Wish you were here!

IHOP prayer room is online 24 hours a day – you can visit and then subscribe for just $25 a month. At www.ihop.org, click on the media link.

Pilgrimage – Get Out!

So I’ve probably looked at it a million times and not seen the link to Randy Bohlender’s Luke 18 blog on – no joke – Pilgrimage. God keeps things hidden for the right time.

Enjoy!

Pilgrimage

So the word in my head is pilgrimage. Which brings Psalm 84:5 to mind.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their heart on pilgrimage.

Hmm…pilgrimage. Dictionary.com tells me that a pilgrimage is a journey (usually a long journey) undertaken as an act of religious devotion. Another definition says that it is a journey to a place or religious affections or tender associations. The Christian tour company calls pilgrimage “faith based travel”. So if I say to the LORD, “you have put this word in my heart today, what do you want me to do with it? What will my faith lead me to discover?”

I leave on Thursday to go to IHOP to help take a group of high school students to the Fascinate 08 conference. In all sincerity, I did not have that trip on my mind this morning when I woke up with this word on my mind. But here it is, and here I am in this weird place this summer, and IHOP is surely a place of tender affections.

So LORD, I’m off on a pilgrimage. I would ask for an opportunity to see your face. And like Psalm 84 tells me perhaps I will see your grace and glory or go to a new level of strength and you will not with hold good things from me.

Strange summer schedule

What an odd couple of weeks.

Blogging has been down as I’ve had my focus on different areas. Two weeks ago I was in a flurry to get everything ready for Steve’s trip to Atlanta and to send two of our kids to IHOP for two week intensives. Then last week, I caught up on life and then went to the rez for a few days.

I feel sort of lost on several fronts and the temporary office location is probably contributing to that. Though I am really enjoying sharing an “office” with Kathy. Got that sinking feeling in my gut about 3/4 of the way through the sermon last weekend, when I realized that I forgot to turn off the ringer on my phone. (Sorry if you were distracted by that!)

That and only having one child instead of three is weird. Caleb is lamenting his siblings absence since he is “the only one my mom and dad have to do all the work”.

Normal is looking good, but far off these days.

JESUS! Met me in this video

When I watched this video this morning, I involuntarily gasped the Name – Jesus.

If you never come back to this blog again, if you don’t read/watch anything else this year, you must see this. It is an 8 minute video and at about 2:50 Louie Giglio starts the story. Please,Please,Please watch the whole thing. Then share it and pass it on the everybody!

Prayer Streaming – #22

There are three main thoughts here with the last chapter of this book. The first was that we just need to pray. Stop talking about it. Stop reading about it. Just do it.

Second is a little insight into the word unceasing.
In Greek, it is adialeiptos. Which gives the idea of something that is “constantly recurring”. McHenry has a beautiful illustration of this. It is not like using your computer to draw a solid line: _____________________
But to a line of dashes like this: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ It is not that the one prayer never ceases but is quickly followed by the next and the next and the next.

Third is that we are as close to God, or have as deep a prayer life as we want.

I used to resent that comment. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to take the responsibility for my own spiritual life, but that I resented that others could see that it could be more than it was at that moment. Conviction isn’t fun and it was easier to blame others for judging me than it was to take a long hard look at my own state.

Today I am wide open to the fact that there is MORE than I have now. And I want it all! You can look down at me if you want. I am secure in Jesus! Or you can ignore any of this. I know there is wealth that is available and I am going after it – with or with out traveling companions. Or you can join me. Sharing the joys and the frustrations; the triumphs and failures, because where two or three of us gather THERE HE IS! And that is my goal. Finding Him!

Here’s a quote from The Last Battle, by C.S. Lewis. See if this doesn’t stir your heart to seek Jesus who is represented by the lion, Aslan in these books:

The sweet air grew suddenly sweeter. A brightness flashed behind them. All turned. Tirian turned last because he was afraid. There stood his heart’s desire, huge and real, the golden Lion, Aslan Himself. He fixed his eyes on Tirian, and Tirian came near, trembling and flung himself at the Lion’s feet and the Lion kissed him.

I WANT to see my heart’s desire! To come near and fling myself at his feet so that he can touch me at a level I’ve never felt before. So I will pray without ceasing as much as I can, and I will trust Him to teach me!

Prayer Streaming – #21

Finally the end of the book.

The final chapter to this book gives the key to making every single word of this work in our lives:

Just do it!
Just do it!
Just do it!
We cannot however learn to pray without ceasing unless we pray.
It takes on-the-knees training. We can only learn to pray without ceasing by ceasing to study the copies!

Maybe that is why most books about prayer irritate me so much. Why would we want to learn about Jesus by looking at him in a mirror, if he were standing right behind us? I just want to pray. I just want to study his face. I just want to find myself back in that place that is so familiar (but not familiar enough). Don’t tell me about prayer; I just want to experience prayer that is life changing forever and ever. Amen!

Prayer Streaming – #20

Prayerstreaming – the Committed Heart

Commitment seems to be all about intimacy. McHenry’s chapter frequently uses analogies with marriage relationships. Which as usual brings me back to a need to delve back into the Song of Songs. When we fail at praying without ceasing, it is imperative that we remember the God who loves us. Love that is incomprehensible. Love that simply welcomes us back and makes all things new. So what should I do in response to that love. McHenry helped me with this quote from Brother Lawrence:

All things are possible to those who believe, less difficult for those who hope, more easy to those who love and still easier to those who persevere in these three virtues.

So prayer streaming is all about believing, hoping and loving and practicing those everyday. Hmmm…sounds like Paul
Now abide these three: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:13
So I pray out of love and the desire for intimacy with the Father, Son and Spirit, and in that my faith grows, my hope rises and my love increases. And I need all of those.

Prayer Streaming – #19

Prayerstreaming – the Committed Heart

Staying in the presence of God is a mindset. We must begin to learn to ask God to help us with the renewing of our minds. With all my heart, I believe that it takes God to love God and it takes God to remain in dialogue with him.

Brother Lawrence was the poster child for this commitment. He came to the point where doing in dishes in the monastery, cooking in the monastery everything was communion with God. My little plan to do this is to begin to see natural breaks in what I am doing through out the day. When I am done responding to email, I need to stop and thank God and to commit the posting of prayer requests to HIm. Then when that is done, I need to commit the phone call I just took to him. I need to stop before unloading the dishwasher and thank Him. And so on and so on with what could be the tedium of day to day life, but how is it common place when all of it belongs to him.

Pray for me while I figure this out. Let me know if I can pray for you as you attempt it too. But I think the promise at the end of the whole thing is that as we practice, it becomes second nature. And that’s a good thing!

Prayer Streaming – #18

Prayerstreaming – the committed heart

When you think about praying without ceasing, THE classic that comes to mind is Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. Its a classic; if you haven’t read it, you should.

When McHenry writes about Brother Lawrence, she uses phrases like…faithful dedication, passionate pursuit and determined goal.  Brother Lawrence knew that unceasing prayer wasn’t something that we could do just because we wished we could.  It was a commitment that we needed to make much like the commitment of a marriage vow.  Here’s a great quote from McHenry:

Just as a wife cannot make a marriage commitment and continue seeing other men, when we make a commitment to pursue a relationship with God, we need to discontinue the pursuit of activities or relationships that would draw us further from Him…when we allow the pulls of the world to come between Christ and us, we are committing spiritual adultery.

Nothing articulates this better than the song Blessed Be Your Name. I’m using it for my meditation today. Here are the lyrics followed by a youtube video of the song.

Blessed be Your name
in the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name
And blessed be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out I’ll
turn back to praise
And when the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name when the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s “all as it should be”
Blessed be Your name
And blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name