Tag Archives: Spirituality

What Disciples of Jesus Need (Part One)

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This could get really personal… the nerve to tell others that I know what they need better than they! Just stay with me, though. Because, if God’s Grand Design for His people is anything…it’s deeply and painfully personal. So, maybe I can lift the painful part and couch it in first person.

I need mending. There is always a need for healing … because for me, there is always something wrong, needy, broken, misaligned, infected, or out of balance. In Christ, there is always a place for healing.

Could it be that I have limited my experience to salvation healing, but God wants to take the healing deeper to heal body, soul, mind, as well as spirit? (Jeremiah, with one breath, called out to God with praise for healing and for salvation!) I have a body that needs His touch, a soul that has taken on the scars of the battle, and a mind that has been smudged with the stuff of the world.

I need mending, and this comes by being in the presence of the Great Mender. In His presence, I find healing. Sometimes, right away. Sometimes, over the course of time, through much prayer and fasting, and with the help of friends whom God uses. I am mended.

Relationship with Christ always starts with mending. He heals my sin-sickness when I say “YES” to His gift of salvation through His sacrificial execution. He heals my misdirection when I take up the call to follow His plan and Lordship. He heals my relationships when I become less “me-centric” and more “other-centric.” And He continues to heal me when I come into His presence. And He opens the door to the waiting room, calls my name, examines me, and invites me to speak to Him about what hurts.

Disciples need mending.

Now, how painful was that?

More to come.
Rick

What I Have Learned About Prayer in 40 Years…

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What I Have Learned About Prayer in 40 Years…
And Still Wish I Could Get Right!
Rick Harrell
ricksgreatideas.wordpress.com

1. Mix it up. Don’t get into a routine that can grow stale. Try new things in your devotionals to bring new energy to your prayer time. For a whole year, each of my daily devotion times involved reading through the Psalms and learning about worship and trust. He expanded my heart for Him that year.

2.  Try online resources for devotionals. I currently use StudyLight.org and go to the devotional section and choose two of these as a part of my day’s start – my two choices currently are “Word for Today” and “My Utmost for His Highest.” My Utmost is in book form in a modern translation, and may be out there in Italian, too, since I am writing this from Italy and you may even be Italian.

3. Pick a special place to have your devotions and prayer. It may be a chair in a certain part of the house, or a corner of your balcony. I have a friend who has a real closet area, with a window, a stool and small table. He is on his knees more, though. Have your Bible and journal/prayer notebook waiting on you each morning.

4. Make appointments in your diary for time with God. Give Him priority… that means He gets first spot.

5. Always, always, always, start your Bible reading with prayer. We need His help to discover and uncover truth. Put yourself in the story, and picture the people and places. Listen with your imagination to the background noises. Ask God to talk to you and show you what He wants you to take away and apply. Remember to say: “God, this is supernatural in front of my eyes; and I need your Spirit to help me understand it and what I should do in response to it.”

6. If you want to learn how to pray, go on a “treasure hunt.” Read through the letters of Paul and write down the things he prayed for others. Then read through the prayers of Jesus. Most of them were short (“Be healed.” “Come out.” “Be calm.” “Be still.”) Look at the authority He prayed with. Pray like him when you pray for others. “God, calm the storm in his life.” God, make her whole.”)

7. Understand your day’s rhythms. When are you most full of energy and can give your best to God’s call to prayer? Try to fit your time to this – if it’s morning, make it happen then. Don’t give God your yawns! And if you have trouble focusing, keep a list of things you will take care of that come to mind while you pray. Get them off your mind and onto the paper, so you can return to praying.

8. Understand your emotional rhythms. You are uniquely you! Some days of the week or month and even some seasons of the year are just not your best “I really feel great about praying” times or days. Do it anyway. God isn’t dependent on your feelings each time you pray. He really isn’t limited to you getting emotional (even though He wants to engage your passions.) He loves to answer when we are not “feeling it.” So, quit the excuses of “I don’t feel it” and PRAY! Faith in God, His Word, His Promises, His nature, His will – these are fuel of what our prayer life runs on.

9. Some days are time-limited. Make these shorter times count. Worship, read and pray in faith. Don’t try to work up an emotional high before praying since you will frustrate yourself, frustrate God, and probably still not pray in faith.

10. Some days are time-gifted. You sometimes have “open windows of prayer” when you can take extended times to worship, pray, fall in love with Jesus, journal your heart out onto paper or your digital blog. Look forward to those days, and ask God what he wants to teach you about His heart. Be obedient when He speaks. These times can often change the course of your life or the lives of others. (One time, about an hour into my prayer time, God spoke to me about lifting my hands to Him in worship. I was outside at the time, and I told Him I didn’t worship like that. He clearly said, “If you don’t, you will stop right here in your growth in worship.” My hands went up so quick it was funny. Now, lifting hands to a loving Daddy is a natural response to His love.)

11. Organize your prayer life by circles. This may be my biggest struggle to keep up with, other than the simple let’s just do it attitude I need to have toward prayer. It helps to remember that “praying always” or “praying continually” for someone doesn’t mean you have him or her on your lips all day and all night. Praying continually means that you have a consistent time of praying for them
•    Your most immediate circle should be daily, and include those God has put in your life for an ongoing purpose. (My wife, my three kids; my spiritual leaders – missions, pastor, Bible study; my work leaders – boss, those I work immediate with most of the time; those I am discipling, usually two or three guys; those I am reaching out to, usually three or four people I am trying to strengthen bridges of trust and compassion to them that the Gospel can travel more freely over.) Sounds like a lot on the first list that happens each day – but really only about 10-12 people.
•    My next list is the once a week list. This is usually broken down into Monday-Saturday, and I cover extended family, church members who have needs and ask for prayer, missions partners whom we support, our government/schools/military/economy/culture – that it would all work together to create a spiritual climate open to the Gospel, the persecuted church, extended list of lost or hurting people.
•    My final list is those “one-time” prayer requests that come my way. I pray for them right there with the person, or pray for the need when I get home. But I don’t own this one as my “burden” to pray for regularly. I do pray for these occasionally, and I check in with the person to see how God is answering and to let them know I am continuing to pray (not continuously, but continuing…)

12. Move prayer needs around. Journaling helps me keep up with names, needs, answers to prayer, praise reports. Just because a person or a need is on a certain day or list doesn’t mean you shouldn’t “bump the priority up” when God says so.

13. Begin and end each prayer time in worship and thanksgiving. As a part of the beautiful conversation God has begun with us, make worship and adoration an essential part of your prayer time. Sometimes, it may be your whole prayer time. Other times worship is the prelude to praying in faith, and thanksgiving is the consummate finale.

14. Use the pattern of the Lord’s Prayer as your extended prayer day pattern. An hour or more can go by quickly when you take these words Jesus gave us, and you use them as the “diving board” to jump into the deep end of the pool in prayer. I can share more about this if you’d like. I keep an outline of an hour’s prayer time in my Bible most of the time.

15. My favorite Prayer Verses? Ephesians – the whole book. Incredible insight into our position in Christ, the battle we are in, and how to stand faithfully to the end in prayer.

Prone to Pray,

Rick

The Creation Question

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Last week, a guest speaker came to our little Fratelli church in Torre Pellice. He is from Torino and maintains a prison ministry. Following a time of genuinely intimate worship, Guido (not his real name) stood and moved the pulpit to the side of the projector screen. And for a solid hour and ten minutes, railed the church for leaving behind the seven-day creation as central to faith and salvation.

During this time, various groups, schools, nations, and individuals were implicated, each culpable for saying, writing, or doing something that somehow contradicted the belief in a God-created world. Europe,the U.S., universities, seminaries (including my alma mater, Southwestern Baptist Seminary), scientist (no surprises there he could find a “non-Creationist”), and even Obama (who I can’t remember ever weighing in on the subject.)

Remember that all this is in Italian, including the Powerpoint slides. And, like many Italian evangelical speakers, Guido spoke rapidly at first and improved his speed as the hour waned. Like most preachers, he brought a lot to the table to distribute.

All this sets up the fact that I have taken up the challenge to read cover-to-cover through the Bible again. I’ve done this before, but it’s been a while. And today starts with Genesis 1-2.

Though I can’t imagine “the searching world” giving much time over coffee discussing Obama’s opinion of creation, or whether or not a seven-day creation is a necessary “pre-faith” condition to salvation. I can imagine someone asking questions.

I can guess that, if the guy who works on my Plymouth diesel van stumbled into a discussion on Genesis 1-2, he might ask, “How can this be? How can I believe a story such as this in a day of science and reason?”

My honest comment is: “Wow, I certainly can relate to your dilemma and your questions!” (And maybe, “Did you check the hose for a leak on the other side, too?”)

There is really an incredible cache of information that just doesn’t get shared in those first two chapters. Admittedly, what gets shared raises a lot of questions

My honest answer: Is it harder to imagine God creating the world from nothing or nothing creating the world from nothing. I lean strongly in God’s direction.

And does the absence of details mean the rest is false, or that the perspective of the account is written for people of another generation, or that the order of creation (light and dark before sun and moon, man before woman, etc.) may not suit everyone’s preferences, cause a little consternation?

Well, yes it does… cause consternation, that is. But a relationship to God is much more solid a foundation for life, marriage, friendships, ethics, and faith… than a relationship with nothingness.

God says faith “knows” the universe was made by Him (it’s in the Bible.) It doesn’t require someone who seeks Him to have all the nuances of the Creation story figured out. It doesn’t insist that one trusts in what Christ accomplished for sin-payment by his passionate sacrifice at his execution plus the correct position on the seven-day creation — and then you will be saved.

Perhaps a part of faith is believing that God the Holy Spirit can use His Book and His guidance to bring seekers to Him, create a people of faith who love Christ Jesus supremely and serve and carry the burdens of one another unreservedly… and help each believer unravel the story of how we got here.

Please believe me when I say that the Creation account is supremely important to our faith and our understanding of a God who loves us. But for the guy who fixes my Plymouth diesel each month, the big topic is: How did God show this love for me, and how can he get in on it!

On the journey — Rick

Simon’s Second Call

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When Jesus began his ministry, he asked some guys to travel with him to help him out, watch and learn from him. Simon was one of them. A fisherman and small business owner, he had franchised out to his friends, James and John, a part of the enterprise. Business, like the waves of the Tiberian Sea, had its ups and down. But it was a living, and he would do this the rest of his life. That’s the way careers were.

Then Jesus asked for his boat’s use, to preach from, of all things! Sure, as long as it doesn’t interfere too much in his day. It had been a long night, and the fish were too deep to catch. The teaching was good, not wishy-washy or dry like the others. He seemed to know God. And knew how to tell about it. Jesus knew about spiritual stuff, for certain.

But fishing was Simon’s business. Not that it was a big deal, but Jesus asked him to put the nets out again, during the worst part of the day for fishing, and get them mucked up again. At the time, he didn’t think it was important, but  after that morning, Jesus went from being a good teacher and rabbi to becoming the Redeemer and Lord. The fish were so abundant in that first draw that the boys could barely get them in; in fact, it was a miracle the nets didn’t break before making shore.

Sales would be good all day with this catch, but business was the last thing on Simon’s mind… and James’ and John’s, too. They were standing before one who could only be the Lord God, hearts wide open. And Simon knew what had mucked up his own heart. So did Jesus.

And he still asked Simon to travel with him, in spite of his attitude, his temper, his pride, and his tendency to believe nobody does what he does better, and all the other stuff that had darkened his heart.

Jesus called Simon to catch people bound for death without God so they could really live, and he left the business of catching live fish and watching them die on the sand and pebbles.

He asked Simon to follow him a second time. His old business partner, John, heard the exchange. When Jesus was hours away from his Great Work on the cross, he told Simon he could follow him later. This was a call to martyrdom, to leave earth and follow him to eternity.

There are a lot of “comes” in the Bible. I learned about these from one of the most focused men I’ve ever known. “Come and see” turns into “come and follow” and then “come and remain.” From the position of “remaining in Christ,” we bear much fruit as we both “come and go out.” It’s all wrapped up in the call to die…so we can live.

It’s a process of growth. Each time we give up, and we gain even more. David Putman says our Christian lives are a mix of “living,” “loving,” and “leaving.” We leave behind the things that keep us from doing and becoming what God has on his agenda. Someone at Urbana 09 said we should live our lives so that we will be forgotten. That way, only Jesus will be remembered.

This second call of Simon was one of decreasing, of dying to self, and dying for Christ. Yes, it does happen. In the world every day, says one human rights watch group, over 200 Christians die for his or her faith.

Everyday, we can follow Christ. Live with him, love him, leave behind what keeps us from him, and heed his call to point others to Him instead of us.

If you want to do further study on Luke 5 and the Simon’s call to catch men and women for Jesus, click on this study link.  Everything Changes Luke 5 If you are interested in David Putman’s book, it’s called “Breaking the Discipleship Code.” I recommend it.

Learning to live,

Rick

Real Treasures

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So we’re driving back from Dallas and another long Sunday in the Inner City (really, we capitalized these words, as in Inner City Baptist Church) and Erwin begins explaining a message he had been working on. Yes, we had been in ministry activity all day long — Erwin is a little intense when it comes to Scripture.

“We give God our worst,” was the core truth of the message.  Wait a minute — we strive for excellence, we give Him our best when we serve Him. We love Him with the best we have. At least, that seemed to be the message I had gotten in church, and now in seminary, all my life.

But the principle that we give God our worst stuck in my mind. I didn’t agree with it, and I still wrestle with it since God is worthy of our best.

My relationship with God is an exchange. He give me His treasure and I give Him mine. His treasure is an eternity in friendship with Him, a relationship through His Son Jesus.

But what have I treasured. Wrongs done to me. Sinful habits. Envious thoughts. Places my heart and mind have lingered around, and at times jumped into full-on.  My treasures are the worst part of me because they are worth more than the greatest treasure God has given. I have placed great value on the very things that deflate the value I place on God’s mercy and favor.

My treasures are tangible. I can see them, touch them, befriend them, and place high worth to them. But they are so temporary, and really gone within seconds of the value I had place on them. Nothing left but the bad memory, the hurt friendship, the guilt.

Hosea said of Israel, “They are mud-spattered from head to toe with the residue of sin.” One writer has said that God has given us access to all He has created. We have access to His gifts, to use for His glory and to enjoy. He created it, we benefit from it.

And we give Him back the one thing that is solely ours through our creative powers alone — our sin. Everything else we do, live for, create, give purpose to, is a gift from the Great Giver. Except the sin we created by our own purpose.

The Great News is, He invites us to exchange gifts. We give Him the sin we created; He gives us mercy, favor, relationship, unfailing love. He gives us His best.

We give Him our worst.

Exchange gifts with the Great Giver when you pray today.

It’s the season!

Rick