The Issue

"Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, 'FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND HIS MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." Matthew 19:5-6

It is probably a safe statement to say that Jesus had a pretty good idea of what God had in mind regarding the institution of marriage. The Apostle Paul would later quote the same passage in his letter to the Church at Ephesus. '

"We are members of His body. FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND HIS MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and His church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband." Ephesians 5:30-33

These are only two of the passages of Scripture that are able to give us a firm foundation for a Biblical belief in marriage. They are rooted in Old Testament and New Testament Scripture, and they contain the very words of Jesus and those of one of the most prolific writers of Holy Scripture. Each of them concurred on the core values that are fundamental to the oldest institution of in human civilization. This belief in marriage as the inseparable union between a man and a woman became the basis of all Judeo-Christian jurisprudence and found its expression in English Common Law. It is this legal heritage that was brought by the earliest settlers to the New World that would become America.

By the summer of 1776 these two rivers of thought flowed from the minds, to the pens and onto the parchments and into a statement being prepared by the founding fathers that launched the birth of a new nation. In short it said, 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are LIFE, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS." 

Two hundred and thirty-six years later we are seeing the results of a relentless secularist movement in this country that has attempted to kick the Creator to the curb and redefine the source and the substance of the rights that He granted to those He created. Current events have revealed that this efforts has not been in vain.

The recent statement of support for same-sex marriage by the POTUS, has raised the issue to a new level of visibility and intensity in the public arena.  The basic nature of the issue has been difficult to grasp in the midst of a media blitz and the emotional reaction to his evolutionary statement.  A wild flurry of issues seem to be shouting out for attention all at the same time. The following is a novice's attempt at lowering the decibel level and gaining a degree of understanding at what is happening and the consequences that are at stake. As clearly as I can discern, I believe I have heard people shouting...

• It is a social justice issue. There are those who say that there is a wrong that must be made right in the social fabric of contemporary culture. For too long the belief in marriage as a relationship between a man and woman has been inflicted upon people who hold a different view. They believe it is time to make things right, and they compare their concern with the early abolitionists who paved the way for the removal slavery as a public stain on the honor of the country. 
   
• It is a civil rights issue. This is an expression of the belief that a chosen life-style is a civil right and any personal preference of an oppressed minority must be protected by the law of the land. Regardless of what previous generations have believed about same-sex marriage, they hold that a government must protect  those who reject the existing laws against same-sex marriage from any expression of discrimination against their behavior. Black voters are divided on this issue, and apparently not convinced that they are ready to equate same-sex marriage with access to the voting booth, and the removal of Jim Crow laws. From California to the Carolinas they have supported marriage propositions and amendments, that oppose same-sex marriage. One pastor in Texas made a public statement against this comparison by stating for the record, "Don't confuse your sin with my skin."  This appears to be a tough sell to those who have known the fight, still bear the scars and cherish the memories of what was at stake in the battle for their civil rights. 
   
• It is a genetic issue. These people believe that homosexuals are genetically designed to have an attraction to their same sex, and they should not be denied the full protection of the law in their free expression of their genetic design. Those that resist this scientific finding are vilified as ignorant bigots who just can't comprehend that at least 10-25% of the population carries this gene.  Those who reject  this finding counter with their own position that there may indeed be a genetic tendency towards homosexuality, but it impacts less than 2% of the population. There is no compromise in sight.
   
• It is a fairness issue. For some, it is simply not fair to deny people access to or approval of the type of marriage relationship that they prefer. To hold up marriage between a man and a wife as the only form of the institution is mean, and hurtful to those who have no choice but to love those who share their same beliefs. One cynical contemporary comic expressed fairness this way, "I wish them well. Advocates of same-sex marriage deserve the same right to be miserable in their marriage as I have been in all of mine." 
   
• It is a tolerance/diversity issue. Glenn Beck created a firestorm in conservative circles when he advocated that as far as he was concerned, what causes no harm to him raises no offense in him. Advocates of same-sex marriage may not share a personal preference for it, but they defend the right for it to exist for those who want it. They refuse to mandate the behavior of others, and criticize those who hold to the narrow-minded view of heterosexual marriage. They perceive their position as an open-minded and enlightened expression of political correctness. 
   
• It is a legal issue. These advocates believe that the separation of church and state excludes any and all religious opinions from the public arena. What is held as foundational beliefs inside the walls of one's church has no place in the lawbooks of the land. In short, they believe the majority cannot legislate the behavior of a minority or restrict their free expression of their rights.  These same people do not seem to see anything wrong with the state influencing what goes on in the church, but they countenance no interference from the church with the state.  They refer to the law of man as supreme, but they are a bit cloudy where the absolutes or principles for these laws come from.  
   
• It is a cultural issue. Marriage between a man and a woman has been the accepted standard since the foundation of civilization. However, in the 21st Century 100% of mainstream media outlets have daily promoted the support for same-sex marriage. This effort has slanted the playing field toward sympathy for the position held by a minute minority of people. Local communities have the authority to codify laws and statutes even when they are based upon the shifting sand of public opinion and personal preference. Still, only seven states (14% of the nation) have established the legality of same-sex marriage. 35 states have statutes on the books or constitutional amendments opposing it.This may indicate the size of the disconnect between the Mainstream Media and Main Street.
   
•  It is a constitutional issue. The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act was an attempt to settle this issue nationally.  Still, opposing forces continue to call out to members local communities to establish a standard for marriage based  upon their own personal mores and preferences. The result has been surprising. Polls continue to report a groundswell of support for same-sex marriage, but the ballot box seems to tell a different story.  The 35 legislative initiatives opposing same-sex marriage have passed by an average margin of 60-40%. Even in California, their proposition passed by 8%, and in North Carolina by as much as a 22% margin. Apparently, the American people hold a very different view than they feel the freedom to express in the public arena. The secret ballot still trumps the latest poll results.
   
• It is an integrity issue. Supporters of heterosexual marriage are often chided that they have little right to use the word "sacred" in the same sentence with "institution" to describe marriage. To describe it as a "sacred institution" is to deny that they have failed to hold the high ground. Government's sanction of  "no fault" divorce, and society's acceptance of the practice of cohabitation as a means to beat the "marriage penalty" are only two of the subversive systems that have undermined the "sacred institution." For three decades one out of two marriages in this country has ended in divorce. This has held true for marriages in and out of the church arena. Serial practitioners of divorce have lowered the standard of marriage even though they march under the matrimonial banner of one man and one woman. In fact, they have brought respect for the institution to a new low.  They have allowed it to morph from a "sacred institution" to a form of practical polygamy.  A person in this country is free to have as many marriage partners as they choose, as long as they hook up with them one at a time.  Womanizing men, and marriage-mad women have created unions more likely made in heat than in Heaven. Honest brokers of traditional marriages are disgusted with this hypocrisy. Those who criticize same-sex marriage, while they destroy the integrity of traditional marriage are part of the pollution not the solution. This has led many traditionalists to express a personal desire to set their own marriage in order instead of investing angst and energy in denying another person access to theirs. This noble gesture is often interpreted as a sign of weakness. Only time will tell.
   
• It is a political issue. Traditional family values are pitted against the redefinition of marriage and support for same-sex marriage. Opposing forces try to place essential planks on their political platforms. Each side is engaged in partisan politics. They each can justify the expensive mobilization of a campaign to demonize, marginalize and humiliate those who do not share the same view. The fabric of the American family is being rewoven year after year by forces that manipulate the masses to carry their water, and keep them in office.
   
• It is a religious issue. Orthodox Christianity holds that Scripture is the Word of God and the final authority on moral standards and personal behavior. The Bible clearly defines homosexuality as a sin, but it is not considered unpardonable. It can be forgiven. Though a rejection of God's plan, it is not to be set aside,and vilified in such a way that the critic is free to think more highly of himself than he ought to think. Though it is a sin against nature, and therefore particularly abhorrent, it is worth remembering that all sin is abhorrent to God. The slightest to the greatest sin required the same measure of His Son's blood for the ultimate sacrifice that would purchase forgiveness for those who receive it. Within the broad borders of so called American Christianity there is a wide variety of  opinion on the authority of Scripture. Those who hold on to its inerrency with a tight grip are prone to distrust any diluting or diversion from the application of God's Word in the matter of same-sex marriage   Those who hold a lower view of Scripture and a higher view of their own opinion, usually loosen their grip on ancient Scriptural mandates. They may take hold of some of the same words, but they have a tendency to rewrite the dictionary. They evolve into people more comfortable with being politically correct than being biblically accurate. Fear of man usually evolves into a disobedience to God's Word. However, the following laundry list of the early church indicates that it was filled with people with an inglorious past, but a glorious future. It is worth remembering, when dealing with people who disagree with us, that God has a way of turning people around who we are prone to believe are too far gone. Gotta love the statement, "Such were some of you." 

"Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you." I Corinthians 6:9-11

• It is too early to tell which one of these issues will carry the day. For the POTUS, it was a painful and agonizing process to stir up his courage and admit in public what he had held in private for a very long time.  He is to be commended for clearing the air and setting the record straight.  He has staked his political future on his personal belief in God, and his desire to be a faithful advocate of the "Golden Rule."
   
• If POTUS is right, then everything I know about God and His Word is wrong. His statement has not led me to a crisis of faith. Fear of God is still the best antidote for the fear of man. I have found that when I am intimate with Him, I am not intimidated by what man does. Parsing and dissecting the Word of God rather than obeying it, usually evolves into disobedience to God's voice. If he is wrong, POTUS will have much to answer for, and a country will have much damage to repair. What a leader does in moderation, usually leads to excess in the lives of his people.
   
•  In spite of all the screaming and shouting in the public arena, I find comfort in an ancient Hebrew Proverb. It has helped me face these issues with a calm and a perspective that only God can bring to my heart. After I run into His Presence with a breathless report of all that I have seen going on in the world, I always discover that He has been aware of it all the time.  I haven't surprise Him yet, and He hasn't panicked yet. Running into his Presence always ends with me rolling the issues into His hands and leaving them with Him. He is the only One that can make sense out of them. In short, I am learning to TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

"Do not be afraid of sudden fear nor the onslaught of the wicked when it comes. For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught." Proverbs 3:26

The Discipline

"Discipline your son while there is hope." Proverbs 19:18

One of the joys of living closer to my parents is the opportunity that often can come my way to take them to the doctor when they need help with transportation. Mom is 91 and Dad is 90, and they have just renewed their driving permits. They are usually good to go, but there are times when they need help with the logistics of negotiating hospital parking lots or the maze of medical corridors that were apparently designed by mad architects intent on turning people into lab rats.

Recently, Dad and I were seated next to one another in one of those ice cold, meat locker waiting rooms while Mom was having a tune up by her doctor. Dad always takes his Bible with him and reads it while he waits. He has learned that the ancient magazines provided are no substitute for a fresh word from God. He doesn't often say very much in those settings. Apparently, he is more interested in hearing God speak than hearing the sound of his own voice. I wish everyone else in the room felt the same way, but I digress.

When Dad spoke, I was a bit surprised by the tone of his voice, but even more so by the far away look in his eyes. He seemed to be receiving a particularly clear blast from the past, and he was slowly processing the memories, savoring them in his mind's eye before they came out of his mouth. He said, "I remember the night my father came home from a Methodist revival meeting a changed man. He gathered us around the kitchen table, and I heard my Dad pray for me for the very first time. I had never heard anything like it my life. Even as a little boy, I knew that something had happened to him, and I have never forgotten the thrill of hope that it gave me that things were going to be different in our house from now on."

I responded, "I am over sixty years old and I have never heard you tell that story." He seemed a bit taken aback by that, but offered no explanation. He just continued down memory lane, and assured me that it was a night he would never forget. He said his father soon placed a plaque on the wall of their home that said, "The family that prays together, stays together." It remained a fixture, and a gentle reminder in the family home until Dad graduated from high school and left to serve his country in the Army Air Corps during World Ward II.

My father's memory of that first time he heard his father pray for him has had a profound impact on me. Dad has reached a point in his life when insignificant details do not clutter his mind. He may not remember what he had for breakfast, or connect the right name with a familiar face, but he has held on to those things that are most precious to him. We should all do the same. Let me comfort and challenge every parent reading these remarks,

"What your child hears you pray for them is more important than what they hear you say to them"

Chances are most children are quite clear about what a parent has had to say to them. The fog comes in when they are forced to remember the time when that same parent has ever had anything to pray for them. From the "Greatest Generation" to the latest generation there is a commonly held belief concerning the value of free advice, "Talk is cheap." It is rarely appreciated, and those who invest in it the most are valued the least.

The current dismal popularity numbers of members of Congress give credence to the lack of toleration people have for those who invest more in their talk than they do in their walk. Hot air is often more death defying than it is life-giving. When those around you need some fresh air, offer them your prayers.

Parents invest their best when they let their children hear them pray for them. What they pray for them will be remembered more than what they say to them. Our daughters were in their teens, they heard us pray for them every time they left our house to spend time with their friends. We would pray for them to have a safe, and enjoyable time, but always use the tag line, "Father, we place them in Your hands and if they do anything wrong, let them get caught." They would groan at it, but they never forgot it. To this day they can tell you, "God answers prayer!" Nuff said.

Recently I received a phone call from a personal friend and ministry colleague that I have known for over 30 years. His father died a few weeks ago and I had left him messages and texts to let him know that he had been in my prayers. He was calling to let me know that one of the things that had carried him through the loss of his dad was the memory of a prayer he had heard me pray in 1992. The occasion was a prayer meeting I was leading at our church on the night bombs began falling on Baghdad. He reminded me that I had said, "Father, we are concerned, but we take comfort tonight from knowing that You are more concerned about what is happening than we are." I had not remembered the saying of it, but I did remember the praying of it. God used that blast from a past crisis to shed His light into a dark shadow in the present tense. Who knew?

I am becoming more and more convinced that God has implanted a memory chip into the hearts of His children to value what they hear people pray for them, more than what they hear people say to them. The preparation for wise parenting begins with wise living, and it starts at any time in a person's life when they learn that "Talk is cheap."

Knowing this, wise people become wise parents because they develop the discipline to invest wisely in those that mean the most to them. They know that when they talk to or about someone more than they pray for them, they devalue their relationship. When they choose to talk more than they pray, they choose to lose. They entrust their prayers for someone as a way to invest in those they love. When they determine to use their life's breath to pray it before they say it, they will find what they have to say increases in value to those who hear it.

"Talk is cheap." Stop investing in words that lose their value the more you use them. Children often know what their parents have to say to them, but their character is built by what they hear their parents pray for them. Prayer is the greatest barrier breaking conversation and bridge building tool God has given to us for healthy relationships with Him and with others.

Begin spending your words wisely, and invest them in prayer for one another. Husbands praying for their wives, wives for their husbands, parents for their children, children for their parents increases the value of those we love because it is the currency of Heaven.

"Pray it before you say it."

"Always giving thanks for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to God even the Father, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ." Ephesians 5:20-21

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Boundary

"Do not remove the ancient boundary which your fathers have set." Proverbs 22:28

One of the popular patriot posters of WW I warned of the danger of unguarded speech. Citizens were cautioned to watch what they say or it could put the troops of the nation at risk. The banner read,

"Loose lips sink ships."

By WW II, the German war machine had once again unleashed the wolf packs of the U boats. They were highly successful in shutting down the sea lanes and sinking the ships that supplied the island stronghold of England with the food and fuel required to survive the Battle of Britain.

America's maritime might was called on to replace the tonnage lost to the Germans, and their answer was the Liberty Ship. Originally intended to be a fleet of 500, rapidly 2,700 ships were built before the end of the war. Built fast and not to last, they could be turned out in less than 60 days. There were some shipyards, at the peak of production, that could launch a ship from keel to christening in 16 days. The life expectancy of these vessels was no more than five years, and many did not survive the crossing. Those that did make it to their intended destination, carried the planes, tanks, munitions and men that would defeat the Axis powers in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. It was a remarkable undertaking of American ingenuity and sacrifice.

Appropriately, the SS Patrick Henry was the first Liberty Ship to be completed and put into service. It was given the honor of bearing the name of one of the Founding Fathers, because of his famous quote in the days leading up to the War for Independence,

"Give me liberty or give me death."

Over 2,000 Liberty Ships followed in the wake of the SS Patrick Henry, and all of them carried the name of a patriotic figure or a contemporary citizen who had earned the respect of the American people. One of the best kept secrets in American history may be those ships named for Christian pastors, preachers, missionaries, evangelists, champions of religious freedom, and Christian education.

The list included leaders of each of the great Spiritual Awakenings that swept the nation for 300 years. There was a time, not so long ago, that their contribution to their country entitled them to be considered prominent patriots and worthy of honor.

History is written by those who remain in power after the battle has been won. In WW I the participants were warned, "Loose lips sink ships." Today the flashing light on the dashboard of the soldier in the culture war over the soul of America should say,

"Loose grips abandon ship."

The Liberty Ships were no longer needed after the war ended in 1945. Most of them were sold, or stored in mothball fleets, until they could be scrapped. Unfortunately the nation has also lost hold on the namesakes of some of these ships. For the past 67 years Americans have lost their grip on their memory, and cannot recall the impact of Christian patriots who served this nation with distinction. The "ancient boundaries" set by their forefathers have been removed far from the classroom and the history books. The purveyors of political correctness and cultural conformity have expunged them completely or considered irrelevant Deists who had a benign belief in something somewhere. They have led older generations to forget and left younger generations in ignorance of the boundaries that were set in place. To believe Christianity had little influence on the political climate and the contemporary culture of America is a protected right, but to teach it is tantamount to intellectual treason.

As we set sail in the rough waters of the culture war for the soul of America, perhaps it will comfort you to know that others have sailed these seas before. These are those who had Liberty Ships built, launched and sailed in their honor to defeat the terrorists that threatened America in WW II. They include the...

SS Roger Williams: 1603-1683, Williams was a powerful voice for absolute religious Liberty. He championed this radical concept of unrestricted religious freedom at a time when it was not popular to do so. The Puritan founders of Massachusetts Bay Colony and Connecticut proved to be hostile to his beliefs, and banned him. He established the safe haven for dissenters in Providence, Rhode Island, and founded the first Baptist church in America that remains in that city today.

SS Cotton Mather: 1663-1738, A graduate of Harvard at the age of 15, he became the pastor of the North Church in Boston, and a prolific author and pamphleteer. As a leading Puritan pastor in America, he had great influence on the spiritual, political and scientific community of his day. Though still criticized for not restraining the judges of the Salem witch trials, he is remembered as a proponent of advancements in the treatment of small pox. Long before the American Revolution, in 1688 he led a successful revolt against the royal governor appointed over New England by the King James II. He was responsible for preparing the way for the revolution to come.

SS John Harvard: 1607-1638, Born in England, this Puritan pastor was the teaching elder at the Charlestown Church outside of Boston. Two years before his death, the Puritan leaders founded a school "..to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in dust. " Dying of tuberculosis, he bequeathed half of his considerable monetary estate and his prestigious 400 volume library to the fledgling "New College." In gratitude the founding trustees of the school named it in honor of their pious and generous young benefactor. Harvard College was established for the training of ministers and missionaries to serve churches and spread the Gospel in America.

SS Jonathan Edwards: 1703-1758, Edwards served as pastor of the Church of

Northampton, one of the wealthiest and largest in Massachusetts. The First Great Awakening broke through in his congregation as early as 1733. It continued with great intensity for two years. He authored books and sermons that helped spread the fire of revival all over America and Great Britain. A true scholar, he spent 13 hours a day in his study. Edwards was not only a leading theologian of his day, but a highly respected scientist and philosopher. He is still considered to have been one of America's greatest minds of the 18th Century on either side of the Atlantic. In 1749 his church forced him out when leaders of the congregation grew tired of his call for continuous revival. He became a missionary to the Indians, and shortly before his death from a small pox inoculation, he was called to serve as president of a small college in New Jersey that became Princeton University.

SS George Whitefield: 1714-1770, Anglican evangelist of the 1st Great Awakening, George Whitefield, between 1739-1770. He fanned the spark of the movement that began in Northampton into a flame of fire that traveled throughout the 13 colonies. He arrived in Savannah, GA as a missionary and established, an orphanage to care for destitute children of the colony that is still in operation today. The city of Savannah dedicated a beautiful city square in his memory and the shipyard of his adopted hometown was responsible for naming this ship after him as one of their favorite sons. Whitefield was a personal friend of Benjamin Franklin who verified his capacity to preach to a crowd of 30,000 people in the open air. Whitefield appointed John Wesley to take over the Methodist work he had begun in England, and crossed the Atlantic 13 times to continue fueling revival fires in America. He helped raise money for a building in Philadelphia that became the University of Pennsylvania. He preaching unified people from diverse denominations and contributed greatly to their concept of and their identity as Americans.

SS Francis Asbury: 1745-1816, circuit riding preacher and one of the first Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Asbury was the founder of American Methodism. A statue to his honor was raised in Washington D.C. in 1923 and President Calvin Coolidge delivered the dedicatory address. The land was donated by the United States government, and the U.S. Army Band played a concert of Christian hymns for the service. Coolidge paid tribute by name to the legacy of men like Whitefield, Edwards, and Asbury who made it possible for a nation to be birthed that protected religious freedom and nurtured representative government.

SS F.A.C. Muhlenberg: 1750-1851, well educated in theology at the University of Halle, he was a Lutheran pastor, politician, and the son of German immigrant, Frederick Muhlenberg, the founder of the Lutheran Church in America. He was a voice of the American Revolution, and when British troops arrived in New York City, his church was burned to the ground and he was driven out of the state. He was a member of the Continental Congress, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He became America's first Speaker of the House of Representatives. As Speaker, he opposed the bill that would lead to the translation of the laws of the land into German. Though he abstained from the final vote, it failed to be approved by the Congress by 42-41, he was quoted as saying, "The faster the Germans become Americans, the better it will be."

SS Timothy Dwight 1752-1817, Dwight was a distinguished preacher, pastor, and theologian. As president of Yale, he provided leadership to a generation of young men who were being influenced by the radical anti-God movement coming out of the educational centers of Europe. He mentored the leaders of the Second Great Awakening. Much of what it became is owed to him.

SS Adoniram Judson: 1788-1850, Judson was a Baptist preacher, and at the age of 25, he became America's first Protestant overseas missionary. He served in Burma for 40 years, before he died at the age of 61, in the Bay of Bengal. He left behind his translation of the Burmese Bible, 100 Baptist churches and 8,000 converts. His version of the Bible is still popular for its accuracy and it is used today by persecuted Christians in the nation troubled nation of Myanmar.

SS Peter Cartwright: 1785-1872, powerful Methodist circuit riding preacher of the 2nd Great Awakening, Cartwright baptized 12,000 converts who gathered in the frontier revival meetings that broke out on the western edges of America's borders of Tennessee and Kentucky. These camp meetings were interdenominational gatherings that lasted for days, and transformed the crime riddled culture into one of morality and the rule of law. Their excesses were ridiculed by the established churches of the day, but they could not deny the impact they had on the culture of America. In his later years, he became a political activist in Illinois, and lost to Abraham Lincoln for a seat in the U.S. Congress in 1846.

SS Lyman Beecher 1775-1863, Lyman Beecher was a leader in the 2nd Great Awakening. Because it was birthed on the frontier, and not in the parlors and salons of educated society, this movement of God was often referred to by the religious elite as the Camp Meeting Revival. Beecher blessed it and fueled it in spite of the criticism it received, and was instrumental in leading pastors to receive it even when they could not control it.

SS Henry Ward Beecher 1813-1887, popular Congregational preacher, and son of Lyman Beecher, he came from a long line of Puritan ancestors. His abolitionist preaching challenged the contemporary culture to end the evil of slavery, prior to and during the Civil War. The New York commercial interests that made money off of the trade with the South, made him a target of the contemporary scandal sheets of his day. Love him or hate him, he was a media phenomenon, and his voice was a powerful force for the abolitionist movement. His peers criticized him for politicizing the pulpit. He was convinced that he was Christianizing it. He ignored his critics and kept preaching. He saw slavery defeated in his lifetime.

SS Dwight L. Moody 1837-1889, uneducated, uncultured Moody was the poster-boy for the cultural earthquake fracturing the landscape of America, as thousands of young men and women left their rural homes to move to the big city to find fame and fortune. He came to a saving knowledge of Christ as a shoe salesman in Chicago. He became a powerful preacher of the Gospel in America and Great Britain. He founded Moody Tabernacle, and Moody Bible College, and held sway over the Christian movement that followed in the wake of The Prayer Revival of 1857. During that period, prior to the Civil War, one million people in America were converted. The equivalent contemporary impact would require the conversion and infusion of 30 million people into the nation's churches today. God used him as a powerful force for Spiritual Awakening, in spite of his lack of training and his crude use of the English language. Moody placed his evangelistic message on the hearts of the students of his day. Thousands of these young men and women fueled world wide mission ministries under the banner, "Reach the World for Christ in Our Generation."

SS Billy Sunday: 1862-1935, Sunday, a popular professional baseball player, was the Tim Tebow of his day. With his feet firmly planted in the middle of two centuries of volatile American history, he had a tremendous impact on two cultural arenas. As a ball player, he came to Christ and soon became a fiery evangelist leading huge city wide crusades all over America. His preaching was athletic, ferocious and unapologetic. All over America he called men to Christ and to turn their hearts toward their homes. He fought against the liquor industry because of the detrimental impact it had on the families of the inner cities and the social fabric of America. He was a champion who gave voice to the cries of abused women and children whose cries who could not be heard over the sound of addicted husbands screaming for more of what was killing their familes.

Forgetting history is often a prelude to repeating it. However, those who have been denied a true knowledge of history, have been robbed of their inheritance. They have no knowledge of the incredible boundary that was set by their ancestors. They live lives of impoverished imprisonment, when in fact they have been left a tremendous legacy that is theirs for the taking. They suffer most, who know least. They were never given the chance to reject or to be inspired by what was set in place for them.

The battle for the soul of America is real and the outcome of it holds severe consequences for those who survive it. The key to victory in it, begins with a true understanding of the way the conflict was won in previous generations. Spiritual Awakening is the only climate in which this nation was meant to survive and thrive. Know where the lines are drawn, and don't remove the boundary set by your ancestors. This is a battle that only God can win. Until then, know what has been left for you to defend, and let your prayer be,

"Lord! Do it again. Do it again." J. Edwin Orr

The Love

"...But the fruit of the Spirit is love..." Galatians 5:22

It was Valentine's Day in February of 1978. I was a seminary student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and as they say in our part of the world, I was broke as Job's turkey. Broke and seminary student are probably redundant expressions of the same condition. One is not always synonymous with the other, but my best guess would lead me to bet that the comparisons would hold up today, if they were put to the test out on "The Hill."

Dana and I had been married for a little more than a year. We had begun our lives together on January 1, 1977. I was completing my Master of Divinity degree, cramming three years into four. I expected to graduate in May, but until then it was crunch time. On the weekends, I would put on my marrying and burying suit, and Dana would get dressed to kill and we would head out on the road. I had a spectacular, silver and black 1976 Rally Sport Camaro. It had a 350 cubic inch engine, dual exhaust, dual carburetor, flat back paint, racing stripe, smoking hot tires, and rally wheels. I miss that car. ALOT.

I knew God had called me to preach, but I was pretty sure it was a surprise to everyone else. To get some street creds, I was willing to preach anywhere to anyone who would invite me. I think Dana and I covered most of the farm and market roads in Texas, from Lazbuddie in the west to Lovelady in the east, and from Dalhart in the north to Eden in the south. We drove down thousands of miles of rural road to find those tiny Baptist churches tucked back into the highways and byways of the Lone Star State. It was great experience, and most of the time I got paid enough to buy the gas I needed to get back home. I grew accustomed to the full-time ranchers and part-time deacons walking me out to my car, and saying, "Keep at it son. We'd be glad to have you back, if you bring that pretty girl with you." Those old boys could always spot a thorough-bred.

After a weekend of handling the heavenly, Dana and I would come back to earth, and the daily grind of making a living. I was working at a military ordinance company, where I painted, packaged and shipped thousands of washers to military bases all over the world. It paid minimum wage, and it was work that a monkey could do, if he was down on his luck and out of peanuts. Fortunately for me, the monkey had too much self esteem, so they offered me the job. Every day after morning classes, I would eat a sandwich in the car, head to the office, punch the clock, and launch my ministry of world-wide washers. At the end of the day, I would head home to hit the books until late into the night. Dana worked as a hair stylist and managed a four chair barber shop in Arlington.

Between the two of us, we were living on love and the carcass of a tough, ten-point deer I had shot while preaching in Eden back in December. I had spent my last five bucks for a hunting license, and we prayed over it before I left home. If I could get a deer, we would have enough meat to get us through the winter. You can believe I had "buck fever" when I put the scope on that big boy. He was huge, but my biggest fear was going home without him, and explaining what happened to our last five dollars. One of us was going to have to die that day. It was going to have to be him. So, he went down, but every time we tried to swallow him, he kicked back. I can still hear Dana pounding that leather-like venison with a hammer hard enough to tenderize it before she could put it in a crock pot for chili.

When Valentine's Day hit, I regretted I could not do more to celebrate the day with Dana. Rent was due for our duplex apartment, and it was tough each month coming up with the $150.00 we needed. This time it was going to be really tight. Four weeks of unusual ice and snow had shut the roads down and closed churches all over Texas. What little bit I had been receiving from pulpit supply work had not been available to us that month.

I went to my study, and wondered what I could do to salvage the weekend. I found in the closet a box of art supplies Dana had collected when we both served in a church's youth ministry. I got busy turning them into a man-made expression of a Valentines' Day card. By the time I was done, I had taken 12 pieces of multi-colored paper and written a dozen expressions of my love for Dana on each one of them. I made each page an homage to what we had done together or places where we had gone that month. I attached pieces of candy, momentos, ticket stubs, poems and then bound them all together in a thick homemade replica of a Hallmark card. I made a promise to her that someday the gifts that she received on this day would improve, and they would be worthier expressions of the love I had in my heart for her.

I will never forget Dana's response that night when I came back into our small living room and handed my creation over to her. Silence. She smiled, sat on the couch, and slowly turned every page, reflecting on the year we had spent together. No fireworks. No tears. Just a smile. It may not have been worthy of a Hallmark movie finale, but it was a sweet time.

Just this week I asked Dana if she remembered that night 34 years ago, when we were so broke I couldn't even afford to buy a card to give to her for Valentine's Day. She assured me she did indeed remember. I told her I hadn't thought about that night for years, and for some reason I had a blast from the past hit me. I recalled vividly the experience of creating a card out of construction paper and giving it to her in hopes that someday it would be replaced by something better. The fact that she remembered it was not all that surprising to me. She has an incredible memory. Note: Men don't about what really matters. Most women do. But what caught me off guard was her next statement, "I still have it."

Dana's simple statement is so true on so many levels. In fact it speaks for both of us. We still have it. We hold dearer today what God gave to us over three decades ago. We still share God's gift of love to us. The love He gave us grows stronger for one another through every tear, every test, every trial and every triumph. What Dana held onto was more than paper, glitter and glue. She held onto a husband's heart. I had hoped then that someday my love could be expressed in a way that was worthy of the only one I have every truly wanted to impress. It killed me not to be able to give her something more substantial back in 1978. Her response was a huge part of the foundation for a solid marriage. Instead of treating my crude attempt at creativity with the look of disdain that can easily cross a person's face when expectations aren't met, she treated it with respect. I am so grateful she did. Like most winning race horses, the girl has a heart bigger than Dallas.

Well, once again it is Valentine's Day. The world has turned around a few times since Dana and I started out on this journey together. It is not lost on me that what goes around will always come around. In 2012 we are back on the road again. We teach a prayer conference called, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! Among many things we share, we challenge husbands and wives to learn how to stay together by being willing to pray together. During the past 18 months of this new ministry, we have been all over the country, around the world, and in churches large and small. The one thing they have all had in common: they still want me to come back, if I bring Dana with me. The only thing missing is my Camaro. Gotta love the retro look of the new ones. Sweet rides. HMMMMMM. But I digress...

It is still a little too early for me to risk the wake up call, but I am looking forward to saying to Dana sometime this morning, "Happy Valentine's Day!" It will be followed up with my next question I know she wants me to ask, "Can you say Brighton?" I think I know what her answer will be. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! and by the way...TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Gap

"I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but found no one." Ezekiel 22:30

"The Gap" commonly refers to a contemporary clothing store. It is rarely considered to be a perilous place to stand, unless it is a sale day during the Christmas rush. In our culture it seldom brings to mind a perilous position between two warring parties. In 1977, my father, Don Miller, launched his prayer ministry. He gave me a parchment paper poster with the above mentioned passage from Ezekiel superimposed with the words, "THE GAP." From that moment until now, I have associated those two little words with the call of God on my life to serve as a prayer warrior in His army.

35 years later, my wife, Dana, and I responded to God's call to begin our own ministry of prayer. We call it, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE! We have always known to associate prayer with the three words, "standing in the gap." For the past year and a half we have grown to appreciate intercessory prayer at a whole new level. We have always known prayer was something that we must do for ourselves. Recently we have grown to intensify prayer for and with each other. This kind of mutual prayer for one another serves to keep our marriage healthy, and replace panic with peace. It has also given us a way of expanding our ministry all over the United States and around the world. As we pray for others, we play a part in providing direction, protection and correction for those we love. It allows us to invest in the lives of people we know best, as well as those that we will never meet this side of Heaven. It turns the waiting room overwhelmed with anxiety into a war room focused on victory. It takes a sense of futility that comes when intimidated by the impossible, and turns it into a shout of victory that comes from seeing God do the HIMpossible.

"What is impossible with man, is possible with God." Luke 18:27

Standing in the gap gives us the capacity to Have Our Perspective Elevated on any issue that we face. This injection of H.O.P.E. into our lives at any time of the day or night sets us free from the intimidation of the enemy. When our conversation reveals we are overwhelmed by a crisis we face, we now stop the talk and we start to pray. If the enemy has hit close to home in the lives of our family and friends, or if we discover a need anywhere on the globe, we refuse to be conformed to the crisis. Intercessory prayer transforms our concern with any problem into a conversation with the Solution to every problem...Jesus.

Standing in the gap is simply, another way of expressing the call to intercede in prayer for people. All Christian soldiers are potential prayer warriors. The problem is that many of the are AWOL. Prayer is not reserved for an elite corps of disciples. Jesus modeled prayer, and provided prayer so that all of His followers could have intimate communication with His Father.

Prayer is available and accessible to all believers. It is impossible to become a believer without taking advantage of it as the way to call out to God for salvation. The way believers come on is the way they should go on. Prayer is the way to continue a conversation with Jesus. It should never begin and end with, "Lord, save me." Prayer is the beginning a beautiful friendship, and a walk down a long road. Enjoy the journey.

No doubt, there are those in this army of God who are a cut above the common soldier in their practice of prayer. Prayer warriors who have dedicated themselves to continuous conversation and consistent companionship with Jesus are the Special Forces and Seal Teams of God's army.

Intercession is a powerful weapon in the hands of these seasoned, battle hardened prayer warriors. They provide the "shock and awe" that terrifies the enemy and expresses the primary passion of the Glorified Christ. Prayer warriors who confront the enemy on behalf of others are the Special Ops of God's army. They are not content with standing guard at an embassy or marching in a celebratory parade. Both may be honorable service, but they are not crucial to the survival of or revival in the church. Standing in the gap and standing guard require different costs and have separate consequences.

Jesus promised His disciples that it was to their advantage that He go away, because He would send the Comforter to them, and He would be with them forever. After His death, burial, and resurrection, The Risen Christ ascended into Heaven. As The Glorified Christ, He took His place and was seated at the right hand of the Father. The Head of the Body of Christ, Jesus, lives to make intercession for His Church and for those who seek to draw near to God. Jesus is the Head of The Body.

Prayerless churches are made up of headless people who have lost their sense of direction and purpose. They have lost sight of the Head of the Body of Christ who lives for intercession. They will never get The Mind of Christ until they put on the Head of the Body of Christ, and think like He thinks and pray the way He prays.

Standing in the gap is intercessory prayer. It requires hand to hand combat with a persistent enemy for a prolonged period of time. There are no medals, citations, or ribbons given for service rendered, and most of the time it is done when no one else is watching or awake. Prayer warriors learn to use intercession as night vision goggles. They are often called on to pray when things are at their darkest hour.

The call for prayer goes out only when people have come to the end of their rope. This means that the enemy has been given time to entrench themselves in a situation and or a person's life. By all appearances they are safely hidden in their impregnable stronghold. Prayer puts a stop to the hand-wringing and the blame game. Prayer takes the attack to the enemy. At a time when enemy is most confident of victory and convinced they are hidden from view, prayer explodes in their faces, strikes them with fear, and puts them to flight.

Prayer warriors are tuned into the Commander. They are able to see through the dead of night, the movement of the enemy, and the helplessness of others in need. As they pray to God on behalf of the captives, God strikes fear into the hearts of the enemy, and reveals their position. The incoming prayers of the warriors terrify the enemy camp because they stir the heart of The Champion to take the field against them.

Prayer Warrior Mission:HIMpossible

• Attention: Pray!

" And the people came to Moses and said...intercede with the Lord...and Moses interceded for the people. " Moses (Numbers 21:7

"You can do more than pray after you have prayed; but you can never do more than pray until you have prayed." A. J. Gordon

• Hold your position! "Pray without ceasing." Paul, I Thess. 5:17 Standing in the gap is a way of life, not an hour in a prayer room. It is done while you walk, as you drive, at work, and in your home as a continuous conversation between the Heavenly Father and His child.

• Wait for further orders! "But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation." Micah 7:7 God's delay is not a sign of God's denial. God's silence is not a statement of his disinterest.

"God does nothing except in response to believing prayer." John Wesley

• Protect your supply lines! "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may with you forever." Jesus (John 14:6)

• Exhibit courage! "But I have prayed for you that your faith fail not..." Jesus (Luke 22:32) Courage is not so much the absence of fear, as it is faith under fire.

"Prayer strikes the winning blow; service is simply picking up the pieces." S.D. Gordon

• Focus on Jesus! "He always lives to make intercession for them." Heb.7:25 Never lose sight of the only one who has understood completely what the role of a prayer warrior is. Jesus is praying for you. Praying eyes can see Him.

• Follow the chain of command! "First of all I urge that prayer and entreaties be offered on behalf of all men...pray for those in authority." 1 Tim. 2:1-2

• Never surrender! "Pray without ceasing..." Paul (1 Thess. 5:17) Persevering prayer is a sign of strength to the enemy. They interpret prayerlessness are a prelude to surrender.

• Communicate on a secure line! "The Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." Romans 8:26 Never allow your enemy to overhear you talking about your fears. Pray about them, and the very thing that you fear the most, God will use to terrify the enemy. Talking is not praying. Talking is treasonous communication with an enemy that has tapped into your communication system and can hear everything you say.

• Complete your mission! "I have finished the work Thou hast given me to do." Jesus, John 17:4 The prayer warrior's mission on earth is fueled by the intercession of The Champion in Heaven. The prayer warrior continues on earth what Jesus did, and continues to do seated at the right hand of the Father. Intercession is the mission.

• Prepare for victory! "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." Phil. 1:6 Avoid being the victim of friendly fire. Prepare for victory over the enemy. When those closest to you hurt you the most, follow the leader to victory. "Father forgive them..." Jesus, Lk 23:3

Don't settle for survival. There is not hope of survival without complete and total victory over the enemy. Make no room for compromise or negotiation with the enemy. You cannot negotiate with terrorists.

"And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary...while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people and especially to those who are of the household of faith." Galatians 6:9-10

"Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival." Winston Churchill

Prayer Warrior Medal of Honor Recipients

1. "Prayer is the intimate communication between the Heavenly Father, and His child." Don Miller
2. "Man's extremity is God's opportunity." George Whitefield
3. "Discernment is given for intercession, not faultfinding." Oswald Chambers
4. "Its amazing what God can do with a broken heart, if you give him all the pieces." Samuel Chadwick
5. "The man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelization in history..." Andrew Murray
6. "The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless work, prayerless study or prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil,mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray." Sam Chadwick
7. "Prayer is where the action is." John Wesley
8. "Don't pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on his knees." Corrie Ten Boom
9. "Satan trembles when he sees the weakest Christian on his knees." William Cowper
10. "You may as soon find a living man that does not breathe, as a living Christian that does not pray." Matthew Henry
11. "Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer." John Bunyan
12. "I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach." Charles Spurgeon
13. "If i could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet the distance makes no difference, He is praying for me. " Robert Murray M'Cheyne
14. "Prayer is the greatest of all forces, because it honors God and brings him into active aid." E. M. Bounds
15. "I never prayed sincerely and earnestly for anything but it came in some time, no matter at how distant a day, somehow, in some shape, probably the least I would have devised, it came." Adoniram Judson
16. "To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them." John Calvin
17. "We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties." O. Chambers
18. "Faith in a prayer-hearing God will make a prayer-loving Christian." A. Murray
19. "Four things let us keep in mind: God hears prayer. God hears prayer. God heeds prayer. God answers prayer, and God delivers prayer." E. M. Bounds
20. "As is the business of tailors to make clothes, and cobblers to make shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray." Martin Luther
21. "The true church lives and moves and has its being in prayer." Leonard Ravenhill
22. "The battle for prayer is against two things...wandering thoughts and lack of intimacy with God's character as revealed in His word. Neither can be cured at once, but they can be cured by discipline." Oswald Chambers
23. "Prayer wonderfully clears the vision, steadies the nerves; defines the duty, stiffens the purpose, sweetens and strengthens the spirit." S. D. Gordon
24. "If the spiritual life be healthy,...praying without ceasing will be natural." Andrew Murray
25. "Definite prayer for those in the prison house of sin is the need of the hour." Dr. R. A. Torrey
26. "Prayer does not fit us for the greater work, prayer is the greater work." O. Chambers
27. "It is not enough to begin to pray...continue in prayer until we obtain an answer." George Muller
28. "Prayer can never be in excess." Charles Spurgeon
29. "Listening to God is far more important than giving Him our ideas." Frank Laubach
30. "Prayer is not learned in the classroom but in the closet." E. M. Bounds
31. "Whole days and weeks I have spent prostrate on the ground in silent or vocal prayer." George Whitefield
32. "There is no power like that of prevailing prayer...it turns ordinary mortals into men of power. It brings power. It brings fire. It brings rain. It brings life. It brings God." Samuel Chadwick
33. "Prayer is the secret of power." Evan Roberts
34. "There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer." A. T. Pierson
35. "The man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelization in history." Andrew Murray

Prayer Warrior Field Manual

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do you pray for people on a prayer list for prolonged period of time without any sign of an answer.

A: The last blow of the hammer always breaks the stone. You never know when the break will come. You are responsible to pray. God is responsible for the answer. He is the Sculptor. Keep expecting God to break through. He is using you. You are not using Him. Prayer puts you in the His hands of God. Be the hammer and give God some elbow room.

Delayed answers are a challenge for the intercessor and for the one in need. Sometimes there is not a victory in a single battle, but the struggle is an endless campaign. There are ups and downs and the wins and losses that come with any unresolved issue. Health, financial, or family issues can all bring on a weariness for both parties. Those who pray feel guilty that they do not carry the burden as intensely as they once did. Those who need healing begin to feel that they are becoming a burden to those around them. When greeted with a request for an update, they are often hesitant to admit their need. They have seen the eyes of people cloud over who may have been willing to wear pink during "Breast Cancer Awareness Month," but they don't know how to be supportive the other 11 months of the year. Both parties are going to have to release their burden into the hands of God, and allow His Spirit to be the source of peace in the midst of the storm, as long as it takes.

Q: How do you pray for someone who has never seen a prayer list they didn't want to be on?

A: People in need of rescue often become discouraged by their prolonged imprisonment. All they can hear are the voices of their enemy captors. They loose hope in their situation, convinced of their defeat. Their prayers to God are silenced. They believe the lie from the enemy camp that is repeated to them over and over. "God's delay means God's denial."

Delay tempts them to take small comfort in the celebrity status often offered to a victim. This is an attempt on the part of the enemy to keep them trapped in prison and give up hope of escape. Prayer turns a victim of circumstances into victor over them. When being prayed for becomes more important than receiving an answer to prayer, it is a signal that Satan has hacked his way into their value system. The virus must be removed by gentle reminders that the passion of a Christian is to have a prayer list, not to be on one. Be warned. Sometimes the cure is more dangerous than the illness. If some people had all their prayers answered, the shock might kill them. That being said, pray for them anyway. They may have the wrong motive in for asking for prayer. You need to focus on your own integrity, and pray with the right motive.

Q: How do you pray with genuine concern for requests that appear to to be trivial?

A: A bone in the throat and a grain of sand in the shoe are small things to be sure. They have the potential to become huge problems if they are not removed. Intercessory prayer is more about you focusing on the size of God than the size of the request. What seems trivial to you may be of great consequence to one of God's children.

"Does anyone dare despise the day of small things?" Zechariah 4:10 (The Message)

Q: How do you intercede with passion for someone you do not know?

A: Jesus interceded, "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word." John 17:20 Jesus lives to make intercession. When you pray for someone you do not know, you are aligning yourself with His mission. You never become more like Jesus than when you are praying for someone you do not know to come to the saving knowledge of Christ, or to receive the answer to their prayer at the throne of His grace.

Q: What do you do when your mind wanders when you are praying for others?

A: There is a difference between spending time and paying attention. Oswald Chambers warned prayer warriors that the battle is always about two things, wandering thoughts and lack of intimacy with God. If your mind wanders, it is being influenced by the enemy. Discipline yourself to stop in your tracks at the first sign of an intruder. Rebuke the enemy, gather your thoughts, focus your attention, and begin again. If you fall asleep when you pray, you might try standing up as you intercede. You will break the habit or the floor will break it for you.

"The battle for prayer is against two things in the earthlies; wandering thoughts and lack of initmacy with Gods character as revealed in His word. Neither of them can be cured at once, but they can be cured by discipline." Oswald Chambers

Q: What do you do when you don't feel like praying?

A: Pray anyway. You will never feel your way into a new way of praying. You must pray your way into a new way of feeling. Athletes are told to learn to play with pain. Christian soldiers will need to learn to pray with pain. Intercessory prayer is spiritual warfare. There will be resistance from the enemy. Expect to be hit where you will feel it the most. Remember, when you feel like whining, it is because the enemy knows you are winning.

Q: Why do prayers go unanswered?

A: The enemy is full of deceit and deception. This may be their most effective lie. In fact, all prayers are answered: Three of the most common answers are: Yes. No. Wait. The three greatest hindrances to prayer cannot be blamed on the deception of the enemy camp.

Prayerlessness: "You do not have because you do not ask.." Jame 4:2

Motive: "You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motvies."James 4:3

• Selfish, sweat drenched prayers that glorify the flesh do not pass God's smell test. There is a huge difference between my will and Thy will. Getting what you want and desiring to get with God reveals the motive of your heart. Do you want to get an answer from God or do you want to spend time with God? People who get what they want, but never get with God miss out on more than they can imagine.

Pride: "...not my will, but Yours be done." Luke 22:42

• God's waiting room is designed to conform you to Him, not for Him to perform for you. Jesus set the standard for prayer warriors. Those who pray like Jesus will always pray long enough to see "my" turned into "Thy." God's delay is not always a sign of God's denial. He uses prayer to conform you to His image, and His will. Pray long enough to come to the end of yourself, and the beginning of God. This is the true purpose of prayer. The prayerless always mock the "Tebow" but they defend their own ego. Prayer is more about listening to God than talking to God. It is not a way for you to give God instruction, but the means for you to listen to His direction. When you are talking, you are not learning. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

"Prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity...answer God's standing challenge: "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not." J. Hudson Taylor

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Grip

"With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit." Ephesians 6:18

The sword of the Spirit is the word of God. The sword requires a strong five, fingered grip by the sword-bearer in order for this weapon to accomplish the task assigned to it in the arsenal of The Armor of God. It is the only attack weapon the Christian soldier has. Without it the warrior is dressed to kill, but is powerless to do so.

Looks can be deceiving. Pristine parade ground cadets are no substitute for seasoned battleground veterans. The major difference between gold-braided and grizzled soldiers their level of experience in the use of their weapons. Basic training provides a potential combatant with an introduction to the proper use of weapons and to the current rules of engagement. Hand to hand combat with the enemy, however, creates a whole new level of intimacy and intensity with the effective use of weapons. It is something that cannot be accomplished in the classroom of a war college or duplicated by an artificial obstacle course. After one particularly savage battle, the war weary Union Civil War General Tecumseh Sherman said, "War is hell." His most recent experience gave him a clear picture and he made an accurate evaluation of 19th century conflict. In his letter to the Church at Ephesus, the Apostle Paul warned 1st century saints they were in a, "War with hell."

Nothing has changed in 2000 years. Christian soldiers were never intended to admire themselves in the mirror of public opinion, or to march in a parade of political correctness. Their commission from The Champion was a result of His call to them to follow Him and to stand by Him in the struggle "against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12

The soldier-saint learn must learn to wrap five fingers around "the sword of the Spirit" by following the daily discipline of The Champion. Jesus is the ultimate drill instructor. His voice must be heard over the din of battle, and the distractions of the enemy, or the soldiers of His army will go AWOL in the face of the enemy. The disciple of Christ becomes a disciplined soldier by developing the character that displays immediate obedience to the marching orders of The Champion. Each finger of the fighting grip of a well-equipped soldier must close tightly around the sword of the Spirit when they...

• Hear the Word!
• Read the Word!
• Study the Word!
• Memorize the Word!
• Meditate on the Word!

The sword of The Spirit is the Word of God. It must never be loosely held, or treated like a frivolous accessory. When it is taken lightly, the sword will be easily knocked to the ground by a blow from the enemy. If it is not taken seriously or considered obsolete, the soldier risks showing up for a fight for his life without his attack weapon.

Paul calls on soldiers to "pray in the Spirit." Prayer tightens the five-fingered grip of the saint around the sword of the Spirit. The key to getting and to keeping a firm grip on "the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God" is to..."...pray at all times in the Spirit..." Ephesians 6:18

A glove takes on the life of the owner when he inserts fingers into the space designed just for them them. Any left handed ball player who has ever had to play in a game while using a glove designed for a right handed player knows exactly what this feels like. The mitt must fit each finger properly or an error is sure to follow. A ball player imposes his or her will on the ball glove by inserting fingers into it. The glove has no life on its own. It shows signs of life only because someone else has exerted a powerful influence into the glove. It is not enough for the glove to simply exist. It will never accomplish the purpose for which it was made until life is put into it.

In a similar way, the prayers of a soldier of Christ give life to the five fingers that must obediently be wrapped around the handle on the sword of The Spirit. Prayer releases life-changing power of The Spirit into the fingers of a soldier and enables each one to get their unique grip on the only offensive weapon of warfare available to them. By prayerfully hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating on the Word of God, the soldier will get a grip on the Truth that will give him courage for the battle. The sword of The Spirit silences the lies of the enemy and cuts the chains of those imprisoned in darkness. Preachers have long understood the power of this sword, and how to use it when the lies of the enemy camp become loud enough to drown out the truth of the Gospel.

"When Satan opens his mouth, he gives me an opportunity of ramming my sword down his throat." C.H. Spurgeon

Fingers of the soldier of Christ are deadened by the lack of prayer. Prayer energizes the spiritual senses, provides the infusion of the Spirit's courage into the heart of the warrior, and the Holy Spirit pumps supernatural strength into a believer's grip on the sword of the Spirit. Prayerlessness causes fingers to atrophy from lack of use, or to be paralyzed by the ferocious face and constant threats of the enemy. Praying at all times in the Spirit is an admission of one's own need for a moment by moment, breath by breath consistent companionship and daily dependency upon the Holy Spirit to provide His Presence, power and perspective during prolonged spiritual warfare.

"We must not be content to be cleansed, but be filled with the Spirit. The word 'comforter' as applied to the Holy Spirit needs to be translated by some vigorous term. Literally it means 'with strength.' Jesus promised His followers, 'The Strengthener' would be with them. No lullaby for the faint-hearted. It is a blood transfusion for courageous living." C.P. Hovey

Praying in the Spirit is the means by which a soldier engages in spiritual warfare with the overriding confidence in the victory over the enemy. Prayer enables the prayer warrior to stand next to The Champion during the worst of the battle. Prayer transforms life-draining fear into death defying faith by making connection with the life giving power and the life-changing Presence of the Person of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told His followers that it was to their advantage that He go away. He knew that His absence would lead to a fresh infusion of His Presence.

Praying in the Spirit provides access to His...

• Comfort: "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever, that is, the Spirit of truth,...you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you." Jn 14:16-17

• Companionship: "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples." Jn 15:7

• Communication: "If you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you...ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full." Jn 16:24

• Courage: "In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." Jn 16:33

• Citizenship: "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of this world. I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one." Jn 17:14

• "Completion: I in them and You in Me that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me." Jn 17:23

The First Great Awakening in America had its most visible lightning strike in Northampton, Massachusetts, during 1734-1735. A few years later, in response to a call to prayer from a pastor in Scotland, Jonathan Edwards wrote the seminal work on The Role of Prayer in Spiritual Awakening. He entitled it,

"An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God's People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Renewal of Religion and the Advancement of God's Kingdom on Earth." Jonathan Edwards 1747

Edward's book outlined what had happened in his church in Northampton and the surrounding communities. He described what they saw God do, and called for a renewal in 1747 of the kind of prayer they had experienced 13 years earlier. It is still needed today to prepare for the next Great Awakening. The marks are: Explicit Agreement - Visible Unity - Unusual Prayer

Praying in the Spirit is a vital responsibility of the Church, but its influence is not limited to those within the walls of a church. Praying in the Spirit's power has the capacity to generate a gentle touch to turn one life around. God intends for His children to lead the way in obedience to His commands. Spiritual Awakening, sometimes called revival, is just one step of obedience away. It knows know limits. It has been described as a community totally saturated by the Presence of God. Praying in the Spirit can be released upon one person, or this kind of prayer can launch a tsunamai. The tidal wave of the Spirit's power has proven to be able to surge across an entire nation, and reverse the direction of generation that has turned its back on God.

As early as 1739, Benjamin Franklin became a personal friend and business partner of the Anglican Evangelist George Whitefield. Franklin saw the fires of the First Great Awakening transform the lives of the citizens of the city of Philadelphia. In his autobiography he recalled the impact of the open-air preaching of Whitefield on the colonial citizenry,

"...one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street."

Franklin remained friends with Whitefield until the preacher's death. He shares in his autobiography that he never gave the evangelist the satisfaction of knowing that his prayers for his salvation were ever answered, but he never forgot what he had seen God do through the life of the man.

Years later he would recall how he had seen God work in his nation's history through answered prayer. The War of Independence had been won. The nation had been struggling for years with the implementation of the inadequate Articles of Confederation. Once again delegates from the various United States met in Philadelphia to reorganize the government into a more effective union.

After five weeks of tumultuous and fractious meetings at the Constitutional Convention in Independence Hall, Benjamin Franklin reminded them of answered prayers they had received in that very room during the American Revolution. Although he was not a a professing member of any denomination, he called on the members of Congress who claimed to be Christians, to remember what they believed in, and to pray to God once more for guidance. With the Congress at an impasse, members were threatening to go home, and disband the effort. Rather than the birth of a nation, the convention was about to dissolve into a complete failure. Franklin rose before the Congress in session and appealed to the presiding officer, George Washington. He said in part,

" In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, we had daily prayers in this room for the Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and graciously answered...I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God Governs the affairs of men...I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business..."

In spite of opposition to the motion from members of Congress who did not want word to get out that the convention had come to this kind of desperate measure, prayers were offered. There was a change in the climate of the room. In short order, the fog of confusion was lifted and a constitution was completed, passed on to the States, and ratified. The rest, as they say, is history.

"The story of every great Christian achievement is the history of answered prayer." E.M. Bounds

There is always a high cost to pay for those praying their way towards Spiritual Awakening. The enemy has always known that fallen leaders weaken a movement of God. Discredited, discouraged, disoriented, defeated, or dead, it makes no difference to the enemy camp how a leader falls as long as a leader leaves the field. People left without a leader are prone to wander from the field of battle, or eventually retreat from it.

It was so in the lives of leaders of the First Great Awakening. After being used as a catalytic converter for the Awakening that began in his church in Northampton, Massachusetts, Edwards saw it spread all over New England, and throughout Colonial America. His writings and the preaching of Whitefield were instrumental in seeding the Great Awakening throughout Great Britain.

Three years after writing his monumental treatise on the role of prayer in Spiritual Awakening, Jonathan Edwards was removed from his pulpit in 1750. He had refused to retreat, and return to the way things were before the Great Awakening. He refused to accommodate the widening, secularized culture that sought acceptance and membership in his church, but did not want a relationship with God. Today he is remembered as the one of America's greatest theologians, scientists and philosophers, and the Father of the First Great Awakening. His former church is a forgotten footnote in history. Go figure.

George Whitefield, from 1839-1870 exhausted himself by 13 crossings of the Atlantic, preaching thousands of sermons in the open air, and traveling by horseback the length and breadth of colonial America. He was one of the first white men to travel non-stop by horseback from Boston to Charleston, SC. His heart gave way at the age of 55 after preaching his last sermon in Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1770. He was buried in that city beneath the pulpit of what is now the First Presbyterian Church. From 1739-1770, his preaching forged ties between the colonies, and prepared the way for the establishment of a national identity. He gave his last breath to fan the flames of Spiritual Awakening in his adopted homeland of America. His prayer journals are an inspiration, and leave potential prayer warriors with a powerful and profound reminder,

"Man's extremity is God's opportunity." George Whitefield

The cost of a getting a grip on the sword of the Lord comes with a high price. Those who accept the challenge to pray in the Spirit are are driven by the prophetic passion that the price paid for losing one's grip on the sword is even higher. Historical and theological evidence reveal the peril that comes when the Church replaces an intimate communication with God with an inexcusable connection with its culture. The unbalanced substitution results in a nation that expects God's protection and prosperity, but despises His correction and purity.

"For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve You will perish." Isaiah 60:12

The Role of the Word of God and Prayer in Spiritual Awakening are inseparable from one another. The process of breathing, inhaling and exhaling, supplies the body with life-giving oxygen, and rids the lungs of what is life-threatening. Light from the Word of God protects Spiritual Awakening from losing its way and keeps it from being consumed by secondary issues and unsound doctrine. Prayer softens hands that have become calloused and hearts that have become hardened handling the holy sword of The Spirit. Praying in the Spirit prepares people to receive the Word of God. Prayer and the Word of God are two sides of the same coin. For the citizens of The Kingdom who are willing to pray the price for Spiritual Awakening, they must invest in and expend the currency that is recognized and minted in Heaven.

One of the greatest church historians, who gave his life to the study and the documenting of the role of prayer in Spiritual Awakening, passed on this wise counsel to his students before he died.

"What is the lesson for us, Let us pray. Lord, do it again. Do it again." J. Edwin Orr

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Word

"...the sword of the Spirit. which is the word of God." Ephesians 6:17

The Armor of God contains an arsenal of weapons available to equip the soldier of Christ.

"Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand against the schemes of the devil." Ephesians 6:11

• The one common denominator of each of these items of armor is their defensive nature. With the exception of "The Sword of the Spirit," these weapons do not prepare the warrior to attack the enemy. However, they do offer ample protection from the attacks of the enemy.

• The soldier's dress code requires that the weapons be put on or taken up by those who intend to take their stand in the battle line. Undressed soldiers are more than an embarrassment to themselves. Harsh but true, ill-equipped soldiers are a liability to everyone around them.

• The key to effectiveness in battle against evil is the capacity of the saint to stand next to The Champion in the face of the enemy assault. The enemy is at a distinct advantage when the saintly soldier chooses to run from the battle. The armor provided for victory simply will not protect a soldier who is prone to retreat. The bearer of the armor must stand and face the adversary in order to receive the maximum benefit from these weapons of this kind of warfare. Jesus is the only one the enemy really fears. When the soldier stands next to Jesus, there is no fear of defeat. AWOL saints must find their confidence in the word of God, and obey the written orders of The Champion.

"...The sword of The Spirit is the word of God." Paul's use of the word "sword" to describe the word of God should not be underestimated. The Roman short sword had been used to conquer the known world. This side arm was the primary attack weapon of a solider in one of the vast legions of the Empire. Paul had ample opportunity to observe the weapon on the hip of his guards while they were chained to him in prison. It is no great stretch of the imagination to suggest that Paul took advantage of his close proximity to his guards to discuss the use of the sword with them. Paul was known to take an object of the Roman culture and communicate the Gospel of Christ to his audience. In Athens, he used a statue built to honor an unknown God to tell his listeners about Jesus. Soldiers assigned to him would receive the same kind of message, but with a different illustration. Paul's use of their sword as a word picture for the word of God would have a profound impact on them and they in turn would help him spread the good news of the Gospel.

"So that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else." Philippians 1:13

Spiritual Awakening and The Word of God:

"So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." Romans 10:17

The Puritans arrived on the shores of America with the Geneva Bible under their arm and a passion in their heart to build a "city on a hill." The King James Bible, though completed was not widely available in print. The early Puritan preachers started churches, built schools, and limited government. They established in the lives of their people a profound respect for the word of God. The Geneva Bible was taught in their churches, used in their schools, read in their homes, and guided their government. These first bibles brought to America were either New Testaments published in 1557 or an entire bible published in 1560. Surviving copies today are rare finds and difficult to read because of the oil stain residue from generations of hand prints and the tears that sank into the pages.

These bibles were the work of Protestant translators in Geneva Switzerland who had been under the tutelage and influence of John Calvin. They also contained margin notes that disturbed King James I of England to such a degree that he was determined to rid his realm of the Geneva Bible. The margin notes he hated the most had to do with references to limited government. These notes expressed the right and the moral responsibility of believers to disobey kings when their behavior and orders contrasted with the word of God. The Geneva Bible was a radical document in an age when rulers claimed to hear directly from God and King James I was determined to protect any erosion of his "divine rights."

Preaching and teaching from the word of God by Jonathan Edwards in 1734-35 seeded the fertile soil in the hearts of men and their families who would bear the fruit of the First Great Awakening. What broke out in Northampton, Massachusetts would spread throughout New England and then up and down the coast of colonial America through the ministry of George Whitefield.

Whitefield arrived in Philadelphia in 1739. His close friend, Ben Franklin, reported in his autobiography, "In 1739, arrived among us from Ireland, the Rev. Mr. Whitefield, who had made himself remarkable there as an itinerant preacher. He was at first permitted to preach in some of our churches; but the clergy taking a dislike to him, soon refused him their pulpits, and he was obliged to preach in the fields...It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if the whole world was growing religious, so that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street."

For the next two decades until his death in America in 1760, Whitefield would crisscross the Atlantic Ocean 13 times as a tireless evangelist. He played a key part in the spiritual transformation of both America and Great Britain. In England he formed the first "Methodist" Society and passed the leadership baton of that fledgling movement to his friend, John Wesley. The ministry of John and Charles Wesley was a huge part in changing the spiritual climate of an empire and led to the eventual abolition of slavery in Great Britain.

The Geneva Bible had taken its first breath when it was birthed in the rare air of the city state of a small republic in Switzerland. The leaders of this small city were elected by the people and were responsible and accountable to them. The earliest founders of America had their hearts rooted in the word of God and their understanding that their rights came from God and not from the state. Their preaching and teaching led the generations to follow, but who were yet to be born to lead out in a theologically fed political awakening that impacted the concept of self- government with the American Revolution.

The sword of the Spirit is the word of God. It is the only offensive weapon in the hands of the saint in this battle against evil. The "devil" is identified by his very name as the one who "throws against" or "the accuser." His negative voice shouts insults in the ears of the followers of Jesus, and tempts them to recall every hurtful thing that has ever been said to them. The proactive saint will mute the evil one by opening the Word of God, and letting it drown out the lies and hate-speech of the voice of the evil one.

The Word of God is best heard, up close and personal. Saints achieve their tightest five finger grip on "The Sword of The Spirit which is the Word of God" when they hear it, read it, study it, memorize it, and meditate on it. Taking their stand next to The Champion gives them the confidence they need in the heat of the battle.

Hearing it leads to reading it. Reading it leads to heeding it. Heeding it leads to believing it. Believing leads to applying it. Applying it leads to seeing it... change a nation...one life at a time. The Word of God remains a powerful weapon of warfare for those who desire to take the field and experience the victory of the next great Spiritual Awakening. Suit up! Take up your sword. The battle is on.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Voice

George Whitefield: The Voice of the Great Awakening

One of my earliest understandings of the calling of a preacher came during my first semester during a preaching course in seminary. It was the fall of 1974, and we were given an assignment by Dr. Harold Freeman to seek out and define the words in the Bible that best described the roles and responsibilities of preaching. One of the words I came across was the Greek word, "kerusso." It meant to herald, to be a herald, or to proclaim. It was a word picture of a servant or soldier in the king's service who was given the assignment to ride into the village squares of the realm, to sound the trumpet to gather the people and to deliver faithfully the message sent by the king to his people.

The powerful connection with preaching and the herald of a king is rather obvious. The servant delivering the message focuses solely on what the king had to say, and does not detour from it. Heralds do not mistake the spotlight as an opportunity to tell the listeners what he has on his mind. Regardless of the reception the King's word received, the herald was to deliver it to the people, faithfully, consistently and accurately. His commission required him to overcome every hardship and obstacle to the mission. The herald was then to return and report to the king when his mission had been accomplished. Any honor or reward was not to be sought or received from the listeners to the message. The sender of the message was the one who had the authority to commend or compensate the herald. Preachers speak on behalf of The King. They must answer to Him for their stewardship of The King's message. The King has sent to His people, by means of His heralds, a message of faith, hope and love.

History is filled with the stories of the lives of men who fit this definition of a preacher. Perhaps no one has ever personified this kind of preaching more than the English evangelist, George Whitefield (1714-1770). He was an ordained Anglican minister, a contemporary and a personal friend of John and Charles Wesley. He had grown up in a humble home. His father owned a tavern in a pretty rough neighborhood, and he was frequent attender of bawdy stage shows, plays and theatricals of his day. His plight was not that of a child in abject poverty, but his family background provided him with no pedigree or status. He had to work his way through college as a servant waiting tables and running errands for the wealthier students. He experienced what he referred to has his "new birth" at the age of 21. His keen mind was ripe for learning and he graduated with his Bachelor's Degree from Oxford, and at 22 he was ordained as a minister in the Church of England. He preaching was marked by great power and persuasive oratory.

At the peak of his popularity Whitefield announced his intention to go to Georgia as a missionary. He had been influenced by the spiritual fervor and devotion of Moravian missionaries, who were the contemporary standard barriers for carrying the Gospel around the globe. His own personal call to missions took him to the city of Savannah in the Colony of Georgia. He discovered that many of the settlers that had come to America were unprepared physically or emotionally for the challenges they faced. The early deaths of parents left many children without the means to survive. On his return to England, he set about raising funds from wealthy friends and would later come back to Georgia to build an orphanage for the children of those who had died settling the frontier. The Bethesda orphanage still exists outside the city of Savannah today.

Factor out the voice of George Whitefield, and America might very well be a very different kind of a nation. His impact on America's religious, political and social standards was enormous. His preaching has been credited as a powerful force in unifying the people of the 13 separate British colonies. He moved up and down the eastern seaboard from Georgia to New England, and drew huge crowds everywhere he went. His listeners came together from various denominations and social backgrounds. His egalitarian messages focused on the unity of the Body of Christ that was based upon being adopted into the family of God through a life-changing surrender to the Person of Christ. As thousands of people all over the colonies began to gather at his open air meetings, a transformation took place on another level. They began to recognize they had a great deal in common. Whitefield's preaching did a great deal to help America avoid the religious blood baths that had taken place in Europe between the established church and the dissenters. He was instrumental in contributing to the people of the various colonies the concept that they were all Americans. They began to see that they had more in common with each other than a distant mother country.

Although an ordained Anglican minister, Whitefield opened his arms to preachers of other denominations, and persuasions. His meetings were marked by an openness and acceptance that was quite unusual for the days in which he lived. His powerful voice and exemplary life made him one of the most popular preachers in America. When Whitefield voyage home to England, he would publicly express his friendship for the American cause to the members of parliament, and raise funds for the mission work that he had started in Georgia. The City of Savannah, Georgia still honors his memory today with a beautiful city square that bears his name, and the Bethesda Orphanage that he began upon his second trip to America is still operational.

If Whitefield was the voice of The Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards was the intellect of it. Birth pangs of the The Awakening had broken out in small, isolated parishes in New England as early as the 1720's, but the full force of this movement rolled into his parish church in Northampton, Massachusetts by 1734. Edwards compiled a history of what had happened, and wrote a treatise that was printed and distributed throughout Great Britain. It became the impetus for a prolonged impact of the Great Awakening in the lives of people who read it, and longed to be a part of it.

Today Edwards is still considered to be one of the greatest preachers, theologians, scientists and philosophers America has ever produced. Both Edwards and Whitefield gave great encouragement to one another and to their followers in recognizing and emphasizing the importance of extraordinary, intercessory prayer in the arena of spiritual awakening. They understood prayer was the best resource a person could have when they came to the end of themselves.

Whitefield made seven trips from England to America. Those 13 crossings of the Atlantic in tiny ships that provided little shelter and comfort from raging storms were long and dangerous journeys. No doubt they did much to break down his body and lead to his early death. Whitefield's seventh journey across the Atlantic became his last trip to America. His exposure to the elements as he traveled by horseback and on leaky vessels from place to place to preach eventually took their toll on his body. He died in 1760 in New England shortly after preaching his last sermon. His body is buried there. No one deserves the title of Honorary American more than he. His prayer journals contain a simple phrase that gave him great confidence in God's provision no matter what trial, test, or triumph came his way. He was fond of saying. "Man's extremity is God's opportunity."

The impact of Whitefield's life on the spiritual climate of America through his mass meetings is well documented. The touch of his life on individual lives requires the use of history's magnifying glass. This intensified glimpse of his ministry reveals some astounding consequences, when it is seen through the lives of just three people who were influenced by this powerful preacher.

Samuel Adams: The Voice of the American Revolution
Adams was raised in Massachusetts in a devout home. Along with Puritan piety, he was immersed in the political activities of his father. From an early age he learned how the system worked and what it took to move the machinery of government to accomplish a task through the body politic. He was also influenced by the piety of his mother and sister. He often had the opportunity to listen to the leading preachers of his day, Cotton Mather, and Jonathan Edwards when they came through town. His sister took copious notes and they would discuss them together at length.

Before Adams headed to Harvard, at the age of 14, he had expressed a desire to be a minister. In his own autobiography, Benjamin Franklin mentions Whitefield made his triumphant way to Philadelphia in 1739. What impressed Franklin the most about Whitefield's preaching was the change that came over the people who heard him. Franklin testified that it was impossible to walk down any street in Philadelphia in the evening without hearing the singing of Psalms ringing out from within every house along the way. He was taken by the fact that a totally irreligious community could talk about nothing but the work of God in their city.

When Whitefield preached on the campus of Harvard in the fall of 1739, Samuel Adams was a student, and he had a life changing encounter. He totally embraced the Puritan piety that Whitefield espoused. He changed the way he dressed to somber Puritan gray, and though he didn't become a minister, he was encouraged to impact audiences the way he saw the great preachers of his day move them. This campus revival spread to Boston Commons and Whitefield preached to over 23,000 people who had come to Boston for the occasion. This crowd was larger than the population of the city of Boston. These days had to be indelibly imprinted on Sam Adam's memory.

After leaving school after the campus revival, Adam's father was brought to a serious financial crisis that evaporated a great deal of his fortune and by implication Samuel's inheritance. Arbitrary decisions from the royal governor and his officers were instrumental in stripping his father of office, land and cash. Samuel Adams never forgot it. While working on his Master's Degree at Harvard, He began to exhibit skills of a man who had an innate comprehension of the art of politics, but an understanding of the need to give those skills a voice that would move the people out of complacent acceptance to courageous action. For the next 40 years his writings, speeches, and personal influence impacted the leading men of his day, and infuriated the British establishment.

Samuel Adams became the voice of the American Revolution to the ears of the British authorities. Their focus on his capture and their obsession with the removal of this thorn in their side empowered Adams to be seen by his contemporaries as the Father of Independence. His keen insight into the needs of the American people stoked his passion to defend their rights with an evangelistic zeal. He understood before many other leaders that America must separate themselves from England. He believed if Americans missed the opportunity that was before them, they would be held in a permanent relationship as the subservient and weaker partner to Great Britain. His insight was not expressed in dry lectures or detailed legal briefs, but with a passionate proclamation that called on the people of America to claim their independence from tyranny by declaring a war of independence. He had been impacted by the voices of Great Awakening preachers who called thousands to accept their chance to be born again. His ministry became one that called them to have the courage to birth a nation. Samuel Adam's legacy is not as well known as some of the founding fathers, even though they made less of a contribution to the birth of America. He appears to have been quite content to pass the leadership baton to younger men who carried on his legacy.

Patrick Henry: The Voice of Liberty

Patrick Henry is best remembered for his famous statement before the Virginia House of Burgesses when he announced, "Give me liberty or give me death."

However, his life was impacted by the Great Awakening that swept through America as a result of the preaching of George Whitefield. The birth of the Great Awakening took place in Northampton in 1734, but its height came in 1740-1743. Although its greatest work took place in New England, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, it did reach Virginia as early as 1739 when Patrick Henry was only three years old. Samuel Morris, a brick layer, was concerned with the lack of spiritual devotion in the Anglican Church. Whitefield had made his way to Williamsburg by 1739, but the sermons of the era's great itinerant Anglican preacher were not embraced by the Anglican establishment. They saw him as a radical and a dangerous influence to the status quo. "Whitefield had recently captivated both Britain and America with his passionate rhetoric and open air meetings. In 1745 Whitefield came to Hanover and expressed his desire to preach in the Anglican church pastored by Patrick Henry's uncle'. When Whitefield arrived at the church followed by a large crowd, he had great reservations regarding Whitefield's motives, but he could see by the size of the crowd that he was powerless to stop him. Patrick Henry's mother joined a Presbyterian congregation sympathetic to the great evangelists preaching, and would take little Patrick with her each Sunday. After each sermon, she would ask him to recite the passage of Scripture used by the preacher and to give her a summary of that morning's message. The preaching of the Great Awakening was instrumental in removing the unchallenged authority from the hands of the politicians and the parsons, and placing it in the hands of the people. This is the climate in which Patrick Henry was raised. He grew up breathing the fresh air of religious liberty, and he never got over it.

Although he never left the Anglican church, as a young lawyer he took a case against an Anglican minister who was suing the local people for his salary. The government had assigned him to them, and they refused to pay someone they had not hired. His argument won the case, and was another sign of the broke grip the established powers had on the purse strings of the people, when they exercised their liberty.

As a representative of the frontier people who had no voice in the House of Burgesses, he began to stand firm for less government intrusion into the lives of ordinary citizens. He championed their rights for more personal freedom. He became a spokesman for those who believed that more government control would always lead to tyranny. It is probably safe to say, Patrick Henry would not recognize the United States as the one that he helped birth.

Benjamin Franklin: The Voice of History

Benjamin Franklin is often portrayed as a non religious scientist, an agnostic politician or at the very best a benign Deist. It turns out that Franklin was a man who was aware of the importance, the impact and the implications of the Great Awakening more than some of the contemporary clergy of his day.

In his autobiography, Franklin mentions his friendship with George Whitefield. He was very impressed with his preaching, and took pains to note that when Whitefield arrived in Philadelphia in 1739 that the local pastors closed their doors to him and would not let him preach from their pulpits. This probably raised Whitefield's stock in the eyes of Franklin. He was not known to suffer fools gladly, and had no great love for the clergy as a rule.

Franklin enlisted Whitefield's help in raising money to build a large preaching hall so that the crowds who wanted to hear him could be accommodated. Later this hall was deeded to trustees who chartered what became the University of Pennsylvania. Today there is a statue dedicated to Whitefield on the campus of the university paying tribute to his investment in its founding.

What impacted Franklin the most about Whitefield was the immediate, and widespread influence Whitefield's preaching had on the citizens of the city of Philadelphia. His proof of the impact of Whitefield's ministry can be described his own words. In his autobiography he recalled the scene,
"One could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street."

Always the shrewd businessman, Franklin contracted with Whitefield to print all of his messages and pamphlets, and he saw that they were distributed as well in the newspapers that covered the news of the city and surrounding colonies. He would often attend his open air meetings, and as a scientist took the challenge to verify the power and the range of Whitefield's voice. Franklin chose to place himself in the crowd of an open air meeting and pace from the platform to the edge of the crowd, and then measure the circumference of the audience, granting a two square feet allotment to those standing in the street. He determined by his own calculations that Whitefield's voice could be heard by 30,000 people until the sounds of a busy street began to interfere with a clear reception of his message. Franklin attributed this to the powerful voice of the man, his use of clear and precise diction, and the rapt attention of the audience. It gave him confidence to know that what he had read of king's and generals addressing large crowds of people or vast armies was indeed possible to achieve.

Franklin remained a friend of Whitefield until his untimely death and never forgot what he had seen happen through the life of the evangelist. He states in his autobiography that although Whitefield often prayed for his conversion, he was never given the satisfaction of knowing that his prayers were answered. After the American Revolution, Franklin was called as an elder statesman to attend a convention that commissioned to amend the Articles of Confederation. For several years the independent states had attempted to unite themselves under this document, but it had not resulted in a unified nation. The convention in Philadelphia became a quagmire of division. It seemed that every delegate was filled with suspicion and driven by personal or regional ambition. At one point the convention was close to dissolving into chaos, and concluding in disaster, Franklin begged to be heard. Although he had never professed a personal faith in Christ to Whitefield, or ever identified with a specific church or denomination, Franklin revealed that he had been paying attention to those who had placed their faith in God as their Guide and Christ as their Savior. He expected more of them. It took the oldest man in the room to remind them of what he had seen during those crucial and crisis filled days. He said,

"How has it happened, Sir that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly of applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understanding. In the beginning of our Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers sir were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have engaged frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid, We have been assured,Sir, in the sacred writings that ' except the Lord build the house they labor in vain who build it. ' I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. ...I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessings on our deliberations to be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate. "

In spite of the opposition of Alexander Hamilton, Franklin's motion carried the day. As a side note, Hamilton feared that word would get out that it had come to this. His pride kept him from admitting that they were at an empasse, and that they were forced to call on God to intervene. As the discussion raged, opposition voiced concern that the people of the United States would lose confidence in the Assembly if they admitted they didn't know what to do, and sought God's counsel for the next step.

Preachers have tremendous opportunity to impact the lives of those who hear them. They may not always see what God is doing in the lives of those who sit in the pews. They may not have the satisfaction of knowing that the hand of God is using them at that very moment to bring about change in the life of another person. They may often times be discouraged that someone they have often prayed for and preached to remains resistant and unmoved by their message. It may be when they are least hopeful that they are being heard that their voices are being used by God as a catalytic converter to inspire the heart of someone that He will use in His way and in His time. Franklin's own words in his autobiography do not give us an indication of his acceptance of Christ as his Savior. However, Franklin certainly expected more of those who had given their hearts to God. He called on them to lean on Him for the direction, protection and correction, that he had personally seen provided to them in direct answer to their prayers.

The Convention did meet to pray, and in short order they came together in agreement on a founding document that they could present to the States. I was ratified by the various states, and as they say, the rest is history. To this day the Congress of the United States is called to order and a prayer is offered for the guidance of the business of the day. Sometimes it is those outside of the family of faith that God uses to call His children back to the promises He has given to them. Franklin was certainly used by God to implement the will of God for the Assembly that had come to the end of themselves. One can't help but wonder if Franklin recalled the very words or perhaps the passion of his young preacher friend, "Man's extremity is God's opportunity."

Preaching differs from politicking. The preacher is a herald with a message. The politician is an actor with a script. The preacher delivers a message to the audience sent to them from the King. The politician is an actor on a stage reading from a script written by the audience. He must become what the people want him to be or be replaced by someone who will. The preacher is a servant who has been given a message to deliver from his King, regardless of the reception to it or rejection of it. The audience does not dictate to the preacher what they want to hear. The King communicates to His people through His messenger. When the preacher takes his cues from the audience, he has become a politician, and forfeited his primary role as herald of the king. Preachers are not cheerleaders waving political pom poms for any political party. They are messengers of God who dare not flinch at the mission of delivering His Word to His people.

Thank God for a faithful preacher who had a lasting impact on the lives of these three men. George Whitefield was the voice God used to influence them, and they were used in a very special way to impact the birth and direction of a new country. The questions comes to mind, "What if?" What if Whitefield had listened to the voices of the audience, or compromised with the climate of his culture. If he had been driven to please the crowd rather than faithfully deliver the message of His King, the very unique history of this nation may have turned out to be very different from what it is today.

It is always a wonderful thing to see what a difference one life can make on the life of another person. Today use your voice to encourage someone to seize the moment and listen to the direction God has for their life through the Person of Jesus Christ. One voice really can make a difference. Let it be your voice today.

Praying for preachers today to...Sound the trumpet. Gather the people and...PREACH IT!

The Heart

"This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me." Isaiah 15:8

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Say it loud! Say it proud. I never get tired of hearing or saying these two small words. For me and millions of other people they carry a great deal of meaning. For years I have been on a one man mission to remove the use of the auto response mechanism, "You too!"

There is a reason why "YOU TOO!" is not emblazoned upon Hallmark Christmas cards. It will never become a best seller.

It's not too much to expect another Christian to celebrate the meaning of the season and to simply repeat, "Merry Christmas!" It may be a bit of a stretch to hold a high expectation for a person who doesn't hold any meaning to the birth of Christ to respond with a hearty "Merry Christmas!" However, don't expect those of us who place great meaning on it to stand by and watch "Merry Christmas" bullied off the scene by a plethora of politically correct phrases. In other words, don't mess with Christmas!

Still, the militant Merry Christmas cadets ought to have some degree of understanding about what they are saying before they arm twist a perceived heretic into spouting them out. They should also avoid saying the words without having their heart engaged in obedience to the One who gives the words substance. There are more platitudes and pop culture Christianity on tap this season than at any time of they year. I draw little Christmas cheer from mindless mantras repeated over and over,

• "And that's what Christmas is all about."
• "Jesus is the reason for the season."
• "Keep Christ in Christmas!"
• "Put Christ back in Christmas!"
• "Christmas is not just one day a year."
• "Celebrate the Spirit of Christmas all year long."
• "Cash or charge?"

OK, I threw that last one in just to see if you were still there. I know it was a little off message, but not by much. Christians could do with a healthy appreciation of what it took for Christmas to have any meaning for them at all. They can fall prey to the same advertising campaigns and commercialization of Christmas as those who have no comprehension of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Don't fall into the trap of becoming a Christmas snob who thinks that repeating two words makes them better than those who have yet to see The Light.

It is important to remind those determined to put Christ back into Christmas that they were never commanded by The Christ to celebrate His birthday. He placed no great significance on it. His last words to His disciples challenged them to remember His death, burial and resurrection. They were told in no uncertain terms, "DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME!"

Putting Christ back into Christmas simply requires obedience to what He said. To do this is going to really cramp the style of churches all over the world. The bale of hay and a bathrobe pageants, the live nativity scenes, the lazer light shows, and the countless cantatas will take a back seat to Baptism and The Lord's Supper. Not quite as flashy, but they carry the reason for the season with a great deal more substance.

It dawned on me this year, that THE CRADLE, THE CROSS, and THE TOMB are all vacant. I know I'm not the sharpest knife in the theological drawer so cut me some slack on this, but to make much of them and still miss Jesus is still disrespectful to Him. THE HEART is the only place where Jesus can be found. A heart filled with Jesus gives His Spirit elbow room to keep Him as the focus of a person's life every day of the year. That kind of fulness is marked by obedience to what The Risen Christ desires for His followers to be and to do in His name.

"This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you." John 15:12

"Love one another." Profoundly simple, and simply profound. It describes the unconditional love to be expressed to those closest to us, and to those who drive us away from them. Simple? Yes, but simply impossible until there is a change of heart in the one required to do the loving. Jesus describes this kind of love as obedient behavior in response to His command. Singing the "Happy Birthday" song or choking "Merry Christmas" out of a heretic is not on His "To Do" List.

In September 1996 I had the privilege of attending a conference at The Cove in Asheville, NC. Warren Wiersbe was teaching that week on The Book of Romans. It was an amazing experience. The setting was spectacular with The Smokie Mountains, and The Lodge at the Billy Graham Center serving as a backdrop to the study of the Scripture. It just doesn't get much better than that for me.

One of the statements made by Dr. Wiersbe that has stuck with me over the years was his reference to sin as it related to the teaching in Romans. I believe I am doing him justice to quote him as saying,

"The heart of the matter is the heart, and the matter of the heart is sin."

He went on to describe how Paul taught that a person's heart cannot be made right by keeping The Law or through a slow process of self-correction. The sinner's heart required a state of grace to be declared between The Law Giver and The Lawbreaker. There was simply no hope for a change of heart to take place in the life of the sinner without an act of grace being administered in the heart of a sinner.

Sin separates a person from Holy God. Only a righteous Judge can declare an end to the separation. Healing of the breach is not a matter of want to on the part of the sinner, but can do on the part of the Judge. God judges a person to be right with Him based on the work done on behalf of a sinner by His Son, Jesus. When Jesus came to THE CRADLE it was a start. When Jesus died on THE CROSS, it was a finish. When Jesus rose from THE TOMB, it was a promise. THE CRADLE, THE CROSS AND THE TOMB are all vacant. Only THE HEART can be filled with Jesus.

THE HEART remains the one place in the world where JESUS desires to live. Without Jesus there is no reason for the season. Without The Spirit of Christ there is no Spirit of Christmas. All that is left is the tinsel, the glitter and the sentiment, but there is no change of heart. THE HEART filled with Jesus is filled with His Spirit, and allows Him the elbow room to develop the character of Christ in the life of the follower of Christ. The change of THE HEART is in an instant, but the development of The Character is a process that will take a life time.

THE HEART of the matter is still the matter of THE HEART. A life of obedience comes from a heart full of Jesus. THE CRADLE preceded THE CROSS and THE TOMB. Jesus told His disciples to remember His death, burial and resurrection, not His birthday, but none of those remembrances will have real meaning until THE HEART becomes the residence of THE RISEN CHRIST.

"Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said...'What shall we do?' Peter said, 'Repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, and as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself." Acts 2:37-39

Don't forget the real gift giving of Christmas. Give your heart to Jesus and experience The Gift that keeps on giving, The Spirit of Christ.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Room

"O, magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt His name together." Psalm 34:3

December 1, 2011 our immediate family gathered in Fort Worth, Texas at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary at a brief ceremony for the rededication of THE DON and LIBBY MILLER PRAYER ROOM. Dr. Jack Terry was our gracious seminary host for the event. We were honored by all the family and friends who took time out of busy schedules to make this special occasion even more meaningful for my parents, Don and Libby Miller. Mom and Dad are in their nineties and still two of the greatest prayer warriors I have ever known. They have been married for 66 and a half years, and their life verse is:

"O, magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt His name together." Psalm 34:3

After serving as pastor and church planter for Southern Baptist churches in Texas and in New York, God called my parents to launch a prayer ministry in 1977. For over 34 years of their marriage, Mom and Dad travelled around the world challenging people to get alone with God and pray. Their ministry has taken them to every continent of the world, and most of these United States. They have personally led prayer conferences in over 1,000 churches, and their teachings on prayer have been expanded to countless other venues by video and now DVD formats. They made the transition from overhead projector to PowerPoint in their late eighties. My favorite quote on prayer comes from my Dad.

"Prayer is the intimate communication between the Heavenly Father and His child."

The Room is located on the northwest corner of the second floor in the new McGorman Chapel on the campus of Southwestern Seminary. The Chapel, named for Dr. Jack McGorman, honored and respected New Testament professor of the Seminary, is spectacular. Dr. McGorman remains to this day one of the finest Greek scholars ever produced by Southern Baptists, and the Chapel is a fitting tribute to this rare treasure of a man. He and Dad have been long time friends, and it was a precious moment being able to reconnect these two war-horses over lunch. It was a great reunion, and designed by God to take place.

The Miller clan was invited to take part in a delightful luncheon prior to the dedication service. Mrs. Dorothy Patterson was our gracious hostess. The Miller family wishes to express to Dr. and Mrs. Patterson their deepest appreciation for their willingness to prioritize the space in the new Chapel for The Room. At the luncheon, Mrs. Patterson was so apologetic that all the furnishing had not arrived, and that she feared it might appear to be incomplete. I was glad to quote what I have often heard Dad say, "Less is more, when God is in it." I assured her my parents would be pleased if there was room enough to kneel.

After the final wave of family arrived, I looked around to see if I recognized anyone in the room that Dad might want to meet. I was pleased to see that Dr. McGorman was just a few steps away from Dad's table. I went over and reintroduced myself to him. He had been Dad's New Testament Greek professor while he was in seminary. I had followed in Dad's footsteps and studied Greek under Dr, McGorman twenty-five years later. I remember Dad referring to him affectionately as "Cactus Jack" McGorman. It was a nickname he had earned among WWII veterans who entered seminary after the war. Any cockiness they brought to the campus after defeating the Axis powers soon evaporated in the battle they faced with "Baby" Greek. "Cactus Jack" was a tough drillmaster. They discovered that what he knew about Greek prepositions could make a grown man cry. My days with him translating Galatians still brings tears to my eyes. It was pretty embarrassing! But I digress.

As soon as I mentioned Dad's name, Dr. McGorman's eyes lit up. He exclaimed, "Your father is Don Miller! Is he here?" I was thrilled to be able to escort him over to Dad and watch them reconnect. Dr. McGorman said, "Don, do you remember when we were together at Wilmer?" They rolled down memory lane like it was yesterday. In a flash, they were young guns again recalling when they had teamed up to lead First Baptist Church of Wilmer in revival services. Dad had pastored this church during his student days over sixty years ago. It was my first church too. I was born on a Sunday afternoon while Dad served as the pastor of FBC, Wilmer.

I am not doing a very good job describing the scene that I witnessed. I can only hope you get a little bit of the picture. It was a glimpse of two warriors on the threshold of Heaven who have fought the good fight and finished the race with their friendship and their character in tact. As the young people often say, "Sweet!" Men like these two giants are my "Rock" stars. I want to be like them when I grow up.

The Room has a view. Three spacious windows offer an elevated perspective of the beautiful 100 year old campus. There is a spectacular stain glass work depicting the artist's Biblical perspective on the bowls of prayer. It is set in the window on the west wall, and when the setting sun hits the stained glass, that room will be a rainbow of inspiration to people gathered to pray. However, the view of the room is not to be found by looking out, but by looking up. Prayers in The Room will be offered up behalf of the pastors and the churches of North America. The best view is always seen from God's perspective.

The call to pray for the next Great Awakening will take place in The Room. Prayers will be lifted up to God that will call on Him to do what only He can do. There has never been a greater need for Spiritual Awakening in America. The soul of a nation is at stake. The nation is in a crisis that man cannot solve. The view of The Room will be best seen by kneeling down before God and lifting up our empty bowls to Him in prayer. God's view will not be found by standing up and looking out the window, but by kneeling down in prayer and looking up to Him. When things look their worst, often God is up to His best.

"Man's extremity is God's opportunity." George Whitefield

It is my prayer that what takes place in The Room will become a model for what needs to be birthed in the lives of pastors and churches all over America. The Great Awakening that takes place in this nation will be a gift from a gracious Father who has heard the cries of His children. The Room can become a lab where the next generation of church leaders learns to cry out to God for what only He can give. If this inspiration takes place in the life of a pastor while a student on the campus, it will be replicated in the life and ministry of a pastor in the church.

"The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless work, prayerless studies or prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray." Samuel Chadwick

The Room is furnished with kneeling benches and a wonderful clock that shows the path of the sun as it moves across the nations of the world. The most important message contained in the room may very well be the Scripture verse that is framed, and placed on the wall to the left of the entry doors. It is an important reminder to the purpose of The Room.

"Call unto me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, that you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3

Father, we know from Your Word that You answer when Your children call, and admit to You that they do not know everything they need to know. Father, grant that The Room will be graced with the humility of those who enter this place to seek Your face, and discover the great and mighty things that will bring about The Great Awakening that only You can provide. In Jesus' Name, Amen.