God Enjoyed

Resources enrich our lives. One of my favorites is a classic, The Valley of Vision.

My introduction to The Valley of Vision came, perhaps, a decade ago. I participated in a church service where the corporate worship included a prayer from this collection of Puritan Prayers. Since, that service, this small leather volume, whose title comes from Isaiah 22:1, has been a personal devotional treasure.

I like John Piper’s description:                                                                                                        The The Valley of Vision is a collection of Puritan prayers…they are thoughtful, reflective, and meditative. They’re even written in a certain kind of cadence…, which is probably very intentional, so that they might be used in corporate settings. But they came out of a deep heart of communion with God.

Further, 

D. A. Carson says,                                                                                                                          The prayers in The Valley of Vision are steeped in Scripture, yet never succumb to mere formula. They are theologically fresh and vibrant, yet they are rooted in confessionalism. They range over a huge sweep of Christian experience and devotion, but they are never merely esoteric or cute. They brim with deep emotion and transparent passion, but they carefully avoid mere sentimentalism. This is a book that teaches readers to pray by example.

God Enjoyed

Thou Incomprehensible But Prayer-Hearing GOD,

Known, but beyond knowledge, revealed, but unrevealed, my wants and welfare draw me to thee, for thou hast never said, “Seek ye me in vain’.

To thee I come in my difficulties, necessities, distresses;

possess me with thyself,

  with a spirit of grace and supplication,

  with a prayerful attitude of mind,

  with access into warmth of fellowship,

so that in the ordinary concerns of life my thoughts and desires may rise to thee,

and in habitual devotion I may find a resource

  that will soothe my sorrows,

  sanctify my successes,

  and qualify me in all ways for dealings

  with my fellow men.

I bless thee that thou hast made me capable

  of knowing thee, the author of all being,

  0f resembling thee, the perfection of all excellency,

  of enjoying thee, the source of all happiness.

O God, attend me in every part of my arduous

  and trying pilgrimage;

I need the same counsel, defense, comfort

  I found at my beginning.

Let my religion be more obvious to my conscience,

  more perceptible to those around.

While Jesus is representing me in heaven,

  may I reflect him on earth,

While he pleads my cause, may I show forth his praise.

Continue the gentleness of thy goodness towards me,

And whether I wake of sleep, let thy presence go with me,

  thy blessing attend me.

Thou hast led me on and I have found thy promises true,

I have been sorrowful, but thou hast been my help,

  fearful, but thou hast delivered me,

 despairing, but thou hast lifted me up.

Thy vows are ever upon me,

And I praise thee, O God.

Did you find this prayer enriching and worshipful? Such a feast awaits you in an entire volume, Valley of Vision, edited by Arthur Bennett and published by Banner of Trust.

Living with Eternal Intentionality: What spiritual resource, besides The Scriptures, has God used to enrich your walk with Him?

Mentored by a Cancer Patient

Meet Jacque. With a radiant smile and a gentle spirit she brightens any room she enters.

No one saw the darkness lurking around the corner. In the context a routine doctor’s appointment, her life took an unexpected left-hand turn, and without warning, she found herself fighting for her life. You guessed it – breast cancer.

Out of the blue, this woman’s world turned upside down. For this math-teacher mom, questions drastically shifted from What’s for dinner to What if?

While cancer changed her life, and quite frankly, her life of faith, Jacque allowed our Growth Group to taste her struggles firsthand. Week after week - often around Marilyn's kitchen table - we sat in rapt attention as she innocently made known to us the way of God - a mystery in the midst of this reality. Because of her authenticity and vulnerability, I am a better person.

Over the agonizingly long months of surgeries and treatments, Jacque talked about her battle. As she did, she taught me about God. Her raw honesty revealed brilliant wisdom.

Without even trying, she silently modeled glorifying God in the face of an unknown future. From within the cauldron of suffering, her convictions of Christ brought clarity to the murky, cloudy confusion of a mean disease. 

And, when the mystery of her disease encountered the Mystery of her Faith, Jacque stood firm. I listened over time as she shared: 

Some places you can’t take anybody with you; you have to go by yourself. (a mystery)                       

Sometimes the pain is so great, I feel I am in the Presence of God in the Holy of Holies. (a mystery)    

Throughout this cancer, I have experienced God’s love for me. (a mystery)   

Think about this...sometimes we try so hard to figure things out when God just asks us to live them out. Do you agree?

Jacque's journey reminds me of Job 23:10: But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold. This is no mystery! 

Living with Eternal Intentionality: What has someone battling cancer taught you?

Perhaps You Disagree with Our Approach to Parenting

Every Christian should be a missionary.

Challenged                                                                                                                                         Our core value teaching for our children met with challenges in the daily life routine of our double life reality. We encountered numerous dilemmas as we sought to navigate our way through uncharted waters.

Let me explain. Full disclosure of our mission in living in Poland was much too risky for their little lives. One innocent indiscretion of theirs could result in grave consequences for our family - true. But far greater consequences could result for those we ministered alongside, our Polish nationals. To our three young children, we lived in Poland where Daddy attended university as a student in Foreign Trade (every word true).

Keep in mind we were pioneering. Not everything fit missionary norms. Sometimes good answers to hard questions eluded us. Often, we were flying by faith by the seat of our pants. 

Conflicted                                                                                                                                           We were conflicted. As parents, we longed for our children to know our missionary hearts aflame for the world. Yet in order to reach this part of the world where we covertly resided, they could not know we were missionaries.

Or could they?

Clearly Led                                                                                                                                         This required divine intervention. Taking the dilemma to God in prayer opened a door of Solomon-type anointed wisdom. Every Christian should be a missionary became our principled instruction. Without compromise, this satisfied both our parental teaching, and our clandestine cover. What they were too young to know we withheld. What they needed to know, we revealed.

Every Christian should be a missionary.                                                                                         With passion in our parental teaching, we articulated in the simplest of ways: Every Christian should be a missionary. That is what the Bible teaches. No matter where you live, regardless of your profession, you should tell other people the Good News of Jesus. This is why we talk to Grażyna about Jesus; this is why we are concerned for Pani Miecia; this is why we love Pan Janek. Telling people about Jesus is God’s holy homework assignment for every Christian.

Often, though, in the quietness of my own heart I doubted. I would pray: Lord, is this enough? Will they get it? Will they have a heart to tell others about You?                                                           

Move ahead with me to one ordinary Sunday morning in Warsaw, Poland.

Getting out the door to church on this particular morning challenged our constitutions. Hair combed, boots on, coats buttoned, lost mittens found, quarrels quelled (times 3) eventually led to success, and we schlepped out the door. (That would be the door with 7 locks to unlock to exit and the same seven locks to re-lock behind us. No alarm system compared with the hardware system on that one front door.) Now locked and loaded, Larry and I took a parental deep breath, and pulled away from the curb.

We drove to our destination, the Warsaw Baptist Church, an important component of our lives. In our undercover life as clandestine missionaries, we exercised the right to attend church. Informers knowingly attended as well, but to all onlookers, Larry was a graduate student in Foreign Trade with his family in tow.                                                                                                                          

The church itself suffered hardship. History dealt Believers a harsh blow, and silent empty pews around us spoke volumes. The evangelical church population in Communist Poland barely reached .5% percent.                                                                                                                

Listening in Polish on Sunday mornings was not for the fainthearted, and today, particularly, I felt fainthearted.

Then God graciously intervened.

A visitor from America would be our speaker, a layman as an envoy from the Southern Baptist Convention. Hummm...interesting.                                                                                          

As Dr. Owen Cooper stood to speak, in a bellowing voice…

(Are you ready for this?) 

…he passionately pounded the pulpit to the beleaguered congregation: Every Christian should be a missionary. (You read correctly. Every Christian should be a missionary.)

Like ducks on a pond, three little heads sitting beside me popped up. Wide-eyed one could see the wheels turning in their little heads. The man on the stage, the authoritative speaker, taught just what Mommy and Daddy taught at home. Wow. This teaching must be true.

Comforted                                                                                                                                      Sitting in that cold church on that hard pew, in a most tender way, God supernaturally warmed my heart. With one powerful statement He coordinated my parenting with my pioneering - my mothering with my mission - and my calling with my concern. I learned that in our diligence to reach the world, God could be trusted to give us wisdom in our parenting.

Living with eternal intentionality: How have you seen God provide supernatural wisdom in your parenting?