The Blog that ate up all my free time

It's my blog's second birthday today!  Yep.  It's been two years and 163 posts since I began this little online spiritual journal.  And I'd like to believe that it hasn't all been a complete waste of time.  I've enjoyed the opportunity it's given me to write, and I hope others have enjoyed reading what I've written.


A year ago, I reflected on the recurring themes that had appeared in my blog up until that point, and for the most part, I find that the same major themes still stand out a year later (with a few new additions).


But here at the two-year mark, I find myself reflecting back on what my original reasons were in starting this blog.  Why would I spend so much time carefully crafting sentences as I share about my struggles and the lessons that I'm learning in life?


Well, the primary reason is because I love to write, period. Regardless of whether people read what I write or not, I feel an inner compulsion to write my thoughts down.  It feels like a need, and can grow so strong that it's difficult to restrain.  It wants to fill all my free time, rob me of my sleep-time, encroach upon my family-time, and even creep into my work-time.  It truly is like The Blob!


But in addition to that, there are four other reasons why I make time to blog (and I'm grateful to a blogger who has gone before me for the thought he's given to what makes blogging a worthwhile exercise).

1. To be known...  As I mention in the "Who is this guy?" link above, "I began this blog because I wanted to share with others from the things I'm learning form God."  That often means sharing vulnerably about my struggles in life, but it also means sharing about encouraging things that God is helping me to learn.  Whichever the case, my desire is that those who read my posts will get to know me personally rather than simply the things I'm learning.
2. To interact...  I enjoy seeing people face-to-face, but a blog is a great way to interact with others in a much more convenient way.  There's room for dialog in the comments option beneath each of my posts, and I welcome people's feedback so that we can learn from each another in this blog.
3. To recommend...  Every so often, I get so excited about something that I want to recommend it to others.  I've even created a Recommendations category that readers can click on in the index (in the column to the right).  Such posts might be about anything --a book, an opportunity, a charity or even a place.  If I've found something helpful or enjoyable, I want to share it with you!
4. To teach...  This is simply about me wanting to use this blog to share some of the brief insights I sometimes receive from the Lord during my times spent with Him.  Such lessons may come as I read my Bible, but can also come up as I simply read the news or a book.

With that in mind, I welcome you to continue reading this blog and to leave a comment now and then to let me know what you're thinking!

And in celebration of my blog's second birthday, you're welcome to take a minute to watch a few classic scenes from the second installment of the original "Blob" movie...




© 2010 by Ken Peters

The Fenceposts of our Lives

Being someone who preaches once in awhile, I sometimes wonder how much people remember from the sermons I preach.  You'd expect a preacher to feel that way.  Because if my sermons are meant reflect the heart of God, I'd obviously want people to remember enough to apply it to their everyday lives.  And besides that, if you knew how many hours I spend preparing messages, you'd understand why I'd be eager for them to make a lasting impression.  No one wants to fail at something they work so hard at.  But the truth is, many of us -- myself included -- forget the Sunday sermon before we're even eating our cereal on Monday morning.

But every so often, something sticks.  Like the sermon illustration I heard over 35 years ago as a ten-year old boy.  It was probably summertime when there was no Sunday school.  There I was, my feet dangling as I sat in those big wooden pews, listening to an adult Sunday morning message.  I recall sometimes being so bored in those adult meetings that I spent more time counting the huge wooden beams in the cathedral-style ceiling than listening to the details of the 30-40 minute messages.  But on one Sunday morning, something caught my attention.

The gentleman preaching was Pastor Hanneman of the First Baptist Church of Royal Oak.  He was a caring man who loved children, and I was no stranger to him.  He always seemed to have time for kids.  If I ran up to him, he would stop whatever he was doing and lift me up high.  When he set me down, I'd happily run off, satisfied that I had just been affirmed by the closest person to God my little mind knew of.

I don't remember the Bible passage he was speaking about that memorable morning, but it was probably something like, "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him..." (Psalm 32:1-2).  Pastor Hanneman described our sins as being like nails in a fencepost.  Sins pierce us and hurt us, and God sees that happening from His heavenly perspective, looking down on our lives from above. It's as though God's perspective is straight above the fenceposts of our lives, and He sees those nails sticking straight out of the post.  Meanwhile, people all around us are fenceposts as well, and we can see each other's sins from a sideways perspective.  But when we go to God in repentance, God reaches down and pulls those painful nails out from us.  And from that point forward, He sees those sins no more, and nor does He even see a trace of them, just as you'd see no trace of a nail having been in a fencepost when looking down at it from above.  All around us though, are people who can see the scars from where those nails once were, and they may have nail-scars themselves.  The question is, will we judge one another by the nail-scars we see in one another's lives -- scars that God doesn't even see?  Or will we see each other the way God sees us -- as forgiven, without a thought of the sins God forgave us for?

The illustration has stuck with me all these years, but I still struggle to live it.  I'm not always convinced that the Lord no longer counts my sins against me as I struggle with self-condemnation.  And I don't always see people from God's perspective as I focus on the nailholes in their lives rather than on the absence of nails.  I pray though, that just as God has helped me to remember this illustration for so long, that He'd also continue to help me to apply it to how I see myself and the people around me.

© 2010 by Ken Peters

God's favour is now!

Lately I've felt as though God is provoking me to believe Him for more in my prayer life.  Yeah, I admit, there have been times when I've struggled to believe that God gives a rip about what I pray.  But lately, I feel like He's been coaxing me to get more aggressive in prayer.  Psalm 65:2 addresses God as "You who hear prayer" and verse five declares that "By awesome deeds You answer us with righteousness".  Such verses fly in the face of the begging posture I too often assume in prayer, in which the most faith I can muster is a faith that thinks, "Well, maybe one day..."  That's a faith that has given up expecting answers in the now, and results in prayers that have lost their sense of urgency.

But there's a change going on in me.  I was encouraged recently when I noticed that the same verse that says, "now is the day of salvation" has something else to say about the "now" that we're living in.  It says, "'In a favourable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.'  Behold, now is the favourable time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2).  The initial quote in that verse is an ancient prophecy from Isaiah, and Paul is explaining to his post-Calvary readers:  Behold, now is that time -- the favourable time in which I listen to and help my people -- when I will hear your cries and answer them!  Those who ask will receive, those who seek will find, and those who knock will find that the door opens for you (see Matthew 7:7-8)!

Second Corinthians 6:2 is a verse that's typically quoted in the context of evangelism.  And yes, this verse does speak about getting saved.  But it's also a verse about being saved.  Yes, it's about now being the time to get saved by Jesus, but it's also about living in the great favour of the God who saved us!  It's about the God who listens to all those who cry out to Him in dependence on Him -- why? -- because His wrath has been spent on the cross so that His favour is now available to all who put their trust in what Jesus did on the cross!

In other words, the "favourable time" in which God listens to our prayers is now -- and is everyday -- for anyone who puts their trust in the crucified and risen Jesus!  And that means that everyday as a child of God is a favourable time -- a now-time -- to draw near to God, to know God better, to enjoy His love, to receive grace and help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16)!  And that is why I'm feeling encouraged to get more bold in the prayers I pray these days.

© 2010 by Ken Peters

Joy in the midst of Troubles

Does what I know about what Jesus has done for me give me joy even in the midst of troubles?  I wondered that as I read about Jesus' disciples returning to Jerusalem (after Jesus' ascension to heaven) "with great joy", and about how they "were continually in the temple praising God" (Luke 24:52-53). Considering the circumstances, and how the disciples must have wondered if they might be crucified next, it must have seemed strange to the casual observer to see them so happily visible in the very temple where Jesus had been recently tried and convicted by the Pharisees.  I'm sure that anyone who knew about Jesus' crucifixion would have expected His disciples to be full of fear and worry rather than full of joy.  And yet what they saw was a whole lot of joy after what seemed like a whole lot of bad.


But of course, Jesus' disciples could be joyfully praising God because they knew that Jesus was alive! And they knew what Jesus had accomplished by His death -- a great salvation! And the unusual joy and praise of the disciples must have been a significant part of their declaration of the Gospel to a people who would've expected them to be in fear and grief. "Why such joy?" people would've wondered.  


My wife and I experienced grief in 2007 as we coped with news of the loss of Fiona's kidneys.  But our story didn't end there.  We also know that Jesus is alive!  And we know what Jesus has accomplished on the cross -- a great salvation!  So despite what periodic doctors' reports tell us, we can return from those appointments "with great joy" and "continually... praising God" because we've got more news than just what those doctors tell us!  We can have joy that flies in the face of what the world around us would expect in such circumstances.  And the world will see that we know One who is far above our circumstances, who is able to satisfy us despite circumstances, and who can even change the circumstances of those who cry out to Him!  I want that joy everyday, and I know where to find it: it's found in the very Saviour who has given me good reason for it!

© 2010 by Ken Peters

A spiritual secret from Hudson Taylor

I'm reading a biography of Hudson Taylor these days, and I just reached a chapter that describes a spiritual insight that changed Hudson Taylor's life.  When I got to the end of that chapter, I felt that I couldn't read on until I had read that chapter again and had processed it more thoroughly.  The insight Hudson Taylor got hold of is one that I need to embrace in my own heart.  I hope it will change my life as well!

The following is an excerpt from the biography of Hudson Taylor (written by Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor).  It is from a letter Hudson wrote from China to his sister in England.


First, the problem...


"My mind has been greatly exercised for six or eight months past, feeling the need personally... of more holiness, life, power in [my] soul...  I felt the ingratitude, the danger, the sin of not living nearer to God.  I prayed, agonised, fasted, strove, made resolutions, read the Word more diligently, sought more time for meditation -- but all without avail.  Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of sin oppressed me.


"I knew that if only I could abide in Christ all would be well, but I could not.  I would begin the day with prayer, determined not to take my eye off Him for a moment, but pressure of duties, sometimes very trying, and constant interruptions apt to be so wearing, caused me to forget Him.  Then one's nerves get so fretted... that temptations to irritability, hard thoughts, and sometimes unkind words are all the more difficult to control.  Each day brought its register of sin and failure, of lack of power...


"Then came the question, is there no rescue?  Must it be thus to the end -- constant conflict, and too often defeat?  How could I preach with sincerity that, to those who receive Jesus, 'to them he gave power to become the sons of God' (i.e., Godlike) when it was not so in my own experience?  Instead of growing stronger, I seemed to be getting weaker and to have less power against sin; and no wonder, for faith and even hope were getting low.  I hated myself, I hated my sin, yet gained no strength against it.  I felt I was a child of God.  His Spirit in my heart would cry, in spite of all, 'Abba, Father.'  But to rise to my privileges as a child, I was utterly powerless.


"...sometimes there were seasons not only of peace but of joy in the Lord; but they were transitory, and at best there was a sad lack of power...


"All the time I felt assured that there was in Christ all I needed, but the practical question was -- how to get it out.  He was rich truly, but I was poor; He was strong, but I weak.  I knew full well that there was in the root, the stem, abundant fatness, but how to get it into my puny branch was the question.  As gradually light dawned, I saw that faith was the only requisite -- was the hand to lay hold on His fatness and make it mine.  But I had not this faith.


"I strove for faith, but it would not come; I tried to exercise it, but in vain. Seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus, the fullness of our precious Jesus, the fullness of our precious Saviour, my guilt and helplessness seemed to increase. Sins committed appeared but as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or would not take God at His Word, but rather made Him a liar! Unbelief was I felt the damning sin of the world; yet I indulged in it. I prayed for faith, but it came not. What was I to do?"


And then, the solution... 


"When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed to me the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I have never known it before... (I quote from memory):  'But how to get faith strengthened?  Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.'


"As I read it, I saw it all!  'If we believe not, He abideth faithful.' ...


"...As I thought of the vine and the branches, what light the blessed Spirit poured direct into my soul!  How great seemed my mistake in wishing to get the sap, the fullness out of Him!  I saw not only that Jesus will never leave me, but that I am a member of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.  The vine is not the root merely, but all -- root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers , fruit.  And Jesus is not that alone -- He is soil and sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times more than we have ever dreamed, wished for or needed.  Oh, the joy of seeing this truth!  I do pray that the eyes of your understanding too may be enlightened, that you may know and enjoy the riches freely given us in Christ.


"Oh, my dear sister, it is a wonderful thing to be really one with a risen and exalted Saviour, to be a member of Christ!  Think what it involves.  Can Christ be rich and I poor?...

"The sweetest part... is the rest which full identification with Christ brings.  I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realise this; for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine.  It makes no matter where He places me, or how.  That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in the easiest position He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult His grace is sufficient.  It little matters to my servant whether I send him away to buy a few cash worth of things, or the most expensive articles.  In either case he looks to me for the money and brings me his purchases.  So, if God should place me in serious perplexity, must He not give me much guidance; in positions of much difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength?  No fear that resources will prove unequal to the emergency!  And His resources are mine, for He is mine, and is with me and dwells in me."

Since I can so easily identify with how Hudson Taylor describes his challenges, may God help me to also grasp this spiritual insight he had so that I too can experience the blessing of it!

© 2010 by Ken Peters

Taking the time to enjoy God's love

I was speaking with someone yesterday about Bill Johnson, a man who sees miracles and healings on a regular basis in the ministry he leads (and who's perspective on God and healing has recently begun to bend my brain!).  The person I was speaking with told me that even though Bill Johnson is a big believer in contending for things in prayer, Bill estimates that 75% of his devotional life with God is spent simply enjoying God's love.  Seventy-five percent!  So while many others -- like me -- feel as though the bulk of my prayer-time ought to be spent asking God for solutions to the many important situations I'm aware of, a man like Bill Johnson -- who sees a great many answers to many bold prayers -- chooses to spend a considerable percentage of his prayer-time receiving God's love for himself rather than asking God for things!


Why would he do that?  If he's anything like the average North American, perhaps he began such a practice to combat unbelief.  So many of us are prone to doubt God's love and goodness toward us -- especially if we need a miracle.  Too many disappointments.  Too many unanswered prayers.   So even if we know objectively that God loves us, perhaps it's wise for us to take time to seek His love until we're more convinced of it in our hearts -- until we can truly enjoy it!

And isn't it a relief that someone like Bill Johnson feels it's fine to spend that much of his prayer-time receiving without considering it selfish?  The reason it's not selfish is because this man is so eager to pass on to others what he has received from the Lord.  I'm sure that's a major reason why Bill Johnson prays so effectively for the miraculous.  He asks so boldly because he is completely convinced of God's love and affection for people -- including himself as the one doing the asking!

So then I wondered, what does it mean to spend extended amounts of time simply enjoying God's love in prayer? What does that look like?  As I considered that, my mind wandered to some familiar Bible passages that are full of rich assurances of God's love for us. And as I wondered about how to spend a greater percentage of my own prayer-time enjoying God's love -- and the God of love -- I realized that I could do so by praying these passages and soaking in these passages, thereby breaking down barriers of unbelief regarding them!  Enjoying God's love includes joyfully meditating on God's expressions of His love.

Of course, a complete list of what one could reflect on in prayer regarding God's love could never be written -- there's just too much to include in such a list!  And whatever I suggest in this brief posting will only scratch the surface.  But for people like me who have only just thought of expanding this part of our prayer life with God, a starter list would be helpful.  So here are just a few passages to revel in -- to joyfully declare! -- to thank God for! -- to patiently soak in the truth of! -- to pit against that nasty unbelieving insecurity in our souls! --if we want to take the time to simply enjoy God's love in prayer.

• "But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).  
• And "If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?...[For] who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that [nothing] ...will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (see Romans 8:31-39).
• "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.  In love, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us" (Ephesians 1:3-8).
• "God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ -- by grace you have been saved -- and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:4-8).
• "According to [God's] great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you" (1 Peter 1:3-4).
• Psalm 103:1-14, 145:1-21, 147:1-11 and so many other psalms also contain wonderful expressions of God's great love for us!

This is an extremely small sampling of passages that we can rehearse and rejoice in as we make more and more of our time spent with God about enjoying Him and His love.  I trust that any of us who do so will see the unbelief and doubts regarding the extravagance of God's love flee from our hearts, and that we will become a people who are excited to share the love that God has so generously shared with us!

© 2010 by Ken Peters

Delight before Desires

I like stuff.  I want stuff.  I sometimes find myself spending considerable amounts of time researching and searching for stuff to buy and own and use.  And then there's the important stuff that I spend my time do-ing.  Stuff like family I want to see healthy, or ministry that's meant to be fruitful.  So much of this stuff is good stuff, but as I spend my time buying, using or doing it all, I find that every bit of it has potential to distract me from, rather than draw me to, what matters most:  my relationship with God.  All the stuff around me -- even the good stuff -- constantly pulls at my heart, demanding both my attention and my affections.  And everyday I need to choose the place I'm going to give it in my life.

That's why the simple instructions provided in Psalm 37:4 are so helpful:  "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."  That's the order of life -- my delight in God is meant to come before my desire for stuff.  But given the way my life often looks, I'd be tempted to say that I thought this said:  "Delight yourself in the desires of your heart."  Nope, that's not it.  God wants to be the delight of my heart, and to come before any other desires.

Yet in the midst of those instructions, it's encouraging to see that God's desire to beat any competitors in our hearts is not a dismissal of the many good things we're involved in and surrounded by.  God is no kill-joy!  This psalm goes on to unpack the many ways God provides for those who depend on Him.  And as we delight ourselves in God, trusting Him and relying on Him (Psalm 37:3, 5-9), He promises to give us the desires of our heart!  Does that mean anything I ask for?  I don't think so.  But I do think it means that as we delight in Him, He will bless us -- and our families and our ministries -- and our weekends and our weekdays -- in ways that reflect the extravagant love of His Father's heart for us!  I just need to keep those wonderful gifts in their place as I delight in Him above anything else I desire.

© 2010 by Ken Peters

Keeping God in the Picture (church bulletin cover)

There are times when personal issues come up in our lives that seem intimidatingly strong.  Impregnable.  Impossible to overcome.  They can leave us feeling like a little soldier who's standing all alone and staring way, way up at a great stone wall that's vastly higher than us, and so thick that it may as well be a mountain that we're banging on. It can be a hopeless feeling.

But look at what the Lord God did for the children of Israel: "And we took all his cities at that time... Sixty cities... All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates and bars" (Deuteronomy 3:4-5).  These were the same sort of cities that the ten spies had described when they discouraged the children of Israel from entering the Promised Land forty years earlier -- cities that were "fortified and very large" (Numbers 13:28).  It's not that the spies hadn't described those cities accurately.  It's just that their descriptions led the people to the wrong conclusions. Those cities were strong.  "Greater and mightier than yourselves" (Deut. 9:1).  Too big and strong for Israel to handle.  But if that's all we see, we're living like a people with no God.  Where is God in it all?

Deuteronomy 3:22 says, "You shall not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you."  God completes the picture, for He is always with us.  So as we stare up at the cold stone walls of the most challenging personal issues we're facing -- whether they be fears or finances, illness or estrangement -- we must not allow ourselves to be intimidated.  "Be strong and courageous." was what God told Joshua, "for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9).  There is Someone standing with us who dwarfs the granite walls that dwarf us, and He can crush them with a word from His mouth.  But God invites us to be a part of the battle, for God wants us to grow in faith as we learn to fight the fight of faith.  Just as when Israel later defeated five Amorite kings in a single battle, Joshua said to the children of Israel, "Do not be afraid or dismayed!  Be strong and courageous, for thus the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight" (Joshua 10:25).

So like the children of Israel, we will wage these battles together, encouraged that the Lord is fighting for us!  And we will see many walls come tumbling down.

© 2010 by Ken Peters

Love that reaches prostitutes

I wanted to go home.  I almost blurted out that it was time to do so even though I wasn't in charge of things this evening.  But Jon continued to steer the van away from his home as he kept a lookout for ladies working the streets of Winnipeg.  He kept saying, let's stop for one more.

My day had begun at 7am and I'd briefly paused for just half a meal before leaving home in the early evening to go help Jon with his work among the prostitutes of Winnipeg.  I was glad to help out, but I was tired and wondered as I drove to Jon's place how long he'd keep things going tonight.  When I got to Jon's, he had just arrived with two lady volunteers who regularly participated in this ministry. We all prayed together, got some supplies ready, and by 9pm, began to cruise the lamplit streets of downtown and north end Winnipeg in Jon's van.

Jon's been doing this with many ministry partners for years.  The strategy is simple:  When you see a prostitute, pull over, a man and a lady quickly hop out of the van carrying a thermos of hot chocolate, a bag of cups and sandwiches and cookies, and a bag of winter gloves and some Gospel literature.  They then cheerfully greet the lady they've stopped for and ask if she'd like some hot chocolate or some food.  Whether she accepts or declines, one always also asks if she wants prayer for anything, and then asks for her name.

As we did this throughout the evening, many ladies said no to the stuff in the bags, and said they were fine for us to pray for them on our own as they cooly or nervously moved away.  Ladies were often willing to give us a name, but were likely giving us a street-name.  A few others just told us in their own unique choice of words to get lost. But a few were very open to brief conversation and prayer.  There'd been a couple like that throughout the evening, and Jon had done a wonderful job of expressing a fatherly love to them for the short time he was able to talk with them.  But it was getting near eleven o'clock and it seemed time to call it a night.

Then Jon announced, "The next lady is for Ken and Melinda.  We'll stop for one more."  But the next couple "one more's" were ladies who quickly declined any offers of kindness, one not even giving a name, and Jon kept saying, "One more!  Ken and Melinda, be ready!"  Suddenly Jon pulled sharply to the curb and insisted, "Go!  Go! Quickly!" (The ladies tend to hurriedly walk away once they realize you're not a vehicle that means business, but not so quickly if a person has already stepped from the van and greeted them.)

Melinda and I rushed out to a young lady in tight fitting pants and a waist-length puffy parka, who I doubt was more than 20 years old, and who looked understandably uncertain of us.  Melinda asked if she'd like a bite to eat and the girl smilingly declined.  "There's home-baked cookies!  How about some cookies?"   Again, the girl politely declined, beginning to back away now.  I pulled a small ziplock bag of cookies out and said, "Hey, I'm sure you'll be glad to have a bite to eat sometime later on.  Here, have some!"  Finally she gave in and stepped forward to shyly receive the cookies.  Her expression seemed soft somehow, rather than the detached or jaded or even irritated responses we'd received from some others.  When asked, she said her name was Teresa (which is not actually the name she gave us).  I asked Teresa if we could pray for her and she said sure.  Melinda dug a little deeper: "Is there anything we could pray for?"  Teresa mentioned her kids, and said she had four of them, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years of age.  Teresa was tentatively beginning to back away when I asked if we could pray with her right there and then.  Though that looked as though it seemed a little scary for her, she also seemed reluctant to say no.  Melinda smiled and extended an arm to invite Teresa closer.  She stepped closer so that Melinda and I could be on either side of her and there I quickly prayed for God to protect her children and herself, and to draw Teresa ever closer to Him. As soon as I said amen, Teresa spontaneously hugged Melinda and thanked us.  We then left Teresa with a piece of literature called "The Father's Love Letter" about God's great love for us.

I don't know what Teresa was thinking as she reached out to hug Melinda, or what she'll think as she nibbles on a cookie or gives them to her kids.  I also don't know what she'll think of "The Father's Love Letter."  But I do know that Teresa appeared genuinely touched by our simple expression of kindness to her -- kindness that I'm certain she's not accustomed to encountering as she awkwardly stands in the dim lights of Winnipeg's streets each night. And I also know that I'm grateful Jon didn't call it quits one person too soon!

As I drove home at the end of a long 16-hour day, I felt excited that in that last encounter God had arranged for the evening, we'd been able to personally pray with someone who had fallen so low that she felt she needed to sell her body to strangers -- and that desperate and degraded beautiful young lady was able to see tonight that the love of God could still reach even her.

As I drove home, the words to the first song I heard on the radio were, "We are standing on holy ground, and I know that there are angels all around.  Let us praise Jesus now; we are standing in His presence on holy ground."

© 2010 by Ken Peters

Astonished beyond measure! (church bulletin cover)

I want to be "astonished beyond measure."  That's how Mark describes people's responses to a miracle Jesus performed in Mark 7:37.  Not just astonished, but "astonished beyond measure!" (ESV)  "Utterly astonished!" (NASB)  "Overwhelmed with amazement!" (NIV)

So how does that verse fit with the fact that when I've sometimes heard a person expressing surprise regarding answered prayer, it hasn't been unusual to hear someone ask, "Why are you surprised?  Didn't you believe God would answer your prayers?" Well this is how I want to answer such questions from now on: The people of the Decapolis believed in Jesus enough to bring a deaf and mute man to Him, begging Jesus to simply lay His hand on him so that he would be healed.  And when "his ears were opened" and "his tongue was released" (Mark 7:35), it says the people were "astonished beyond measure!"  So if the people who believed Jesus for such a significant miracle can still end up being that astonished when the miracle occurred, then why can't we be happily surprised when God answers our prayers?

Being astonished doesn't mean we lack belief.  It simply means that God has just done something amazing! Something we couldn't have done ourselves.  Something that's intended to result in God being glorified through the amazement of everyone who witnessed it!

So as I said, I want to be astonished beyond measure.  Shock me Lord!  Amaze me.  Wow me.  Leave my mouth hanging open.  And I'll keep coming to You, asking for things that will astonish and amaze me when you answer those prayers.

© 2010 by Ken Peters