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Jul

A Prayer From A Soul Laid Bare

Categories: Christianity, Crucified Life, Hunger, Intimacy, Jesus Christ, Passion, Prayer and Reign of Christ

Father,

May You, O God, shepherd me to Your private pastures, with cooling waters and fresh, vital springs…draw me into Hungry_noLabel Your Life and introduce me to the reality of practicing Your presence. I ask for Your baptism to flow down over me and drown me in grace. I know well that there is “more” and I aim to go after it. As the deer pants for the waterbrooks, I want my soul to pant after You. Not just words, here, but heart and passion and desire. Rush to me, O God. Call me away. My spirit accepts the invitation to Rise Up and Come Away!

Lord, show me the deepest things, the deepest parts of You. Take me there and may the five sanctified senses in me experience You to the fullest. I yearn to hunger for Your Word again! To meet with You in the closet at our daily appointed time where we can embrace and linger in the air of closeness.

Take me higher! Make my feet as hinds’ feet and walk me upon the craggy heights! Take me from the congregation and draw me to the pinnacle of Your desire for me. All that You have for me is my desire. You are most glorified when I am most satisfied in You and I want and wish to glorify You. May this life hold no attraction for me; I pull from it even if its talons hold on for dear life and rip me apart. May the claim of my life become: “the world is crucified to me and I to the world!”

Put a holy dissatisfaction in me for the things of this world. I do not desire its accolades and acceptance but Yours alone. This is the cry of my spirit! My soul follows far behind at times and has for a long time, but I cannot go on in complacency and indifference. Stir me, Lord. Stir my heart for the things that matter to You and may the crevasse that I have allowed to come between us be bridged by Your gracious invitation to come along and follow hard on Your heels.

I pray for a heart of integrity, hands of skill, a voice of impact, the eyes of Elisha, the baptism of the Spirit and the tongue of the learned. For an inoffensible spirit, unconditional love and the fear of God and not man.

In Jesus’ dear Name, Amen.

Jul

Selah: An Active Rest

By pasturescott 4 Comments

Categories: Christianity, Encouragement, Hearing God, Intimacy, Jesus Christ, Kingdom of God, Obedience, Psalms and Trusting God

Selah. Say-lah.

While the Hebrew word is difficult to translate, most believe it is a musical term that means “pause” or “interlude.” I’ve also read that it could be a worship leader’s direction to change the tempo. For instance, to have the instruments and singers s l o w d o w n, or, in some cases, pick up the cadence. If you dig even deeper, you find the word is also understood to encourage reflection. Like the applause sign in a live studio’s taping session, some suppose it signals to the listener “there is something hidden here; do not miss it…listen very carefully…”

Oh, and a really neat tidbit about “selah” is that it is used in thirty-nine of the Psalms, which is, as you well know, equal to the number of books in the Old Testament. And what is the Old Testament? It is the history of the people of Israel that is written down for our benefit and teaching. You’ll find that hidden little gem of a truth in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

Twice.

Look it up.

The point I am making is that we have been called to a “selah” life. Sometimes we pause. Sometimes we pick up the pace. At times we rest overnight. At other times, we park at the foot of the mountain for a year or so. We sing (“alamoth” at the beginning of Psalm 46 is thought to indicate a choir solo for all the sopranos), we dance, we bow, we kneel. When our Director tells us, we pack up our tents and get a move on. And when He tells us otherwise, we make camp and get our groove on. There is marching and there is standing still. He speaks and we listen or He is silent and we wait.

Right about now some of you are moving into an “aha!” moment. You’re thinking, This is starting to sound like hearing and following the Voice of God and you would be right. Life is way too harsh and unforgiving to attempt on our own. Three million (or more) people moving as one through the desert can get noisy and distracting, so you can see how weekly sabbaths and daily selahs can turn a march into a journey. Likewise, as you and I journey through life, we must be constantly attuned to those inner prickings and promptings from the Holy Spirit:

“Make camp here for awhile. I have something I want to teach you.”

“There is an enemy afoot. Be on guard.”

“Turn here.”

“You need to let go of that. It will be a snare. Give it to Me.”

“You need to spend some time today with her. I will give you words that will encourage her.”

“Wake up. There is much to do.”

The “selah” life is the Spirit-led life. “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons and daughters of God,” the Apostle Paul says. As we pass through this wilderness on the way to Promise, every step walked in faith is a lyric to the Almighty. Every mile is a stanza of praise. Two or three walking together is a church hymn. Tribes and nations journeying as one is a cantata that the angels want to add to their repertoire. As for me, I cannot wait until the grand finale: the Hallelujah chorus!

Selah.

    ⁷O God, when You went forth before Your people,
         When You marched through the wilderness, Selah.
    ⁸The earth quaked;
         The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God;
          Sinai itself quaked at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
                                                                           Psalm 68:7,8

Mar

If Revival Is…

By pasturescott 8 Comments

Categories: Brokenness, Christianity, Hypocrisy, Intimacy, Jesus Christ, Loving God, Purity, Repentance, Revival and Uncategorized

Quote:

REVIVAL is a work of God among Christians bringing them to…

…conviction
         …repentance
                       …confession
                                     …restitution
                                                   …reconciliation
                                                                      …separation from the world

AND

…submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

(Vance Havner)

Closed quote.

If this is indeed what stipulates genuine revival…then…

(And I think you know where I am going with this)

mourner Dare we not fall upon our faces right now? Confessing, Repenting, Mourning, and Getting off the Throne?

Should we not be appealing to God for kindness which leads to repentance?

Should we not be pining for a holy wind to stir the flames of passion within?

Is love abated?

Are the embers turning to ash?

He has charged us to buy gold, refined in the fire. What could this possibly mean? Remember, the Laodiceans boasted of their riches and self-sufficiency (Rev. 3:17). They arrogantly strutted atop the pedestal of prosperity, deceived by the wealth they rolled around in, seeing it as God’s favor all the while pushing Him to the outer margins of their existence. They blindly played at religion and made a good living at it.

Their All-Knowing Judge saw it differently:

“You stink with poverty.”

“Your Sunday best cannot hide your indulgences and adulteries.”

“You no longer look to Me and I have removed light from your eyes.”

“You’ve turned sour in My stomach.”

But there was grace even for them. Yeshua called them to seek—to ask for, to eagerly want!—a crisis in their fellowship. Such crisis as would lead to purity, transformation and a baptism of renewed Love! He said, “I counsel you to BUY FROM ME gold, refined by fire…” The word translated ‘counsel’ means to partner with, agree with…to come to the same conclusion! He’s telling them, in essence, There’s no other way…

But to trust and obey.

“Buy from Me?” Just how was that possible? He had just told them they were POOR. With what currency could this transaction be completed?

You must let Me place you in the furnace.

No God, anything but that! we say.

It’s the only way, Child.

You will never learn to Love Me until all of self is abandoned. Until then, there will always be an obtrusive challenger for My affections…

Now…

This is going to hurt…

But I love you too much to let you go away. Remember My promise to never leave you?

It’s still binding, even in this horrible, beautiful place.

I know the flames scare you. But those very flames are your freedom.

And you want to be free…

Don’t you?

Feb

The Problem With Ya

By pasturescott 14 Comments

Categories: Christianity, Discipleship, Intimacy and Sandy

love-ya It happened on a beach one day. A Man was feeding some others with grilled fish that had been ‘imported’. He had no fishing pole, no boat, no net. The fish…just…appeared. The men who gathered at the Man’s fire were experienced fishermen and had just hit the mother lode that morning and were dragging in their nets bulging with the greatest catch of their lives. But the story wasn’t about their fish so much as it was the Man who was offering them fish from out of the blue. And not sea-blue, either.

Really, the story is about the Man.

And what He is after.

By now all Bible-o-philes know I’m talking about the Man Jesus. He has finished His work as the atoning sacrifice, the Lamb offered for the sin of the world and days have passed since Resurrection Morning. And now, in glorified Body He sits on the beach, grilling fish, serving His Eleven (even Jesus had people leave His church) and eating with them. You’d think that would be the bulk of the breakfast conversation along with fish out of nowhere but it wasn’t.

There on the lakeshore in the misty morning, Jesus trolls for an Undivided Heart through which He can show Himself strong. He calls out Peter and asks, “Simon (his natural birth name), do you love Me?” Of course the rest of the question includes “more than these” and there are as many interpretations of “these” out there as there are denominations, but I just want to sit on these first five words.

I saw three things about that question this morning. First, Jesus reveals something beautiful about Himself through the question. He reveals that He is very interested in BEING LOVED. Secondly, not only does He want to be loved, He wants that love CONFESSED.

Think of your girl (or your man, as the case may be): when your heart went thump-thump-thump, your hands turned sweaty and your stomach turned cartwheels for her, how private was it? Could you keep it to yourself? Maybe you didn’t announce it to the whole school or even your parents, but you told someone. And dollars to donuts, I’ll bet you declared your undying love to that confidante for her. And when it became official? When she got your ring or letter jacket or jersey? Oh, by then the whole dang school knew! Right?

In other words, you don’t have to be told to spread the news. It’s a strange thing about Jesus, though. We seem to stifle our passion, zip our lips, avert eyes and avoid any conversation that might steer “there”—away from church, that is. I know of some men who take their wedding bands off when they are business travelling. I’ve seen a wife or husband swat their partner’s hand away or fend off an advancing kiss because people were (gasp!) watching.

And then I’ve seen couples doing mouth-to-mouth on each other in a mall, completely oblivious to the passing world around them. Now that’s confessing!

But there’s a third thing I saw from Jesus’ query. Jesus also wants this love to be UNCOMMON. And here I’ll talk about the “problem with ya.”

I have yearbooks where, say, my girlfriend writes a paragraph over her class photo or flyleaf about how much fun I’ve been, how great it is to know me, I’m so sweet, all that hoo-hah. Then she signs off with a “Love Ya!” I started looking over all the other autographs and end-of-an-era fare-thee-wells and was shocked to find that all the other girls who were my friends had also signed off. The. Exact. Same. Way.

When it hit me, I realized my girlfriend may have just as well said, “Sincerely yours” or even “Warmly”—or worse: “Have a great life without me!” I know, I know ”love ya!” is fun. It’s sassy. But my juvenile stirrings wanted more than just being her special pal. The ‘ya’ made our relationship seem common, less special. I knew it then: I was in her ’friend zone’, her insufferable stable of chums.

The Man Christ Jesus is calling His Bride out of the earth, illustrated by His calling out Simon Peter on that Spring morning.

He wants her love.

He wants her to confess their love openly.

And He wants it to be uncommon.

(Read: Agape)

“More than these?” (What? More than the other guys? More than the caught fish? More than the ‘uncaught’ fish? More than the nets? Who knows? It doesn’t matter. What matters is: “_________________ (put own name here), do you love Me?”)

It is hard to confess that too often my love letters to Jesus are friendly. Warm. Sometimes (dare I say it?) polite. Oh Lord, for a fiery heart, a flame-engulfed passion, a raging, out-of-(self) control molten River of Undying Love for the Son. May liquid-hot magma overflow the banks of my heart and consume everything in its path that the Glory of the Son might be revealed in me. God, deliver me from a ”Love Ya” heart!

And Sandy, my bride on this earth, who daily demonstrates in my personal world what God is doing on a global scale, this marital mini-series of where God is taking all of us, I cannot believe this will be the 28th straight Valentine’s Day we will celebrate together. I’m so happy the LORD has given you to me to love in this lifetime. I’m so glad the ya’s don’t enter into our life’s conversation. (Too often)

I love you.

Sep

A Little More Gray…A Little Less Dead

By pasturescott 10 Comments

Categories: Consecration, Crucified Life, Hunger, Intimacy, Jesus Christ, Loving God, Prayer, Reign of Christ, Surrender and Worship

“He must increase; I must be being decreased.”
–John the Plunger, 1st century

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
–Paul, mid-1st century

“Therefore we do not become discouraged (utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear). Though our outer man is [progressively] decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] renewed day after day.”
–2 Corinthians 4:16, Amplified

The math is easy. Two thousand and seven minus nineteen hundred and sixty equals forty-seven. I did that without using my fingers, a calculator or calendars. When you get to be my age, you hesitate a little longer when someone asks how old you are. In a few years I’ll hesitate when someone asks my name but so far I’m good on that front.

Today I turned 47.

I hopped in the van this morning, headed for some TWG (Time With God) and as I locked my wheelchair into the driver’s side, I stole a quick glance into the rearview mirror. It may have been the way the sunlight highlighted the right side of my head but I had to do a double-take at the increased number of silvery strands that reflected back at me. Did it bother me? No, not one bit because I quickly referenced in my noggin the times that gray hair is meant to be a good thing in the Bible, even desirable.

Now, balding? That’s another matter altogether. I’ve moved from a hair brush to just moving some hairs around with my fingers. Soon I’ll just need a washrag. God is pretty much silent on the subject, too. Some people’s hair he numbers. Others (like me), He puts an asterisk beside.

(Total is pending.)

Sometime after my two older sisters came to be, my Mom suffered an unfortunate miscarriage. Had that child been born, I may not be here today. So, in celebration of this auspicious day in my life, come along with me into the courts and inner chamber of the Maker of Life. I’m SO glad to be alive! Even though I can squint and see fifty, and though flecks of gray are gaining momentum, I rejoiced today that with each passing year, I’m a little less ’dead’. I’m so tired of carrying about this body of death that every turn of the calendar means I’m getting that much closer to putting on immortality!

Please indulge me for yet another entry into my prayer journal:

My Father, God and King,

This is the life! Early Fall, temperatures are becoming more civil…the color of the world even seems to have changed into richer tones…and I’m here with You on my birthday, looking forward to Your Presence to hold me and reveal more riches and the richness of Your grace and Life. Show up, Lord! Speak to me. Let me hear from Your Throne and heart; I invite You to tarry with me here this while. Walk with me and expound Truth to my ears and heart that I might gain a fuller revelation of the Son of God and may my heart BURN—burn on and burn out—for You.

Overwhelm me with waves of mercy, grace following grace, glory to glory and faith to faith. Baptize me in Your deep, deep waters and bury me in them that I might rise in power with You. O God! Fill me to fullness! Complete me! Finish Your work in me! May Christ be fully formed in me…pull me into Yourself that I might come to the complete measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ with no vestige left of Scott-the-old-man. I want You. I long for You. I can even say in this moment that my soul aches for You—please don’t let this ache go away! Bubble up through me, O Living Water! Fill me up to overflowing. I worship You.

My…

Faithful God.
Wonderful Friend.
Caring Shepherd.
Loving Companion.
Patient Counselor.
Ever-present Helper.
Constant Hope.
Loyal Defender.

I feel deep pools rising up within me. Look at me when Your eyes look to and from on the earth because I’m raising my hand so You can spot me. I’m here, looking at You, beholding You. Come to me, O One Who reigns! I owe my whole life to You and bathe in Your grace. Take me deep into Your waters but as they rise to find their level, raise me with them.

I’m not after counterfeit and make-believe or manufactured holiness or any ‘virtual’ oasis in this desert. I want You to reign in me and through me. I can’t wait for the day when Your Kingdom truly comes in all its fullness to me and completely shatters and displaces all the flesh and mortar kingdoms of my heart. I long for the day when You reign supreme and there is no rebellion, hypocrisy or conditional love in me. I cry for the day when Your radiance is so seen in me that “I” become transparent—yea, removed—that all that is seen is divine glory, and the fragrance of Christ so permeates me that all stench is removed. When LOVE pours out of me in measures only known in Heaven.

Thank You for life!

Thank You for bringing me into existence that I might feel Your Touch, love and redeeming grace. Thank You for allowing me to be “in the story” and for giving me a place in it where I can demonstrate Your Life and not be stumbling around in the darkness along with the whole of humanity. Praise You! I love living and today is an opportunity for me to tell it to my heart…

I’m a little more gray today but a little less ‘dead’, too. Each passing year gets me closer to removing entirely this body of death and to be fitted for the garment You are tailoring for me. I only ask for fabric that breathes, that is porous enough to more readily, quickly and noticeably display Your glory abundantly throughout eternity…“Not unto me, O Lord. Not unto me. But to Your Name I give the glory—“ (Ps 115:1)

A little more gray. A little less dead.

Today, as I look forward from this place in the time I have left, I recommit myself to these things:

·         A little more death, a little less me
·         A little more praise, a little less indifference
·         A little more surrender, a little less selfishness
·         A little more patience, a little less judgment
·         A little more intention, a little less waste
·         A little more passion, a little less paralysis
·         A little more glory, a little less relevance
·         A little more love, a little less self-protection
·         A little more fasting, a little less indulgence
·         A little more worship, a little less preoccupation
·         A little more pilgrimage, a little less Egypt
·         A little more faith, a little less rationalism
·         A little more poor, a little less rich
·         A little more listening, a little less noise
·         A little more God, a little less theology
·         A little more risk, a little less resignation

Thank You for my life, Lord. It’s Yours. Thank You for Your Life, Lord. It’s mine.

Giver of every breath I breathe
Author of all eternity
Giver of every perfect thing
To You be the glory
Maker of Heaven and earth
No one can comprehend Your worth
King over all the universe
To You be the glory
And I am alive because I’m alive in You

It’s all because of Jesus I’m alive
It’s all because of the blood of Jesus Christ
That covers me and raised this dead man’s life
It’s all because of Jesus I’m alive

–“It’s All Because of Jesus”
The Altar and the Door, Casting Crowns

What about you? What do you need a ‘little’ more of? A ‘little’ less of?

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Wool-Gathering Month By Month

September 2010
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
« Oct
	1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30

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