Author: Daniel Westfall

Ep.380: Holy War.

Ep380. Holy War.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

After discussing how Christians should crave milk like babies and grow up into a spiritual house, Peter presents another metaphor: holy war. 

He tells us to abstain from evil desires which wage war against our souls (1 Pet 2:11).  What? Is he telling me to take up a sword against myself?

War is ugly. Gaza wrecked by Israeli bombs and missiles. In Ukraine,  body bags and dead soldiers. Everywhere, veterans crippled physically and emotionally. Is that how Peter pictures my soul?

I have long been uncomfortable with bloody Old Testament war stories, and for years I resisted metaphors of the Christian life as war. Struggling with depression, fear, and loneliness, I steadfastly refused to interpret my life as a spiritual battle. But I regularly prayed the Apostle Paul’s armor of God for myself–the bulletproof vest, the battle boots and battle belt, war helmet, shield, and sword (Eph 6:10-18). 

What’s that, you say? I engaged in spiritual warfare while refusing to believe in it? Indeed I did.

Scripture is full of war stories, from the Battle of Nine Kings in Genesis 14 to the Battle of Armageddon at the end of history. Between these bookends, Jesus said, “I didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword” (Mat 10:34). Paul wrote, “We don’t war against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of darkness” (Eph 6:12). And in today’s scripture Peter warns, “Abstain from evil desires that wage war against your soul.” 

Peter doesn’t linger long on his war metaphor. He just briefly mentions that two parts of me are at war: my evil desires in conflict with my soul.   

Do you think he means that my evil desires of lust, greed, revenge, resentments, obsessions, and fears are tossing grenades at my self-control? And that my self control should shoot them down or toss them back? Like a movie where you count the action in explosions per minute?

Not a pretty picture of my interior life. But realistic, I think. 

“Abstain from evil desires that wage war,” Peter says. His metaphor warns that our evil desires are soul-destroying superpowers if we let them loose.  

Let’s pray. 

Our father, the Old Testament is full of people with evil desires, at war with themselves and each other. The Israelites, the Philistines, Assyria, Egypt, Babylon: violent actors on the stage of history where you are working out the salvation of our world. 

The New Testament, written during Rome’s violent domination of the world, tells us about Christ’s torture and death, and uses war metaphors to explain our Christian life.

Teach us to live out our personal war with evil. Teach us to war against evils everywhere. Teach us to wear the full armor of God.  

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.379: Baby Bottle.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

In the second chapter of his letter to some New Testament churches, Peter continues his born-again theme. He says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” (1 Peter 2:2-3). 

Then he changes his metaphor from growing up to constructing a building, saying “Like living stones you are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:4-5). 

What do you make of these metaphors? 

Are we to think our spiritual life is like an infant on a bottle ? Let me tell you a couple ways you are like a spiritual baby.

  1. You’ve never outgrown the physical and emotional needs you were born with–the love of comfort, a desire to be served, a need for human touch and belonging. 

  2. You still gurgle when you’re happy and you cry and get angry when God seems distant and you feel sad or hungry or lonely. 

Peter wants us to grow up in our salvation. He doesn’t criticize us like the author of Hebrews, who says, “What? Still drinking milk like a baby? By now, you should be eating meat like an adult” (Heb 5:12-13). 

Instead of pushing us to move from milk to meat, Peter abandons the baby metaphor and tells us we are living stones being built into a spiritual house. 

Living stones? Really? The dwarves in Lord of the Rings found living stones deep under the earth, but Peter finds them in the Christian community. In this metaphor, you don’t drink milk to grow. Instead, Christ builds his people into a spiritual house to become a royal priesthood. 

Indeed. A mixed metaphor. I understand building stones into a house. But when the house is built it becomes a royal priesthood? Seems odd. 

Yet somehow, Peter’s metaphors work. We can see ourselves as babies, drinking milk to grow. We can see ourselves as a construction site where God is building us into a house. And we can see ourselves as worldly people whom God is educating to be priests. 

Let’s pray. 

O father, sometimes we think we’ve made progress in the Christian life, and sometimes we know we are just babies who need another bottle. 

Sometimes we think you’ve done a great job building us into temples of God, making us members of your royal priesthood. And other times we feel like a failed construction project–unfinished, incomplete. 

Speak to us, Lord. Be present in our lives. Help us grow up. Help us become adult sons and daughters instead of infants. Build us to be your temple. Train us to be your priests.  

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.378: Born Again.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

I once told a friend that I was a Christian, but that my life didn’t appear to be born again. My Christian life looked much like my old life. Same lifestyle, same temptations, same problems.  

I said to my friend, “I’ve been thinking about Jesus’ born-again offer. I’m strongly attracted by the possibility of a new beginning, a fresh start on my religious life, a new source of motivation and empowerment. That would be amazing!”

And then I said, “‘I’ve been praying to Jesus for a whole year that I would be born again.” 

“That’s not how it works,” my friend said. “Born again is a one-time experience when you become a Christian. You were spiritually dead, then God raised your dead spirit to life. That made you born again. It happened or it didn’t. It’s a one-time event, not something you can get again.” 

There was no way to resolve our different views. My spiritual life obviously needed a renovation. My friend was sure my spiritual plumbing and framing could only be installed once. All you need, Daniel, is spiritual discipline to make your Christian life work.  

But I was deeply drawn to Jesus’ promise, and I didn’t want to relegate his words to some past experience that I already had. I felt Jesus was offering me something new. Maybe a fresh start in my middle-aged Christian life. Maybe another opportunity to be born again.

Let’s take a quick look at born again in the Bible. It’s a term used by only two authors: John, the gospel-writer, and Peter, the fisherman and rock of the church.

John tells how Nicodemus the Pharisee sneaked away from his Jesus-hating colleagues for a midnight chat with Jesus. Jesus said, “You need to be born again. Not born from your mother, but by the spirit of God.” Nicodemus went away confused. Like me. Jesus’ words offered him something new and different and attractive. He wasn’t sure what it was and how it worked. Or what it meant to him.

Jesus’ words attract me too. Perhaps instead of living a mediocre Christian life on endless loop, Jesus wants to give me something richer, deeper, life-changing. 

Another scripture author, Peter, says, “You were born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable” (1 Pet 1:22). He continues, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk” (1 Pet 2:2). 

Reading Peter, I once again offer my life to Jesus and ask him to do something new. To change my motivations. To shift my inner life. To feed me like a baby on pure spiritual milk. To help me grow up. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, 

Every few years my approach to Christianity dries up, and my relationship with you dries up, and I need something new. 

Renew in me the power and wonder of being born again. Renew your spirit in me. Renew my experience of walking with Jesus. 

Help me to live the life of one who is born again. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.377: Strangers and Lovers.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

When Jesus chose Peter, he named him the “Rock”, but the rock shifted like sand when Peter denied Christ. So Jesus chose him again, rehabilitated him, and gave him a mission. 

In his letter to the churches, Peter the Rock calls Christians “God’s chosen ones, strangers in the world” (1 Pet 1:1). 

Chosen ones? Strangers? Like Mark Twain’s “The Prince and the Pauper”, where a poor boy with an abusive, alcoholic father becomes a prince, and the born prince becomes a poor boy. The story tells how the poor boy learns strange palace customs, and the prince learns the strangeness of poverty and abuse. 

We are Christians and we are strangers in a strange world. We are poor people on earth, but princes in Christ’s hidden kingdom. Gentleman’s Quarterly and Vogue no longer measure our beauty. The Economist is not our Bible on wealth, liberal politics and world order. Constitutions and charters of rights don’t qualify as our statements of belief.  

In private, we study the language of heaven, listening for the voice of Jesus. But in public we are ordinary citizens of Planet Earth, hardly different from everyone else.

Peter encourages us strangers with the lesson Christ taught him: to part ways with the man he was, to move beyond the fisherman who toiled and the disciple who denied. To focus instead on the man he could become, a rock in Christ’s church, a shepherd of God’s sheep, a day care attendant for God’s lambs. Peter was chosen and called. We are chosen and called.

Parting ways with his old self was an important bridge Peter crossed. When Jesus left the earth, Peter lost the life he loved: walking and talking and eating with Jesus, washing dusty feet, and strolling by the seashore. He moved into a new relationship, experiencing a Christ he could not see, talking to a Jesus who was not physically present. 

I recently visited my mother’s grave. I stood there, looking at her tombstone, just . . . just remembering her. I talked to her, but she didn’t respond. Standing there, I talked to Jesus too, another invisible presence.  

Peter says, “Though you have not seen Christ, you love him. And though you do not see him now, you believe in him, and are filled with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Pet 1:8). Peter invites us to join him on the journey he began after Christ disappeared into heaven. An invitation to walk with a Christ we cannot see, to talk to a Christ who is mostly silent, to listen for his quiet interior voice. 

This is the Christ who makes us strangers and aliens in our world. He gives us an edge of discomfort as we participate in our day-to-day buying and selling, voting and promoting, leading and following. 

We ask, how, in the midst of our daily routines, can we grow in love and faith for the Christ who chooses us and calls us strangers in the world? 

Let’s pray. 

O father, though we have not seen Christ, we love him. And though we do not see him now, we believe in him. 

We are Christians, not because of stronger arguments, nor greater vision, but because Christ has touched our hearts with faith and love.

Grant us Peter’s experience, to look for the salvation Christ promises, to rejoice in our trials, to be steadfast in faith. to be strangers in the world. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.376: Job Hunting.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

In the last four episodes, I told about hosting an immigrant family of three. Denied boarding in Amsterdam, they purchased expensive last-minute tickets to Canada, where I hosted them in an Edmonton Airbnb until they rented an apartment. 

Next assignment: find a job. Unfortunately, the father’s dental technician and dental surgery qualifications are no good in Canada. How about a warehouse job?  

His resume, created on an internet website, looked impressive. But it was written in corporate-speak nonsense like, “I liaised with cross-functional teams to facilitate smooth operations and achieve common goals.” 

Oh, yes! Exactly what a warehouse supervisor needs–someone to liaise with his cross-functional teams.Or maybe he just wants someone who’s quick with a pallet jack and handy with a broom! 

After replacing the corporate-speak with plain English, we looked at internet job sites–Indeed.com, the Canada Job Bank, and ALIS Alberta. We tried job searches on Google and job searches at companies with warehouses. 

Uline sent our only response: a computer-generated corporate-speak email telling us we didn’t meet their standards. Perhaps we should have left the corporate-speak in the resume.

Two more days of silence. I checked the resume. Duh! I’d entered the wrong telephone number

We corrected my error and sent out corrected applications. Followed by two more weeks of silence. 

My newcomer friend was concerned. He said,”I can’t afford to spend eight months job hunting like my friend in Calgary did!” 

I sat in my car with him in a Walmart parking lot, listening while he processed his thinking about Canada. He said, “I thought Canada had many opportunities with decent pay.”   

I sympathized. “Yes. Canada can be difficult if you’re poor. Lots of people have two or more minimum wage jobs because they can’t find something better.” 

We went into Walmart. “Look at the shoppers’ faces,” I said. “I see age and tiredness and sadness. What do you see?”

“I see pain,” he said. 

I agreed. “I think many of these are Canadians who live near the minimum wage. Life is not easy for them.” 

We continued job hunting. Every day, search the internet. Every day, wait for that phone call or email. 

Then one Friday he had a phone interview with a logistics company. It went well. “Can you start Monday?” they asked?  

Thirty-two hours a week and no benefits, but starting pay is above minimum wage. Since he doesn’t have a car, the company offered him a transit accessible day shift. 

Job hunt complete. Mission accomplished.

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we pray for those with part time work who need more hours.
  We pray for those with no work and no one to hire them. 
  For those with too much work, and too little time to do it. 
  For those with menial work who want something more fulfilling.
  For those marginalized and demeaned at work who long for respect and justice.
  For those failing at work, attempting tasks beyond their skill. 
  For those with good jobs and reasonable pay, who give you thanks. 

Help us to be wise employers and wise workers. 

And above all, whatever we do, may we do it with all our heart. For it it is you, the Lord Christ, whom we serve (Col 3:23-24). 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube