Prayer Journey Flashback: Baker James Cauthen

We are on our Acts 1:8 Prayer Journey, traveling today to Virginia, where we prayed at the International Mission Board's headquarters in Richmond, then went to the Cauthen International Learning Center in Rockville to visit, pray and stay the night before continuing our journey.

The ILC is the place where the missions personnel of the IMB are prepared for service before being deployed to the nations, and is named after Eloise and Baker James Cauthen, former leader of the Foreign Mission Board from 1954 to 1979. Dr. Cauthen was, as Billy Graham once said, "one of the greatest missionary statesmen in American church life." I was in Nashville for a national student missions event in December, 1979, when Cauthen retired, and Keith Parks assume leadership at the board.

Today was a flashback for me, as we prayerwalked the facility here, saw the portraits of the Cauthens, and realized the thousands of missionaries he had helped send to the ends of the earth. I also remembered a December day when Dr. Cauthen sat down with me to talk about missions and seminary.

It was December, 1983 and I was a senior at Wingate College (now University), trying to decide where I should attend seminary. With a call to missions in my heart, I asked Dr. Ron Bostic, one of my music professors and mentors, where I should go. He had just come to Wingate from Golden Gate Baptist Seminary in California, and said I should go there to visit over Christmas break. Even if I didn't attend there, it would be a great experience, he said. So with some borrowed money from my parents, I flew to San Francisco to visit the campus of Golden Gate. After I arrived that weekend, I learned that Baker James Cauthen, who had retired from the Foreign Mission Board a few years earlier, was a guest professor of missions there that term. I thought to myself, "If I could talk to Dr. Cauthen about where to go to seminary, he would give good advice." So, I got the phone number at the Cauthen's campus apartment, and called that Saturday morning. Mrs. Cauthen answered the phone, and I told her who I was and asked if I could see Dr. Cauthen that day. She asked him, and told me that he would meet me at his campus office in a few hours.

I arrived at the appointed time, and met Baker James Cauthen. We sat in his office and, as much as I tried, he would not tell me which seminary would be best for me to attend. I explained my call to missions, but he would not single out one seminary for me. He did tell me though that if he could give me any advice, it would be to make sure that I served in a church the entire time I was in seminary, as pastor, or on a staff position. He said he had learned more in the church he pastored in Texas during his years at Southwestern Seminary than he ever did in a classroom. The classroom experience, he said, was enhanced and made real by the practical experience of ministering in a congregation. (He was right: I did this my entire seminary career.)

I thanked Dr. Cauthen, and we went our ways. I returned home to North Carolina the next day, and decided to attend Golden Gate Seminary the following school year. The fact that Baker James Cauthen had been there teaching was a significant factor in my deciding to attend.

In April, 1985, Cauthen went home to be with the Lord at age 75, completing his missionary assignment on earth. He, and his wife, Eloise, are now part of that great cloud of witnesses that Hebrews 12 talks about, who have traveled and completed the journey we are still on now.

This has been a good day to remember, and to be reminded of the task yet to be fulfilled. Thank You, Lord, for the opportunity to have that moment with a great servant of the Lord years ago, and to be right here, right now, writing this as an associational missionary on a prayer journey at the Cauthen International Learning Center. Our God is an awesome God!

A Disciple's Renewal

O My Savior,
Help me.
I am so slow to learn,
So prone to forget,
So weak to climb;
I am in the foothills when I should be on the heights;
I am pained by my graceless heart,
My prayerless days,
My poverty of love,
My sloth in the heavenly race,
My sullied conscience,
My wasted hours,
My unspent opportunities.
I am blind while light shines around me:
Take the scales from my eyes,
Grind to dust the evil heart of unbelief.
Make it my chiefest joy to study You,
Meditate on You,
Gaze on You,
Sit like Mary at Your feet,
Lean like John on Your breast,
Appeal like Peter to Your love,
Count like Paul all things dung.
Give me increase and progress in grace so that there may be
More decision in my character,
More vigor in my purposes,
More elevation in my life,
More fervor in my devotion,
More consistency in my zeal.
As I have a position in the world,
keep me from making the world my position;
May I never seek in the creature what can be found only in the Creator;
Let not faith cease from seeking You until it vanishes into sight.
Ride forth in me, O King of kings and Lord of lords,
That I may live victoriously, and in victory attain my end.

(Adapted from Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, Arthur Bennett, Editor)

Continual Repentance

O GOD OF GRACE,
You have imputed my sin to my Substitute,
and have imputed His righteousness to my soul,
clothing me with a Bridegroom’s robe,
decking me with jewels of holiness.
But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;
my best prayers are stained with sin;
my penitential tears are so much impurity;
my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin;
my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness.
I need to repent of my repentance;
I need my tears to be washed;
I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,
no loom to weave my own righteousness;
I am always standing clothed in filthy garments,
and by grace am always receiving change of raiment,
for You always justify the ungodly;
I am always going into the far country,
and am always returning home as a prodigal,
always saying, "Father, forgive me,"
and You are always bringing forth the best robe.
Every morning let me wear it,
every evening return in it,
go out to the day’s work in it,
be married in it,
be wrapped at death in it,
stand before the great white throne in it,
enter heaven in it, shining as the sun.
Grant me never to lose sight of
the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
the exceeding righteousness of salvation,
the exceeding glory of Christ,
the exceeding beauty of holiness
the exceeding wonder of grace.

(From The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions,
Arthur Bennett, Editor, p. 76. Language updated)

Gideon had his weak moments and failures...

Gideon had his weak moments and failures, but he was still God's servant.

If you can easily see yourself in the first half of the sentence you just read, can you also see yourself in the second half?

Remember Gideon as a man who obeyed God by giving his attention to the task at hand. Then give your full attention to believing God will prepare you for tomorrow when it comes.

(from the Life Application Bible notes on Gideon)

(Stay tuned for more on Gideon...)

A Needed Reminder

If you falter in times of trouble,
how small is your strength!
Proverbs 24:10

Morning Dedication

As I cross the threshold of this day
I commit myself, soul, body, affairs, friends, to Your care;
Watch over, keep, guide, direct, sanctify, bless me.
Incline my heart to Your ways;
Mold me wholly into the image of Jesus, as a potter forms clay;
May my lips be a well-tuned harp to sound Your praise;
Let those around see me living by Your Spirit,
trampling the world underfoot,
unconformed to lying vanities,
transformed by a renewed mind,
clad in the entire armor of God,
shining as a never-dimmed light,
showing holiness in all my doings.
Let no evil this day soil my thoughts, words, hands.
May I travel muddy paths with a life pure from spot or stain.
In important transactions, let my affection be in heaven,
and my love soar upwards in flames of fire,
my gaze fixed on unseen things,
my eyes open to the emptiness, fragility, mockery of earth and its vanities.
May I view all things in the mirror of eternity,
waiting for the coming of my Lord,
listening for the last trumpet call,
hastening unto the new heaven and earth.
Order this day all my communications according to Your wisdom,
and to the gain of mutual good.
Forbid that I should not be profited or made profitable.
May I speak each word as if my last word,
and walk each step as my last one.
If my life should end today, let this be my best day.

(Adapted from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, Arthur Bennett, Editor, 1975)