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Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus (Ephesians 1:17-18) is, “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know Him, so that, the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance among the saints.”. We can make this be our prayer as well, that our spiritual eyes would be open, and we would understand and discern the things of the Lord. The world walks in darkness and is blind to the things of the Lord and doesn’t accept them. They seem foolish to them and how can we expect them to understand if they are blinded.
Paul Baloche had his eye on the priesthood but for a time wanted to be a rock musician. But while at a conference the Lord spoke to his heart by the message, “It’s not about money, it’s about Jesus!” He was converted and would journal and then wrote many songs from the prayers he had written in his journal. One such song that was playing in my mind today is, ”Open the eyes of my heart, Lord/ Open the eyes of my heart/ I want to see You/ I want to see You/ to see you high and lifted up/ Shinin’ in the light of your glory/ pour out your power and love/ as we sing holy, holy, holy/ Open the eyes of my heart, Lord” etc.
When the eyes of our heart are flooded with light, we see clearly what He calls us to do, we can understand more the greatness of His power and have hope.
Today is women’s Bible study and Al is as I also made Finnish pasty yesterday to have for our dinner today.
March Madness is a upon us again. Every basketball fan knows what this means. We watch televised games of young college athletes playing their best to keep on winning and reach the Final Four. Men lose focus at work and even at home, as they watch their favorite teams either advance or lose. A lot of money is bet on who is going to win. 64 teams begin with high hopes, but only one is crowned champ three weeks later. That is why it is indeed madness. I continue to marvel at how un-glued men can be in sports venues during March Madness.
Compare that to the men in my church as we sang together one recent Sunday. Men are not accustomed to cheering or singing before groups of people. They fit in much more comfortably going crazy in front of a television for their favorite team. But this was not madness, just the united hearts of men singing in unison as they led the congregation in worship songs often sung at Promise Keepers events.
The songs we sang were an inspiration to us all, including those in the pews. I want to comment on two of the songs and the impact on my journey with Jesus.
The first was “Purify My Heart.” In my recent journey, the lyrics to this song spoke deeply to my soul. I have intentionally been waiting on the Lord, wanting to become more of a soulful man. “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord, more than the watchmen wait for the morning” (Ps. 130:5-6). I am realizing that my deepest desires and yearnings are for God. There are depths in me that God wants to fill as I learn to wait on him and allow him to do his work in me.
The words to the song express what I have been experiencing: “Purify my heart/ Touch me with Your cleansing fire/ Take me to the cross/ Your holiness is my desire/ Breathe Your life in me/ Kindle a love/ That flows from Your throne/ Oh purify my heart/ Purify my heart.”
The second song was “Knowing You” – this is the chorus: “Knowing you, Jesus/ Knowing you, there is no greater thing/ You’re my all, you’re the best/ You’re my joy, my righteousness/ And I love you, Lord.” As we sang this song, a video showed men at a large Promise Keepers rally freely singing with all their hearts to the Lord. I, for one, am paying more heed to the words of Jesus, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). Jesus means everything to me – I am not ashamed.
The first stanza goes like this: “All I once held dear, built my life upon/ All this world reveres, and wars to own / All I once thought gain, I have counted loss/ Spent and worthless now, compared to this.” I have a long ways to go in becoming like Jesus. “But,” in the words of the Phillip’s translation, “I keep going on, trying to grasp that purpose for which Christ Jesus grasped me. My brothers, I do not consider myself to have grasped it fully even now” (Phil. 3:12-13 – Phillips). The word “grasp” for me implies the realization of all of what God has done for me in Christ. I am still in the process of trying to “grasp”; take hold of what he is already given for me.
When we get all get wrapped up in self-love, life becomes curved in on our self. Eugene Peterson describes such a life as boring and barren, and prayer is needed to create the space that helps us get detached and opens us to freedom. Rather than use people for fulfilling our own need and greed, we will be set free to give and receive love as a free act. As we pray and praise the One who is love, we are set free from our selfishness and can relate and love others as Jesus would have us.
Let us trust the Lord and be dependent on Him rather than on self or others. I read today from I John 4:16b (Amplified), “God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him.” We will become more aware of His love as we pray and open our hearts in praise. Let us read His love letter daily, receive His plan for our day and let go of our self-life to love Him and serve others.
The also think of the prophet Jeremiah who was often in crowds, but he didn’t let it shape his message and values. He didn’t preach what the people wanted to hear about God or what would make them feel good, but rather what God told him to say. He listened first to God and only wanted to give messages from Him. Those words certainly weren’t pleasing to the crowd for they would have to recognize the truth of their sinful behavior and distance from God. It would have been far easier for Jeremiah to hold back on what he was to speak, but when he did it became like fire in his belly that he had to get out. (Jer. 20:9)
But how refreshing it is to see a person or a group of people that are willing to live in truth and have courage to go against the crowd mentality. Sometimes they even have to stand alone. As read in the book of Jeremiah, he writes about a group of people called Recabites. They were metal workers and lived in tents and were wanderers who lived outside the city. They drank no wine and built no houses or gardens but lived life according to their ancestor Jonadab. Jeremiah was told to invite them into an open room in the temple and serve them wine. The Racabites came but they refused to drink the wine and were not distracted to go along with what the crowd would have done. They held to their convictions set down 250 years before by Jonadab and didn’t waver. Jeremiah was using them as an example to the people to live according to God’s commands and not give in to the culture. The people had drifted far from God and he wanted them to be faithful to God and live by His commands, and not let the crowd distract them.
Let us also not be influenced by ungodliness in our culture but be persons of conviction who please God and not man.
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