Herrnhut, Moravians, and Surrendering All

Around 1720 in Germany there was a man by the name of Count Zinzendorf. He opened his land to persecuted Moravian believers encouraging them to settle and build a community. They did. There were difficult times at first, but God began to move in their midst. They eventually started a prayer meeting that last 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 125 years. From these prayers came results described in these words.

"The sending out of hundreds of Christian missionaries to many parts of the world including the Caribbean, North and South America, the Arctic, Africa, and the Far East.  The Moravian missionaries were the first large scale Protestant missionary movement. They were also the first to send unordained "lay" people rather than trained professional clergymen. They were the first to go to the slaves, and the first in many countries of the world. Among the first Moravian missionaries were a potter named Leonard Dober and a carpenter named David Nitschmann who went to the Caribbean island of St Thomas in 1732. They sold themselves into slavery in order to reach the slaves there." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Moravian_Church)

Praying Like Christ

Prayer is a key part of life with Christ but it is often misunderstood. To some it is a mystery. To some it is a duty. To some it is a burden. To others it is a way of life. To others it is a luxury if you have time for it. To others it is only an action for the weak. Some claim that it works and other can’t remember the last time a prayer request was answered.

It is in Jesus we find the answers to our questions about prayer. In Matthew 6:10, Jesus prays “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. ” How could He pray that? Because He knew what things were like in heaven and what things were like on earth. He is our model. He is our guide. He is the only one who knows the pain of the world and the true reality of the Father. He understood how this world works and how God works in it. With this in mind what did Jesus do? He prayed. . . a lot.

Spiritual Act of Worship

2 Timothy 2:4 we see that “no one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs – he wants to please his commanding officer.” As we seek God with all of our heart and die to our own agendas, He will begin to guide us to where we need to invest our lives. Having a spouse is a beautiful part of life once we are directed to it by our “commanding officer”. Until then our duty is to chase wholeheartedly after God as only a single person can.

George Mueller’s Secret

To one who asked him the secret of his service, George Mueller said: “There was a day when I died, utterly died;” and, as he spoke, he bent lower and lower until he almost touched the floor—“died to George Muller, his opinions, preferences, tastes, and will—died to the world, its approval or censure—died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends—and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God.”

—British Weekly

Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations : A Treasury of Illustrations, Anecdotes, Facts and Quotations for Pastors, Teachers and Christian Workers, electronic ed. (Garland TX: Bible Communications, 1979; Published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems, 1997).

Potential Glory - Part Two

We see the idea of potential glory in the story of the Israelites. In chapters 13 and 14 of Exodus we see the Israelites who had been freed from slavery. God had heard their cries and had delivered them from the power of the Egyptians.

After several days of traveling, God leads them to a “dead-end.” The Red Sea is in front of them and mountains are on the sides. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, hears about this “mistake” and decides that he should never have let them go. He calls out his army and marches after the Israelites.

Potential Glory - Part One

A story is told of a young single missionary who lived in a simple rented apartment. The owner of the apartment was often difficult to relate with. Sometimes the owner would be very demanding, would not make repairs when needed, or would raise the rent unexpectedly. It was difficult for the young missionary, but she asked for God's help to forgive and not become bitter.

"The Wilderness Within" by Ruth Haley Barton

"The spiritual journey is not a career or a success story.  It is a series of humiliations of the false self that become more and more profound.” Fr. Thomas Keating 

     I agree with this statement. I don’t like it… but I know it is true.  And it makes me wonder if any of us are ready for the journey of transformation—really.  We long for more in our spiritual lives, that’s for sure, but I’m not sure we’re ready for the harrowing journey of death to the false self that any true spiritual journey entails.
     We want God as long as we can still have our successes.  We like the idea of being on a journey of faith as long as it doesn’t require too much…well, faith. We long for the Promised Land as long as we don’t have to leave anything behind.
    Read the rest of this great article at  http://www.thetransformingcenter.org/blog/ereflections/the-wilderness-within/

The Necessity of a Bless-able Life

There was an evangelist who used to preach in many countries around the world. His name was Sammy Tippit. On one trip he was traveling through Communist eastern Europe. Somehow He had gained permission to hold evangelistic services that often met in outdoor sports stadiums. He tells how it would often be raining on the day of the meetings. His group would gather and pray that the rain would stop so that people would come to the services, and often times the rain would stop. It was a testimony to the power and love of God for the people of those countries.

The Blessing of Preparation

The father and his 18 year old son had been preparing for months for this difficult hike. They had exercised, bought the right hiking gear, gathered the right food, mapped out the route they would be taking. It would take 8 hours of hard hiking, but those who had gone before said it would be worth the investment. It was 6 hours from home, so they had driven up into the mountains the night before and stayed at a little hotel on the edge of town.

Solitude vs Community

“Let them who cannot be alone beware of community.  He will only do harm to himself and to the community…But the reverse is also true: Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.  Only in the fellowship do we learn to be rightly alone and only in aloneness do we learn to live rightly in the fellowship.”   - D. Bonhoeffer

Solitude brings us into a situation where we sit before the God who knows everything about us. (Our habitual sins, our thought life, the idols of our heart.) We quiet our hearts. We clear our minds. We present ourselves. We may try at first to be someone we are not, but if we will remain in his presence consistently He will begin to show us who we really are.