faith

Faith is certitude in the midst of doubt rather than certainty with no doubts. Faith is a journey with a compass which points us in the right direction, not a detailed map which tells us every step to take. Faith is going because you have heard the good news that the Guide is trustworthy and that the trip is worth the cost.

~Will Willimon, The Gospel for the Person who has Everything

quotable quotes

"He took dust from the earth and made the man; He formed him. The devil came, and perverted him. Then the Lord came, took him again, and remolded, and recast him in baptism, and He suffered not his body to be of clay, but made it of a harder ware. He subjected the soft clay to the fire of the Holy Spirit...He was baptized with water that he might be remodelled, with fire that he might be hardened" ~John Chrysostom, Eutropius

spring break 2009 part 2

It was our last full day in Gulf Shores and we spent the day at the beach. I thought it might be kind of fun to try and dig up a sand crab. I've never done such a thing before and I confess I had no idea how much of a challenge this would prove to be. I found a 2" wide sand crab hole and began to follow the hole down by digging around and under the hole to prevent it from caving in. After digging about two feet down below shore level and two feet in length, I noticed that the hole was disappearing, not from caving in on itself but because a crab was on the run digging deeper in the sand. I was on to him so I cut him off by digging ahead of him trying to cut him off. When the two tunnels I dug merged in the center - there was no crab to be found. I thought for sure I had him, and after poking around a litte bit more I found him! His shell blends perfectly with the sand he was difficult to see because he was perfectly still but when I unsuspectingly sraped him with my shovel, he got scared and started to make a run for it! I was able to use two shovels to lift him out of the tunnels to show the kiddos. End to end this guy was 8 -10" wide. It was the first time I - as well as Naomi and Elijah - had ever seen a sand crab up close. The kids loved it and after we snapped some pics, we gently returned him to his home. It was a great way to end our trip.

intercessory prayer

Following the pattern set in James 5, it seems very natural to follow confessional prayer with a time of intercessory prayer—with one caveat. After a time of confession, it is vitally important to pray to be filled and receive the Holy Spirit by faith. Jesus said to his disciples, “When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in a live there.” (Matt. 12:43-5). What Jesus says there is that when the kingdom of God has come upon you, your spiritual house is “swept clean and put in order.” But, Jesus points out, if your spiritual house is clean but unoccupied by his Holy Spirit, you will end up far worse than when the cleaning process begun. So, it is appropriate that following your time of confession [when your spiritual house is swept clean and put in order] that you pray for the filling and receiving of the Holy Spirit, so that you are equipped to intercede on others behalf.

One definition of the word “intercede” is to act on behalf of another person. While that is a good starting place, Methodist preacher, Walter Wink once wrote, “When we pray we are not sending a letter to a celestial White House, where it is sorted among piles of others. We are engaged, rather, in an act of co-creation...History belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being.” So there is this sense that intercessory prayer is more than speaking to God on someone’s behalf. It’s an act of co-creation with the Holy Spirit , who intercedes on our behalf [see Romans 8:26]. It’s beautiful to me to think that when we pray we are co-creators with God in changing history.

Though God unfolds his plan throughout history according to his will, people aggressively prayed about it. Paul instructed the early church to devote themselves to prayer and to pray unceasingly (cf. Col. 4:2; 1 Thess. 5:17). Despite the difficulty surrounding trying to comprehend how prayer works with the constancy of God, God enjoys changing his plans because of prayers. Walter Wink suggests that Christians are co-creators with God and history changes as a result of effective prayer. In another example from Scripture, Paul admonishes Timothy to pray and intercede on behalf of everyone—including kings and all those in authoritative positions so that all “may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. (1 Tim. 2:2).

I’d like to close with a prayer Jesus prayed for his disciples. He prayed, “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.” Friends, may Jesus’ prayer be our unified prayer as we tap into the awesome power of prayer and continue to make history together. Amen.

confessional prayer

Imagine the prophet Isaiah standing in awe and wonder at the sight of the Lord seated on a throne whose robe train filled the temple. Imagine seraphs [angels ablaze for God] each with six wings—two covering their faces, two coving their feet, and with two they were flying. All the while, the seraphs were calling aloud, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” And the Bible says at the sound of their voices the whole temple was filled with smoke and the doorposts and thresholds shook.

So, here stands Isaiah in the midst of an amazing and awe-inspiring vision of the glory of the LORD filling the temple while blazing seraphs call aloud, “kadosh, kadosh, kadosh is the LORD Almighty…” And what was his response? Isaiah cried, “Woe to me! I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” (6:5).

When Isaiah is drawn into the heavenly realm and into the presence of the Wholly Other—the Transcendent One, his response is mind blowing —”Woe to me,” said Isaiah, “I am ruined!” Isaiah is completely overcome by the sense of God’s holiness—God’s wholly otherness, and he recognized that in God’s presence he was unworthy, unclean and “utterly ruined.” And so it is with us...we are utterly ruined in the presence of the Almighty. But the story is not over. What happens next is vital to our understanding of the Transcendent One. Isaiah says, “Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ’See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for’.” In an amazing act of grace, God forgives Isaiah for his uncleanness and restores their relationship so much so that God enables Isaiah to receive his word and live (Reinstra).

So, let us be aware of who we are in relation to the Holy One who sits on a high and exalted throne and together confess, “Woe to us! We are an unclean people! We are ruined!” Then be ready to receive forgiveness and be restored into right relationship with the One who then says, “Whom shall I send?” And we can respond with confidence, “Here we are! Send us!” Amen.

prayer

Six months ago or so, our family was driving back from visiting my family in NE Iowa when we encountered traffic at a stand-still on I-80 at the Iowa/Illinois border. Now, I consider myself a patient man, but when you have two kids in tow with no food, no water, and no bathroom, things can get ugly. After 40 minutes of inching forward on the concrete corridor and much debate, we hesitantly decided to take the first exit off the interstate in an attempt to bypass the construction and re-join the interstate further to east. So we exited I-80 and headed south on Highway 84—one of those winding river roads adjacent to the Mighty Mississippi. Only there was one little problem with our little detour adventure—we didn’t have GPS and we didn’t have a map. We were headed south but we knew we had to get east. But we didn’t know how to get there. It wouldn’t be long before we would be lost. Thinking to myself we had made a terrible mistake, I prayed silently, “Lord, we’re lost…please Lord help us.”

So, maybe you’ve “been there” too—lost on a county road unsure of where to go next. But thankfully [if we push our pride aside] we can pause in the midst of our wandering and ask for directions. And that’s just what we did, and we made it back to the interstate.

Prayer is like asking for directions when we’re lost, and it’s important to remember first where we are in relation to our Heavenly Father—in short, we’re lost. We’re separated from our Source by sin and confessing where we are [or where we have been] is the place to start to getting back on the highway of life. And after we confess, it seems appropriate to begin asking God for direction. Sometimes we call this prayers of intercession where we ask for God’s leading, direction, healing, sanctification, provision, power, and for God’s good gifts. The Book of James says, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed” (5:16). Confession followed by intercession. So the intent of the next couple posts is to give you, the reader, insight into cultivating a deeper, more fruitful prayer life by focusing on two kinds of prayer— first, “Lord, I’m lost,” and second, “Lord please help.”

introducing...

...the newest members of our family [drum roll please] - not one but two hermit crabs, Whitey and Blue-Blue [the names were decided by the kiddos]. These are our first family pets and the newest members of the Cooper clan. We bought them in a souvenir shop in Gulf Shores, AL a few weeks ago. Here is a picture of the scaredy-cats, Whitey and Blue-Blue while taking a walk across the kitchen counter for their weekly exercise.