Lord, drain the swamp!

A friend of mine posted this quote on Facebook:

"A good heart will change a man's actions, but a man's actions cannot change his heart." -Andrew Wommack

If this is true, and if I want to be a tool in the hands of God and his kingdom, I need to be praying for my heart. As I've been thinking lately about the first beatitude, I've been doing so in connection with Jesus' simple prayer that God would reign here on earth exactly like he does in heaven. [Matt 6:10]

When we pray for the kingdom of heaven to come, we are imagining that "actions" down here among us masterful sinners might be radically changed because, as a prior fact, our hearts have been changed by God. If I, as an ambassador for Christ, want to be an agent of such Kingdom change, I will have to pray that God's kingdom would "come" (in other words, that God would reign) in my own heart first.

So here's Jesus saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Poverty of spirit is a heart condition that leads to the kind of prayer I'm talking about. If I'm praying and preaching for change in the world, even while I accept the status quo of my own heart's rank condition, am I not simply another arrogant ranter? But if I say, "Lord, my heart is really a muddy swamp, who knows what nasty things are living there, but I want it to be a place where you reign. Please, make your kingdom come here in my heart even as it will be some day when I'm with you in heaven. Yes, even that perfect!" Isn't it then that that I can say that the kingdom of heaven has come near, has in fact become mine ("theirs is the kingdom of heaven"), as God answers that prayer?

So, the kingdom of heaven does not belong to those who are satisfied with their own spiritual condition!

[Cross-posted at Mt. Jesus]

Oblivious

I'm reading Jared Wilson's Your Jesus is Too Safe (review coming soon), and thought I'd share this gem with you this morning (from p. 120):

We've got toge to the place in our "sheepishness" where we trust our Shepherd as he leads us away from what looks like great places to graze and laze around. Because what looks good to us often turns out to be looming disaster. We're often oblivious to our own selfishness, ignorant of our own gracelessness. We think of ourselves before others. We're like a leaderless Israel, doing what is right in our own eyes, like stupid sheep transifxed on the small patch of green before us while the ravenous lion sneaks up from behind.

Two for Refreshment

Many of the worship songs I hear are praises of a very generalized figure known as "God," who is great, holy, and loves us, and we declare we will love "God" with all our might all our days. That's the gist. But sometimes they seem to me to be a little out of touch with real life. Anyone out there agree with me? I mean, let's face it, do we love God that way even for a moment? If we are honest, we'd have to answer no, and therefore many of these songs set up a problem in us. I want to love God that way, but when I'm not posturing for the people in the pew behind me I have to admit, I really can't.

Which is why the old hymns can be so refreshing. They present the same ideal (loving God with all our might) but they recognize that ideals are always problems for human beings. Got that? Each and every expression of an ideal is intensely problematic for human beings. Only God can solve this dilemma we find ourselves in, so the best worship songs, it seems to me, recognize the problem and praise God for solving it. The great hymns locate our solution in Jesus, and are often addressed therefore not to some fuzzily defined "God" up above, but to Jesus (we sing them to Jesus!), who is after all "God with us."

These musings were prompted by the lyrics of a Wesley hymn called "Love divine, all love excelling," which I found over at Already Not Yet. Refreshing!

***

Speaking of refreshing, Dan Edelen presents the gospel in his post, How to Become a Christian. Aaaah! Thirst quenching.

Maybe I should read this one . . .

I've been seeing a lot of mention of this book lately on one blog after another: The Praying Life, by Paul Miller. I've tended lately to shy away from books on prayer (having read quite a few over the years), but this one really intrigues. Here's a quote, which I found over at Barry Simmons' the journeyman's files.

Imagine that your prayer is a poorly dressed beggar reeking of alcohol and body odor, stumbling toward the palace of the great king. You have become your prayer. As you shuffle toward the barred gate, the guards stiffen. Your smell has preceded you. You stammer out a message for the great king: ‘I want to see the king.’

Your words are barely intelligible, but you whisper one final word, ‘Jesus, I come in the name of Jesus.’ At the name of Jesus, as if by magic, the palace comes alive. The guards snap to attention, bowing low in front of you. Lights come on, and the door flies open. You are ushered into the palace and down a long hallway into the throne room of the great king, who comes running to you and wraps you in his arms.

The name of Jesus gives my prayers royal access. They get through. Jesus isn’t just the Savior of my soul. He’s also the Savior of my prayers. My prayers come before the throne of God as the prayers of Jesus. ‘Asking in Jesus’ name’ isn’t another thing I have to get right so my prayers are perfect. Is it one more gift of God because my prayers are so imperfect.

Also mentioned by Justin Buzzard, among many others.

This should rock your world just a little

"Your Redeemer traverses the rugged path of suffering, along which He went with heaving heart and footsteps that He might pave a royal road of mercy for His enemies." - Charles Spurgeoneemer traverses the rugged path of suffering, along which He went with heaving heart and footsteps,
that He might pave a royal road of mercy
for His enemies." - Charles Spurgeon

Six

1. Imonk's new hot button. As usual, I'm in more-or-less complete agreement.
2. At Blog One Another, 14 Reasons to Stop Evangelizing Your Friends. Controversial, I suppose. But I'm fine with the gist of it.
3. John Frye says,

   I maintain that when the USAmerican evangelical church became enamored with political clout and sought “to change America” or to use politics “to give America back to God,” we forfeited our truest and deepest freedom for a pathetic, temporal substitute. We became slaves to a political gospel which has no power to change lives. The clarion freedom declarations of Galatians 5:1 and 13-14 were pawned away for Republican votes. We felt we needed senators, not pastors and evangelists; we needed representatives, not prophets and apostles; we needed Supreme Court justices, not teachers and missionaries. Ah, yes, get out and vote! Not, drop to your knees and pray.

   Read it all at his fine blog, Jesus the Radical Pastor.
4. Perhaps you've seen this by now, but I just want to register my approval of The Jesus Manifesto. It's a declaration of intent to reJesus the church. Not a bad idea!
5. Cookiesday asks six really good questions. We should all (not just preachers) be asking the same.
6. Nancy's farewell to blogging. :-(

A Church Visit

While I was visiting my mother in Pennsylvania last week I attended a nearby Baptist church. Here's my report:

1. The building is pretty new, on a big plot of land in the country. They used to be located in the heart of the city, but moved to this site some years ago. You have to climb a "giants despair" type mountain road to get there. It was an all-white congregation.
2. We walked in during the reading of the day's Scripture. It was from the ESV (a pleasant suprise).
3. This being the Sunday after Independence Day, there was a lot of apparently obligatory talk about how this nation was founded on Christian principles. The pastor, who was actually on vacation, stopped in to make this familiar argument at length before allowing the guest preacher to take the floor.
4. Also, he said something about "performance driven Christianity." He was ag'n it. That made me perk up a little. Another good sign.
5. Music was standard rocky-praise led by a proficient band, but no one really took part until the final song, America the Beautiful, when suddenly the congregation (even the men) began singing robustly.
6. Which reminds me: a large flag hung on the wall front and center (right behind the drum kit), but there wasn't a cross in sight. I don't say there has to be a cross, but get the flag out in the foyer or something, rather than let it be the one "symbol" allowed in the sanctuary. Just my opinion.
7. Guest speaker was a missionary from Argentina. Since the vacationing pastor took up so much time with his patriotic history lesson, the guest speaker had to rush through his message. It was based on 2Cor 4:1-7, and the conclusion was that that we should be more like Paul, who was clearly a right-thinking dude. Then the familiar "invitation" at the end.
8. Oh yeah, there was a a long riff in there about the world vs. the church. You know, the world. Them others. Not us. We kinda don't like them much, but then again we're supposed to love 'em, and then they're supposed to like us and come to our church in its remote field on top of a mountain. If they don't, well, that's just the world for ya.
9. I brought my sister to church with me, and she hadn't been to church in years, so I was hoping for something much more, well, stirring. It seemed very clean and exurban, and remote from reality. Not awful, not devoid of all worth, but rather weak tea. These folks are trying hard, God bless 'em. You walk away thinking, is this what has lasted 2000 years? Does this really "represent" what Christ is doing in the world today? Is that all there is?

Back . . .

Back from a brief trip to the wilds of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, my old stomping grounds. I'm home now, but enjoying a couple of more days off from work. The sun in out, the weather is warm, and the pollen index is high (2 outa 3 ain't bad!).

I had a nice present from the mail carrier this morning. Jared Wilson's book Your Jesus is Too Safe. I plan to read it over the next couple of days and review it here in the near future. I'm also going to "interview" Jared at some point soon.

I'm really looking forward to this little blogging project. Jared, btw, is one of the most reliably interesting bloggers out there (but of course you knew that).

Summer, so far

So it's been a rainy summer so far, but productive in its way. I landscaped an embankment at the back of our property (hoping that the shrubbery will soon grow tall enough to block the view of our neighbor's giant pile of lobster trap buoys and spare tires). Laurie's calling it Bob's Bonnie Bank. I've also been getting into bread-baking every Saturday, which has been fun and satisfying.

A good friend of mine whom I haven't seen in a year came to town last week and it was a very large blessing to me to get a dose of his spirit. We talked a lot about church, of course. He now attends a mega-church in Colorado, but nobody is less mega-churchy than Tom. I would consider him one of the most authentically evangelical (tr. "good newsy") Christians I've ever known. Just being around him gave me a boost.

When it comes to church, I've been planning to look around a little this summer, but haven't gotten started on that yet. The whole project is rife with difficulties. The idea of "church shopping" is repugnant to me. Still, there's an Acts 29 church around here I'd like to drop in on at least once. And blogger Josh Otte's church, though it's a little too far from home for me to consider as my home church, is definitely on my summer agenda.

There was a time when I looked forward to Sunday morning all week. Now, I just long for a few close friends for whom the mission of God is of foremost importance.

[On this score, read Darryl Dash's sort of related musings -- Save Me from My Subculture -- and don't miss the first comment at the bottom.]

Going on a brief trip to Pennsylvania tomorrow to see my peeps. Don't know if I'll be in blogging range or not. Everybody have a really great Independence Day!

Old Time is not a crime!

So I was sitting around with some guys on the deck and one of them asked me what I'd done the night before and I said watched a movie and he said oh what movie and I said it was a documentary about the life of Pete Seeger and I really enjoyed it and he looked kind of puzzled and said, wasn't he in Easy Rider?

And I thought to myself, what strange world have I wandered into, and how do I get back to the one I came from?

A valuable story

A great story from my co-blogger John Mahshie. The mercy of God is the motivation of his wonders.

Ray Ortlund's letter to his family

In 2000, shortly before his death, Dr.Ray Ortlund wrote a brief letter to his family. He placed it in his desk, knowing that it would not be found and read till after he was gone. You can read the letter here.

I'll say nothing more. It speaks for itself.

[HT: Joshua Harris]