The Circle-drawer

“As the Deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? (Psalms. 42: 1-2)

“The sound of the Shofar could be heard coming from the wall surrounding Jerusalem, echoing across the sun-scorched valley. The blowing of the trumpet heralded great public distress and was used to summon the people. It was the 1^st century B.C. and severe drought was threatening the very existence of the city. So the city elders called for the people to gather outside the city walls. Then they sent for Honi.

    Honi was an old man who, after this day, became known as the Circle-Drawer, because when he was summoned, the elders asked him: ‘Pray that rain may fall.’ Honi prayed but nothing happened. So he drew a circle around himself in the dust of the ground, and prayed again. ‘O Lord of the world, Your children have turned their faces to me….I swear by Your great name that I will not stir from here until You have pity on Your children.’

   The rain began to fall, one large drop at a time. But Honi protested. ‘Not for such rain have I prayed, but for rain that will fill the cisterns, pits, and caverns.’ In answer to his prayer, the heavens opened and the waters descended in a violent gully-washer that threatened to flood the city. So once again, Honi pleaded. ‘Not for such rain have I prayed, but for a rain of goodwill, blessing and graciousness.’ It is said, and recorded by the Jewish historian Josephus, that in response to Honi’s third prayer, a long soaking rain began to fall that ended the three-year drought. Honi had prevailed in prayer.” (The Daniel Prayer, chapter 7, Anne Graham Lotz)

We serve a prayer-answering God. Cry out to him today to prepare our hearts for the new year that our Lord has given to us.

1. Pray for our national and church leaders that they will be guided you your Holy Spirit and will have the wisdom that comes from God and not of this world..

 2. Pray for our hearts to be tender to the things of God.

3. Help us to be faithful in prayer daily for our loved ones that do not know you as there Savior and for others that You put in our path.

4. Pray for marriages to be strengthened and restored.

Go on Knowing

  “ Jesus answered them and said, ‘My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.” (John 7:16-18)

     In the last post I talked a little about Oswald Chambers and the impact his short life has had upon thousands and maybe millions of Christians worldwide due to the books that were published after he had gone home to his Father in heaven. In 1998 someone gave me a copy of “The Utmost Devotional Bible” and it has been the Bible that I have endeavored to read every day since. I have not always been successful but I have read through it many times and not only have I benefited from the truth of the Word of God, but I have been challenged by the short commentaries on particular Scriptures give by Mr. Chambers.

     Just as I would have a hard time saying a certain Scripture was my favorite, I would not want to say that one of Mr. Chambers’ quotes was my favorite. But I will say that the one that spoke to my heart the first time I heard it and has spoken to me again and again is the one I will share with you today.

    “If you believe in Jesus, you will not spend all your time in the smooth waters just inside the harbor, full of exhilaration and delight, but always moored; you will have to go out through the harbor bar into the great deeps of God and begin to know for yourself, begin to get spiritual discernment. If you do not cut the moorings, God will have break them with a storm and send you out. Why not unloosen and launch all on God and go out on the great swelling tide of His purpose?

    ‘If anyone wills to do His will , he shall know…’ When you know you should do a thing and you do it, you will know more. If you revise where you are stodgy spiritually, you will find it goes back to the point where there was one thing you knew you should do, but you did not do it because there seemed no immediate call to, and now you have no perception, no discernment. Instead of being spiritually self-possessed at the time of crisis, you are spiritually distracted. It is a dangerous thing to refuse to go on knowing.” (Reading 142, “Utmost Devotional Bible, Oswald Chambers)

   What are you doing that the Lord has called you to do? What are you not doing that He has called you to do? Seek His face. Ask Him to open the eyes of your heart that you can be obedient to all that He has called you to do, not just some of it. He wants our complete and utter submission to His will and abandonment for the tasks He had prepared for each of us before the foundation of the world.

Pray

1.     Lord open my eyes and make my feet quick to be obedient to your commandments and direction for my life. 

2.     Help me to see the people whom I have wronged or hurt and to seek their forgiveness. If there is any unforgiveness in my heart show me and help me to repent and to forgive.

2.     Help me to be extravagant in giving of myself, and my resources, which you have given to me for the advancement of Your Kingdom.

The Lion and the Lamb

   “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World!”  (John 1:29)

  “and said to the mountains and rocks,  “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!” (Revelation 6:16)

  Oswald Chambers is one to the heroes of the faith. He was a Scot who came to know the Lord under the preaching of Charles Spurgeon and was challenged to have his life turned over completely to the Holy Spirit by F.B. Meyer. In 1911, he felt God had called him to start a school for men desiring to be preachers of the Word of God and from his prolific writing and teaching we have over 30 books that were only published by his wife after he died, the most famous of which is “Utmost for His Highest.” He died from appendicitis while ministering to the soldiers of Great Britain from England, Australia, and New Zealand in Egypt during World War I as those soldiers prepared to take the land of Palestine and Transjordan from the Turkish Empire, countries we know as Israel and Jordan today.

   Mr. Chambers does an outstanding job of talking about the paradox of the Lion and the Lamb of God:

      “In the days of His flesh Jesus Christ exhibited the divine paradox of the Lion and the Lamb. He is the Lion in majesty, rebuking the winds and demons: He was the Lamb in meekness, ‘who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return.’ He was the Lion in power, raising the dead; He was the Lamb in patience—who was ‘led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.’ He was the Lion in authority, ‘You have heard that it was said…But I say to you,…’: He was the Lamb in gentleness, ‘Let the little children come to Me…and He took them in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them.’

     In our personal lives Jesus Christ proves Himself to be all this—He is the Lamb to expiate our sins, to lift us out of condemnation and plant within us His own heredity of holiness: He is the Lion to rule over us, so that we gladly say, ‘the government of this life shall be on His shoulders.’ And what is true in individual life is to be true in the universe at large. The time is coming when the Lion of the Tribe of Judah shall reign, and when ‘the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ.’

    One remaining paradox---In Revelation 6:16 ‘the wrath of the Lamb’ is mentioned. We know what the wrath of a lion is like—but the wrath of the Lamb!—it is beyond our conception. All one can say about it is that the wrath of God is the obverse side of the love of God. (Reading 349, The Utmost Devotional Bible, originally in 'Conformed to His Image,' Oswald Chambers)

    God has given all of us the opportunity in one way or another to accept Him as our Lord and Savior and to serve Him completely. He has also given us the ability to ignore Him and not accept His free gift of salvation or to completely surrender our lives to serve Him with our whole heart. Where are you today and what would He have you do?

Pray

1.     Lord thank you for dying on that cross in order to take the penalty of my sin and all those who accept your free gift of salvation.

2.     Help me this day to live for You. Help me to seek your face in the Scriptures and to examine my life to see if I am living for you every day.

3.     Forgive me of my laziness and casual attitude I take toward You. You are my Commander, my Father, and my King. Help me to live this day filled with Your Spirit

He knows my name

    In 1983 I had the privilege of visiting the monastery Saint Katherine at the foot of Mount Siani in the Siani Peninsula. The monastery is the oldest continuously occupied monastery in the world and is administered by the Greek Orthodox Church. It has been occupied since the the 4th century AD and contains in its library the oldest complete copy of the New Testament in the world. The prophet Mohammed (before he became the prophet of Islam) stayed there for a time and for that reason the monastery was not destroyed when the Moslem armies swept in to take over the region in the 8th century AD. According to the monks of the monastery, the bush that burned without being consumed by fire and out of which God talked to Moses, is within the compound of the monastery. 

       In chapter 33 of Exodus we read of Moses talking with God outside the camp of the Hebrews in the Sinai desert. God had told Moses that He would send an angel of the Lord with the people to help drive out the inhabitants of the promised land but that He, God, would not go with them. “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff necked people.” (Exodus 33:3) Moses pleads with God not to forsake his people even thought they are truly a stubborn and rebellious nation. “Then he said to Him, ‘If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are on the face of the earth.’ So the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will also do this thing that you have spoken: for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.’” (Exodus 33:15-16)

If you are a born again believer, God knows you by name also and has promised to “never leave you nor forsake you.” Your name is written in the Lamb's book of life and nothing can separate you from the love of God. (Read Romans 8:35-39)

I reaffirm that my relationship with You is my first priority. Teach me to stay close to You like Jesus did, rejecting pride which leads to destruction, and embracing humility which leads to abundant life.

Pray:

1.     Lord help me to spend time with you today, in your Word, and in prayer.

2.     Lord I know that you have etched my name in the palm of your hand and that you are familiar with all my ways. Help me to know and follow you better.

3.     Lord help me to be obedient to what you show me in Your Scriptures and to be quick to obey within prompted by Your Holy Spirit.

Expectant prayer

"But certainly God has heard me; He has attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer, Nor His mercy from me." (Psalms 66:19-20)

         Several years ago The Free Church of Scotland held an important meeting in Aberdeen, Scotland. Many people for miles around walked or rode to get there and hear the speaker. Two such men, an elderly man from the country, and a young theological student, found themselves walking together. They stopped for a short lunch and the old man suggested they pray before eating. As he prayed the elderly man asked three specific requests of God. “Lord you know I am hard of hearing, can you get me a seat close to the speaker. And Lord you know that I need new shoes and do not have money to buy any. And finally Lord I need a place to stay tonight because I know no one in town.” The student was somewhat shocked at the specifics of the prayer and prayed a general prayer as elegant as he could make it. He was very doubtful that God was interested in the old man’s specific needs.

   When they arrived at the church it was already overflowing. The elderly man was able to just squeeze inside the door and stood there with his hands to his ears. Just as it happened, a young lady in the first pew turned and saw the old man standing at the door. She turned to the usher and said, “My father told me to save a seat for him but if he was detained to give it to another. It appears he will not make it, so could you go back to the door and bring that elderly gentleman that is holding his hands to his ears? In a few moments he was sitting at the feet of the speaker. His first petition granted.

   During the service the old man went to his knees to pray during the prayer time and the young lady remained standing. She couldn’t help but notice the old man’s shoes were in bad shape. After the service she delicately mentioned to the man that her father was a shoe dealer and could he accompany her to his shop and she would be happy to provide for him a new pair of shoes. Petition two was answered. While he was trying on the shoes she asked him where he was staying for the night. He replied, “My Father has a room for me but I don’t know where yet” She rightly understood he was talking about his heavenly Father and said. “We were saving our guest room for Reverend ____, but he sent a telegram saying he couldn’t make it, so you must now be our guest.” Petition three was answered.

    The next morning he met up with the young theologian and he was shocked to learn that God had answered all of the man’s petitions quickly and precisely. (Life’s Ultimate Privilege, DeVern Fromke, pp 45-46)

Change my mindset so that prayer becomes my first response in every situation. May I seek you in all things.

Pray

1.     Help me Lord to come to you first with all my petitions and needs. You are my God and the “lifter of my head.”

2.     Lord, forgive me of my many sins against you. Help them to come to my mind right now so that I may confess each one to you individually and seek your forgiveness.

3.     Help me to know who I have wronged and to go to them and ask for their forgiveness today.

Moses's song

In the book of Exodus chapter 14, we read the marvelous account of God rescuing the Hebrew people from pharaoh and his army at the parting of the Red Sea and the destruction of the Egyptian army. (Read Exodus 14:1-31)

  In chapter 15 we read Moses’s magnificent prayer/song of thanksgiving and praise to God for all that He has done.  “I will sing to the Lord, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and the rider He has thrown into the sea! The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God and I will praise Him; My father’s God and I will exalt Him. Who is like you, O Lord among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises doing wonders? You stretched out Your right hand; The earth swallowed them. You in your mercy have led forth The people whom you have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength to your holy habitation.” (Exodus 15:1,2,11-13)

Increase my faith in Your ability to intervene supernaturally in my life and in the world. Would you do miracles by Your Spirit in, through, and around me?

Pray

1.     Lord help me to spend time in your Word this week and to be reminded of just how awesome and glorious you are.

2.     Lord we ask you to fill us with your Holy Spirit that we may be used by You and that our speech and actions will reflect your holiness to those we come in contact with.

3.     Help us to see clearly that we need You in our lives and cannot survive in this world without Your guidance and help.

Our duty is to pray!

  "The key to all our work for God is in that one word....'Pray.' Oswald Chambers

     Dr. Helen Rosveare was a missionary doctor in Zaire, Africa. One night a mother gave birth to a premature baby, but despite all they could do, the mother died leaving the baby and a 2 year-old girl orphaned. The doctor instructed the nurse to get a hot water bottle to put next to the baby to protect the baby from the cold night, as there was no electricity or incubator. While filling the water bottle it burst and there were no more available and no store to go buy one from. The doctor instructed the nurse to put the baby as close to the fire as possible and to sleep between the baby and the door to protect it from drafts.

  The next morning Dr. Rosveare called the orphans together to pray for the baby and the little girl who was crying because her mommy had died. One little girl named Nammy prayed: “Please God, please send us a hot water bottle—be no good tomorrow the baby’ll be dead. Please send it this afternoon. And while you’re about it God, would you send a doll for the little girls so she will know that You still love her?” Dr. Rosveare was not sure God would respond to that prayer.

  Midway through the afternoon a big box was delivered to the front door of the makeshift hospital. Dr. Rosveare summoned the orphans to open the box and with great excitement they tore it open. They pulled out several things and then suddenly they pulled out a water bottle. Dr. Rosveare started to cry. Nammy rushed forward saying, “If God sent a water bottle, He must have sent a doll.” She dived into the box with both hands and pulled out the dollie.  Looking at the doctor she said, “Can I take the dollie to the little girl so she will know that God loves her?"

  The package had been on the way for 5 months from England. A Sunday school teacher had been prompted by God to send a hot water bottle to the equator! A little girl had been prompted by God to send a doll 5 months before the prayer had been uttered by a little girl in Africa! God wanted to answer that prayer even before it was expressed! (Life’s Ultimate Privilege, DeVern Fromke, pp39-40)

I bow before You as God. You are in charge of everything. Please give me the desire and power to obey You in every moment.

Pray for:

1.     That our children and grandchildren will see that we serve a prayer-answering God who listens to our petitions and answers.

2.     That our parents will be able to take time today and everyday in the coming weeks to spend time in prayer with their children to demonstrate the importance of prayer.

3.     That our children and grandchildren will have tender hearts toward the things of God and will learn to walk closely with our God.