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Below is a personal prayer I penned at a special time in my life. Over the years, I have found this prayer to be both inspirational and empowering. It is my hope that it may be of use to any reader that might want to utilize it. It is called “Father of Lights” and it goes something like this:

Father of Lights, you have said that in aligning with you I am a Child of the Light. I thank you for that honor and privilege and also thank you that you have made me a new creation. Today, I seek to take possession of my reborn identity in you and I thank you for providing me with the ability to do so, through the blessed work of the Holy Spirit.

Father, I know you have placed in me from birth a right, preserving and steadfast spirit and I know that the Holy Spirit will empower me to contact, develop, embrace and enhance those divine qualities, all to your glory and for the sake of others as well as for the purpose of growing in sacred character.

I know Father that above all, you are a God of restoration and a God of renewal. I know that according to your holy Word, that you are, at this very moment, renewing in me the mind of Christ – the most sacred mind. Your Spirit is at work in me today, enabling me to live a life of integrity, enthusiasm and empowering me to maintain a commitment to excellence. I thank you Father for your faithfulness and the blessings you are bestowing on me today, both seen and unseen.

Father, thank you for your unfailing faithfulness. You have proven time and time again that you are there, walking as my companion, even when I don’t see you and even more when I don’t acknowledge your presence. I know that you have said that you desire my best and that all things, whether I can understand them or not, work together for my greatest good. Therefore, looking to you, I expect good and good alone.

Father of Lights:

I thank you for your presence with me;

I thank you for your presence in me;I thank you for protecting me;

I thank you for providing for me;

 I thank you for empowering me.

I am grateful my Lord, knowing that I will find in you all I will ever need.

 (In the name of Jesus, Amen)

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In this hour in which we are living, God is supernaturally revealing His keys to bring about productivity in people’s lives. People are tired of a Gospel, no matter how true it is, that they can’t get to work. Matthew 16:19 says it this way: I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be (“must already be”” Amplified version) bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed (must be already loosed”, Amplified version) in heaven.” Somehow the church has managed to reduce the magnitude of this verse to semantics in prayer like, “I bind the devil,” etc. While there is some truth to this thought process, this passage is more about “keys” or laws that govern access or attract the manifestation of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven (or the kingdom of God) is God’s rule. It is also the combination of the location and resources of God and the system by which you access them in your life. Accessing kingdom resources allows believers to dominate their environment (Genesis 1:26) and establish God’s rule and reign on earth.

Ron McIntosh

(from The Greatest Secret)

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Mick Turner

 “If only I could really discover God’s will for my life, it would make all the difference in the world.” How many times have you heard sincere Christians make statements like this? I’ll wager that you have heard it quite a few times. I know I have. And if the truth be known, I can recall making that same statement myself, especially during times of spiritual floundering.

I mention this because I have come to understand that this sort of statement reveals a misunderstanding of the nature of God’s purpose for our lives and how he goes about communicating that purpose so we can grasp it. Granted, I believe that God has a unique, overriding purpose for each of us, has gifted us with certain talents and abilities that help us to become successful in carrying out that purpose, and has empowered us, through the Holy Spirit, to bring that mission to a successful conclusion. I have also come to believe, however, that God also given each of us daily tasks to perform – tasks normally associated with the environment we have been planted in. It is his will that we identify and carry out these daily callings with dedication and consistency.

Unfortunately, many of us are so busy trying to figure out that one great calling God has placed on our lives that we miss his will for us in the divine present, in the holy moment that exists right under our noses. He communicates those callings in ways we can all recognize – sudden insights, little hunches, or sudden feelings or memories that may come over us. I know in my own experience, I frequently have these sorts of impulses to take certain actions when I am reflecting on passages of scripture. All too often we fail to pay sufficient attention to these callings and, as a result, frequently miss discovering God’s will for us for that one divine moment. If we do this over a long period of time, we run the risk of losing vital contact with the Holy Spirit. A.W. Tozer tells us:

…….to expose our hearts to truth and consistently refuse or neglect to obey the impulses it arouses is to stymie the motions of life within us and, if persisted in, to grieve the Holy Spirit into silence.

Don’t keep reading as if the profundity of Tozer’s statement somehow escaped your attention. Pause and reflect for a few moments of what he just said. If we repeatedly ignore of disobey those nudging from the Holy Spirit he may just stop communicating with us.

It is understandable, really.

If you had a close friend, a person you care for deeply, consistently ignore or refuse to listen to your suggestions for how he might improve his life or solve a particular problem, would you continue to make those suggestions indefinitely? No, I doubt you would. I know I would eventually reach a point where I would just keep quiet.

Although I firmly believe that God has a unique mission for each of us, all too often I have seen deeply committed, sincere Christians get so distracted in the search for this calling that they consistently overlook clear service opportunities right in front of their noses. More often than not, the will of God can be found in those small, seemingly mundane task that cross our paths each day. Perhaps it is something as simple as opening a door for someone, picking up a bit of litter on the ground, or helping someone carry their groceries to the car. Perhaps it is something as routine visiting a sick friend in the hospital, giving a person a ride to the pharmacy or a medical appointment, or simply providing a listening ear to a friend who needs to unload what is on his or her heart.

It is in these everyday situations where we find the true epicenter of God’s activity and where we find consistent fulfillment of God’s will for our lives. Yes, it is also true that each of us has a unique and important calling and for some of us, that mission may be a great one. For all of us, however, these little everyday encounters are where we most often can give flesh to grace by answering the call of the moment.

It is precisely that consistent practice of paying attention to the small duties of our daily round that makes a life of excellence possible. Moreover, no one ever slouched his or her way to greatness. Let’s listen to the wisdom of James Allen:

The great man has become such by the scrupulous and unselfish attention which he has given to small duties. He has become wise and powerful by sacrificing ambition and pride in the doing of those necessary things which evoke no applause and promise no reward. He never sought greatness; he sought faithfulness, unselfishness, integrity, truth; and in finding these in the common round of small tasks and duties he unconsciously ascended to the level of greatness.

Let me share a brief story from my childhood that points out how attention to the small can lead to the unfolding of God’s greater will. The story also illustrates how attending to the small and mundane can have unforeseen, far-reaching impact.  I recall a conversation a middle-aged man had with my parents in a picnic area just across the road from Casey Key Beach in Nokomis, Florida, where I grew up. I was about 11 years old at the time and my hand was in a cast (I had broken it a few weeks before playing baseball).

 I vividly remember the gentlemen telling my parents that he was walking off the beach, heading to his car when he saw a pair of empty trash bags blowing down the beach near the water. He related that he started to leave, but felt that he should go and retrieve those bags and put them in a trash receptacle. “I think all of us who live down here should take responsibility to keep our beaches clean,” I recall him saying. Rather than leaving, he returned to the water’s edge to retrieve the garbage bags.

The man went on to relate than as he was reaching for the garbage bags he heard a distant cry for help. He looked up but did not initially see anything but then heard the cry again. Scanning the water he spotted an empty beach float and saw two arms frantically waving above the water’s surface. Racing into the surf the man swam out just beyond the float and found a small boy going under the water. He grabbed the boy and brought him back to shore. Panic-stricken, the boy took the man to his parents, who were just across the road from the beach.

If you haven’t guessed by now, that small boy was me. I was leisurely floating on my rubber raft when a wave knocked me off. The water was about two feet over my head and, with my hand in a heavy cast, swimming was impossible. I had gone under for the third time when the man reached me.

I tell this story because I am personally aware of how fortunate I am to be alive. Had that man not taken the time to return to the water’s edge and pick up the garbage bags, I would in all likelihood have drowned. I would not be writing this blog, which is part of God’s will for my life, nor would you be reading it right now. Yes, my friends, this gentleman’s decision to take responsibility for a small thing, litter on the beach, has had far-reaching effects, indeed.

Attention to the small is really God’s will for our lives. And in so many ways, the small is no different from the great in God’s eyes. James Allen continues:

Neglect of the small is confusion of the great. The snowflake is as perfect as the star; the dew drop is as symmetrical as the planet; the microbe is not less mathematically proportioned than the man. By laying stone upon stone, plumbing and fitting each with perfect adjustment, the temple at last stands forth in all its architectural beauty. The small precedes the great. The small is not merely the apologetic attendant of the great, it is its master and informing genius.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to do great things. Yet this calling should never become an obsession that causes us to miss the opportunities that are presented to us in each “divine moment.” It is in the context of these moments that we discover God’s will for us in the here and now. It is also in the fabric of these sublime moments, the “holy present,” where we connect with the “Holy Presence,” the unshakable power that enables us to carry out that calling with confidence and compassion.

© L.D. Turner 2012/All Rights Reserved

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If we are to become healthy disciples, the practices of developing one’s spiritual disciplines need to be honed on a daily basis. These are not to be occasional or sporadic habits, for if the soul is to be cultivated in a manner befitting Christ, then it certainly must find great joy and deep satisfaction in the daily presence of God. It is out of this cultivated soul that we discover our mission for life….The spiritual disciplines are in many ways a hearing test for us. Do we listen intently for the voice of God? It’s not necessarily an audible voice, but when we press the pause button of our active lives long enough, we hear him in the stillness of the moment, through the pages of the Scriptures, and in the beauty of his creation. He longs to communicate his love toward each of his children, and it is incumbent upon us to stop long enough to listen. The key to discovering his abiding presence is to become anticipatory, alert, and attentive to his voice, his love, his grace, and his deliverance from sin as he fills us with new life. This is what it means to truly abide in Christ.

Stephen A. Macchia

(from Becoming a Healthy Disciple)

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In a successful marriage, both partners are committed to helping each other reach their full potential. The desire to help the person you love the most to become all he or she can be is a healthy motivation for marriage. The bounds of the marital union provide an ideal environment in which husbands and wives can strive to express their fullest personal, spiritual, and professional potential. In partnership together they can encourage one another, lift up one another, pray for one another, defend one another, challenge one another, comfort one another, and affirm one another.

Because it comes from God, marriage is designed for believers: men and women who walk by faith and not by sight and live in a daily and growing personal love relationship with Jesus Christ. Both husband and wife together should continually encourage each other to grow in the Lord. They should worship together, pray together, read and discuss the Scriptures together, and hold each other accountable for their spiritual walk with Christ.

Dr. Myles Munroe

(from The Purpose and Power of Love and Marriage)

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Mick Turner

I am an admitted book addict and have been an avid reader since childhood. I guess there are worse things one could be and, other than spending more than I should for books on occasion and having a head full of somewhat useless knowledge, I don’t think my life is any worse for wear as a result of my excessive reading.

I mention all this because I am going to do something I rarely do in these pages: I am going to recommend a series of books by a particular author. I normally shy away from doing this because I understand that readers have a wide range of tastes and, as a result, what appeals to one may not be pleasing to another. However, from time to time I run across a book, or in this case a group of books, that are so outstanding – so relevant and informative – that I feel called to bring them to my readers’ attention.

The author of the books I will briefly discuss is N.T. Wright, Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey. Many of you are most likely already familiar with the works of Bishop Wright, especially if you are at least somewhat connected to the loose association referred to as the Emergent Church or Emerging Church. Representing a more moderate, traditional stream within the Emergent movement, Bishop Wright’s books are well-thought-out and presented in a manner characterized by logical coherence, a trait sadly lacking in far too many contemporary writers.

I would recommend any of Bishop Wright’s works, but I especially want to recommend the following quartet of titles: The Challenge of Jesus; Simply Christian; After You Believe; and Surprised by Hope. In addition to giving the reader a general picture of Wright’s theology, these four books also contain truths that are highly practical and, when applied to a disciple’s daily living, are highly transformative.

Further, Bishop Wright presents the often confusing but highly pertinent conflict between modernism (a worldview that is rapidly dying) and post-modernism, (the worldview that is replacing it). Wright’s books also paint a clear picture of where the church fits into this process and why it is necessary for individual Christians in general and the church in particular to understand and live within the context of the emerging post-modern world. Contrary to the strong desires of many in the contemporary church, Bishop Wright makes the valid point that retreat headlong into the arms of modernism is not a viable option. The following series of quotations, taken from The Challenge of Jesus, is especially illustrative of Wright’s take on the situation:

I suggest, in fact, that if postmodernism functions as the death of modernist culture, many of us will find ourselves like the disciples on the road to Emmaus. We as Western Christians mostly bought a bit too heavily into modernism, and we are shocked to discover that it has been dying for a while and is now more or less completely dead. We need to learn how to listen for the hidden stranger on the road who will explain to us how it was that these things had to happen, and how there is a whole new world out there waiting to be born, for which we are called to be the midwives. The answer to the challenge of postmodernism is not to run back tearfully into the arms of modernism. It is to hear in postmodernity God’s judgment on the follies and failings, the sheer selfish arrogance, of modernity and to look and pray and work for the resurrection into God’s new world out beyond. We live at a great cultural turning point; Christian mission in the postmodern world must be the means of the church grasping the initiative and enabling our world to turn the corner in the right direction.

Bishop Wright makes the cogent observation that we stand at a major cultural crossroads. The old modernist view is dying away and the new worldview, along with its practical, concrete ramifications, is moving into the birth canal. The reality is, however, that the new world has not yet been born. As a result, our culture in general and Western Christianity in particular, is presently in a state of confused, unstable limbo. It is as if we are all stuck on an eternal Saturday, halfway between crucifixion and resurrection. What we need now is an increasing clarity as to God’s purposes and a boldness of spirit exemplified by a consistent willingness to think out of the box and take positive risks. We must never reject a new wineskin, just because it “feels different” and may even make us uncomfortable.

As Wright states, we are the midwives that will give birth to the structures and forms that Western Christianity will take as the 21^st Century unfolds. As uncomfortable as the age may seem at times, it is also a time of exciting challenge and unlimited opportunity. God is indeed birthing something entirely new and although the past is important in terms of tradition and legacy, it must never be an obstacle to what the Spirit is trying to unfold. This is evidently a very hard truth for some of us to digest, but digest it we must. If we fail to do so, we may hear Taps being blown over the entire edifice of the Western Church.

According to Bishop Wright, and I agree wholeheartedly, if we want to see the rebirth of a vital, livable, and transformational Christian faith, we must learn to live out God’s great story in our day to day lives. Our greatest evangelistic tool must be the love of God translated through the very canvas of our own lives. Bishop Wright expresses this much better than I ever could:

We must therefore get used to a mission that includes living the true Christian praxis. Christian praxis consists in the love of God in Christ being poured out in us and through us……………..We must get used to telling the story of God, Israel, Jesus, and the world as the true metanarrative, the story of healing and self-giving love. We must get used to living as those who have truly died and risen with Christ so that our self, having been thoroughly deconstructed, can be put back together, not by the agendas that the world presses upon us but by God’s Spirit.

For those of us raised in the context of the Christian tradition, much of the magnificent glory of God’s Great Story of redemption and restoration has been lost. In many cases, we have heard the story and been immersed in the symbols for so long that both the meta-narrative and the symbolic traditions have ceased to have transformational impact. For many others, the basic story has been changed to suit the theological prejudices of various groups and leaders and, as a result, the Christian faith being lived out is often a far cry from the reality that Christ ushered into being. And for still others, the traditions of the faith have been adulterated by the cultural ethic in which the particular church finds itself existing. This is especially true of the American church.

No matter the reason for the loss, the result is basically the same: we lose touch with the true splendor of Christ’s being, his mission, and how all this fits into God’s great plan of restoration and renewal on this planet. In addition, we lose our perspective on how unique and incredible the Christian faith is. We lose perspective on how unique and magnificent Jesus Christ was and is.

And when we lose that, we have lost the core of the Christian faith.

© L.D. Turner 2012/All Rights Reserved

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…..the Spirit of God now calls his people to live from an adequate basis for character transformation, resulting in obedience to and abundance in Christ. This really is something different. The present moment is not an occasion to keep on doing the same things Christians have been doing in the recent past – except now “really meaning it.” It is time to change our focus, individually and in our Christian groupings.

If we as Christ’s people genuinely enter Christ’s way of the Heart, individuals will find a sure path toward becoming the persons they were meant to be: thoroughly good and godly persons, yet purged of arrogance, insensitivity, and self-sufficiency. Christian assemblies will become what they have been in many periods of the past and what the world desperately calls for today: incomparable schools of life…  

Dallas Willard

(from Renovation of the Heart)

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I Have Heard, Lord

Lord, I have heard your Holy Word and I have understood. You are the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. You never grow weak or weary and no one truly fathoms the depth of your understanding.

You give power to the weak and strength to the powerless. I trust you, Lord, and, according to your promise, I will find new strength and soar high on wings like eagles. I will run and not grow weary; I will walk and not faint.

Even more Lord, I am blessed because I know you have called me back from the ends of the earth and have said, “(Your name), you are my servant. I have chosen you and will not throw you away.” For this I am ever grateful my God and I am not afraid because I know you are with me. I have abundant courage because I know that you are my God. I draw my strength from you and know that you are always there to help me when I need you. I am more than blessed my God; you hold me up with your victorious right hand.

 [based on Isaiah 40:28-31; 41:9-10.]

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Expectation is the power to have an idea become so real that you see it and feel it before you can hold it. It is like a giant magnet that attracts what you expect into your life. Expectation empowers you to think the unthinkable and do the undoable, and it turns uncertain hoping into certainty……….Expectation can be defined simply as fixing your eyes on the promised blessing with an eager anticipation of its arrival. An expectation is a strong desire that is filled with anticipation and confidence about obtaining what is expected. To live with expectation is to live with hope, dreams, imagination, and desires…………..You have a choice. You can slumber and sleep your way through life, or you can wake up and live life to the maximum. Life is meant to be filled up with all the great things God seeks to do for you, in you, and through you. Expectation is best received and lived out as you align your total life to God and His Word, living with abandonment to His desires for you and setting yourself to be in agreement with God.

Frank Damazio

(from The Attitude of Faith)

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Mick Turner

continued from Part One….

In creating the content of The Walk, Motz and Harris have produced a work that is quickly engrossing, fluid in format, and wide-ranging in terms of content. In addition to coverage of standard spiritual themes such as prayer, faith, and worship, the authors offer up skillful treatment of subjects like perseverance, family, and community. Moreover, Motz and Harris present chapters in which they juxtapose themes such as pride and humility and, in one of my favorite chapters, materialism versus simplicity.

In this particular chapter, the authors point out how the daily realities of hiking the Appalachian Trail forces individuals to live simply. The lighter the pack on your back, the better and the application of these truths to the Christian walk of faith is obvious. It is also in the chapter where I found Motz and Harris frequently displayed their talent as vivid writers of description and further, were once again able to achieve seamless transitions as they managed to weave spiritual principles and lessons learned into their descriptive narrations. For example:

What was not provided by simply opening our packs and searching inside, was provided by the environment around us – the sunsets, the perfume of damp pines, or the delicate flight of a hawk. In those few instances where we did not have exactly what we needed, we learned to improvise solutions from what we did have or from what we found around us. There came an undeniable sense of satisfaction in solving a problem using our own wits, a sense of accomplishment we could never experience by simply running to the supermarket, Home Depot or the local outfitter to purchase the solution.

In the chapter in which the authors discuss the issues of pride and humility, Motz describes an accident on the trail, one in which he took a nasty fall and injured his leg. Applying this to the lessons of daily life in general and the Christian walk of faith in particular, he shares:

Life presents its own share of falls, especially when we pursue it with an egotistical heart. Our lives can become a competition, a self-centered race to “make it” and join the ranks of the adored and revered. Satisfaction in simply being who we are created to be just does not seem to suffice. Satisfaction in achieving God’s plan for us, the plan that He so lovingly and painstakingly put together, takes a backseat to our striving to meet society’s, and our own, definition of achievement and worth. . . . . . . . . .Interestingly enough, because we are unable to grasp the concept of how much more rewarding God’s plan is for our lives, He has ways of getting our attention simply by allowing us to experience the futility of our own plans.

I don’t know about you, but I can relate to that last sentence in spades. I have often felt, due to my own stubborn nature and dense mind, that God has resorted to treating me somewhat like a snow globe. From time to time I have needed a strong shaking. After the section quoted just above, the authors provide the following scriptural passage from The Message:

I’ll break your strong pride: I’ll make the skies above you like a sheet of tin and the ground under you like cast iron. No matter how hard you work, nothing will come of it; No crops out of the ground, no fruit off the trees. (Leviticus 26:19)

I would also add that throughout the book the authors, in set off sidebars, include quotations entitled, “Native American Wisdom,” thus acknowledging the oneness with the natural world that was such a vital part of the Native American lifestyle. Each chapter also includes a devotional to ponder and a heartfelt prayer relating to the themes just discussed.

In the books closing chapter, the authors give moving examples of how various individuals have lived out Christ’s example of loving service by giving back to the Trail in one way or another.

As I stated in Part One, I highly recommend this excellent book to anyone interested in the Appalachian Trail and especially to those who are sincere about their daily walk with Jesus Christ. The authors have done a masterful job of interweaving experiences and lessons encountered along the trail with issues of practical spirituality. This is no easy task and Motz and Harris, known in the book as Windtalker and Mom, have accomplished this task with skill and subtlety.

© L.D. Turner 2011/All Rights Reserved

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