A Life of Prayer – My Testimony

 

 

Before I share some of my testimony, a couple of comments. I am not very keen on teaching methodologies of prayer because “how to” approaches can become rote, legalistic, and are not, I think, relationally natural. If God is our Father, and if Jesus is our Elder Brother, and if the Holy Spirit lives within us, then conversation and communion with God and prayer in its many forms, is essentially organic. That being said, the Psalms provide 150 invitations to participate in prayer, along with many other prayers in the Bible. Also, as noted previously we have centuries of examples of prayer which are also invitations. The Scriptures ought to be our nexus for prayer, most Scriptures can be prayed in some fashion.

 

There are indeed principles in prayer, and models, Jesus speaks of these, but they are not mechanical but found in the context of filial relationship and servanthood.

 

Andrew Murray has two devotional books on prayer, each consisting of 31 days, With Christ in the School of Prayer and With Christ in the School of Intercession. These books contain daily Scripture readings with Murray’s reflections on how they speak to us of prayer. Because they are rooted in Scripture and point us to Jesus, they are foundational. Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence presents an organic and relational approach to praying as a way of life.

 

Now I want to share just a little about my life of prayer, and I’m going to use the workplace as my setting. Let me first say that I am a very imperfect person. I can be harsh, I can be angry, I can be abrupt, I can be sarcastic, I can be a real jerk. Thanks to the grace of God and the Holy Spirit I know what it is to apologize and ask forgiveness in the workplace. As I look back over my life in the workplace, I see times when I should have apologized and asked forgiveness but didn’t, I see things clearer now with advancing age. I see so many times I failed to abide in the Vine and missed opportunities to be a blessing to others and be a better testimony for Jesus.

 

Yet, I truly loved my people, both my direct reports and the people who worked for them. I loved my coworkers, and I worked with contractors whom I loved and had great affection for. I often took opportunities at large employee gatherings to not only share Jesus, but to tell my people that I loved them. I prayed with many people I worked with and received prayer requests from many more. It got to the place where folks expected me to pray for them when there was sickness or tragedy in their families. I have now been retired from business for over seven years, and I still receive prayer requests from former coworkers.

 

When a contractor’s father was in the hospital, I visited him and prayed with him. When another contractor was in the hospital for heart surgery, I was there to pray. When I visited apartment communities, it was not unusual for me to pray with my managers and others in their offices, and pray with residents of the communities, or with contractors doing work in the communities. When people had needs, I prayed. Sometimes I took their prayer requests, and other times we prayed on the spot.

 

I believed that my first calling was to be the Presence of Christ and to serve those around me.

 

I would pray for all the people in the office I worked in by visually walking down the hall and going into each office, I’d visualize the person and pray for him or her. I would also pray for their families and any specific needs I knew about. This is a practice (a method I guess!) that I used for decades.

 

If I had special meetings scheduled on a particular day, I’d pray for those meetings ahead of time, asking for wisdom, asking for help in preparation, asking to be a blessing to others in the meetings. During meetings I would also pray, asking my Father and Lord Jesus for wisdom, for peace, for grace and favor.

 

I had some particularly difficult clients, and meetings could be tense and stressful, but Jesus was always with me and I was always communing with Him during my meetings – this was my way of life in Him. I wanted my work to glorify God, to serve my clients, to serve my company, and to bless my employees and residents.

 

I worked in some fairly dangerous areas in housing, places where there was significant drug dealing, where people were shot and killed in broad daylight. I prayed for my people, the residents, and for my own safety when I walked those streets. Once, when I was inspecting a property with staff members and a representative from a state housing agency, we sought refuge in a vacant townhouse because of gunfire, gunfire which killed a drug dealer in a spot I had just walked by not less than 5 minutes before.

 

I was never afraid for myself, I was cautious but not afraid, my life belonged to Jesus. I was, however, often fearful for my people…and I prayed and prayed and prayed for them, and for the residents. Most folks living in difficult places are fine people, people who love their families and who do right by their neighbors, often working 2 or 3 jobs – it is a tragedy that they are marginalized by others in society and in the professing church. Shame on us.

 

Praying during conversations with others was a way of life for me, I was always asking my Father how I could be a blessing to the other person, how I could share the love of Jesus. O for sure there were times I missed opportunities. Sometimes I realized missed opportunities immediately, other times not until I’d arrived home. I can be dense and stupid and self – centered. When I am tired, I am more likely to miss a nice pitch over the plate than when I’m fresh. When I am in a hurry, I am more likely to miss being a blessing because I can be caught up in my own agenda rather than God’s. When I am stressed I can be particularly self-centered and not be attuned to the needs of others. All the more reason to live a life of prayer, for when my communion with God is interrupted by my foolishness, I am more likely to quickly sense it and ask God for help.

 

I believed the Trinity lived in me because this is what Jesus teaches in the Upper Room. The workplace was where God had me, and He had me there to serve others and be His Presence. I was willing to be misunderstood because of my rather simple faith, and I was also willing to take the heat for refusing to lie or place spin on problems and insisting on treating everyone with equity and respect, including paying them decent wages. I have put my job on the line for my employees more than once over the years – after all, I was in the workplace not to be served, but to serve.

 

I had a successful career, and better than that, I had a good testimony within my industry. My peers respected me and trusted me and honored me in a number of ways over the years. Of course, had the quality of my work not been superior, had I not offered my work to God, the story would no doubt have been different. My work was a form of worship, and the workplace was a place of spiritual formation to me, and then it was a place of witness for Jesus. God was always forming me into His image at work, and He was always using me as His Presence in the lives of others.

 

Since we have this treasure in jars of clay (2 Cor. 4:7), I realized that there was no need for me to pretend to be something I wasn’t, I could trust God to make it clear that any success I had was to His glory…and as I wrote above, I know what it is to apologize and ask forgiveness at work. When I made a relational mess of things, I saw it as an opportunity to make amends, to ask forgiveness, and to show the world that in Jesus relationships can be restored – the world does not see that very often. I do not recommend that we deliberately make asses of ourselves in order to share what reconciliation looks like in Jesus, but if we do make asses of ourselves, let us not waste the opportunity to be witnesses for Christ, to show others Jesus as the better Way to live.

 

I spent my days at work speaking to our Father and listening to Him, praying for others and looking for ways to serve them. I loved being with my people and coworkers. I loved being part of a team. I loved watching people grow.

 

I have had many people influence my understanding of our abiding in Christ, many of them lived long before me, and a few I have personally known. I am convinced that Jesus’ relationship with the Father is to be our relationship with the Father, I hope we are seeing this as we travel through the Upper Room, and I sure hope we see this when we move into the Holy of Holies of John Chapter 17.

 

There is no joy quite like the joy of praying with friends, where one minute you can be talking and the next naturally praying together. I have been blessed to have friends like these, even though with advancing age more of them are moving ahead of me into the City – but what shall it be like when we are all there! I trust those who have gone before are continuing to pray for me, I surely need it.

 

If we are going to spend eternity with our Father, doesn’t it make sense to spend our days with Him now? In much the same way, I once sensed our Father saying to me, “Bob, instead of thinking in terms of a prayer life, wouldn’t it be better if you learned to live a life of prayer? Instead of thinking in terms of intercessory prayer, wouldn’t it be better if you learned to live an intercessory life?”

 

Of the many influences I’ve had in my life of prayer, outside of the Bible Francois Fenelon may be the most vital, and since he influenced Andrew Murray this gives Fenelon a place of double honor. Fenelon’s life and writings speak to me many ways and continually bid me come up higher and deeper into Jesus. Fenelon is a great model for people in leadership in business, education, politics, and of course the church, for he served in the court of the Sun King, Louis IX, and influenced many at the pinnacle of power in the French court.

 

Fenelon was banished to his diocese for his refusal to abandon his friend, Jeanne Guyon, and his refusal to deny his understanding of our life in Christ. We must be willing to follow the Lamb wherever He goes, including in rejection (Hebrews 13:13). If we are not willing to be sacrifices for Christ and others we’ll never truly witness and our faithfulness to Jesus will always be contingent on ourselves – an unstable foundation, don’t you think?

 

Fenelon taught me to pray and listen to God while in conversation with others. I don’t recall how it began, but now it is as natural as breathing and I have not thought about it for many years, it is just what I do. I find great joy in listening to others and listening to God at the same time. We all do it, the question is how we do it. We’ve all been in a restaurant and engaged in conversation with a friend, while at the same time listening to a discussion at an adjacent table. Might it be more fruitful to listen to our friend and God?

 

Lives of prayer begin in the morning, when the page of the day is blank. We allow the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to make the first impressions on our hearts, minds, and souls. The only thing we should turn on may be the coffee pot as we began our daily conversation with God. No phone, no email, no radio, no TV, no news…just us and God…once the day begins this way it can continue this Way. There is only one first impression each day…ought it not be that of the holy Trinity?

 

My first mentor was George Will. George talked to God all the time, sometimes his conversations where quiet and within himself, and many times they were vocalized as naturally as if Jesus was right with us – which of course He was. He was like that in 1966 when I first met him, and he was still like that around 2012 when I last spoke with him over the phone. I imagine some folks thought him a bit crazy. Well, Jesus’s family and friends thought He was a bit touched too (Mark 3:20 – 21). Not bad company George, not bad company.

 

Much love,

 

Bob

 

Ponderings on 1 Corinthians Chapters 1 – 4: (8)

“But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”” (1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31).

I imagine I’ve quoted the above verses almost as frequently as any other passage throughout my life. Galatians 2:20 may have the first position, and no doubt Matthew 20:26 – 28 is also a contender for first place; with John 15:1 – 5 in the mix. As I write this I am reminded how the Word of God is an anchor in my soul, my bearing walls consist of God’s Word, my foundation consists of Genesis through Revelation with Jesus Christ being the Cornerstone. Christ is ever appearing to me in and through His Word; Christ is ever speaking. I suppose one could say that God’s Word is my primary language, and in His Word I find my thoughts ordered and arranged and my perspective framed. Everyday God calls me to submit to His Word, to love His Word, to respond in obedience to His Word – and by His grace I hope that everyday my life, my soul, is further transformed into the image of Jesus Christ by God’s Word.

Leading up to these verses Paul has made a number of points, among which are:

·         God has called and sanctified the Corinthians, they are saints (v. 2).

·         God will complete His work in them (v. 8).

·         The above points are confirmed in v. 9.

·         Their division is not good, Christ is not divided.

·         The difference between the Cross and the wisdom of the world.

The diamond of 1 Corinthians Chapter 1 has many complementary facets to it, all with Jesus Christ at the center, all reflecting and refracting Him. Of course, we need to remind ourselves that the verse and chapter divisions were not in the original documents, and in doing so we see that Chapter 1 flows into Chapter 2, Chapter 2 into Chapter 3, and Chapter 3 into Chapter 4. Our short-term 21^st century attention spans are a major hurdle to “seeing” God’s Word.

It is by God’s “doing” that we are in Christ Jesus (v. 30). (Compare verse 30 with Romans 8:28 – 30). It is not by our wisdom, it is not because we follow a certain teacher, it is not because we are cleaver or are exceptional orators, it is not because we have conjured up a certain experience – it is simply God’s doing – we were dead (Ephesians 2:1 – 10) and God made us alive in Jesus Christ. Like Lazarus (John 11:39) we all had the stench of death in us and surrounding us and yet Jesus Christ called us out of the grave. Is it possible we have forgotten just how bad we smelled? Perhaps if we recalled just how nasty we were we would be less inclined to glory in ourselves and boast in anything or anyone other than Jesus Christ.

I was first introduced to verses 30 and 31 in 1966 by my friend George Will and, through George, the writings of Dutch Reformed pastor Andrew Murray. I had no doubt read 1 Corinthians prior to meeting George and encountering Murray’s writings, for I devoured the Bible in those first months of my life in Christ; but Christ being all in all so defined Murray’s ministry and George’s life that God used them to place this center of gravity in me that has grown and deepened to this day…and I trust will continue to that Day (1 Corinthians 1:8; 2 Timothy 1:12). Oh yes, there have been times in which I departed from the holiness of Jesus Christ in dark, sinful, and dangerous ways, but the Word of God and centrality of Jesus Christ would not let me go – Christ’s grace and mercy was greater than my rebellion and sin. Would I not be the fool of all fools to glory and boast in anything or anyone other than my Lord Jesus Christ?

The last time I spoke with George, in either 2017 or 2016, he was still quoting 1 Corinthians Chapter 1, speaking of himself as “nothing” and of Christ as “everything”. George rejoiced in being made “nothing” so that Christ might be everything.

What about me? What about you?

I’ll continue this reflection on verses 30 and 31…

There is Hope

Two brothers arrive in the city to attend seminary – this is what they find:

In the churches there is “little belief…attached to the characteristic doctrines of the church, and those which were preached were sadly diluted. The sermons of many breathed a spirit of rationalism…”

“Religion was a Sunday concern without the least influence on heart and life. Conversion was an antiquated word.”

“The Holy Spirit appeared to have been replaced by the spirit of the age.”

“The greatest tolerance was displayed towards all manner of strange views, and men of all schools made this broadmindedness their boast” (italics mine).

As I read the above, the syncretism of the last quotation struck me. Syncretism was what people were boasting in, it permeated the faculty of the seminary and the clergy of the nation. It also permeated the seminary’s student body to the point that when the two brothers in question started meeting with a small group of other students who desired to follow Jesus rather than the spirit of the age, that this faithful group of disciples was ridiculed and ostracized by the student body. There was no professor on the theological faculty who taught the Bible as the Word of God.

The year is 1845, the place is the Netherlands, the brothers are John and Andrew Murray – and they have no choice as to where they will attend seminary because they are preparing to return to South Africa and serve in the Dutch Reformed Church – therefore they must perfect their Dutch and attend a Dutch seminary.

The spirit of their age dictated that there was one law, one truth, which at all costs must be preserved; “There is no one truth. All points of view are equally valid.” Of course this “truth” is contradictory in that it becomes that which it insists does not exist – and it does so in a dictatorial fashion that seeks to crush all opposition.

I see this same “spirit of the age” on a daily basis. People are afraid to call a duck a duck or a mailbox a mailbox. Statements are prefaced with, “My opinion is,” when what is needed is not an opinion but a statement of fact that can be tested. Then there are the instances when absurd statements of “truth” are made that have sweeping sociological implications and results that we are expected to accept as “true” because an expert or a political leader or a court has declared it to be so – when such pronouncements are against all common sense.

Our conditioning is such that people doubt their common sense, their innate sense of right and wrong; we have been taught to rationalize away morality and true ethics.

And in the professing church? Jesus did not really mean that we are to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him. John did not really mean that we are not to love the world or the things in the world. Paul did not really mean that knowing Jesus Christ and Him crucified is to be central to all that we do. Jude did not really mean that sexual sin is toxic to the church and humanity. Peter did not really mean that we are to suffer for Jesus.

There is hope when God’s people are faithful. The Murray brothers would remain faithful to Jesus Christ and God would use them to renew His church and bring others to Him.

There is hope when God’s people are faithful.

Will we be faithful…to Christ…and His Word…His Gospel…no matter what the spirit of the age may be?

Which Kingdom? What Voice?

“Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm,’ ” (John 18:36).

What would have happened had the followers of Jesus Christ stirred up the populace and attacked the Jewish and Roman leaders? Could they have freed Jesus? Could they have freed Jerusalem and Judea from Roman domination? Would the church have been born on the Day of Pentecost? Would there have been a Gospel? Would we be yet in our sins? Would Jesus, the Prince of Peace, today be associated not with a cross but rather with a bloody sword due to the actions of His followers?

One of His followers did indeed use a sword in Gethsemane and was rebuked by Jesus. Prior to arriving in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday this same follower sought to convince Jesus that Jesus should save Himself from rejection and death and was not only rebuked by Jesus but told that he was playing the role of Satan and not setting his mind on the things of God but the things of man (Matthew 16:21 – 23). Jesus followed this rebuke by stating that to follow Him meant taking up the cross, denying self, and losing one’s life for His sake and the Gospel’s. This remains the call of Jesus Christ, it remains the requirement of Jesus Christ – as Bonhoeffer wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

Do we desire the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of man? Are we seeking to preserve the Gospel by loving Christ and others and peacefully articulating, in word and deed, the message of Jesus Christ? Or, are our hearts and minds engaged in self-preservation – desiring the kingdoms of this world, the American “dream”, and agendas which draw our souls away from the Kingdom of God?

At a time in our nation when our nation needs (as it always does) the church to be the church, the voice of Jesus Christ, articulating the hope of the Gospel and the coming Kingdom of God; our shallow theology and thinking, our tenuous confession of Christ, and lack of identity as the People of God, has shown us to be a confused and manipulated people – without unity, without the confession of Jesus Christ, and without moral courage – for it takes courage to say in word and deed, “I will stand with Christ and with Him alone. His kingdom is not of this world and I am in His kingdom.”

We can only have one God and we can only serve one master and we can only desire one kingdom…and we can only look to one savior. Our nation or political or economic agenda must not be the god of the Christian nor can these things be our savior. To be sure we must pray for our leaders and be good citizens, but no earthly citizenship should take precedence over our heavenly citizenship, and no interest should take precedence over the interest of Jesus Christ and His kingdom and His Gospel.

Where is the clear articulation of the church in America that we are the people of God and that we will live within a nation in chaos loving people, serving people, and clearly sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the peril of our own well-being? Where is our willingness to suffer and be marginalized for the sake of Jesus Christ? Where is our voice for the defenseless, for the stranger, for the politically and economically and socially disenfranchised?

Are we able to say that we will love and minister to people of all political agendas? Or are we so embedded in the political and economic life of this nation that we can no longer live as citizens of God’s kingdom? Have our actions and words renounced our heavenly citizenship?

Two of my historical mentors are François Fenelon and Andrew Murray; the former a French Roman Catholic archbishop and the latter a Dutch Reformed pastor in Africa. During wars between the English and French, Fenelon ministered to soldiers on both sides – yes, he was a subject of Louis XIV but he was first and foremost a subject of Jesus Christ.

During the Boer War Murray also ministered to combatants on both sides. In Fenelon’s case both sides respected him for his ministry; in Murray’s case many on both sides disdained him for they thought he should choose sides. Sometimes people will understand us and accept us, other times they will not – that should not be our consideration. Both of these men were citizens of the Kingdom of God first and foremost – there could be little confusion about their testimony.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is often quoted by religious people with political agendas, using him as an argument to vote one way or another. What these people miss is that Bonhoeffer came to the place early on, during Hitler’s rise to absolute power, when he realized that the church must stand as the church and speak from the Kingdom of God into the world as a distinct voice, the voice of Jesus Christ. Bonhoeffer realized that the politicization of the church would be the death of its testimony to Jesus Christ. Bonhoeffer became increasingly isolated, he was considered too radical, he was not taking political and economic realities into consideration, those who had once stood with him separated themselves. Yes, there were others like Bonhoeffer, but they were few. Pragmatism and self-preservation caused many pastors, theologians, and the church to capitulate to evil – foolishly thinking that things would get better, stupidly arguing that they could moderate evil. They used the “lesser of two evils” as an argument and found that the lesser of two evils is still not only evil…it is absolute evil – for evil is evil and when we baptize an agenda as the lesser of two evils we anoint it as the authority in our lives – we subject our hearts and minds to it – we pollute ourselves and those around us. The lesser of two evils becomes the evil in our hearts and minds.

The choice of the church is not a choice to vote one way or the other – the choice before the church is whether we will live in the Kingdom of God and speak from that kingdom and live as citizens of that kingdom – serving all around us in love and charity and grace and seeking to bring them to Jesus Christ. If we must vote, then let us vote with our lives and not with our ballots – the world does not need our ballots, it needs our lives – it needs to hear and see the clear articulation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have lost our voice for Christ for we have not used our voice for Christ; let us recapture an awareness of who we are in Jesus Christ – let us return to our first love – perhaps the light of our candlestick will be rekindled. 

Living and Loving as Jesus

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, 1 John 3:16.

Andrew Murray, commenting on this verse writes:

“The cross of Christ is the measure by which we know how much Christ loves us. The cross is also the measure of the love which we owe to those around us. It is only as the love of Christ on the cross possesses our hearts and daily animates our whole being, that we shall be able to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our fellowship in the cross of Christ is to manifest itself in our sacrifice of love, not only to Christ himself, but to all who belong to him.

“The life to which John calls us here is something entirely supernatural and divine. It is only the faith of Christ himself living in us that can enable us to accept this great command assured that Christ himself will work it out in us….

“But for such fellowship and conformity to the death of Christ, nothing will do but the daily, unbroken abiding in Christ Jesus which he has promised us. By the Holy Spirit revealing and glorifying Christ in us, we may trust Christ himself to live out his life in us.”

Our call is to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, Matthew 5:48. This is not a mountain to climb but rather a life to enter into; yet it is not only a life to enter into but also a life that enters into us. This call to live as Jesus is not simply asking, “What would Jesus do?” It is rather knowing what Jesus is doing and how He is working and living in us (Philippians 2:12 – 13). Our lives are built on a foundation both timeless and historical; timeless in that we were chosen before the foundation of the world, historical in that Jesus Christ was born, lived, died, and was raised from the dead. However, our lives in Christ are more than rooted in that which is beyond the mists of time, and they are more than historical events that occurred some two thousand years ago; our lives in Christ are in the present as He lives in us and as we abide in Him – for unless we abide in Him we will bear no fruit, indeed, unless we abide in Him there will be no life in us (John 15).

This is not a ladder to ascend as if we are to measure up to God’s expectations or as if we are playing king of a spiritual hill; it is a relationship – a wedding of our souls and spirits to Jesus Christ, a union with Him that causes us to rejoice in the great New Testament term “in Christ”. This is an expectation as we begin each day anew that we begin it “in Christ” and that we will live it “in Christ” and that throughout the day we will live in fellowship with Him and with His people…and that we will also have opportunity to lay our lives down for others.

It is an affirmation and realization that Jesus Christ is indeed Emmanuel, God with us.