There is a subtle difference
that divides the religious
from the truly Christian. Something a prayer
prayed by Arthur Burns reminded
me of.
Arthur Burns was a man of
considerable gravity. In
the mid twentieth century, he was the chairman
of the Federal Reserve,
an ambassador to West Germany and served as an
advisor to Presidents from
Eisenhower to Reagan. When Burns spoke,
Washington took notice.
Burns began attending an
informal White House Prayer
meeting during the 1970s. Week after week,
everyone took turns closing
the meeting in prayer. Everyone that is, except
Burns. Burns was consistently
overlooked-out of a mixture of respect for his
beliefs and reticence. Burns
was a Jew.
One week, a newcomer led the
meeting. This person
did not know Burns was a Jew, so he didn't
hesitate in asking Burns to
close the meeting in prayer. The old-timers
watched Burns, wondering what
he would do. Without missing a beat, Burns
reached out, held hands with
the others in the circle and prayed, "Lord, I
pray that you would bring
Jews to know Jesus Christ. I pray that you would
bring Muslims to know
Jesus Christ. Finally, Lord, I pray that you
would bring Christians to
know Jesus Christ."
Today, I join Mr. Burns in
that profound prayer. I
pray for the Jews to come to know their Messiah,
and especially in these
troubling days, I pray for the Muslims to know
Jesus as more than a prophet-to
know Him as Lord and Savior. But I'd also pray
that we Christians would
know Jesus Christ.
Not just know about Him and
participate in rituals
celebrating Him. Not just to fall in love with
His teaching and follow
them. But to know Him.
—The Call, Finding and
Fulfilling The Central Purpose
of Your Life, Oz Guinness, 1998 Word Publishing,
pg. 106. Illustration
by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.
Malachi 3:7 NASB "From the
days of your fathers you
have turned aside from My statutes, and have not
kept them. Return to Me,
and I will return to you," says the Lord of
hosts."
When we pray, we often get
caught up in asking for
things and fail to enter into intimacy with
God. Real intimacy can
only happen when we drop our pretense and open
ourselves up to knowing
God and stop hiding from him.
In his book Intentional
Disciplemaking, Ron Bennett
writes, “Intimacy with Christ involves
vulnerability, priority, and consistency-it
is never gained where exposure is limited.
Holding back from allowing Christ
to touch every area of your life keeps Him at a
distance, and you will
suffer spiritually for this gap.”
-- Intentional
Disciplemaking, 107. Illustration by
Jim L. Wilson
Psalm 24:3-6 (NIV) “Who may
ascend the hill of the
LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? He who
has clean hands and a pure
heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol
or swear by what is false.
He will receive blessing from the LORD and
vindication from God his Savior.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, O God
of Jacob. Selah”
In his book Prayer:
Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with
God, Timothy Keller says,“Prayer
is
how God gives us so many of the unimaginable
things he has for us. Indeed,
prayer makes it safe for God to give us many of
the things we most desire. It
is the way we know God, the way we finally treat
God as God. Prayer is simply
the key to everything we need to do and be in
life. We must learn to pray. We
have to.”
— Prayer: Experiencing Awe
and Intimacy with God by Timothy
Keller, p. 18
John 11:1 (CSB)
Now
a man was sick, Lazarus from
Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister
Martha.
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