I am ready to perform My word. (Jer 1:12) God is ready. Are you?

    

    I use a simple (cheap) spiral bound notebook as a prayer journal. When one gets full, I start a new one. I recently ran across an old prayer journal that was only slightly used. It was dated from 2005-06. I turned to the page listing those for whom I was praying for salvation. Most on that old list have been saved, but only after years of prayer. The others I still lift in daily prayer.

 

   I pray because God answers prayer. His Word is replete with examples of answered prayers in both the Old and New Testaments. My life as a Christian is also replete with answered prayers. I am not sure how long I would have continued sending requests to the Lord if He had never responded. His word assures me --  Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:24) and... If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. (John 15:7)

 

   So I pray.

 

   In personal evangelism, I have a tendency to want to also pray. By this I mean that I can easily fall to the terrible practice of fleshy evangelism based on my skills at quoting the right scriptures and my power of persuasion. That kind of prideful evangelism doesn't emanate from the Lord. My prayer journal always contains a short list of names of people I am asking the Lord to save. I ask the Lord to lead me to a scripture to pray over them when I sit with Him in prayer. I keep my list short -- ten or twelve at the most. I lift them in prayer every time I sit with the Lord. When the Lord's salvation comes to one of them, I mark down the date, then add a new name and scripture to replace them in my daily prayer time.

 

   Today I added a name, and got a scripture to pray over them during my prayer time, and I prayed for them. Having prayed for their salvation I consider them saved. Believing the promises of God, I know it is no longer a question of if they will be saved, but instead, when. God does not disappoint me in these prayers, although His timing and His methods often baffle me. 

 

   I believe this sad truth. Millions are lost in their sin because no one is praying for their salvation.   

 

   Who are you asking daily for the Lord to save? Hoping for the salvation of others is nice, but meaningless. Telling other Christians that you wish someone you love would give their heart to Jesus is just as useless. However, spending time in prayer, worshiping God, praising Him, and then pleading for the salvation of someone you love until it arrives will produce the fruit of salvation.

   Start with a very short list - two or three loved ones you really want to find the peace of Jesus, then pray each day. Stop hoping. Start waiting expectantly.

 

  Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things..." (Jer 33:3)

Following my own advice....

    I recently mentioned the concept of searching for pieces of the image of God in everyone we meet. Remarkably, I once had decided to take my own advice. Two years ago, all day long, everywhere I went, I tried to find something in each person I encountered that reflected God in some way. The results were interesting......

 

    For lunch, I ordered a sandwich at a deli. The young woman who took my order spends her day quickly slapping sandwiches together as they come to her in the form of detailed orders on a computer screen. Her job doesn't require her to interact in any way with the people who have ordered the sandwich via a touch screen menu board. Their order arrives as a number, and when she completes the order she simply places the finished sandwich on the pick up counter and calls out the order number. Even before she made my lunch I observed that as she worked she noticed if anyone showed interest. If they did, she would ask if it was their sandwich she was making. If it was, she'd personalize the automated service and talk to them as she proceeded.

 

 

    When she engaged me in conversation, I told her I that the bible says we are made in the image of God, and that I had seen a reflection of God in her. She laughed as if that was completely impossible.... then asked me what I had seen. I told her that her job is designed by her company so that she is an invisible worker with no interaction with her customers required, but she reaches across the technology to speak directly to each customer, then quoted Paul's words from Colossians that Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. I told her that when she reached across the technology to speak directly to customers it reflected the image of Jesus who reached across eternity to speak directly to us when we could not have required Him to.

 

    If you examine a hundred evangelism tracts, almost all try too quickly to reveal to people the failings of their sin. While it is a biblical truth that they must come to clearly see in order to be saved, it is so confrontational that many people immediately close the conversation. My sandwich maker was instead fascinated that something in her might reflect God, and she easily spoke with me about Jesus. She was smiling and happy to consider spiritual matters when the conversation began in an encouraging way. I think the Holy Spirit taught me something very important in that conversation. I’ve since had several others that went similarly, although the various participants reflected God in various ways. All spoke easily and openly with me about Jesus. I'm certain they each were intrigued enough at the accusation of reflecting God that they told someone else about the conversation.

 

    The bible tells us -- (Hosea 4:6 NKJV) -- My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. All of those I spoke to about the way they reflect the image of God allowed me to freely quote the bible to them as the definitive source of truth. All were told that Jesus died for their sins. I told my sandwich maker that she probably also reflected in some way images opposing God. I told her we all do from time to time and shared Romans 3:10 - There is no righteous man. No, not even one.... I was able conclude by informing her that Jesus didn't just come to talk to us, but to die to pay the price for our sins. She seemed completely unaware of this information. It's going to cost me a couple more sandwiches to complete sharing the Gospel with her, but its well worth the price.

 

    And by the way, she had some piercings and was wearing a pentagram, had a couple of not so good tattoos. She dressed in a sexual provocative way. Many things about her appearance could have informed me not to waste my time on her if I had let my natural evaluation supersede my search for God's image in her.

 

    The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV)

My Reluctant Prayer........

    Lately I've been struggling with prayer. This is not typical for me. I enjoy prayer, no - I love it. Long, deep prayer that transports me from my earthbound confinement into the presence of the Lord. Once there, I experience Jesus as I would experience having a cup of coffee with a friend at Starbucks. We talk intimately. I can tell him anything, ask anything, reveal everything. I pray expectantly. I believe His words - anything you ask in My name, whatsoever you ask, ask and you shall receive. My expectation is also based on years of experience. I pray, He heals. I pray, He provides. I pray, His peace arrives. I pray, someone is saved. When I finish, I slowly return to reality, refreshed and strengthened.

 

   But lately, it has not been like that. It has been like work. It's like I'm praying with one eye open, ready to return to the demands of my flesh. Ready to recheck Facebook or read my email, but not ready to devote myself to prayer. I feel disconnected, anxious, and concerned. I know there is nothing wrong in the heavenlies that is causing this disconnect. The problem resides in me. It isn't sin, the first suspect when I experience any interruption in my relationship with the Lord. And it isn't faltering faith, I believe as strongly today as I ever have. Lately, I must order myself to pray. I get alone, say the same words of praise I've often repeated, but they seem without purpose. I begin to pray and in five or ten minutes I want to quit. My mind drifts, and I find myself excusing myself from prayer, promising to return later. Then I don't return. Its been weeks since I've sat with the Lord for an hour in prayer.

 

   I'm not the first to experience this. The great prophet Elijah, after calling fire from heaven in prayer, and calling drought ending rain from the sky in prayer, found himself at the point of spiritual exhaustion.  But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, "It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!" (1 Kings 19:4 NKJV)

That's how I feel. Exhausted. Unable to see the Lord's path for my life that leads to the next assignment. God sent Elijah an angel with food and drink and who provided safety in the shade of the broom tree where Elijah could rest. And it worked. So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God. (1 Kings 19:8 NKJV) 

 

   God first revealed to Elijah his human weakness, then strengthened him to to things beyond his human ability. God met him on the mountain, and whispered hopeful redirecting words to Elijah, then told him bluntly to get back to walking in his calling.  

 

   Maybe that is what the Lord is trying to tell me too. Get out of your self absorption, and get back to walking in your calling. Until I am rested and fed and encouraged, I'll take the tried and true advice gleaned from centuries of praying intercessors -- pray through.

 

 

Copyright 2012 Mission of the Master Ministries, Inc. May be quoted in whole or in part if a link is provided to http://wordworkswednesday.blogspot.com .

   I became aware of the real meaning of sabbath (rest) the day I was saved by Grace. Rest no longer meant a time of occasional physical refreshing,  or a legalistic weekly observance, but rather a continuous spiritual refreshing which provides restful peace in my heart. That's real rest. If my heart is troubled, no amount of physical inactivity can produce spiritual peace. Jesus promised me that if I would come to Him, He would give me rest. He and Holy Spirit are more comfortable than any comfy recliner. The rest I've found in Him will never end. It cannot be confiscated or stolen. I can only lose it by considering it anything less than my birthright as a born again child of God.

 

Photo from http://pithlessthoughts.blogspot.com

   Yet as we enter a new year, there arises in me an urge to re-evaluate, to make some annual plans for self improvement, to make some resolutions. I asked my ten year old granddaughter, Quinn, if she was making any New Years resolutions. Misunderstanding what  resolutions are, she immediately responded by listing a couple of items she'd like to get for Christmas in 2013. I think a lot of resolutions are like that. They are nice things that we'd like to have if we can just name them and receive them. Even our sincerest resolutions often evaporate in the heat of the ongoing days, when the best gifts of peace and rest are available without effort, by faith alone, because the sacrifice necessary to gain them as already been offered, is being offered, and will always be offered by Christ.

 

Paul wrote ...but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 3:12a-14 NKJV) Residing in this verse I find the keys to endless years of sabbath rest.

 

1- but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. -- Each sunrise is a gift from God allowing us a new day to grow toward the image of Christ. Peace flourishes in a manageable time span, one day, ordained by God as he flung the planets into orbit.

 

2- Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended;  -- Our faith is not a destination. We'll never arrive. We begin a decline in our Christian faith walk if we recognize our own seniority in the faith. Every new breath comes with a opportunity to grow in Christ.

 

3- but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal....  Our goal is to reflect the image of Christ in a broken world. Our past failures can produce shame, so we need to forget the past, especially the sin failures in our past. We cannot walk in zeal for the Gospel if we are stuck in morbid reflection.

 

4- for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Jesus call offers real spiritual upward mobility. He calls us to higher ground, to a more profound understanding, to a deeper prayer life, to reflection on His Word, inching forward toward our real home in Heaven.

    I wish all of you a brilliant walk with Jesus in 2013. Come close to Him and He will be close to you. Seek Him and you will find Him. We cannot resolve to be better Christians, but we can submit our lives to it.

   "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20 NKJV)

 

A Perfect Plan

 

1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: `When a woman gives birth and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days, as in the days of her  menstruation she shall be unclean. 3 `On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. 4 `Then she shall remain in the blood of her purification for thirty-three days; she shall not touch any consecrated thing, nor enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed. (Leviticus 12:1-4 NKJV)

 

   I'm often willful, but less often obedient. The culture in which I dwell teaches me willful disobedience. It encourages me to pursue my own desires and to find self fulfillment. Strangely, the initiation of the story of God's redemption of the world included the strict obedience of a variety of humans.

 

    Joseph was a "son of Israel". His linage wound through King David. When Caesar Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire, demanded that the "whole world" (in his world view the whole world included only the Roman world) register so that he could tax them, Joseph obeyed. When the angels appeared to heathen shepherds and instructed them to go find and worship Jesus, they obeyed. When eight days had passed after Jesus' birth, Joseph recalled the scripture (above) given by God to Moses centuries earlier regarding circumcision, he prepared Mary and the one week old Jesus for travel and walked eight miles to the temple in Jerusalem in obedience to God's Word. Imagine, He carried Jesus (God) and offered Him to God. He sacrificed two doves as an offering to God for blessing him with the birth of a son, Jesus (God). Mary returned to the temple 33 days later in obedience to verse 4 above as the Israelite women had for centuries.The Magi then obeyed God's stars and journeyed long and far to find the new King of the Jews the stars had predicted to them.

 

   All of these were willful acts of obedience.

 

   In my dawn prayers I often re-submit my life to Christ, remembering Paul's words - it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Rebellion is always crouching at the door of my heart, waiting for an opportunity to tempt me. A heart submitted in a prayer of salvation often needs refreshed submission. God's salvation is eternal. There is no wavering in the heart of Jesus. My submission to Him is frail. It is weak. It often quietly plans its own escape to sin. It sometimes succeeds. My obedience is quite imperfect.

 

   When Christ was sent to save, His obedience was quite perfect. All aspects of His redemption are therefore perfect too. My failures sometimes have serious consequences in human terms, but the power of my sin is incapable of destroying the power of His redemption. Complete forgiveness is never further than a prayer's distance from me. Once forgiven, my sin is forgotten in the heavenlies. The shame that often accompanies it evaporates when the Lord's grace is applied.

 

    The birth of Christ we celebrated yesterday began the only life of complete obedience ever lived. He was the only Lamb of God without blemish. He was the only Lamb who was also the Good Shepherd. His perfect obedience produced a perfect sacrifice which produced a perfect Redemption. Today, not through my perfection, but through His, I have received the gifts of His perfect grace, His perfect redemption, and His perfect peace. 

Adam Lanza, Gun Control, Social Norms and Resting in God

   America has been shocked this week by Adam Lanza's unthinkably murderous rampage in Newtown, Connecticut. Several times I've found myself in tears as the details of the deaths of innocent young children have been revealed. In response, public debate has opened on a variety of subjects including mental illness identification and treatment, gun control, and the impact of violent entertainment. Plagued by a sense that we must do something to make certain that an event like this will never happen again, it seems that everything is on the table for discussion. 
 

   As the focus of these discussions sharpens, the debate often centers on "what is normal"? In a free society, what is normal and acceptable gun control? What is normal and acceptable monitoring of those who suffer mental illness? What is normal and acceptable portrayal of violence in movies and video games? We are searching simple answers to a an exhaustively complex set of questions. As we search, we regularly bump up against our constitution. Gun advocates wave the Second Amendment, the entertainment industry waves First Amendment free speech rights, and advocates for those who suffer mental illness Wave First, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment privacy rights. Given these diverse factions, interest groups, and settled law,  is it possible to find and define an accurate new social norm?

 

   Proverbs 3:5,6 says -- Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in a all your ways and He shall direct your paths. Our society was founded upon and for years looked to the bible for the definition of behavioral normalcy. In my lifetime, cultural normalcy has been redefined in many ways which are no longer compatible with biblical teaching. It seems that normal as defined by man is far weaker than normal as defined by God. Our cultural shift from God has created a courser society. Our societal floating normal, ever changing, leaves no well defined image in its wake, and that jiggly, slippery  normal it produces prohibits peace, with confused definitions of right and wrong competing for our approval.

 

   Through the great prophet Isaiah (55:9) the Lord reminds us -- As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. As Christians we can find peace only by resting in God's Truth.  There is no need for us to form opinions on every subject debated and we certainly should never bend to the social pressure applied to us to reject biblical wisdom and rely instead on human thinking. We do not conform to cultural norms, but rather are transformed by the renewing of our minds by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and by studying God's Word.  

 

    We can have a positive effect on the debate not by spouting angry opinions, but by contributing God's wisdom instead of ours. We can console the wounded, empathize with those suffering, and pray for grieving families and our political leaders. We must be purveyors of a point of view born in the heavenlies. We are vessels of the Lord's peace, to be poured out amid pained confusion.

 

    We live in a world broken and transformed from God's image by sin. Evil will strike our heel from time to time, but one day the Lord will crush Evil's head permanently.

   Until then, even in the midst of catastrophic tragedy, we can only rest in God, trusting Him alone as the source of our peace.


Copyright 2012 Mission of the Master Ministries, Inc. May be quoted in whole or in part if a link is provided to http://wordworkswednesday.blogspot.com

Cool Greek, Island Holidays, and Time Well Spent with Jesus

  Here's a cool thing about the Greek language. It has verb tenses that don't exist in English. It is interesting to think that although the bible was written and maintained for centuries in Hebrew, the New Testament was written primarily in Greek. This did not surprise God. In fact He planned it. It is peace generating to know we can rest in the understanding that we are continually saved by Jesus. But the same  verb tense applies to other important words which inform our faith walk daily. Sound too geeky? Why is this important? Let me demonstrate...
 

    In Greek, the aorist tense compares to what we would call the past tense - it represents something that has happened at a point in the past. In Greek, there is also a tense known as the perfect tense. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God  The words have been saved sound like our past tense, but they are not. They are in the Greek perfect tense, so they imply that you are saved, having been completely saved in the past with ongoing results in the present, and by implication will continue to happen in all the future present moments. Jesus saved me on the day of my spiritual rebirth, is saving me now, and will continue to save me for all future nows. Hallelujah, Amen!

 

      The Apostle John wrote in 1John 1:1 - That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life-- John is saying we have heard and have seen with the present result of still hearing and seeing and by implication we will continue to hear and see Christ in all future days. However, if I fail to sit with the Lord in prayer daily, my mind subtly begins to think of Him in the past tense. When this happens my lamp darkens, my heart shrinks, and my holy boldness turns to timidity. My faith walk is a daily walk, refreshed by daily time of seeing and hearing Jesus. My daily time with Him also refreshes my understanding that our relationship will continue to happen in all future days.

   A few verses later John wrote (1:8) - If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  Dave Guzik wrote this in his commentary on 1John.

   There are few people today who think they are sinlessly perfect; but how many of us really think we sin? Many of us will say "I make mistakes" or "I'm not perfect" or "I'm only human," but usually we say such things to excuse or defend ourselves. This is different from knowing, and admitting, "I am a sinner." To say that we have no sin puts us in a dangerous place, because God's grace and mercy is extended to sinners. Not "mistakers" or "I'm only human" or "Nobody's perfect" people, but sinners. We need to realize the victory and forgiveness that comes from saying, "I am a sinner - even a great sinner - but I have a Savior who cleanses me from all sin." (Guzik)

   So here the present tense applies to us. If we drift into the self deceit of diminishing our sin to a lesser infraction, that thinking defines us as liars to God both now and in the future. When we reduce our sin to self correctable offenses, we reduce our need for a Savior.

   We've all heard that John spent time alone in exile on the Island of Patmos. I doubt if he would agree. As he wrote the Book of Revelation, John described hearing and seeing Jesus. He was actually on an island holiday with the Lord. Let's have a perfect tense experience with Jesus today, hearing and seeing Him as present now in our lives, moment to moment and as going to be present in all our future moments. Let's talk to Him, and listen to Him, walk with Him and worship Him.

   
Copyright 2012 Mission of the Master Ministries, Inc. May be reproduced in part or in whole without prior written permission if a link is provided to http://wordworkswednesday,blogspot.com