THE MIRACLE OF PRAYER

"Hear my voice when I call, O LORD; be merciful to me and answer me"
Psalm 27:7

Recently I read something by Paul Tripp that really encouraged me. I hope it does for you as well.

I never get used to the moment-by-moment miracle of prayer. It’s an amazing thing that God would ever even once listen to me, let alone answer! In little moments and big, again and again, I choose my own kingdom over his. I often run to him for help for messes that in my foolishness and rebellion I’ve made. I’ve no righteousness to present as an argument that he should hear me. I’ve no autonomous wisdom that I can present as a reason for his
attention. I’ve no independent track record of good deeds that would get his attention.I’ve often been more fickle than loyal. I often justify my sin rather than seek his forgiveness. I struggle more with being attracted to the temporary pleasures of this physical world than I am committed to godly living. The desires of my heart wander again and again. I forget my identity
as his child, and in my amnesia I seek identity where it was never meant to be found. Again and again I contradict the theology that I say I believe with the way that I live. I sadly have to ask for his forgiveness for the same things over and over again. Undeserving is the way I always stand before him.

This is precisely why David appeals to God’s mercy as he prays in Psalm 27:7. He can’t look to himself for any reason that God would listen and respond. Yet, the miracle of his existence and ours is that he doesn’t have to fear God’s rejection or fall into thinking that prayer is an exercise in spiritual futility. Why? Because God is his own reason for answering. Prayer finds its hope not in the qualifications of the one praying, but in the character and
plan of the God who is hearing. He answers because of who he is. He answers because of what he is doing. He answers because he loves to see us come, and he loves to provide just the grace for that moment.

But why exactly would God respond to me?” Here are five reasons:

1) His love. He’s the ultimate wise, patient, kind, gentle, and forgiving father. He delights in his children. Because of his great love, his eyes look out for us and his ears are always attentive to our cries. Because of his love, he invites us to bring our cares to him, and he assures us that he really does care for us. He is never too busy or distracted or too tired to hear and answer. He doesn’t refuse to answer because of our weakness and failure. He doesn’t get impatient because we have to come again and again. He is love, and he loves to exercise his power and glory to meet the needs of his struggling children.

2) His grace. Grace provides the whole structure and standing of our relationship with him. If it weren’t for the grandeur of his forgiving grace, we would have no relationship with him at all. Because of his grace, he is unwilling to rest until the work of transformation is complete.
In grace he looks on us and knows that this work isn’t done. We’ve not yet been completely formed into the likeness of his Son. Although the power of sin has been broken, he knows that the presence of sin still remains. He hears our prayers because, when we pray, we confess that we still need the grace of forgiveness and deliverance, and in so doing we place ourselves in
the center of what he has committed himself to complete—his work of redemption.

3) His faithfulness. He doesn’t change his mind. He doesn’t ride the roller-coaster of the rise and fall of emotions. His heart isn’t a battle zone of conflicting motivations. He doesn’t get bored, exhausted, or distracted. He won’t quit what he has begun. He won’t forsake those upon
whom he has placed his love. He won’t harden his heart, shut down his mind, and turn his back. He won’t take a break or go to sleep. He will never tell you that you have asked too much or that you have come to him too often. You never have to work to figure him out. You never have to wonder if his response to you will change. He is absolutely faithful to every promise he
has made and every provision he has offered. Your hope in prayer is rooted in his faithfulness, not yours.

4) His kingdom. As I come to him in the patterns laid out by Christ and pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” I pray words that bring him delight. He loves the exercise of his will. He finds joy in the success of his kingdom. The spiritual growth and prosperity of his children means the growth and prosperity of his kingdom. He is King,
and he delights in his children’s recognizing his lordship and submitting to his rule. Every good thing he does for his children is done to rescue them from their self-focused kingdom of one and to welcome them into the expansiveness of his kingdom of glory and grace. And his ears will continue to be attentive and his hands will be active until his kingdom has been
fully and completely established forever.

5) His glory. The thing that God is most committed to is his own glory. But here’s what you need to understand. His commitment to his His own glory is your only hope. Because he is committed to his own glory, he has committed to draw to himself a multitude of people who forsake their own glory and do the one thing that they were created to do: live for his. So his commitment to his glory causes him to listen and respond, listen and respond until all
of his children no longer look to the shadow glories of creation for their satisfaction but, rather, look to him. Because he is committed to his glory, I can go to him in prayer, knowing that he will hear and answer.

So even though you have nothing to bring to the Lord that would commend you to him, you can approach him with confidence. He really does delight in hearing and answering his children. Your hope in prayer is never found in you; it is always found in him.

Praying with freedom to a merciful prayer hearing and answering God,
Pastor Bill

A CALL FROM GOD TO ALL FLAWED MEN AND WOMEN

There was once a group of tourists who were visiting a small village in Switzerland. Looking out over the sparseness of its population one tourist sarcastically asked out loud, "Were there any great men born in this town?" One of the locals overheard his question and blurted out,"nope, only babies."

The fact is, in light of our sinfulness, weakness, brokenness, poverty of spirit, and extreme limitation, before God there are no great men and women, only babies. Yet, these are the ones who God loves to use to display the glory of His truth and worth. "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth" (Romans 9:17).

My favorite writer and pastor, John Piper, once wrote "God ordains that we gaze on His glory, dimly mirrored in the ministry of his flawed servants. He intends for us to consider their lives and peer through the imperfections of their faith and behold the beauty of their God."

When you read of great missionaries, preachers, and servants of God you are reading stories of great grace. Throughout history God has triumphed in grace and manifested grace in using weak, broken, sinful men and women like you and me. He is not looking for greatness, talent, brilliance, cleverness, charisma, beauty, or any of the accouterments that the world would use as a criteria to be used of God. The only kind of people that God uses are those who do not depend upon their own gifts, talents, or resources. All ministry is nothing but a grace from God because the faithfulness of God triumphs over the flaws and weakness of man.

I am writing in the midst of a deeply contemplative and reflective season of my journey. It is a season where I no longer have a church or a ministry. at 57 years old and after 33 years of ministry I have taken inventory of my life and realize more than ever how highly limited and flawed that I am before God. I have been amazed that God has even used someone like me and there are moments when I wonder if God will ever use me again. But then I go back to the foundation of my life and ministry for the past 33 years and find fresh hope and vision and power to look ahead with hope and joy. I must build my life and ministry on the rock solid reality of God's omnipotent grace.

God's glorious grace will triumph over all of your guilty impotency!

Moses stuttered and was a murderer.
David had an affair,committed murder, and abused power.
John Mark deserted Paul.
Hosea's wife was a prostitute.
Jacob was a liar.
Jonah was a runner from the will of God.
Gideon and Thomas both doubted.
Noah got drunk.
Peter denied Jesus three times.
Paul was a persecutor of Christians.
Augustine battled with lust.
Martin Luther had a dirty mouth and could be overly harsh.
Calvin took part in the burning of someone who did not believe in the Trinity.

Yet God used each and every one of them mightily!

God has always used "cracked pots" to "show that this all surpassing power comes from God and not from us" (2 Corinthians 4:7).

Every flawed servant of God can testify, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known" (1 Corinthians 13:12) and "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own." (Philippians 3:12).

John Newton knew his limitations and flaws as well as anyone that I have read and wrote,
"I am not the man I ought to be, I am not the man I wish to be, and I am not the man I hope to be, but by the grace of God, I am not the man I used to be."

Oh dear reader, do not be discouraged by your weakness, sins, and flaws. A sense of ones own weakness can paralyze the will and cause us to shrink from ministry and God's work in despair and defeat. Do not be daunted by your limitations and flaws, embrace the grace of God that triumphs over each and every flaw in your life. God has never used a flawless, man, save one named Jesus Christ. Nor will He ever until Jesus comes again.

I have learned that in the case of my own weakness, to learn with the apostle Paul that the grace of Christ is more than sufficient, and that my strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). The victory song of the weak was sung by Paul and has been sung by myriads of broken saints for over 2000 years, "I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Corinthians 12:9). Your limitations, sins, flaws, and weaknesses can make you sink or swim. We can learn to say with all of our weak predecessors,"I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong"(2 Corinthians 12:10).

Oh dear reader, never, never, never give up serving the Lord. I have been very tempted to in my season of brokenness but I believe that God has a destiny for each one of you and a great work for everyone to do. Do it with all your might and with all of your flaws and sins and by His grace God will magnify the glory of His grace working in you.

Pastor Bill

TAKING A MOMENT TO THINK ABOUT GOD'S ATTRIBUTES

"The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." 1 Timothy 1:7

"Which commandment is the most important of all?" Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Mark 12:29-30

J.I. Packer in the first chapter of his great book, Knowing God, wrote: "the people who know God think great thoughts about God". I have been writing the past few weeks about taking moments to "pause" in our life and commune with God. I have suggested that a major part of our communion is to read, reflect upon, and to respond to scripture through prayer and action, God's primary means of revelation of Himself. The goal of reading, reflecting, and responding to God's revelation is to see Him for all that He is and savor Him for all that He is worth. In short, to see and experience His love, so as to love Him with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. That is the purpose Paul says for all teaching and doctrine in 1 Timothy 1:7.

To know God is to love Him. Let me give you some attributes of His that the scripture reveals that you can reflect upon this week, help you to know him better, and fall in love with Him.

1. GOD IS ETERNAL- "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end" (Revelation 22:13)

This gives me great encouragement! Think about how your God is God is a timeless God who knows and numbers each of days before they even come to us. He holds each moment of your lives in His loving hands and has planned each one of them to bring Him glory. When I ponder this it frees me from the anxiety that causes me to think that each moment is purposeful. It brings calm to me in the middle of life's pressures and stresses.

2.GOD IS GREAT- "Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth!Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.Declare his glory among the nations,his marvelous works among all the peoples!For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary." (Psalm 96:1-6)

Think about how large and in charge God really is. Nothing is impossible with him (Luke 1:37). He is able to do far above anything that you ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). We are small, limited, and finite. He is big, unlimited, and infinite. What more appropriate response to His greatness is to worship Him.

3. GOD IS BEAUTIFUL- "One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple"(Psalm 27:4)

The most beautiful thing or person in this world is but a mere shadow compared to the beauty of the one who made everything. To see His beauty is to free us from the temptation of being enthralled and satisfied with lessor things and draws our soul to an insatiable longing to raise our vision to higher and more lovely things.

4. GOD IS POWERFUL- "Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea,the LORD on high is mighty!" (Psalm 93:4)

Our God is the only one who deserves to be spoken of as "awesome"! He has ultimate strength and can do ANYTHING that He chooses. Oh what encouragement and strength I receive when in my own broken weakness, I contemplate His strength for me. "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are blameless toward Him"(2 Chronicles 16:9). How helpful it is to contemplate on His strength and to allow that understanding to shape the way we live in total dependence upon Him.

5. GOD IS WISE- "For the LORD gives wisdom;from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright" (Proverbs 2:6-7)

There is so much foolishness that we trust in ourselves and this foolish world. Over all fool's wisdom is the true wisdom that comes from the fountain of wisdom, the Lord Himself. We need to constantly stay connected to Him and his word for the wisdom and guidance that e need to live in this world of foolishness.

6. GOD IS HOLY- "There is none holy like the LORD; there is none besides you;there is no rock like our God." (1 Samuel 2:2)

God is spotless and pure. He is moral perfection. He is blameless and faultless. He is unique, one of a kind. He is completely distinct form all His creation. As He is holy, so are we to be holy. The only way to be holy is to learn about His holiness and to throw yourself in utter and complete dependence in your unholiness and sinfulness as an offering to Him. He will make you holy by the indwelling Holy Spirit and the washing of His Holy Word.

7. GOD IS GOOD- "You are good, and what you do is good" (Psalm 119:68)

God shows His goodness for His constant care upon rebellious sinners; his special care for His people,and in the greatest expression of love and mercy that the world has ever known, the death of His Son Jesus Christ for you and me. His goodness extends throughout our daily lives. His goodness pursues us all the days of our lives (Psalm 23:6).

Oh may you take a pause to refresh your soul today and meditate upon this beautiful God of yours. Would you begin to think great thoughts of God as you get to know Him? May you see Him for who He is in all His attributes for you. May you treasure Him and love Him for all that He is worth.

Pastor Bill

WHEN GOD STOPS

“For Your salvation I wait, O LORD.”Genesis 49:18
“Indeed, none of those who wait for You will be ashamed”Psalm 25:3
“I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.”Psalm 27:13-14
"I waited patiently for the Lord." Psalm 40:1
“I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchmen for the morning; indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.” Psalm 130:5-6

One day George Mueller was reading Psalm 37:23,"The Steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way." Mueller wrote in his side margin, "and so are the Stops." I have come to discover that "walking with the Lord" is easier for me than "stopping with the Lord." "Stopping" is another way of saying "waiting". One of the ways that God prepares us for the great things of destiny are the times during which we must wait on the Lord.

Waiting for the Lord" is an Old Testament way of describing a willingness to neither run ahead of the Lord nor bail out on the Lord; but instead to be willing to stop and do nothing until God moves or gives His marching orders. John Piper describes it as staying at your appointed place while he says stay, and it's going at his appointed pace while he says go. Waiting in the Bible is a metaphor for a life of faith and trust in God alone. If we get impatient with life, it is no wonder we get impatient with the Lord as well. Yet impatience is a form of unbelief. Our plans are interrupted or shattered, our lives are not moving at the pace we want it to, we are dissatisfied with the circumstances that we are in the midst of. It’s what we begin to feel when we doubt the wisdom of God’s timing or the goodness of His guidance in our lives. The opposite of impatience is a willingness to wait for God in the unplanned pace of obedience, and to walk with God at the unplanned place of obedience- to wait in His place, and to go at His pace.

Sometimes God brings us to a place of crises that turns our world upside down. Life can come to a sudden stop or halt where we don't know where God is, what He is doing, where He is going, how He is getting us there, or when this situation or circumstance that we are in will be over. Psalm 107:28 calls it the place where we are at "wit's end" (Psalm 107:28). The place of waiting breaks something deep within us-that unbelieving, controlling, fearful, driving, grasping self will that must make something happen, or art least to help God out to make it happen. It makes or breaks us. While we kick and scream, God slowly teaches us to wait.

There is an old spiritual that describes it, "So high you can't get over it; so low that you can't get under it; so wide you can't get around it; you must go through the door." I am in that place in my journey. I am in a place where I cannot do anything because it is too high, too wide, and to low; all that I can do is go through the door and embrace the stop of God in my life. To wait upon God is to be willing to submit to God, adapt to God, and to be willing to go through the door. It means waiting on God not on our own sense of timing and place. Waiting purges us of the deep, stubborn, controlling, willfulness to run around, above, and ahead of God. While we kick and scream, God says, "Are you finished yet my son, then wait."

There is a difference between waiting and waiting on God. T.S. Elliot in his poem West Cocker described it like this:

“I said to my soul wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing. Wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing. Yet there is faith. And the faith, hope, and love are all found in the waiting.”

Oh how many times have I waited for"the wrong things" and the very thing I waited for never happened. But I have learned that when you wait upon the Lord alone, everything you hope for, long for, and dream of will ultimately be found in the Lord and from the Lord.

Abraham had to learn to wait. At seventy five, he was told that he would be a father to the nations. So what did he do in response. After eleven years of waiting, he decided he had waited long enough, took matters into his own hands, and birthed Ismael through his maidservant Hagar(Genesis 16:1-4). But then there was waiting on God, who forced him to wait another fourteen years before the promised child Isaac was born, through whom all nations would be blessed. Abraham's waiting transformed him into a father of faith for all history.

Hannah learned to wait. She prayed and prayed and prayed for years for God to bless her womb and waited and waited and waited. After years of infertility, unanswered prayers, and mocking from the second wife of her husband,God finally heard and answered her prayers. Her years of pain and grief transformed her into the godly mother of Samuel who would transform the nation (1 Samuel 1+2).

Do you see what waiting did for Abraham and Hannah? God has the power to turn all obstacles, barriers, delays, interruptions, and detours into glorious outcomes in our lives.

WHAT GOD DOES FOR THOSE WHO WAIT?

The prophet Isaiah advised about waiting, “But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31). From this verse we learn that five things happen when we wait rather than rushing into action:

1. When we wait, God gives further instructions. We are able to stop, be quiet, rest, and able to listen for God’s direction. “For God alone my soul waits in silence from him comes my salvation…For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him”(Psalm 62:1,5).

2.When we wait, God gives new strength. Isn’t that what we all need? you may at this moment feel feel weak, fatigued, and broken. But, when we turn to our Lord, while waiting, amazingly, we exchange our weakness for His strength.

3.When we wait, God gives us a better perspective. Isaiah says we "will mount up with wings like eagles." Eagles can spot fish in a lake several miles away on a clear day. By soaring like eagles while waiting, we gain His perspective on what we are dealing with.

4.When we wait,God gives us extra energy. "They shall run and not be weary." Notice, it's in the future tense. When we do encounter the thing we have been dreading, we will encounter it with new strength-extra energy will be ours to use.

5. When we wait, God gives us a deeper determination to persevere We "shall walk and not faint" The Lord empowers us to do what we cannot do ourselves. He gives us fresh energy and vitality supernaturally to keep on keeping on.

Are you in that place where God has seemed to have stopped? Are you in one of those silent, yet precious and powerful seeming parenthesis in your life? Are you facing an unprecedented and unplanned event in your life? Are you at a critical juncture where you need to act or speak? Are you at a place where unless God helps things are hopeless? If so, wait on the Lord.

Maybe it's time for you to pray and to fast and to call upon a few close friends to fast and pray with you. “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me…fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish. You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them; those who war against you shall be as nothing at all. For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, "Fear not, I am the one who helps you" (Psalm 50:15; Isaiah 41:10-13).

Maybe it's time for you to say, "I'm not going to rush into this unpredictable and unprecedented situation. I don't know my way through. I can't find the path to walk. So I'm going to stop with God and wait upon Him. I will neither run ahead nor lag behind. I will submit to the place where God has me and follow the pace He is moving. In the meantime, I'm going to give it to God and trust that He loves to work for people who wait for him. Isaiah 30:18, "Oh how happy are all those wait for the Lord." Waiting on the Lord will make you happy. Why? Because no longer will you have to work things out when you know you can’t. No longer will you despair because a problem can’t be solved. No longer will human inability be a hindrance to the destiny that God has purposed for you. God works for those who wait!

Oh let us look up, lift up, and enjoy the beauty of a God who so happily labors for us. All the things we need most will be achieved for us by the labor of God or not at all.

A Prayer
Oh Lord, my soul is overwhelmed with so many things. I believe in Your precious promises but I feel like there are so many things working against the fulfilling of Your promises in my life. Teach me to trust You even when I don't know what You are doing or where you are going. Help me to surrender and not try to help You or run ahead of You. Grant me the grace to follow You wherever you lead me; to move when you say move, and stop when you say stop. Help me to to trust that you will do for me what you did for Abraham and Hannah if I learn to wait upon You. I will not look to myself or man and think that they can hinder Your work, I will wait for You. AMEN

BRINGING THE PAUSE THAT REFRESHES INTO YOUR DAILY LIFE

I have challenged us to learn to incorporate "sabbath" moments and days and seasons into our life. I have called it "the pause that refreshes". To Sabbath is to cease, to stop, and to pause from our busy days in order to "be still and know that He is God" (Psalm 46:10).These are radical, lifer-giving, relationship building, soul enhancing acts that impact not only our relationship with God, but also impact every other relationship and activity that we have on this earth. To take the pause that refreshes is a powerful declaration that we make about God, ourselves, our relationships, our beliefs, our priorities, and our values.

How do we busy American Christians realistically take the pause that refreshes and incorporate it into our daily lives? It starts by the resetting of our entire lives towards a new destination: "Knowing God, glorifying God, and enjoying Him forever." I cannot emphasize this enough. If you want to be close with God you must intentionally begin to create moments of time in order to spend with Him. The key action in taking "the pause that refreshes" is centered in the word "stop". We must stop our activities for a moment in order to "start" to get close to God; to be with Him, and to commune and fellowship with Him. As John Owen suggests,

“Friendship with God is most maintained and kept up by visits”. Oh how we need regular visits with God to stoke the fires of our love!

So, I am suggesting that we begin to set aside small moments of time throughout our busy days for pauses that infuse into all our daily activities and my busy schedule my life a deeper sense of God and His presence.

I myself typically pause at least morning, midday, and evening. I also approach each of those times differently. My morning pause is very structured and the longest of my pauses during the day. In the morning I will start off in prayer. I pray slowly the Lord's prayer. Then I read through several Psalms listening, reflecting, and praying them back to God. Then I reflectively and slowly read through a chapter or two of some book in the bible( I read through the bible each year). After reading I go back and again pray the scriptures back to the Lord. After that I read Spurgeon's Morning and Evening as well as Streams in the Desert. I always close my time with more prayer.

The afternoon pause is more of me being centered and quiet before the Lord. I might preach a scripture to my self or just begin to give and release to the Lord my burdens, my sins, my fears, anxieties, my feelings. After releasing all those things to the Lord I receive His presence, love, grace, mercy, help, and open myself to anything He might have to speak to me at that moment.

Before I go to bed, I read Spurgeon again and then reflect upon my day. I confess any sins I failed earlier to confess, I think about His providence's throughout the day, the graces, love. mercies, and kindness that God showed me throughout the day, and I receive again His grace for my sleep. I ask God to speak to me in my dreams and intercede for others.

So there are at least three times a day I stop to take a pause. But I also spontaneously take several other pauses during my day. Perhaps I am feeling anxious and I stop to confess and release and receive His comfort and peace. Maybe I am about to speak to someone. I will give the Lord my fears or concerns and ask Him to glorify Himself through my encounter with this person. Maybe I am out surfing and there is a very aggressive and competitive attitude out in the water. I will paddle away and begin confessing my emotions to the Lord and ask for His peace and calm. I will remind myself that the Lord is present and that I am to honor Him out surfing. I will get centered again and remind myself it doe not really matter in the light of eternity. Sometimes I sit in my garden and get quiet to just listen to the water trickle in my fountain and to the birds sing. I become alive to God and to His creation. I will become still and breath in God's presence in creation. At night I will look up at the stars and the moon and take all of it in.

How much time you spend, the content of your time spent, and how many times you take a pause is up to you. You can be structured about it or completely flexible. I have simply given you some ideas and suggestions from my own life. The goal of taking "the pause that refreshes" is the remembrance of God, fellowship with God, and communion and intimacy with Him. All of these pauses are meant to cultivate and continual and easy familiarity with God's presence throughout the rest of the day. This is not meant to be a burdensome duty or obligation, it is meant to become a delight, a joy, something you look forward to enhance your life.

In his book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, author Peter Scazzero suggests four elements that, no matter how much or little time you spend, are important in effectively experiencing "the pause that refreshes".

1. STOPPING

We stop our activity and pause in order to be with God. Our time with God no matter how short or long is unhurried so that what we read or pray sinks into our spirits.

2. CENTERING

We are commanded to "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him" (Psalm 37:7) and "Be still, and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10). This is the activity of stopping to move into God's presence and resting there for a moment. It involves becoming quiet, focusing my attention, relaxing, sitting still, and closing my eyes. I release all of the stuff going on inside my brain and all the tension, the distractions, all my sins, and I receive His Holy Spirit and presence.I ask for help, for mercy, for grace, for strength, and whatever I need from Him at that moment. It puts my focus away from myself, my circumstances, people, my environment, and calls back to my attention my love, my redeemer, my friend, my maker, my Lord, and my God. It causes my mind's attention and focus to get centered and keep centered upon what my life is really all about. "For to me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21). "Christ is your life." (Colossians 3:4).

3. SILENCE AND SOLITUDE

Solitude is the practice of being absent from people. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote "Let him who cannot be alone, beware of being with others." It is being willing to be alone for a moment so as to really be able to "Be" with others. Silence is the practice of quieting all the inner and outer voices in order to hear God's voice. Remember how God revealed Himself to Elijah in "a still and small voice" (Literally a "sheer whisper") (1 Kings 19:12). i have found silence and quiet to be full of God's presence. Turn off the cell phone for a moment, turn down the answer machine, turn off the radio, go away from superficial, empty conversation, and be still not just to be still, but to know that He is God.

4. READING, REFLECTING UPON,AND PRAYING SCRIPTURE

The Psalms are so important because they are God's prayer book given to us. The rest of scripture is a gift that reveals God, His character, His word, His gospel, His works, His plans, His promises, His demands, His warnings, to us. the scriptures are the primary way that God speaks to us and we are promised great blessings when we read them (Revelation 1:3) and meditate upon them (Read Psalm 1). What is important is that we see that God has something to say to us each and every time we read and reflect upon even one verse of His word. I say pray the word because when we pray we are responding to God in what He has just spoken to us. Isn't that part of a relationship; listening and then responding?

In conclusion, the purpose of "the pause that refreshes" is to remember God and commune with Him all throughout your day. Please keep that in mind. God isn't asking you to do this to in order to win His favor, love, or grace. You already have His favor. you are loved fully right now as you are by Him. He freely offers you fresh grace moment by moment. God is offering you a deeper, richer, more abundant experience of Him that you have ever known by beginning to take
THE PAUSE THAT REFRESHES.

Pastor Bill

THE PAUSE THAT REFRESHES Part 2

(If you have not read part 1, please read it first before reading this)

Over the 33 plus years that I have been a pastor I cannot begin to tell you how many times that people have told me that they needed a midweek bible study to fill up their tank, or to get to church on Sunday because they are so spiritually dry. I would see coming into church looking tired, beaten, distracted, struggling to enter into worship, and fidgety during preaching. Sometimes, during the singing or the sermon there would be a breakthrough and they would encounter God, get filled up, and would leave the service refreshed. But then, by Sunday afternoon or Monday morning, or the next day after study, they feel empty and God seems distant. Where is God now?

It reminds me of a gas station; you go there to fill up your gas tank. Once your tank is filled, you drive away until the car needs refilling again. Your car is filled, you don't hang out at the gas station, you drive away to go where you want to go.

Sadly, this is the way many of us approach the Christian life. The problem is that the way we approach communion with God is to relate God like a gas station instead of as a real ongoing day by day, moment by moment intimate relationship with Him. In short, we relate to God in order to get something from God that will last the day or the week and it does not last.

So I suggested last time what communion and intimacy with God really means. It is not merely spending time with God in order to get something from Him (Though you always do as a result); it is being with God in order to be close with Him and to enjoy His fellowship and presence.

I challenged us to learn to incorporate "sabbath" moments and days and seasons into our life. I called it "the pause that refreshes". To Sabbath is to cease, to stop, and to pause from our busy days in order to "be still and know that He is God" (Psalm 46:10).These are radical, lifer-giving, relationship building, soul enhancing acts that impact not only our relationship with God, but also impact every other relationship and activity that we have on this earth. To take the pause that refreshes is a powerful declaration that we make about God, ourselves, our relationships, our beliefs, our priorities, and our values.

How do we busy American Christians realistically take the pause that refreshes and incorporate it into our daily lives? It starts by the resetting of our entire lives towards a new destination: "Knowing God and enjoying Him forever." It means following the pattern of those who have taken the pause that refreshes in their own lives. Like:
David who practiced set times of prayer seven times a day (Psalm 119:164).
Daniel who prayed three times a day( Daniel 6:10).
Like Jesus who intentionally and frequently went away from His disciples and the needy crowds in order to pray and commune with the Father (Matthew 14;23; Luke 6;12; 9:28; Mark 1:35; Luke 5;16).
Like Jesus' disciples who after the resurrection of Jesus continued to pray at certain hours of the day( Acts 3:1;10:9)

Fundamentally, all of these people realized that stopping to commune with the Lord and become aware of His presence was very important for their lives. It was not merely a duty or a ritual, it was a deep longing and an insatiable desire. I believe this is the key to creating a habitual, continual, and welcome awareness and easy familiarity with the presence of God throughout the day. in short, we can learn as Brother Lawrence used to say, "to practice the presence of God".

When we begin to set aside small moments of time throughout our day for morning, midday, and evening prayer, it infuses into all my daily activities and my busy schedule my life a deeper sense of God. A deeper sense of God brings a deeper sense of the sacredness of each moment of my life.

I am not trying to add a burden to your life to include one more duty. What I want to do is offer you a wonderful new way "wanting to be with God" rather than "having to be with God". I want to help you learn to slow down the pace and bring balance between your activities and times of being in communion with God.

If God stopped after creation, if Jesus stopped to be with the Father; then, if we stop our work and activities to pause and rest for a day (Sabbath) or for mini-Sabbath's each day, we reflect His image, bring Him much glory (1 Corinthians 10:31; Philippians 1:21), and will increase our joy.

Stopping to be with God is the key to creating a continual and easy familiarity with the presence of God throughout your day. When you develop a rhythm of "stopping" and pausing in your life, it makes a sense, an awareness, and a practice of the presence of God possible. There is a biblical truth that God is always present in our life. Theologically we define it as His "omnipresence" (Joshua 1:5; Psalm 139:7; Jeremiah 23:24;Matthew 18:20; 28:20; Acts 18:10;Hebrews 13:5). The presence of God is a wonderful ongoing reality in our lives. Much of the time though, we aren't aware of His presence. Remember Jacob's own experience of God in Haran? After awakening from his sleep he cried out, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it" (Genesis 28:17). Or how about Job who after God's dealings with him said,"I have heard about you but now my eye sees You" (Job 42:5). Jacob and Job experienced what is called the "manifest presence of God". This is what the pause that refreshes is meant to do for you; to awaken you throughout the day to the ongoing reality that God is present with you in the car, at the office, with your kids screaming, at the beach, in the city, on a desert island, when you are tempted, or when your visible circumstances are overwhelming.

Taking the pause that refreshes throughout the day helps me to surrender, to trust, to listen, to wait, to let go, and to receive the Father's love, fresh grace and help from the throne that I need throughout the day. Most of all, setting aside moments during my day infuses into the rest of my days activity a sense that everything I do is sacred, because everything I do is coram deo, to live before the face of God. Coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God. It is a life that is open before God. It is a life in which all that is done is done as to the Lord. It is a life lived by principle, not expediency; by humility before God, not defiance. It is a life lived under the tutelage of conscience that is held captive by the Word of God.There is no more separation of the religious and the non-religious; the spiritual and the non-spiritual; and the sacred and the secular. All time is His. Every moment He is with us.

Next time I will give you some ideas on how each one of you can begin throughout the busy day taking the pause that refreshes.

A prayer:

Father in heaven,
I want my life, Oh Lord,to be an answer to your love for me; my actions and my words, my thoughts and my dreams-all a response to the great reality of Your presence in Jesus.AMEN

THE PAUSE THAT REFRESHES

"And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done" Genesis 2:2
"Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him" Psalm 37;10
"Be still, and know that I am God.I will be exalted among the nations,I will be exalted in the earth!" Psalm 46:10
"For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel,"In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength." Isaiah 30:15

Have you ever gone on a vacation and filled it with so much activity that you needed a vacation after your vacation? If you thought you were stressed out and too busy in your life before you went on vacation, your vacation was busier and more stress filled than your normal life. That has been my normal experience on vacations. When I go away I usually fill my time from morning to night with surfing, hiking, and sightseeing. Why do we do this to ourselves? I have learned that fundamentally it is because we do not understand the Lord's gift and purpose of Sabbath rest. This past couple of weeks I decided to do something different, slow down! I intentionally decided to stop, rest, be still, be quiet, pray, read, fast, and actually end my trip closer to God. It worked and my life will never be the same.

I am learning that God does not want to add more burdens to our lives and increase our busyness. Our wonderful God desires to diminish our burdens and lighten our loads through the ordering our lives in ways where we stop and pause and rest in order to know Him and keep Him at the center of our lives.

When we stop and pause we imitate our Maker. God Himself created the world in six days and stopped on the seventh. That is where we get the word "Sabbath", which in Hebrew means to cease or stop working. Whether we honor one day a week as a sabbath or take "sabbath" seasons, or take daily sabbath moments, we imitate God when we stop and rest.

This week I would like to share some thoughts about taking "sabbath moments" during our normal day and next week I will discuss taking a "sabbath day" or "sabbath season".

When I was on the island of Sumatra in the city of Padang last year I observed every day the practices of the Muslim people. Five times a day the Mullah would blare his call to prayer and then prayer over the loudspeaker throughout the city (6 and 9 am and 12,3, and 6 pm). At that moment devout Muslims would stop their activity, face towards the Muslim holy city, Mecca in Saudi Arabia, and begin to go through an intricate prayer ritual to their God Allah. I was intrigued and convicted that all of these people throughout the Muslim world had incorporated into their lives a rhythm of stopping throughout the day to worship and remember their God. Yet how sad that most Muslims do this out of duty and obligation to stay in favor and submission to the will of Allah.

I thought about us busy American Christians. In the guise of grace and freedom we pride ourselves from not being bound to laws, obligations, and rituals. But, look at us. Is our freedom leading to us being close with God? Has it caused us to be in love with God? With His people? Do we love the lost? Are we full of mercy , grace, and compassion? I was very convicted that in our supposed freedom many of us do not seem to feel very free to attend church once a week or to have daily times of prayer and bible reading.

I think our busyness is the death of our soul, it sure was for me. Many of us are overscheduled, addicted to hurry, frantic, distracted, preoccupied, fatigued, and starved for peace. Cramming as much as possible into our IPhones, Blackberries, IPads, day planners, and to do lists, we fill our lives with constant activity every moment until we collapse in bed or on the couch in front of the television. Yet how much really changes in our lives? If we aren't busy we feel guilty and we certainly could not imagine doing nothing.

I want to challenge you to reset your life toward a new destination-God, and for your journey to become a whole new way of living in this busy world. I call it, "the pause that refreshes". Did you know that God wants us to have an intimate communion with Him? John Owen, the great Puritan, spoke of the importance of ordering our lives to go deeper in our communion with Jesus Christ."Christ is our best friend and ere long will be our only friend. I pray God with all my heart that I may be weary of everything else but conversation and communion with Him." Later on Owen wrote that the revelation of God and His great love “deserves the severest of our thoughts, the best of our meditations, and our utmost diligence in them.” If you had a friend in New York, but you never thought about this friend and never communicated with him, that friendship would fade and not have much significance in your life. Friendship maintained and built always requires great effort. For the friendship to affect you, you must think often about this friend and what he means to you and spend time with him. That is why John Owen suggests that “Friendship with God is most maintained and kept up by visits”. Oh how we need regular visits with God to stoke the fires of our love!

I have always been disciplined about morning devotions including bible reading, meditation, and prayer. But what would usually happen is that as my day went on I easily forgot about or was unaware of the presence of God. By lunch time I could be grumpy and short with others. By late afternoon God's presence was gone from my consciousness. By dinner time He was long gone. Yet this Bill was the person that I afflicted upon my family and others every day!Where did Bill's Christianity go by bed time? I wondered myself sometimes. I ordered my life to get filled up in the morning for the day but as the day went by I had leaked and by bedtime I was empty! The problem was that the way I approach communion with God was to begin my day to get something from God that I expected to last the day. It didn't!

Now I have begun to learn what communion and intimacy with God really means. I know that what I really need is not to spend time with God in order to get something from Him (Though you always do as a result), I need to be with God in order to be close with Him and to enjoy His fellowship and presence. Augustine said, "Oh Lord You have made us for Yourself and our hearts find no rest except in You."

Do you remember the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42?
"Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."

Many pastors I have heard really let Martha off the hook and even commend her busyness.The text says that Martha was distracted with much serving. Sounds allot like us! But Jesus did not commend her! He said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.". I think most of us have little problem with a "Martha like" busyness in our lives. Where we have difficulty is in choosing the "better portion" and taking appropriate times to sit at Jesus feet like Mary. I would like to suggest that only when we learn to sit at Jesus feet will we be able to live out a centered and healthy busyness to our lives.

How do we busy American Christians realistically become more like Mary and less than Martha? David practiced set times of prayer seven times a day (Psalm 119:164). Daniel prayed three times a day( Daniel 6:10). Devout Jews in the time of Jesus prayed two to three times a day. Jesus Himself probably followed the Jews custom. He also intentionally and frequently went away from His disciples and the needy crowds in order to pray and commune with the Father. After the resurrection of Jesus, His disciples continued to pray at certain hours of the day( Acts 3:1;10:9)

It seems to me that all of these people realized that stopping to commune with the Lord and become aware of His presence was very important for their lives. I believe that it is the key to creating a habitual, continual, and welcome awareness and easy familiarity with the presence of God throughout the day. in short, we can learn as Brother Lawrence used to say, "to practice the presence of God".

When we begin to set aside small moments of time throughout our day for morning, midday, and evening prayer it infuses into all my daily activities and my busy schedule my life a deeper sense of God. Soon I discover that my work really is a sacred place. My home becomes a sacred place. Driving on the freeway is a sacred place. The beach is a sacred place. All the time and every activity and every moment wherever I am God is with me.

How do we begin to incorporate this into our lives? I will address that next time.

Pastor Bill