Tag Archives: prayer

Voice Detection 

04 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by in Spirituality

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I recently had a conversation about hearing the voice of God. The person was doubtful and scoffed at the idea that God speaks to us and that we can discern it. Can we?

It’s an interesting question because many people believe they hear from God. Personally, I had an experience where I sensed God call me to ministry. It was definitely out of the ordinary and it didn’t feel like I was just talking with myself. In the Bible, there are numerous stories where people hear from God. They seem to be really clear concerning who they are talking with.

My thinking is that, the more time we spend getting to know God, through the Bible and prayer, the more we can recognize his voice when he speaks. The person that I was chatting with scoffed at that, too.

Do you know the musical “Hamilton”? We recently discovered the soundtrack and as we’ve been travelling a lot over the last year, we have listened to the soundtrack several times. My wife is a gifted singer and it’s a treat for me to hear her sing along. I try to keep up.

Then, one day, spending time with our GBs, we watched “Moana.” My wife said, “The composer is ‎the guy who did Hamilton. She meant Lin-Manuel Miranda and of course, I had to check it out to see if she was right and she was!

You see, she knows his voice.

 

I believe from Jesus own words, my experience and other’s testimony, the more time we spend in the Bible, particularly the Gospels, the more we will know his voice.

Want to try it out?

A Conversation

25 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by in Discovery, Inspiration, Observations, questions, Spirituality

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I stumbled across this and it’s too good not to share. The reference is at the end. I did a little editing so it makes sense out of it’s original context but the meaning is intact.

Imagine that our Good, Good Father appears visibly among us this evening. How would we speak to him? Or to make it more personal, let us say that he is willing to meet us in our living room. As many of us as could, would go over there and gather around him, just as the crowds did around Jesus—Mary loved to sit there at his feet.

Now, as we walk into the room, we know that God is the all-powerful Creator of the whole vast universe. We know that the mighty angels, sinless as they are, stand overwhelmed with awe and wonder at the majesty and glory of our God. Yet, though that all be true, if we are afraid to go in, then God has failed to convince us of the truth about himself. And Jesus has failed to convince us, not just with his words, but with what he has demonstrated to be true when he was here, that God is infinitely powerful, but equally gracious, and there is no need to be afraid. How could we turn down what he has paid such a price to reveal?

God is seated there and we are gathered around him. What should we say? Should we be the first to speak? Once we have started speaking, would we talk all the time? Or would we let God speak for a while? Normally, when we pray we do all the talking, don’t we? And then we say Amen, and go about our business, or go to sleep. It would be like meeting in the room with our Heavenly Father, and talking to him incessantly for several minutes, and then saying, “Amen, thank you very much,” and then going home. It wouldn’t make sense, would it? It certainly wouldn’t be conversation as with a friend.

Supposing we should have the inestimable privilege of talking there freely with God the Father for a whole hour; would it be appropriate at the end for someone among us to arise and say, “This has been such a special occasion, don’t you think we ought to close this meeting with a word of prayer?” Or would it be correct to understand that talking, conversing, having conversation with our God as with a Friend for that whole hour actually is real prayer, and we have been praying the whole hour long?

Conversation means at least two people speaking. But how do we converse with God when we can’t see him just now, because of the present emergency? We all understand that emergency and why in mercy he does not reveal himself visibly to us at this moment. And so, the Bible is called the Word of God—God speaking to us. If we wish to hear God speak, except in most extraordinary occasions, God speaks to us through the Bible. We speak to him in prayer.

Truly, as someone has said, “We commune with God through the study of the Scriptures.” I certainly find prayer much more meaningful while reading the Bible. Have you ever had the experience of talking to God while reading certain parts of the Scriptures? Have you ever found yourself talking out loud, “That’s magnificent!”? Who are you talking to? But that’s real conversation. We read, we listen in that way. And then we talk back to God.

Graham Maxwell. Excerpt from the audio series, Conversations About God, #15, “Talking to God as a Friend” recorded May, 1984, Loma Linda, California. 

 

 

Let Me Have One More 

23 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by in Inspiration, Observations, Spirituality

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We saw “Hacksaw Ridge.”  It was moving, powerful, inspiring, and heart wrenching. There was one part – a key moment in the story – that really resonated with me. I’ll get to that in a minute.

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I’m not saying you have to see it but I highly recommend it. Note that the battle scenes are very realistic; no lie I closed my eyes several times.

“Hacksaw Ridge” is based on the true story of Desmond Doss. I’ve known about him for over 10 years after watching the documentary “The Conscientious Objector.” In a nutshell, Doss wanted to serve in the army as a medic during Word War II but due to his faith, he would not carry a gun.  Initially opposed and bullied by his commanding officers and squad, Doss gained their respect over time such that they waited for him to pray before commencing an attack. Due to his incredible bravery, Doss, “became the first and only conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor in World War II.” You can read his story here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Doss but here’s an excerpt:

“Pfc. Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area with the many stricken, carrying all 75 casualties one-by-one to the edge of the escarpment and there lowering them on a rope-supported litter down the face of a cliff to friendly hands. On May 2, he exposed himself to heavy rifle and mortar fire in rescuing a wounded man 200 yards forward of the lines on the same escarpment; and 2 days later he treated 4 men who had been cut down while assaulting a strongly defended cave, advancing through a shower of grenades to within eight yards of enemy forces in a cave’s mouth, where he dressed his comrades’ wounds before making 4 separate trips under fire to evacuate them to safety.”

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During the horror of the battle, as he ran again and again into the battle to rescue the wounded, Doss kept praying over and over, “Lord, let me have one more.”

Few of us will ever face what Doss and the other soldiers faced that day. Few of us will risk our lives under a hail of gunfire and mortars to save another life. But some of us who desire to help the emotionally wounded and the spiritually broken have thrown ourselves into the battle of life. We become tired, battered, and sorrowful. It would be easy to give up, to focus on less important things. When that happens, may we too pray that prayer: Lord, let me have one more.

 

Basement of My Heart

30 Friday Sep 2016

Posted by in Inspiration, Observations, Uncategorized

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A good friend of my shared this raw and real prayer experience so I asked permission to share it. Other than a few edits, I am sharing it as is.

“Have you ever gotten to the point where you say to God, ‘I don’t know what the f*$k I’m doing with my life.’? That’s the prayer I prayed today. Somewhere between listing off all the horrible things that the devil was pumping into me about myself. I didn’t have any religious spin on the fact that I feel like a bag of shit, so I said quite frankly, ‘F*$k it, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.’

The politically correct Christian in me wants to say ‘How dare you use that language in the presence of God?’ But it’s not like He doesn’t already know where my heart is, so what’s the point of cleaning up my language, if my heart is cussing to high heaven?

You ever get to that point where you’re praying, and you don’t even know what the hell to pray for because everything just seems like one big jumbled mess? You know God has been there for you before, but in your Israelite moment you feel like God has dropped you off in a scene from ‘Lost’ and you’re trying to navigate yourself off this island that is a literal death trap. Welcome to my world!

I watched this video on Facebook yesterday – it was of vegans protesting animal cruelty. God forgive me, but these idiots were branding their bodies with hot iron and rolling around practically naked in blood to show how animals ‘feel’ in the meat industry. I’m all for being sensitive, but there are people being shot to death because the color of their skin ignites fear, and you are protesting for animal rights? Seriously?

I’m not diminishing the value that God puts on His creation, and yes, we have been horrible stewards when it comes to managing the natural resources that God has given us. But honestly, when the lives of cows, chickens, turkeys and the like gets elevated above those of our fellow man, I shake my head in dismay that creeps into anger.

I can usually tell I’ve reached my saturation point when my will to do anything constructive disappears. I spent the day in bed today. I didn’t want to face the world, because honestly, nothing about it impresses me right now. I look around and ask God, ‘Where are You? Why are children being killed at the hands of evil men? Where is the God of Elijah? I need Him to show up right now.’ I laid in bed today, trying to fill the listless feeling with Soduko, Mahjong, Facebook…that didn’t work. I listened to Lux Radio Theatre (radio presentations of hits from the silver screen era), but not even Clark Gable nor funnyman Bob Hope could cheer me up. I know that when I get to this point I’m vulnerable, and only connecting with God will give me insight, but it doesn’t stop me from trying everything else.

I finally took out my prayer journal and decided that if I had any hope of facing the world today, I needed to hash some things out with God. This was the most interesting prayer I’ve ever prayed. I started by telling God all the horrible things I believe about myself… you know the usual – ‘I’m ugly, I’m stupid…I’m still single, because no one will ever find me lovable.’ I mean I took self-loathing to another level. Stuff came out of places, I didn’t even know I had places. It broke my heart to see how little I think of myself. But halfway through the prayer, the conversation took on a life of it’s own. I kid you not, I went from writing in the first person (‘I am this’) to writing in the third person (‘you are that’). It was like the devil was like, your self-loathing is not enough, so let me pile some more shit on… I did manage to get to the point in the prayer, where I was able to admit to God that I know all of what I wrote to be a lie, but that didn’t negate what I was feeling. And it was there in the middle of asking God to help me to focus on what I know rather than what I felt that I needed to stop all the repetitive crap. You know what I mean…?

     “Father, please bless me with Your Holy Spirit
     Fill me with Your neverending joy and may Your
     grace shine on my face…”
Don’t get me wrong. There are times when I pray that exact prayer and mean it from the bottom of my heart, but not today. Today they were just words that did not mean a damn thing.
Why?
Because at the bottom of my heart, all I had to say was ‘I don’t know what the f*$k to pray for.’ So I prayed just that. Some might think me irreligious, quite frankly my first thought was the same thing – ‘can I cuss at God in my prayer?’ But like I said, He already knows what’s in my heart, so why bother hiding it. That didn’t stop me from feeling the need to listen to some religious programming to try to ‘hear a word from God.’ I mean if you’re swearing at God, something bad must be up. Turns out, even if  you turn to God with a potty mouth, He will speak to you if that’s what you need.
I listened to a program on Focus on the Family as I got ready to go to work, and the guest Lisa Harper, spoke on many things that made me think hard. What spoke to me the loudest was when she spoke concerning a hard time in her life. She said she had to be willing to meet God in the basement of her heart, and He was able to bring her to the surface. As soon as she said those words I instantly recognized where I was – I was in the basement of my heart. It’s not a very nice place to be, but today my foul-mouthed self invited God there with me.
In the basement of my heart I realize that I am an Israelite through and through. I would probably have been one of the first ones taking off my jewelry to contribute to the stash to make the golden calf for ‘worship’ because Moses was taking too long on the mountain. God does amazing things in my life all the time to let me know that He is a good, good Father. But life is hard right now, so here I am asking God ‘where are You?’
You know what I love most about God’s relationship with the Israelites?  Time and time again they turned away from Him and though it was heartbreaking, He approached them with this…
“If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
So yes, I am in the basement of my heart where everything feels empty. This is the place where the devil drags you and tries to beat you to a pulp. I’ve invited God into the basement of my heart. I’ve invited Him into the place where the enemy tries to snuff out life and love and every thing good. No, I don’t have all the answers all of a sudden, but I know that God meets me here, and here in the basement, I don’t have to pretend I have it all together. Here in the basement, I get real with God, so he can put me together.

Today I prayed a prayer I have never prayed before, and God replied, ‘It’s about time, now let’s get to work!'”

A Living God

25 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by in Observations, Spirituality

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I was going through old pictures and thinking about my grandson. This is the little guy when he was a baby.

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When he was born, we were still living in Yellowknife, and our daughter was staying with us. Early one morning, we awoke to a terrible scream as my daughter shouted for my wife. She brought baby into our room and he was a sickly grey and his breathing was very shallow and erratic. This is a baby who was always active and bright. I still get bad flashbacks to that moment.

We called an ambulance and baby was rushed to the hospital. The outlook was bleak. The doctor was saying that he probably had brain damage and may not recover. They were planning on flying him down to Edmonton for further assessments.

While he was in emergency, I drifted in and out of the area. I sat in the waiting room and prayed my heart out. I put out a prayer request to everyone. I even offered God my own salvation if he would bring our grandson back to us. (I don’t think God does that kind of deal making – how can I bargain with something He has freely given to me?)

The doctors/nurses had done everything and baby was just lying on the table (one of those baby tables with the heat lamp). His eyes would flutter open and closed unresponsively and his arms and legs were limp. We weren’t sure if the lights inside his head were still on. With all the commotion he would normally be awake, being fussy or even crying. 

As I stood beside the table, I took his hand and put my hand on his head. Silently, I prayed  a simple and short prayer – I cried out to God by his covenant name, I claimed his promises and I prayed that in the name of Jesus that our grandson would be healed. My daughter came alongside me and my wife asked me to pray again. I repeated my prayer aloud.

Within about two seconds of my prayer his eyes popped open; they were focused and alert! He immediately made his usual noises and within the hour he was smiling, moving his arms and legs and yes even giving some good wails.

Four years later, our grandson is full of life, mischievous, and sharp as a tack. It’s like we never went through that terrible day.

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One time Jesus was being harassed by a group of people who denied the power of God. In his response, he said of our Heavenly Father, “He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” I have seen this God of the living in my life and the lives of others but never so profoundly as the day he showed up to bring my grandson back to life.

How has He showed up in your life?

Body Positivity Week???

13 Friday May 2016

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Wow! This is an awesome post. Well worth the time. 
Well, in case you didn’t know, it’s “Body Positivity Week.” Yep, thanks to BuzzFeed, we’re being bombarded with full-frontal content about Forget-You-I-Love-My-Curves, and NGAFudge-ing about what anyone thinks about our cellulite, and Dag-Nabit I’m wearing a bikini if I want to, and how dare you body shame me. It’s actually kind of ironic how it’s […]

http://beautybeyondbones.com/2016/05/12/body-positivity-week/

Fight Back

10 Wednesday Feb 2016

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I struggle with depression. It usually comes in on Tuesdays and stays until Thursdays. I became aware of it back in 2012 and at that time it was suggested I was clinically depressed and should consider medication. I decided instead to make some life changes. Now, it’s not so bad; my dark days are less frequent and not as severe.

Each person’s situation is different but there are some things we can do to fight back when depression comes knocking on our door. Here’s is what I’ve learned from my journey. (This is not a substitute for medical assistance if you need it!)

Get active: this can be hard to do at first but if you can get moving it’s easier to stay moving. I went back to the gym, started cycling, then swimming, and now running. Now my wife and I are doing triathlons. The bonus is, I dropped 40 pounds and I have much more energy. With that said, you don’t need to do anything extreme – start walking for 20-30 minutes each day.

Get a routine: depression makes our days mush together so it’s good to establish a routine. To that end, take a class, exercise at the same time and on the same days, arrange a regular and ongoing meet or call with a good friend. Another really important routine is gratitude. Daily reflecting and being mindful of what you are grateful for changes our focus off ourselves.

Get plants: you can go get a plant if you want but I mean get into a plant-based diet. This may require some gradual changes and some learning (take a vegetarian cooking class!) but the benefits are both mental and physical. There’s evidence that flax and chia seeds,  spinach, and avocado may help ease depression.

Get faith: having a consistent devotional and prayer life is very helpful but it also has to be lived out in community and put to use in service to others.

I hope this is helpful. I would be interested in hearing what you have done to fight back against depression.