do not try to sort things out, the good from the bad. We simply and unpretentiously share our concerns and make our petitions. We tell God, for example, how frustrated we are with the co-worker at the office or the neighbor down the street. We ask for food, favorable weather, and good health. In a very real sense, WE are the focus of simple prayer. Our needs, our wants, and our concerns dominate our prayer experience. Our prayers are shot through with plenty of pride, conceit, vanity, pretentiousness, haughtiness, and general all-around egocentricity.  No doubt there is also magnanimity, generosity, unselfishness, concern for others and universal goodwill. 

     We make mistakes -- lots of them. We sin; we fall down, often -- but each time we get up and begin again. We pray again. We seek to follow God again. And again our insolence and self-indulgence defeat us. Never mind.  We confess and begin again... and again... and again... In "Simple Prayer" the good, the bad and the ugly are all mixed together... Abraham prayed this way, as did Joseph, Joshua, Hannah, David, Gideon, Ruth, Peter, James, John and a host of other biblical luminaries. Simple Prayer involves ordinary people bringing ordinary concerns to a loving and compassionate Father. We do not pretend to be more holy than we are, more pure, or more saintly than we actually are. We do not try to conceal our conflicting and contradictory motives from God -- or ourselves. And in this posture, we pour out our heart to the God who is greater than our heart and knows all things (I John 3:20).

     Jesus calls us to Simple Prayer when he urges us to ask for our daily bread. As John Dalrymple rightly observes, "We never outgrow this kind of prayer, because we never outgrow the needs that give rise to it." There is a temptation, especially by the "sophisticated," to despise this most elementary way of praying. They seek to skip over Simple Prayer in the hopes of advancing to more "mature" expressions of prayer. They smile at the egotistical asking, asking, asking, of so many. Grandly they speak of avoiding "self-centered prayer" in favor of "others-centered prayer."  But what these people fail to see, however, is that Simple Prayer is necessary, even essential, in the spiritual life. The only way we move beyond "self-centered prayer" (if indeed we ever do) is by going through it, not by making a detour around it... When we pray, genuinely pray, the real condition of our heart is revealed. This is as it should be. This is when God truly begins to work with us. The adventure is just beginning."

     I love to hear new believers pray. They often pause searching for the right word, don't use flowery language, and say exactly what comes to their mind (that is, if they are thankfully freed from feeling the need to try to impress others). To me, there are few things more beautiful than getting to listen in on a new-born Christian's first attempt to speak with their Savior. It's like listening to my grandchildren (when they were two and three) praying at the table before dinner!  Who could not love it despite the odd nature of many of their requests!?  So with the adult who has recently come to Christ, Simple Prayer is a phase one must go through, not seek to avoid. They can do no other because they know no other.  And to encourage them to pretend to be what they're not, kills true prayer in its beginnings. We learn more about ourselves (and thus grow) by hearing what comes out of our mouths and hearts when we pray, than being told by others what should be coming out of them. 

     When I was first asked (as a new Christian) to pray with others, I refused.  I didn't know what to pray, or how to pray, or what to pray for. I didn't know what was selfish or non-selfish, the right things to pray for or the wrong things to pray for -- so I didn't pray at all.  Yet I thank God they were persistent, for I did finally consent, and have come to cherish praying with others. (Though I must confess they did have to first assure me they would not judge me if I said something "wrong," or said it the "wrong way," or stumbled over my words, or used no "thee's" or "Thous" or other fancy religious words or phrases -- and they didn't -- or if they did, it never came out of their mouths!)

In His Service, Pastor Jeff