Thoughts Along The Journey

“Come Messy”

Posted on November 15, 2010 by wtdavid

“Jesus does not say, “Come to me, all you who have learned how to concentrate in prayer, whose minds no longer wander, and I will give you rest.” No, Jesus opens his arms to his needy children and says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28, NASB). The criteria for coming to Jesus is weariness. Come overwhelmed with life. Come with your wandering mind. Come messy.”

I can relate, as maybe you can, to the struggle that Paul Miller describes here in chapter 3 of what he calls a “wandering mind”. But as I re-read this chapter, an even earlier statement hit me harder:

“When we slow down to pray, we are immediately confronted with how unspiritual we are, with how difficult it is to concentrate on God. We don’t know how bad we are until we try to be good. Nothing exposes our selfishness and spiritual powerlessness like prayer.”

Wait a minute, I thought, how can he talk about selfishness and powerlessness when I am for the most part consistent in my prayer time? As soon as those thoughts came to mind, I realized I was trying to gain some advantage with God, rather than admitting my neediness to “come messy” to Him. Miller drives the point home even further when he says:

“Ironically, many attempts to teach people to pray encourage the creation of a split personality. You’re taught to “do it right.” Instead of a real, messy you meeting God, you try to re-create yourself by becoming spiritual. No wonder prayer is so unsatisfying. So instead of being paralyzed by who you are, begin with who you are. That’s how the gospel works. God begins with you. It’s a little scary because you are messed up.”

Now I re-read this part several times as I thought maybe the author (or publisher) missed a word somewhere: “So instead of being paralyzed by who you are, begin with who you are.” His point is that prayer is about getting our identity straight from the start. In fact, prayer is probably about our need to get it straight every day. Maybe that explains the title of this chapter, “Become Like a Little Child.”

Let’s talk together about these questions:

What does “beginning with who you are” look like in practical ways, for you, in your prayer journey?
What are some of the ways of “non-personal, nonreal praying that you’ve been taught” that need to be unlearned?

Filed under: Gospel, Prayer | 3 Comments »

Lessons Learned❹

Posted on November 12, 2010 by wtdavid

Number❶ take-away: Preach, proclaim, and share the Gospel fearlessly.

Number❷ take-away: Recognize that we are living in the 21^st century.

Number❸ take-away: Live out our identity.

Thinking further, my number❹ take-away would be: We cannot accomplish the task on our own. Cape Town 2010 made me realize how “small” my world still is, and how great is our need for global church partnerships. With the dramatic shift of the center of Christianity to the Global South, more than ever we must explore how to work together with other agencies and national churches/associations.

But even more so, when we are faced with the reality of the immense lostness of our world, we recognize how we need one another to fully participate in God’s great mission:

27 million slaves in the world today, with 10-15 million being children
One half of the world population lives on less than $2 USD/day
There are more than 18 million orphans
3.5 billion people are either Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists
There are 640 Unreached People Groups that do not have any worker among them, nor any worker heading to share the message of Jesus Christ with them

I would encourage you to watch Patrick Fung’s presentation (OMF International Director) from the last day of the Lausanne Congress: http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/conversations/detail/11415. It is hard hitting, but it made me reflect on what I think about partnerships, and how to approach partnerships from a gospel heart.

If partnerships are bathed in trust, what is my (or our) current trust level with others? And what small step to further build trust should I (we) take today?

Filed under: Cape Town 2010, Gospel, Partnership | Leave a comment »

Lessons Learned❸

Posted on November 10, 2010 by wtdavid

Number❶ take-away: Preach, proclaim, and share the Gospel fearlessly.

Number❷ take-away: Recognize that we are living in the 21^st century.

So then, my number ❸ take-away would be: Live out our identity. The biggest challenge for Christians, for the global body of Christ, is to live what we say we believe and hold to. When those who are not part of the community of believers accuse the church of hypocrisy, there is a large element of truth in that criticism. Jesus called us out to be “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that we might proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

That should mean that Jesus, and our being united to Him, changes not only the way we lead our spiritual lives, but the way we live out our everyday life in this world whether in the marketplace, the school, the home, the neighborhood or the community. If we say that “God transforms lives”, then how does our life demonstrate that transformation? And how does the church bear witness to that transformation in the ministries it is involved in?

Watch this video presentation from Day 2 of the Lausanne Congress: http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/conversations/detail/11415

As I said in a previous post, I am not saying that we should shift all of our focus from establishing communities of believers to issues of social justice, but the communities we establish must engage the world around them. The Gospel, by its very nature, seeks to transform lives in all aspects of what it means to be human, created in God’s image.

It starts from a daily remembering of who we are in Christ because of what He has done on the cross.

What has God been teaching you today about your sin and His great love? And how has that “transformed” your life today?

Filed under: Cape Town 2010, Community | 2 Comments »

In The Busyness of Life

Posted on November 8, 2010 by wtdavid

There were several parts in the second chapter of the book, A Praying Life, which caused me to step back and reflect. One was where Paul Miller commented:

“The quest for the contemplative life can actually be self-absorbed, focused on my quiet and me. If we love people and have the power to help, then we are going to be busy. Learning to pray doesn’t offer us a less busy life; it offers us a less busy heart. In the midst of outer busyness we can develop an inner quiet. Because we are less hectic on the inside, we have a greater capacity to love … and thus to be busy, which in turns drives us even more into a life of prayer.”

I would probably have to say that I search for a less busy life rather than a less busy heart leading to a “greater capacity to love.”

A second thought that struck me, just a few paragraphs later, was where he says:

“As you develop your relationship with your heavenly Father, you’ll change. You’ll discover nests of cynicism, pride, and self-will in your heart. You will be unmasked. None of us likes being exposed. We have an allergic reaction to dependency, but this is the state of the heart most necessary for a praying life. A needy heart is a praying heart. Dependency is the heartbeat of prayer.”

Seeing more of “one’s stuff” is seemingly not a major driver to prayer, and yet somehow it prepares the heart to a “greater capacity to love” God and others.

So, in the busyness of our lives, let’s talk about these questions:

Describe what feeds your “busy heart”. What causes your heart, at times, to be on such an adrenaline rush?
Why does repentance, seeing and turning from our own sin, need to be such an important part of our experience and connection with God?

Filed under: Gospel, Humility, Prayer | 2 Comments »

Lessons Learned❷

Posted on November 4, 2010 by wtdavid

If the number❶ take-away was: Preach, proclaim, and share the Gospel fearlessly. Then the number❷ take-away would have to be: Recognize that we are living in the 21^st century. Simply put, we have transitioned from the 20^th century to a new era with a new context and new challenges. We will need to adapt, shift, and yes even change some of our ministry methods and approaches.

In terms of technological advances, internet is a paradigm shifting media tool as was the printing press in its day. Over one third of the population of a Gulf nation is on Facebook alone. We will need to harness its potential while resisting its alluring appeal to drive us farther away from God and face to face community.

In terms of social changes, there is more slavery and human trafficking occurring today than during the time of William Wilberforce who worked tirelessly to have slavery abolished throughout the United Kingdom. Not that we should shift our focus from establishing communities of believers, but those communities must engage the world around them. As John Piper said, “For the sake of Christ, we Christians care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering. If you feel a resistance to the second half of this statement, then you have a defective view of hell. If you feel a resistance to the first half of this statement, then you have a defective heart.”

In terms of changes in religious faiths, today over 1 billion people in the world call themselves M’s. Few are the resources that are being directed to reach out to this people. Many M’s are in unengaged, unreached people groups with no known worker among them or being sent to reach them. That reality must be taken into consideration as we seek to mobilize human, financial and prayer resources.

In terms of mission, it is becoming harder to mobilize workers to ministries. “Support raising”, as traditionally understood, is taking longer. We will need to find creative ways to “support” workers in ministries. Workers are coming from everywhere wanting to be sent everywhere. With this, come all the difficulties of communication in a multicultural team in a cross cultural context.

Recognizing that we are living in the 21^st century should cause us to lean more dependently on God, listening to His voice as He enables us to adapt, change and serve him joyfully in a world in flux.

Thoughts Along The Journey

“Come Messy”

Lessons Learned❹

Lessons Learned❸

In The Busyness of Life

Lessons Learned❷

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