A Prayer To Glorify God

This prayer is taken from the Morning reading for February 15th from C.H. Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening"

“Lord, help me to glorify thee;

I am poor; help me to glorify thee by contentment;

I am sick; help me to give thee honour by patience;

I have talents; help me to extol thee by spending them for thee;

I have time; Lord, help me to redeem it, that I may serve thee;

I have a heart to feel; Lord, let that heart feel no love but thine, and glow with no flame but affection for thee;

I have a head to think; Lord, help me to think of thee and for thee;

thou hast put me in this world for something; Lord, show me what that is, and help me to work out my life-purpose:

I cannot do much; but as the widow put in her two mites, which were all her living, so, Lord, I cast my time and eternity too into thy treasury;

I am all thine; take me, and enable me to glorify thee now, in all that I say, in all that I do, and with all that I have.”

Second Anniversary

Today is the second anniversary of the School of the Solitary Place blog. By the grace of God, I've been able to post over 70 articles on various topics, usually relating to prayer (there was an exception back in June when I posted about the Detroit Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup earlier that evening).

The picture in the upper left is a personal rendering of an early morning scene, while it is still dark but with the hint of dawn's first light. I can imagine that the Lord Jesus saw something similar when He was praying on that early Sunday morning mentioned in Mark 1:35.

I know that this blog has had a readership throughout 45 states in the United States and hits on servers in over 30 countries. What a privilege. Thanks for reading this blog and for your interest. If you are so inclined, please write and let me know that you've been a reader. The e-mail address is schoolofthesolitaryplace@yahoo.com

The following is from that first blog entry of two years ago:

The School of the Solitary Place is the place where we learn prayer. It is where we learn to commune with God. We learn from our school-master of prayer, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.Early in His ministry after conducting a busy night of healing:

"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." (Mark 1:35 NIV)

The Lord Jesus is our teacher in this school. While we as Christians are called to corporate prayer and worship, the practice of individual prayer lays the foundation for a deeper relationship with God and the ability to pray with others in more than a merely formal manner.

The solitary place is a place of solitude to shut out the voices and demands of our everyday world so that we can pray without interruption to the God who made us. It is not necessarily a barren and howling wilderness. The Lord Jesus refers to such a place as a "closet" or an inner room. It might be a nearby park. For the 18th century American theologian Jonathan Edwards, a solitary place was found in walking alone with God in his father's fields, or as young minister in New York City, he later wrote how he very frequently

used to retire into a solitary place, on the banks of Hudson's River, at some distance from the city, for contemplation on divine things and secret converse with God: and had many sweet hours there.

The 20th century minister A.W. Tozer used a corner of the family basement as a place to meet with God in solitude and prayer. A 15th century monastic instructor named Thomas A Kempis wrote how the monk's cell was a wonderful place to meet with God. He said:

"Your cell will become dear to you if you remain in it, but if you do not, it will become wearisome. If in the beginning of your religious life, you live within your cell and keep to it, it will soon become a special friend and a very great comfort. In silence and quiet the devout soul advances in virtue and learns the hidden truths of Scripture. There she finds a flood of tears with which to bathe and cleanse herself nightly, that she may become the more intimate with her Creator the farther she withdraws from all the tumult of the world. For God and His holy angels will draw near to him who withdraws from friends and acquaintances."

(By the way, it should be understood that the meaning of "cell" has changed over the years. That word today carries the meaning of a place of punishment and confinement. However, centuries ago, the word "cell" was derived from the Latin word "Coelum" which means "Heaven") In 1895, Andrew Murray echoed the words of Thomas A Kempis written almost 500 years earlier. In his classic work on prayer entitled With Christ in the School of Prayer, Murray wrote:

"We have learnt to know and accept Jesus as our only teacher in the school of prayer. He has already taught us at Samaria that worship is no longer confined to times and places; that worship, spiritual true worship, is a thing of the spirit and the life; the whole man must in his whole life be worship in spirit and truth. And yet He wants each one to choose for himself the fixed spot where He can daily meet him. That inner chamber, that solitary place, is Jesus's schoolroom. That spot may be anywhere; that spot may change from day to day if we have to change our abode; but that secret place there must be, with the quiet time in which the pupil places himself in the Master's presence, to be by Him prepared to worship the Father. There alone, but there most surely, Jesus comes to us to teach us to pray."

The purpose of this blog is to encourage you in your personal and private times of prayer in Christ. In this School of the Solitary Place, we learn the aspects of personal prayer to enter, by ourselves, into a one-person schoolroom to be tutored by Christ personally in this wonderful privelege.

Common Points of a True Revival

I have had the privilege of studying several distinct historic revivals of the last 150 years. While I cannot state that each and every revival will always have the following traits, they are present more often than not.

1. PRAYER IS A PREDECESSOR TO REVIVAL - It appears that when genuine revival does happen, it is preceded by a time of prayer which can last for months or several years.

2. REVIVAL HAPPENS IN TURBULENT TIMES - Concerning the 1857 Revival which started in New York City, the United States was being torn apart by the issue of slavery. It was also in the midst of a financial crisis which resulted in a stock market crash in October, 1857. The revival which happened in Korea a century ago happened in the midst of an occupying Japanese rule of the country.

3. DENOMINATIONAL GROUPS COOPERATE IN A SPIRIT OF UNITY - In the 1857 revival as well as the Korean Revival of 1907, groups which would typically not interact with each other did for the promotion of Christ, not their own causes.

4. SPIRITUAL "ENVY" OF REVIVAL IN OTHER PLACES - One phenomenal feature of the 1857 Revival was how news about how God poured out the blessing of revival in one nation caused Christians in other places to want revival and pray that God would bless them in the same way in their country.

I pray for revival in my country. Regardless of whoever would have won the U.S. Presidential election yesterday, my nation remains in desperate need of spiritual revival. Politics determines only the outer ordering of things. It does not touch the inner ordering of our hearts and minds. My nation is spiritually sick and desperately needs the hand of God upon it in revival. Otherwise, it will have the hand of God upon it in judgment.

Leonard Ravenhill on Revival

Leonard Ravenhill was a wonderful man of God who lived in the 20th century and spoke about prayer and revival. The link that has been provided here is of an interview of Leonard Ravenhill during a conference on revival held in 1989. While the video is 19 years old, the topics and counsel of which Ravenhill spoke are just as relevant (if not more so) in 2008 as in 1989.

The link is to part 1 of the video on You Tube.

Prayer and the Sovereignty of God

Last week, while doing some other research on the topic of prayer, I found this article. It was written by Pastor John Piper in January of 1976, It happens to be a rather compact article on how to approach the topic of prayer from a Reformed/Calvinist position. It does address the questions of:

1) If God has predestined some to eternal life, why evangelize since they are going to believe anyway?

2) If God has predestined some to eternal life, why pray for the salvation of someone who has not come to the Lord yet?

I present this in keeping with a balance of teaching about prayer. That is why you will find quotes/links from numerous individuals in the Christian mainstream regarding prayer. While you might not be a big fan of Jonathan Edwards, Andrew Murray, A.W. Tozer and others whose work has been cited in this blog, it is my hope that you can gain further insight into prayer and the motivation to deepen your walk of prayer with God in Christ Jesus Our Lord.

Busyness - Part 1

Recently, I have been reflecting on the busyness of our lives and how it affects our life of prayer. In the course of research and reflection on this topic, I have come across a survey which demonstrates the impact of busyness on the life of the Christian. The survey, conducted by Dr. Michael Zigarelli, is international in its scope. The results actually surprised me. I was expecting that Christians in the United States would rank the highest in the indices of how much busyness affects our prayer lives. Actually, Christians in six nations other than the United States indicated a higher level of life busyness than American Christians. You can find the article here.

I do not want to be naive about history and assume that people in other eras have not faced their own levels of a high degree of busyness. Here in the United States, I have run across numerous anecdotes about pioneers who spent almost every waking "spare" moment in chopping wood for fuel (In a quick aside, the advice of building consultant Bernie Weisgerber can prove instructive. He was one of the consultants in the Public Broadcasting System reality program "Frontier House”. The show took three families and placed them into a historical recreation which simulated life in a Montana mountain valley in the year 1883. Mr. Weisgerber's counsel to the families which participated was to: “Spend every spare minute gathering winter firewood". This is not unlike the task that many of our ancestors have faced).

Yet, there is a discernible trend in our present-day world culture in which people believe that their lives are busier than they have ever been. The increased use of technology, especially in the workplace, has had the unexpected effect of either making our lives busier or giving us the impression that our lives are busier than they ever have been. One objective measure of this is the increased number of average hours per week worked by Americans which has increased about 10 hours per week over the last several decades.

How does living a life of busyness affect of lives of prayer? Are we too busy for God? Have we as Christians bought into our culture's obession of not just getting more and more but doing more and more? In part 2 of this article, I will examine a parallel which Dr. Zigarelli drew between our busyness and that of the returned Israelite exiles who lived in the time of the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. I think you will find the connection very relevant to our lives today.

Freedom From Quiet Time Guilt - Parts 3 to 6

Here is the final installment of "Freedom From Quiet Time Guilt." I pray that it was freeing for you as it was for me.

3. The Remedy: Weakness Christianity
There are two religions calling themselves evangelical Christianity today: Strength Christianity and Weakness Christianity. Strength Christianity is that religion which places both feet squarely on the Bible and proclaims, “I am strong. I sought the Lord. I’m a believer. I’ve turned away from sin. I read my Bible and pray every single day. I’m for God!” Weakness Christianity, by contrast, places both knees squarely on the Bible and says, “I am weak, but the Lord has sought me. I believe, but help now my unbelief. I fail and am broken by my continued sinfulness. Have mercy on me, Lord, and grant me favor, for apart from you I can do nothing.”

Those who pursue Strength Christianity will never find joy in God, for they will never find God. Our Father refuses to be approached in that manner. They will find only increasing religious pride and secret hardness of heart. On the outside, they will project a picture of righteousness. They’ll have it all together. They’ll be spiritual. But only on the outside.

For those who stumble across the rare jewel of Weakness Christianity, however, there is provision beyond what we can possibly imagine. Our suffering, our failures, our weaknesses and disappointments all gain an incredible spiritual significance. God never says he’ll be glorified in our religious accomplishments. But he does promise that his power will be made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor 12:9).

Neediness is the heart of biblical religion. When we honestly lay our brokenness before God, we’re surprised to see a radically different message in the Bible. While we had perhaps expected a to-do list from Holy Writ, a program to make us righteous, or a divinely sanctioned self-help book, we instead see a shocking message that centers on our God and his grace to his broken people, not about us and our performance and expected rewards. And when we approach God in brokenness—Weakness Christianity—we find a radically difference vision for prayer. Prayer is not something we do—a performance designed to get something from God. Instead, it’s merely a free and honest confession of our neediness to God and our spoken reliance upon him for each and every blessing. When you stumble upon Weakness Christianity, you realize that true religion is all about God’s grace, not about our devotional consistency.


4. The Shocker: Grace for the Christian
This grace is for you right now, now and tonight and tomorrow and next week and forever. The deadly assumption made too often among those who claim to heed the Scriptures is that grace is only for non-Christians. Grace is what God offers to people who don’t know Christ. Grace is what makes us Christians; but once we’re Christians, we live by our own resources. This is why advocates of Strength Christianity so often sound like evangelical Christians. They really do believe that God offers grace to unbelievers who will turn to God through Jesus Christ. And they’re right on that. What they wrongly assume, though, is that the Christian life begins by grace, but continues by human works.

I’ve seen this confusion many times. I found it ironic that the very same prayer program that so hurt the church I love included within it an absolutely wonderful children’s program. This at first puzzled me. The children who attended were pointed to Jesus, reassured of God’s love for them, and encouraged to rest in God’s mercy and total acceptance in Christ. In the adult activities, by contrast, people were told to try harder, to persevere, to do better, to be more consistent and to pray more, so that God could bless them. The children heard, “God did it,” while the adults were told, “Just do it.”

Why the difference? The difference was simple. These teachers were assuming that the children of the church were not yet Christians (…an assumption I would question). God offers non-Christians grace. The adults, however, were committed Christians. The Christian’s relationship with God rests not upon God’s grace, but upon his or her performance, particularly the performance of the ultimate devotional duty, the daily quiet time. This assumption, that grace isn’t for Christians, is spiritual venom, which is keeping millions of Christians in bondage to self-reliance, guilt, shame, and despair. Quiet Time Guilt is the great epidemic among Bible-believing Christians today.

If you think the purpose behind this little tract is to absolve you from the call to pray or the need for Scripture, think again. My purpose is to free you to desire prayer—to desire God. I want you to long for the pure message of the gospel, spelled out on page after page of the Bible, and to find the joyous freedom found in Christ. Prayer is a grace, not a work. It is a confession of our neediness to God, not a proof that our “relationship with God” is going well. If you think that God will not bless you today because you missed your quiet time, this has been for you. If subtle legalism has left you in bondage so that you no longer hunger for God’s word or freely call out to him in prayer, then hear this: God has already chosen you, pronounced you righteous, adopted you into his family, and promised to finish his work in you. Perhaps you have been lied to in the past. Now it is time for the truth to set you free. Free to be needy. Free to fail. Free to approach God without dread. Free to delight in him rather than in your performance.

But I have a few more theological reflections to share before you leave. Keep reading.


5. The Surprise: The Quiet Time is Optional
Imagine for a moment you’re meeting a Christian friend. “How’s your relationship with God going?” they ask you. “Well, I’m struggling with my attitude about my job—but God is teaching me to be content and to not gossip when people rub me the wrong way.” A silent stare greets the words, your inquisitor’s eyes staring you up and down. After a moment of awkward silence, the question comes again, “But how is your relationship with God?” Hmm. What wrong with this picture?

Perhaps this has never happened to you. But I’ve found contemporary Christians are often more concerned about my ‘relationship with God’ than with my relationship with God. Whose idea was it to define the sum total of my relationship with God as my devotional consistency? Your quiet time is not your relationship with God. Your relationship with God—or, as I prefer to say, God’s relationship with you—is your whole life: your job, your family, your sleep, your play, your relationships, your driving, your everything. The real irony here is that we’ve become accustomed to pigeonholing our entire relationship with God into a brief devotional exercise that is not even commanded in the Bible.

Yes. That’s what I said. The daily quiet time—that half hour every morning of Scriptural study and prayer¾is not actually commanded in the Bible. And as a theologian, I can remind us that to bind the conscience where Scripture leaves freedom is a very, very serious crime. It’s legalism rearing its ugly little head again. We’ve become legalistic about a legalistic command. This is serious.

But no misunderstand what I’m saying. My goal isn’t that we pray and read the Bible less, but that we do so more—and with a free and needy heart.

Does the Bible instruct Christians to call out to God in prayer? Absolutely. “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Th 5:16-18). But this isn’t a command to set apart a special half-hour of prayer; it’s instruction to continually call upon God. Elsewhere the Apostle calls us to pray: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:6-7). But notice that the focus here is not on the performance of a devotional duty, but on approaching God for grace—for our heats and minds to be guarded by him. Paul’s burden is that we would rely upon God in every circumstance and therefore have peace, rather than relying on ourselves and finding ourselves captive to the anxiety that accompanies self-reliance.

Does the Bible command us to read our Bibles every day? No. Not really.

What Scripture actually instructs is that we meditate on God’s word all the time. Consider the godly man in Psalm 1. “His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Ps 1:2). This is not exactly the same thing as reading the Bible every day. Personal Bible reading is one—and only one—way we to meditate upon God’s word. At this point it’s helpful to consider the difference between a good idea and a biblical mandate. A biblical mandate is something that God explicitly or implicitly commands in Scripture. Loving your neighbor is a biblical mandate (Mt 5:43). Moving to Philadelphia to work in a homeless shelter, by contrast, is not a biblical mandate. Rather, it’s a good idea, a wonderful possible application of the biblical mandate to love your neighbor. But moving to Philly isn’t the only way you can love your neighbor. Similarly, meditating on God’s word is a biblical mandate. The daily quiet time, by contrast, is a good idea, a wonderful possible application of the mandate of biblical meditation.

It may surprise you to know that the concept of the quiet time as a command is a modern invention. It’s only in recent centuries that Christians have been able to actually own Bibles—the printing press and cheap paper have given us more options so far as biblical meditation is concerned. But remember that most Christians throughout history have not owned Bibles. They heard the Bible preached during corporate worship. They were taught the Bible in the churches. They memorized the Bible profusely—a first century rabbinic saying stated, “If your rabbi teaches and you have no paper, write it on your sleeve.” But for most Christians through history, biblical meditation took place when they discussed the Bible with family and friends, when they memorized it, when they listened very carefully to God’s word preached. The concept of sitting still before sunrise with a Bible open would have been very foreign to them.

We have so many options today, why do we get hung up on the quiet time? Listen to Christian teaching tapes. Invest your time in a small group Bible study. Have friends over for coffee and Bible discussion. Sing and listen to Scripture songs. Read good theology. Tape memory verses to the dashboard of your car. And pray throughout your day. I always reserve the drive to church on Sundays as a time of uninterrupted prayer for my pastors and elders, for those leading worship, and for the peace and purity of the church. Certain landmarks around town remind me to pray for certain churches, Christians I know, or causes God says are important. I suspect I spend more time praying in my car than on my knees. (Though I love praying on my knees as a concrete display of my dependence on God, I can’t do this in my car without causing an accident.)

If you have a regular quiet time, don’t stop. You’ve found a wonderful way to meditate on Scripture. You’ve set aside a specific time to call upon God in prayer. But if the quiet time doesn’t work for you, that’s okay. You should not feel guilty since you have not broken a commandment. The quiet time is an option, a good idea—not a biblical mandate. If the quiet time isn’t working for you, there are other options as well. All of them are good ones. The key is to rely on God to accomplish his plans, a reliance expressed in prayer and fed in Scripture. You have all kinds of opportunities to call upon God in prayer and to meditate upon his word. He loves you and delights in your expressions of weakness and dependence. He is glorified in your weakness.


6. The Theology of Prayer: Means of Grace
So what exactly does prayer do? That’s the question I’m often asked. There are several wrong answers to this question. Some assume that prayer furnishes God with the information he lacks. God doesn’t view it that way. He not only knows what’s going on now, he knows what will be going on next week. Indeed, he even ordained what will be going on next week, the Bible speaks of “the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Eph 1:11).

Neither is prayer an attempt to convince God to do what he wouldn’t otherwise do. He will grant our requests only insofar as they accord with his eternal purpose—his will. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 Jn 5:14-15).

And I hope we’ve dismissed the idea that prayer shows God how much we love him! It’s not a work, but a grace! But often we think that prayer is something we do to obligate God to bless us. This is the subtlest of errors, for it resembles the biblical teaching. Indeed, it is a caricature of the biblical picture of prayer. Grace-empowered, grace-motivated prayer does bring blessing, but prayer isn’t a work we do that obligates God to give blessing. It’s a subtle difference, but an important one. Prayer is a means of grace, not a work to merit grace.

Theologians have classically called prayer and Scripture (along with the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper) means of grace—highways along which the Holy Spirit tends to travel. The means of grace are the normal instruments God uses to accomplish his saving work in and through us. Does prayer change things? Yes, because God changes things, and prayer is an expression of our reliance upon him to accomplish his purposes.

I remember about six months ago calling upon God in prayer about my finances. Starting a not-for-profit teaching ministry is hard work, and church missions committees would often rather support a missionary doing evangelism than one who is training believers. One evening I called out to God with great urgency. After a year of support raising and teaching, I could still only afford to teach half-time while working another job, and even the funds that had enabled that year of half-teaching were almost all gone. “Father, this is your ministry, not mine. If you have raised me up for this, then something must change. I cannot go without food. I cannot fail to pay my rent. If you wish me to teach, you must grant the resources to do this. If you do not enable me to teach, I will not teach. Apart from you I can do nothing.”

Was I manipulating God by threatening to stop teaching? No. And being a sovereign God, he wouldn’t have been impressed. Rather, I was confessing to God my utter and total dependence on him to fund my work.

The next day, after eight months without any new support, a new friend took me out for coffee and told me he felt compelled to support me at $100/month. That same day, I received a note from an old friend in another part of the country pledging monthly financial support. When I checked my email, I had received a message from a member of my church who had since moved away, telling me a $1200 check was in the mail.

Did my prayer force God’s hand? No. All of this was already in the works long before I prayed. But when I confessed my neediness to God, he was pleased to provide for me. Prayer was the means of grace, not a work I offered for reward. And God was glorified in my weakness. God is faithful to hear our prayers, and he delights in answering them. Prayer is one of the basic freedoms Christians have, and freedoms aren’t given to leave us in bondage. There is a cure for Quiet Time Guilt. That cure is the gospel of Christ, in whom we have redemption. Gospel—our need and God’s provision—is the heart of biblical prayer. God will care for us. We belong to him.

True Spirituality

Last Sunday, I finished reading "True Spirituality" by Francis Schaeffer. It helped me think through issues such as what the New Testament means when we read repeated references to our dying with Christ and rising with Him.

The book was written in 1971. Some of Francis Schaeffer's concerns in this book sound prophetic when read 36 years later. In my next few blog entries, I'll be providing quotes from this book and my comments in relation to those quotes. Let me leave you with this quote now:

May I put it like this? If I woke up tomorrow morning and found that all that the Bible teaches concerning prayer and the Holy Spirit were removed (not as a liberal would remove it, by misinterpretation, but really removed) what difference would it make in practice from the way we are functioning today? The simple tragic fact is that in much of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ – the evangelical Church – there would be no difference whatsoever. (Page 171)

Thanksgiving Day

Today's entry is an encore from last Thanksgiving:

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

In our nation's history, we look back to the 1620s in New England for the custom of setting aside a day for recognizing the blessings which God has given to us and to thank Him accordingly. Those festivals of thanks were typically preceded by days of fasting and humbling to seek God's favor and direction in difficult circumstances. Over the years, there were periodic celebrations of Thanksgiving, such as occurred in 1789 during the first year of George Washington's Presidency under our current Constitution. (The text of Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving proclamation can be found at: http://www.leaderu.com/humanities/washington-thanksgiving.html)

The concept of giving thanks to God is found throughout the Bible. (The Psalms are filled with praises of thanks to God). There is a dual sense to these biblical references to thankfulness. One sense is that of physical provision. We do know that all good gifts come to us from God. (See James 1:17). It is our duty to recognize that we are not the ultimate source of our physical well-being but God Himself. The second sense is that of the spiritual dimension. It is the recognition that God has done more than keep us warm and well-fed. For those who have faith in Christ, we are called to be those who are:

joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. Colossians 1:11-13 NIV

In the hustle and bustle of this day, please take the time to think about the blessings which you have received from God and be thankful for them. While this day is certainly a great time to express our gratitude to God, the Christian is called to show this attitude every day. It should be a part of our thinking and result in a life of gratitude. It must be a part of our life of prayer.

Thank you for reading this blog and being a part of the School of the Solitary Place.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Colossians 4:2 NIV

Boiler Rooms

The 19th century was known as the age of steam. It was during that time that the steam engine was developed. Steam became synonymous with power. The English preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) also known as the prince of preachers, credited what success he had in preaching to those in his congregation who gathered together in the church's boiler room for prayer. Spurgeon acknowledged that that physical boiler room was also a source of spiritual power.

Since then, the "boiler room" concept has spread as a way of praying for one's church and its' pastors. An example of how this idea has been picked up by the 24/7 Prayer movement can be found here. Our congregation has recently started something of a boiler room prayer for our pastor. We have been blessed with a godly pastor who takes time between the hours of 3:30am to 6:00am to pray in preparation for that day's teaching and preaching. Our prayer small group has started praying for our pastor during that time. While we are not physically present with our pastor during this time, several of us wake up and pray for an hour at our own homes during that 2.5 hour window of time.

Please consider praying for your pastor on a regular basis. Also, let your pastor know that you're doing this. You might be surprised at the response of gratitude you will receive.

150th Anniversary of the Fulton Street Revival

One hundred fifty years ago today, a prayer meeting started in New York City which was a catalyst for a worldwide revival. A lay missionary named Jeremiah Lanphier started a one hour prayer meeting in a room at the Old Dutch Reformed Church in lower Manhattan. He designed the time for the prayer meeting to coincide with lunch time for the workers in the area. During that first hour-long meeting, Lanphier was the only one in attendance. However, by 1pm, there were six others who joined.

The attendance at the weekly meeting grew rapidly. Within months, there were similar prayer meetings all over New York City. Within six months, prayer meetings were being held all over the United States in such cities as Philadelphia and Detroit. The newspapers of the the time noted these meetings. A brief mention of the revival in Detroit can be found in the March 3, 1858 edition of the Detroit Daily Free Press. The following is a copy of the text of that day’s article:

RELIGIOUS REVIVALS – There is an interesting religious revival at the Woodward Avenue M.E. [Methodist Episcopal] Church of which Rev. Mr. Blades is pastor – Meetings are held every evening at 7 o’clock. About fifty persons have been added to the church within the past four weeks, more than three fourths of whom are heads of families.

There is also a revival at the First Presbyterian Church (Rev. Dr. Duffield’s.) Prayer meetings are held morning and evening.

As the interest in the revival, church buildings were no longer the only sites of the prayer meetings. The New York Times of March 20, 1858 reported:

Churches are crowded; bank-directors rooms become oratories; school houses are turned into chapels.

Places associated with worldliness became sites of prayer. One example was Burton’s Theatre in New York. The Times’ account stated:

Instead of noisy laughter, excited by play-actors, in low comedy and farce, those present listen quietly and seriously to earnest words from earnest men on the most solemn and earnest of themes.

Over the next few years, the revival spread through the United States, Canada, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England, Australia, South Africa and other countries. In 1859, Dr. B. Evans delivered a lecture in Scarborough, England, entitled ‘The American Revivals’. It recounted the details of the revival in the United States. Evans observed:

The work originated with, and has been sustained by, prayer. This is its universal characteristic; and the fact admits of no doubt.

Evans asked his audience to ponder several questions. First, he asked: ‘Do we need such a revival, such manifest and manifold tokens of the power of the Divine Spirit?’ His implicit answer was ‘yes.’ He pointed to opportunities to spread the Gospel in previously closed lands such as China, Japan and the ‘wilds of Africa.’ Yet, English society had devolved into ignorance and indifference. Evans painfully noted:

Upon millions in this land of ours religious truth has exerted no saving influence. …Glance for a moment at the majority in our congregations, gradually ripening for perdition under the ministry of the Word, perishing amidst the atmosphere of prayer, and dying within sight of the fountain of healing and eternal life!

Evans further asked: ‘If a revival is needed, the second question I would ask is not less vital and thrilling in its interest—can we have one?’ He answered his question with another: ‘Why not?’ He reminded his hearers that God is not the God of America only. His shower of revival blessings was not exhausted upon America and Canada.

His third and final question: ‘Will you seek one [revival]?’ He challenged his audience to adopt the thinking that ‘Holier and higher motives must prompt our actions, and mould our character.’

Perhaps the main and telling feature of the spread of the prayer revival was that when Christians heard about the revival in other places, they did not treat the news as merely some point of quaint interest. They desired the same blessing of revival in prayer for their land. As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Fulton Street Revival and the triggering of a worldwide revival in the English-speaking world, I pray that we who read this account will be moved to a holy desire to see such revival visited upon our nations in the early 21st century.

If you wish to read more about the prayer revivals of 1857, may I suggest that you read the article Prayer Revivals and the Third Great Awakening in the Evangelical Review of Theology (Volume 31, No. 1 - January 2007)

The inset picture is a photograph of Jeremiah Lanphier, seated in the prayer room at the Old Dutch Reformed Church in New York City.

A Flashing or Occulting Prayer Life?

During the summer, we had the chance to spend some time at my in-laws cottage in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. From their deck which faces toward the water (a bay in the Les Chenaux Islands), you can see a marker buoy straight-away in the distance. At night, you can see the buoy's location by its' flashing light.

I happened to find out a little more about marker buoys this summer. Turns out that there are basically two different types of buoys which display a light at night. One type is the kind in front of my in-laws' place. It is a buoy that displays a light very briefly and then remains dark otherwise (i.e. 1 second of light, 5 seconds of darkness).

This is a flashing buoy. The other kind is an occulting buoy. No, this doesn't have anything to do with the occult (i.e. sorcery, etc). It is based on the fact that occulting means "darkening". That type of buoy will remain lit with brief moments of the light going dark (i.e. 5 seconds of light; 1 second of darkness).

The reason that I bring this up is that this type of arrangement for the lighting of a buoy reminds me of the type of prayer lives we can display before God. Do we stay "dark" most of the time with a little bit of a brilliant prayer life? Or is our life manifest by ongoing prayer with few times that we "go dark"? I am learning that our prayer lives don't need to be confined to only specific times in the day. We need to cultivate an attitude of prayer in which we are more and more sensing the presence of God and able to communicate to Him in pray even beyond our usual times with him. My pastor raised a good example of this several years ago. He mentioned that while driving through a very rundown section of the Detroit area, my pastor instantly "lit up' in prayer to ask God what His thoughts were concerning the human condition in this part of town.

Does our light in prayer continue to shine or is God waiting for it to briefly light up in the darkness?

Persecution of Christians

I have been reading an account of the revival which took place in Korea exactly one hundred years ago in 1907. It is entitled "When The Spirit's Fire Swept Korea" by Dr. Jonathan Goforth (1859-1936) who was an eye-witness of the wonders which happened there . The text can be found here.

The account is a wonderful chronicle of God's Holy Spirit moving among the people of Korea in the first decade of the 20th century. At one point though, Dr. Goforth made reference to the "persecution of Christians." I found this reference quite extraordinary.

When we typically think of the persecution of Christians, we think of our Christian sisters and brothers around the world who are suffering for their faith in Christ. (See this site for more information about this). However, Goforth was not referring to persecution of Christians but rather persecution by Christians. Even in this instance, he was not referring to such aberrations and sins as the Inquistion.

Rather, Jonathan Goforth was referring to the strong and powerful witness of those Koreans who were new and bold in their Christian faith and how that strong and effective witness was burdensome to those who were not believers in Christ. Goforth wrote:

A burning zeal to make known the merits of the Saviour was a special mark of the Church at Pentecost. The same is not less true of the Korean Church. It was said that the heathen complained that they could not endure the persecution of the Christians. They were evermore telling of the strong points of their Saviour. Some declared they would have to sell out and move to some district where there were no Christians, in order to get rest.

Quite candidly, I had never heard of such a thing before reading this today. Could it be said of us that our witness for Christ was so strong that those who refused to repent and believe in Christ felt so convicted and burdened that they needed to leave?

(The photograph is of Jonathan Goforth and his wife Rosalind).

Revivals and Prayerlessness

I came across this quote last week. I think it speaks volumes.

"It is my conviction that we are never going to have revival until God has brought the church of Jesus Christ to the point of desperation. As long as Christians people can trust religious organization, material wealth, popular preaching, shallow evangelistic crusades and promotion drives, there will never be revival. But when confidence in the flesh is smashed, and the church comes to the realization of her desperate wretchedness, blindness and nakedness before God, then and only then will God breathe in. Yes, there must be the point of desperation but there must also be the point of intercession. Oh, that God would bring us to this place of intercession! We cannot think or talk, let alone taste of revival, without intercessory prayer. Indeed, the reason for an unrevived church in the last analysis is the sin of prayerlessness."

Stephen Olford (1918-2004)

A Happy Independence Day to my American readers.

Listening to Ravenhill and Ryle

MP3 players and similar devices (i.e. IPod) can be a real blessing. I have been using my mp3 player to listen to some wonderful works concerning revival and holiness. I've listened to a section of a book called Holiness (considered by many to be a devotional classic) by Anglican Bishop J.C. Ryle (1816-1900) [pictured here]. The section has to do with the faith of Moses and what Moses gave up to be a true follower of God. You can listen to or download what I've been listening to from here.

I've also been listening to a radio interview conducted with Leonard Ravenhill (1907-1994), an English revivalist. The interview took place back in 1983. Despite a scant number of references which date the interview, its contents are just as relevant now as they were back in 1983. You can listen to them or download them from here.

Ravenhill had great insight regarding prayer and revival. Some thoughts of his can be found on the webpage for Prayer at http://www.ravenhill.org/prayer.htm A recurring theme with Ravenhill was the concept of desperate prayer before the Lord. He said:

C. H. Spurgeon was converted at the age of 16 and began preaching in London at the age of 19. When he was 27, they built him a tabernacle seating 6,000 which he packed twice on Sundays - that's 12,000 - and once on Thursday nights. How? He waited on God. He got alone with God. He studied...and he prayed.

God makes all His best people in loneliness. Do you know what the secret of praying is? Praying in secret. "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door..." (Matt. 6:6). You can't show off when the door's shut and nobody's there. You can't display your gifts. You can impress others, but you can't impress God.

A Green Cathedral With A Sky Blue Dome

As the weather gets warmer (at least here in southeastern Michigan), you may want to consider expanding the locations in which you pray to include an outdoor location. This is something found throughout the Bible and in church history.

Isaac, the son of Abraham, is recorded as meditating in a field (Genesis 24:63). The Lord Jesus is known to have prayed outdoors (Mark 1:35) and seemed to be fond especially of praying on a mountain (Matthew 14:23; Luke 9:28). We find in the book of Acts that a praying community in Philippi met by a riverside (Acts 16:13). In 18th century America, Jonathan Edwards would walk in a field or in a forest for a time of prayer and contemplation on the things of God.

The outdoors are, of course, a part of God's creation, They reflect the beauty of His holiness and the depths of His creative thought. My family and I are blessed to have an 11 acre forest as a part of our backyard. Due to its size, I have referred to it as the "green cathedral". We have also been blessed to be able to visit my in-laws' place in the eastern part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula for a week's stay during the summer. On a clear night, the starry dome of the sky automatically lends itself to prayer. While the original ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome was painted with a starry background, I suspect no human-built place of worship can exceed having the actual stars as the ceiling above you.

As opportunity permits, take advantage of this original and most beautiful of worship sites, the very creation which God Himself made.

A Personal Retreat

Today, I took the day off for a personal prayer retreat. There have been a number of items which I have been trying to work through spiritually. I sensed that I needed some time away with the Lord. I was able to arrange staying at a retreat center during the day.

It was a truly blessed time. Upon my arrival at the retreat center, for a moment, I had a sense of guilt about taking the whole day off work for this. There are so many things to be done. Yet, I very quickly reminded myself that seeking God first in my life is not something to be done second. My body may not have needed a day of vacation but my soul did.

Although I did encounter a few people during the day, it was truly a time of silence and solitude. In the morning, I read through the devotional reading (Zechariah 2) for today with the printed guide that I use called Encounter With God (published by Scripture Union here in the U.S. and also in Great Britain). I also read through the letter to the Philippians, with a special emphasis on Chapter 3 and its' call for us to put the past behind us and look ahead to the heavenly and upward call of Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14). I really sensed during that time this morning that God wants me to slow down my Bible reading and spend more time on meditation. I do not merit favor with God if I complete a reading the Bible in one year. I do obtain grace in pondering over the text and seeking how to apply it to my life.

I was able to spend quite a bit of time in prayer in the chapel at the retreat center. My prayers centered in on trying to develop and deepen my relationship with God in Christ as well as deepen my relationship to those around me, particularly my immediate family. One of my prayers was based on the response to God by Thomas Aquinas about three months before Thomas died. God is to have said that Thomas wrote well of him (his literary output for a low tech society and not having quite lived to the age of 50 is utterly amazing). Thomas said that all he wanted was "You, Lord." That has been my prayer as well. I prayed to put ambition (even if seemingly noble in the cause of Christ) in the "back seat" and prayed to seek God as my prize and may really pray that

"I [may] count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:8 NASB)

At lunchtime, which I had in silence, was occupied with reading some devotional material which I had printed earlier, some from the Logoscentric blogsite as well as reading about Christ's priesthood in text taken from the book "A Body of Divinity" by the 17th century Puritan minister Thomas Watson. He is one of my favorite authors to read as he had a writing style which used comparisons from Scripture or nature to make a point. He could turn a phrase with the best that I have read. For example, in speaking of the sin which Jesus bore for us on the Cross, Watson wrote:

The sight of Christ’s bleeding body should incense us against sin. Let us not parley with it; let not that be our joy, which made Christ a man of sorrow

or

The balm-tree weeps out its precious balm, to heal those that cut and mangle it; so Christ shed his blood, to heal those that crucified him. He died freely.

It was a warm, beautiful clear day so I walked the grounds at the center for some of my prayer time and spent an hour sitting by a rather quickly flowing large creek. While sitting by the creek, I read from George Marsden's biography of Jonathan Edwards (Jonathan Edwards - A Life).

Also, I spent some time in my room and then in the library working on the some writing which I needed to do (I decided to spend at least two nights a month in writing a book which I've had rattling around in my mind and spirit for the last few months on the topic of restoration as found in the Bible).

The day was such a tremendous blessing. I am grateful that the same God who let me sample just a little of the peace of eternity during the retreat is the same God I meet in prayer everyday outside the retreat.

While not everyone's schedule and circumstances allow for this kind of daylong retreat, I highly recommend for you to try to find (or make) the time to do this. It is a great way to deepen your relationship to God in Christ.

(Photo courtesy of www.heartlight.org)

Weights and Measures

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV

Notice the distinction between "every weight" and "sin which clings so closely." There are some things we are called to put off which are not, of and by themselves, sinful by nature. An interesting commentary on this passage is found in "Way Into the Holiest" by F.B. Meyer(1847-1929). In Chapter XXVII, Meyer wrote:

WE MUST RUN FREE OF WEIGHTS. This speed can only be maintained when we run unencumbered and free. Now, of course we would all admit the necessity of divesting ourselves of sins; but in all our lives there are weights which are not sins. A sin is that which in its very nature, and always, and by whomsoever perpetrated, is a transgression of God's law, a violation of God's will. But a weight is something which in itself or to another may be harmless, or even legitimate, but in our own case is a hindrance and an impediment.

Every believer must be left to decide what is his own special weight. We may not judge for one another. What is a weight to one is not so to all. But the Holy Spirit, if he be consulted and asked to reveal the hindrance to the earnestness and speed of the soul's progress in divine things, will not fail to indicate it swiftly and infallibly. And this is the excellence of the Holy Spirit's teaching: it is ever definite. If you have a general undefined feeling of discouragement, it is probably the work of the great enemy of souls; but if you are aware of some one hindrance and encumbrance which stays your speed, it is almost certainly the work of the divine Spirit, who is leading you to relinquish something which is slackening your progress in the spiritual life.

No man would think of maintaining a high speed encompassed with weights. The lads who run for a prize litter the course with garments flung away in their eager haste. There would be little difficulty in maintaining an intense and ardent spirit if we were more faithful in dealing with the habits and indulgences which cling around us and impede our steps. Thousands of Christians are like water-logged vessels. They cannot sink; but they are so saturated with inconsistencies and worldliness and permitted evil that they can only be towed with difficulty into the celestial port.

Is there anything in your life which dissipates your energy from holy things, which disinclines you to the practice of prayer and Bible study, which rises before you in your best moments, and produces in you a general sense of uneasiness and disturbance? something which others account harmless, and permit, and in which you once saw no cause for anxiety, but which you now look on with a feeling of self-condemnation? It is likely enough a weight."

I also found a related blog entry here. The blog entry is a commentary on and application to Psalm 101:3 and the topic of "worthless things." How often do our best intentions get derailed when things which have no real enduring value in the scheme of eternity absorb time which could have been used in Bible study, prayer, Christian service to others? This is something which has become more and more evident in my Christian walk. For many years after my coming to Christ in faith back in 1984, I spent a lot of time in doing research to refute certain distinctive doctrines of the church in which I grew upapologetics. I kept telling myself that I was doing this to help family members who were still a part of that church. Only about two years ago did I realize that I have been spending way too much time in this endeavor. It was at that time that I knew I could logically demonstrate my case but without the Holy Spirit opening up hearts and minds, no one would listen. My prayer life suffered and has only really recovered in the last year.

Keep in mind that what I was doing was not only not evil but could definitely glorify God. However, it ended up sucking away irreplacible time and screwing up my prayer life. It was definitely a weight which I needed to throw off (or at least radically reduce) to run the race which Christ is calling me to run.

Pray for the wisdom to know what your weights and worthless things are. Truly this must be done with wisdom. It would be easy for myself or someone else to develop a list of "never do the following...." as a kind of holiness code. However, church history shows us, from the Pharisees of Christ's time to individuals today, when one makes up a list of dos & don'ts, we can easily default our thinking and actions to conform with the list rather than conforming to Christ. We might think that if something is not on the list, it's automatically okay.

One help in this may be found in a resolution written by Jonathan Edwards in the early 1720s. In his 7th Resolution, Edwards wrote:"Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life. Our time on Earth is short. I realize this more and more with each passing year. I turned 51 last month. Those years have seemed to go by so quickly. Yet, I have been blessed to make it to at least 51. Many others in human history never got this far in their earthly years. This should be a sobering reminder about asking the Lord to teach us to live our lives redeeming the time which we have.

Please don't take this entry as a "let's put on a hairshirt and have no more fun for as long we live" rant. However, this does require wisdom from God. Are we spending excessive time and money in some pursuit, which, in the eternal scheme of things, is of little or no value. My first application comes immediately. Being a hockey fan and relishing the fact that my hometown Detroit Red Wings have made it to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I'll need to ask myself if I'm spending too much time in following the Red Wings during this playoff season.

Lastly, while non-useful items to the Christian are considered a weight, there is a weight which we need to involve ourselves in. 2 Corinthians 4:7 tells us: "For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison". A verse such as this is a poignant reminder to keep eternity in mind in how we use our time here and now.

The Core of Our Faith

Today is Good Friday. It is during this weekend, during the days of Maundy/Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday that we remember the core events of the Christian faith. It is during this time that we remember the start of the practice of the Lord's Supper which is continued to this day as a remembrance of the Lord Jesus' sacrifice of Himself on the cross for our sins.

We remember the events of Good Friday and the incomprehensible price paid by Christ to free us of our sins. On Sunday, we will remember the raising back to life of Jesus in His body. It is both a continuity and a discontinuity. Scripture is clear that this is the same body in which Christ died. Yet, this body has been more than revived. It has been given a life which will never end. (The implications of this are staggering. From that day of resurrection right up to today and beyond, Jesus Christ has been and IS alive in bodily form, the first human being to do so).

Prayer played a large part in these events which happened in real time and space. On Thursday night, Christ offered up prayers to be spared the suffering of the cross if possible. Yet, His prayers brought Him to the place of accepting God the Father's will for Him. On Friday, Christ speaks few words. He is mostly silent. Yet, in the midst of a physical and spiritual agony that none of us could possibly imagine, He prayed that those who were crucifying Him would be forgiven.

In your prayers this weekend, may I suggest that you thank God for Jesus Christ. What Christ did on the cross cleared the way for us to have the confidence to approach God in prayer. The veil separating God and humanity was ripped in two that day. In Christ, we have access to God and the life which truly is life.

The School of the Solitary Place wishes you a blessed Holy Weekend. (The picture is Rembrandt's "Raising of the Cross" c. 1633)

The Holy Name of the Lord

The Bible shows us that God is in an "other" category. He is unique, with no predecessor or follower or rival (Isaiah 43:10). His thoughts are infinitely above ours. Thus, we should not be surprised that His priorities differ radically from ours as well.

We see an example of this as we reflect upon the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) .We find that immediately after calling upon God as Father, the first request concerns the Name of God: "hallowed be your name" (Matthew 6:9 ESV). This is a solid reminder that in light of our day-to-day needs, many of which are real and some are imagined, the asking of God for those needs is not His first priority. The reverencing of the name of God, rather than our need, is understood as primary. Like His glory, God's Name, in Christ, is above all other names (Philippians 2:9). Like His glory, God must logically promote the honoring of His Name above all other things since nothing is greater.

An interesting term for prayer can be found early on in the text of the Bible. In Genesis 4:26, we find prayer being described in relational terms as the time when "men began to call upon the name of the LORD." In the Proverbs, God's Name is likened to a strong tower to which we may flee for refuge (Proverbs 18:10). In the Psalms, there are around 110 references in which all but a handful refer to the Name of the Lord. This brief section from Psalm 86 demonstrates this so clearly:

There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,

nor are there any works like yours.

All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord,

and shall glorify your name.

For you are great and do wondrous things;

you alone are God.

Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth;

unite my heart to fear your name.

I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,

and I will glorify your name forever.

Understanding the Lord's priority in having His Name reverenced and regarded as holy may give us a new perspective on how our culture mistreats the Name of the Lord God. Unfortunately, there is much in our culture which violates God's known will. Numerous examples from the media can be presented which we know are offensive to God. Consider that we live in an age in which images which would have been considered pornographic a generation ago are now used in everyday commercials and advertising. Without diminishing that measure of a moral slide downward, I do wonder if the common misuse of God's Name and that of Christ, in swearing or even simple exclamations, offend God more than the raciest images found in television, movies and magazines of today. Even in television programs that could be considered family viewing, how many times does the even mindless uttering of "Oh my God" cross the lips of so many.

As you read through this entry, reflect on what it means to call upon the Name of the Lord and to honor His Name as holy. It may be a topic to which we've given little thought. To the Lord God, it is a vastly and infinitely important priority. It must be ours as well.