Pastor Brian's Article for 03/09/2008

Have you ever been so thirsty that you downed an eight-ounce bottle of water all at once?  Maybe you were involved in some type of physical activity and did not stop to take in fluids like you should have.  Imagine fleeing for your life, but needing a cool drink of water.  You are running over a barren landscape with very little water, longing for a cool drink from a flowing stream.  That is something of the scene in Psalm 42.  The hunted deer is panting from exhaustion and is desperate for a drink of water.  The writer of the psalm says that is how much he longs for God. 

There is a oneness that comes when we come to the table of fellowship with Christ.  That oneness is born of two hungers:  the hunger of the soul for Christ and the longing of Christ for us.  While experiences at church may create the hunger for Christ, it cannot be satisfied there among the public business of church activities.  If our hunger for Christ is to be satisfied, we must find time to be alone with him. 

As the deer that is being hunted longs for a cool drink of water, so the psalmist longs to meet with God.  In his passion he cries out, “When can I go and meet with God?”  He must find God and he must find him now. 

The only way that the psalmist can satisfy his thirst for God is through prayer.  When you know the true oneness in Christ that comes through prayer you have achieved true spirituality.  Many in the generation thirty and younger are seeking a spiritual experience with God.  Their search has taken them from designing a poster that shows their concept of God to reviving the Middle Age practice of walking a labyrinth.  Martin

Luther practiced such things and eventually found them unfulfilling.  These dear folks want an experience with God without placing their faith in Him.  True spiritual experience, true intimacy with God comes from surrendering all we are to Him, placing our faith in Him, and then living the kind of life that comes from being one with Christ.  We should not fear this type of experience with Christ.  It is the natural product of the cross.  Before the cross we were far off from Christ, we were separated from Him.  In the cross we have been brought near.  The walls that separated us have been broken down.  Only our own reluctance keeps us from enjoying the intimacy of this union.

Hunger for the inner life does not seem to fit well with the mission of some churches today.  There is a push to win souls.  There is a push to bring in more people.  Pursuit of intimacy with Christ seems unproductive.  There are programs to run and ministries to staff.  The machinery of the church much be kept running.  We have to remember that  church is not the kingdom.  It takes a king to make a kingdom and Christ is that king.  The heart and soul of Christianity lies in communion with the king.  Prayer is the vehicle of that communion.  Fervent, ardent prayer built on a thirst, a desire, and a longing leads to intimacy with Christ.

Prayer is not hard, but the desire to pray is.  We find it easier to do most everything else than pray.  It is easier to attend church than pray.  It is easier to teach Sunday school than pray.  It is easier to talk about prayer than to pray.  Apart from prayer we cannot know spiritual intimacy.   How strong is your thirst? 

That Jesus May Be Revealed,

Brian

Taken from A Hunger for The Holy, Calvin Miller, chapter 5.

Scripture References:

2 Timothy 1:5 – Christian stewardship includes the way we live our lives before our children. Mothers like those in Timothy’s family – Lois, his grandmother, and Eunice, his mother – were good stewards in the home. Most stewardship, including giving, is learned in the home.

Mark 11:15-18 – Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; and He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple. And He began to teach and say to them, "Is it not written, 'MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL THE NATIONS'? But you have made it a ROBBERS' DEN." The chief priests and the scribes heard this, and began seeking how to destroy Him; for they were afraid of Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching.