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April 19, 2013

Inquisitional Prayer

When the psalmists sung and when Job tussled with the sovereignty of God, they conversed not in mere acquiescence. Prayer is inquisitional.

Inquisitional	inquiring deeply or searchingly
Inquisitional	of a harsh, difficult, or prolonged questioning

In using the word ‘inquisitional’ in description of prayer, i mean simply these two things:

to acknowledge and respond (in silence, word, or action) to the difficult questions God poses to us, and
to pose questions that probe the depths of the will, ways, and character of God.

Job, we know, faced a most famous inquisition at the hand of God. He was hammered with a harsh, difficult, and prolonged questioning.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? [Job 38:4]

Have you commanded the morning since your days began … ? [Job 38:12ff]

Have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? [Job 38:17]

Where is the way to the dwelling of light? [Job 38:19]

Have you entered the treasury of snow … ? [Job 38:22]

Can you loose the belt of Orion? [Job 38:31]

Can you send out lightnings, that they may go, and say to you, ‘Here we are!’? [Job 38:35]

Who has put wisdom in the mind? [Job 38:36]

This continues for another three chapters …

Do you know the time when the wild mountain goats bear young? [Job 39:1]

Have you given the horse strength? [Job 39:19]

Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? [Job 40:2]

Have you an arm like God? [Job 40:9]

Who then is able to stand against Me? [Job 41:10]

Job is silenced — humbled. Remember, inquisitional prayer is humbling prayer. And, you? Have you let God search your soul?

The aim of inquisition is searching and seeking. God searches the recesses of our darkened hearts and we search the deeps of all He is. In doing this, we are bound tighter and nearer — One to the other.

As we read through the psalms, we find that the psalmists rightly position themselves before the Almighty Creator — the LORD. In recognition of their humanity, in humility, they pray (literally, ‘ask’) that God might answer. They come to God, not as ones who consider themselves superior in any way, but simply as recipients of those things given by their good and gracious Father. Consider the following prayers of the psalmists:

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? [Psalm 22:1]

And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You. [Psalm 39:7]

Have you not delivered my feet from falling … ? [Pslam 56:13]

How long will you attack a man? [Psalm 62:3]

Whom have I in heaven but You? [Psalm 73:25]

How long, LORD? [Psalm 89:46]

Indeed, these are prayers birthed of a humble heart and a longing.

Inquisitional prayer is humbling prayer.

Declarations, statements, and certainties founded upon our own variation of what we might consider true or right, may well lead us to thoughts of self-sufficiency and pride; yet, questions, wonderings, awe, and supplication breed an attitude of humility and dependence on God — the Omniscient One. This kind of prayer has the power to usher us into the truths and righteousness of God, even as we might little comprehend it.

I challenge you this: Change your language of prayer. For at least one full week of your conversational time with God, change your language. Ask questions. Make requests. Stop stating. Stop demanding. Consider this: How often do we say “I pray that …” or “God, take/give/remove/renew/help/etc …”? And, how rarely are we found imploring “Father, will you …?”, “Lord, when might you …?”, or “O God, why do You …?” Begin asking these questions. Make these requests. This may seem a subtle change, but I am certain you will find it a rewarding challenge. Please, do this and see if you are not humbled. See if you do not begin to rest in the beautifully simple graces and mercies of God that surround us each day. See if your attitude towards prayer is not changed.

I ask of you these things: Have you ever considered the posture of prayer? Have you silenced yourself enough to listen for the answer you long to know? Do you know the questions you most long to ask? What has kept you from asking the difficult questions of God? Have you experienced wonder in recent days? Have you embraced it? What has kept you from hearing the difficult questions God asks of you? Can you faith the unknown and simply ask what your heart longs to know?

From when we first broke this bond with God, this relationship has been riddled with inquisitiveness as we search the way back. Ask, seek, knock, and I am certain the answers will ultimately lead you to the one true Answer — Jesus.

Reflect On	Job 38-41
Praise God	that He is.
Offer Thanks	for the blessings in the unknown.
Confess	any insincerity, pride, or entitlement you might embrace through prayer.
Ask God	the difficult questions. anything.
Comment:	What questions are you asking God today?

March 31, 2013

Ignite Our Mission

Glory of God, O, glory of God –
Pierce the night,
Immortal light, arisen;
Breaking death’s dark prison.
After forty days –
To heaven raised.
O, glory of God.
Glory of God.
Amen, ignite our mission.

March 29, 2013

The Amen Spoken

Glory of God, O, glory of God –
At Bethlehem,
In mortal man, awoken;
Now, the body broken.
‘Neath a crown of thorns,
The temple torn.
O, glory of God.
Glory of God.
Christ, the Amen spoken.

March 25, 2013

Wild Prayer

When Elijah bravely and boldly faced the priestly gathering upon the high place, it was no tame task in which he participated. Prayer is wild.

Wild	living in a state of nature; not tame
Wild	showing lack of restraint or control

Our God is in the business of wildly bestowing grace upon His children. When we look at the days of Elijah, as laid forth in the pages of 1 Kings 17-19, we see a man engaged in a raw and earthy relationship with his Maker. Elijah spoke wild prayers to the God of Heaven and of Earth. We, too, are called to just such a relationship.

After issuing a divine edict of drought upon the land, Elijah was instructed to retreat to the ravines in the wilderness of Kerith to be fed by ravens. When the brooks dried, he joined with a widow and her son in Zeraphath. While staying in this home, the son died. Elijah’s prayer?

“O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son? God my God, put breath back into this boy’s body!” (1 Kings 17:20-21 ESV & The Message)

And God gave breath.

The Coming Storm (New Mexico), UaMV, 2006

Wild? Indeed!

Elijah’s next task? Confront a calloused king with the good word of rain to come upon the parched land. But it was not only the earth that had dried and cracked; the hearts of Israel had once again hardened against the way of the one true God – real life had withered. Thus, Elijah called for a spiritual showdown upon the heights of Mount Carmel so that God’s children might again know Him as Lord. Do you remember the story?

450 prophets of Baal cannot conjure a single spark. Elijah, taking twelve stones, repairs the altar of the Lord, which had been thrown down. After having prepared the bull upon the wood, he calls thrice for four jars of precious water, and in what might seem an act of carelessness to most of those gathered, has them poured out. Then, he prays simply …

Let it be known this day that You are God. (1 Kings 18:36 ESV)

And so fire fell – consuming the water and wood, the sacrifice and stones, even the dust and the hardened hearts of the people. The false prophets are slaughtered and those gathered, midst a coming rain, remember the Lord … He is God.

What wild prayer!

Elijah risked the wilderness. His prayers were far from tame; his spirit, gripped by a fierce faith; his hem, likely singed by fire. What about you? Are you living an adventurous relationship with the living God? Do you greet the day with expentancy and end it in wonder at His wild ways?

Mark Buchanan, pastor and author from the west coast of Canada writes in The Holy Wild …

I have discovered, as I hoped and feared in my younger days, that God is no drab pedant, meddling and puttering, but the Lion of Judah, the Lord of the Holy Wild. The God who, when He speaks or shows Himself, stirs in me two impulses at once: to run from Him and to run to Him.

The way of faith, of following Jesus, is no tame task. Enter the ‘Holy Wild’ and watch the glory of the Lord fall upon that place.

Reflect On	1 Kings 17-19
Praise God	that His ways are wild.
Offer Thanks	for the adventures in life.
Confess	the times when you have tried to tame God and His work in this world.
Ask God	for a fiery faith. that you might know the wildness of Jesus (see Revelation 1)
Comment:	In what ways has the broader Christian culture of today been tamed? How might we re-enter the ‘Holy Wild’?

March 17, 2013

Head Over Heels

March 12, 2013

Dangerous Prayer

When Daniel faithfully fell to his knees in the foreign land of Babylon, it was no safe task to which he set himself. Prayer is dangerous.

Dangerous	perilous; risky; hazardous; unsafe.
Dangerous	able or likely to cause physical injury

Daniel determined to keep his God before all others. Disciplined, he prayed daily and often to the Lord. Even to spite a royal decree, Daniel held firmly the faith he professed. In so doing, he set himself up for a dangerous set of circumstances.

We must recognize that, just like Daniel, we dwell in a land not our own. When this side of creation fell into the depravity of sin, humankind became foreigners in a strange and hostile land. As Christians, ambassadors of the truth, we bear a great weight from every attack of the evil forces. And yet, greater still, as Christians, we claim victory in Jesus against every force wielded in opposition to His glory.

As a fellowship which sends workers into the harvest fields of God, World Mission Prayer League remains vigilant to the security of those who serve the Kingdom cause. We care for the safety of our fellow worker. Prayerfully and procedurally, we aim to keep our missionaries and those with whom they work from any harm. Yet, at the end of the day, we must resign ourselves and every other to the One who has ordained and oversees His work in this world. In a world fraught with danger, we are simply subjects of His mercy.

It might seem odd, yet, when I consider the consequences, I am prone to want that every follower of Jesus might encounter, at least in one brief moment, some great danger because of the faith they profess. Throughout this world, our brothers and sisters suffer for the name Jesus. Whether in body, mind, or spirit, they are driven to depend upon the graces of God. When we have felt the weight that presses upon these, our kin – that which pressed even upon our Lord – we shall know a greater oneness across the oceans of time and space that separate us now.

May we remain faithful to He who is faithful to us. No matter what royal decree descends. Dangerous prayer.

UaMV, 2013

But, let us not only caution ourselves against the powers of darkness. There is a kind of danger in the light. Consider David’s sin of the census and his encounter with the armed angel of the Lord at the threshing floor of Araunah. Is it not a dangerously beautiful thing to fall into the hands of the living God? Let us not lose the fear of God, for it shall keep us humble and devoted. Mighty and great is He … and good. As C.S. Lewis told defenseless Lucy regarding Aslan …

“Safe? … Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

And as Darius proclaimed many years earlier …

To all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God, and steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues, and He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. (Daniel 6:25-27 NKJV)

To come before the throne of God is dangerously beautiful, I tell you.

May we, then, with confidence, draw near. For Jesus is our advocate and our haven. His mercy, love and grace shall keep us this day and forevermore.

Reflect On	Daniel 6:25-27 Hebrews 4:16
Praise God	that He is mighty to save.
Offer Thanks	for your deliverance and that of the brethren.
Confess	any cowardice of faith.
Ask God	to grant you boldness in the face of evil and in the presence of Him. to safeguard His children who live in a hostile land.
Comment:	Do you think all Christians are called to dangerous prayer? Have you experienced any dangerous conversations with God?

March 6, 2013

Pip II

The internets may have told you this day … that a little tittle is on the way.
From Minnesota, with love to you … this Vanderclan confirms, aye, quite true!

[amen id=”34″]

Pip II

In the waiting room.

February 28, 2013

Difficult Prayer

When our Lord Jesus set foot in the garden on the night before His death, it was no easy task that awaited Him. Prayer is difficult.

Difficult	not easily or readily done; requiring much labor, skill, or planning to be performed successfully
Difficult	hard to understand or solve

Do you remember Jesus that night? He had supped with His disciples, sent Judas on that fateful errand, washed filthy feet of unworthy men, and now retreated to a familiar ground. This is where the difficult work of surrender was to be accomplished. On His knees before the Father, asking and pleading that this cup might pass, He felt the weight of sorrow press harder than maybe ever it had. The darkness of this fallen world had long played upon the horizon, but now it was to edge in close. For years He had gazed compassionately into eyes that carried a sense of something stolen and a glory veiled. He had come to intimately know the heartache held by men … His very brethren, His creation, the beloved children of God, the broken. Now, here, in the quiet and still of Gethsemane, life – and death – clamored in His midst. Jesus – a soul troubled and distressed before God.

Perow, Wassilij Grigorjewitsch.
Christus im Garten von Gethsemane. 1878.

Difficult.

Can we begin to comprehend the difficulty with which Jesus approached His death? Certainly divine. Certainly determined. Yet, certainly human. Could the intellect of man, even a man as Jesus, begin to grasp the deep thoughts and ways of God? For this He came – to bear witness to the truth. But the fallen nature of man is to spurn truth and all image-bearers of truth. And so, there, ‘neath the still of night and midst a grove of trees, we hear Jesus speaking to his Father … “Daddy, please! Give me another path to walk. i desire not this way. Even so, i surrender to Your will – to Your way.” In the dark of night, with his friends asleep, Jesus made reconciliation between the will of God and that of His humanity.

Difficult.

This picture of an engaged and wrestling Jesus stands in stark contrast to the disciples. Their difficulty in prayer that night stemmed from a weariness. They simply succumbed to sleep. Have we not experienced the same? Daily life drains us. We must not always enter into prayer as something of leisure, but often as labor.

Not often, if ever, might we understand the ways of our God. Yet, may we pray and plead; and, in humility, may we surrender – difficult, though it be. And, may we labor in prayer – all for Him, who accomplishes the greater work. When our strength and vigor flag, may we rest in the arms of an ever-loving Father – for it is His pleasure to hold us near and refresh us in His mighty love.

Prayer is difficult. The task awaits … dare we set foot for the challenge?

Reflect On	Mark 14:32-42.
Praise God	for His sovereignty and foresight.
Offer Thanks	for those who have watched with you in the difficult night.
Confess	any desire for control, rather than for surrender.
Ask God	that you might find words to voice the difficult prayers.
Comment:	What prayers have you found most difficult?

February 22, 2013

Protected: Aelah Turns ONE!

February 15, 2013

Now This Is Prayer

Years i have walked with Jesus. i ought to know this one thing … when we simply open our eyes, there is Jesus; when we attune our ears, there is sounding the voice of God; and, when we still our souls, we are prone to know the One with such a glorious name – I AM. And yet, too often, i occupy the way with petty thoughts and prattle. Such is the way of many, i am certain.

i was recently called upon to assist in facilitating a few gatherings devoted to intentional and focused prayer. What pleasure to know that through such times of calling, God wants, among other things, to reveal some small truth. And reveal, He did.

Prayer.

What does this mean? Is it not simply to engage with this One with whom i walk? And yet, i have long failed to invest in this divinely ordained relationship. i have longed failed to pray. Humbled before the altar, and called to guide God’s children in worship and prayer, He voiced new thoughts to my mind. Prayer is so much more than somber and serene. Prayer is difficult. Prayer is dangerous and wild. It is inquisition and revolution.

Consider this … when did prayer last lay you out, issue a heaven-sent challenge, or leave you with nothing but questions to be answered? God is revealing and it is now for us to realize.

February 7, 2013

Protected: Stay Small, Aelah!

January 29, 2013

Snail Mail

Hello, Ministry Partners!

And, a Happy New Year to you all! 2013 if off to a great and busy start for us; we pray this post finds you well, and in the thick of good ministry in this new year, as well!

While most of our ministry updates are done electronically, we occasionally send out some snail mail. If you’d like to be recipients of such fun, please send us your mailing address. If you’re family or if you’ve received snail mail from us recently, we likely have your address, but if not, please send it our way.

Thanks, and God’s blessings in you and through you in this new year! Remember, we love to hear how we can be lifting you up in prayer, so we encourage you to send those praises and requests our way, as well!

Christ’s love,

Adrienne

January 23, 2013

Protected: 11 Months!

December 20, 2012