Prayer: Request or Response, Which Comes First?

Which comes first, the prayer request or God's response? I know that at first glance this question seems really silly. After all, we bring the request before God, and He gives us one of 3 responses;Yes, No, and/or Wait. However, a long time ago i came to the conclusion that it may not be that simple.

This idea / question / concept came up near the end of my senior year at Elim Bible Institute, and it has caused a paradigm shift in how i think of prayer and answered prayer ever since.

It started one day when i was in a slump. A low spot if you will. I had heard other students talking about how they had gone over to Brother So-and-so's house last night and had dinner with him and his family again, and what a good time they had had (for those non-Elimites the professors & staff at Elim are referred to as Brother/Sister instead of Professor or Mr./Mrs.). Others chimed in, "Yeah last month we had dinner with them, and a few months ago as well." "Sister _____ had us over for lunch last week and we had a blast! I never knew that she...." As time went by, more and more people talked about the many times they had been invited to spend time with a staff member and their families, and it started to really bug me. I had heard stories in the past about someone's wife who made an amazing cake and how at the senior auction there would be groups of people who would pool their money together to win the bid on the cake to split 6-12 ways. I had no idea what the fuss was all about. Cake can't be that good can it?

Anyways, in my slump i started into the whole "whoa is me". You know what i'm talking about. Everybody does it some time. "How come this person has gotten invited over to Bro. So-and-so's house time after time, and no one has ever invited me over to spend time with them and their family." Ya-da, ya-da, ya-da. I won't go on. It's not a pretty picture, and no one needs to hear more complaining.

Since i was already in a slump i was just feeding into it even more. So eventually, as was becoming a habit, i brought it to God. I made my complaints known to Him, and let Him know how i felt. Within a week Bro. Harry Vellekoop stopped me and invited me to have breakfast at his house on Saturday morning. Needless to say, I was pumped! "Wow God, that was fast!"

So that Saturday morning i, and about six other students, showed up at Brother Harry's house for breakfast. While we were there Bro. Harry apologized for not having us over sooner. He told us that he has always tried to make it a point to get to know each and every student on campus, but that with the numbers up in the 300+ range, it had become significantly more difficult. His response became that he invites every senior over to his house for breakfast sometime in their senior year. So this was his chance to get to know the seven of us better.

Needless to say, this deflated my high a little bit, but we had a really good time overall. Meanwhile, it struck a cord in me. This question began probing my mind. Did this situation occur because i prayed and asked God for it, or did God prod me on to pray and make the request because He was already fulfilling it? Did He answer the prayer that i asked, or did He simply choose the right time to draw out the hidden frustration in my heart because He was getting ready to respond to it. It's funny that it was that week that Bro. Harry chose to invite me to breakfast, when he could have done it any week prior to or after that. If i hadn't said the prayer that week, would Bro. Harry instead have asked me to come to breakfast on a different week?

Since then, there have been numerous other times in my life where it seems like God has orchestrated similar situations to answer prayer requests i have not yet made, and it continues to lead me to question: "When it comes to prayer; which comes first, the request or the response?"

Image from edenpictures used under cc license.

Lack & Appreciation

I have been reading Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It is a book about Lincoln's rise to position, and his ability to unite even enemies to become teammates for the greater good of the country.

I was struck by President Lincoln's history and boyhood. Particularly his passion for the written word. Education and good schools were rare and expensive. As such he, from his poor family, did not get a formal education. However, Abraham would walk for miles to borrow a book. He was always striving to learn. He always had a book with him, and whenever he had a spare moment, he was reading. "'When he came across a passage that Struck him,' his stepmother recalled, 'he would write it on boards if he had no paper,' and 'when the board would get too black he would shave it off with a drawing knife and go on again.' Then once he obtained paper, he would rewrite it and keep it in a scrapbook so that it could be memorized. Words thus became precious to him" (p. 52)

When i contrast that with today's world i see such a difference. We are inundated by words, facts, and ideas. We have volumes at our beck and call. We have only to type a query in, and we have all the information we could want... and a whole lot more that we don't. I see no one who cherishes the written word in such a way as Lincoln did. I see people who cherish their cell phone or their iPod. I see people who delight in facebook and "social connection". But, i do not see people so caught up in reading and learning that they will carry a book with them wherever they go and stop to read anytime they get a chance.

In a world inundated by words, facts, and ideas, the lack of appreciation appears to result from an inappreciation of lack.

Image from jonragnarsson used under cc license.

The Lost Art of Repentance - Part II: What Does it Mean?

When was the last time you were really sorry about something? I mean really, really, wept over it sorry? Chances are, for most people the answer to that is that it's been a long time, if ever.

Going back to our history lesson... The 11 tribes knew that what had happen in Gibea was horribly wrong. So much so that they knew that they were responsible to bring justice in the situation, and to destroy the city that had become so corrupt. They were angry (righteous anger) and came to God to find out who was to lead the battle. In looking at this i honestly believe that this was a question of responsibility. Who is most responsible for allowing this to happen, and who is responsible for dealing the appropriate justice. Judah, the tribe of first inheritance (a.k.a. "the eldest"), was singled out. When they lost that battle, in which they knew that not only were they right, but that God had directed them, they invariably realized that there was something wrong. So they wept before the Lord, and again they sought Him. They were beginning the repentance process. They sought God's answer, not just what they were expecting. They didn't just say, "We're going to do this, so now who goes first?" They asked God, "Is this what we are supposed to be doing?" So God spoke to them again and confirmed that what they were doing was the correct thing. They were on the right path. Then, they lost again! Even with God telling them that this was the right thing to do, they still lost! At this point i believe that they begin to get it. After this, everyone went up to Bethel. Not just the leaders, not just the soldiers, everyone! They knew that there was something wrong, and something needed to be done. So everyone went. They wept before the Lord. They fasted. They offered sacrifices both burnt offerings (for atonement of sin) and peace or fellowship offerings. And, they inquired of the Lord. It was not just about who is responsible, and is this the right thing, but what do You want us to do and how? It was only after that that they were able to be successful.

I believe that this third day is where we begin to see true repentance of heart and not just action. This is our example, and it is supported many other places in the Bible. There are 4 facets to true repentance. First is mourning. Mourning and weeping for the sin we have committed. Simply saying we are sorry and turning around to go in the other direction does not mean much. At that point you and I can always turn back around again and return to our old ways. There is little meaning to it unless we are willing to not only be sorry for what we do, but truly understand how wrong we truly are and how much it hurts and destroys our relationship with each other and God.

Second is fasting. Fasting (another lost art) is all about us realigning ourselves with God. It's about us setting other things aside for a time so we can place our focus back where it needs to be. In essence it's us saying, "God, what i want doesn't matter. My desires take a back step to what You want. I need you more than i need the rest of this stuff." It is us humbling ourselves before God and saying, "Your will, not mine be done."

Thirdly and extremely importantly, is sacrificing. I could study and go into all the different things that the burnt offering, peach offering, and fellowship offering stand for, but let's keep this simple. An offering is all about sacrificing something. It's about giving something up. It is irredeemable. It is something offered... given to God that cannot be taken back. It is us letting go of our rights to something and giving it fully to God. It is no longer ours. It belongs to God, and we have no right to it. Usually it is the destruction of whatever it is we are sacrificing to Him. It must be something of value to us. King David said that he would not sacrifice to God something that cost him nothing.

Finally, now that we have recognized our sin, wept and mourned over what we have done and the effects of it, fasted and realigned ourselves with God and what He has for us, and given up through sacrifice something of value to us and that may be standing between us and God, we can finally seek God's will. Not just where the blame and responsibility lies, and who should go first. Not just whether this is the right thing to be doing. Rather it is a statement of "God, what do You want us to do? What is Your will and direction? What steps do You want us to take?" It becomes all about Him! Then and only then have we learned true repentance.

One of the difficult and amazing things about repentance is that in truth, we cannot do it ourselves. We are too stuck up. We are too stubborn. We are too prideful to be able to be repentant on our own. We may want to, but we can't! Only God can give us the heart, motivation, and drive to do it fully and properly. Thus, our repentance towards God can only come from God.

Lord, HELP ME! Help me to be repentant. Help me to truly have a repentant heart. Help me to be the man of God that You have called me to be. Please forgive me and help me! I don't want to live my life less than You have for me. Please forgive me and help me. In Jesus name we pray. Amen!

The Lost Art of Repentance - Part I: The Story

Many times i've heard the saying that repentance means turning around and going in the opposite direction. That repentance is more than just something you say, it's something you do. To some extent i have agreed with that sentiment, to some extent it has always seemed a little too simplified. Kind of like explaining how to drive as; turning the key, starting it up, and driving. At the same time it seems like repentance is something neglected in today's church. It used to be an important part of a Christian's life, and now it's relegated to the "let's not make waves" so we don't lose people dustbin. It just doesn't fit the current "feel good" church mentality. Unfortunately, as a result we have been losing our purpose, perspective, and power as Christians. So, if repentance is not turning around and going in the opposite direction, and it is a concept that we need to be effective Christians, then what is it? Great question! I'm glad you asked.

The Bible is full of situations where real people either repented, or needed to. To name just a few, there was King David, Moses, the people of Israel (on numerous occasions), Pharisees, early church leaders, etc. However, it's a situation i came across at the end of the book of Judges that really caught my eye. Understand, this is a time when there was no king in Israel and everyone did right in his own eyes. A man goes to regain is unfaithful concubine from her father's house. The details are not important enough to cover here, but let's just say he has a hard time leaving his father-in-law's house. Finally he leaves late one day and on the way home he has to stay in Gibea (a town in the land of Benjamin). So he goes to the town square where an elderly man finally gives him lodging. During the night the townspeople surround this elderly man's house and demand that the strangers be sent out to them so they could molest and rape them. Finally to prevent them from breaking in and dragging everyone out, the concubine is sent out. The people of the town all rape and beat her until she crawls back to the doorstep and dies. It sounds like Sodom and Gomorrah doesn't it?

The husband takes her body back home, chops it into 12 pieces and sends 1 piece to each tribe with an explanation of what happened. The people are horrified! It is too much to bear. So the people prepare for war. Eleven tribes come together to face against this town to destroy it. Only Benjamin stood with Gibea. Together it was 400,000 swordsmen from the 11 tribes against 26,700 soldiers from Benjamin and Gibea. So, the 11 tribes went to Bethel and sought God's counsel on who should go up first. Through that counsel God told them Judah (the eldest and the one who held the most responsibility for the other tribes). So Judah led the other Israelites in battle against Benjamin and the Gibeons, and 22,000 Israelites were cut down that day! God brought judgment down on Israel that day. The 11 tribes reconvened and returned to Bethel where they inquired of the Lord once more. They spent the day mourning before the Lord, and at the end of the day they asked God "Shall we go up again to battle against the Benjamites, our brothers?" God answered, "Go up against them." So on the next day, they came up again, and 18,000 more were cut down! So all of the people returned to Bethel, mourned before the Lord, fasted until evening, sacrificed burnt offerings & fellowship offerings, and inquired of the Lord. God told them to go up once again, and He would deliver them into their hands. They went up the next day with a strategy similar to that of Israel against AI in the book of Joshua, and they defeated the people of Gibea and Benjamin. They chased them down and destroyed them to the point that the tribe of Benjamin was almost extinct. There's a whole lot more to this story. To find out the rest read Judges 19-21 in your Bible.

So what does all of this mean, and how does it relate to "The Lost Art of Repentance"? Unfortunately, i don't have time to get into that, so you will have to wait for part II.

27 Tough Questions Pastors Ask

Dick Hardy is a pastor's pastor. He is a man that has a God given passion to reach out to other pastors to help them become more effective in the ministry. He is a Paul that speaks not only to Timothys, but also to other Pauls. You can clearly see this in his book 27 Tough Questions Pastors Ask.

27 Tough Questions is a primer on what you need to know but chances are haven't been told about doing ministry in today's society. It deals with many of the pitfalls pastors run into that prevents their church from growing. It is not designed as a book that tells you how to run a church, but rather it assumes that you already understand many of the day to day basics of church life, and attempts to fill in the gaps to make you a better pastor. In fact, Dick states that his book is about "Everything but Preaching". Overall, the book covers concepts on the major areas of; Leadership & Management, Staffing, Conflict Management, Discipleship, Budget & Finance, and Hospitality.

Dick does a really good job of giving you the concepts and some different things to think about within these key areas. For example, he tells pastors that it is their job to lead; not the congregation, not the board, not the staff. Someone must do it, and that someone is the (senior) pastor. He also talks about building cultures of prayer, change, and reaching out... especially to young families. These and other concepts are key to having a strong and flourishing church as opposed to one that stagnates and dies.

While there is a great deal of good in the book, i did still have a number of qualms. For instance, it is clear that this is Dick's first book. The flow to the book is not very smooth overall. One example of this is in chapter 2 where the term "buy-ins" shows up. It seem very important. Yet, it is not very clearly defined, and after one chapter it is never used again.

The 27 Questions also feels like it is weighted a little odd. This is clear just by looking at the table of contents. There are two chapters on discipleship, two chapters on conflict management, and five chapters on hospitality (six if you count ch. 12 on phone hospitality). Now maybe i'm wrong and the weight is correct for what pastors are needing, but it just felt more than a little skewed when i read it through.

The final criticism i have is the followup. The chapters are small, and in most instances they leave you feeling like you have just seen the tip of the iceberg with a ton more information still buried well beneath the surface. In some of the chapters there are a few action points to work off of, but many times the reader is left feeling like there needs to be more. I felt like there needed to be either more application information, or there needed to be a list of resources to give the reader more to work with in finding the answers to these very important questions.

Overall, do not let the criticisms deter you. 27 Tough Questions Pastors Ask is a really good book that belongs up on every pastor's shelf next to books like Axiom by Bill Hybles and Be a People Person by John C. Maxwell.

Feel free to find out more about this book and other work Dick Hardy is involved in at The Hardy Group.

Loss & Redemption

Mephibosheth was a man of honor now discarded and destroyed. He had little left in life. His grandfather, a former king (Saul), and his father had both died in battle when he was a child. He had both of his feet crushed when his nurse, while carrying him, fell and crushed them beneath her body.

He was hiding out in the country for fear of retribution towards him for how badly his grandfather had treated the man who became king in his place. He had gone from heir to a kingdom and the inheritor of vast tracts of land, to a destitute, lost, deformed young man with no hope of a real future.

Yet hope still prevailed! The present king, whom his grandfather had treated so badly, was a God fearing man who remembered not the cruelty of his grandfather, but the honor and love of his father (Jonathan). This new king (David) searched out Mephibosheth, the young man so discarded and destroyed, and gave him honor once again. Instead of killing him and destroying all that he had, as was traditionally done and to some extent expected, the king returned to Mephibosheth the lands his grandfather had once owned. He was also given the servants needed to care for that land as well as himself, and all that he personally had need of was provided for directly from the table of the king.

It is a beautiful story of hope, love, kindness, and redemption (II Samuel 9). If only it had ended there. Unfortunately, the story goes on. The new king ends up having some trouble of his own when his own son attempts to usurp him from the throne. David flees the city of David and is on the run from his own son, Absolom who is trying to make himself king in his fathers place. So how does Mephibosheth respond? He abandons David, the man who had shown him so much kindness and mercy. Why? Because what he has isn't good enough. He thinks that by abandoning David and joining with Absolom somehow he will regain the kingdom of his grandfather Saul (II Samuel 16). In the end though, the coup fails, David returns, and all that Mephibosheth has gained is instead given to his head servant, Ziba, who had proven himself faithful.

It is a sad story which too often parallels our own lives. We were lost, the children of sin. Yet the true king comes and redeems us of our own wrongdoings, and gives us a new life. It's a life that we had been meant to have. Some of us embrace that life; that new hope and love in faithfulness. Others of us return to the anger, hatred, and selfishness of the past. We see it as "our right" to try to take back what was "ours". As if it had not been lost in the first place because of just that kind of selfish attitude. We need to let go of the past and our own selfish ambitions and embrace the God that gave us our redemption. He is the God of mercy that will forgive. He is the only God that can bring us new life. The only God of faith, hope, and true love.

Image from pawpaw67 used under cc license.