I am going to the dogs…

Tags

Advent, Christmas, Dogs, hope, prayer, Training

I am going to the dogs, literally.

 

 

I prayed, I talked it over with others, I consulted with the wife of the friend who asked this incredible favor of me, and then I said yes.

 

 

 

 

 

I said yes to spending almost 3 weeks in early December at the Lions Service Dog Training Centre when the whole world is going crazy getting ready for Christmas, and with special services for Christmas that I had already agreed to looming on my own to do list.  

And yet it was an easy decision to make, certainly easier than getting everything prepared in advance before I leave.

So starting Monday I will be out of touch for almost 3 weeks.  I will spend my days in classes with goodness knows how many dogs, helping my friend work with the dog assigned to him, reminding him to use the commands properly, bringing him back on task when he is overwhelmed, taking notes for him because this week he sprained his wrist.  (In other words being a nag and taskmaster, a job my daughter says is tailor made for me.)  …. and in the process I expect that I will learn a lot as well.

 I trust that God has some lessons for me in this time away as well. This is a rare privilege and an experience that I believe I will enjoy.  

Please keep me, my friend John and all the participants in the class in your prayers, and I’ll let you know about the lessons God taught when I get back. Much peace and many blessings as you yourselves prepare for Christmas and look to the coming of the Messiah in your lives.

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Detour

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Christianity, God, Jesus, prayer, Religion, spirituality, Trust

Last night I was at a meeting at a church in a nearby town.  That town has a lot of road construction happening in the blocks surrounding the church.  As a consequence there are detour signs almost everywhere.

The sign that I noticed last night made me chuckle.  

Who ever put up the sign, situated it so that it was directly in front of the main doors of the church with the arrow pointing to the doors.  

It made me ponder, what if every time our own lives were under construction we took a detour through the church?

spending time in prayer?
seeking advice from trustworthy spiritual advisers?
being guided by the Holy Spirit?

The mind boggles.

More to the point what if I were better at following the detour signs that God places in my path, so that my transition times flowed with his mercy and grace?

The heart soars at the possibilities.

 

wake-up music

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calling, Christianity, God, holy spirit, Jesus, Listening, Ministry, prayer, Religion, spirituality

 

The last two mornings I have woken up humming these words:

 

 

With the Spirit’s gifts empower us for the work of ministry.

Those words form the ending couplet of the verses to the hymn “Lord you give the great commission”  

 

 

Lord, you give the great commission:
“Heal the sick and preach the word.”
Lest the Church neglect its mission
and the Gospel go unheard,
help us witness to your purpose
with renewed integrity;
with the Spirit’s gifts empower us
for the work of ministry.

Lord, you call us to your service:
“In my name baptize and teach.”
That the world may trust your promise,
life abundant meant for each,
give us all new fervor,
draw us closer in community; 
with the Spirit’s gifts empower us
for the work of ministry.

Lord, you make the common holy:
“This my body, this my blood.” 
Let your priests, for earth’s true glory,
daily lift life heavenward,
asking that world around us
share your children’s liberty; 
with the Spirit’s gifts empower us
for the work of ministry.

Lord, you show us love’s true measure:
“Father, what they do, forgive.”
Yet we hoard as private treasure
all that you so freely give.
May your care and mercy lead us
to a just society; 
with the Spirit’s gifts empower us
for the work of ministry.

Lord, you bless with words assuring:
“I am with you to the end.”
Faith and hope and love restoring,
may we serve as you intend,
and, amid the cares that claim us,
hold in mind eternity; 
with the Spirit’s gifts empower us
for the work of ministry.

Words: Jeffery Rowthorn

Words © 1978 by Hope Publishing Co,, Carol Stream, IL 60188. 

 

This has been among my favorite hymns for a long time, but we have not sung it in worship in a very long time, so there is no reason for the tune to be stuck in my head and come forth from my dreams.  No reason, that is, other than the Holy Spirit is working in me and through me.

Yesterday and today I pondered what this wake-up music could mean and concluded that it was meant as a call to prayer.  So these past two mornings I have been praying for whatever new gifts I need to fulfill my calling to ministry as well as a fresh outpouring of gifts that I may be renewed and prepared in all aspects of ministry.

My prayer:

Lord, you bless with words assuring:
“I am with you to the end.”
Faith and hope and love restoring,
may we serve as you intend,
and, amid the cares that claim us,
hold in mind eternity; 
with the Spirit’s gifts empower us
for the work of ministry.

Fulfill that calling in my by giving me the new gifts you desire me to have and with a fresh outpouring of your Spirit on me, that I may always serve you as you intend.  Amen.

 

listening….

Tags

Christianity, faith, God, Listening, Meditation, prayer, spirituality, Trust

A few weeks ago I downloaded a meditation app to my phone.  I have used it during the quiet spaces of many mornings ever since.  It helps me focus my breathing, and to concentrate on being present with God.

The app chimes at the transition moments in the prayer time.  I like that it moves me from the focus on breath and helps me stay deeper in the presence with God…much better than always peeking at my watch to see if time is up.

Today my friend’s dog was in the living room as I started to pray.  After the first minute the transition chime sounded.  And the dog started barking and ran to the door.  2 minutes later the phone chimed again and the poor dog went wild, barking at the door, running to me to come and see, barking some more.  It certainly broke my concentration.

“Silly dog,” I said, “That’s not the doorbell that’s my phone”, but he simply carried on as if he knew better than me what he had heard.

Finally I started to reflect on the message in his behavior.  He heard the chime, but he believed it to be the doorbell.  That begged the question how many times have I mistaken another voice as God’s.  How many times have I run after a voice that led me into something that God had not intended.

I meditate, so that I can learn to listen for God’s voice.  I don’t want to run off and follow other voices, I want to learn to trust that as I listen for God to speak that I will hear his voice clearly.

 

Today my prayer is simply this:

I come to you O Lord with an open heart.  Touch me and speak with clarity that I may know your voice, hear you speaking and follow you.  Amen.

Biblical Prayer

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Christianity, Confidence, faith, God, hope, Jesus, prayer, Religion, spirituality

I have known that Biblical Prayer is an important part of our prayer life, indeed we need only look as far as the Lord’s Prayer to know how very important to all of us the prayers contained in Scripture are.  But to be truthful I haven’t really used them very often, preferring to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and pray in the moment and as I felt led.

But today I found a prayer that I want to speak, a prayer that I want, even feel I need, to make my own.

It comes from Exodus 33.  This is a low time for Moses.  While he was up on the mountain with God, inscribing the Tablets with the Commandments the people were below making a golden calf.  God had been angry enough that he proclaimed that he would no longer travel with the people.   This was one of those turning points in their relationship.  How much could Moses ask of God, and how bold was Moses to ask God to keep his promises to always be with the people….

And this is what Moses said to God:

 Moses said to the Lord, ‘See, you have said to me, “Bring up this people”; but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, “I know you by name, and you have also found favour in my sight.” Now if I have found favour in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favour in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.’ He said, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’ And he said to him, ‘If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favour in your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us? In this way, we shall be distinct, I and your people, from every people on the face of the earth.’  Exodus 33: 12-16

Moses by the boldness of his prayer held God to account, reminded God of his promise to always be with them, leading them forward and keeping them safe…. and God remembered his promise…. God’s promise is greater even than his anger….. and God again promised to be with Moses and the people.

At this time when I am waiting to hear God speak, this boldness in prayer speaks to me.  As I wait for God to show me the new direction in my life this demand that God keep his promise and walk with his people gives me courage.  

So today, and for the next little while, based on the boldness of this prayer of Moses my prayer is:

 Yet you have said, “I know you by name, and you have also found favour in my sight.” Now if I have found favour in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favour in your sight. 

as a companion to this prayer is the great hymn of faith:  Guide me, O thou Great Redeemer

Guide me O thou great Redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land
I am weak but thou are mighty; hold me with the powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me now and ever more…feed me now and ever more.

Open now the crystal fountain, when the healing stream doth flow
let the fire and cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through
strong deliverer, strong deliverer be thou still my strength and shield…be thou still my strength and shield.

When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside; 
Death of death and hell’s destruction, land me safe of Canaan’s side
Songs of praises, songs of praises, I will ever sing to thee…..  I will ever sing to thee..

 

 

 

Lead me O God as you have promised, walk with me in this journey and prepare me to embrace the life and calling that is prepared for me.  Amen.   

 

 

Sabbath time

Tags

Christianity, faith, God, Jesus, prayer, Religion, Sabbath, Searching, spirituality, Trust

Yesterday I posted this nugget of wisdom on my Facebook timeline:  “The world isn’t a forest of measuring sticks. The world is a forest of burning bushes. Everything isn’t a marker to make you feel behind or ahead; everything is a flame to make you see GOD is here. Ann Voskamp.

and then I wrote:  Definitely words to live by here. Therefore today I will look for the flame that shows me God is here.

 

I have to admit that yesterday I was fairly successful in keeping my eyes on God and gaining my strength from the assurance that he goes ahead of me to prepare the way.

It helped that I had some wonderful pointers from godly people to help me with that assurance.  

On Sunday I heard a great sermon on the life of the children of Israel as they wandered through the desert.  The starting point of the sermon was this verse from Exodus 13, which has been where I have been trying to keep my faith focused this past month..

The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

The preacher spoke of the time in the desert as a time which was necessary and would lead to coming to know God better, if we don’t fall into the temptation to become whiners and complainers along the way….

Then later in the week I had lunch with someone who is destined to become a good friend.  We talked about my experience of not finding a new place in which to fulfill my calling in ministry, and the experience of homelessness.  She talked with me about her own experiences of unemployment and homelessness and how God always provided at just the right time, but not until the right time.  

We agreed that the life of faith is never easy and that sometimes it resembles stepping off of a cliff without a parachute to hold you up, or a net to cushion your fall.  As I prepare to move from my current place of sojourn and am finding the places to store more of my things and prepare to move on to the next temporary oasis in the desert, I feel more of the free fall than the confidence in God.

We talked about my current focus in prayer, which is that I be able to hear God speaking.  Then I said that I was wondering if the fact that I can’t hear God speak is because he hasn’t spoken yet…. and she spoke those same words at exactly the same time.  WOW.

She has certainly experienced more periods of homelessness than I have and she pointed out that what gave her strength in the process was looking at it as Sabbitical time. Sabbitical time…. not unemployment.  Sabbitical time…. not homelessness.

What a new perspective, this is about being in God’s place, God’s care, and God’s timing.  This is a time for spiritual growth to prepare for the tasks that are to come.  Like Elijah in the desert being brought food and told to eat and sleep for the journey to come would be long.

 

So yesterday when I posted Ann Voskamp’s wisdom on facebook and resolved to look only unto God for direction and leading instead of trying to figure things out and make them work for me, I struck out with confidence.

This morning, the first email I opened was from yet another congregation informing me that after prayerful consideration they did not believe that my gifts matched the direction of ministry the congregation was seeking.  

My initial reaction…. tears of bitter disappointment…… FOLLOWED IMMEDIATELY with this reminder from God…. you have promised to go only where I lead.  In repentance I said, “You are right and I am sorry.  You are merely redirecting my feet to the path you have prepared.  I will follow your leading.”

A few hours later I got an email from a congregation that invited me to read their website, their profile and if I was interested to submit my profile in application. Is this the place I am being led to?  That I don’t know.  What I do know is that I need to read the information, pray and prepare and if there is a pillar of cloud and fire to be seen, I will go forth with God.  But only if God’s presence indicates that this is the path to follow.  

So here we go again, wandering in the wilderness and wondering is this the final lap–the path that leads to the Jordan River and the promised land.  Only time will tell.  I wait for the revelation of God, and reaffirm my intention to walk in faith.   

worth the wait….

Tags

Christianity, faith, God, hope, Jesus, Patience, prayer, Religion, spirituality

Today I did something I have avoided doing for a long time.  I signed up as a follower on another blog.  It’s not that I don’t like some of the blogs I dip into… I do, a lot.  But some days just reading the blogs I do follow regularly is a challenge.   And if I haven’t checked my reader in a while maybe even a chore…. but today I was poking around in all the blogs on prayer and found the one called, http://drawingfromthewell.wordpress.com

It speaks to me for a couple of  reasons.   First of all its because of Thomas Green.  For years I have tried to read his books about drinking from a dry well.  I have written about this struggle before.  I know there is a message in them for me, but I never seem to go there…. so the title of this blog touched me in an area that I know I have some learning and growing to do…

Secondly and more importantly perhaps, it speaks to me because it reminded me that when we wait for God to answer prayer it is something that is worth the wait.  As someone who is in the I want an answer and I want it now mode, I need to hear that.  

So now I have another blog that I will check regularly and maybe the wisdom found in its pages will help me to walk with God in the silence of the wilderness, with faith instead of grumbling.  ….That is my goal, my hope and my prayer.