Open Your Mouth Wide

During songs of worship after the sermon in church this morning, I reflected upon how drinking and being filled with the Holy Spirit are voluntary.  Suddenly I had the picture in my mind of a gridiron player standing on the sideline and an attendant raising a water bottle.  If the player is thirsty, all he need do is open his mouth and will be given a drink.  It would be rather silly for a thirsty player to keep his mouth shut but open it later to complain of thirst.  I was reminded of God's promise:  "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it."  All who are thirsty are invited to come to Christ and drink.  It is not complicated and no ritual is required, but it will take humility which does not come naturally.  Those who admit their dryness, crying out in prayer and opening their mouths in praise of God will receive God's refreshment.  Those who desire the baptism with the Spirit only need open their mouth in faith, and God will make such an overflowing fountain of Living Water.

I decided to look up the passage God prompted me to consider found in Psalm 81:7-10:  "You called in trouble, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah ⁸ Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you! O Israel, if you will listen to Me! ⁹ There shall be no foreign god among you; nor shall you worship any foreign god. ¹⁰ I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide, and I will fill it."  God brought the children of Israel out of bondage and gave them safe passage through dry wilderness.  God caused water to flow from the rock in Horeb which Moses later called Meribah.  God tested the faith of His thirsty people and proved His power to them miraculously.  He also tests us today with the filling of the Holy Spirit who is the Living Water Jesus spoke of.  God says, "Open your mouth wide and I will fill you."

I love when God sends me on these unexpected biblical excursions!  Thinking of drink bottles led to "Open your mouth wide..." to a connection in Meribah.  So I went to Exodus 17:3-7 to read the account of Moses and the children of Israel:  "And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses, and said, "Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" ⁴ So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!" ⁵ And the LORD said to Moses, "Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go. ⁶ Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. ⁷ So he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the contention of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"  Moses struck the rock upon which he stood in Horeb at the word of the LORD, and God caused water to flow from it.  Because there was no water where God led them, people doubted if God was with them or not.  The water from the rock proved again God's presence and abundant provision.

Moses struck the rock and water flowed out, and Jesus promised Living Water would flow from those who are born again.  The Holy Spirit has been given without measure to all those who are born again, and the fullness of the Spirit is available to all who open their mouths wide in faith.  It is ironic the waters of Meribah seemed to ease tensions, but the baptism and subsequent fillings with the Holy Spirit can be a point of contention among Christians.  I have no desire to be contentious, and I do not believe Paul was when upon first meeting believers in Ephesus he asked them, "Have you received the Holy Spirit when you believed?" (Acts 19:2)  Here is the point:  the presence of the Holy Spirit within a person can be known.  If a home is being lived in, there will be evidence.  Lights will be on in the rooms at night.  A car may be parked in the driveway or people will be seen moving around through windows.  If a heart is truly Christ's home, there will be evidence of His presence in that life.  The fruit of the Spirit will be evident in our lives.  Spiritual gifts are also granted by God according to His will.

Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?  You can!  Consider the word of God:  "You called in trouble, and I delivered you...I am the LORD your God...open you mouth wide, and I will fill it."  Those who drank from the rock in Horeb were thirsty again, yet Jesus promised in John 4:14:  "...whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."  Jesus bids us to come to Him and drink.  John 7:37-39 says, "On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." ³⁹ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."  Jesus has been glorified, and the Holy Spirit has been given.  This promise is for you, your children, to all who are afar off, as many as our LORD will call.

Casual or On-Call?

Towards the end of school term, Laura seems to pick up casual work at the boy's school.  In Australia "casual" work means you are not under a contract and do not have regularly set hours.  After volunteering for years in the library or uniform shop, sometimes she will receive a call to come in and work for pay.  It seems Laura has become a useful person to call when school staff is sick or on leave.  She is able to slot into many roles on short notice, recently helping out in Food Tech.  Lately it has been about eight hours spread across the week and looks to increase slightly next term.  And should the school call her in to help out, I expect she will by God's grace rise to the challenge!

Being a casual worker in Australia affects pay rate, superannuation, and benefits.  If Laura was a full-time employee at the college, there would be additional security and benefits granted her.  Though Laura is often called into work, she is a casual employee.  I would not compare her situation to a doctor who is "on-call."  Some doctors, for instance, often have a strenuous schedule with regular hours which extend far beyond a typical 35 to 40 hour week.  Many also are "on-call," meaning if there is an emergency they have the responsibility to answer the call and go into work.  People who do casual work and are "on-call" both are called into work:  the casual employee only works when the call comes, and for those on-call workers have regularly scheduled hours which extend beyond full time employment.  The call means extra work on top of full-time!

I wonder:  do we Christians approach life like a casual employee of Jesus or a full-time worker who is on-call?  I have heard people say that pastors are always on-call, but I am convinced all disciples of Christ are full-time ministers and also are on-call - whether or not they are paid by a church for their labours.  I imagine there are some full-time pastors who approach their service to God like a casual employee, and there are certainly parishioners who are full-time disciples and also on-call, joyful to serve God in every capacity who never keep track of their hours.  Isn't this how we ought to be?  If we measure our service only by time, what does that prove?  Inmates in prison count hours and days too.  Those followers of Jesus who serve Him faithfully, joyfully, and continually regardless of their circumstances or recognition bring glory to God.  Every minute on earth we live by God's grace, and how good it is to respond to His grace and goodness by giving ourselves back to Him.  It is service done with the pure motive of  God's love for us, not the logging of hours (or the accumulation of blog posts!) which pleases God.

The widow put in two small mites into the Temple treasury and was deemed by Christ to have given more than the most wealthy contribution because she gave all. That is what we can give:  our all.  Let's be full-time Christians, always glad to respond to the call of Jesus Christ.  Where God calls us He will supply the strength and resources to accomplish His will.  We should be on-call with Jesus not because He needs us but because we need Him - and He's already given all of Himself!  We are going to be with God for eternity, have fellowship with God even now, and the Holy Spirit indwells us today.  Amazing, right?

Hallowing God's Name

I have been reading through Radical Prayer by Manny Mill recently, and it has been a good reminder of the importance to cultivate a lifestyle of prayer to God.  One of the points which was spot on was an explanation of what is commonly called "The Lord's Prayer," a prayer commonly recited.  This is ironic, as Jesus had just warned His disciples about vain repetition in prayer during the Sermon on the Mount!  Then Jesus said, "In this manner therefore pray, 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name.'"  Because Jesus told His disciples to follow His manner of prayer, some have interpreted this to be a "model" prayer.  I have heard different explanations of how this model should be used.  In his book, Manny Mill goes a refreshingly different direction.  He points out the words of Jesus are more than an affirmation of God's holiness, and actually are a request for God's name to be hallowed and glorified in everything.  All the requests from this point were with this in mind.

Mill quoted Dr. John Piper concerning this point in a message he delivered:  "In this petition, we hear explicitly (it may be implicit in the others, but only here is it explicit) - we hear the one specific response of the human heart that God requires of all human beings - the hallowing, reverencing, honouring, esteeming, admiring, valuing, treasuring of God's name above all things.  None of the other five requests tells us explicitly to pray for a specific human response of the heart." (Mill, Manny, Harold Smith, and Barbara Mill. Radical Prayer: The Power of Being Bold and Persistent. 77. Print.)  This explains the heart behind the prayers of Christ, that in all things God would be praised, worshiped, and reverenced.   This is the why of prayer, for God to be consecrated and above all in power and glory.  To pray for the glory of God and to hallow His name will change the way we pray and honour God through prayer like never before.  Manny shared how this realisation transformed his prayer life.  He wrote,

"When I began to fully grasp that our aim, at all times, is to hallow God's holy name, my prayer life was transformed.  Take the petition for daily bread, for example.  Previously, I would ask God to supply my family's needs, which Jesus tells us is something we should pray for.  However, I now realised that I needed to make this request more out of my concern for God's glory that for my family's actual needs.  In other words, I now ask God the Father to provide my daily bread so that I will have energy to hallow His name through prayer.  I ask for my family's provisions so that they too will be able to hallow God's name and live lives that show others the faithfulness of God.

I saw that praying for God to keep me from temptation and to deliver me from the evil one was not so much about my avoiding the painful consequences of sin as it was that God's name would be glorified through the testimony of my transferred life.  How can I come into His presence to hallow his name in prayer if I am involved in sin?  How can I testify to others of His transforming power if I give in to the sinful temptations around me?  I can't.  Therefore, I pray that God will deliver me from temptations and keep me from sinning in order that I may glorify Him in all that I do." (ibid. 79-80.)

Might this insight transform your prayer life too, that our requests would be made to hallow God's name and make Him look awesome rather than just asking for ourselves?  He is already awesome beyond compare, and as He heard and answered the prayers of Jesus Christ so He will respond to all who desire and seek to hallow God's name.  Our motive for praying is as important - perhaps even more important - than the words we use or our specific requests because God knows us and what we need even before we ask Him!  God is looking and listening for those praying in the Holy Spirit whose motives are aligned with His will.  God will see His name hallowed without our help, but what a gracious blessing we are invited to join with Him to that end.

God Lifts Us Up

Yesterday marked the opening day for the National Football League regular season.  After my sons arrived home from school in the afternoon, we watched the San Diego Chargers lose a game in overtime to the division rival Kansas City Chiefs.  It was more than just a tough loss to a division foe on the road, but far worse than that was our best receiver went down in the first half with a torn ACL.  Having endured that injury myself, I know it will be a long and painful road back for Keenan Allen.

Health is a precarious thing, especially for gridiron players.  There have been at least five or six season-ending injuries for Charger's starting players on offense by the end of the first game!  Players work offseason and training camp to be fit to play in the NFL, and to see it all over in an instant was hard to watch.  Number 13 was firing on all cylinders in the game and was unstoppable.  Move after move, catch after catch, he rose from the turf triumphant, celebrating each first down.  After a spectacular grab he placed his hand to his ear, having silenced the crowd.  He was letting the Kansas City players hear all about it too, charged up over a fast 21-3 advantage.  But suddenly, shockingly, there he was curled up on the ground.  No one had tackled him.  He simply was running and untouched fell to the ground as if a sniper took out his right knee.  For Keenan Allen, one of the best in the business, his game and 2016 season came to a end with six receptions.

My heart went out to the man as I watched him sob uncontrollably as he was carted off the field.  He couldn't hide his disappointment, and he was man enough not to attempt to hide his broken heart behind a stoic facade and a "thumbs up" as the game resumed.  I couldn't help notice the difference between the confident strut after catching a pass and the broken man hauled off the field, his jersey soaked with tears.  It was a contrast as stark as night and day.  I have seen the same thing in MMA fighters who all talk a big game before the fight.  Listening to all the trash talking makes it sound like neither combatant could possibly lose.  But within a matter of seconds, minutes, or a round or two, one of them is bloodied, tapping out, or unconscious on the canvas.  Champions fall.  Dreams are dashed.  Plans change abruptly without warning.  A knee ligament which has been strong for decades suddenly fails.  What then?  How will we respond when it happens to us?

All strength and success of men comes to an end, yet God's divine strength and resources are without limit.  We will fail others, and our health may fail us, but in all things we are more than conquerors through faith in Jesus Christ.  Life if more than games, health, and winning.  Those who humbly place their faith in Christ have new life and love nothing can ever separate us from.  God reminded His people in Isaiah 40:28-31:  "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. ²⁹  He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. ³⁰  Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, ³¹  but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."  Keeping your chin up is sometimes impossible, but the LORD is the lifter of our heads.  In looking to God we find ourselves miraculously sustained and can rejoice even when these bodies fail.  When our bodies let us down, God lifts us up.