In the desert of my heart

I am appreciating more and more the "outline" or "format" Derek Prime talked about. In my prayer journal for today the Lord's Prayer connection is "Thy Kingdom Come" and the topic is stated as "The extension of the church and the coming of God's Kingdom through the preaching of the gospel."

Derek Prime's system is really helpful. But, when you get back to basics, it is not the understanding of the thing, or the systems used, or the helpful hints we all search out so diligently -- it is so much more profoundly simple -- it's the doing of the thing -- that's what keeps me back at the starting point instead of running steadily toward the goal ... the problem is not in the learning or understanding -- it's in the doing -- a knot in my will, not in my brain.

I need to look at that knot and begin unraveling it. Oh, I know it is the Holy Spirit that does that. But right now, these days, I don't go to Him for that. Why? I feel dry and empty these days. It shocks me how much harder it is to lean on Jesus, to come to Him in need and desperation, when my spirit is dry -- you would think it would be the opposite.

I am thinking about W. H. Auden's elegy to William Butler Yeats -- the last verse:

In the desert of the heart
Let the healing fountains start....

I need those healing fountains. And I know where they are.....why don't I just hurry up and GO?!?!?

Ye who are weary.....COME HOME!!!!

The last two lines of the verse are:

In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise...

This intrigues me...teach the free man how to praise...not the prisoner...the free man...

Can I get there from here?

As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?

O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is. So I have looked upon thee in the sanctuary, beholding thy power and glory.

I stretch out my hands to thee; my soul thirsts for thee.

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

I will open rivers on the bare heights and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water

.

Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!

For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water.

And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fall, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows form the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.

Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Can I get there from where I am now? My soul trusts in Him who made me and carries me in His arms. YES, He can bring me back. Yes, He can take me there, even from where I am now, and YES, He will!


(Psalm 42:1-2; Psalm 63:1-2; Psalm 143:6; Psalm 87:7; Isaiah 12:3; Isaiah 41:18; Isaiah 55:1; Isaiah 35:6-7; Ezekiel 47:12; Revelation 22:1-2; RSV)

About Being Thankful

 

                                    About Being Thankful

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your heart. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him"(Colossians 3:15-17).

....."be thankful"..."sing to God with gratitude..."give thanks to God...seems like a theme here...

in whatever we do...word or deed...give thanks to God....

It Will Not Always Be Night

                                  

                                    It Will Not Always Be Night

"At the Last Supper, as recorded in John 13, we read, 'As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.'

History's greatest injustice was underway, yet Jesus declared, 'Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in Him.'

In a few hours, the disciples would experience panic, defeat, and rejection.

 But Jesus saw God's plan unfolding as it should.

When it seems darkness is winning, we can recall that God faced His dark night and defeated it. He walks with us.

It won't always be night."

                              -- Tim Gustafson

Jesus saw God's plan unfolding as it should. No, friends, it will not always be night!

What John Calvin and Tennyson Said About Prayer

 

                             What John Calvin and Tennyson Said About Prayer

John Calvin....

"Our prayers must not be self-centered. They must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden which we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellowmen that we feel their need as acutely as we feel our own.

To make intercession is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them."

Alfred, Lord Tennyson...King Arthur's Last Words to His Knights (From Idylls of the King)

"More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.

Wherefore, let thy voice rise like a fountain for me night and day.

For what are men better than sheep or goats that nourish a blind life within the brain,

If, knowing God, they lift not up hands of prayer, both for themselves and those who call them friend?

For so the whole round earth is every way bound by gold chains about the feet of God."

It Is No Longer I Who Live - Oswald Chambers

 

                            It Is No Longer I Who Live - Oswald Chambers

Galatians 2:20: "I am crucified with Christ...it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me."

From Oswald Chambers --

"The inescapable spiritual need each of us has is the need to sign the death certificate of our sin nature.

I must take my emotional opinions and intellectual beliefs and be willing to turn them against any claim I have to my right to myself.

Paul said, 'I have been crucified with Christ...' He did not say, 'I am determined to imitate Jesus Christ,' or 'I am determined to follow Him.' --  but 'I have been identified with Him in His death.'

Once I reach this moral decision and act on it, all that Christ accomplished for me on the cross is accomplished in me.

My unrestrained commitment of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the opportunity to grant to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.

My individuality remains, but my primary motivation for living and the nature that rules me are radically changed.

I have the same human body, but the old satanic right to myself has been destroyed."

This is what I want to happen to me --

What Worries Screwtape?

                              

                                                         What Worries Screwtape? 

C S Lewis wrote an engaging book about a high-ranking demon, named Screwtape, whose job it was to mentor new demons and make them productive agents for their boss, Satan.

In the book, which Lewis titled 'The Screwtape Letters,' we read these words written to Wormwood, a new recruit:

   Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a       human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks out             upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks       why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.

These words are so compelling to me. I keep rereading them. I a deeply moved.

I want to be that kind of Christian.

  

               This IS How He taught Us!

Thinking about those special words  Christ gave His disciples when  He began to teach them how to pray....

He began, "This then is how you should pray." That sounds pretty specific to me.

Then He started: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed by Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven..."

So that's how we should begin.

Prayers are not fanciful good luck charms. There is a divine method He is showing us.

The very first thing we are to recognize is who we are approaching -- the Sovereign Creator, king and Ruler of everything, reigning right now...and He is our Father! 

We should consider how to get our desires into harmony with Him and His will --not to get Him to do our will.

I usually get it wrong at the very beginning! Do you?

And  when I recognize who God really is, then I have a clearer understanding of who I am!

Then I can offer my worship, which is of course the only possible response

 open to me.  

So this is how we should start every prayer. 

After all, that IS how He taught us!  

  

Are you too easily pleased? C S Lewis

 

                                                Are You Too Easily Pleased?

"If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing...I submit that this notion is no-part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of rewards and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

We are far too easily pleased."

     -- C S Lewis, "The Weight of Glory"

(He wants to do so much more for us!)

Approaching Easter - The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus

                   

                      On that first Easter Morning

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking
with each other about everything that had happened.

As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus Himself came up and walked with them; but they were kept from recognizing Him.

He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?"
They stood still, their faces downcast...
                 
And they told Him what had just happened in Jerusalem -- all of it -- the horrible suffering of Jesus, their hopelessness, their confusion when the women visited the tomb that morning and about the angels who said Jesus was really alive...

So Jesus explained:
Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
                            -- Luke 24:13-27

There's only one key to unlocking the mystery about God's activity in the world - then and now - the Hebrew Scriptures.

For observant Jews, in the first century as well as today, the writings of Moses and the Prophets are the nearest things to the mind of God in human language.

"If God is alive, then the Bible is His voice," writes Jewish thinker Abraham Heschel.

It is to this book, and no other, that the Stranger immediately takes His listeners.

What does He tell them?

We are not given the details, but we can guess from the preaching of the early church what was said to them on the Emmaus road.

From the opening pages of the Bible, the two friends are reminded of the fierce and unfaltering love of God for the world He has made.

His divine love burns hotter than any star in the universe. Here is love that is never lazy, indulgent, or indifferent, but always vigilant -- committed to the perfect good of the beloved.

The Stranger describes the deep enmity that has rejected this love and spoiled the world, the rage of those who will not yield their hearts to their Creator.

Men and women, made to love God and enjoy Him forever, somehow succumbed to the forces of deceit and darkness set against Him symbolized by a serpent.

"You will be like God," the serpent whispered.

Instead, they became captives to the suffocating selfishness of a life cut off from God's goodness.

No one, the Stranger, insists, no matter what his status or achievement in the world, can escape that state of affairs.

It would remain the burden and the blight of human beings everywhere in every age -- unless a Rescuer were sent to set them free.

The crucifixion and resurrection of the Messiah, God's Christ, is God's Secret Rescue Mission to free the world from the forces of darkness.

Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him....They asked each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us the road and opened Scripture to us?"

Then they joyfully rushed back to Jerusalem and joined the other disciples in spreading the good news.

       "He is risen! Christ is risen indeed!"

Approaching Easter - That Historic Morning

Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying.

As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"

"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him."

At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

"Woman," he said, "who is it you are looking for?

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him."

Jesus said to her, "Mary."

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means 'Teacher').

Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, "I am returned to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.

On the evening of the first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"

After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
                      -- John 20

Approaching Easter - The Final 3 Hours - John MacArthur

The Final Three Hours on the Cross

(MT) Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, (LK) the sun was darkened [and] (MT) there was darkness over all the land. (MT) And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" (MK) which is translated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

(MT) Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, "Look, (MT) this Man is calling for Elijah!"

(JN) After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I thirst!" Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there. (MT) Immediately one of then ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed of (JN) hyssop, and put it to His mouth

(MT) and offered it to Him to drink. The rest said, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him and (MK) take Him down." (JN) So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!"

(LK) And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, "Father, into your hands I commit My spirit." Having said this, (JN) and bowing His head, (LK) He breathed His last (MT) and yielded up His spirit.

(MT - Matthew) 27:45-50
(MK - Mark) 15:33-37
(LK - Luke) 23:4-45a
(JN - John) 19:28-30


Notes from John MacArthur:

1. From the 6th hour until the 9th hour - From noon until 3 PM. The crucifixion began at 9 AM and so the 6th hour marked the halfway point of Jesus' six hours on the cross.

2. Darkness - A mark of divine judgment (cf. Isaiah 5:30,13:10-11; Joel 2:1-2; Amos 5:20; Zephaniah 1:14-15; Matthew 8:12, 22:13, 25:30).

The geographical extent of the darkness is not known, although the writings of the church fathers hint that is extended beyond Israel.

This could not have been caused by an eclipse because Jews used a lunar calendar. Passover always fell on full moon, making solar eclipse out of the question. This was a supernatural darkness.

3. Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani - "Eli" is Hebrew, the rest Aramaic. (Mark 15:34 gives the entire wail in Aramaic.)

This cry is a fulfillment of Psalm 22:1, one of the many striking parallels between that psalm and the specific events of the crucifixion.

Christ at that moment was experiencing the abandonment and despair that resulted from the outpouring of divine wrath on Him as sin-bearer (cf. Matthew 26:39).

[Note: Christ cried out "My God," not "Abba," and not "Father," His usual terms of addressing His Father. This is the only time in the gospels He did not address God as His Father.]

4. Why have You forsaken Me? Jesus felt keenly His abandonment by the Father resulting from God's wrath being poured out on Him as the substitute for sinners (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21).

5. Sour wine - The drink here is not the same as the "wine mixed with myrrh" offered to Him as He marched to the cross (Matthew 27:34) which was intended to lessen the pain. The purpose of this cheap, sour wine (cf. Mark 15:36) is to prolong life and increase the torture.

The term harkens back to Psalm 69:21 where the same word is found in the Septuagint. Hyssop is a little plant that is ideal for sprinkling. (see Exodus 12:22).

[See also Psalm 51]

6. Elijah - Further mockery which in effect meant, "Let the forerunner come and save this so-called Messiah" (cf. Luke 1:17).

7."It is finished!" The verb here carries the idea of fulfilling one's mission and religious obligations (see John 17:4). The entire work of redemption has been brought to completion.

The single Greek word here translated it is finished
has been found in the papyri being placed on receipts for taxes meaning "paid in full" (see Colossians 3:13-14).

8. Cried out with a loud voice - Demonstrating amazing strength in light of the intense suffering He had endured. His shout reveals that His life did not slowly ebb away, but that He voluntarily gave it up (John 10:17-18).

9. Into Your hands - This quotes Psalm 31:5, and the manner of His death accords with John 10:18. Normally, victims of crucifixion died much slower death. He, bring in control, simply yielded up His soul(John 10:18; 19:30), committing it to God. Thus He offered Himself without spot to God (Hebrews 9:14).

10. Yielded up His spirit - A voluntary act. The sentence signaled that Jesus "handed over" His spirit as an act of His will. No one took His life from Him for He voluntarily and willingly gave it up (see John 10:17-18).



These notes taken from One Perfect Life, by John MacArthur

Approaching Easter - The Curtain - Spurgeon

And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two,

from top to bottom.

Matthew 27:51

No small miracle was performed in the tearing of so strong and thick a curtain; but it was not intended merely as a display of power -- many lessons were contained in it.

The old law of ordinances was put away, and like a worn-out garment, torn and set aside.

When Jesus died, the sacrifices were all finished, because they were fulfilled in Him; and therefore the place of sacrifice, the temple, was marked with a clear sign of this change.

With the curtain torn, all the hidden things of the old dispensation became apparent: the mercy-seat could now be seen, and the glory of God gleaming above it.

By the death of our Lord Jesus we now have a clear revelation of God, for He was "not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face."

Life and immortality are now brought to life, and things that have been hidden since the foundation of the world are displayed in Him.

The annual ceremony of atonement was also abolished.

The atoning blood that once every year was sprinkled inside the curtain was now offered once for all by the great High Priest, and therefore the place of the symbolic act was finished.

No blood of bullocks or lambs is needed now, for Jesus has entered inside the curtain with His own blood.

Therefore access to God is now permitted and is the privilege of very believer in Christ Jesus.

It is not just a small opening through which we may peer at the mercy-seat, but the tear reaches from the top to the bottom.

We may come with boldness to the throne of heavenly grace.

Is it wrong to suggest that the opening of the Holy of Holies in this marvelous way by our Lord's expiring cry was signifying the opening of the gate of paradise to all the saints by virtue of the Passion?

Our bleeding Lord has the key of heaven; He opens and no man shuts; let us enter in with Him to the heavenly places and sit with Him there until our common enemies shall be made His footstool.

The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand

until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."

 -- Psalm 110:1

Preparing for Easter - The Receivers - Philip Yancey

This last recorded parable (actually more than a parable) of Christ, given just two days before Passover when, He told His disciples,  "The Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified" (Matthew 26:1).....


Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did you see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?"

The King will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."
                  -- Matthew 25:37-40



From The Jesus I Never Knew, by Philip Yancey

Commenting on this passage, the great American theologian Jonathan Edwards said that God has designated the poor as His "receivers."

Since we cannot express our love by doing anything to profit God directly, God wants us to do something profitable for the poor, who have been delegated the task of receiving Christian love.

One night I was absently flipping the channels of television when I came across what seemed to be a children's movie, starring the young Hayley Mills. I settled back and watched the plot unfold.

She and two friends, while playing in a country barn, stumbled across a vagrant (Alan Bates) sleeping in the straw.

"Who are you?" Mills demanded. The vagrant jerked awake and, seeing the children, muttered, "Jesus Christ!"

What he meant was an expletive, the children took as the truth.

They actually believed the man to be Jesus Christ.

For the rest of the movie (Whistle Down the Wind), they treated the vagrant with awe, respect, and love.

They brought him food and blankets, sat and talked with him, and told him about their lives.

In time their tenderness transformed the vagrant, an escaped convict who had never known such mercy.

Mills's mother, who wrote the story, intended it as an allegory of what might happen if all of us took literally Jesus' words about the poor and the needy.

By serving them, we serve Jesus.

"We are a contemplative order," Mother Teresa told a rich American visitor who could not comprehend her fierce commitment to the dregs of Calcutta. "First we meditate on Jesus, and then we go out and look for Him in disguise."

According to this parable, Jesus knew the world He left behind would include the poor, the hungry, the prisoners, the sick.

The decrepit state of the world did not surprise Him.  He made plans to cope with it: a long-range plan and a short-range plan. The long-range plan involves His return, in power and great glory, to straighten out planet earth. The short-range plan means turning it over to the ones who will ultimately usher in the liberation of the cosmos. He ascended so that we would take His place.

"Where is God when it hurts?" I have often asked. The answer is another question, "Where is the church when it hurts?"


[Note: According to Scripture, we, the church, are part of the long-range plan (we come with Christ when He returns to make things right here on earth) and the short-range plan (we take His place here now). All of God's plans from before creation involve us, His special people, His children and heirs, His bride.]