The Cross in Prayer

In that day you will ask in My name . . . —John 16:26

by Oswald Chambers

We too often think of the Cross of Christ as something we have to get through, yet we get through for the purpose of getting into it. The Cross represents only one thing for us— complete, entire, absolute identification with the Lord Jesus Christ— and there is nothing in which this identification is more real to us than in prayer.

"Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him" (Matthew 6:8). Then why should we ask? The point of prayer is not to get answers from God, but to have perfect and complete oneness with Him. If we pray only because we want answers, we will become irritated and angry with God. We receive an answer every time we pray, but it does not always come in the way we expect, and our spiritual irritation shows our refusal to identify ourselves truly with our Lord in prayer.

We are not here to prove that God answers prayer, but to be living trophies of God’s grace.

". . . I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you . . ." ( John 16:26-27 ). Have you reached such a level of intimacy with God that the only thing that can account for your prayer life is that it has become one with the prayer life of Jesus Christ? Has our Lord exchanged your life with His vital life? If so, then "in that day" you will be so closely identified with Jesus that there will be no distinction.

When prayer seems to be unanswered, beware of trying to place the blame on someone else. That is always a trap of Satan. When you seem to have no answer, there is always a reason— God uses these times to give you deep personal instruction, and it is not for anyone else but you.

(from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, August 6)

The Perfect Church

by A. W. Tozer

And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. —1 Peter 4:8 KJV

And above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. - 1 Peter 4:8 NAS

Our lofty idealism would argue that all Christians should be perfect, but a blunt realism forces us to admit that perfection is rare even among the saints. The part of wisdom is to accept our Christian brothers and sisters for what they are rather than for what they should be....

There is much that is imperfect about us, and it is fitting that we recognize it and call upon God for charity to put up with one another. The perfect church is not on this earth. The most spiritual church is sure to have in it some who are still bothered by the flesh.

An old Italian proverb says, "He that will have none but a perfect brother must resign himself to remain brotherless." However earnestly we may desire that our Christian brother go on toward perfection, we must accept him as he is and learn to get along with him. To treat an imperfect brother impatiently is to advertise our own imperfections.

Prayer: Lord, give me patience and grace today in dealing with others' imperfections. And give them the same grace in dealing with mine! Because of Jesus' love - Amen.

—from Tozer on Christian Leadership, July 28

Wilderness Encroachment

by A. W. Tozer

Because you say, "I am rich, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked... Revelation 3:17 NAS

The wilderness encroaches on the fruitful field, and unless there is a constant fighting off of this encroachment, there will be little or no harvest.

I think it is exactly the same with the church, for as one of hte old saints said, "Never think for a minute that there will be a time when you will not be tempted. He is tempted the most effectively who thinks that he isn't being tempted at all."

Just when we think we are not being tempted, that is the time of danger, and so it is with the Church. We lean back on our own lawrels and say, "That may be true of some churches, but it is not true of us. We are increased with goods and have need of nothing!" (See Revelation 3:17).

This is to remind us that we must fight for what we have. Our little field of God's planting must have the necessary weapons and plenty of watchmen out there to drive off the crows and all sorts of creatures, to say nothing of the little insects that destroy the crops. We have to keep after them. We must keep our field healthy, and there is only one way to do that, and that is to keep true to the Word of God. We must constantly go back to the grass roots and get the Word into the Church.

Lord, don't ever let us become complacent in Your blessing. Keep us vigilant that our field might stay healthy and the little weeds might never be allowed to take root. Amen.

(from Tozer on Christian Leadership, July 6)

The Conditions of Discipleship

If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also . . . . And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me . . . . So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple —Luke 14:26-27, 33

If the closest relationships of a disciple’s life conflict with the claims of Jesus Christ, then our Lord requires instant obedience to Himself.

Discipleship means personal, passionate devotion to a Person— our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a vast difference between devotion to a person and devotion to principles or to a cause. Our Lord never proclaimed a cause— He proclaimed personal devotion to Himself. To be a disciple is to be a devoted bondservant motivated by love for the Lord Jesus. Many of us who call ourselves Christians are not truly devoted to Jesus Christ. No one on earth has this passionate love for the Lord Jesus unless the Holy Spirit has given it to him. We may admire, respect, and revere Him, but we cannot love Him on our own. The only One who truly loves the Lord Jesus is the Holy Spirit, and it is He who has "poured out in our hearts" the very "love of God" (Romans 5:5). Whenever the Holy Spirit sees an opportunity to glorify Jesus through you, He will take your entire being and set you ablaze with glowing devotion to Jesus Christ.

The Christian life is a life characterized by true and spontaneous creativity. Consequently, a disciple is subject to the same charge that was leveled against Jesus Christ, namely, the charge of inconsistency. But Jesus Christ was always consistent in His relationship to God, and a Christian must be consistent in his relationship to the life of the Son of God in him, not consistent to strict, unyielding doctrines. People pour themselves into their own doctrines, and God has to blast them out of their preconceived ideas before they can become devoted to Jesus Christ.

(from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, July 2)

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)