The Memorial

"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John."
John 1:6

As a boy, raised in a preacher's home, most of my "real-life" heroes were preachers, missionaries and evangelists. I have to admit that Ronnie Bull, #25 Fullback for the Baylor Bears and Chicago Bears, broke into this line up in the 1960's. But I digress.

I can't say I vividly recall the content of the preaching of men my father had step into his pulpit like Vance Havner, Dr. Culpepper, Bo and Dick Baker, Dr. London (H.B's daddy), W. A. Criswell, Dr. Naylor, and hosts of other lesser known luminaries, as much as I remember their personalities. Some of them were real characters. They were often invited into our home, and I was privileged to stay up late to spend time with them, after the service was over. This was when the real fun began.

Before the night was over, there would always be Southern comfort food, preacher jokes, baptism stories, and wave after wave of joy-filled laughter, leaving people clutching their sides, wiping tears from their eyes, and pounding the table, begging the story teller to stop. Of course he never did. There is no particular story that stands out. You just had to be there. These men loved what they did, and the company that they kept. It was inspiring.

The evening always ended with prayer, solemn handshakes, and promises to stay in touch. These 'behind the scene" or "after the show show" experiences introduced me to a unique band of brothers. Elton Trueblood called it "The company of the committed." To me they were the fraternity of the faithful. I always felt ten feet tall after being allowed to have a glimpse inside the lives of these men God had called "to bear witness of The Light." (John 1:7)

John the Baptist was a forerunner of men like these who gave their lives to tell people about Jesus, and he was given a powerful testimonial by Him. "For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there was not a greater prophet that John the Baptist, but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." (Luke 7:28) Band of brothers, indeed.

On this Memorial Day, say a prayer of gratitude for the men and women who have given their lives to secure the freedom of our nation. Don't forget their families who shared their sacrifice by investing their sons and daughters to the cause of liberty. We are in their debt.

Still, there are others who come to my mind on this sacred day. They are the men and women who have gone to nameless places, dark places, hard places to live among thankless people and tell them about The Light of Jesus. They looked at a dark world, and instead of cursing it, they blessed it by lighting a candle with the fire of their love for Jesus. He said, "I am The Way, The Truth, and The Light. No man comes to The Father, but by Me." (John 14:6) Thank God there have been those who believed this and lit it up.

Memorial Day is set aside to remember the ultimate sacrifice made by those who stood in our place to protect us from those who have often sought to enslave a free people. Those who gave their lives to secure our national freedom gave all they had. Still, they could not offer enough of their blood to provide our spiritual freedom. Only Jesus could do that. It is only through His blood that people will ever know eternal security. This is always worth remembering.

On this Memorial Day, say a prayer of thanksgiving for The One, and those who followed His call. They made sure you could face this day knowing, come what may, no one can ever take your ultimate freedom away from you. As the old song says, "Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe." I am in His debt. How about you?

"You will know The Truth, and The Truth make you free." John 8:32

The H.O.P.E.

"Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off." Proverbs 23: 18

Sometimes the ancient spirit of my former days as a student minister is sparked, by those who continue to play that vital role in the lives of young people. I am grateful for what they do to invest in the lives of the leaders of the next generation. They plant trees under whose shade someone else will sit, and often don't get to see the fruit of their labors. If they do, they are in for a long wait. God bless them.

Recently I read on "Facebook" of the heart-ache borne by a former member of my student ministry. She is now a dedicated teacher, investing deeply into the lives of her students in school. She was broken-hearted over the suicide of yet another promising young person. I hurt for her.

There is nothing like it. So much hope is out there for young people. Yet, in a moment of despair, they take their lives, unable to grasp hope in the dark. How can we help them?

I remember being called upon to bury a 17 year old young man who had taken his life. After a breakup with his girl friend, he drove to a deserted road, and while listening to a country western song, the last words he heard, before the bullet ended his life were, "I'd Be Better Off in a Pine Box." No heavy metal music wailing, no rap, no drugs, nothing but good ol' C&W. Thanks Nashville.

As I prepared for the funeral, his grandfather came to see me. He was a distraught man. As he choked in his personal grief, his heart hurt for those young people who would gather for the service. He kept saying, "Tell them the truth! Tell them the truth!" I did.

Telling the truth meant stiff-arming a lot of sentimental drivel. For some reason, death brings out the poet in people. I was offered all kinds of rhymes and verses for the occasion. They ranged from Edgar Allen Poe angst to Hallmark card pablum. One of the creative writing teachers of the school my young friend attended handed me a piece of her work, just as I stepped up to the platform. She accosted me after the funeral, and demanded to know why I didn't read it. I explained to her this was not her turf, nor was it open mic Friday. What we say at this time and in this place is the truth, and nothing but the truth. That means God gets the last word. I said, "You won't let me say a word for God in your classroom, and you don't get to have the last word from my pulpit. God will." We are not friends.

I have come to understand HOPE, as Having Our Perspective Elevated. For me this involves prayer. Prayer is the night-vision goggles given to us by God for spiritual warfare with the forces of darkness. Prayerless people lose their way, because they lose hope. In the dark night of the soul, they sense they are alone. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Prayer reveals a silent Presence, available and anxious to comfort and to guide us through the night and into the light.

I am often comforted by the way Jesus made Himself available to a couple of disciples on the Road to Emmaus, after The Crucifixion of their Savior put them on a slippery slope of despair. In the midst of their darkness, Jesus turned on The Light. He still does.

"While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached." Luke 24: 15

Talking our way through our crises seldom ends them, but most assuredly extends them. We never talk a crisis to death. Talking only breathes new life into a crisis. Jesus approached these two disciples, when they had lost hope. He still does.

H.O.P.E. - Having Our Perspective Elevated. How? Pray your way through a crisis, don't try to explain it away. Talking about it increases your blindness. Prayer allows your eyes to adjust to the dark, until you see Jesus at work in the middle of it. He makes sense out of the senseless, and brings hope to the hopeless. He only dos this...EVERY TIME.

In the mid-1990's I was introduced to this statistic. 80+% of the young people who come through our Evangelical churches, never return to them after they turn 18 years of age. Staggering. Still, recent reports indicate that those who do return to church say that the homing mechanism for them was knowing that their parents prayed for them, by name. Good to know.

Parenting and praying are the twin towers of the next generation of leaders who will usher in the next Great Awakening. There is hope for them, and for us. PRAY!

Prayer changes things, because prayer changes people. Changed people change the world, when they come to the end of themselves and run to Jesus instead of stumbling in the dark. In His Presence hey receive a fresh perspective of God's vision. They begin to sense His direction, protection and correction. Talking prolongs our blindness. Praying improves our perspective. Take H.O.P.E.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Harvest

Recently I had a conversation after church with an Oklahoma wheat farmer and his wife. Their crop was a total failure this year. Weather conditions did not cooperate, and their crops of wheat and canola did not survive the spring snow and ice that has plagued the country, during this prolonged winter. What has inconvenienced most of us, was a disaster for them.

There they were. Both of them, in church, singing and praising God, in spite of this major setback. She said of her husband, "He has more faith than anyone I have ever known."

Some times preachers talk about taking our faith to the streets. They challenge people to be the church, not just come to church. Farmers take their faith to the fields, and pour it into the ground. They are often disappointed with the results, but they are seldom discouraged enough to quit.

I have always thought that farmers were the poster boys of faith. Dry land wheat farmers are a special breed. Year after year they place their trust in an uncertain future that can swiftly be derailed by too much sun, too little rain, unexpected hail, relentless insects, and fluctuating market prices.

Still, their passion for the harvest keeps them coming back year after year to the same piece of land, and the same process. Their diligence and dedication feed a nation and fuel the lives of people they will never meet. Their day begins before it is light. Their hours are long, and the rewards are meager, but they keep at it, regardless of the cost. That's why they call it the "heartland."

Jesus said, "The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask Him to send more workers into his fields." Matthew 9:37 NLT

I am learning a little more each day about the harvest that is taking place around the world. Chinese Christians are growing at a rapid rate, and the Cambodian church has shown remarkable resurgence, in the aftermath of "the killing fields" of the Khmer Rouge. The church is often made stronger by the opposition of the government, and the persecution of believers. The American church would do well to learn this lesson from the prayer book of the persecuted church.

The time has come for comfortable Christians to put on their big boy pants. They look a lot like over-hauls. Inventor, Thomas Edison is often quoted as having said, “We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work." With the current explosion of fact checkers aided by Google search, there is some doubt if he did say it, but it is no less true.

Note to self: There will come a day when we have so many fact checkers searching for truth that it will be proven that no one ever really said anything...ever. But I digress.

In Luke 11, Jesus revealed the passion of answered prayer in a parable on "importunity."

"I say to you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him..Ask and it shall be given to you." Luke 11:8-9

For the Christian, and the churches they plant, the issue is not opportunity, but IMPORTUNITY. Importunity describes the capacity of a ship to be sailed into the wind, against incredible odds, and to arrive safely at one's destination. The dilemma requires and reveals a spirit of persistence and a desperation in a sailor that drives him to overcome all odds in order to arrive at his port. To do less would mean certain death for his crew, and loss of his cargo. There is too much at stake to go with the flow, or be blown off course. The opportunity is the storm, and it calls for importunity.

E.M. Bounds put it this way, 100 years ago.

"The tenor of Christ's teachings, is to declare that men are to pray earnestly -- to pray with an earnestness that cannot be denied. Heaven has harkening ears only for the whole-hearted, and the deeply-earnest. Energy, courage, and persistent perseverance must back the prayers which heaven respects, and God hears.

All these qualities of soul, so essential to effectual praying, are brought out in the parable of the man who went to his friend for bread, at midnight. This man entered on his errand with confidence. Friendship promised him success. His plea was pressing: of a truth, he could not go back empty-handed. The flat refusal chagrined and surprised him. Here even friendship failed!

But there was something to be tried yet -- stern resolution, set, fixed determination. He would stay and press his demand until the door was opened, and the request granted. This he proceeded to do, and by dint of importunity secured what ordinary solicitation had failed to obtain."

There is growing evidence that the harvest is plentiful all around the world. The lack of it in America may be a revelation of the lack of effort in the arena of prayer. Blessed by a legacy of liberty and legal protections that have enabled the church to exist without resistance, it has resulted in congregations that have diminished in power and passion for the harvest. Pray for a new generation of leaders who will seize this opportunity for importunity.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Journey II

Dana and I are enjoying our time in Mt. Juliet, TN with Brent and Ashley. This morning we meet for breakfast with Randy Waddle, son of Derald Waddle, and a long time family friend.

Tomorrow I will fly to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to assist David Lane, host of a luncheon for 10 Iowa pastors with Sen. Rand Paul. In January, Dana and I were privileged to travel to Israel with these pastors, as we accompanied Sen. Paul on his first trip to the Holy Land. I am looking forward to the reunion, and a chance to lay some groundwork for The Renewal: Des Moines we will be coordinating for The American Renewal Project July 18-19th.

I love the people of Iowa. Their pastors are some of the finest people I have ever met. Pray for a safe trip, and a productive meeting. I return Friday night to Nashville. Dana and I will start our way back to Ft. Worth on Sunday. We are missing Allyson, and wishing she was on the trip with us. Thank you for praying for our safety and for the ministry opportunities we enjoy with

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Battle

Last night, Dana and I wrapped up our TLPM Conference w Sweetwater BC, Thomson, GA. It is always a joy to see husbands praying a blessing over their wives / wives blessing their husbands, and parents blessing their children. We prayed for God to raise up the next generation of leaders for the next Great Awakening.

Tomorrow at 2PM CST we meet with Pastor James Blair of Mt. Pisgah BC, near Pell City, AL to pray about a future TLPM emphasis at his church. Pray that God will give us a sense His sense of direction.

Tonight we gather with churches of Thomson, GA at the local football stadium for a TLPM Prayer Rally as they they take part in the National Day of Prayer. Pastor Keith Kurtz of Vine CC has been the leader of this city-wide effort. Stadium gates open at 6:30 PM and the TLPM Rally begins at 7PM.

in 1827, churches in this area were blessed by a wave of the 2nd Great Awakening under the leadership of Pastor A.D.L. Sherwood. It began with a small prayer meeting, and ended with the Baptist churches in the area recording 3,000 baptisms in one year. The Methodists, and Presbyterian churches experienced similar movements. We are praying for God to allow us to be part of something like that again.

Today 40,000 prayer events will be held all over the USA. The mass media will ignore it, but God will not. He is the focus, and He will hear the prayers of His people. Great Awakenings have one thing in common. They were all preceded by prayer. Do your part. Take a knee. It is the only way to take a stand in the battle against evil.

"Satan trembles when we pray." Samuel Chadwick

The Difference

"Jesus acted as if he were going on, but they begged him, 'Stay with us, since it it getting late.' So He went home with them." Luke 24:29

The difference Jesus can make in a person's life is built upon their personal passion for consistent companionship with Him. When Jesus had completed a seven mile walk with two discouraged disciples, Luke's account records that, "Jesus acted as if he were going on." v. 29a

This does not attribute a flair for the dramatic to Jesus, or accuse Him of being disingenuous. It merely describes the character of Jesus when he is testing the level of intensity a person has for his companionship. He will not force Himself on those who need Him. He offers Himself, but coerces no one. The couple had a choice to make. They chose wisely.

"But they begged Him, 'Stay with us." - Luke 24:29b

One of may earliest memories of church life is the movement that would take place in the congregation a the beginning of The Invitation. This is the point in a Southern Baptist church service, when the preacher used to call people forward, after they completed their sermon. The were invited to step from their pew, and walk down the aisle, take the preacher by the hand, and make a public profession of their faith in Christ, transfer their letter, surrender for full time Christian service, or my favorite, rededicate their lives. This last one was a sure, cure all for what ailed you.

The Invitation triggered several immediate physical responses that would make Pavlov's dogs proud. The first was "The Baptist Salute." This was a lifting of the arm and raising it to eye level to check the wristwatch, and determine if the preacher "went over" or if it was still possible to beat the Methodists to the cafeteria. The other was a general gathering of all the pious paraphernalia. Coat-check. Gloves-check. Purse-check. Sunday School artwork-check. Fallen macaroni - leave for the janitor. Bible - check. Bulletin - ditto for janitor. Put coat on kids - check. Prepare to exit - check.

As I watched this movement take place, I learned at a very early age that it just didn't take much to satisfy most people's hunger level for Jesus. Don't get me wrong. They had come to the church house to hear a little bit about Jesus, but they just weren't all that interested in taking Jesus home to their house. Jesus had approached them, during the sermon, but He didn't arouse any passion in their hearts for extending Him an invitation such as, "Stay with us."

Note to self: You can have all of Jesus you really desire to have. Being filled with His Spirit's Presence is not so much a matter of you having more of Jesus, as it is Jesus having more of you. When you make yourself available to Him, He makes Himself available to you.

"So He went home with them." Luke 24:29

Herein lies the difference between a High Attendance Day at church, and the Great Awakening that this nation really needs. Too much focus is placed on getting people to come to the church house, when Jesus is really interested in making a difference at your house. Jesus will not beg for an invitation to come home with you, but when you ask, He will stay with you.

Daily, not just on Sunday, Jesus is available to His followers. Thankfully, there are some who just can't get enough of Him. At best, most pious posers check in on Jesus once a week at the church house, but they rarely find the need to add a plate for him, or offer him a place of honor at their house. By the time the preacher wraps up the sermon on Sunday, they have been satisfied with a light snack, They are willing to let Jesus walk right past them, and have fellowship with someone else who really hungers for a daily feast with Him.

Ben Franklin wrote in his autobiography about the impact that the preaching of George Whitefield had on the citizens of the city of Philadelphia. Franklin was no flaming evangelist. By his own admission, in his autobiography he states that he never gave Whitefield the satisfaction of knowing if he was converted. That being so, he still loved his city, and he knew it was drifting, and in need of a course correction. What impressed him the most about Whitefield's preaching, was the power it had to get outside the walls of the church. People were transformed. He observed that they took what they heard at the church house, back to their house, and they transformed their city's culture. He spoke of Whitefield's preaching as,

"wonderful...change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seem'd as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk thro' the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street."

As witnessed by Franklin, the early signs of the First Great Awakening revealed Jesus was making a difference in the homes of the people of America. The next Great Awakening must do the same. It will not be enough for an Awakening to fill the church house. Jesus must be invited home to your house. He goes where He is invited, and where He stays, He makes a difference. Put out the welcome mat today.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Intervention

"What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?" Jesus - Luke 24:17

These are the first words, Luke records, spoken by Jesus, after The Resurrection. They initiate the ultimate intervention in the life of a couple of disciples on The Road to Emmaus. They reveal the character of Jesus to anyone facing a long, downhill road of discouragement or disillusionment, in the midst of a crisis of faith. When the crisis hits, Jesus is always The First Responder.

Two people, eyewitnesses to The Crucifixion, are walking and talking their way downhill, literally and emotionally, from the city of Jerusalem. They were leaving behind what appeared to be the worst experience of their lives. Jesus had been falsely accused, secretly arrested, wickedly judged, painfully scourged, and finally executed. They were devastated by the process of the prolonged crisis, and they were heading home to try and piece their lives back together.

The biblical account states, "As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus Himself suddenly came and began walking with them. But God kept them from recognizing him." Luke 24:16

Jesus intervened in the middle of their conversation about their crisis. They were conversing with one another, but they were not communicating with God about what had happened to them. God has designed the human spirit to be blinded by merely talking about His Son. Insight into any crisis is only gained by talking to Him. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Note to self: It is possible for you to hold a firm belief in the doctrine of The Resurrection and yet, effectively keep Jesus in the tomb. The devil will encourage you to invest great energy, and time studying and preaching about the concept of The Resurrection, as long as you don't access any life-giving power, from carrying on a consistent conversation with The Risen Christ. Again, TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

Since 1975, I have conducted hundreds of funerals. WARNING: Old preacher joke. "I am better at funerals than weddings. Everyone I have buried has stayed buried. Not every couple I have married has stayed married." Warned you.

There is a huge difference between a funeral eulogy, and the power of The Resurrection. One honors the dead, the other conquers death. Anyone looking for new life when they face the death of a vision or a loved one would be wise to start a conversation with Jesus. He is ready when you are.

Paul prayed, "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death;" Philippians 3:10 KJV

I heard these words spoken by my father, Don Miller, as I shared a cup of coffee with him at our kitchen table on Long Island, New York in January 1975. That morning I was preparing myself to make the drive through New York City and head down the road to Fort Worth, Texas, to begin my second semester at seminary. Dad and I were having prayer together, and he shared this verse of scripture with me as his "VERSE FOR THE YEAR." It was a habit of his to begin each year with a focus on a Bible truth that he wanted God to make clear to him. I know I listened, but I was young, ambitious, and anxious to get on the road to ministry. Little did I know what was in store for my father and our family.

Not long after arriving in Fort Worth, Dad's Chairman of Deacons, Darrell Waddle, called with the news that Dad had been taken to emergency surgery and most of his colon had been removed. He promised to keep me posted. In a few hours, he alerted me that peritonitis had set in, and Dad was being rushed to surgery to save his life. The result was a rough cut procedure that left him with three colostomies, and a poor prospect of recovery. This painful process lasted for over a year, and included three more surgeries. The threat of death hung over every one of them.

Ninety days later, I returned to New York to preach on Easter Sunday for my Dad. What I saw shocked me. My father's powerful, robust 190 pound frame had reduced to less than 90 pounds in 90 days. Worse, from his wheelchair, he looked like a feeble old man ready for death. Easter morning was Dad's first day back at his church. People were stunned at what they saw. Dad sat on the front row in a wheel chair and bathrobe. He smiled. I wept. So did everyone else. As bad as it was, it was the first sign of hope we had all seen in a long time. The power of the resurrection, indeed.

Let me say, my father kept quoting Philippians 3:10 to me, and to anyone who would listen, during the entire painful process of his recovery. It was not a fool's mantra. This was the word of God, and it brought power to his prayer life as it was deepened by the fellowship of his suffering that he shared with The Risen Christ. What he suffered, he gave to Jesus, and He showed up for every step of his crisis, never leaving his side. By maintaining his consistent conversation with Jesus, every step along the way, Dad began to see how Jesus could make sense out of what didn't make sense at the beginning of the crisis. Jesus always does.

Have you recognized Jesus standing by your side? He is waiting to make sense out of your crisis. Are you still talking about it to someone else who is ill equipped to shed light on it? Invite Jesus into your conversation, and He will turn on the light. Talking just keeps you in the dark, and annoys those who are trying to act like they care. Trust me. They are tired of hearing about it.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Will pt. 2

"He walked away, about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, 'Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine." Luke 22:41-42

On our last trip to Israel, we were privileged to visit a quiet valley, marked by two hillsides, a plowed, empty field, and a dry stream bed. This was The Valley of Elah. At that inconspicuous spot on the map, a stream once flowed through the battlefield, separating the army of Saul and the army of the Philistines. A stone's throw from where we stood, David would slay the giant, Goliath, with a smooth stone taken from this dry creek bed.

When David threw his stone against Goliath, he killed the one man that stood between him and victory. Killing one giant would change the course of his life. When Jesus knelt and prayed, a stone's throw away from his disciples on The Mount of Olives, He secured a victory over evil that would change the course of human history.

Sometimes, the monumental and the miraculous are closer than you think. They are only a stone's throw or a prayer away. Pray like your life depends on it. It does.

For Jesus, the battle was over The Will. Prayer determines whose will is going to win out; God's will or your will. Jesus was honest to God. True prayer always is. Anything less is pious posturing, no matter if it is done in private or public. Jesus opened His heart to God, and expressed the desire of His heart, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup of suffering away from me."

"Yet" is a simple word, and forms a conjunction of sorts. The prayer of Jesus brought Him to the junction of God's will and His will. The next breath of The Son, would determine if He would have the unction of The Father on His life, for the suffering He would face. The Jews and The Romans would see that Jesus endured it, but only prayer could prepare Him to embrace it.

"I want your will to be done, not mine." This brief statement was the turning point in the prayer of Jesus. It was also the turning point in the redemption of mankind. It was here that the real battle of prayer is always fought, at the point of the will. The battle in prayer not against giants of flesh and blood, nor is it even against the devil. It is a battle between MY & THY. My Will must die, in order for Thy Will to live.

Prayer is a battle against self. Prayer brings death upon one's own will in any and every matter brought to The Father. To do less than die to one's own will is to hold on to the flag of rebellion, and to claim ownership over some small sliver of territory in one's own life. Prayer must bring death to The Will, before it can bring honor to The Father.

The Will is the giant in our lives that keeps us from taking part in a victory that only The Father can bring. Jesus learned from experience, that avoiding suffering was a poor way to develop an obedient spirit. One of the most intriguing passages of Scripture describes a process that was part of His life, long before He went to The Garden or The Cross.

"Even though Jesus was God's Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. " Hebrews 5:8 NLT

Suffering for our faith, or even experiencing a mild form of inconvenience, as a result of it, is abhorrent to contemporary Christianity. Jesus not only endured suffering, He embraced it. Jesus in The Garden is more than a stone's throw away from a great deal of contemporary Christianity that claims His name, but doesn't reflect His life.

In his devotional classic, "The School of Obedience," Andrew Murray describes how Jesus prepared Himself for a life of obedience. "Defective obedience is always the result of a defective life. To rouse and spur on that defective life by arguments and motives has its use, but their chief blessing must be that they make us feel the need of a different life, a life so entirely under the power of God that obedience will be its natural outcome. The defective life, the life of broken and irregular fellowship with God, must be healed, and make way for a full and healthy life; then full obedience will become possible. The secret of a true obedience is the return to close and continual fellowship with God."

When crisis, or suffering is in your path, pray your way to it, in it, and through it. The greatest pain that will you will ever suffer is the death of your own will. Coming to the end of your self is not a one time experience, but a way of life. Paul said, "I die daily." It may take more for you and me. If it does, pray until it stops hurting. Dead men feel no pain.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Lesson

"One day, Jesus told his disciples a story to show how that they should always pray and never give up." Luke 18:1

"Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don't you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people..." Luke 18:7

"But when the Son of man returns, how many will he find on earth who have faith?" Luke 18:8

Little girls are relentless. "Daddy? Daddy? Daddy? Daddy? Daddy? Daddy?" can become an icepick in a parent's eardrum when it is repeated over and over again. I remember responding on more than one occasion to this relentless request, with an exasperated, "What do you want now?" My wife taught me to avoid using this phrase as a release valve, and to just respond earlier. She said it would lower my blood pressure, and avoid discouraging my daughters from coming to me. She reminded me they weren't going to be any less relentless, and I was going to give in, anyway. Good advice.

The story Jesus shared with His disciples about prayer bears a striking similarity to my own anecdotal analysis of parenting little girls. The relentless are rewarded.

The lesson to be learned in prayer is actually two fold: KEEP PRAYING & KEEP FAITH.

Prayer is not an idol, but it is an essential part of an active faith. Faith is not some inanimate object or ethereal concept. It is applied truth, or truth in action.

"We do what we believe in. All the rest is religious talk." Peter Lord.

Prayer is the primary means of putting what we believe in action. Prayer puts faith, or our beliefs into motion. Prayer puts trust in God, and this believing prayer is rewarded. It cultivates a calm and a confidence in life based on a continuing series of answers to prayer.

People who practice believing prayer grow in faith, having learned the lesson that God will keep His promises to His people. Prayer acts on promises made by God, to His people, in The Word of God. Read it. Pray it.

A prayerless faith is a complete paradox. Prayerlessness finds no basis upon which to trust in the promises of God's Word. Prayerless people have become discouraged by delay and as a result have either come to trust in themselves or lost complete faith in God. Prayerless people are deceived.

God's delay doesn't represent God's denial of a request. It may be His call for the deepening of desire or the purifying of it. When there is a delay, pray anyway. God is always at work.

God answers the prayers that are prayed, not delayed. Don't delay. The simple truth is this. Prayers must be prayed to be answered. Children who run to The Father for an answer may not get the answer they want, but they will not be ignored. God keeps His promises. God answers His children. KEEP PRAYING.

Prayer is not mere symbolism, but it represents the faith of the children of God, in the love of The Father. When hope in The Father is all the children of God have, they pray with a profound intensity. Once they lose confidence in their own ability to transform their condition, they lean on The Father with relentless dependency. Prayerfulness is initiated by the hopelessness of their own position, unless The Father intervenes. The prayerful trust Him to come through. He always does. KEEP FAITH.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!

The Spirit

"Then, teaching them more about prayer,...How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him." Luke 11:5-13 (NLT)

"Shameless persistence" v. 8 -

Jesus describes the manner in which people knew how to pursue a pressing need, and have it met by a neighbor. Jesus wasn't breaking new ground here. He was just stating what was known as an accepted truth of the existing social order. People can wear you out, when they think you have what they need.

"Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for.
Keep on seeking, and you will find.
Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you." v. 9

Again, Jesus was simply stating what the people of his community knew to be true about themselves. Heads were nodding up and down, and elbows were jostling the person next to them, and probably chuckling in agreement. There were no gasps or shocked faces. Everyone knew this to be true. You can almost hear people saying to one another, good-naturedly, "I know that's right!"

"For everyone who asks, receives.
Everyone who seeks, finds.
And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." v. 10

Jesus closes his argument, by overstating the obvious, and restating "The Good Neighbor Policy."

The point of comparison Jesus makes is not between neighbors, and parents. He doesn't portray God as a resistant friend or an indulgent parent. The point Jesus makes is...

"HOW MUCH MORE will your heavenly Father give The Holy Spirit to those who ask him." v. 13

The point of prayer is not for a person to merely be persistent or for God to be extravagant. The point of prayer is to RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Praying persistently for what you don't need is no virtue. Being indulged with stuff without substance is no blessing. Prayer is meant to fill a person with The Person, The Power, and The Presence of The Holy Spirit. To pray for less is a fool's errand, and to receive less is a poor trade.

What is The Spirit that prayer is meant to bring into the life of those who pray? Paul described it as fruit. He said,
"THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control." Galatians 5:22-23 NASB

There is a pungent aroma that accompanies any work of the flesh. It is the by-product of enormous exertion and the out-pouring of profuse perspiration. This powerful aroma can be found in locker rooms and factory floors. The labor of strong men pulls a team together or pushes a product out the door. The smell is nothing to be ashamed of, but it is not the reason for the existence of the team or the purpose of the factory. The team's purpose is to produce victories, and the factory is meant to produce profits. The odor is not the product. It is simply the by-product.

On the other hand, the farmer's effort produces the fruit of the land, by the sweat of his brow. There is no less labor, and no less sweat on a farm than in a factory. After the fruit is harvested on the farm, it is collected and then transported to a farmer's market. The over-whelming aroma of the fruit covers up the smell of those who produced it. Anyone who has ever strolled through a farmer's market soon discovers it is not about farmers at all. It is all about fruit. It is not about an aroma of fruit, but the taste of it. No matter how great the aroma, fruit tastes better than it smells. Life is in the fruit, not in the aroma. Don't settle for less than the best.

Jesus did not call His disciples to meaningless, mind-numbing, relentless prayer. He called His disciples to go to the right source for the right reason. The Father was the only one who could give them what they really needed...The Spirit.

Praying for less than what is needed the most, misses the real point and purpose of prayer. It simply doesn't matter how sincere or persistent a person is in the pursuit of the wrong purpose. Persistent, purposeless prayer never results in the right product...The Fruit of The Spirit.

Jesus described God as a "HOW MUCH MORE" kind of Father. The Spirit is The Father's answer to what His children need the most. When the church of His Son gathers as a collective body of people pursuing The Spirit, the aroma is over-whelming and attractive to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. The Fruit of The Spirit always is.

When the church resists Christ's call to pray for The Spirit, they are left with the inevitable by-product of the work of their own flesh. It is an overwhelming aroma, but not as attractive, as the Fruit of The Spirit. Unchecked and unclean body odor never is.

People who persistently pray and pursue God for what they want, rather than what they need, may exert great energy, but they fail to produce The Fruit of The Spirit. The danger comes when the church body settles for the aroma of its own imitation fruit, and loses its taste for The Fruit of The Spirit.

It simply doesn't matter how much effort is made for God, or how much prayer is expressed to Him. If The Father doesn't send The Spirit to produce His fruit in the lives of His children, there is no point in praying. Without The Spirit, there will be no Great Awakening, individually or corporately. The churches of the land will be marked by the aroma of the flesh, but never release the aroma of The Fruit of The Spirit.

Imitation fruit, and perfumes may be used by churches to attract a crowd, but a Great Awakening hinges on the arrival of one person, The Holy Spirit. He is the church's Fruit Inspector.

Jesus said His followers should ask God for, and persistently pray for The Spirit. We need the aroma of His fruit in our lives, His Presence in Christ's church, and His Power in this world. The Holy Spirit launches the next Great Awakening.

TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!