Satan is
the Father of Lies and he cannot tell the truth- Jesus
He stilled
the storm to a whisper and quieted the waves of the sea. Then they were glad
because of the calm, and He brought them to the harbor they were bound for. Let
them give thanks to the LORD for His mercy and the wonders He does for His
children. Psalm 107:31
This is my go-to verse for a number of folks on
my fixed-prayer list. If you know me, you can be assured that I have prayed
this blessing over your life one time or another, or almost daily.
And last night I shared a butternut salad and
pizza Bianca with someone who struggles with liturgical worship. But not me.
This same old, same old verse washed fresh splashes of peace over my soul.
Again. New every morning, like I have never experienced His sweet goodness
before.
The Lord
is my shepherd and nothing is wanting to me. In green pastures He has settled
me.
And just moments ago, where high waves of sorrow
and doubt and weariness were crashing, a calm stillness settled around me, in
gentleness.
It is comforting to know that my Lord and Savior
went for these early morning walks by Himself. Maybe even He needed a readjustment
of vision after long, long days with the crowds.
I hate
those who have a divided heart.
The refrain for this morning’s Office is this, a
clear reminder of what He hates, those with a divided heart.
But
because this is the God who heard His dying Son’s plea “to forgive them for
they know not what they do,” I understand that His hatred burns against the
divided heart itself, the heart tangled up in lies and blindness and small
perspective.
Because
I hate it too. Man, yesterday was moment after moment of staring fast-talking
and fast-blinking middle school students in the eye and listen to their crazy,
tangled, misbegotten and yes, even stupid, lies. The less I believed them, the
more emphatically they clung to them, repeating them over and over, louder and
louder, making no sense whatsoever, pointing fingers in all directions except
theirs.
I
hate it. But this hatred is so because I love this crazy, tangled, misbegotten
kid, and I am like, “Dude, can’t we move on to the joy and satisfaction of life
and learning? How long are you going to fight the pretty-good-time I have
planned for you?”
I hate
those who have a divided heart.
And
that divided heart is the Church as well. And sometimes I get tangled up in the
Accuser’s web of deeply dug boundary lines and century-ancient block walls. And
more of that rippling joy swelled up from a letter from the Bordens in Africa,
the reminder that His Spirit is alive and well, pulsing through His body here
all over the earth. They had joined seven hundred others who were part of the
24-7 prayer meeting in Vienna last week…a taste of heaven.
Count Zinzendorf, the
founder of the Moravians' 24-7 prayer movement, claimed the motto: "In
essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things, love."
24-7 is uniquely powerful in its unwavering commitment to go out
from prayer – to change the world by demonstrating God's love in word and deed.
They started the next epoch of 24-7 by offering clothes that had been brought
from around the world for Syrian refugees who are coming in their thousands to
Austria. Just as in Jesus' prayer in John 17, the love experienced in unity
cannot but flow outwards to a world in need of God's grace.
I encourage you to try praying with some people who might pray
differently from you. And then maybe try it 24-7 for a couple of days... In St
Francis of Assisi's words, and the theme of the Vienna gathering:
"Now, let us begin."
Now let me begin. A new day. New
every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness.
A new day. Again.
Again.
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