Pastor Loran prayed in this way, on the second Sunday of this new year, 2025. It is January 12th. It was a sunny Sunday and freezing cold. We had a sense of accomplishment for having braved the frigid temperatures after the expected blizzard that turned out to be just a dusting. North Carolina has weakened us. What started out as an admirable quality of Charlotteans that they are "so submissive to the providence of God that they shut down the city for storms, has become in us an excuse for a limp and weak lack of perserverance to do the will of God. Shame on us for taking an attribute learned and using it to excess.
Nevertheless, we laid aside our limp laziness, both of the holiday vacation and of the region we abide in and we pressed our way to the house of the Lord, which was certainly not as full as it usually is. Pastor Baker commented on it in his welcome... We must all be Northerners, who have braved the elements, he said. Our Northern pride that we don't consider the elements as "providential hinderances" to the privilege of worship make us feel good at such times. We have something admirable, coming from New York and the northern regions of our country. These things we couldn't appreciate when we migrated here. We could only see the beauty of the culture of common graces that had been so affected by Christianity that there was more sky to look at than sultry billboards. We are Charlotteans now. We have been adopted and we have adopted them. We use their language and we follow some of the mores of the natives.
The worship was more sober than usual. Four of our sisters are travelling to Italy for a missions trip to contend with the trafficking industry that we support and pray for. That is a dark trip to contend with principalities and powers that project worldwide.
Jesus paid it all and Jesus has won it all and Jesus still has work for us to accomplish was the gist of the music. They sang, Take Me to the King, which I haven't heard in quite awhile.
And then Pastor prayed for the preaching. I always wish I could be taking notes on the prayer. There are always gems of truths that Pastor just tosses out in prayer that make me need to chew more and more on, but because my eyes are closed, I never get the whole thing when I try to write it down after we say amen.
Jesus does something and we do something, but we have the victory, whether we can sense it in our part of the battle right now! Lord help us see it.
He started with Psalm 16:8. My paraphrase is when we "set" the Lord (like my volleyball) always before our eyes that is the reason that we won't be moved. Imagine that? If I take the Lord as a practice and place him as dear to myself as the skill of setting with the silent skill, he stablizes us and improves our skill in the spiritual battle. He gives us some of himself as a result.
I had been meditating on God setting us, because I know he is a much more skillful setter than I am. But this word picture was far more challenging to me. I love to have a moment to practice 100 sets to myself just because I like the part of my mind that is engaged and the memories of tremendous spikes that have won us games so many years ago.
At present the setting is God before my eyes. God has the game mapped out and he has his team working against the principalities and powers. I see that He loves to be engaged in the warfare of the spirit and to show off how his people notice the nuances of his presence in worship and in ministry. Do we really seek His face to do for us what we have asked? Do we really notice His pleasure and His displeasure in our service?
The consequences Pastor inferred about "Sin always makes you feel empty" Righteousness has rewards. We seek those rewards of righteousness. The protections of His presence. The angels encamped around those who fear Him. God's adding blessings without sorrow, etc.,etc.,etc.
Then, on the way home we discovered David Jennings song. It is my new prayer for our nation! God grant that we may get home to heaven and see that we are dancing around his throne because of the righteousness that has exalted our whole nation. Use your word to draw our politicians to You and living for Your glory and not their own. After Jimmy Carters funeral, it made me imagine all of us as the young people singing for Jesus and rejoicing in the Victory in Jesus. This is truly God's Country. I believe it and I pray you would set it before your eyes and be glorified in Your people for the sake of the Church. In Jesus' wondrous name, AMEN
No comments:
Post a Comment