Chris Howlett

The Prayer of First Resort

“We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there's nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all. Most of us would prefer, however, to spend our time doing something that will get immediate results. We don't want to wait for God to resolve matters in His good time because His idea of 'good time' is seldom in sync with ours.” – Oswald Chambers

Someone once said prayer is a conversation between two friends. If this is so, why do we put so little hope in prayer except when we are at the end of the rope? Self-reliance is the norm. God-reliance is the exception.

I think one of the main reasons for is our basic misunderstanding of God’s character. We know he is holy and just. We are aware of God’s righteousness. But it is God’s closeness to us that we have a difficult time grasping.

Prayer is meant to be a daily and natural experience for the believer. I’m afraid there is too much of the “old man” in me sometimes and prayer gets pushed to the background while I try to work out things on my own with my own strength using my own resources. But I have a friend who has the ultimate strength and the ultimate resources and he loves me.

This week, before things start to get tough, try praying. God is on your side. He cares. God wants to be an intimate friend. Let prayer be your first resort.

Spirituality Leads Us into the World

“The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it.” - Henri Nouwen

We operate in dualities. Good versus evil. Physical versus spiritual. Dark versus light. Dualism teaches that there are two main realities of equal power that are opposites and are working against one another. This is an old way of thinking about how life works but it is not a biblical notion.

In the Bible, God is all there is before the creation. There is no opposing force. There is no cosmic battle. God simply is. With the creation, he breathes into existence the entire universe and declares it to be good. Still, no evil counter balance to God’s goodness. But, you know the story, the serpent, the fruit, Adam and Eve reject God’s leadership, and something in the universe gets broken, sending sin spiraling down through history.

Today, many in the church mistake the reality of sin as a cosmic power that opposes God. This would require sin to be a person, to have a will. Only an entity with a will can choose to work against another entity. But the Bible is clear that though many of God’s creatures have rebelled against him and his leadership, fallen angels and fallen humans, still, God is in complete control and he is working out his ultimate purposes for people and indeed the entirety of creation.

When I am “spiritual,” as Nouwen remarks in the quote above, I am led deeper into the world God created. I get more in touch with that world because the world, as messed up as it can be, is the object of God’s love (John 3:16). Christian holiness does not lead to a physical separation from the world. If it did, the Incarnation could never have occurred and we would all be lost. Instead, holiness draws us deeper in love with God and deeper in love with the things he loves. What is God calling you to do to reveal his love to the world?

What You Believe or What You Do?

This morning, I want to share with you a lengthy quote from E. Stanley Jones. Jones was a Methodist missionary to India who wrote several influential books and whose efforts in evangelism were phenomenal and whose methods were far ahead of his time. He also had a keen eye on Christianity as it is practiced as opposed to the description of the Christian faith in the Scripture. This quote is taken from his book on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

“As the Apostles’ Creed now stands you can accept every word of it and leave the essential self untouched. Suppose we had written it in our creeds and had repeated each time with conviction: ‘The Sermon on the Mount and in its way of life, and I intend, God helping me, to embody it.’ What would have happened? I feel sure that if this had been our main emphasis, the history of Christendom would have been different. With emphasis on doctrines which left unaffected our way of life the Christian Church could accept Constantine as its prize convert. And yet Constantine, after this alleged conversion, murdered his conquered colleague and brother-in-law Licinius; sentenced to death his eleven-year-old nephew, killed his eldest son, Crispus; brought about the death of his second wife; took the nails that were supposed to come from the cross of Christ and used one in his war helmet and another on the bridle of his war horse. Yet he was canonized by the Greek Church and his memory celebrated as ‘equal to the apostles.’ He talked and presided at the opening of the Council of Nicea, which was called to frame a creed, and he was hailed as a ‘bishop of bishops.’ Could this have happened if the men who had gathered there had made the Sermon on the Mount an essential part of the Creed. It had no place in it, so Constantine could be at home. What had happened was that the Christian Church had been conquered by a pagan warrior. And the church allowed itself to be thus conquered, for this ideal of Christ did not have possession of its soul. For the same reason, a bishop could kick another to death in the cathedral of Constantinople to prove his orthodoxy, and the Monophysites of Alexander could cry, ‘As thou hast divided, so shalt thou be divided,’ and then proceed to butcher those who believed in the dual nature of Christ in order to prove that the nature of Christ was one and indivisible.” -- E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Mount: a Working Philosophy of Life.

Well, E. Stanley Jones has challenged me. I hope these words are challenging to you as well. What we believe is so important. But what we do with what we believe is even more so.

The Day After Labor Day

Isn’t it ironic that we celebrate labor by taking a day off from it? Perhaps we should celebrate Labor Day by working a double shift, or maybe simply have a big party after the day’s work with our co-workers to commemorate what we accomplished.

Okay, maybe that’s not a great idea, but I do think there is something to this taking a day off from work to celebrate work. I believe many people find themselves in careers and jobs that seem mostly laborious and meaningless and they look for every possible opportunity to get out of work that they can find. Perhaps when they began their career they believed it would be different or more rewarding, emotionally, spiritually, and financially. But they discovered along the way it was different than they had supposed.

God never intended work to be lifeless, meaningless, and laborious (in the negative sense). He designed work as a part of his good creation. He gave humans meaningful work to do in the Garden of Eden, before the Fall (Gen. 2:15). It was only after the Fall that we would eat “by the sweat of our brow.” And today, many work with two things in mind: the weekend, and retirement.

The Fall, though, did not completely destroy the human capacity for joyful, creative, and meaningful work. In Christ, we find a new and much more exciting sense of purpose about our work than simply getting by and keeping a roof over our heads. As a matter of fact, in the New Testament, we are admonished to do whatever work we do for the Lord (Col. 3:23). In light of the Resurrection, any work that is not immoral is seen as a creative act, making life better for people, including ourselves. It is seen as an act of service for Christ, on behalf of Christ. When I discover how I can best contribute to the greater needs of humanity and then find work that fits my talents and strengths, work becomes a joy. It can still be challenging. As a matter of fact, for work to be fulfilling, it must be challenging or we will quickly grow bored. (We have an upcoming series at Christ Church titled, “My Mission in the Marketplace,” you won’t want to miss it!).

So, as we go back to work today after a day of barbecue and bratwurst, let’s go with a renewed sense of purpose. We’re working for the Lord!