Are You a Hater?

Dear God,

So many of my loved ones and friends are caught in a cycle of confusion and despair.  They don’t know who they are.  They have some sense of who You created them to be.  But sin has scarred them leaving their identity scattered in disarray and distress.  Sin hates people.  They tell me that the confusion and questions started with sin–sins against them in a season of innocence.  A relative, a neighbor, an older playmate...  Winning a child’s confidence...  Confusing attention... Uncomfortable touches...  And now...

Father, I have listened to Your children confess their brokenness to me.  I have lifted them heavenward in prayer and love.  So many people are shattered by unsolicited sins committed against them in their innocence.  Your heart grieves at the sins of humanity–abuse, incest, molestation.  You are our only Healer from the brokenness of life.

Blemished, scarred, used, abused... Your children question their worth–their value–to You.  Shame confines Your precious ones to a confounding prison of guilt.  They question their identity, worth, value, and sexuality.  All too often, they fear parents, grandparents and authority who should be able to speak freedom into their lives.  Ignorantly, victim and loved ones uncomfortably proclaim “Just get over it.”

The world injects its proclamation: “You must be gay!”  So Your wounded, broken children pursue a path of sin in a hopeless attempt to heal what sin shattered inside of them.  It does not work.  There is no healing balm in sin.  Sin destroys.  Sin never heals what it broke.  But we try.

My heart aches for friends and loved ones who have distorted images of Your beautiful creation in them.  I ache for innocence lost.  I grieve as I see them pursue sinful paths that multiply their scars.  You grieve.

All the while, You call Your Creation to Yourself.  You are our Hope, our Healer, our Salvation, our Deliverer.  Help me to love people where they are broken.  Grant me courage to proclaim Your message of hope and fulfillment!  Our world calls me a hater, but nothing could be farther from the truth.  I love Your shattered, broken children, as You do, and want to see them made whole in You.  Our world’s message of labeling broken people as gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, or transgender, and trying to force them to adopt these sinful labels and lifestyles is cruel.  The world’s message is hateful.  Sin is the hater.

Help me to be Your agent of grace, peace, healing, and wholeness, for Your glory.

Thank You, my loving Father,
Amen.

Be Perfect

Matthew 5:43-48, Luke 15:11-32, Romans 12:9-21, I John 3:1-23

Precious God and Father of all,

I am breathless with wonder at Your love!  You love Your Creation.  You even treasure those who have rebelled against You, calling all to repentance and faith.  You love me.

The optimism of Your grace stirs and amazes me.  You never give up on any who have turned their backs and stiffened their necks against You.  Your love is everlasting.  And You call us to Your kind of love, an "unconquerable benevolence."

I find myself like the elder brother of the prodigal just begging You to give up on people.  "Rebels aren't worth it!  They will never come back!  Don't waste your time or Your love pining for their return!"  Not you.  You are love--unconquerable love.

William Barclay tells a rabbinical legend of the destruction of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea as they pursued the fleeing Hebrews, only to be covered by the returning flood waters.  The tale recounts that upon the drowning of the Egyptians, the heavenly angelic choir burst out with praise. You sorrowfully rebuked them saying, "The work of my hands are sunk in the sea, and you would sing before me!"  (Barclay, Matthew vol. 1, p. 175).

Oh, the unending nature of Your love!  Your enduring love never relinquishes.  You never give up! You actually believe that people are never finished!  You love me that way.  Thank you.

But You are not done loving until You have shaped Your likeness of perfection in Your Creation. You call me to Your kind of love--perfection!  You frighten me with what seems to be an impossible demand.  But upon closer examination I realize that You are calling me to become a more complete and authentic version of the "me" You made me to be... more complete than I could ever imagine.

I think I am getting a glimpse of the perfection to which You are calling me.  You are calling me to "a universal benevolence," an "unconquerable goodwill, this constant seeking of the highest good of every man" (Barclay, p. 176).  You are calling me not to a perfection of performance, a failure-free existence, but to perfect love.  This is the only perfection You require of Your follower.

Oh my God, I want to live out this perpetual forgiving love that sacrifices myself for the sake of others, friend or foe alike.  I want to care as You care.  I want to forgive as You forgive.  I want to endure rejection and even persecution if that is what You privilege me to face for You.  I want to live out the optimism of grace that characterizes Your very nature.  I want to embrace Your perfect love until Your likeness penetrates and permeates my character.  I want to be like You.  Then I can be complete--more authentically human than ever before.  I don't fear to ask for this sort of Christian perfection.

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the only author of perfect love,
Amen.

Measuring Up

Matthew 5:42

Precious Lord,

I really don’t measure up to Your standard of generosity.  It sounds so simple, “Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.”

I see them at the interstate exit.  The cardboard signs.  The impoverished families.  The crippled beggar limping his way between the maze of waiting cars.  I question, “Are they worthy?”  “Is he a drunk–an addict?”  I don’t want to throw my “pearls before swine!”

Instead of heeding Christ’s command, I find myself thinking, “I work hard for what I have.  I pay my tithe and more.  I give to worthy enterprises!  I have to take care of my stuff.  If I loan it out it might get damaged or destroyed."  If I give someone a financial loan, I’d better get repaid on my timetable. If not, I am searching for that person to remind them to repay me!

I just don’t measure up to Your standard.  I want to, but I don’t.

William Barclay (Matthew, vol. 1, pp. 168-170) tells that the ancient Rabbis had five governing principles for giving to needy people.
• A follower of God cannot refuse the obligation to give.
• The giver must give in a manner that fits the recipient’s real needs.
• The giver must do so in private, and keep the gift a secret.
• Give in a manner that is as helpful to the recipient as the gift.
• All giving is to God.  “It is better to help a score of fraudulent beggars than to risk turning away the one man in real need.”

Sometimes they come to the door of my workplace begging for a handout.  Often they are scammers, stinky, needy, even dangerous.  I don’t want to be taken advantage of!

Is it that?  Or am I cold, hard, unwilling to help?

Lord Jesus, I want to be living in obedience to your command to give.  I don’t want the pragmatism of my age, the “what am I going to get out of it?” question, to render my soul lame, my heart icy, and my conscience seared with the very real needs of others.  Help me to see beyond the shell to the worth of one soul.

In the Name of my most generous and giving Lord who never withholds from me,
Amen.

True Repentance

Matthew 5:23-24, II Corinthians 7:9-10, Acts 24:16, Hebrews 9:13-14, 10:22

Holy Father, Son, and Spirit,

My conscience is stirred, awakened, and deeply pricked.  You have convicted me of my sin. I have defiled my God-given sense of morality with my sin and disobedience to You.  I have abandoned Your Truth in a quest for expediency and acceptance.  I have exchanged Your Truth for the doctrine of tolerance–the idolatry of my age, but my guilt is never assuaged.

But awakening is not salvation!  All I know at this moment is my own sin.  I must have relief from my guilt–my condemnation before You.  I must know Your peace.  I confess my sin to You.  
The Hebrew worshipers came to Your temple to offer sacrifice for their sins.  You taught them that no sacrifice remained for deliberate, defiant sin, but sacrifice could only appeal to God for forgiveness when the supplicant demonstrated true confession and penitence.  Such penitence demanded humble reconciliation with brother, neighbor, business partner, and friend.

Whom have I offended?  Against whom have I sinned?  Whom has received the brunt of my anger?  Have my words damaged another’s reputation?  Have I been ungrateful for what others have done for me?  Am I  bitter  toward anyone?  Have I rebelled against, resisted, or been disrespectful of authority God has placed in my life?  Am I proud, unteachable, arrogant, argumentative, or condescending?

So here I am at the altar of my life, awakened by Your Holy Spirit to my own guilt and sinfulness.  I am about to make a sacrifice of repentance to You, and I sense You nudging from the rail to reconciliation.  You long to accept my gift of repentance, but first I have to get right with some other people in my life.

“God has convicted me of how wrong I’ve been in my sin against you.  I’ve come to ask will you forgive me?”

You have awakened my conscience.  I have sought to make amends to the best of my knowledge and ability, according to the dictates of my conscience as stirred by Your Holy Spirit.  Now, I return to the altar of sacrifice to continue my search to know Your forgiveness.

Thank You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for accepting my humble repentance.  I embrace Your forgiveness and await Your Witness to my heart, Holy Spirit.  As You show me other wrongs to make right with people in my life, I will obey You.

In the Name of my God who accepts my sacrifice of true worship,
Amen.

ETERNAL VALUES

Written by Dr. John Neihof, Jr.
July 2007

Just to live for eternity.  Just to invest in its worth.

Just to live for a future, longer than time on this earth.

What is it that really matters?  What is it about my life?

Leading others to Jesus,  investing in eternal life.

For years I studied science, with experiments, labs, and tests.

I grew weary of probability, and hungered for the best.

I even thought about money, and all the things it buys.

But I can’t take it with me when my time comes to die.

Live for eternal values.  Live for the worth of a soul.

Live for eternal values, giving Jesus your all.

DO NOT DELAY

Written by Dr. John E. Neihof, Jr.
based on Hebrews 3
June 4, 2006

You think there is no way that you can ever stand, 

That you can know Christ’s victory, His Precious Canaan Land.

His Canaan Land is peace, in a heart of Perfect Love.

The Holy Ghost will enter in fulness like a dove.

You first must know forgiveness, be walking in God’s Light.

Repent from all your sins and trust God’s saving might.

You then must die to self; surrender all to God.

Possess His Land of Canaan where your feet will trod.

Today,  hear His voice, harden not your hearts.

Enter Canaan’s Land, His fulness He imparts.

Accept His full salvation, His Canaan Land of grace.

Believe His Word and enter.  Don’t wander from this place.

CHORUS

Do not delay.  Enter His way.  The way of Perfect rest.

Hear His call; surrender your all.  In Him you will be blest.

Don’t harden your heart; yield every part.  Canaan is God’s best.

Do not delay.  Enter His way.  The way of Perfect rest.

How to Keep Sanctified

Leviticus 6:8-13, Isaiah 6:1-8, Matthew 3:11-12, Acts 2:1-4, Galatians 5:25

Dear God,

You are my Sanctifier.  But I have to be honest.  I have asked You to cleanse and fill me many times, only to leak out!  I remember reading from Samuel Logan Brengle who quoted John Wesley on keeping sanctified:  “Many people lose the blessing 2 or 3 times before they learn how to keep it!”

That was my experience, especially in my youth.  I don’t want to lose the experience of a pure heart.  I want to  maintain the blessing and continue to grow in Christian holiness.

The lesson of the burnt offering from the Law, teaches me how to keep sanctified.  In order to keep sanctified, I must keep my ashes emptied, keep my fire burning on the altar of my heart, keep my sacrifice on Your altar, and keep my garments clean.

I know that the cares of life, memories of personal failures, and past defeats would be ashes on the altar of my heart to choke out the holy life You are giving me.  Help me to sweep the hearth and keep the ashes emptied.

You ignited the fire from heaven on the altar of tabernacle.  The priests had to keep the fire burning that You had started.  You ignited a fire within me through Your sanctifying Spirit.  Help me to keep the fire of a clean heart burning on the altar of my soul.  Dennis Kinlaw wrote: “An ignited person with an ignited heart is the one baptized by the Spirit/s fire” (This Day with the Master, 2002,  March 14).

Then there is the matter of my keeping my sacrifice on Your altar.  Someone once told me that “The trouble with living sacrifices is that they tend to crawl off the altar.”  My best and my redeemed all is Yours from now and forever.  I pray that You find my sacrifice holy and pleasing.

You call me to a holy life, represented by clean garments.  Your priests were called to holiness.  Amidst the bloody, smoky environment of the tabernacle, You called them to inner and outer holiness.  Amidst the sinful environment of my family, my workplace, and my community, keep me clean.  I want Your gracious holiness to radiate through me in a humble, God-centered life.

I am only frustrated in the life of holiness when I try to measure and assess myself.  I want You to see me as holy.  I want the Witness of Your Holy Spirit that I please You.  I love You.  I need You.  I am utterly dependent upon You.

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who pronounce me clean,
Amen.

UNITED IN MARRIAGE

Written by Dr. John Neihof, Jr.
April 11, 2010

When first I saw you, my interest was piqued.

I wanted to know you.  Your favor I’d seek.

When we talked together, I saw your heart.

We kept Jesus first, right from the start.

I saw you walking down the long aisle.

I was there waiting.  I gave you my smile.

That day we promised forever to be

United in marriage–God calls it holy.

Life is much living.  Life is much love.

Life gives children from God above.

Life gives us pleasure, hardship and pain.

But in His service, we’ll not complain.

You give me your feelings.  You give me your hand.

We come together, as God commands.

We are one flesh as God said we would be.

United in marriage–God calls it holy.

United in marriage.  United in love.

One in commitment to Him above. 

We’ll go where He sends us.  We’ll serve where He says.

United in marriage–That is our prayer.

CLOTHE ME

Written by Dr. John Neihof, Jr.
June 8, 2010

Clothe me in your holiness, clothe me in your power,

Clothe me in your righteousness, every day and  hour.

Clothe me with forgiving grace, all my thoughts endue.

Clothe me with your perfect love, clothe my life in You.

Fashions come and go each day, always something new.

Short or long, it will  change real soon.

But there is a timeless style hidden in God’s Word.

You can clothe yourself in Christ, now that you have heard.

You can clothe yourself in Christ, dressed in perfect love.

Joy and peace from God above.

You can give forgiveness too, just as you received,

If you’ll clothe yourself in Christ, now that you believe.

BE ANXIOUS FOR NOTHING

Written by Dr. John Neihof

This world is full of burdens.  This world is full of cares.

I cast my load on Jesus, who every burden shares.

I find in him my strength.  He is my All in All.

My Precious Lord and Savior, My Jesus, hear my call.

Faith can leave the burden.  Faith can leave the care,

In the arms of Jesus, for He answers prayer.

I cast my cares on Jesus, He every need supplies.

I know He’ll work His will.  My God never lies.

Be anxious for nothing, in every thing give thanks.

Be anxious for nothing.  That’s how to spend your days.

Be anxious for nothing, and you’ll receive God’s grace.

Be anxious for nothing.  This is the key to praise.

Imagine the Joy of Creation

Genesis 1-2, Psalm 8

Dear God,

You are the Author of joy!  I imagine the excited conversation between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as, in eternity past, the Three in One shared the creative ideas for the thunderous Victoria Falls, the extent of the Great Rift Valley, the great seas of the globe, the thermal features of Yellowstone, the balance and harmony of nature, and the hills and hollows of Appalachia. I  imagine the joy on Your face when You worked Creation–Your hands carving the steep precipices of the Alps, only to stand back and study Your handiwork, and call giant glaciers and snow-capped peaks into existence.   I imagine Your separating water from land, creating a complex array of plant and animal life, then grinning at each other within the Triune Godhead at the beauty.  Joy.

I allow my mind to imagine the peal of laughter that erupted from the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as You watched the first newborn lambs skip, run, and tumble over each other. I imagine Your peaceful smile as You gazed upon a litter of squirming puppies, nuzzled to nourish against their mother.  Joy.

I try to imagine the knowledge of God that could call into being the creative complexity that is wound throughout the fabric of flesh, bone, tissues, cells, organs, brains, thoughts, ideas, and personality.  I can imagine Father, Son, and Spirit chuckling among Yourselves at the mysteries of the universe You created, and knowing what a puzzle they would present to curious humanity You would make in Your image.  Joy.

Father, I imagine Your speaking to Jesus, and Holy Spirit observing with joy.  Acting as One, I hear You instruct Son as to the design.  Jesus stooped to the dust of earth, and gathered the dust. He fashioned man’s body according to Father’s plan.  Having waited His turn, Holy Spirit stepped up and breathed breath into man.  You made human life in Your image!  You clapped with joy and laughter at the crowing glory of Your creation–man.  Joy.

You knew that companionship would be man’s need, so You crafted woman, starting with a rib carved out of man’s own body.  Your joy at her glorious visage was only exceeded by the wonder on man’s face when he gazed upon her for the first time.  Her beautiful face, hair, and figure mesmerized man from the first moment of his awareness of Your creation.  No surprise to You!

Teach me to live with breathtaking joy and wonder at the beauty of Your creation, Your design, Your miracles.  Joy.

In the Name of my joyful Creator God,
Amen.

Exploited

Isaiah 53, 61, Romans 8:28

Lord Jesus,

I am crushed, broken, hurting.  Life has left me damaged.  I feel stained, disposable, consumable, tainted, used... trash.

My soul is so full of pain that I cannot stuff any more inside... but I try.  Every direction I turn, I feel exploited.  Purported purveyors of peace prevail upon me, masquerading as trusted counselors and guides, only to shed their masks, revealing their exploitative identity.  I don’t know whom to trust.  I don’t even know how to trust. Hope has been stripped from me, leaving my soul naked and exposed.

My body has been a plaything for the exploitation of others.  My mind has been twisted and toyed with by abusers.  My emotions have been manipulated and marred by cruelty, ridicule, and control. My ears have endured the harsh harangues that have recorded their words in the distorted memory of my identity.

Hesitatingly, I turn to You.  Can I trust You?  Are You the God of the oppressed?  Are You the God of the broken-hearted?  Are You the God of the wounded, and the hurting?  Do You understand me?

Holy Father, You love and determine good for me.  I don’t blame You.  Sin is evil, irrational rebellion.  You are not the Author of iniquity.  You don’t prevent everything that is bad from happening in a sin-cursed, fallen world.  Such is the nature of the curse of the Fall and humanity’s free will.

Holy Spirit, You are the Comforter.  You walk alongside me, live within me, comforting, cleansing, imbuing me with hope.

Jesus, Son of God, You are the Savior of the exploited.  Your suffering, beatings, crucifixion,  death, resurrection, and ascension to the Father, make You the God of empathy and compassion with people like me.  I look to You on the cross.  Your understanding eyes connect with mine.  I grieve over Your suffering and death.  I know what some of Your pain looks like.  I realize that You suffered anguish for me that I might be free.  Accept my limited empathy as an act of worship. Transform my suffering into thanksgiving and worship to You.  Thank You for voluntarily leaving the glories of heaven, coming to earth, living a sinless life, and suffering and dying for the sins of the whole world–mine, too.  Thank You for being my Suffering Savior.

With hope for healing and grace in the power of Your Name,
Amen.

When I am exhausted, God shows up

I Kings 19:1-18

Dear God,

I am exhausted.  I have experienced some incredible spiritual highs.  Right now?  Not so much.  I am physically, spiritually, and mentally exhausted.  My emotions are raw.  My spiritual bumper feels paper thin.  If I crash, I will have a lot of damage.  I feel alone, forgotten, isolated, and forsaken.  I need You to show up in my life now!

Perhaps my exhaustion is a result of going too hard and fast for too long.  Life, work, the pursuit of comfort and ease, materialism, debt and demanding pressures have trapped and squeezed me to the point of exhaustion.  My priorities are distorted.  I need You to show up!

Perhaps I have neglected the resource of rest.  I have tried to carve more time out of each day by burning the candle at both ends.  I am up early and out of the house.  I work late, even into the evening, sometimes falling into bed in the wee hours.  I find myself moaning, “If I only had more time.”  Then I hear an old friend whispering in my ear, “There is enough time in every day to do God’s will!”  I need You to show up!

Perhaps I have ignored my time with You.  Life has wedged me tightly into demanding roles and responsibilities that leave little time for much else.  The tyranny of the urgent insistently clamors for attention, while You linger somewhere in the hovering shadows–just where I have neglectfully pushed You.  I need You to show up!

Perhaps I have been fighting incredible spiritual warfare.  I had to take a stand for right!  My taking a stand catapulted me into the public eye.  Everyone now seems to have an opinion about my non-political correctness!  Spiritual assaults are being launched at me from every direction.  People I once thought to be my friends are sabotaging me with harsh criticism.  The assault is in earnest.  Protect me!  Defend me!  I am exhausted.  I need You to show up!

I am doing good things, God!

What’s that?

But I am neglecting the best?

I choose to seek You.  I love You. I must connect with You.  I need You.  I need You to show up!

Humbly,
Amen.

Comparisons

Hebrews 3, II Corinthians 10:12-18

My Loving Heavenly Father,

I see Your children bound by comparisons with others, crippling their faith and Christian walk.  Your Hebrew children got caught up in crippling comparisons during the Exodus and forty years of desert wanderings.  The Hebrews complained about food and water in the desert.  Their complaining was further heightened by comparisons of their desert lifestyle to the diet of slavery.  Garlic, onions, leeks, and melons became the targets of their Exodus food fantasies.  Baffling!  Comparison of desert deliverance to Egyptian slavery! Slavery superior to freedom!

God responded by sending manna, a heavenly bread that fed the people.  When bread was not enough, the Hebrews complained for meat.  God sent flocks of quail that the people gathered to eat their fill.  Thirst was satisfied with Your miracle springs of water.  Yet they complained.

Oh God, how petty and unappreciative my complaining must appear to You.  I find myself comparing my life to that of another.  I want something easier than the lot You have afforded me. I look at another coveting what peace, prosperity, or possessions they appear to have.  My covetous spirit gives birth to unthankfulness, ungratefulness, and unbelief.

The Hebrews complaints provoked Your judgment.  Moses responded with intercession.  Oh, God!  I don’t want to provoke Your judgment because of an unthankful, complaining spirit.  The Hebrews’ complaints led them down a path of rebellious straying from You, hardening their hearts all along the way.

The encroaching culture assaults me with comparisons.  Advertising, media, fashion, marketing, and retail promote comparisons.  The comparisons bombard me with messages of my inferiority, inadequacy, the product’s superiority, the spokesperson’s attractiveness, and my desperate need to acquire the product to make my life complete.  The seductive bait tempts my consumer mind until I yield.  Tragically, the glamorous potential of personal significance, worth, and value is never realized.  Empty, I pursue the next great bait and the illusion of satisfaction it offers.

Lord Jesus, I reject the worldly attitude of constant comparison to others.  Help me to live by faith in You, trusting You for Your provision and care in my life.  I confess the sin of comparing myself with others, my covetous spirit toward what others have and do, my unthankfulness and unbelief. Preserve me from hardening my heart and straying from You.  I choose to identify with You, Your cross, Your sufferings, Your sacrifice, and reject the idols of comparison and covetousness that will only harden my heart.

In the Name of my Heavenly Father, Your Son Jesus, and Your Holy Spirit,
Amen.

Anxiety

Matthew 6:25-34, Mark 9:14-29

Precious Lord,

I find myself grappling with paralyzing anxiety.  I recognize the anxiety as rooted in doubt and control.  My doubt is toward You!  My mind says, “NO!  I don’t doubt my Precious Lord!”  But my emotions deceive me, triggering adrenaline and tension throughout my body.  The emotional and physical responses trigger thoughts of worry and fear, which I recognize as stemming from unbelief.

I am used to controlling variables, communication, and even relationships in such a way as to enhance predictability and order.  I fear the unknown, so I try to control the present and the future. Oh, Lord!  Such control is dishonest and sinful!  I loathe it.  My feeble attempts to control everything not only result in choking the life out of relationships with others, but they demonstrate unbelief toward You!

Oh, Lord!  My unbelief disgusts me!  I abhor my self-imposed prison of anxiety.  Even now, amidst my heartfelt confession to You, I find myself anxious about my anxiety.  I am sorting out paths to fix myself.  Unbelief!  I don’t need more self-help fixes, drugs, or life-long psychotherapy.  I need You!

You promise to care for me.  Thank You.  I accept Your promise of care.  I accept Your care.  I refuse to define the parameters of Your care.  I refuse to impose upon You my attempts at controlling how You must care.  You care for the birds.  They make no plan for the future.  They don’t even seem to have the consciousness to worry about what may come.  They simply follow the instincts You gave them.  That is enough.

I choose to act on my instinctive hunger for You. The seventeenth century French philosopher, Blaise Pascal, said, “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”  Precious Lord, fill my void.  Fill me with You.  Cast out worry, fear, anxiety, and unbelief.

The father brought his deaf, dumb, seizing son to Jesus.  You challenged him to believe.  The father’s tearful words are my words:  "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"  That day You set the son free. Precious Lord, set me free from any seed of unbelief that is crippling my life with doubt, fear, anxiety and control.  I choose to trust You!

In Your Precious Name,
Amen.

Peace

Matthew 5:9

Dear God,

I want to be an agent of grace and peace.  Conflict swirls around me.  Sometimes, I create conflict.  Sometimes, I am its victim.  Peace is not simply the absence of conflict and trouble.  Peace has a positive quality.  Peace is the presence and enjoyment of good.  I confess that I sometimes focus on people as the problem, thinking that if they were only removed from the situation, the troubled might know peace.  But peace is not simply the removal of the negative.  Something must fill the void, replace the absent, and satisfy the vacuum.  Peace.

Help me to be an agent of peace.  It is so hard for me to know when to wait and when to act.  Peace-making requires Your wisdom to obey Your timing.  Sometimes, I confuse peace-loving for peace-making.  Peace-loving will tempt me to ignore festering problems, hoping that they will go away.  Peace-making will address issues.  That can be very hard.

But peace-making is Your work!  You want me to be about this task!  Peace-making is a God-like virtue.  You are the Author of peace, and You are the Peace-Maker!  Thank You for the peace You have brought to my heart.  Empower me to be an agent of peace in my marriage, my family, my home, my church, my workplace, my neighborhood, and my community.

Thank You for restoring right relationship with me.  Thank You for Your peace between us.

My God is reconciled.  His pardoning voice I hear.  
He owns me for His child.  I can no longer fear.
With confidence I now draw nigh.  With confidence I now draw nigh.  
And “Father, Abba, Father” cry!  
(Charles Wesley, Arise, My Soul, Arise)

I want to model Your kind of peace-making in my world.  For me to experience authentic peace with You, I had to humble my conquered heart and admit that I was wrong.  You patiently convicted me and drew me to that place.  Help me to be patient with others who have never humbled themselves to experience Your peace in their hearts.  Help me to be patient with other believers whose pride seems to oppose Your peace.

“O the bliss of those who produce right relationships between man and man, for they are doing a Godlike work” (William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, vol. I, p. 106).

In the Name o f the Prince of Peace,
Amen.

A Pure Heart

A PURE HEART

Matthew 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."

Jeremiah 2:22 "'For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap,Yet your iniquity is marked before Me,' says the Lord God."

Malachi 3:2-3  "“But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire And like launderers’ soap.  3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the Lord An offering in righteousness."

William Barclay:  "This beatitude demands from us the most exacting self-examination.  Is our work done from motives of service or from motives of pay?  Is our service given from selfless motives or from motives of self-display?  Is the work we do in Church done for Christ or for our own prestige? Is even our Church-going an attempt to meet God or a fulfilling of an habitual and conventional respectability?  Is even our prayer and our Bible reading engaged upon with the sincere desire to company with God or because it gives us a pleasant feeling of superiority to feel that we do these things?  Is our religion a thing in which we are conscious of nothing so much as the need of God within our hearts, or a thing in which we have comfortable thoughts of our own piety?  To examine one's own motives is a daunting and and a shaming thing, for there are few things in this world that even the best of us do with completely unmixed motives."  (William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 1, p. 102).

Precious Heavenly Father,

I must be clean.  Not just outside, but all the way through.  My heart, my motives, my character, my passions and drives.  I must be clean.

I have seen the images of pioneer women and villagers washing clothes at the creek.  They pound the garments with rocks, scrubbing, soaping, and scouring until pronounced clean.  The soil of my character is too deep for me to extract with laundry detergent.  I must be clean, and only You can wash me at the depths of my depravity and filthiness.

I have seen the images of the pioneer grist mill, farmers bringing their grain to be ground in the great stones, turned by the force of flowing water.  I feel as if the tentacles of sinful character are so interwoven in the seed of my soul, that only grinding and sifting will do.  As you grist my character through the grinding of the Spirit’s gentle love and care can you then sift my soul.  Sift out every speck of foreign sin so that You can restore in me Your intended purity.

I have seen the images of soldiers in uniform.  Their external appearance presents the illusion of unity, but discontentment, cowardice, and incompetence foster infighting.  Only as they are cleansed of division can they be an effective military force.  Sometimes, my soul feels like a divided military unit.  My divided heart must be cleansed and restored to unity by Your Holy Spirit if I am to be effective for You.

I have seen the images of gold refined by fire.  The flecks, flakes, and nuggets are pulled from the ground and weighed.  Then comes the arduous task of super-heating the gold to a molten state, burning and skimming dross until the gold is pure.  The now solid gold bar weighs less that it did in its precious state, but it is pure.

I am mixed with sin, sinfulness, and depraved character that are in opposition to what You are trying to do in my life.  Break me apart until You can extract all that is unlike You.  Then remake me, reshape me, reform me in Your likeness–clean, holy, approved by You.

“O the bliss of the man whos motives are absolutely pure, for that man will some day be able to see God!”  (William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 1, p. 103).

In the Name of my Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus, and my Abiding Comforter,



Amen.

Meekness

Matthew 5:5

Lord Jesus,

I find myself pondering what you must have meant when you commended meekness as the path to rule the world!

Not my world! My world is run by rude self-promotion, crass narcissism, profanity laced intimidation, and self-aggrandizement. Meekness is weakness!

Yet, your promise lingers, its truthful reminder hanging in the air: "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth."

Is there something that I am missing. Perhaps I lack adequate understanding of what You mean by meekness! The Greek rhetorician and philosopher understood meekness as a perfect balance between too much anger and not enough! He recognized that there is a time to refrain from anger, and a time when the absence of anger is apathy. There are incidents to which we should remain calm and relatively unresponsive. Kipling characterized these moments: "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you."  Then there are moments of injustice, abuse, and wrong to which standing by silently would render me complicit with evil.  

Meekness.  Selfless anger at just the right time.  Self-controlled.  Emotions ruled by the Holy Spirit.  

William Barclay said that "No man can lead others until he has mastered himself; no man can serve others until he has subjected himself; no man can be in control of others until he has learned to control himself."

Meekness.  Lord, I have not always lived with the sustained quality of meekness.  It seems that I can no longer afford to do otherwise.  I know that this quality does not abide in me apart from You.  Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and the fruit of Your Spirit... meekness.

"O the bliss of the man who is always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time, who has every instinct, and impulse, and passion under control because he himself is God-controlled, who has the humility to realize his own ignorance and his own weakness, for such a man is a king among men" (William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 1, p. 93).

To this I aspire.  Fill me.  Empower me.  Alert me.

In Your Holy Name,

Amen

Creation

Psalm 8, Matthew 11:25

Almighty God!

I just watched a breathtaking sunset.  It filled my mind with awe and wonder at who You are.  I am astonished by Your miraculous gift of beauty as You paint the sky with Your brush of love and grace. Thank You for filling the earth with stunning sights.  Your glory surpasses and transcends all the glory, majesty, and pomp that any earthly leader could ever muster.  The glory of earth is fleeting. Your glory is eternal.

I hold a newborn baby in my arms.  The simple cries of the infant extol Your praise.  Wicked leaders would diminish Your Name and Your glory.  They would lift themselves up in pride and arrogance, challenging Your dominion and rule.  Then a baby opens its mouth to cry, and we are reminded who really deserves glory, praise, and honor.  The simple apologetic of a nursing infant at its mother’s breast is a refutation of the strongest argument of the atheist, and a testimony to You, Creator God, and Your incredible design.

Infinity stretches beyond my ability to see or understand.  The extensive expanse of Your heavenly Creation, the celestial order, defies the logic and explanation of scholars and theologians.  I embrace the truth that You are Creator God.  All things are under Your dominion.

Created in holiness, innocent in origin, then marred by the Fall, yet humanity is Your crowning creative achievement.  We grapple, grasp and grope for a bit of significance and meaning in this sin-cursed world which we have polluted.  Yet, You see hope and purpose in us.  You see significance. You see potential.  You gave Your Son to die for our sins and provide a redemptive plan that our potential might be realized through Your great salvation.  I am dumbfounded by Your love, hope, mercy, and intention that sees any hope in sinful humanity, including me.  I fall on my face in brokenness and wonder.

The optimism of Your grace toward me defies my logic.  I struggle with pessimism toward Your Creation.  I criticize, complain, and judge others–no less made by You than I!  Your tender love reminds me that they, too, are Your children.  You beckon me to love them as You do.

And then You call on broken humanity to govern and care for Your Creation.  Tragically, failure has marked much of our effort.  Greed, profit, and materialism have motivated us to rape, exploit, scar, and destroy the landscape of Your globe, humanity, and even animals.  In spite of all of our failures, Your Name is excellent!  Thank You for Your gifts and grace!  Help us to be good stewards of Your investment in us.

In the Name of the Creator God,
Amen.

ALL GLORY TO GOD

by Dr. John E. Neihof, Jr.
August 20, 2009
Ephesians 3:14-21

I’m on my knees to seek your face.  

I’m on my knees to plead your grace.

I’m on my knees to give you praise.  

You are the Lord of Everything!

I pray your glory and your power 

Will flow through all Your Church this hour.

Expansive power, Unending grace.  

Christ will make our hearts His Place!

I pray your glory and your strength 

That spans from every breadth and length,

The height and depth of perfect love, 

Spirit-sent from up above!

Now the precious love of Christ, 

Rich beyond any price!

Complete and full with life from God!  

Complete and full with power from God!

All glory to God who’s able!  

All glory to God who works!

All glory to God who’s able!  

All glory in Your Church!