Where do those prayers go?

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“Send some prayers my way,” Joey said. “I am applying for that job tomorrow.”

I have heard this kind of thing innumerable times through the years: “I am sending some prayers your way today!” It’s a nice sentiment, but technically, it’s not biblical.

Where are prayers sent? To God. David illustrates this in places like Psalms 142 where he says, 1O LORD, I call to you; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to you. 2May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. Even though he later states in this psalm that his prayer is against his enemies, David affirms from the start that the prayer is addressed to God and it’s going to God.

Likewise, Revelation 5 speaks with beautiful imagery of our prayers when it says this of the Lamb that was slain: 8And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. Where did those prayers go? They became as incense in heaven — in the presence of God.

I feel confident that when people say this kind of thing — I’ll send some prayers your way — they intend it as a blessing. I would guess that they say it with pure hearts. But, without meaning to, they essentially leave God out of the picture. And frankly, when I hear someone say it, it sounds… pagan. It’s like saying that you’re sending some mojo. Christians don’t send mojo. We speak to God himself and ask him to send healing, deliverance, correction, life, and at times, himself — all of which are blessings.

Prayer is a great privilege. It’s essential to understand that by it,we enter the presence of the Most High God. And frankly, I’d rather have someone speak personally to God on my behalf than to “send some prayers my way”!

So send some prayers God’s way for someone in need. Trust God to send the blessing needed in response to the prayer.

Don’t Miss the Miracles…

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I just completed my 2011 Pastor’s Annual Report. It was interesting to think over the events of the past year. It’s all but impossible to miss the miracles — miracles of changed lives, miracles of changed hearts, miracles of many kinds.

If you’re not looking, you will miss these.

C. S. Lewis is reported to have said, Miracles are a retelling in small letters the very same story which is written across the world in letters too large for some of us to see.

Sometimes I miss the miracles written in large letters. Sometimes I miss those written in small. But as you look back on what you’ve observed as you’ve attended Curwensville Alliance over the past year, be sure not to miss the miracles.

And pray that we all will see the miracles God does in this world.

By the way — if you’re using Twitter, you can get these kinds of quotes by following Lewis here: https://twitter.com/#!/CSLewisDaily

You can follow Curwensville Alliance here: https://twitter.com/#!/cvillealliance

~Pastor Steve

Seeing the Power of Grace…

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I finally made it through all 102 minutes of Babette’s Feast. I have always wanted to watch it, but the distinct lack of fast cars and powerful weaponry made it difficult for me. However, working on a short sermon series on grace, and reading Yancey’s What’s so Amazing about Grace (for the second time) I was inspired to watch the DVD.

I won’t detail the film here except to say that it communicated to me a fresh picture of my own inability to appreciate the greatness of the grace God’s given me. I would guess that my failure to grasp the depth of God’s grace is partially due to what Frederick Buechner says about all of us.

People are prepared for everything except for the fact that beyond the darkness of their blindness there is a great light. They are prepared to go on breaking their backs plowing the same old field until the cows come home without seeing, until they stub their toes on it, that there is a treasure buried in that field rich enough to buy Texas. They are prepared for a God who strikes hard bargains but not for a God who gives as much for an hour’s work as for a day’s. They are prepared for a mustard-seed kingdom of God no bigger than the eye of a newt but not for the great banyan it becomes with birds in its branches, singing Mozart. They are prepared for the potluck supper at First Presbyterian, but not for the marriage supper of the lamb…. ~Frederick Buechner as quoted by Philip Yancey in What’s so Amazing about Grace?, pp. 62-63.

Yep. That’s me. God’s grace is so much bigger than anything I could hope to produce or contribute to my own walk with him.

That’s what hits you between the eyes when you watch Babette’s Feast — not the power of a fast car or a super-weapon, but the power of grace. As the feast is prepared, the mentality of those receiving it is such that they simply want to get through this to give honor to Babette. But as they begin to enjoy the luxury of her gift, they become new inside and release old grievances, spreading the grace they are receiving.

May we all invest our lives in celebrating the power of grace.

Avoiding Pain by Avoiding Purpose and People…

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Some time ago, a couple came to the local churches asking for financial help. When Pastor George asked, “Where do you attend church?” the answer was, “We don’t.” They are professing Christians, but they don’t go to church anywhere. This is common.

I was thinking about why folks who call themselves Christians don’t regularly fellowship with other Christians, and while I know there are a variety of reasons, I think one reason is because they have been injured in the past. Sometimes avoidance of church is symptomatic of aversion to social interaction in general.

However, God created us as social people. The phrase, “It is not good for man to be alone” does not only reveal the origin of marriage, but verbalizes our need to interact with others. This interaction is essential if our lives are to have real meaning.

Paul Borthwick stated this well just over two decades ago.

It is possible to evade a multitude of sorrows through the cultivation of an insignificant life. Indeed, if a man’s ambition is to avoid the troubles of life, the recipe is simple: shed your ambitions in every direction, cut the wings of every soaring purpose, and seek a life with the fewest contacts and relations. If you want to get through the world with the smallest trouble, you must reduce yourself to the smallest compass. Tiny souls can dodge through life; bigger souls are blocked on every side. As soon as a man begins to enlarge his life, his resistances are multiplied. Let a man remove his petty selfish purposes and enthrone Christ, and his sufferings will be increased on every side. (Paul Borthwick, Leading the Way, Navpress, 1989, p. 86)

Borthwick says a mouthful in those few words. He speaks of being significant. He encourages sanctified ambitions. He addresses the purpose-driven life.

To me, he’s saying: Brave the pain, risk the injuries, and dream big for the sake of being significant in the eyes of Christ.

Thankfulness for your Church Family…

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Today, as I sat with Alverta’s son and daughter-in-law, I noted Fred was reading Life Together. Just seeing the book reminded me of something I typed from it years ago. I will cut and paste it here.

In the Christian community thankfulness is just what it is anywhere else in the Christian life. Only he who gives thanks for little things receives big things. We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for the daily gifts. We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual knowledge, experience, and love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be looking forward eagerly for the highest good. Then we deplore the fact that we lack the deep certainty, the strong faith, and the rich experience that God has given to others, and we consider this lament to be pious.  We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts.

How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully received from Him little things?  If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.

This applies in a special way to the complaints often heard from pastors and zealous members about their congregations.  A pastor should not complain about his congregation, certainly never to other people, but also not to God.  A congregation has not been entrusted to him in order that he should become its accuser before God and men.  When a person becomes alienated from a Christian community in which he has been placed and begins to raise complaints about it, he had better examine himself first to see whether the trouble is not due to his wish-dream that should be shattered by God; and if this be the case, let him thank God for leading him into this predicament.  But if not, let him nevertheless guard against ever becoming an accuser of the congregation before God.  Let him rather accuse himself for his unbelief.  Let him pray God for an understanding of his own failure and his particular sin, and pray that he may not wrong his brethren.  Let him, in the consciousness of his own guilt, make intercession for his brethren.  Let him do what he is committed to do, and thank God.

Christian community is like the Christian’s sanctification.  It is a gift of God which we cannot claim.  Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification.  What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God.  Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature.  The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases.

Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.  The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our fellowship is in Jesus Christ alone, the more serenely shall we think of our fellowship and pray and hope for it.

~Life Together, by Deitrich Bonhoeffer  pp. 29-30

One of the most amazing things about that statement is its timelessness. When I typed it, I was using Word Prefect 4.2. That dates it to what, about 1987? But it’s still as applicable today as it was then.

I thank God for my church family. Always. (1 Thessalonians 1:2)