Another's Job

But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, "No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles."   1 Sam 8:19-20

In my reading through 1 Samuel I recently went through the time when the people of Israel cried out for a king that he might judge them and fight their battles for them. God gave them what they wanted, though it meant they were rejecting Him as their king and, it seems to me, trusting in man to do for them what God would have done for and through them.

I wonder how many times we seek another to do what we should be doing? I think that this is a real danger in Christian circles—especially organized "church." That may sound funny coming from a pastor, but I think that one of the greatest dangers of organized "church" is that it can, if not handled well, encourage the body of Christ (the true church) to pass its responsibilities on to a few instead of being the body of Christ in fullness.

I do not go so far as to reject organized religion—I believe that Acts and the epistles makes it clear the early church met both in large groups, and regularly from house to house. I believe that it is clear they joined their resources to meet local needs within the body, and to support needs out of their area within the body. I believe it is clear God appointed some within the local parts of the body to be elders and teachers and pastors within it. But . . . if leaders aren't careful they can consolidate things around themselves out of ignorance, or insecurity, or love of power, or ???

Ephesians makes it clear that leaders are given to equip the body for the work of ministry—to equip all the believers to do the work of God, not to do the work of God for them. Granted, if they are paid and full time, they have more time to do some things that someone working at another full time job might not have, but it is far too easy for the body to just say, regarding visiting others, or praying for others, or doing the stuff that holds a body together, "Well, that's the pastor's job. That's what he's paid for," or other similar things regarding church staff, or the organized church itself. But, the New Testament makes it clear, the body is only fully functioning when each person does its part and uses their unique gifts to knit the body together.

One change I have made recently in our services is that I've stopped asking who has a prayer request and started asking who wants to be prayed for (there's often a big difference). In the past I've found that we might get 10–15 prayer requests, and very few would be writing them down. Then I, as the pastor, would pray and we'd move on. I am sure some got prayed for during the week, but I don't know how many.

Now I am asking, "Who wants to be prayed for?" The Bible says the gates of hell won't prevail against the church, and we are all, as believers, the church, so we are starting to bang on the gates of hell on behalf of one another. I must admit, since I started this we are getting a lot fewer prayer requests, but I feel we are probably a lot closer to what we are supposed to be doing.

After people who want to be prayed for express their need, or the need of someone they want to be prayed for, we go in to a time of prayer, usually about five minutes. I re-read the requests and then ask that each person desiring to be prayed for has at least a couple people join with them—maybe someone who the Spirit nudged toward them, or someone who has faced a similar issue. Everyone is free to get up and join someone or stay in their seats, or come up to the cross, it is all up to them. Then, start praying in small groups, with and for the person or persons asking for it. When I feel it is time I'll go and close that, but not without saying, "If you are still in a group and you feel you need to keep praying keep doing so, even if it means you are praying through all of the worship time and through my teaching."

This is just one small step, but it seems to be a good one from my eyes. I, as the pastor, don't have any more access to God than another believer does. The body must be the body, each part doing its part, each part realizing that church leaders are simply their brothers and sisters, called to different positions and parts in the body, but not any more special, any more loved by God, or with any more access to God than them. We have to be so careful to equip ourselves and to not ask others to do what God has asked us to do. Only when the body is fully functioning as the body will the world truly see Jesus expressed through us.

God bless you all. As always, I'd love your thoughts.   —Erick

Another Thought on Unanswered Prayer

In June I wrote a post involving Steinbeck and my dad called "Unanswered" Prayer in which I shared that maybe, sometimes, when we feel like God isn't answering our prayers, it is because the answer involves so many people and/or situations that aren't yet in place in our lives that we might not even recognize His answer as from Him if He told us what we wanted to know. Last night we had a young man from our youth group over for dinner to talk with him and spend some time together and we got talking about the future. He has a tremendous heart for God's will in His life, but experiences the uncertainty of not knowing what that is (something we all, often, experience, I would imagine). Mary Ann shared a thought with him that I believe is another reason God may not always share with us the information about the future we are requesting (seemingly not answering our prayer). She reminded him of Abraham and Sarah and the mess that came out of God telling them their future . . . and then them trying to "help God out" and make that future happen (the birth of a baby to them being the situation I am talking about). We have the whole situation with Hagar and the two sons when there was only supposed to be one and all the problems today that spring back to that moment. So, maybe, sometimes God doesn't give us an answer to a request for His will or plan for the future because He knows that we'll try and "help" it happen instead of letting Him bring it about in His timing through our surrender to His leading . . . and rather than help, we'll just mess it up. Just a thought, and one I felt was a good one. Interestingly, it was this same Abraham who earlier in his life left his homeland at God's command and traveled, not knowing where he was going, until God said stop. He is a man who should have been familiar with God leading every moment and orchestrating the timing of everything. I wonder . . . how many times do we learn a lesson and then forget it or blow it off?

God bless you all, and thanks for sharing in my life and this little blog world. We have a truly mighty and wonderful God!
Erick

"Unanswered" Prayers

Father's Day on Cannery Row.

Yesterday I had the wonderful blessing of being able to head north after church and spend Father's Day with my parents. For weeks I looked forward to a good, long cup of coffee at a special coffee shop on Cannery Row—sitting, catching up, just being together. As we headed up the Salinas Valley the fog bank ahead looked ominous, but when we got to the coffee shop I had requested the weather was beautiful, the ocean glittered in the sun, and someone had even left us two outside tables, pushed together, with an umbrella above them and six chairs arranged around them. Thanks, Lord!

When I went into the coffee shop to order while we waited for my folks to arrive I noticed on the top of the counter facing the door a few books on stands . . . a couple of titles by John Steinbeck, and my dad's pictorial history of the Monterey/Cannery Row waterfront and sardine industry, From Fisherman's Wharf to Steinbeck's Cannery Row. When he got there I had fun telling my dad that he was ranked up there side by side with Steinbeck!

Not bad company to be next to . . .

Later last night, as we sat around visiting at my parent's home, Dad reminded me of a time in the very early 1960s when he had bumped in to Steinbeck on the street up in San Francisco. All of a sudden, as he shared it, I thought of how, often, if we were told our future, we'd never believe it because it would be so out of our current frame of reference that we couldn't receive it. When my dad bumped in to John Steinbeck, at the time Steinbeck was a well known author . . . but my dad was not writing, I wasn't in the picture, and grand kids certainly weren't! It would have been, on that early 1960s day, mind-bending to be told that he would one day be a father of a son, a grandfather of two beautiful girls, an author of a book that would be shelved next to Steinbeck's, and spending a Father's day almost 50 years later with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters at a waterfront coffee shop at an elegant resort hotel in an area that, at that time, was marked old abandoned canneries with little tourist appeal.

As I reflected on that, I found myself thinking of how often we probably ask God for an answer to something and, while He knows it, He either can't give it to us, or we can't recognize it as from Him when He does (thinking, instead, we are just having weird thoughts or daydreams), because the answer is completely out of our frame of current reference because it involves situations and circumstances that we have yet to even know will happen. Sometimes, I believe, we must wait to get an answer from God because a person, or situation, or event involved in the answer is not even in place or in the picture yet, and there is no way for us to comprehend an answer that involves something or someone we are not even aware of yet.

As I look back at seasons of my life I realize how many places there are in it that if you had told me where I'd be five or ten or twenty years later I would have either laughed, called you crazy, or simply not been able to wrap myself around it (i.e. the college freshmen mocking a God he claims he doesn't believe in becoming a pastor, etc.). Certainly, if I had a thought about a future like that I would have dismissed it! And yet, when we pray and ask God a question about the future, how many times is that the same situation? We wouldn't recognize the answer if He gave it to us because it is so out of the current context of our life or situation. And so, in that period of waiting, we move ahead on faith—not believing God hasn't heard or doesn't care, but just trusting the love He showed us on the cross and knowing that, if we aren't seeming to get an answer from Him, we can trust His love and trust His character and goodness, and trust that there is a good reason for it—and that He has not left us, ceased to care for us, or stopped watching over us.

He Must Be Enough . . .

I was just reflecting this morning on the irony we face, as Christians, if we share a feeling that God is warning us of something (I am not talking about a prophetic word where God says to specifically tell people something is going to happen). Think about how, if God gives us a dream, or a vision, or a sense, that something bad might be about to happen, and we are fairly strongly sure He gave it to us and we then take the natural course to warn others of the possibility and then to intercede in prayer (and prepare if we feel He is leading us to) . . .

Well, what if that is exactly what God was warning us for—giving us a possible future so that Christians would wake up, rise up in unity, confess their sins, turn from their selfish ways and surrender again to His Lordship, and intercede in prayer, using our precious privilege as His children to go before Him at His throne? So, then, because His children return to Him, He stays His hand and, to all whom we shared with, we look like fools because that which we warned about never happened.

It truly is the case, for each of us, that He must be enough because, all too often, in obedience to Him we cut ourselves off from the respect and praise of those who don't understand Him. It must be enough to us, no matter what we are called to be or do, that He says, "Well done My good and faithful servant." If anyone else's opinion of us ranks higher on our priority scale than His, we are done for because we will then serve man and not God, and it is the most unsafe place in the world for a Christian to be if we are out of His will.

James 5:16-18   Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.  Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.


2 Chron 7:13-15   When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.

Jeremiah 29:7   But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Monterey Peninsula 1 — An Interesting Encounter

Note: I needed to  head to the Monterey Peninsula today for some appointments. Of course, I had to find a good coffee shop while I was there (smile!). Here are some "sharings" from my trip so far . . .

I just had an interesting moment . . . I was walking through a hotel lobby in Cannery Row on my way to (surprise!) a coffee shop to take some study time. Right in front of me a couple was coming toward me when suddenly she said she felt like she was going to faint and she sort of stumbled back toward a pillar and sat down next to it. Her husband went to her and I was right beside her. I had my fire department sweatshirt on (I hadn’t wanted to wear it, but this morning when packing had felt that I was supposed to). She was nauseous and light headed and felt ready to faint and vomit. I knelt beside her and asked permission to take her pulse. I talked with her and her husband while I did and asked some basic questions. Turns out she’d had a long walk, followed by a long lunch in the sun with a lot of food and some alcohol. She was very embarrassed and I just visited with her and her husband while trying to get more information. The hotel called security who came over, but stood to the back, especially as she didn’t want paramedics called. As it was wrapping up her nausea wasn’t getting better. I said, “I am also a pastor (I had shared I was a volunteer fire fighter), may I pray for you?” You could feel the stiffening and ice almost immediately! She was like, “Whatever you want,” or “If that works for you,” or something along those lines—I was caught a little off guard by the atmosphere shift and I don’t remember the exact words. As soon as I started praying for her she IMMEDIATELY doubled over and gasped and then said, “Your prayers aren’t helping me. Please stop.” I did so immediately. Her husband, almost apologetically, said, “Thank you. We don’t share that faith,” but I have to say that the force and immediacy of her emotional and physical reaction makes me wonder if it wasn’t more than just not sharing a belief in Jesus. I’ve met a lot of people who don’t believe in Jesus, but most don’t mind you praying for them, or at least they don’t react with such force. I told them I understood and stayed and visited for a bit after, but you could almost feel her pushing me away in her emotions. I then asked the security guard if he would be near by as she rested and the lady was, abruptly, like, “Yes. Please go. We don’t want to take up more of your vacation time.” It was about as clear as it gets that I was no longer welcome there, and it was the most violent, immediate, physical reaction I have ever seen to prayer. I don’t know the explanation for her reaction. It may have been a spirit. It may have simply been a physical reaction by whatever was going on (but that still doesn’t explain the force of the emotional reaction). It may simply be that she was deeply wounded at one point by Christians, or, in her eyes, God. Whatever the reason, please keep this couple in your prayers. I don’t believe that this encounter was an accident, especially since I was heading out this morning thinking that I would be looking for people on this trip that I could pray for—I’ve got to take my faith to the "street" and the lives of people or I've missed what it is all about.

Adoration Night

On the Saturday before Christmas I was preparing our church’s announcement master for making copies, and thinking about the coming Christmas week and what it was all about, and the word "adore" kept coming to me. I wasn’t sure what it was supposed to look like—I actually get afraid of so "adoring" Jesus as a baby that we forget He is also the fierce Lion of the Tribe of Judah—but I felt we were to simply adore Him.

So, we invited anyone in the fellowship who wanted to and could to come to our home that Wednesday evening before Christmas for an evening of adoring Him and praising Him. While I wanted to end the night with asking His blessing over our fellowship, community, and nation for 2010, I felt strongly that it was to simply be a night about Him, not about us.

It ended up that Wednesday that nine of us sat in our living room, around the wood stove, with the Christmas lights on the tree, and began by sharing what Christmas meant to us in our hearts. It was beautiful to hear how the different facets of the Christmas message touched and sustained people differently. After a time we began singing to Him, hymns and carols, and then we entered a time of simply praying out loud, as each was led who wanted to—to Him, about Him. We simply thanked Him and praised Him and “adored” Him. Finally, at the end, we asked His blessing over the things I already mentioned. One lady sang a cappella that night a song declaring there to be a “sweet, sweet presence in the place,” and she was so right. Another shared with me later in the week that the presence of the Spirit was strong there that night—almost as if we should have been laying hands on one another.

I shared a little about this in passing on Facebook the week after Christmas, and a friend mentioned that she was going to a New Year’s Eve “Praying in the New Year” gathering and hoped it would be as sweet as our Adoration night which I had described. I quickly typed back an answer to her, “I find that often that sweet sense doesn't happen without intention. I really worked to keep the focus on simply praising and talking about Him, and not about our individual needs. There is absolutely a place for personal prayer needs, but sometimes I just long for the corporate focus on Him alone.”

In thinking afterwards about that quick response, I find in it a deep core of truth for all of us. While God will show up (in some way beyond simply the indwelling) almost anywhere, at any time, unexpectedly—and, while there is a time and place and need for our personal prayers and petitions—there is something about an intentional decision to simply focus on and worship Him that draws His presence. Maybe it is found in that verse that says wherever two or more are gathered in His name He is there—even when we know that He is already in us as a believer. Maybe it is a multiplication issue in some way we don’t understand. But, I find that even intentional focus and worship as an individual seems to also draw His sweet presence.

Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! . . .” I take this as a reference to the temple, and to get to His presence in the Holy of Holies in the center of the temple one had to pass through gates and courts. So, it would seem, that thanksgiving and praise are the "gates" and "courts" that draw us closer to the center of His heart and magnified presence.

I really believe He was strongly among us that night, and I really believe it was so strong because, while we each had personal issues in our lives, I made an intentional decision to keep the focus on Him and not on us, and to steer it back to Him alone each time it wandered from that focus. I share this as an encouragement to you, that maybe you will find in it a seed of something you would like to do in your own life if you aren’t already. God bless you, and Happy New Year!

I Couldn't Not Share This . . .

I received this picture from a lady in our church. It was taken, I understand, in Montana. It was too fun to not pass on. In case you have trouble reading it, it says, "PRAYER is the best way to meet the Lord. 'Trespassing is faster'. "

God bless you all.