Praying About the Weather

Praying about the weather is tricky business.  We all have this image of Jesus walking across the water in a storm.  The disciples were in a boat that they were sure was sinking.  When Jesus arrives, He speaks to the storm and the wind is stilled.  A little earlier in the Biblical story we see Noah building a huge boat and God sends the rain by the buckets.  In recent days as a huge and catastrophic winter storm gains strength, some around here are praying for God to push it a little farther north.  Such prayers are understandable, but what does it say about our concern for our northern neighbors?  

Years ago I read about a weather related prayer out of the stream of Celtic spirituality.  The person praying would stand with arms raised toward the east and pray, "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, bless and protect this place and those who live in it."  This part of the prayer is followed by turning to the south, the west, and then the north repeating the prayer each time.  It is a prayer I have often prayed from the front porch of the house at the farm when dark threatening clouds filled the horizon. It seems more in the spirit of the prayer which Jesus taught His disciples to pray for we ask not for the storm to target our neighbor, but for protection as we go through it.  

Praying about the weather is something we all are going to do.  More than once have I prayed that an afternoon shower would not douse a field of hay needing to be dried by hot summer sun.  More than once have I prayed during a stormy night for the safety of my family, or that I would find safe passage on some highway filled with blowing rain.  More than once I have prayed about the weather.  As is the case with all of us, I will likely do it again.

The Blue Heron

I spent some time this afternoon with a long legged blue heron.  While I am not sure he sensed my presence as I watched him from the car, I sat in wonder watching him for the best part of an hour.  It was like watching a statue. He stood tall and erect on one of those spindle like legs.  When he finally moved, it was to put the other leg on the ground just before the one on the ground disappeared under one of his wide wings.  As the shadows stretched across the ground, he modeled absolute stillness.  The evening breeze stirred the finer feathers across his chest, but nothing else about him even resembled movement.   

I wanted him to run, or walk, or spread those huge wings, or maybe even fly, but he was content to be immersed in the stillness all around him.  In those moments of watching, I wondered if the blue heron and the Holy Spirit were joining to show me  a verse of Scripture read only a few days ago.  In the first Psalm the Word speaks of the righteous as those who "...meditate on His law day and night."  (Psalm 1:2)  I saw before me such stillness.  In the stillness there was such awareness.  

When he finally walked a few feet along the edge of the pond, it was with such deliberation and purpose.  Slowly he moved as if each next step was more important than the place he finally stopped.  Nothing outside the moment of his present seemed to matter.  Would that my soul could stand in a stillness where the only stirring was caused by the gentle breeze of the Holy Wind moving over my heart.  

Remembering Roots

Roots are important.  Roots connect us to life giving sources.  Going back to the place of my birth and rambling around in places familiar to my parents nurtures me in an unexplainable way.  In a like manner my spirit is nurtured by spiritual roots.  My  parents lived lives that were like metal guardrails on either side of a narrow road which stretched out before me.  My early years were filled with small Methodist churches and countless Methodist preachers.  

At Young Harris College I was shaped by its spiritual community and a small group of Christian guys who called me friend.  Asbury College, a school that had "Holiness Unto the Lord" blazoned across the front interior wall of the auditorium, provided a place to hear preachers like J. Edwin Orr, E. Stanley Jones, and Dennis Kinlaw; and, to experience the power of the Holy Spirit in an extraordinary moment of revival during my last quarter.  My spiritual roots were laid down in the social upheaval of the 60's and 70's in south Georgia, a segregated society struggling to move into an integrated world of racial equality.  

I am one who withstood and held to the back of the pew in front of me during many an evangelistic sermon, but finally gave my life to Christ at age 18 in a very emotional experience by my bedside.  While many events and many people have shaped my spiritual journey since its beginning, that bedside moment and the revival at Asbury College sent down deep roots which continue to give my soul its life over 55 years later.  Thanks be to God for His blessings of grace.

The Final Word

Early in January I prayed the John Wesley Covenant Prayer with other believers and for some reason foud myself wanting to stay immersed in it for longer than a few minutes.  For those of us who call ourselves Wesleyans, it is an easy prayer to pray.  When taken seriously it is a hard prayer to leave.  It is one of those unique groupings of words which cause us to see that something is going on which goes beyond rote memorization.  

It is a prayer which goes deeply into that inner place of the heart where the motives of our spiritual disciplines and exercises are found.   It is not a prayer for spiritual dabblers and the faint hearted.  As we approach the Amen of the prayer we hear ourselves making a declaration of intimacy and oneness.  "Thou are mine and I am Thine. So be it."  Hear it carefully.  

It is the prayer which declares to God that our heart and His heart are beating in sync. It is the prayer which declares our desire to be on the other side of lifting the load that God would lift to care for the broken, to right every injustice, and to bring the wandering lost souls to Him.  Where He walks, we walk.  We not only walk where He walks, but we walk close enough to put our feet in the prints left in the road by His feet. We want nothing more than to be so like Jesus that those who see us first see Jesus and His heart.  

Surprise in the Mail

How does the Holy Spirit speak to us?  Where should we bend our ear to hear that still small voice?  I remember.a sermon from long years ago in which the preacher spoke to his male audience and said that sometimes the Spirit speaks through a wife.  I remember, too, the uneasy laughter which went across the room, but it is true, is it not?  The Holy Spirit is not limited in speaking a word to us.  He can use the sun setting over the wide expanse of the beach, or the upheaval of creation by a mighty wind.  He can use the Scripture, the words of the saints, a preacher in the pulpit, or a wife.  

A few days ago I picked up a glossy piece of mail from one of those megachurch preachers.  Expecting an appeal for money, I opened it up and immediately my eyes were drawn to words which I knew were words the Spirit was speaking to me.  The first thing I wanted to do was throw it away, but it is still there open on the desk with a power that causes me to read it again and again.  It is like so many have said to me over years of preaching when I heard those surprising words. "Preacher, how did you know what was going on in my life? Your sermon was just for me."

The brief little note is still there.  Underneath is an envelope for an offering and also a card to send my need to an unknown prayer team is a distant place.  I know what it is.  It is not just a gimmick to get my money.  It is the Holy Spirit speaking to me a word of comfort and hope.  I receive it with gratitude.  

Just in Case

As we pray deeply in the John Wesley Covenant Prayer, we come to that line which could be called the "Just in case I missed something" part of the prayer.  As we pray this prayer which brings to mind so many of the specifics of life, we come to this word which is like a waterfront word.  The word of the prayer which takes away the possibility that we missed something, or that some part of our life has been managed to keep out of the scope of the prayer is this line which says, "I freely and heartily yield all things to Thy pleasure and disposal."   

Make no mistake.  This is a prayer of total capitulation.  It is the prayer of absolute abandonment.  It is a prayer empty of reservations and stipulations.  Praying this prayer seriously is not an either or moment in our spiritual life.  It is our declaration of a faith leap over the cliff.  Perhaps, Christ will catch us, or perhaps, He will choose not to catch us.  What happens once the leap of faith is taken is entirely up to Him.  Whatever He wills to do, it is good.  As we choose to live a life of this kind of radical faith, we are counting nothing in our life more valuable than our faith in Him.  

We leap trusting His whatsoever.   The  Wesley Covenant Prayer is like a marriage.  It is our choosing to step into a covenant and it is not to be taken lightly, but reverently and in the fear of God.  We may not make this covenant in the presence of a congregation, though many of us do, but we do make it in the presence of God who not only hears our words, but writes them in His heart as our promise to Him.

Declaring our Choice

To be honest is to admit that what prompted this writing venture on the Wesley Covenant Prayer was a visual of a large group of people enthusiastically singing, "I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold, I'd rather have Jesus than riches untold, I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today."  It was a very polished, manicured, and affluent looking group of men and women.  Fashionable boots and sharp dressing seemed to be the normal attire.  The cynic in me that sometimes raises its head wondered about the automobiles they might be driving to some gated community known as home.   

Perhaps, my thoughts had no basis, but almost as soon as the visual registered, I thought of the line from the Wesley Prayer which says, "Let me have all things and let me have nothing."  It was then that the Spirit really got down to business in my heart by bringing into view my family, the land and home I have come to love, the work of ministry which continues to give me purpose, and being a part of all that is a part of where I walk and who I am.  

If life suddenly turned upside down on the singers and the cynics like me who watched and we found ourselves sitting and having nothing more than a pile of ashes to pull around us as did Job, would we still sing?  The question of the Wesley Covenant Prayer goes to the center of this song about our choosing Jesus over anything.  This is not to say we cannot live with our stuff.  We just need to be sure what kind of hold our stuff has on us.  

The Whatever Prayer

To come to those words of the John Wesley Covenant Prayer which bring to expression the words, "Let me be full, let me be empty," is a way of declaring the eternal "whatever."  It is another way of saying what the hymn expresses as it says, "Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, it is well.  It is well with my soul."  It takes us to that great affirmation of faith declared by the Apostle Paul when he wrote, "...I have learned to be content with whatever I have.  I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty.  In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need."  (Philippians 4:11-12).  

It is no easy thing to declare that being full or empty is unimportant.  Remember, too, this is not just a word about a bulging bank account or one so thin it is nearly non-existent.  It can also be a reference to our inner life.  Being full can be an expression of a heart that is overflowing with spiritual blessings.  It can be a way of speaking of a life that is so full of God's presence that glory seems to be shining upon us all the time.  On the other hand, being empty can be an expression of a soul that seems as dry as desert wind and God seems as inaccessible as water in a desert well filled only with sand.  

To pray these words of the Covenant Prayer speaks of our sticking with God regardless of what comes. Whatever comes, whatever is our lot, we are still going to be one who raises hands in praise and remains grateful for the goodness of God.  Whatever, Lord.  I am Yours.

Listening to the Voice

When the Voice is heard somewhere deep within that cannot be explained,  it is not a moment for argument, or questioning.  It may be a moment for wonder if wonder is not cloaked in a doubtful attire, but the attire of standing in the midst of mystery.  Only those who have no ears to hear doubt that the Voice of the Lord can be heard and known as surely as can be the sound of wind as it races across the open space to where we stand waiting.   

It is the same Voice which has been heard by men and women through more days than we can count.  It is a Voice that changes lives, brings healing to the broken, and opens doors to the future which have seem locked and nailed shut.  It is a Voice which has such force within it that the very trajectory of history seems shaken and pushed in a direction no one thought possible.  This Voice of God may be described as a still small Voice, one that seems to come more with a whisper than a shout, but there is no voice which brings such transforming power to the stage where we walk and live.  

When we hear it, and we will, we dare not take a path other than the one it calls us to take.  We dare not go on living as if we never heard it.  To do so is to live with a horrible weight of "what if" upon our shoulders.  What ever we hear from God requires not only our immediate attention, but also our immediate action.  The history which has been written through the ages and the history which is being written through our own experience tells us to listen so that God can lead us from here to there.

Another Layer Exposed

What if God wants us to fail at some noble endeavor to accomplish His plan? What is He allows our effort for Him to end in what seems to be humiliating failure in order for His Kingdom goal to be reached?  What if our role is the interim, or the associate, or the shadow dweller instead of the head honcho, or the one who stands in the spotlight on center stage?  A CEO of a big corporation is remembered as saying that there is not end to what one can accomplish if you do not mind who gets the credit.  Are we willing to be such a person?   

"Let me be exalted for Thee or brought low for Thee."  Perhaps, the previous words of the Wesley Covenant Prayer exposed our ego, but these additional words peel back the protective layers of that ego until it is painfully bare.  All of us want to be liked.  No preacher I know wants to stand at the door at the end of the service only to hear what an awful sermon has been preached.  Like Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet, there is a part of us that wants to be liked, to be accepted, and to be one of the good looking crowd.   This part of the prayer Wesley prayed takes us to the place of obedience.  Is obedience more important to us than being liked?  Or we willing to be humiliated in the eyes of our peers if it means being seen as faithful by God?  Being exalted is easy, but being brought low goes against the grain of the human ege.  

One of the things we want most is to look good in the eyes of others which is one of the reasons it is so hard for us to accept the responsibility for our own failures.  We would rather blame someone or some unexpected circumstances.  When we no longer have to set ourselves on the pedestal, we are free to be brought low and, therefore, able to enter into more honest and accountable living.  To pray these words from the prayer declares that all we need to know about what we do for His sake is His approval.

Deeper into the Prayer

In some ways the Wesley Covenant Prayer is like peeling an onion one layer at a time.  Each part of the prayer exposes a different level of our spirit.  It could be said that the prayer is one that takes us deeper and deeper into our inner being enabling us to see if our heart belongs completely to Jesus, or if we still have our controlling hand on part of our life.  Just when we think we have made it to the core and there is no more to let go, we are confronted by still another part of our life which causes us to consider the degree to which we abandon our life for God.   

The next part of the Wesley Prayer causes us to pray, "Let me be employed by Thee or laid aside for Thee."  Here within the prayer is a moment when we are expressing our desire to be at God's disposal.  If there is something He needs doing and that He wants us to do, we are willing.  Even as such is true, it is also true that we are willing to step aside from something we might want to do for Him if it is His desire to use someone else.  There have been times when we have been tempted to think that we are necessary for some Kingdom work to be accomplished, but as we pray this prayer we affirm that who does the work and who gets the credit is not as important as knowing that the work of God's Kingdom is going forward.  

Some of the churches I have served as pastor have closed down, but not a single one closed because I left.  When I left, the work continued.  The words of this part of the prayer Wesley prayed raises questions we must ask and answer about the importance of our ego verses the importance of what God is doing.   

Uncomfortable Words

Our typical prayers pray for deliverance to more comfortable places.  We pray for relief from pain, peace in place of brokenness, and a safer way.  There is nothing wrong with such petitions.  The Scripture teaches us to pray such intercessory words which is one of the reasons the Wesley Covenant Prayer jars our spirit as it calls us to pray, "Put me to suffering."  Suffering is not what we seek in our life and, yet, as the words of this prayer fall from our lips, we hear such a request to God.  If we do not take a deep breath and wonder what we are praying with these words, it is likely that we have become overcome with the dullness of rote repetition.    

The history of the Jesus movement going forth from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth is filled with men and women who did not count suffering for Christ too high a price to pay.  On August 4, 1964 a missionary named Burleigh Law became a martyr for Jesus while serving Him in the Belgian Congo.  Seventy years ago on January 8, Jim Elliot walked the road of suffering and death as he sought to take the gospel to a hostile and savage tribe of Ecuador.  While our journey for Christ may not take us to a martyr's death, there never has been a promise of a rose garden tour on a bright sunny day.  

Being put to suffering has a thousand looks.  As we ask God to help us comfort a soul fresh with grief, it will mean walking again within the pain of our own.  It is experienced in the heart of a pastor troubled by his willingness to defend his faith in Christ, but finding it harder to invite to Christ those who hear the defense.  There is suffering found in taking Jesus so seriously that others regard us as fanatics, or someone out of touch with reality.  Praying such a prayer may carry us into places filled with such intense suffering that our own bed of tranquility is never the same.  "Put me to suffering," we pray.  Really? 

The Wesley Push

Breathing more and more of the Wesley Covenant Prayer into our spiritual systems takes us more deeply into the places of the soul where spiritual roots have been put down in the nurturing dirt of the spirit.  It is not that we are ignorant of some important things about spiritual nurture, but is to say that it is easy to focus on some disciplines at the expense of others.  As the Apostle James reminds us, the inner expressions of faith are important, but our service to others cannot be ignored.  As we know from the days of our beginning to walk with Christ, it is important to balance faith and work.   

A few words from the prayer point us in the right direction.  "Put me to doing," is an important word in the prayer.  Faithfulness to Christ takes us deep into our inner life, but it also takes us to doing, to being involved with those who are suffering, and to standing alongside of those whose needs seem to be forgotten by the well-doers.  Couch potatoes are not just those who are addicted to the screens of our life, but they are also those who can always seem to find a reason to sit on the sidelines instead of getting into the fray of of life's struggles.  

As we pray, "Put me to doing," it is imperative we have open minds.  It is imperative that we do not limit God in terms of what He can ask us to do.  If we expect Him to lead us into getting a shovel we have never used and go to a place of digging where we have never been, we will not be surprised.  Once again, the prayer is not about doing a certain thing which is inside our comfort zone, but doing whatever it is that in His will for us to do.  Praying the Wesley Prayer is about being willing to do what God wants us to do and not what we choose to do.  There is a difference!

A Little Deeper

Our rank is where our sense of success is measured.  It is word about our power and authority.  It is our way of determining how tall we stand among our peers.  Most systems have rankings.  The military is the most obvious one with its rankings from private to general.  The church is another one with its pastors and Bishops or its monks, Cardinals, and Pope.  The business world has its entry level people and its CEO.  Rank enables us to see our place of importance.  

As we pray deeper into the Wesley Covenant Prayer, we come to those words, "Rank me with whom Thou Wilt."  Since the word "rank" is not so commonly used, it might cause us to pause and consider what we are praying.  Here is a word which causes us to consider our place in society's pecking order. As we pray these words, we are abandoning a need to be recognized as a person of influence, or one of society's power brokers, or someone who enjoys a place of prominence in the pecking order.  These words speak of a prayer which is giving God permission to make us as important or as insignificant as He chooses us to be.  

This prayer is a prayer of total abandonment, and as we move a little deeper into the prayer, we begin to realize it is not just about abandoning things we hold in our hand, but how we want to be seen by others and how we measure ourselves in comparing ourselves to others.  Can we pray this prayer which declares such things do not matter, but that they are at His disposal and then walk away from pride's need to rank ourselves as one of the important?  It is not easy ground to walk, but once we start walking it, we walk into a new land of freedom.  

The Second Line

A friend of mine speaks of the Wesley Covenant Prayer as "a total capitulation."  Old timers of a faith era from the past might use words like "total surrender," or "abandonment."  The old gospel hymn sung often in days past in many places as an invitational hymn has the lines, "I surrender all, all to Jesus, I surrender, I surrender all."  Such words take us to the very heart of this covenant prayer which gets prayed often and, most likely, is taken too lightly,  

The second line of the prayer simply says to God, "Put me to what Thou wilt."  This is a hard word for most of us, but an even harder word for the planner who dwells in us.  Few of us have time in our schedule for that kind of abandonment.  Our day planner does not allow for interruptions, distractions, impromptu opportunities, and the spontaneous.  To tell God to put us to whatever He wishes is to put all of what we have planned for today and the rest of our life at risk.  As we pray Wesley's Covenant Prayer, we should be prepared to ask ourselves if we are truly ready and open to such a life?  

One of the roads described in the Scripture is the road of the Good Samaritan  (Luke 10:25-37).  The priest and the Levite could not stop to help the man left for dead on the road.  Perhaps, they were afraid robbers lurked nearby waiting on more easy prey.  Or, perhaps, their day planners were too filled and important people and meetings were waiting on them.  Though they and others saw them as righteous, they were not willing to be put in the role of being a servant.  Only the Samaritan  who was surely seen by the listeners of the parable as a sinner was willing to be "put to whatever Thou wilt."  One of the questions we must ask of ourselves as we pray this part of the prayer has to do the importance of what we do with our life.  Is doing what we want to do with our life ever more important than doing what God wants to do with it?  This is the hard question of the second line and one we need to answer if we dare to pray it.

The First Line

The first line of the Wesley Covenant Prayer should alert us to the reality that this is not a "Mickey Mouse" prayer. It is not some prayer prayed out there in a world of make believe, but a hard prayer which if taken seriously will shake the foundation of our spiritual reality.  Too many people who set out to follow Jesus do so thinking that the commitment to follow Christ is a peripheral issue of life.  To say that faith in Christ is a peripheral issue is to say that it is something to which lip service is given.  It is something which is not going to have a great impact on how we actually live.   

The first line is a personal word to God in which we declare, "I am no longer my own, but Thine."  Before letting the cement get hard, stop and consider what those words mean.  Are we really willing to turn lose the controls of our life?  Are we truly willing to submit willingly and without any reservation to His will for us even though it is contrary to our own will?  Is His agenda really more important to us than our own?  Are we willing to forsake any right to ourself for the sake of His?  Only the foolish would listen to these words coming forth from their own lips without a trembling of the spirit.  To really hear these words and to take them seriously is likely to send us back into the realm of declaring reservations and compromising the commitment.  

As we utter the very first words of this Wesley Covenant Prayer, we are either aware that we are stepping off the cliff with no safety net, or we have not really heard the intent of the words at all.  Wesley's words take us to the heart of the Apostle Paul who wrote at the very beginning of his letter to the Roman Christians, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ..." (Romans 1:1).  The word "servant" may be the more palatable translation, but the Greek word being translated is one which is defined as "slave."  Wesley's prayer speaks of our choosing willingly and without reservation to be as a slave to Jesus.  Hear the beginning words of the prayer carefully for such is who we are declaring ourselves to be and God is listening. 

Wesley's Covenant Prayer

In these days of beginning the new year, John Wesley's Covenant Prayer is receiving more than a little attention.  Wesley wrote it as a tool for church communities to renew their covenant with God at this time of the year.  It offers a far different moment of beginning than the revelers of Times Square experience as they watch the great ball drop.  It is a covenant prayer that takes us away from the outside noise to the inner quietness.  When I was growing up, it was a rather common thing for churches to have midnight worship services to usher in the new year, but such services are now more the exception than the norm.  

The renewed interest in Wesley' Covenant Prayer can create again an opportunity to use the change from December to January for spiritual transformation.  The prayer begins with the words, "I am no longer my own, but Thine. Put me to what Thou wilt.  Rank me with whom Thou wilt.  Put me to doing.  Put me to suffering.  Let me be employed for Thee or laid aside for Thee. Exalted for thee or brought low for Thee.  Let me be full.  Let me be empty.  Let me have all things.  Let me have nothing.  I freely and heartily yield all things to Thy. pleasure and disposal."   

There are still a few more words to the prayer, but these words are enough to reveal the heart of what was in Wesley's heart.  It is a prayer of total abandonment to God.  Who among us really wants to be totally abandoned to the purposes and the will of God?  Be careful in jumping on board too quickly.  Be sure to count the cost.  Be careful about praying this prayer.  God is listening.  He may take you seriously. 

The Risky Ground

The first Psalm with its words about the ungodly and the righteous seems to divide the world into two separate groups.  To be reading those words of David surely puts us in the category of the righteous.  After all, the ungodly ones would not be spending their time reading the Word of God.  In this world where the righteous and the ungodly are so clearly divided, we must be careful that we do not end up praying like the Biblical Pharisee who prayed, "I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector..." (Luke 18:11).   

This ground defined by "I thank you that I am not like the ungodly" is risky ground upon which to kneel and pray.  The Apostle Paul exposes this risky ground which is filled with self-righteousness in the first few chapters of his letter to the Roman Christians.  After setting forth the human predicament of the ungodly, he turns to the predicament of the Jewish people, who viewed themselves as God's chosen and speaks to their assumption of righteousness.  In the middle of chapter three he asks, "What then?  Are we (the Jews) any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged that all...are under the power of sin."  (Romans 3:9).  

Instead of reading the first Psalm and praying like the Pharisee, it would be more acceptable for its words to lead us to a prayer of heartfelt confession.  Instead of gloating over our perceived righteousness, it would make more sense for us to ask God to forgive us for spending too much time listening to the voices which speak compromising words.  It would make more sense to acknowledge that we have taken on the ways and the attitudes of the ungodly to the point that we must surely seem like one of them to Him.  Such honest confession would lead us to a prayer asking Him to restore our hearts to a place where we once again delight in His Word and where our spirits are once again rooted in the river of living water where He abides.

The Triune God

My Advent reading this year came from a book entitled, "Advent." by an Episcopalian priest named Fleming Rutledge.  In a section which focused on the way the church could resist the power of evil, she wrote, "True worship isn't focused on exhortations to do better, or lessons about inclusivity, or instructions about 'spirituality,' or even one dimensional repetitions about how 'God loves you as you are.' which shifts the emphasis away from God to our own little selves."  All of this resonated as truth, but the next word about something often missing in worship really struck home: "The first order of worship is the triune God alone, God as He is in Himself."  

It often seems that we have forgotten the source of the church's power in its struggle against injustice, greed, and all other forms of evil.  The church is not powerful because of our efforts, our programming, or because of its influence in the community, but because it represents and is the continuing presence of God in our midst.  The Apostle Paul makes it clear that the we alone cannot stand against the "wiles of the devil" (Ephesians 6:11). It is easy for us to forget as we go about doing good that "our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against...the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places..." (Ephesians 6:12). 

A feel good sermon will not enable us to stand.  A feel good theology will not build the church.  It is the triune all powerful God of the Universe who is Sovereign and Lord, whose Son came and died for us on the cross, and who continues to abide within it through the Holy Spirit that will deliver the church and make it the church triumphant as evil swirls all around it.

The Cosmic Battle

One thing leads to another and then another.  So, I have often heard it said and more times than not, it has proven to be true.  Back in the early days of November, l started reading a book about Advent as a way of getting my mind wrapped around the season which was lurking ahead on the calendar.  "Advent" was the name of the book written by an Episcopalian priest named Fleming Rutledge.  As she developed the Advent theme, she did so depicting a cosmic struggle between good and evil, God and Satan, but one in which we also were the third character on the stage.   

Her book was the one thing which sent me to another which was Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus.  When we think of Ephesians, we often think only of the eighth verse of the second chapter which has words which flow off our lips with such ease, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; is is the gift of God."  While this verse is one of those must be memorized verses, Ephesians also enables us to see teh Apostle's view of the cosmic struggle which comes to a conclusion with those words in chapter six about the wiles of the devil and the need for the whole armor of God.  

This message about a cosmic ongoing struggle is something we often push to the edge of what we see God doing in the world.  We see Him expressing love, offering forgiveness, and being an abundant source of mercy and grace.  We often forget that the battle we see evidence of at Calvary is still raging. The ultimate victory has been won, but Satan still lurks in the shadows seeking to destroy and undermine everything which speaks of goodness.  Satan is the evil one who would separate us from God.  We live complacent to the battle, but it still rages around us, nonetheless.  Let no one think we are but bystanders for we are players in this cosmic battle as well.

All About Grace

A few days ago I found myself immersed in Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus and in need of more light on some passages than my mind was able to provide.  I went to a set of commentaries I carried with me out of retirement that were written by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones who was born in Wales in 1900 and died 81 years later.  He left a lucrative career as a physician when he was a young man to become a preacher.  He served as an associate with G. Campbell Morgan for five years before becoming the sole minister of Westminster Chapel.  His commentaries reflect his reputation as a strong expository preacher.   

As he explored the Ephesian phrase, "In Christ we have redemption through His blood,"  (Ephesians 1:7),  he speaks a word which needs to be heard by our contemporary brand of Christianity which wants to puts too much emphasis on what we can do and not enough on what God has done and is doing.  He reminds us that this is a word which reminds us we can never make ourselves Christian.  It is always about what Christ has done for us.  He also reminds us that Jesus did not come to tell us what we have to do in order to make ourselves Christian,  Neither did He come to tell us that God forgives us and loves us.  The cross is not a statement that God is ready to forgive us, but instead, that He has forgiven us.  

In a culture so caught up in fixing ourselves and staying busy with one activity after another, it is is not easy to hear a word which tells us that our relationship with God is not based on what we are able to, what we do for Him, or what we are planning to do, but upon what He has done and is doing for us.  It is not our faith that saves us, but God's grace.  Without grace, faith is like leaves blowing in the wind.  "For by grace you have been saved..."  Faith is not the primary means of salvation, it is and always will be grace.

The Place of Learning

I remember my first prayers.  They were prayed on my knees at my bedside.  My mother was kneeling beside me leading me and teaching me lessons I did not realize I was learning.  For sure I knew I was learning a simple children's bedtime prayer that children have probably been taught to pray since before time began.  I did not think much back then that I was being taught to kneel before the God to whom I was praying. At the time I could not really get my mind around God which, of course, is still true.  I learned that prayer was a part of life.  

I am not sure how much explanation was given about why I should pray.  I was told to do it and taught how to do it by someone I trusted.  No more was needed.   One of the things our children still need are lessons in prayer.  More than just lessons, they need examples.  They need to know that praying is not just something done in church on Sunday, but something which is important enough to do every day.  

The one who has the most influence in this teaching are the parents they love and trust.  Parents today invest inordinate amounts of time taking their children to ball fields, dance studios, and all kinds of child oriented programs.  They all can be teachers of life lessons, but when our children reach adulthood and get knocked down by the the loss of a parent, or a spouse, or a divorce, or the loss of a job they need to have memories of learning to pray and learning the importance of faith in God.  The one place any child learns these important life lessons is in their home.  Their parents are the best teachers. 

Breathing Deeply

A few days ago I found myself settling into a mindset to be more intentional about the discipline of reading the Psalms.  Anyone who reads the Bible reads these Spirit inspired writings of David.  There are some people who memorize the whole collection of 150 Psalms, but most of us have memorized but a few and they are usually our favorites.  Of course, the 23rd Psalm is probably the most memorized of them all.   I have still not forgotten my embarrassment the Sunday morning in my first church when I was leading the congregation in "The Lord's Prayer" and somehow wandered into reciting the 23rd Psalm!  

While I have read and studied the "The New Revised Version"  of the Bible longer than I can remember, I must confess that my spirit wants to return to the old "King James Version" when I start reading the Psalms.  Another preferred option for reading the Psalms is "The New Jerusalem Bible."  The  newer and more contemporary versions of the Bible with their propensity for the trendy and familiar just seem to miss out on the cadence of the more ancient renderings.  

The Psalms are poetry for the soul.  They are not to be read hurriedly.  Some suggest reading them aloud so that the mind not only reads but hears.   When we slowly become immersed in them, they have a way of settling into the cracks, fractures, and broken places of our spirit.  They have such healing power which is why we find ourselves returning to them again and again. Maybe my spirit is not the only one being drawn back to these sacred words which have the power to heal, to lift our hearts in praise, and slow our hurried pace so we can breathe deeply one more time.  

The Walk

Watching the Buddhist monks in their Walk for Peace brings to mind other walks.  One walk remembered is Christian's walk which John Bunyan recorded in "The Pilgrim's Progress."   The monks are walking from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, D.C.  and their walk seems rather direct compared to Christian's walk from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City.  It is certainly direct when compared to the walk I started nearly sixty years ago.   

I was a month away from being eighteen years old when I came to that moment which marked the first step of my walk with Jesus. It was a journey that literally began on my knees as I knelt beside my bed and gave my life to Jesus.  It was the first time I gave my life to Him and did not take it back.  Like the walker, Pilgrim, I have found my share of diversions and temptations.  I have climbed mountains that did not need climbing, wallowed around in boggy sloughs, and wandered off the straight and narrow way. There were too many times when I lost sight of where I was being called to go.  

All I can say is that I have known a lifetime of God's mercy and grace.  There has been no patience, forgiveness, and love in my life like  that which God has given me over the years.  There have surely been those times when He should have given up on me, dropped me like a hot potato, and said, "Enough!" but He has been everlastingly faithful and steadfast.  Since the day I was conceived in my mother's womb, and perhaps even before, He has called me son and one of His.  On this new day of a new year, I know I have been blessed beyond what can be measured and I am deeply grateful to Him for not giving up on me as I walked somewhere on the road behind Him.