Monthly Archives: May 2020

As I was resting (relatively) in God this week, I remembered Pastor Alan Cross’ remarks at last Tuesday night’s online prayer meeting. Pastor Alan said that as a young college student, he served a small rural church as a youth director. Once, he was teaching his students about prayer, particularly, how to wait before the Lord patiently to hear what God would say. He recounted their first prayer meeting in which they waited quietly for about 20 minutes before God spoke, But He did speak. Some people refer to this practice as “Listening Prayer.”

Listening Prayer became a practice of Pastor Alan’s and his students.’ Much later, Pastor Alan and Miss Joan taught the practice to me. Miss Joan is a grand lady in my former church who is a “Prayer-Ninja.” I practice this method on occasion. Many times, these prayers, ones into which I enter with no agenda other than to be with God, accomplish His agenda in me.

May I suggest that God speaks not only through the Bible, but also thoughts, impressions, and yes, even my own written words – occasionally as I write them. Sometimes, God gives me an impression, and I start writing. The words, oft times, fly off my keyboard onto the screen. I am anxious to see what appears. God filters the words through the lens of scripture; thus, I take these as words from God. To be clear, I make no claim to private revelation nor that my writings equate with Scripture.

Today, I read in Mark 1 about John the Baptist. I followed this with William Barclay’s commentary. After reading, I prayed a “listening” prayer as Alan and Miss Joan taught me.

Barclay points out that the common people of John the Baptist’s day listened to his message because John the Baptist lived his message in authenticity. After delivering his message in word and deed, John “decreased” much as an old-timey telephone operator who connected one party to the other went away after she completed the connection. 

I wondered to God, “Am I authentic in my preachy sort of writing?” Must I “sell all and give it to the poor” to be heard? Must I liquidate my 401- k and donate the proceeds to the Salvation Army becoming destitute, moving to the Conecuh River Swamp to eat carob beans and tree sap? Will I then have achieved “authenticity?” I sort of expected a “yes” or “no” answer from God – and I was hoping it wasn’t “yes.”

After listening a while, I heard God laugh and say simply, “I am the Lord your God.” Period, end of statement. (Actually, He said “thy” God because when He gives scripture back to me, He usually gives it in His native tongue, King James English, circa. 1600.) 

That’s all He said, “I am the Lord, thy God.” His intent, I surmised, in this truncated, cryptic, and terse, but pregnant statement was to lead me through what I am to take from that today. 

“If you are truly “my” God, I asked Him “What do You want me to do?” He said only, “Feed my sheep.”

OK, that’s out of context, but let’s run with it. Deut. 6:5 (NIV) enjoins us to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength. Jesus repeated that injunction in Matthew 22 and Mark 12.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

“Love your neighbor as yourself,” I followed on. “And who is my neighbor?” Well, we all know the answer to that question found in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Luke 10:36-37. “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man…? ‘The expert in the law [Scribe] replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’ Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.”

Next, God reminded me of Jesus almost last words to His disciples in John 14:15. “If you love me, [you will] keep my commands.” I, the erstwhile disciple, along with that particular scribe, am told to “Go [thou] and do likewise,” – keep His commands.

God brought to mind Jesus’ conversation with Peter in John, “. . . [Jesus] said to him, ‘Simon, do you love me?’ . . . [Peter] said, ‘Lord…. you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my sheep.”

“LORD, what am I to take from this and the words above?”

“I’m glad you said, ‘words,’ the LORD replied. “That’s part of the answer. Think, now, think in the Spirit. What do you think the point is?”

I let my spirit roam, searching for a connection to His Spirit. After a time, the celestial operator completed the circuit. “Who are the sheep?” the Spirit said. “The ‘sheep’ are the Church, yes, but more than the Church, all who will listen, all who will eat of that which I give.

At the wedding in Cana of Galilee, Jesus told the steward to bring water. That’s all the steward had – water. Jesus did the rest, turning the water into wine. John 2.

At the feeding of the 4,000 and the 5,000, Jesus asked the disciples what they had – loaves and fishes. They brought what they had and Jesus did the rest. Matthew 16, Luke 9, and Mark 6.

When Jesus saved the Samaritan Woman at the Well, He asked her to give Him the only two things she had – a drink of water and her sin. Jesus turned that water and sin into Salvation for her and many in her village. John 4. There are many other such stories.

True, there is one place where Jesus tells the Rich Young Ruler to, “sell all and give it to the poor,” but I don’t take that as a universal command. Matthew 9:16-30, Mark 10:17-31, and Luke 18:18-30. The point is that God wants me to give Him that which I have and let Him use it.

God has blessed me with many things, but one thing that God has given me is words – lots of words – sometimes, too many words. Be that as it may, may I submit that if I bring my words to Jesus, He will use them. He will take the simple things of life – bread, water, fish – and make Salvation out of them. Perhaps, He will take my inartful words and use them to feed some sheep’s spirit.

That’s what God wanted me to take from “I am the Lord thy God,” and that’s what I shall give Him as long as he gives me breath – and words.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

Having too much pride or confidence will cause one to make mistakes that lead to a setback or failure. The phrase is adapted from a verse in the Book of Proverbs [16:18] in the Bible: “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” – -Idioms.thefreedictionary.com

I had intended today’s note to chronicle an experience I had with a young man in a hoodie. In that story, while on a walk, I met a young man who appeared to be lost. He was wearing a hoodie and was otherwise significantly too warmly dressed for the heat of the day. I was going to tell how God led me to stop, to turn around, and to give him directions and the bottle of water that I happened to have with me. I was to proudly proclaim how this led me to become more aware of people that I saw standing on street corners who were asking for money. I would give them a bottle of water and a note in an envelope that said, “God bless you today.” The envelope was to include a ten-dollar bill. However…

However, it didn’t work out that way. I am impressed today to take painful note of the irony in my telling that story (to which you might have replied with a sympathetic, “Aw, wasn’t that sweet?) Such though is not the case. Instead, I must write a little about a big subject – pride, precisely – my pride.

The verse from Proverbs cited above states the case altogether. I can testify to its veracity. For several weeks, I have been sitting in on a Sunday school class via Zoom. I decided that I could help host the class technically, and I offered to do so. The class president graciously took me up on the offer.

Last week, the class meeting proceeded reasonably well from a technical standpoint, except that a couple of members were inexplicably unable to join the meeting. This week, and not to be outdone, I knew that I was better than a couple of exclusions. Nothing short of 100% admittance would be acceptable. Thus, I made technical adjustments – just a few “tweaks” to my system.

The “tweaks” grew, magically, into a PowerPoint presentation – complete with maps. Further, I schooled myself on importing chat data from MS Word to assist with the lesson. Frankly, my dear, I was rather proud of myself.

Enter Pride. (Actually, enter the consequences of pride leading to its full blossoming.) The vanity was “lurking at the door” from the very start.

Today’s Sunday school class meeting was an utter disaster. Absolutely no one was able to “Zoom-in” – not the president, not the secretary, “no not one,” nada, zilch, nippo, nairn!

Though I worked feverishly for 35 minutes trying to reset, all erstwhile participants still got the message that the system had rejected them from my class meeting, not admitted, not “qualified” – “verboten” – access denied.

Ultimately, Zoom forced to call the class president and admit defeat. I sent the president and several members of the class an email stating that I was very sorry that I had been unable to get Zoom working and that I was extremely embarrassed (which I was.) Above all, I feared (and still do) being “fired” as the zoom technician.

Do you see the problem with this story? Do you understand the inappropriateness of the pat-on-the-back “Hoodie Story?” Should we count the times the word “I” was used, we would run out of digits on both hands and both feet. The conclusion obtains that “I” have entirely missed the point, or as our British friends would say, “lost the plot.” The exercise’s whole point was to put forth a Sunday school lesson about an incident in the life of Jesus from which we could take an example. Unfortunately, and as John Belushi would say as a Saturday Night Live character, “but noooooo,” the point for me became whether I could adequately operate Zoom. So, how do you spell Pride anyway? Today I would spell it Z o o m.

After I had cooled down, having stewed through the entire online church service over which I had no control, I found the check-box that I had erroneously checked in the calm of the afternoon. It was the “little, teeny, tiny, teeny, tiny (Gilda Radner”) check-box that caused the problem. Without a doubt, we will resolve the issue this afternoon and check out the system. There probably will not be a technical problem any longer.

It remains to be seen as to whether they will fire me as Zoom technician. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, that question is of no importance to any of the class members. Still, it remains essential to me. I take it as a matter of personal pride.

While I am being “personal,” may I add my personal paraphrase of Proverbs 16:18? “Pride goeth before a fall, [and great pride doth goeth before a great fall.]” (Does anyone hear a loud “thud?”) Perhaps, even in my stewing over my prideful condition, I am displaying my prideful nature all the more.

Surely though, you have never had this problem. Have you?

As I am praying over you and your ministry tomorrow (yes, I will put this incident behind me and “find the plot”), can you spare a moment to pray for me that I will get over myself and let the important things be the essential things? Here’s a thought, someone could email me a “Get over it, man” note. I’ll reply with a “thumbs-up.”

So let it be written, so let it be done.

 

One day last week, I saw an Alabama motor vehicle tag number “JHN151.” As I had been in a heightened state of prayer that morning, I immediately saw the tag number as a message from God. I frequently quote Henry Blackaby as saying in the 1990 book, Experiencing God, “God speaks to us by the Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstance and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways.” However, I’m not sure I’ve seen Him speak through a car-tag, but I guess that could be considered “circumstance.”

The tag puzzled me, though as I couldn’t figure out whether it was abbreviated “John 1:51” or “John 15:1.” The former states, “He then added, ‘Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” I mused on that passage for a while and thought as how it could have a particular meaning for me. In it, Jesus refers to the passage in Genesis 28:10-19 in which Jacob, in a dream, sees a giant ladder descending from Heaven to Earth upon which angels are freely traveling up and down.

That could be a sign that God is at work doing something in these troubled times, perhaps a mighty work. The truth of that notwithstanding, the passage just didn’t “click” as the one to which God was pointing me this time. As I prayed, “Lord, which one?” He said, “Watch and wait,” so I did.

The second and more likely passage is “John 15:1” which states, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.” That passage, one of Jesus’ last incarnate sayings before his Passion, opens a multi-verse dissertation in which Jesus compares the relationship between His disciples, and thus all Christians, and Himself, to that of a vine and a branch. The gist of the passage holds that we Christians, for all our great ideas and machinations, can do nothing of eternal good if we have cut ourselves off from Him, the True Vine. Thus, it is more important to stay in contact with that Vine than to do stuff, even if the stuff appears to be good.

Pastor Alan Cross of Petaluma Baptist Church in California has recently taught on this very thought. I suggest that such is one of Pastor Alan’s life themes, one that he not only preaches but practices. Consequently, the thought stuck in my mind.

Likewise, Pastor Jay Cooper of First United Methodist Church Montgomery, Alabama, in his daily Facebook® postings of iconography at the church facility, posted a photograph of a plaster casting of the Vine adorning the entrance to the building at left, q.v.

Thus, that day, God began to answer the threshold question. Now, however, the second, and the maybe greater question is, “What am I to take from it?”

As I prayed over the subject, I received an email from Tabby Case, a friend of long-standing, in which she connected me with her daughter, Abigail, who is a bi-vocational missionary on an island in the South Pacific. Abigail, like the rest of us, has been in lock-down for weeks.
Abigail spends her days working at her continuing, but scaled-down, menial day-job, the one that sustains her to do the real work, that of serving as a missionary to hundreds of young people. She stated in a recent email message and a video that during the period, she has had the opportunity to dwell deeply in prayer. In those sessions alone with God, God has revealed many things to her, things will inform her ministry and mission not just for the near-term, but long-term as well. I quote a passage from her note:

Our ministry, as well as the global body, is being shut up in our homes. We are waiting for the Lord to deliver us from what enslaves us, like consumerism, materialism, this constant need to be entertained and distracted; we are waiting for death to pass over us. I believe this time is a time of reconciling our hearts back to our first love – back to the only one who can satisfy. The Father is coming through His people and pruning back what is not necessary and poisonous (John 15) to bring forth lasting fruit. I believe this period of silence is a period of massive deliverance and refinement of the body of Christ, where we are being stripped of all the subtle idols and comforts that have crept into our hearts and stolen the love that rightly belonged to God.

Abigail’s prophesy is so profoundly succinct that I will not attempt to interpret, comment, or otherwise obscure the clear and present message from God Himself – from the pen of one young in years – but growing mightily in the Faith. More than this, I dare not say.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

A bird’s nest dropped onto the driveway. Now, to be honest, a pine tree does overhang that spot, but the bird’s nest dropped beside me onto the driveway. That’s pretty close to falling from the sky, – and it was a fully-intact, but empty, bird’s nest. 

Carefully, I picked up the bird’s nest, sensing that it was indeed, somehow a word-picture from God, an object lesson, if you will. Yet, the meaning of the event puzzled me.

My mind meandered about houses falling, about the nest being empty and no longer being needed as the chicks had apparently flown away as had the parents. Was this object a message to me about me? Was God telling me in not so subtle fashion that He had finished with me, dropping me, or (shudder) calling me home? I must admit that option scared me a bit. I’m like the old joke, “Sure, I want to go to Heaven, but you aren’t getting up a load today, are you?” 

I really couldn’t settle on a meaning, so I conjured the bright idea to take a picture of it and post it on Facebook® soliciting input from literally anybody in the world as to what they thought it meant. 

However, just before I hit “send,” a pinecone fell with a hard “thummmmp” as I was sitting on the tailgate of the truck. It missed my head by about 18 inches. Immediately and understandably, I concluded that this idea was not what God had in mind at all. (Ya think?) 

My thoughts and hare-brained schemes, I yielded over to Him and just saved the post to myself, never hitting “send.”  

That’s when things really began to happen. things seemingly unrelated, but perhaps, things inter-related in God’s cosmology.  

The mailman came up, and I felt impressed to pray for his safety. After all, he’s a bit older than some and he’s exposed to many people every day.

The mailman prayer enlarged into a prayer for all those in high-risk professions like the ED nurse or doctor in New York who is the daughter of a friend of mine, likewise the ED RN in New York, a friend of my daughter’s. 

Those thoughts simmered for a while in the prayer-stew that was reaching the boiling point inside my head – inside my spirit. Presently, the thought emerged from the grog that God was speaking in much larger terms than just about one man – me. This is unusual in our relationship. He usually tells or asks me stuff about me, or at least, that’s what I want to hear.

But I wondered if this time He was sending a message through me to the Christians in America, the Church, saying that our nest had hit rock bottom. Pair that thought with the impression of His grace that was the pinecone veering off-track just enough to avoid hitting me – or from hitting His church.  

Mulling that over, He inserted the thought of a Bible study in which I am involved which originates across the country, and when I say that, I mean it as in Chimney Rock point out in the Pacific Ocean near Petaluma, CA. That’s a spot where a pastor friend of mine recently felt impelled to visit, photograph, and pray.

In that study, we are reading Psalms 120 through 134, the Psalms of Ascent prayed by Jewish pilgrims on the way up to Jerusalem for holy days.  We’re at Psalm 130. The first line in Peterson’s translation/paraphrase says, “Help, God – the bottom has fallen out of my life!”

When I originally read that Psalm and thought about it, I said to myself that the bottom had not really fallen out of my life. Honestly, I’m doing okay during these troubles. (Certainly, God forbid, that could change in a heartbeat.) 

In light of what else God has said to me today, I wonder if that is not a general message for the church to hear and not just for me.  

All the day’s happenings came upon in rapid-fire succession. Soon, my daughter reposted a post by a pastor decrying the depths to which we as a people, we Americans, have sunk, the selfishness and greed which we either evince ourselves or tolerate in others, the inequities we have perpetrated ourselves or have tolerated, made all the worse and highlighted in these times of scarcity.  

As I was processing that thought, God drew my attention to the young black neighbor across the street trying to cram too much into his garbage roll-out can. Tomorrow is garbage pick-up day. On most days, I’d just sit on my tailgate and watch in amusement, but today is not most days.  God directed my attention to my roll-out can on the curb. He said, “You’ve got extra capacity in yours, unusually, what are you going to do about it?” That one, I knew.

Quickly, I hopped off my tailgate and hustled to get the roll-out can. I called out to the man across the street, “Hey, neighbor, can I give you a hand?” He was glad for the help. I rolled my can across the street and we moved some of his garbage into my can. My new neighbor expressed great gratitude for my help. I obliged and thought, “All I gave him was extra space in a garbage can. Is anything more menial than that?” Yet it’s what God wants, and I did it. Now I know the guy, the new neighbor, and we’ll be friends.  

Is that an object lesson for us all? Have we sunk so low that we don’t normally think about giving space in a garbage can to someone different from us? But, then again, are we different, or are we just two average guys taking the garbage out together?  

It wasn’t long before I saw another repost from my daughter, this time, a tweet from a young man for whom I have the utmost respect for his ability but more so for his character – Jalen Hurts. He simply said in the tweet, “Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ John 13:7. Just let God work His magic.” 

Perhaps, that’s a good place to end and some good advice – no, a prophesy, “Just let God work His magic.”  

So let it be written, so let it be done.