IN
THIS ISSUE
Devotional – The Intensity of Nehemiah
In Other Words
Update on the American
Church
Book Reviews – The Active Life, The World is
Flat
Prayer &
Praise
Devotional
by
I love the book of
Nehemiah. I’ve studied and preached through this book at different times,
looking at it through different lenses. What grabs my attention each time is
that Nehemiah’s intensity almost oozes out of the verses of this great book. For
Nehemiah, rebuilding the walls was not just a 9 to 5 job.
The book opens with
Nehemiah receiving an intelligence report of what was happening in
Linguistic experts who have
studied the original languages in this chapter believe that Nehemiah is saying,
“I’ve spent 40 days in prayer, fasting, weeping, and mourning.” This was not a
program. He did not go to a seminar. There was no one to impress. He was praying
not like the Pharisees in the NT, to be seen by men. He was in the closet. No
one probably knew his burden.
Nehemiah had great
responsibilities within the
This was not a man who
called in sick for a few days. This was not someone who just took a brief
vacation. Nehemiah was someone who said, “The information I have received about
the city of
As I think about Nehemiah’s
intensity for the work, I think about the intensity that has characterized
almost all of the great men and women of scriptural history. Moses
convulsed in anger when he saw how the Egyptians were exploiting the Hebrews.
Jeremiah wept incessantly over the sinful city of
Then you have Paul after
his conversion, who with passion and energy invested his entire lifetime in
traveling from city to city. He was beaten, put in prison, shipwrecked and a
hundred other maladies because he wanted to get the gospel of Christ out to the
entire known world.
And then you have Jesus in
the
Where does this intensity
come from? You see, I am convinced that this kind of intensity is necessary, at
least in principle, to make a mark on this generation with the love of Christ.
It is not going to happen otherwise. So, where does it come from? Let me
make just one observation. I think it comes from prayer. The choice to
pray. Nehemiah’s wasn’t a lunchtime prayer. It wasn’t, “Lord, I’m sorry to
hear about
I believe it is not
insignificant that virtually the entire first chapter of Nehemiah is about
prayer. The ENTIRE first chapter. We as Americans would call for a meeting. We
would then attend a conference to learn more skills. We would put great systems
together and then pray asking God to bless our plans.
Nehemiah just prayed. He prayed. For days he prayed. The entire first chapter of the book of Nehemiah is about prayer. I believe that this is where Nehemiah’s intensity found it genesis, and so I believe it is with us.
In
Other Words
“The dogged fidelity of
Jesus in the face of our indifference to his affection and our rampant
ingratitude for his faithfulness…is a mystery of such mind-bending magnitude
that the intellect buckles and theology bows in its presence. Humbly
acknowledging our limitations, we are driven to the fervent prayer, ‘Lord, I do
believe! Help my lack of trust.’” – Brennan Manning, in Ruthless
Trust
Update
on the
Although this is not
directly a comment on the American church, it does present a “slice of the pie”
in terms of what is happening on the American scene that I think is rather
telling and significant.
The June 27, 2005 issue of
New Yorker Magazine featured as
its most prominent headline, “Running with Jesus” and below, “
Eighty-five percent of the college’s 300 students are home schooled. During their time at PHC, students spend the first two years learning in the “Christian Classical” model, while the latter half of their college career they earn credit through internships and research projects according to a “vocational” model that prepares them for “careers of influence” in politics. Writes Rosin, “Patrick Henry is trying a complicated experiment: taking young evangelicals who have been raised in rarified, controlled atmospheres and training them to become political leaders without somehow being corrupted by the secular world’s demands.”
My purpose
here is not to comment on the mission of this college. I will refrain from
sharing my personal opinion on this matter, but what I would like to do is draw
a couple connections to the American church. One does not need to be in the
American church very long before confronting the issue of home school vs. public
school education and the acute concern about raising Christian children in a
secular environment. I have found, from pastoring in various regions of the
Book
Reviews
The
Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring
by Parker J.
Palmer
In 1998, Dr. Palmer was named one of the 30 most influential leaders in American Higher Education. He is a Quaker. He comes from the contemplative tradition where silence, solitude, and quiet reverence are honored and pursued. Admittedly, Palmer sees himself as an activist in the areas of education and social change.
This book is about the tension that exists between the active and contemplative life. Palmer writes: “Monastic spirituality has been a gift to many people, including me. But the fit between the monastic vision and life in the world of action is not always good. People who try to live by monastic norms sometimes fall so short (‘I just can’t find an hour a day to meditate’) that they end up feeling guilty about leading ‘unspiritual’ lives. People caught in the gap between monastic values and the demands of active life sometimes simply abandon the spiritual quest. And people who follow a spirituality that does not always respect the energies of action are sometimes led into passivity and withdrawal, into a diminishment of their own spirits.”
I have felt this tension throughout my ministry and find Parker’s honest and open treatment of this topic to be incredibly refreshing and helpful. He continues: “Contemplation and action ought not to be at war with one another, and as long as they are we will be at war within ourselves. There are at least two ways toward a cessation of hostilities. One is to recognize that contemplation and action are not contradictions, but poles of a great paradox that can and must be held together. …A second way to end the tug-of-war is simply to acknowledge that different people have different callings.”
This is a good book for the person needing to carefully think through this tension—between being the person on their knees and the one moving quickly about trying to do what must be done.
The
World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First
Century by
Thomas L. Friedman
Thomas Freidman states that
technological advances have moved our societies beyond globalization (his focus
in The Lexus and the Olive Tree)
to a new ground of international interdependence. In The World is Flat, he examines the many
ways this “flattened” world affects our lives on a daily basis. For example, we
experience this phenomenon when we call for customer support on how to upload
features to our cell phone and talk to a person in
Friedman spends the first
half of the book presenting the ten “flatteners” he believes brought about this
new phenomenon. The first flattener Friedman describes is the fall of the Berlin
Wall on Nov. 9, 1989 and the introduction of Windows 3.0 just five months later.
Eastern Europe opened up,
Hans asked each of us on the leadership team to read this book—it is a very important book for our time. The implications for the church and global mission are staggering. One obvious implication is that denominations and mission agencies are no longer the only—or even the preferred—source of information and resources for missions and ministry because the Internet is so close at hand. Part-time theologians and world “experts” speak for many people. No accountability is required—just instant accessibility. Video clips, sermons, educational resources, on-line Christian communities are supplying resources worldwide for the church. According to Friedman, “self-organizing collaborative communities” are developing cutting-edge technologies from all around the globe.
I heartily recommend this book. It will shake up your world, if not flatten it a bit.
Prayer
& Praise
1. Ernie
Eadelman (
2. Pray
for Renee Davis (
3.
Continue to pray for the complete healing of Tom Ward (
4.
Remember the many missionaries returning to the field this month and next:
Powell, Dahl, Paden, Green,
5. Pray that those currently engaged in pre-field ministry and support discovery will have trust and hope to persevere. Pray for regular encouragement and fruitful contacts.