A SUBJECTIVE SPIRITUIALITY

Brother Daniel

For more great blogs as this one go to Daniel’s blog site at: www.Mannsworld.blogspot.com

A Subjective Spirituality

What do people mean when they say, "I am spiritual not religious?" According to Wikipedia:

· Historically, the words religious and spiritual have been used synonymously to describe all the various aspects of the concept of religion. Gradually, the word spiritual came to be associated with the private realm of thought and experience while the word religious came to be connected with the public realm of membership in a religious institution with official denominational doctrines."

As such, "spirituality" has become synonymous with "what works for me." The spiritual person aims at authenticity and genuine encounter rather than a set of sterile doctrines, which they experience as coercive and artificially imposed by external authorities.

In Mama Lola: A Voodoo Priestess in Brooklyn, Anthropologist Karen McCarthy Brown confesses her attraction to Voodoo as experiential and non-coercive:

· No Haitian—certainly not [Voodoo Priestess] Alourdes—has ever asked me if I ‘believe’ in Vodoo or if I have set aside the religious commitments and understandings that come from my childhood and culture. Alourdes’ approach is, instead, pragmatic: “You just got to try. See if it works for you.” The choice of relinquishing my worldview or adopting another in its entirety has therefore never been at issue. (10)

Here, Brown expresses a common sentiment among those who are embracing spirituality. It is not about truth but about experience and the now.

In Soul Retrieval, Sandra Ingerman, a shaman, expresses the same sentiments:

· As you read this book and wonder whether or not what I am talking about is real, I ask you not to enter into a battle between the right brain [reason] and left brain [intuition]. Simply read the material and experience it!... Does the information that comes from the shamanic journey work? Does the information make positive changes in a person’s life? If so, who cares if we are making it up? (3)

We want results, now! Doctrine doesn’t seem to deliver as quickly as the spiritual realm. In The Secret Ways of the Lakota, Black Elk, a Sioux shaman states, “You don’t have to wait for five years…The spirit comes and takes me somewhere.”

However, critical questions are seldom asked about the nature of the experience. In Drawing Down the Moon, the late spiritist, Margo Adler, affirmatively quoted another “spiritist”:

· It seems like a contradiction to say that I have a certain subjective truth; I have experienced the Goddess, and this is my total reality. And yet I do not believe that I have the one, true, right, and only way. Many people cannot understand how I find Her a part of my reality and accept the fact that your reality might be something else. But for me, this is in no way a contradiction, because I am aware that my reality and my conclusions are a result of my unique genetic structure, my life experience and my subjective feelings…This recognition that everyone has different experiences is a fundamental keystone to Paganism; it’s the fundamental premise that whatever is going on out there is infinitely more complex than I can ever understand. And that makes me feel very good.

For this unnamed spiritist, her “subjective feelings” take precedence over all else, even over understanding. Why this disconnect between mind and heart? Adler explained:

· They had become Pagans because they could be themselves and act as they chose, without what they felt were medieval notions of sin and guilt. Others wanted to participate in rituals rather than observe themselves.

Experience is non-coercive. No one can say that your experience is wrong. It places no guilt-inducing demands on the spiritual practitioner that serious moral thinking might impose. At least, that’s the hope. Instead, it is possible that the more we live in opposition to our conscience, the more we will oppose and detest other sources of authority and tradition.

Adler argued that plurality of experience and lifestyle is preferable to a singular set of truths:

· Polytheism is… characterized by plurality… and is eternally in unresolvable conflict with social monotheism, which in its worst form is fascism and in its less destructive forms is imperialism, capitalism, feudalism and monarchy.”

If there is one God, there is no choice. This God then is necessarily the author of a singular set of truths and moral codes to which we must conform. As Adler maintained, for the spiritual person, monotheistic truth is experienced as fascistic, imperialistic, and feudalistic, depriving the spiritual person of choice and their self-centered universe. Monotheism is the anti-thesis of the instant gratification of the “me generation” and the “now generation.”

However, the existence of objective and unchanging truths is the bedrock of science and of all learning. Without these truths, there can be no learning, just experiencing. Should we then suppose that spirituality should be absolutely bereft of objective truths?

What happens when spirituality is divorced from questions of truth? It cannot see beyond the now. But why should it? Here are several considerations:

What feels good in the short run might not be good in the long run. Drugs, junk food, and unprotected sex might suggest that forethought is important.

How does this pertain to spiritual matters? For example, Mindfulness Meditation has become fantastically popular in the West. However, many have reported on its long-range downside. Melissa Karnaze reports on 17 Ways Mindfulness Meditation Can Cause You Emotional Harm. For brevity sake, I will list only the first 11:

1. You start to judge uncomfortable thoughts and feelings as inferior, unreal, or bad. Which gets in your way of actually learning from them, experiencing and healing them, growing from them, and integrating them.

2. You get good at stuffing anger and other negative emotions. Which might make them go away — temporarily. But hasn’t shown to be very effective.

3. If and when a traumatic or emotionally painful experience occurs, you don’t fully process it, and cut your grieving process dangerously short.

4. You have low tolerance for processing grief. So if you start to remember something traumatic, you stuff it down, potentially re-traumatizing yourself.

5. You expect meditation to fix your problems for you, resolve your relationship conflicts, and make you happy. Each of those things requires hard work, commitment, and realistically, some discomfort. When you look to meditation to save you, you stop putting in the hard work and commitment, and evade the discomfort. Which makes it harder to effectively work toward your goals.

6. You detach yourself from conflicts in your life, expecting that meditation will get rid of the negative emotions — and fix the problem altogether. The emotions just signal the problem. Even if you ignore the emotions, the problem is still there.

7. You detach from your partner or loved one when they’re upset or experiencing an emotion you see as undesirable. You wish they’d just meditate it away, calm down, take a walk, get a grip — do whatever it takes to get rid of the emotion. When you invalidate your partner’s negative emotions, you cause serious wounds to both of you, harming trust and intimacy.

8. You find it difficult to connect to your feelings when you want to be emotionally honest with yourself and others. Because you’ve trained yourself to avoid them. This impairs your ability to be emotionally intimate with anyone.

9. Your relationships deteriorate, because you lose touch with what interpersonal conflict really means. After all, no one is really experiencing hurt feelings, right? Those feelings aren’t really real; just dissociate from them. Or, “observe” them.

10. You struggle to empathize with others, or understand their pain. If you don’t feel your own pain — you can’t expect to have compassion for another’s pain.

11. You lose your ability to naturally feel upset, sad, or concerned when there’s an issue in your life that you need to address. This puts a damper on healthy discernment. http://mindfulconstruct.com/…/17-ways-mindfulness-meditati…/

Perhaps some of these dangers are exaggerated, but the spiritual person, having divorced himself from reason, will not even bother to research them. He will not ask, “Has mindfulness advanced the human condition?” After all, it is all about the now and experience!

An exclusively subjective spirituality fails to provide the needed guidance. It cannot answer the questions, “Why am I here, where am I going, and what should I do about it.” Instead, subjectivity divorces us from community and a common language, if all we have is our own experiences. It also alienates us from a quest for truth and even what it means to be fully human.

A plane lacking one of its wings cannot fly. If it does get off the ground, it will soon crash. The spiritual person might reject objective spiritual truth as coercive and imperialistic. However, the alternative is far worse.

JESUS, INERRANCY, AND GREG BOYD

Your Brother Daniel

For more great blogs as this one go to Daniel’s blog site at:

www.Mannsworld.blogspot.com

Jesus, Inerrancy, and Greg Boyd

In Spectrum, writer and pastor, Greg Boyd, embraces the concept of the Inerrancy-of-Scripture (Scripture is without error in its original writing), but he doesn’t apply this concept to the entirety of the Scriptures:

∑       There is some disagreement among evangelicals concerning the question of factual errors in parts of the Bible that touch on things other than Christian faith and practice.

For instance, when the Bible makes statements on “matters of history or science,” it might be in error:

∑       This essay defends the view that the Bible can and should be trusted as unfailing (infallible) in all matters that pertain to Christian faith and living. It cannot be considered inerrant, however, especially in regard to minor matters of history or science.

According to Boyd, Bible doctrine and theology does not depend on the accuracy of Bible history. However, this separation of history from theology is patently wrong. Just to look at one very obvious example – the theology of the Cross cannot stand without the history of the Cross - that Christ historically died for our sins. If He didn’t historically die for our sins, we are still in our sins!

However, to be fair to Boyd, he did specify the “minor matters of history.” admittedly, the Cross was not a minor matter. However, how do we determine when Bible history is of minor significance? History seems to be inseparably woven together with theology. Let’s take Peter’s warning of future judgment, where he bases his case on the historical judgments of the Bible:

∑       For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly… then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. (2 Peter 2:4-9)

If the history of the fall of the angels, the worldwide flood, and the destruction of Sodom are not historical, then Peter’s argument is built on a false and inadequate foundation. If these aren’t historical and actual, there is no reason to assume that the promised future judgment will also be actual.

Were Genesis 1 and 2 historical? According to Jesus they were. Even asked about the permissibility of divorce, He cited what God had historically accomplished:

∑       He [Jesus] answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female [quoting Gen. 1:26-27],  and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’ [Gen. 2:24]!  So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has [historically] joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6)

Had God not historically created man and woman and then joined them together to make then one, as specified in the first two chapters of Genesis, His argument would have been fallacious. The Pharisees could easily have objected:

∑       This is all mythological. Its theology doesn’t depend on actual events. God didn’t historically join them together. Consequently, by divorcing, we are not violating God’s actions and intentions.

Scripture never makes a distinction between what the Bible teaches about history and what it teaches theologically. It contains absolutely no indication that we cannot trust what it teaches historically. Therefore, its teaching on the full reliability of Scripture is a package-deal. Either we accept it all as the Word of God or we don’t. Jesus clearly accepted it in its entirety as the actual words of His Father. Therefore, when the devil challenged Him to turn a stone into bread, He retorted:

∑       "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" (Matthew 4:4)

Jesus didn’t regard Scripture as just partially inspired or partially inerrant. He understood that “every word” proceeded “from the mouth of God,” even its historical assertions. Consequently, it all had to be fulfilled:

∑       I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:18-19)

Even the smallest details were of God. Therefore, all of it had to be obeyed and fulfilled! How then does Boyd justify not taking Scripture as had Jesus:

∑       First, as it is found in Jesus and the earliest disciples, this unswerving attitude of trust in Scripture always relates to what Christians are to believe and how they are to live. Paul expressed the general attitude well when he argued that because Scripture is “inspired,” it is “useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The ultimate goal of Scripture and the teaching that arises from it is to make “everyone who belongs to God . . . proficient, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17). The focus of inspiration is exclusively on faith and practice. Neither Paul nor any other biblical author was concerned with resolving whether the Bible represents history or the cosmos in a way that would qualify as “inerrant” by modern standards. This was not their concern, and we misuse their expressions of trust in Scripture when we try to make them address these concerns.

Boyd is misreading these verses:

∑       All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Paul explicitly states that all Scripture comes from God, not just those parts that Boyd regards as “how they are to live” and necessary for “faith and practice.” It is precisely because it is all “God-breathed” that we can be “thoroughly equipped for every good work.” If there were parts of Scripture that might not be accurate, these would undermine our Scriptural confidence and guidance to perform “every good work.”

Next, Boyd cites 2 Peter 1:21 to demonstrate that:

∑       Nowhere do scriptural authors demonstrate any concern with the issue of how much control God exerted over the authors he used and how much of their limited, culturally bound perspectives he left intact.

Here, Boyd is arguing again in favor of partial inspiration. However, Peter would not be in agreement with Boyd’s assessment:

∑       Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation [of the Spirit’s guidance]. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21)

These verses actually teach the very opposite thing that Boyd claims, that Scripture makes no claim to the extent of God’s inspiration of Scripture. Instead, Peter claims that no verses ever originated from the “will of man!”

Nevertheless, Boyd asserts:

∑       An honest examination of Scripture leads to the conclusion that the Bible is thoroughly inspired but also thoroughly human. The human element in Scripture reflects the limitations and fallibility that are a part of all human perspectives and all human thinking… The Bible’s theological message is unfailing though its view of the cosmos is scientifically incorrect.

Although Scripture does bear unmistakable indications of “the human element,” This does not necessary mean error. For instance, Paul’s writings clearly bear these indications in his vocabulary, associations, and human feelings. However, despite these elements, Paul asserted:

∑       And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

Do we understand how Scripture can both reflect the humanity of the writers and still, in its entirety be the Word of God? No, but this was clearly the view of our Lord:

∑       He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. (Luke 24:44-45)

Never, did Jesus warn His disciples that there were certain aspects of Scripture that couldn’t be trusted. Instead, Scripture was the final authority:

∑       Jesus replied [to the Saducees], "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. (Matthew 22:29)

According to Jesus, whenever we deviate from Scripture, we are in error.

Boyd reasons that because of the alleged contradictions, Scripture cannot be entirely inerrant:

∑       Yet a third way in which we see the fallible humanity of biblical authors is found in the way they contradict each other on minor matters. Space allows for just one example.

Here is Boyd’s one example:

∑       Compare the following Synoptic accounts of Jesus’ command to his seventy missionaries.

 • “Take . . . no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food” (Matt. 10:9–10).

• “Take nothing for [your] journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in [your] belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics” (Mark 6:8–9).

• “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money— not even an extra tunic” (Luke 9:3).

For Boyd, these represent a contradiction. Do you see it? I don’t! Even if these verses do represent an apparent contradiction, this isn’t of utmost importance. Even if we fail to find the optimal way to reconcile verses that seem to contradict, this doesn’t mean that there isn’t a satisfying way to reconcile the verses. Boyd would have to prove that there is no possible reconciliation. However, he is miles away from doing this.

Perhaps even more problematic for Boyd is the example he cited. At first he had claimed that the Bible is without error when it comes to matters of “faith and living.” However, the example he cited does pertain to “faith and living!” What does this suggest? That Boyd doesn’t really believe than any of the Bible is unassailable or inerrant. He therefore argues:

∑       If the Bible must be inerrant in order to be inspired, as inerrantists teach, then the credibility of the Bible hangs on one’s ability to resolve every error in the Bible. This is an unfortunate posture to assume, especially in our post- Christian age, for most people readily see that the contradictions and premodern aspects of the Bible are difficult, if not impossible, to account for adequately. This inerrantist view of inspiration thus hinders effective apologetics and evangelism.

We need not deny that Scripture contains perplexing challenges for our understanding, but we should not expect it to be otherwise! Science also contains perplexing problems. For example, on the one hand the laws of science are completely deterministic. On the other hand, there is indeterminacy on the sub-atomic level. Do we reject science because of its many perplexities? Of course not! Do we reject Scripture because of its many perplexities? Not at all!

Instead, if we claim to be followers of Jesus, we need to stand where He stands – on the full authority of Scripture. When He sent out His disciples – the Great Commission – He instructed them to teach everything He had taught them: “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you"( Matthew 28:20). This also included His teachings about Scripture!

We, therefore, cannot pick and choose, as does Boyd, placing our judgments above those of Scripture.

However, Boyd believes that by entertaining this high and Messianic view of Scripture, we denigrate the Messiah:

∑       The inerrancy theory tends to shift the focus of faith away from Jesus Christ and toward the accuracy of the Bible. This is bibliolatry. According to the Bible itself, faith should rest on Jesus Christ, not on one’s opinion about the degree of accuracy of the Bible.

Boyd charges us with “bibliolatry” – the worship of the Bible. However, we cannot separate God from His Word any more than we can separate God’s justice from His love. If we seek to love God, we cannot love Him by cleaning His clothes or by cooking Him a meal. We can only love Him by abiding in His Word, His commandments:

∑       Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him… If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” (John 14:21-24)

Boyd’s teachings can only destroy those who follow him and even the church.

SOMEONE TO COUNT ON

Today's promise: Blessings come from obeying God

Someone to count on

Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and constantly loves those who love him and obey his commands.

Deuteronomy 7:9 NLT

The love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him. His salvation extends to the children's children of those who are faithful to his covenant, of those who obey his commandments.

Psalm 103:17-18 NLT

The Lord is faithful; he will make you strong and guard you from the evil one.

2 Thessalonians 3:3 NLT

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Hebrews 13:8 NLT

About this week's promise

"You can count on me — I will never let you down." That is faithfulness. Husbands and wives vow on their wedding day to be faithful to one another, devoted and committed to one another in all area of marriage. It is a vow to be with one's mate, to stay with one's mate, and to build up one's mate. Again and again throughout the Bible, God holds faithfulness up as one of his foundational qualities and a foundation quality he expects from his people. There is nothing like the faithfulness of a mate, friends and family, and God to build our sense of security.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

HOMESICK FOR GOD

Today's promise: The whole earth will hear

Homesick for God

The woman left her water jar beside the well and went back to the village and told everyone, "Come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did! Can this be the Messiah?" So the people came streaming from the village to see him. 

John 4:28-30 NLT

How many people have you made homesick for God? 

Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)

Spread the good news

The Samaritan woman was so amazed by Jesus and his revelations about who he was and about the secrets of her heart and life that she forgot her water jar — the very reason she'd come to the well — and rushed back to the village to tell others about the "man" she had met. Up and down the streets she shared the good news about Jesus, for she had seen the Lord, the Messiah! Having received the living water, a perpetual spring within her that gave her eternal life (v. 14), she wanted others to know him too. So the people began streaming from the village to see him, eager to meet this incredible man who told people the secrets of their hearts.

Sharing with others what Jesus had done in us and for us stirs up interest in those who don't know him. His revelation in our lives draws to him people who desire to have him work in their lives as he does in ours. With whom could you share the Good News today? Ask the Lord to make you sensitive to his working in the lives of others, and be ready to share the hope that's within you.

LORD, forgive me for times when my excitement over knowing you has waned. I want others to know you and experience your work in their lives. Use me to spread the Good News. I pray that I will be so amazed by what you reveal to me today that I won't hesitate to share my hope with those who don't yet know you.

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Praying through the Bible by Cheri Fuller, Tyndale House Publishers (2003), entry for May 5.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

A RELIABLE MESSENGER

Today's promise: The whole earth will hear

A reliable messenger

An unreliable messenger stumbles into trouble, but a reliable messenger brings healing. 

Proverbs 13:17 NLT

A credible message needs a credible messenger because charisma without character is catastrophe. 

Peter Kuzmic

Letters from God

A U.S. ambassador resides in a foreign country and yet lives on U.S.-owned property. Though the laws of that land may differ from ours, the ambassador is still responsible to uphold the laws and rules of his own government. His words and actions can never be wholly his for he does not act in his own capacity. When he speaks, he is a messenger for his government. When he acts, his deeds reflect on the country he represents. We are Christ's ambassadors and therefore his messengers. Too often we think that the message we preach reflects our faith. However, on a much deeper level it is the message of our everyday words and actions that are influential. We are the letter from God that people read. We become unreliable messengers when we speak crudely, gossip about a neighbor, or act dishonest ly.

Our words and actions reflect God, who lives inside us, to people who never open a Bible or enter a church. Never forget that you are an ambassador for Christ and a messenger of hope. Ask his Spirit to empower you to deliver the Good News with your life and words.

LORD, thank you for allowing me to be your ambassador. Let my message be honest and true. Help me to encourage others and to go out of my way to speak a kind word. Forgive me for times when I have spoken without thinking. Let me live in such a way that my words and actions represent you so that my message may be one of love and hope.

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Praying through the Bible by Cheri Fuller, Tyndale House Publishers (2003), entry for April 21.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

TO THOSE WHO HAVE NOT HEARD

Today's promise: The whole earth will hear

To those who have not heard

My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else. I have been following the plan spoken of in Scriptures, where it says, "Those who have never been told about him will see, and those who have never heard of him will understand." 

Romans 15:20-21 NLT

Under a haystack

Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, was just twelve years old in 1805 when the Second Great Awakening reached the school. In the spring of 1806 Samuel Mills joined the freshman class with a passion to spread the gospel around the world. He began leading a group of four other students, who met three afternoons a week in a nearby maple grove.

One sultry day in August 1806 a violent thunderstorm interrupted their prayer time, and they took refuge on the sheltered side of a large haystack. God spoke to them as they prayed, and four of the five committed themselves to serving God overseas if he so led. The Haystack Prayer Meeting was not only the beginning of the first American student mission society but also the beginning of the American foreign missionary movement itself.

Two years later many of the group enrolled at Andover Seminary where they were joined by Adoniram Judson and others interested in foreign missions, but there was no foreign missions board in America to send them. Acting on the advice of a teacher, the students wrote a letter to the General Association of the Congregational Church. Two days later, on June 29, 1810, the association responded by forming the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

From that humble beginning the foreign missions force of the United States has grown to over sixty thousand missionaries sent out by hundreds of mission boards.

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Christian History by E. Michael and Sharon Rusten (Tyndale, 2003), entry for June 29.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

A FAITHFUL WITNESS

Today's promise: The whole earth will hear

A faithful witness

…they will see your honorable behavior, and they will believe and give honor to God when he comes to judge the world.

1 Peter 2:12 NLT

…it is not my heavenly Father's will that even one of these little ones should perish.

Matthew 18:14 NLT

A prayer for an unsaved tribe

On Sunday afternoon, December 18, Nate Saint sat at his typewriter to tell the world why they [the missionaries] were going [to work among the Auca Indians] — just in case. In speaking these words he spoke for all [those involved in reaching the Aucas]: "As we weigh the future and seek the will of God, does it seem right that we should hazard our lives for just a few savages? As we ask ourselves this question, we realize that it is not the call of the needy thousands, rather it is the simple intimation of the prophetic Word that there shall be some from every tribe in His presence in the last day and in our hearts we feel that it is pleasing to Him tha t we should interest ourselves in making an opening into the Auca prison for Christ.…May God give us a new vision of His will concerning the lost and our responsibility.

"May we know that we could comprehend the lot of these stone-age people who live in mortal fear of ambush on the jungle trail those who think all men in the world are killers like themselves. If God would grant vision, the word sacrifice would disappear from our lips and thoughts; our lives would suddenly be too short, we would despise time-robbing distractions and charge the enemy with all our energies in the name of Christ." [Nate Saint and his four missionary companions were killed by the Auca Indians only two weeks later, in early January 1956].

Elizabeth Elliot in Through Gates of Splendor

Adapted from The Prayer Bible Jean E. Syswerda, general editor, Tyndale House Publishers (2003), p 283.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

POWER OF THE SPIRIT

Today's promise: The whole earth will hear

Power of the Spirit

But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere — in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. 

Acts 1:8 NLT

I love to tell the story of unseen things above, Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love; I love to tell the story because I know 'tis true, It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do. 

I love to tell the story! Twill be my theme in glory — To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love. 

I Love to Tell the Story, Arabella Catherine Hankey (1834-1911)

I Love to Tell the Story

Kate Hankey, the daughter of a prosperous London banker, grew up in a stylish London suburb. She started a Bible class for girls in her neighborhood, and then, when she was only eighteen, Hankey went to London to teach a Bible class of "factory girls." In her twenties, she started other Bible classes for factory girls.

When she was in her early thirties, Kate Hankey became seriously ill. Doctors said she needed a year of bed rest. She was forbidden to teach her Bible classes for twelve months. During her long, slow recovery, she wrote two lengthy poems. The first, at the beginning of her convalescence, later became the hymn "Tell Me the Old, Old Story." The second, written ten months later, became "I Love to Tell the Story."

After ten months she felt strong enough to leave her bed. She soon returned to her Bible classes in London and continued teaching for many years. When she became too old to teach the factory girls regularly, she started a prison ministry in London — even then she continued to tell the story of Jesus.

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Hymns by Mark Norton and Robert Brown, Tyndale House Publishers (1995), entry for June 8.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

GOD USES US

Today's promise: The whole earth will hear

God uses us

We are Christ's ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you.

1 Corinthians 5:20 NLT

Storms over Romania

In the summer of 1990, following the overthrow of the communist regime in Romania, a number of Romanian church leaders invited me to return to the country for a preaching mission in four cities. I will long remember the first night in Timisoara. I was preaching the gospel in a stadium that had been built to promote and proclaim communism. When I gave the invitation following the message, I thought my translator, Peter, had misinterpreted what I had said and dismissed the crowd. It seemed as though everyone got up to leave. I then realized the people were not leaving, they were responding to the invitation to accept Christ!

After several nights of rich harvests, we began meetings in the city of Medias. As I was preaching, a storm approached the stadium. The wind began to blow, and I could see a huge black cloud approaching. I knelt on the platform and prayed, "Lord God, there are people in this stadium who have never heard the gospel. They may never have another opportunity. I ask that You stay the storm and allow us to continue."

Several American businessmen in our ministry team were sitting in the top rows of the stadium that evening. They later reported that as the storm approached, it literally divided and went around the stadium. In the path of the storm, houses were destroyed, trees were uprooted, and power lines were downed. But in the stadium, we continued the service, and hundreds of people gave their lives to Christ that night. To God be all the glory!

Steve Wingfield in Live the Adventure

Adapted from The Prayer Bible Jean E. Syswerda, general editor, Tyndale House Publishers (2003), p 1593.

Digging Deeper: Read To Fly Again, the follow-up to In the Presence of My Enemies, in which Gracia Burnham reflects on the lessons and spiritual truths she learned in the jungle and how they apply to anyone's life.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

PUBLISH HIS DEEDS

Today's promise: The whole earth will hear

Publish his deeds

Sing a new song to the Lord! Let the whole earth sing to the Lord! Sing to the Lord; bless his name. Each day proclaim the good news that he saves. Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does. 

Psalm 96:1-3 NLT

O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise! 

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

Sing a new song

Every day we cross paths with someone who needs to hear the good news that the Lord saves. We can never fully plumb the depths of God's character and attributes, but with every day and every experience we can discover new facets about God, new songs to sing to him. To "publish" means to share and that refers not only to writing books and delivering sermons about God but also to sharing what the Lord has done in our own lives so that others might be drawn to him. Each of us can purpose to do that. The most powerful evangelism doesn't take place within the four walls of a church building. It occurs when we share with others in our neighborhood and workplace the good news of what God has done for us individually and for the whole world in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Ask God to bring people across your path today who need to hear the news that God saves and that he loves them. And then ask him for the compassion and courage to share the reason for your hope and to pray for these people.

LORD, I want to sing a new song to you and bless your name. I want to tell everyone about the amazing things you do.

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Praying through the Bible by Cheri Fuller, Tyndale House Publishers (2003), entry for April 26.

Digging Deeper: Read To Fly Again, the follow-up to In the Presence of My Enemies, in which Gracia Burnham reflects on the lessons and spiritual truths she learned in the jungle and how they apply to anyone's life.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

ENDURING LOVE

Today's promise: God's timing is perfect

Enduring love

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.

Psalm 136:1 NLT

The unforgettable responsive reading

It was midnight on Thursday, February 8, A.D. 356, and Athanasius, a leader in the early Christian church and passionate defender of the deity of Jesus Christ, was leading a worship service. Suddenly loud shouts and clashing armor could be heard outside the church. Soldiers had come to arrest him.

But Athanasius said, "I didn't think it right, at such a time, to leave my people," so he continued the service. He asked a deacon to read Psalm 136 and then requested the congregation to respond with the refrain, "His faithful love endures forever," which they did twenty-six times over the din of the soldiers outside.

Just as the final verse was completed, the soldiers rushed into the church, brandishing their swords and spears and crowding forward up the nave toward Anthanasius. The people yelled for Athanasius to run, but he refused to go until he had given a benediction. Then some of his assistants gathered tightly around him, and, as he recounts it, "I passed through the crowd of people unseen and escaped, giving thanks to God that I had not betrayed my people, but had seen to their safety before I thought of my own."

Athanasius was portraying to his people God's love, which endures forever. He was willing to lay down his life for his flock — just as Jesus had laid down his life for his flock a few centuries earlier.

Since God's "faithful love endures forever," why is there ever any need to worry?

adapted from The One Year® Book of Psalms with devotionals by William J. Petersen and Randy Petersen (Tyndale) entry for November 8

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

DELAY IS NOT REJECTION

Today's promise: God's timing is perfect

Delay Is Not Rejection

Although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days and did not go to them. Finally, after two days, he said to his disciples, "Let's go to Judea again." 

John 11:5-7 NLT

God often delays His response out of love, as He works all things together for good. 

Jeanne Zornes

Waiting with hope

Mary and Martha had sent their friend Jesus a message about the critical condition of their brother, Lazarus, and their urgent need for his help: "Lord, the one you love is very sick" (John 11:3). But instead of rushing off to Bethany, Jesus stayed where he was for two days before responding to Mary and Martha's plea. When he did arrive, he raised Lazarus from the dead in a magnificent display of his power.

Just as Mary and Martha struggled when Jesus answered their prayers for Lazarus in a time and way different from what they had expected, we get frustrated when the Lord delays in coming to us and answering our prayers.

As it did for the grieving sisters, two days (or two months or two years) of waiting can seem like an eternity to us. But in the midst of the "delay," God is not inactive. He is teaching us patience, perseverance, and faith and is planning to glorify himself in our circumstances. While we are waiting, he wants to cleanse our hearts and refocus us on Jesus. The Spirit always knows what will glorify God, and we can trust him when we're in the waiting room.

LORD, help me to wait for you in hope and perseverance, knowing that you will come. Grant me patience and faith in the waiting room of life yet to be.

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Praying through the Bible by Cheri Fuller, Tyndale House Publishers (2003), entry for May 20.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

PRAYER IS THE KEY

Today's promise: God's timing is perfect

Prayer is the key

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them they must never give up…

Luke 18:1 NLT

Saved by a Stamp

God's answers to prayers can affect generations to come. In fact, if not for his gracious answers to a prayer offered many years ago, my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren would not know his blessing today.

The story is simple. My cousin Mirea and I wanted to visit friends in America. Sensing that we would not abandon our grand idea, my father sent us on our way with heartfelt prayers for our safety.

Our trip across Europe took several days. Finally we arrived on the western shores of England. But as we prepared to set sail for America, we were told there was a problem with our papers. Officials at the immigration office said Mirea was missing a stamp on a paper that would allow her to leave the country. We would have to stay in England for another week until Mirea's papers could be corrected, they said.

Mirea and I went to the steamship office to ask if we could exchange our tickets for a ship leaving later in the month. The man at the window was glad to make the exchange. He was sure he could resell our berths. People were eager to sail on the maiden voyage of the Titanic.

As we wandered back to the hotel, Mirea and I were disappointed that we had to stay in England. But, when the news reached us a few days later of the sinking of the Titanic, we both began to cry, in sadness for our lost shipmates, but also in relief, realizing how close we had come to death ourselves. God, in his mercy, had answered by father's father's prayer for our safety with something as small as a missing stamp. How good is God!

Elsa Sturit Kint

Adapted from The Prayer Bible Jean E. Syswerda, general editor, Tyndale House Publishers (2003), p 1495.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

NO NEED TO WORRY

Today's promise: God's timing is perfect

No need to worry

Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth.

Colossians 3:2 NLT

Worry is the interest paid on trouble before it falls due.

Author unknown

It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Worry is rust upon the blade.

Henry Ward Beecher

Lessons of a circuit rider

When Abraham Lincoln was on his way to Washington to be inaugurated, he spent some time in New York with Horace Greeley and told him an anecdote that was meant to be an answer to the question everybody was asking him: Are we really going to have civil war?

In his circuit-riding days, Lincoln and his companions, riding to the next session of court, had crossed many rivers. But the Fox River was still ahead of them; and they said one to another, "If these streams gives us so much trouble, how shall we get over the Fox River?"

When darkness fell, they stopped for the night at a log tavern, where they fell in with the Methodist presiding elder of the district, who rode through the country in all kinds of weather and knew all about the Fox River. They gathered around him and asked him about the present state of the river.

"Oh, yes," replied the circuit rider, "I know all the Fox River. I have crossed it often and understand it well. But I have one fixed rule with regard to the Fox River — I never cross it till I reach it."

from 1001 Great Stories and Quotes by R. Kent Hughes (Tyndale) pp 430-31

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House