THE CONDITION OF PRAYER

I’m a father of 2. Cassidy is 2, Jackson is 8. I remember when I was around 8 and throughout my childhood and teen years, I would ask for certain things from my parents. My mom would say ‘yes, on one condition’. A condition in this sense was something that I would have to fulfill in order to receive the privilege I was asking for. But the word condition is also used to indicate some health problem, for example, my wife has the condition of migraine headaches. Not a fun thing…

 

But today I was thinking that sin is like a human condition in the health problem sense. One of the conditions that we all have as part of our humanity is sin. We all do it, and that’s just part of being human. It is a human condition.

 

PRAYER is also a condition. It is a condition of being a Christian. But this time I mean it in the parenting sense. In order to deal with the human condition of broken-ness and sin, we must fulfill the condition of prayer in our Christian journey. We MUST pray. To pray is to experience God. To pray is to listen somehow to God. To pray is to commune with Him, to present our cares to Him.  To pray is to confess.  And by doing so we confront head-on the human condition we have of sin. It is through prayer that we conduct a transaction between the living God and ourselves. 1 John 9 says ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’

 

And every prayer matters. Some prayers are spontaneous. Some are anguished or tearful. Some are angry. Some are carefully thought out and written down, like songs that we can say or sing over and over again. But all of them are good, and right if they are directed towards God. Even the angry ones. The book of Psalms has some really good examples of pretty much all of those… here’s a great prayer I just read from my devotional.

 

O God my father, renew my spirit and draw my heart to Yourself, that my work may not be to me a burden, but a delight. And give me such love for You as would sweeten all my obedience. Help me, that I may serve You with the cheerfulness and gladness of a child, delighting myself in You and rejoicing in all that is to the honor of Your name. Through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.

THE BOOK OF PRAYER

 

I sometimes want to pray, but struggle with it because I don’t know where to start, or where I do start seems to not be ‘working’. It’s in those times I often turn to my bible or a fantastic devotional my mother gave me that is full of prayers written by modern thinkers and saints of history. Prayers and scriptures written by others are often the key that I need to help ‘prime the pump’ in my prayer life – to get me started or to keep me going.

 

Here’s another great prayer that can perhaps start you off on the right foot:

 

Lord, You have promised to meet those who seek You. Come now and reveal Your presence to me as I make myself present to You. In the name of Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.

Jon Buller

PRAYERS AND THOUGHTS

I often read from A GUIDE TO PRAYER published by the Upper Room. It's filled with prayers, directed scripture readings and writings from profound authors over the centuries. My mom gave it to me on my birthday in 2001 and I am still using it 10 years later. Today's prayer was brilliant. If you are spiritual person, you may want to join me in praying it.

'Almighty God, by the power of your Holy Spirit, open my eyes, ears, heart and very life to Your presence so that today I may worship and serve You in faithfulness, and be a blessing and healing reminder of Your love to all whose lives I might touch. I offer my prayer in the name of Christ. Amen.'

Right now I'm working hard in preparation for some gigs coming up - next week in Vernon, a support concert for our churches compassion ministry. Two weekends following I get to go home to Winnipeg to lead worship there. And after that... knee surgery. I was just reminded today by this prayer, that every day presents an opportunity for me to be 'a blessing and healing reminder of God's love' to someone. Whether it's through the music ministry I do, or whether it's at the hospital with the doctors and nurses... or at the coffee shop or anywhere else I go.

Whether we are spiritual people or not, we have the opportunity to bring a little bit of light to an often dark world. May we have open eyes, ears and hearts to not miss those moments.

Jon Buller

GOD CAME NEAR

I’ve recently been in a season of feeling somewhat distant from God. That’s not to say that God actually has been distant from me though, which is an entirely different thing.

 

Then The Meeting Place 20^th anniversary happened. The Meeting Place (TMP) was the church where I was mentored as a worship leader through my 20s and into my 30s. I spent 10+ years attending TMP and serving there as a musician and worship leader. So much of my spiritual journey happened in that place. I met my wife there, I was married there, I worked there, I served God there, I made mistakes there, I built life-long friendships there, I learned to love Jesus there…

 

I moved to Vernon about 6 years ago, and have been back to TMP to lead worship a handful of times, and it has been wonderful. But things change and you can’t relive the past – I’ve learned that, and I’m ok with that.

 

Something happened on Jan 30, 2011 at the 20^th anniversary of TMP. In the life of Jon Buller, God came near. But maybe what I really mean is Jon Buller came near to God. No, we weren’t re-living the past. But we did have the amazing opportunity to welcome back 2 of our teaching pastors, and the first lead pastor as well as past and present worship leaders. And I am sure that I was not the only one that experienced God’s nearness.

 

To describe what happened is difficult – I’m still trying to process all of the miraculous work that God did in us and among us that night. But I can say that I think the ultimate goal of the evening was to celebrate God’s story in that community – past, present and future. And that is what we did. As we did it, through teaching and music, sharing, dancing, story telling, praying… it seemed God began (or rather – continued) to work in that place.

 

I believe there was deep healing of hurts, and I know there was profound celebration on all kinds of levels. There was a ministry of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of many, and the theme of the night seemed perfectly named – MOMENTUM – because that’s what it felt like was happening in our midst. Hope and faith continued to grow, or for some was renewed and restored.

 

So, thank you Meeting Place for so many things, especially the richness of the faith in God that you gave me in that time of my life, which still continues today. And of course, thank you for the gift of participating in your twenty-year anniversary, where I could feel again that God comes near.

SABBATH REST

Recently I was at the pastors retreat for the Alliance churches of BC. We heard Mark Buchanan speak. He is the author of 'THE REST OF GOD' a great book I recommend to you.

Here is a diagnostic list for you that he shared with us. Mark shared that these kinds of lists can be a little dangerous but they can also be a good tool to ask yourself some questions about your own self-care. It is also not an exhaustive list - i.e. there may be items that you could add to make it more personalized for yourself or others.

So I encourage you - don't be too hard on yourself, but read this list, reflect and process it a little bit. I think we could all be encouraged to rest in God more... And by the way - Sabbath rest obviously does not have to happen on a Sunday! Find times for resting in God (tuning out all distractions - getting silent) at whatever time / place during the week you can!

You know you need sabbath rest when...

• your emotional response to a situation is disproportionate to the trigger of that response (your friend is 5 minutes late or your child spills their drink and it is as if the world is caving in)
• you are both restless and listless (want to do something but don't care enough about anything, so you remain unmoved)
• you have a growing resentment against ___________  (fill in the blank: work, spouse, kids, other drivers etc…)
• you complain a lot about ______, and obsess over it rather than changing it
• other people start their conversations with you by saying “I know you are busy, but…”
• your intimacy with God starts diminishing
• you feel entitled or “owed” something
• you being feeling sorry for yourself, undervalued or under-appreciated
• you fantasize more and more (escapism from real life)
• old temptations/anxieties re-awaken with increased intensity
• physical health issues begin to arise
• you stop caring about what you really care about

source - MARK BUCHANAN teaching at BC district Alliance church pastor's retreat

Friends - don't be overwhelmed by this. Just respond by carving out time to REST in God. Some quiet time, some reflection, some scripture, some prayer, some sleep! If there is absolutely no time in your life, just start small - 15 minutes, then fight for 20 minutes, then try and carve out 30 minutes or an hour.

May we all find a little bit more REST in God this week and every day.

THE ENEMY

My last blog was part 1 on serving God. Here is an interesting take on how our service of God, can actually become an enemy of God... again I am sharing from Oswald Chamber's insights.

Chambers says 'Beware of anything that competes with your loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest competitor of true devotion to Jesus is the service we do for Him. It is easier to serve than to pour out our lives completely for Him. The goal of the call of God is His satisfaction, not simply that we should do something for Him. We are not sent to do battle for God, but to be used by God in His battles. Are we more devoted to service than we are to Jesus Christ Himself?'

It is amazing how easily we fall into this trap - especially if you happen to work in ministry like me, but I am sure for everybody else too. I get to work, and the urgent things seem to right away outweigh the important things... and so I jump into my task list for the day, postponing my time with God until 'later', and 'later' never comes.

In talking with a friend this week he reminded me - when armies are at war, one of the first strategies of the opposing army is to cut off communications. If you can hit the communications centre, you have a huge advantage. This is all too true in the spiritual battle that we so quickly forget we are involved in. The enemy will strike at our communication time with our friends, spouses, families and most importantly with our God. When that happens, we become isolated and vulnerable to so many more levels of attack.

So, may I remind you (and me) today of the importance of not letting service of God, come at the expense of your relationship with God. It is out of that relationship and the time that you spend with the Source of LIfe that you will have life and energy to serve and love God and people.

THE OVERFLOW

Today I've got some thoughts on serving God that I thought I would share - much of my life has revolved around serving God through music. Here are some bigger picture thoughts I had after reading Oswald Chambers recently.

The apostle Paul as you may know was went by his Hebrew name of Saul when he was a persecutor of the church, before his conversion... In GALATIANS 1 in the Message, Paul says 'Even then God had designs on me. Why, when I was still in my mother's womb he chose and called me out of sheer generosity! Now he has intervened and revealed his Son to me so that I might joyfully tell [everyone] about him.  

Paul ended up falling in love with Jesus and it was out of that love that he was compelled to build and serve the Church.

Oswald Chambers says it this way - Service is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion. But strictly speaking, there is no call to that. Service is what I bring to the relationship and is the reflection of my identification with the nature of God. Service becomes a natural part of my life. God brings me into the proper relationship with Himself so that I can understand His call, and then I serve Him on my own out of a motivation of absolute love. Service to God is the deliberate love-gift of a nature that has heard the call of God. Service is an expression of my nature, and God’s call is an expression of His nature. Therefore, when I receive His nature and hear His call, His divine voice resounds throughout His nature and mine and the two become one in service. The Son of God reveals Himself in me, and out of devotion to Him service becomes my everyday way of life.

God bless you as you love and serve the Lord.

Christmas and EVERYTHING

I don't remember where I was when I first heard the Tim Hughes song EVERYTHING but I remember being instantly struck by the meaning of it for my own life. I imagine the same thing has happened with that song for many other people too. When I heard the verse, it kind of sung itself to me...

God in my living, God in my breathing 

God in my waking, God in my sleeping

And on it goes... resting, working, thinking, speaking 

Being that it's two days before Dec 25th, the day that we celebrate the birth of Christ, that song and its' lyrics make me reflect on my lifestyle, my faith, God in my everyday experience.

I think it's safe to say that most decent people in the world are inspired at least a little bit at this time of year by the 'spirit' of Christmas to live a bit better then we do most of the average days of the year. We try and step out of the daily grind, and make family and friends a priority. We give, we receive, we celebrate, we hope. We try to put away (at least for a time) conflicts or tensions so that we can celebrate together.

But what of the rest of our year? And what about so many of us who are deeply saddened at Christmas time? Because, as my pastor says, Christmas has a way of making the good things even better, and the hard things even harder... And then Tim Hughes' song comes back to me again...

God in my hoping, God in my dreaming 

God in my watching, God in my waiting 

God in laughing, there in my weeping 

God in my hurting, God in my healing

It's a big reason why I love this song, and why I knew instantly when I heard it that I would record it. This is a song for every day. Especially meaningful at Christmas, but it's a song for every day, for every person really, that wants to, or needs to, or can't think of anything else but to reach out to God.

It's a simple but profound chorus: Be my everything, be my everything, be my everything... (and in case you hadn't got the idea yet - one more), be my everything.

I don't know who will read this. But without knowing who you are, or what your journey is right now, I pray that you will be inspired to live this song out as prayer this season and every day from here on. I pray you will find hope in your relationships and in your faith - however small or large that faith may be for you. If you're celebrating, share your joy. If you're struggling, hang on to hope - don't let go. And I pray that we will share the inspiration of Christmas together by experiencing 'God with us', Jesus, Emmanuel. This Christmas and every day. May He increasingly become your Everything.