Monday Morning Music Ministry

9-2-24

Recently in these essays I have, without (my own) planning, shared thoughts on our personal interactions with God. “Be still and know that I am God.” Sharing the Good News. Keeping silence at retreats. Listening for His voice. “When God might say, ‘Shut Up!’”

Variations on a theme, I suppose. And I pray the messages might have inspired you, or prompted thoughts or actions, or (so to speak) less action and more contemplation. Anyway, I believe the Holy Spirit has me in this mode, and as some Christians like to say, there are no coincidences, only God-incidences.

I also have realized that my meditations have focused on being a “hearer of the Word”; seeking God’s will for my life (in fact, the title of a book that my friend and I have been discussing); finding new ways to listen and learn from all He has for me.

But then, in a manner of speaking, all this is only half of communion with the Lord.

Yes, there are myriad ways to hear from God. He sent the Holy Spirit to be Jesus living within us. He speaks to our hearts. We have His written Word. We have testimony of saints and martyrs and prophets through the ages. We are blessed with ministers, teachers, preachers, evangelists. We have the testimony of animate Creation. Humankind has been visited by anointed and yielded servants who – you have heard the saying – share the Gospel sometimes even with words.

But. Are these manifestations only half of the story? Half of our fellowship with the Lord? Half of… communication with God?

All the ways we are blessed to hear from God indeed add up to only half of the story. One of Scripture’s strongest and foundational themes is that God desires to hear from us, too. God did not only talk to Adam and Eve and Noah and Abraham and Moses and Ruth and David and Jonah and Daniel… He had conversations. Many times, through the Bible, in fact, He virtually chatted: not always thundering commands and lightning-bolts. The Book of Job – the first-written of all books in the Bible – is a virtual transcript of prayers and answers; discussions and pleadings. And so with prophets.

And so it also was with Jesus – He came to earth to teach and instruct; but also to listen and reason and encourage and persuade. Do we have examples of Christ with people shutting down an argument or attack? No, the Savior of Humankind listened, responded thoughtfully, and had conversations. As the old Gospel song reminds us, “He walks with me, and He talks with me.”

Why should it be different today? Is it? Of course I am referring to prayer.

What a gift prayer is! I could certainly imagine the Creator of the universe being so august that, yes, He might bless us with many things, even sweet salvation… but not necessarily a god lowering Himself to hear (much less solicit) our prayers. How many other religions through history and around the world have invented gods that invite conversations with them? Demands, yes. Threats, yes. Sacrifices, yes. But… chats?

Can we all take a survey of our own prayer lives? Do you pray every day? Did your children say bed-time prayers, and say grace at meals? If you attend a liturgical church, have you memorized prayers and creeds – if so, do you find yourself praying the words, sometimes, without “thinking” them any more? These questions might not have right-or-wrong answers, but can have regrets attached to them.

I similarly am troubled when I see clergymen on television read their prayers at events: it seems to me that addressing God seems less sincere in such cases than spontaneous, from-the-heart. I wonder, when I see athletes cross themselves, whether they actually pray the names of the father, Son, and Holy Ghost every one of those moments. I am not criticizing when I ask these questions! Too often, I myself have assured someone “I’ll pray for you” – when it would be just as easy, and more sincere, to take that moment and pray with them right there.

It seems sometimes that prayer is becoming a lost language in our culture. When I was in elementary school, we prayed in class (and read the Bible each week. Yes, in public school). Oh, what we have been saved from as a society… or see what we have become. Do we pray with our spouses? With strangers? – wouldn’t a quick prayer be more heartfelt, and efficacious with the Lord, than uttering “good luck to you”?

My daughter Heather used to pray, aloud, when doing housework or chores, but not formal prayers as most of us know them. She would have conversations with God – about her day, or challenges at work, “little” things – as if she were talking to her best friend. Which, of course, God is. What a wonderful prayer mode. “Pray without ceasing,” the Bible urges. And it’s not always about ASKING.

The Bible tells us that God can be a jealous God. Literally, he is jealous of our time and attention. He desires to hear from us. He wants to hear what He knows already – our burdens, our needs, even our gratitude – so we can be drawn closer.

It’s what friends do.

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Click: I Just Came To Talk with You, Lord

7-19-21

~~ A guest message by my friend Leah C Morgan, a gifted, spiritual writer whose thoughts always move me. ~~

They didn’t understand what he was saying, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant.

This verse from Mark’s Gospel is eye-opening: it exposes the faulty habits of communication we all share. The passage preceding this scripture tells us that Jesus wanted to get away from the crowd for a while, to spend time alone with his disciples, to teach them, so he kept their location quiet.

His plans were to set aside time for them. Teaching implies understanding.

But this special time apart became a one-sided conversation, Jesus talking and his friends not comprehending. And – does this sound familiar to you? – they didn’t ask for clarity. Whether out of fear or timidity, they did not seek to understand.

Watch the difference in Jesus’ methods. Immediately following this, they walked to a house where they would be staying and when they were settled, Jesus was not afraid to ask what they meant in their private conversation. “What were you discussing out on the road?”

“But they didn’t answer, because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest.”

What a difference between how Jesus communicates and how we communicate.

How did the disciples model communication? They avoided it:

•They communicated out of their fear. Don’t inquire, don’t seek understanding, don’t ask questions about things that are uncomfortable to talk about.

•They communicated out of their shame. Don’t respond, don’t divulge details, don’t answer, keep quiet about things that make you look bad.

How did Jesus model communication? He ran headlong into it:

•He set aside time alone without distraction. Away from other pressing and legitimate needs He committed to be fully present and to communicate his thoughts. He gave enough information to alleviate fear and to open the door for further discussion. Even when those closest to Him remained mute out of fear.

•He listened when others communicated. During their daily activities He waited for an appropriate time to bring up what he observed, and asked questions of them. Even when the closest to him remained mute out of shame.

Jesus healed the deaf and mute while those closest to him selectively chose too often to be both.

Have you ever said to those closest to you, “I don’t want to talk about that”? It is likely then that you need to talk about that. We continue to carry what we continue to bury.

Is there someone “being Jesus” to you, giving you space to ask questions and allowing an opportunity for you to give honest answers? Choose the uncomfortable now. The disciples were not able to avoid difficulties by avoiding to talk about them.

The disciples referenced were men. There is a culture around manhood that creates the lie: to speak is weak. Jesus dismantles this lie. It takes courage to be vulnerable. It takes incredible strength to talk about uncomfortable things. Look at His boldness, look at His honesty. Jesus is the ideal man; He both asked and answered hard questions.

Silence in conversation often is an effort to retain self-respect. We imagine that truthful engagement would cost us the respect we’ve worked so hard to create. But the more we cling to it the more we strangle it. The paradox is the “letting go.” Respect is earned when people have the courage to be real… not when they master the art of silence.

When these men were transformed by spending time with Jesus, it empowered them to survive the worst of times they weren’t prepared for. They learned to start talking about it!

John later wrote: “I have much more to say to you, but I don’t want to do it with paper and ink. For I hope to visit you soon and talk with you face to face. Then our joy will be complete.” (II John 1:12)

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The disciples’ reluctance to communicate – listen and speak – made them weak in the hour they needed the greatest strength. Here is a song about talking, sung by Sheri Easter. The camera also finds Jeff, her husband; and Reba Rambo, whose mother Dottie wrote this song. Taped at the Cove, Billy Graham’s retreat center.

Click: I Just Came To Talk with You, Lord

7-18-11

My daughter Heather does something that, frankly, startled me the first time I saw it. When she was young she started talking to God.

I don’t mean praying, she did that too. I don’t mean talking about God, she did that too. When she was alone, puttering around her room or walking through the yard, she would talk to God. Like she would talk to friend… which He is. Like He was there… which He was, and always is. Small talk, thoughts, even things to laugh about. Life.

She didn’t “hear voices.” God was her friend, and she talked to Him as a friend would.

I think the contemporary church has lost a lot of the traditional reverence for God that once was commonplace. But at the other end of the spectrum – and, remember, God is a spectrum as wide as the east is from the west – I think we have also lost some of the intimacy that God offers us, and desires with us.

“Friendship with Jesus, fellowship divine! Oh, what blessed sweet communion – Jesus is a friend of mine!” goes the gospel song.

Too many times we see prayer as a fire-extinguisher, behind glass to be broken, and used at times of crisis. Or, we remember to pray especially when we have praise, or to give thanks… that is at the other end of the spectrum, too. But God is jealous, I believe, of the “middle” in our lives. He wants us to talk to Him not only during troubles or joy, but in between, at all times.

“Jealous”? Yes, I believe that. God desires to hear from us, continually, in all circumstances; to commune with us. I have often reminded myself (maybe not often enough) that if I turn most often to God when things are going bad, maybe it’s within God’s nature to send some “things going bad” my way. I don’t believe that is the case with sickness or disease, no, but there are many things we think are trouble at the time, and might indeed be difficult, but when we look back at them, we see that we drew closer to God or learned wisdom. Or prayed more.

Better to keep that communication going, and maybe God won’t need to rattle our cages as often! Is that faulty theology? It has been true in my life, and for my life. How about you?

Don’t be a stranger. Your Friend is close by, and He’s all ears.

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A song on this theme is Dottie Rambo’s I Just Came to Talk with You, Lord, I believe one of the last songs written by this gifted singer/songwriter before her death in 2008. It is emotionally performed by Sheri Easter.

Click: I Just Came to Talk With You, Lord