Posted on by Abe Austin

A Foundation Built on God- Ritual and Novelty

Daily Ritual)

With my previous post I acknowledged the reality that many of us live, where we must establish the foundation of our lives in God with only a small portion of our time. We can do this by dedicating one-seventh of our days to God when we observe His Sabbath Day. We can also do this on a daily basis, dedicating some of each waking period to our Maker.

Traditionally, this has been done with morning and evening prayers. Morning, meaning that it is the first thing each day, the foundation of our lives that we’ve been talking about. Evening, meaning that it would finish off each day, a golden cap on the top of the structure.

The repeated pattern of these prayers makes them a ritual. Ritual has both an advantage and a disadvantage in its repetitions. The advantage is that our minds are naturally designed to function from triggers and routine. The ritual can thus become the trigger that tells our minds to go into the sober, focused routine. The disadvantage is that repetition can become boring, causing us to become distracted and gain nothing from the experience. I know that that has certainly been my challenge with daily devotional.

Occasional Novelty)

I believe the greatest value in ritual daily devotional would be using it to reach that place of solemnity where we can then engage in sincere, specific-to-the-day communication. Or, even if we don’t have much to communicate on that particular day, to just allow us to feel our way back into alignment with God’s will, relaxing our grip on personal plans and ambitions, becoming open to things according to His will.

There might not be a meaningful epiphany or transformation every single time we have this daily devotional, but the hope would be that we are open to those moments when they do come because our ritual has brought us to a place of readiness every day.

Personal Goal)

Speaking for myself, this sort of approach is different from how I have tried daily prayer in the past. Previously I have tried too hard to make something meaningful happen every single time. I felt like each experience had to be notable and unique. I felt like I had to repeat rituals over and over until something broke through the monotony.

I want to try this simpler method where things can come as they are. I want to have a simple ritual, maybe reciting a few favorite scriptures or the Lord’s prayer, just to bring me to a place of openness, and then just express whatever there is to be expressed, surrender whatever there is to be surrendered, explore whatever there is to be explored, or be silent when it is right to be silent.

If the whole experience lasts only a few minutes, I won’t be concerned about that. My hope is that that would still be enough to have set my foundation on God, and that the rest of my day may look like one that has put Him first. I guess I’ll just have to try it and see how it goes.

Posted on by Abe Austin

A Foundation Built on God- Life Defined by Faith

Jesus foretold that, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity,” (Matthew 7:23). This is a sobering warning to Christians everywhere that many who think they are in alignment with the Lord are actually offensive to Him.

There are multiple conceivable ways that Christians would find themselves on the left hand of the Lord. Perhaps they are hypocrites, professing Christ’s name but still harboring secret sin. Perhaps they treat Christianity as a political cudgel, using it to condemn those that they have no right to. Perhaps they are social Christians only, going to church and saying prayers, but more dedicated to the false churches of social trends.

I believe there are many in that last category. People that treat Christianity as a garnishment to the rest of their life, not the foundation and basis of the entire thing. It is, frankly, a way of being that I continually struggle with also. Most especially I lapse in my prayers because I am just too preoccupied with the distractions of the world, too concerned what I might miss out on if I make time “just” for connecting to God.

Obviously, I do perform a scriptural/spiritual study each weekday, and I do believe that that has helped a good deal in keeping God elevated in my mind, but I do crave more. With this short study I am going to try and identify for myself how I might do better in this aspect of daily prayer.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 28:33-35

33 And beneath upon the hem of it thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about:

34 A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about.

35 And it shall be upon Aaron to minister: and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not.

The only decoration mentioned for the robe is that it would have a hem of pomegranates and golden bells.

The pomegranates were to be of the same scarlet, purple, and blue that was used on the ephod, and also on the walls and gate of the tabernacle. This would suggest that the pomegranates were balls of linen thread as well. Historically, the pomegranate has been seen as a symbol of progeny and prosperity, given its multitude of juicy seeds. This is not the first time that the fruit of the branch was depicted in the tabernacle either. A few chapters back we heard how the candlestick would incorporate the image of almonds in its design.

As for the bells, this would create a constant jingling wherever the priest went. Many scholars have noted that this would allow the common Israelite to witness with their ears the rituals that they were not allowed to witness with their eyes. When the priest passed into the holy place the people could still follow the performance of his duties by the jingling of his bells.

There is also the question of why verse 35 states that the priest would die if he did not wear the bells. Some have said this simply means he would be struck down if he dared to approach the holy places without his proper adornment, and that the ringing of the bells was a representation of all the proper clothes being worn.

This may be, but my first instinct when reading this verse was that the ringing would announce the priest’s approach before passing through the curtain into the Lord’s presence. Of course, one cannot assume that the omniscient God would be startled by the unheralded arrival of the priest, so it couldn’t be that God was reacting out of shock. Perhaps, though, the ringing of the bells represents the voice of prayer, and the threat given here demonstrates that spiritual acclimation must precede physical presence. If the priest was not already in regular communion with God from without by the ringing of his prayers, then there was no way that he would be worthy to tolerate God’s presence when he approached in the flesh. So, too, we will only survive the encounter with God on judgment day if we have been acclimating to Him all of our earthly lives with our prayers from beyond the veil.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Answers Take Preparation

God often has to prepare the answers to our prayers. Outside of our view people are being moved, opportunities are being orchestrated, hearts are being readied, and all of this takes time and effort. We only recognize the work when God presents the gift to us, finished and whole.

Just because you haven’t received your desire yet does not mean that you have been forgotten, or that God has answered with a “no.” Like the Israelites in Egypt, God might very well be working out your deliverance over time.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 25:19, 21-23

19 And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham begat Isaac:

21 And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

22 And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord.

23 And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

Isaac’s story only begins in earnest after Abraham has passed away. I have mentioned before that some people, such as Abraham, seem to have a story so expansive that it is necessary to get out from under their umbrella before one’s own narrative begins. Up until this moment the only word or action we heard from Isaac was when he walked through the field to meet Rebekah for the first time. Here, though, we learn that he, like his father, had a special relationship with God. Rebekah was unable to bear children, so Isaac spoke to the Lord for her sake, and God healed her.

That exchange sounds very simple. Evidently God was more than ready to heal Rebekah, but perhaps He waited for Isaac’s petition to start cultivating that God-Son relationship with him. Admittedly the relationship between God and Isaac is only briefly touched on in the Bible, not nearly so much as it was detailed with Abraham, his father, or as it will be with Jacob, his son.

However, we do get some special insights into God’s relationship with Rebekah. In these verses we read how she felt her twin children struggling in her womb, and went to inquire of the Lord why it was so. This already shows her quality of faith, believing that she could receive understanding for the simple matters of life. And indeed, she did. Long before the drama would play out between Esau and Jacob, Rebekah already knew from God what would happen and who would prevail over the other. Later on, when she helped Jacob to secure his father’s blessing, she was only helping him into the larger story that she already knew God intended for him.

Posted on by Abe Austin · 2 Comments

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 24:15, 17-21

15 And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.

17 And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher.

18 And she said, Drink, my lord: and she hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink.

19 And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking.

20 And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.

21 And the man wondering at her held his peace, to wit whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not.

It is a wonderful little detail that Rebekah appeared on the scene before the servant had even finished his prayer. That means she had been well on her way before he voiced his request of God. God had already sent the answer before the petition came, thus the servant’s prayer wasn’t necessary to convince God to send Rebekah to him, it was necessary for the servant to be ready to receive her.

By taking the time to think through all the qualities that he was looking for in Isaac’s companion, the servant was bringing his focus into alignment with the woman that Rebekah already was. He had an image in his thoughts so clear that he wouldn’t be able to mistake her when she arrived.

We often approach our prayers like we are trying to convince God to be in harmony with us, but as we see in the example of the servant’s prayer, he was the one coming into harmony with what God had already laid out. Abraham foretold that God’s angel would prepare the way before the servant and now we see that he was right.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 24:10-14

10 And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; for all the goods of his master were in his hand: and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor.

11 And he made his camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water.

12 And he said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham.

13 Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water:

14 And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.

Abraham’s servant takes an impressive show of wealth with him, including ten camels and, as we will find out later, precious gifts and jewelry. He travels to Nahor, which was both the name of Abraham’s brother and his grandfather. So perhaps this city is named after one of these individuals. Perhaps the brother, given that his son Bethuel and grand-daughter Rebekah now live there.

And when the servant arrives at the outskirts of the city he comes up with a test. He petitions God, asking that the first woman to follow a certain procedure will also be the one who is meant to marry Isaac. The procedure is not random, though, it is a way meant to identify a good and worthy woman.

For starters he is looking for a woman who is diligently serving the needs of her household, coming down to the well to draw water. Then he is looking for one who is kind, willing to give water to him when he asks. Finally he is looking for one who is generous and industrious, who goes the extra mile by offering to also draw water for each of his camels. And while I’m not an expert on camels, it said that he brought ten of them, which sounds like an exorbitant amount of large animals to be drawing water for!

A woman who has each of these qualities would make a wonderful companion indeed, but then there would be the matter of whether she was an eligible member of Abraham’s kin. The servant’s prayer is that she would be.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Personal Commitment: Month 11

March’s Review

For March my intention was to have a resurgence in saying a prayer and then doing the first good thing that came to mind, all to invite God’s spirit into my life. I also set a reminder on my phone, just to be sure that I didn’t forget what goal I was actually supposed to be working on.

And I did remember my goal, and I did try to implement it throughout the month, but if I’m being completely honest I was pretty halfhearted in my efforts. I believe that when the initial excitement of a new ritual fades, if I haven’t established a regular routine to carry me through the doldrums, it then becomes a monotony to keep carrying forward. That’s exactly what happened here.

In other words, I struggle in the department of making small, lasting changes to my life. And while I know I must continue to rely on grace for my heart to be truly changed, I also believe that a person is capable of carrying out one small improvement after another until they have become something greater than what they once were.

To be sure, I have been able to make some real, lasting changes in the past. This whole blog is one of those changes, and through it I have had the most regular scripture study of my life. But where that particular change was a success, many others have fallen to the wayside, including this one of a pray-and-do-something-good ritual.

April’s Commitment)

So I stopped to consider where the weak link is in that pray-and-do-something-good ritual, and I realized it was in the very first step. The fact is I have had some heartfelt, meaningful prayers in my life, but never as a regular practice. I am too often distracted, or self-conscious, or anxious about getting on to other things in my day.

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel here. One of the foundational pillars of spiritual practice has always been prayer, and that is one area that I have been consistently lacking. So I will make this month’s commitment very simple: to pursue deep, meaningful prayer on a consistent basis. I still like the idea of my pray-and-do-something-good ritual, but I need to exercise myself in its first half before the whole thing can be complete.

Now in order to have more meaningful prayers there are two specific aspects of prayer that I will be working on. The first is praying out loud. Whenever I pray out loud I am more able to connect to the moment. I am very self-conscious about it, though, and so that it means taking the time to find a private place where I am unlikely to be overheard. This will be easier in some places than in others. While I am at work will be particularly tricky, and I’m going to have to spend some time figuring out a solution there.

The other aspect I will be focusing on is to remove the temptation to finish my prayers quickly so that I can get on to the rest of my day. I am in such a rush to take care of all my errands and hobbies that I forget that they will be performed better if I have taken the time to set my foundation first. I want to get into the habit of putting the rest of the world on hold when it is time to be with God, not the other way around.

On May 1st I’ll let you know how this journey is going. I will let you know how I did at finding secret closets to pray aloud, I will let you know how I did at setting aside the to-do lists that distract me from the moment, and I will let you know how my prayers are shaping up as a result.

Thank you.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Epic Life- Daniel 6:6-7, 9-10

Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king, and said thus unto him, King Darius, live for ever.
All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions.
Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree.
Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.

COMMENTARY

Whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions
Yesterday we considered how David answered the call to live his great life. Today we’ll consider Daniel, who found his purpose under very different circumstances. Daniel watched as his people fell into the hands of the Babylonians, who were then defeated by the Medes. Thus he spent his time in the courts of two foreign nations, and he had to deal with laws and customs that defied his morals, such as this one prohibiting prayer to God.

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house, he kneeled upon his knees, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime
And what did Daniel do in this delicate circumstance? He ignored the king’s mandate and did what was right. He didn’t have to go to court and fight against the king’s presidents and princes, he didn’t make a public campaign, he didn’t raise armies to fight against the injustice. In a world that constantly shifted around him, Daniel’s great calling was to just remain constant. When all the world is breaking against us, the greatest of quests can be to simply hold still.
This same steadiness defines the key moments of Daniel’s epic life. He was steady in turning down the food that God had proclaimed to be unclean (Daniel 1:8). His cohorts Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego steadfastly rejected another king’s demands that they worship golden idols (Daniel 3:14). And here again Daniel steadily maintained his prayers in spite of a law that forbade it. Daniel and his friends had lost their nation but they would not give up their covenants. It would have been easy to. They could have said “our commitments were lost with Israel.” But they didn’t. It was their great life work just to steadily hold to their promises to God. In simply doing that they sent powerful ripples throughout all the kings’ courts they graced.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Calloused Hearts- Enos 1:2-5

And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God, before I received a remission of my sins.
Behold, I went to hunt beasts in the forests; and the words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints, sunk deep into my heart.
And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.
And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.

COMMENTARY

And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God
My soul hungered
I cried unto him in mighty prayer
All the day long did I cry unto him
I did raise my voice high that it reached the heavens
Look at what powerful earnestness is in these verses from Enos. Look at how much he wanted this absolution from sin. Look at how long he worked before finding the voice of the Lord.
And he put in this much effort because that was how much effort it took. He didn’t put in only an hour, because he hadn’t found God yet after an hour. And he didn’t call it quits after a half day, because he hadn’t found God in half a day. He kept with it until he found his way through. And I am inclined to believe that God was not simply waiting for some arbitrary amount of time to elapse before reaching out, but rather He was simply waiting on Enos to be ready to receive Him. God spoke after a day because after a day Enos was in the right place.
So, too, when my own heart feels covered in moss and disconnected from God. If I want that connection restored I have to ask myself whether I am willing to pursue that connection for as far as it has to be pursued. Am I willing to ask for what I need to ask? Am I willing to give up what I need to give up? Am I willing to become what I need to become? And if the answers to any of those is “not yet,” then am I willing to keep wrestling with it until I am willing?