Praying Boldly

Prayer is one of those things of faith that has an appeal beyond the borders of religion.  I've rarely run into someone who when I asked if I could pray for them, said "no thank you."  In times of tragedy, public officials will often call citizens to pray for specific people or circumstances.  In moments of death, it is often said by even the non-religious, "our thoughts and prayers are with the loved ones."  Truly, there is an appeal to prayer that tugs at the hearts of so many who wouldn't shadow the door of a church, or profess to be a Christian of any sort.

I wonder often to who or what directionless prayers are offered, and if they're received, how they are responded to.  Does Jesus Christ receive all prayer regardless of who its directed to?  I believe the God of the Holy Bible is the one true God, so is it Him who hears all of it?  It's a curious consideration, but since I know the one to whom I pray and expect him to receive it maybe all that sort of thought is meaningless.  I know that as a follower of Jesus, he promises to be the mediator and take my prayers offered in faith into the throne room of the Creator of the universe. 

So if that's true and I know enough about prayer and that they are heard and are received by the Almighty God how should that shape and form my prayers?  How should that knowledge move me to pray perhaps differently that I do?

The phrase that echoes in my mind in response to these questions is to "pray boldly".  If I know who is receiving my prayers and I acknowledge that his ways are higher than my ways and his thoughts are higher than my thoughts; if I understand that his Will will be done if it agrees with my prayers or not; if I know that prayers offered in faith can change the mind of God (Ex. 32:14, Jonah 3:10), then for me to step up boldly in prayer and ask the incredible, the impossible, the thing that's 10 steps beyond rational seems absolutely appropriate.

To pray for comfort from cancer for a sick person is something that I regularly do.  But to pray for full and miraculous healing that points all who bear witness to the only, loving God who can heal like that is not something that I do regularly.  To pray for opportunities to share my faith is a regular prayer, but to pray that the person in the restaurant who I do not know might have a Saul/Paul/road to Damascus experience so that they might come face to face with God is not a prayer I offer. 

Why not?  Don't I believe that God can do that?  Don't I understand that God wants to do that sort of thing in his world?  He doesn't want to do it for my sake so that I can feel like a prayer giant.  He wants to the amazing, the miraculous, the thing beyond explanation because when he does it, it pushes the witnesses to wonder what sort of incomprehensible being could do something like that.  When God takes the shutters off and lets loose with the abundance of his power, Creation takes notice.  Some might explain it away, some might ignore it, but some won't.  Some will watch, and wonder, and know that God is real and that he continues to be active in the world that he gave to humanity.

Of course scripture reminds us to ask of God rightly.  "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives..."  James 4:3.  Then for me to pray boldly, I need to ask the incredible of God with the right motives: God's glory and his alone.  "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.  This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."  John 15:7,8

As I pray without ceasing today, may God expand my heart to believe in his incredible power.  May Christ enlarge my mind to believe that he who came to redeem the world continues that work, in part, through people of faith who are willing to really believe in what he's done and expect him to continue that work to its completion.  May the Spirit empower me to the belief that his love for his people is bigger, wider, longer, deeper and more amazing than I could ever imagine.  May my prayers be God sized prayers where he does what only he can do and takes all the glory to himself.

Meditation: A Strange Word to Most Christians

When we hear the word 'meditation' it often brings to mind people sitting around in the lotus postion humming mantras and rolling their eyes into the back of their heads while they attempt to move their being into a higher plane.  It's sad that our minds go there as quickly as they do.  Especially as Christians, we should have a different image that comes to mind when we think about meditiation, shouldn't we?  After all, meditation is straight out of scripture isn't it?  Aren't there numerous passages that mention meditation on God's law and on who God is?

"Blessed is the one who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night."  Psalm 1:1,2.  "Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders."  Psalm 119:27.  "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.  Then you will be prosperous and successful." Joshua 1:8.

And there are others.  Meditation is not something that any New Age cult or wacky self-betterment group owns.  It's one of many ways that God communes with his people, if we are willing to enter into it. 

It's striking to me that I don't think that I've ever met a Christian who meditated on scripture.... or on God.... or on Creation.... or on the person of Jesus.... or on..... well..... anything.  Maybe I wasn't listening well (a distinct possibility!), or maybe the solitary discipline of meditation is solitary and doesn't necessarily get shared within the community of faith, but it seems to me that if scripture commands it and if it's an important means of communing with God then there should be some mode of sharing what meditation is and how we should do it.

Why don't we talk about it much?

Maybe it's because meditation doesn't jibe with our culture, at all, even a little bit.  Our culture is hustle and bustle and noise and marketing, and stuff, and everything that meditation isn't.  Our culture wants to fill every space with advertising or with sound or with iPods, iPhones, and iStuff.  The idea of quieting things down and filling ourselves with, well with nothing except God and his presence uncogs the wheels and doesn't work for our society.  That's so outside of our experience.  It's so unusual.  It's so... weird.

But what if meditation isn't something that's supposed to just leave us relaxed and streesfree and calm?  What if it has little to do with us and everything to do with God in us?  Perhaps if we understood meditation as a deeper, wider, vibrant and growing opportunity to build relationship with God then it wouldn't be so weird to us.  Perhaps it would become an opportunity to listen and be still and truly enjoy God's presence in a new way that would empower and equip us with his Spirit in completely different ways then we've ever known before. 

Richard Foster puts it this way.  "If you feel that we live in a purely physical universe, you will view meditation as a good way to obtain a consistent alpha brain-wave pattern. (Transcendental Meditation) But if you believe that we live in a universe created by the infinite personal God who delights in our communion with Him, you will see meditation as a communication between the Lover and the one beloved."

Oh how I want more of that!  How I need more of that!  To find stolen moments to receive God's love in a deeper, more meaningful way?  To know his grace more fully so that I might share it with others?  Sign me up. 

That being said, I'm going to have some learning to do.  I don't know how to meditate well.  In fact, I don't think I know how to meditate on God's Word at all.  I'm going to have to learn.  I'm going to have to find some resources. 

And most importantly, I'm going to have to learn to be still and know that he is God.  And that might be the hardest work of all.

Desiring the Spiritual Disciplines

I'm recognizing more and more that discipline is a challenge for me.  It's not that I'm off track or out of sync with what I should be doing, I just know that there are things that I want more of that take work, and that work is hard.  It's sacrificial.  It takes time from other, easier things.  It means that sometimes I turn the computer or the television off.  It means that there are times when I give up things that are good so that I can spend time moving toward things that are better.

This truth is no more real to me then during this time of year.  This time after Thanksgiving and before Christmas is full.  It's busy.  Concerts, soccer games (gotta love Southern California in November), parties, programs, shopping, decorating, great meals, and my favorite Christmas movies on television are all right there ready to take time and energy to enjoy.  And they truly are enjoyable.  Who doesn't love a Christmas program with kids dressed up in their Christmas finest, singing songs and playing instruments?  These are fun things; they're good things.  Missing them seems to never be optional, but I wonder if in the fullness of all these good things, I miss some of the greatest things of this time of year. 

What is there for me in the quiet contemplation of what happened at the first Christmas?  What is there for me when I fast from some of the great cookies and bars sitting in the kitchen at the office so that I might be reminded to hunger after the things of God?  What does God have to say to me when I give up a night "Christmas Vacation" on television for the 3rd time, and spend time journaling on Isaiah 42:1-4 "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.  He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.  A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.  In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth."  This is the hope of Christmas and often times I get so caught up in the 'stuff' of the season that January comes and I march on into whatever's next, having missed a wonderful opportunity to commune with God.  I missed it simply because I lack the discipline to stop, look, wonder and listen. 

I deeply desire for that change.  I hope that we as part of God's Creation can look at the things around us and wonder if things can be different.  It's striking that right now there's a movement in this country to battle against corporations and government who control so much of what we know, have and experience.  There's a desire to push back against all the money, power, greed and excess that controls our culture, but this movement seems to want things done externally to make change happen.  I wonder if that's the best way.

Leo Tolstoy said, "Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself."  I like that.  In fact, I like that a lot.  Real change, real transformation begins internally, not with some political revolution or business remodel.  Those things may happen, but frankly, they begin with.... well, they begin with me.  They begin with my willingness to allow God's grace to come in and change my heart towards the things that he loves.  They continue with the Spirit coming and moving me to compassion for others and for the world that he's given me to live in.  They show themselves best when I allow Christ to come in and clean house in my heart so that I might be a part of doing his work of kingdom building in my home, my neighborhood, my city and my world. 

And the circle completes itself because this change comes through discipline.  It comes through me putting myself into a place where God's grace can do the work that my Savior desires for his people.  It comes in the quiet, in the meditation, in the fasting, and the prayer that reflects a hope to truly grow in who I am in Christ.

It will be a good Christmas season, I have no doubt.  My prayer is that this Christmas is a better one because I'm willing to sit, listen, pray, hope and wonder in the lap of Christ while the hustle and bustle goes on around me.  That's my hope, and if the Lord wills it, he'll do that in me.

Punching Your Ticket

Matt 10:32-39

How many people do you think would have travelled on the Titanic’s maiden voyage if they knew what was going to happen in the middle of the North-Atlantic?

Suppose that the people coming to the pier to board the ship saw a sign over the gangplank, “By boarding this ship, the passenger understands that they will be unceremoniously dunked into the frigid water as a result of a collision with an iceberg and they will probably die.” Many of course wouldn’t believe it.  No one thought that the ship was vulnerable to being sent to the depths.  It was called “unsinkable”.  But suppose that they knew that sign to be true; how many would still board?  How many would board for the sake of adventure or experience?  How many would turn back in fear?  Would any berth be taken?  Would one or two people have their run of the ship?  Would there be anyone left to make her sail?

My guess is that there would be a person or two who would chose to go just to see what happened.  Some might even go feeling like they might be able to help.  Most would probably turn around, refund their ticket and wait for the next east-bound ship.

In an interesting fashion, scripture records that Jesus warned people that following him had a similar drastic and life changing cost.  Maybe it wasn’t death in a shipwreck, and the final outcome was infinitely more positive, but it still would have been significantly unsettling for anyone who heard it.

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”

Is there anyone else who reads this passage and says, “Huh?!?”

The one who came for love of the world (Jn 3:16) and to save the world (Jn 3:17) has come to bring a sword and to mess up families? 

This happens to be one of those passages highlighted by those who reject scripture as unacceptable and in conflict with itself.  If scripture says things like this, it can’t be true.

Or can it?

Can Christ be telling something really important about what it means that he came to earth?  Does his warning to the Jews and Gentiles of his day tell us something about what his coming for us really means?

Of course it does.

Christ came to alter everything in our lives.  He came to make his people uncomfortable with anything that hindered them from following him.  Discipleship requires everything from us without exception.  There is nothing that is ‘sacred’ from his influence, presence and transformation.

In the culture of his day, familial relationships were strong, even to the point of idolatry.  Mothers and fathers would have expectations of their children and vice versa that came to the point of worship. Christ came to transform priorities to realign them with the Father’s design.  Christ called his people to obey the Spirit’s calling before expectations of family, before expectations of culture, and before the expectations of the world.

Sound like a message we need to hear? 

Maybe some of us need some of the ‘good things’ in our lives messed with so that we can grab onto the best thing; giving glory to God with everything that we are and all that we do.  Maybe some of the blessings that we experience in this life get in the way of living within the greatest blessing that we can experience; full and complete dependence on Christ and his plan and purpose for our life.

In this unique passage of text, Christ is telling us that He has come to blow everything up until we need to trust in Him.  He’s willing to take away every crutch that we have until we lean on Him.  And He doesn’t do this because He wants to see us squirm.  He doesn’t do this just to break us.  He breaks us so that we can love Him more, and loving Him more is the best for us.  Jesus always wants the best for us and the best for us is…..Him.

Walking up the gangplank of the Titanic changed everything for those passengers.  So does following Jesus.

Wanna punch your ticket?

I Wanna Be Like Wayne Gretzky

Philippians 2:1-11

Growing up as a kid in small town Canada, I played hockey.  Everyone did, or so it seemed, in my community.  We played in organized leagues at the local arena.  We played on frozen ponds during Christmas vacation.  We played on school yards with street hockey sticks in the summertime.  My brother and I even had a rink, or a much smaller version of it, set up in our basement so that we could play when it was raining outside.  I would strap camp sleeping mats around my legs as goalie pads, get my baseball glove and for my stick, I had a small tennis racquet.  We set a mattress against the wall and that was the goal that he had to score on.  It was crazy.  It was dangerous.  It was painful.  But man, was it fun.

We had our hockey heroes, but when I was in Jr. High, everyone’s hero was one player; Wayne Gretzky.  He was just coming into the NHL and playing for arguably the greatest hockey team ever, the Stanley Cup Champion Edmonton Oiler teams.  People were buying posters, jerseys, hockey sticks and loads of other stuff related to this boy wonder who could do things with a hockey puck that none of us could believe.  We would sit and wait for CBC on Saturday night to play the “Hockey Night in Canada” theme song hoping that it would be an Edmonton game.  We wanted to see what he would do.  We all wanted to be just like him.

We did actually.  We would mimic his moves.  We would practice his spins with the puck.  We’d try to shoot like him, skate like him, pass like him so that someday we might be just like Wayne.

But we’d hear stories about what he did to practice as a kid and get as good as he was.  His dad would litter the back yard ice rink with hockey sticks and Wayne would skate around and pick the puck up and bounce it on his stick while he skated.  There were miniscule targets that he would shoot at and pass to.  He would travel endless miles to games and do his school work in the car on the way to tournaments.  He would be outside in the backyard for hours on end, day after day, learning the moves that would make him a legend.

To be like my hero would take too much time, effort and energy.  I liked hockey, but not that much. 

My dreams of being like Wayne faded into my childhood.  Eventually, I quit hockey and now I watch my son long to be able to play like the stars that he sees on television.

To be like my hero would take too much. 

In Philippians 2, we hear about another hero, much greater than some hockey star.  We hear about Christ; the greatest servant, savior, messiah and human that has ever walked this earth.    Paul says this about Jesus;

“He made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant…he humbled himself and become obedient to death – even death on a cross!”

Wow!  What a man!  Jesus is incredible in that he did all of this even though he was “in very nature God.  He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.” 

Jesus is one with the father.  Yet, he left it all for us so that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.”  Jesus gave up everything so that he might give us everything and bring his father glory.  Amazing.

But lost if you read too quickly is the line that opens this hymn of the early church.  It’s a little line that you might miss, but it has so much to say to us.

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who….”

Let that sink in for a second.

Be like Jesus.  Here’s what he did, what he gave up, what he sacrificed, the whole thing.  Now be like him.

I couldn’t handle a couple extra hours of hockey practice.  How can I do that?

You can’t….on your own.  You and I aren’t capable enough to live even a moment like Jesus does in our own strength. 

Jump a verse or two down.  “It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

You and I can’t do it, but God can do it in us, through the Spirit, because of what Jesus did for us.

That means that we don’t work harder for God, it means we depend on him more.  It means we don’t do more for the kingdom, we allow God to use us in whatever way he plans to.  It means we don’t read more, memorize more, sing louder, jump higher, etc, it means that we love God and live lives of thankfulness because of the hope we’ve been given through the grace of Jesus Christ.

I’ll never be Wayne Gretzky.  My ankles are too weak and my knees are too shot, but I can be more like my real hero; Jesus Christ.  I won’t be like him because of how hard I try nor because of what I’ve done, but because of what Christ already did and what he’s still doing in me.

Self-Reliance

Psalm 20

One time, when I was a kid, my dad asked me (read:told me) to wash the car.  We lived on a dirt road and often, there were potholes filled with rain water that would splatter mud on our car as we would drive past.  It was pretty much always dirty, but my dad would try to clean it and care for it so it wouldn’t look too bad.

On this particular day, he wanted me to wash the car because he felt that I needed to learn how to do it.  He said to me, “Scott, you wash the car once the best way that you can, and then we’ll see how it looks.  If it’s not good, then I’ll show you how to wash it the right way.”  I think I made some feeble protest about twice the work, but a couple of moments later, I was hosing the car down to get it clean.

It was a sunny day in the small town where we lived.  It was hot and I actually enjoyed being a little wet while I completed my chore.  I hosed the bumpers, hood, roof, tires, trunk, fenders, bumpers, everything down and then proceeded to wash it down before rinsing it off.  I meticulously rubbed down each section, especially around the tires where the mud had caked on.  I finished rinsing the car off, looked with pride upon my nice clean car washing job, and ran to get my dad.  He was upstairs taking care of something and so it was a couple of minutes before he arrived.  While awaiting his verdict and praise, I went to the kitchen to grab a cold glass of iced tea.  He finally came down and we walked outside to see the fruits of my hard work.

I was quite surprised to find the car a streaky mess with water marks all over the metal that had been so clean only a few minutes before.  Needless to say, another car washing followed including a lecture about drying the car off when it is still wet to avoid streaks.

And then my dad said something that still sticks in my brain. 

“Scott.  It’s important that you know how to do things the right way.  If you learn how to do it wrong, you will always do it wrong.  If you know how to do it right, you will always do it right.  It’s important that people can depend on us doing things right.”

My dad was teaching me to have a work ethic.  He wanted to show me how to do a job in such a fashion that when I did it, it was done completely and done well.

I think that in some ways my dad succeeded.  I have a good work ethic.  I do work hard.  I get a lot of things done, and much of what I get done, I get done well.  I take pride in my work.

But in some ways, he failed.  He failed because he didn’t always model for me the best way to do things.  He was imperfect, and some of those imperfections were clear for his children to see. 

But I think that there was an even more important failure.  I know this one wasn’t intentional, but it seems to me that it still applies.

My dad taught me how to depend on myself.

“Okay,” you say.  “What’s the big deal?  That’s what we all want to do don’t we?  I don’t want my kids still being dependent upon me when I’m 60?”

You are right, of course.  I don’t want that either.  That’s clearly an important value that we want to teach our children, but sometimes in how we teach it, we teach them self-reliance that moves us to a place that we don’t want to go.

It moves us not to rely on God.

In Psalm 20, the writer starts off his song by encouraging the listener to depend on God’s provision in all things.

“May the Lord answer you when you are in distress…

“May he send you help…
“May he remember…

“May he give you…

“May the Lord grant all your requests.”

It’s interesting to me that this psalm, attributed to David; the king over all of God’s people, reflects dependence and reliance upon God instead of dependence and reliance upon one’s self. 

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”

When you go to work in the morning, who do you depend on?

When something is hard and pushes you to the limit, where does your hope come from?

When I’m burdened and troubled, do I feel the need to grab my bootstraps to pull myself up, or do I drop to my knees to talk to the one who loves me, and lives within me?

I’m grateful that I have a good work ethic.  It has served me well.  But when I look to myself as the answer to all of my own problems, or depend on my own strength to get me out of trouble, I think that I need to unlearn my ethic a little.

I think that’s the excuse that I’m going to use for having a dirty car.  Yeah.  That’ll work.

At One Time...But Now...

Things change.  That's a pretty clear fact of life.  We get older, we physically change, my hair is greyer than it was before.  By pants are a different size.  I don't act the same way that I did ten years ago (thankfully).  We change.  Hopefully most of the changes that we experience are good ones and we're growing in maturity and wisdom.  That's one of my prayers for myself and my family.  I pray that we're growing in the middle of all the change around us.

But if change is just focused on physical attributes or how we have grown in how we respond to situations in our lives, I think that we're missing something.  As I look at the Bible, I see that change is not just about getting older, or even about getting wiser even though that's really important.  A lot of the time its about God changing us.  Sure we can call that wisdom or discernment and take credit for it if we wish, but then we lose something in the process.  God is the actor in us maturing.  The Spirit is transforming us.  Christ's work is continuing in us for a purpose and as a part of a plan that's not of our making or design.  And as God changes us more into the people that he wants us to be, he uses us for things that we never thought possible.  If it were up to us, we'd miss them, but when we leave it to him, we discover gifts that we never knew we had.  We meet people that we never thought could mean so much to us.  We see things that were right in front of our face, but we never knew were there.

That's sort of my purpose here.  Scripture sometimes uses the phrase "At one time....but now...."  It's a phrase that the text uses to show change that's happened in the life of a Bible character. 

"You ...were at one time disobedient to God (but) now have received mercy...."

A change.  Not a change of human hands, but from God.  A change from disobedience to receiving mercy.  A change from alienation from God to acceptance and embrace.  A change that I nor anyone else can take credit for.

I want to write some about those changes.  I want to spend time thinking about what was, now what is, and what can be because of God's changes in my life and the lives of others.

I hope to learn a little in the process and be able to change my perspective on some things. 

At one time, I wouldn't have done this sort of thing, but now......