Dare To Enter God’s Presence

The best part of knowing God, for me, is being with Him, enjoying His presence. Lots of us know frustration as we desire to get into His presence, but it seems there is a blockage somewhere. 

How do you get into His presence?

I hear the gears in some of your heads grumbling. “He’s gonna say, ‘Pray more.’”

How many books have you read about prayer? How many magazine articles made you feel guilty? How many times has the pastor stood behind the pulpit, pointed his long preaching finger until it stopped just in front of your nose, and said, “You ought to pray more!”

And you thought, “Yes, I need to pray more. Three minutes and thirteen seconds per day doesn’t get it.” So New Year’s eve you purpose, “I’m going to pray one hour every day.”

The next day you go to your bedroom, kneel down, wrap a shawl around your shoulders (so you’ll look like Elijah the prophet) and you pray one hour three minutes and thirteen seconds.

It’s true that the last 30 minutes you checked your watch every 45 seconds and the last part of your prayer sounded like a countdown to a moon blast, “Ten seconds, nine, eight … one… yes!

One hour, three minutes and thirteen seconds. “Wow! Move over apostle Paul. More spiritual than me, you won’t find.”

Next day you were busy so it was only thirty-three minutes and thirteen seconds. The day after you forgot and the day after that you were watching a series on Netflix that cost you three hours. That day your prayer was thirty-three seconds. Continue reading

Meeting God In “Thin Places”

One of my favorite places to go with my wife was Cochem in Germany. Over a millennium ago, men founded this town. Though today’s atmosphere was probably created more by the Chamber of Commerce than by history, when you’re there you feel like you step back hundreds of years in time.

Phyllis and I accidentally discovered it in 1988 as we wandered alongside the Moselle River, driving up from nearby Luxembourg. Friends had offered to watch the kids so we could get away. We spent the night in a bed and breakfast in Cochem, and the next day went to see the Eltz castle in the forest northeast of town.

The little boy and the historian in me fell in love and Phyllis and I went back several other times, creating vivid memories together—the night of the festival with all the oom-pa-pa music, and the people in old German costumes, for example.

Funny, but we often connect places with good times or bad times. That is a good place for me. A really good place.

 

Cochem, Germany

Morning Places

I’m a bit like that about the place where I read my Bible and pray in the morning. Just like some Christians are attached to a certain pew, I like to meet the Lord at a spot where I have memories.

At the moment it’s the back deck of our house (it’s really the back porch but I said “deck” so that you younger readers would know what I’m talking about). Before I get my work day gets started,  I love to sit out there. The quietness soothes me. Note, “quietness,” still includes birds singing and crickets cricketing. We’ve got a couple of Robins who think they own the place and we are their renters.

The day has intruded on the night; the sunshine is fresh and soft and I can get centered with God for what’s ahead. Continue reading

The Remarkable Connection Between Praying and Sneezing


Pray-ers are a lot like sneezers—there are all kinds.

For instance, some sneezers are “blast-a-hole-in-the-wall” sneezers. There’s no art. Just suck in a week’s worth of air and “Ahhhhhhhh-CHOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Woe be to the person who steps between this sneezer and the wall.

The air current from the sneeze registers about seven on the Richter scale.
If all you want to do is expel whatever is tickling your nose, I guess this is okay. It’s not pretty. If others aren’t expecting it, you may give them a heart attack, but hey, it works.
Some folks pray like this. No art, just get it out. When they pray the rafters rumble, the windows rattle and dust floats down from the ceiling. If Jesus had prayed like these folks when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter, James and John wouldn’t have slept instead of praying.
Sleeping would have been impossible.
Other sneezers are much more artful. Instead of trying for the big bang, they aim for style and understatement. “Ah-choo!” they squeak and daintily dab at their nose with a handkerchief.
And some folks pray like this. They want to express themselves in a sophisticated fashion so they seem to pray with one pinky in the air, like cultured people used to drink tea in the pre-Starbucks world. Continue reading

Why God Refuses To Say “No” To You

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The French language has a peculiarity that I like. Often when the answer is, “Yes!” they don’t just say one “yes” in response but “Oui, oui!” (Yes, yes!) Sometimes even “oui, oui, oui!”

So, if your wife looks at you menacingly and asks you if you remembered to do what she asked you to, you can respond, “Oui, oui!” Otherwise you can slap your head and say, “Ah, I forgot!” (You probably won’t slap it as hard as she would have).

The Lord must be French because He has a tendency to answer, “Yes, yes!”

“For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” (2 Corinthians 1:19-21, NKJV)

We’ve all heard it preached, “God always answers. Sometimes it’s ‘yes,’ sometimes it’s ‘no’, and sometimes it’s, ‘wait.'”

I beg to differ, and you can disagree with me if you wish. But, if I’m asking in faith something God has promised his response is, “Oui! Oui!”

I hear you rumbling out there, “Now hang on David. Don’t you remember that Paul asked three times that a ‘thorn in the flesh’ be taken away from Him and God said, ‘no.'”

Did God say, “No” ? Continue reading

Can You Save Up Prayers for a Rainy Day?

worship1

I love to have thoughts I‘ve never had before–most of the time anyway. And in 63 years I’ve thought a lot of thoughts. I had a new one the other day but I’m not sure it’s right.

Before and after my wife’s recent surgery, hundreds or (probably) thousands of friends and family prayed for her. Normally, I think that one person praying in faith would have done the job, so it seems to me there ought to be a surplus of prayers stored up somewhere.

“Wouldn’t it be great,” I asked my wife, “If every time we had a need now, we could just take some prayers out of that prayer stockpile that was left over? Wouldn’t even have to pray ourselves. Just open up the door to the storeroom, take out a few prayers and “voila”—problem over.” Continue reading