Dream Big

"..Prayer and imagination are directly proportional: the more you pray the bigger your imagination becomes because the Holy Spirit supersizes it with God-sized dreams. One litmus test of spiritual maturity is whether your dreams are getting bigger or smaller. The older you get, the more faith you should have because you've experience more of God's faithfulness. And it is God's faithfulness that increases our faith and enlarges our dreams."

"...God wants you to keep dreaming until the day you die. You're never to old to go after dreams God has put in your heart. And for the record, you're never too young either. age is never a valid excuse."

     - Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker, page 42

An Example of True Humility

Love this story of a truly great but humble man, as told by Doug Nichols to Tim Challies:

It was a long time ago, in the summer of 1966, that Doug was working for Operation Mobilization and was stationed in London during their big annual conference. He was assigned to the clean-up crew. One night at around 12:30 AM he was sweeping the steps at the conference center when an older gentleman approached him and asked if this was where the conference was being held. Doug said that it was, but that just about everyone had already gone to bed. This man was dressed very simply and had just a small bag with him. He said that he was attending the conference. Doug replied he would try to find him a place to sleep and led him to a room where about 50 people were bunked down on the floor. The older gentleman had nothing to sleep on, so Doug laid down some padding and a blanket and offered a towel for a pillow. The man said that would be just fine and that he appreciated it very much.

Doug asked the man if he had been able to eat dinner. It turns out that he hadn’t eaten since he had been travelling all day. Doug took him to the dining room but it was locked. He soon jimmied the lock and found some cornflakes and milk and bread and jam. As the man ate, the two began to talk. The man said that he and his wife had been working in Switzerland for several years, where he had a small ministry that served hippies and travellers. He spoke about his work and spoke about some of the people he had seen turn to Christ. When he finished eating, both men turned in for the night.

Doug woke up the next morning only to find out that he was in big trouble. The conference leaders came to him and said, “Don’t you know who it was that you put on the floor last night? That’s Francis Schaeffer! He’s the speaker for this conference! We had a whole room set aside for him!”

Doug had no idea that he was sleeping on the floor next to a celebrity, that he had told a man to sleep on the floor who had a profoundly important ministry. He had no idea that this man had helped shape the Christian church of that day, and really, the church of our day. And Schaeffer never let on. In humility he had accepted his lot and been grateful for it.

 This attitude is one reason among so many others why Francis Schaeffer will always be one of my heroes.

The Freest Person on Earth

Wow. Just wow.

"You see, real freedom is not liberty to do what we want or the absence of distress. Real freedom is the deep-seated confidence that no matter what, God really will provide everything we need (Philippians 4:19). The person who believes this is the freest of all persons on earth, because no matter what situation they find themselves in, they have nothing to fear (Philippians 4:11). "

                        From Jon Bloom at Desiring God
       
      
 

Vague Prayers

To borrow a phrase- "What happens in vagueness, stays in vagueness."

"God does not answer vague prayers.."

"The more faith you have, the more specific your prayers will be. And the more specific you prayers are, the more glory God received... If our prayers aren't specific, however, God gets robbed of the glory that He deserves because we second-guess whether or not He actually answered them. We never know if the answers were the result of specific prayer or general coincidences that would have happened anyway."

"...When you spell out your prayers with specificity, it will eventually spell God's glory."

             - Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker, pages 25-16

Canonical Bands

Okay, this really appeals to my warped sense of humor! From the Twitter feed #CannonicalBands - A mixing of Bible characters with names of pop & rock bands. Funny stuff!

Corinthian Clearwater Revival
Second Peter, Paul and Mary
The Rolled-Away Stones
Hebrews Springsteen
Malachicago
Matthuey Lewis and the News, one of the Fore! gospel bands
Simon and Peterfunkel
Hosea and the Blowfish
Frankie Valli & the 2 Samuels
Lazarus and the Grateful Dead.
Emerson, Luke and Pauline
The Deuteronobie Brothers
Second Kings of Leon
Guns and Romans
The Jonah Brothers
Earth, Wind, and Sheol
3 wise night
Pearl James
Philemonatwork
U2 Timothy
MaccaBee Gees
Habakuk Street Boys
Metallicanaan
Cold Pray

And the best of all:

Led Zephaniah

Bold Prayers Become the Script Of Your Life

"Bold prayers honor God, and God honors bold prayers. God isn't offended by your biggest dreams or boldest prayers. He is offended by anything less. if your prayers aren't impossible to you, they are insulting to God. Why? Because they don't require divine intervention. But ask God to part the Red Sea or make the sun stand still or float an iron axhead, and god is moved to omnipotent action...."

"...It is absolutely imperative at the outset that you come to terms with this simple yet life-changing truth: God is for you. If you don;t believe that, then you;ll pray small timid prayers. If you do believe it, then you'll pray big audacious prayers. And one way or another, your small timid prayers or big audacious prayers will change the trajectory of your life and turn you into two totally different people. Prayers are prophesies, they are the best predictors of your spiritual future. Who you become is determined by how you pray. Ultimately, the transcript of your prayers becomes the script of your life."

          -Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker, pages 13-14

Reading the Circle Maker

I'll be posting quotes over the next few weeks from Mark Batterson's new book The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears.

Books on prayer are a dime a dozen - there are a lot of them. My pastor mentioned this one in a sermon a few months back, and it was on sale in our church book store. I'm not much for following fads or jumping on band wagons, for books or otherwise, but hey, it was on sale 40% off!  I bought it, but didn't expect much. I was wrong.

This is a great book! I was underling stuff on almost every page. It is simultaneously deep, scripturally accurate, balanced, inspiring, thought-provoking, attention grabbing and easy to read. What else can you ask for!

The title comes from a rabbinic legend about Honi, the "circle maker," a 1st century BC Jewish prayer warrior who ended a long drought in Jerusalem by drawing a circle in the dirt and praying within his circle until rain came. The full story starts off the book

Batterson pastors an interesting church: National Community Church in Washington DC, also known as Theater Church. They are a multi-site congregation, and as the alternative name says, they meet in theaters, with a vision to have a branch in theaters at every Metro subway stop in DC.  Having lived and worked for many years in the DC area earlier in my life, I was drawn in by Batterson's stories featuring landmarks I am familiar with. If I lived in DC today, I'd certainly at least visit this church.

Expect a lot of quotes to be posted from this good book.
   

 

Summation of the Glorious Ruin

I hope you've benefited from the quotes I've posted over the past few weeks from Tullian Tchvidjian's new book Glorious Ruin: How Suffering Sets You Free. You can search this blog for the tag/label "Glorious Ruin" to find all the quotes.

As of now I'd list this book as one of the top 5 I've read in the past few years. I suspect I'll be re-reading it many times in order to absorb everything he says. I do not mean that it is a hard read - it's not. I mean that the content is such that it must be digested over time and used to evaluate my personal life experiences. I suspect you would find the same.

Here is the key thought from my first read through of the book.

Most books about suffering focus on the "Why" question (why must I suffer?) and/or the "How" question (how can I grow from or benefit from my suffering?).  Tullian moves past both of those to the more important "Who" question. From Martin Luther's "Theology of the Cross" he points out that God is most revealed in suffering, because He is a God who saves us through His own vicarious suffering on the Cross of Christ. We prefer a "Theology of Glory" - where God always and only blesses and prospers us. The Cross, however, reveals that the place of pain is the place were God is most clearly revealed in Scripture and life experience and where He is most truly known. Although the author of the Book of Job tells us why Job suffered. Job was never given that answer. He was never told "Why." His "friends" spent all those chapters moralizing his suffering (If you were good you would not suffer) and minimizing it (Just get over it). Job's only answer, all that he was given,  was a revelation of Who - the one true eternal God whom he met in his suffering. That revelation made him a "glorious ruin." That answer was enough.

"I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.”
                 (Job 42:5-6 ESV)

The gospel enables us to escape from the prison of How and Why, and find freedom in the Who. The only answer is meeting God in Christ -and, to borrow the title to one of Tullian's other books, "Jesus + Nothing = Everything."

My brief thoughts do not do the book justice. Whether you agree with these comments or not, go read the book for yourself. I do not think that you will be disappointed.

Next on my reading and quoting list - The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears by Mark Batterson.

Only Two Men

The TV sit-com "Two and a Half Men" may soon be down to only two. From CT Gleanings:

The youngest member of CBS's "Two and a Half Men" soon could be walking away from the raunchy show after 10 years—and he's urging other viewers to do the same.

In a YouTube video posted by Forerunner Christian Church, 19-year-old Angus T. Jones calls the show "filth" and encourages viewers to stop watching. Jones says he began to doubt his role on the show—where he earns an estimated $350,000 per episode—after converting to Christianity.

"I'm not okay with what I'm learning, what the Bible says and being on that television show," Jones stated.

He also urged viewers, "If you watch 'Two and a Half Men,' please stop watching ... Please stop filling your head with filth."

According to the Chicago Tribune, "The CBS network and Warner Bros Television, which makes the comedy, both declined to comment on Monday on Jones's remarks."

Satisfied by the Naked Longing

Tullian Tchvidjian (Glorious Ruin, pages 177-178) on understanding the Book of Job:

"Take the book of Job. Some commentators actually become exasperated with Job because it seems to go on and on, endlessly repeating the same arguments without providing any definitive answers. there's just chapter after chapter of Job and his friends covering the same territory over and over again. But the redundancy serves both a theological and a literary purpose. Yes, it does go on, and on, and on, with no definitive answers - which is exactly how most of us experience suffering in real life. that is, you are in good company. Job wasn't given a definitive answer either. God did not come to him at the end of the book and say, You made it Job! Now let me tell you the real reason why you suffered. All we find at the bottom of Job's suffering is a naked longing for God. Which, it turns out, is enough."

That is the best summation of the message of Job I have ever heard or read.