Prayers, The Spirit, and Stage Productions

I have both been comforted and afraid through Romans 8:26.  There is a comfort in knowing that the Spirit of my Master works to express what I cannot, making up for what I cannot pray because I’m so limited.  When I wonder what I can do for someone with my feeble prayers, the comfort of the working Spirit of my Master gives me confidence.  I know that it’s not what I pray, but what He prays that makes the difference.  I become a vessel through which my Master’s Spirit works, but I know the work is His.

But this also scares me.  There is a degree to which I am unconscious of the works of my Master’s Spirit.   It is like being on stage facing forward, but the real show is behind me and I have no idea what is happening.  Is the crowd laughing at me or the show behind me?  The fear stems from a desire to have control and attention, but neither belongs to me.  The verse uses a few very rare words, used twice and once in the Christian Scriptures.  The first is normally translated as “help” but means “to grasp together with.”  This is what my Master’s Spirit does, grasps my weaknesses along with me.  He pulls and works alongside me, not without me.

The second word surprised me.  What is normally translated as “intercedes” or “intercession” is used only in this verse in the Christian Scriptures, and literally combines two words: the preposition “under”, and the verb “to meet with and have a chat.”  The preposition’s use in Greek was usually to indicate something done on another’s behalf.  So, my Master’s Spirit meets with my Master over coffee and they talk, about me.  It’s like my Master having a conversation with Himself to a degree, but on the divine level, that’s the best way to describe the level of intimacy my Master has with my weaknesses.

So, the Maker of stars, the One reforming matter into the indescribable and unimaginable, is intimately acquainted and interested in my weaknesses.  And not just mine, this level of intimacy is carried out across all life, in the same way He is intimate with quarks, neutrons, electrons, and protons.  And all this intimacy takes place all at the same time.  What was I worried about again?  I was just afraid of something, but it’s fading really fast.  Something about being on a stage, some sort of show going on behind me.  What a foolish man, turn around, idiot!  Enjoy the show!

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, November 8

Good on Purpose, in Prayer and Circumstances

Does God work all things in my life together to provide subject matter for my intercessory prayer?  I’m sure He does, but I don’t think it is limited to that.  I also believe He works all things together for good in my life as part of His will in reaching my neighborhood, my community, and so on.  I fit in this place at this time for a specific purpose of my Master.  I don’t know what it is, but I know that knowledge is coming.  Until it does, my responsibility is to be available to Him in my daily life.

Ironically, the verse does not read in Greek like I thought it would.  There isn’t something that says it is God’s plan/purpose.  That is implied by the “called” characteristic, and it is that.  The word, “called” is an adjective, not a verb.  It describes those referred to.  The verb is a participle of the verb to be.  The last phrase reads, “…, to/for the ones being called according to a plan/purpose.”  The plan and purpose refer to God’s plan or purpose only because the ones are “called”.  What Paul is doing by phrasing it in this way is keeping the reference to “all things” open to whatever God might be doing instead of some single plan He does everywhere. 

That means it applies to me here.  I have the unmistakable stamp of God’s direction to this place and to be settled in this place.  Now, all things will work together for good.  The last piece is that I need to permit my Master to define “good”.  Just when I thought it was going to be easy, reality settles in.  It’s not what I think is good, or good for me, at least not necessarily.  What will be produced by the working together of all things is what is good for my Master’s Kingdom.  That will be a good that will reach lives in this neighborhood and community.  I can think of nothing better.

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, November 7

Can I Get a Witness?

There are times I read MUFHH and think I'm missing a part of the story. This one makes me think there was more to that discussion, like someone asking him why they did not sense the "witness" of God's Spirit? Something that required such a turn on this passage that so sharply deviates from a usual discussion of it. And something that raises the ire in him.

This chapter of Romans has a special place in my heart. And this verse is one of the reasons. I get a tremendous comfort from knowing that I am a child of my Master, and that this amazing truth is confirmed by the presence of His Spirit in me.

So it seems odd to consider that I need to abandon obediently to my Master before He confirms my adoption through His Spirit. How exactly is the conformation more than the presence of my Master's Spirit? I ask because if the confirmation is more than His presence in my life, then I am in danger of relying on my own interpretation of what might be used to confirm my adoption. That's a problem for me. There are lot's of ways I sense the presence of the Spirit of my Master, and some of them come as I wander off the path, not only when I'm well connected to my Master. In fact there are times I'm well connected but don't 'feel' all that close or emotional about it; I just know I am. Does that negate the confirmation of my adoption? I would think not.

On the other hand, confirmation that I'm on the right path of obedience comes when I am. I find myself on that path when I am truly focused on my Master and His will. So, in that sense, my obedient abandon does bring a confirmation, just not of my adoption. Am I only the child of my Master when I obey? Will He only speak to me then? See, there are elements I'm missing in Chamber's discussion. So, for this entry, I'm missing some context.

That being said, Romans 8:16 gives me comfort in knowing I need not worry about my adoption by my Master; He has it covered. That is very nice to know. It is an incomprehensible amount of grace on the part of the Maker of stars that He would know me, let alone adopt me. I rather like that.

Oswald Chambers - Readings

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Intercession by Example

I have to admit that this intercession angle is really cutting into my “quiet time/blog time.”  Today, Chambers ties the work of interceding to the work of Jesus and His Spirit.  So, now I am faced with the example of my Master, and being an extension of His work as an intercessor. 

The story behind the April Fool is interesting.  Long ago, I believe during either the middle ages or just after, New Years Day was moved from April 1 to January 1 on the calendar.  Celebrating on April 1 corresponded to the beliefs of many religions, including the Hebrew Calendar (sort of, since the Hebrew Calendar is a “lunar” calendar, the correspondence varied every year).  I’m not sure the reasoning, but the change was made.  Anyone who forgot and celebrated New Years or said, “Happy New Years” on April 1 was referred to as the “April Fool”.  That is a very abbreviated version of the account, but the idea was the the person who was unaware that things had changed on them, or forgot something basic was deemed a fool.

Today, I am that fool.  Of course I should be doing intercession.  Of course I should be seeking the face of my Master in prayer.  But I have been blogging in response to Scripture and in response to the writings of another child of my King.  And this activity has sometimes taken the place of prayer.  On the other hand, I have been in prayer throughout the day.  I have sought my Master in the afternoons (not every afternoon, but I am getting there).  So, in the process of my day, I do intercede.  But I have let this activity interfere with the other.

So, today is the last entry and I will leave off writing for prayer.  I will instead of writing these entries in the morning, write them whenever I have time.  I know that they have been the catalyst of growth, the means of making myself available to my Master in the past 3 months.  I know that the growth I have enjoyed recently has been wonderful, but it is time to get back to the work of prayer and intercession.  Sure I can and do pray throughout the day.  But I have neglected this work of my Master long enough.  I will become that intercessor I should have been all along.

So, here I go, and good by for now…

You believed that?  Am I not an intercessor already?  Haven’t you read the last two entries?  I would be crazy to now isolate myself from the hands of my Master when He has begun to do so much.  Don’t be an April Fool!  Things have changed within me, and I would be a fool to return to my old busted ways of doing things.

But since I am also to be an intercessor, I will add that to my bag of activities which put me within reach of my Master.  Sorry for the prank, but it is the day, and I do love pranks.  If you are truly angry with me, comment…and I will intercede with my Master for you too.

Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost For His Highest": April 1st.

Mastering the Obvious!

My Grape Nuts are drowning out Sponge Bob in the next room, but it is still inescapable that the day has already begun.  I have a sprinkler valve to install in the back yard and then my day will move on to some other task to get the house ready to close.  But before all of that, I have to reach deep into the Spirit of God, as deep as He allows, and solidify the next point of my growth.

So far, I have been starting and sustaining my prayer time with the two statements, "You love me," and "You have my back."  It is now time to add a third.  In Hebrews, the writer (maybe Paul, maybe not) speaks of Abraham in Chapter 11 verse 8 and how he moved without knowing where he was going.  Chambers goes somewhere different that I expected with the verse.  He says that Abraham demonstrated his faith in God by separating himself from his family.  But Chambers differentiates this from holiness for some reason.  I don't think they should be.  It may not be the sanctification which God brings out in my life daily, but I believe it is part of it.  Either way, he points to the separation of Abraham from those elements of his life that would be distracting or obstructive to his relationship with his Master.  I believe that this concept and perspective on this verse gets at something that occurred to me after wrestling with holiness yesterday. 

First a comment on holiness.  I typically explain the concept of being holy as being "odd for God".  In other words, it refers to something unmistakably referring to God due to its difference from those things which do not.  Spoons look a lot alike, regardless of material they are made of.  But the particular use of a spoon can be ascertained by a few small hints, like size.  Big spoons are for serving food, smaller ones are for eating it.  Shiny spoons are for more formal occasions than plastic-ware.  So too, my life, even though it is shaped like a lot of other lives, should have some clues that indicate a purpose which originates from my Master.  Those clues constitute holiness.  Those I can handle, perfection I can't.  So I am responsible for some of those clues, and other no so much.  Some are fruit of my Master's Spirit within me, and some are made up of my own choices of what I will and will not do, where I will and will not go, and priorities for my time. 

Now the element that has been missing in those initial statements follows naturally from the effects of them.  To state to my Master that, "You love me" is to accept that He accepts me radically, not on my own merit but on His sovereign choice.  The point with that statement is to activate the effects of unfathomable grace from my Master.  The second statement, "You have my back" drives home that I can trust my Master completely.  Regardless of my life circumstances, the important elements of eternal things remains secure.  As Paul points out so clearly in Romans 8, nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus; nothing at all.  So, from grace I move to faith, faith that liberates me from the fears which bind me to the chains of this world, and do so without purpose or benefit.  Now on to the next step, the next phrase I declare to my Master is, "and I am at Your service."  Hmm. How long it has taken to get to this point, and why so long? 

I responded to the struggle accepting the unqualified acceptance of God with shame.  I knew implicitly that I could not earn such acceptance, so I hid, like Adam in the garden, I hid with leaves as large as I could find.  But in hiding, the shame only grows.  I know I am not what I appear to be to those around me and I fear what will happen when I am discovered.  The shame fueled a sinful life focused on self, seeking to medicate the pain which is the festering ache of shame, an inescapable result of accumulating vast pools of shame in the vacancies of my life.  The statement as I seek the face of my Master, "You LOVE me" cut through high dams blocking the reservoirs and released the shame I used as fuel for my self-centered sin.  They were so extensive that this statement was necessary first.  I had to come to terms with the way my Master sees me and accept that what is true is His perspective of me. I had to accept it without the benefit of understanding or being able to explain it.  He is sovereign and He chose me, I don't know why me.

After working through the radical acceptance of my Master, I found that my sinful habits were still a problem.  They may have originated from those pools of shame, and they were also sustained by other things.  I probed again beneath the surface of my life and found fear lurking in the dark recesses of my character.  I was afraid and those fears directed various elements of my life, like relationships with others.  Now from grace I launched into a fearless addressing of my personal security.  I pursued the underlying basis of these ridiculous pretensions, and found a sense where I had learned that I am responsible for my own security.  But there was this inescapable understanding underlying such an expectation that I could NOT control my environment sufficiently to protect myself.  It was a silly expectation that I somehow be able to keep myself, and then my family, and then my friends safe.  It was not possible.  I had no control over my environment, only over my response to it from within it.  I was placed in this terrarium by my Master and it belongs to Him.  So, I came to the only reasonable conclusion that I had to trust (have faith in) the One who owned and maintained this environment I live within.  So, from grace I traveled into faith.

Now I am finding that the struggles I face are more simple behavior and attitude problems; much like everyone else I suppose, but new for me.  In the entries to this blog, I have bandied about the idea of service, pointed to the need of it, the foundation for it, the many varied ways I have messed it up in the past, and so on.  The next step for me is to practice the marks and clues to my different purpose and use through service to my Master.  I need to move from grace, through faith, into submission.  I need all these elements, I need them to flow from one to the other.  For me to reverse them will create the same repetition of problems I faced in my previous attempts.  I will serve for wrong reasons out of a grace-less, fear-ridden, sense of unobtainable obligation.  Oh, and I will need to do so with joy.

So, I will begin my times with my Master, and my reconnections throughout the day with three phrases instead of two.  "You love me, You have my back, and I am at Your service."  Well, the sprinkler refuses to fix itself, and the grass is dying.  I consider that a calling from God through the circumstance He has placed me in, and I will serve my Master today by doing the quality of work I would do for someone who paid me up front, which He has.  After that, I will continue to serve my family, my friends, my Master in whatever ways He leads me.  I will enjoy the smile of my Master, even when I fail, or even when I reveal my foibles.  I will enjoy the radical acceptance of my Master as I serve, trusting that He has my back, that He connects the dots in my work that I can't even see or haven't found yet.  So, my new, over-arching task is to master the obvious, service to my Master.

I Am Uber-Conquerer Through the One Loving Me

One of my favorite passages in Scripture is all of Romans 8.  I'm not alone in this, because this is true for my wife as well.  We have fond memories of growing tied to it as well as deep meaning.  It ends with the declaration of victory through Jesus in verses 31 through 39.  In verse 37 Paul says, "But in all these we are 'uber-conquerers' through the One having loved us."  And yes, he does use a compound word combining "conqueror" with "over", so "uber-conqueror" is a valid translation even though it invokes current slang, ironically borrowed word from German.  Our two languages share a lot of words, so it works.

I like the victory plan or basis.  I am an uber-conqueror because of the One loving me, not because of me.  I suffer affliction, anguish, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and/or sword (at least as Paul puts it in verse 35), but none of these can separate me from the Love of God.  In fact, not only do these fail to separate me from His love, but Paul makes another list to drive home his point; death, life, angels, rulers, present things, future things, hostile powers, height, depth, or any other created thing are all powerless to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. 

Now this does not mean that my devotion never lapses.  I would have only one post to this blog if that were true.  It does not mean that I do not have times where I doubt, or fail to follow through, or become angry with God, or a litany of other things that damage my ability to rely on my Master.  Nothing inhibits His ability to hang on to me.  That is what it means.  So, the difficulties in my day; silly traffic, grumpy customers, family squabbles, and corporate mentalities; all serve to accentuate rather than diminish the love of my Master for His servant.  I am not what I am, a knight and servant, because I was the strongest, or bravest, or because I inherited the position from my dad or something.  I am in the role I am because my Master says I am.

What a relief.  One less thing to worry about, or rather the one thing that means I have nothing to worry about.  If God is for me, who can be against me?  What does the rest of my day really mean if I have already established that the love my Master has for me is as unassailable as He is.  The Judge is my adopted Father, and His Only Son is the Defense Attorney, Who already has been punished in my place.  Yes, this trial is rigged, and in my favor too.  Bring it on!  (queue the "Rocky" Theme while I bounce around with my hands in the air)