The Present Crisis

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right,
And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.

Careless seems the great Avenger, history's pages but record

One death grapple in the darkness, 'twixt old systems and the Word;

Truth for ever on the scaffold, Wrong for ever on the throne,

Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,

Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.

Excerpted from James Russell Lowell 1819-1891

See the entirety of this stirring poem at http://www.bartleby.com/102/128.html

The Ride of Your Life

Luke 19:28-40
28 When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.29 And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, 30 saying,“Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. 31 And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you loosing it?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’”
32 So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them. 33 But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, “Why are you loosing the colt?”
34 And they said, “The Lord has need of him.” 35 Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him. 36 And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.
37 Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, 38 saying:

“ ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

39 And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”
40 But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”

Dear Jesus,

I am amazed that You returned to Jerusalem, knowing that Your cross was before You. Thank You for Your courage to return to the place of Your execution, that You might become the sin offering for the sins of the world--mine, too.

I imagine Your mounting the donkey, the symbol of a king coming to his people in peacetime. You knew the meaning such an act of courageous defiance would conjure in the minds of the people and the religious establishment. Yet, You mounted that donkey for the ride of Your life.

William Barclay: "It is impossible to exaggerate the sheer courage of Jesus... Every time He spoke He took His life in His hands, and He knew well that it was only a matter of time until the end should come. The courage of the Christian should match the courage of his Lord. He left us an example that we should never be ashamed to show whose we are and whom we serve." (In The Gospel of Luke, 1953, pp. 249, 252).

Thank You for Your love and obedience to go to the cross. "Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51).

Your courageous determination to take the ride of Your life ending in Jerusalem and the cross inspires me.  Grant me courage today to be Your man.  Empower me by Your Holy Spirit to stand for You, even if the ride of my life ends at my Calvary.  My face is set.

In the Name of my courageous Christ,

Amen.

Desperate Prayer

Luke 18:35-43 NKJV
Then it happened, as He was coming near Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the road begging. 36 And hearing a multitude passing by, he asked what it meant. 37 So they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. 38 And he cried out, saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
39 Then those who went before warned him that he should be quiet; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
40 So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be brought to Him. And when he had come near, He asked him, 41 saying, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
He said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.”
42 Then Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.” 43 And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

Dear Jesus,

I admire the blind man's desperate persistence to get to You.  Because of his desperate persistence, he made his way into Your Presence, and got results--healing.  I want that same desperate persistence in prayer.

I remember the desperation with which my grandmother prayed.  It was a desperation born out of desperate times.  Her life was lived on the razor's edge of success or failure.  Faith born in adversity adopts a certain rawness--a tone of urgency--that does not always resemble the emotion of more sophisticated, comfortable lifestyles.  Often, the sophisticated try to restrain the desperate.  My grandmother would not be restrained.  You rewarded her desperation.

Like the blind man, I cry out to You in desperation.  If You don't show up, disaster is certain.  The blind man grew more persistent with each cry for Your mercy.  His shouts became instinctive, "ungovernable emotion, a scream, an almost animal cry" (William Barclay in The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 242).  The establishment was embarrassed.  The refined rebuked him.  

You stopped.

The blind man's "sense of need drove him relentlessly into the presence of Jesus" (Barclay, p. 242). 

I need You to hear my wail for help.  I need You to stop in Your tracks, and turn my way.  I need to hear Your simple question, "What do you want me to do for You?"  I need Your heart and hands to invade my life.  I am that desperate blind man.  I am the embarrassing one at the back of the crowd crying and screaming.  If You don't stop, darkness and hopelessness are my sentence.  

But in the darkness, the rebukes hush.  The din of the crowd dies.  I hear the sound of robed humanity rustling as people press and part, stepping aside. You approach.  There You are!  You just stepped into the emptiness of my need.  Deity invaded desperation.  Hope walked into hopelessness.  Grace strode into godless desperation.

"What do You need?" You ask.

My need is apparent to all, yet You ask me to confess it to You!  I could talk about my condition, my poverty, my own marginalization and ostracization from family and community.  I could rage about the effects of my situation.  I could talk about all of the symptoms and never get to the problem.  But no.  "I'm blind.  I want to see!"  

That is my need today.  You call me to walk by faith and not by sight.  But I'm blind. Give me eyes to see You in the midst of life's uncertainty, ambiguity, and adversity.  If I can but see You, that is enough.

Thank You for hearing my cry.  I see!

In the Name of  the Christ of God who stops at my wailing and makes my blind eyes to see Him,

Amen.

Christ's Courage for the Cross

Luke 18:31-34 NKJV
31 Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. 32 For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon.33 They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.”
34 But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.

Dear Jesus,

I admire the courage with which You faced the cross.  You saw it coming, yet You were unflinching even as it drew nearer.  I need that kind of courage.

"By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward" (Hebrews 11:24-26).  Moses' courage inspires me.

William Barclay describes two kinds of courage: the spontaneous courage of crisis and the enduring courage to facing looming, insurmountable odds. "There is no question which is the higher courage. Many a man is capable of the heroic action on the spur of the moment; it takes a man of supreme courage to go on to face something which haunts him for days ahead and which, by turning back, he could escape" (In The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 240).

I need the courage that sees the apparently insurmountable odds in front of me, even surrounding me, yet confident of Your call to advance, I advance.  That same courage was the courage that the early church had.  Emboldened by the reality of Your resurrection, they faced unthinkable odds.  The Apostles challenged the believers to go forward.  Wave after wave of believers fell to the sword, the cross, and the games.

"Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter" (1 Peter 4:14).

As the tide of cultural opinion dramatically shifts against those who name themselves as Your followers, grant me courage to stand for You, not only in the crisis, but also in the face of staggering and multiplying opposition.  Help me to stand for You when others default.  Grant me Your courage for the cross.

"It was in the certainty of ultimate victory that He faced the apparent defeat of the cross.  He knew that without a cross there can never be any crown" (Barclay, p. 241).

Thank You for courageously enduring the cross for me.

In the Name of my risen, triumphant Lord,

Amen.

A Prayer for the Children

Luke 18:15-17 NKJV
"Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. 17 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.”

My loving Heavenly Father,

Thank You for loving me as Your child.  Thank You for calling me to simple childlike faith.  I have seen that kind of faith in my children and now in my grandchildren.  

I remember kneeling at my mother's knee and asking You to come into my heart when I was only four years old.  I remember Your calling me to preach when I was six.  I can never escape the recollection of Your cleansing and filling my heart with the fullness of Your Holy Spirit when I was sixteen.  Child-like faith.

I remember our daughter praying simply to ask You into her heart when she was just six years old. Our son did the same.  I remember that same little boy, a preschooler, singing songs to Jesus, telling Him of his  childlike love for His Savior.  My children's early prayers lisped heavenward often stirred me to tears.

Now, I am privileged to enjoy three small grandchildren.  I see the same simplicity of faith in them. The wonder on my granddaughter's face when she opens a cherished birthday present.  The anticipation in my grandson's eyes when he carries the iPad to his daddy and says "Baba!"  He is asking his daddy to do a video call with me.  The excitement in my grandson's face when he recites the names of all of the trains in his "Thomas the Tank" collection.  The trust of a toddler to reach his arms upward for me to hold him, only to twist and flex in an attempt to escape my secure grasp.  He never comprehends the danger of the fall if he is successful in attaining freedom from my embrace. Trust.  

And then You tell me to become as a child again.  Convicting.  Challenging.  Inspiring.  You call me to simple faith, an honest trust, a rediscovered wonder, a natural obedience, and an enduring forgiveness.

Thank You for loving children. "It is one of the loveliest things in all the gospel story that Jesus had time for the children when He was on the way to Jerusalem to die" (William Barclay in The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 235).  Thank You for my children and grandchildren.  They bless me.  Help me to take time with them.  Thank You for making time for this child of Yours.

Your son.

Amen.

A Candle of Patience

Luke 17:20-21 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21 nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’  For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

Triune God,

Throughout the centuries, those who worship You have longed for You to appear in their lives.  The Hebrews longed for a promised Messiah to come and crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). But the wait was long.  Even then, the serpent struck at Your heel, Son of God.  

Waiting.  

William Barclay said, "Light a candle of patience and wait. God takes His own time."  For 2000 years since Your ascension to the Father, we have waited.  While waiting, some have become weary; others have given up; still others have developed elaborate theories of the timing of Your return.  

I don't like waiting.  You made me with an inner clock that says "NOW!"  I believe that You are returning, but the wait is excruciating!

Then, I see a phrase of scripture that blows my mind.  "For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you."  While I wait for You to return, You are already here.  You are present in my waiting, yet You are returning!  The paradox of Your Presence is found in the reality of Your indwelling Holy Spirit living within me... us... Your Church!  Thank You, Jesus.

Perhaps Your abiding Holy Spirit, living within me, intensifies the longing for Your return.  So even as You demand that I wait, the Spirit within creates an intense longing for You that cries out in earnest prayer, "Hurry up!  Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly!"  

A candle of patience.

Waiting for a revolution! Waiting for You to return and make all things new. "That is to say, the kingdom of God works in men's hearts; it is to produce not new things, but new people. It is not a revolution in material things that we are to look for, but a revolution in the hearts of men" (Barclay in The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 229). 

So, I light my candle of patience.  I wait, not with folded hands and upturned gaze, but with an eager heart, earnest evangelism, and passionate zeal to help others prepare for Your return.  I transform the NOW of waiting into the NOW of preparation. "Behold, now is the day of salvation" (II Corinthians 6:2).

Protect me from the extremes of weariness or control.  Weariness gives up.  Control develops elaborate eschatological schemes, which often twist and distort Scripture, to time Your return according to my agenda and interpretation.  

A candle of patience.

So, I wait... and pray.  "Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly."

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost who are in control,

Amen.

Debt and Duty

Luke 17:7-10 7 And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? 8 But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.10 So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’”

My Father,

I am Your servant.  You owe me nothing.  You call me to serve You.  I serve with joy.  

Sometimes, I compose a list of things that I think I have done for You.  I want to show You my list and tout my accomplishments.  I want to boast of my "righteous" deeds.  I want to say, "Look what I have done!  Now I need something from You!"

But nothing I have done in Your name can ever hold You in debt to me!  No amount of obedience or service can ever fill a ledger with enough self-contrived holy acts to demand Your debt to my deeds of duty.  I cannot hold You in debt to me!  You are God and You owe no man anything.

Father, release me from counting!  I count my acts, my hours, my money given, seekers at an altar, church attendance, enrollment, my plenty, and my lack.  All too often, I use my counting to demonstrate my supposed worth to You.  Then I turn and want to spend my little pile of duty to purchase acts of favor from a God who somehow owes me!  Yikes!  

Father, release me from a mentality of entitlement. Free me from the unspiritual logic that demands Deity duty to me!  You owe me nothing!  

Thank You for loving me freely, without restraint, with optimism and abundant grace.  I abandon my attempts to influence You by pretending that You owe me.  I offer You my worship, my love, my thanksgiving, and my debt of joyful service to my Lord and Savior.  

Thank You for jarring me out of thinking that I can demand debt of You.  I am Your servant, and I choose to serve You with love rather than a personal sense of debt or duty.  Release me from these temporal motives that obstruct my soul from receiving Your unconditional gift of love.  

I am Your servant, and You are my God.

Amen.

Buying Influence

Luke 16:1-13 NKJV
He also said to His disciples: "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. 2 So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’
3 "Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’
"So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 And he said, ‘A hundred measures
of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures
of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.
"And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail,
they may receive you into an everlasting home. 10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. 11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?
"No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."


Dear Jesus,


Be my exclusive Master, my Lord. I don’t want to be a slave to anyone or anything other than You. "Serving God can never be a part-time or a spare-time job. Once a man chooses to serve God every moment of his time and every atom of his energy belongs to God. God is the most exclusive of masters. We either belong to him totally or not at all" (Barclay in The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 218).


My culture is incredibly dependent upon money. Help me to be dependent upon You, Master. How I spend my money is a barometer of my interests. It often measures the strength of my commitment, the inner compulsion of devotion. Someone has said that "One of the last parts of our lives to be sanctified is our pocket book."


What are You trying to teach me from this story of the unjust steward? One of the lessons that I see is that believers are often reluctant to use money to gain influence, but unbelievers are not bashful about it at all. You seem to be challenging me to learn a lesson of generosity from unbelievers! Perhaps the lesson is that I need to be generous to buy dinner for my friends in a spirit of unrestrained generosity, in hopes that my display of generosity opens doors for me to share Your love with them.


Your principles for money management are apparent in this parable.

• Wasting possessions dishonors You.
• I have to give an account to You as to how I use my money.
• I need to be generous with my money so as to gain friends both to myself and to You.
• You bought 5000 people lunch to get them to listen to the Gospel. Shouldn’t I pick up the tab too?

You indicate that unbelievers are often better at showing their love for people with money than Christians are. Perhaps I am too concerned with monthly payments into my IRA or debt-free living. As John Vermilya said, help me to invest my money in "joy rather than spending it on happy." The Hebrew rabbis said that "A man's true wealth would consist not in what he kept, but in what he gave away" (Barclay, in The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 217). Perhaps money spent on loving others who don’t yet know You will help me to make more friends for You. Then there will be more people to welcome me to Your heavenly home.


William Barclay wrote: "If only the Christian was as eager and ingenious in his attempt to attain goodness as the man of the world is in his attempt to attain money and comfort, he would be a much better man" (In The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 216). I am eager to meet the people in heaven in whom I have invested. Multiply my investment so that it cascades like a row of dominoes from time into eternity, and so I may hear You say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."


In the Name of my generous Lord Jesus,

Amen.

A Prayer for Anointing

Zecharaiah 4:6-10 NKJV
6 “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.
7 ‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone With shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’”
8 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; His hands shall also finish it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you.
10 For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven rejoice to see The plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the Lord, Which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.”

Dear God,

It is You who anoints and blesses, not I.  It is You who accomplishes anything of eternal worth and value, not I.  It is You who saves the lost, not I.  It is You who sanctifies believers, not I.  It is You who calls the called, not I. 

I confess my utter trust in You for You to be God, not I.  I love You.  I worship You.  I seek You.  I humble myself in Your Presence, deeply aware of my need of You.  Left to my own devices, by best performance is "filthy rags."  Cleansed and made holy by Your Holy Spirit, You use my hands, my feet, my mind, my body, my lips for Your glory. 

"Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee" (F. R. Havergal). 

If You accomplish anything of eternal value through me it will be because You proclaim:  "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit."  I rest in that reality. 

If anything good is accomplished through my life, witness, and work (and I pray that it is), it will be because of Your Presence filling and consuming me with Your power.  I feel as if the impact of my life has been small.  Help me to be so crucified with Christ and consumed by the Spirit that You can trust my life to have greater impact for Your glory.  Accordingly, help me not to despise small things, if that is to be the measure of my life and impact. 

I often remind You that any glory is Yours.  I don't need credit.  I don't need recognition.  But Jesus needs glory.  That reality is freeing to me.  Because if I am not seeking credit, recognition, or acclaim, the responsibility for success is not mine either.  The responsibility is Yours, and the glory is Yours!  I find comfort in that reality.  Thank You.

So, fill me afresh with Your Holy Spirit.  Anoint me with the anointing of the Holy One.  Lift me beyond myself, beyond my abilities, beyond my disabilities, into the real of the Spirit.  Empower me to accomplish Your will today.

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

Amen.

Avon Park Camp Meeting Bible Study

Avon Park Camp Meeting

Bible Study Introduction

I live just 3 hours from New Orleans, Louisiana.  The Big Easy is home to great gumbo, incredible French bread, amazing grilled oysters, and all other sorts of incredible coastal cuisine.  The Crescent City is also home to the sordid Mardi Gras and its overflow of iniquity, Fat Tuesday.  Juxtaposed against the backdrop of debauchery, the city's NFL football franchise is known as the New Orleans Saints! 

"Who Dat?"

When the Saints are playing, the loyal fan base cries the taunts of "Who Dat?" directing the insulting interrogative at the opposing team. 

"Who Dat?"

Scripture is replete with obscure characters with strange names who lived in times that we don't understand as citizens of a 21st century world.  We often find ourselves saying "Who Dat?"

This year's Bible study will attempt to unpack the stories of obscure as well as familiar Old Testament characters.  We will journey through these Old Testament narratives with in a quest to find age old Biblical  guidance for our lives.  Characters with names like Nadab, Abihu, Korah, Dathan, Abiram, Moses, Hobab, Jonah, Malachi, Joshua, and Adonijah will capture our attention.  Sometimes, we will find ourselves exclaiming the New Orleans chant, "Who Dat?"  Afterwards, we will know who that is!  I am eager to see you at Bible study!

Daily Bible Study 9:00 a.m. EST, February 5-14, 2016

Livestream at http://www.sundaystreams.com/go/AvonParkCamp