Right Weeping

In Nehemiah 1:4 we read: “When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

When I read this, my first question was, “Do I weep over what causes the Lord to weep?”  Is what moves me to tears important to Him?  I don’t think He cares much about Hallmark movies.  I rather doubt that He is concerned about the outcome of the football games I watch.

On the other hand, I read that He wants us to abide in His Word.  I read in Jeremiah 23 (Here at Bible Gateway), that when the leadership of Israel did not abide in His Word, He was moved by that – seemed angry – wept?

In Matthew 28:18 – 20 (Here at Bible Gateway), He wants us to make disciples of all the nations, when we are not focused on that, it would seem that He would respond much as He did with the leaders in Jeremiah.

Nehemiah takes it up a notch in 1:6b: "…I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned."  Nehemiah knew that the nation had drifted away from what God wanted them to do.  His response was to pray, confess, not just once, but day and night.  He took it seriously.  

How are we doing as a Church?  Either globally or locally?  Are we abiding in His Word?  Are we obeying His commission?  Are we representing Him well to the lost?  Or are we more interested in pleasing ourselves, making ourselves comfortable in our meetings and events?

Nehemiah ends with this in 8 – 9: “Remember the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the peoples; but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them…”  Note that Nehemiah is basing his petition to the Lord on the Word of God, the promise of God.  

It seems that if we are to follow Nehemiah’s example, we will pray not just for ourselves or our needs but for the Church both globally and locally to do what the Lord wants done.  Further, when we see that the Church is not following what the Lord commands, then we will with Him weep.

Dealing with Terror

A few months back Ezra 3:3 was in my reading project.  There we read, “So they set up the altar on its foundation, for they were terrified because of the peoples of the lands; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD, burnt offerings morning and evening.

Israel was getting resistance to their project of rebuilding the temple.  Those who were in the land that were not Israelites, wee not all that eager to have the temple rebuilt.  Even though they had the support of the king, he was in Babylon, they were in Jerusalem.  The resistance was real.

So, they dealt with it by building an altar and made offerings to the Lord morning and evening.  They wanted the support of the Lord.

Romans 15:4 (Here at Bible Gateway) tells us that the things that were written in earlier times, read that as the Old Testament, were written for our instruction.  What can we learn from this?

We no longer make burnt offerings, so what can we do when our projects for the Lord are challenged?  Consider Revelation 8:3 – 4 (Here at Bible Gateway) and Romans 8:26, 34 (Here at Bible Gateway).  Note that the prayers of the saints are on a golden altar before the throne of God.  Note also that there is an angel who adds incense to our prayer.  It looks like a burnt offering.  Note also that the Spirit takes our prayers and speaks to God on our behalf and at the same time the Son is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us.

That would make our, my feeble prayers seem to have more impact.  So our response to challenges to what God wants us to do, is both simple and hard.  Simple – pray.  Hard – we have to pray.

Navigating Tempests

Have you ever been disoriented?  Confused by your current circumstances?  Perhaps it was a diagnosis that knocked your world off center?  Perhaps it was a betrayal by a close friend?  Perhaps getting removed from a job or career in which you found great joy and satisfaction?  What do we do when that happens?

Acts 1:14 (Here at Bible Gateway) may give us some help and direction.

The followers of Jesus had just experienced all their hopes and dreams evaporate with the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus.  Then, three days later, He rose from the grave.  He was with them for a short time and then they watched as he ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father.  Now what?  What would happen next in this crazy journey?  Note well what they did and notice the structural markers:

• These all (emphatic)
• With (Instrumentation points to the means) one (number – indicates unity ) mind
• Were continually (Temporal)
• Devoting themselves to (Locative – in the sense of what they were focused on)
• Prayer (Instrumentation end – the purpose of the unity)

They did not know what was going to happen next or how it was going to be revealed or how it was going to affect them.  So, their response?  Let us pray.

Perhaps we should too.

Sharing the Truth

Jenny and I are traveling.  We landed in Vancouver this morning, or afternoon, depending on which time zone one referenced.  We got up a 0345 to catch a 0601 flight.  We are touring the Canadian Rockies.  To get to the first hotel, we were provided with a chauffeur driving an Escalade.  His name was “Joe” and he was from Uganda.

We talked with Joe all the way to the hotel.  He asked me to guess where he was from I guessed Africa but got the wrong country.  He was intrigued with the number of countries I had been to in Africa and asked why.  I told him I worked with pastors equipping them to study the Word.  He noted that he appreciated anyone that worked at helping other humans – an interesting way to put that.

He was also intrigued with Jenny’s Alabama accent.  He thought she would be an effective public speaker – which, in fact, she is.

About 15 minutes into the conversation I asked him where he was in his spiritual journey.  He responded that it was a complicated question.  I agreed.  We then talked about different aspects of his journey and he asked some really good questions, for one of which I did not have a really good answer.

While we had a great time with Joe, I did not get to the issue and ask enough directly if he knew for certain what would happen with him when he died.  Before I could get to that we were at the hotel.  I failed to get to the meat, but perhaps gave him some things to think about.  I should have given him one of my cards so we could contact one another.  I will chalk that oversight up to fatigue, but I should have done better.

The point in sharing this is at least two fold.  

First it isn’t hard to get people talking about themselves.  I have had similar conversations with multiple Uber drivers during my treks to MD Anderson.  They will share something that they are struggling with, and I will ask them how they are dealing with that trauma, looking for a way to steer the conversation to the gospel.  I have found that almost always they are willing to talk about struggles.

Second, I do not always do this right.  I didn’t get to the gospel with Joe, and I haven’t gotten there with many of the Uber drivers.  I got closer with Joe, using the question about his spiritual journey, but I did not get where I was trying to go.

When we begin to talk with someone, it seems to me that there should be a pull to share the gospel with them.  Jude 22–23 (NASB95) says, “And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.”  Each time we get into a conversation with a stranger, we can apply this passage.  However, it is reality that we may not always get there.  We should be in prayer about doing this before, when, and after.

I am writing this to me as much as I am to you.

Extending Overwhelming Grace

In about 1995, the company I was working with had a blood drive.  I had never given blood, but I decided, with some prodding by my coworkers, to join the blood drive.  Nearly passed out when I gave that first pint.  

Some time later I was contacted by the Red Cross and informed that I was O negative, CMV negative.  That meant absolutely nothing to me.  They then informed me that not only was I a universal donor but because of the CMV negative – by the way CMV is Cytomegalovirus, it is a highly contagious and most people have it, it can cause problems in babies, more on that in a bit – because I did not have CMV they told me that they would use my blood with burn victims and also divide it into four parts and give it to newborns who were in need of a transfusion.  

So, from that point on I was called by the Red Cross every 60 days to give blood.  After 9/11 I called to see if I could give blood.  The person that answered said they had enough in stock.  I told them that I was O negative, CMV negative.  “When can you come in?” was the response.

When I was diagnosed with Lymphoma that ended my blood donor status.  Up to that point I had given 8 gallons of blood.

I have shared before that when I started treatment for cancer I began to ask those who were taking care of me how I could pray for them.  In August of 2021,  I was given the sixth maintenance round of chemo.  They were two days.  On the second day it is about a six-hour infusion.  On the second day I asked my nurse how I could pray for her.  I knew from previous prayer requests that she was pregnant and had delivered her baby.  She told me that she had contracted CMV just as she had become pregnant from her first child.  He got it in day care – day care is one of the more frequent places CMV is passed on.  She had a C-section at 37 weeks.  CMV when passed on congenitally can cause birth defects.  In this case it did.  Her son could not hear or see and has some brain development issues.  I found myself nearly in tears over this.  I shared about giving blood.

The thing that really got me was that my youngest son and his wife had just had their second child 5 weeks earlier.  Their first child, like my nurse's, had been in day care.  The situation was identical, but my grandson had not contracted CMV and given it to his pregnant mother. 

Romans 12.15 came to mind: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”  This was one of those times that I felt completely helpless.  I hurt for her, and at the same time rejoiced that my son’s wife had been in an identical situation and was spared, our family was spared, that challenge.

As I review this, I know that at some point I will be back in the cancer center getting chemo again.  I – look forward is not quite right – anticipate seeing this nurse again or at least getting an update from one of the other nurses.  I am interested in how she is dealing with this and how the Lord has supported her and her family.  

As believers we are to engage with people that are hurting.  We are to move toward them.  We are to extend the grace that we have been given and love them.  In some cases, like this one, it may mean we hurt with them, weep with them, pray for them.  In others it may mean that we engage in other ways.  The point is Jesus is our model, He engaged with hurting, broken, sinners.  He healed, encouraged, and wept.

So should we. 

Healing?

Have you ever read anything in the Bible and thought, “I wish He would do that for me”?  I have.  

Look at Psalm 103:3 – 5 (here at Bible Gateway), He:

1. Pardons all my iniquities, 
2. Heals all my diseases; 
3. Redeems my life from the pit, 
4. Crowns me with lovingkindness and compassion; 
5. Satisfies my years with good things, So that my youth is renewed like the eagle. 

Last time I read that, I was recovering from Covid, was facing the last two maintenance rounds of chemo.  One of my pastors said you have four things that have a side effect of fatigue, cancer, chemo, covid, and Cunningham…  He thought that was really funny…

When I read this, my response is, “Lord can you do this for me?  Will you?”  It is without question that He can.  

However, I have reacted to the way “healers” demand healing that has made me think or has given me a mindset that makes me hesitant to ask Him or believe that He would heal me.

The cancer I have is incurable, but He can cure it.  Will He?  He can cure all of the ailments I have.  He can cure all of the ailments that my love ones have either faced or are dealing with now.  He can, but, will He?

The pull is to look for the right words or behavior that will get His attention.  But that overlooks Psalm 139 (here at Bible Gateway) and Ephesians 2:10 (here at Bible Gateway), does it not?

So, how does one approach this?  Is it not to trust Him with whatever He choses to do?  Knowing and trusting that what He chooses is best.  Isn’t that what Paul does in 2 Corinthians 12:9 – 10 (here at Bible Gateway)?

Vindication of His Name?

In the past year or so I have there have been several passages that have made me wonder about the way we approach our Father.  Here is a partial list:

• Psalm 79:1,12 (here @ BibleGateway)
• 2 Kings 19:14 – 19 (here @ BibleGateway)
• Ezekiel 36:22 – 32 (here @ BibleGateway)

The common thing in these is that the Lord’s name has been challenged or diminished by the actions of either those who are not His people or His people.  Is this a ground of approach to Him?  Do we come to Him on the basis of the fact that others have blasphemed Him and ask Him to redeem the greatness of His name?

In 1 Peter 2:4 – 12 (here @ BibleGateway) and Ephesians 2:19 – 22 (here @ BibleGateway) we are told that as believers we are being fitted together as a holy temple.  It is the case that we are to represent Him in this world.  We have been given the ministry of reconciliation 2 Corinthians 5:14 – 21 (here @ BibleGateway).  

How are we doing?  Should we come to Him in prayer and ask Him to act because by failing we are doing the same thing that Israel did in Ezekiel 36?  Should we ask Him to vindicate the holiness of His great name?

I find I am being pulled in that direction.

Facing the End?

Two days ago I wrote about the email from the LLS that told me that the chemo I was taking rendered the C19 vaccines useless for me.  I mentioned at the end of the post that 8 days later both my wife and I got the virus.  The day we found out we were exposed, My journal had a rather long entry.  Beyond what was in my reading, the Lord took me to the following passages:

• James 4:14 – 15 (here @ BibleGateway)
• Job 7:7a (here @ BibleGateway)
• Psalm 39:5 (here @ BibleGateway)
• Psalm 144:4 (here @ BibleGateway)
• Philippians 1:21 (here @ BibleGateway)
• 2 Corinthians 12:5b, 9 – 10 (here @ BibleGateway)

Note that they are all dealing with the brevity of life here.  I will let you work through how you respond to those passages.  I would encourage you to write your responses down somewhere you can remember and easily retrieve.  If you are up to it, share with me what the Lord showed you through those passages.

All that we had heard about the virus indicated that I was in the high-risk category.  The combination of cancer and chemo, with the result of a significantly compromised immune system, suggested that if I got the virus the outcome would not be that great.  “Coincidentally” I had intravenous immunoglobulin g the day before my wife tested positive.  That infusion takes about 5 – 6 hours and its purpose is to boost my immune system, to give me some resistance to bacteria and viruses.  After we tested positive, both of us got the monoclonal antibody infusion the next day.  

It was overwhelming how the Lord took care of us.  I only had one day where I felt really bad.  The day I go the monoclonal infusion.  They warned me that might be the case.  

Our Lord is gracious and good.

Up From Low Points

On the morning of September 22, I got an email from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS).  I have watched educational programs on line with LLS and with the International Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia Foundation (IWMF) to learn more about WM which is the Lymphoma I have.

My wife and I got the C19 vaccine as soon as we could, in January and February of 2021, Modera.  I got the booster in August.  The email told me that because I had been getting Rituxan as part of my chemo since May of 2020 that the vaccines would have zero effect on me.  The Rituxan kept my immune system from creating antibodies.  That was the first time I was really down about having the cancer.  It was frustrating.  I knew my immune system was trashed, that was one of the “benefits” of the cancer and the chemo.  But, we were told to get the vaccinations if perhaps they would give some protection.  Now, I had news that it didn’t.  

Another “benefit” of both WM and the treatment was fatigue.  My capacity was greatly diminished.  The Wednesday morning I got the email I had gone to bed about 11:30 Tuesday night and had overslept and woke up at 11:37 that morning.  In my journal I noted that I had only had 4 meetings Tuesday, 5 counting a doctor’s appointment.  Two were zoom, two Bible studies back-to-back, a face-to-face meeting with one of the pastors at our church, and a coffee with one of the small group leaders I serve.  That little bit of effort wiped me out.  

I had been asking for prayer from anyone who asked based on 2 Corinthians 12:9 – 10 that I would be well content and that His power would be perfected in my weakness.  So far…  I began to catalog all that I had lost, grieving, if you will:

• Strength
• Capacity
• Ability to work out
• Being around people
• Travel to help pastors in:
• Togo
• Morocco
• Cameron 
• Ethiopia 
• There was more…

Then I turned to the Word. Psalm 73:25 – 28 (here @ BibleGateway) was on my reading list for the day.  As He has time and time again He brought what I needed before my eyes just when I needed it.  You can read what I read.  What I wrote in my journal was, 

“The thing here is that as my flesh and strength fail, as they are, God is the, literal, rock of my heart.  The LXX (the Greek OT) has ‘The God of my heart’.  The sense would be that He is all I need, the foundation.  The implications of this seem to be that it is He that keeps me going.  He is the foundation – also that prayer becomes that more important.  I can’t travel, I can’t meet, but the Spirit is engaged.”

If and when you are down.  Turn to Him and His Word.

Epilog: Eight days later both my wife and I had Covid.

Growth by Praying for Others

I often ask others how I can be praying for them.  There is also another question I ask; I wrote about that here.  

A few weeks back, I asked a man for whom I have a lot of respect, how I could be praying for him.  He replied that he was anxious.  Later as I pondered his request – I want to be clear he had reason to be anxious – it occurred to me that when we are anxious, it is evidence of, possibly several deficiencies in our understanding and/or our relationship with Him.

We all may have Philippians 4:6 – 7 (here @ BibleGateway) memorized, but that doesn’t mean that we find it easy to live that out.  We still get anxious about “nothing.”  Psalm 139:3 (here @ BibleGateway) reminds us that God has scrutinized our path*.  That word means that He has examined our path beyond how a civil engineer examines the aggregate used to mix the concrete in our roads.  So in a real sense when we are anxious we are not trusting Him.

Nothing comes our way without Him knowing.  Nothing comes our way without intention.  Personally, I need to be continually reminded of that truth.  By asking my friend how I could pray for him, I was reminded and challenged in my own trust of God’s scrutiny of my own life’s path.  

Yet another example of the genius of the Lord’s commands to us.  We are to love one another, and pray for one another in so doing we are exhorted, challenged, and built up not only in our relationships with one another but also in our walk with Him.

*I have written a lot on this Psalm in this blog, there are several posts if you would like to see them type Psalm 139 in the “Search This Blog” tool at the top of the column next to this post.  Then I would suggest sort by date.

Praying – “Final” Thoughts – Part 2

Yesterday I gave the context for two things I wanted to further explore in Matthew 6:13 (here @ BibleGateway), the textual issue and the translation of τοῦ πονηροῦ (Literally: the evil).

First the textual issues.  When the textual evidence is considered, the best manuscripts we have do not have the clause, “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”  The theory is that a scribe was uncomfortable with ending Christ’s prayer with deliver us from evil and added the clause from either 1 Chronicles 29:11ff (here @ BibleGateway), 2 Chronicles 20:6ff (here @ BibleGateway), or from the Didache, which seems to be the first catechism like document that has been discovered and dated around the end of the first century.  J. I. Packer says of this ending phrase:

The “praise ending” ascribes to God the kingdom (that is, it hails him as God on the throne), the power (that is, it adores him as the God able to do all that we ask), and the glory (that is, it declares “we praise thee, O God” here and now). Though early, the manuscripts make it clear that it is not from Christ’s own lips—but there is no denying that it fits! (emphasis added)
J. I. Packer, Growing in Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1994), 160.

While I agree with much of what Packer says about the Lord’s prayer, I do not agree with his position on this.  As stated in the first post in this series, when Christ says, “Pray, then, in this way…”, the verb “pray” is in the imperative mood.  It is a command.  That imperative is the source of my challenge with Packer’s affirmation of the scribal edition.  He is affirming that the command of Christ on how to pray needed a completion by man.  I find that impossible to affirm.  While I understand that people do not wish to end the prayer asking for deliverance from evil, the rest of the New Testament and Jesus’ life affirms that we are in a continual, ongoing pitched battle with an enemy that as Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 5:8 – 9 (here @ BibleGateway), and Paul in Ephesians 6:10 – 20 (here @ BibleGateway), only wishes to destroy us and is firing flaming arrows at us constantly.  

So, it makes sense that the model prayer ends with us asking the Lord to help us stand against the enemy of our souls and our Lord.

The second issue for consideration is the various translations of τοῦ πονηροῦ (Literally: the evil) in our Bibles.  For this one there is no real consensus. The majority of the versions translate it “the evil one,” but in a note acknowledge that it could be simply “evil”.  The challenge is the use of the article τοῦ.  I lean heavily on Dan Wallace’s, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, speaking of this construction he states:

Although the KJV renders this “deliver us from evil,” the presence of the article indicates not evil in general, but the evil one himself. In the context of Matthew’s Gospel, such deliverance from the devil seems to be linked to Jesus’ temptation in 4:1–10: Because the Spirit led him into temptation by the evil one, believers now participate in his victory.
Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 233.

As I said, I have great respect for Wallace.  This the first reference works to which I turn when I have a question about Greek grammar and syntax.  While I understand the issue, the connection to the temptation of Christ seems a bit of a stretch.  There are other words in Greek that could be used here if the intent of the Lord or the Holy Spirit to indicate Satan specifically.  Satan is not omnipresent.  If he is in, say, Washington, DC, attacking some leader, he isn’t in Tulsa attacking me.  His minions may be, but not him.  Jesus’ commands are immensely practical.  The world is fallen.  It is the domain of his enemy.  That was clear in His temptation by the devil – in fact, in Matthew 4 (here @ BibleGateway), the word used is διαβόλου (devil) – it seems practical and logical to me that the Lord is telling us to pray that we are delivered from the general atmosphere of evil that he and his minions are constantly fomenting.  

The reality is I am not going to die on either of these hills.  Great men take different positions on these issues.  The main point of all of this is that we need to wrestle with what the text says.  To really dig in, to pray through what we are seeing.  Secondary sources are just that, secondary.  They are not inspired.  We cannot accept uncritically what they say without validating with our own study their positions.  The notes in our study Bibles are written by fallible men as are commentaries.  Look long enough and you will find someone who supports pretty much whatever you want the text to say.  That does not make it right.  Our responsibility is to abide in His Word, not in books about His Word.

I’m starting to ramble.  So, I better stop.  If you have questions, comments, gripes, exaggerations, that you want to share feel free.

Praying – “Final” Thoughts

This morning early, truth be told I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about this, there are two things I want to share with you for your thought and consideration on the Lord's prayer.  They both have their root in Matthew 6:13 (here @ BibleGateway): "²For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen."

²This clause not found in early mss [mss, is the abbreviation for manuscripts - JMC] (New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Mt 6:13.)

Because I am somewhat of a stickler for detail when it comes to the Bible, I examined 33 versions, translations, or paraphrases (if you would like to understand the difference between these three types of Bibles, I wrote three posts about this starting here).  Unless you are using one of the three King James Versions or the Young’s Literal Translation, your Bible does something with 13b to indicate that the oldest and best manuscript evidence we have for Matthew do not include this clause.  

What?

What is happening here, the translators or committees are dealing with the results of the discipline of textual criticism.  If you are like me, your reaction to a sentence that contains both the words Bible and criticism calls for a fight.  For me that is a reaction is to something called “Higher Criticism” which in a loose definition is a “scholar” attempting to prove that a book of the Bible was copied from a non-existent source or wasn’t written by whom the book says it was written – again loose definition.  I am not a fan.

On the other hand, textual criticism is the examination of the over 5,000 ancient copies of parts of the New Testament that have been discovered by archaeological projects.  We have portions of the New Testament that date to the first century.  All of these portions are dated and compared.  The purpose of the discipline is to attempt to get a Greek text that is as close to the original autographs as possible.  A full description of the discipline is beyond the scope of this post.  The results of this work is called the Majority Text or the Eclectic Text.  It is published by the United Bible Society and the current version is NA28 (Current, in that, there are often new discoveries or new learnings that are applied from version to version).  Some versions or translations, choose to use the Textus Receptus which is a full Greek text of the New Testament that is later than some of the archaeological finds.  That was either a choice for philosophical reasons or else the Majority was not yet available.

Thus, the different ways the 29 other Bibles noted that there was an issue with 13b.

That is one of the things I wanted to share.

The next one is a translation issue with the Lord’s prayer, also in 13 (here @ BibleGateway), at the end of the first clause is the phrase… “deliver us from…” then your Bible will either say “evil” or “the evil one” or have a footnote with the alternate translation.  The Bibles are more split on this one; 39% go with "evil", 54% with "the evil one".  This is more of a Greek grammar and lexical issue and hangs on the use of "the" in the text.

I was planning to address some possible implications of each of these in this post; which are, I believe significant.  However, I felt it was important to give you a description of the issues before doing so.  That said, my intention is to share those implications in tomorrow’s post.  However, if I get long winded, it may take a couple of days.

Praying - Other Thoughts

Yesterday I shared my struggles with prayer, again.  I shared that I have been praying through the Lord’s prayer (here @ BibleGateway) and that has given me some different things to pray for people.

Additionally in my quiet time, I have been reading what others have written about praying the Lord’s prayer.  I mentioned that I have 5 categories J. I. Packer has 7:

1. Approaching God in adoration and trust; 
2. Acknowledging his work and his worth, in praise and worship; 
3. Admitting sin, and seeking pardon; 
4. Asking that needs be met, for ourselves and others; 
5. Arguing with God for blessing, as wrestling Jacob did in Genesis 32 (God loves to be argued with); 
6. Accepting from God one’s own situation as he has shaped it; and 
7. Adhering to God in faithfulness through thick and thin.

(J. I. Packer, Growing in Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1994), 157.)

I like his alliteration, but I am not sure about his 5th point yet.

Warren Wiersbe has 10, but he includes the last clause of 13, so really 9:

1. Relationship I - “Our Father in heaven”
2. Relationship II - “Our Father in heaven”
3. Worship - “Hallowed be your name”
4. Citizenship - “Your kingdom come”
5. Partnership - “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”
6. Stewardship - “Give us today our daily bread”
7. Fellowship - “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”
8. Discipleship I - “Lead us not into temptation”
9. Discipleship II - “Deliver us from the evil one”
10. Benediction - “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

(Warren W. Wiersbe, On Earth as It Is in Heaven: How the Lord’s Prayer Teaches Us to Pray More Effectively (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2010), 7–8.)

I have a great deal of respect for Wiersbe.  However, his choice of “Stewardship” for the sixth point for verse 11, as well as his explanation did not seem to fit either the context of the prayer or a simple reading of the text.  Further, his support for the point seemed forced.  It was if he had decided what the passage meant and then backfilled the explanation with verses that supported the topic if not the passage.  Additionally, the rest of the points after his sixth point seemed to follow a similar pattern and when he referred to the verse 11 in those sections, he referred to our dependence on the Lord rather than stewardship.

I mention this because it is an example of one who has a great reputation writing and publishing something that does not seem to make sense.  I have said this before, but just because a noted author pens something and “supports” it.  Does not free us from the responsibility to check what he writes or says against the Bible.  Remember, the text of the Bible is what is inspired.  It is not what is written about the Bible.  That would include this Blog – not inspired.

Praying

Not to be repetitive, I have shared this before, I struggle with prayer.  I can study the Bible for hours.  But like the 12, when asked to invest some extended time in prayer, I am likely to fall asleep.  

I have tried a number of different approaches.  I have a notebook divided into a daily section and then days of the week in which I put prayer letters and lists of people for whom I want to pray.  I also have a deck of index cards with prayer requests on them.  All help for a while.  But, I find that I am continually struggling with consistency.

I read this the other day, “And when, to our distress (and this comes to us all), we find ourselves so muddle-headed, dead-hearted, and tongue-tied in prayer that “we do not know how to pray as we ought,” then our very desire to pray as we should and our grief that we are not doing so shows that the Spirit is himself making effective intercession for us in our hearts (Romans 8:26ff.); which is as reassuring as it is mysterious, and as thrilling as it is amazing.” (J. I. Packer, Growing in Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1994), 165.)  While that is encouraging, it still is the case that I don’t feel like I am doing well in this discipline.

In the past months I have been praying the Lord’s prayer for people.  That has been an interesting and good exercise.  It dawned on me that in Matthew 6:9, when Christ says, “Pray, then, in this way…” “pray” is imperative, it is a command.  So, it dawned on me, that I probably ought to do that.

After praying through the prayer for people for some days, I began to think through what each phrase was asking.  I came up with five categories:

Praise
9  Our Father who is in heaven,
    Hallowed be Your name.

Rule
10 Your kingdom come.
     Your will be done,
     On earth as it is in heaven.

Dependence
11 Give us this day 1our daily bread.

Relational Health
12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Protection
13 And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

The last phrase is not in the earliest and best manuscripts.  

As I have prayed through this several times it has occurred to me that much, if not all of the exhortations we read in the New Testament fall under one of these categories.  What do you think?

In the past weeks I have been reading some authors on this prayer.  They have come up with different but similar outlines.  They have also said that this is the way that we should be praying.  

I will share some of that tomorrow.

Lessons – Appendix

Thinking about the last post it was obvious that one lesson was omitted.  It was one of the first lessons to which the Lord led.  It is an extension or corollary to this post I wrote back in February last year.  

I do not remember how, or why I was reading Philemon (here @ BibleGateway) in May; it was not in my reading program in that month.  Regardless I started reading Philemon soon after I found out I was going to start treatment and before my first infusion.

I did not get far.

I was stopped short at the sixth word of Philemon 1.  It reads. “Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus…”  Wait!  Paul is in a Roman prison; chained to a Roman guard; incarcerated under Roman law; yet he describes himself as a prisoner of Christ?  What the fat is that about?

Stunned I stopped to pray and think.  Slowly (emphasis on that word) what was going on began to glacially dawn.  Paul viewed his current “situation” as his assignment from his Lord.  He literally was chained to his “captive” audience.  This is validated in Philippians 1:12 – 13 (here @ BibleGateway), the whole praetorian guard, whole, all, had heard from Paul as well as everyone, again an inclusive, expansive word, had heard as well.  

It was his ministry assignment.  It was the fulfillment of Jesus’ message to Paul in Acts 23:11 (here @ BibleGateway).  Acts 28:16 (here @ BibleGateway) gives the context for Paul’s comment in Philemon 1 (here @ BibleGateway) and Philippians 1:12 – 13 (here @ BibleGateway).

So, I pondered what were the implications for me as I faced the next 20 months being seated for four days every 21 days for multiple hours in the midst of people whom I did not know?  A question formed, “What would it be like to be a cancer patient of Christ Jesus”.

As I considered this.  A plan formed.  I would ask those that were to be taking care of me how I might be praying for them while I was bound to the chemo chair.  I would also ask the doctors.  So at the next appointment I asked, it was when I was getting prepped to get my port.  I asked the nurse who was working on me how I could be praying for her.  As I recall she looked at me as if I was from another planet and had no response.  Ok.  I’ll keep trying.  So, the next nurse, and the next, and the next doctor.  

Some reacted like the first nurse or said they could not think of anything.  But, many more, most in fact, while surprised, were grateful.  I would write the requests down, pray over them, and then ask about them next time I saw the person that gave me the prayer request.  It became known that I was doing that.  Some began to share requests with me without my asking.  It became a way for me to thank and in a real way serve those who were serving me.

The lesson, at least for me, is that when we are in a circumstance where our situation is the focus, it is unexpected that the needs of those who are tasked to help us or serve us are not necessarily considered.  If I understand the way Christ ministered to people, He was always thinking about the needs of those around Him, even as he hung on the cross.  

I hesitated to share this and at the same time I was eager to share it.  I do not want to present as one who has all of this stuff figured out.  There were times when the meds just knocked me out, there were times when I forgot to ask.  Only one of the doctors responded positively, and that changed our relationship for the better. 

I share this as a possible encouragement, as an implication of the reality of God’s sovereign intention in all that he brings into our life.  If He meant what He said in Matthew 6:33 (here @ BibleGateway); I assume He did.  Perhaps regarding all the “circumstances” we find ourselves as Paul did his imprisonment in Rome, may be one way to follow him.  You may ask, “How can I be an engineer of Christ Jesus?”  “How can I be a teacher of Christ Jesus?”  “How can I be a football player of Christ Jesus?” etc.

Lessons – Part 2

Yesterday I shared some of what the last 20 months has been for Jenny and me.  I shared that I had been processing, thinking through, some of the lessons or things that the Lord has been attempting to teach me through this process.  Today I am going to outline what I have come up with thus far.  Some of these I will expand further in subsequent posts.  Others – well I don’t know how the Lord is going to lead on this…

1. Most of us know John 15:5 (here @ BibleGateway). It is a repetition, or perhaps better, an implication of John 1:3 (here @ BibleGateway). It has been reinforced in the past 20 months that I can do nothing, zero, zilch, nada apart from Christ. I am completely and utterly dependent on Him.
   
   
2. I have been active all my life. I ran until my knees went south, started swimming after that, then started riding a bike when it became difficult to find a pool early in the morning. Through chemo I worked out fairly consistently 3 times a week. It helped mitigate some of the side effects. However, the truth of 1 Timothy 4:7 – 8 (here @ BibleGateway) is inescapable. My physical fitness, regardless of how much effort I put into it, is temporary. It takes very little to move me from fit to completely dependent on others for my well-being.
   
   
3. I DON’T have this. Many would respond to my posts on caring bridge with something like, “You have this!” They were intending to be encouraging, and to an extent it was. However, I did not have it. I was dependent on doctors, nurses, and my family. My wife had her knee replaced 5 days ago, she is completely dependent on me at the moment. This may be a subset of number 1 above, but it is in my nature to try to work through all the challenges I face on my own strength. It does not work out well.
   
   
4. I do not know how to walk in the Spirit. I recognize that I am supposed to do that. But I am sure that I do not have a firm grasp on what that looks like. It is easy to commit to do so. It is really easy to write it in one’s journal. It seems difficult to actually do.
   
   
5. A corollary, perhaps, to the last one, I do not know what it means to wait on the Lord. Doing so, according to Isaiah 40:29 – 31 (here @ BibleGateway), gives strength. Again, easy to observe and record in a journal or Bible study. Not so easy to live.
   
   
6. I do not know how to pass on my passion for God’s Word to other people. I learned as an instructor pilot that I could not fly the plane for my students. I learned in teaching mountain climbing to others, that I cannot climb for them. I cannot love God’s Word for others either. It is frustrating.
   
   
7. I know that unless the Lord sends me somewhere, or directs me to engage in some action, I am not effective or in any way fruitful in that endeavor.
   
   
8. I have seen and had it validated over and over that just because a well known and respected Christian leader has said or written on a subject, it does not mean that what he has written is either true or correct in its declarations or conclusions. Regardless of my respect for that individual it is incumbent on me to validate his positions Biblically.
   
   
9. Most of my life I have been strong and energetic. I have lived life in that way. In this season I am tired and weak. It is encouraging to read 2 Corinthians 12:9 – 10 (here @ BibleGateway).    Again, hard to live.

That is most of what I have considered in the past weeks.  The implications of 6 and 8 have taken a lot of space in my thinking over the past several days.  Going forward I will expand on some of these from time to time.  If you have thoughts or there is something above that really resonates, comment below or if you want to shoot me an email, feel free.  If you want to send an email and do not have mine, ask.

Lessons

In April of 2020 I had my routine PT scan done here in Tulsa instead of MD Anderson in Houston.  The pandemic has just reared it’s ugly head so I could not travel to Houston.  That was a Monday.  On Friday I was riding my bike and got a flat.  For some reason I could not get my pump to work.  So, my son picked me up and took me back to my car.  As I was putting my bike on the bike rack, the phone rang.

The screen said MD Anderson.  That got my attention.  It was my oncologist.  She told me that the PT scan showed that the lymph node with which she was concerned had grown to the point that if we did not start treatment, other organs would be impacted.

Three days later, Monday, I had a port surgically implanted in the upper part of my right chest.  The next day, I had a Echo Cardiogram.  Eight days later, they drilled a hole into my pelvis to check to see how my bone marrow was involved with the cancer.  Two days later, I had a lung function test.  All this was to determine if I was healthy enough to start the chemotherapy.  I was.

On May 12 and 13 I started round one of chemotherapy.  That was a three-week process that involved infusions on Tuesday and Wednesday for the first two weeks, with the third week off.  There were six of those rounds.  That was followed by eight maintenance rounds eight weeks apart.  Those rounds were Tuesday and Wednesday one week.  

Additionally, because the chemo trashed my immune system, I begin getting Immunoglobin G intravenously every three weeks starting in April of 21.  Each of these treatments, the chemo and the IVIG included steroids.  I did not know about steroid crashes.  I do now.

The result of all this treatment has been good as far as the cancer is concerned.  What I have is not curable but responds to treatment that should allow me a 2 – 5-year break.  Oh, I finished the last chemo treatment on December 15th.  One of the side effects is that for about 5 days or so after each two-day treatment it is hard to think, read, study, anything mental.  That is one of the reasons contributions to the blog have been rather sparse since May 2020.  

From scripture, specifically Psalm 139:3 (here @ Bible Gateway), I am convinced that the Lord does not bring things like this into our lives randomly.  Rather, there is intention in all that he does, including cancer.  In 1 Thessalonians 5:16 – 18 (here @ Bible Gateway), Paul reminds us that we are to rejoice, pray, and give thanks for everything.  He repeats this admonition in less words in Philippians 4:6 – 7 (here @ Bible Gateway).

This has been something that I have struggled with since one of my daughters-in-law came down with cancer while pregnant.  She was struggling with the same issue.  But both of us realized the text is clear.  We are to be thankful for everything.

In the past few days, I have been reflecting on the past 20 months.  What has the Lord shown me?  What are some of the lessons I have learned?  My intention was to start sharing those thoughts in this post, but it has taken much longer than I anticipated to share the context.  So I will start that process tomorrow.

Help for Struggling Prayer

(Normally I write these in an hour or so.  This one I have been working on for 3 or 4 days.  It is long.  I considered breaking it into two or three posts but decided against it.  I think that would have diminished the message.)

Full Disclosure
I struggle with prayer.  I can study the Bible for hours, but I will fall asleep, like the disciples, when I try to pray for thirty minutes.  I share that as a preface to what I have been challenged with in the Word over the past few days.  I share it because I do not want you to think that what I am about to write about prayer, is in any way a declaration that I have this figured out or am doing well with this spiritual discipline.

Source of This Post
For some context, I am working through Revelation (here @ Bible Gateway) in three Bible studies: one on Monday morning, and two on Tuesday morning.  So, I am working through the book verse by verse three different times.  Most of what follows is a result of those studies.  

The Importance of Prayer to God
In Revelation 8:3 – 5 (here @ Bible Gateway) there is a picture of the importance and effectiveness of prayer that overwhelms me.  What John sees is an altar, a golden alter, before the throne of God.  We see in verse 5 (here @ Bible Gateway) that the altar has fire.  In verse 3 (here @ Bible Gateway) we find that the prayers of all of the saints are on that altar.  Think of that.  Your prayer, my prayer, are on the altar before God.  

If your experience is like mine, sometimes it feels as if my feeble prayer does not get past the ceiling of my office.  Yet here we find that these prayers, feeble as they may be, are on the altar, seemingly as a burnt offering to our God.  

But that is not all.  In Revelation 8 (here @ Bible Gateway), the angel comes to the altar and adds much incense to the prayer on the altar.  I understand that this is after the seventh seal, so, we cannot assume that this happens now.  However, the altar seems to be there now.  Regardless, the actions of the angel with the incense, the fire from the altar, and the censer, seem to underline and emphasize the effect of our prayer.

Hope In My Feeble Prayer
It has been of help to me to consider what John saw and recorded in Revelation 8 (here @ Bible Gateway) as I begin to pray.  To understand that my prayer will be on the altar before God, gives me hope.  Hope even though I am so weak in my prayer.

But there is more hope.

In Romans 8:26 – 27 (here @ Bible Gateway) I am greatly comforted about my feeble prayer life.  There we read that – but wait, the first words we read are, “In the same way”, that makes us look at the previous context to see what that “same way” could be, we see, among other things, the ministry of the Spirit in our lives assures us of our adoption and gives us hope.  That hope is a direct reflection of Paul’s point in Romans 5:1 – 11 (here @ Bible Gateway) where, as we exult in our tribulation, the Spirit produces love in our hearts, as we persevere, we develop proven character in and through that perseverance, and that results in hope.  

So as the ministry of the Spirit helps us to walk in Christ, assures us of our adoption, and gives us hope, “in the same way” He helps our weakness.  He helps in one of the areas in which I need great help, prayer.  The text says that we do not know how to pray.  This “we” includes the author, Paul.  Paul, like me, like us, struggled with prayer.  But here the Spirit inspires him to encourage “we”.  We are helped because the Spirit takes our weak, feeble prayer, and intercedes for us.  

The Full Engagement of the Trinity in Our Prayer
However, it gets even better.  Look at the last clause of Romans 8:27 (here @ Bible Gateway):

“because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God,” (NASB95).  

Note that the words “the will of” are in italics which indicates those words were added by the committee to make the translation “make more sense”.  Regardless of which version or translation you consider those words are added.  The Greek literally says:

“because according to God He intercedes on behalf of the saints”.  

While I understand the addition of “the will of”, from my perspective the addition significantly diminishes the point Paul is making.  The Holy Spirit intercedes for us according to God.  While the will of God is certainly in mind, I believe that “according to God” indicates all of God’s nature and character, all His glory and excellence.  Paul’s Holy Spirit inspired choice of vocabulary, highlights and underscores the fullness of the Holy Spirit’s participation with the Father and the Son as God, bringing that participation fully into His intercession for us.

This is not a minor point.  You will note that Romans 8:2 – 39 (here @ Bible Gateway) is the explanation of and support for Romans 8:1 (here @ Bible Gateway) (notice all of the verses in your Bible that begin with “for,” “for” is a structural marker (click here for more on structure in the Bible or search this blog for the word "structure") that indicates support for or result of something that has been stated.  Throughout this chapter Paul is substantiating what he has declared in 8:1 (here @ Bible Gateway)).  For those of us who are in Christ, there is no condemnation.  

Part of the reality that we are under no condemnation is what we are considering here.  We are still weak.  We are still needy.  Even though it is declared that we are in Christ in 8:1 (here @ Bible Gateway) and that the Spirit (8:9 (here @ Bible Gateway)) and Christ (8:10 (here @ Bible Gateway)) dwell in us.  In 8:26 – 27 (here @ Bible Gateway) we are told that “He who searches the hearts” knows the mind of the Spirit.  It is the Father that searches the hearts (consider: 1 Samuel 16:7 (here @ Bible Gateway); 1 Chronicles 28:9 (here @ Bible Gateway); Proverbs 17:3 (here @ Bible Gateway); Jeremiah 11:20 (here @ Bible Gateway); 17:10 (here @ Bible Gateway); 20:12 (here @ Bible Gateway); Revelation 2:23 (here @ Bible Gateway)).  The Father searches the heart of the believer, the Spirit prays for the believer and the Father and the Spirit are completely in sync, which brings the full force of the nature of God into that prayer.  To cap all of that off, we read in 8:34 (here @ Bible Gateway) that the Son is also interceding for us at the right hand of God.

Summary
So as we struggle with prayer, it helps me to remember, that my feeble attempts of coming to my Lord in prayer, are absorbed by the Holy Spirit, compared with the actual needs that I have, the Spirits understanding is completely understood by the Father, who has searched my heart and understands my needs, then the Spirit prays for me to the Father with groanings too deep for words – He is pouring His soul out for us – while at the same time the Son is at the right hand of the Father also praying for us, and all of this time, our feeble prayer is on the golden altar that stands before the throne of the Father.

Conclusion
That is help.  That truth has helped me rest as I pray.  It has taken away some of the struggle.  It has caused me to rejoice and praise Him who has engaged so completely in my efforts to come to Him.  It is an overwhelming picture of God’s love and effective working of His grace in our lives.

Out of Touch

Ever feel abandoned by God?  Ever feel like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling?  You are not alone.  Read Psalm 10:1 (here @ Bible Gateway).

In reaction to this verse I jotted down several passages, Jeremiah 23:23 – 24 (here @ Bible Gateway), Psalm 139:7 (here @ Bible Gateway), and Hebrews 11:6 (here @ Bible Gateway).

This is the dilemma, on the one hand it seems, as the psalmist says, God is nowhere to be found in times of distress or trouble.  On the other hand, He permeates the universe and beyond.  I cannot, we cannot, escape Him and cannot hide from Him.  So what is the deal with the feeling of abandonment?

It may be that it is the Lord’s desire that we learn to trust Him in the midst of the silence.  That we rest in Him when He seems far off.

How?

How do I rest in Him, trust Him, when it seems as if He is not there?  Here the psalmist prays.  He shares with the Lord through prayer the feeling of abandonment.  He codifies and shares with the Lord his doubts and fears.  Perhaps Psalm 73:17 (here @ Bible Gateway) is a partial guide.

It seems that an approach might be:

1. Pray
1. Acknowledge the problem.  Tell God how you feel – all areas, frustrated, angry, hurt, etc.
2. Ask why
2. Remember what the Word says - Here is where passages that we have covered, or the Psalms may be of great benefit
3. Review what He has done for you - Here is where a journal will be of benefit.

There are probably other approaches that will help.  These seem to be what is suggested by the passages we covered.

Let me know what you have found.

Models of Prayer

Do you struggle with prayer?  I do.  I have been helped by studying the prayers in the Bible.  That started with Paul as I shared some time ago, as I shared here.

There are also prayers in the Old Testament.  Psalms, of course, are full of great examples.  There are others as well.  While I will not attempt to catalog them here, there is one which I have found really helpful in praying for those who have chosen to serve the body as leaders.

Ruth 2:12 – Its worth the time to read so:

“May the LORD reward your work,
and your wages be full from the LORD, the God of Israel,
under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.” 

The content of Boaz’s blessing on Ruth, seems to me to be a great model of prayer for those who serve.  I would especially pray this for those who are laboring in situations that are challenging and or personally dangerous.