We have had a stormy few days leading up to Christmas this year, with some really weird warmer weather. I took this photo above yesterday with my cell phone as I was walking across the pasture to my house. I had forgotten something at my house that I needed to fix my mom’s computer, and literally as I was walking, I decided to take a few shots of sun through the clouds with my phone. I’m always amazed at the beauty that is before us all the time, but because we see it every day, day in and day out, we forget it’s there, or fail to recognize it’s beauty.
Of course this is no accident, and we are told over and over again that this display, the very display we can now capture on a phone, shows the existence of God to us all, and therefore, we are without excuse to say we have never known God to be real, to have shown his beauty to all of us.
This is what David says in Psalm 19.1-6 where he said
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork… in them, he has set a tent for the sun… its rising is from the end of the heavens… and there is nothing hidden from its heat
and again, what Paul says in Romans 1.20
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
I have seen photos taken by Hubble that truly astound and boggle the mind, but sometimes we only have to go as far as to look around us, because God has displayed himself everywhere in His creation, from the Orion Nebula to our own backyard.
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I have been trying for weeks to figure out what to take and what not to take with me to Uganda, and as a friend of mine said yesterday, less is more. It seems no matter how little I take I’m still doing what I perceive a typical American would do, take too much stuff. So books are my big question mark left. I have several (actually more than several) books that I have been trying to read over the last several years and I would love to take them all with me and finish them on the first plane flight but can’t decide if I will actually read them. Three of these books at top on my list, God’s Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards with the Complete Text of The End for Which God Created the World (yes I know, the title is very long) by John Piper and Jonathan Edwards, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd by David Brainerd and Jonathan Edwards, and The Life of God in the Soul of Man by Henry Scougal. I have picked up and read all three, then put down, then picked up again, and so on… for years now.
I know these aren’t your traditional quick reads, and one is quite a bit beyond my comprehension. I have all of them in Kindle eBook for my iPad, paperback, and audiobook but keep going back to the paper bound books because of the depth of their words. This morning I was going through each of these three books thinking about my time in Uganda, our sponsor child, Joanita, who I hope to meet while I’m there, I came across this chapter in The Life of God in the Soul of Man, titled “Religion Better Understood by Actions than Words”. After re-reading that chapter I wanted to share Scougal’s words here today that help remind me why we go. The text is also available in Google Books here.
Religion Better Understood by Actions than by Words
When we have said all that we can, the secret mysteries of a new nature and divine life can never be sufficiently expressed; language and words cannot reach them: nor can they be truly understood but by those that are enkindled within, and awakened unto the sense and relish of spiritual things. There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding.
The power and life of religion may be better expressed in actions than in words’ because actions are more lively things, and do better represent the inward principle whence they proceed; and therefore we may take the best measure of those gracious endowments from the deportment of those in whom they reside; especially as they are perfectly exemplified in the holy life of our blessed Savior; a main part of whose business in this world, was, to teach by his practice what he did require of others, and to make his own conversation an exact resemblance of those unparalleled rules which he prescribed: so that if ever true goodness was visible to mortal eyes, it was then when his presence did beautify and illustrate this lower world.
I know that is kind of a mouth full for only two sentences, and not in the most current English, but Scougal’s words here are pretty incredible. That’s why this book has taken me so long to read. The words are incredible but I have to read each page several times. Once you do, the value is deep and lasting. Why do we go according to Scougal? Because this is what Jesus did and He is our ultimate example to follow. As Scougal says, our actions are better represented by the inward principle they represent. This is to say our actions proceed from where our heart resides, and to me, that’s very telling, and a little scary.
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I’m still finding it hard to believe that in less than a week our team will be en-route to Uganda to the scene pictured above. Our church has a team in Uganda right now that comes home on Thursday and that photo was one that was taken and posted a few days ago when they arrived.
I know our culture, church, and climate are worlds apart (well maybe not the climate, it can’t be any hotter there than it is in the south in the summer) but we share the same faith in the same God and I can’t wait to see how that translates from southern speak to African. As I write this post I’m sitting in the electrical closet in our church office desperately trying to get our Internet connection to behave properly after multiple lightning strikes. After working on this issue for what seems like an eternity it got me thinking about where that connection between our two churches resides when not having the Internet shuts down all our work and productivity here and they don’t even have electricity in their church building let alone an Internet connection. Each church reaches a different culture and a different individual and we can no more pretend we are a church in Uganda than Buloba Community Church can pretend they are us.
The one constant is God. It says throughout scripture that God never changes… but you [God] are the same and your years will have no end (Hebrews 1:12 among many other places). The same God we serve here in Auburn Alabama is the same in Uganda and was the same for the Israelites as they marched into the Promise Land. This week is so crazy and for some reason my to-do list just keeps getting bigger and bigger the closer it comes time to leave so I would appreciate all your prayers and your prayers for our team. This is an all-guy trip, their names are below, and I know they would all appreciate your continued prayers.
Bo Morrissey
Christopher Mills
Fred Riggs
Graham Hill
Jason Welstead
Jordan Ross
Mark Fuller
Scott Fillmer
Myron West
Brian Johnson
As always, Thanks so much for your prayers and your continued support for this trip and my upcoming October trip as well.
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From my previous post you might have seen some of the photos from our Maundy Thursday prayer vigil. These photos here on this post are the images that were left off that post, because until the morning of Good Friday, they were incomplete. Along side our different I AM statement boards were some pieces of chalk where people could write anything that came to their heart as they went through their time of meditation. They ended up being giant pages in a book of prayers from a collective body of believers, and to me, one of the most powerful components of the last few days.
Scripture tells us that what comes from our mouth (or fingers in the way of a pen, keyboard, cell phone, text messages) originates in the heart and that’s why I love what these pages represent. Untarnished by consumerism or commercialism, unfiltered by a greater governing body, just raw messages from the heart, to the fingertips of believers, to the all-knowing God of creation. To see all the images from Holy Week so far you can visit my Holy Week 2011 gallery on Flickr.
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Today for my Friday Feet post I sit in my two most disliked places, one a hospital, and two, a waiting room. Feels like we have been waiting for this day to come and go for a while, I guess about 3-4 weeks since we knew Deb was going to have to come back to UAB for another test.
Though so many people have sat in countless waitings rooms I have not, and every time I come back to one for some odd reason I think this time it will be a “better” waiting room than the last one (whatever that means), but it’s always the same. It is a stark reminder that we are not in charge, and that there are many people suffering in the world today. Many of these people that seem without hope, without the knowledge that God indeed loves them in spite of their current situation. It’s hard enough to sit here, basically by myself, but I couldn’t imagine going through all this without faith, without people praying for me and Deborah, without knowing that God does have a plan for us, and His plan is undoubtably better than mine own.
For those who work in or around hospitals this is not new, perhaps they get anesthetized to everything, though I know not everyone does. I am so thankful for those who have taken care of Deb over the last several months, and for those who have come alongside me as well, but most of all I am thankful for an all-knowing God who has a great plan for Deb, even if we have no idea what that is right now.
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Today we continued a series at Cornerstone called “Doctrine: What we Believe”, which speaks to what we as Christians believe, and how we are to go about living out those beliefs (see also How to Teach the Doctrine of Salvation on Sunday Morning for a previous week). Today Josh Agerton spoke about prayer in the life of a Believer and related it back to our gum-ball machine approach we often have to prayer. Put the quarter in the slot (the prayer), and what should happen is out pops the gum-ball (our answered prayer).
This is a brief overview or recap of that message, according to the notes I took anyway. You can always download or listen to a copy of the podcast when it gets posted on Monday (Feb 28th) or you can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes.
The Gum-ball Approach To Prayer: Transactional
Although this is how we often practice prayer, there isn’t a whole lot in scripture that backs up this method of prayer. Scripture says we have a need for prayer, constant prayer that builds a relationship with God, that calls on God. That goes all the way back to Genesis 4:25-26, but when do we actually pray today? When things are going well, all the time, or just when we are in “need” of something? When things are going well, is our prayer life terrible and vice-versa?
This is perhaps because we see prayer as “transactional” in nature. There is an action on two parts where I act, then God acts, making the prayer totally focused on ourselves, not God. I’ve got my prayer, I just need say the right words, send it over the right way, and God will then act and shoot out the “right” response.
The Relational or Transformational Approach To Prayer: Experience
Our approach to prayer should be one of building a relationship with God through constant prayer, in a way that transforms our life. This is what the apostles did in the book of Acts, they prayed. This wasn’t unique to the apostles though. All over scripture we are told to “ask” and it will be given, but how closely do our prayers match up with God’s will? We reach a crisis of faith that leads us to prayer and we “ask” for our answer to be given.
We pray for complete healing, and when that healing doesn’t come (especially in the time frame or way we desire), do we question God’s answer? Scripture clearly says our prayer is heard, but the prayer of Jesus in Luke 22:42 just before He is lead off to be executed is an amazing prayer.
22:41 And he [Jesus] withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
Ultimately this is how we are to pray, and the reason is found in Luke 11.
11:10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.11 What father among you, if his son asks fort a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
As I have prayed for Deborah over the last several months I have tried to keep both of these sets of verses in mind, and I have tried to place them deep in my heart. Is praying like this easy? No way. It requires us to give up our own heart’s desire, something I have found very hard to do. I want my prayers answered the way I ask them to be answered, but deep down, I really want an all-knowing God to answer them to His glory and honor.
The Circular Prayer as Life Happens
This chart above was something Josh went over this morning but it was not meant to be a step by step process to prayer, more of an understanding of how we approach prayer and how God works through prayer (though I didn’t get the counterclockwise thing). I’m a visual person so I loved seeing this as Josh went over it. Basically, with continued, constant prayer, we will continue to build a relationship with God that leads back to God, not to ourselves.
It went like this from the chart above: God is enthroned –> life happens (sickness, job-loss, divorce) –> we have a need or burden –> we ask –> we enter a crisis of faith (I asked, why haven’t you answered yet God) –> faith (we are brought to faith with God) –> receiving (God manifests Himself in some way and you know and understand that God is indeed there) –> thanks and priase –> God is enthroned.
Aren’t sure what the “correct” way to come to God in prayer is or don’t know the “right” way to pray? To pull a saying from Nike… just do it, but Paul probably said it best in Romans 8:25 “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
Often times I write my prayers out since speaking them I just tend to fumble through it. Either way I know He hears my prayers and answers better than I could ask.
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I have been slowly going through Dave Earley’s book called 21 Reasons Bad Things Happen to Good People, and today I re-read his original premise for the book that he states as “The Reason No One Wants to Hear”, which basically covers original sin in the human condition.
Ultimately God gave Adam and Eve a choice to follow evil or good, and they chose evil, resulting in a blood line of sin for all of humanity. Yet we still continually ask the same question, just phrased in a million different ways, “why does God ‘allow’ this or that bad thing to happen”? As Earley puts it, what we really should be asking if we are honest with ourselves is “why do so many good things happen to bad people”. Even Jesus made the statement in Luke 18:19 (and Mark 10:18), “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone”. Clearly we are not God, but many of us still strive to better understand God’s will, and that includes questions about evil, suffering, and sin.
Earley quoted Knechtle’s Give Me an Answer, on the matter of evil and human nature, who stated:
How can you blame God for starving babies in Ethiopia when the best-selling books in the United States are on dieting, on how to take the extra fat off? It is not God’s fault people are starving today. The earth produces enough right now to give every person 3,000 calories a day. The problem is that some of us hoard so others go to bed hungry. It is a cop-out to blame God for human irresponsibility. If a person gets drunk, drives his car across the median, and sends your friend to an early grave, will you blame God? Do you blame God for Hitler’s seven million murders? That would be escapism. The vast majority of human and evil suffering is the direct result of human irresponsibility.
I haven’t made it all the way through yet but I’m working on it, and I’m grateful to a fellow brother who mailed it to me a month or so ago, thanks Hershel.
