Tag: Pray

Ep.350: A Sword in his Mouth.

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

John opens the Book of Revelation by reporting visions God gave him of the present and future. He says, “On the Lord’s Day, I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet” (Rev 1:10). 

I’m not sure what it means to be “in the Spirit”, but the experience allowed John to see visions and hear other-world communications. 

When John turned to see the trumpet-voice that addressed him, he saw someone like a son of man, decked out in royal garments, with snow white hair and blazing eyes, with feet like fiery bronze, with a voice like rushing waters and a face like the shining sun (Rev 1:13-15). 

This person is like the one Daniel saw in his vision 500 years earlier (Daniel 10:4-13). But the man in John’s vision had an new, disturbing characteristic: a double edged sword coming out of his mouth. 

Weird, eh? A sword in the mouth? Commentators suggest this represents the word of God, similar to Hebrews 4 which says, “The word of God is living and active, sharper than a double-edged sword” (Heb 4:12). 

The man in Daniel’s vision was fighting the prince of Persia, but we don’t know what weapons he was using. The man in John’s vision doesn’t tell war stories about the Prince of Persia or other spiritual opponents. Perhaps his battle will be conducted with words, using the sword in his mouth.  

The man with the sword said to John, “Don’t be afraid. I’m the first and the last. I was dead. Now I’m alive forever. I have the keys to death and the underworld” (Rev 1:17-18). Clearly, this man is Jesus. Can’t be anyone else!  

In John’s vision, Jesus was surrounded by seven lampstands, representing the seven churches in Asia. He holds seven stars which represent seven angels (or messengers), one for each church. 

A quick summary: Jesus appeared to John, standing among the churches, accompanied by angel messengers. The words in Jesus’ mouth were a sword. That doesn’t sound like a friendly message for the churches. But we’ll look at that next time. 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, you who stood among the churches of Asia, stand among our churches today. Send your messages to us, that we may hear your words, even if they are a sword that threatens our comfort and a fire that burns our complacency.  

Help us to see you as John saw you: a royal king, a commanding presence, a fire in our community, a shining sun in our darkness. With your sword, cut away the evil and distractions in our lives. Wound us, purify us, heal us.

Amen. 

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

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.349: Revelation.

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

The New Testament epistles advance a program of faith, loving relationships, and moral living. Then comes the Book of Revelation with visions of fire, flood, pandemic, war, and Armageddon. The real Christ and the anti-Christ battle for world domination, and Christians get caught in the crossfire.   

I don’t try to put Revelation into charts and timelines. Nor do I think it tells tomorrow’s headlines today. Revelation doesn’t give enough information to put the rapture, the millennium, and God’s great judgment in chronological order. 

But let’s start with John at the beginning. John the author, calls his book “the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev 1:1). Which means, “Jesus is the author and holds the copyright on this material.”  

John states his purpose for writing: “This is the revelation God gave to show his servants what must soon take place” (Rev. 1:1). Two thousand years ago, John predicted catastrophes and victories that would happen soon. We too believe they will happen soon. Perhaps in the next 2000 years of history.

Really? Who rules the earth? Aren’t Biden and Putin and Netanyahu and Xi Jinping the strong men who build their nations they want? No, says John, they are only second rate kings who report to King Jesus, the one Lord who rules them all. Hmmm. That’s not how the news anchor on my TV reports it.

Second, says John, Jesus is: 
    The one who loves us and freed us from our sins.
    The one who makes us into a kingdom of priests who serve God (Rev 1:5-6). 

Seems odd, doesn’t it? King Jesus who lets a delusional Putin invade Ukraine, and a vengeful Netanyahu bomb Palestine, and a power-hungry Jinping threaten Taiwan. This King Jesus doesn’t build a military-industrial complex to rule them all, but a kingdom of priests to serve God. How is that a solution to the realpolitik of a violent world? 

Third, John says of Jesus: 
    He is the one who will come in the clouds
        and rule the earth (Rev 1:7). 

Ahh. That must be one of the things that will happen soon. King Jesus will appear and make his weak and invisible kingdom strong and real. 

Let’s pray. 

Jesus, we worship you because you are the king over the kings of earth. As the psalmist warned the presidents and dictators and party-leaders of the world:
    Kiss the son lest he be angry
      and you be destroyed in your way (Ps 2:12).      

We worship you, Jesus, because you loved us and freed us from our sins. Free us from the kingdom of darkness. Free us from the powers of this world. Free us from sins that entangle us, from confused thinking that immobilizes us, from self-interest that hinders our service for you and others. 

We worship you, Jesus, because you are building a new kingdom. Not based on guns and bombs, nor economic power and trade. But a kingdom of priests who serve God, and wait for his intervention. 

We worship you, Jesus, because you will come in the clouds to rule earth. Today may we serve your kingdom with loving works and steadfast faith. And tomorrow, when you demonstrate your power, may we reign with you forever. 

Amen. 

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

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.248: Thinking about Idols.

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

John finishes his epistle with the words, “Dear children, keep yourself from idols” (1 John 5:21). 

Author Timothy Keller says your religion, or your idol, is where your mind goes when you have a moment of leisure (Counterfeit Gods: the Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power). 

“The things we daydream about most readily and instinctively when nothing else is occupying our thoughts reveal what we live for and serve,” he says. (https://twitter.com/timkellernyc/status/1423228037332615168?lang=en)

I ask, Where does my mind go at leisure? Can I get along without my daily fix of daydreams and Facebook and world news? Is social media my religion? 

What do you do for your daily dose of comfort? 

If the places we go to in our minds are idols, how can we get rid of them? 

I’ve tried killing mine. But daydreams aren’t easily snuffed. In the pain of life, my mind needs a source of comfort. Or distraction. 

My friend the fridge is a favorite escape. But my other friend, wisdom, warns against compulsive snacking. I could try drug addiction or work addiction or trashy novels, but  my life and God say, “No!” 

Keller says idols cannot simply be removed, they must be replaced. In Jesus’ parable, the unclean spirit left the man. But when it returned for another look, it found the house unoccupied, swept clean, and back in order. So it moved in again, bringing seven spirits worse than itself (Mat 12:43-35). 

Keep yourself from idols, John says. Drive out the evil desires and dysfunctions in your life. But don’t stop there, or worse will come. Fill the vacancy with a new set of desires and practices. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, I like easy pictures of the Christian life. Like “born again”, a simple one-time event that changes my inner orientation. And “filled with the spirit”, a moment in which the evil spirit in me is replaced with your Holy Spirit. 

But these spiritual experiences are just beginnings, invitations to new possibilities, the first step on a long journey, the first glimpse of a healthy and holy land where I might settle. 

O  father, I repent again, sweeping clean my inner house, resolving against unhealthy daydreams, compulsive eating, and spiritual addictions. I invite you to light my inner life, to renew my mind, to guide my relationships, to direct my journey.  

Give me grace and discernment to follow Jesus. 

Amen. 

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

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.347: Idols Then and Now.

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

John finishes his epistle with the words, “Dear children, keep yourself from idols” (1 John 5:21). 

Is this for me? Do I have idols?  

Idols represent unseen forces. Through them you communicate with spiritual powers, asking them to manage your life and circumstances. Fertility gods ensure abundant crops and lots of children. The god Jupiter was responsible for Roman life and culture and success in war. The god Minerva oversaw domestic households and craftspeople like stonemasons and carpenters. 

What about my idols in the year 2023, the things I rely on to manage my life? The federal government provides my retirement pension. Alberta provides health care. I bow to the great Internet goddess that provides news and entertainment. My credit card prays to Amazon, the god of  things, who sends messengers to my doorstep. What more do I need for a successful life? 

Timothy Keller’s book Counterfeit Gods: the Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power says: 
“An idol is anything we cannot live without. We must have it. It drives us to break once-honored rules, to harm others and ourselves to get it. Idols are spiritual addictions . . .”

Am I addicted to the stock market? To the internet? To the power and privilege of my rich western identity? Are these my idols? 

The problem of idols would be much easier if I relied on wood-and-silver images. Instead, I must make an imaginative leap to identify untruthful thoughts and beliefs that guide my life. 

Wood-and-silver idols can be thrown in the garbage. But I don’t want to solve my dependency on money by throwing hundred dollar bills in the fire. Nor do I want to solve my food addiction by fasting for 40 days. 

Let’s pray. 

O father, our world and culture promise satisfaction. But you challenge our motives. You critique our hearts. You call us to step away from our culture to a place where you manage our lives. 

Like the children of Israel, we journey through a vast and barren land, looking for freedom from addictions that enslave us. This desert is dangerous and dry, full of alluring idols and lurking serpents. We are hungry and thirsty and lost. 

O God, walk with us on this perilous road. Manage our lives, change our circumstances, lead us to food and water and shelter. And make us new people, in a new land, with new loyalties and habits and desires. 

You made us in your image, O God, but we dishonor and deface that image. Forgive us, cast down our false images, restore us to your true image. 

Amen. 

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

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.346: Eternal Life.

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

I used to think of eternal life as future tense. Today I’m here. Tomorrow I die. Then I live forever. Simple. 

John has a different view of eternal life. He says,  
    The life [which was from the beginning] appeared.
      We have seen it and
      we proclaim to you the eternal life,
            which was with the father and has appeared to us (1 Jn 1:1-2).

Here, John identifies Jesus, the hybrid God-man, as “eternal life”. This eternal life is not a “state of being” but a person. That’s weird. 

Later, John says:
  God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son” (1 Jn 5:11). 

This eternal life is a gift God has already given us. But what about death? Is that just a bump in the road where the wheels come off my body, but my inner life continues undisturbed? 

John also says, 
 God the father is the true God and eternal life,
      And we are in him,
              because we are in his Son Jesus Christ (1 John 5:20).

Here, God is eternal life.

I draw two conclusions: 

First, John doesn’t give a rational definition of eternal life. Instead, he looks at Jesus, whom he knew, who was raised from the dead. John says, That kind of life is in our future too.     

Second, John says, That’s not all. It’s not just future tense, it’s in our present. Why? Because Jesus, the one who lives forever, lives in us. 

The true measure of my life is not sickness or health, poverty or wealth. No, its dimensions are set by the source of life that lives in me. Since that source is Jesus,I’m already living my forever life with him. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, today is a day of our eternal life.
  It is a day for praising you, because we will praise you forever.
  It is a day for listening to your spirit, for your spirit will speak to us forever.
  It is a day for receiving Christ’s blessing, for he will bless us forever.
  It is a day for loving our neighbor, for we will be neighbors forever. 

Today is also a day of struggle.
  This harvest of new life grows side by side with the weeds of the old life.
  This life that dies is a companion to a life that lives forever.
  The war between good and evil still rages in my body and my mind. 

O father, bring quickly that day when your children will be free, when the old life will be  lost, and the new life will live forever. 

Amen. 

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

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube