One Minute with God

Martin and Gracia Burnham lived and served as missionaries in the Philippines for fifteen years. Martin flew a red and white Cessna into the jungle to bring supplies to their New Tribes Mission colleagues and transport tribal people to medical appointments. Gracia (pronounced “gray-sha”) homeschooled their three children, took care of their home, cared for missionary guests, and manned the flight radio.

The couple arrived at Dos Palmas Resort on the 26th of May, 2001. They planned a one night stay to celebrate their eighteenth anniversary, which Gracia almost cancelled because she questioned the $200 “extravagance.” 

On May 27, in the dark early morning hours, three Abu Syyaf terrorists banged on the door of their beach cabin. Martin and Gracia were abducted at gunpoint.

The Burnhams, along with eighteen other guests and employees of Dos Palmas Resort, were dragged from their rooms and loaded into a drug-running type of boat. All but three hostages were Philippine citizens. 

The boat, filled beyond its capacity with twenty hostages and about fifteen Abu Sayyaf, raced across the open water of the Sulu Sea. At sundown they were transferred to a seventy-five foot hijacked fishing boat, where the fishermen and ten to twenty Abu Sayyaf were waiting. 

After five days on the water, they landed on Basilan. The Abu Sayyaf had established their stronghold on this small heavily wooded island in the 1990s. 

The hostages knew a ransom would be required for their freedom. Many began discussing how much money their families or business associates could raise. Some were allowed to go home to raise money, while their spouses remained in captivity. But Martin and Gracia were missionaries. They weren’t business people whose companies would be willing to pay terrorists to free them. And their families were not rich in worldly goods.

The Abu Sayyaf wanted one million dollars for the Burnhams, which neither their mission organization nor government was willing to pay. They would need to be rescued.

For over a year, the Burnhams had no hot water, no electricity, no bed, no bathroom, no Bible. They had none of the basic things needed to live with any semblance of comfort or privacy. They slept on the jungle floor, with no pillow or blanket. Martin slept handcuffed to a tree; his captors feared he might try to escape during the night.

Gunfights between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), who were trying to rescue the hostages, and the Abu Sayyaf were a constant threat. After the first of seventeen gunfights, the hostages knew the possibility of being killed by the AFP during a rescue attempt was greater than the hope of being rescued by them. Unfortunately, the Armed Forces of the Philippines were not trained for the type of rescue mission that would be required.

Many days were spent hiking through the jungle in an effort to stay undetected by the AFP. That meant long hours of making trails through thick underbrush, uphill and downhill, sometimes barefoot, until they were exhausted.

In the final days of their captivity, Martin and Gracia focused on this Psalm, “Serve the Lord with gladness: come before His presence with singing.” Martin said, “We might not leave this jungle alive, but at least we can leave this world serving the Lord with gladness.” Which is exactly what he did.

On June 7, 2002, in a rescue attempt by Philippine soldiers, Gracia was injured and rescued. Martin was killed by three gunshots. 

You can read more about the Burnham’s experience in Gracia’s book, “In the Presence of My Enemies,” or by visiting www.GraciaBurnham.org. Their story encourages me to know, without a doubt, by life or by death, God will see his children through every trial.

In 2009, several retail giants, in an effort to be politically correct, took the word Christmas out of their November and December advertising campaigns. After much criticism, bad press and boycotts, most of those retailers sang a different tune in 2010.

I wrote a column back when all of this was going on. So I pulled it out of my file cabinet, revised and updated it, and thought I’d share it with you: Imagine if There Were No Christmas.

I’m always in search of the perfect word, the one word that says exactly what I’m trying to say. The perfect word usually has just one or two syllables. Its meaning is well-known. It’s never trendy, overused or outdated. 

Editor and author, Chuck Sambuchino, understands the importance of word choice. He says, “You’re a writer because you’re obsessed with making your ideas clearer, tighter, fiercer.” That’s what finding the perfect word is all about.

We’re being told once again that Christmas is a bad word, when really it’s the most perfect word of all. Hop online and you’ll see that many people think saying “Happy Holidays” is much more respectful than saying “Merry Christmas.” One article states, “We must break the habit of saying ‘Merry Christmas’ to strangers.”  Another article says that until recently saying “Merry Christmas” was the same as saying “have a good day,” but now it causes division.

Let’s imagine, for a moment, a world with no Christmas. Imagine December being as uneventful as May. Imagine having no thoughts of buying or receiving just the right gift. Imagine having no family gatherings or lighted trees; no home-baked cookies or candy canes; no Christmas carols or bedtime stories. 

I don’t want to live in a country where the Festival of the Dead is celebrated, but the birthday of a Savior is ignored; where Santa Claus and an elf on a shelf are exalted, but Jesus Christ is considered taboo.

If not for Christmas, guilt for our sins would torment us for all eternity. There would be no second chances. God’s forgiveness would be unattainable, because a sufficient sacrifice for our sins was not made. There would be no hope of heaven, because no amount of good works can earn us a residence there. 

Believers in God would be forced to follow Old Testament laws, without ever finding God’s grace in the New Testament. “For the law was given through Moses,” but “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

If not for Christmas, the invisible God would remain invisible. But in Christ, we see God. 

Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8-9). John said, “No one has ever seen God,” but “the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18).

So, you see, Christmas is the perfect word. And “Merry Christmas” is the best greeting of all!

On July 8, 1741, thirty-seven year old Jonathan Edwards stepped behind the pulpit. Dread and fear consumed him, but not for himself. His concern was for those whom he was about to address. I’ve read that he spoke softly and simply, in monotone. His audience at any other time may have yawned at his unexcitable delivery. With urgency and quiet conviction he spoke. “O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in.” 

He saw his audience as men walking over the pit of hell on a rotten covering with innumerable places in this covering so weak that it would not bear their weight. He saw the devil standing ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at whatever moment God permitted him. He saw all men who had not turned to Christ for salvation as hanging “by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it and ready every moment to burn it assunder.”

I haven’t been able to dismiss the image of that slender thread since my first reading of what many consider the most famous sermon ever given, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” 

Edwards’ sermon was meant to bring listeners to at least some realization of the horror of their state. He believed unconverted men and women were objects of God’s great displeasure; they had offended and outraged him by turning away from his incredible goodness in providing for their salvation by sending his own son to be crucified on their behalf. 

Truly, the fear of dropping into hell gripped the minds and hearts of Edwards’ listeners. It has been reported that Edwards was interrupted many times by men and women crying out, “What must I do to be saved?” 

I, too, am sometimes consumed by the fear of hell. I feel Edwards’ sense of urgency. I think we can all agree with his assessment, “The world tries to prove that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step will not be into another world, but to no avail. The unseen, unthought-of ways and means by which people suddenly go out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable.” We all know this is true. We’ve all been shocked and saddened by the unexpected death of a coworker, friend or family member. 

I’m thankful that in Christ there is hope beyond the grave. We are living in the day of opportunity, the day of God’s grace. As Edwards put it: “And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood.” 

That door of mercy is still wide open. And Jesus is still calling, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

I recently heard myself saying to friends, “I wish I lived when my grandparents lived; they didn’t have the problems we have now.” As I walked away from the couple to whom I was speaking, I realized the foolishness of that statement.

My grandpa, who was born in 1898, was three months old when the United States declared war on Spain. Grandpa was one year old, when the First Philippine Republic declared war on the United States. On September 14, 1901, President William McKinley was assassinated. Grandpa was three years old.

Grandpa enlisted in the Army and fought in World War I. He was nineteen years old.

“The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, the deadliest in history, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide—about one-third of the planet’s population—and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims, including some 675,000 Americans” (https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/1918-flu-pandemic). Grandpa was in his early twenties. 

In 1925, only half of all homes in the U.S. had electric power.

Grandpa had just celebrated his thirty-first birthday when the Great Depression began. The worldwide devastation lasted for ten years. “When the Great Depression reached its lowest point, some 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half the country’s banks had failed” (https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/great-depression-history). 

In 1940, nearly half of all homes didn’t have hot piped water, a bathtub, or a flush toilet.

A few years after Grandpa’s fortieth birthday, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The United States became fully engaged in the Second World War. And then there was the Korean War and the Vietnam War. 

On November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy,  in Dallas, Texas. Grandpa was sixty-four. On April 4, 1968, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. On June 6, the same year, Sirhan Sirhan assassinated presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles, California.

These are merely a taste of the struggles and troubles of my grandparent’s generation. After considering these few, I will never again say I wish I lived then, instead of now. But rather, I’ll remember that each generation has its own problems. 

I’ll remember Queen Esther from the Bible. In the face of great adversity, she and her older cousin Mordecai contemplated the possibility that God had brought them to their positions “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). And indeed He did. 

I’ll heed King Solomon’s warning, “Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this” (Ecclesiastes 7:10).

The trials of this life can be pretty disheartening, until we put our trust in Jesus’ who said: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). 

One of my favorite things is my grandma’s oatmeal cookie recipe. It’s a framed copy of the butter-stained treasure that’s been used to make hundreds of frosted oatmeal cookies with sprinkles. 

Every birthday card Grandma gave me, every note, and every Bible verse she wrote out was a work of art. Even her grocery lists were written with care. Grandma had beautiful penmanship. After she died, I found little bits of paper here and there: a list of things for Grandpa to pick up at the hardware store, a poem written on a small scrap, a favorite verse tucked away in an old book or left in a drawer. How I would have loved to find a journal! But Grandma didn’t journal.

My bookshelves, however, are loaded with journals. To overflowing! And that’s not all. My file cabinets are filled with manuscripts, some published, some in process, and some waiting to be discovered after I’m gone. 

I love words. But I never considered myself a writer. I remember a lady coming up to me after a speaking engagement. She said she always aspired to be a published author—I never did. And I still don’t have the drive it takes to try to write a best-seller.

When I was a little girl, and people asked me, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I said, “I want to be like my mom.” I wanted to be a good wife and mother—a homemaker. But I always loved to write.

In my teenage years I wrote to my grandma; she lived in Tinley Park; we lived in Ottawa. We kept in touch every week with letters. 

My family moved to Ottawa during my sophomore year of high school; my best friend’s family moved to Agra, Kansas. So Karen and I wrote to each other every week. Back in those days, writing was the only way to stay connected. Neither of us could afford a long-distance phone call. But a stamp, back in 1973, cost only eight cents.

In my twenties and beyond, I wrote lessons for my Sunday school class, skits for the Christmas program, Voice of the People articles, the hospice newsletter, greeting cards, columns for The Write Team and many other masterpieces that, I’m sure, my family will one day cherish! LOL!

I used to think everyone wrote stuff down. But they don’t.

Writers are people who need to put the things they care about into words—on paper—and I’m one of them. 

Chuck Sambuchino, on the Writer’s Digest blog says, “It’s not the published book that makes you a writer. You’re a writer because of… the joy you feel stringing the right words together so they sound like music. You’re a writer because you’re obsessed with making your ideas clearer, tighter, fiercer. You’re a writer because you have every reason to stop… but you can’t. It’s not that you love to write so much as you need to write.”

Aren’t you glad we have words? Of all God’s creation, human beings are the only ones who communicate with words. Words can do evil and good, they can bless and they can curse, they can encourage or bring despair. 

The Bible has a lot to say about words. It tells us to let our words be few. But it also encourages us to speak the truth with boldness and clarity, courage and conviction, compassion and kindness. And isn’t that what writers love to do! 

The Vermillionville Cemetery is a short walk from our house. Headstones date back to the 1700s. The age of the deceased is inscribed on many tombstones, in years, months and days. A baby died five days after his birth. The simple words Mother and Father are etched on two stones the size of shoe boxes—no dates, no names. Inscriptions are impossible to read on several grave markers; the letters have been worn down by years of sun and rain, snow and storms. Some gravestones are broken and lying in small heaps. 

I love walking through these relics of days gone by and thinking about the people who walked the same streets I walk, who have died, and whose souls have gone on to their eternal dwellings.

John Trapp, a theologian who lived over four-hundred years ago, said, “There is a perfect time for a man to die, which, if he knew all there was to know about life, he would choose that time and no other.” I considered that quote often during the pandemic. Covid-19 had us all thinking about life and death.

One of the things that stands out most to me about the pandemic is our passion for life. We love life and want to live it to the fullest for as long as possible. The desire for life is a good thing. Death is an enemy that will one day be defeated (1 Corinthians 15:26). But for now, it’s still the enemy.

Hezekiah, who lived in the 700s b.c., was a man like us. The Bible tells us he became sick and was at the point of death. Isaiah the prophet came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.” The Bible says, “Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, ‘Now, O Lord, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.’” And then Hezekiah wept bitterly. He didn’t want to die. (Hezekiah’s story is found in 2 Kings 20:1-6.)

I, too, want to live for as long as possible, but I’m not worried about dying. I believe, as did the Psalmist, that all the days ordained for me were written in God’s book, before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16). I believe, as King Solomon and the apostle Paul did, that the day of my death will be better than the day of my birth (Ecclesiastes 7:1, Philippians 1:21). I believe, as John Trapp did, that the perfect time for me to die is settled in the heart of God. I’m good with that. I have confidence that God will keep me alive until that day. 

If I get Covid again, or cancer, or if I receive a terminal prognosis and death seems imminent, I’ll pray like Hezekiah did. I’ll remind God that I can’t serve or praise Him on this earth, if my body is in the grave. I’ll weep for the loss of this life and for loved ones left behind. I’ll ask God for more days and years here. And perhaps he will grant my request. But if not, I know I will have lived all the days God planned for me.

In case you’re wondering, God heard heard Hezekiah’s prayer and saw his tears. God healed him and added fifteen years to his life. 

If there’s something I can do to live a better life, I want to do it. So, when statements about  the importance of living authentically started coming up in conversations, I had to look into it. 

I found a lot of information about the need for a person to be his or her authentic self. And plenty of advice on how to discover who we truly are. One online advisor says, “Authenticity illuminates the path forward to live the life you want.” Authenticity is explained as being true to our own personality, values, and spirit, regardless of the pressures we are under to act otherwise (www.mindtools.com).

Brene Brown says, “Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we are supposed to be and embracing who we actually are” (www.mindful.org).

That sounds like something worth considering, doesn’t it?

We are told that we were born our authentic selves and that society’s expectations force us to become someone other than who we really are.

But I have a problem: I don’t like my authentic self. I often struggle with selfishness. I have to fight against arrogance. As soon as I think I’ve gotten rid of a prideful attitude, there it is again! 

I’m not happy when things don’t go my way. I like to do what I want to do, when I want to do it. Sometimes I judge people. Sometimes unwelcome thoughts burst into my mind. Sometimes I say things, foolish words, that I deeply regret. If the cashier at Walmart is crabby with me, my initial response usually isn’t one of compassion and kindness. 

These attitudes are sinful. I hate seeing them in myself, and so does God. 

The Bible says all men are born with this propensity for sin. It’s what theologians call our sin nature or our flesh, which is present from the moment of our conception (Psalm 51:5). We might not all struggle with the same sins, but we all struggle.

I know how the apostle Paul felt when he said, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” (Romans 7:15-18).

According to Paul, being our authentic selves is not a good thing: “No one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:11-12). 

Paul’s grief over his own sin is unmistakable: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Paul had no desire to embrace his authentic self; he looked forward to being rescued from it. 

Jeremiah the prophet knew what Paul had later discovered, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” 

I know the passions of my flesh are against the things God desires. “They are in conflict with each other” (Galatians 5:17). So, instead of being true to my authentic self, I strive, with the supernatural assistance of the Holy Spirit, to live up to the new creation that I am in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). And I rejoice in the God who saves. He knows my weaknesses. He remembers that we are dust. He is quick to forgive all who come to him in repentance and faith, believing in the One who died in our place.

I sat across the table from the man who would officiate at my dad’s funeral. He was my pastor at the time. My dad had died the day before. Since they had never met, I started to tell him about my dad—about how he brought our family of six to Oak Lawn Bible Chapel every Sunday, about what we believed, and about my dad’s spiritual well-being, as far as I knew. 

I would have told him more, but with a wave of his hand he interrupted me. “Oh, I just put everybody in Heaven.” No further discussion necessary. 

His words comforted me because he put my dad in Heaven. But at the same time, they troubled me. If he puts everybody in Heaven, putting my dad there meant nothing.

And what a strange thing for a Baptist minister to say. Baptists are known for believing a person must be born again to have eternal life. How could a pastor who believed Jesus’ words, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3), just put everybody in Heaven? 

I understand his motivation. Pastors want to give words of comfort to grieving families. But I wonder if this man’s practice of saying everybody goes to Heaven might be the worst thing a pastor can say, and the last thing the deceased would want him to say. 

Jesus told a story about two men, Lazarus and a rich man (Luke 16:19-31). The rich man wore the best clothes and feasted sumptuously every day. Lazarus, a poor man, laid at the rich man’s gate. Sores covered his body. He ate only the table scraps that were thrown to the dogs. Eventually, both men died. 

The poor man was “carried by the angels to Abraham’s side”. This expression is used as a figure for Heaven. Pastor and Bible teacher, John MacArthur, says, “Lazarus was given a place of high honor, reclining next to Abraham at a heavenly banquet.” 

The rich man died and went to the place of torment. He begged for mercy, but it was too late. He was desperate for a drop of water to cool his tongue, but he would have to go without. “Then I beg you,” the rich man said to Abraham, “send Lazarus to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.”

I was raised in a church where we were often warned about Hell. It seems that might be a thing of the past. The late R.C. Sproul, founder and chairman of Ligonier Ministries, stated: “We have so eliminated the last judgment from our thinking, and expunged any notion of divine punishment, or of Hell, from our thinking, and from the church’s thinking, that it is now an assumption that all you have to do to go to Heaven is to die.”

Maybe that’s why most Americans don’t expect to experience Hell first-hand. According to a Barna Group survey, 76% of adults believe that Heaven exists. Nearly the same proportion believe there is a Hell (71%). However, just one-half of 1% of adults in America expect to go to Hell upon their death.

Yet the Bible is clear: “Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). 

I suppose the most urgent duty of this life is to become certain of where we will spend the next. 

Taylor Street Market was a quaint little grocery store on the west side of Ottawa, Illinois. I worked there under the watchful eye of the owners, who seemed to have a difficult time trusting this high-school sophomore. My duties included stocking shelves, putting eggs in cartons, making sure dairy products were lined up according to their expiration dates, and pricing items. Back in the 70s, we put the price on everything in the store. If the price changed before an item sold, we removed the old price with a little sponge drenched in solvent, and then stamped on the new price. 

A few years later, I worked at Jim’s Supermarket on Norris Drive. Those were the days when cashiering was fun. We visited with customers as we entered the price of every can of soup, carton of eggs, and pack of gum into the old-fashioned registers. Everybody paid with cash. And then it happened…

You would think we’d all jump for joy when someone invented barcodes. But we didn’t. We liked seeing a price tag on every item. We trusted people more than computers. And some of us were certain this new fangled way at the grocery store put us one step closer to the mark of the beast. 

Questions about the mark of the beast, which is described in the last book of the Bible, seem to come up more now than ever. These are important questions, for if you believe the Bible, you don’t ever want to take the mark. 

According to the Bible, a few things will happen before the mark is mandated.

Two men will have to rise onto the world scene: the false prophet and the Antichrist, who is referred to as the beast in Scripture. The Antichrist will be primarily a political and military leader. The false prophet will be a religious leader. The false prophet will convince the world to worship the Antichrist, as though he is God. Death will be the penalty for those who choose not to submit to the Antichrist’s rule.

Revelation 13:16-17 says the false prophet will force “all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.”

To prove allegiance to this one who usurps the authority that belongs to Jesus Christ alone, all men will be required to receive the mark. John F. Walvoord says, “There is no need for a complicated explanation. The mark is simply a token that [those who have it] are beast worshipers, and it serves as an identification necessary to conduct business and to purchase the necessities of life. It is another device to force all people to worship the beast” (https://walvoord.com/article/271).

John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in California, says, “Without the identifying mark, individuals will be cut off from the necessities of life.”

With the rise of interest in vaccine passports, cryptocurrency, a cashless society, microchipping technology, and a one world government, it seems silly that we were alarmed by a barcode.

[First published in The Daily Times and News Tribune, 2022]

“Prayers outlive the lives of those who uttered them; outlive a generation, outlive an age, outlive a world,” said E.M. Bounds, author of eight classics on prayer, only two of which were published before he died in 1913. I believe he is correct. 

I had a grandmother who prayed. I’m still reaping the benefits of her prayers, even though she died thirty-three years ago. 

I know of a woman who fervently prayed for her children. She has gone home to heaven, but her prayers live on. I mingle my prayers with hers by praying for the family she left behind. What a privilege to be able to pray—in a sense—with her. 

Two thousand years ago, Jesus prayed for the disciples who were in His presence and for everyone who would trust in Him throughout all generations (John 17:20). His prayer is still accomplishing much in the lives of His followers.

I used to think praying should be spontaneous—just say whatever enters your mind. Now I know better. Prayer is a discipline that must be learned and practiced. 

I think prayer is one of the most difficult Christian disciplines. I’m sixty-five years old, but I only recently learned how to pray well. I could read my Bible for hours, but praying for more than a few minutes at a time seemed like an impossibility. I wanted to pray longer, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t. My mind wandered—a lot. I seemed to pray the same things over and over again, just mindless repetition. 

I tried praying on my knees, sitting in a chair, lying in bed, and even going into the bathroom, closing the door, and sitting on the floor. I’d set a goal to pray for a half hour. After praying for everything and everybody I could think of, I’d look at the clock, only to find that I had prayed for less than ten minutes. 

I tried using a prayer list. That didn’t work. Going to God with a list of requests never seemed right. And I always felt guilty about those who didn’t make my list. 

On May 4, 2018, everything changed, when I began writing down my prayers and using God’s Word as my guide. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pastor, author and prisoner of war in Nazi Germany, was my example for praying the Word of God. He used the Psalms as his prayer book. Whenever he had a problem or concern, he took his Psalter to a private place and prayed as David did to the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3). 

In his book, Psalms, The Prayer Book of the Bible, he states, “The phrase ‘learning to pray’ sounds strange to us. But it is a dangerous error…to think that the heart can pray by itself. If we wish to pray with confidence and gladness, then the words of Holy Scripture will have to be the solid basis of our prayer.”

Bonhoeffer’s imprisonment ended in his execution which ushered him into the presence of the God to whom he prayed.

I can’t imagine life without prayer. Praying God’s Word has become one of my favorite things to do. Whenever I can, I slip away to a quiet place, open my Bible and prayer journal, and pray. God is so good. He meets me there every time!

[First published July 2023, The Daily Times]

There’s a genre in Christian publishing in which authors write from God’s point of view. Sarah Young’s bestseller, Jesus Calling, is one of those books, with a twist. Young believes she writes the very words of God. 

“I knew that God communicated with me through the Bible, but I yearned for more. I wanted to hear what God had to say to me personally on a given day,” Young explains in her 2004 devotional debut. So she decided to listen to God with pen in hand, writing down her “personal messages from God.” 

Young admits that her writings are not “inspired as Scripture is,” and that, “the Bible is, of course, the only inerrant Word of God.” However, it seems she believes her messages are better, for they address the felt needs of Christians who are “searching for a deeper experience of Jesus’ Presence and Peace.” 

Since its publication, Jesus Calling has appeared on all of the major bestseller lists. According to the publisher, Thomas Nelson, the Jesus Calling brand line has surpassed 35 million units sold. 

I can understand its popularity. If God actually spoke to someone, I would want to know what he said. But is Young’s book a reliable source? Does God speak to people today?

John Piper gives good insight in an article titled, “The Morning I Heard the Voice of God.” Commenting on an article published in Christianity Today, written by a professor at a well-known Christian university, who also claims to have heard the voice of God, Piper states, “What’s sad is that it really does give the impression that extra-biblical communication with God is surpassingly wonderful and faith-deepening. I grieve at what is being communicated here. The great need of our time is for people to experience the living reality of God by hearing his word personally and transformingly in Scripture.”

Jesus Calling raised some troubling questions for me: Should I be longing for more than the Bible? Is the Bible really enough? Am I missing out on a deeper experience of Jesus’ presence and peace? 

So, I asked God, and He answered me through his Word: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  And in Psalm 19:7: “The law of the Lord is perfect.” Nothing needs to be added. Every word is what God has to say to us personally on any given day. 

I agree with the psalmist who said, “How sweet are you words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:103-105). I know of nothing better than that.

Justin Peters sums it up well in his sermon titled, “How To Know the Voice of God,” at GTY.org: “If you want to hear God speak, read the Bible. If you want to hear God speak audibly, read it out loud.”

[First published January 12, 2022, The Daily Times]

He meets with me both day and night,
and listens as my words take flight.
He knows my needs, my every care,
before I say a word in prayer.
But come I must, it’s my delight,
to meet with God, both day and night.
There all my cares and worries flee;
through prayer my Maker rescues me.

“Cast all your anxieties on him,
because he cares for you.”
1 Peter 5:7

God of glory,
Lord of might,
in this darkness,
be our light.
In this turmoil,
reign supreme;
let thy beauty,
Lord, be seen.
Let thy mercy
on us stay;
for thy will,
Oh Lord, we pray.

“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
    Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
    awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”
Exodus 15:11 (ESV)

Lord God, you are our refuge and strength, our very present help in times of trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, no matter who becomes President, or which party fills the Senate. We will not fear, for you are our refuge and very present help in times of trouble.

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1 ESV

All thanks to you, Lord God. Every good and perfect gift has been given by you. You grant us grace again and again. You offer us mercy over and over. Your love overflows; your kindness pours out; your faithfulness is showered upon us. We praise and thank you, Lord God. Every good gift comes from you, our good God.

Every good gift and every perfect gift 
is from above, coming down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
James 1:17 ESV

The nations may rage, and the kingdoms totter, but when you speak, Lord God, all else falls away and becomes as nothing. The LORD of mighty hosts is with us–our warrior God! The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is our God. The God of Moses, David and Joseph fights for us. You, Almighty God, are our fortress, our stronghold, our deliverer, Savior and friend.

The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
    he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah.
Psalm 46:6-7 ESV

May 2021 be a year of
CONFIDENCE IN CHRIST,
Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. Hebrews 12:2-3

COURAGE IN CONFLICT,
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

CLARITY IN PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL,
At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ…that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Colossians 4:3-4

CONVICTION THAT MOTIVATES GOOD WORKS,
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14

CONFORMITY TO GOD’S WORD,
Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart. Psalm 119:2

COMPASSION FOR THE LOST,
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:17

CONSTANT PRAYER,
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6

AND THE CONSOLATION OF ALL WHO BELIEVE.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:3-4

Intervene, LORD God, for the sake of your people and your glory. So be it.

Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day! Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!
Psalm 74:22-23 ESV

Oh, Lord, please magnify your name in all the earth. Put the fear of you into the hearts of men–then other fears will flee, and sin will be hated. Oh, Lord, magnify and exalt your name in all the earth.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
Psalm 34:3 ESV

I struggle, complain and am confused, until I come to you, Lord God, until I come into your sanctuary, until I come to your Holy Word. Then I learn the truth; then I know their end, and our everlasting joys. They are destroyed in a moment; we will live forever with you. Oh, let us turn from our sinful ways, before it’s too late.

But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
Psalm 73:16-19 ESV